Johnny Cash – The American Outtakes

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Johnny Cash‘s legacy may have been set in stone by the Phoenix-Witherspoon biopic, Walk The Line, but the cartoonish representation of his early career does a good job of skewing the events of the legend’s life. In truth, Johnny became such a devout Christian that he abandoned many of the traits that made him a commercial success. He was dropped from his record label, and seemed intent on living out the rest of his life with his wife in Tennessee.

But his December years were spent under the umbrella of Rick Rubin‘s American Recordings label, and with Rick at the helm, Johnny recorded some of his finest material to date. From 1994 until his death in 2003, Johnny recorded a boatload of material, and, to date, his label has released American Recordings (1994), Unchained (1996), American III: Solitary Man (2000), American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002), Unearthed (2003), American V: A Hundred Highways (2006), and, reportedly American VI is due in 2009.

These outtakes are all similar in vein to the original American sessions, with Johnny Cash singing with just an acoustic guitar for accompaniment. This session was recorded from 5/17-20/1993 in Rick Rubin’s living room

Johnny Cash
5/17 to 5/20/1993

01 For Heaven’s Sake
02 I’m A Drifter
03 I Witnessed A Crime (with Billy Gibbons)
04 Banks of The Ohio
05 The Next Time I’m In Town
06 Breaking Bread
07 To Beat The Devil
08 Friends In California
09 Caretaker
10 The Wonder of You
11 East Virginia Blues
12 Bury Me Not
13 I’m Just An Old Chunk of Coal (But I’ll Be A Diamond Someday)
14 Go On Blues
15 If I Give My Soul

Download the whole session from: http://drop.io/o5kbm7y

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I’ve never heard of drop.io. What is drop.io?
http://ghost-electricity.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-use-dropio.html

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Blind Melon – Good Foot Demos [1990]

Blind Melon – The Good Foot Demos

I guess I’m on a streak today. You see, once Blind Melon gets into my bloodstream, there’s no stopping the posting. These tracks here are some of the better demo recordings that I’ve heard, ever. I’m imagining that these are the tapes that got them signed to Capitol Records…

taken from the text file…

Blind Melon
Good Foot Workshop
Studio Demos
1990
Los Angeles, CA

Source:
Cassette Master>DAT>>WAV>mp3

Tracks:
01 – Drive
02 – What You Lost
03 – Paper Scratcher
04 – Tones of Home
05 – Leave Me Alone (I Wonder)
06 – Dear Ol Dad
07 – Soul One
08 – Seed To A Tree

This Is The Real Deal Folks. No Slow Speeds, No Distorted Bass.
The Recording Itself Came From A Battered Cassette (Sony). There
Has Been No Digital Editing Or Eq’ing Done To This What So Ever. What
You Are Hearing Is What Was On The Tape…And It Sounds A Hell
Of Alot Better Than The Actual Silver Cd Bootleg.

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Download Blind Melon’s “Goodfoot Demos” http://drop.io/lijyrco

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I’ve never heard of drop.io.  What is drop.io?
http://ghost-electricity.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-use-dropio.html

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RYAN Adams & the Cardinals – Elizabethtown Sessions [2005]

By request:

1. Cemetery Hill
2. The Sewers At The Bottom Of The Wishing Well
3. Clementine (possibly Madeline?)
4. Everybody Knows
5. When The Wild Wind Blows (or Wild Wind)
6. Dreams Of A Working Class Clown (or Dreams Of The Working Class)
7. Words
8. Lions Of Broadway
9. Who Were We?
10. Willows
11. Lighthouses
12. Saturday Night
13. Everything Dies
14. Two
15. Maps
16. Don’t Get Sentimental On Me
17. Elizabeth Town
18. Elizabeth

Tom Schick, producer of Cardinology, produced these sessions.

Download “The Elizabethtown Sessions” http://drop.io/elizabethtownsessions

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I’ve never heard of drop.io.  What is drop.io?
http://ghost-electricity.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-use-dropio.html

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Musings on Big Sur: Kerouac, Esalen, and CSNY

This post is for my boy Mike D., my soon-to-be brother in law, and an overall legend to all who know him.

Mike’s been an expert wedding-attendee for a few years now, going to an absolutely ridiculous number of weddings (especially over the last two summers) and he’s naturally seen it all. Indoor, outdoor, rain, shine, quirky, dull…the list goes on.

Well, the most exciting wedding event to happen to Mike this summer (besides his own wedding to one of the greatest people ever, followed by my wedding to his sister, also one of the most amazing people ever) is going to take place in Big Sur, California, just a shade south of San Francisco. I’m jealous that he gets to cross the country and partake in some Pacific Coast goodness.

Whenever I think of Big Sur, I think of two things.

1) The Kerouac Novel of the same name, which, (quite the spoiler here) takes place in the seaside town.

and

2) The 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival that took place at the Esalen Institute, featuring Joan Baez, John Sebastian, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the Combs Sisters.

Here’s CSN&Y performing Neil Young’s “Down By The River”, in furious fashion.

ckick the HD button on the silver bar for some extra quality ^

Head over here to watch a majority of the film Celebration At Big Sur which was filmed in a “Woodstock”-esque style. Enjoy it. Just don’t drink the Kool-Aid.

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Misheard lyrics: Pearl Jam edition

This one is for anyone who’s ever been to a Pearl Jam show and sung along to this Pearl Jam epic. Let’s just face it, people, none of us know the lyrics. Personally, I don’t think it matters! In actuality, I think the only permanent words in this song are “box” and “bag”, but who knows, even that’s a guess!

Thanks to my man, Jeff, for giving me a good laugh this morning.

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Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit hitting the high notes on new album

[Jason Isbell]
I really can’t say enough about the tracks that I’ve heard off of Jason Isbell’s new album Seven Mile Island, due Feb 17th. There IS something to be said about straight up honest songwriting, intelligent and inventive musicianship and a road-tested pace that would make any fan of Southern-tinged alt. country tap their foot and bob their head.

In fact, Isbell and his band, the 400 Unit have earned their road stripes. They’ve criss-crossed the States following the release of Sirens of the Ditch, having played over 200 shows in just over a year. Judging by the schedule of things to come, that count is gonna skyrocket. I know that I’m catching them in Boston. I’m not missing that.

Preordered ticket holders also get a one-year subscription to PASTE Magazine, which is pretty fucking cool. Not much comes for free anymore, so hook it up. If you order, and don’t want the subscription, hit me up in the comments (mine just ran out)

PRE-ORDER LINK: http://jasonisbell.frontgatetickets.com/

TOUR DATES:

Thu-Feb-12 Birmingham, AL Workplay
Sat-Feb-14 Florence, AL Shoals Theater
Tue-Feb-17 Athens, GA Georgia Theatre
Wed-Feb-18 Atlanta, GA The Earl
Fri-Feb-20 Raleigh, NC Lincoln Theatre
Sat-Feb-21 Richmond, VA The National
Sun-Feb-22 Harrisonburg, VA The Pub
Tue-Feb-24 Boston, MA TT the Bears
Thu-Feb-26 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
Fri-Feb-27 Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
Sat-Feb-28 Pittsburgh, PA Club Cafe
Sun-Mar-01 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Mon-Mar-02 Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
Wed-Mar-04 Toronto, ONT Horseshoe Tavern
Thu-Mar-05 Buffalo, NY Mohawk Place
Fri-Mar-06 Columbus, OH The Rumba Café
Sat-Mar-07 Cincinnati, OH Southgate House
Sun-Mar-08 Asheville, NC Orange Peel
Fri-Mar-13 Louisville, KY Headliner’s
Sat-Mar-14 Nashville, TN The Mercy Lounge
Mar 18 – 22 Austin, TX SXSW

Sons of Roswell support 2/12 and 2/14
Benji Hughes supports 2/17 – 2/ 22 and 3/8
Deer Tick supports 2/24, 2/27 – 3/14

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Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – Cigarettes And Wine

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Stream the album on MySpace

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The Allman Brothers paying tribute to King Curtis 8/26/1971

The Allman Brothers – Live at A&R Studios in New York City, August 26th, 1971

They had recorded their seminal live album, At Fillmore East, in March 1971, and continued to tour relentlessly. In July, At Fillmore East was released to critical acclaim. It was back on the road again to promote that album. One important stop was at New York’s A&R Studios. The show was broadcast live on FM.

This show was broadcast two weeks after the death of King Curtis. This article from Hittin’ The Note by Tim Hoover details Curtis’ influence on Duane Allman.

During the broadcast, Duane pauses to reflect on his fallen friend: “About King Curtis – that was one of the finest cats there ever was. He was just right on top of getting next to young people, you know? It’s a shame. If y’all get the chance, listen to that album he made out at Fillmore West… Boy, it’s incredible, it’s unbelievable, the power and the emotional stature the man had. He’s an incredible human being.

“At the funeral, boy, Aretha sang and Stevie Wonder played… they played ‘Soul Serenade.’ Duane breaks off into the melody of Curtis’ signature song, and a few in the audience respond with polite applause of recognition.

“Y’all probably a little bit young. It’s fantastic. We’ll do some of that… yeah, I know where we’ll do it…”

“Duane and the band jump into the intro for ‘You Don’t Love Me.’ A little over eight minutes into the song, Duane slows the band, reaching an achingly slow transitional phase, gradually leading everyone into his own version of ‘Soul Serenade’. When Duane plays the melody of the song again, the audience immediately begins clapping along to the sweet melodic tune. Suddenly, Duane jumps in and absolutely cuts the melody to shreds with one of the most moving, heart-felt solos you will ever hear, taking it right up into the stratosphere. Mirroring his words for Curtis, the ‘power and emotional stature’ of Duane’s own very personal and passionate eulogy for his lost friend is delivered as only he can do it – powerfully, lovingly, and gracefully.

Tragically, the Allman Brothers Band lost their founder and leader when Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in Macon on October 29, just two months after this show.

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Statesboro Blues
Trouble No More
Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’
Done Somebody Wrong
One Way Out
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
Stormy Monday
You Don’t Love Me ->
Soul Serenade (in memory of King Curtis)->
Jam>
Mountain Jam>
Hot ‘Lanta
Band Intro’s

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PART 1
PART 2

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enjoy…..

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I got DRUNK, and lost my blog

Last night, I apparently was on a mission.

A mission to tweak my blog
(GHOST of ELECTRICITY)

and add in some FeedFlares, those STUPID little things at the bottom of the posts.

What happened at 3 am when I attempted to mess with html?

WELL, I erased my template… it’s gone. And, for what backups are worth, I already deleted the three previous backups just a week ago. I thought they were taking up space. They were annoying me, so I deleted them. Oh and the “backup” that I took last night before I finally retired to sleep? Yeah, that wasn’t a backup, that was a saved version of an xml file of a basic template….the same template that I woke up this morning to find plastered on my page, instead of the wide-columned, custom-colored, personalized version that I had grown to love, through the trial-and-error sweat-and-tears that is html for me. Fuck me with a pitchfork. I got drunk and got HTML-goggles.

Well, after some soul searching, and freaking out, I found out that Blogger saves ONE version in it’s archives. Un-fuck me with a pitchfork….Ten minutes ago, I found my template. Well, it’s not totally the same. But I dodged a bullet. I’ll take it.

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So, in honor of me drunkenly losing (and soberly, subsequently finding) my blog: here’s a couple of fitting songs….

Johnny Cash – from ‘American II: Unchained’ – The Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea.mp3

Willard Grant Conspiracy – from ‘Everything’s Fine’- Drunkards Prayer.mp3

Uncle Tupelo – from ‘Anthology 89-93′ – I Got Drunk.mp3

The Shit (Ryan Adams) – from ‘Hillbilly Joel’ – Drunk As A Pile of Fuck.mp3

The Shit (Ryan Adams) – from ‘Hillbilly Joel’ – Drunk And In Jail For Arson.mp3

The Shit (Ryan Adams) – from ‘Hillbilly Joel’ – Drunk As Hell Again.mp3

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Today’s JAM! Dead rock the Nile 1978-style

Even though I’ve had most of the Dead’s 4-night run in Egypt on bootleg for ages, I couldn’t pass up a new live release like this. Compiled from the 1978 shows played at the base of the Sphinx, the music has never sounded better. All the more reason for going out and buying a hard copy of it. Gone are the tape warbles, and if the boys were concerned that their performance was lackluster, then rest assured it doesn’t show on this set….

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Grateful Dead
Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 (2CD/1 DVD Set)
Purchase from Amazon

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Here, you’ll find Ollin Arageed, a traditional Egyptian song adapted and performed by Hamza Al Din with the Dead and a number of local precussionists and musicians.

Hit the play button, then go and seek out the whole compilation. It’s so worth it.

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LARRY CAMPBELL – silent troubador, ridiculous guitar-slinger

One of my first non-rant blog posts evah [archived from MOG.com].

Larry never stops. Along with being Bob Dylan’s sideman for 8 years, this guy’s recently recorded with Levon Helm, Lucy Kaplansky, Ollabelle, Rob Barraco, Jim Lauderdale, Solomon Burke, the Holmes Brothers, and Linda Thompson. He’s also worked with the likes of Roseanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, Buddy and Julie Miller, Willie Nelson, Doug Sahm, Tracy Chapman, Cyndi Lauper, and kd lang.

He put out a solo record in 2005, which I picked up after seeing him at the Newport Folk Festival in the summer of ’05. It’s called Rooftops and it is amazing. Please listen to some mp3′s at:

http://treasurerecords.com/audio/Larry_Campbell-Rooftops.mp3

http://treasurerecords.com/audio/Larry_Campbell-Camp_Chase.mp3

In Larry’s own word’s : “I suppose the common thread running through most of this album (with the exception of the two originals and “House Carpenter”) is that these are all tunes that I originally learned on the fiddle. Playing fiddle tunes on solo guitar is certainly nothing new, but when you consider all the hoedowns, reels, jigs, rags, airs, waltzes etc. out there, it’s pretty rich territory to mine. Hope you enjoy it!” – Larry Campbell (Liner notes from Larry Campbell’s first solo recording “Rooftops”)

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