the SCOTT sisters

Here's something new. Know how you sometimes confuse one artist with another.... like Carol Kay & Carol Kaye (which one was the bass player?) or Marshall Chapman & Marshall Crenshaw (which one is the woman?). Well, I figured I'd post a few that may be confusing. I'll start off with the Scott sisters. We have six of them: Mabel,Shirley,Irene,Rhoda,Jill & Hazel.
First off, three are instrumentalists (Shirley, Hazel & Rhoda) and three are vocalists (the other 3!). Of the instrumentalists, two play the organ (Shirley & Rhoda) while Hazel plays the piano. All are from the east coast except Irene (who is from Chicago). Although Hazel grew up in NYC, she's originally from Trinidad. Two are from Philadelphia (Shirley & Jill). The others are from Virginia (Mabel) and New Jersey (Rhoda). Mabel was born in 1915 making her the oldest. Jill was born in 1972 making her the youngest.

Real Kool kitty

These days, google anything (no matter how obscure) and you're bound to get a whole truckload of info on the subject. Not so "Real Kool Kitty". The best I could get was a picture of the record. It's on the "Our" label out of Los Angeles. The song was written by "N Johnson" and sung by "Nona Rae" with backing from B. Collins & his band. That's it. No more info on Nona or Mr/Ms Johnson or Our records. No more info on B. Collins because I'm pretty sure this wasn't Bootsy Collins.
And YouTube has no videos of Real Kool Kitty or Nona Rae.
However the record was reissued on Sin Alley Vol 2. This may have helped it get over to Zurich Switzerland where local band Hillbilly Moon Explosion made an excellent version of this already mighty fine tune.

Don Covay X 2

I had planned on putting up "Sookie Sookie" awhile back but somehow never got around to it. Then yesterday, I realized I had double versions of another Don Covay song called "Hey Lover". So, today I'm putting them both up. For a wonderful article about one man and his relationship to a song called "Sookie Sookie" check this out.
For a round-by-round recap of the Don Covay career, check this out.
"Hey Lover" was a minor hit for Debbie Dovale back in 1963. The cover is by South African Una Valli.

Un Homme Et Une Femme

Do you listen to your music through Last.FM? I do. I like to snoop around to see who is listening to what. And, of course, I like to snoop around through other's blogs as well. Some times, I find out the Last.FM listeners and the bloggers are one and the same. Just a few days ago I ran into "baikinange" who is the proud owner of the Baikinange Blog which I regularly check out.
And then yesterday I ran into "Delicado54". It turns out that Delicado54 is the blogger behind Psychedelicado. This is one of the oldest of the blogs dedicated to people sharing their musical discoveries with one another. I looked and my contributions from 2001 are still there. So, I checked out what Delicado54 was currently listening to and made a HearingDouble of that. Delicado had just played a version of "Un Homme Et Une Femme" by Monique & Louis Aldebert. I don't have the version by the Aldeberts but I dug around and came up with a few versions of my own.
We have my favourite easy listening group, The Exotic Guitars (with Al Casey on exotic guitar). We have everyone's favourite 60s Uruguayan band, Los Shakers. And for those who want to hear the lyrics in English, we have the much heralded The Free Design.
On the video we go back to the origin.

In A Persian Market

I figured we'd take a break from the Blue Yodels with something completely different. And it's an easy one for me because the "instro-rock" blog already has a wonderful article about this song: check it out here.

Blue Yodel

Well, I didn't have much luck with the later day Blue Yodels. These were released after Jimmie Rodgers died and never gained the same popularity as his earlier ones. So, I've decided to go directly to the first Blue Yodel. This was one of Jimmie Rodgers most popular songs and these days it usually recorded under the name "T For Texas".
On the video, proof that folks still yodel in their living room.

Blue Yodel #10

This must be the least popular of all the Blue Yodels. I only have the original Jimmie Rodger's version. eMusic has only the original Jimmie Rodgers version. So, I've just put up the YouTube videos from our two standbys, Hank Snow and Jimmie himself and hope for better luck with #11 tomorrow.

Blue Yodel #9

Well, I guess you know the routine by now... another day, another Blue Yodel.
This time we got some mighty big names helping out here like Jerry Garcia and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. But check out the video..... Louis Armstrong & Johnny Cash (names just don't get no bigger).

Blue Yodel #8

Here's one we shouldn't have any trouble with. Blue Yodel #8 was a big hit in the early 60s for The Fendermen under the title "Muleskinner Blues". Because of that record's popularity, I think everyone recording it now would follow that model.
Since my vinyl collection is gone, I no longer have The Fendermen's version. Instead, I went through a ton of versions on eMusic to find a good pairing. One thing that eMusic has in abundance of is live recordings in place of the original studio recording. I think these two examples are both mighty fine - anyone who would have attended either of these concerts would have gotten their money's worth that night.
In the folk style we have Ramblin' Jack Elliott and in a rockabilly style (which is closer to the Fendermen version) we have Gene Davis & Jerry Inman.
On the video, The Fendermen reunite to take one more kick at that mule.

Blue Yodel #7

Well, we're off to a rocky start here with our Blue Yodels. The idea was to sort out all these numeric Blue Yodels so that we could all tell one from the other. However, yesterday I started with Blue Yodel #6 but Harmonica Frank Floyd had himself a whole new set of lyrics on that one. So today, I'm right back with #7 because Harmonica Frank also recorded that one. I wonder if the lyrics will match on this one?
Ok, I've listened to all three #7s and my head hurts. Doesn't Hank Snow's #7 sound just like Harmonica Frank's #6? And since Hank Snow was a great devotee of Jimmie Rodgers, shouldn't the Snow/Rodgers versions match? Doesn't sound like it to me. Maybe the idea is to just take any 4 verses from any Blue Yodel and sing them together under any randon number. Maybe.
And then we get to the video: Hank Snow talks about Jimmie Rodgers. He talks a while then they cut to a clip of Hank singing "I've rode that old Southern, I've rode that L&N". Right, Blue Yodel #7. Except check out the caption over the clip: "Blue Yodel #12". Yep, just sing any Blue Yodel verse and give it any number - that seems to be about right.

Blue Yodel #6

And which one is your favourite Blue Yodel? I know they're all Jimmie Rodgers tunes but which is which? For those of us (like myself) who can't tell one from another, we'll be featuring a whole set of 'em in the next few days.
Actually, I'm listening back to Harmonica Frank's version and darned if he ain't mixed up too. None of that mishmash of lyrics are actually in Blue Yodel #6. Did he forget the lyrics? Or did he just figure to improve on the original?
On the video(audio only), Jimmie Rodgers

Do Wah Diddy

We continue on with our fruitless quest to track down the meaning of "Diddy Wah Diddy". We got no help from Blind Blake and Bo Diddley. Next up are the husband and wife songwriting team of Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich. They decided to remove one diddy and try and make it sound like a dance. Their song was "Do Wah Diddy". However, these two obviously had no idea what Blind Blake meant either as they made their version the most vague of all. The main charcter in this song simpley sings "Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do". No explanation of what that means. Kinda sounds like someone trying to sing the Bo Diddley song but not knowing the words.
The song was recorded in 1963 by New York City's The Exciters who had a small hit with it. Then, the South Africans stepped in. Una Valli (from S.A.) recorded it in 1964. Manfred Mann (Manfred's from S.A. - no not the band, just Manfred) also recorded it in 1964. To insure that it was a hit, they added another "diddy" to the title. And it worked - the Manfred Mann version was a huge hit all over the world.
And then The New York Yankee's started playing it between innings at their home games. And since they're a New York team, you'd think they'd play the original New York version (The Exciters)? Nope, they played the Manfred Mann version. Sacrilege.
On the video, a "Do Wah Diddy" rant.

Diddy Wah Diddy

Not to be confused with Blind Blake's "Diddie Wah Diddie". This is the Bo Diddley song from 1956. Covered in 2008 by Taj Mahal.
It may have been a new song under an old title but Bo doesn't let the cat outta the bag:
"Well it ain't no town and it ain't no city..."
So, what in the heck is it........I still don't understand!
The video for this one is in very rough shape.....but it is the best version......it's Captain Beefheart!

Diddie Wah Diddie

Not to be confused with Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy". This is the Blind Blake song from 1928. Covered in 1974 by Ry Cooder.
A quote from Mr. Cooder:
"Blind Blake is a great player, a great musical figure. In the years where he was on top, he was fabulous. Blind Blake just had a good touch. He played quietly, and he didn't hit the guitar too hard. He had a nice feeling for syncopation. He's from down there in the Geechie country, and all those people have a real nice roll to what they do. He was a hell of a good player, and he had a lick that was great. And Blind Blake played all over the place, with all kinds of people, including Johnny Dodds, which is just way too much for me."
And on video we have Frenk Van Meeteren.

Poor Wayfaring Stranger

OK, that's enough of those semi-contemporary tunes: it's back to trawling through the mists of time.
I bought a Jo Stafford CD in Barcelona Spain. At that time, I would record to cassette tapes using a multi CD player set on random. There was a song on one of the tapes called "He's Gone Away". I thought it was a great recording but I couldn't figure out who was singing. I finally figured out that it was Jo Stafford. Didn't really sound like the typical Jo Stafford track. Then I came upon this website that specializes in 10" records. Seems this song was recorded by Jo for an album called "Jo Stafford Sings American Folk Songs". Since it was recorded in the 40s it must have been initially a 78 RPM album but was later issued on both 45RPM and 33 1/3.
I searched high and low for another good version of "He's Gone Away" but without any luck. Then I tried another track from the album: Poor Wayfaring Stranger. This brought better results as I found a great guitar version by Ed Gerhard and a more contemporary vocal version by Eilis Kennedy.
On the video, Dusty Springfield explains where she found this song.

Love Buzz

This one originally came out on Shocking Blue's 1969 album "At Home". The North American release was on a 1970 Colossus LP. The big hits on there were "Venus" and "Mighty Joe", both excellent songs, but the whole album was top notch.
In 1988, a new band from Washington state in the U.S.A. got to make their first record. For the "A" side they decided to record a cover version of "Love Buzz" from that Shocking Blue LP. Not sure about the story behind the Nirvana/Shocking Blue connection but the photographer who did their first promo photos talks about driving around looking for locations with a Shocking Blue tape playing in the car. I wonder if Curt had the 8-track?
On the video: Nirvana brings their Shocking Blue sound to Rio.

Donna On My Mind

For #4 in our series of Robbie Fulks tunes, we'll turn it around and have Robbie sing the cover version. "Donna On My Mind" was a 1962 recording by Wynn Stewart. It's interesting that when the two giants of contemporary country music (Robbie & Dwight) recorded a covers album, they both picked a Wynn Stewart song.
Thanks to Wang Dang Dula without whom I would not have been able to track down the original release year of this song.

Rock Bottom, Pop. 1

#3 in our series of Robbie Fulks tunes. This is taken from the greatest of all country albums: "Country Love Songs".

Let's Kill Saturday Night

This is #2 in our series of Robbie Fulks tunes. I was wondering about the chronology of these versions, as the 5 Chinese Brothers "cover" was issued in 1997 while Robbie Fulk's version was from 1998. It turns out that Robbie used to play with the guys who would later become 5 Chinese Brothers. That's how they would know of the song before it was released. And the connection between Robbie and Silkworm: the city of Chicago and possibly Steve Albini?
You can read all about Robbie's early days here.
Robbie Fulks and line dancing? Seems unlikely but it can happen (see video).