Audio

Keep on Pushing with The Shady Groove: Podcast #80

 

The Shady Groove is back with a brand new set of tunes for your listening pleasure. Welcome to the new year 2013. We hope the new year will bring with it some great new music. If its good, you will here it here first. Keep checking back here for new podcasts, music news and musings. As Dr. John once said:

“People see me but they just don’t know,

What’s in my heart and why I love you so,

I love you baby like a minor loves gold,

So come yeah baby Let the Good Times Roll”

These are the tracks that were included in this weeks’ podcast:

Shuggie Otis – Inspiration Information ++ Frank Zappa – Peaches En Regalia ++ Al Green – Old Time Lovin’ ++ Dr. John – Let’s Make a Better World ++ Chris Kasper – Devil’s Gold ++ Little Joy – Brand New Start ++ Wilco – Kingpin ++ Tedeschi Trucks Band – Midnight in Harlem ++ The Impressions – Keep On Pushing ++ Robert Palmer – Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley ++ Talking Heads – Take Me to the River ++ Ramsay Midwood – Rotten Alabama ++ The Band – When I Paint My Masterpiece (live) ++ The Gourds – January 6

Download Shady Groove Podcast #80

 

 

Aside

2012 Year in Review (Part 3): Best Albums

This is always the toughest list to come up with.

My 5 favorite albums of 2012.

1. Alabama Shakes – Boys and Girls

You’ve really gotta love this band. Their music is rooted in 60’s blues and soul, but you could easily call them an indie rock band. They’ve build a substantial following through their rocking live shows and this debut thrust them on the scene. But its not just the fact that they are rooted in the past that makes this band and this album awesome. Its the fact that it feels like the Shakes are poised to grow into a legendary band. Boys and Girls can be played front to back without skipping a beat. There are no awkward songs to skip through. This is the best album of 2012.

 

 

2. Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again

His stripped-down acoustic folk style evokes images of Otis Redding. His soulful voice is timeless. You can’t help but get swept up in his thoughtful lyrics. Pop on this album and you’ll find yourself transported to another place. He has been compared to Curtis Mayfield and Bill Withers. I love that at its core, the sound is retro, though the music stays novel. Home again has placed itself high on the list of my favorite new albums.

 

 

3. Dr. John – Locked Down

The good doctor is back with a vengeance.  Black Keys guitar player, Dan Auerbach produced this album and the results were astounding. Their collective aim was to create a modern recording that drew on the organic, spontaneous, spooky, swampy, nite-tripper voodoo elements that we heard in Dr. John’s earliest albums. It’s not a recreation of Gris Gris. It grooves with the feeling of swamp rock, but its got many new ideas and sounds. The band is tight and at times you can definitely feel the Black Keys style. Although it is not in any way a Black Keys album. Even in this age, it can be labeled as one of Mac Rebbenack’s finest.

 

 

4. Dr. Dog – Be The Void

As soon as the opener, Lonesome, begins one can tell they are in for a treat. Dr. Dog hits a home run with this album. They seem to be having a great time as they wind through raw but poppy harmonies and  stripped down warm lyrics. I think they have wandered slightly away from their intricately crafted pop of earlier albums. But it seems to work as the sound is more loose and uninhibited. I love that the band keeps on growing, changing, and exploring new territories.

 

 

5. Jack White – Blunderbuss

Jack White is a powerhouse in todays music industry. Having showed us his producing chops with Loretta Lynn’s comeback album, Van Lear Rose, and with his other side projects also creating a significant buzz, Jack does what he wants and it almost always comes out good. It seems funny that this is his first solo album. He places an indelible stamp on every project he has been in from the Raconteurs to the Dead Weather, so much so that you would think those are his albums. But this one is his and only his. With contradictions and squelching guitars, electric piano, beautiful melodies, and even quieter polished sounds, Blunderbuss gets better as it gets played more.

 

Honorable Mentions:

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Here

Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball

Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Americana

The Lumineers – The Lumineers

Justin Townes Earl – Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now

Gary Clark Jr – Blak and Blu

 

Video

2012 Year in Review (Part 2): Top 12 Songs of the Year

Ahhh, the well crafted song. There’s nothing better than when musical notes and poetry come together to create a beautiful union. A good back-beat, well planned musical flourishes, instrumental solo’s, background vocals, a prefectly timed hand-clap breakdown; these are the things I look for in a great song. That and listenability, playability, and the overall feeling of the song. Regardless of how you listen, we all know a good song when we hear it. So here are my favorites of 2012. Enjoy.

Top 12 of 2012:

12. Ben Gibbard – Teardrop Windows

 

11. Ben Folds Five – Do It Anyway

 

10. Heartless Bastards – Parted Ways

 

9. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Man On Fire

 

8. Justin Townes Earle – Look the other way

 

7. Dr. Dog – That Old Black Hole

 

6. The Lumineers – Ho Hey

 

5. Lee Fields – Faithful Man

 

4. Jack White – Love Interruption

 

3. Dr. John – Getaway

 

2. Michael Kiwanuka – I’ll Get Along

 

1. Alabama Shakes – Hang Loose

 

Honorable Mention:

Gary Clark Jr. – Bright Lights

Neil Young – Oh Susannah

Alabama Shakes – Rise to the Sun

Dr. Dog – Lonesome

Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again

 

 

Image

2012 Year In Review (Part 1): Best Live Shows

As the year comes to a close, The Shady Groove would like to give you a summary of this years best music. We like to do a little bit of ‘nutshelling’ for you. So here we go!

There will be 3 parts to the Shady Groove’s Year In Review. Part 1, which we will conquer today, will be the best Live Shows of the year. Enjoy.

 

Top 12 live shows of 2012:

1. Trombone Shorty @ the Keswick – June

2. Dawes @ Appel Farm – June

3. Nick Lowe @ the Keswick – April

4. Willie Nelson @ the Keswick – May

5. Robert Earl Keene @ Union Transfer – Jan

6. Wilco @ XPoNential Music Fest, Camden – Aug

7. Garth Hudson Songs of the Band @ The Keswick – Nov

Garth Hudson plays the Keswick Theatre’s 82-year old Moller pipe organ. Awesome!

8. The Gourds @ Mercury Lounge NYC – Sept

9. Bruce Springsteen @ Citizens Bank Park, Philly – Sept

10. Michael Kiwanuka @ The Trocodero – Sept

11. Ben Gibbard @ The Keswick – Nov

12. Tedeschi Trucks Band @ The Keswick – Nov

 

Honorable Mention:

Chris Kasper @ Philly Folk Fest – Aug

Railroad Earth @ World Cafe Live – April

Robert Randolph and the Family Band @ The Keswick – Nov

Secret Sisters @ Philly Folk Fest – Aug

Strand of Oaks @ Philly Folk Fest – Aug

MMW @ The Keswick – Oct

Banjo Summit @ The Keswick – Oct

 

 

Here’s to many more shows for you and your loved ones in 2013!

 

Quote

Dave Brubeck

This egalitarian tradition in jazz -- everyone is equal on the bandstand -- has led some to compare it to democracy. The jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis once said that nothing captures the democratic process as perfectly as jazz. "Jazz means working things out musically with other people. You have to listen to other musicians and play with them even if you don't agree with what they're playing. It teaches you the very opposite of racism and anti-Semitism. It teaches you that the world is big enough to accommodate us all."

Dave Brubeck/Wynton Marsalis/John Blake