Raissa St. Pierre Poop 09


Levon Helm Midnight Ramble Ramble site
LIVE #1. Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble
Which was even more exciting than i had assumed it’d be. Hours of non-stop music and what a venue too, the barn is so inviting and the sound is perfect, a great home to this event! My favorite moments were when Levon was singing! The Organiks and Donald Fagen were the special guests. Fagen did King Harvest, it was great!



Ronnie Spector - Beyond the beehive Ronnie’s Site
LIVE #2. Ronnie Spector
At the Bearsville Theater. WOW, just WOW. the show was called " Beyond the Beehive" she read from her book over a great slide show interspersed with live performances with her band. My favorite was her doing Johnny Thunders’ "You can’t put your arms around a memory". I’ll never forget it. love that song!!



FILM #3. A couple of amazing youtubes.


One of Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing a couple of tunes, "Didn’t it Rain" and "Trouble in Mind" at a train station in the UK on a blues and gospel caravan in 1964. The audience was literally on one side of the tracks and Sister Rosetta was on the other with her band. She rode in on a horse drawn carriage with a big fur coat and heels. Her electric guitar playing is so fantastic and wild and her voice and rhythm are stupendous!! She is one of the very, very, best performers ever!!


The other film footage i love on youtube is one of Howlin’ Wolf doing "How Many More Years". Lots of great close-ups on his face. His voice range is to die for, so expressive and powerful and you know what else…funny! I think it’s Son hHouse over on stage left at the bar and he’s getting way into it. Howlin’ is sitting down but that doesn’t stop him from having the most infectious moves from his chair.



C.W. Stoneking - Jungle Blues   Buy New or Used through amazon
RECORDING #4. C.W. Stoneking – Jungle Blues
I could hardly wait for this release! C.W. ‘s from Australia. These songs are about taking a journey he didn’t mean to take and ending up on a ship to Africa, then hunting a talking tiger and going to jail. He reminds me of Joseph Spence.



The Palmetto Bug Stompers Buy from Washboard Chaz
RECORDING #5. The Palmetto Bug Stompers – Live at d.b.a. in New Orleans
Made up of members of the Tinmen, the New Orleans Jazz Vipers and other great groups. Most notable: Washboard Chaz! Good old tunes like "Moan you moaners" and "When i grow too old to dream".



Leonard Cohen   Buy New or Used through amazon
RECORDING and FILM #6. Leonard Cohen – Live at the Isle of Wight in 1970 DVD and CD
His combining of poetry and song is A #1, no one is better. This third edition of the festival turned abit riotous but Leonard tamed them. Poor Kris Kristofferson didn’t fare as well.



Ever Expanding Elastic Waste Band   Members of Morphine (Warning: MySpace site)
LIVE #7. Ever Expanding Elastic Waste Band (aka Members of Morphine)
Live at the Black Swan Pub in Tivoli, NY. Almost as wonderful as it was with Mark Sandman…and that is BIG! Go and see em!



Lucky Tubb and The Modern Day Troubadours   amazon
LIVE & RECORDING #8. Lucky Tubb and The Modern Day Troubadours at the Basement in Kingston, NY
The real deal! Honky Tonk at its BEST. Lucky’s great uncle is Ernest and it shows! His just out record, "Damn the Luck", is one for the jukebox!



LIVE #9. The Minivans at the Main Street Publik House in Philmont
Old school country music with all its feathers! Starring: Sauerkraut Seth (guit & vox), Jim Krewson (bass & vox), Kiki Dufault (guit & vox), Melissa Dufault (vox), Lukas Shwartz (fiddle), Pete Adams (steel guit), and Rick Leab (drums, aka the box).



soul power dvd   Buy New or Used through amazon
FILM #10. Soul Power
Put together by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte from hours of footage from the 1974 three day concert in Kinshasa, Zaire. The music that was to go along with the Ali vs. Forman fight. You may have caught a tiny glimpse of some of this in another great Film about the fight called When We Were Kings. There are amazing performances as well as pre-show and post-show happenings. James Brown, Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco, Miriam Makeba, Bill Withers, the SPINNERS (who shine extra brightly!), Tabu Ley Rochereau, Franco with OK Jazz, Hugh Masekela and, of course, many great moments with Muhammed Ali!!





Honorable mentions:


Oxford American music
Oxford American – The Southern magazine of good writing. Their 11th annual southern music issue. True Soul and other true sounds: 2CDs carrying 50 unstoppably GREAT tunes. Peter Aaron turned me onto this mag and I am still VERY grateful. this is the stuff. check it out, subscribe, its totally cool.
New Honest Jons records:
Africa Boogaloo – The Latinization of West Africa
The World is Shaking – Cubanismo from the congo, 1954-55
WFMU’s locked groove record.
Tinariwen – Imidiwan
Wayne Hancock – Viper of Melody
Dylan – Together Through Life
Mason Jennings – Blood of Man
Staff benda bilili – Tres Tres Forte
Red Stick Ramblers – My Suitcase Is Always Packed
Bela Fleck‘s africa record – Throw Down Your Heart
The Miles Davis anniversary issue of Kind of Blue, with great blue vinyl, 2 cds and a dvd on the making of the album. beautiful book and photographs! 3 page hand-written notes from Bill Evans, nice touch
The movies Frost/Nixon and Big River Man
Chris Cochrane Trio and Mark Ribot’s Ceramic Dog at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn
Laura Cantrell performing on the front porch of laura levine’s shop in Phoenicia, the Mystery Spot
Les Huguenots – The opera at Bard’s Summerscape
Justin Bond in the Spiegeltent,
and Buck-It in the tent
The Big Takeover at the Black Swan
Joe Mcphee, Thurman Barker and Richard Teitelbaum in the Bard chapel
Joe Giardullo and Harvey Sorgen at the Rosendale Cafe
Johnny Irion and Sarah Lee Guthrie at a WKZE Parlour Session
The Chrome Cranks at BSP in Kingston
The BUNKER (sadly sadly missed)
Terry Riley at the Fisher Center.
Dylan’s Theme Time Radio… have some on CD now and man do they satisfy. thanks BOB!
Vieux Farka Toure – Fondo
Richard Manuel and Rick Danko live at O’ tooles in Scranton PA in 1985. I heart Richard!


Over and out.



Raissa