Who's The Dede?

A treat for you today - a couple of tracks from Ghanaian high-life great Amakye "Iron Boy" Dede. Both are taken from "Adukuro Mu Nsuo" album, which came out last year and would have had a good chance of being on my top ten albums of the year list had I got round to compiling one.

Last weekend Amakye Dede was involved in a road accident in which his manager very sadly died. As of Friday Mr Dede himself was still in hospital recovering. Get well soon, Sir.

"Bra Ma Yen Ni Agoro" - Amakye Dede

"Ma Akoma Retwen Wo" - Amakye Dede

If you are wondering how to pronounce his name, phonetically it is pretty similar to this:

The Underdogs

"The Underdogs" is the literal translation of Los De Abajo, the Mexican band who first became known outside Mexico when David Byrne signed them to his Luaka Bop label in the late 1990s. Their music contains what Dana might call all kinds of everything (don't panic, that is not a clue to the identity of today's YouTube clip).

"La Sonidera" - Los De Abajo

"Si Existe Ese Lugar" - Los De Abajo

"La Sonidera" comes from their album "LDA V The Lunatics" which also contains a rather natty version of this old favourite. They even managed to get Neville Staples to join them.

Single Song Sunday

For our first post of 2016 we revive our Single Song Sunday series. And instead of the usual soul or country standard, we have chosen some MOR niceness from a former Beatle to kick things off.

The original "Let 'Em In" by Wings was released forty years ago and got to No. 2 in the UK. Billy Paul had a Top 30 hit with it the following year. Those are the best known versions and the pick of the bunch. Best of the rest is probably the Mandatory Reggae Version, courtesy of Shinehead, not least because he name-checks barely remembered 1990s reggae artists such as Ninjaman and Tonto Irie, and because it features the rarely heard "reggae kazoo".

The Brazilian version by Skank is a bit of a cheat, as it is really only one verse tagged on to the end of a different song. I thought about excluding them on those grounds but in the end decided that it would be in keeping with the message of the song to let 'em in.

"Let 'Em In" - Wings

"Let 'Em In" - Billy Paul

"Let 'Em In" - Lee Ann Womack

"Let 'Em In" - Dr. John

"Let Them In" - Shinehead

"Let 'Em In" - Patti Austin

"Let 'Em In" - Justus Köhncke

"Pacato Cidadão/ Let 'Em In" - Skank

This is something I found trawling through YouTube. I've never heard of The Bros. Landreth before but if this is anything to go by they may be worth checking out.

Aloha 2016

Sneaking a quick one in to get me to a round 100 posts this year. I'm off to a Hawaiian themed evening in my local, the excellent Eleanor Arms. Mine Host Frankie will be manning the turntables in his usual unique way. I doubt any of these will be making the playlist though. The Warren Zevon track in particular would kill the mood at even the chirpiest of parties.

"The Hula Hula Boys" - Warren Zevon

"Honolulu" - Michel Murphy

"Tiki Torches At Twilight" - David Lindley & El Rayo-X

This, on the other hand, should be compulsory. I'll be singing it to my dear friends just as soon as we finish "Auld Lang Syne". I hope you will all do the same.

"You Can Count On Me" - Sammy Davis Jr. 

Tsonga Time

I have to confess to having been utterly useless when it comes to spreading the Tsonga love this year. I have no excuse - I have a decent-sized pile of CDs that I picked up in South Africa back in April just waiting to be shared with you, but for some reason I haven't got round to doing so. It's time to start putting that right.

Here are a couple of tracks from an artist new to us, Xikhongolotani, both taken from his album "Leswinga Mbilwini Yamina". If you are planning a party tomorrow night, you could do worse than stick these two on to get it going.

"Leswinga Mbilwini Yamina" - Xikhongolotani

"Mali Ya Kokwana" - Xikhongolotani

As feared I have not got round to sorting out Part 2 of a review of 2015. Suffice to say it has been a good year for live music, with gigs by Hiss Golden Messenger, Marcia Griffiths and Mexrrissey (the Mexican tribute to Morrissey) among the highlights.

However if I had to pick out only two live music memories from this year the first would be Peter Spence and True Identity's storming rendition of the old gospel standard "I'll Fly Away" in Catford of all places - sadly not captured for posterity - and the second would be this:

Yemeni Yuletide

You would think that with the current troubles in Yemen not even the most dedicated "crate digger" would want to go over there to browse through the second shops of Sana'a. But somebody did, and they came back with the tracks that comprise "Qat, Coffee & Qambus", a fine compilation of Yemeni 45s from the 1960s and 1970s. Here are a couple for you.

"Hom Bel Hawa Ya Nas Walaoni" - Raja Ali 

"Mushtaq" - Bolbol Al Hejaz And Soni Ahmad

I suspect nobody other than Mister F will get the connection with today's clip. I hope not anyway.

Seasonal Songs

Well I never said it was THAT season, did I?

"Springtime Reggae" - The Chefs

"Summertime Thing" - Chuck Prophet

"Autumn Light" - Ron Sexsmith



Have a good one, folks