'Top Hat Crew' posted the title of this John Prine masterpiece but, as far as I can tell, failed to actually post the video so . . . . . . . y’ere ’tis!
Larkin Poe - Baloise Session, Event Halle, Basel, Switzerland, 11-6-2025
For this concert, the two Larkin Poe sisters (Rebecca Lovell and Megan Lovell) rocked out with a full band. I have to admit I prefer their acoustic style, since I like acoustic music in general. But this is a lot of fun. They certainly can do both styles very well.
This comes from the "Baloise Session" TV show. So far, I haven't really posted anything from this show. But it's been going since the 1980s, and broadcasts full concerts on various European TV stations. (As far as I can tell, it only gets to the U.S. via the Internet.) So even though this is unreleased, it's very well produced, and the sound quality is excellent. I found a video of this concert, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s.
I believe all the songs here are originals. In early 2025, Larkin Poe released their studio album "Bloom." A lot of the songs come from that.
And by the way, congrats to them for winning a "Best Contemporary Blues Album" Grammy Award in 2024 for their album "Blood Harmony." They've never had a hit, and they don't fit the modern pop scene so they don't get much radio play, but they've been steadily growing in popularity by being really good and constantly promoting and performing.
This album is an hour and ten minutes long.
01 Nowhere Fast
02 Mockingbird
03 Easy Love, Part 1
04 Band Intros
05 Bluephoria
06 If God Is a Woman
07 talk
08 Southern Comfort
09 talk
10 Little Bit
11 talk
12 Devil Music
13 AC-DC
14 Bad Spell
15 Pearls
16 Wanted Woman
17 Bolt Cutters and the Family Name
(all tracks Larkin Poe)
Perhaps naively (sic?!) I always thought Stoner was his real name! (Duh!?)
Route points out Happy birthday to Rob Stoner, born as Robert Rothstein in New York City on this day in 1948.
What drives him to you is what drives him insane.
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On night two of Rolling Thunder ’76, Dylan shifts back towards his comfort zone. After an opening night where only three songs of the 22 had been played on Rolling Thunder ’75, Dylan swaps in five different songs, all of which were reprises from the previous fall. That includes the solo opening duo “Mr. Tambourine Man” (which would remain the opening number most subsequent nights) and “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” Later on in the set, he added a three-pack of ’75 staples: “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You,” “Just Like a Woman,” “It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry.” All three seem to retain their 1975 arrangements (though tape speed fluctuations here make it sound like some unhinged tempo changes have been added). After an opening night where he took such big swings, perhaps he felt a need to return to the familiar.
A reporter for the Miami News met up with Joan Baez backstage. She told him, “Rolling Thunder is Dylan’s baby. It’s all his doing. If I was in charge of it I’d be like a camp counselor. Strict as hell. But Bob’s not that way. He’s very loose. We had one rehearsal and halfway through we broke up laughing. It was shaggy to say the least. Dylan looked at us and said: ‘Don’t worry, everything is going to be alright.’ And damned if it wasn’t.”
Slight exaggeration there; there were five days of rehearsals at the Belleview Biltmore Hotel (where they’d return a week into the tour to tape an aborted TV special). But, as a featured performer rather than a member of the backing band, Baez might not have been there for all of them.
You know who else wasn’t there for all of them? Dylan! Bandleader Rob Stoner told me:
The rehearsals were kind of nonexistent. We had gone down to Clearwater Florida and taken over this hotel to ostensibly rehearse, but Bob hardly ever showed up. So we didn’t know what the hell he wanted! As the bandleader, I would call rehearsals anyway. We’d show up and rehearse without Bob. I’d be singing the songs in his keys as a stand-in.
Even though Bob wasn’t there, we tried not to replicate what we’d already done. We knew that was totally redundant. When you hear, say, the Hard Rain album or anything from that time, you’ll notice that the tunes have been dramatically reworked. That came from basically the rehearsals we did when Bob wasn’t present. Then he’d finally show up and he’d say, oh yeah, this is a nice change of pace. [Or] Bob would have ideas about how to totally rework the tunes. He’d come in and show us one time and then we’d subsequently work on them.
So it’s honestly impressive that the tour is off to as strong a start as it is. Not perfect, though. Before playing “Seven Days” on this tape, Dylan tells the crowd, “This is a new song. We only played this one once before. We didn’t do too well. We’re gonna try and do it better this time.”
(I listened back to the Lakeland version and the main problem seemed to be that Dylan couldn’t keep up with the fast-moving tempo, particularly on the “kissing in the valley” bridge. There, his stumbling over the words devolved into incoherent yelling. He does somewhat better tonight.)
Alice says : Hello beloved tumblr followers. My debut single comes out tomorrow (April 17th) you can pre-save it here
It’s Obvious
The Stars of Track and Field | Belle & Sebastian
The stars of track and field, you are
The stars of track and field, you are
The stars of track and field are beautiful people
