So Old It’s New set list for Monday, Nov. 28, 2022 – on air 8-10 pm ET

  1. Nazareth, Just To Get Into It . . . Getting into tonight’s show with this rocker, in honor of original Nazareth lead singer Dan McCafferty, who died three weeks ago to, sadly, little fanfare. I’ll have a mini Nazareth set, as a tribute, in the middle of my overall set list. 
  2. Nash The Slash, Dopes On The Water . . . Nash’s take, with altered lyrics, on the Deep Purple classic Smoke On The Water. It came out on 1981’s Children of The Night album which also featured covers of Jan and Dean’s Dead Man’s Curve and The Rolling Stones’ 19th Nervous Breakdown.
  1. Cheap Trick, Need Your Love (live, from At Budokan album) . . . Not a huge Cheap Trick fan but I like hypnotic, extended cuts like this one. 
  2. XTC, Dear God . . . A friend mentioned this tune as coming to mind after last Saturday’s Jesus Christ Superstar and a few other somewhat related songs show, although I didn’t include Dear God. Forgot about it/didn’t have room. So, here it is.
  1. The Tragically Hip, Trickle Down . . . From Up To Here, the 1989 release that was the Hip’s first full studio album (there was an earlier EP) and contained what became standards like Blow at High Dough and New Orleans Is Sinking. I remember reading a review of the record, bought it sight unseen and heard in those days before technology put everything just a keystroke or voice command away, and was happily rewarded.
  1. Robbie Robertson, Hell’s Half Acre . . . From The Band man’s first, self-titled solo album, in 1987.
  1. Nick Lowe, The Gee and the Rick and the Three Card Trick . . . Country-ish tune from Lowe’s 1984 album Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit.
  1. Aerosmith, Kings and Queens . . . Was a single but not a hit from the Draw The Line album in 1977. It’s a good one, though, and the band obviously liked it enough that it was put on their first greatest hits album.
  1. John Mayall, Room To Move . . . I got talking Mayall with an old friend dating to high school the other day. Turns out we attended, separately, the same Mayall show, with former Rolling Stone and Bluesbreaker Mick Taylor opening, during the 1980s at the old Ontario Place Forum, which featured a rotating stage. He mentioned the excellent Jazz Blues Fusion album so I dug it out and intended to play something from it. But I also pulled out The Turning Point and decided on this fairly famous, at least to Mayall aficionados, harmonica workout. I’m aiming to get back to Jazz Blues Fusion at some point.
  1. Van Morrison, Angelou . . . From 1979’s Into The Music, yet another of those songs where Morrison’s great voice is, I’d argue more so than with most artists, an instrument in itself.
  1. Faces, Ooh La La . . . A rare instance where Ron Wood took lead vocals on a Faces song. Nicely done. Versions were recorded with lead singer Rod Stewart and bassist Ronnie Lane taking vocal turns but neither liked their own efforts, so the band went with Woody’s for official release as the title cut from the band’s 1973 album.
  1. Nazareth, Light Comes Down . . . And off we go into our main Nazareth set with this one from 1998’s Boogaloo album. By this point, after a period in the wilderness of exploring some slightly different styles, Nazareth had returned to its hard-rocking roots and for a time opened shows with this song.
  1. Nazareth, Vigilante Man . . . Slow blues cover of the Woody Guthrie tune, from 1973’s Razamanaz album, one of the foundations of Nazareth’s 1970s output.
  1. Nazareth, Steamroller . . . Appropriate title for this cut from 1994’s Move Me album.
  1. Nazareth, Hire and Fire . . . Few but band die-hards were listening by this point, 1991. As a result, much great music was missed, like this perhaps a touch overproduced but nevertheless great cut from the No Jive album.
  1. Nazareth, Crazy (A Suitable Case For Treatment) . . . Nice hard rocking groove on this one. It appeared on the 1981 Heavy Metal movie soundtrack and later expanded re-releases of The Fool Circle album.
  1. Nazareth, Expect No Mercy . . . Scorcher of a title cut from the band’s 1977 album.
  1. Nazareth, Big Dog’s Gonna Howl . . . Latter-day Nazareth, still kicking butt on this one from 2011’s Big Dogz album. Yes, Dogz, with a ‘z’.
  1. The Boomtown Rats, Up All Night . . . Well, what would you expect, after Big Dog’s been howling? I actually decided on this one after some recent insomnia kept me, well, up all night.
  1. Queen, Sleeping On The Sidewalk . . . Maybe this would have worked. Yet another winner written and sung by guitarist Brian May, from 1977’s News Of The World album.
  1. The Kinks, Holloway Jail . . . From the brilliant, and inexplicable to me commercial failure that was 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies album. It’s a Kinks’ masterpiece.
  1. Nazareth, Silver Dollar Forger (Parts 1 & 2) . . . Back to Nazareth we go, one more time, to set up a ‘silver’ set. I’m shameless in my contrived creativity.
  1. The Rolling Stones, You Got The Silver . . . Keith Richards sings this one, from Let It Bleed and it often forms part of his usual 2-3 song mini-set within Stones concerts.
  1. Steve Miller Band, Quicksilver Girl . . . From the pre-hit, psychedelic era and a nice intro for our next band.
  1. Quicksilver Messenger Service, Pride Of Man . . . Cover of the Hamilton Camp tune, from Quicksilver’s debut album in 1968. Canada’s Gordon Lightfoot, among many others, also covered the song as did Gram Parsons, each of them taking varied and interesting approaches.
  1. Santana, Blue Skies . . . Extended cut from Santana’s excellent 2019 album Africa Speaks, A beautiful ballad before some fierce Santana fretwork takes over the tune halfway through. It’s sung by Buika, a Spaniard who did lead vocals on the album, with help, on just this track, from British singer Laura Mvula.

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