Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers - The Van Sessions

Week two of YouTube month.  

The Gramblers was a side project for Tim Bluhm of The Motherhips.  He heard Nicki sing one day and offered to produce some demos for her. They fell in love and married and Nicki joined The Gramblers.

To deal with the boredom of travel while on the road, they started working up cover songs and recording them in the van with their phone and posting the results to YouTube.

A friend pointed me to their rendition of the Hall And Oats classic I Can't Go For That and I was hooked. If you have a chance to see them live please do. Nicki has several albums to her name. Some solo and some credited to Nicki Bluhm and The Gramblers, all wonderful.

01 I Can't Go For That
02 Watercolor Canvas
03 You're No Good
04 Hey Baby
05 Everyday
06 Islands in the Stream
07 Let's Hear It For The Boy
08 Can You Get To That
09 Faith
10 Deal
11 Band on the Run
12 Don't Worry Be Happy
13 Easy
14 Material Girl
15 How Sweet It Is
16 Hit Me With Your Best Shot
17 She's Got You
18 Stuck in the Middle With You
19 Take the Money and Run
20 Ramblin' Man
21 Here Comes The Sun
22 Days Like This
23 How Will I Know

Reality Notes

Because of the location and nature of these recordings, sound quality is so-so. Listenable but a bit of background noise (they were recorded in a moving van!). The noise is minimal and does not detract from the overall enjoyment of these songs. The performances are all top notch and instruments are well placed for a good balance. And Nicki has a beautiful voice. They have a lot more than this up on their channel so I was able to pick and choose my favorites.

I was saddened to read that Tim and Nicki have recently split and Tim has left the band. They seemed a great match both musically and relationship wise, I wish them well.

I found the cover during a google search. Some kind artist illustrated a screenshot from one of the videos. I did have to add the title text.

YouTube
WebSite
iTunes
FaceBook

Molly Lewis - SweetAfton23

I have declared September to be "YouTube star" month! Each week this month I will post a collection of songs from an artist that I first heard or follow on YouTube. The tracks themselves were ripped from the videos posted on their official channel. Each collection will be timed to fit on a CD meant to introduce you to the artist and their work. I will do my usual editing of removing spoken intros and outtros unless appropriate as well as EQ and volume matching where needed.

I came across Molly Lewis - aka: SweetAfton23, her original YouTube handle - when I was looking for songs to learn after I purchased my first ukulele. One of the first songs I found was Political Science by Randy Newman as performed by Molly Lewis. What kept me coming back to her channel was her charm and sense of humor and that she played the uke as her main instrument.

Contextual evidence from her videos suggests that she recorded most of her videos while she was in college and that music was/is a passionate but sideline hobby. She appeared to achieve some local fame as a performer and her videos receive a large amount of plays, she even had the opportunity to play her song for Stephen Fry (one of my favorite Brittish comedians) to the man himself. She does have a few songs for sale on her Bandcamp page so check out her channel and show her a little love and support (links below).

01 An Open Letter to Stephen Fry
02 Political Science
03 Crazy
04 Creep
05 Don t Think Twice, It s Alright
06 Hidden in the Sand
07 I Believe She's Lying
08 Toxic
09 It All Makes Sense At The End
10 Two Of Us (Mother s Day special)
11 I Pity The Fool
12 MOUSTACHES (Taken At All/Dear Prudence)
13 My Hope
14 Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
15 Only You
16 Our American Cousin
17 Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
18 Road Trip
19 Some Postman
20 Still Alive
21 Tom Cruise Crazy
22 Adverbs
23 10,000 SUBSCRIBERS medley
24 A Christmas Carol
25 PEEP FIGHT

Reality Notes

The quality of Molly's videos changed for the better as she honed her craft. The audio quality varies depending on the location chosen for the video. Of the four artists I will be presenting, Molly is the only one for which I am including original songs among her covers so Molly, if you see this and wish me to take down any or all of these songs, just say the word. But do know that I made this collection out of love and respect for your talent.

YouTube Channel
Website
Bandcamp

Goodies Volume 1 - WB Various Artists

This is a reconstruction of one of my favorite various artists albums. I purchased it for side two but it was side one that had the most affect on me. It also didn't hurt that side one turned out to be more acoustic/folk based, my preferred style.

When I purchased the album I knew most of the artists already but this was early in my music buying days so even those I knew I had little to none of in my collection. Consequently this album got a lot of play time.

I still have the album but it is worn and skips on some songs. Any vinyl rip I could make would at best satisfy some nostalgic longing so when I moved into the digital realm I started tracking down the songs to reconstruct the album that way. I was successful in all but The Peace Song. Every version I found was a live rendition, I needed the studio album version. I finally found a copy of that album a few weeks ago so I put this together to share with you. (I never did see a Volume 2)

Side One
01 Gordon Lightfoot - Sit Down Young Stranger
02 Grateful Dead - Ripple
03 Jesse Colin Young - The Peace Song
04 Van Morrison - Virgo Clowns
05 Dion - Your Own Back Yard

Side Two
01 T.Rex - Ride A White Swan
02 Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made Of Sand
03 The Faces - Had Me A Real Good Time
04 Jethro Tull - A Time For Everything
05 Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi
06 Tony Joe White - A Night In The Life Of A Swamp Fox

Reality Notes

It's weird how a song or a group of songs can affect, inform, influence or mirror our own psyche. The songs on side one did all of that to me. Each song seemed to reflect upon some aspect of my personality and ideals.

• Sit Down Young Stranger tells the story of a young man who has just spent some time "on the road" and is now facing his parents as they question and lecture him. The road has called to me many times but my own fears and anxieties and basic laziness kept me rooted in my place. A theme that has popped up in a few of my own songs over the years.
• Ripple just seems to encapsulate the hippie ideal. The first time I was called a "f'n hippie" at work I took it as a badge of honor and on my way home from work that night I sang this song.
• The Peace Song is a call for racial harmony and general anti-violence/anti war. While some of the ideas in the song might still be a bit heavy on stereotypes for 1970, it was very forward thinking.
• Virgo Clowns is on the surface at least about keeping a positive attitude and laughing and enjoying yourself but this is Van Morrison so it could be about something completely different.
• Your Own Back Yard is the anti-drug song. This song and the many "war stories" of O.D.s kept me away from the heavier narcotics, psychedelics are a different story but it did help me keep it all in proper perspective.

If ever there was a case for music as therapy this album is it. It helped me get through my formative teen years with fewer troubles than some of the kids around me. This album also became the root inspiration for my Melancholia mix tape series that I keep threatening to post.

Side two still turned out to be enjoyable and was my introduction to The Faces and pre-Buckingham/Nicks Fleetwood Mac and was the first time I had heard a Jethro Tull song that was not on the Aqualung album.  Still, side one received more plays by at least 3 to 1.

The cover is the actual cover of the original album because why change it?

I am declaring next month "YouTube star" month. Over the next four weeks of September I will present an artist that I first discovered on YouTube. Stay tuned.

The Mother of Pearl Love Dog Bone Temple Jam

Here's another mixtape. First made when these CDs were new and later recreated as a playlist in my library.

This collection works on two levels. On the surface it looks like the evolution of Pearl Jam but deeper it's really a tribute to Andrew Wood.

Andrew Wood, AKA Landrew the Love Child, was the lead singer and bassist for Malfunkshun. A Seattle based power trio that mixed hard rock, glam and a pinch of punk. Formed in 1980 with his brother Kevin Wood on guitar and Regan Hagar on drums the band is often cited as the godfather of grunge.

While still working with Malfunkshun, Andy started working with Jeff Amet and Stone Gossard from Green River. With the addition of Bruce Fairweather (also from Green River) and drummer Greg Gilmore, Mother Love Bone was born. After Andy passed away from a drug overdose just days before their debut album was released Amet and Gossard picked up the pieces and formed Pearl Jam. In between they joined with Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden and recorded Temple of the Dog in tribute to Andy. Pearl Jam's first album weighs heavy with Andy's influence.

Andrew Wood made a huge impact on the Seattle music scene before his death. In some ways musically but more so for his personality and charm. Temple of the Dog was not the only tribute to Andy. Alice in Chains, War Babies and Faster Pussycat are among the many bands who have songs dedicated to or written in Andy's memory. If the Seattle grunge scene had a heart and soul, it was Andy. He was only 24 when he passed.

01 Gentle Groove
02 Reach Down
03 Alive
04 Stardog Champion
05 Hunger Strike
06 Breath
07 Holy Roller
08 Say Hello To Heaven
09 Black
10 Bone China
11 Pushin Forward Back
12 Even Flow
13 Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns
14 Wooden Jesus

Reality Notes

A simple mash-up of Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog and the first Pearl Jam album. At the time I made the mixtape that was all I had. To properly fill the playlist out as a full on tribute to Landrew or a fuller evolution of Pearl Jam you would have to add tracks from Malfunkshun, Green River, Solo Andrew Wood and maybe a few tracks from Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger album.

Before I decided to post this as it was I toyed with the idea of adding songs from the other related groups or at least some tracks from Badmotorfinger which was released about the same time. But I would have had to remove some songs to make room or push the collection bigger so it no longer would fit on a single CD. (I did include in the archive three songs from each as last minute, unlisted bonus tracks. I did not run them through the process that I normally do so volume levels may not match and there may be some pre or post song stuff that I would normally edit out.)

The cover features a photo of Andrew.

Guns N' Roses - Perfect Crime - 1992

While the last two albums showed growth in both production and songwriting, Perfect Crime is a return to form of sorts.While production flourishes are still present the songs themselves are all full on hard rock/heavy metal. No ballads here. This is the album many hard core fans were waiting for.

Recorded almost simultaneously with the previous album The Garden it was held back to be released at the mid point in the upcoming mega tour. Whether or not they appear on every song is uncertain but this is the last album to feature all of the original members.

Side One
01 Locomotive
02 Perfect Crime
03 Right Next Door To Hell
04 Shotgun Blues
05 You Could Be Mine

Side Two
01 Garden Of Eden
02 Pretty Tied Up
03 Double Talkin' Jive
04 Coma
05 My World

Reality Notes

The third and final installment in my breakdown and reconstruction of the Use Your Illusions CDs. As I mentioned in the last post, I could not find any reliable documentation that would have helped me group the post '90 tracks chronologically so I made the decision to divide them by style. After the acoustic Lies and the ballads found on the last two albums it's a bit refreshing to hear the guys just full out rocking.

I wanted to keep the cover heavy and straight forward to match the contents. Nothing too fancy.

So, what have I learned from this? Even with the smaller doses there is still a lot here that I would probably still skip. I did find some songs that I passed on before that I find I do like. If I had to cull a single disc from the two it would probably look something like this (in no particular order):

Civil War
Don't Damn Me
Dust N' Bones
Yesterdays
November Rain
The Garden
You Ain't The First
Bad Apples
Locomotive
Bad Obsession
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Garden Of Eden
Perfect Crime
Double Talkin' Jive
Shotgun Blues
You Could Be Mine

Of course if I did this next week it would most likely come out different. We had some discussion about what to do about Chinese Democracy. My opinion was that I have a hard time accepting it as a GN'R album, but I am ok viewing it as an Axl Rose solo album. It is a good album though not always my style. To complete that idea, I threw together a few covers to replace and rebrand the album. I settled on the one here. I used a picture that was floating around as a fake cover for the album before it was released. I make no mention of GN'R or Axl beyond his initials in the logo which gives the impression that Chinese Democracy could be the name of the band.

Thanks for listening and now on to other things.

Guns N' Roses - The Garden - 1991

Part two of our Use Your Illusions breakdown.

The success of Use Your Illusions and the brief tour that followed gave the band enough momentum to push them through the recording of the next album. So much momentum that after wrapping up one album they recorded another quickly before hitting the road again. Unfortunately that momentum was not enough to fix some of the problems the band was having and by the time the sessions were done so were Adler and Stradlin.

Adler and Stradlin were replaced by Sorum and Clarke and with the addition of Dizzy Reed a massive tour was launched. The plan was to tour in support of this album and halfway through the tour release the next album (already in the can) to give the tour an added boost.

Side One
The Garden
Dead Horse
14 Years
So Fine
Breakdown

Side Two
Get In The Ring
You Ain't The First
Live And Let Die
Bad Apples
Estranged

Reality Notes

For the remainder of tracks from Use Your Illusions I & II I divided them into two groups. Because the documentation I found does not indicate a chronology of when each song was written and they were all recorded at roughly the same time, I split them according to style. This album contains the more accessible and mature songs as a follow up to UYI and the next album is a proper "back to basics" heavy follow up to Appetite.

The cover features an illustration I found on an old clip art CD (remember those?).

Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion - 1990

In 1991 Guns N' Roses released two CDs simultaneously titled Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. Both CDs were full at over 70 minutes each. Essentially two double albums or a triple album spread across two discs, either way it's a lot of music to digest at one time. Too much for me.

By the end of 1989 they had more than enough material in the works for an album. So, what if they released all of that music in more digestible chunks over a three year period instead of all at once? I've divided the tracks into three albums. I'll be posting them one at a time (as they should have) over the next few weeks starting with this one.

The one big suspension of belief that we must accept to make this work is that the band managed to set aside enough of their dysfunction to record and release this album before the close of 1989. All of the songs were written but some of the members were still struggling with the substance abuse that plagued their early years and recording proper for UYI did not start until 1990.

Side One
Civil War
Bad Obsession
Don't Cry (Alt. Lyrics)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Side Two
Don't Damn Me
Dust N' Bones
Yesterdays
November Rain

Reality Notes

Anyone who has read through this blog will be aware of my feelings towards double albums (live albums excluded). They are either concept albums that got out of hand or a strong case for the artist not being able to edit oneself. I've taken apart a few of those here on this blog and will most likely take apart a few more but there are some cases where a double album is justified. Sometimes an band or artist has so much material that they have to get it all out before they can move on (think All Things Must Pass). These albums usually have a higher percentage of great songs and less filler which makes them harder to break apart. You're never going to please everyone.

For these double albums my only complaint can be that there is too much music to digest in one sitting. Doubly so for Use Your Illusions as we have two double albums to go through. I really cannot see cutting any songs to turn this into one single album. Anything I come up with will end up being a personal favorites, best of album. Your mileage will vary. So, inspired by my conversation with Fredrick Beondo in the comment section for the GN'R indy debut I decided to dive in and see what I could come up with without sacrificing anything.

I started by dividing the tracks into two groups using January 1990 as the separating line. Anything that was written or in the works or thought to be from before that time is fair game for inclusion on the first of the three resulting albums. I used this timeline to determine my song pool. I dropped Don't Cry (Original Lyrics) and Back Off Bitch because they were used in earlier incarnations on the indy debut. I'll discuss how I divided up the remainder when I post the next album.

I ended up with a great eight song, 45 minute album for a proper follow up to Appetite/Lies. I wanted to keep this one within vinyl album length to be the last GN'R album to have a vinyl release. The remainder will be CD/cassette only. I will say that in this configuration I have grown to appreciate many of the songs that I tended to skip on the official releases.

For the cover I used elements from the Use Your Illusion covers with some modifications.