Dear Mom - Letters to Heaven

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Karl Wallinger World Party An Appreciation


Karl Wallinger was an enormous talent. Think Pet Sounds only across the board a million light years better melodically, lyrically, consistently and production wise. Karl was the legit GOAT.

Fame did not elude him. Chances are you know "She's the One" The Waterboys and World Party. I didn't stumble into Karl for real until World Party's 2000 release of "Dumbing Up" I was gobsmacked still am.

The song list just pours out effortlessly with dynamics, pacing, tempo and chops. There isn't a weak cut on the whole effort. Think of the best concept albums that flow track to track and then raise your expectations by a million. Prepare not to be disappointed even for a moment.

"What Does It Mean Now" still hit's me squarely in the solar plexus every time. "Who Are You" effortlessly does Dylan better than Dylan at his upper most. It's mind blowing and I love his voice. "Are you the problem or the answer who are you" just jaw dropping. The shredding on "Here Comes The Future" is delicious. Talent oozes out of him as he just breathes.

After track six you can't possibly think he will meet or exceed expectations and that's where the tracks just effortless float you along on a cloud of "High Love" in a higher mind. Slow dance with someone you love with this one.

Shortly thereafter in 2006 we got to see him briefly in a small club at the Beach. We sat basically in his lap. It was a warm up gig before a bigger show in D.C. but it was a real treat. Who doesn't enjoy spending quality time with the band at the bar.

I was just thinking about him last week wondering what he was up to and now this. In a time when we need all our voices for words of positivity, insight and laughter Karl's will be missed.

Here comes the future hope that you can work it out.

When boys and girls are laughing in every nation
When the Truth is pursued for relaxation
When living with the world is our aspiration
When there's no mileage in hate, and no gas-stations
And the creatures are protected from mammals to crustaceans
And the soul has found it's liberation
You know this is always on my mind

I'll miss you Karl

It's like a light surrounds your face.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Allman Brothers Band - Manley Field House - Music Review

 

Happy to report this two disc set featuring the five man band does not disappoint. I damn near rowed my water rower out of the front room and into the street. Sonicallly Berry's bass sounds a little hot from the show - sort of a wonky amp or a pinned needles affect. But this get's sorted out after the first few songs and there he is in all his talent. The show sounds great through my bookshelf Polks kudos to Jason NeSmith. Gregg gets lost in the mix so often it's always nice to easily hear him and his keyboard work.

Six months after Duane catapults into the next realm the band is fierce. Ain't wasting time no more and playing with determination and fire. I wasn't sure what to expect with this release. How much is there of the legacy of the ABB in unreleased material? Was this going to be a sourly sourced release? But I've always loved Berry's playing and voice (more Hoochie Coochie like numbers is what I would have said) and championed him over the air so I jumped on the release. Happy new year indeed!

A real unsung member of the band Berry comes to the fore and sounds drivingly inventive. All five of the boys are thundering through this live broadcast. Gregg sounds great and extends his solos, the freight train and Jaimoe are enormous. And Dickey wasn't messing around. I mean honestly this whole review could have been about Dickey's tenacity, and melody.

Thanks to the team of Bert, Kirk, John and Bill for getting this out to the public.

Long live the Allman Brothers Band.

https://shop.thebighousemuseum.com/.../allman-brothers...

Monday, January 08, 2024

The Fate of Nature by Charles Wohlforth - Book Review

The Fate of Nature by Charles Wohlforth. I have no idea how this book crossed my path but it stared at me on the bookshelf for a while challenging me to open. I side stepped it with a Jimmy Buffet Biography and the excellent U.S. Grant Biography by Chernow. Slightly annoyed and finally out of fresh reads I opened her up thinking I had a preachy research book. I was wrong. What I didn't account for was the author's talent, his story telling ability and the unfolding adventures that fire out one right after the other chapter after chapter. "The Fate of Nature" reads like a novel and a damn good one.

 
Charles Wohlforth is a seasoned author beginning as a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News covering the Exxon Valdez oil disaster (spill my ass). His experience and research of nature, history, science, politics and adventure all coalesce in "The Fate of Nature"
 
The book proffers the question are humans even capable of correcting their greedy, piss in our well water, destroy our food system behavior of arrogance? But more than a screed about our knuckle dragging consciousness "The Fate of Nature" articulates and entertains with history, science, personality and context the vast array of interconnection that frames our collective lives.
 
We're talking about property rights versus community rights, the birth of conservation, the integration and survival of the indigenous populations living in harmony with their environment and the destruction of their way of life from unregulated capitalism, and it's nascent rebirth. 
 
This is not a romanticism but a look at the breadth of human activity impacting the entire globe with the Northern Gulf of the Alaska Coast and Prince William Sound as back drop. 
 
The book begins with the fascinating Killer Whale Culture and human spirituality, the spirits of Nature and the Chugach culture. Fur traders and Captain Cook then arrive followed by the Russian conquest of Alaska and then the equally egregious American conquest. Chapter after chapter it plows through history. It's an informative brisk page turner and you can't wait to see what the next chapter is going to hit upon. 
 
A book of this breadth could easily bog down in technical specificity and moralizing yet Wohlforth spins a narrative of anecdotes, adventures and events punctuated by short chapters building out his observations, research and thesis.
 
You are definitely going to want to visit Alaska after reading about the foreboding sumptuous landscape he pulls together. I'll be checking out his other work. In the meantime this is a good one folks from a guy you never heard of and a title that is unfamiliar. Dive in!