Category Archive

by Cousin Geoff

Wendy Miller & Mike Lilly recorded this album, Country Old Country New on Brighton, Michigan’s Old Homestead record label in 1975.  A really strong album throughout, it features a great original spiritual roots song, My God’s Not Dead.  The song was written by Mike and his mother, Betty Lilly.

I’m drawn to this type of music because of it’s honesty.  I’ve been increasingly into bluegrass music the past few years, and it’s roots music at it’s finest.  My dad and I drove up north this past weekend and we listened to XM’s bluegrass junction station the entire way.  So in my quest to dig deeper into the genre, I’ve naturally found some wonderful local records, as this overlaps with my love of long-lost Michigan recordings.

I’ve always found a similar connection to bluegrass and reggae.  Both are music of the people with similar themes thoughout, including their own sources of spiritual strength: Jesus with bluegrass and Jah with reggae.  My God’s Not Dead reminded me of the Bob Marley song Jah Live, written in response to the negativity towards Rastas after the death of their profit, Etheopean Emporer Haile Salassie I.  Bob put out this song a day or two after his death, with an incredible response by Jamaican Rastafarians.

Fellow Wailer and devout Rastafarian Peter Tosh’s first solo album (although he was backed in the studio by many members of the Wailers-but not Marley) was the epic Legalize It.  The track Igziabher (Let Jah Be Praised) remains a Rastafarian classic, and displays Tosh’s amazing songwriting abilities. 

by Cousin Geoff 

I’ve had this record for a while now and it’s easily one of my favorite dub albums.  If you’re just learning about dub, you could start with King Tubby or Lee Perry, or just prepare for a totally different listening experience - the deconstruction of reggae music. 

Jamaican born Jah Bunny was the drummer for Dennis Bovell, perhaps the UK’s most influencial reggae artist of the 70s and 80s as a band leader for his group Matumbi, as well as a producer and solo artist.  Although Mutumbi was at it’s core a roots band, Dennis Bovell was also very involved in the dub art form, and no doubt his influence rubbed off on Jah Bunny. 

This 1980 private label LP is an adventurous but laid back dub effort, and one I’d highly recommend as a hidden gem for reggae/dub collectors.  It flows pleasantly and coherently through guitar and bass manipulations to compliment Jah Bunny’s rhythmic creations, with no worries and no hurry.  If you want to listen to modern dub that you can just put on, walk away, and fully relax, then look for this one or something similar.  It’s as good a Sunday afternoon listen as it is a late Saturday night one.   

Jah Bunny currently plays drums and percussion, and sings backup vocals for the UK ska/punk band Freetown, a band I would definitely go see if they played in Ypsilanti!

Listen to the lead off track off the Dubs International album, although unless you can turn this way up or put on headphones for the bass, you might not fully appreciate it: 

Country Roads, Happy Easter, and Sally Lives On

by Cousin Geoff:

I hope you all had a nice holiday weekend.  I spent mine in northern Michigan, all day out in the woods on snowshoes, shot some guns, found the best walking stick ever off a downed oak branch, and spent time with family.  I also gave away one of my dogs.  Sally the hound, gone, too much for me and my wife now with baby Ella.  Despite her bad behavior (constant nervous energy, getting up on the couch, in the garbage, that old coon-hound howl at all the wrong times) I was sad to see ol’ Sally go.  We’ve had a lot of good times in the past four years, but she’s just an up north dog, and not an Ypsilanti dog, and that’s just the truth.  My other dog Zoe we’re keeping, but she’s feeling down and out because Sally was her constant companion.  A sad story, but they are afterall, just dogs. 

Driving home today, I heard Toots and The Maytals sing Country Road on XM, and I realized that a good song is a good song, and a good friend is a good friend, even if it ain’t nothing but a hound dog.  Ann Arbor’s The RFD Boys (been meaning to write about these guys for a long time, and I will eventually) do a great version of this, more true to John Denver’s original, and very different than Toots and The Maytals, but still the same song. 

The RFD Boys version:

Toots version:

It’s Easter and I missed church today but I haven’t been in forever anyway.  So I’ll make up for it by including a few Jesus songs in this sermon.  More proof that a good song is a good song - Jesus is a Soul Man.  One of the Cousins’ favorites is the version by the Pathway Quartet - I compared it to the Otis Williams version in a previous post. 

As for Sally, I think she’ll be happy up north.  For some reason the Harry McClintock, Hallelujah I’m a Bum song pops in my head.   Hallelujah, I’m a bum.  Hallelujah, bum again.  HalleluJAH, give us a handout, to revive us again.  Well, as Bunny Wailer says, Time Will Tell.  Good luck Sally, may Jesus and St. Patrick lead you down a good Country Road to help you be Reborn.  Maybe there’s hope for you afterall.  Then again, maybe Elvis was right. 

More Island Music To Get Me Through The Michigan Winter!

I know, it’s another post about reggae/calypso music.  But my broke-ass can’t afford to go on vacation anywhere warm, so I’m stuck in my basement in Ypsilanti.  Digging through my reggae records is the next best thing!

I’ll share a couple of interesting ones.  First off is Soul Sam doing The Doors’ Light My Fire off my Swing Easy Studio One rocksteady comp.  I don’t know anything about Soul Sam, he isn’t even in my Rough Guide To Reggae reference book, which has all kinds of obscure, semi-important Jamaican artists.  Soul Sam was probably like many of the Jamaican musicians, including the young Bob Marley and The Wailing Wailers, who tuned their radios to the far off sounds of Florida stations playing American Rhythm and Blues and Rock and Roll music.  The traditional Jamaican calypso sound was already there, and ska began as their interpretation to these American sounds, with the unique emphasis on the upbeat.  Ska evoloved into rocksteady around 1966 or 1967 (see my post on Phyllis Dillon for a good example of this genre), which preceded reggae.

Soul Sam was apparently into The Doors, and he does like a Jamaican rocksteady garage version of Light My Fire and it ends up sounding pretty cool.  Of all the great songs on this compilation, this was one of the stand out tracks, and definitely the most intriguing.

Listen to Soul Sam’s Light My Fire:

The next song I’ve got for you is sort of a follow up to the last post I did when I paid tribute to Caribbean bands and talked about the The Igniters doing No Woman No Cry.  As I was digging around in my reggae section at home I came across my Gemini Brass Band album titled The Time Is Right, and I remembered how much I liked it.  I hadn’t listened to it for a long time, but I put it on and my 4 month old daughter started making noise and smiling and bouncing around so I figured it was worth putting on the site. 

The Gemini Brass Band is total high energy.  They pack a full lineup: guitar, conga, bass, organ, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, drums, timbale, and a vocalist.  They are from Trinidad and Tobago.  Andy Seebaran assures us on the back cover that “there are many good bands in the Caribbean, but with it’s unique renditions and tempos, GEMINI BRASS can outplay them all.”  He also adds “We are all one people”.  The band was formed in 1965, and this is their first album.  I love it: it’s crazy and fast and funky.  One of my favorite tracks off the album is their version of Jackie Wilson’s Higher and Higher.  Go organ go!

Listen:

A Great Version of No Woman No Cry With No Guitar

I really get a kick out of Caribbean steel bands.  Cuz Justin does too, and has a little collection of them.  They usually show up at Salvation Armys or garage sales when digging or buried in the back of a collection that has nothing else similar.  The majority of the albums found around Michigan can be probably explained by when a couple is on a cruise or tropical vacation, and the steel band comes out and plays, and someone, after 7 or 8 margaritas feels inspired to buy the album.  And a lot of them are signed, as my copy of The Igniters Steel Band, “Jump Up” LP is, by all six members execpt for the lead tenor Stanley Warner.  One of them writes, “To Karen and Dan, Thank You. Please Come Back Soon.”

These albums are always hit or miss.  They seem to be all over the place.  The reason is that they’re mostly trying to sell records to a white American tourist crowd.  So you get a lot of weird covers, steel band style, for example for whatever reason Neil Diamond songs are done a lot.  On this record, they play some pop ballads and even some Beethoven.  Their lineup: single lead tenor, double lead tenor (leader), bass, drums, cello, and rhythm pan.

Justin and I have looked at the cover of many of these albums and the photos of these musicians in wondered in awe how good the album would be if they could just play whatever they wanted, played the real music they play for themselves.  Half the time these records are a bit of a dissapointment.  There are a few diamonds in the rough though, if you search long enough, and sometimes, in this case, the entire album makes up for itself with one good song. 

In this case, it’s The Igniters doing a version of Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry, one of the more unique versions I have heard.  The LP was recorded in 1976, during the peak years of the Island label for the Wailers, around the time that the Live! album came out.  This song has been covered by a number of like-minded artists.  Off the top of my head, a couple of my favorite versions are Bunny Wailer off his Tribute album (which I definitely recommend picking up), and Wyclef off the Fugees Score album. 

What makes The Igniters take on it unique is that there is no guitar (the rhythm pan takes it’s place)!  Bob Marley’s two most well known recordings of this song are off The Natty Dread album, and then the one everyone knows, which was first found on the Live! album and then later on the Legend greatest hits album.  Both songs feature a distinct guitar solo near the end - I can basically replay the whole thing note for note in my head.  One of my favorite songs by one of the greatest song writers of all time.  I remember No Woman No Cry just blowing me away when I first heard it around my freshman year in high school, it was the song that introduced me to Bob Marley, and I listened to it over and and over.  But the Igniters do it right, even without the guitar, or even a drawn out solo with any instrument - it’s soulful, it’s meaningful to them, it’s the one spiritual song they do on the album.  If I had to guess, if they could have done an album exactly they way they wanted to, there would have been more songs like this.

listen to No Woman No Cry:

After I first heard Phyllis Dillon and her song Perfedia on a ska comp, kept I listened to it non-stop for weeks.  To me, it was the perfect blend of soul and reggae, with Dillon’s temptatious voice sweetly crooning over a steady Jamaican upbeat.  I was listening for the first time to the Queen of Rocksteady.

Rocksteady was a period of Jamaican music that bridged the gap between ska and reggae.  There was a tremendous soul influence on Jamaican singers and bands that resulted in a unique sound.  It wasn’t quite Jamaica’s own as much as reggae became to be, but combining those two genres turned out to be an amazing recipe.

You can vision 1950s high school sweethearts dancing in the song Rocksteady.  It has that R&B melody, with Dillon’s sweet voice, and is backed of course by a ska band. 

listen to Rocksteady:

The next song, Dillon’s version of Love The One You’re With, shows more of a classic soul influence.

And finally, Perfedia, was first done by Glenn Miller and Dorothy Claire.  This song, with Dillon’s luring voice against the steady repeating horn hook is one of those songs that is so good, you wonder why more people don’t know about it. 

I’m going to dedicate this to President Bush: 

Bunny Wailer, quiet Rastarfari spiritual leader of the Wailers, knew the battle of Good versus Evil.  On his Tribute LP on his own Solomonic label, he sings, Time Will Tell. 

Listen:

I brought home this LP a few weeks ago.  I thought the cover was great - and I loved the concept: a happy white guy singing reggae/calypso/country songs.  The back of the album showed him with another white guy and three natives.  It also had an ad for Toyota, Cayman’s No. 1 selling car.  The liner notes come from the Galleon Beach Hotel, a resort which was then home to the Barefoot man, where he played a nightly gig.

Despite all these promising signs, I didn’t really expect much out of the album.  I brought it home, showed my wife the cover, plopped it in and we were blown away.  We love it!  It’s by far the most played record that I’ve brought home this summer.  It’s happy and carefree: a cross between Jimmy Buffett and Arrow.  It’s funny, a bit cheesy, but undeniably catchy and good.  We know most of the words to all the songs - and every song on the album is excellent.

One of the standouts on the album is the song Ching Ching - it’s about ol’ Barefoot falling in love with a chubby Island girl.  The chorus has the lyrics:

 She’s as black as a Ching Ching, oh but she’s sweet, built like a breadfruit, she’s got plenty of meat, but that’s how we like ‘em, the bigger the better, lots of woman there, she’s got curlers in she hair. 

At first we found the words to be borderline inappropriate or racist - but I found that “black as a ching ching” is a common expression, with ching ching referring to a native bird found in the Carribean. 

It also turns out that Barefoot Man is still alive and well and playing and living in the Cayman Islands.  His voice is deeper and more weathered now - but he’s still loving life and singing about it, barefoot as ever. 

What a life, huh?

to Ching Ching

I woke up this morning with a great idea.

Everyone knows about Paris Hilton’s album, right?  Has anyone actually heard the entire thing?  Of course not, because nobody takes it seriously.  I did hear her first single, Stars Are Blind, and I was pleasantly suprised that it was a reggae track.  Of course, if you watch the video of it, you’ll see it is not a rasta themed track, filled with images of the material fruits of Babylon.  Well, I have an idea for America’s Biggest Obsession, the Queen of Babylon.  

Gerard gave me a CD of Sinead O’Connor’s roots reggae rastafari album, Throw Down Your Arms.  O’Connor truly captures the spirit of both roots reggae and Jamaican Rastafarianism.  She recorded the album in Jamaica with some of Jamaica’s finest musicians.  The album opens with an acoustic chant and singing, “Jah no dead, Jah no dead, Jah no dead, Jah no dead…”  She sings about Marcus Garvey’s words coming to life, warns the oppressed of the powers of Babylon, and does an incredible version of Bob Marley’s War.  O’Connor’s beautiful, powerful, and haunting voice works in perfect harmony with the steady upbeat of the roots reggae band behind her.  In other words, it is quite the opposite of Hilton’s Gwen Stafani inspired track.

But let’s not judge Paris so quickly.  Sinead O’Connor obviously has been exposed to the reggae and Rasta culture.  She’s probably sat down with trusted Jamaican elders and learned about true oppression, and the joy of living a life in dedication of Jah.  Sinead feels it, so she knows it.  And she took that knowledge and channeled it into her Throw Down Your Arms album.  It’s very refreshing listening to a roots reggae album from the voice of a white female.  It shows the universal impact of the both the music and the message of the music.

So here’s my idea.  Like I mentioned on a previous post, the original Wailers are still touring and playing regularly.  What better band than the Wailers to record an entire roots reggae Rastafari album with Paris Hilton?  Paris could go down in seclusion to Jamaica, and spend several months under tight security living and learning about the Jamaican culture.  Yes, kind of like the Simple Life, but with no cameras, no press, and no American friends.  She’d just be on her own.  Or better yet - Sinead could be with her and show her around and help collaborate with the arrangements.

The result would be huge - everyone in the world would listen to that album.  And with that kind of influence, imagine what Paris could do.

She could donate the entire proceeds of the album to a charity in Jamaica, or help establish am organization that bring awareness to the poverty of the Jamaican people.  Or maybe she could build a huge public schooling building for the youth, and fill it with technology centers and big, packed to the brim libraries.  Or anything.  But most importantly, she could make an impact on the world - teach others about her experience and share her wealth with those in need. 

C’mon, Paris, what do you say?  I’ll contact the Wailers and see if they would do it.  I’m sure they would jump at the chance to spread their message through the voice of the Queen of Babylon. 

I had a dream just before I woke up that I heard music playing from my neighbor next door and I rushed out to find the Wailers setting up to play.  I slapped five with a bunch of the band - and told them I had all of their records inside my house.  Pretty soon, people started showing up in my backyard to get a seat - I just told them to stay off my vegetable garden.

It turns out the Wailers are playing, except in Detroit this evening, not Ypsilanti.

I saw them play a few years ago in Ann Arbor.  They actually played in the front lawn of a fraternity house.  You still had to buy tickets - they weren’t playing at a fraternity party.  They were truly amazing.  Of course, there’s no Bob Marley, but the lead singer sounds and looks just like him.  There’s still three or four members of the original group who still play, including band leader Aston “Family Man” Barrett.  I’m giving this info off the top of my head since their official website is down with the promise of “soon come”, typical Jamaican style.

To me, the Wailers that will play tonight in the city represent what’s left of probably my favorite band of all time, Bob Marley and The Wailers.  It was more than just the music, and no - it’s certainly not about the ganja.  If you listen to the music carefully, you’ll see that Bob’s focus was shedding light on the oppressed people of Jamaica and the world, promoting Rastafarianism, denouncing the corrupt ways of the Babylon system, and spreading love, peace, and freedom everywhere. 

This is a topic that I could go on and on about, so I’ll stop now.  If you can, go check them out tonight.  And another thought I had - what would it take to get them to play at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti?  Or the Water Street area?  We could have the Ragbirds open the show. 

My good friend Gerard Donakowski visited Jamaica a few years ago. While there, he met a local Jamaican who wanted his very rare Adidas soccer jersey. They also struck up a conversation of Rastafarianism. He agreed to trade his jersey for this Don Drummond Studio One record.

Gerard was excited to get this hard to find album. But when he got back to his hotel, he noticed that inside wasn’t the right record, instead it was Disney’s Robin Hood.

Puzzled, Gerard took it in stride. He thought maybe that it was symbolic of the Jamaican Rasta (Robin Hood) justifiably stealing from the Babylonian (Gerard).
Or maybe it was an honest mistake, a failed attempt at providing this record that would teach the rhythm and spirit of the Jamaican/Rasta culture and faith to an interested and open mind.

But we still have the cover, and the story.

Gerard is a former world class runner who still holds the American outdoor record in the 4 mile run. He went on to become a traveling shoe salesman, soul rebel, messenger of the truth, neighbor to mankind, and a very close friend of mine. He currently lives in Boulder, Co, and is putting the finishing touches on his 10 years-in-the-works book, Diary Of A Traveling Shoe Salesman.
Of the book, Gerard told me that Hemingway once said that you don’t always have to tell the whole story, but you better know it.

This is what I would throw in it on my way to work:

1) Taj Mahal, Mo’ Roots

My favorite Taj Mahal album, it’s a masterful blend of reggae and southern roots music.  Clara (St. Kitts Woman) is going in my next mix tape after Akido’s Yesterday http://cousinsvinyl.com/2006/akido-self-titled-mercury-lp-1972-afro-funk/.  A great Friday morning selection.

2) Jah Bunny, Dubs International

Such a sweet dub album.  All the songs are well put together, and not as echoey and crazy as Lee Perry.  Makes for great late-night cruisin’ music.  Also good for a passenger friend who just needs to chill out.

3) Various, Electric Breakdance: The Hottest Breakdance Music On The Street

Awe yeah!  This is my pimpin’ music!  1984’s freshest breakdance joints.  Need to shop here to listen to this www.myairshoes.com Too bad I can’t put the poster that comes with it on the side of car.

4) T Rex, Electric Warrier

“Beneath the bebop moon, I want to crooooon, with you, Beneath the Mambo Sun, I got to be the one, with you…”  Impossible not to turn this up.

5) Mel Brown, Eighteen Pounds Of Unclean Chitlins and Other Greasy Blues Specialties

Yeah, it’s what you would expect.  Mmmm, mmmm!

6) Marvin Holmes and the Uptights, Ooh Ooh The Dragon and Other Monsters

Sweet happy funk.  Has one of my all time favorite songs, I’ve Never Found A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do).  The back cover describes this album as being as funky as barrrels of hot asphalt.  This is being played as loud as my speakers will let them.  I hope I don’t get a speeding ticket with this on.

UNDER THE SEAT: Wes Montgomery, Full House

OK, this is cheating a bit.  But I gotta keep this in reserve in case I feel the need for some relaxed jazz cruising.  This early Riverside is one of my favorite jazz LPs.

I think I’d put in a new rotation after about a solid two weeks.  Better not do any off-roading though.

-Cousin Geoff

jsREVIEW:

In 1980, Jamaica was a hot musical touchstone. From Police to Clash, Joe Jackson to 10cc, even Robert Palmer, the 2/2 skank and “ska” guitar noise seemed to reach everywhere. Even Detroit, apparently.

Black Market’s debut album, Air Freight, could be just another genre exercise (they do cover “No Woman No Cry,”) if not for the phenomonally deep bass and sharp rhythmic chops of Black Market.

Larry Duncan, who wrote the songs, sings and plays guitar, apparently spent time in the late ’70s in a small fishing village called Negril in Jamaica, falling in love with the sound of the island, and his tunes are sharp and mercifully lacking the insulting patois that too many of his contemporaries felt was necessary when singing reggae. Tracks like “Rescue You” and “Bossman” legitimately feel like they’re his voice, not some aping.

But really, the standout here is Nolan Mendenhall’s phenomenal bass work, recalling Robbie Shakespear’s easy mastery. Full and rich in a way that only vinyl can provide, this album cries out for dubplate treatment (and if it exists, Cousins’ll be the place to find it). And since producers Jim Dudek and Marc Beznos know how to space out the instruments, this would be killer sampling material for beatmakers.

A surprisingly good album that’s more fun than most of the accepted reggae canon, Air Freight is heavy low beauty.

-js

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