Fire Up a Nice Big Fatty For the Band Who Invented Heavy Metal

Music DVD Review: Blue Cheer- Rocks Europe

First of all, let's get one thing straight. Blue Cheer invented heavy metal. Period. End of discussion.

Before there was Led Zeppelin, before there was Black Sabbath, or even the mighty Spinal Tap, Blue Cheer had their amps cranked to eleven as far back as 1967.

Long before Deep Purple were declared the loudest band in the world by the Guinness Book Of World Records, Blue Cheer earned that same distinction way back in the sixties. Hell, to this day, I can remember the first time I saw these three guys in Hawaii. It was nuts. There were so many freaking amps, I couldn't even see the guitarist.

And it was also really, really loud.

Steppenwolf may have coined the term "heavy metal" in that lyric from "Born To Be Wild," and Lester Bangs may have brought it into the modern vernacular of rock criticism in his articles for Creem Magazine.

But every heavy metal band that has come since—from Metallica to Pantera and beyond—knows in their blackest of hearts who really is responsible for first introducing the world to the really big noise that was actually—amazingly—briefly heard back in 1967 on Top Forty radio in the form of Blue Cheer's cover of "Summertime Blues."

And as evidenced here by Seattle grunge producer Jack Endino's liner notes, many of them will also readily admit it.

Blue Cheer is absolutely, without question, the band that first pioneered the concept of cranking the shit up as high as it could possibly go, letting the rest sort itself out later, and understanding the concept of feedback as a friend rather than an enemy.

But don't take my word for it, just ask Mudhoney, Monster Magnet, or any of the other dozens of bands who have long since co-opted the style Blue Cheer first put to vinyl on the classic album Vincebus Eruptum way back in 1967.

On that album—with it's total of like six cuts, including their fuzzed out assault on Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues"—Blue Cheer immortalized themselves as the loudest, most fuzzed out band of all time. Remember that overly fuzzed out bass on Grand Funk's Live Album? Look no further than Blue Cheer's Dickie Peterson to see just where that came from.

I was personally amazed to find that Blue Cheer are still doing their thing all these years later—or for that matter, that they are even still alive. But, God Bless em', they are still at it on this great DVD recorded last year for Germany's Rockpalast show.

Original guitarist Leigh Stephens is apparently long gone—although original members Dickie Peterson on bass and vocals, and drummer Paul Whaley remain from the bands original power trio lineup.

And damned if they aren't as blissfully loud as ever on this DVD. The new guy on the block, isn't exactly new either. Guitarist Andrew "Duck" MacDonald has been with these guys for nearly two decades now, and he fills the shoes of Leigh Stephens quite nicely. The guitar parts are as loud and over the top as ever here.

So with the rhythm section pushing what has to be sixty (at least), can these guys still cut it?

Absolutely.

As might be expected, Peterson has taken on both the appearance and the gravelly voice of a grizzled old biker who has smoked one hell of a lot of cigarettes (among other things), and guzzled more than his fair share of grain alcohol. But damned if he can't still play his ass off.

In the guitar department, the "Duck" tends to be a bit cleaner than Leigh Stephens was back in the day. But for the most part, this is still some dirty, greasy, loud as hell grimey-ass shit.

Which, is as it should be. These guys invented it. I defy any self respecting student of rock history to prove me wrong on that. The fact that Blue Cheer are still out there making ears bleed is something that truly makes me smile too.

Get this now. And make sure to fire up a nice big fatty once you push play.

The Rockologist: Afterthoughts On Michael Jackson

So I guess now that Michael Jackson is dead and buried, it's okay to talk about this.

Oh wait, he's not buried yet? Well I guess that's okay too. The bottom line is that Michael is gone, and with him is an era that like so many others which have passed before it, we will never get back.

I held off on writing down my thoughts about Michael Jackson for a specific reason. I wrote the original news story for Blogcritics, updating it from the original reports of a heart attack, to the eventual reality pretty much by the minute as it happened—which during at that first hour or so was occuring by the minute.

I also knew this was going to be one of those huge events where you remember exactly where you were years after the fact. This wasn't Kurt Cobain or 2Pac. I also remember exactly where I was when they died too, though I doubt my parents do. This was Elvis, John Lennon, and Princess Di big. Mom and Dad remember those.

Michael Jackson may not have had a legitimate hit record in twenty years, but his impact on a generation who came of age in the eighties was in many ways similar to that of those of us who grew up with the Beatles in the sixties felt.

There's just no denying it.

So anyway, I wanted to wait until the dust died down a bit—or at least until the memorial was over—before writing about him.

Speaking of the memorial, like many of you reading this I watched most of it on television. I've read one report stating that as many as one in ten Americans did. This is an absolutely astonishing number, if true.

My thoughts on the service, to be honest, are however really mixed.

It was in a lot of ways, both beautiful and touching, as it should have been. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find myself reaching for my hanky when Brooke Shields talked about the two of them growing up together as childhood stars, or when Jermaine Jackson sang his undeniably emotional reading of Michael's favorite song, Charlie Chaplin's "Smile."

And if the part where Michael's daughter talked about her dad didn't get you the way it did me—well, maybe you oughtta' check yourself to make sure there's a pulse there.

On the other hand, there were some things about the service that bothered me a little.

For one, there is the fact that this amounted to a state funeral in a state which can scarcely afford one. Already, the state of California is appealing for donations to offset the enormous cost of security, redirecting traffic, etc.

What about all of those people who remain out of work?

Secondly—and although it should be expected in these sorts of bigger than life situations I guess—is the fact that even in death Michael Jackson continues to be a magnet to the self-serving sorts of people he so tragically attracted in life. The Reverend Al Sharpton, for example, cracks me up when he makes fun of himself on Saturday Night Live. He did not crack me up, or make me reach for the handkerchief with his remarks at the Jackson memorial.

But most of all, for me at least, was the whole underlying tone of deification about the whole thing. It just didn't sit well. The thing that always bothered me most about Michael Jackson during his life wasn't so much the weird behavior, the way his appearance changed over the years, or even the charges of child abuse.

Rather, it was his at times unbelievable, over the top ego.

This was a guy who erected enormous, Caesar-esque statues of himself in life—and in death seeing Lionel Ritchie sing about Jesus, while watching Michael's image with arms outstretched and beams of light shining down just didn't sit well with me at all. Somewhere my Sunday School lessons as a kid kicked in pretty hard there I guess.

Jackson's contributions to modern culture are undeniable, even if very few of them were recent ones. The way he kicked down the doors which once separated music purely on the basis of race is something we all owe him a very great debt for.

But he was not a God. Not anymore than Elvis or John Lennon were—much as love them both. So yeah, even as I was holding back some tears watching all of this, that part of the ceremony bothered me a little.

What I actually found myself mourning more than the passing of Michael Jackson himself though, was the passing of the eighties.

In that respect, the memorial brought to mind when John Lennon died. Lennon, represented everything that made me both love and essentially devote my life to music in the first place as a kid growing up with the Beatles in the sixties. When Lennon was cut down on December 8, 1980, so too was the last gasp of that sort of perhaps misguided sense that music could change the world.

When Michael Jackson was at the peak of his popularity around the time of Thriller in 1983 though, he proved it still could be done. He just did it sort of differently than John Lennon and the Beatles did.

But there were a lot of other factors involved besides Thriller—not the least of which were the then emerging perfect storm of MTV, Hip-hop, and the whole British new wave thing.

At the time, I wasn't really listening to Micheal Jackson at all. My tastes ran more toward Echo & The Bunnymen, U2, and to a lesser extent the syntho-pop of bands like Human League and Soft Cell.

But what I do remember back then was going out to clubs and dancing to Rick James and the SOS Band right alongside those aforementioned new wave bands. It was both a genre neutral and a color blind scene. Michael made that possible, and to really understand how monumental a task that was at the time—well, you had to be there.

Michael wasn't a God. And whether you are a religious person or not, the idea that he was anything more than a very gifted human being is one you'd be forgiven for being offended by. That said however, he did more to break down the racial barriers separating music at the time than anyone else.

I'll give Prince credit for the assist. But it wasn't that long before that records were being burned in "disco sucks" rallies at baseball stadiums.

But for a brief time, he did change the world. And there hasn't been anything like it since. I'm not sure there ever will be, but I hope that one day that there is.

Jayhawks: A Case Of Coulda' Been, Woulda' Been, Shoulda' Been

Music Review: The Jayhawks - Music from The North Country - The Jayhawks Anthology (Deluxe 2CD/1 DVD Edition)

The Jayhawks are one of those classic cases of coulda' been, woulda' been, and shoulda' been.

Based out of Minneapolis, and around the vocal and songwriting team of Mark Olson and Gary Louris, Jayhawks albums like Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow The Green Grass not only sold respectably well, but also earned them near universal critical raves from the nineties forward. They just were never quite able to grab the big, brass ring.

Other than that, the Jayhawks were a band that seemed to have nearly everything else going for them. They wrote picture perfect, more often than not quite hooky songs that cradled a fine line between pop songcraft and country twang. The songs got modest airplay -- mainly on americana and adult-alternative stations -- and the concerts, held mainly in theatre-sized venues, nearly always sold out.

When Mark Olson eventually left to follow his wife Victoria Williams in making a more folk-oriented noise, Louris carried on with the Jayhawks name for a few more years on albums like Smile and Rainy Day Music, before finally calling it a day. The thing is, when you look back on all of the great music the Jayhawks made -- on songs like "Settled Down Like Rain," "I'd Run Away," "Blue," "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" and the rest -- it's just amazing these guys weren't a lot bigger name than they were.

Hopefully Music from The North Country, an ambitious new career retrospective on the Jayhawks will change that. Overseen by Gary Louris, this 2 CD, 1 DVD set was obviously assembled with loving care. You'd also be surprised at how many of these songs you might recognize, even if you don't necessarily know the Jayhawks by name.

Disc One plays like the proverbial greatest hits set by a band that never really had any. It opens with "Two Angels" and "Aint No End," two tracks from Blue Earth, the Jayhawks lone 1989 album for indie label Twin Tone. "Aint No End" in particular still sounds like the opening shot by a band destined for future greatness. Olson and Louris trade off on some of the sweetest harmonies this side of the Flying Burrito Brothers, as the guitars crackle with all the warmth of a bristling campfire.

Four tracks from Hollywood Town Hall, the Jayhawks critically acclaimed 1992 debut for Rick Rubin's American Recordings follow, including the modest hits "Waiting For The Sun" and "Settled Down Like Rain." The latter focuses on the same mix of twangy guitars and gorgeous harmonies, while the former is buttressed by carnival like keyboards that summon the spirit of sixties-era Dylan -- an expansion of the Jayhawks sound that would continue on for several more albums.

1995's Tomorrow The Green Grass -- an album many will tell you was the Jayhawks best -- is wisely also represented by no less than four tracks. These include "I'd Run Away," which is one of those Jayhawks songs that should have been huge, with it's great piano anchored hook, and "Blue," which featured some of the band's most wistful harmonizing yet. These two albums -- the last to feature the combination of Olson and Louris -- arguably represent the Jayhawks at their creative peak.

The albums recorded following Olson's departure also featured their fair share of gems though, many of which are included on this set. These include "Big Star," a great little rock and roll tune that depending on who you talk to is either Louris' tribute to the band of the same name, or a wry commentary on the lack of success of his own. From the Smile album you get another of those near hits in "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," as well as the title track. From the Rainy Day Music album, "Save It For A Rainy Day" might be recognized by some from the television commercials which used the song.

The second disc features outtakes and rarities from the Jayhawks career, including tracks from their mythical first recording, the "Bunkhouse Album." Demos and outtake versions include "Stone Cold Mess," an outtake from the Hollywood Town Hall sessions, as well as other rare B-sides, radio sessions, and several raw demo recordings recorded at the Jayhawks rehearsal space.

The DVD also yields some real gold for fans. There are the original music videos for "Settled Down Like Rain," "Take Me With You (When You Go)," "Blue," "Big Star," and "Save It For A Rainy Day." Also included is some great live footage from a 1993 Hollywood Town Hall era concert in Chicago, including live versions of "Settled Down Like Rain," "Reason To Believe," and "Take Me With You (When You Go)."

Jayhawks fans whose hopes were raised by the Louris and Olson reunion album Ready For The Flood earlier this year, will be interested to know that the complete band has signed on for a short series of European dates, as well as a hometown reunion show this Friday in Minneapolis.

Whether or not this translates into something more long term or not, Music from The North Country - The Jayhawks Anthology is a great career retrospective that nicely sums up a band who coulda' been, woulda' been, and shoulda' been.

In addition to the deluxe edition, disc one is also available as a stand-alone hits compilation.

Seven Months And Counting Of Future Endeavors


Welcome to my latest experience being "future endeavored" into the poor house. Not that it isn't a place I've long since become accustomed to.

Whether due to bad economic times, corporate politics, or other factors, most of us in the workplace have either been, or will be at some point, on the receiving end of the dreaded future endeavors letter.

Conceived as a somewhat kinder, gentler way of saying you've just been canned, a future endeavors letter is usually worded with something along the lines of "we wish you well on your future endeavors".

In other words its a nicer way of saying "there's the door, and don't let it hit you in the ass on your way out." Getting "future endeavored" most often will occur during one of those exit interviews where your signature is required on a stack of paperwork designed to avert lawsuits. For the future endeavoree, this is often a necessary evil in order to collect a severance package.

I have lots of experience of having to swallow my pride in these matters just in order to ensure I could eat during the uncertain times which lied ahead. I signed the damn papers, both when I knew I'd fucked up, and when I knew I'd done nothing wrong at all. There was even one time where my deal included a one way, all expenses paid deal to move both me and my stuff out of the state and back to Seattle as long as I kept my mouth shut. Those guys apparently wanted me as far away from them as they could pay me to get.

Long story short, Legalise can be a tricky thing, especially when your main concern is how you are going to pay the rent. Just don't ever believe any of that free will bullshit. The fact is, more often than not they've got you by the balls and they know it. Thank you, Mr. Bush.

Most of the time, I've been able to figure a way out of being future endeavored fairly quickly, although with each and every single one of them I said goodbye to a little bit of myself. The career I once loved and cherished became history long ago for one thing. To say nothing of my dignity and self-respect.

This time has been different. While my neighbors, my friends, and even my parents continue to wonder just when this fifty year old guy is going to shake it off, and get back on his feet again, I'm really starting to worry a little bit. It's never gone this long before.

As everybody knows, the economy sucks balls right now. But for me, the situation is compounded by my particular skill-set, or more specifically my lack of one. Since both my age, the changing nature of the industry, and to be honest, my own mistakes, effectively ended my once promising career in the music business, I've had to rely on the two marketable skills where I have experience.

In sales -- something I did very well in the music game -- the bottom line is that it's a young mans game. I'm simply too old, and quite frankly, I like people too much to be knocking myself dead trying to "close" whatever poor sap I can scam out of his money. I've never been good at lying to people's faces, and sales is a lying mans game.

My other skill is writing, and I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it. The problem there is, in over thirty years of my adult experience doing it, the one thing I've learned is that nobody wants to pay you. My stuff at Blogcritics gets me a fair amount of attention. I've gotten comments from famous musicians like Roger McGuinn, I've been interviewed by Charles Gibson on ABC -- I've even had Howard Stern read an article of mine on the air.

But nobody wants to hire me to do what I do best.

And if someone out there would like to prove me wrong on that, please, please get in touch with me. I'm dying to hear from you.

So I'm seven months and counting of being "future endeavored" into the poorhouse. The unemployment (and thank you Mr. Obama for both the extension and the stimulus raise) will be gone in about three months. My bank account is already dangerously close to running dry.

I love my parents, but that's just not an option.

In the meantime, I just want to work.

Happy 4th Of July.

And remember, we wish you well on your future endeavors.

Wilco: The Album...To Beat For Best Of the Year

Music Review: Wilco - Wilco (the album)

When I first learned very early on this year that Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Bob Dylan among others would be putting out new albums, I was so excited that I jumped the gun a bit and began making early plans for my "best albums of 2009" list. When Springsteen and U2 didn't quite deliver the records I'd hoped for -- and even Dylan's album, though quite good, wasn't exactly Modern Times great -- my optimism however soon turned to worry.

With their new album, Wilco are making me breathe quite a bit easier.

That said, I have to admit to being a bit of a Johnny-Come-Lately to the Wilco party. My first real exposure to Wilco was the band's 2002 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album and tour, both of which initially confounded me more than anything else.

I've since come around. But my initial impression was that yes, Jeff Tweedy wrote some interesting songs, and that the guys could definitely play. But something was still missing. On the followup album A Ghost Is Born, I thought they were getting closer though. I played the living crap out of that record's Kraftwerk meets Crazy Horse opus "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" for one thing.

For me though, all the pieces really began to fit with 2007's Sky Blue Sky, and especially the live Wilco show I saw that same year. The missing part of the puzzle, as it turned out, came in the form of one Nels Cline. A two-ton monster of a guitarist if there ever was one, Cline also happened to fit this band like a glove.

As much as Cline's unrestrained bursts of feedback laden guitar might seem to be a rather odd compliment to the often sweet, understated songwriting of Tweedy -- the fact is that it really works.

Look no further for evidence of that than on Wilco's fabulous Ashes Of American Flags concert documentary. On that DVD, Cline shreds the living crap out of his instrument on songs like "Impossible Germany," "Handshake Drugs," and "Via Chicago." But it is always in compliment towards, rather than a distraction from, Jeff Tweedy's songs.

So on the surface, Wilco (the album) feels like this band's grab for the big, brass ring. It is neither the quieter, return to basic songcraft that (Cline's incendiary playing on that album aside) Sky Blue Sky felt like, nor the more ambitious experimental sounding record that was Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Rather, it is both. Wilco (the album) in fact, kind of falls into the category of all of the above for this band.

First and foremost, the songs are great.

"Wilco (the song)" kicks things off with a tongue-in-cheek sort of vibe that reminds you immediately that as good as these guys may know they really are, they are not so good as to actually take themselves too seriously. Here, they go so far as to remind the listener that "this is a fact you need to know/Wilco will love you baby."

The track most early previews on this album have raved about though is "Bull Black Nova," and for good reason. Musically, "Nova" is kind of like the kid brother to the band's earlier "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." It mines the same path of Kraftwerk-ian metronomic synths, mixed with blasting, chaotic guitar courtesy of Cline.

Meanwhile the lyrics are something else, as they seem to describe transporting a dead body in a "Bull Black Chevy Nova." The effect is an unnerving one as Tweedy describes the "blood in the sink, blood in the trunk" and, with voice rising all the while in intensity, how "I'm sorry as the setting sun."

As great as "Bull Black Nova" is, the standout track on Wilco (the album) is "You Never Know." This is the sort of song that would be the biggest hit single of the summer, if only Top 40 radio still had room on their playlists for great power pop songs in the seventies rock mold of the Raspberries or Badfinger.

"You Never Know" has everything a great pop song should have. Tweedy's vocal starts out like something straight out of "Bang A Gong" era Marc Bolan, and winds up with gorgeous harmonies straight out of Traveling Wilburys territory in the chorus. Speaking of the Wilburys, Nels Cline pays rather obvious homage to George Harrison here with just about the shortest, sweetest to the point guitar break this side of "My Sweet Lord."

"You Never Know" also has a hook that wont quit. The lyrics put a nice, sunny spin on our current economic woes ("Every generation thinks its the worst/ thinks its the end of the world/ It's a dream down a well/ it's a long heavy hell/ I don't care anymore"). If there were any justice in this world, this song would be huge.



On "Country Disappeared," Tweedy turns a sweet folkish ballad into a prayer for the country. "Wake up, we're here/ It's so much worse than we feared/ there's nothing left here," Tweedy sings. "I won't take no/ I won't let you go/ All by yourself/ I know you need my help."

As if to underscore the point, Tweedy proclaims "I'll fight, I'll fight, I'll fight for you I will," on the obviously titled "I'll Fight." "I'll die alone/ on some forgotten hill/ abandoned by the mill."

Aside from just how great the band sounds here, Jeff Tweedy's growth as a songwriter is one of the greatest joys of listening to Wilco (the album). The songs are not are just topical. Tweedy's storytelling skills are also razor sharp on songs like "Bull Black Nova" and "Sonny Feeling," whose main characters problems include the fact that "she knows nothing of Eminem's suburban gangster flow." Great stuff all around here.

I love this record. For best album of the year, this is also the one to beat.

The Woodstock Experience Part Five: Johnny Winter

Music Review: Johnny Winter - The Woodstock Experience

This summer marks the 40th Anniversary of 1969's historic Woodstock Music And Arts Festival. As part of the celebration, Sony/Legacy Recordings is releasing a limited edition series of deluxe, double disc recordings by five of the artists whose performances at Woodstock changed the world.

This is our fifth and final review on that series.

Johnny Winter was one of the lesser-known acts chosen to perform at the time promoters were putting together the lineup for Woodstock back in 1969. At the time, the Texas blues guitarist was primarily known for two things -- being an albino, and the fairly strong buzz he had been generating largely via word of mouth from music critics and scenesters.

Johnny Winter of course eventually went on to much bigger and better things. He took his rightful place amongst the upper-tier of the best regarded rock guitarists, and by the seventies -- first with his group Johnny Winter And, and later with albums like Still Alive And Well -- he was also headlining arenas. Brother Edgar Winter would also ride Johnny's coattails to success with his own hits "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride."

Reportedly in ill health these days, Johnny Winter nonetheless still regularly gets out there to play shows. But for the past decade or so, he's retreated from the bright lights of rock stardom to pursue a lower key profile as more of a blues purist.

In 1969 though, Johnny was quite the sight to see with his flowing white hair, and some equally white-hot blues/rock guitar slinging to match. It's easy to forget that Johnny Winter even played at the Woodstock festival today though. He wasn't in the original movie, although he does show up on the bonus disc of the recently released Woodstock 40th Anniversary DVD box.

As part of the Woodstock Experience discs being released by Sony/Legacy on Tuesday, Johnny Winter's complete set at the legendary 1969 festival is paired on a double-disc with the Texas guitarist's 1969 debut album for Columbia. As with the other Woodstock Experience packages, there are no bonus tracks or extras on the Johnny Winter album, although the original album art is recreated in loving detail, right down to the red Columbia logo on the disc itself.

Listening to Winter's Woodstock set, you can almost imagine how much bigger he might have been had the performance footage been included back when the film documentary was first released. If anything, Winter's blues based, guitar heavy rock immediately reminds you of Alvin Lee and Ten Years After, who became huge stars after their own performance of "I'm Going Home" in the movie.

Backed by the standard rock lineup of guitar, bass, and drums, Winter's guitar -- and especially his slide playing -- does most of the talking here on blues workouts like "Mean Town Blues" and "Leland Missisippi Blues," a standout track from his debut album. Nothing too fancy here -- just a shit hot blues guitar player backed by a tight ass little blues band.

Johnny is joined by his brother Edgar on sax and piano for the last several songs of the set, including "I Can't Stand It" and a ten minute version of "Tobacco Road." The latter song would become a staple of Edgar's own concerts in the seventies, particularly on his live double album Roadwork, with his band White Trash.

In this performance recorded so many years prior, Edgar is already beginning to work out the trademark scream and sax solos he would later make famous on the version still to come. Hearing it here in a more embryonic state with brother Johnny is one of the true delights of this set. Edgar's prolonged screams towards the end still produce chills even now.

Edgar sticks around for "Tell The Truth," and wisely turns the spotlight back to brother Johnny who turns in a lightning fast guitar solo. This soon makes way for some nice scat singing, and more of those trademark screams by Edgar. Although the new DVD box does finally include Johnny Winter, I'd loved to have seen this stuff included as well. Maybe next time (in ten or so more years). The band closes out the set with a barn-storming "Johnny B. Goode" -- a song which Johnny Winter would make a trademark of his for years to come.

The pairing of the Woodstock set with Johnny Winter's self-titled 1969 debut album here points out the two sides of this multi-talented guitarist. Where the Woodstock set is pretty much all rock and roll fireworks -- especially during the parts with Edgar -- the album is comparatively lower key.

Not that the album doesn't have any number of explosive guitar solos -- because it most certainly does. From the opening track "I'm Yours And I'm Hers," Winter breaks out the slide and gets right down to business. But where the live show accents the rock, this album is clearly focused on the blues -- and on tracks like "Be Careful With A Fool," Winter shows he can be just as tasty in the studio as he is flashy on the concert stage.

It's an audacious debut record which at the time signaled the arrival of a major new talent. Basically Johnny Winter puts on a blues-rock guitar clinic here. However, he never strays too far from the blues in doing so.

On the song "Dallas" he shows himself to be as comfortable with the delta style of a Lightnin' Hopkins as he is with the Chicago blues of the following song, a harmonica accentuated version of "Mean Mistreater." Here, even the recording itself sounds as appropriately muddy as, well, you know...

Truth be told, it's probably been something like twenty years since I listened to Johnny Winter's first record, and I'd almost forgotten how great this album really is. Thanks to Legacy Recordings for the reminder -- not to mention the bonus treat of hearing the complete Woodstock set for the first time.

This set, along with the rest of the Woodstock Experience packages arrive both digitally and in stores on Tuesday June 30.

The Woodstock Experience Part Four: Janis Joplin

Music Review: Janis Joplin - The Woodstock Experience

This summer marks the 40th Anniversary of 1969's historic Woodstock Music And Arts Festival. As part of the celebration, Sony/Legacy Recordings is releasing a limited edition series of deluxe, double disc recordings by five of the artists whose performances at Woodstock changed the world.

This is part four of our series on these albums.

When I was thirteen years old, I saw Janis Joplin play at an outdoor concert held at Seattle's Sicks Stadium, the former home of our then pro-baseball team the Seattle Pilots. Jimi Hendrix also played there just a few weeks later -- a show I also saw. Tragically, both would be dead just a few months later.

I was also able to meet Janis at that show. As the helicopter flew her in and she walked past the fence separating the makeshift backstage area from the crowd, I shouted over to her, "hey Janis! why weren't you in the movie Woodstock?"

The stuff a kid meeting one of his idols thinks to ask given the opportunity, right? Taking a swig from her bottle of Southern Comfort, she looked back at me and replied, "probably because I didn't do the editing."

That mistake has now thankfully been rectified.

Janis is finally featured on The Woodstock Experience, a double disc set coupling her complete Woodstock performance, with her 1969 album I Got Dem' Ol' Kozmic Blues Again, Mama!

As with the other artists in this series, the package on Kozmic Blues recreates the original album jacket in miniature form, right down to the red Columbia logo on the disc. There's nothing really fancy here, nor any extras like bonus tracks. But it's all still very nicely done.

Kozmic Blues is arguably Janis Joplin's most underrated album. There were not really any huge hits here, such as there was with Cheap Thrills ("Piece Of My Heart") before it, or with Pearl ("Me And Bobby McGee") after. But the album does feature some very nice work, and has more than its share of standouts.

The idea at the time was to re-position Janis as more of a mainstream solo act, following her time with psychedelic rockers Big Brother & The Holding Company -- a band who too often got a bit of a rub from some people as being too sloppy or otherwise somehow beneath Joplin's obviously monumental talent as a vocalist. As a fan, I never bought into that argument for a second.

So Janis was recast as a white, but otherwise classic R&B act. They put this huge soul band behind her -- one who also could very obviously play too -- complete with a horn section. And what was once a very earthy blues singer backed by an even rawer band, became something more akin to a rhythm and blues act in the mold of Tina Minus Ike. Or maybe Sam and Dave...and Janis. Anyway, something like that.

In the long run, the public didn't buy this version of Janis, and by the next year she was back to a five piece band on the more rock oriented Pearl album. Still, Kozmic Blues does have its moments.

On "One Good Man," the guitar, by lone Big Brother holdover Sam Andrew, is brought to the forefront just enough to recall the more loosey-goosey groove of the Cheap Thrills days. Oddly, this is one of very few tracks on this album where the guitar is at all prominently featured.

"Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)" also features a classic Janis vocal, and probably should have been a bigger hit than it was. The title track is a slow cookin' blues cut that builds in intensity, and is probably the one track where the big horn arrangement adds, rather than detracts from, the power of the actual song.

Other tracks on the album include a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody," and the bluesy "Little Girl Blue." There's also something of an attempt to recreate Janis' signature version of Willie Mae Thornton's "Ball And Chain" in "Work Me Lord." This works for awhile, but it eventually collapses under the weight of a horn arrangement that overpowers everything else, including the vocal and finally, the song itself.

Janis' live performance at Woodstock -- also with the big soul band heard on Kozmic Blues -- is likewise kind of a mixed bag. While it's definitely great to finally be able to hear it, this still comes from a period where Janis was in a bit of a career and artistic flux, and it shows at times here.

At first though, Janis and the band come on like gangbusters.

With the band cranked and the horns blaring away on "Raise Your Hand," Janis herself belts out the song with all of the passion that made her such a huge star back then. For a second or two there, you get the feeling this is gonna' be the same sort of high-energy treat that Sly And The Family Stone's set was. Janis and the band continue this frenetic pace through Nick Gravenites' "As Good As You've Been To This World."

By the end of that song though, Janis sounds like she's already running a little out of breath. She still sounds great on the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody," but you can tell she's also slowing down, if even by just a touch. Even so, her voice still sounds pretty damned amazing.

The other rub here though is with the band itself. Great musicians that they are, there are just too many of those horn-heavy arrangements here. They also play at such a breakneck pace, that Janis occasionally seems to have a tough time keeping up with them.

That pace slows on a meandering arrangement of "Summertime" -- a song which is normally one of Janis' show stoppers -- but here again it's a case of too much band, and not enough Janis. To her credit, Janis still belts it out like a trooper though.

But on a cover of Otis Redding's "Can't Turn You Loose," Janis is nowhere to be heard at all. When you have an instrument as great as the voice of Janis Joplin, why would you emphasize anything else?

The set closes with versions of the Big Brother staples "Piece Of My Heart" and "Ball And Chain" which although decent sounding enough, come nowhere near the classic versions heard on the Cheap Thrills album. The former, once again, is just too busy with the horn arrangements and sounds rushed as a result. The latter suffers from too many starts and stops by the band, in comparison to the slow building intensity of the Big Brother version.

For historical value though, the performance here certainly serves its purpose well enough. It's just hard not to make comparisons to the already familiar versions of some of these songs, particularly given the rather radical musical left turn Janis took with the horns and with the bigger band.

The Woodstock Experience series, including this set by Janis Joplin, arrives both digitally and in stores on Tuesday June 30.

Next up, we close out our series with Johnny Winter.

The Woodstock Experience Part Three: Sly And The Family Stone

Music Review: Sly And The Family Stone - The Woodstock Experience

This summer marks the 40th Anniversary of 1969's historic Woodstock Music And Arts Festival. As part of the celebration, Sony/Legacy Recordings is releasing a limited edition series of deluxe, double disc recordings by five of the artists whose performances at Woodstock changed the world.

This is part three of our series on those recordings.

Of all of the performances that took place at Woodstock, Sly And the Family Stone's amazing set is simply in a class all its own.

A notoriously hit and miss act at the time, Sly had one of the worst reputations in the business for showing up late or not at all to his shows back then. But when the band actually would show, they usually came to play -- and Sly And The Family Stone were definitely firing on all four cylinders at Woodstock.

In fact, to this day one of the most iconic images from the Woodstock film remains the one of Sly, bathed in blue light, with his arms outstretched and the white fringe flying at the close of "I Want To Take You Higher." There are many memorable images from that historic weekend -- but that one just really stands out as a signature snapshot of what Woodstock was all about.

After forty years, fans now have the opportunity to experience that entire amazing performance as part of Sony/Legacy's Woodstock Experience series. Perhaps most amazing is the fact that this represents the first official live album ever from Sly And The Family Stone -- again coming some forty years after the fact.

The Woodstock Experience couples that stunning performance with 1969's Stand! -- arguably Sly's best album. Once again, Legacy has done a very nice, if no-frills job with this.

There's no extras or bonus tracks. Just a nicely done repackage of the original album, including a miniature reproduction of the original jacket, and the old yellow Epic Records label on the CD (I love the way Legacy's been doing that with the labels in this series).

Stand! is still just a great, great record, even all these years later. Listening to songs like "I Want To Take You Higher," "You Can Make It If You Try," and "Everyday People" today, is like getting a quick history lesson in just where a great deal of the funk of the seventies and eighties really began -- not to mention where a great majority of hip hop acts got their samples from (James Brown notwithstanding).

Before Michael Jackson and Prince kicked down the door on the color barriers in music altogether with their MTV videos, Sly And The Family Stone fused rock, funk, R&B, and just about everything else together to make some of the most groundbreaking music of the sixties. Sly And The Family Stone were also both bi-racial, and equally gendered in make up twenty years before Prince had his Revolution. In other words, the girls got to play too in this particular "Family Affair."

In addition to the better known hits, Stand! also includes the thirteen minute instrumental jam "Sex Machine," where the Family Stone are able to show off their considerable chops and just how tight of a band they really were. Stand! was also the record where Sly began to incorporate social concerns into his songs.

In that regard, this album's "Don't Call Me Nigger Whitey" was a precursor to the sort of themes Sly would further explore on the nearly-as-great followup album Theres A Riot Goin' On. But it is Stand! that remains Sly's masterpiece -- at least in this writer's humble estimation.

That said, the remastered version of Stand! that Legacy did when they overhauled Sly's catalog a few years ago is probably still the better package if that album is all you are looking for. But this is pretty nice too, and of course, here you get that long-sought after complete concert from Woodstock.

And man what a concert!

Most fans are already of course familiar with how the whole "Music Lover/Higher" medley brought the entire 600,000 strong house down in the concert film. That remains the undisputed highlight here as well. But on the way to getting there, you get very a high energy buildup to it that is jam -packed with hits like "Everyday People," "Sing A Simple Song," "Everyday People," and "Dance To The Music."

The band plays like a house of fire throughout -- the horn section crackles with energy, and the rhythm section -- particularly the amazing Larry Graham on bass -- is as tight as a drum. On "You Can Make it If You Try," Graham's playing is simply amazing, playing his parts like a lead instrument, especially when the band slows the song down to a bluesier groove. The horn parts are also pretty sweet, but Graham creates a bottom so deep you could almost fall into it.

Of course, the whole "Music Lover/Higher" segment remains the high point here though. When Sly exhorts 600,000 people into a singalong, the crowd is at first a little reluctant to join in, but by the end of the thing, he turns the party clean out. To this day, it remains the single most memorable performance from the Woodstock film.

Thank God, the entire thing is finally available, along with the rest of these historic performances courtesy of The Woodstock Experience. The entire series will be available both digitally and in stores this Tuesday, June 30.

Next up in our series will be Janis Joplin.