Get ready for Exile!

For many the best rock and roll album of all time, for me only the third greatest released by the Rolling Stones, "Exile On Main Street" will be soon re-released, remastered and with bonus discs added: one of them with extra tracks, second with video material. Allegedly even Mick Taylor added recently a few of his licks to the unfinished tracks. I'm all wet x) While getting ready for "Exile..." to come, you can grab some bootlegs with fine session material. See boots called "Hillside Blues" and "Taxile On Main Street". Also great is videotape of Montreux rehearsals from 1972 and audio bootleg called "Dallas Rehearsals 1972", all the material is in great quality and the band was on fire.

"Exile On Main Street" collected songs recorded between 1969 and 1971, but there aren't many outtakes. 6-minute version of "Loving Cup" with really drunk Mick on vocals always cheered me up, so did acoustic "All Down the Line". "I Ain't Signifying" is a good old-time barrelhouse blues tune. "I'm Going Down" and "Travellin' Man" are unfinished but very, very interesting takes on contemporary rock in 1971 :) There's also 10-minute-long heavy blues track called "Hillside Blues" also known as "I Don't Known the Reason Why". "(Can't Seem to) Get A Line On You" is an early take of "Shine A Light", amazing gospel tune with driving piano! Ans there's little short oddity called "Exile On Main Street Blues": a piano+vocals jingle promoting the new Stones' album, Mick wails: "exile on main street, a strange street to walk down" and mentions all titles of songs on the LP.

None of this is gonna end up on soon-to-be-released bonus disc so it's even better... :) Many new songs to be heard. Read an interview with Mick, Keith and producer Don Was here on the website of Rolling Stone magazine. Let's wait x) A feast's comin'.

Mississippi Matilda Revisited

I'd like to begin with saying that this post contains my original research and, albeit it's rather short, I'm quite proud :-) I was recently listening to a great blues compilation by Saga Jazz Records called "Plantation Blues: Cotton Patch & Tobacco Belt Blues" and found there a track by mysterious Mississippi Matilda. None of my books mentioned her and I couldn't find anything on the net. Her sole song I got was "Hard Working Woman" (it's even on YouTube with only 56 views!). I listened to it about a billion times in a row and even then couldn't figure out all the lyrics ;-) Anyway, it was a love at first sight.

If there's one thing I'm good at, it's searching and digging for information. They say: if it doesn't exist on the internet, it doesn't exist. And slowly I started gathering information about Mississippi Matilda...

"Hard Working Woman" with 3 other songs was recorded on October 15, 1936. In St. Charles hotel in New Orleans :) That was cool enough for me, but Wirz.de was even more informative: artist's real name was Matilda Powell, she was the wife of Eugene Powell who recorded those songs with her (and probably Willie Harris, Jr.). I started looking for 3 more songs and found two of them in another source: "A&V Blues" and "Happy Home Blues" were on albums by Sonny Boy Nelson as bonus tracks. "Peel Banana Blues" (that song title is still on my mind) remains unreleased by Bluebird Records. I couldn't find any contact and the label seems dead.

Google Books is a great research tool I've never used before. I've searched for Mississippi Matilda and found two interesting results in two books: "Africa and the Blues" and "The tribe of black Ulysses". And voila! ;) I've got even photo of miss Powell from 1972 (by Steve LaVere).


I've even found lyrics for her best known song, "Hard Working Woman":

I'm a hard working woman, and I work hard all the time
But if you hear my baby, he just isn't satisfied

I have to go to my work baby, between the night and day
I didn't think my baby would treat me this way

I'm a hard working woman, but I'm becoming a rolling stone
And the way my baby treats me, Lord I ain't gonna be here long

I've uploaded Matilda's complete works on here, it's about 13MB.

Ronnie's drawings

Ronnie Wood - widely covered here Rolling Stones guitarist ;) - is a nice painter. He paints mostly his band and favorite musicians & friends, and a couple of days ago I've found his portrait of blues legend Robert Johnson. Beautiful, isn't it? ;) See more of Ronnie's works here.

The Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach

The best album by the Allman Brothers Band, period. Even better, more diversified than their breakthrough Fillmore live set. And the last one with slide guitar virtuoso, Duane Allman. "Eat A Peach" includes everything you can ask for in a blues record. It's surely the best studio album ever released by a jam band, on the other hand I don't know if I can call it like that 'cause large parts were recorded live.


There's amazing selection of tracks... Gentle acoustic instrumental piece by Duane called "Little Martha" closes the album. Somewhere in the middle we can find two classic covers, Elmore James' "One Way Out" and Muddy Waters' "Trouble No More" which are the angriest boogie pieces I've heard in a long time. Nearly as good as originals! "Ain't Wastin' Time No More" was a single and peaked at #77 only, which is a shame: nice lyrics and catchy piano riffs got me rocking :)

"Eat A Peach" has a strong follow up (1973's "Brothers and Sisters"), but also marks the end of the best times for the Allman Brothers Band, great band that still plays in the South. It's a kind of experimental album: "Les Brers In A Minor" sounds like an improvised jazz piece, I really miss Miles on it ;) And there's "Mountain Jam". 34 minutes of various ramblings and solos by every member of the band... A love-hate relationship IMHO, not the best tune for a party, but I'd like to hear it live.

Contrasts between "sweet & lovely" tunes like "Melissa" or "Blue Sky" and heavy blues tracks are something really worth hearing, I love to hear the album in its original form. And there's this 2006 deluxe edition with, sadly, no new tracks from that sessions, but a new disc with Allman's 1971 yet another Fillmore performance.

Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um

It wails a little too much at times but don't get scared: it's probably the most popular album Mingus ever did and this is one of the few cases when general public is right: it's worth buying. Yeah, one of those albums that are worth $100, but only with high-quality package and original cover art. It's very long (9 tracks). It's also overflowing with ideas: that's strange, really, because when you listen to it it's very calm and... dreamy. Everybody has his own place - it's hard to describe. The silence is great!

Except for the first track, maybe, this album isn't meant to be played loud.


I immediately fell in love with "Fables Of Faubus" and "Better Git It In Your Soul". The 2nd one is without doubt my favorite jazz track ever: forget what I wrote before. "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is everyone's love. I find "Pussy Cat Dues" and "Jelly Roll" a duet of very pleasant closing tracks, they're moody. "Open Letter to Duke" is of course a tribute to Duke Ellington, although "Bird Calls", according to Mingus himself, has nothing to do with Charlie Parker. It doesn't really matter, does it? Hailed are also Lester Young and Jelly Roll Morton. Mingus has quite a taste :)

It might be eccentric and offbeat, but not for usual Mingus standards. It's just a quick review of jazz styles and imitations of greats of the past, but you might as well not even notice it: album's production is great. It has this very kind of consistent sound. You just hear it was recorded during one day (on a side note: was it really? :)).

Two trombones, three saxophones, a piano and usual rhythm section... Unique sound... Results? One of the 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry in 2003. It speaks for itself :)