Rob's Pages

Friday, September 27

Syd Straw, Peter H (etc) – McCabe’s 1987

McCabe’s
Santa Monica, CA
July 10, 1987

acoustic show

audience recording (sound quality VG+; low-generation tape source with good acoustics, marred only by occasional taper-adjusting-his-equipment noises)

SPECIAL THANKS to the taper and to dB’s Fan for sharing

HIGHLIGHTS: unique show, with covers galore and generous helpings of songs from Syd Straw, Peter Holsapple, The dB's & Golden Palominos

 
McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica has hosted numerous cool shows through the years



SAMPLE: "Think Too Hard" (McCabe's)


01 intro & Winnie the Pooh reading
Syd Straw (photo by Jeff Wong)
02 The Way of Love
03 Losing My Grip
04 Unsatisfied (Replacements cover)
05 Girlfriend
06 Looked at the Sun Too Long
07 Think Too Hard
08 In the Middle of It All
09 Keep Up With You
10 You and Your Sister (Chris Bell / Big Star cover)
11 It Tears Me Up
12 The First One
13 (I'm Always Touched By) Your Presence, Dear
14 Jerking Around
15 Today Could Be the Day
16 I’m Looking for a Home
17 Two By Two
18 Never Before and Never Again
19 Lonely Is as Lonely Does
20 Next to the Last Waltz
21 Nothing Is Wrong
22 Mr. Control
Peter Holsapple: man with a guitar and a song
23 I Can’t Win
24 (Kind of) True
25 Angels
26 I Apologize (Hüsker Dü cover)
27 All the Way
28 Buenos Aires

NOTE: other song composers are identified in the comments section of the MP3 files

TT: 1:44:50

Musicians:
Syd Straw – vocals
Peter Holsapple – guitar, vocals
Jody Harris – guitar
Frank Valentine – guitar

Find another Syd Straw/Peter Holsapple show HERE. Learn more about the music of Syd Straw at AllMusic and/or 
John Relph's excellent discography     
  

Wednesday, September 25

Videos new & old (worth watching)

WHO'S SEEN & HEARD THESE?
THEY'RE WORTH A COUPLA MINS. OF YOUR TIME

"Waterloo Sunset" by Ray Davie of The Kinks
Sung by The Chorus Project
Played by The dB's
July 2013

More info about The Chorus Project at THIS web site and THIS FaceBook page
BIG THANKS to Z for the hot tip...
 
"Living a Lie" by The dB's
1982
OFFICIAL VIDEO!
Dude, check out the "green screen" malfunction with Will's shirt starting at 1:48...
  

Friday, September 20

September is Will Rigby month at the blog...

... in case you hadn't noticed.
Another photo of Will Rigby (drumming for Steve Earle in 2013)
by Lewis J. Tezak Jr. for Upstate Live.
Will has been a champion of musical discovery via the Internet, going back (I suppose) to his finding a news & discussion group devoted to Bob Dylan (read what he says about this and his song "Leanin' On Bob" in last week's post).

Some time thereafter, Will wrote the bio for The dB's that was published on the band's official site. He's been a strong supporter of this blog since I started it last year. For that reason — and since the guy is also one of the most enjoyable and fascinating musicians I've encountered — I've been wanting to feature him and his music here for some time.

Great place to catch a show: The Orange Peel in Asheville, N.C.
I finally got my chance when the Steve Earle & The Dukes tour came close enough for me to catch them live recently in Asheville, N.C. Not only did I get to see and hear Will do his masterly thing on the drums during the show, he also was gracious enough to sit for an hour-long Q & A, which became the basis for the two-part interview I posted last week and the week before.

This week, I close out Will Rigby Month with two posts. The first is a recent Steve Earle & The Dukes show from Dublin, Ireland. I've enhanced it with two bonus tracks: a cover of The Stones' "Mother's Little Helper", live in London on this tour with Will on backing vocals, and Will's own "Ricky Skaggs Tonite" from a recent show in Canada. Will is the longest-standing (?"longest-sitting"?) drummer that Steve Earle's Dukes has ever had. Give this show a listen, and you'll hear why.

The second post is a multimedia feast of Will Rigby's best/favorite drumming performances, courtesy of the artist himself. I recommend you explore it with the aim of discovering great music. A noteworthy f'rinstance: Cheri Knight's The Northeast Kingdom (produced by Steve Earle), which Will says is one of the all-around best projects he's ever been involved in. I'd never heard of the album or the artist. After giving it just one listen, however, I was very glad to get the tip from Will.

He's got a bunch more for you, so have a look and —

ENJOY!
  
P.S. - On top of everything else, Will also writes the occasional piece about music. His latest appears on Ted Barron's blog Boogie Woogie Flu. It's a remembrance of discovering The Velvet Underground and the peculiar joy of finding an elusive musical grail. Read it HERE.
  

Steve Earle, Will Rigby & The Dukes - Dublin, Ireland 2013

Vicar Street 
Dublin, Ireland
June 1, 2013

audience recording (sound quality Ex--; I almost never give this high a grade to an audie; it’s a pretty impressive recording)

MEGA THANKS to Kagee1 for recording and sharing this awesome show!

Men (and woman) in black: Steve Earle and the fabulous Dukes
SAMPLE: "You're Still Standing There" (Vicar Street 2013) 


01 The Low Highway
Catch 'em live if you can...
02 21st Century Blues
03 Calico County
04 Taneytown
05 Hard-Core Troubabour
06 I Thought You Should Know
07 banter 1 + intro to That All You Got?
08 That All You Got?
09 Love’s Gonna Blow My Way / 
         After Mardi Gras
10 banter 2
11 Pocketful of Rain
12 This City
13 Ben McCulloch
14 You’re Still Standing There
15 Invisible / Burnin’ It Down
16 Guitar Town
17 Copperhead Road
18 banter 3 + band Intros
19 Free Men (Kelly Looney tune)
20 banter 4 + intro to Warren Hellman’s Banjo
21 Warren Hellman’s Banjo
22 Little Emperor
Steve Earle, Will Rigby, Kelly Looney
("best darn lineup" of The Dukes)

23 Billy and Bonnie
24 Mystery Train, Part 2
25 Galway Girl
26 Down the Road, Part 2
27 Down the Road
28 encore break 1 + intro to Remember Me
29 Remember Me
30 My Old Friend the Blues
31 Dixieland
32 encore break 2
33 Wild Thing (Troggs cover)
34 Continental Trailways Blues
35 The Revolution Starts Now

*36 Mother’s Little Helper (Rolling Stones cover)
^37 Ricky Skaggs Tonite (Will Rigby)

*Royal Festival Hall, London, UK 2013-05-21 (aud)
^Moncton, NB, Canada 2013-08-12 (aud)

TT: 2:15:10
suggested disc split for burning: between tracks 22 & 23

Band in motion: SE & The Dukes, live in 2011 (photo by Sun209.com)
Steve Earle & The Dukes:
Steve Earle - guitar, mandolin, banjo, keyboard, vocals 
Chris Masterson - pedal steel, guitars, B bender, vocals 
Eleanor Whitmore - fiddle, guitar, mandolin, keyboard, vocals 
Kelly Looney - bass guitar, double bass, guitar, vocals 
Will Rigby – drums!

 

Will Rigby - favorite songs & performances

WR, himself
A man of many talents, faces, hair styles.
Here's a compendium of some of Will's favorite recordings by other artists, on which he plays (and occasionally sings). For the most part, this collection was compiled by Will, but I threw in a small handful of picks.

ANYONE ELSE NOTICE WILL HAS REALLY GOOD TASTE IN WHO HE PLAYS WITH??*
*except Mojo Nixon, whose stuff is usually in bad taste — but in a really good way...

CLICK ON THE LINKS: many will take you to YouTube, while others will take you to artists' web sites, and still others will open iTunes links whereupon you can sample and/or purchase some of the music. A few are MP3s that were either free to begin with or authorized by the recording artist.

ENJOY! 

CHERI KNIGHT
Cheri Knight, "All Blue" (live performance video, Mercury Lounge, NYC in 1998): WR on drums & backing vocals


"Black Eyed Susie" (live video, Mercury Lounge, NYC in 1998): WR on drums

"If Wishes Were Horses" (live video, Mercury Lounge, NYC in 1998): WR on drums

KELLY WILLIS
Kelly Willis, "That's how I Got to Memphis" (audio only YouTube clip; album cut from Tom T. Hall tribute): WR on drums


LAURA CANTRELL
Laura Cantrell, "Little Bit of You" (audio only YouTube clip; album cut from Not the Tremblin' Kind): WR on drums


"Do You Ever Think of Me?" (audio only YouTube clip; album cut from Not the Tremblin' Kind): WR on drums  

"Pile of Woe" (audio only YouTube clip; album cut from Not the Tremblin' Kind): WR on drums

"Big Wheel" (audio only YouTube clip; album cut from Not the Tremblin' Kind): WR on drums

MATTHEW SWEET
Matthew Sweet, "The Ugly Truth" (live TV performance video, MTV's "120 Minutes" in 1993): WR on drums


"Someone to Pull the Trigger" (live video, MTV's "120 Minutes" in 1993): WR on drums

"Devil With the Green Eyes" (live video, MTV's "120 Minutes" in 1993): WR on drums

"Time Capsule" (live performance video, "Conan O'Brien", 1993): WR on drums

(all 4 of the above videos feature the great Richard Lloyd on guitar) 

JILL SOBULE
Jill Sobule, "I Kissed a Girl" (live TV performance video, "The Tonight Show", 1995): WR on drums


"I Kissed a Girl" (live video, "The Daily Show", 1995): WR on drums
 
STEVE EARLE & THE DUKES 

Steve Earle, "Invisible" (official video, single from The Low Anthem): WR on drums


"Jerusalem" (official video, single from Jerusalem): WR on drums

 
"Some Dreams" (official video for the movie "The Rookie" + album cut from Sidetracks): WR drum miming (Will did not actually play on the album track)


"Lonelier Than This" (live, Toronto, Canada, 2000 on MP3): WR on drums 

"I Can Wait" (audio only YouTube clip, album cut from Transcendental Blues): WR on drums
 
"The Revolution Starts Now" (live, The Late Show with Craig Ferguson): WR slammin the drums!


"Invisible" (live on Letterman 2013): WR on drums


Complete 2011 live concert, Steve Earle & The Dukes (& Duchesses), multi-part YouTube videos [audience-shot, but quite well done]: WR on drums


TIM LEE
 
Tim Lee, "Whistling Thru a Graveyard" (Free Friday download MP3): WR on drums
  

THE PUSSYWILLOWS
The Pussywillows, "Vindaloo" (audio only YouTube clip; album cut from the movie soundtrack Kill the Moonlight]): WR on drums

 
MOJO NIXON
Mojo Nixon, "Gotta Be Free" (audio only YouTube clip; album cut from Whereabouts Unknown [a song about ... err, um ... penis enlargement; a fitting musical companion to "Tie My Pecker to My Leg"]): WR on drums

FAYE HUNTER (R.I.P.)
Faye Hunter, "Blinded" (audio only YouTube clip; album cut from Water Music Compilation by various artists): WR on drums

CHRIS ERIKSON
Chris Erikson, "Ear to the Ground" (album cut from Lost Track of the Time in MP3, courtesy of Chris Erikson): WR on drums 

THE SCENE IS NOW
That's Will at far right
others L-R: Tony Maimone, Chris Nelson, Phil Dray, Dick Champ
The Scene Is Now (most album cuts from Tonight We Ride [MySpace stream]): WR on drums