11_4_1

Getting these together was a cluster, because of my tiny, tiny brain.

Some of you will get a CDs with a zip file written on them.

Some of you will get a CD with a list of songs in this order:

1. Spirit, King Johnson
2. Strollin' With Bone, T-Bone Walker
3. Pray Enough, The Wood Brothers
4. Teen Town, Weather Report
5. Methamphetamine, Old Crow Medicine Show
6. Lester's Dream, Benny Goodman small band, feat. Charlie Christian and Lester Young
7. All I Do, Derek Trucks Band
8. Davy Crockett, Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit
9. Funky Revival, Satan and Adam
10. Congo Square, Sonny Landreth
11. Drunk All Around This Town, Scott Miller

Others will get order (the one I originally intended):

1. Funky Revival, Satan and Adam -- Adam Gussaw was a broken-hearted Princeton post-grad student wandering around in Harlem when he discovered Sterling "Mr. Satan" McGee, a one-man band busking on the streets. Gussaw pulled out his harp, and Satan and Adam was born. This song is from "Word on the Street", a collection of those Harlem street performances. I think of it as urban-blues-trance music.

2. Spirit, King Johnson -- The first of two cuts centered on my old Musicians Institute pal, Oliver Wood. King Johnson was one of Atlanta's most popular roots bands, but broke up when the bass player moved. Oliver's just fine -- he's recorded two albums with his brother, Chris (of Medeski Martin & Wood), under the name The Wood Brothers, and he just finished producing Shemekia Copeland's upcoming album. Shemekia told me Oliver is a genius. By the way, Oliver and I were part of a small group that hung out a lot, but we never heard him sing a word.

3. Strollin' With Bone, T-Bone Walker -- Walker was the predecessor to Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix and Prince. He did splits. He played the guitar behind his back. And he played blues licks that everyone who followed has stolen. Berry, in my opinion, owes at least half his guitar style to Walker.

4. Pray Enough, The Wood Brothers -- More from the aforementioned Mr. Wood.

5. Teen Town, Weather Report -- Jaco Pastorius on bass. Alex Acuna on drums. God's own rhythm section. Pastorius and his fretless bass work laid the ground for many fusion players to follow. He was a drunk and a heroin addict, and was so belligerant at a hometown bar one night that bouncers beat him to death. They had no idea who he was, not that it would've mattered.

6. Methamphetamine, Old Crow Medicine Show -- Brand new music from an old-time band. Songwriter Ketch Secor told me that U.S. 220 is a road from which he draws much inspiration, which in part explains his line about meth's reach "from Rocky Mount to Northeast Tennessee." The rest of the explanation is poetic license. Great tune, great band. They'll be in Roanoke Oct. 25. Ya'all come out, y'hear?

7. Lester's Dream, Benny Goodman small band, feat. Charlie Christian and Lester Young -- Both Young and Christian prefigured bebop in a lot of ways. They were usually at the late-night club sessions that created it. Goodman was a killer clarinetist, but his real strength was finding cats like these.

8. All I Do, Derek Trucks Band -- Trucks is my favorite guitar player right now. He takes it to Mars and back on the ending solo. In between, he and Kofi Burbridge trade fours with guitar and flute, after Burbridge has torn up a clavinet solo. I have a lot of Trucks music, and if you want to hear more, just ask. Or go see DTB at Jefferson Center on Oct. 24.

9. Davy Crockett, Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit -- I almost never hear a song in a record store that inspires me to buy a CD, but this song did that. I was at Tower Records, Nashville, and my life has not been the same since. Hampton is a musical father to Trucks, by the way. On this song, hear smoking solos from Matt Mundy (mandolin), Oteil Burbridge (Kofi's older brother, on bass) and Jimmy Herring (on guitar).

10. Congo Square, Sonny Landreth -- The Neville Brothers scored a minor hit with this song, written by Landreth and Mel Melton. This version is better. If Trucks is my favorite, Landreth is second, or tied with Trucks. In that respect, it's not a coincidence that they're both transcendant slide guitar players.

11. Drunk All Around This Town, Scott Miller -- I believe that everything Miller wrote about in this song actually happened.

Notes to come.