T Bone Burnett - T Bone Burnett

I bought this on CD when this came out. Back in '86 this was a really strange album and for me, it was almost a country album (I didn't know what Americana was), and it was fitted in right alongside all of the rock that was filling up my shelves. T Bone Burnett for whatever had a special place for me, he was his own genre. Going back to Trap Door, and Truth Decay, I was expecting quirky, roots oriented music, but with this self titled effort Mr. Burnett took it up another level and stripping things down to the bare essentials. The album was recorded live to two track analog and two track digital June 24, 25,26 and July 15, 1986. It is an amazing album, and when I found it on vinyl I figured, "Oh why not?"

This was the first time I'd really paid attention to the stellar dobro and lap steel work of Jerry Douglas. It's really a shame that the instrumental version of "I Remember" as to me it was the centrepiece of the album, and I'd always pair it with the vocal version. It's a breathtaking combination. I know his vocal performance could be construed as a whiny warble, but my goodness it just cut through and was just so raw.

I've not listened to this all for a long time, and it's been like revisiting an old friend. Over the intervening decades I've accumulated more knowledge about Mr. Burnett. I like that his inner circle is consistent. David Miner, who had played on The Alpha Band records, produced the record, and while many of the songs were written by T Bone, David Mansfield and Billy Swan wrote a song, as did Bob Neuwirth (still probably best remembered as the co-writer of Janis Joplin 's hit song " Mercedes Benz " among his many accomplishments.

There are some real standouts among the ten songs presented on the record. From the opening track, "River of Love" and "No love at All" to the mesmerizing "I Remember" that is still my favourite song on the album, followed by T Bone's cover of Tom Wait's "Time" that make this such a great listen.

The only complaint I have, and it's more a shot as the early choices made by labels to push CD sales was that the album is three songs shorter than it's smaller counterpart. True, two of the "bonus" songs were instrumental, one of them was so integral to the continuity of the album that the record feels truncated by its absence. "Song to a Dead Man" was a song I always really liked, and it feels weird it's not here.

Oh well, shit happens and I have the CD, and now I have the record, and if you stream it you'll get it all. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Comments

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the

Old Enough to Forget

Search This Blog