Saddest Quo (Day 90)

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - "Stranger In The House" (live)
Pernice Brothers - "Saddest Quo"
Wilco - "Camera"
Beck - "No Complaints"
Bishop Perry Tillis - "That's All (Denomination Blues)"
Okay, if you are at all interested in the blues or indigenous American music, this is a cool one. I found the record after it was highlighted on some music site, but I didn't even know the whole story until just a few minutes ago. Apparently Bishop Perry (an itinerant preacher who ordained himself a bishop), was a professional bluesman in the 40s who actually played with the likes of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. But even blues aficionados never heard of him until his debut record came out in...2006! Perry passed away in 2004, and the recordings that are on the album Too Close were actually made in the late 60s and early 70s by a Swedish archivist named Bengt Olsson. So how did Bengt find Perry? Good question. I refer you to this article from eMusic:

After saving up money by living with his folks and working extra shifts at a printing plant, Olsson headed to the States in the summer of 1969 with a fellow enthusiast who owned a portable tape recorder and some mikes. The two bought a used Chevy in upstate New York and headed to Chicago, where they encountered the great electric blues musicians Hound Dog Taylor and Magic Slim in nightclubs that stayed open almost ‘til sun-up. After a week spent sleeping at the apartment of the guy who ran Delmark Records, the duo headed on to places in the South they’d never heard of. (...)

Studying a map during that first trip, Olsson chose Coffee County at the base of Alabama “because it was the remotest place I could find.” “We got to Elba, Alabama, and asked around about possible local musicians,” Olsson relates. “People immediately mentioned a man named ‘Blind Perry’ and when we found the place we hardly knew we’d found it. The driveway was covered in weeds, the house itself looked abandoned. Dogs were running around. It was not a romantic kind of thing, it was real sad. There he was living all by himself, blind since not too many years back, pieces missing in the wooden floor. He was living in a condition of total despair. Then when he played, the music was so intense, so beautiful! It was like hearing Charley Patton for the first time; it shook me in the same way, musically and emotionally. It was all I could do not to cry.”

Amazing, yes, but, man, this raises even more questions. My first was: Did Perry get compensated? Did they try and help the guy out? And then the thought: How much more amazing music and musicians must there be out in the country (let alone the world!) that has never been recorded? Mind boggling.
Thom Yorke - "Harrowdown Hill"
Bowerbirds - "Hooves"
Jack Johnson - "Supposed To Be"
Radiohead - "Outro" (live)
Just in case there are any Radiohead completists out there, don't stress out. This is not a new song that you've never heard of. It's an actual outro (opposite of intro) from a BBC radio show recorded on April 1, 2008. Good show, bummer that all I got to hear this a.m. was the DJ saying, "Radiohead live from the BBC radio theater...they came, they saw, they clocked off just at the right time..." I say, "You, clock off!"
Talking Heads - "New Feeling"
The American Analog Set - "Promise Of Love"
Elvis Costello & The Imposters - "The Delivery Man"
Two Elvis songs today. Is there a connection? No! The live version of "Stranger In The House" (above) is from the Amost Blue re-issue which is one of those great re-issues where there are more than twice as many bonus tracks as original tunes. (See: Pavement) Of course Almost Blue was Elvis' "country" record with covers of tunes by Gram Parsons, Hank Williams, Charlie Rich and George Jones. The funny thing is, if that record came out today it would be no big deal, because alternative/indie music fans have embraced those twangy sounds, but in 1981 Elvis had to plaster the record with the following heads up (tongue in cheek, naturally): "WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners." Meanwhile, "The Delivery Man" was from the album of the same name that came out in 2004 with a band that was basically The Attractions (minus Bruce Thomas), which I thought was a pretty excellent return to form for Mr. Costello.
The New Pornographers - "Chump Change"
The Dodos - "The Season"

And then I got to work.

Today's Stats
Total songs listened to: 14
Total minutes of music (approx.): 50
Song with the most previous plays: "Saddest Quo" - 10
How I Rate Today's Playlist (1-10): 7
Miscellaneous factoid about my trip to work today: I've noticed this weird phenomenon in my neighborhood. It's been averaging 90 degrees but the streets are littered with leaves, as if it's fall. Did the high temps prematurely kill off the leaves? Help me, Al Gore. I need some answers.