You Are Not Alone - Mavis Staples

"Every tear
On every face
Tastes the same"

Not feeling the song battle vibe today so wanted to change it up and throw a little positivity out to the universe. I first saw Mavis Staples live at Wilco’s inaugural Solid Sound Festival in 2010. I was familiar with “I’ll Take You There” by her family band The Staples Singers but once she hit the stage I received an education and history lesson from someone that has seen a lot in her life. Since that performance I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Mavis and her band 4 times. Most recently at her 80^th birthday party at the Apollo theater which included collaborations with Jason Isbell, David Byrne, Lake Street Dive, Norah Jones, Jon Batiste…just to name a few. Yes, it was awesome. Every time I see Mavis she talks about the ups and downs her and her family went through on the road in the 60’s/70's and their work with Martin Luther King Jr. Even though I’ve heard her stage wrap multiple times these stories still get to the pit of my stomach and I find myself tearing up. The picture above is from the 2018 Travelers Rest music festival in Missoula, Montana. Hearing Mavis Staples sing and preach with the backdrop of the big sky Montana mountains was truly a religious experience. (Plus I’m pretty sure Mavis winked at me during her performance)

If you need a pick me I highly recommend the documentary Mavis! From 2015 (check out the trailer below) You’ll laugh, cry, be inspired, hear stories about smooching with Bob Dylan and her work with the Purple One…Prince! The song I picked for today is off her Grammy award winning album You Are Not Alone. Have a great Sunday everyone.

Change - Mavis Staples | Live from Here with Chris Thile

You Are Not Alone - Mavis Staples | Live from Here with Chris Thile

Mavis! - Official Trailer

Follow You Down - Gin Blossoms

"How you gonna ever find your place
Running in an artificial pace"

Last night I had some delicious Indian food from a spot called Lehja and split a bottle of wine with my wife. It was an amazing meal; the wine was delicious, and it was a nice relaxing night especially knowing that it was Memorial Day eve. I fell asleep fast and after some strange dreams (We’ve been watching a lot of David Lynch projects over the “tine”) I was wide awake, and the sun was nowhere to be found. I looked over at the clock and here it was, good ole 3 AM. The mix of Indian spices and alcohol joined forces and decided to gift me with a bountiful case of heartburn. As mentioned in a previous post I’m not a stranger to those dark, quiet, witchy hours but since I no longer share a bed to myself flipping on my precious music infomercials or Three’s Company reruns is no longer an option. Instead I’m left alone with my deep thoughts. If you’re like me sometimes work likes to pay a visit or other stresses of the day that one needs to block out to go back to dreamland. A positive part of resurrecting this blog is that I can push those thoughts away and lean more on the creative side of my brain and figure out what to write about next. Well that’s how the “Indian Food Bottle of Wine 3 AM Challenge” was born.

The rules are simple. Each post for the next few weeks I’ll write down the first two songs that appear on my iPod using the shuffle feature and then move which one I prefer to the next round (I’ll start with 12 songs) At first I was going to pit the bands versus each other but then thought it would be fun for the first round to put the actually songs against each other. That evens the playing field a bit since like most of you the mix of music on my iPod is a bit eclectic. (It took forever uploading hundreds of CD’s to iTunes years ago. Now I’m living in a streaming world and I am a streaming girl…or something like that) This way in the first round Milli Vanilla could in fact beat The Beatles. For instance, if “Blame it on the Rain” went against “Octopus Garden” it’s not even close! (well, for me) Since I began streaming years ago this collection of songs hasn’t been updated in 5 to 7 years. As for round 2 I believe I’ll switch to the actual bands matching up but I’m making these rules up as I go so, we’ll see.

Alright first up. Wow great example of the how the song matters. If this was Blue Sky or Ramblin’ Man I’d be prone to go with the Allmans…On the other hand if one of the lesser anthemic Gin Blossoms tunes would’ve come up the Georgia boys would’ve been victorious. So round one goes to the Gin Blossoms! I can’t help not thinking about my high school days when these songs were in the air. Hey Jealousy, Found Out About You, Until I Fall Away and of course this one. These guys were the real deal and very talented pop rock songwriters. As a testament to their talents I believe you can throw on any of these tunes and they still hold up today. I’ve seen them live twice but sadly a little out of their prime.(I was probably too cool to care during that time) Once at the Coastal Carolina Fair in Ladson, SC (2008) and more recently back in 2015 in an intimate listening room at the Capital Ale house in Richmond, VA. The band still sounded great, but they just couldn’t get past their initial success mainly due to the lead songwriter/guitarist committing suicide in 1993. Glad he left us with some great songs before he went. Next battle coming soon! Happy Memorial Day.

Gin Blossoms - Follow You Down (Official Video)

In the Morning of the Magicians - The Flaming Lips

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"As the dawn began to break

I had to surrender

The universe will have it's way

Too powerful to master"

I’ve been fortunate to travel the country (and a little of the world) to attend various concerts and music festivals. From the Rolling Stones at Arrowhead Stadium to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Olympiastadion in Munich to Mavis Staples at the world famous Apollo Theater. Concerts have lured me to cites that may not have been on my radar or “on my list” of places I want to visit. Jacksonville Oregon, Missoula Montana, North Adams Massachusetts just to name a few. The first “big” show I attended was back in 1992. I saw Metallica at the now torn down Capital Centre in Landover Maryland (former home of the Capitals/Bullets) That’s a post for a later date. Hard to know how many shows I’ve seen in the 28 years that have followed, let alone harder to pinpoint my favorite 10 thus far. Lucky for me I can say that one of the 10 happened March 10, 2018 about 3 miles down the road from me at The National here in ole Richmond VA.

It was a perfect storm of events that made this night so magical. Good friends, nice buzz and a general excitement that comes when one sees a band for the first time. I had been a huge fan of The Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots album but other than that I didn’t know many of the other tunes…..and I had no clue what the stage show would look like. Boy was I in for an experience! We arrived at the National early to secure a spot near the stage when we received a text from some friends that had space in one of the balconies. Well five minutes later we were led through a door and hallways that I never knew existed at the club and 6 of us got to witness the whole spectacle in the balcony feet away from the stage with the comfort of not getting hit with elbows or having beers spilt on us. (Well at least not from strangers) If you haven’t been to a Flaming Lips show before I’ll throw out a few words to describe the performance. Confetti, flashing lights, laser hands, giant robots, lead singer Wayne riding the audience in a bubble (see pic I snapped from my luxurious box seat) and moving around the whole floor on a unicorn (see video, and yes I got to high five Wayne!)…oh yeah the music rocks as well!!

Would I have enjoyed the show if I had stayed on the floor with the masses?..definitely! Would it still be in the top 10? Not sure, like I’ve mentioned before sometimes the best concerts are when all things fall into place and you’re free to tune out distractions and enjoy the performance. I couldn’t find a great live clip of the song but there’s a full professionally shot concert on youtube worth checking out. Hope everyone has a nice Holiday weekend. Bye for now.

the flaming lips In the Morning of the Magicians

Right Down The Line - Lucious

"'Cause you believed in me through my darkest night
Put somethin' better inside of me
You brought me into the light"


I was an insomniac in college. I purposely didn't have any classes start before 10:00 AM because I would often be up till 3 or 4 in the morning. Thinking back, going on a Taco Bell run at midnight and inhaling Mexican pizza and large Mountain Dews probably contributed heavily to this self diagnosed sleep disorder. In the wee hours of the night I was usually left to my own as roommates preferred to knock out classes earlier in the day.. Yeah I was that guy who had the 7pm class. So during the quite of the night if I couldn't find Gumby or Three's Company reruns I would watch Time Life music infomercials.

So this was right before people were getting the oh so coveted cd burner so you could make your own mix CD's. It was also a few years before Napster and the streaming age took over. Time Life would put together CD collections with some great songs that would cost a lot of money to grab all the tunes. I remember the love themed one hosted by Air Supply and the slow jams soul album called "Quiet Storm" (love that title) but the one that caught my attention was "Smooth 70's." Not only did I dig the songs but this one was a 2 CD collection instead of the 10 or 12 discs which made it more economically feasible for a college student. These were tunes as a kid I'd hear in the air from the radio or my parents record collection so I suppose I found comfort and familiarity in them. One of the gold star tunes for me on the compilation was Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts. Why? I have no idea but I still love it.

Not sure when it happened but these smooth 70's tunes I loved so much were relabeled as Yacht Rock. Fortunately for me Sirius/XM has a whole channel dedicated to this genre. After listening for a few years I feel that they may replay the same one hour of music but it doesn't bother me because I dig almost all of the selections. From Hall & Oates to Rupert Homes to my beloved Seal and Crofts, it's all there waiting for me. Another Yacht Rock regular is Gerry Rafferty. Best know for his epic sax fueled tune Baker Street. Another song in rotation by Mr. Rafferty is Right Down the Line. Worth revisiting for sure but for this post I wanted to share the stripped down cover version by the band Lucious.

I took this picture from the balcony of the Durham Performing Arts Center back in March of 2018. Yeah I know I complained about people taking pictures at shows but I was in the balcony and nobody was behind me. All's I ask is to just be aware of your surroundings. I first heard Lucious on a "relaxing indie playlist" I pulled up on Amazon music. I was immediately entranced by the harmonies Jess and Holly were belting out. So much power and range coming out of two people. After doing further digging I discovered they had sung back-up on one of my favorite albums by Jeff Tweedy called Sukierae. They've also collaborated with Lukas Nelson, Mavis Staples and oh yeah toured the world with Roger Waters. Check out the Wilderwoman and Nudes albums if you dig what you're hearing. And go get some goosebumps and catch them live whenever we can do that again. Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Lucius "Right Down the Line" KRCL Amplifying Women's Voices Rally

Funny How Time Slips Away - Willie Nelson

"It's Been so long now
But it seems now, that it was only yesterday
Gee, ain't it funny, how time slips away"

Happy belated birthday Willie Nelson! Willie turned 87 on 4/29 and before the lock down was still touring strong around the country and promoting a new album. Growing up I didn't know much about Willie's story or his massive music catalog. I feel in the 80's I just heard about his problems with the IRS, Farm Aid and On the Road Again. Flash forward to present day and I've read his books, seen his movies (Honeysuckle Rose is my favorite and worth a watch if you can track it done) , named our first dog after him, own over 20 of his albums and caught him live around the country I believe 7 times? He's also become my favorite voice and guitar player in music.

This is a poster hung proudly in our basement bar. (I also spy a Paul Stanley bobble head and the wrestler Nikolai Volkoff) I grabbed this souvenir from a show that Willie was kind enough to play on my birthday in Athens, Georgia.

I started paying attention to Willie when I was in college. VH1 used to have a great show called VH1 Storytellers (I Suppose VH1's answer to MTV Unplugged) Anyway, one I happened to catch featured Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. These two just shot the breeze and traded off some of their biggest hits. I was instantly drawn to the tales, the chemistry, and the genuineness of these two men. Like most cable television networks the special played many times throughout the weeks and every time I happened upon it I would sit and watch. After a few viewings I found out there was a CD. I wore that thing out and as usual when you discover a new band  you start going down the rabbit hole. For me I started with a three-disc boxset, Revolutions of Time. If a song stuck out I found out what album it came from and before I knew it I had quite a few Willie CD's in my arsenal. If you're just dipping your toe into the world of Willie I recommend VH1 Storytellers, Red Headed Stranger ,Willie and Family Live, and Spirit. That would be a great start. The special also gave me a new appreciation for Johnny Cash but that account will have to wait for a later post. Hope everyone has a good week.

Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson Funny How Time Slips Away