Dedication Time

Today's post is dedicated to my soon to be sister-in-law Maria, in slightly belated honour of her 25th birthday yesterday.

The literal-minded among you are probably expecting a song called "Maria", and there is no shortage of them after all. But no. The poor woman is marrying into a family where hardly anyone is known by their real name (just ask my niece Beanie, daughter of Moley), so there is no chance of that. Instead I offer you:

"Patsy" - Mighty Sparrow

Here is another Patsy:

Hunting For Hogan

There have been a couple of countrified comebacks that have warmed the cockles of my heart recently. Thad Cockrell released his first solo album in six years and Nanci Griffith released her first really good album in about fifteen - like many of her fans I kept buying her albums durng that period more in hope than expectation, and we have finally been rewarded for our patience.

Short of Elvis or Charlie Rich being resurrected the comeback I most want to see now is a new album from Kelly Hogan. It has been eight years since her last one and in that time we have had to get by with the occasional guest appearance on other people's album. Now, that is better than nothing, but it is nowhere near good enough.

I'm hopelessly in love with her voice, which in some respects has echoes of a female Thad but which I can't begin to do justice to in words. Suffice to say she did a version of "Rubber Duckie" from Sesame Street on a Bloodshot Records kids' compilation that is one of the most erotic performances I have ever heard. I am not going to post that because it would be inappropriate on a Sunday and I'm not sure you are mature enough to cope. Instead here is a selection from her all too slim back catalogue:

"Funnel Of Love" - The Jody Grind (Wanda Jackson cover from "Lefty's Deceiver", 1992)

"Papa Was A Rodeo" - Kelly Hogan & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts (Magnetic Fields cover and possible greatest performance ever from "Beneath The Country Underdog", 2000)

"No, Bobby Don't" - Kelly Hogan (from "Because It Feel Good", 2001)

"Dues" - Kelly Hogan (from "A Tribute to the Soundtrack of Robert Altman's 'Nashville', 2002)

Here is a great clip of Kelly, Spooner Oldham and the Drive-By Truckers doing "I'm Your Puppet".

Come back soon, Kelly. Or marry me. One of the two.

Here's Johnny

It has been a while since I posted any South African music on here - not since the end of the last Tsonga Disco frenzy, in fact - so I thought I ought to put it right. Today we have a couple of tracks from Johnny Mokhale from an album called "Ditorong".

I have been able to find out next to nothing about Mr Mokhale apart from the statement on a Botswana-themed website that he was very popular there in his day. When that day was I am not sure but, judging by his sound and the involvement of legendary South African producer West Nkosi, I would guess it was some time between the mid 1970s and late 1980s. If anyone can fill in the missing details please do, it would be much appreciated.

Here's Johnny:

"Pono Ya Haho" - Johnny Mokhale

"Rakgali" - Johnny Mokhale

And here's another Johnny:

Caught With His Pants Down

We've all been there, I'm sure...

"The Genitalia Of A Fool" - The Cornell Hurd Band

No Clever Heading Today

Almost exactly three years ago I spent a week visiting the gin joints and record shops of the Eastern Czech Republic - Brno, Olomouc and Pardubice. Among the goodies I acquired was a compilation by folk-rockers Marsyas.

The album is misleadingly titled "1978 - 2004"; misleading because it includes several tracks from 1977 and only one after 1987. It is pleasant enough stuff. According to the Czech sleeve notes the vocalists were Zuzana Michnova and Petr Kalandra (I assume "zpev" means "vocals"). Petr was also a dab hand at the "foukaci harmonika", while Zuzana has more that a touch of the Sandy Dennys about her:

"Priste Se Ti Radsi Vyhnu" (1979)

"Podivam Se Zblizka" (1982)

Marsyas apparently took their name from a character in Greek mythology, a satyr who challenged the God Apollo to a music contest and lost. Here is another musical Greek God, in his post-Aphrodite's Child, pre-belly period:

Bing Sings But Microdisney

Here are a couple of tracks from my favourite album by one of my favourite bands of the 1980s. The band is Microdisney and the album is 1987's "Crooked Mile".

Microdisney were a sort of punk Steely Dan, a perfect mix of the venom and bile of singer and lyricist Cathal Coughlan with and sweet sophisticated sounds of Sean O'Hagan. They have both had long and distinguished careers since but for me the undiluted versions of either of them has never had anything like the same appeal as the blend. Bring back the old steel fist/ velvet glove interface, I say.

"Rack" - Microdisney

"People Just Want To Dream" - Microdisney

From the same album, here are the lads doing "Town To Town":

Poogy

Yesterday I went to visit my newest niece Maya, who is also affectionately known as Pookie. While in the area I popped into the local charity shop to find myself confronted by an album by a band called Poogy. It semed like a sign, so I snapped it up immediately.

Even without the Pookie connection I would have been tempted by the cover which features a black and white photo of seven groovy dudes with big collars, striped tank-tops and the like superimposed on colour photos of pita bread and assorted vegetables. Apart from the name "Poogy" and the song titles, most of the writing was in Hebrew. Just like this, in fact:

A little research revealed that the album is called "Poogy In A Pita". Released in 1974 it is the second album by a band known as Kaveret in Israel but known as Poogy when performing or releasing records in other countries. I must confess to being slightly baffled by this. What marketing genius sat down with the band and said "Look, lads, with a name like Kaveret you will never crack the US or Europe. Now if you call yourself Poogy on the other hand..."

The lead-off track on the album is "I Gave Her My Life", which was Israel's Eurovision entry that year, finishing a plucky seventh. On first listen it and most of the other tracks are pleasant but fairly unexciting. The two exceptions are an instrumental called "Left Handed Octopus", which features "the Oriental Music Orchestra conducted by Zuzu Musa", and the final track. This is a six and a half minutes pop-psych magnum opus called "The Ballad of Arriverderchi", and here it is. Apologies for the sound quality at the beginning - it gets better.

"The Ballad Of Arrivederchi" - Poogy (or Kaveret is you are reading this in Israel)

All in all though, judging by this clip, the first album "Poogy Tales" is the one to get: