Journal Entry

:: My CD ::

[Update: The guest list has been posted. Ping!]

We had a nice gathering right in my 'hood (at El Cid, a fine taqueria) this evening with Chicagobloggers. The term doesn't really fit me these days, given how infrequently I've been writing, but that's okay.

The idea came up for one of the previous get-togethers to make mix CDs and trade them. I made one, but it was kind of crappy indie and I didn't have any art or track lists to go with it. So, to make up for my lack of posts and lack of track listing in one fell swoop, I bring you my annotated track list. If this looks enticing, and you want a copy, let me know.

1. Friends For Heroes - Moviestar — FFH is a duo of a couple friends from Seattle. They've known each other, and played in various bands together, for probably at least 10 years now. They released their first record as Friends For Heroes last month, and this is one of my favorite tracks.
2. M. Doughty - Mr Bitterness — The lead singer from the now-defunct Soul Coughing has one or two releases under his own name. Mr. Bitterness is one I really like by SC, and I like this one too.
3. Woody Guthrie - Mean Talking Blues — From the brilliant Smithsonian Folkways collection, this is one of my favorite Woody Guthrie songs of its type.
4. John McCutcheon - Ashcroft's Army — From John McCutcheon's recent protest album "Hail To The Chief", a collection of songs that are timely and topical enough to be "short shelf life classics," as he says. John is a great hammered dulcimer player as well as a great songwriter. This song is about Ashcroft's Operation TIPS.
5. Journey - Cookie Duster — Very early Journey, and an instrumental at that. My dad was obsessed with Journey for a while; I bought him this box set and discovered this track on it.
6. Freddie Hubbard - Sky Dive — One of my favorite drummers back in Pittsburgh, Roger Humphries, plays this song regularly at his Tuesday night jam session. I actually prefer that one to Hubbard's version, but this is also quite good.
7. Art Blakey - One By One — Art Blakey was one of the great jazz drummers of all time. There are some versions of this tune where his entrance is really bombastic and brilliant. This one's a little more mellow.
8. Bill Stewart - 7.5 — Bill Stewart is one of the hot drummers in New York right now. He worked with John Scofield for a long time, more recently with Pat Metheny and many others. He is one of my current favorites, and this is from his first record as a leader.
9. Charlie Hunter Quartet - Ashby Man — Charlie Hunter is an eight guitar phenom—three bass strings, five guitar strings on one instrument. He plays the bass and guitar parts together, no overdubbing. All his music is pretty groovy, like this one, the first track from Ready, Set, Shango! Ashby is a street in Berkeley, CA.
10. Blue Man Group - Rods And Cones — This is from the Blue Men's first music CD, Audio, and is my favorite from that album.
11. Bobby McFerrin - Baby — Bobby McFerrin is misunderstood by many people. He's a singer of unparalleled skill and range, but most people only know him for Don't Worry, Be Happy (which I'm told was written as a joke that he and his band used to make up nasty words to while driving to gigs). This is a nice one from Medicine Man
12. Pat Metheny - Song For The Boys — This is the free AAC sample track from one of jazz guitar's finest. One this one he's playing solo baritone guitar, and it's lovely.
13. Vital Tech Tones - Giant Steps — VTT is Steve Smith, Victor Wooten, and Scott Henderson. All three are among the best players of their instruments (drums, bass, guitar), and their two albums are some of the best fusion of recent years. This is their take on the much-played Coltrane standard.
14. Rahzel - Man vs. Machine — Rahzel is "The Godfather of Noise", a human beatbox, and one of the best. I've never heard anyone as good as Rahzel on the beatbox. This track is a bonus from his solo recording MTM 2000, pitting him and The Human Orchestra against DJ Skribble. Great stuff.
15. Wally Pleasant - The Day Ted Nugent Killed All the Animals — Wally Pleasant hails from Michigan, and sings some mighty funny tunes. This is one of my favorite, about his fellow Michigander Ted Nugent, the mighty hunter.
16. Soul Coughing - Coffee Song — Soul Coughing had a feature on their website several years ago called MP3 O' The Month, back when mp3s were a really new thing. They posted unreleased material, and this was one of them, a cover of The Coffee Song, made popular years ago by Frank Sinatra.
17. Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla — One of my favorite Schoolhouse Rock songs. Remember Schoolhouse Rock?