Rickie Lee Jones - Falling Up

“We could be like him – transfiguration.” Christ has risen, indeed! I am not going to try to second-guess exactly what spiritual truth Rickie Lee is singing about. If it’s the fact that Christ has risen, well, then it fits this day’s celebrations and I am listening intently and with wonder in my ears. The flavors are beautiful, special and perfect. If she is speaking of 40 days hence or the “falling up” of all followers, then I am still glad to taste this song on this day. Shoutout for Seventh Day, “You will fly. There is no tear that is stronger than the faith that’s in your eye.” Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones – Gethsemane

“The men were standing all around/other men are lying on the ground/and I am standing by myself.” This stunning song is apparently written from the first person point of view of Jesus in the Garden after the dinner he had with his friends. They, of course fell asleep while he prayed, and were no real help when he was betrayed. “You know you wake up one morning and you’re someone else. You’re on your own. There is no miracle to take you home.” He was faced with a mock trial and the agony of the cross. The beauty that Ricky Lee adds to this is a melody that portrays human viewpoint with honest movement and power. “Why are you sleeping, oh my friends?” Shoutout for Tried To Be A Man. “They make her look so pretty/She won’t be pretty long/She’ll be rising out of the sea of planet Babylon.” Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones - Circle In The Sand

Guitars introduce the images. “The sun’s going down, I’m going back to my cave. I’ve got no one to lead, no one to save. And I like funk music in my head. I think I’ll work for earth instead. Well I can draw a circle in the sand.” With a jagger-like attitude, rickie sings with a beauty that can only be reached by digging deep into untapped resources. The singers augment and do not distract. Shoutout for "It Hurts" & “Lamp Of The Body” – extraordinary performances. Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones - Elvis Cadillac

“Everybody tries so hard to sing a song no one can hear.” Ouch. The truth hurts. But with a delicious juevos rancheros of a tune, it’s really easy to listen to this song too few will hear. “Janis Joplin’s got a job on the corner in a bar, so I guess we’re doing alright.” The salsa is homemade, the tang perfectly squeezed from fresh lime. “Yes, my heart was opened, but no, I don’t look back, cause I’m riding around in heaven in Elvis’ Cadillac.” Shoutout goes to the brilliantly executed Nobody Knows My Name. Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones - Where I Like It Best

Where I Like It Best

I wanted to pray
I wanted to let you go on your way
I wanted to know why they laid there
dying in the streets
next to the restaurant
where people were eating and yes
I wanted to pray

How do you pray in a world like this?
You know, I see the people on tv and they
close their eyes and they
bow their heads and they say
"Let Us Pray"
and it feels so cold and meaningless
and I wanted to pray
and I said
tell me father
tell me mother,
heavenly mother
and they said

when you pray
pray alone by yourself
in the secret room of your heart

you are the prayer
your eyes are the prayer
your hand on your cheek
you are the prayer
those words you want to speak
they are the prayer
that dance you make
when you're by yourself


Rickie Lee Jones

Sarah Jane Morris - Migratory Birds

“The world has to hear the beauty in your sound. So many things in life are lost then found.” Every few years Sarah treats us to her beautiful vocal cords, and this time out it is extra wondrous because she is accompanied merely by acoustic instruments. This allows the timbers in her voice to crawl through every neuron in my body without distractions.

Sarah is a marvelous songwriter, and she wrote this tune about allowing one you love to leave and explore the world, with permission to come back at anytime. “Wherever you go to I know you have your reason. Return to me in glory or pitch up broke and poor, but come back wise and baby come back sure.”

On each of her albums there are also renditions of songs she has chosen to make her own. Old timers like myself will remember her tasty scat cover of Me And Mrs Jones and the transformations she inlaid to Sgt Pepper’s She’s Leaving Home, as well as Mad Woman Blues and other classic memories. On this new album she reinterprets Britney Spears, Damien Rice, Rickie Lee Jones, as well as Dylan and Lou Reed alongside Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. And more. All of them are great, but I need to pick one, so I’m choosing Britney’s Toxic because it exemplifies how Sarah makes music by other writers totally and completely her own. A special shoutout for all the musicians who worked with her on this album. The guitar on Migratory Birds is played by Kevin Armstrong , and Toxic is played by Marc Ribot. Definitely a must-have album. Sarah Jane Morris

FileFactory.com

If you are new to Sarah, you might want to explore more of her history at sarahjanemorris.com.

Eartaste: The 23 Top Albums of 2007

I will stand by every single I've reviewed this past year. I still love listening to every song. Albums, though, are another whole animal. To be able to listen to a full set by one artist, well, they just have to be extremely special for me to enjoy them. I have many albums in my collection, of course, but end up bookmarking favorite cuts off albums and listening to them over and over. It's a rare pleasure to find an album that holds together listen after listen, and provides a full enjoyment for these ears. My plan was to select the best 23 albums of the year. I know, a bit corny, one indie release per month, and one major release per month. Also, I figured 24 albums would give approx 24 hours of pure pleasure. In the final run-through, I couldn't find more than 23. I had no desire to list an almost-ran, as that wouldn't be fair to the absolute best. 15 are indie (I couldn't decide if Tiny Masters was on a major label, so I decided to include them as major label), and 8 major label releases. I list them now because if you are looking for Christmas gifts for a friend or relative that loves music, I will stand by all of these.

These are listed in the order they appeared on eartaste. All are equal favorites, so give them all a #1, or 5 stars, or however you rate your albums.

The Histrioniks - About This Girl
Alex Arrowsmith - Applewine
Roy Davis - Grey Town
Talia Segal - Nonprophet
Ben Godwin - Skin And Bone
Koopa - Blag Steal and Borrow
Mooney Suzuki -Have Mercy
Rickie Lee Jones - The Sermon On Exposition Blvd
The Red Button - She's About To Cross My Mind
The Aggrolites - The Aggrolites
Threshold - Sum Blues
Swampdawamp - Swampdawamp
Kemp Harris - Edenton
Bowling For Soup - The Great Burrito Extortion Case
Noise626 - An Infinite Shade of Gray
Landonband - Defying The Stereotype
Smug - Freshly Stained
Evan Page (Screaming Mee-Mees) - No Ordinary Girl
Tiny Masters Of Today - Bang Bang Boom Cake
Olivea Watson - Way Down Deep
Patti Scialfa - Play It As It Lays
John Fogerty - Revival
Ray Davies - Working Mans Café

If your music-loving friend stays current with every new release they can get their hands on, chances are they'll have many of the above. If you want to buy a gift that'll last a lifetime of appreciation, you'll never stop hearing thanks if you gift wrap any one of these expensive box sets:

Motown Complete Singles Vol 1
Motown Complete Singles Vol 2
Motown Complete Singles Vol 3
Motown Complete Singles Vol 4
Motown Complete Singles Vol 5
Motown Complete Singles Vol 6
Motown Complete Singles Vol 7

Northern Soul Story Vol 1-4

Vol 1 Twisted Wheel
Vol 2 Golden Torch
Vol 3 Blackpool Mecca
Vol 4 Wigan Casino

Bravo Johnson - Sacrifice Yourself

“Let me clean it up best that I can so that when you return I’ll be a better man.” Put the needle down anywhere on the album and ask your neighbor to name that tune. Sounds like we just tuned into Classic Rock on the radio and these are long-lost songs by some of the best groups of the 60’s & 70’s. In fact, I had to do some checking to be sure this wasn’t a lost “best hits” of some obscure group from middle America that I missed out on. Take a BIG mixing bowl. Add two cups of the Grateful Dead, a cup of The Band, a cup of The Heartbreakers, ½ cup of Dylan, ¼ cup each of Steve Forbert, Rickie Lee Jones, Steely Dan, Santana and Sheryl Crow, and tablespoons full of the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Mix together well and allow to sit in the freezer for 30 years. Take out and bake at 500 degrees with a hot mix of impeccable musicians who keep everything fresh with riffs we remember from the future, deliciously old and never stale. Shoutouts for Ship Of Fools, Cahoots, Hobo, and Losing My Mind. Bravo Johnson

Oct Thru Dec 2009 - Singles Worth Exploring Pt 2

More to come . . . enjoy these in the meantime!

Gov’t Mule – Broke Down On The Brazos b/w Forevermore
Robert Earl Keen - Wireless in Heaven
Guy Clark - Somedays You Write The Song b/w Maybe I Can Paint Over That
Kris Kristofferson – Closer To The Bone b/w From Here To Forever
Roseanne Cash – Sea of Heartbreak
Jimmy Buffet – Rhumba Man b/w A Lot To Drink About
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Good To Be Alive
Los Lobos - Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Rickie Lee Jones – Wild Girl
Maria Teresa - Era uma Vez Um Jardim b/w O Estrangeiro & Lagrima

Leslie Mendelson – Hit The Spot

Good old fashioned BBQ chicken with potatoes and home grown slowly sweating a nice crisp outer crust on the edge of the grill while the bass player lovingly mixes King Of The Road with These Boots Are Made For Walking up and down the neck, with finger snappin’ Leslie getting ready to ask “What’s the fuss?” The aswer to that question is easy, and I think she really knows, but she’s playing coy. The fuss is the music is fresh, the spirit is free. There’s touches of Rickie Lee Jones meeting her youthful self and shouting to Chuck E, “there’s something in the air! I used to fight it, but now I just don’t care!” Leslie has enlivened the party, and with her excellent musicians preening alongside, the music definitely hits the spot! Flip the chicken and dance along, it’s going to grill for an hour. “I never understood how further education could ever feel this good!” Give the horn players an extra beer! Shoutouts for the slow roasting dance of I Know You Better Than That, and the sultry spices of Be My Baby. Leslie Mendelson

Sinead O'Connor – Theology

This double album set is, like the previous set I listened to today, impossible to pick a favorite from. This is priced as a 2-fer. The two sets are almost identical song-wise, with set one (Dublin - my personal favorite) being intimate, and set 2 (London) featuring a band setting. My guess is that Sinead is doing her best to reach fans of all her complexities. I know if I heard only the London set I’d probably never listen more than once; and I’d guess there are fans who feel the exact opposite. It works well for me as a reviewer, because since the consumer cost is exactly the same as a single album, I can highly recommend this album. I really love the first cut – “I want to make something beautiful for you.” I feel Sinead has indeed, accomplished this goal. But that leads directly into another cut I love – “We people who are darker than blue. . .” – biting, bitter, true, and passion filled. “Out of the depth I pray to thee, oh Lord – don’t let my cries of mercy be ignored” – powerful song – “I’ve heard religion say that you’re to be feared, but I don’t buy into everything I hear.” “Dark I am yet lovely” is played with a harp-like guitar background. Maybe it is a harp, it’s certainly entrancing and a wonderful prayer. The intensity I feel listening to this album cannot be overstated, but I don’t want to overwhelm readers, so I’ll shoutout all the rest of the songs. Ranks right alongside the latest Rickie Lee Jones album as one that keeps me rooted in keeping my thoughts beyond my self.
Sinead O'Connor

Vampire Weekend (CD)

What a joy. My daughter pulled this one out while we were at grammie’s house. It told me many things, but the most important is that there was an album put out this year that appealed to grandma, my son, my daughter, my wife, and myself. Think about it. I’m going back to my post earlier this month and add this to one of the top albums of 2008 in my book. The excitement of the musicians is contagious.

Every time I listen to this album I’m thinking of one of my favorite musicians. Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon solo, Jonathan Richman, Rickie Lee Jones, Patti Smith, Tom Petty, Steve Forbert, Soko, etc. What ties all these folks together? Their first albums are energetic all the way through. And often the message didn’t mean much. Like these guys are obviously college dudes who like girls. But they don’t hide their lives. I don’t identify much with college life, but that’s not the point. I didn’t identify myself much with the “swamps of jersey” either, but I loved the music. Some of it makes no sense at all to me. “I see a mansard roof through the trees. I see a salty message written in the eaves.” ??? But that’s no different than “madmen, drummers bummers and Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat. In the dumps with the mumps while an adolescent pumps his whey into his hat.” Yeah, whatever. But I memorized the lines 35 years ago. Because they made no sense, but were fun. I’ll be memorizing the stuff on this album too, because it will be a part of my playlist every time I feel like being happy. I don’t have to agree with the guys and their plans to love the energy they put behind it. Just like we didn’t have to all be Psycho Killers “Qu'est-ce que c'est? fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa.”

Back to the Vampire Weekend. First the music. There’s touches of world music, as well as string quartet sounds. But mostly a bunch of guys sounding like they picked up their instruments a year ago and figured out how to play them well enough to make something fun to listen to. Oxford Comma strikes home to me because I was an English major, and I understand very well the pretentiousness of what these guys are singing about. Been there, and will attest to the truth of the song and the joy of the music. A-Punk is about lifestyles and broken promises. Again, with the music lifting us above the expressed emotions. Campus is great fun because it’s emotions we all share, “How am I supposed to pretend I never want to see you again?” My favorite lyric is in the song Boston: “A morbid steak runs through the whole of my family, but for you I could put it to rest.” The things we do for love. LOL!

I don’t see any need to keep going song by song. My bet is most of you already know this group. That was another lesson I learned. I get kind of stuck here listening to all the CDs that arrive at the post office every day – and there’s another whole world of music out there by folks that haven’t heard of eartaste, and vice-versa. This album has been out a year, and I’m just now getting to hear it. No prob to me. I often hear smaller groups and labels a year or two late because small bands are slow to learn publicity. But apparently these guys were instant media darlings – with good reason. I just missed out because I keep my head in the boxes and don’t look out beyond. This is a big “beg” to let me know when something is out there I should hear. When you let me know, I let others know, etc etc.

And, FYI – Vampire Weekend is a good deal right now. The entire CD can be downloaded from Amazon for $5. If you love being happy while listening to music, this is a very inexpensive way to have a very cool album in your collection today.

Vampire Weekend