With the economy in disarray and the Obama administration doing everything in their power to make it worse, we can all use some inspirational music to wake your soul to the coming of spring and the feeling of rebirth it signals. These songs give me a lift when I'm down and I hope they do the same for you.
Let's start with the Allman's in their latest iteration with the excellent Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes (playing the Les Paul sunburst)singing Soulshine. Love the Derek trucks finger pickin'. As they say "it's better than sunshine, better than moonshine; damn sure better than the rain":
Next we have the Jerry Garcia Band doing what was a standard in their repertoire: Dylan's I Shall Be Released. This was almost a religious experience with Jaclyn LaBranch and Gloria Jones singing in their angelic voices. Melvin Seals' keyboards could be heard in any Baptist church in the South on a Sunday morning and Jerry's guitar soars. "Yet I swear I see my reflection, somewhere so high above this wall":
Next we have Bob Marley live in Germany doing the epic Redemption Song. The dude could capture a crowd and I'd love to have seen him live. I'm guessing this near the time he found out he had cancer based on the length of his dreads:
Next, The Blind Boys of Alabama doing the eternal Amazing Grace. I heard them do this live on Imus yesterday and these dudes can flat out play. I was hooked from the third note:
Finally Eric Clapton adds reggae to the old Negro spiritual Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Love the backing vocals. I believe it's Yvonne Elliman with the female lead:
Update: Oddly enough, here's 10,000 Maniacs with These Are Days celebrating the inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993. Natalie Merchant's voice is stunning and deserves to be in the pantheon of uplifiting tones. Her liberal naivete was ingratiating--if misguided--as well as is the Obama supporters who are realizing that they may have made a slight mistake in the voting booth:
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday Night Music--All Inspirational Edition
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HA, so true about liberal naivete. So true and so sad. But ya know, there's hope for celebs. Did you catch the Matthew Modine interview on O'Reilly? I was surprised and fascinated that he had Modine on to talk politics/the economy. Modine's quite a liberal and an Obama supporter... but he's realizing the state of things aren't good and he's questioning the direction the president is taking us. He actually lauded O'Reilly for what he does in getting people to not blindly follow and to think about what the dooshbag in the White House is doing, not to mention his whole regime from advisors to the dillweeds in Congress. All of them are self-serving bastards and/or they just don't know what the damn hell they're doing.
Anyway, great bunch o' tunes! (Especially the Jerry!)
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