Track-by-track tales after the bare-bones list.

1. Fleetwood Mac, Coming Your Way
2. The Rolling Stones, Bye Bye Johnny (live, 1972)
3. Arthur Lee, One And One
4. James Cotton, Cotton Crop Blues
5. Howlin’ Wolf, Mr. Highway Man (Cadillac Daddy)
6. Roy Orbison, Go Go Go
7. Bruce Cockburn, Blind Willie
8. Blind Willie Johnson, Dark Was The Night
9. Dixie Dregs, Refried Funky Chicken
10. Elvin Bishop, Travelin’ Shoes
11. The Charlie Daniels Band, The South’s Gonna Do It Again
12. Wet Willie, Street Corner Serenade
13. Hank Williams, There’s A Tear In My Beer
14. Link Wray, Run Chicken Run
15. Roy Buchanan, Five String Blues
16. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mary Had A Little Lamb (live)
17. Jerry Lee Lewis, End Of The Road
18. Grateful Dead, Dark Star (live, from Live/Dead)

My track-by-track tales:

1. Fleetwood Mac, Coming Your Way . . . Opening track to likely my favorite Fleetwood Mac album, the last of the Peter Green era, 1969’s Then Play On. I played Although The Sun Is Shining from the album a few weeks ago, it stuck in my head and this is another Danny Kirwan composition from that record. Amazing percussive power courtesy drummer Mick Fleetwood on this one, a gem from an album that, like so many of the albums I cherish, and I probably mention too much, stems from my older brother (RIP) by eight years bringing them home and opening my eyes and ears beyond, at the time, during the 1960s, The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Monkees. I suppose I’d have eventually embraced them but were it not for my brother it may have taken me longer to get into such bands and artists as the bluesy Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and Bob Dylan, to name just a few.

2. The Rolling Stones, Bye Bye Johnny (live, 1972) . . . From the Stones’ 1972 show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Raucous cover of the Chuck Berry tune, including Mick Jagger’ shambolic intro of the band, who’s playing what, followed by Keith Richards ripping into the opening riff. I own this on at least two bootlegs from back in the days when you couldn’t get this stuff, officially, although most of the songs from that 1972 tour later came out on Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones which was also the name of an earlier bootleg, although the Bye Bye Johnny on that album was from a Houston, Texas performance, not from New York. In any event, I was in my friendly neighborhood independent record store some time back and lo and behold there’s an album, The Rolling Stones Madison Square Garden 1972 from a heretofore unknown to me at least label London Calling released in 2023 so, natch, I buy it and here you go, the sort of unofficial official release.

3. Arthur Lee, One And One . . . Reggae tune from the Love (band) leader’s self-titled 1981 album.

4. James Cotton, Cotton Crop Blues . . . First of a few in the set from an amazing compilation I dug up in my collection, while doing some long overdue spring cleaning (from last spring, 2023, not 2024 lol). The 2-CD set is called Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘N’ Roll and features sides recorded for Phillips’ Sun Records label. There’s also an accompanying book with the same title although when I purchased the CD some time back now, the book wasn’t part of the package – but the CD liner notes are quite extensive.

5. Howlin’ Wolf, Mr. Highway Man (Cadillac Daddy). . . Boogie tune featuring those unique Howlin’ Wolf guttural vocals propelled by the driving piano of a gent named L.C. Hubert, taken from the Sam Phillips tribute disc I mentioned with the previous track.

6. Roy Orbison, Go Go Go . . . Here’s another driving boogie rocker from that tribute to Phillips collection, featuring that remarkable voice of Roy Orbison.

7. Bruce Cockburn, Blind Willie . . . A tribute to Blind Willie Johnson, from Cockburn’s 2019 instrumental album Crowing Ignites.

8. Blind Willie Johnson, Dark Was The Night . . . Cold was the ground. Here’s the gospel blues legend himself, with those amazing ‘moaning’ vocals which might not directly express themselves with words but are nevertheless immensely compelling in their pure soulfulness. This is deep, emotional music recorded in 1927, nearly 100 years ago still to be cherished and appreciated for not only its quality but its influence on subsequent musical statements.

9. Dixie Dregs, Refried Funky Chicken . . . So I’m plowing through my CD collection and up comes a ‘country gold’ compilation which leads not only to this funky instrumental track by the Steve Morse (later of Deep Purple fame) led Dregs but some more which follows in this set.

10. Elvin Bishop, Travelin’ Shoes . . . Extended country blues funky rocking piece by Bishop, who was once of course a core member of the Butterfield Blues Band. Helping him out on the 1974 Let It Flow album, from whence this track comes, were musical mates like Charlie Daniels, Toy Caldwell of The Marshall Tucker Band, Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band and, maybe surprisingly, Sly Stone of Sly and The Family Stone.

11. The Charlie Daniels Band, The South’s Gonna Do It Again . . . Speaking of Charlie Daniels, he came up on that “country gold’ album I mentioned a couple songs ago. Daniels is best known, in a more widespread sense, for his 1979 crossover hit The Devil Went Down To Georgia but like all great artists, such hits can be an entry point for discovery and if you do go down that discovery road, you’ll usually be rewarded. Like with this tune, for me, anyway.

12. Wet Willie, Street Corner Serenade . . . Another from the ‘country gold’ compilation I’ve been digging into for this show. I’m loving the experience, such great music from a genre, country/country rock/pop I don’t always delve into but when I do, am glad I did.

13. Hank Williams, There’s A Tear In My Beer . . . All that said, re country music, Hank Williams is someone I’ll always delve into in my own private listening even if I don’t always or often play him on the show, limited time, space, that sort of thing. The guy was absolutely brilliant and that goes beyond his obvious hits. Here’s an example. Here’s to you, Hank. Salut!

14. Link Wray, Run Chicken Run . . . Crazy how this guitar master can actually make his instrument sound like a chicken. Wray sometimes sang but for the most part was an instrumental artist but, like Joe Satriani, is/was amazingly compelling.

15. Roy Buchanan, Five String Blues . . . Even before the vocals begin the tone is set by the soulful guitar playing. Buchanan was a sometimes troubled soul and it’s sad but in many ways that’s why his music was so great. A brilliant artist lost to us, the temptation is to say ‘gone too soon’, but you go when you go, by however means.

16. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mary Had A Little Lamb (live) . . . High energy version taken from Martin Scorsese’s collection of blues compilations.

17. Jerry Lee Lewis, End Of The Road . . . Back to that Sam Phillips Sun compilation I drew from earlier in the set we go for this typical Jerry Lee tune, that driving beat, the piano, all of it. So good.

18. Grateful Dead, Dark Star (live, from Live/Dead) . . . As I’ve previously stated, this was originally a shade under three-minute studio track, first released as single that didn’t chart, in 1968. It was then expanded to 23 minutes live on this perhaps best-known version from the ‘how could they not name an album Live/Dead?’ displaying the psychedelia, jazz and jam elements that constituted the Dead’s improvisational approach.