Earworms of the Year

A random listing of some songs I couldn’t get out of my head this year:
Chinito Chinito from Ry Cooder‘s amazing CD Chavez Ravine.
Deal – Buddy Miller live at MagnoliaFest Midwest in Bean Blossom, Indiana, July 2005. Not on any CD that I know of, but I’ve scored a fine live recording of the Hunter-Garcia classic for the January 28 KPFA marathon.
Willie Taylor from Uncle Earl‘s CD She Waits for Night.
This Land Is Your Land – Jim Page’s updated version from the Spirit of Guthrie tour (w/ Vince Herman and Rob Wasserman), documented on the CD In the Trees. I don’t think the CD is available in stores (yet?), but you can get it by contacting Jim Page directly.
That’s Gonna Leave a Mark – Ralph Roddenbery Band, Let it In. I’ve shared a stage with Ralph a few times in recent years, and I like what he does more every time. We’re doing a few dates together in January, which I’m really looking forward to.
Waiting for Jaden – from ALO‘s most recent CD, Fly Between Falls
Rocking Horse – Donna the Buffalo, Life’s a Ride. DTB is just about my favorite band these days: great groove, great vibe at the shows, a spiritually positive (and decidedly non-hippie-dippy) message, and – most important of all – two great songwriters, Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear. Jeb has an utterly unique and (to me) irresistible style; he’s one of those songwriters who creates a universe of his own right next to ours and sends these messages back to Earth for the good of us all. What I want from a band – jamband or otherwise – is music that speaks to the head, the heart, the soul, the gonads, and the butt. DTB does that. When I’m in the audience at a Donna the Buffalo show, there is no place else I’d rather be.
Warhead Boogie by Railroad Earth. I heard ’em do it live a couple of times and found out it was an old song of Todd Sheaffer’s (from the From Good Homes days?). I was pleased to learn that it will be on their new live double CD, Elko, that’s coming out in January.
The Road – Russell Smith, from The End Is Not in Sight. I was a big fan of The Amazing Rhythm Aces back in the day, and I was thrilled to be on a bill with them at the Master Musicians Festival in Somerset, Kentucky last July. Russell Smith hasn’t lost anything off his wicked curveball over the years – he’s still one of the best songwriters out there.
Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan, of course. I interviewed Greil Marcus about his book Like a Rolling stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads. Greil’s take on things is always interesting, and I think he’s absolutely right that this particular song kicked a door open for all of us and changed the world for the better.
Just about anything by George Harrison. I got the Concert for George DVD a while back and was in tears just reading the booklet; the concert itself was profound, not just for the beauty of the music but for the power of the love for George expressed by each individual and by the magic they made onstage. Then in the fall, The Concert for Bangla Desh came out on DVD, and it was all George All the Time for another couple of weeks. I saw the film in the theater when it came out, and owned a low-fi VHS of it for a many years, but seeing it restored and hearing it w/ good sound, and watching the bonus material on the DVD (most notably a rehearsal of “If Not for You” w/ Bob Dylan and George, and recollections by the participants that were recorded recently for the DVD) was an awesome experience.
Grateful Dead, Live at the Fillmore 1969. Ten-CD set of a four-night run from the GD era that gave us Live Dead. The groupmind at one of its early peaks. Lovingly and brilliantly remixed by Jeffrey Norman, the boxed set was offered as a limited edition and the fools at GD grossly underestimated demand. But there’s a three-disc compilation from Rhino that you can get, and it’s well worth it. Coupled with the remastered Live Dead, you can get a good taste of what the Grateful Dead were all about before they started back in the country-folk direction w/ Workingman’s Dead. (Jeffrey Norman posted on DeadNet Central that he prefers the original Bob matthews mix of the 2/27/69 Dark Star: “…for the best mix of DS 2-27, go listen to your Live/Dead. It sounds great… I’m not being modest here. It has a certain smoothness and flow that I couldn’t recreate.”)