Wednesday Open Thread: March 6

It's Day 65 of the Year 2019 CE (Gregorian), meaning that it's March 6, 2019


Image from page 618 of "Illustrations of the lyric poetry and music of Scotland ... originally compiled to accompany the "Scots musical museum" [by James Johnson] and now published separately, with additional notes and illustrations" (1853)


Today I am procrastinating with respect to a major writing project by jumping into musicworld. I just noticed in my cursory review of today's history that there are multiple serious influences on US music who were born today, and feel that I should devote this essay to them and that happy coincidence.

First, Furry Lewis. Per wikipedia:

Walter E. "Furry" Lewis (March 6, 1893[1] or 1899[2] – September 14, 1981) was an American country blues guitarist and songwriter from Memphis, Tennessee. He was one of the first of the blues musicians active in the 1920s to be brought out of retirement and given new opportunities to record during the folk blues revival of the 1960s.

-

-

-

-


Next up is Bob Wills, a major force in Western Swing. Again, from da wiki:

James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing,[1][2][3] he was widely known as the King of Western Swing (although Spade Cooley self-promoted the moniker "King Of Western Swing" from 1942 to 1969).

-

-

-

-

Not merely yet another guitarist, we have Wes Montgomery. From the wiki:

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist.[1] Montgomery was known for an unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb which granted him a distinctive sound. He often worked with his brothers Buddy and Monk and with organist Jimmy Smith. Montgomery's recordings up to 1965 were oriented towards hard bop, soul jazz, and post bop, but around 1965 he began recording more pop-oriented instrumental albums that found mainstream success. His later guitar style influenced jazz fusion and smooth jazz.

-

-

-

-

And now, a mere singer, Miss Mary Wilson:

Mary Wilson (born March 6, 1944) is an American vocalist, best known as a founding member and longest member of the Supremes. Wilson remained with the group following the departures of other original members, Florence Ballard in 1967 and Diana Ross in 1970. Following Wilson's own departure in 1977, the group disbanded. Wilson has since released three solo albums, five singles and two best-selling autobiographies, Dreamgirl: My Life As a Supreme, a record setter for sales in its genre, and Supreme Faith: Someday We'll Be Together; both books later were released as an updated combination. Continuing a successful career as a concert performer, Wilson also became a musicians' rights activist as well as a musical theater performer and organizer of various museum displays of the Supremes' famed costumes. Wilson was inducted along with Ross and Ballard (as members of the Supremes) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
** Wikipedia

-

-

>

-

-

And why not throw in Kiki Dee, 3/6/47 for this duet with Sir Elton:


Image is public domain

Its an open thread so have at it. The floor is yours
.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Lookout's picture

Thanks el. Bob Wills was an influence on my music. Got his 3 disc record set "for the last Time" as a teen.

For the Last Time documents two historic moments in American music: The last time Bob Wills would ever attend or participate in a recording session -- he never made the final day of the session, having suffered a severe stroke the night before -- and the reunion of the great Texas Playboys, who began in the 1930s and recorded and toured together through the beginning of World War II. All living members were present, as well as Texas Playboy-for-a-day Merle Haggard, who drove all night from Chicago to make the session (he literally begged Wills to be a part of the sessions). These sessions took place on December 3 and 4, 1973, in Dallas, a short ride from Wills' home, with most of the '30s and '40s band in place, including Leon McAuliffe and Leon Rausch acting as vocalists for the lion's share of the material, with Wills singing on six tracks and Haggard guesting on three and playing fiddle as part of the string section. Haggard's singing on "Texas Playboy Theme" is particularly moving, and one can hear the pride in his voice as Wills gives his patented "ahhhhhh-haaaaaaawwwww!" to show his own pleasure with the proceedings. Wills was seated in the center of the band and actually directed it from his wheelchair. What is most remarkable is that on certain cuts -- such as "Blue Bonnet Lane," a track recorded for a movie in 1942 and not performed since -- the band nailed it on one take. Tommy Allsup's production is flawless in that it is so minimal it's almost as if the band were playing in the listener's living room. He captures the warmth, immediacy, and overwhelming emotion in the proceedings as they happen on such Texas Playboy classics as "San Antonio Rose," "Faded Love," "What Makes Bob Holler," "Big Ball's in Cowtown," "Bubbles in My Beer," "That's What I Like About the South," "Milk Cow Blues," "Twin Guitar Boogie," and "When You Leave Amarillo," just to name a few. Fiddle great Hoyle and son Jody Nix actually guest on a couple of tracks in the vocal seat, and Wills gives them his approving nod with his drawling yodel. In all, this is far from the lame tribute record we see so frequently these days; this is a deeply moving and inspiringly executed presentation of Bob Wills as not only a bandleader, but as an innovator and mentor. In other words, it is the only fitting tribute possible, with the man still very much alive sitting among his bandmates for the very last time.

Here's the album if anyone has an interest.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDo5pClxNxc&list=PLSY07UDMoXP8ToH_hJUg06...

Also loved the Supremes and Wes. Didn't know about Furry.

Hope you all have a swinging day! A chilly 20 degree AM here...but sunny!

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout
best-of-Bob-Wills album and a CD boxed set (Encore) but not that album. Thanks for posting it. Furry Lewis influenced a lot of folks, some of whom are surprising, like this pianist:

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

This morning I can see the dollar bills floating up out of the water troughs in the form of steam coming off the warm water into the 5 degree F air. In weather like this it costs around $6 / day in electricity to keep two 100 gallon water troughs liquid. There is a 1500 Watt heater in each one that keeps the water at around 35 degrees. This is normal for January. March, not so much.

up
0 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@jbob
volumes can sometimes be evidence (that's how citizen sceince and phenology work) and the evidence on climate change is in and widely known at individual levels when we stop and remember days past.

Thanks for reading.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --


memeguy
lol thanks, that popped out from my lint trap 'cause a pepto bismol ad starts playing at the end of this vid:

Theodore Bikel — Kretchma (קרעטשמע)

What I really wanted to say was RIP Peter Tork. cheers to a good life lived

Peter Tork of the Monkees dies; lived, performed in Fairfax in 1970s, ’80s

Tork was part of the hippie migration to Marin County at the end of the 1960s. He settled in Fairfax in the early ‘70s, worked at the original Sleeping Lady Cafe, a Bolinas Road employee-owned co-op that was Marin’s first vegetarian restaurant, and sang in the Fairfax Street Choir.

He also performed at 19 Broadway and other Fairfax clubs with his own band and occasionally sat in with Big Brother and the Holding Company, becoming friends with band members Sam Andrew and drummer David Getz. He lived with Getz in Fairfax for a brief time after leaving Los Angeles and the Southern California music business.

“He worked at his music and became a good musician,” Getz said in a Facebook post. “He was someone I liked a lot, respected, cared about and will remember with great fondness.”

According to Tork’s former girlfriend and bandmate, Austin musician Lauren Ellis, Tork lived in Marin on and off until 1992, when he moved back to L.A.

“He called Marin ‘mother’ and L.A. ’the work,’” Ellis said.

Also lived in Marin until 1975, grew up just over the hill from Fairfax. good trip bad trip long trip strange trip. It was a trip.

Peter Tork [Monkees] - Kretchma

Tork had been part of the Greenwich Village folk scene before becoming instantly famous. “To be in Greenwich Village in the ’60s was pure joy; to be young was pure bliss,” he said in an interview with UK Music Reviews. “When I talk about having a well favored life, I went from Greenwich Village almost directly into The Monkees. … I had first heard about the Monkees in the early summer of 1965 from a good friend of mine, one Mr. Stephen Stills,” who had been considered for the show himself and made a call to Tork, whom he figured would be better suited.

Tork was by some accounts the most musically proficient member of the Monkees, and someone comfortable with a variety of instruments. In the 1960s, George Harrison invited him to play banjo on his first solo album, the “Wonder Wall” soundtrack, although his picking reportedly only appears on bootleg outtakes and in the film itself. Although he was usually seen playing guitar in his solo acoustic or blues-band shows, in his spare time, he played piano, telling Medium in a 2017 interview that a typical day for him included some casual classical music. “I enjoy playing Johann Sebastian Bach for a hobby, just to take my mind into different places,” he said.

Cheers for taking minds into different places. Happy Hump Day
make it so
PEACE

up
0 users have voted.

Sonoma County declares health emergency due to hazardous waste left after the flood

Nail polish, paint, drain openers, lighter fluid, rat poison, batteries, adhesives, even thermometers — all of these items contain potentially hazardous ingredients that could cause health problems if ingested and shouldn’t be thrown away in the household trash.

County crews will not pick up flood debris such as furniture and appliances from the curb, despite massive waterlogged piles accruing along west county roads.

That surely makes sense, somewhere. Look toward the finance, insurance, and real estate industries, see the devil's contracts dancing on your children's graves? Not yet? keep flushing

But the health emergency declaration enables the county to start collecting hazardous waste from people’s curbs, Holbrook said. She urged people to keep these piles separate from other types of rubbish and leave them out front on their properties without blocking roads or road shoulders.

“We want to get those out of the homes and out of the yards and out of the environment,” Holbrook said.

Right on! How 'bout we get merchants to stop selling this toxic shit to begin with? Yeah, no. This is the neoliberal wet dream come true again, disaster capitalism ftw. end games

Of course people who are traumatized by the flood are going to sort through hazardous garbage so the county doesn't have to. Of course! This is how they think; experts agree everything is fine, as long as it is in the contract. Or not? sry

compassion
just kill me now

up
0 users have voted.

@eyo in toxins. I don't want to be anywhere near Houston when it floods (again). That we have all these chemicals laying around is just colossally stupid. It makes you realize that all these people who think they are so damn smart, churning out this stuff, are actually not. They are too obtuse to see what they are doing. Dancing on their kid's graves, fouling their own nest, whatever you want to call it. The chickens will come home to roost.
Or they are home, the unraveling is well underway.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-web-of-life-is-unraveling/

up
0 users have voted.
detroitmechworks's picture

It's a goofy thing, I know, but it's something that I don't really think about much. I enjoy angles, ball games and challenge. I never much liked pool, because the game was too cerebral for me, and the culture is something that I always disliked. (Cigarette smoke and booze are two thinks I avoid.)

However, went someplace fun with my kids, and realized how enjoyable watching a sliver ball bounce around can be. It's brief, and yet seems to fill the same void in minutes that literal HOURS of online entertainment doesn't provide. Maybe it's the artistry, maybe it's knowing how much maintenance such a game requires. Maybe it's just finding the little hidden puzzle box factors in almost every table.

It's just enjoyable as compared to a standard game, which these days rely on paint by numbers code and can be hacked together by any fool with a little money and patience. Pinball, on the other hand... Requires Math, and actual prototypes. Miscalculate and that ball is smacking into the glass with the speed of a bullet, and you're back to square one.

Maybe I'm just getting old and nostalgic, but there's an element of tactile connection which you just don't get with a gamepad. I know this is random, but it's an open thread, so forgive me for the random thought.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FASUZRYs0fM]

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

enhydra lutris's picture

@detroitmechworks
and some arcade games as well as being a lot of fun and entertainment, but too "expensive" for my seriously meagre finances way back in the day. Heh. Now and then I download a pinball game for the computer, but today that brings the thread of carpal tunnel so I eventually get rid of them. Such is life.

Have a good one.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

@detroitmechworks @detroitmechworks
and to get rid of any that we do acquire down at the household hazmat drop off that the county provides. Also med waste, which is a strangely oxymoronic and/or redundant (as the case may be) concept.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

the Furry this morning. That was fantastic. I had not heard him before.

up
0 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@randtntx

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

@eyo
much tuned out the Monkees except for a tune or two eventually heard on the radio. Kretchma is a pretty funny song, btw. Bikel reminds me of Gottlieb.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Regretfully, this news cheered me up. Perhaps revenge is the passing zeitgeist.

Big-dollar donors, including Donald Trump, fueled Kamala Harris’ political rise in California

Earlier this decade, however, the two weren’t on such combative terms. In 2011 and again in 2013, Trump donated a total of $6,000 to Harris’ campaign for California attorney general. His daughter, Ivanka, also gave Harris $2,000 in 2014.

The first donation from Trump, for $5,000 in September 2011, came months after he had begun popping up on cable news promoting a conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not the United States, something that’s been widely condemned as racist.

Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams told McClatchy that Harris donated the $6,000 Trump had contributed to a non-profit that advocates for civil and human rights for Central Americans. But that donation wasn’t made until 2015, a year after she won her reelection for attorney general and as she was launching her run for the Senate.

Kerplunk goes Harris' polls for a minute. Ker-plunk!
The big club, they just trade the same money back and forth, up and down, in and out, constantly revolving through each others doors. The constant bullshit gardeners of duopoly. meh

It is raining again and I am bored. I put today's playlist vids on repeat... good ones. Thanks, but I'm still bored and kinda anxious. One can only consume so much bad news, and the "good" news is like fake brain candy, rots the mind with mindless drivel. doom cloud begone

up
0 users have voted.
smiley7's picture

warms the senses, enjoying the music and thread. Thank you.

Catching up on newsletters while ignoring the pressing stuff; just too cold to be worried about minutia.
Pinball 101; afternoon beers on the corner of Franklin and Columbia; those machines could take some abuse. Smile

Have a good one.

up
0 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@smiley7
Stay warm and hang loose, it is always a good day for that agenda.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Thanks for the threads!

up
0 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --