The One: The Life and Music of James Brown

RJ Smith's The One: The Life and Music of James Brown  is a sensitive and comprehensive look at the complex life and career of one of popular music's most influential performers. The singer enjoyed great success during his life, sold millions of records and had a reputation as an amazing and moving performer. Beginning with Brown's early life, Smith shows the difficulties that led to the songer's troubled childhood and youthful incarceration. He also illustrates how Brown's will and forceful personality kept him focused on success even while often preventing him from enjoying it. The book moves beyond standard music biography when the author contextualizes Brown's dancing and emotionally intense stage shows in shamanic ritual and pentacostal religious experience. Peopled with characters as diverse as Bootsy Collins and Rev. Al Sharpton, he book is a fun, sad and ultimately insightful look at the vicissitudes of race and fame from the chitlin circuit to the world's greatest stages, and a close examination of one of the most troubled and celebratory figures in popular music. A first rate biography.

Recordings of interest:
40th Anniversary Collection     James Brown
CD of JB II: Cold Sweat and Other Soul Classics     James Brown
Live at the Apollo     James Brown
Say It Live and Loud: 8/26/1868     James Brown
In the Jungle Groove     James Brown
T.A.M.I. Show (DVD) various artists incl. James Brown

Sky Dog

Recently added to the library's collection:

"Duane Allman was one of the defining musicians of our era, rated second only to Jimi Hendrix in Rolling Stone's list of rock's 100 greatest guitarists. A founding member, with his brother Gregg, of the Allman Brothers Band, Duane was also active as a session musician, and as a member of the all-star Derek and the Dominos. This seven CD set, produced by Duane's daughter Galadrielle Allman and esteemed reissue producer Bill Levenson, shows the full breadth and depth of Duane's work, from early recordings (with Gregg) in bands such as The Escorts, Allman Joys and Hour Glass; to his studio work with Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Boz Scaggs, Delaney & Bonnie, Ronnie Hawkins and many others; to a live jam session with the Grateful Dead. The set includes several unreleased performances, many classic Allman Brothers songs, and a collector's cache of rare singles and long out-of-print album tracks. Also included are a 72 page book with essays by Scott Schindler and Galadrielle Allman, and many rare photographs." - amazon.com

Lindi Ortega

Cigarettes & Truckstops

Lindi Ortega

I'm gonna board this greyhound and ride it all the way down to L.A.
You see I'm missin' you like crazy and I can't stand to be so far away
Cigarettes and truckstops remind me of you when I pass them by
And my mama always told me "hold on to the good things that you find"

So I guess I gotta tell ya that I'm comin' out to meet you
That I really gotta see you one more time,
I'd rather have you still beside me
Than have you always runnin' through my mind
Oh look out California, I'm comin' for my lover's heart tonight

In Evanston, Wyoming I kissed you underneath a painted sky
We were travellin' like gypsies, singin' to each other in the night
From highway to hotel room and every place we stopped at in between
Oh I'd hear Dolly singin': you and I were islands in the stream

So I guess I gotta tell ya that I'm comin' out to meet you
That I really gotta see you one more time
I'd rather have you still beside me
Than have you always runnin' through my mind
Oh look out California, I'm comin' for my lover's heart tonight