This Weeks Play List

Some stories and ramblings to go along with the song list this week. Enjoy…

Waterline – Long Goners (2005) I only have a couple of songs from this CD. Chris who is half of the due that makes up the core of this band was kind enough to send a couple of mp3s to me. The backup band for this CD is The Goners, often John Hiatt’s band over the last decade, and featuring the great Sonny Landreth on slide guitar. These two songs are pretty hot. I’m going to have to check out the rest of the CD. For more info you can go to http://www.waterlinemusic.com

Lucinda Williams – Live at the Fillmore (2005) Make sure you have your anti-depressants handy when you put this CD into your player. There may be no voice in rock right now that so conveys the heartbreak and pain the way Lucinda’s does. As potent as her studio recordings are, this 2 CD set just burns all the way through.

Gomez – Out West (2005) One of the highlights from the ACL Festival last year was the hour long set by Gomez. I’ve always enjoyed their CDs, but really loved their live set. And this 2 CD package is not a disappointment. There’s lots of energy from this very talented band.

KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 8 (2000) There isn’t a live radio collection that is as consistently as good as the KGSR recordings. They are released every year around November and I always wait with anticipation for my copy. They are all 2 CD sets except for the first one (a single CD) and this one (a triple CD!). The third CD in this set is actually a best of from the first 7 years plus a tribute to Jerry Reed from Eric Johnson. As always, there are too many great performances to mention. Everyone from Patti Smith to Bruce Cockburn is on these CDs with lots of Austinites like Patty Griffin, Alejandro Escovedo and Bob Schneider. All of the KGSR CDs find their way onto to Ebay on a regular basis, if you need to add to your collection. And the next CD will be available online at http://www.waterloorecords.com .

Melissa Etheridge – Melissa Etheridge (1988) A bunch of years back, I put Melissa’s music away. It had hit too close to home and was just too painful to listen to. Over the years I’ve continued to see her in concert and listen to her new music. Last week, for the first time in years, I play this CD. From the opening bass and drums of “Similar Features”, the shivers started. This is one of those great freshman CDs; and it has lost nothing with time.

This seems like a good time to tell my Melissa story. It was a few years back. I was in San Diego with my friend Kim and we had pit seats for Melissa. I was one of maybe 3 guys in the pit (I think they were guys) and Kim and I were having a great time enjoying the show. There was a segment of the show when Melissa took requests. Everyone who had been going to the shows knew when it was (Kim saw her up and down the coast that year). As that moment came near, Kim turned to me and said, “Born to Run”! Yes! What a great idea, we’ll yell that out together. And so we did. But Melissa didn’t hear. But the people around us did and thought it was a great idea (in case you didn’t know, when Melissa did her unplugged on MTV, Springsteen came on stage with her and sang “Thunder Road”). And so a group of strangers around us started yelling “Bruuuuuuuuce”. That caught Melissa’s attention. She came over toward us and said, “What”? We yelled “Born to Run” and Melissa said the following: “ Oh, I see. It is always the boyfriends and husbands. They think, I have to sit through this music. The least she can do is play some Bruce.” Then she looks right at us, points and says, “Well, it ain’t gonna happen”. Then she goes to the other side of the stage and takes a request from someone else. So, Melissa, if you ever read this, you were wrong and you owe us all a Springsteen song. :-) Okay, back to the music.

The Devlins – Waiting (1997) Like so many other people, I discovered The Devlins when I watched the first (or was it second) episode of Six Feet Under on HBO. The closing song for that episode, “Waiting”, was so powerful, that it haunted me for months. Finally the Six Feet Under CD came out and I was able to enjoy this song over and over and over… The full CD, which I recently picked up has a different mix for “Waiting”. Maybe not as good, but it is still a very powerful song. The rest of the CD is good but not nearly as potent. It is very spiritual and this leads to a quandary for me. I guess it is time for a little talk…

Some people may be under the mistaken impression that this stream called The Promise has some religious significance. Apparently there are Christian references on the Internet to the words “the promise”. Well, truthfully, I had no idea when I picked this name. Hey, I’m Jewish, how would I know. But I love that the title can have so many different meanings to people. And that is why I picked it. Its real meaning for me dates back to September 1999. I was at Staples Center in L.A. along with 20,000 of my closest friends to see The Boss. Part way through his set, the E Street Band left the stage and Bruce climbed onto the piano bench to give us a valentine; a song I don’t believe he had ever performed west of the Rockies: The Promise. At that time the box set hadn’t been released and this was such a rare song that it took awhile before we recognized it (the acoustics at Staples suck during softer moments). I’ve been totally in love with the song ever since. And so, when I started this station, it was an obvious choice for a name. There are other reasons for the name, but I’ll leave those for another time. Meanwhile, I’ve ended up playing some spiritual music from time to time. It is weird for me ‘cause I don’t want people to see the station that way, but when music is real good, I’ve just gotta play it. And so I play The Scabs to try and counterbalance things. :-)