Tuesdays are “writing day”…..supposedly. Then all hell breaks loose. Why can’t it be on Monday, or even Wednesday AFTER I’ve filed my column? Deep breath…..inhale. It’s the exhale I sometimes forget. Okay, crank up the music. Ah, there’s nothing a little two-step around the kitchen floor that won’t cure whatever ails ya. ….and breathe….. Way behind on photo reviews and albums, so much to do, so little time. …and now for the column, something a little different.
Several weeks ago I found out Maria Muldaur was performing at the venerable Hugh’s Room located in Toronto’s west end. I contacted Jane Harbury to see if it was possible to attend and photograph Maria (somehow I just can’t refer to her as Muldaur). It was a Richard Flohil event and through him I received permission. (Thank you Jane and Richard).
It’s Tuesday night and I have just been diagnosed with a severe case of bronchitis. Shit!!!! Not what I need right now. Tired and hacking up a lung or two the doc has just put me on some mighty powerful antibiotics. I take them for five days but they remain in my system for two weeks. I’m in London staying at my mom’s and seeing to a customer and their installation so I have no time to whinge. (….and Dr. T., if you’re reading this I was forced to go to a walk-in clinic by my sister which is why this is the first you’re hearing about this.) So, now that diatribe is over, on to the column….short and sweet.
Who pops into your mind when you hear the song title “Hound Dog”? How about “Ball and Chain”? Big Mama Thornton? Probably not. However, “Hound Dog” was her biggest hit, selling more than two million copies when it was first released in 1953. “Hound Dog”reached number one on the R&B charts and made Thornton a star. However, her total compensation was the paltry sum of $500. Elvis Presley recorded it three years later and with it (for Presley) came fame and great financial reward. After meeting Big Mama, Janis Joplin recorded “Ball and Chain” with her band Big Brother and Holding Company, but it was Joplin’s famous performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 that made this song a hit (note Cass Elliot’s face in the crowd) with “bluesaphobes” everywhere, reintroducing the genre to a brand new audience and rekindling interest in Big Mama herself.
Very recently, I had the very extreme pleasure of watching Heart perform in Toronto. I’ve always been a Heart fan, I mean what warm blooded female rock music lover isn’t? I wanted the powerful pipes of Ann Wilson and the effortless beauty and guitar skills of her sister Nancy. I grew up loving songs like “Barracuda” and “Crazy on You”, and greatly admiring the women who created that music that helped to raise me. And soon, I’d discover an incarnation of that great band that would make me love them even more.
I’m going to open this column with a very cliché statement: I can’t believe the year is nearly over! While it may be cliché, it’s true – 2012 has flown by! And with the passing of another year comes a time to reminisce about musical discoveries past, and this year there were many. This isn’t a standard “Best of the year” list. I’m not sticking to just bands or live shows; there is so much more to music, and specifically to LOVING music than that. So in no particular order here are some of my most memorable musical discoveries of 2012.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 