Townes Van Zandt "No Place to Fall" with Chips Moman at American Studios, Nashville

My good man Red Kelly over at the B-Side just finished up his superb four part series on the career of Chips Moman with a great post on the Chips' move to Nashville and an epilogue to Tommy Cogbill. Since Red is one of the people that inspired me to do this, I though this week I'd write an addendum to that series with Townes Van Zandt's "Flyin' Shoes" recordings at American Nashville.

Townes's story story is well-documented: the rise and perpetual fall of the great American songwriter from his well-off family background in Fort Worth, to the mental breakdowns and insulin shock therapy, to the life on the road, to the retreats from the world, to his attempted returns and finishing with, sadly, his inevitable early death. Due to his reckless attitude and deep involvement with various vices (both external and internal), everyone who spent time with him has numerous stories of Townes' antics, and combined with the heavy, heavy nature of his songs, the myth is just as big as the life.

In most cases of the early death of the artistic "genius," the myth is much larger than the life (see Gram Parsons for example), but in Townes's case, the legend just as true. From the various footage of him off stage recorded over the years, you get the sense that everyday was an adventure just as deep or humorous as the songs. And, by most first hand accounts, the legend was already in place when he was alive. Townes himself even helped build it: according to is friend and guitarist, Mickey White: "He knew he was creating the myth. I would always be amazed by those incredible tales Townes told me. then we'd be on the road and run into some old friends who would bring up these stories without prompting, and they were exactly the same, word for word. My impression was he really didn't have to make that much up. It was so outlandish in the first place." For that story, definitely check out the 1975 Austin music documentary, "Heartworn Highways," and the more encompassing documentary, "Be Here To Love Me" by Margaret Brown, and John Kruth's To Live Is To Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt.

"No Place to Fall" has three distinct versions: recorded (1973) and first released (1977) as part of the "Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas" album; recorded by Cowboy Jack Clement for the "7 Come 11" album (1973), but unreleased until "The Nashville Sessions" (1993); and recorded by Chips Moman and released on "Flyin' Shoes" (1978).


By the that time, Townes had recorded, and Kevin Eggers had released on his Poppy label, an album a year since 1968. All of those 6 records have there own high, low and in between (pun intended) moments in all aspects: the songwriting, the performance, and the production, done by Cowboy Jack Clement, Kevin Eggers, or Jim Malloy or some sort of combination of the three (except for his fourth record, Delta Mama Blues, which was recorded and produced in New York by Ronald Frangipane). For the hardcore Townes fans, the production of these records is a distraction: Jack Clement took a good deal of risks on the first two records (For the Sake of the Song and Our Mother the Mountain), adding bellowing strings, background vocals, harpsichords, flutes (?), and just about everything in his bag of tricks. Ironically, most of this stuff was recorded live and not overdubbed, but most people heavily criticize the overproduction, feeling it takes away from Townes' songs. And that's probably true: they bury the vocals with reverb, because that's the way it was done--Townes had a voice with very little range or polish and any producer would've done the same at the time to enhance the vocals. But as one of Townes' closest friends, Guy Clark said, as quoted by Kruth, "It breaks my heart to hear the way they overproduced his stuff. He was not unaware of it. Townes is really the one who's responsible. You can't let him off the hook. He didn't have the time to mix the fuckin' records 'cause he was too busy drinkin' and shootin' dice."

Following the 1972 release of the Late Great Townes Van Zandt, Kevin took Townes and his newest songs back into the studio with Cowboy Jack as producer and Chuck Cochrane as arranger. It was a great batch of songs (perhaps the strongest yet), including "At My Window," "Rex's Blues," "White Freightliner," "Loretta," "Two Girls," and "No Place to Fall." But much to his later regret, Kevin Eggers didn't pay Cowboy Jack, who in turn wouldn't turn over the tapes. The album, originally called "7 Come 11," didn't get released until 1993 (Not surprisingly, Eggers shame is conspicuously absent from the CD: there's no information on the recording session, the date, or the players; all it gives is the lyrics, produced by Kevin Eggers, recorded by Jack Clement, and the original issue date of 1993). Any of the national momentum that had been building for Townes just went up in smoke, and hazy reasons: Eggers claims he didn't release it because he "had such a bad feeling." While undocumented, I believe that it was a lack of money (Eggers was famous for constantly moving around money), having nothing to do with Townes' drinking and drug use. But that's just speculation.

In the time following these sessions, Townes continued his life on the road, found a new girlfriend who would become his second wife, and began a musical tailspin. The touring was just too crazy with in fighting, unfinished shows, smashed fiddles, bad comedy, and Townes' destructive behavior. According to Mickey White again, "Townes' business was goin' out the window. The gigs sucked. He started to lose interest in bein' the great Townes Van Zandt, and he become careless." [Note the picture on the left, above comes from Townes' road manager, Harold F. Eggers, Jr.'s website. Check it out] Eventually, he settled down in a cabin in the mountains of Tennessee (with Cindy and his trusty dog Geraldine) procured for him by the young Steve Earle. Even though out in the middle of nowhere, he had plenty of visitors and the myths and stories continued to grow, including the now famous game of Russian Roulette in front of Earle. During this time, in 1977, Eggers released "Live at the Old Quarter" to regain the fan base (after all no record had come out in 5 years), with or without Townes' assent. Following that, John A. Lomax III (of the family that we all owe so much to) who had taken over the managing job, brought Townes into the studio with some new material and the re-hashing of songs from the unreleased sessions. Lomax got Chips Moman, and Chips got some of the American studios tried and true great musicians for the session, along with some bluegrass help for the album "Flyin' Shoes."

Here's part of the roll call: Phillip Donnelly (guitar), Tommy Cogbill (bass), Bobby Emmons (keyboards), Randy and Gary Scruggs (guitar, mandolin and harmonica), Spooner Oldham (piano), and Chips himself producing and playing guitar. And, in my opinion, it's the best production that Townes ever got. The production is gentle with little added to Townes' voice except some background vocals to enhance the choruses. Most of all, the production really allows the simple melodies of the songs to shine. For example, the first track from the album, "Loretta," layers multiple guitars picking and strumming the melody with a nice slow harmonica foreshadowing the vocals, slowly adds the backing vocals, a steel guitar (from Jimmy Day), a nice interplay between the ebbing organ and the return of the harmonica, then strips them back away for "Sweetest at the break of day . . ." The drumming gets more prominent as the song approaches its climax and the harmonica returns with a touch of that high lonesome (hey, after all, Gary is Earl Scruggs' son). And the song just stays even and cool over all that with the hopeful and whistful finale repetition of "Loves me like I want her to . . ." It's country round picking that you could image being heard with a group of great musicians on the porch of Townes' cabin, as shown in the photograph on the back of the LP.

"No Place To Fall" is one of the many songs in the Townes canon that plays with the idea of love, full of unabashed natural joy and frightening insecurity, against the passage of time. It recurs throughout the early records with varying degrees of simplicity and obtuse imagery: "I'll Be Here in the Morning" from For the Sake of the Song (and the self-titled third LP); "Be Here to Love Me" and "Second Lover's Song" from Our Mother the Mountain; "Only Him or Me" and "Come Tomorrow" from Delta Momma Blues; "Greensboro Woman" from High Low and In Between; "No Lonsome Tune" and "If I Needed You" from The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. It's one of the more simple songs in Townes' canon, and maybe that's why it appeals to me so much. The honesty is all there: "I'm not much of a lover, it's true / I'm here then I'm gone and I'm forever blue / But I'm still wanting you." So is the hope in spite of all that Townes is and does--time will pass "a fast old train," but together it doesn't matter, "wouldn't you take my hand." Like many of his songs, it still hints at that mystery: Is that fall death? Who is he really singing too then? By the time he repeats the first verse at the end, the meaning has changed.

As above, the production takes a nice back seat to the vocals and the melody, slowly building around the guitars, with a touch of reverb on the mandolin to bring it back as the dramatic fill following the second last verse and before the final repetition of the first verse. I particularly love the nice interaction between the swelling organ and the touch on piano from Spooner that dramatizes Townes' reserved vocals. While Kruth calls Townes "laconic" on the record, I hear it differently: it's resigned to the fate of the songs. While it almost sounds detached, Townes has settled into "the same old songs, it wouldn't be long"--the songs have their own natural momentum. And Chips produces and arranges around that--letting the ease of the Tennessee mountains and its musical tradition swirl around the lyrics, building them up and pulling them back as the lyrics go.

For comparisons sake, the version that was recorded by Cowboy Jack Clement, starts with a more plodding beat under a more expressive Townes, suddenly throws a heavy, dirge organ on the second verse against the finger picking and emphasizes the lyrics at odd places with heavily reverbed backing vocals. There's also the hint of a classical sounding string quartet deep in the mix. Everything seems in the background on the track. Here the music seems laconic with really only Townes trying to hold the melody. The hope of the song as opposed to the desolation before it is nowhere to be found.

Obviously, the Old Quarter version is the simplest, with just Townes and his guitar picking and strumming through it. He really hits the lonesome on "I ain't much of a lover," goes stronger on "Time she's a fast old train," then hits gentle on the final verse. Recorded on the last night in 1973 of a 5 night gig at the small club in Houston run by his good friend (and subject of the song "Rex's Blues"), "Wrecks" Bell, the album was released before Flyin' Shoes. Unfortunately, I have no idea about the original reaction to the LP but over the years it has become "the rosetta stone" to Townes fans, since it's got most of his best songs in the simplest setting. To me, that's just the myth of the songwriter rearing its ugly head: if anyone else is involved in a recording, then it takes away from the genius. I just can't believe that: in the right setting (and I think Chips and American was it), the more talent involved can compliment the original song. And frankly, I'd rather hear the collective effort than the auteur.

Off my soapbox, the record was not successful, they're were problems with the tour, Townes ran into more personal problems and the rest of the story is more valleys than peaks. He did, however, leave some of the most incredible songs I've ever heard and some truly great records, with or without the myth.


Thanks for reading and listening. Here's the set list. The first set is all American Studios work in different contexts. And don't forget to check out Red's blog.


Oscar Toney, Jr.; The Dark End of the Street; For Your Precious Love; Bell (Rev-Ola)

Townes Van Zandt; No Place to Fall; Flyin' Shoes; Tomato
Norman West; Words Can't Say; Smash 2123
Sam Hutchins; I'm Tired of Pretending; AGP 106
Rudolph Taylor; Doorsteps To Sorrow; Roman 311
Wilson Pickett; I've Come A Long Way; I'm In Love; Atlantic
Waylon Jennings; Till I Gain Control Again; Ol' Waylon; RCA

O. V. Wright; Heartaches, Heartaches; Backbeat 583
Ester Philips; Try Me; Atlantic 2370
Ray Price; Don't You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me; The Other Woman; Columbia
Solomon Burke; Baby Come On Home; Atlanitc 2314
Willie Mitchell; Willie's Mood; Soul Serenade; Hi

Etta James; Tell Mama; Cadet 5578
Mighty Sam; Fannie Mae; Amy 963 (Papa True Love; Sundazed)
Eddie Hinton; Brand New Man; Very Extremely Dangerous; Capricorn
Bettye LaVette; Shut Your Mouth; Atlantic 2160
Tony Borders; Polly Wally; Revue 11045 (Cheaters Never Win; Soulscape)

Doug Sahm; Crazy, Crazy Baby; Jukebox Music; Antone's
Brenda George; Everybody Don't Know About My Good Thing (Pt. 1); Ronn 60
Mel Tillis; The Games People Play; Sings Old Faithful; Kapp
Clifton Chenier; Release Me; Cajun Swamp Music Live; Tomato
Johnnie Allan; Tennessee Blues; (Promised Land; Ace)

Magic Sam's Blues Band; That's All I Need; West Side Soul; Delmark

Department of Apologies: The podcase starts about 8 minutes in--I was late, sorry.

Department of Additions and Favors:

As chronicled by Backroads of American Music, some of the good fellas in the Southern Soul Group have started a fund to get O. V. Wright a proper head stone at his (as of now) unmarked grave in Memphis. O. V. is one of the true greats and has enhanced all our lives, so let's take a minute and give something back to him and his family. I'll leave the button up on the sidebar.

Department of the West Side: The Marshall Commandos Beat Simeon for the 3A State Title in Boys Basketball. They joined the also state champion girls team and fellow West Siders, North Lawndale, who won 2A, in glory. Congratulations!

Doug Sahm Covers Louisiana Legend Bobby Charles "On Bended Knee"

I'll let Doug Sahm introduce this one, "Here's a song by a Louisiana legend, a great compadre of ours, from Lafayette, Louisiana, Mr. Bobby Charles."

Oh, what to say about Bobby Charles? The accolades roll in from other artists, from Fats Domino to the Band to Paul Butterfield to Ray Charles to just about every local Southwest Louisiana swamp popper. Bobby first burst on the scene with his 1955 hit "See You Later Alligator," a song that local record shop owner Charles "Dago" Redlich had sent up to Leonard Chess (who, as was his habit, was traveling through Louisiana a couple of years prior and asked record store owners to send him anything with promise). Chess signed him, thinking he had found another unknown Delta black artist. Well, he thought that until Bobby got off a plane in Chicago and finally met Leonard face to face. Leonard introduced him to a different catch phrase, one that starts with "mother."

Well, despite that initial reaction, "See You Later Alligator" with the flip side "On Bended Knee" did real well locally and nationally, then took off when Bill Haley and his Comets recorded a version. This is where the story gets interesting, as Bobby was, according to John Broven in his essential South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous, "in a musical no-man's land--a white artist singing an R&B type song on a black label." Matter of fact, he was the only white artist with Chess at the time. After putting out a few more sides for Chess with less success (with titles trying to build on his initial success, like "Watch It Sprocket" and "Take It Easy Greasy," collected on the currently unavailable Chess Masters CD), he could have just faded away like many of the one-hit songsters of the teenage R&B days. But Bobby's talents as a songwriter, and the fertile airs of Louisiana music world just wouldn't let that happen. And we're all happy for that!


In the early 1960s, Bobby began working with one his idols, Fats Domino, penning a few tunes for him, including the one included in the show, "Walking to New Orleans." As quoted by Shane K. Bernard, "That was a real rush for me, to write a song for someone that was an inspiration to me, like Fats Domino." His friendship and talent led to more singles on the Jewel and Paula labels,
and an extended stay in Woodstock led to an album with members of the Band and Dr. John for Albert Grossman's fledgling label Bearsville in 1972, alternately called "Bobby Charles" or "Small Town Talk." He also makes an appearance and sings on "The Last Waltz." After a brief retirement in the late 1970s back in Louisiana, his talent again brought out the stars for an (unreleased) album with Neil Young and Willie Nelson in 1984. Since then he has written written more songs, recorded one retrospective album (with a couple of the Young/Nelson songs) called "Last Train to Memphis," but lives off his royalties in retirement in Louisiana near the Gulf of Mexico. I'm sure we'll here from him again and it'll be great. (Although, don't go seeking him out).

But that's the national story, with big names and covers from national artists, the local story is still being written. The list of great Swamp Pop musicians who have done Bobby Charles songs is too long to type and continues to grow.

A brief aside about Swamp Pop definitions: the origins of the phrase are murky (pun intended) and Shane K. Bernard does a nice job in his great Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues tracing them to some English music critics, not to the people who made the music or the people who danced to it. Most of them just referred to it simply as "Southern Louisiana Music," since there is no need to separate Fats Domino, Cookie and the Cupcakes, Slim Harpo, Belton Richard, Guitar Gable, Clifton Chenier, Earl King, Warren Storm, and on and on. It's just academic. As Bobby told Bernard, "Somebody told me I was a swamp pop musician, I said, 'Oh really?' I mean, I didn't know what the hell they were talking about . . . . If you've got to name your children, I guess you've got to give it a name too!" I like to refer to it (to myself that is), as Southern Louisiana Juke Box Music. In my mind's eye, I envision it as the music you and your date play on the juke box or go to a club and see--all for the dancing, both to the uptempo shakers and the slow ballads. As Harry Simoneaux told John Broven, "It is common today for partygoers who dance to Johnnie Allan's music on a Saturday night to go to the Triangle Club in Scott on Sunday afternoon and dance to French Cajun music only. Fans who like one type of music will generally like the other too. One thing about the swamp-pop style is that there are few musicians that every play it right if they are not born in raise in South or Southwestern Louisiana."

Anyway, that brings us back to today's opening number: a live version of "On Bended Knee" performed in 1998 by Doug Sahm, with Augie Meyers and the Gourds backing him up. Even though Doug is from West (and not East) Texas, he still plays it the right way. While the story of Doug and his various exploits, influences, and great, great music are a subject for another show and post, one thing I'll mention here in brief: Doug Sahm's music encompasses all the descriptions of this show over there on the right under the Digs: Country, R&B, West Texas Shuffle, Texas Border stepping, California Hippie Rock, Heavy White Guy narratives, East Texas Blues, and of course Swamp Pop (matter of fact, he recorded a whole album of Swamp Pop tunes called, appropriately enough, "Juke Box Music.") While most of the writing on Doug focusses on the hippie days and the cosmic cowboy and the collaboration with Dylan, there is just so much more to his story that I'll leave for another day. What I want to point out though is, no matter what he's covering from Freddy Fender to T. Bone Walker to Dale Hawkins to Bob Wills to Porter/Hayes, he does it with no pretense and a reverence that shows his love for all of Texas music. As far as I can tell, this is the only recorded version of Doug doing a Bobby Charles song and I love it.

This is the type of Bobby Charles (and swamp pop in general) song that appeals to me the most: the gutsy ballad. It's all in the first line: "Please forgive me if I cry." It's so bold and vulnerable at the same time. And it's that signature first line that gets everyone in the dance hall to recognize the song. Doug pushes the tempo up a bit from the original version of the tune, but that's just the beauty of the Swamp Pop repertoire. Since everyone knows the songs, it takes a lot of courage to get up there are sing the standards for a discerning audience. Unfortunately, Doug's audience probably wasn't well versed in South Louisiana music, but he does a great job none the less, especially on "I got to pray to God above, send me back the gir-hurl I lo-ove," with Augie banging out those Louisiana triplets the whole time. He truly is begging for that. Another line from Harry Simoneaux, " None of the singers had the quality voice--that is, with vibrato. None of them had formal training. However, they made up for this by singing what they knew about, and what they lived through . . . " I can't describe it for Doug or Bobby any better than that.



Here's the Playlist:

Linda Rondstat; Dark End of the Street; s/t; Capitol

Doug Sahm and the Texas Tornados; On Bended Knee; S.D.Q. '98; Watermelon
Clarence Henry; Why Can't You; Argo 5395
Muddy Waters; Why Are People Like That; The Woodstock Album; Chess
Paul Butterfield; Done A Lot of Wrong Things; Better Days; Bearsville
Joe Cocker; The Jealous Kind; Stingray; A&M
Fats Domino; Walking to New Orleans; Best of; UA
Bobby Charles; Everyone's Laughing; Jewel 728 (Walking to New Orleans; Westside)

Roy Head; She's About a Mover; Crazy Cajun (Introduction to; Fuel)
Joe Medwick; Get Soulful; Crazy Cajun Recordings; Edsel
Helene Smith; What's In the Lovin'; Deep City (Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts of Deep City)
James & Bobby Purify; Shake a Tail Feather; Bell 669
Gene Chandler; Cowboys to Girls; There Was a Time; Brunswick

Hannibal & the Headhunters; Land of 1000 Dances; Rampart 642
Waylon Jennings; Jole Blonde; Brunswick 9-55130 (Phase One; Hip-O)
Jerry Lee Lewis; Mathilda; Memphis Beat; Smash
Cookie & the Cupcakes; Breaking Up Is Hard To Do; (Kings of Swamp Pop; Ace)
Clint West; Sweet Susanna; Swamp Pop Hits; JIN

Percy Sledge; Feed the Flame; Take Time To Know Her; Atlantic
The Five Royales; Don't Let It Be in Vein; K-10147 (Roots of Soul; Charley)
Oscar Toney, Jr.; Any Day Now; For Your Precious Love; Bell (Rev-Ola)
Carla Thomas; I've Got No Time To Lose; Atlantic 2238
Ernest Tubb; The Way You're Living; Thanks a Lot; Decca

Wilson Pickett; Time Is On Your Side; The Wicked Pickett; Atlantic
Johnny Copeland; On Bended Knee; (Down and Out;
O. V. Wright; You're Gonna Make Me Cry; Backbeat 548

Dale Hawkins; La-la La-la; L.A., Memphis, & Tyler Texas; Bell

Department of Appreciation: Thanks to my good friend Gene for introducing me to Bobby Charles. If he ever makes good on his threat to write the Bobby Charles biography, I'll be first in line to buy one.

Department of Favors: Sign this petition!

Department of the Future: The first set focuses on some of the bigger names covering Bobby Charles, at some point in the future I'll play the Rod Bernard and Warren Storm and other Southern Louisiana versions of his tunes.

Department of Corrections: Gene pointed out to me that Doug Sahm also did Bobby Charles's "Tennessee Blues" (another great song) for his second Atlantic LP: Texas Tornado. He also pointed me to this good article on the latter days of Bobby's career. Thanks again!

Get It When I Want It: Candi Staton and George Jackson in Muscles Shoals

Running out of time this week for anything researched, I figured I'd throw out this gem from Candi Stanton's phenomenal Fame LP, "I'm Just a Prisoner."

There's a lot of great things to say about this LP, from the kicking title track to the Clarence Carter penned (autobiographical? since the two were soon to be married) "I'd Rather Be an Old Man's Sweetheart (Than a Young Man's Fool") to a gentler country soul of "Another Man's Woman, Another Woman's Man" and her take on "That's How Strong My Love Is." Hell, there isn't a weak track on the whole thing!

With so much talent, personalities and great material, there's a wealth of stories. All I want to mention about "Get It When I Want It" is the great meeting on the Southern Soul Route 72 between Memphis and Muscle Shoals. These sessions took place in late 1968 (and maybe early 1969), after Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham had flown Muscle Shoals to join Chips Moman up in Memphis, and Rick Hall had hired Geroge Jackson from Memphis as a staff writer after Goldwax had disintegrated. While Dan and Spooner brought their country soul sensibilities to Memphis, George Jackson and his newest close collaborator, Raymond Moore, brought more of that Memphis shake to Muscle Shoals. It worked out for both with Dan taking The Box Top's "The Letter" to Number 1 and, in 1971, Rick Hall producing a George Jackson song with the Osmonds up to Number 1. Not too shabby.

Here's the lack of information I've got (or, don't have): This is the only version of the song I know; I don't know the session players exactly (although it sounds like one "David" Allman, and he was round the studio at this time); I have no good biographical information on Raymond Moore (anybody out there with links?).

Regardless, the cut is smokin' with that trademark George Jackson launch into the first verse. Where Dan Penn tunes tend to ease in the verse and build into the chorus, George Jackson's best work tends to get right up on ya. [The plainest example of this difference I can think of is James Carr's "Dark End of the Street" vs. "Coming Back to My Baby"]. Just check out how Candi bursts into that first line, "For a LON-NG time . . . " and pushes that Southern twang "ruh-hunninh around . . . " And she pushes the vocals as hard as the guitar and horns: "You you you!" That's the meeting of Memphis and Muscle Shoals that I love about these sessions and this LP. After all, as the liner notes to the LP state, "Candi Staton's a young girl, a cute eyefull of a girl. But most of all she's a Southern girl." And it's just so damn sexy, like the best Southern girls.

I backed up the Staton here with a similar track from Wilson Pickett recorded around the exact same time at Fame, but this one written by David Porter and Isaac Hayes from the "Hey Jude" LP. It's probably almost exactly the same group working on the sessions (Wilson did 4 tracks written by George Jackson and Raymond Moore). While I like "Toe Hold," it doesn't quite hit the same way as the Staton despite a great effort by Pickett: the record is great, but doesn't quite have that gentle drive against the punch. A counterpoint I guess.

Barney Hoskyns has a great quote from Candi about working with Rick Hall: "Rick was never mean, but he would make me sing a song over and over again until I was hoarse. He wanted to work up the emotions out of me so that I got a hoarse kind of Wilson Pickett sound." Well, he got that and much more.

Here's the set list:

Joe Tex; Dark End of the Street; Country Soul; Atlantic

Candi Staton; Get It When I Want It; I'm Just a Prinsoner; Fame
Wilson Pickett; Toe Hold; Hey Jude; Atlantic
Don Varner; Finally Got Over; Downbeat (Finally Got Over; Shout!)
Wallace Brothers; You're Mine; Simms 174
Charlie Rich; Lonely Weekends; Sun

Bobby Womack; How Does It Feel; Atlantic 2388 (Atlantic Unearthed: Soul Brothers (Rhino)
Wanda Jackson: Lost Weekend; ST 1511 (Right or Wrong; Bear Family)
William Bell; It's Happening All Over Again; The Soul of a Bell; Stax
Dan Penn; Ain't No Love; Nobody's Fool; Bell
Bobby Lee; I Was Born a Loser; Sue 144

Delbert McClinton; This Boy; Crazy Cajun Recordings; Edsel
Ted Taylor; It's Too Late (She's Gone); Ronn 34
Van Broussard; She's Just Teasing You; (Van and Grace: Louisiana Music Legends)
Wynn Stewart; (Above and Beyond) The Call of Love; Hilltop; (California Country: The Best of the Challenge Masters)

Johnny Truitt; Your Love Is Worth the Pain; Avet 9149 (The Heart of Southern Soul; Excello)
Otis Clay; Trying To Live My Life Without You; Hi 2226
Eddie Hinton; Brand New Man; Very Extremely Dangerous; Capricorn
Syl Johnson; The Love You Left Behind; Back for a Taste of Your Love; Hi
Joe Tex; Don't Let Your Left Hand Know; Dial 4006

O. V. Wright; Nickel and a Nail; Backbeat 622
Tony Joe White; My Kind of Woman; s/t; Monument
Bettye LaVette; It Ain't Easy; Child of the 70's; Rhino
Bobby Charles; Street People; s/t [Small Town Talk]; Bearsville
Doug Sahm; Medley: One Too Many Mornings / Got To Sing a Happy Song; Together After Five; Smash

Outro: Ry Cooder; Dark End of the Street; Boomer's Story; Warner Brothers

Department of Apologies: Due to some confusion of djs and unexpected guests, this show is pretty sloppy. Oh well, there's always room for improvement. That, and (probably because of the alliteration) I always pronounce Staton with an extra n. Sorry.

Department of Further Apologies: The podcast starts a few minutes late as I had trouble parking.

Department of the Future: Next week, Doug Sahm does Bobby Charles!