Fairport Convention "Time Will Show The Wiser" and Self Titled LP

Check out this really early clip of Fairport Convention performing "Time Will Show The Wiser" with their original vocalist, Judy Dyble. Easily one of the greatest opening tracks to one of the greatest records.




Well, I guess while I'm at it, I'll talk a little bit about this record.




The first Fairport Convention came out in 1968 and is the only one to feature Judy Dyble. After the album's lack of attention, Judy left before Sandy Denny joined the band for the What We Did on Our Holidays LP. 

A lot of this album is made up of other people's songs. "Time Will Show The Wiser" is a rather obscure Emmit Rhodes tune (I think from his Merry-Go-Round days), but most who recognize it will probably associate the tune with this record. Along with a couple from newcomer Joni Mitchell and a song by Bob Dylan sits some of my personal favorite Richard Thompson tunes. The tight, little country/folk-rock ditty, "If" and the gorgeous "Decameron" are perfect examples of the two styles that would shape up the next few Fairport records and put Richard Thompson on the map. That said, this record doesn't just sound like their other records. It definitely has its own style.

I remember my friend Jessica playing this for me for the first time when I was about 20 years old and it blew my mind. I wanted to know these guys. I wanted to live in their songs. I wanted to wear tight , little striped pants and wear capes and smoke pipes and talk about poetry and drink tea and play guitar. I hope you want to play dress up and enjoy the music, too. 

I found this link. Copy and paste this link into your browser. After that, go buy it on vinyl on ebay.

http://sharebee.com/50747b6d

Joni Mitchell "For Free" LIVE 10/9/70

Here's a great clip I found on YouTube of Joni Mitchell singing one of my favorite songs. What an amazing performance! God, I wish I could have been there. This was taped live for BBC on October 9, 1970.

Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb

The first record I want to share with you is easily in my Top 25 favorite albums of all time. Perhaps Top 10. Glen Campbell's Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb is a near perfect album. I couldn't tell you why its not perfect, but I just feel safer saying "near".

By 1974, Glen Campbell had lived the life that most can only dream of. He'd won Grammy's for his recordings of "Gentle On My Mind" and "By the Time I Get To Phoenix"as a solo artist and sold millions of records. He was a popular session guitar player on many huge hit records by many of my personal favorites like The Association and Mamas and the Papas. Especially cool, he was a guitar player on The Beach Boys' Petsounds record. He was even the original replacement for Brian Wilson when he stopped touring with the Beach Boys in 1965.

For some reason, Reunion is often overlooked when Glen Campbell is mentioned. I don't get it. I really don't. As a songwriter myself, Jimmy Webb is a hero. To think that a whole album of his songs, recorded by his greatest interpreter, is generally discovered in dollar bins inside the music store basement or underneath a dusty stack of Mitch Miller records at the local Goodwill, is one of the true crimes in pop music. Even now, you can pick up the CD for about $1.99 sealed on eBay.

I won't go into why you should listen to each song, I'll just demand it. Listen to the WHOLE record from start to finish. Sit in your favorite chair and put it on the stereo or go for a night drive. It will feel so familiar to you. It feels like childhood to me. I can imagine it coming out of the speakers in the back of the big ol' van my family had in 1983 in Nashville.

Go buy a clean version on vinyl on eBay.

You might as well smile...

Who is "The Rider" and what are his goals with this website?

Hello, my name is Brother Will. You can call me "The Rider", Rider, Ryder, Brother Will, Brother, Will, Bill, William, Willie, Brother Bill, Brother William, Brother Willie, Prophet, Man, Sexy, Dude or friend.

I hope that this blog will be a place where I can share honest thoughts about life, or lack of. A place to post interesting videos and photographs. I'm most excited to talk about good records and songs by artists well known and, more than often, by artists you'll never hear on Top 40 or on the shitty TV shows and commercials or "underground indie" satellite/web stations you look to for good music. 

Just so you know, I hate most "indie rock". I do enjoy "independent" music. Often times, the music that was viewed as super lame by the "hip" or "edgy" people in the past 5 decades, is now the most radical sounding music you can find in the used record stores. I read some of these reviews on new records that get high marks and I feel so alone. I don't get it. All these new records are filled with cheap tricks, cliche recording techniques and the worst crime of all - AUTO TUNING (or "pitch tweaking" as I like to call it). Its such bullshit. These fucking singers that aren't good enough to sing it right naturally, rely on computers to fix their notes when they can't hit them. EVERY singer on CMT uses it. It sounds so mechanical. I swear I can spot it almost every time. What's worse is now I am hearing it on these awards shows. Can you believe it? People that don't even deserve these music awards of excellence in the first place, rub it in our face by getting up on live TV and use computer assistance to make them come across as great singers. Look, I love live, raw vocals. In rock, you don't always need a perfect voice. It helps, but it is not ALWAYS necessary to hit every note. But...if you're gonna build your entire career around being a singer of a vocal band ala Rascal Flatts or a pop star like Duffy or Katy Perry, well, DAMN THEM!!! DAMN THEM TO OBSCURITY. Ok, ok, more on that later...

I promise to post only music made by humans and sung in natural human voices. For now, let me say "Welcome to my Blog!!!"