Monday, July 27, 2015

I'd Love to Turn You On #134 - The Neville Brothers - Yellow Moon


Yellow Moon represents a high point in the careers of both The Neville Brothers and producer Daniel Lanois. For their part The Neville Brothers had made three moderately successful albums since forming in 1976. Their previous albums, especially Fiyo On The Bayou had hinted at something bigger than their funky, New Orleans-centric style of good-time R&B, but anyone who saw them perform in the years leading up to Yellow Moon understood that there was something more to this band: something deep and spiritual. They had also built a powerful touring band with Willie Green on Drums and Brian Stoltz on guitar. Simultaneously, producer Daniel Lanois, riding incredibly high on the mega-successes of Peter Gabriel’s So and U2’s The Joshua Tree, was developing a whole new sound at his home/studio in New Orleans. In the first part of 1989 he had overseen a major career resuscitation of Bob Dylan with Oh Mercy and created a minor-masterpiece with his own début Acadia. His year continued on a high as he smartly kept The Neville Brothers’ potent touring unit intact (with a few deft additions by the likes of Brian Eno and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band) and helped them choose a perfect selection of songs with which to finally realize their potential as recording artists.


Yellow Moon hits all the marks of greatness because it so brilliantly uses The Nevilles’ natural assets - the trance like drums, the Black consciousness, the snaky rhythms and, of course, Aaron’s gift to and from the universe, his voice, and then smothers them in Lanois’ unearthly, modern production style. The combination produces magical results, giving The Nevilles their greatest album and Lanois what might be his most creative year. The album is basically broken into three types of songs, those that deal with political/social issues, those that deal with spiritual matters and those connected in some way to the nebulous but potent spell that the Crescent City places on musicians who fall under its thrall. The political material is usually handled by youngest brother Cyril who offers up his Mardi Gras Indian-meets-Rastaman vision on songs like “Sister Rosa,” “Fire and Brimstone,” “Wake Up” and most effectively on album opener “My Blood,” which offers up a nice preview of the Neville/Lanois union - equal parts funk, jazz, rock, the second-line rhythms of New Orleans, and Lanois’ signature use of reverb, big drums and lots of guitar textures. He doesn’t let up throughout. The entire album throbs with saturated bass and drums that sound like a thousand New Orleans funeral marches. Love him or hate him, Lanois has a unique and recognizable sound. Personally, I love him, and think he has assisted many important artists make their greatest statements. He definitely provided the most sympathetic palette for Aaron’s voice. The core of Yellow Moon are five songs sung by Aaron. The title cut is a Neville classic, all spooky jungle drums and brother Charles’ seductive horn lines. Then Aaron’s voice rises, like some rare flower blooming in the Amazon, both invoking and warning us about the impending yellow moon. It is scary and uplifting at the same time. The first ballad is a complete stunner, Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” It’s hard to imagine Cooke’s version being bested, but Aaron’s version is literally hair-raising. Lanois manages to surround the voice with thick layers of sound, billowing clouds of echo, yet Aaron’s remarkable instrument shines through it all like a lighthouse cutting through a thick fog. He accomplishes the same on a pair of Dylan classics, “With God On Our Side” and “The Ballad Of Hollis Brown” where he doesn’t so much best the originals as much as create an entirely new beast out of them. They are beautiful versions of already classic songs, essential additions to the Dylan catalog as well as the Neville’s.

The final three songs on Yellow Moon close the album on an uplifting note. First Aaron soothes with a completely appropriate “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” followed by Charles’ hypnotic instrumental “Healing Chant” and finally a return to earth and New Orleans specifically with the celebratory “Wild Injuns” which leaves the listener breathless and The Neville Brothers where they belong: at the top of the American music scene for the next twenty years.

- Paul Epstein

Monday, July 20, 2015

2015 UMS Band Interviews #3

Again we venture to continue our series of intros, keep checking back with us for more introductory interviews with some of the many talented acts that are playing the Underground Music Showcase (UMS) this year! If you don't already know the UMS is one of the most enjoyable weekends in Denver and hopefully all of our readership comes out to have a good time and support local, and national, music at this amazing festival! 

For everything you need to know about the UMS Click Here

Plum

Saturday July 25th 1:00AM (Late Friday Night)
Hi-Dive

Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
We headline the Hi-Dive on Friday 1:00am (technically Saturday morning). 

In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
Rock & Roll. 

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy?
Kyle: Led Zeppelin, How The West Was Won
Ty: The Strokes, This Is It
Jake: Outcast, The Love Below/Speakerboxx

Do you have any advice for new bands?
More Guitars, Less Computers.

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
DIIV, Freaky North, Wild High, Sunboy, Flaural.

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it?
You A Mess.

What has been your most memorable experience at UMS to date?
Brett Rowley being in town.

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
You’ve got to meet this dude, Brett Rowley (Rebecca Black Sabbath).

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
Illegal Pete’s.

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway?
Buffalo Exchange.

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band?
Gauntlet Hair.

Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
Yes.



RAH

Will Scheisser - drums
Daniel Greenblatt - guitar
Rebecca Henry - vocals
www.rahband.com
www.facebook.com/listentorah
Saturday July 25th 11:00PM
Hornet Restaurant

Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
Saturday, 11pm, The Hornet

In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
Tight space, sweat, flying members, real people playing real instruments, skin on metal and suspended wood, more sweat, guitar loops, heavy drums, wild lady vocalist.

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy? 
Will: Boyz 2 Men, CooleyHighHarmony
Daniel: Blink 182, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
Rebecca: Deana Carter, Did I Shave My Legs for This

Do you have any advice for new bands? 
Will: Figure out what you actually do well and then fucking do it, with no pretension and no need for friends or anyone’s approval.
Daniel: Don’t try and sell hippy rocks to me at your shows.
Rebecca: Why are you reading this? Go outside and play!

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
Rowdy Shadehouse, STRFKR, Bollywood Life
Will: Joy Subtraction , Spells, Snubluck, Party Hard, Kitty Crimes, Il Cattivo, I Sank Molly Brown, Gin Doctors performing Green Day’s Dookie, Deer Creek, Accordion Crimes

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it?
Poop salad sandwich!

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
Come to The Hornet, Saturday 11pm

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
Sputnik, food trucks

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway?
Music Gear Guys

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band?
Bollywood Life



There's An Ape For That

Sunday July 26th 9:00PM
Sputnik

Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
the ape will be providing musical entertainment for humans on Sunday July 26th at 9pm. 
the name of the venue is sputnik.

In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
the ape djs using bargain-bin and thrift store records, which are then dispersed to the humans to take home.

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy?
in his youth, the ape saved his pennies to purchase an lp called "disco fever".
it wast twenty-five cents. 
it skipped.
the ape played it anyway.

Do you have any advice for new bands?
do not attempt to fit in. 
be true to yourself, and let others surround you until you fit in naturally.

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
the ape is especially interested in what the human djs will be doing. 
there is always so much to learn.

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it?
well-organized chaos

What has been your most memorable experience at UMS to date?
there was an altercation with the voter-registration robot. 
the ape is not proud of that encounter. 

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
form human-human (and human-ape) relationships. 
music festivals should not be passive encounters. 
the performers are reaching out to you - reach back.

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
the ape has yet to find a decent banana smoothie within the confines of the ums.
the search will continue this year.

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway?
the crypt.
perhaps it would be best if you do not question the ape about this further.

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band?
the two colorado artists the ape is most likely to find cheap vinyl by are judy collins and dan fogelberg.

Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
do not go to machines for entertainment.
there's an ape for that.


I'd Love to Turn You On At the Movies #119 - The Fury (1978, dir. Brian De Palma)


Two years before The Fury came out, director Brian De Palma had released Carrie - not his first film, but certainly his first hit film, raking in great box office and very good reviews on a low budget. Rewarded for his efforts by the studio, he was granted the largest budget he’d ever worked with (bigger even than 1978’s biggest hit film, Grease) and in a typically perverse De Palma move followed up a huge hit with a weird little movie that allowed him to indulge himself a little more. So taking off from Carrie’s telekinetic teen revenge story, what does he do? Ups the ante, naturally – The Fury comes complete with two telekinetic teens, a revenge story, a kidnapping thriller, an espionage thriller, a secret evil government agency, and some lowballing comedy along the way (albeit generally of the sly kind that De Palma favors to soften folks up for the shocks, gore, and suspense he’s about to throw their way). It was a solid success but not a huge hit, so he’d come back strong in a couple years with Dressed to Kill (and then of course follow that with something decidedly more personal and artsy in Blow Out). Does it all work? Not perfectly, but because of De Palma’s sure hand with his material certainly better than would be expected with so many things in the mix, and the set pieces are brilliant throughout the film.

And as always with De Palma’s films, one of the main things that makes it work is the performances. There’s nothing quite as sympathetic as Sissy Spacek’s Oscar-nominated turn as Carrie White here but Kirk Douglas, starring as a man whose telekinetic son Robin (Andrew Stevens) has been kidnapped by a sinister government agency lead by John Cassavetes, creates a solid, believable portrait of a man who wants to get his son back and will go to any lengths to do so. This includes enlisting the help of another teen psychic, Gillian (Amy Irving), to track him down. And though this already seems like enough plotting to make a movie, I’m only scratching the surface here. But again, as the film moves precariously through events that seem absurd and plot twists that in the wrong hands could turn to pure pulp, each of these actors either creates a character we believe in and can go along for the ride with or, as in the case of Cassavetes, has a good time chewing the scenery and making sure he’s the most hateable stock government villain imaginable.

Coming back to De Palma though, all these performances would be for naught if they weren’t being worked into the fabric of the film in the hands of a master. While De Palma often flirts with the outrageous and over the top in his films, his wit, his masterful camera, and his (perhaps surprising, for such a technical director) great way with actors always helps ground even the most absurd flights of fancy and the most implausible plot devices. As Roger Ebert said in his review of De Palma’s Obsession back in 1976, “If you want realism, go to another movie.” It’s helpful advice when you’re watching De Palma, especially with a story like this one, where moments may not work, but the kineticism of the film keeps you on your toes and rarely pauses long enough for you to think about where John Farris’s tight script might have stepped wrong.

And then the set pieces – particularly Gillian’s escape from the Paragon Institute, the penultimate sequence leading to the compound, and most notably, Robin’s angry (you might say furious) revenge against people he thinks were involved in his plight while at an amusement park – are simply great. De Palma masterfully constructs action/suspense within them between his camerawork and the editing of his longtime cohort Paul Hirsch, and as sheer spectacle and as a master class in film craft, they’re impressive every time out. But even between these scenes he invests the rest of the film with a great look, with an experimentation reminiscent of his earlier work, as when Gillian has a psychic vision and suddenly the camera is revolving around her while she is inserted into a playback of past events, or the POV scene of Robin being tested by the government agency which hearkens back to a similar sinister hospital/lab scene in De Palma’s earlier classic Sisters.

The Fury is in some ways a tour de force – Brian De Palma showing off a bit at what he can do, marshalling an unbelievable plot that ranges wildly in tone and style into something coherent that’s acted and shot brilliantly. Is it perfect? No. But is it a ton of fun? Are the set pieces and performances worth it? Absolutely. And for film student nerds like myself, watching De Palma flex his cinematic muscle has its own rewards. The story moves ruthlessly and effectively forward to its abrupt ending. But when it cuts from its (literally) explosive climax directly to the credits, there’s nothing unsatisfactory about it – it’s all been building this way, so what more is left to be said?

-Patrick Brown

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

2015 UMS Band Interviews #2

We continue our series of intros here,  keep checking back with us for more introductory interviews with some of the many talented acts that are playing the Underground Music Showcase (UMS) this year! If you don't already know the UMS is one of the most enjoyable weekends in Denver and hopefully all of our readership comes out to have a good time and support local, and national, music at this amazing festival! 

For everything you need to know about the UMS Click Here

High Plains Honky

Friday July 24th 8:00PM
Skylark Lounge


Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
We'll be playing Friday, July 24th. 8pm at the famous Skylark Lounge

In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
Funky 70s style Country. It'll be a real hoot

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy? 
Well all in the same first record store run I bought The Beatles' Let it be, The Grateful Dead's Terrapin station, and lifted The Velvet Underground & Nico. 

Do you have any advice for new bands?
Don't worry about what other people are doing, play what you're passionate about.

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
There are loads of acts we want to see this year, namely Casey James Prestwood, Ned Garthe Explosion, Blue Rider, Zebroids, Heira Nova. So much great stuff this year.

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it?
Sweaty, loud, fun

What has been your most memorable experience at UMS to date?
Probably in 2013 when we had just started playing and didn't have a UMS show, we busked on the street and drew in a really good crowd.

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
Play then party. UMS is about the long game.

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
The 7-11 at 3rd and Broadway has really excellent taquitos. 

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway?
Peak dispensary treats us well.

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band?
Um, Sugarloaf. Green Eyed Lady is a good jam.



The Polkanauts

Friday July 24th 11:00PM
Gary Lees Motor Club & Grub


Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
Gary Lees @ 11 PM Friday -7/24
In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
Polka, Fear & Destruction- Remember Polka Rules all it surveys! But it’s also prone to being blind drunk so it misses out on some stuff.

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy?
Judas Priest “Screaming for Vengeance” & Echo & the Bunnymen “Heaven Up Here” on the same trip to the record store.
  
Do you have any advice for new bands?
Don’t take yourselves too seriously. Overall, if it’s more work than it is fun something’s wrong

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
Not planned per say but need to see: Calder’s Revolvers, Sad Star Café, Millicent, In the Whale, Dudebabes to name a few!

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it?
Hot, quick, best!

What has been your most memorable experience at UMS to date?
Packed Irish Rover all bouncing in unison to traditional polka songs @1:30 am

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
Wear good shoes. See as many bands as you can – make sure to include a few old favorites and a ton of things you haven’t seen before.

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
We’re partial to finding new places during the UMS.

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway?
Mutiny

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band?
So hard – some of us are old! So give us a few? Cephalic Carnage, The Rumble, Apples in Stereo?

Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
It’s a privilege to have a festival like this here – take advantage



Wiredogs

Saturday July 25th 5:00PM
Irish Rover
Saturday July 25th 10:00PM
Hi-Dive


Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
Saturday 5 p.m. at Irish Rover, Saturday 10 p.m. at Hi Dive

In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
Our shows are about giving everyone in the room a voice through active, aggressive inclusion. 

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy?
NOFX

Do you have any advice for new bands?
Write a lot. Play out a lot. Risk a lot. Allow yourself to suck.  

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
Wire Faces and The Gamits  

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it? 
Drunken-melodic-orgy 

What has been your most memorable experience at UMS to date? 
Watching Residual kid at Hi-Dive...2013 I think. 

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
Wear sunscreen. Bring your own hula-hoop. 

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
Illegal Pete's. Always. 

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway? 
Meininger's 

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band? 
Slow Caves 

Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know? 
Nope

Monday, July 13, 2015

2015 UMS Band Interviews #1

Continue to check back with us for more introductory interviews with some of the many talented acts that are playing the Underground Music Showcase (UMS) this year! If you don't already know the UMS is one of the most enjoyable weekends in Denver and hopefully all of our readership comes out to have a good time and support local, and national, music at this amazing festival! 

For everything you need to know about the UMS Click Here

Jeffrey Dallet

Sunday July 26th 2:00PM
Historians Ale House


Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
Jeffrey Dallet is playing in the highly coveted, highly trafficked slot of Sunday July 26th 2pm at Historians. 

In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
You can expect lyrical play, as well as some killer stories to digest as you wander the sun soaked streets of south Broadway. Put on you thinking caps.

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy?
I bought the soundtrack for the Disney movie Aladdin on CD.

Do you have any advice for new bands?
Get with the in- crowd. You'll get a lot of gigs that way.

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
I haven't planned it out yet, but I want to see American Blackout and Filthy T.

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it?
Sweaty, Hipsters, Beards  

What has been your most memorable experience at UMS to date?
Dude, if you remember it you weren't there dude...

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
100 sunblock, and I'm pretty much a novice so someone can kindly give me some advice.

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
I like eating at Thai Monkey Club 

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway?
Something that's not gentrified.

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band?
The Wallflowers. Oh wait, they're not from Colorado. Hmm...Firefall.

Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
Come see the Jeffrey Dallet Band...it'll be a radical experience. Thanks in advance.



Edison

Friday July 24th 10:00PM
Illegal Petes


Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
​We play at Illegal Pete's on Friday, July 24 @ 10PM ​

In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
​Our UMS set is going to be our first show out with four members (we recently rounded out the band with Maxwell Hughes). We'll be playing some new music for the first time and have some surprises planned in the set ;) 

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy?
​Dustin Morris - Motley Crue 
Sarah Slaton - Ace of Base ​
  
Do you have any advice for new bands?
​Work hard at honing in your sound, but give equal dedication to building your bands business plan, creating short/long term goals and building good relationships in your home market. 

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
​Milo Greene, Residual Kid, Wiredogs and far too many more to list off. 

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it?
​INSPIRING. SWEATY. MEMORABLE

What has been your most memorable experience at UMS to date?
​We wound up jumping through the window of our venue in 2013 and proceeded to take the last song out on the sidewalk and wound up singing in a food truck line. ​

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
​Catch as many bands as you can don't forget to drink water every three whiskeys. :) ​

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
Illegal Pete's, always 

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway?
Fancy Tiger​

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band?
​Nathaniel Rateliff & The Nightsweats ​

Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
​n/​a



Millicent

Saturday July 25th 6:00PM
Historians Ale House


Where/ When are you playing for the UMS?
Saturday, July 25th 6pm at Historians Ale House

In twenty-five words or less, describe what somebody who has never heard of you/your band might expect from your performance at UMS this year.
Singer-songwriter lyrics and melodies, in a package of beats and synths designed to make your shoulders move. 

What was the first music you remember using your own money to buy?
I think it was a Switchfoot album! 

Do you have any advice for new bands?
Don't be scared to ask for favors, even if you don't think you deserve them. Obviously that has to be paired with hard work on your end, but I definitely learned that I can't do everything on my own, and people are usually more willing to help you than you'd expect. 

Have you planned out who you want to see at UMS this year? Who are some of your highlights?
I am really excited to see Tennis, I've wanted to seem them play for years and somehow it hasn't happened yet! I'm also prioritizing Force Publique, Jilly.fm, Oko Tygra, Bollywood Life, Coastal Wives and Rose Quartz.   

If you've been to UMS before, what three words would you use to describe it?
Social. Busy. Party.

What has been your most memorable experience at UMS to date?
Seeing Gardens & Villa play the main stage last year. They've been one of my favorite bands for years, and body rolling outside to "Orange Blosoom" was perfect!

Any tips you'd like to give the novices for making the UMS experience even better?
Map out who you want to see and saturate yourself in the experience. Last year I wasn't able to make it to a lot of shows, and I felt like I didn't make the most of what was happening! It's a rare experience to have a festival like this in Colorado, take advantage of it! 

Is there any place you're looking forward to eating during UMS?
SPICY BASIL ALL DAY. 

What is your favorite shop on South Broadway?
I love Steadbrook; I think they've done something so unique in the way they've made their store a social hub. I don't have much reason to be at a menswear store, but between the coffee and company I usually end up there when I'm in Denver!

Who is your all time favorite Colorado band?
I'd have to say Tennis, I just can't help but smile when I listen to their music!

Is there anything we forgot to ask you about the UMS that you think people need to know?
Just encourage people to plug into the social media side of UMS; find them on Instagram/Twitter/Snapchat. I love connecting that way, and it's fun for us bands to see what people are posting about our sets, as well! 

I'd Love to Turn You On #133 - Long John Baldry - It Ain't Easy


The concept of British blues and R&B is now so fundamental to rock & roll history that one needs to take a step back to realize how strange it all is. Before The Yardbirds and Rolling Stones gave a rougher edge to the British Invasion, and well before Led Zeppelin took it all to stadiums, young Brits obsessing over the music of black America was pretty much an underground phenomena. John Baldry was but a teenager when he started playing the blues in the 50s. He grew up to be well over six and a half feet tall, earning the nickname Long John, and the scene began to grow as well. Many of the blues groups Baldry played with included soon-to-be superstars such as Rod Stewart, who sang with Long John Baldry and His Hoochie Coochie Men. Bluesology, formed by Baldry in 1966, had a young keyboard player named Reg Dwight who would later take his own stage name from two of his bandmates, sax player Elton Dean and Baldry himself, to become Elton John. Baldry found his own first taste of success not with the blues but with smooth pop tunes. But he returned to his first musical love with 1971's excellent It Ain't Easy, an album produced by two of his now famous ex-sidemen, Rod Stewart and Elton John.

image: longjohnbaldry.com/
Stewart and John did not actually produce the album together but took the reins for one side each. As a result, the album's two sides have their own personality reflective of the producers, yet it's Baldry's charismatic vocals that carry throughout and make the album whole. Rod gets side one and mixes up the acoustic folk/blues of his solo records with the amped up blooze rock of The Faces. Opener "Conditional Discharge" finds Baldry telling a humorous tale, over rollicking piano, of getting busted for busking in London. What the story manages to get across is just how alien the blues must have sounded to the majority of Britons in the mid-50s. It all leads up to the rocking stomp of "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie On the King of Rock & Roll." This manages to be an awesome slice of heavy blues-based rock without descending into over-the-top parody and Baldry belts out the vocals like the bad-ass boss he is. We next shift into acoustic blues with a great take on "Black Girl" by Baldry's hero Leadbelly. This song has become a classic blues standard often going by alternate titles such as "In the Pines" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night." It's a long road from Leadbelly to Nirvana and Baldry's soulful rendition is as good as any of the better known. The choice of material is excellent throughout as Stewart and Baldry turn to country singer Ron Davies for the album's title track. It's not a stretch to say that it's this version that David Bowie covered a year later on Ziggy Stardust. The album's quietest moment comes with "Morning, Morning" a lovely folk song penned by Tuli Kupferberg of The Fugs. Then it's back to electric rock and roll for a raucous run through Willie Dixon's blues standard "I'm Ready," closing out the Stewart portion of the album.

image: www.nickelinthemachine.com/
Elton John's side is more polished and in line with the great albums he was producing in the early 70s. But make no mistake, this is still Baldry's show and he puts his distinctive stamp on these four tunes. He gives a sinister edge to Randy Newman's "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield" then transitioning to a moving, emotional vocal on "Mr. Rubin," a song penned by singer Lesley Duncan. John provides one of his own songs, co-written with Bernie Taupin of course, and Baldry makes the most of the excellent "Rock Me When He's Gone." His vocals incorporate elements of gospel, soul, and blues and the arrangement is top notch. John and Taupin were cranking out brilliant pop songs at an exceptional rate at this time. It shows how much respect Elton had for his former employer that he gave him one of the very best. Ironically the album concludes on the Elton side with a song co-written and originally sung by Rod Stewart, The Faces' "Flying." And as great as the original is, Baldry just owns this. His vocal soars with passion and soul while the backing band and vocalists compliment him, perfectly ending the album on a high mark. The CD reissue adds a generous selection of bonus tracks. There are alternate versions of album tracks but also some acoustic takes on blues classics, the best being Robert Johnson's immortal "Love in Vain."

It Ain't Easy finally gave Long John Baldry some exposure in America, the birthplace of the music he loved so dearly. However, he never gained the level of stardom of his friends and fellow musicians. He was an odd contradiction, a great singer of American music who nonetheless remained a quintessentially British character. This is best represented by the title of his follow up album Everything Stops for Tea, also produced by Stewart and John. He would continue to make music up until his death in 2005 and even developed a second career as a voiceover actor and announcer. It Ain't Easy remains his best-known work and a high water mark for the seemingly contradictory but ultimately inevitable genre of British blues.
            - Adam Reshotko