These Other Ernies

This may come as a surprise to some of you but I am by no means the first or only Ernie to be a ground-breaker and taste-maker in the world of popular music. There are many who have toiled and some who have flourished, and I am going to pay tribute to one of the latter today.

Ernie Shelby released a handful of singles in his own right the 60s and 70s but made his living as a songwriter. Over the years his songs have been covered by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Little Richard, Rod Stewart, Three Dog Night, Bettye Lavette and many many more.  

Creatively one of his best periods was in 1972 when some bright spark had the brilliant idea of bringing him down to Muscle Shoals and teaming him up with the great Prince Phillip Mitchell. One of their co-writes was "Carry Me", originally released as a single by Ernie himself but later a big hit in the R&B charts for Joe Simon. With all due respect to Ernie I've opted for Joe's version.

Another Shelby/ Mitchell co-write was "I May Not Be What You Want". This one was recorded by Prince Phillip but never saw the light of day until 2005 when it appeared on a magnificent compilation of his Muscle Shoals recordings called "Pick Hit Of The Week". It is a must have album for any soul fans in my opinion.

The Three Dog Night cover mentioned above was a song called "Nobody", their debut single in 1968. Their version is fine but not a patch on the one from the decidedly weird combination of Larry Williams (of "Bony Moronie" fame), Johnny 'Guitar' Watson and the psychedelic folk outfit Kaleidoscope (the American one). 

"Carry Me" - Joe Simon

"I May Not Be What You Want" - Prince Phillip Mitchell

"Nobody" - Larry Williams & Johnny 'Guitar' Watson (with Kaleidoscope)

Try as I might I could not find any decent clips of people performing Mr Shelby's songs on YouTube, so so are getting one from another musical titan called Ernie instead. 

The Coolest Cowpoke In Town

Before getting to the business of the day, a quick question for fellow bloggers. Have any of you started getting 400-500 visits a day from bots in Singapore? They arrived at my place over the weekend and so far show no sign of moving on. They don't seem to be doing any harm apart from messing up my visitor stats, but I would be interested to know if its just me they are bothering.

Anyway, on with the show.

After all these frenetic African sounds I've been treating you to I reckon its time for a change of pace. And if you need someone to inject a bit of smoothness into proceedings, who better than the King of Cool himself, Mr Dean Martin. So here are three of his countrypolitan recordings from the 1960s.

You will probably be familiar with his 1967 hit "Little Ole Wine Drinker Me" which in my humble opinion is one of the greatest records ever made, a view I know is shared by supporters of the Bankies. It may not be shared by my friends who have had to endure me belting it out and banging the table vigorously many times over the years.

Dean's take on Merle's "I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am" was released as a single in 1969, and we round things off with a Sheb Woolley tune that can be found on the second of the two country albums that Dean released in 1963, "Dean 'Tex' Martin Rides Again".

"Little Ole Wine Drinker Me" - Dean Martin

"I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am" - Dean Martin

"The Middle Of The Night Is My Cryin' Time" - Dean Martin

If any of you are wondering how these tunes fit with the cornucopia of zeitgeist-defining sounds that you normally find here, remember: there is no cornucopia without corn.

Ernie's African Odyssey Pt 5 - Burkina Faso

Stop 5 of 55 today. But first, a big thank you to David Graham, who got in touch after my appeal for help last week and has tipped me off to a veritable treasure trove of groovy sounds. He's a man with his finger on the pulse.

Now is also a good time to pay tribute to the mighty Moos at Global Groove, the go to place for vintage African albums. A fair few of the records in my collection were first found there.

Thanks yous done, its on with the tour, and we've arrived in Burkina Faso. 

It's hard not to think kindly of a country whose capital city rejoices in the name Ouagadougou. There is no evidence that the residents push pineapples or shake the trees, but some may grind coffee (Burkina Faso is the 55th largest coffee producing country). What you can be sure of is that they jump up and down and bend their knees when grooving to the sounds of the late great Georges Ouédraogo. It is impossible not to. 

Georges is widely considered one of the founding fathers of modern Burkinabe music. From some reason he didn't make the cut for Analog Africa's otherwise excellent compilation "Bambara Mystic Soul - The Raw Sound of Burkina Faso 1974 - 1979", available on Bandcamp for €10 in digital format. The Issouf Compaoré track is just one of the many stand-outs on the album. 

The Bambara are an ethnic group found predominantly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. One of their number, Serge Bambara, is better known as Smockey, a hip hop artist and political activist (he was a co-founder of the grassroots movement called Le Balai Citoyen which helped to bring down President Blaise Compaoré  in  2014). As you can tell by the song title, Smockey does not suffer fools gladly.

By contrast, Amity Meria's very name suggests friendship and harmony (or the house on the hill depending on your disposition). She was big in the 1990s and early 2000s and judging by the scant information I can find about her was still making music at least up to 2016. Let's hope she is still going strong.

I am not sure whether the final track can strictly be classified as MAR (Mandatory African Reggae) but certainly MAR-adjacent. Pierre Sandwidi was known as "the troubadour from the bush", and this track comes from his 1990s album "Vol. 3", reissued by my old pal Awesome Tapes From Africa. You can also find an example of his earlier work on the "Bambara Mystic Soul" compilation.

"Gnou Zemes" - Georges Ouédraogo

"Dambakale" - Issouf Compaoré

"L'imbécilité Humaine" - Smockey

"Biye Biye" - Amity Meria

"Boanga President" - Pierre Sandwidi

All of today's videos (and many more) can be found on the excellent Tackborse YouTube channel, decidated solely to the music of Burkina Faso. The first video has rapidly become a favourite round here. 

Post Of The Year

The year is 2023. You probably knew that already. What you couldn't be expected to know is that according to Blogger this is my 2023rd post.

This alignment of year and post will never happen again (at least not unless I reduce my output to one post a year, which some of you may welcome). So I thought I should mark the occasion in some way. 

La Femme released their track in 2013,yet somehow they knew this was going to happen. Even more impressive are I Romans, who as far back as 1970 were able to predict the exact month. Spooky!

"This Year, This Year" - Curtis Mayfield

"This Will Be Our Year" - The Zombies

"It's Time To Wake Up (2023)" - La Femme

"6/2023" - I Romans

We have saved the best till last with two superb versions of "Time Has Come Today". I found it hard to choose between them, then realised I didn't need to.

SBT Beside The Seaside

Way back in 2011 my album of the year was Sarabeth Tucek's "Get Well Soon". Great things were predicted for her at the time, but then she promptly disappeared from view.

Until now. She's back and going by the name SBT. Her new double album "Joan Of All" came out last month. And the predictions have belatedly proved to be accurate - its a cracking good record.

SBT has just finished a UK tour and last Friday played Ramsgate. My friend Mr F and I decided to make a weekend of it, going down for the gig and staying on for a couple of days of seaside fun and frolics. 

An excellent gig it was too. SBT had brought Luther Russell over with her, who produced and played many of the instruments on the album, and they were very ably supported by Rhii Williams (drums), Charlie Fitzgerald (bass) and Ryan Rogers (keys).  

They played the whole album in the same order as on the record which worked well. SBT and Luther have obviously put a lot of thought into the sequencing.

The immediate stand-out track is "13th St. #1" which has very 'Lou Reed in the Velvets' vibes, but having now listened to the record as well I can tell the list of favourites will get a lot longer.

Here are a pair of oldies but goodies for you, one each from Sarabeth's self-titled debut (2007) and "Get Well Soon". As for the videos, the first was recorded at the gig (not by me) and features the aforementioned "13th St #1" and the second is the official video for lead off single "The Gift".

"Something For You" - Sarabeth Tucek

"At The Bar" - Sarabeth Tucek

Ernie's African Odyssey Pt. 4 - Botswana

Before we resume our African odyssey, a quick call for help. Looking ahead at the rest of the B and C countries, there are a few for which I don't have much music to feature in the post. So if any of you can suggest some artists from Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad or the Comoros (especially the last two) that would be much appreciated. 

Now back to the tour. Stop 4 is Botswana, home to the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango Delta. So depending on when and where you go you will either be very dry or very damp.

Culture Spears burst onto the scene in 2005 with their debut album "Korone", and the follow up "Kulenyane" broke local sales records and won many awards. Despite suffering many of the travails that afflict successful groups (deaths, departures and divorces) they are still going strong. Today's selection was released in 2019.

The divorce I referred to involved lead singers Kabelo Mogwe (whose rich voice you hear on "Didimala Moratiwa") and Magdeline Lesolobe. Ms Lesolobe now goes by the name Charma Gal and has a very successful solo career. "Mahala" was a big smash in 2021.

Next we travel way back to the 1980s, when Culture Spears were barely even needles. Back then the Kgwanyape Band bestrode the Botswana music scene like a colossus. The band comprised the Senyatso brothers and a passing Scotsman who is credited with "bringing a particularly Celtic resonance" to their sound. Close your eyes and you wouldn't know if you are in Francistown or Falkirk.

"Sheleng" is from their 1993 album "Mephato Ya Maloba", available on Bandcamp for just $5. Its a good album but the sound quality is a bit ropey, as you will notice. 

One of the reasons I am doing this series is because it prompts me to learn more about the indigenous music of different parts of Africa. And what could be more indigenous to Botswana than death metal? Evidently there is a thriving scene there led by Overthrust, recent recipients of the prestigious  Gaborone's Greatest Grunters award. You can find their work on Bandcamp if you really want to.

Last but not least we have some MAR from MAR - that is to say, some Mandatory African Reggae from Maya Asiyah Roze. Her eruditely titled album "M.A.R.S The Warrior" can also be found on Bandcamp for $5. This is much more my sort of thing, although fans of Overthrust may prefer an alternative "Mars The Warrior". 

"Didimala Moratiwa" - Culture Spears

"Mahala" - Charma Gal

"Sheleng" - The Kgwanyape Band

"Victims Of Curse" - Overthrust

"Warrior" - Maya Asiyah Roze

German Disco Jesus

That Charity Chic fellow is currently running a series featuring songs about Jesus. I thought I would join him in spreading the Good News!

The particular news that I want to spread concerns a compilation album with the catchy title "Music with a Message: Celestial Explorations into German Church Rock". 

It collects together all sorts of groovy German Christian music from the 1960s and 1970s, and is described as "the first official compilation of its kind". Finally, a chance to upgrade all our poor quality German Christian bootlegs!

I'm not sure I will want to sit through the whole album again any time soon but I do like these two.

"Du Bist Die Stimme" - Oratorium

"Wie Ein Baum" - Heike Tittmann

And now, some music from a German Christian whose having a barrel of fun.