Ladies of the Canyon ...and beyond.
I never really liked the term ladies of the canyon. I love the album though, and here I am using the term. It just seems a bit like there was this thought of pretty ladies making pretty music living up there in Laurel Canyon. I for one, have been totally bedazzled by all things Laurel Canyon, though I do believe that it's mostly the spirit of lazy days, creating art and back to the nature that appeal to me. That spirit lives on in the music, and it still does today. Los Angeles, Woodstock, Oslo, Mississippi. It doesn't really matter where you are or where you live.
This mix is made up entirely of women. Some pretty well known, other unsung heroines, others again will become well known. At least I hope. The most recent songs are from Bedouine, an L.A. based artist who has released two really great albums that would have fitted nicely on the Asylum roster in the early seventies. Signe Marie Rustad is the other fresh face on this mix. The spirit of the canyon-life are vital in her music. Her take on the cosmic american music would have put a smile on the faces of Gram and Gene - and Linda and Joni. Soo good.
No one was as important for the whole country rock movement as Linda Ronstadt. She never gets her due, but she really put a lot of the best writers on the map for everyone. Another artist that should have been huge is Barbara Keith, I got turned on to her brilliant album via the late great Neal Casal who did a cover version of Detroit or Buffalo on his debut back in the nineties.
I just had to include Boulder to Birmingham. That one is heartbreak set to music. Emmylou never wrote many songs, but she could have been happy with just writing that one. The best tribute to a lost one that has ever been written. It gets me every time.
"Well you really got me this time
And the hardest part is knowing I'll survive
I have come to listen for the sound
Of the trucks as they move down
Out on ninety five
And pretend that it's the ocean
Coming down to wash me clean, to wash me clean"
Till next time, stay safe and keep on keepin' on.
- Stian
||| Bonnie Raitt - Bluebird | Elyse Weinberg - City of the Angels | Bedouine - One of These Days | Emmylou Harris - Boulder to Birmingham | Signe Marie Rustad - Die With Your Boots On | Barbara Keith - Detroit or Buffalo | Joni Mitchell - Free Man in Paris | Rita Coolidge - Mud Island | Karen Dalton - One Night of Love | Jackie DeShannon - Laurel Canyon | Judy Collins - Someday Soon | Linda Ronstadt - The Fast One |||
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Innlandet Hestejazz Society is a moniker that my good friend David Jønsson and me use when we are dj'ing around Oslo. Though to call it dj'ing might be an overstatement, we play records and have a good time. As crate diggers and heads we were drawn to the country-rock and the flying freak flags when we met behind the counter of a record store many years ago. Moonshine Blends are mixes of tunes we would have played in bars, but since we are confined to our own living rooms we are putting them up on the net for everyones pleasure. So tune in for some vibey west coast, hillbilly hobnobs, no-depression and blue collar country. Jerry Garcia, Johnny Paycheck and Jeff Tweedy hand in hand. Keep on truckin'!
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