Kelly Hogan

I love Kelly Hogan's voice. She can make anything sound magical - if you don't believe me one day I'll post her version of "Rubber Duckie" from Sesame Street. It will make you wish you were cute and yellow and chubby too (and if you already are, you can pretend she is singing it just for you). Unfortunately I'm only one of the three.

Here are two other cover versions: "Papa was a Rodeo", originally by the Magnetic Fields, and "Dues", taken from a remake of the soundtrack to Robert Altman's "Nashville" which also features Carolyn Mark, Neko Case and others.

http://www.box.net/shared/2jjpje5k4t

In the unlikely event that anyone who has an influence on this things reads this, please please please give her a record deal. She hasn't released an album since 2003 and that is far too long to wait.

I would love to hear Kelly do a version of this song, although to be fair even she would be hard pressed to improve on the original. Here's Carlene Carter with "Unbreakable Heart":

Hugh Masekela

There is a loose thematic link with yesterday's post. You may recall that Lord Melody fell for the charms of Madame Rasta while strolling through a street market. Well it turns out that exactly the same thing happened to Hugh Masekela in the Congo. Markets are clearly the place to go if you are looking for romance, so I'll be off to Petticoat Lane on Sunday morning in the hope of bumping into the future Mrs Goggins. In the meantime, here is Hugh to tell us about his experience. The song is called, simply enough, "Market Place".

http://www.box.net/shared/nks8t6gmmq

I am sure you are familiar with Hugh Masekela - he started out in South Africa in the 1950s before going into exile in the early 1960s, had a number one hit in the US with "Grazin' in the Grass" in the mid-1960s, and is still going strong and is as good as ever today. As well as his own records, his distinctive trumpet sound can be heard backing innumerable other acts, including The Byrds on "So you want to be a rock 'n roll star" and Tsepo Tshola on this track - "Nonyana". Tsepo is from Lesotho, the tiny mountain kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa, and this is from his 2002 album "A New Dawn", which Hugh co-produced.

http://www.box.net/shared/lv1tsesmdd

Lady Rastas Special

I'm back with a special theme: songs about female Rastafarians. And after agonising for hours over which of my extensive collection of such songs to feature in the end I thought "to Hell with it, let's do them both".

Both of them come from Trinidad. First up is the immortal Lord Melody (real name: Fitzroy Alexander), one of the greatest calypsonians that ever lived. He was the main rival to the Mighty Sparrow in the 1950s and 1960s (when he died Sparrow recorded a lovely tribute to him called "Play one for Melo" which I must put up one day). By the time he recorded "Madame Rasta" in 1979 soca was in his infancy and he was trying it on for size, in his usual melodious mid-tempo way. The album this comes from, "Sugar Jam", is one of my all-time favourites.

http://www.box.net/shared/b7ndsz0sgz

Fast forward to the mid 1980s and soca as we recognise it now was up and running. Explainer (real name: Winston Henry) had a couple of radio hits in the UK with "Notting Hill" and "Lorraine". Here he is with "Rasta Girl", which is less an affectionate tribute and more an excuse for a bit of single entendre involving the word "ras".

http://www.box.net/shared/m9rlt2g1x5

I tried to find a decent quality clip of Explainer performing "Lorraine" on YouTube but failed, so you will have to make do with this Lorraine instead:

Charlie Rich, King of Soul

I'm away working for a few days from tomorrow which means there will be no "Mpharanyana on Monday" this week, so to compensate here is some stuff by one of my other favourite soul singers - Charlie Rich.

Yes that one. Those of you who only know of him through his big hits of the early 1970s might be pleasantly surprised by many of the other things he has done, starting with Sun Records in the 1950s and including a stint with Hi! Records (home of Al Green etc) in the late 1960s, where he recorded the original version of "When something is wrong with my baby".

He could turn his hand to any musical style and always infused it with a lot of soul. As an indicator you only have to look at the number of soul and blues singers who covered his songs - Bobby Womack, Percy Sledge, Little Milton and these next two among many others.

What I have for you today are two Charlie Rich originals, and two cover versions of the same songs.

First up, "I take it on home" - by Charlie and Bobby "Blue" Bland

http://www.box.net/shared/hh9atbqo7e

Next, "Life's little ups and downs" - by Charlie and Latimore

http://www.box.net/shared/a741q12q3l

And, finally, here is the great man hamming it up on "Mohair Sam":

World's Twinkliest Man

Van The Man Live!

If you haven’t already heard Van Morrison’s new album “Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl”, I would recommend you do so. It is the latest in a series of excellent live albums by Van dating back to “It’s Too Late To Stop Now”.

But it is not the new live album that we feature today – I am not quite that flagrant in my disregard for the copyright laws (although Joe Shirimani may disagree). Instead, from a bootleg recording from 1971, here is Van laying into Lonnie Donegan’s “Dead or Alive”.

http://www.box.net/shared/nm83peclai

And as a bonus, here is Lonnie himself with “Fort Worth Jail”.

http://www.box.net/shared/u6fqfneaov

Tsonga Disco: Joe Shirimani

Welcome to Part 2 of our two-part Tsonga Disco special. Today we bring you "Basani" by Joe Shirimani:

http://www.box.net/shared/1x1gx1qp07

As we have already established I am no expert, but I reckon that in the Tsonga Disco firmament Joe is a bigger star than yesterday's featured artist, Madlaks (despite the latter's claim to be the King of Africa Tsonga Disco). Joe's music is more polished and more immediately catchy; he is signed to a major label (Sony) in South Africa; and he has produced a rather endearing low budget - or badly copied - video for "Basani". I love the bit at about 1:16 where he faints.



And that is it on the Tsonga Disco front for the moment. After yesterday's selection I finished with an uplifting message from Madlak's CD sleeve asking us to do our bit to spread the word. I looked at Joe's CD to see whether there was anything similarly inspiring I could quote today. After all the usual thanks to his family, producer, label etc he concludes "Please Let's Stand Together Against Music Piracy".

Oops!