Haunted by a Melody

I am haunted by a refrain.

In the late 1990s, living in K-zoo, I cooked at Ruggers' Up'n'Under, which is still there. Often we would listen to Western Michigan University's college radio station, back in the kitchen.

For a good piece of 1998-early 2000, the station was routinely playing a twangy, bluesy, alt-country song with a guitar-lick hook that has resonated in my brain for 20+ years. It's kind of in the neo-honky tonk genre that had a moment around then. The guitar-lick hook starts as a major blues and then switches gloriously to a minor blues at the end, which is unexpected the first time you hear it, and absolutely essential from there on out.

Anyway, I have no memory of who made the song. I only kinda/sorta half-remember some scrap of the lyrics, along the lines of: 'Mama she's too hot to ride, mama she's too hot to ride." (then catchy guitar riff). It's a catchy enough song that 20 years later, someone like me is still talking about an alt-country honky tonk song about whose details I basically know nothing.

I have searched for it over the years, this song. I literally contacted WMU's radio station years back, via email, seeking old playlists. I spent hours sifting through random people's alt-country / twang / honky tonk playlists on Spotify. The student radio station worker reading my inquiry sent a bemused reply, but no luck.

Probably the song was regional, not national, by a group who never made it huge. Likely the band broke up and did not have a long existence. Otherwise my MANY searches for this song would have turned up something. I would pay more money than is reasonable, just to find this song on the internet. I would feel spiritually fulfilled as a human being, which is difficult to say coming from someone who is not that spiritual, if I could find this song, and play it whenever I wanted. I have been trying for decades. I have not yet found this song.

The internet was just a child in '98, and children lose many memories as they get older. So this song will remain an enigma - lost in the dingy fog of my memory-place, in a way, known only to me.

Maybe I should search MySpace.

FOUND ART

In one of the dusky, dusty corners of our unheated, "nearly outside" mud/laundry room/mop bucket/back stairwell area, a small white gift bag had been growing dust bunnies since well before we moved into the house, if the layers of dust are believable. I think they are.

Thinking of nothing but tossing it finally, after noticing it for the umpteenth time, I grabbed the little Aveda cosmetics bag from its perch. Therein were mostly old ball-bearings; well, those, and this: a dusty-af, paint-stained cassette. It's Public Enemy's Apocalypse 91. . . The Enemy Strikes Black.

Am I the sort of person that has a cassette tape player in 2021? My friends, you know I am. Couldn't resist the urge to give the tape a light cleaning and try it out. The paint stains won't come off and I was worried it might not play. But it did! The quality was definitely of a 30-year-old dusty-af cassette tape level, but I'm pleased to report I now finally have this album. It was meant to be.

ADDENDUM:

Ha ha. Oh man. As I've listened through this I have come to understand that this is the clean version with all the sw**r words b**ped out. Ha ha safe for mom and dad. Well sorta.

Dixon's Violin & DJZ @ the Speakeasy Cabaret - THU 7.11 - 7:30 PM

Downtown Dave presents:

DIXON'S VIOLIN

@ the Speakeasy Cabaret

678 N. Orleans - Chicago

Thursday, July 11

7:30pm doors

$10

♥ Transformational Journeys via Digital Violin (9pm)

The world's premier digital violinist, Dixon's life mission is to inspire people! And he has done so across North America, captivating audiences at intimate shows, and wowing crowds of thousands, including Burning Man, giving two TED talks/performances, plus radio and TV. Recently giving up a distinguished career to follow his dream full-time, he shows the beauty of doing something seemingly impossible, and bares his soul through his instrument in a mesmerizing one-man show unlike anything you've experienced. Dixon was classically trained from the age of 10, grew to a symphony violinist, then digital master, and now music shaman. Dixon's passionate energy will enchant, transform, and inspire you.

Visit: www.dixonsviolin.com

♥ DJZ (opening at 8pm)

Founder of BrilliantlyMad and born into the entertainment world over 30 years ago, David was blending music together on cassette tapes even before entering the dance scene in 1998. Remixing his favorites songs together live coalesces unique heartfelt styles of soulful music, leaving the dance floor with an inspiring experience. Captain Krack was his alias on the decks until 2006 when he opened up for the Greens Keepers on New Years Eve and Richie Hawtin at Sound Bar. After this highlighted year he left the Captain "wise" Krack on the performance level and shifted his focus on his initials D.J.Z. moving the music through your body, mind and soul.

Visit: www.mixcloud.com/davidziemba

Bonus! Half off bottles of wine!

the Speakeasy Cabaret

678 N. Orleans, Chicago, IL

7:30pm

$10.00

Just amazing music.

This incredible take on Earle Hagan's "Harlem Nocturne" is, in my opinion, the most soulfully definitive version of the song EVER, even though the YouTube version cuts off the final verse.

My thoughts are that Jacquet's artistry is effing amazing throughout. Love this song. Love this version - again this is the definitive one, in my opinion. This familiar tune just bristles with his phrasing, which is once again impeccable. I don't know who the trumpeter is, but that Musician also rates a capital M. And I will try to find out quickly this person's name, and put it in the comments, although a few cursory searches haven't helped much.

NONE of the "big band" versions of this tune, and there are many, capture the intimacy of this melody in the way that Illinois Jacquet does with a small combo. It's a wonder to me that Hagan originally pictured this as a large group tune; wonderfully crazy, considering how amazing Harlem Nocturne is, when just boiled down to its basic parts: a simple melody that sizzles at first with a kind of swing that takes you to a very specific time and place . . . and then enjoys its stay with a bridge that just keeps on spilling new ideas . . . and then returns deliciously to its bluesy roots.

Engh. Words fail to do it justice. Listen and Enjoy.

Effin tasty music.

I stumbled across this producer while on a light-hearted swing through what YouTube has to say about Deep House.

I have no idea who Nebraska is, or where s/he or they're from. (Omaha? Lincoln? Grand Island?) But I love it!



I would describe this stuff as a kind of easy-rolling, deep, jazzy, smoothed out, and melodic house, at relatively slow tempo, with a few breaks thrown in to liven things up a bit. It reminds me of some of the jazzy-style house that was coming out of Paris around eight or nine years ago, and I always ate that stuff up. Given the name, French for "a ward or neighborhood," I wonder if it might not be of French origin.

I don't know if this track would light up a truly jacked dance-floor necessarily, although I suspect it could kinda get things going at the beginning of a set.

My students would call this elevator music, and I suspect at least one or two of my dj buddies might say the same. But my students can be forgiven, and as for the rest, chalk it up to taste.

Smoothed out, jazzy cuts are near and dear to my heart.

Sing Britney Sing . . . .

. . . . you know, I don't claim to be the world's greatest singer, and it's no secret that I am not a world-famous entertainer. But then again, I'm no Britney Spears,

Enjoy this great talent from a live microphone feed, without the pumped in voiceover. If your ears start to bleed, and you just want it to be over, skip to the end for the PRICELESS payoff.



I will grant her this tho, Britney can shake that thang like nobody's business!

Curtis Mayfield: Cooler than you.

Sorry, no offense. You're cool - totally cool.

It's just that you're not as cool as Curtis Mayfield.

Which is fine. There's nothing wrong with that. You've got your interests, and your career, and Jamie is really great, you two are awesome together. You've really got a lot goin on right now; that thing at the art gallery was totally bitchin. I had such a great time! Yo we STUMBLED outta that place. That was a blast. So in no way am I saying that you're not cool.

Because you are. And Jamie's cool . . . just, everything is cool and lovely here. No one is saying anyone isn't cool here. Okay? We're all cool.

It's just that you're not as cool as the guy who wrote "Freddie's Dead," and "No Thing On Me," and the entire soundtrack to "Superfly," cementing his legend in music history with provocative and visceral lyrics, and an oft-sampled and utterly unique funk-soul style, while eminently lighting up dance floors and quiet lounges alike for thirty-five years and counting. I've been listening to Curtis Mayfield for probably ten years now, and I've known you almost as long, and the one thing we can all definitively agree upon here, is that you're not as cool as him.

So let's just table that discussion, the whole, "Are you as cool as Curtis Mayfield" question, shall we?-now that we categorically understand that you are not.