'Time Bomb'
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
Salute the Majesty... is not only not out of print, it's on sale at the Bloodshot site for $10. They give free US shipping too.
About To Choke is in sotck at Amazon, and looking it up has directed me a CD I missed called Left To His Own Devices that I'm gonna have to check out as well. And you can buy a signed tape of Is The Actor Happy? from Vic directly: [link]
If you can only get one thing that people have recommended, get Townes Van Zandt.
Second that. I like Our Mother the Mountain best, though it's his most produced (with chamber-country strings). But it's also got his best batch of songs, mostly in the dark, country-goth vein.
Jon, my current temp is a musician. She was very active in the Boston scene during the mid-80s, and her eyes got very wide when I mentioned that you'd played with Clint Conley. She's also a writer, and interviewed Roger Miller on three different occasions.
Really, Misha? I thought Salute the Majesty went out of print when their Johnny Cash cd went OOP. Hell, I thought that Vic's entire back catalog (save TS&B) was OOP, too. Interesting.
Jon, my current temp is a musician. She was very active in the Boston scene during the mid-80s, and her eyes got very wide when I mentioned that you'd played with Clint Conley.
Hee. What's her name? If you don't want to post it here, email me. Did you mention my radio show? She might have heard it back then.
I love "California Stars" from Mermaid Avenue. Whiskeytown is also good, and I had quite a nice conversation last December from a gentleman who used to be in the band. But d'oh on me for not remembering his name.
The Cash CD was not released by Bloodshot, and so there's a whole different set of distribution issues.
I'll throw Joe Ely's Honky Tonk Masquerade onto the recommendation pile.
John Flansburgh interviews Stephen Merritt about his new album. Jonathan Schwartz played a bunch of songs from "Bounce" on his show the week before last, but unlike most WNYC shows, his does not seem to be archived. Sorry.
A radio piece on Ben Treuhaft, founder of Send A Piana to Havana. "'I'm a piano tuner who got caught up in Cuba's piano crisis and, in helping out, found I had to circumnavigate the ridiculous embargo.'... Almost every day Treuhaft calls the Treasury office looking for information to appeal their decision. 'I want to know why they consider pianos subversive.'"
Schwartz's shows are never on the web, for I believe contractual reasons having to do with his also being a DJ for one of the satellite radio stations.
Too bad. It was a good show. Keeping with the Sondheim theme (no pun intended) he played some of the West Side Story tracks from Bill Charlap's new album Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein. You can hear a review & selections from the album at this page, which also has a feature on Harry Nilsson's The Point, which has just been (re?)released on DVD.
Jonathan Schwartz drives my GF up the wall, & I know what she means, but as a big fan of "the Great American Songbook" I like his show anyway. The inside dish on the music, performers & writers is great, too. For those of you who haven't heard him, he's the son of Arthur Schwartz ("Dancing in the Dark", "That's Entertainment" and "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan", which someone -- Erin, I think -- included in a Buffistamix) so he has his father's stories, plus he knew many of the songwriters and performers he loves. He's been a collector and deejay for years. In addition to the stuff he digs up on his own people send him rare recordings all the time. He is kind of drone-y, though. But if you like that sort of music he's definitely worth checking out, Saturdays and Sundays 12-4 on wnyc.org.
Also, of course, on XM Satellite Radio.