Jesse Winchester debut - Jesse Winchester / Third Down 110 To Go (1970-72 us / Canada 2012 remaster issue) | Plain and Fancy Rockasteria

 Jesse Winchester debut - Jesse Winchester / Third Down 110 To Go (1970-72 us / Canada 2012 remaster issue)

Now I love Jesse Winchester and bought Third Down 110 to go when it came out here in the UK and continued to follow him. Great mellow songwriter and with profound poetic lyrics often deceptive and yet humorous they tend to the human condition I think his Defying Gravity one of the finest songs so here a twofer . . . . . if you don’t have anything start here

Jesse Winchester was one of the top singer-songwriters of his generation. This talented artist was born and raised in the American South, but relocated to Canada to avoid being drafted. His early inability to tour in the US may have permanently stunted his commercial success as a recording artist, since he never achieved sales commensurate with his artistic achievements.

After growing up in Memphis, Winchester received his draft notice in 1967 and moved to Montreal, Canada, rather than serve in the military. In 1969, he met Robbie Robertson of the Band, who helped launch his recording career. In the same way that James Taylor's history of mental instability and drug abuse served as a subtext for his early music, Winchester's exile lent real-life poignancy to songs like "Yankee Lady," which appeared on his debut album, Jesse Winchester (1970). He became a Canadian citizen in 1973. 

Jesse's debut  was released in a fold-out LP jacket that featured the same sepia-toned portrait (which looked like one of those austere Matthew Brady photos from the Civil War era) on each of its four sides. Winchester emphasized the dichotomy between his southern origins and his northern exile in songs like "Snow" (which Robertson co-wrote), "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz" ("I've a sadness too sad to be true"), and "Yankee Lady." Jesse Winchester was timely: it spoke to a disaffected American generation that sympathized with Winchester's pacifism. But it was also timeless: the songs revealed a powerful writing talent (recognized by the numerous artists who covered them), and Winchester's gentle vocals made a wonderful vehicle for delivering them. [Originally released by Ampex in 1970.

His two-and-a-half-years-in-the-making follow-up was in some ways even more impressive. Without the influence of Robbie Robertson, Winchester, who produced most of the album himself (three tracks were handled by Todd Rundgren), gave it a homemade feel, using small collections of acoustic instruments, an appropriate setting for a group of short, intimate songs that expressed a deliberately positive worldview set against an acknowledgement of desperate times. Winchester found hope in religion and domesticity, but the key to his stance was a kind of good-humored accommodation. "If the wheel is fixed," he sang, "I would still take a chance. If we're skating on thin ice, then we might as well dance." The album was littered with such examples of aphoristic folk wisdom, adding up to a portrait of a man, cut off from his very deep roots and yet determined to maintain his dignity with grace and even occasionally a goofy sense of humor. 

by William Ruhlmann

Tracks

Jesse Winchester 1970
1. Payday - 2:55
2. Biloxi - 3:21
3. Snow - 2:24
4. The Brand New Tennessee Waltz - 3:09
5. That's A Touch I Like - 2:50
6. Yankee Lady - 4:03
7. Quiet About It - 2:30
8. Skip Rope Song - 2:27
9. Rosie Shy - 3:06
10.Black Dog - 4:44
11.The Nudge - 3:34

Third Down 110 To Go 1972
12.Isn't That So? - 2:29
13.Dangerous Fun - 2:08
14.Full Moon - 2:06
15.North Star - 2:02
16.Do It - 1:31
17.Lullaby For The First Born - 2:57
18.Midnight Bus - 2:20
19.Glory To The Day - 3:50
20.The Easy Way - 1:33
21.Do La Lay - 1:57
22.God's Own Jukebox - 1:44
23.Silly Heart - 2:55
24.All of Your Stories - 2:38

All songs by Jesse Winchester except track #3 which is co-written with Robbie Robertson

Musicians
1970  Jesse Winchester 
*Jesse Winchester - Guitar, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
*Guy Black - Drums
*Bob Boucher - Bass, Keyboards, Standup Electric Bass
*Al Cherney - Violin
*Levon Helm - Drums, Mandolin
*Dave Lewis - Drums
*Ken Pearson - Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Vibraphone
*David Rea - Guitar, Vibraphone, Vocals
*Robbie Robertson - Guitar

1972  Third Down, 110 to Go
*Jesse Winchester - Guitar, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
*Charles Viber - Violin
*Doug Schmolze - Guitar
*N.D. Smart II - Drums
*Jimmy Oliver - Bass
*Gordie Fleming - Piano
*Ron Frankel - Drums
*Amos Garrett - Guitar, Vocals
*Sam Kelly - Bongos, Conductor, Congas
*Don Abrams - Percussion
*André Benichou - Guitar
*Bob Boucher - Bass
*Gene Cotton - Bass

Jesse Winchester  - All of Your Stories

Jesse Winchester - Defying Gravity 

Taj Mahal ‎- Giant Step • De Ole Folks At Home (1969 USA, 2017 Japanese remaster) | Plain and Fancy :Rockasteria

 

Taj Mahal ‎- Giant Step • De Ole Folks At Home (1969 USA, magnificent electric acoustic blues folk, 2017 japan remaster)

Along with Ry Cooder, Taj was a founder of the legendary Rising Sons, and went on to release two stripped down delta-blues classics in 1968. Giant Step, released concurrently with a raw collection of solo recordings called De Ole Folks At Home in 1969, would be his third, and personal favorite to many.  It’s the title track’s delicate, sparse mood I can’t stuff in my head enough. Taj transforms the Monkees hit, composed by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, into a relaxed and gorgeous rural roamer – his muddy vox rolls all over the changes, miles beyond blues. And though Giant Step isn’t completely free of the old I-IV-V, just let the feedback harmonica moan from Give Your Woman What She Wants hook you in, the toe-tapping Cajun feel to You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond take you along, and overpowered drive of Six Days On The Road stamp it down, then see who cares about chord progressions anymore.

The most fun comes from inventive production touches: childish piano tittering on Good Morning Little School Girl, metronomic banjo rapping on Farther On Down The Road (one of two originals on the record and an easy classic), ace country guitar leads all throughout provided by Jesse Ed Davis, here accompanying Taj for the third and final record before embarking on his own solo career (releasing three solid records and sessioning with plenty of the greats). The final track, Bacon Fat, is a pretty standard blues originally penned by The Band, and here mostly a drawn out jam affording everbody last licks.

The album is actually 2 in 1, accompanied with De Ole Folks At Home, an acoustic solo set with Taj providing old-time steel-body slide picking, clawhammer banjo, harp, and hambone on traditional and classic numbers like Cluck Old Hen and Fishing Blues, as well as several originals. It’s like pulling up a hot seat on Taj’s front porch, who would pass? An excellent pairing, this record is essential on its own and along with Giant Step you can’t refuse. Downhome grooves, raw authentic performances, a plain fun record that got me rethinking the blues. “Take a giant step outside your mind.”

by Brendan McGrath, September 2nd, 2009 

Tracks
1. Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie Anymo' (Jesse Ed Davis, Taj Mahal, Chuck Blackwell, Gary Gilmore) - 1:04
2. Take A Giant Step (Carole King, Gerry Goffin) - 4:18
3. Give Your Woman What She Wants (Joel Hirschhorn, Taj Mahal) - 2:32
4. Good Morning Little School Girl (Bob Love, Don Level) - 3:46
5. You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond (Buffy Sainte Marie) - 4:59
6. Six Days On The Road (Carl Montgomery, Earl Green) - 3:03
7. Farther On Down The Road (You Will Accompany Me) (Jesse Ed Davis, Taj Mahal, Chuck Blackwell, Gary Gilmore) - 4:41
8. Keep Your Hands Off Her (Huddie Ledbetter) - 2:17
9. Bacon Fat (Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson) - 6:47
10.Linin' (Huddie Ledbetter) - 1:43
11.Country Blues #1 (Taj Mahal) - 2:40
12.Wild Ox Moan (Ruby Pickens Tartt, Vera Hall) - 2:48
13.Light Rain Blues (Taj Mahal) - 3:24
14.A Little Soulful Tune (Taj Mahal) - 2:40
15.Candy Man (Rev. Gary Davis) - 2:58
16.Cluck Old Hen (Taj Mahal) - 2:34
17.Colored Aristocracy (Taj Mahal) - 2:08
18.Blind Boy Rag (Taj Mahal) - 4:14
19.Stagger Lee (Harold Logan, Lloyd Price) - 3:26
20.Cajun Tune (Taj Mahal) - 1:59
21.Fishin' Blues (Henry Thomas, Jay Mayo "Ink" Williams) - 3:11
22.Annie's Lover (Taj Mahal) - 3:34

Personnel
*Taj Mahal - Vocals, Harmonica, Banjo, Acoustic Guitar
*Jesse Ed Davis - Electric, Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Organ
*Chuck Blackwell - Drums
*Gary Gilmore - Bass

The Taj fest from Rockasteria continues . . . . . .always worth a listen I find

Taj Mahal - Fishing Blues 1993

THE ANIMALS - Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted (1977) Remastered 2000 | Plain & Fancy

The Original Animals - Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted (1977  2000 remaster) UK

Cut 11 years after the Animals' original lineup recorded their last LP and six years before their more well-remembered reunion tour, this oft-overlooked album is just short of a lost classic; it lacks the intensity of their 1983 studio effort, Ark, but it is more substantial musically than that album and fits in very neatly with their preceding work, as though they'd scarcely skipped a beat. Recorded under the auspices of the late Chas Chandler's Barn Productions, the album was highlighted by a dramatically bluesy rendition of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," boasting superb playing by Alan Price. 

Hilton Valentine's soaring guitar pyrotechnics light up "Fire on the Sun," perhaps the flashiest performance of his career for this most introspective of '60s British blues axemen, and "As the Crow Flies" has the group returning to its roots, as a dark, brooding rendition of the Jimmy Reed song that gives room for Chandler, Valentine, Price, and John Steel to show off their '60s-era blues chops in a more expansive form. After a promising start, the gospel number "Many Rivers to Cross" falls apart a bit, but "Just a Little Bit," with its rippling organ break, the group original "Riverside County," and the pounding finale, "The Fool," make the rest of side two eminently enjoyable, although, coming out in the midst of the punk and disco booms, the LP never had a chance to be heard by more than the most dedicated fans. 

by Bruce Eder

Tracks

1. Brother Bill (The Last Clean Shirt) (Clyde Otis, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - 3:19

2. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan) - 4:42

3. Fire On The Sun (Shakey Jake) - 2:25

4. As The Crow Flies (Jimmy Reed) - 3:39

5. Please Send Me Someone To Love (Percy Mayfield) - 4:44

6. Many Rivers To Cross (Jimmy Cliff) -  4:11

7. Just A Little Bit (Earl Washington, John Thornton, Piney Brown, Ralph Bass, Sylvester Thompson) - 2:07

8. Riverside County (Alan Price, Chas Chandler, Eric Burdon, Hilton Valentine, John Steel) - 3:47

9. Lonely Avenue (Doc Pomus) - 5:22

10.The Fool (Sanford Clark) - 3:24

The Animals 

*Eric Burdon - Vocals

*Hilton Valentine - Guitar

*Alan Price - Keyboards

*Chas Chandler - Bass

*John Steel - Drums

Albums bought when they came out! TRAFFIC 1968 | Plain and Fancy

Traffic - Traffic (1968 - 2018 remastered and expanded) 

You Can All Join In (Dave Mason)

Now I think I first heard Traffic on the compilation album of the same titular name as this great song that has haunted me ever since but just check out how many songs were actually written by Mason!

An album that became a Top 10 hit in the UK and a Top 20 hit in America cannot be described with that overused phrase “underrated”, but Traffic‘s self-titled album is a low-key addition to the classic records of 1968, a year when a sense of place distinguished the latest releases from the UK’s premier league bands.

After following the Beatles down the psychedelic rabbit hole in 1967, the Rolling Stones re-established their critical standing with Beggars Banquet, a record firmly rooted in Americana. The Kinks, banned from touring in America since 1965, were now the quintessentially English Village Green Preservation Society. While it cannot be seriously argued that The Beatles (White Album) had a sense of place, 19 of its 30 tracks had been written while they were on retreat in India. During the recording of Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix could just as well have been beaming his guitar by satellite from outer space.

Traffic, meanwhile, came from Birmingham. For much of the 20th century, Birmingham was England’s unofficial second city. Its musical identity would come to be defined by heavy metal upon the surfacing of Black Sabbath. Beneath the radar, it had boasted of a music scene that had flourished in the wake of rock ‘n’ roll, reputedly with more working bands than in Liverpool. Still, by the middle of the 1960s, it had not established the national profile of Liverpool or London.

In 1968, there was a handful of noteworthy album releases by Birmingham-based groups, including the Moody Blues, the Move, and Traffic. All three shared some psychedelic common ground, as per fashion circa 1967, but only in so far as psychedelia equated to pushing boundaries, and the bands would sooner differentiate their musical identities than did the Merseybeat and London blues bands. So, while the Move took their cue from Sgt. Pepper‘s era art-pop and the Moody Blues worked orchestral textures into their proto-prog, Traffic, whose line-up emphasized keyboards and horns, with guitars often pushed back into a supporting role, gradually distinguished themselves as a premier jazz-rock band.

Traffic occupied a plum position on rock’s family tree. Steve Winwood had sung and played keyboards as a teen prodigy with the Spencer Davis Group (and he was only 19 years old when Traffic’s debut record was released in 1967). From that group, he brought along Jimmy Miller, a producer who had “got that art of being able to put music into words” and would start work that same year with the Rolling Stones, working with them through their much-vaunted golden period until 1973. Many Traffic members would feature on Electric Ladyland, and all four would play with Jimi Hendrix at one time or another. Winwood would go on to collaborate with Eric Clapton in Blind Faith, while Clapton would also cross paths with Dave Mason as part of Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, a coterie of blue-eyed soul musicians.

Yet still, the competition Traffic faced was massive. In a music industry flush with the Beatles’ success, the array of new, established, and emerging talent in the UK at this time was dizzying. The year 1968 saw significant debut records in blues-rock (Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull), folk-rock (Fairport Convention, Pentangle), heavy rock (Deep Purple, the Jeff Beck Group), and progressive rock (Soft Machine, the Nice). What was more remarkable still was how so many of these acts could distinguish themselves. 

What somewhat improbably helped the most talented artists to make their mark was that, amidst this wave of talent, there remained a vital element of purism, where only the most prominent names, like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, were mixing genres freely. Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac was the most expressive British blues guitarist, but his band was still playing many Chicago blues covers and originals based on the rhythms and tonality of the blues. Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention would sing stirringly both on her original songs and on Fairport’s many Bob Dylan covers, but would also be influential on the group’s future decision to record only covers of British folk standards. Rod Stewart, too, was a fervent singer, but there were no gentle moments within the blues-derived proto-metal of the Jeff Beck Group.

Traffic were relatively less constrained. Winwood, Capaldi, and Wood liked to jam. With Wood’s distinctive array of horns and Capaldi’s exciting, meticulous drumming, this dimension formed their reputation as a 1970s jazz-rock band. They would later fit neatly in with the American jam-band aesthetic and were galvanized by the American “underground” scene of the time, where “all the groups just live for their music, and jam sessions are a pretty regular thing, with everyone getting up on stage to have a blow”. Dave Mason, however, wrote concise songs. Traffic, the album, is therefore split roughly between two distinct sides of their character, with Dave Mason’s songs typically delivered in a relaxed, amiable manner and the Steve Winwood/Jim Capaldi collaborations reaching into more progressive territory. However, Winwood’s remarkable talent and soulfulness as a vocalist, organist, and guitar player unites all of the material. 

Among the self-contained rock bands of the period, only the Jimi Hendrix Experience were as soulful as Traffic. Hendrix’s firsthand experience of playing with the Isley Brother aside, his pioneering work in psychedelic soul was aiming for the stars. In the Small Faces, Steve Marriott was another powerhouse vocalist, and the band had mod pedigree, but on Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake, they would dilute their soulfulness with English whimsy. Traffic is shot through with down-to-earth soulfulness, with each song covering new ground and side one of the original vinyl record, especially being one winner after another. It’s a post-psychedelic record that retains the adventurous spirit of its predecessor, Mr Fantasy, while reconnecting with the roots of rock & roll. “Drugs show you the door, but they don’t open it, they don’t take you there. Music is getting honest, real, and natural,” said Winwood in an interview with his American counterpart, Al Kooper. Unlike many other groups of the time, Traffic did not see their record as a conceptual piece, with Winwood seeing it as “really ten songs rather than the concept of an album. They’re compositions. Or exercises, if you like.”

The Mason-written album opener, “You Can All Join In”, is an up-tempo rocker in which Winwood’s flowing call-and-response guitar licks meet Mason’s vocal melody. Contemporary music critics heard some country-rock flavor in the guitar, in the vein of Duane Allman, then a session guitar ace at Muscle Shoals studios, and later of the Allman Brothers Band. 

“Pearly Queen”, written by Winwood and Capaldi, could be Traffic‘s most rock-orientated piece, but features a rousing, soul-inflected vocal melody, punctuated by Winwood’s stinging rhythm guitar, ala Steve Cropper of Booker T & the MGs, and vast, echoing production on the instrumental sections, giving the piece a strong Atlantic Records vibe.

“Don’t Be Sad” is a wistful, gentle ballad written by Mason, in which Mason and Winwood take turns to sing verses and harmonise on the bridge, further enriched by Mason’s harmonica and Chris Wood’s saxophone accompaniment. “Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring”, written by Winwood and Capaldi, is the funkiest cut on the record, driven by Winwood’s organ, which continuously pushes and pulls against Capaldi’s drums with an elastic groove in the manner of a soul-jazz organist like Jimmy Smith. 

“Feelin’ Alright”, written by Mason, became the LP’s most well-known song, covered many times by soul and rock performers, and is bolstered by Winwood’s lolling piano, drawing on the New Orleans R&B of Allen Toussaint and the Meters, with some fantastic tenor sax soloing by Wood.

Starting side two of Traffic, “Vagabond Virgin” and “Roamin’ Thru’ the Gloamin’ with 40,000 Headmen” diverge from the overall character of the record, both tracks harkening back to the whimsical acid-folk of Traffic’s debut, although they are both worthy compositions. “Vagabond Virgin” is the album’s story song, telling the well-worn tale of a London groupie based on a Latin American rhythm and has Capaldi playing claves.

“Cryin’ to be Heard”, written by Mason, has powerful dynamic shifts and multi-part vocal harmonies, deepened by Winwood on organ and harpsichord, which brings a gospel flavor to the record. “No Time to Live”, written by Winwood and Capaldi, intensifies the melancholy of Cryin’ to be Heard, with Winwood’s vocals yearning and pleading over a desolate backdrop dominated by piano, spare ornamental saxophone, and Capaldi on the tympani. “Means to an End”, written by Winwood and Capaldi and featuring only the two performers, closes the Traffic in the most straightforward manner, with a rock ‘n’ roll rave-up. Capaldi plays drums on this track, while Winwood overdubs all the guitar and keyboard parts.

by Jeremy McDonagh, 17 October 2023

References

Welch, C. (1968) “Traffic: Traffic (Island)”. Melody Maker.

Altham, K. (1968) “Traffic: Traffic Without Dave”. New Musical Express.

Boltwood, D. (1968) “Traffic and the US Underground”. Record Mirror.

Kooper, A. (1968) “Traffic: Stevie Winwood, A Calm, Shy Superfreak”. Rolling Stone.

Nelson, P. (1969) “Into Traffic with Steve Winwood”. Hullabaloo.

Tracks

1. You Can All Join In (Dave Mason) - 3:39

2. Pearly Queen (Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood) - 4:21

3. Don't Be Sad (Dave Mason) - 3:22

4. Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring (Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood, Chris Wood) - 3:14

5. Feelin' Alright? (Dave Mason) - 4:18

6. Vagabond Virgin (Jim Capaldi, Dave Mason) - 5:23

7. (Roamin' Thro' the Gloamin' With) 40.000 Headman (Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood) - 3:15

8. Cryin' To Be Heard (Dave Mason) - 5:33

9. No Time To Live (Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood) - 5:02

10.Means To an End (Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood) - 2:37

11.Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (Jim Capaldi, Dave Mason, Steve Winwood, Chris Wood) - 2:46

12.Am I What Was or Am I What I Am (Jim Capaldi, Muff Winwood, Steve Winwood, Chris Wood) - 2:37

13.Withering Tree (Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood) - 2:57

14.Medicated Goo (Jimmy Miller, Steve Winwood) - 3:40

15.Shanghai Noodle Factory (Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood, Chris Wood) - 5:06

Traffic

*Jim Capaldi - Drums, Percussion, Lead Vocal 

*Dave Mason - Lead Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar, Harmonica, Bass Guitar, Organ 

*Steve Winwood - Lead Vocal, Organ, Lead Guitar, Bass Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Harpsichord 

*Chris Wood - Tenor, Soprano Sax, Flute, Coke Tin, Sleigh Bells, Bass Guitar, Percussion, Vocal

for all those who stopped by to comment!

Feelin’ Alright

Traffic - 1968 Peel Sessions