Loretta Lynn:

You Ain't Woman Enough:(1966)

Fist City:(1968)

Where to begin with Loretta Lynn, other than to say, she's incredible. I mean, she can't be talked about enough for her boundary pushing songwriting. She was way, way ahead of the curve with songs like The Pill, Don't Come Home A Drinkin', and Rated X. Then there's her amazing voice that's tough and tender at the same time. There's a reason this woman is a legend. So, on these two records you find gems like The Darkest Day, and You Ain't Woman Enough, and What Kind Of Girl Do You Think I Am. These albums are Country in the best possibly way. Not to mention, she's being backed by some of the best players in Nashville for their time. It's really hard to go wrong with sixties era Loretta Lynn records, period. 

Gloria Lynne:

The Best Of:(1969)

Considered a Jazz vocalist, to me Lynn bridges the divide between Jazz and orchestrated R&B better than other who tried. This is romantic music. This is sophisticated music. This is mood music. And again, this is a record I probably wouldn't own if it weren't for cheap thrift store digging. 

Nick Lowe:

Labour of Lust:(1979)

Singer, songwriter, producer, raconteur, Nick Lowe. I first learned his name from his production on Elvis Costello records, and his name on a great song like (What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding. In fact, Elvis makes an appearance on this record singing on the stand out track American Squirm. That said, Cruel To Be Kind is probably the tune most would recognize from this album, and it is a pretty great pop rock song. Diggin' deeper however, you come to gems like You Make Me, a super quiet love song like only Lowe writes. Another song that I love on the album is Cracking Up, which I first heard covered by Tom Petty on the Playback box set. 

I made an American squirm

And it felt so right

 

The Lonesome Organist:

Collector of Cactus Echo Bags:(1997)

Cavalcade:(1999)

I stumbled across the work of the Lonesome Organist (Jeremy Jacobsen) by artwork accident. Now, this first bit of today's post doesn't apply to a vinyl record, but we'll get back to vinyl in a sec. I was at a music store in 2003, looking for new music the old fashioned way, looking at album art, and taking a chance. I came across this interesting looking greenish-yellow cover with a three-headed crooner, and typeface that said, The Lonesome Organist One Man Band. It was the third album, Forms and Follies, that I took home that day, and fell in love with. 

Ok, so back to the vinyl... While playing shows in Denver in about 2009, I checked out, as I often do, Black & Read. Which is where I picked up these two records. Collector is a wildly cool album from artwork to music. There are elements here that seem to be a bridge from Jacobsen's 5ive Style band to this Lonesome Organist incarnation. Those elements feel completely gone by the time Cavalcade came out. Cavalcade feels like the Organist is fully born into its own thing. 

Overall I'm a big fan of the organic nature of this music, the introduction of a bit of chaos into melodies that seem at once familiar, and to creep in from another era reborn in a dream state. This is atmospheric music. 

Shorty Long:

Here Comes The Judge:(1968)

If you've heard Devil With The Blue Dress, you've heard a piece of Shorty Long, but you're more likely to have heard the song done by Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, as that was the "Hit" version. So, with that in mind, I encourage you to check out Long's sower, more sultry version. The version that feels more like it's pedaling sex, as opposed to Ryder's which feels more like it's pedaling a high powered drug. Tragically, Long died in a boating accident, and only released two full albums. 

Little Steven:

Men Without Women:(1982)

Voice of America:(1984)

One of the most soulful members of the E Street Band, I'm sure that even if you haven't heard these albums, you can imagine what Little Steven brings to his first two solo albums. You can tell that Steven and Bruce grew up listening to the same records. However, while Springsteen sometimes dances around a tough political issue, Little Steven is right there in your face. Which might be a part of why his solo albums aren't more widely regarded. All I know is, I really dig both these records. Oddly enough, I was turned onto Little Steven's solo work by the Jackson Browne cover of Steven's I Am A Patriot. Steven also has one of my favorite quotes about music in politics, it goes something like, "What's more personal than your political beliefs?" 

Little Feat:

Dixie Chicken:(1973)

Feats Don't Fail Me Know:(1974)

Waiting For Columbus:(1978)

My Dad was big Little Feat fan, so I heard these three albums quite a bit growing up. I remember being very intrigued by the tomato woman on the cover of Waiting For Columbus. I also remember thinking the song Dixie Chicken was just a funny little tune, and not the seamy tale of a hooker. As I grew up, I kind of disregarded Little Feat as some kind of soft rock. This image was cemented by seeing a modern day incarnation of the band at a festival in Santa Cruz. I think there was maybe one original member, and it was lame. So, flash forward to the age of about twenty, I'm getting into Elvis Costello in a big way, and I find out that he was such a big Little Feat fan that he wanted his first album to sound like them. I pulled out these old records, and finally discovered how cool Lowell George was as a songwriter, and guitar player. Not to mention the rest of the original lineup. So, yeah, there's my kind of uninteresting Little Feat story. Now go listen to Fat Man In The Bathtub.