Chicago -
By Mick Dumke
Jimmy Smith was a master of pulling soul out of the cheesiest organ lines. On “T-Bone Steak,” the flip side of this single, he and his band create one of these classic grooves, made up of funky guitar licks, a propulsive beat and bass line, and Smith’s oozing organ. But they sound even better on Side A: “Mickey Mouse.”
Posted on September 23, 2006
By Mick Dumke
Coherence is overrated. Sure, there are moments when you know all the answers, and that’s when you play the first Ramones album, a persuasive argument in favor of two-minute, three-chord rumbles, wrecking shit just because you can, and getting stoned; or the early and mid-60s Motown singles like “The Tracks of My Tears” and “Nowhere to Run,” where the pain of loss is clear and cutting and you can’t think of anything else and don’t want to . . . though you still may want to get stoned.
Posted on September 18, 2006
By Mick Dumke
Right now, it doesn’t look like Johnny Cash will ever go away, and that’s the way it should be. His latest/posthumous record, American V: A Hundred Highways, has been a huge hit, and for good reason: the songs are a mix of originals and covers, but that voice makes each one into a detailed, personal experience we all can drink and weep and pray our way through.
Part of the Cash voice, of course, is, literally, his voice – that amazing baritone that many of us have tried and failed to imitate when we played the records and imagined ourselves performing from the stage of our own Folsom Prisons. Frankly, it doesn’t seem that hard to sing like Johnny Cash, until you find out you can’t do it. And that’s because the most essential part of his voice is really the way it’s used: not only is his baritone a lot deeper and cooler than ours, it’s a lot wiser, too.
It’s also deeper, cooler, and wiser than his brother Tommy Cash’s.
Posted on September 10, 2006
By Mick Dumke
The Cook County Board’s been on our minds lately, so I considered it great fortune when I found a bargain-bin record the other day by my favorite soul-singing commissioner, Jerry “Iceman” Butler. Since Butler has now had a long career as a Regular Democratic Party loyalist, it’s easy to forget that, as a founding member of the Impressions and through his solo work, he’s one of the most influential soul artists in history.
Posted on July 23, 2006
