Jah No Dead

A continuous mix of dub and roots that I've been digging lately. Remember, if you smoke the seed, you gwine kill the brain.

1. Man From Shooters Hill--The Soul Syndicate (Keith Hudson--Entering The Dragon)
2. This A The Hardest Version--King Tubbys & The Aggrovators (A Ruffer Version: Johnny Clarke at King Tubbys 1974-1978)
3. Judgement--Knowledge (Straight Outta Trenchtown 1975-1980)
4. Yes Yes Yes (12" Mix)--Errol Holt (Prince Far I--Silver & Gold 1973-1979)
5. Jah No Dead (Discomix)--Burning Spear (Spear Burning: Burning Spear Productions 1975-1979)
6. Shaky Girl (Version)--Jacob Miller (Jacob Miller Lives On)
7. Jah Is My Light/Wicked Eat Dirt (12" Mix)--Leroy Smart & I Roy (Niney the Observer--Microphone Attack)
8. Ites Gold Green Dub--The Aggrovators (Rasta Dub '76)
9. Negusa Nagast--Knowledge & Prince Far I (Dubbing with the Royals)
10. Bunny is Crucial--Crucial Bunny (Fatman Presents Prince Jammy vs. Crucial Bunny: Dub Contest)
11. Live As One--U Brown (Train to Zion 1975-1978)
12. Vengeance in Dub--Yabby You (Dub it to the Top 1976-1979)
13. Don't Smoke the Seed (Extended)--Michael Palmer (Channel One 12")

Jah No Dead

Mickey Newbury is a Stud.

Mickey Newbury would be best known for things other than his singing. His greatest relevance to most reading this would be his song "Just Dropped In" as covered by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, which was used ingeniously in the Gutterballs dream sequence of The Big Lebowski. Nick Cave fans should also take note; Mickey wrote the song "Weeping Annaleah" featured on his covers album Kicking Against the Pricks . He also penned the chestnuts "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye", "Funny, Familiar, Forgotten Feelings" and "Sweet Memories" and had songs covered by Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee, Waylon and literally zillions of other country superstars.

Mickey also gets credit for writing the original arrangement of "An American Trilogy" popularized by Elvis in his Vegas act . However, that is not what he should be remembered for. The 1971 album on which the Trilogy appears, Frisco Mabel Joy is a tremendous acheivement in American songwriting. It's a truly cohesive concept album about small town dudes facing big city alienation. In his Allmusic review, Thom Jurek sums up FMJ's themes better than I could: "'Frisco Mabel Joy moves into an entire series of songs that talk of dislocation, emptiness and endless searching through regret, remorse, and ultimately acceptance and resignation."

The album was produced by Dennis Linde in a Nashville garage studio. The stark production could be interpreted as a reaction against the more typically Nashville sound of his earlier records. Occasional and surprising flecks of psychedelia are interspersed throughout. Though the record can be maudlin at times, the songwriting takes center stage and cements Mickey Newbury's spot alongside Townes and Tom T. among great American storytellers.



1. An American Trilogy
2. How Many Times (Must the Piper be Paid for His Song)
3. Interlude
4. The Future's Not What it Used to Be
5. Mobile Blue
6. Frisco Depot
7. You're Not My Same Sweet Baby
8. Interlude
9. Remember the Good
10. Swiss Cottage Place
11. How I Love Them Old Songs

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Tax Free

I could start with some terrible puns to go along with that of the band name, but I'll spare us all the indignity. The name Tax Free, of course refers to Wally Tax, leader of one of the best known Dutch Freakbeat outfits, The Outsiders. It's been posited that the Outsiders are the best ESL band of the mid-to-late sixties and I have to say, I can't think of anyone who tops 'em in that department. For God's sake, if you haven't ever heard their self-titled, half-live, half-studio affair, their epic, conceptual masterpiece CQ, or the collecton of their incredible singles that was released a few years ago, they are all worth your immediate and undivided attention. 

Anyway, precious little information exists about the one and only Tax Free recording. According to an interview in Ugly Things some years back, Wally came to the US in '68 to visit some folkies he admired, like Richie Havens, Tim Hardin, Phil Ochs, etc. How the band came together, I don't know, but Outsiders drummer, Leendert "Buzz" Busch was also a member. A couple of head-scratchers are John Cale who turns up on viola and jazz heavyweight Richard Davis on upright bass.  I assume this is THE Richard Davis, who played with everyone from Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill and Sam Rivers to Johnny Hartman and Sarah Vaughn. Though a visit to the extensive discography on Davis' web page, could not confirm this, it's gotta be him. A bummer that this album is forgotten even to those who played on it. 

No doubt, many Outsiders fans will be skeptical of the jazzy, folk-rock leanings of Tax Free, but I've gotta say, I really like this record a lot. Though Wally only sings four or five songs, the other singer (JW Purpora?) ain't half bad, if not entirely remarkable. Wally doesn't get to take a swing at one until the fourth track, "Day Revealed Her Face". That one has some really nice guitar playing that reminds me of "Maybe the People Would Be the Times..." from Love's Forever Changes. 

Tax Free doesn't take you to the nosebleed heights of the Outsiders best work, nor is it Wally Tax's crowning acheivement, but it does deserve to be more than a footnote to his career. Sadly, he died in 2005. This is a really moody record, perfect for late-night/early morning. 

1. Yiva

2. Along the Shadowed Quay

3. The Great Lie

4. Day Revealed Your Face

5. Ginny

6. Amsterdam

7. My Lady Truth

8. Evening

9. Back by the Quinnipiac 

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(Recording note: Though the first track starts out pretty poppy, it subsides and the transfer actually does sound pretty good.)