You Can't Make Me Doubt

Hey, now!  We're back!  No excuses.  Let's just start postin'!

Got a special treat for y'all today.  A mighty artist recently exhumed by the essential Mississippi Records.

To be fair, we know nothing about Boyd Rivers, other than the info given to us via the liner notes.  So, pardon us, but we're gonna briefly quote:

"Boyd Rivers was born on December 25th, 1934, in Madison County, Mississippi.  He was brought up in the Church by his Mother and was influenced by regional musicians such as Clyde Maxwell and others, as well as his uncle, the Gospel Legend, Reverend Cleophus Robinson.

"Rivers started out on two nails and a wire on wall, and played Blues guitar as early as 13, but changed to Spirituals around the age of 19.

"Axel Kustner and Siegfried Christmann recorded Rivers later in the same year for the L&R Records series "Living Country Blues" and he appears on "Living Country Blues Vol. 11". A chapter was also dedicated to Rivers in Alan Young's book, "Woke Up This Morning", published in 1997 by the University Press of Mississippi. "

It's a gospel-blues record, full of holy sanctified trance'n'testifyin', Rivers' guitar playing the deep mystery, Mississippi raw, rough and elegiac, a transcendent drone born in fire and mile-deep waters, never still but roiling on stranger guided by voices undercurrent.

Rivers' voice has all the yearning and rumble of a prophet, from darkened door to neon-lit houses of ill-repute to the cobwebbed corners of the shining mansion on the hill, when the choir has gone home, and he's left to sweep the ashes of sin shed and glory and grace floating like motes in the sun-dappled beams of light.  Like Papa Lightfoot, edged with a growl and fabled into myth, a shrouded prophet, with an eye toward hypnotic, hallelujah geetar glory, a mumbled swaybacked picked and wobbled ecclesiastical sex'n'sin'n' salvation wagon ride.  

Anyone interested in the very primal nature of American music should seek this record out.  It's a revival meeting hollerin' in a  jukejoint!

Boyd Rivers: That Fire Shed In My Bones (mp3)

Boyd Rivers: I Done Died One Time (mp3)


Nothin' to say here....just keep supportin' folks who are keepin' the flame against the darkness of generic crap!

Six Pack None The Richer

Took a short break, but we're back again. Honestly we have no idea how folks find the time to post every day.

We're waiting on permissions for our next couple of posts, so what better way to bide our time, and entertain you, our blessed readers, than with another installment in our world-renowned Six Pack Series! Six fantabulous tracks pulled randomly, or not so much,from our bulging collection of vinyl long and short players! No edits, no noise reduction or fiddlin' of any sort. Just music the way the good lord intended. We might even throw in some pops and crackles as a bonus!

First up is the infamous Michael Hurley with a filthy little ode to...well, you can guess. It's off his classic record, "Armchair Boogie", recently re-issued on vinyl by our fave rave record label, Mississippi Records. After that, we've got a hoedown from the Willis Brothers, replete with Mariachi horns, by gum. And just when think it can't get any better, we've got a slice deep greasy god-lovin'funk from the record Good God! put out by The Numero Group.

At the halfway point, we've got Mr. Gorie/Dirtbomb Mick Collin's one-off The King Sound Quartet weighing in with a menacing little tune off their record "The Get-Down Imperative" on In The Red. We couldn't follow that up any better than with Doug Sahm and the Sir Douglas Quintet with a Texas-style hillbilly ode to life in the big, big city, pulled from their record "Mendocino", which should be an essential record in any music fan's collection.

We couldn't finish this up any better than with a tune from one-man-crackpot-band extraordinaire, Abner Jay. We pulled the song "I'm So Depressed" from the album "The True Story of Abner Jay" put out by...wait for it...Mississippi Records. Yeah, there's two tracks from records by them. Deal with it, they're the best label around, swear to god.

All songs are arranged in a mix-tapers order, and their placement in no way reflects any attempt to order the songs in terms of importance or quality. Check 'em all out!

Michael Hurley: Open Up (Eternal Lips) (mp3)

Willis Brothers: Bob (mp3)

LaVice and Company: Thoughs (sic) Were The Days (mp3)

King Sound Quartet: I Wouldn't Put It Past You (mp3)

Sir Douglas Quintet: Lawd I'm Just A Country Boy In This Great Big Freaky City (mp3)

Abner Jay: I'm So Depressed (mp3)

Please support your local, independent anything.

Six Pack To Go

Hey, hey! Gonna pound on yr eardrums today with another exciting installment of our 6 Pack series. Six fantabulous tunes ripped from glorious vinyl for your enjoyment and consumer needs. What's this all about? Well check out our previous six pack post for the full skinny.

So, here's our vinyl stars for the day. Next time we do this it'll be an all 7" day, so let the ladies know (ah ha ha ha...ha...hee hee...oh, forget it).

First up is a slab of pre-punk, soul punk from the awe-inspiring, recently unearthed Death (not the death metal band) courtesy of Drag City Records. More on these guys later.

Hard to follow Death, but legend Jack Oblivian (nee Yarber) and his Tennessee Tearjerkers kick a sweet sweatboozemidnightramble tale from their new rekkid, The Disco Outlaw on (label of the year) Goner. Note that no disco, or anything remotely associated with it, actually appears on the rekkid. Jack Oblivian retrospective coming soon on this very site.

Lo-fi (don't hate the label, embrace it as a sign that no jackass producer mucked around with the proceedings) genius Bobby Ubangi clocks in next with a fast and furious little ditty that has us jumping around the living room in sheer bliss. Song's on "Inside The Mind of Bobby Ubangi" on Rob's House Records.

Halfway through we have an African groove courtesy of Mississippi Records' album Love Is Love. If you're not grabbing every release by this label, well, there might be something wrong with you. This might be our favorite song posted today.

For you sleaze-blooze-trash fans, The Touch-Me-Nots, a two piece husband and wife duo, take you to the darker side with a track off their killer Sheldon Munn 10" on Yakisakana Records.

And, finally, a little noirish, late-night drinking song from Country chanteuse Sammi Smith . From a record that's no longer in print, "The Toast of 45", but well worth hunting down.

As ever, the songs are not in any order of quality or greatness. We just lined 'em up in a convenient mix-tape sort of way. Grab 'em all, and support the artists if you can.


Death: Keep On Knockin' (mp3)

Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers: Walk of Shame (mp3)

Bobby Ubangi: Another Girl Like You (mp3)

S.E. Rogers - Toomus Meremereh Nor Good (Sierra Leone) (mp3)

The Touch-Me-Nots: Imbe-Style (mp3)

Sammi Smith: The Toast of 45 (mp3)


Please support your local, independent record stores. Please.