Used Flea Market CD -- Hit the Road Stax V3 -- Live In Europe

To be honest, just about anything with the Stax logo on it is worth picking up if seen at the local flea market or thrift store, but this disc is particularly interesting for several reasons:

1) It is Booker T and the MGs live. These guys are the quintessential American band, honing their skills at dances,bars and clubs before becoming one of the great studio bands of all time. The only other large document of them live that I see on a regular basis is their performance with Otis Redding at Monterey.  While that is a classic moment in American music, too me sometimes it seems a little frantic, almost verging on punk. This performance is muscular without being manic.

2)You get to hear The MarKays, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd and Otis Redding all on one disc!  A great introduction to some of the earlier stars of the Stax label.

3)22 tracks of tunes.  At a going rate of about 2 dollars at the local flea market, that is a lot of bang for the buck!

Really, I did not know what to make of this disc when I first saw it.  It is obviously not a regular release from Stax.  It is dated 1992 and carries the Fantasy imprint on the back cover, which could lead you to believe that this could be some horrible repackaging of other material.  In fact, this disc contains all unissued tracks of great sound quality.

There are some amazing highlights on this disc. "Green Onions" is sultry yet aggresive.  Carla Thomas rolls through "Something Good".  Eddie Floyd tries to work up the polite Euro audience during "Knock on Wood" and then you get a huge chunk of Otis Redding  including one of my favorites "Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)".

There are a couple clunkers too...Carla should have stayed away from "Yesterday" and "My Girl" by Otis is one of the few times Stax get trumped by Motown, but track for track, this is a great listen for anybody from the casual soul fan to hard core Stax listeners.   The Cat Daddy says.."put on your mohair suit and groove along, this disc is most certainly the cat's meow."

Used Vinyl-- Ray Charles -- Love Country Style

     Why review a Ray Charles album?

     Although pretty much anybody over the age of five knows that Ray is an American genius and would be close to the top of most critics list of most influencial artists of the 20th century, after the mid 1960's Ray's catalog becomes a confusing maze of hits, near misses and all around bad ideas.  He had climbed to the top of the mountain earlier in his career by mixing gospel and country into his own brand of R&B, but as time went by, Ray headed right to the middle of the road.  Production picked up strings and big vocal choruses and more and more, the music lacked some of that essential spark that made Ray's music so vital. 

     Fast forward to 1970.  Love Country Style really has very little to do with the genre of country music and is certainly nothing like his wild big band version of country music he served up in the early 60's.  Be forwarned, there is plenty of smaltz on this platter.  The arrangements are flat out goofy in spots, but underlying all of the music is a surprising amount of funkiness brought on by some solid bass playing (uncredited) as well as some great guitar picking on a few songs (also not credited).

     The album kicks off with two great tunes "If You Were Mine" and a sultry version of "Ring of Fire" that turns this Johnny Cash classic on its ear.  Unfortunately  this platter gets weaker as it goes on.  By the middle of the second side, big strings are gobbling up everything in their path until the final track "Show Me the Sunshine" hints at Ray's gospel roots and ends the album with a strong vocal. 

    While this record will never inhabit the rarefied air of classics like "Hallelujah, I Just Love Her So" or "Let's Go Get Stoned", the Cat Daddy says keep this one around for when the kittens come over.  It certainley has the makings of a lost make-out classic.

Used Vinyl -- Richie Furay -- I Got a Reason

     Richie Furay can lay legitimate claims to being a founding father of the Country-Rock subgenre of popular music.  Of course if you hate the Eagles like many people do, you might not consider that a good thing.  For me however, I enjoy that style of music and all of its sometimes woolly  incarnations.  Richie is one of the founding members of Buffalo Spingfield and Poco and his signature song is "Kind Woman" a simple, direct ballad that has stood up to changing musical tastes and endures even today. After struggling for years for popularity and recognision, Richie quit the band Poco and started down his own path which included a conversion to Christianity that pushed his music into new lyrical directions. 

     His first solo album, "I Got a Reason" leaves some of the country-rock leanings behind in favor of a more polished bass, guitar and drum format.  What Richie does keep firmly in place is his knack for a catchy melody and some sweet musical hooks.  Most of the songs stay withing the range of 3-5 minutes and only when he tries to jam out, such as the disastrous "Over and Over Again" does Richie and bands start to sound like a light rock Emerson Lake and Palmer (not a good idea or sound on any level).

     Any fan of 70's country rock or singer songwriters would be well served checking this record out, there is a high ratio of great tunes to clunkers and Richie's tenor voice is always a pleasure to listen to.  Don't be scared by the fact he is a Christian...the songs are not from the mind of some newly converted Jesus Freak, they just hint at a spiritual awakening.  Isn't that what most music is about anyway?  File this one under:  Catnip for your ears.
 

Used Vinyl -- Johnny Cash -- The Rambler

     Johnny Cash is the Babe Ruth of Country music.  He is wildly popular, he has hit a lot of home runs and in general is an icon representing America and apple pie.  That being said, Johnny has probably struck out more than any other major country artist also.  Things cruise along nicely for a while after he moved from Sun Records to Columbia in 1958.  The boom-chuck Johnny Cash sound stays in place and holds up through the mid 60's until it seems that Johnny needed to explore the repertoire of the folk boom (which he himself helped to popularize by covering many traditional songs) and the new generation of songwriters that flourished in that era.
     Johnny Cash really just did not have the voice or the good judgment to know when to stop.  "The One in the Middle", "The Junkie, The Juicehead, Minus Me" and even his off key, overblown rendition of "Sunday Morning Coming Down" help to cement the fact that maybe Johnny Cash was as much about myth building as anything else.
     By 1977 when The Rambler was released by Columbia Records, the Outlaws had taken over the country music scene, Urban Cowboy was still a few years away and while Johnny might be able to lay claim as one of the original outlaws, this crazy, rambling mess of an album shows that he has been left far behind conceptually by his pals Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.  

    The "concept" of this album is an imaginary road trip by a wayward rambler smarting from the loss of his woman.  The album starts off with one pretty good song "Hit the Road and Go" and goes right downhill from there.  Interspersed between EVERY song are long, rambling dialogs between Johnny, a Cowboy and some girl who cheats at pinball.  The story seems to revolve around everybody looking for love and redemption (who isn't?) and proceeds to bore the shit out of you while waiting for the next song.  The songs try to tie themselves to the story and none of it ever comes together in a way that would be interesting to anybody but the most rabid Cash freak. Consequently, this  album gets filed in the litter box.