My Latest Musical Obsession
When new music grabs me and won't let go
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Music Obsessions
I don’t know about you, but there are times when a certain piece of music just grabs me and won’t let go. I don’t have a term for it, but have begun to curate the music slowly, but surely.1
It doesn’t happen to me often, but when it hits, I can’t get enough of certain jams.
Of late, it’s been Tyler Childers’s INCREDIBLE set at the 2023 Stagecoach Festival. Embedded below.
I watched it in real time, and more than a dozen times since. I was so inspired that my daughter and I are going to take a road trip to Kansas City to see him and the Marcus King Band. That trip begins tomorrow.
Why do I love this so much?
It’s great music, natch. It’s live and the audience is clearly giving the band a lot of energy. But what really stands out from the opening song is how much FUN the musicians are having onstage together. This is a band of killers who are backing one of the best artists going right now, and this video reflects it.
If all you have time for is one song, check the first song of the set, “Whitehouse Road.” This is a ballsy opener—it hits HARD right off the bat, a song the crowd knows and, more importantly, loves. The band knows they have them in the palm of their hands. Watch them closely—particularly drummer Rodney Elkins as he hits the cymbal after the line “It’s a damn good feelin’ to run these roads” (screenshot above). I bet I’ve watched that one song 50 times now. To quote Susan Tedeschi, that’s “the feeling the music brings.”
My latest obsession
I wrote earlier that it’s not often something grabs me to this extent and won’t let go.
Rarer still are the times when it hits me back-to-back, which is exactly what happened this past Friday when Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit released Weathervanes.
A few years back, I made it a habit to do a deep dive on every new record from an artist I love. This allows me to appreciate their art in its own context, not in relation to my understanding of the rest of their catalog. I may not love every song on a given album, but I’ve damn sure given all of them a fair shot.
In advance of Isbell’s latest, I listened to the four singles he released semi-regularly and Reunions, the record he released in the middle of the pandemic—one I connected to on a very deep level.
This one’s different. As I posted yesterday:
That’s why I’m making it recommendation #2 in Tuesday’s Tuneage: JI400U Weathervanes.
A few motel shots*
“Comin’ Home” - Delaney & Bonnie featuring George Harrison and Eric Clapton.2 The backing band includes musicians who later recorded Layla, All Things Must Pass, and toured with the Stones and with Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen.3 The track is a D&B original that’s currently in the repertoire of the mighty Tedeschi Trucks Band and the Marcus King Band. The filming won’t win many awards—why they spent so little time on Harrison & Clapton will always be a mystery to me. But this is a KILLER band led by a male/female duo playing balls-out rock & roll. The comments I’ve gotten on the video means I’ll do a Delaney & Bonnie feature at some point.
The Big Band of Brothers featuring Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band. It’s two different versions of the same track, one an impromptu ABB mini-reunion, the other a full version of “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’.” This whole ensemble deserved more attention than it got.
Don’t miss the We Three track. It’s Sea Level before the ABB broke up and Jimmy Nalls joined on guitar.
I’ll report back from Kansas City at some point
I love road trips. They bring all kinds of inspiration for me. I’m a big fan of the WWI museum, having worked with them on the World War I Centennial commemoration. This trip I’d like to visit the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. BBQ will be on the agenda as well.
Writing isn’t a straight line for me so you may never see me say anything about this particular trip.
Stay tuned and thanks for listening.
Right now I’m saving it in a playlist called Damn Fine Music.
Borrowed from the Delaney & Bonnie album of the same name. Because of how hard these videos hit, I s’pose they’re more langiappes than a true motel shot.
Drummer Jim Gordon later murdered his mother in a psychotic rage.