Track 70: "It's a Shame About Ray" by The Lemonheads

I've never been too good with names, but I remember faces

Gonna keep this one short and sweet, sort of like this great song by The Lemonheads.

Another band I absolutely loved in my high school years, but the "It's a Shame About Ray" album holds up pretty well I think despite being nearly 20 years old. Call me biased, but there was so much great music in the early to mid 1990s. Of course there's always been drivel, but you could actually hear real bands on Top 40 radio stations--real people with real talent and not the auto-tuned clap-trap out there today.

This tune is just a three-minute gem, and The Lemonheads were amazingly talented in making them.



--Music is good.

Track 69: "Sex Machine" by James Brown

I'm ready to get up and do my thang

Since it's Track 69, it only seemed logical and right to include a track with some sexual overtones and this version of "Sex Machine" is some funky shit indeed.

Has there ever been a better front man in history than the Godfather of Soul, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, the late, great, funky as hell James Brown?

I'm not even sure how I got it, but I had a "James Brown's Greatest Hits" tape in high school, and every Friday became "James Brown Friday"--with the Godfather blasting as loud as it could in my '84 Chevy Cavalier.

This version off the live album "Love Power Peace" recorded in Paris in 1971, and the entire album is so awesome, tight, and just funky as all get out. James Brown's command of his band is unparalleled--often imitated, but never duplicated. And just dig how he counts it off at the beginning--so fucking dope.

Track 68: "Natty Dread" Charlie Hunter covering Bob Marley

With Jimmy Buffet on Track 67, I touched on an artist that is both someone I don't really listen to all that much anymore as well as one that is just perfect to listen to in the summertime. Bob Marley fits both of those categories as well.

And just like any white guy who drank beer in high school and college, of course I went through a Bob Marley phase. No doubt Marley is a legend; his politically-charged lyrics and sing-along songs essentially put reggae on the map. And I think it's safe to say that without Bob Marley, no white person would have ever listened to reggae.

While I'll never lose respect for reggae or Bob Marley, I'm kinda over them. Both of them. I fully understand that no other music genre on the planet quite defines an entire nation and its history like reggae, but I just don't care much for it--at least to the point where I still actively listen. (I think being the keyboard player or rhythm guitarist in a reggae band may very well be the easiest job on the planet).

I discovered Charlie Hunter when I interviewed him back in 2002--and I was introduced to a lot of stuff through him. He had just released "Songs from the Analog Playground," his first album to feature vocalists--and it was through that record I was introduced to Norah Jones. (In 2005 I got see Hunter play at during New Orleans Jazz Fest in Preservation Hall, and it was a definite highlight of the trip for me).

Hunter also introduced me to his incredibly unique seven-string guitar. The instrument has four guitar strings and three bass guitar strings--and by some miracle Hunter alone supplies the groove and melody in his music. He's released records in duo, trio, quartet and quintet settings and they're all great. But my favorite is his Blue Note Cover Series version of Bob Marley's "Natty Dread."

There's some really great funky-jazz on this album and at times Hunter's seven-string sounds more like an organ than it does a guitar. His take on "No Woman, No Cry" is absolutely gorgeous. But there's just something summery and wonderful about his version of "Natty Dread."



--Music is good.