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On July 16, 2022

At 7:00 pm

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I am going to focus on another favorite album this week. This time, it is Sir Douglas Quintet’s Live from Austin, TX. This is part of the Austin City Limits series of releases from its archives. Before we get to that, let’s talk about the band a little bit.

Sir Douglas Quintet was a great band at its best and it holds a somewhat unique place in rock history. The name is dumb, I absolutely agree. It came about when the band decided to copy the British invasion at its beginning and they just never changed it. Talk about completely inappropriate to the music. Doug Sahm and Augie Meyers were from Houston, part of the German-Texan community. Being in Houston in the late 50s and early 60s meant exposure to A LOT of different music, if you paid attention. And these fellows paid a lot of attention. First, there was all the rock and roll of the era. Then there was all the country of the era. Hell, when Doug Sahm was 11 years old, he was brought on stage to play with Hank Williams! This was in 1952. So our young friend was already a rising talent. But then there was all the soul and blues coming out of the city’s large Black community. Doug listened to all of that. He was fascinated by it and would sneak in to clubs see people like Elmore James when he was just a kid. And then on top of all of this….and this is what makes SDQ so important….there was the influence of Mexican music that was so powerful in Texas.

What’s interesting here is that other than Sir Douglas Quintet, not a single even minor rock band of the 60s I know of integrated the significant Mexican-American tradition into their music. In fact, who else really did before Los Lobos? And the Mexican-American tradition can add so much, as SDQ would show. Given that Augie Meyers was an accordionist, as well as a keyboardist, SDQ would have plenty of opportunity to show this off after it formed in 1964. They had a minor hit with “She’s About a Mover” in 1965. Then “The Rains Came” in 1966 and “Mendocino” in 1968. They had one huge, huge, huge fan. His name was Bob Dylan. Bob loved SDQ. Later, he would show up on Doug Sahm’s first solo album, singing backup, mostly so he could hang out with his favorite people. “Mendocino” was their biggest hit. They toured Europe with the Stones after the song sold 3 million copies there. They were on Hugh Hefner’s weird late night show, having the time of their lives. By this time, they were living in San Francisco and going heavy into psychedelic rock as part of their sound, borrowing from the Dead and so many other bands.

But then….it kind of fizzled out, as these things so often do. Sahm decided to go solo (though Meyers was there with him so it wasn’t so different) in 1972. Sahm loved the party lifestyle of the rock musician and eventually that took its toll. He died in a Taos hotel room in 1999, only 58 years old. But they occasionally got back together for shows.

That leads us to the Live in Austin album. I love this so much. It’s mostly a compendium of their hits, plus some of Sahm’s solo stuff. So it doesn’t break new ground, but it is in my opinion better than any of their studio albums, demonstrating just how great this band could be live. This is a 1981 show for Austin City Limits. Sahm’s voice hasn’t declined yet (he and Meyers teamed up with Flaco Jimenez and Freddy Fender as The Texas Tornadoes later and those are fun albums but Doug’s voice was definitely not what it was) and the band is just great. Meyers is of course the star of the band, with his organ and sometimes accordion front and center as always, but the rest of the band plays great too.

And there are the songs. Between Sahm’s singing and the propulsion of Augie’s organ, this one of the most listenable albums I own.

Obviously, any discussion of SDQ is going to start with “Mendocino” and from the first moment, the warmth, fun, and groove of the band sucks you in.

SDQ wasn’t a political band. They weren’t a statement band. They were a song about relationships that mostly probably aren’t all that serious. They are the band to have fun with.

If they were anywhere near political, it was a general support of Chicano rights, which leads to this fun track:

Another real classic here. That organ and guitar and rhythm section…man.

This is my very favorite song on the album. It’s a simple story–a girl needs to leave New York and wants to go to Mexico so Doug is down for a good time. Is it going to last or even happen? Nah. Who cares. Could be some fun nights in bed if it does, maybe a few drugs, the fun of the border, whatever. What does Doug care? He’s having the time of his life and Augie is providing the soundtrack to it.

In the end, I don’t think SDQ quite lived up to what it could have been. This is another similarity it has with Los Lobos. These are good bands but never quite had that great album that is up there with the all-time legends. In fact, for me, this performance is really the peak of the band. I like several of their albums and I listen to them, but I listen to this the most. This is the best of American music–taking all the influences and mashing them up into something new. It’s what made Dylan great, it’s what made Gram Parsons great, it’s what made 70s era Miles Davis great, and at his best, Sahm was equal to them.

This excerpt from a biography of Sahm is well worth your time, in case you didn’t click the same link above Just a remarkable figure in the history of American music.

In other music news:

Like almost every other biopic, the Amy Winehouse biopic will probably be bad.

Cat Power recreating the Dylan 1966 Royal Albert show..…I dunno about this. I like Cat Power pretty well, but……..why?

God bless Willie for staying on the road. I saw him 20 years ago and probably won’t again, but I so respect him just keeping on keeping on.

Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedroom is 40 years old.

I’ll review this later, but I’m excited to hear Laura Veirs post-divorce as she has taken control of the production of her new album.

Elizabeth Cook is fucking awesome and you should love her.

It’s midyear, so everyone has their midyear best albums:

Of course none of this matches listening to an old Queen or Yes album, amirite????

Naturally, Russia is repressing musicians as part of its overall war on all freedoms.

Excellent Bandcamp write up of the great saxophonist Tim Berne.

Historic preservation is usually a good thing, but in the case of Sun Ra’s house in Philadelphia, where maintenance is desperately needed, it can be a real hindrance in the short term because it leads to a lot of bureaucracy on how you can do it. Let’s hope this all gets settled out.

Playlist for the last two weeks. It’s a lot of albums! Of course, this doesn’t count the albums for reviews. And note that for all of this, I listened to exactly two albums multiple times over a two week spell, which is pretty normal for me. If an album gets played an average of once a month, it’s in heavy rotation.

Miles Davis, Porgy and Bess
Neil Young, Hitchhiker
Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks, Volume 5, disc 1
Wussy, Strawberry
Cindy, Free Advice
John Coltrane, Blue Train
Idles, Crawler
Georgia Anne Muldrow, Overload
Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet, One Dance Alone
Laura Gibson, Empire Builder
Screaming Females, Ugly
Joey Purp, Quarterthing
Angelica Garcia, Cha Cha Palace (2x)
Thievery Corporation, Radio Retaliation
St. Vincent, 4AD Session
Ben Goldberg, Good Day for Cloud Fishing
Julia Jacklin, Crushing
Richard Thompson, Live from Austin, TX
Peter Rowan, The Walls of Time
Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career
Silver Jews, American Water
Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)
Wolf Alice, My Love is Cool
Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
Tom T. Hall, We All Got Together And…..
Father John Misty, Pure Comedy
Dale Watson, Cheatin’ Heart Attack
John Coltrane, Coltrane Jazz
Wussy, Funeral Dress II
PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Neil Young, American Stars n’ Bars
Fred Frith Trio, Another Day in Fucking Paradise
Robbie Fulks, Gone Away Backward
Bomba Estereo, Deja
George Jones, The Essential George Jones, disc 2
Old 97s, Hitchhike to Rhome
Drive By Truckers, Decoration Day
Aimee Mann, Mental Illness
Patsy Cline, Live at the Opry
Miles Davis, Steamin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet
Yo La Tengo, Stuff Like That There
Neko Case, Hell-On
Abjects, Never Give Up
Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Dancer with Bruised Knees
Drive By Truckers, American Band
Tom T. Hall, Ballad of Forty Dollars
Tom Russell, The Rose of the San Joaquin
Sharon Van Etten, Are We There?
Mitski, Bury Me at Makeout Creek
U.S. Girls, In a Poem Unlimited
Donnie Trumpet, Surf
X, Los Angeles
Grateful Dead, One from the Vault
Wussy, What Heaven is LIke
Ashley Monroe, Like a Rose
David Byrne & St. Vincent, Love This Giant
Iron & Wine, Kiss Each Other Clean
Torres, self-titled
Eric Revis, Slipknots through the Looking Glass
Kendrick Lamar, DAMN!
Drive By Truckers, It’s Great to Be Alive
Nick Drake, Pink Moon
The Louvin Brothers, Country Love Ballads
Ralph Stanley, Over the Sunset Hill
Kitty Wells, After Dark
Smog, Knock Knock
Slowthai, Nothing Great About Britain
Wussy, Public Domain, Volume 1
Elizabeth Cook, Welder
Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the Flatlanders, self-titled (2x)
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV
Billy Bragg, Back to Basics
aya, Im Hole
Ralph McTell, My Side of Your Window
Peter Gabriel, Security
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, After Awhile
Hank Williams, Sings
Tom Russell, Song of the West
Curtis Mayfield, Curtis
Tom Waits, Rain Dogs
Johnny Bush, Whiskey River
Bonnie Prince Billy, Summer in the Southeast
Algiers, The Underside of Power
Merle Haggard, Swinging Doors and The Bottle Let Me Down
Cat Power, You Are Free
Dave Dudley, Songs about the Working Man
Iggy Pop/James Williamson, Kill City
Sad13, Slugger
Joe Ely, Live @ Antone’s
Sun Ra, Singles
Old 97s, Fight Songs
Doug Sahm, Doug Sahm and Band
Mates of State, Mountaintops
Songs: Ohia, Ghost Tropic
Kitty Wells, Country Music Hall of Fame
Sarah Jarosz, World on the Ground
Tanya Tucker, Delta Dawn
Christy McWilson, Bed of Roses
Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise
Shovels & Rope, Little Seeds
Drive By Truckers, Pizza Deliverance
Sonic Youth, A Thousand Leaves
Tamiko Jones, Love Trip
Lucinda Williams, self-titled

Album Reviews:

Muriel Grossman, Quiet Earth

An interesting and completely fine entry into the spiritual jazz genre from the Austrian saxophonist and her band. She’s listened to a lot of A Love Supreme. The spiritual jazz movement really hit its peak in the early 70s and its had something of a comeback recently with Kamasi Washington as its most prominent promoter. This is a pretty good music. I am not sure it has that much new to say but it is deeply listenable and certainly a solid release. The rest of her band:

Guitar – Radomir Milojkovic
Bass – Gina Schwarz
Drums – Uros Stamenkovic
Organ – Llorenç Barceló

Angel Olsen, Big Time

This reinforces my general thoughts about Olsen, which is that she’s an absolutely lovely singer and a pretty good lyricist and someone who I listen to only on occasion. This is a perfectly nice album. She had an eventful few years that shape the album. She came out as queer, told her parents, her father died three days later, her mother shortly after, and then she went into the recording studio. So this album is infused with a lot of life changes, making the subject matter certainly resonate.

The one thing I think that consistently holds me back from really loving Olsen is the prettiness of the voice that she doesn’t deviate much from. Roughing up the music and the voice would provide a broader range of expression, in my opinion. As of now, it’s a pretty melodramatic way of approaching the material and that’s been her whole career. Of course she’s having a successful career doing exactly what she is doing so why change but I think that in terms of reaching the next step of artistic success, if not financial, some surprises in how she approaches the music would be a good thing.

Mary Lattimore/Paul Sukeena, West Kensington

Probably not my favorite Lattimore release, but this collaboration between the amazing harpist and the guitarist Paul Sukeena definitely has its highlights. She’s so wonderful and this release is at the very worst, more than worthy. I need to hear it more to really get into the deep details of the album so I’ll just say this is worth your time. In fact, while this summer has been a truly great one in terms of travel for me, the one regret I have is that Lattimore played a show in Providence and I wasn’t in town.

B+

Superchunk, Wild Loneliness

I’ve never been the world’s biggest Superchunk fan, though the creation of Merge Records makes the band one of the most important in alternative rock for the past three years. That also means that like most Superchunk albums, this has all sorts of quality guests–Mike Mills, Sharon Van Etten, Tracyanne Campbell. As a general rule, I like Superchunk better when they are pissed about politics. Anger helps cut through the band’s major issue–Mac is a bad singer. If you can get past this better than I usually can, then they are a very good band. In the end, this is still really solid indie rock. It’s a Superchunk album. They are kind of mostly the same. I like it minus the not small issue of Mac’s voice. That won’t ever change I reckon. Still mostly listenable.

Jade Bird, Different Kinds of Light

Pretty good album by this young British artist out of the Dave Cobb Nashville studio churn. Somewhat of an interesting story. When she started out back in England, Bird really saw herself as an old-time American type. Someone in love with a romanticized vision of old American music. Well, hardly anything unusual in that across the pond. But by coming to Nashville, she realized that contemporary Americana music integrates all sorts of pop references and influences. So she was cool with that. And this is the output. I’m not saying this is a great album, but it’s certainly a promising one. Some of the ballads are a bit rote, but some of the uptempo numbers are a lot of fun. In fact, after listening to the Olsen album, while Olsen is the better artist at this point, this is the more enjoyable listen.

Ammar 808, Maghreb United

This is a pretty fun one. Ammar 808 is a North African deep bass artist. In 2018, he got together some of classic singers of North African as a fusion project between the past and future. That’s how he framed it as well. How can we move forward into the future without knowing and respecting the past? This is a pretty fine example of just how to do that, at least in one tradition. I don’t have a lot of specifics to add here except to say that this is the kind of combination of old and new music we need a lot more of.

A-

Vinny Golia/John Hanrahan/Henry Kaiser/Wayne Peet/Mike Watt, A Love Supreme Electric: A Love Supreme and Meditations

Like a lot of the jazz albums released today, only a bit less than half of this two-disc set is available for streaming. But it tells us plenty. Golia and Kaiser have been key to the west coast experimental jazz scene for decades and of course Watt is super famous. This 2020 release builds on Kaiser’s long-term project with Wadada Leo Smith to cover and then build upon Miles Davis’ electric era by rethinking these two classic Coltrane albums. It’s an interesting project because I love A Love Supreme but find Meditations a bit sterile, as I do quite a bit of Coltrane’s work from the last year of his life.

Not surprisingly, the star of the show here is Kaiser, one of the most innovative guitarists to have ever lived. Depending on the projects, those innovations can be unusually difficult, but like in the Yo!Miles project, here, because he is effectively playing the tune, he’s just awesome. Watt isn’t exactly the same kind of musician as Kaiser and Golia but he plays a great bass here. Golia screams ahead on the sax solos. The thing that makes this work is that, sure it’s a homage, but it’s also trying to take classics in new directions. And when some of the most creative musicians in the world are doing it, well, it probably is going to work.

Clamm, Beesech Me

Is there anything more satisfying than a new kick-ass punk album? I dunno, I mean, at least for me it hits all the needed synapses. Or new to me anyway, as this was released in early 2020. This Australian band does a pretty damn good job here. “I don’t want to fight/ cuz I’m a fucking coward” I mean this is the kind of lyric that most of us can relate to. Good punk music for all the cowards out there, starting with me.

A-

The Reds, Pinks, & Purples, Uncommon Weather

I have a mixed relationship with DIY pop artists, largely because they need production and an editor to tell them not to release four albums a year. Say this for record companies, they are in fact professionals. This project is somewhat better than the average for this subgenre. The guy is a pretty good songwriter! He should still hire a producer.

Quantic & Nidia Gongora, Almas Conectadas

I’m a huge fan of the album the producer Quantic did with the Colombian singer Gongora a few years ago and I had totally missed the follow-up from last year. So instantly had to check it out. The first thing that strikes you is the addition of strings. Is it necessary? Is it an artifice that gets in the way of the rhythm, the rest of the production, Quantic’s guitar work, and Gongora’s awesome singing? I think the answer is…it’s not necessary but it doesn’t get in the way too much. The album is still good. I just wonder why the strings are here. It is a bit distracting, at least upon first listen. Makes it sound more like an attempt at Latin pop for the white audience in the early 60s. Which is not terrible, I mean, the pianist Irving Fields did a great job at that sort of thing, among other legends. Moreover, once you stop thinking about it, it’s fine.

B+

Peter Brotzmann/Milford Graves/William Parker, Historic Music Past Tense Future

This is the first is a series of releases to document the unreleased music of the great drummer Milford Graves, who died a few years ago. This features the legendary German sax player Peter Brotzmann and the bassist William Parker. Evidently, this is also the first release with all three players on it. That’s really not surprising, as Graves almost totally stopped recording after 1999. Recorded in 2002 at CBGB in New York, it’s mostly Brotzmann’s show, although Graves was in fact the bandleader that night. He’s such a loud and intense sax player that this is not unusual. But Graves really comes to the light here. His drums are absolutely amazing. Of course Parker is great as well. Given how many of Graves’ limited later recordings are solo percussion sessions, it’s really fantastic to hear him interact with two legends when he was still at the height of his power. Solid material. Good archival release.

A-

Kaidi Tatham, An Insight to All Minds

I don’t know if this is supposed to be a Headhunters tribute by choice, but this album by the British keyboardist sounds like lost tracks from that greatest of Herbie Hancock bands. As such, yeah, it’s pretty good. On the other hand, I’m never totally comfortable with contemporary jazz so obviously recreating the music of the past, as this seems opposite to the point of jazz, whether it is someone really annoying like Wynton Marsalis wanting to ossify jazz in 1959 or it is much more hip artists such as Tathan or Kamasi Washington so inspired by 1971. As one would expect here, it’s not all Headhunters. There’s plenty of early 70s Stevie Wonder and hip-hop influences too. But it’s still a real throwback. So this is fun, but pretty insubstantial.

Mary Halvorson, Belladonna

The officially a genius guitarist released two simultaneous albums a couple of months ago. I reviewed Amaryllis a couple of weeks ago. This one is the first time she’s written solely for herself and a string quartet. She continues to amaze with her compositional ability. This mostly works quite well in that her guitar, with all its effects, flows with the string quartet great. The move of jazz toward chamber music is something I respect more than love and so that’s my only hesitation here. But she’s so amazing and you should listen to her.

A-

Bela Fleck, My Bluegrass Heart

Fleck is one of the all-time banjo masters and he’s taken his music from its initial bluegrass base into just about everything in the world. I haven’t always particularly enjoyed his releases, but I certainly respect him. Last year, he decided to gather together some of the other best bluegrass musicians around and do what he hadn’t done in a long time–make a real bluegrass album. This is a pickathon for all pickathons. In fact, at two discs, it’s more than a bit on the long side. Fleck sounds great, so does everyone else. For me, and this is really a personal thing I admit, one of the things that made bluegrass music great was the strong songs. This was a music based in the lived experience of people and while the virtuoso playing has its appeal, for me the stronger appeal was in the songs. That’s what isn’t here. Fleck has never claimed to be a singer or a songwriter and having songs with words would get in the way of the improvisational jamming he is going after here. But for me anyway, a few real songs would make this a more appealing listen, especially at 105 minutes. For those of you who like your pure picking on the jamming side of things, you’d go with a higher grade.

Jana Horn, Optimism

A quiet little folk album that mostly works OK, but other than “Jordan” is a bit wispy for my tastes, along the lines of Kath Bloom. The minimal folkie thing will always have its fans and I’ll probably never quite be one of them. It really does require the songs be THAT GOOD. “Jordan” is that good, especially because it is the one song backed up with something like a beat, but mostly because this is a really fascinating religious song. Otherwise, the album’s alright.

B-

Nik Bartsch, Entendre

As a general rule, I don’t overly care for solo piano albums but I liked this a good bit better than usual. Bartsch is quite a striking player. This album has a little more zip than the usual ECM outing that tends toward turning jazz into chamber music. Bartsch isn’t far from that himself, but there’s a feeling of continued experimentation here that flows through both the compositions and his technique. Really a very nice album.

A-

Willie Nile, The Day the Earth Stood Still

I was unfamiliar with Nile, who evidently has been around forever with a cult following and not much more than that. I’m always happy to find this type of old rocker. There are so many people like this–musician’s musicians–that even an obsessive-compulsive listener like myself rarely discovers. The title track–in fact about the movie–is outstanding. Not every track is that great, but some of them art. A really good one is “Blood On Your Hands” with Steve Earle. “Off My Medication” is one to which many of us can relate. This is a pretty political album and the influences range from Springsteen to The Clash to the 60s Greenwich Village folk scene. Some of the folkier songs are a little broad and earnest for my tastes, but the rockers rock. This is a good, not a great album, but this is someone who I need to dig into more.

As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.

doug sahm, music notes, sir douglas quintet