GUMBO #320 Sunday, March 30, 1997 / 10:00pm to Midnight "Between the idea and the reality ... falls the Gumbo" KCRW Santa Monica, 89.9 FM KCRY Indio - Palm Springs, 89.3 FM KCRU Oxnard - Ventura County, 89.1 FM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Opening Theme: ALIAS RON KAVANA - Soweto Trembles (The Jo'burg Jig) [THINK LIKE A HERO/Chiswick Records] THE JAYHAWKS - Think About It [SOUND OF LIES/American Recordings] Harder-rocking, without so much of that alt.country harmony as we heard before. Intriguing. I want more. CD promo single, album due 4/22/97. COWBOY MOUTH - Jenny Says (Live) [PROMO SINGLE/MCA Records] Fred LeBlanc, The Reverend of Rock 'n Roll, whips the crowd into a frenzy in a live version of their most venerable old song. Gotta see 'em live ... CAPERCAILLIE - To The Moon (A Nighean Donn/A Ghaelaich) [TO THE MOON/ Green Linnet] Capercaillie finally make the move to full-on pop band, albeit with plenty of Scots Gaelic touches. Lots more synth and they lost Marc Duff, their flute/recorder guy (waaaah), but Karen Mathieson's voice is still stunning, "a voice touched by God," says the blurb from Sean Connery on the cover sticker. SON VOLT - No More Parades [STRAIGHTAWAYS/Warner Bros.] By request. One of our afternoon DJs seems to have gotten a promo CD before I did and didn't share it with the station, that so-and-so. Well, I must confess, I do that all the time myself. Not to be outdone, I dug the cassette out of my car and pulled off the request before the previous song was done. (Thanks, Michael!) PLANXTY - Dennis Murphy's/The 42 Pound Cheque/John Ryan's Polka [COLD BLOW AND THE RAINY NIGHT/Shanachie] By request, from the cast of the Irish play "The Midnight Court", who invited me to see the play for free after fulfilling their request. It's *good* to keep all of Planxty's albums in my record bag ... CHRISTY MOORE - North and South of the River [GRAFFITI IMAGE/Newberry- Grapevine] The latest from The Owld Hoor, and a fine album it is. This song was co-written by Christy with Bono and The Edge. CHRISTY MOORE - Little Musgrave [CHRISTY MOORE ("The Black Album")/Polydor Ireland] Another request, made by an Irish woman at the Cordelia's Dad show. It's a rare album, LP-only and long out of print. She was impressed. :^) TOMMY PEOPLES with DAITHI SPROULE - Crowley's/Sweeny's Dream (reels) [THE IRON MAN/Shanachie] The great Donegal fiddler, ex-Bothy Band, now resident in Clare. Accompanied by Altan's Daithi Sproule on guitar. COLM O'DONNELL - Molly Brannigan [CELTIC MOUTH MUSIC/Ellipsis Arts] Brilliant collection of mouth music (puirt a beul, lilting, reel a bouche, turluttage, etc.) from Scotland, Ireland, Quebec and Brittany. Basically, it's the singing of syllables, words or nonsense words to dance tunes. O'Donnell is a sheep farmer from Sligo, and an all-Ireland lilting champion in every age group from his childhood on. DAVID LINDLEY AND HANI NASER - Tiki Torches at Twilight [OFFICIAL BOOTLEG LIVE IN TOKYO/Pleemhead] Brilliant Lindley album, on Weissenborn slide guitars and a whole menagerie of stringed instruemnts, accompanied by Hani on hand percussion. Bad news -- Mr. Dave and Hani apparently got into a fight on a European tour and broke up, no longer to play together anymore. Waahh. Maybe Mr. Dave can give Joachim Cooder a call ... TONY FURTADO - Waterslide [ROLL MY BLUES AWAY/Rounder] The banjoist expands his repertoire to include slide and resonator guitars, with marvelous and quite Cooderesque results. HOMER AND JETHRO - Tennessee, Tennessee [AMERICA'S SONG BUTCHERS: THE WEIRD WORLD OF HOMER AND JETHRO/Razor and Tie] No matter whether or not you liked their country cornpone comedy and song parodies, these guys were great musicians, especially Kenneth "Jethro" Burns, who was a phenomenal mandolin player deserving of great respect. LEAD BELLY - Diggin' My Potatoes [BOURGEOIS BLUES/Smithsonian Folkways] Vol. 2 of a planned 3-vol. set of the recordings Folkways founder Moe Asch made of Leadbelly in the 30s and 40s. Dedicated to my fellow Potaters. BOOZOO CHAVIS - What You Gonna Do? [HEY DO RIGHT!/Antone's-Discovery] The man from Dog Hill does it again ... the last of the old zydeco generation. May he live to be 100. WALLACE "CHEESE" READ - Les Veuves de la Coulee (The Widows of the Creek) [CAJUN HOUSE PARTY/Arhoolie] Late, great old fiddle player, accompanied by Marc Savoy on accordion. ZACHARY RICHARD - Travailler C'est Trop Dur (To Work is Too Hard) [CAP ENRAGE/Audiogram] Canadian-only release by this Cajun singer-songwriter who's headed back to his roots on this one. This album has generated more phone interest than any album I've played in ages. No fiddles, no accordions, all French, all great. THE BACKSLIDERS - If I Was King [THROWIN' ROCKS AT THE MOON/Mammoth] Toward world domination. RICHARD BUCKNER - A Goodbye Rye [DEVOTION & DOUBT/MCA] By request. CORDELIA'S DAD - Brave Wolfe [Live on Gumbo, 8/5/96] Tim Eriksen sang this song alone, with guitar accompaniment. JOHN MOONEY - Junco Partner [DEALING WITH THE DEVIL/Ruf] New release of new stuff from New Orleanian blues guitarist Mooney, except it was recorded in '95, and is on a German label. Great stuff, though. MORPHINE - French Fries With Pepper [LIKE SWIMMING/Dreamworks] Saw these guys last Saturday, and they did a great show. Dark, engaging, bluesy, jazzy, R&B-flavored songs. I love their instrumentation: voice, drums, baritone sax and two-string slide bass. They describe this number as "perhaps our most popular new song, and certainly our stupidest." THE WILD MAGNOLIAS - Iko Iko [THE WILD MAGNOLIAS/Polydor] This long out-of- print LP by this great black Mardi Gras Indian tribe was finally rereleased on CD in '95. New Orleans tradition meets 70's funk head-on. CARLOS NUNEZ - The Moonlight Piper [BROTHERHOOD OF STARS/BMG] Nunez is a player of the gaita, the bagpipes from Galicia, the Celtic region in the northwest of Spain. He was a featured guest on the Cheiftains' last album, and is joined on his first major label album by Paddy Moloney, Matt Molloy, Sean Keane and Derek Bell of The Chieftains, Micheal O Domnhaill and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill (ex-Bothy Band) of Nightnoise, Ry Cooder, and lots of Galician musicians. PROGMATICS - Seijarin Ja Pinnin Polskat [VAARALLINEN LEHMENKELLO (LETHAL COWBELL)/Olarin Musikki] Finnish folk "supergroup" (so says the blurb), featuring Varttina's Janne Lappalainen. Very neat stuff. NATALIE MACMASTER - Reel Beatrice/Sean sa Cheo [NO BOUNDARIES/Rounder] Traditional Cape Breton fiddling in a very contemporary setting, but not nearly as contemporary as Ashley MacIsaac ...