Yes, I know it’s Saturday. I had this drafted earlier, then never got a chance to post it yesterday. Now I am. Without further ado, here are ten more songs from the current playlist:
1. Raina Do Mer (Queen of the Sea) – Susanna Sharpe and the Samba Police. The best samba band ever from Austin, and the only CD I own that’s sung mostly in Portuguese. If she doesn’t make you want to get up and dance, nothing will.
2. How You Carry On – Marcia Ball. A legend among Texas blues singers. The first outing I went on with Tiffany (this was between the show at the Mucky Duck where we met and our first real date) was a trip to the Houston International Festival to see Marcia Ball on the Texas stage. That will have been ten years ago on April 20. (And they say men don’t remember stuff like that.)
3. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo – from the soundtrack to “The Cotton Club”. Lousy movie (saw it in the theater with a bunch of college friends), awesome soundtrack. If you’ve ever wondered what the fuss over Duke Ellington was about, this is a good place to start to learn.
4. Sugar and Spice – The Searchers. This is from the soundtrack to “Good Morning, Vietnam”, and it’s a Tiffany CD. The reason I bothered to rip this is because unlike some other movies that feature music from this era (*cough* *cough* The Big Chill *cough* *cough*), it’s mostly stuff that hasn’t been played to death on oldies and classic rock radio stations.
5. Funky Tom’s Place – Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows. Old school Chicago-style blues from a guy who has a song called “300 Pounds of Heavenly Joy” in his repertoire. I recall a family friend taping his Big Twist album for me years ago, and being thrilled when I found a CD copy of it later.
6. Love, Sweet Love – Marcia Ball, Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli. Three Texas blues women together on one CD, the only CD I ever bought after reading a review in the Rice Thresher.
7. Nothin’ But A Woman – Robert Cray. Back before 104.5 in San Antonio became pioneering classic rocker KZEP, they were a fairly metalhead station called KXZL. Though they were the place to hear such 80s icons as Dokken and Krokus, their range was wide enough to include bluesmen like Cray and his “Strong Persuader” CD. I’ve been a fan of Cray’s smooth guitar and offbeat humor ever since.
8. Wish That I Could Never Love Again – Feo y Loco. Ah, Feo y Loco. The most gloriously tasteless band that I ever followed around obsessively back when the Mucky Duck cost $3 to get in. This is one of maybe two songs in their canon that can be played for one’s parents. It’s actually my favorite, and I have Ginger and Michael to thank for salvaging it from Feo’s cassette-only first album and burning it to a CD, where it eventually wound up on my iPod. I love technology.
9. Crocodile Rock – The Beach Boys. From a CD of Elton John covers called “Two Rooms”. You can say what you want about Sir Elton and his music (I like it – sue me), but you have to admit that the Beach Boys are the perfect band to cover this baby.
10. The Iron Man – The Chieftains. It’s the Chieftains. What more do you need to know?