Ok so yesterday, Easy Ed took us on a trip down memory lane musing about Moby Grape and others that we loved years ago and where and how they are today! Well the musings got me thinking about the folks I listened to and still listen to. Like Ed said some artists are locked in time in our minds. Certainly I prefer to think about Grace Slick in the early days of the Airplane rather than the later! There are other artists that I think of the way there were, but on the other hand there are some “older” artists out there still making some darn good music! Here’s my list of favorites! (in no particular order)
Richie Furay – for many years Richie left the world of secular music for Christian music last year he returned and put out a great album The Heartbeat of Love. It’s vintage Furay with Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Souther, Hillman and Furay all wrapped into one! The album features a lot of old friends including Stills and Youngs Neil and Rusty, Paul Cotton, Sam Bush, Jim Messina and others. There’s some old tracks on the album and some new stuff any way it’s all good stuff! He also put out a great live album called Alive. A live album that also covers the many facets of Richie’s career!
Jorma Kaukonen – In 2002 Jorma brought together some great bluegrass musician and recorded Blue Country Heart another great album. Love that “Blue Railway Train” and subsequently he has released two other CDs Stars in My Crown and River of Time
Jesse Winchester – one of my favorite albums of last year was Jesse’s Love Filling Station. So many great tracks “Eulalie”, “Sham A Ling Dong-Ding”, “Bless Your Foolish Heart” and my favorite “I Turn to My Guitar” Here’s Jesse doing “Sham A Ling Dong Ding” Watch for the tears at the end of the clip!
Tom Rush – Tom’s What I Know was voted Folk Album of the Year by the International Folk Alliance and deservedly so. It’s like the others on this list a great album with many wonderful songs and anyone who uses Conshohocken in a song is ok in my book! Anyway I could tell you how great every song is but just check it out!
John Batdorf – one of my favorite albums of the early 70’s and has been listened to constantly since then was and is Off the Shelf by Batdorf and Rodney a while back John and Mark Rodney got together and did a live set for XM Radio and then released a new album Still Burnin’ which include some re-recording of some old tunes and some new tracks and they sounded great! After that John has released two solo albums Home Again and Old Man Dreamin’ both albums are chock full of great songs! The Kerrville Folk Festival has recognized John’s great work and he will be appearing on Saturday May 29 at the Kerrville Grassy Hill New Folk Concert. Like I said the album is full of great songs like this one “Will I Love You Forever”
Jerry Jeff Walker – Near the end of last year I discovered that Jerry Jeff had released a new album of songs that he had been playing in concert for a while entitled Moon Child, so having must of his stuff and having been a fan since 1969 I quickly downloaded it. It’s like all the rest of the albums here it’s full of great songs like Chris Wall’s “The Poet is in Not in Today”, “The Wedding” for his daughter Jesse’s wedding day, “Caribbean Moon”, “The Vows” and this song “Down in Belize”. Gone are the Gonzo days and all what’s left is good music!
They may be old and gray, but for me they still lead the way!
