Retro Album Spotlight: Sass Jordan - Racine

One of the great things about fantastic music is that it doesn't have an expiration date. Music made that plays to the trends is usually disposable after a few years, but if an artist makes a great album, it will stand the test of time. That's what Sass Jordan did 25 years ago with Racine.

On the 25th anniversary (not to the day, but the year) of Racine's debut, Sass Jordan is releasing Racine ReVisited on September 15, which is a total re-recording of the album with hand picked musicians. You can read more about that on Jordan's website, and you should.

Here's a short teaser of said album.



Being totally transparent, I readily admit I was not aware of the original album until I ran across something about Jordan doing a 25th anniversary remake. Sure, I was aware of Sass Jordan, have heard a few songs, but never really spent any time with her music. Like I said in the opening, there is no expiration date on good music. So listening to Racine was like listening to a brand new album. And what an album it is, very worthy of a remake, if only the remake can hold up to the original.

Racine is a rock album, borrowing heavily from the blues with a sprinkling of country and honky tonk thrown in. For those that read regularly, yes, there is swamp. Jordan's vocals are in the vein of Melissa Etheridge, Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin. And for a British born Canadian, there seems to be some inexplicable twang at times.

I don't know Jordan's influences, but there is a heavy Rolling Stones vibe to a lot of the songs.

Racine ReVisted will be her first album since 2009's From Dusk til Dawn. And I understand why established artists don't spend the money to record new music with the way the industry is nowadays so this will be an interesting study because Racine ReVistied is not just a remastering or remix, it's a full fledged re-recording of the album.

I'm also very compelled by Racine ReVisited because it wasn't re-recorded to be current, it was re-recorded 70s style, according to Jordan.

In the meantime, get to know the 25 year old original. Here are a couple of my favorite tracks.

New Video: Jane N' The Jungle - Killed Someone

Great song, great video by Arizona-based Jane N' The Jungle. If you don't get it, you need to get more in touch with what is going on in the real world.

Album Spotlight: Robyn Ludwick - This Tall To Ride

Texas music artist Robyn Ludwick's latest album This Tall to Ride was released on May 9. It took me a while to come around on this one. Not because I didn't like it upon first listen, but I kept getting distracted and never had the chance to go on a deep dive. And it's not easy to write about.

It's an adult album dealing with adult subjects. Nothing about it is hooky or catchy. The vocals don't soar. The instrumentation is not unique or out of this world.

The album title, This Tall to Ride, serves as warning: Don't get on if you're not ready for the experience. Hookers. Drugs. Debauchery. Love. Redemption. Bars. Alcohol. (Not in that order.)

Tangentially, this album would have hit me harder earlier if it had been released in November or February. It's not a fun summer album. However, it's still great. It just took me a while to get there.

Bad Conflation Between Sports and Music

This is not a rant or complaint. Just observations relating to real life experience.

I'm in a pretty good space with this blog. I write about what I want, when I want. I receive no income and I do this mostly for my own amusement. If people read and enjoy it, great. If not, whatever. At least I have the archives to see where I was at some point in time.

I mostly focus on music here, but I'm a big sports fan. Recently the University of Texas, Louisiana State University and Notre Dame have come out with how reporters can cover the teams. Limiting tweets and other social media until a specified time. To me, this is a huge pile of something.

This sucks for the media outlets. They depend on getting content for the teams in order to sell. The institutions hold all the leverage unless...

And this would take a huge collaborative effort with all media members. If every and all media not team affiliated would stop covering the team, they would cave. Just shut it down. Not going to happen, because content.

I've had the opportunity to do Q&A's with several interesting artists. In all but one instance I've been able to contact the artist directly. When I have to go through a third party (manager/publicist/etc) I've pretty much been stonewalled.

If you have read any of my Q&A's, I'm not looking for dirt. I just like interesting people. But I am not compromising what I know works for some manager/publicist. I could have had a great Q&A but was shut down by management. Or I could have had a boring Q&A.

I know where I stand. I'm not delusional. Katy Perry has not responded to any of my requests. Nor should she or her team. But it would be great if she did. I have questions.

When I contact an artist and am immediately referred to a management company/manager I know i'm not getting that one. All I do is ask. Shot down or ignored more times than not, but the one's that agreed, I have some good stuff.

I know I'm small time. But hey, even if your manager/publicist doesn't think it's worth the time, your fans will.

Venues, Artists, Social Media and the Web

Music venues in my town are horrible at social media and their own websites leave much to be desired. If I were an artist, this would not sit well with me. However, artists themselves could do more.

Venues

In a town with a population of about 100,000 we have at least 20 venues that have live music on a regular basis, probably more. I don't know all of them because some I don't care for the music they feature. To be fair, there are a few that do a good job of promoting shows, but there are far too many who don't. If you're a regular at said venue, then you know what's going on, otherwise it's a crap shoot.

A newer venue has artists every weekend. Their website makes no mention of shows. I was in the other day for lunch and was asking for details from the waitress. I mentioned the poor website and she said they were working on it but to check Facebook because it's all there. Checked Facebook, clicked on upcoming events, nothing. There was one post that indicated live music on Friday and Saturday with the names of the artists. ONE POST. They don't have a Twitter account.

Another venue, which is predominately a restaurant, has a pretty cool outdoor music vibe.Their Twitter account is nothing but food pics (which is ok, but who is playing?) The website has no mention of who is playing.

Surely at some point a venue has a bartender or a server who has been around long enough to have gained trust. Pay them some extra money to promote on social media. They're probably already active there anyway.

Or maybe there is a market for social media managers on a small scale, I don't know. But do something.

Artists

This is much less of an issue. Most artists today promote themselves through social media. Here's the rub: If i don't know who you are, I'm not following you on social media. BandsInTown is a great tool. Last weekend there were more live shows in town than I knew about. Friday night had three artists on BandsInTown. There were probably  4X that many shows.

I don't know what it takes for an artist to use that app, but for a music fan, it's free and useful. Especially if the venue sucks at promotion. If I don't know you're in town, I'm only going to find you by accident (which has happened, but it's a crap shoot). 

You may think it doesn't matter. So maybe one person knows we're playing tonight. It may only be that one person on that particular night, but if that one person goes and likes what they hear/see, then you have a fan that will promote you the next time you're in town. It all matters.

My Appetite For Destruction Story

So, Guns N' Roses debut album Appetite For Destruction was released 30 years ago. I contend that it is the best hard rock album ever made from start to finish. But that is not the point of my story.

I was in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area that summer (I was in college at the time) and listening to the now defunct (I think) Z-ROCK which had mandatory Metallica every hour (played one Metallica song every hour).

I kept hearing this song by this new band Guns N' Roses. Never heard of them, but, damn, that song was good. That trip also introduced me to Faster Pussycat, apropos of nothing.

I knew I would be entering radio wasteland on my trip home, so before I left I stopped by a record store and purchased Appetite, on cassette (I wore out two of those before I got a CD player).

Four hour drive and it played the whole time. I was so enamored with this album. I played it a lot the rest of the summer and when I returned to college was excited to share it with my buddies. Their reaction was pretty "meh". Whatever. There were a few of us that really dug it and listened to it all the time.

Fastforward a year. "Sweet Child O' Mine" was released as a single in August of 1988. MTV blew it up. Suddenly all the "meh" people had a copy of Appetite. At that point I was already on my second cassette.

Did I feel vindicated? Maybe, a little. I was just happy that this masterpiece of an album was being appreciated.

Side note: Slash's and Izzy's rhythm parts are not stereo. Slash is on the right and Izzy on the left. Slash's solos are stereo, Izzy's solo in "Think About You" is only on the left. So, if you're a real music nerd/audiophile, you can hear two different albums.

New(ish) Video: DIAMANTE - Coming in Hot

Chicks are rocking it. DIAMANTE proves it.

Album Spotlight: ZZ Ward - The Storm

The new album from singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Zsuzsanna Eva Ward, better known as ZZ Ward is an amalgam of all things blues, alt-rock, R&B, Americana, smokiness, and swamp. The Storm brings all that together in an 11 song album that works.

If you're a regular reader, you know I prefer interesting and unique. Starting with Ward's voice, this whole album encompasses both interesting and unique.

It's not hard to tell when an artist is making music they want to make and when an artist is going through the motions. The Storm is the former, bringing in all of Ward's influences in which every song feels like she means what she's singing and the instrumentation backs it up, whether sparse or layered or anywhere in between.

The 11th song, a bonus track from "Cars 3", is a fun song featuring Gary Clark, Jr. How can that be bad?

All in all, The Storm is a complete album. There's some fun, there's some heavy, there's some heartbreak, there's some snark and sass. And there is lots of ZZ Ward.

Joe Bonamassa vs Tina Guo

I'm going to preface this by saying I don't listen to any classical or orchestral music. So, I'm sure there are other cello players on the planet who could have done this, but they didn't.

During an acoustic show at Carnegie Hall, Joe Bonamassa dueled with Tina Guo, Joe on guitar, Tina on cello. The winner was anyone who gets to listen to this fantastic piece of musical genius.

I'm just a big fan of musicianship on all levels. This is at the top level. Enjoy.

Retro Album Spotlight: Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime

Concept albums generally don't play well in today's music world. It was even a risk in 1988 when Queensryche released Operation: Mindcrime.

If you like 80s progressive hard rock and care to follow a story, nobody did it better than Queensryche with this album.

Sex, drugs, religion, politics, anarchy, unrest, brainwashing, redemption. It's all there.

Then there are the characters: The angst-ridden, fix-seeking late teen/early twenties Nikki. The evil mastermind behind the flawed revolution, Dr. X. The "whore from the underground" turned sympathetic sexually abused church-going counter counter culture heroine, Mary. And then the sadistic priest, Father William.

I'm not going to lay out the storyline here. If you are intrigued, listen for yourself and take it in as your own.

Operation: Mindcrime was the fourth output from Queensryche, one EP and two full length albums which never broke them through. So putting out Mindcrime at that juncture in the arc of the band was risky, kind of their 2112.

It didn't hurt that Queensryche landed the opening bill for Metallica's ...And Justice for All tour. All this led to the followup album Empire being a big hit with songs such as "Silent Lucidity" and "Jet City Woman". So the gamble paid off.

The songs on Operation: Mindcrime don't just further the story, they hold up on their own merit. Geoff Tate is a phenomenal vocalist. Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton's twin and/or dueling guitars are some of the best of that era, Scott Rockenfield is a monster on the drums while Eddie Jackson holds it all down with the bass.

I'm not going to embed a video because it's not about one or two songs, it's about the album. If you're reading this, you have a google machine and can listen to the entire album, which is the only way it can be appreciated.