moon traveller herald

My friend Jeff Hull and I went first to see him up on Revere Beach Park way in the 70s. And later my friends Gordon and Sarah and me met up and saw him on Mass Ave at Frank's Steak House in the '90s. Sat next to old Dave Maxwell, Sunnyland Slim's friend, and an blues piano sheik acquaintance from the long ago Slim days. Preacher Jack plays boogie. And country. He is an artist madman, straight and simple. He used to sing/preach for booze in the Revere Beach days..but he has mellowed, deepened and cooled the alcohol bit [but is no less maddened, Jack!] Yet, say, listen to his take on Hank Williams' Singing Waterfall , and you find a soft soul eternal. Here is his schedule [he sort of appears on the scene and goes away] for December. He has a new Rounder Record, and a myspace site. On which there is a way-back pic of him - shown here - with Jerry Lee Lewis that is totally etheral. Once Preacher gets to preaching, which is every time, he doesn’t stop much. You may want t...

Ray Price spans the early original country western era (early 1950s) to the baroque countrypolitan period (early 1970s) and, thankfully, beyond, creating a mess of great music along the way. At 81, he hit the hastings this year with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, and the noble trio did a CD too. Beginning as a somewhat Texas style troubadour, with equal parts Hank Williams (he befriended the drifting Hank and provided him a home during the last year of his life) and Bob Wills. Over time, he morphed, with a bit of laid back Eddie Arnold matinee crooner part added in, into his own self. Hits along the way truly numerous: City Lights, Crazy Arms, Heartache by the Number, Please Release Me, Invitation to the Blues, For the Good Times, Help Me Make It Through the Night, and more. For my fathers day gift we saw Ray on tour with Willie and Merle. What a night. Merle Haggard was really strange and so wonderful, and he could play for hours without covering half of his oerve’s crème. Willie wa...

Saw American Gangster . Ridley Scott movie staring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. The scene is New York City during the War in Vietnam, at the time of haute pimp culture and Ali-Fraser. Very apt depiction. You can go back to this time and place and come back unscathed due to the wonder of film. Soundtrack included Across 110th St by Bobby Womack from the mostly forgotten movie of the same name. That was one of the weird things about living in NYC during this era, if you listened to Frankie Crocker – you heard the soundtracks from the new Blacksplotation Cinema [Across 110ts St, SuperFly, Shaft] and it became a soundtrack to the weird radio movie that early 70s NYC was. Today I pulled out some old 45s of that era.. [the movie covered 1968 to 1975~] Hey Pockaway – The Meters, 1974 Where did your live go - Donnie Elbert, 1971? Inner City Blues - Marvin Gaye, 1971 Groove Me - King Floyd, 1971? Mighty High - Mighty Clouds of Joy, 1975 My Honey and Me - Luther Ingram, 1969 Put it Where...

I used to ride the train a lot between Boston and New York [sometimes further to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington], and there was a certain patch around Rhode Island before Connecticut that early in the foggy morning had a Moorish Hound of the Baskervilles’ quality. The quality evoked the work of a number of artists, but especially Edgar Allen Poe. When I read a biography, Dreadful Remembrance unto Death? – no, “ Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance ,” I learned that Poe’s trajectory mapped with the railroads of the day. Down from Boston, up from Virginia. To New York, Again to Boston, Down to Baltimore. So the ride had another level of world-weariness. And I took many stabs over the years at this one, which now is scattered in numberous fragments and versions. [What is it about that term ‘baltimore’?][Streets of Baltimore, etc] Poe is about mood to me. I offer one take . The only message here is ‘you, moved me, man!’ On a Baltimore trip I made it to Poe's Grave .

Baltimore bricks fly in the Projects the sun On university bricks Gets colder Every year People waiting for Nothing On Eutaw. Poe In his heartful lunge Toward Ulame Said something to me I heard it from the rails in the trees of sleeping birds and passing the train the flying treetops at night. Trees Like hounds oer The steeplechase moors of my Frightful friend’s condition- Dark they prefigure and backflash Dreadful Remembrance unto Death. Baltimore I get there Traffic is a little sluggish Because of the officer’s funeral The radio says.

1. In the old trade press days, we used to do surveys of readers, and we'd be quite surprised when some publication beat us in the ‘news’ category. Oh sure, we expected to lose out to some publications, which were in fact better. But some of the publications that beat us out merely ‘reran press releases’ – that was the phrase we used. Sometimes the term ‘news’ was part of their title banner. But the usual thread was: They looked like a mess. Poorly laid out. Not like a magazine. I recall one wag once opined: “The worse it looks, the more people think it is news.” The uglier, the newsier. That has stuck with me as an odd truism. And as publications react to the onslaught of the Internet, their tendency to prettify what they do, though sensible on one level, seems to me to work against their most sensible goals. 2. There always was a traceable trajectory with publications on the decline. The publication was once strong, but now the market and competitors conspire against it. Maybe t...

Three pennies for your thoughts ... The play or operetta or musical – your call - known as The Three Penny Opera is something of a pivotal piece. It placed the low class, the Underworld, in an artistic light, which had been done before, but this was a very modern take on hopelessness, with expressionist vim and lights-out high culture alienation courtesy of Bert Brecht, and sweet sounding dolefulness courtesy of Kurt Weill. Gordon Thomas’ latest column on BrightLights reviews a new edition of the august Pabsts’ 1929 film of Three Penny. I saw this flick once. It was truly an early talkie.. and burdened thereof. The medium was not up to handling such a musical at that point I’d guess. Visually it was a murk too, not crisp, like, say Dr. Mabuse. But Gordon says things cleared up on this thanks to Criterion's new high-definition transfer. “Its clarity wondrous, its range of blacks and middle values simply gorgeous.” Bravo! The version I saw was like an old Kinescope. Is that a word? I...