Pretty one more time...

We're pretty sure we've referenced "Pretty One More Time" by Greg Brown from his Covenant album, but it's irresistible this time of year -- the leaves are turning and the fields are clear.  We're living the lyrics. There's no better time to be here, and to get lost in this beautiful song.

The leaves in my Wauwatosa neighborhood are racing to get off the trees, but there's still plenty of beautiful fall color to behold in Wisconsin, where we take our leaves seriously. Check out the link below to see the annual Fall Color Report and high-tail it here if you can get away.  You won't be sorry.

http://www.travelwisconsin.com/fallcolor_report.aspx

All the leaves are turning
And the fields are clear
There's a fire burning
I wish you were here

Pretty one more time
Pretty one more time
Before we're down the line
Pretty one more time

And the light is raining
From a midwest sky
I'm all through explaining
Goodbye to goodbye

It's getting dark so early
I walked all afternoon
All i see so clearly
Will be gone so soon

And a dim light beckons
From a roadside bar
I'll stop in i reckon
I have already come this far

Find a place by the window
I've been here before
Babe don't be a no-show
Come on through that door

I'll write you a letter
I know you feel the fall
Things may not get better
But we can always stall

The Stax Sound: Now we're cooking

By Wayne Shelor

Open in a new window:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGVGFfj7POA&feature=fvst

You’ll certainly recognize today’s celebrated song as one of Wilson Pickett’s immortal fist-to-the-face soul classics: “In The Midnight Hour.” You may also find familiar the great spray of horns in the song’s intro and throughout, a brassy sound that was an integral component of the Stax label’s home-cooked soul sound.

What you may not know is that the Stax label, out of Memphis, Tennessee, was founded by a white brother-and-sister team who created the Stax name from the first two letters of their last names: Jim Stewart ... and Estelle Axton. S-T-A-X, arguably the most integrated – literally and figuratively – studio of the 1960s.

Stax was an oasis for black soul artists in the early 1960s, stars such as Booker T. & The MGs, Otis Redding and Eddie Floyd. In the 1970s, as Stax was bought and sold and restructured and its vast catalogue of songs falling into the hands of several other large corporations, its finances were manipulated to the point that the IRS stepped in.

As a viable label, Stax was ... cooked. But its songs live on through continual re-issues, to the financial benefit of musicians such as Donald “Duck” Dunn and Steve Cropper, a couple of Stax’s great session men who’ve always preferred to stand on the periphery of the limelight.

Guitarist and songwriter Cropper -- he co-wrote “In The Midnight Hour” with “Wicked” Wilson Pickett -- and bassist Dunn are two of the band members you’ve seen countless times with The Blues Brothers revues and other bands. Cropper and Dunn, a couple of white soul brothers, helped create the musical signatures that define “The Stax Sound.”

So whether it’s the percolating drums, the swaggering bass line or the inimitable horn lines, you should remember that the Stax Sound is the result of a number of great musical chefs cookin’ up aural masterpieces using a tried and true recipe.

You can still find Stax music on the shelves of your local music dealers and all over the Internet. Why not play some when you go to bed – there’s nothing quite as filling as a heapin’ helpin’ of down-home soul. Especially when served up ... at the midnight hour.

Six String Sanctuary contributor and audiophile Wayne Shelor might be found spinning records at any hour of the day or night with that twinkle in his eyes.

Look Ma, no sticks!

Here's how the leader of today's Birthday Band was described in a 1948 article in Drummer World magazine:

“What Jo Jones put down for close to sixty years is timeless: his sense of space and restraint—knowing when to jump in and when to lay out; the endless array of press rolls, rimshots, and timbres that he elicited from his instrument; the way he drove a band; and the hypnotic power of his soloing. Whether demonstrating show- stopping cross-sticking technique or simply making quarter notes swing, his music is not dated. It is stylish and classic.”

We couldn't have been more eloquent, but perhaps more succinct:  Papa Jo Jones was The Man. Check out the video and see for yourself, and tonight raise a glass of cognac -- Papa Jo's favored libation -- and toast today's honorees:

‘Papa’ Jo Jones (1911-1985): Jazz drummer
Played with Count Basie, Bennie Goodman, Coleman Hawkins

Vaughn Monroe (1911-1973): Bandleader, singer
Racing with the Moon, Riders in the Sky, Rum and Coca Cola

Al Martino (1927-2009): Singer
Here in My Heart, Spanish Eyes, Volare

Kevin Godley (1945): Drums, 10cc
Neanderthal Man, Rubber Bullets, The Things We Do for Love

David Hope (1949): Bass, Kansas
Dust in the Wind, Carry On Wayward Son

John Cougar Mellencamp (1951): Singer
Jack and Diane, Hurts So Good, Small Town

Tico Torres (1953): Drums, Bon Jovi
You Give Love a Bad Name, Born to Be My Baby, Love For Sale

Yo-Yo Ma (1955) Cello virtuoso
Obrigado Brazil, Classic Yo-Yo, Bach: Six Unaccompanied Cello Suites

Toni Braxton (1967): Singer
You're Makin' Me High, Un-Break My Heart, He Wasn't Man Enough

A song for Ginger

Dogs! God how we love them! Even more amazing, how they love us.

For those who have been wondering how Lewie is adapting to his move from Florida to Wisconsin we provide this revealing photo.  Yes, it is possible to race with the wind along a deserted beach in the north country. This image was taken over the weekend along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Our boy is OK.

It's our way of introducing you this morning to a very touching story and song about a beloved dog named Ginger whose master, Charles Walston, has been a good friend through the years and a regular visitor at the Sanctuary. 

Click on the link below to hear the song and view photos of a special companion. We never met Ginger, but we are certain even though she is gone she is racing with the wind to hear the caring warble of her owner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89aNQoI9Mm4

By Charles Walston

Sixty five years ago this week (October 3, 1945) a 10-year-old boy named Elvis Presley performed in public for the first time when his principal entered him in a children’s singing contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. According to Peter Guralnick’s definitive biography “Last Train to Memphis,” Elvis dressed up as a cowboy, stood on a chair to reach the microphone, and took fifth place in the competition. .

The song he sang was “Old Shep,” which had been written a few years earlier by the country artist Red Foley in memory of a dog from his boyhood. Presley would later record “Old Shep” in 1956, on his second album for RCA (it was the first recording on which he played piano).

Also in 1956, the Newbery prize for children’s fiction was won by Fred Gipson for his book “Old Yeller.” One year later “Old Yeller” was made into a movie, complete with a song that featured a dog barking in the chorus, and that made millions of people cry.

About a decade later the Byrds recorded “Old Blue” on the underrated “Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde” LP.

What’s the point? Only that songs about dogs – especially tributes to dearly departed dogs – have a proud place in the history of American music, from country to film soundtracks to rock.

I wasn’t even thinking about that five years ago when my beloved dog Ginger died. I was hurting in the worst way and I picked up my guitar and before I knew it I had composed a melody and written the words of a chorus.

I couldn’t get through it without weeping and that was the case for a few years. But this spring I made myself write the verses and I went into a studio with my friend Philip Stevenson, who is a brilliant engineer and bass player. I cut some raw tracks and he played bass. When it was time to sing I brought along my daughter Isabel, who was 7 years old when Ginger died.

Here is the song. It’s the most unpolished recording I have ever put out in public but it might be the most powerful. Such is the bond between dogs and the people who love them.

If you enjoy it, please pass along to any dog lovers you know. Thanks.

Charles Walston is a former newspaperman who has always channeled his reservoir of creative energy into music, most notably while in Atlanta fronting the acclaimed Americana band The Vidalias, and more recently with the D.C.-based Bourbon Dynasty. 

Expressway to that Philly sound

By Wayne Shelor

Open this link in a new window:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQpTEaPFHXQ

There’re all sorts of styles and sounds in rock, from the classic to the clangy, garage to grunge, and West Coast to British Invasion. One of my favorite “sounds” is the Sound Of Philadelphia: TSOP.

Two of the coolest cats ever to write and produce records were Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Their strength was in producing records with social dialogue and distinctive, often ambient, sounds of the streets while cultivating a strings-rich style for the songs of a stable of talented artists.

In their heyday -- the mid-'60s to early '70s, a time when it seemed like everybody was young and idealistic -- Gamble and Huff were the very best at using rock music to break down cultural and color barriers.

Black men, Gamble and Huff wrote a song called “Expressway to Your Heart” for a band of white guys called the Soul Survivors – this all happened at the Cameo Parkway Studios in Philadelphia.

”Expressway to Your Heart” was a runaway hit in 1967, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard charts. The genius of “Expressway to Your Heart” was how Gamble and Huff arranged a rhythm & blues song to produce a soul-influenced pop song that America’s white AM radio audience found entertaining.

Gamble & Huff did something similar -- complete with the patented TSOP -- a year later with the release of The Intruders' hit “Cowboys to Girls,” another wonderful Top 10 hit. They were also behind The O’Jay’s “Love Train,” Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones” and even MFSB’s TSOP (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother’s “The Sound of Philadelphia”), a song you will recall as the theme music for TV’s "Soul Train" dance program.

All that love and fraternity delivered via an “Expressway to Your Heart” ... it's no wonder Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love. Of course Philly does have the meanest, most vulgar and unwelcoming sports fans in America. Maybe Gamble and Huff can work up a song about them …

Sanctuary contributor Wayne Shelor, who knows the expressway is not always the best way, would rather ride his bike to the beach.

They quack us up

Two of the funniest men who ever lived share birthdays on this day: Groucho Marx (1890-1977) and Bud Abbott (1896-1974).  In their honor we share a yuk from the archives of Esquire magazine's A Funny Joke From a Beautiful Woman.*

This duck joke -- have we ever told you we LOVE duck jokes? -- comes from actress Odette Yustman, whose screen credits include Transformers, Walk Hard and The Unborn.  (She delivered her first movie line at age 4 in Kindergarten Cop):

A guy walks into a doctor's office with a duck on his head. The doctor asks, "Can I help you?" The duck says, "Yeah, get this guy off my ass."

* Like the magazine, we cannot guarantee this joke will be funny to everyone.  But almost all of these crack us up.  Go here to read more jokes and learn about the women who tell them.

Pssst: The new voice and face of Americana

Justin Townes Earle should've been at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz tonight, followed by a date tomorrow at the Depot at Humboldt State.  Instead he's got a date with his demons.

Here is the note that was posted last week on his website:

Justin Townes Earle has decided to suspend the remaining dates on his tour and enter a rehabilitation facility. Earle is strongly committed to confronting his on-going struggle with addiction and thanks his family, friends and fans for their continued support through this difficult time.

That's a helluva note. Any momentum he may have gained touring in support of his terrific new album Harlem River Blues is stalled by an issue not unfamiliar to his family.  The apple, as they say, never falls far from the tree.

The son of Steve Earle has emerged from his father's shadow as an artist -- no easy feat -- but confronting the demons of addiction is a whole different dirty deal.  We have as a reference the unvarnished view of JTE's daddy from Lauren St. John's book Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle.  The father, a notorious drug abuser, was able to pull himself out of a much steeper and frightening tailspin.  We can only hope the son, now 28, gets it together before his life becomes nip and tuck. 

So we'll hope while we listen to that album of great new songs. It has never been easy to describe Americana music, but with Harlem River Blues -- released just two weeks ago -- a more precise definition emerges.  It's the music of Justin Townes Earle, a spiritual and deeply effecting journey through urban minefields and life's challenging moments.  Make no mistake, Steve Earle is the artist's father but Woody Guthrie is his hero.

Lord, I'm goin' uptown to the Harlem River to drown

Dirty water gonna cover me over and I'm not gonna make a sound

Meanwhile you can cross off next Saturday's show at First Avenue in Minneapolis and forget about his appearance here at Turner Hall in Milwaukee the following week. In all 21 dates in the U.S. and another 10 in the UK have been scrapped.  What a lousy, miserable deal for everyone, but especially for Justin Townes Earle.

Harlem River Blues goes up now on the PSSST (Personal Six String Sancutary Tout) board.