SeriousLee wrote:

AVOID the Safety in Numbers 21st Century “Redux.” They replaced the first version’s replacement vocalist - Palumbo was out at that point - with latter-day Palumbo. And it sucks. That album has their song making fun of him (Lighten Up McGraw) that he avoids when they play it live. The original release is the right one, not the redux.

 Steely_D wrote:

I done some looking and their first three albums don't come cheap, especially if sealed. Keeping an eye on eBay.

 SeriousLee wrote:

The real gold is when Jim Griffiths was in the band, so the first three studio albums, and the live one.
After that, IMO, they pretty much became pedestrian. I am kinda enjoying the latest one, tho. 

 SeriousLee wrote:

As I stated, Animal Notes is the one to try. And you will really like the tune Rangers at Midnight being from Canada. 

 ColdMiser wrote:

The first CTS album I heard was From The Greenhouse. Loved it! Don't recall hearing their first two albums, so I really should get them.  (could listen on YT but why spoil the surprise)

 Lazy8 wrote:
Late 2019 I got to see Belew and Crack the Sky within 1 week of each other. 1st time seeing CTS and I'd been a fan since I was a teen. For their age they put on a great show. Their first 2 albums, Crack the Sky and Animal Notes, were sooo good. If you want to check them out further Animal Notes is the one to try. 
As for Belew, if he ever comes out your way definitely go see him. I've never seen a guy have so much fun on stage. And man can he play! He usually tours as a power trio and his band is tight as a frog's ass. 

 ColdMiser wrote:
Yeah, I'm inexcusably late reviewing this. I blame the liquor.

First, overall impressions: This hung together really well. I like the mini theme approach; I have a half dozen partly-completed mixes I could apply this to and presto—a finished disc. I wish I wasn't so stubbornly committed to single-themed mixes.

The harmonica set was all new to me (other than John Mayall, who I'm not all that familiar with) and worked well. Nice mix of new and old. 

The Word Salad set was clever. In retrospect I'm a little surprised to see no Bob Dylan—the master of word salad—but it works as a theme. I liked the juxtaposition of 88 Lines with the carnival barker shtick of Waits and Dickinson.

The British was a nice retrospective on the odd cross-pollination of American blues into England and the creative outpouring it led to. And I had no idea Savoy Brown was an English band!

David Bowie's ghost really sings thru the Space Oddity set. His influence is stark. If this has been done before I sure missed it. And I really don't know Crack the Sky at all, thanks for the intro. I was familiar with Adrian Belew from his work with Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, and King Crimson but not his solo work. Didn't know he'd played for Bowie until I looked him up, but it makes sense.

Vermont, huh? Couldn't detect the Yankee accent but now I know a trivia question!

Positive—got to hear an Eels tune I wasn't familiar with, which is a bit of a surprise because I was pretty obsessed with them for a while. Never heard of or from Roger Klug, kinda sounds Nick Lowe-ish. And it's always nice to end on a positive note. 

Always appreciate getting exposed to new music, and this disc delivered a good dose. The mini theme is a great idea. Now we just need to her from Mrs. Miser...

All is packed and ready to roll out tomorrow. I'm no graphic artist (not even close) so you're getting the bare bones. To cut down on shipping cost (by more than half) there is no jewel case.

I only ask one thing: play the CD before you look at the song list.  

Running behind. Should mail out on Monday....fingers crossed. Apologies for the delay.

 ColdMiser wrote:

Cool. Thanks!

 SeriousLee wrote:

This is the group as currently constructed. Although Kurtster kicks in a mix at the end of the year for us. You can reach out to him to see if he is interested in receiving a copy.

I have addresses from the following:

Miamizsun
Coldmiser
Lazy8
KurtfromLaQuinta

I'm missing Kurtster.
Anyone else in the club?

 miamizsun wrote: Yes, I use it a lot.
Even a construction worker like me can make it work.

 Lazy8 wrote:

i've used an older version
after a short learning curve
it worked well

especially eliminating the dead space in some live music tracks before burning

If you use Audacity (or just want to geek out on the software development process) this video explains the development path the open source tool is on since it was acquired by the people who make MuseScore. A major new release is coming and I have high hopes for it.

 SeriousLee wrote:
They came on the scene for a brief time in the mid 80's. Had a hit with this song, in Boston anyway where I was at the time. They formed out of the wreckage of the old Yardbirds, hence the good down home blues. 

(I wrote this down as I listened to the CD last week) 

I love the blues. So this is a nice treat.

Box of Frogs. Never heard of them. Nice groove.

Although familiar with the name Musselwhite, I know little of him. Nice and laid back.

John Mayall. Nice change of tempo from the last song. Who needs cowbell when you have harmonica.

Jim Dickinson. Another unknown. Different. Wasn't sure at first with the talk-singing but it got better when he started singing.

Tom Waits. Entertaining as always.

The Nails. Never heard of. I didn't count but it did seem like the song lived up to its title. 😁

Fleetwood Mac. Another nice change of tempo from the last song. Love me some old Fleetwood.

ADR. Another unknown. Nice blues tune. Love the trumpet coming out of my right speaker. At least I think it's a trumpet.

Savoy Brown. I like them. I don't listen to them enough. Time to dig some out later on.

Crack The Sky. What a pleasant surprise.

The Pretenders. Know very little outside of Brass In Pocket. But surprised it was instrumental. I was expecting her vocals to kick in at any time. 😉

Adrian Belew. Interesting guitarist. Love the peculiar vocals. From Wiki, "he is noted for his unusual approach to the instrument, his playing cited as fluid, expressive..." That's the first thing I noticed in this song...fluid playing.

The Mountain Says No. Unknown to me. But I say yes to fuzzy guitars!

Phish. Love it!

Rough Francis. Another unknown. Rough indeed. But love the guitar work.

Eels. Different from the last 15 tracks. But I Iike it. Foot tapping song.

Peter Gabriel. An artist that I'm slowly getting into his solo stuff. Very nice song.

Roger Klug. First thing that popped in my head was Quincy, M.E. 😁 Another unknown. As soon as the music kicked in big time (0:41) I thought this sounds like a good song to close out an album. Good choice.

All in all, love it. I liked how the tempo varies. And bluesy, can't go wrong there. I'll be popping this one in my 6-CD work car player with other MCC albums soon.

 ColdMiser wrote:

For some idiotic reason (and I bet the answer rhymes with “Bon Falumbo’s Wego”) they release a version of the original superlative “Safety in Numbers” with Palumbo now doing the vocals and it is unequivocally a step down. Bah. 

 Steely_D wrote:
I agree the first 2 Crack albums stand head and shoulders above the rest of their catalogue. Animal Notes is in my top 10 all time LP's. Saw them live in 2019 and really enjoyed the shit out of the show. They were great to chat with after the show and I got a picture of Palumbo trying to take a prostate blocking piss in the men's room as a souvenir. 

 ColdMiser wrote:

Saw the Nails once, in Berkeley, back in their hit day. He more or less pretended he was Jim Morrison through the show. “Don’t die in France, man.”

and, of course, CTS: â€I waved a short hello. They said ‘you’re coming with us’ and I said ‘well, let’s go!’” I posit that Jim Griffith was actually the musical engine behind how great those first albums were. Once he was gone, they became flat and uninteresting.