Jim Stafford - ST(1974)

I have been listening to alot of new releases lately, trying to find ones to present to you, the reader. After exhausting my recent additions I was left with a quandry, I had a desire to write yet another review this month...and and several new but rather mundane albums left untouched to choose from. Unfortunately, as much good music that comes out there is tenfold that are just plain awful. Thanks for that goes to the corporate music industry and its MTV friendly ideology.

After a couple of days relistening to the new additions, it finally occurred to me, why not go back into my vast catalogue of music and pick out a "couple" to give some proper credit and light to? I had made a list of about 20 or so to choose from, dating back to 1965 to about 1986. As the list was weeded out, 1 album kept registering to me as a definite keeper, 1974's Jim Stafford self titled LP.

That's right, LP. Some of you readers have probably never even held a real on in your hands. My how the times have changed.

Jim Stafford is the very definition of originality. No one has ever looked at life or music in the same way, except for maybe Frank Zappa, and that from me says alot to his favor.

His debut album is a testament to his surreal musical nature I am speaking of. Blending comedy, blues, jazz, country, rock, funk, doo wop, 1930's crooner and even early elements of hard rock all into one big melting pot of kick ass. This album must have been a godsend to the music fans of that era who probably spent alot of time trying to figure out how to drown out "Billy Don't Be A Hero" and "Seasons In The Sun".

Hailing from southern Florida, Stafford pioneered the genre of swamp rock, like I said, blending so many different elements of ALL music into one. His hilarious take on the Mississippi Delta Blues, "16 Little red Noses And A Horse That Sweats", is both bizarre and progressive all at once. Who else but Jim Stafford could play the blues with such proficiency....on a banjo?

Only Jim, that's who. Who else would write such lyrics to go along with it like, "My wife ran off with the garbage man — I don’t miss that woman, but somebody gotta empty my can.". While he is ranting about infidelity, garbage men, dippity doo, miniature horses that sweat and nudists you tend to lose the reality that he is really laying down some solid blues riffing.....ON A BANJO.Absolutely revolutionary and it paved the way for artists like Bela Fleck and even Weird Al to follow along in his footsteps.



Stafford liked to make us laugh but he also wants us to think. “The Last Chant.”, with it's dark distorted guitar driven harmonies, Jim is showing us all his dislike for the land developers who came in and destroyed his family's and the swamp cultures way of life by putting up amusement parks and old stodgy retirement communities.

“You just keep dragging my swamp water down,move to florida! We'll build you a town.”
Jim doesn't need to say another word for us all to really see how he feels. I always thought this song would make an awesome cover for a metal band...maybe even a death metal track.

Every song on this album is a standout which is why I brought this out of semi-obscurity.“Nifty Fifties Blues” he rocks right in the same groove as Fats Domino or Little Richard. “I Ain’t Sharin’ Sharon” sees him singing as if he was a 30's crooner.

"Swamp Witch"shows he can tell a story as does his rendition of the classic "Mr. Bojangles". Both tracks are outstanding.

The modern scene lacks the humor and intelligence of a man like Jim Stafford, and that's a shame. In the glitz and glamour of the modern music scene albums and artists come and go in the blink of an eye and most are truly forgettable. Sadder still is the fact that classic albums like this one fade into obscurity and are lost in the abyss of tide and time as a result.

Get this album. Go out and buy it. If you're ever in Branson, Missouri, he has a theatre. Catch a show. It's worth it.



Artist: Jim Stafford
Album: self titled(1974)
genre: blues, rock, jazz, country, comedy, experimental
download: here
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

By Bez

Aloan - Better In Springtime

Aloan is a acid jazz trip hop band out of Geneva Switzerland, who after the release of their third album, "Better in Springtime" are starting to gain a following throughout Europe and making their way to the more enlightened ears through out the Americas and the Eastern world as well. They have a sort of unique mix of styles who makes them stand out from many of the others in their field. A delightfully refreshing mixture of blues, jazz, trip hop, rap, ambient, classical, and soul with small hints of atmosphere tossed in there where it just makes it gold. Its no wonder that "Better in Springtime" is being called the album which will get them noticed.

The album starts out with a beautiful acid jazz track called "One Dance for Destiny" a song that reminds me alot of Eryka Badu in both vocals and in music, a truly beautiful track about giving one last chance with someone she just can't give up, incredibly done, the right mix of old and new, great way to start off an album, and also the best way to set the tone that will carry through to entire disc, many times through out your musical journey you'll find yourself coming back to this, normally with some incredibly well done rap put in there too, from there we jump to two club ready disco tracks "Rise" and "The Good Day" both great in their own respects, though i would personally give the edge to "The Good Day" but thats just me. From there we go to "In Time" a very mellow downtempo acid bluestronica track, all the things you need for a good track are here, the beat, the perfectly done vocals, the right touches to the music at the right moments, just beautifully done. the next track bring us back to the style from the start of the disc again but with alittle more aggressive this time "I'm Your Tears" its called, the beat is hypnotic and the rap is dropped in at just the right spots, very well done. "I'll Never Be A Woman" is a very dark and smokey electronica song hidden as a blues song, I love the bridge of this, it just drives me insane with how great it is, this is the kind of song you would find as the background music in the sex scene of some indie movie, its just amazing. "Tonight I'll Kill You" is probably the harshest track on the album, and about as close to angry aggressive rap you'll find on here, which I like, not that I mind harsh hard rap, but well, this just makes the concept awesome, not bad for a song about not really believing in god I think, angry rap that makes you think, who knew that was possible in this day and age eh? From there we jump downtempo again with "Hopefully" a very lovely song that starts out with this great classical and piano bit, which highlights the vocals to a level thats almost acapella, which makes me wonder just how great it would have sounded that way, as the song progresses you find bits of crashing almost nightwish like guitars tossed in at the right spots, and an angry bit of rap tossed in, this is a song is a true adventure in sonic manipulation and I love it for that! "Get On Top" is a very awesome base heavy lowrider ready rap track thats just awesome and would get played on any rap station anywhere in the world and get tons of play, course that'll never happen, but hey, a guy can dream right? "Dreaming" is a nice contrast to the track before, a very lovely track that again brings us back to the flavor from the begining of the album, there are more hints of the trip hop and electronic in this one though, I love how they expand the sonic envelope abit, then come back to the feel at the start again, its such a great trip to be taken on. "Sick Little Doll" sounds alot like a soul song straight out of the 1970s golden age of soul, there are bits of Tammy Tarell and later career Diana Ross before she started doing horrible disco tracks in there, and little bits of Roberta Flack and Minnie Riperton in there too, very nice, I also love how it was run through a filter to give it that old scratchy record feel, it just adds to just how great this is. "We Got What You Want" is a really nice autobiographical track, its a very middle eastern infused laid back rap track that jumps between the bands history to political fuses to just plain boombastic hip hop. The album ends with "Better in Springtime", a lovely track that starts out like a blues song and ends up something akin to "Black Velvet" that great one hit wonder track by the underated and shouldn't be forgotten but is Alannah Myles, its a lovely end to an album that takes us all over the musical map and leaves us wanting more.

I'm not sure if everyone will like this, I know I did, and I would guess that most people would give it a chance, there is after all something for everyone in it, which is a rarity in the world of music these days, I would even go far enough to say its actually worth going and buying a copy of it, but to a sad end, most music shops probably wouldn't have something this obscure, shame too. Give it a try, see if you like it, they've got two other albums out there if you like this one.

Aloan - Better in Springtime

Artist: Aloan
Album: Better In Springtime
Genre: Trip Hop,Electrojazz,Jazz,Blues,Bluestronica,hip hop,Disco,Club


by: Just A Simple Poet

Morning Train by Danial Lemma

Danial Lemma is hard to pin down, you wouldn't think a man that looks like Bob Marley would be able to sing like Marvin Gaye, let alone actually be good at sounding like Marvin. And though I am a fan of the late great Mr. Gaye, that is not my real reason for liking Danial, though that does play a never minor part in it. Danial has this way about him, he writes some incredable songs and he can play some flawless guitar, its really something lovely to find these days.

Sure, most would dismiss him as just an artist singing 1970s style soul music, but it goes way past that, Danial's content is as modern as can be, and his voice just compliments the music he writes so beautifully that I am amazed he's not been played on the radio. I guess being realitively known in his native sweden means he's not gonna make it stateside yet, though I wish he would, hell I'll buy anything by this guy. Its all a wonderufl mix of soul, jazz, blues, funk and rock, I love when you can't pin an artist down, and more so, when you can't pin down an artist that masters every genre they mix together, its just so amazing when done right. As a musican myself I know how hard that is. Though admittedly, i'm not on this guy's level.

Some of the must listen too tracks are "Run Tell John" a lovely murder ballad about getting ready to put right something that went wrong long before and prepairing incase they don't come home from it, this one stold out to me early because of how the vocals come through so clearly, and you wish them luck and want them to come back, if you close your eyes, you can see them saying their good byes and everything. "Morning Train" is a great track too about a somewhat doomed romance, the lyrics might not be the best, but the vocals and the arrangement make up for the lack there. "I used to love you" is really an uplifting song about looking back at a love and remembering just what it is that brought her to him in the first place, "You Won't See Me" is song about death that makes you happy and sad. "Loneliness" would have been a great album ender, though its not, the track simply moves me.

I doubt anyone that gives this a listen will be let down, mostly because there are so little uplifting albums made outside of the mainstream these days, not that I mind a sad album or 12, its just nice to find someone so down to earth and so uplifting at the same time. It really does remind of the likes of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathoway and the like, definately give it a look.


Artist: Danial Lemma
Album: Morning Train
Genre: Neo-Soul, Accoustic, Pop

Morning Train by Danial Lemma

By: BC

Leave The Light On - Beth Hart

From BC about this album:

Beth Hart first became known to the world in the very tail end of the 1990s with her massive hit "LA Song" and her in your face "this is me like it or fuck off" take on life kept her and the song in the media long after sales for that album "Screaming For My Supper" slowed to a snails pace. The only problem with this was, LA Song was the only single released off the album that charted, and most assumed that Beth was a one hit wonder deemed for the 1990s related obscurity that acts like OMC, Fastball and The Heights now dwell in.

But this wouldn't do for Beth. She didn't care that the major lables weren't pushing her anymore, she kept working, she turned out afew more albums, and one of them, her newest one to date, from 2003, "Leave The Light On" is truely a jem that should not be passed by. It spans the spectrum from pop, to southern style rock, to jazz and blues, to gospel, to soul, to female vocalist. There is no real way to pin down this album, it shows that Beth has become so much more as she's gotten older and worked more and more on her craft.

Beth has really changed, she started out as what most dismissed as a foul mouthed Tori Amos rip off, but her voice and her style has changed so much that, it seems silly now to have ever compaired the two. Beth's voice is somewhere between Anastacia Newkirk and just about any soul diva you can think of, there is alot of Aretha in her writing she's claimed, I hear more Patte Le Belle, but thats just me I guess. Doesn't really take away from how good this disc is.

I would say this disc is for anyone thats not fully tired of the mainstream, but would like to see what some of those that the mainstream has forgotten are up too these days. Her subject matter jumps all over the place, from love, to drug addictions and drinking to sexual abuse against a child (what the title song "Leave The Light On" is about), self redemption, and afew other things along the way. Its a true masterpiece.

Artist: Beth Hart
Album: Leave The Light On
genre: Female Vocalist

Leave The Light On by Beth Hart

By BC