oakiedog
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Sitting here in South San Francisco on a foggy afternoon taking in Ronnie James Dio and his Glam/blues project ELF. I have heard the other ELF records...but this one...there is something about this one...Ronnie Dio is singing, for sure...but it has not gotten to the operatific heights that he found in Rainbow and Sabbath. I do not wax sentimentally on his Sabbath run, and even though a few of those tunes remind me of watching my friends hit the Tombac back in High School, those records just wawnt me to listen to Master Of Reality REAL LOUD and screw the rest.
But then there was ELF. With its Elton John meets Ian Hunter attitude....dark, sweet...and while the first record has one of the great album covers of all time...right up there with Mortiis, if you are into that kind of thing...L.A/59, the sophmore effort, carries with it just a little more soul. Roger Glover of Deep Purple is wearing the producer hat and he does stay true to the sound of the times: dry pumping drums and crunchy guitars mixed with boogie woogie bungle boy bombast. If there are Rainbow-ish underpinnings, remember...a majority of the ELF line-up joined with Blackmore soon after.
Will ELF change the world? Never... Is it good music to drink to and ponder the beginings of the less-evil Ronnie Dio (no James back then)? Yes.
Holy Shit. That is all there is to say about the Willie Nelson fourth Fillmore evening tonight. His band--the sparsest octet ever, with four of the members mere garish (but tasteful garnish at that), around Nelson regulars, grooved like J J Cale with a sweet cotton muffled quality. The set: a greatest hits: starting with a medley (Crazy, Night LIfe, etc) and going into the cheese only with the finest cracker(Always On My Mind, Georgia), the Townes (Poncho and Lefty), and the numbers you just wanna sing along with (Momma, Don't Let Yr Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, May The Circle Be Unbroken). Nelson pulled off some truly bent guitar playing ala Django Rhinehart while his horn player dixie-landed it through most numbers in the second half of the set. Once again, the band, although big, sounded gracefully small and exhibited the tastiest of licks from each member.
And damn if that hole in his acoustic ain't big enough to see from the moon...that guitar has so much soul it could darn well play itself!!!
There were even some Velvert Underground-ish moments (meets the Carter Family) when the band hit a chord and fuzzily extended it out many measures. Nelson had his hand in the air more often than not; he was having a blast and the sold out crowd cried for more........
Tonight was living: living with a true legend.
You heard it hear on MOG first. New Bay Area SUPERGROUP, Apache, has signed to Birdman Records and is already in production of their first record, with Birdman marketing head Matthew Johnson producing. Apache started as a trio, with Cuts' bassist Carlitos and ex-Peal guitarist Layne Garbonzo backing Apache himself, who was LeVon Helm-ing the drum/vocal position. Layne snorted off, being replaced by Mark from Genghis Kahn...and to make things even more delightful, Chris from Parchman Farm (RIP) took over the trap position freeing Apache to hit the lead singer role HARD. They are playing around San Francisco right now, and will be at South By Southwest at the Birdman showcase on that Wednesday NIght (Club DeVille). Ride Apache Ride.
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he ages like fine wine, i haven't seen him in 5 years at least