Your Mind Is On Vacation At The Parchman Farm
Getting inspiration from other artists is very often a good thing
Where did the musicians from the sixties rock boom and quite a few of those that came later on get their inspiration from?
Well, from the musical forms and genres that were developed before them including blues jazz, and whatnot.
One of those artists who worked with both blues and jazz and had some incredibly brilliant lyrics that many rockers (and others) refer to as ‘king of cool’ is Mose Allison, a man who came from the deep South had both jazz and blues in his small fingers and university degrees in literature and philosophy.
All of that he included in his music, along with some deep, often acerbic lyrics which he delivered in a drawn-out, tongue-in-cheek voice:
Well, I'm sittin' over here on Parchman Farm
And I ain't never done no man no harm
…
Well, I'm a-gonna be here for the rest of my life
And all I did was shoot my wife (Mose Allison - ‘Parchman Farm’)
You sittin' here and yakkin' right in my face
You comin' on exactly like you own the place
You know if silence was golden
You couldn't raise a dime
Because your mind is on vacation and your mouth is workin' overtime (Mose Allison - ‘Your Mind is on Vacation)
No wonder artists from Pete Townsend to Bonnie Raitt, among many others, list him as one of the key influences on their music.
James Heather - Hidden Angel
There is quite a glut of albums now of composers/pianists, where many of them stand out, many do not, but James Heather is among the former, having both an excellent compositional and playing touch, as he shows here.
Curling- URdoM
From the strange story of this title comes an excellent vocal post-rock song done by this multi-national quartet that includes members from the Bay Area and Japan.
Gabby’s World - Open The Door
Another one from this group keeps the right balance between introspective and introvert, this time around with a bit more pace and rhythm without moving away from their style.
Christopher Tignor - Off-Centered Hearts
So many classically-trained musicians go for the single treatment of their music, violinist Christopher Tignor surely falls into this group, here with a cinematically-tinged piece.
Keyon Harrold - Don’t Lie To Me
Nothing works better as late-night music than smooth jazz that escapes the trappings of musical wallpaper. Trumpeter Harrold and vocalist Malaya show how that is done here.
Meatraffle - Lambeth Walk
This South London sextet moves a bit away from their more dance-oriented stuff with this mood piece (that still has a nice rhythm) with some M. Allison-style lyrics.
Josh Semans - Winter Heart
Another classically-trained pianist goes pop single way, with a light touch and an excellent re-working by Simeon Walker here.
Jessie Wagner - Cry To Me
Wagner has exactly the vocal capabilities to tackle this sixties soul classic, keeping to the, well, soul of the original with just a few touches of modern production to make it stand out.
Swansea Sound - Twentieth Century
Well, yes, the music Rob Pursey and his crew here present here is definitely from the previous century, but it still sounds fresh and new thirty or so years on.
Los Discorde - El Mar
This Mexican band is more of a funky soul than Mariachi fans, and they have got that sound to a pat and in the right way, for sure.
Tulipomania - You Had to Be There
No, this duo is not Dutch but comes from Philadelphia and they present their music as electro-art-pop with enough left-field touches to make it work just fine.
Kristi Lane Sinclair - End of The Rope
Sinclair is one of the rockers who likes the darker side of the rock spectrum, with some plumbing fuzz guitars and a plodding rhythm that sounds much better when you listen to them.
The Sees - The Calling
This Brooklyn quartet covers similar psych/post-rock lines as the likes of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, but also prefer to add some vocals, rhythm, and pace in there too.
Mario Scherrer - Liturgica
Swiss artist Scherrer actually recorded this back in the eighties, but the prog-tinged sound he creates here is having a revival now, and this one sounds as if it was recorded yesterday.
Rachel Kilgour - My Father Loved Me
Here, Kilgour goes very personal but escapes the usual singer-songwriter problem of sounding too personal and unable to relate to a wider audience. Kilgour does.
Philip Sayce - Oh! That Bitches Brew
It takes a bit of courage to cite a Miles Davis masterpiece in a song title and then go classic heavy rock way. It's a good classic heavy rock, by the way.
Blanco White - Giordano’s Dream Pt. 1
Blanco White is one Josh Edwards who, it seems has a few records of the late Gary Wright (and Peter Gabriel) in his collection but who definitely does right by Wright, Gabriel, and himself.
Floor Space - Self-Destruct
Walking the same blues/soul/rock lines as Jack White, Floor Space creates that space on the (dance) floor for those who like to dance to other stuff than electro.
Six Impossible Things - Lemme Give Your Heart a Break
This Italian duo is able to fit their obvious love of early Bee Gees into a dream pop scenario, and it works quite charm here.
The Revivalists - Good Old Days
By their sound here it seems The Revivalists as good old days consider more the eighties than the decades before that one as good old days, but they got some ‘older’ touches in there too.