Ramsay Midwood :: Manchaca Eyeball (Live From Sam’s Town Point)

I know I’ve mentioned this before, I but I love year-end album list time. I try to pay attention to as much music as I can throughout the year, but there’s always something I’ve missed. I love browsing other people’s lists and often find things I missed. But sometimes, I just wonder: “I wonder if Ramsay Midwood’s put out any music lately” only to discover that he put out a live album in January 2024.

I first came across Midwood about 25 years ago through the German label Glitterhouse. I ordered it from Germany after winning a silly bet with my wife. Years later, we spent our 10th wedding anniversary in Austin at Sam’s Town Point just to see him play life. We waited for like 2 hours while he ate burgers and drank beer before finally deciding to take the stage at around midnight. It was worth the wait! Even years later, we hosted him in our living room to pretty much no crowd while my friend Shawn sat in on harmonica.

All that to say, I’ve followed his music with great interest for many years. I’m even thanked in the liner notes of his radio performance release Undone, but that’s a different story.

ANYWAYS: Apparently Midwood released a live set of mostly unreleased material all the way back in January and I’m just now finding out about it. Manchaca Eyeball profiles Midwood in his natural habitat with long-time collaborator Jeff Johnston and others.

Watch the video for the lead track “Mystical Man of Sorrow”:

Preview the album here:


  • Purchase Manchaca Eyeball (Live From Sam’s Town Point) at Bandcamp

  • Follow Ramsay Midwood on Facebook.

  • Follow Ramsay Midwood on Twitter.

  • Purchase Midwood’s music at Amazon.

  • Browse all posts tagged “Ramsay Midwood”


Shakti NPR Tiny Desk Concert (2023)

Here is Hussain reuniting with jazz guitarist John McLaughlin for their project Shakti at NPR’s Tiny Desk.

NPR’s Felix Contreras says:

“It's hard to get past the significance of this performance by the Indian jazz fusion band, Shakti. Initially formed in 1973 by jazz guitarist John McLaughlin with virtuoso traditional Indian musicians, the band opened the doors for others to expand their musical appreciation beyond Western music. 50 years later, as guitarist McLaughlin reunites with tabla player Zakir Hussain to take Shakti on another world tour, the group stopped by for a magically inspiring performance behind the Tiny Desk.”



Setlist:

  1. "Shrini's Dream"

  2. "Lotus Feet"

  3. "Bending the Rules"


Players:

  • John McLaughlin: guitar

  • Zakir Hussain: tabla

  • Selvaganesh Vinayakaram: kanjira, ghatam

  • Shankar Mahadevan: vocals

  • Ganesh Rajagopalan: violin


  • Visit Zakir Hussain’s official website

  • Follow Zakir Hussain on Facebook

  • Purchase Zakir Hussain’s music at Amazon

  • Listen to “Raga Kedar: Gat In Ektaal” by Pandit Shivkumar Sharma & Ustad Zakir Hussain on Episode 17 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Superhsow.


Diga Rhythm Band with Jerry Garcia at Golden Gate Park 5/30/75

One of the many projects Hussain was involved in was the percussion ensemble Diga Rhythm Band alongside the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart. Here they are performing at Golden Gate Park 05/30/75 with Jerry Garcia sitting in.

This recording is audio only but it’s well worth your attention. Trust me.

Heads will find the last track of particular interest.

Enjoy.


Setlist:

  1. Sweet Sixteen

  2. Speech by Zakir Hussain

  3. Freeform

  4. Happiness Is Drumming (aka Fire On The Mountain)


  • Visit Zakir Hussain’s official website

  • Follow Zakir Hussain on Facebook

  • Purchase Zakir Hussain’s music at Amazon

  • Listen to “Raga Kedar: Gat In Ektaal” by Pandit Shivkumar Sharma & Ustad Zakir Hussain on Episode 17 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Superhsow.


Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Zakir Hussain: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert (2010)

As we continue to mourn Zakir Hussain, we also celebrate his life and legacy through the wonderful music he left us. Wildly innovative and a master of his craft Hussain often collaborated with unlikely partners, blending musical styles.

One of his better known cross-genre projects was with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer. The trio stopped by the NPR studios for a Tiny Desk performance in 2010.


Setlist:

  1. "Bubbles"

  2. "Bahar"


  • Visit Zakir Hussain’s official website

  • Follow Zakir Hussain on Facebook

  • Purchase Zakir Hussain’s music at Amazon

  • Listen to “Raga Kedar: Gat In Ektaal” by Pandit Shivkumar Sharma & Ustad Zakir Hussain on Episode 17 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Superhsow.


Zakir Hussain and Dave Holland Live as Crosscurrents

Remembering Zakir Hussain, here he is with Dave Holland on bass, a jazz band including Chris Potter on saxophone, Bollywood vocal star Shankar Mahadevan, and Mumbai-based jazz guitarist Sanjay Divecha among others.


Setlist:

  1. "Radhe Rani"

  2. "Hope"

  3. "Shadows"

  4. "Rama Rama"

  5. "Doors"

  6. "Solace"

  7. "Finding The Light"

  8. "Encounter / Breathless"


  • Visit Zakir Hussain’s official website

  • Follow Zakir Hussain on Facebook

  • Purchase Zakir Hussain’s music at Amazon

  • Listen to “Raga Kedar: Gat In Ektaal” by Pandit Shivkumar Sharma & Ustad Zakir Hussain on Episode 17 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Superhsow.


The Smiths :: Live at Hacienda, Manchester :: 02/04/83

The Smiths, live at Hacienda, 02/04/83. Watch the Smiths perform only their third live concert.

“We are the Smiths. We are not ‘Smiths,’ we are the Smiths.”



Setlist:

  1. These Things Take Time

  2. What Difference Does It Make?

  3. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle

  4. Handsome Devil

  5. Jeanne

  6. Wonderful Woman

  7. Hand In Glove

  8. Miserable Lie


  • Visit the Smiths’ official website

  • Visit the Smiths’ official Youtube page for all the videos

  • Follow the Smiths at Facebook

  • Purchase the Smiths’ music at Amazon

  • Read Rolling Stone’s profile of the show


Tidiane Thiam :: Africa Yontii

Not everyone in my life gets my many musical obsessions.

I grew up in Phoenix, which means that I didn’t have a whole lot of cultural options, but Bob Corritore and the Blues was always a constant in my life. I remember sometimes thinking: “How can this guy play five hours of Blues every week and not get tired of it?”

Years ago, I also knew someone that hosted a regular Reggae radio show that was 3-hours each week and I remember thinking: “How can this guy play five hours of Blues every week and not get tired of it?”

And here I am having professed my love for Tuareg guitar music and music from the Sahel region in general recommending yet another album. I could easily play five ours of Tuareg music, and no, it’s doesn’t all sound the same. In addition to the newest album album by Etran De L'Aïr :: 100% Sahara Guitar, the fabulous Sahel Sounds label recently put out the newest album from Tidiane Thiam :: Africa Yontii.

This one is laid-back.

Relaxing.

Meditative yet driving.

Exquisite interplay. With overlapping melodies.

Enjoy.


Watch “Yewende”:



Etran De L'Aïr - 100% Sahara Guitar Gets The Video Treatment

By now you’re familiar with my love of Tuareg guitar music and music from the Sahel region in general. One of my favorite labels, Sahel Sounds, is releasing the newest album by one of my favorite acts, Etran De L'Aïr.

Entitled 100% Sahara Guitar, the album will be out next month. To celebrate, the band has released a video for one of their live staples, “Imouha.” Filmed on a green screen at Vancouver BC's Shoreline Studios Vancouver BC by Christopher Kirkley with additional footage courtesy of Abdou Hamani (Discothèque Ambiance de Tchiro), the song is a great teaser for the full album.

Enjoy.



  • Purchase 100% Sahara Guitar, Etran De L'Aïr at Bandcamp

  • Visit Etran De L'Aïr’s artist page at the Sahel Sounds website

  • Follow Sahel Sounds at Facebook

  • Follow Sahel Sounds at Twitter

  • Follow Sahel Sounds at Youtube

  • Support Sahel Sounds at Bandcamp

  • Browse “Sahel Sounds” at Amazon

Phish :: NPR Tiny Desk

If you’ve ever visited this music blog, chances are that you’ve already watched this. Watch it again.

Phish recently stopped by NPR’s Tiny Desk for a 35-minute, 5-song set.

You enjoy myself . . .



Setlist:

  1. “Sigma Oasis”

  2. “Evolve”

  3. “You Enjoy Myself”

  4. “Sample in a Jar”

  5. “Chalk Dust Torture”



Kikagaku Moyo Live at WFMU (2019)

WFMU recently announced the opening of their vaults and began sharing videos from their Monty Hall archives. So guess what we’ll be featuring more of lately!?

From the show’s Youtube page:

“Japanese psych band Kikagaku Moyo played at WFMU's Monty Hall in 2019, following the release of their album Masana Temples on the Guruguru Brain label in 2018. The powerhouse group announced their final tour in 2022 and are on an indefinite hiatus.

Recorded at WFMU's Monty Hall in Jersey City, NJ on June 27, 2019.”


The Deets and Setlist:

Recorded at WFMU's Monty Hall in Jersey City, NJ on June 27, 2019.

  1. Green Sugar

  2. Nazo Nazo

  3. Kogarashi

  4. Tree Smoke

  5. Fluffy Kosmich

  6. Entrance

  7. Dripping Sun

  8. Gatherings

  9. Streets of Calcutta (Ananda Shankar cover)


  • Visit the group's official website

  • Follow the group on Facebook

  • Follow the group on Twitter

  • Purchase the group's music at Bandcamp

  • Purchase the album at Amazon

  • Visit WFMU’s Youtube page

  • Browse other Holiday at the Sea Kikagaku Moyo posts


Sylvan Esso Live at NPR's Tiny Desk (2015)

Sylvan Esso perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk (2015)



Setlist:

  • "Coffee"

  • "H.S.K.T."

  • "Come Down"


  • Visit the official Sylvan Esso website

  • Follow Sylvan Esso at Twitter

  • Follow Sylvan Esso at Facebook

  • Purchase Sylvan Esso’s music at Amazon


Saturday Sessions :: Billy Strings and Chris Thile :: CBS Saturday Sessions (2024)

By now I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of Billy Strings and Chris Thile for CBS’ Saturday Sessions. That’s OK. You can watch them again and again and still be amazed by the interplay between these two master musicians. The duo performed three songs (I don’t know the order they originally appeared):

  1. "I've Been All Around This World,”

  2. "I Am A Pilgrim,”

  3. "Wild Bill Jones.”

Enjoy.



  • Visit Chris Thile’s website

  • Visit the Billy Strings website

  • Follow Chris Thile at Facebook

  • Follow Billy Strings at Facebook

  • Follow Chris Thile at Twitter

  • Follow Billy Strings at Twitter

  • Purchase Chris Thile’s music at Amazon

  • Purchase Billy Strings’ music at Amazon


King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Live At KEXP (2017)

KEXP presents King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded October 11, 2017.



Setlist:

  • Welcome to an Altered Future

  • Digital Black

  • Han-Tyumi The Confused Cyborg

  • The Lord of Lightning

  • Altered Beast I

  • Alter Me I

  • Altered Beast II

  • Alter Me II

  • Altered Beast III

  • Alter Me III

  • Altered Beast IV


  • Visit King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s website

  • Follow King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on Twitter

  • Visit King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at Facebook

  • Support King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at Bandcamp

  • Purchase King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s music at Amazon


Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily :: Tiny Desk Concert

Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily live at NPR’s Tiny Desk (May 12, 2023).



Setlist:

  • Eyes Of The Endless


The Deets:

Musicians:

  • Vijay Iyer: Fender Rhodes, piano

  • Arooj Aftab: vocals

  • Shahzad Ismaily: bass, Moog

Tiny Desk Team:

  • Producer: Bob Boilen

  • Director/Editor: Maia Stern

  • Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin

  • Series Producer: Bobby Carter

  • Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Sofia Seidel

  • Audio Assistant: Hannah Gluvna

  • Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer

  • Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Joshua Bryant, Marissa Lorusso, Hazel Cills, Ashley Pointer, Pilar Galván, Jill Britton

  • VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

  • Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann



Bob Marley and the Wailers :: Live at the Santa Barbara County Bowl :: 11/25/79

Bob Marley and the Wailers, live at the Santa Barbara County Bowl, 11/25/79.



Setlist:

  1. Positive Vibration

  2. Wake Up And Live

  3. I Shot The Sheriff

  4. Ambush In The Night

  5. Concrete Jungle

  6. Running Away

  7. Crazy Baldhead

  8. Them Belly Full

  9. Heathen

  10. Ride Natty Ride

  11. Africa Unite

  12. One Drop

  13. Exodus

  14. So Much Things To Say

  15. Zimbabwe

  16. Jamming

  17. Is This Love

  18. Kinky Reggae

  19. Stir It Up

  20. Get Up Stand Up


  • Visit Bob Marley’s official website.

  • Purchase Bob Marley music at Amazon.

  • Browse Bob Marley posts at Holiday at the Sea


Talking Heads :: Live at Montreux Jazz Festival (1982)

Saw this come across my Twitter feed. Sorry, I can’t remember who posted it if it was you, THANK YOU!

From the show’s Youtube page:

“This is full footage of Talking Heads performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, July 9th 1982. Originally broadcasted on Swiss TV and radio, but this footage is from an archive of the master tapes (except the last song)”

Setlist:

  1. Psycho Killer

  2. Cities

  3. Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open)

  4. Once in a Lifetime

  5. Mind

  6. My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)

  7. Big Business

  8. I Zimbra

  9. Swamp

  10. Slink

  11. Houses in Motion

  12. What a Day That Was

  13. Life During Wartime

  14. Take Me To The River


  • Visit the Talking Heads website

  • Follow Talking Heads at Facebook

  • Follow Talking Heads at Twitter

  • Purchase Talking Heads music at Amazon

  • Browse other Holiday at the Sea Talking Heads posts


Goat :: Live at Le Guess Who? (2022)

We recently highlighted Goat’s fabulous 2023 album “Medicine” as one that we heard too late to make our favorites list. I still can’t believe we missed it. Goat has been a long-time favorite around the Holiday at the Sea Fake Offices.

In penance, I offer you this short but terrific live set from 2022.

From the Youtube page: “Swedish psych outfit Goat perform live at Le Guess Who? 2022 following the release of their latest album 'Oh Death' via Rocket Recordings.”



Setlist:

  1. Under No Nation

  2. Gathering of Ancient Tribes

  3. Do The Dance

  4. Disco Fever 

  5. Goatman


Deets and Credits:

  • Captured at TivoliVredenburg’s Ronda on Saturday, 12 November during Le Guess Who? 2022.

  • Direction: Dammes Kieft

  • Camera: Anaïs Saebu, Jonathan Sipkema, Nicky Pajkić, Rikash Gobardhan, Yuma Eekman, Dammes Kieft

  • Production: Claudia Rison, Studio Dammes

  • Coordination: Barry Spooren Montage: Nicky Pajkić S

  • ound recording: Marc Broer



Heard Too Late 2023 :: Goat :: Medicine

Welcome to the third and pen-ultimate (for now) of our Heard Too Late 2023 series. Today, I humbly present to you a band I love with an album I somehow missed last year. Scandinavian Pscy-Rock-Folk-Space Voyagers Goat put out a solid album of space out music called Medicine. It is indeed medicine for what ails ya.

This one’s right up my alley for working and studying. I think you’ll dig it too.


Watch the video for “Join The Resistance”

Watch the video for “Tripping In The Graveyard”



Heard Too Late 2023 :: Lee Gallagher And The Hallelujah :: The Falcon Ate The Flower

Welcome to Heard Too Late, a short series of posts where I highlight artists and albums I didn’t spend enough time with to put on my 2023 year-end list. However, with hindsight being what it is and all, it is safe to say that if I had heard these albums sooner, they would most definitely have made the cut.

First up is “The Falcon Ate The Flower” by Lee Gallagher And The Hallelujah. As you might ascertain from the name, Gallagher’s CA (by way of Ohio) cosmic country space rock taps in to the spiritual side of life without being preachy. Maybe we’ll call it existential rock? Anyways, having recorded with Victoria Williams and others after moving to CA, Gallagher has continued to expand his sound and scope. Reviewers and biographers are quick to point to Gram Parsons, Workingman’s Dead, Humble Pie, and, surprisingly enough Rod Stewart (that last one came up a few times!) and, of course; all of these apply, but only as touch-points.

Album opener “Planes” soars in perhaps the most psychedelic country jam the album reaches, but it sets a great opening bar. Though “The Falcon Ate The Flower” doesn’t quite reach those same heights throughout the rest of the album’s songs, we take a journey through ballads, and no review would be complete without mentioning the stellar performances by violin legend Scarlet Rivera (probably best known to this crowd by her appearances in the Rolling Thunder Revue. She here appears on the tracks “Something Better,” & “Can Anyone Hear Me?”, both of which are well worth your time.

Head out on a road trip. Blare this and then let’s talk.

Watch the official video for “Baby I’m There:”


Listen to “Something Better:”


Listen to Half Lit (The Future’s Ours):


  • Visit Lee Gallagher’s official site

  • Support Lee Gallagher at Bandcamp

  • Purchase Lee Gallagher’s music at Amazon