Cahl's Jukebox, 2-10-10

Today's mix:

1) Iron and Wine: "Jezebel"
2) I See Hawks In L.A.: "Motorcycle Mama"
3) Vic Chesnutt: "Free of Hope"
4) Malcolm Holcombe: "Baby Likes a Love Song"
5) The Low Anthem:
6) Adam Hood: "Buzzes Like Neon"
7) The Groggers: "Barrel of a Gun"
8) Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles: "Land and Sea"
9) Liz Tormes: "Fall Silent"
10) Shawn Colvin: "Wichita Skyline"

Roky's New Album

The good folks at Anti-Records have posted a photo of the artwork for Roky Erickson's new album with Okkervil River.

The album, which will be released April 20, will include 12 songs. Here's the track listing:

1. Devotional Number One
2. Ain’t Blues Too Sad
3. Goodbye Sweet Dreams
4. Be and Bring Me Home
5. Bring Back the Past
6. Please Judge
7. John Lawman
8. True Love Cast Out All Evil
9. Forever
10. Think Of As One
11. Birds’d Crash
12. God Is Everywhere

Also, here's a short video clip of Will Sheff of Okkervil River hanging with Roky at Toy Joy in Austin.

Cahl's Jukebox, 2-7-10

Sunday morning blues:

1) Earl Forest: "Rock the Bottle"
2) Jimmy Reed: "Cry Before I Go"
3) Johnny Winter: "Mad Dog"
4) Lurrie Bell: "You're Gonna Be Sorry"
5) Earl Hooker: "Love Ain't a Plaything"
6) Roy Rogers and Norton Buffalo: "Big Jake"
7) Henry Gray: "How Could You Do It"
8) Layce Baker Jr.: "Don't Pet My Dog"
9) Big Bill Morganfield: "My Last Affair"
10) Eddie Turner: "Save My Life"

Haiti Relief Concert

Musicians around the world have contributed their talents to raise money for relief in efforts in Haiti. A benefit show featuring Haitian musicians on Valentine's Day at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music is sure to be one of the most poignant. I wish I could be there.

Cahl's Jukebox, 2-6-10

The daily mix:

1) Stephen Simmons: "Loserville"
2) Bruce Springsteen: "Mansion on the Hill"
3) Billy Bragg: "Sing Their Souls Back Home"
4) Gene Clark and the Gosdin Brothers: "Tried So Hard"
5) Charlie Mars: "When the Sun Goes Down"
6) Jason Bajada: "Tired of Talking"
7) Jason Collett: "Winter Soldier"
8) Gwil Owen: "Gravy"
9) Magnolia Electric Co.: "Shiloh"
10) Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham: "I'm Your Puppet"

Sue Foley and Peter Karp

Sue Foley and Peter Karp will release an album called "He Said, She Said" next month. The tracks on the Myspace page for the album are great.

Cahl's Jukebox, 2-5-10

Friday morning blues:

1) Son House: "Dry Spell Blues"
2) Blind Lemon Jefferson: "Hot Dogs"
3) Johnny Shines: "Moaning and Groaning"
4) Little Sonny: "You Got a Good Thing"
5) T.J. Sullivan: "You Give Me Hope"
6) Eddie C. Campbell: "That's When I Know"
7) Tinsley Ellis: "Free Man"
8) Johnny Copeland: "Houston"
9) Junior Kimbrough: "Crawling King Snake"
10) Big Maceo: "Detroit Jump"

Willie Murphy Releases New Album

I hadn't thought about Willie Murphy for years until I read a piece about him in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The column's author, Chris Riemenschneider, points out that I'm not alone.

I grew up listening to "Running, Jumping, Standing Still," an album on which Murphy collaborated with "Spider" John Koerner, and to Bonnie Raitt's self-titled debut, which Murphy produced. I should have kept up with him, but I'm catching up — I bought digital versions of three albums by Murphy after reading the column. They're filled with great blues, R&B and rock.

Murphy's also just released a two-disc CD of new and old tunes. I might buy it, too. It's a shame his music isn't more widely heard.

Cahl's Jukebox, 2-4-10

The daily mix:

1) Mance Lipscomb: "Ain't You Sorry"
2) Buddy Moss: "Comin' Back"
3) John Dee Holman: "Step It Up and Go"
4) Ralph McTell: "Streets of London"
5) Eric Ambel: "Judas Kiss"
6) Sarah Harmer: "Basement Apartment"
7) Tristan Prettyman: "Hello"
8) Laura Cheadle: "Live On"
9) Mary Wiles: "Hopeless in Love"
10) Kerri Simpson: "Sometimes She Forgets"

Irakere

My college roommate and I rarely saw each other. He'd study all day while I worked at the student newspaper. Around midnight, we'd both come home and play our favorite records for each other. Irakere's self-titled album probably got more play than any other back in 1980 because we both loved it so much.

I've been pushing hard at work this week, giving training seminars til late in the evening, so I've been turning to Irakere again. And, not surprisingly, I've found the Cuban jazz band's music is still the perfect late-night chill pill for me.

Cahl's Jukebox, 2-3-10

The daily mix:

1) C.W. Stoneking: "The Love Me or Die"
2) Hank Williams: "Howlin' at the Moon"
3) Houston Marchman: "Ex Husbands"
4) Barkin' Bill: "Blue Guitar"
5) Dave Hole: "Wheeler Dealer"
6) David Egan: "Fail, Fail, Fail"
7) Moreland and Arbuckle: "Never Far Behind"
8) Stick McGhee: "Oh What a Face"
9) The Flatlanders: "My Wildest Dreams Grow Wilder Every Day"
10) Floyd Tillman: "Mr. Bottle"

Jake La Botz: 'Graveyard Jones'

Nelson Algren would have loved Jake La Botz.

Prostitutes, junkies, orphans and grandmothers all mingle on "Graveyard Jones," an album La Botz released in 2006. They're hard, sweet, destitute, hopeful ... real folks who aren't always what they seem.

The characters, who easily could have inhabited one of Algren's novels, are as vivid and varied as the body art in the tattoo parlors where La Botz usually plays his blend of blues and folk.

La Botz has acted in films by directors ranging from Steve Buscemi to Sylvester Stallone. Someday, maybe, some sharp director will make a film based on La Botz's songs. Algren would have loved that, too.

Cahl's Jukebox, 2-2-10

The daily mix:

1) Black Lipstick: "B.O.B. F.O.S.S.E."
2) The Dictators: "I Am Right!"
3) Mono Men "Waste O' Time"
4) The Ramones: "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment"
5) Eux Autres: "Other Girls"
6) The Gaslight Anthem: "Film Noir"
7) The Mekons: "Insignificance"
8) The Replacements: "Jungle Rock"
9) The Triffids: "Life Of Crime"
10) The Undertones: "Teenage Kicks"

Eric Bibb: 'Booker's Guitar'

Eric Bibb's always channeled the spirits of the blues masters. Just ask one of my former students who became a blues convert when he heard Bibb cover the Rev. Gary Davis' "I Heard the Angels Singing" in concert a few years ago.

The songs on Bibb's new CD, "Booker's Guitar," might be even better.

Bibb got the inspiration for the album when a fan brought Booker (Bukkah) White's old National steel guitar to Bibb's hotel after a concert a few years ago. You can hear the reverence Bibb has for the Delta blues legends in the 13 songs he wrote for the album and on the two covers — Blind Willie Johnson's "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger."

Bibb draws on the religious roots of the blues for "One Soul to Save." And he taps into the storyteller tradition of the blues masters for "Tell Riley," an imaginary conversation between White and his cousin, B.B. King.

The centerpiece, though, is the title track on which Bibb says White sang straight from his heart. Bibb certainly does as well.