Hurricane Season – It’s Baaack!

Hurricane season just got goin’ and I know you folks on the East Coast of the United States are paying close attention this summer. As well you should: Hurricane Irene’s rains devastated a pretty good chunk of the Northeast last year.

Down here in Texas, they like to scare us with stories about what could happen if a monster storm rolled in off the Gulf of Mexico. And I suppose if one of those nasty Cat 5s paid a visit to Texas the result would be less like Irene and more like Hiroshima (or Hurricane Camille). But what good is it to worry – you just stock up on batteries and peanut butter and hope for the best.

And you get your rock and roll tunes ready for the next Hurricane Warning.

MP3: “Change In The Weather” by John Fogerty

MP3: “Blowin’ Like A Bandit” by Asleep at the Wheel

MP3: “Hurricane” by Levon Helm

MP3: “Surfing In A Hurricane” by Jimmy Buffett

MP3: “Hurricane Party” by James McMurtry

MP3: “Mighty Storm” by the Duhks

MP3: “High Water (For Charley Patton)” (live) by Bob Dylan

MP3: “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” by Peter Gabriel

MP3: “Lost and Found” by the Kinks

MP3: “In From The Storm” by Jimi Hendrix

MP3: “Thunder Island” by Jay Ferguson

MP3: “Walking In A Hurricane” by John Fogerty

MP3: “Like A Hurricane” by Nils Lofgren

MP3: “Here Comes The Rain” by Jan & Dean

MP3: “Riders On The Storm” by the Doors

MP3: “The Rains Came” by Big Sambo

MP3: “Wild Is The Wind” by David Bowie

MP3: “Rock You Like A Hurricane” by the Scorpions

MP3: “Down In The Flood” (live) by the Derek Trucks Band

MP3: “Like A Hurricane” (live) by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Hurricane Warning!

Some trouble from the tropics headed this way:  Hurricane Irene threatens to rake the Florida coast later this week.  The last time we went through this drill was in 2008, when Hurricane Ike lashed Texas and turned my backyard into a brush heap.

So as another nasty bit of weather rolls up to the beach, it occurs to me that we haven’t posted any hurricane/storms/rain songs yet this season.  Here you go – stay dry and rock on!

MP3: “Change In The Weather” by John Fogerty

MP3: “Blowin’ Like A Bandit” by Asleep at the Wheel

MP3: “Hurricane” by Levon Helm

MP3: “Surfing In A Hurricane” by Jimmy Buffett

MP3: “High Water (For Charley Patton)” (live) by Bob Dylan

MP3: “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” by Peter Gabriel

MP3: “Lost and Found” by the Kinks

MP3: “In From The Storm” by Jimi Hendrix

MP3: “Like A Hurricane” by Nils Lofgren

MP3: “Here Comes The Rain” by Jan & Dean

MP3: “Riders On The Storm” by the Doors

MP3: “The Rains Came” by Big Sambo

MP3: “Wild Is The Wind” by David Bowie

MP3: “Rock You Like A Hurricane” by the Scorpions

MP3: “Down In The Flood” (live) by the Derek Trucks Band

MP3: “Like A Hurricane” (live) by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Video of the Week: Jimmy Buffett

You may or may not like Jimmy Buffett’s music, but you gotta admire the guy for going to bat for all of the people along the Gulf coast affected by the oil disaster.  Of course, Jimmy’s got his own dog in the hunt – he’s owner of the new Margaritaville Hotel, which just opened along the beach in Pensacola, Florida.  And in the interest of full disclosure, yesterday’s concert was actually paid for, at least in part, by BP.

Even so, Buffett’s big free concert yesterday in Gulf Shores, Alabama, not only attracted a bunch of tourists to the region but hopefully managed to call some more attention to the ongoing environmental disaster.

Thanks to MrHighAll for the above video.

Save the Gulf of Mexico Facebook page

Hurricane Warning: Shelter from the Storm

More tropical trouble for the Texas-Mexico coastline: last week Hurricane Alex rolled in to Mexico, more than 400 miles south of us, but we still received a deluge here in Houston.  So as another nasty bit of weather rolls up to the beach, it occurs to me that we haven’t posted any hurricane/storms/rain songs yet this season.  Here you go – stay dry and rock on!

MP3: “Change In The Weather” by John Fogerty

MP3: “Surfing In A Hurricane” by Jimmy Buffett

MP3: “High Water (For Charley Patton)” (live) by Bob Dylan

MP3: “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” by Peter Gabriel

MP3: “In From The Storm” by Jimi Hendrix

MP3: “Texas Tornado” by the Sir Douglas Quintet

MP3: “Like A Hurricane” by Nils Lofgren

MP3: “Galveston” by Jimmy Webb featuring Lucinda Williams

MP3: “Here Comes The Rain” by Jan & Dean

MP3: “Riders On The Storm” by the Doors

MP3: “Texas Flood” by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

MP3: “The Rains Came” by Big Sambo

MP3: “Wild Is The Wind” by David Bowie

MP3: “Down In The Flood” (live) by the Derek Trucks Band

Review Roundup!

Lots of new records out now … and so little time to listen.  Even less time to review, so here are some capsule critiques of albums by a few of our favorite savvy veterans.

Merle Haggard has been making music for more than 50 years and the simple declarative title of I Am What I Am means that listeners will get what Merle does best.  And that’s deliver a bunch of hand-crafted tunes that reflect on a long life, lost love, a lost life, or long love.  In fine voice at age 73, Haggard doesn’t need the gimmick of big-name guest stars (his only duet is on “Live and Love Always,” with his wife Theresa) or cover versions.

MP3: “Live And Love Always” by Merle Haggard

One of the oldest singers goin’ today is also one of the busiest – Willie Nelson has Country Music, which should be the first of three or four albums he releases this year, if the past few years are any indication.  Willie enlists Oscar-winning musician T-Bone Burnett as a producer and T-Bone’s house musicians surround Nelson’s idiosyncratic vocals with a swirl of music that’s mysterious when it needs to be, and playful when it wants to be.  It may seem like a no-brainer to turn Willie loose on a handful of country standards, and even if this album seems a little flimsy it’s also a fine experience.

MP3: “Gotta Walk Alone” by Willie Nelson

30 Days Out Exclusive Interview: Jesse Winchester

My first recollection of Jesse Winchester was seeing his picture on the back of a Billboard magazine in the 1970s.  I had not thought about him since until seeing him last month on Spectacle: Elvis Costello with … on Sundance Channel.  My loss.  He brought the house down (and tears to eyes of Neko Case) with “Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding,” a track from his latest release, Love Filling Station.

Winchester was born in Louisiana in 1944 and 22 years later, upon his graduation from college, he received his draft notice.   He decided the Vietnam War was not for him and he split to Canada.  As he explained it to Costello, “he hung around hippies and played coffee houses where you had to write your own songs to fit in.”  In 1970, his music caught the ear of The Band’s Robbie Robertson and he produced Winchester’s critically acclaimed first record.  He went on to release a number of records in the early 70s, and is best known for the tunes “Yankee Lady” and “Brand New Tennessee Waltz.”    When Bob Dylan was asked who he thought, other than himself, was the greatest living songwriter, he said Jesse Winchester.

Songs by Jesse Winchester covered by other artists would fill a good-sized songbook.  “Rhumba Man” was covered by Jimmy Buffett on his new album, and Winchester’s tunes have also been covered by Patti Page, Elvis Costello, Joan Baez, Anne Murray and Reba McEntire.  On Love Filling Station, Jesse reclaims “Oh What A Thrill,” which was a hit for the Mavericks.

Winchester was nice enough to answer a few questions for us about his past, his present and his future:

30DaysOut: Tell us how you got your start in music?  Were you influenced by the Memphis scene and its musicians?

JW: I seem to have been a musician from birth. I was very much influenced by Memphis music – gospel, blues, country. I loved the great radio station, WDIA, and also Dewey Phillips, the best disc jockey ever.

Review: Christmas Closeout

Going to take a whack at the last few new releases that’s caught our attention in the past few weeks … a lot of old-guy stuff, a new blues-roots classic and a pretty good anthology from the Lone Star State:

Neil Young has been endlessly releasing archive material the past year or so, and his newest, Dreamin’ Man Live ’92 is a live show from the 1992 solo tour that preceded the album Harvest Moon.  Impeccably recorded and performed in the same order as the studio album, the songs here match or in some cases surpass the studio versions.  At the time Young performed these songs he received more than a few catcalls and gripes from audiences hoping to hear his greatest hits.  None of that animosity appears on Dreamin’ Man, though, and it’s too bad – that would have been a welcome spark to a live set that needs a little more life.

Stream the entire Dreamin’ Man album at Never Get Out Of The Boat!

Something’s up with the new Jimmy Buffett album, Buffet Hotel, and it’s not the apparent misspelling on the album cover (actually it’s a real hotel/whorehouse somewhere in Africa).  The 63-year-old singer/songwriter tries to return to his “roots” on this new album, and relies on co-writers to produce music that sounds an awful lot like the stuff he’s been releasing the last four decades or so.  You got yer summer song (“Summerzcool”), you got yer topical talking folk blues (“A Lot To Drink About”), and you got yer songs that are going to be live favorites on the next tour (“Rhumba Man,” “Surfing In A Hurricane”).  For Parrotheads only.

MP3: “Surfing In A Hurricane” by Jimmy Buffett