Blatherin' Bill

I perused several episodes of Blair Johnson’s Badass Records Podcast after he invited me to appear on the long-running endeavor. Aghast at the prodigious length of many episodes, I resolved to keep my remarks brief. In that regard, the embedded video is a spectacular failure.

Not even my friends and family will want to consume all two hours of my nonsense. I suspect my calculating detractors will be the only people parsing the entire discussion as they compile material to hold against me.

I disregarded Johnson’s mandate to highlight my five favorite albums. Instead, I selected releases representing different phases of my life. These are Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974), Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), Alison Krauss’ Now That I’ve Found You (1995), Kanye West’s The College Dropout (2004) and Moor Mother’s Jazz Codes (2022).

Many people I admire are among the previous Badass Records guests. They include Mark Manning, Jackie Myers, Sid Sowder, Steve Tulipana and Rich Wheeler. If you don’t care to take in my visage on the YouTube video or my Midwestern twang on Apple or Spotify, I encourage you to check out those episodes.

Book Review: Oh, Didn’t They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music, by David Menconi

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Declining a 1994 offer from my employer Rounder Distribution to relocate from Kansas City to Rounder’s home office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is among my biggest regrets. My successful campaign to install a bluegrass section at Walmart led to supplementary sales of hundreds of thousands of Alison Krauss albums in the South and Midwest. Rounder believed I could oversee similar initiatives nationally.

Yet as a new homeowner with an expanding family, the increased pay package in New England still would have meant downgrading my circumstances. I made the wrong decision. Distribution of compact discs and DVDs would be decimated within a dozen years, but attractive opportunities in parallel industries would have presented themselves when the time came to move on.

Reading David Menconi’s Oh, Didn't They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music, consequently, triggered me. The narrative is primarily told from the perspective of the denizens of the label’s headquarters. My story isn’t included in Menconi’s short history. Still, I enjoyed learning about the early lives of Rounder’s founders as well as the events that transpired after I was out of the picture. The work receives my qualified recommendation.

Almost Proud

The achievement seems quaintly irrelevant now, but I once took great pride in my principal role in creating a bluegrass section in Walmart’s music department during my stint as a sales representative for independent record labels covering the central swathe of the United States during the 1990s.  

My enthusiasm for the then up-and-coming Alison Krauss rubbed off on the world’s most powerful country music buyers.  Recognizing that bluegrass had little in common with the likes of Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw,  we formulated a plan to carve out precious shelf space for the high, lonesome sound.

Walmart being Walmart, the initiative involved a significant outlay of marketing dollars, the creation of new lines of budget CDs and buckets of my own blood, sweat and tears.  Del McCoury bailed me out at an extremely perilous moment.

I’d arranged to have McCoury and his band perform at a Walmart convention.  I was ecstatic that my pitch for the bluegrass initiative would be bolstered by the presence of the legend.  My elation turned to horror on the morning of the event.

I was told that rather than making a single presentation to a large group as planned, I would need to do the same song-and-dance for several breakout panels throughout the day.  I was compelled to beg McCoury and his band to rearrange their schedule accordingly.  While understandably displeased, the musicians conceded to my request.

This recollection is prompted by Almost Proud, the outlandishly excellent new album by The Del McCoury Band.  Now 83, McCoury sounds as fit as a fiddle on the drinking song “Brown Paper Bag” and dispenses hard-earned wisdom on the title track.  

Alas, there’s no longer several feet of bluegrass-dedicated shelf space to rack albums like Almost Proud at Walmart. Yet while it lasted, my McCoury-abetted bluegrass endeavor enhanced my profile and led to a few life-changing paydays. I’ll always be indebted to the man.

November 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the trailer for Valerie a týden divů by There Stands the Glass.

Top Ten Albums (released in November)

1. Irreversible Entanglements- Open the Gates

My review.

2. Summer Walker- Still Over It

Number one with a bitterness.

3. Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O- Umdali

Valiant South African jazz.

4. Brian Wilson- At My Piano

Tragic beauty.

5. Attacca Quartet- Of All Joys

Partly Pärt.

6. Terrace Martin- Drones

Flying high above Silk Sonic.

7. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss- Raise the Roof

An old-fashioned barn burner.

8. Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian- Welcome Party

Knock knock.

9. Anna Netrebko- Amata dalle tenebre

Aching arias.

10. Anuel AA- Las Leyendas Nunca Mueren

Legends never die.

Top Ten Songs (released in November)

1. Willie Nelson- "Too Sick to Pray"

On bended knee.

2. Del McCoury Band- "Once Again"

That high, lonesome sound.

3. Earl Sweatshirt- "2010"

Don’t call it a comeback.

4. City Girls- "Scared"

“Ain’t no way I’m stopping.”

5. The Bug featuring Jason Williamson- "Treetop"

Out on a limb.

6. Idles- "Stockholm Syndrome"

Brainwashed.

7. Frogpond- "I Really Don't Care"

Meat-and potatoes heartland rock.

8. NRBQ- "I Like Her So Much"

Still ticking.

9. Adele with Erroll Garner- "All Night Parking"

The best song on 30.

10. Cécile McLorin Salvant- "Ghost Song"

Spectral.

Top Ten Concerts of November

1. J.D. Allen, Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits- Blue Room

My review.

2. Oleta Adams with Isaac Cates & Ordained- Old Mission United Methodist Church

My review.

3. Mary Gauthier- Knuckleheads

4. UMKC Opera’s “Acis and Galatea”- White Recital Hall

My review.

5. Dare- 7th Heaven

My Instagram clip.

6. Rod Fleeman Trio- Green Lady Lounge

7. The Kansas City Symphony’s “Coming to America”- Helzberg Hall

8. Renée Fleming- Helzberg Hall

9. Richard Thompson- Folly Theater

My review.

10. Sentenced 2 Die- 7th Heaven

My Instagram clip.

Top Ten Movies (viewed for the first time in November)

1. Popiół i diament/Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

Bloody Polish power grab.

2. La Strada/The Road (1954)

Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn convey crippling sadness.

3. Der junge Törless/Young Törless (1966)

Unflinching teen brutality.

4. Sparrows (1926)

Mary Pickford leads escape from foul baby farm.

5. De Slag om de Schelde/The Forgotten Battle  (2020)

World War II in Holland is hell.

6. Valerie a týden divů/Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

Frightfully freaky fairy tale.

7. Taking Tiger Mountain (1983)

A very bad trip.

8. The Harder They Fall (2021)

Wild, wild west(ern).

9. La bestia debe morir/The Beast Must Die (1952)

Argentinian noir.

10. Arsène Lupin (1932)

Sexy criminal caper.

October’s recap and links to previous monthly surveys are here.

Album Review: Hasaan Ibn Ali- Retrospect In Retirement Of Delay: The Solo Recordings

I like Adele as much as the next romance-minded person.  I’m also a day-one Snoop Dogg fan.  And the latest batch of songs from the sublime collaboration of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss thrills me.  But of all the music released on November 19, the artistic standout is Retrospect in Retirement of Delay: The Solo Recordings.

Where are the throngs of music lovers around the world singing the praises of Hasaan Ibn Ali’s excavated recordings from the rooftops?  I’m doing my part by hailing one of the most profound sonic discoveries of 2021 in this humble forum.  

Hasaan Ibn Ali sounds like Thelonious Monk’s evil twin on the 151 minutes of solo piano recorded from 1962 through 1965.  The Philadelphian vigorously advances the avant-garde implications of Monk’s innovations.  Some listeners will find the sketchy sound quality and an occasionally poorly tuned piano problematic.  The off-kilter murk and incidental chatter actually compliment the heedless gusto of Ibn Ali’s approach.  

Prior to this year, the 1965 album The Max Roach Trio featuring the Legendary Hasaan was the pianist’s only official recording.  His violent muscularity is heard to good effect on "Almost Like Me" on that date. Yet Retrospect in Retirement of Delay, along with the similarly astounding April release Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album, necessitates a dramatic revision to the annals of American music.

August 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

(Screenshot of Bye Bye Braverman by There Stands the Glass.)

Top Ten Albums (released in August, not including August 27 titles)

1. Jana Rush- Painful Enlightenment

The art of noise.

2. Abstract Mindstate- Dreams Still Inspire 

My review.

3. Pink Siifu- Gumbo'!

Hey ya!

4. Shannon and the Clams- Year of the Spider

My review.

5. Tinashe- 333

Lucky numbers.

6. Max Richter- Exiles

Luminous.

7. Isaiah Rashad- The House Is Burning

Fire!

8. Bleachers- Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night

My review.

9. Boldy James and The Alchemist- Bo Jackson

Another hit.

10. Angelika Niescier and Alexander Hawkins- Soul in Plain Sight

European birds of a feather.

Top Ten Songs (Released in August)

1. Injury Reserve- "Knees"

“A tough pill to swallow.”

2. Jungle- "No Rules"

Anarchy on the dance floor.

3. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss- "Can't Let Go"

Ooby dooby.

4. Connie Smith- "I'm Not Over You"

Going under. 

5. Rachika Nayar- "Memory as Miniatures"

What if Pat Metheny signed to Windham Hill instead of ECM?

6. Benny the Butcher- "The Iron Curtain"

Imposing.

7. Irreversible Entanglements- "Open the Gates"

“It’s energy time.”

8. Blackstarkids- “Juno”

Summertime blues.

9. Christina Bell featuring Fred Hammond- "Still Faithful"

Conviction.

10. $uicideboy$- “If Self-Destruction Was an Olympic Event, I’d Be Tanya Harding”

Going for gold.

Top Ten Films (viewed for the first time in August)

1. あん/Sweet Bean (2015)

Deliciously transcendent.

2. Moonlight (2016)

Hello stranger.

3. Blue Jasmine (2013)

Family feud.

4. The Wild Bunch (1969)

Desperados waiting for a train.

5. Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot/Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)

French slapstick.

6. Bye Bye Braverman (1968)

Funeral for a friend.

7. La Collectionneuse/The Collector (1967)

Attractive people do ugly things in beautiful places.

8. CODA (2021)

High school musical.

9. The Falcon in San Francisco (1945)

Conventional potboiler.

10. The Tomorrow War (2021)

Goofy sci-fi romp.

Live Music

I swore off electing to place myself amid crowds in Kansas City after a disheartening experience at the airport as August began.  The abhorrent behavior of halfwits and lunatics temporarily eradicated any possibility of enjoying myself at musical performances.

July’s recap and links to previous monthly surveys are here.