Jon McKiel is responsible for one of our favorite records of 2020, the wildly hypnotic collection of songs that is Bobby Joe Hope. In anticipation of its follow-up, we caught up with the Canadian musician as he lays down his inaugural Lagniappe Session, paying tribute to both a ’70s childhood AM radio staple and what is sure to become a future classic.
Year: 2023
Nico Paulo :: Nico Paulo
“Have you ever thought of dancing as moving into time?” asks Nico Paulo, a kaleidoscopic, technicolor shuffle of horns, guitars, and percussion swirling across her breathy tenor. If you haven’t, that will likely change after listening to the St. John’s-based, Portuguese-Canadian artist’s self-titled debut. A bright, sweeping album of Tropicália-inflected jazz-folk & dream-pop …
Talk West :: Black Coral Sprig
A wondrous slice of high, lonesome ambient beauty. This is the work of Tulsa-based Dylan Golden Aycock, who has been bringing us beautiful sounds for some time now, whether under the Talk West moniker, his own name or as the guy behind the Scissor Tail Records label (home to Bruce Langhorne’s classic Hired Hand OST, Scott Hirsch’s killer LPs and the recent/stellar John Fizer collection, among many others). A reliable source in uncertain times!
Jerry Garcia And David Grisman :: So What
It’s spring, which means this acoustic jazz disc makes its annual appearance. Released in 1998, So What gathers up selections recorded by frequent collaborators Jerry Garcia and David Grisman between 1990 and 1992. Flanked by Jim Kerwin (bass), Joe Craven (percussion) and Matt Eakle (flute), the album is comprised of eight tracks riffing on Miles Davis/Milt Jackson along with the Grisman original, “16/16”.
Symphony Orchestra (Max Turnbull of Badge Époque Ensemble & Michael Rault) :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Together as Symphony Music, Max Turnbull of Badge Époque Ensemble and Michael Rault have created Radiant Music, a zone where freak-friendly psychedelia, jazz, funk, and soul exist in a state of constant crossover. The Toronto twosome joined us to the radiance they found together and the influence of “The World Band in the World,” 10cc.
Michael O’Gara :: Mystic Rider
O’Gara was a real nowhere man. Retracing his steps it quickly became clear that he was from a weirder, wilder America. A country where you could easily fall through the cracks.
Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics :: Inspiration Information 3
Released in 2009, the third installment of Inspiration Information, Strut Records collaborative artists series, paired Ethio-jazz giant Mulatu Astatke with the London based Heliocentrics collective. A sinuous and sublime fusion.
Bonus Tracks, Vol. 3: Elton John, Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, Fleetwood Mac
Bonus Tracks: more castaways from the compact disc era! We’ve been rifling through dusty CD stacks and Case Logic binders to rescue some of the best bonus tracks from days gone by. This time around Justin Gage and Tyler Wilcox offer up some sweet action from a few favorite British artists.
Jeffrey Silverstein :: Theme Western Sky Music
Western skies extend uninterrupted in every direction, and so, too, does Jeffrey Silverstein’s spaghetti western psychedelia. Here, in ruminative speech-song and drifting instrumentals, the Portland’s space cowboy explores the cosmos with Rose City twang-maestro Barry Walker Jr. on pedal steel, Akron Family’s Dana Buoy on drums and Alex Chapman on electric bass.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)
Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
Codona :: Blues Alley, Washington, DC, May 9, 1983
Courtesy of the great bigfootpegrande YouTube channel, this audience tape from Codona’s D.C. stop in 1983 captures two sets, each moment brimming with imagination and curiosity. A joyful noise, with multiple peaks, including a gorgeous “New Light” and Don’s West African train dream blues “Clicky Clacky.” All aboard …
Lula Collins :: Help Me
In 2009 the Tompkins Square label released the three CD compilation Fire In My Bones: Raw, Rare And Otherworldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007). Expertly curated by Mike McGonigal, the delta gospel soul of Lula Collins “Help Me” was a stand out, and its source material (1977’s The Delta Gospel Queen) received a vinyl reissue a decade later. At ten tracks, the LP is chock full of a special and swampy spiritual heat.
Transmissions :: Vashti Bunyan
Vashti Bunyan’s songs were too imaginative and powerful to be lost to the sands of time. Though her 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day was barely heard on original release, it became a freak folk foundational document. Recently, Bunyan published her first book, Wayward: Just Another Life. She joined us to discuss the book, that journey, and what it felt like to have her work rediscovered—and why she hates being called a “folk” singer.
John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman (1963)
Turning 60 this year, Coltrane and Hartman is essential listening not just for jazz aficionados, but hopeless romantics far and wide. The smokey mood of the record eclipses its genre, belonging more to an ethereal wavelength of nocturnal ambiance than musical categorization.
Rich Ruth :: Live At Third Man Records
Over the past 5 years, Rich Ruth, with his debut LP, Calming Signals, and his latest, I Survived, It’s Over, has established himself as one of the most exciting up-and-coming talents in the ever–burgeoning sphere of cosmic music. It’s difficult to pinpoint his work as jazz, ambient, komische, or post-rock, as it employs elements of all those genres and more in a way that feels wholly natural. Is it post-genre? Perhaps. Ruth calls it “instrumental music,” which is true, albeit reductive. One thing is certain, it is not to be missed.