 Okay, I admit it, I love Dean Martin. I love old Jerry Lewis/ Dean Martin movies and I don't know, I just love the way Dino sings. I'm not suggesting that you go out and buy full catalogue here but a dollop of Dean can enhance any serious record collection. The Best Of Dean Martin pretty much covers the handful of tunes you'll want to throw on at your next cocktail party. "Sway" is my fave. I also love "Volare" and "That's Amore" for top notch Italian Cheese. "Return to Me" and "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" are also pretty groovy. I watched a bio on Dean the other day and I have to say, the guy endured more than his share of tragedy with a lot of grace and you really gotta love that about him because, he always made it look like he was dancing through life, drink in hand, smile on his face. |
 Last night I went to see the movie "It Might Get Loud" and I was enchanted by Jimmy Page, at 65, re-visiting Headley Grange, an old Victorian house, in East Hampshire, England, where the album was recorded. He seemed haunted by the memories of that place and what the band created there. This album, the band's 4th, while it did extremely well on the charts, didn't get much critical acclaim. Jimmy says in the documentary that the best review the record received was a paragraph long. And yet, the music holds up beautifully. This collection of songs is as perfect a record as you can find out there. "Goin' To California" remains my favorite Zeppelin song but the world at large embraced "Stairway to Heaven" and it endures as one of the great rock anthems of all time. The rest, "Black Dog", "Misty Mountain Hop", "When The Levee Breaks" and the rest all contribute to the absolute brllince of this LP. The exquisite combination of Robert Plant's vocals and Jimmy's playing arranged so thoughtfully and intelligently and yet, still exploding into straight up hair-raising hard rock is hard to figure but as I put it on my turntable now, I'm still in awe. |
 John Doe wears a lot of hats (X, the Knitters, and his solo stuff) and, although he's no stranger to cowboy hats, I think this is the first "Countrypolitan" record he's made in a while. He says he made a drunken promise to Travis and Dallas Goode (of the Sadies, a great band in their own right) when they were playing together in Toronto but those promises are usually forgotten. This one was not and the result is a pretty incredible record that combines a lot of really great songs with some top notch musicianship. There's four originals on this one, three by the Sadies, and one by Exene Cervenka, Doe, and the amazing Kathleen Edwards who sings on a few numbers too. The rest are standards or semi-standards made famous and written by the who's who of the country music world: Willie Nelson, Ray Price, Hank Snow, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings. Tammy Wynette, Hank Williams, Porter Wagoner. There isn't a dud on this whole record. I love it as an ensemble piece. I also love that this is not a Nashville style album (no strings, no horns, no choirs, no bullshit), this record is Cosmo Country right out of Bakersfield.
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 Can I begin by saying how very inspiring it is for the Vinyl Princess to see artists releasing their albums on Vinyl again (happy sigh). While the rest of the world goes off in alarming directions, it appears that the music world is coming back around to Vinyl and what could be better than that? Elvis Costello's new album is a work of art. The artwork on the cover looks like vintage tarot cards with my favorite bird, a crow, right there in the middle. The pen and ink of Elvis on the back is just what I want to think of when I see him in my mind. This is a double gatefold album and the lyrics are wordy so it takes a minute to get through them all but do it, they're brilliant. On to the music: Produced by T-Bone Burnett, who rarely disappoints, a mandolin figures heavily on many songs and the gracious Jim Lauderdale sings harmonies. The songs themselves are like clever short stories with a beginning, a middle, an end, a good plot and even a few sub-plots. I was on board right out of the gate with Down Among the Wines and Spirits and Complicated Shadows, of course. Sulphur to Sugarcane is my fave on the record and loads of fun and She Was No Good is a pretty song that required several listens before I figured out what he was talking about. Listening to this album is like losing yourself in a great book. Mine, by the way, is signed by the man himself. Yup, I looked him right in the eye. I may even have touched him.
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