10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1137.
THE OVERTURES: What's It All Coming To
THE FLASHCUBES: When You Walk In The Room
MIKE BROWNING: All The Love Is Here
Pop Aid is a new 3-CD, 63-track compilation to benefit humanitarian aid in Ukraine. It's due out in August from our friends at Kool Kat Musik, and its profits go to World Central Kitchen's efforts to serve a million meals each day to the beleaguered people of Ukraine. Even if you hated pop music, you would want to contribute. For those of us who happen to love pop music, this gift gives back, again and again and again. All of these tracks are CD-exclusive to Pop Aid, making it an even more essential gotta-have-THIS!!
We plucked three tracks from Pop Aid for this week's shindig. We opened the show with "What's It All Coming To" by the Overtures, drawn by the exuberance of its jangle and its inherent promise of better living through rock 'n' roll radio. Among its many other treats for the ear and soul, Pop Aid includes the first-ever CD appearance of the Flashcubes' cover of the Jackie DeShannon/Searchers classic "When You Walk In The Room" and our pal Mike Browning's beautiful "All The Love Is Here." We played all of those this week. We'll play three more Pop Aid tracks on next week's TIRnRR.
CARLA THOMAS: When Tomorrow Comes
I don't get to take many vacations. Time, budget, scheduling, responsibilities. Plus, y'know, COVID. I'm fortunate enough to have traveled a lot in previous decades; I'm grateful for those opportunities, and the cherished memories of journeys across the country and across the sea remind me that I have no freakin' right to complain. I've been places. Many folks haven't been as lucky as I have been.
At the end of June, Brenda and I decided to get away and spend a few days in Massachusetts. We picked the Amherst area, which is a shorter drive from Syracuse than Boston would have been, and which is home to the Eric Carle Museum, honoring one of Brenda's favorite creators of children's books.
So: AMHERST-BOUND! It was a stress-free drive there and back, bookending a relaxing time spent together. Brenda located a wonderful used bookstore, Gray Matter Books in Hadley, and I might have been content to spend half of the vacation just burrowing there.
Confession: visiting used book and record shops is an essential part of my ideal vacations. I actually enjoy bookstores even more than I enjoy record stores (and I'm a CD buyer rather than a vinyl buyer), but I adore both kinds of stores. On this trip, I scored a few books (including The Heebie-Jeebies At CBGB's--A Secret History Of Jewish Punk, which Brenda bought for me at The Yiddish Book Center), and stops at Mystery Train Records in Amherst and Turn It Up! and Joe's Albums in Northampton netted me CDs by Divinyls, Sonny and Cher, Link Wray and the Raymen, Emmylou Harris, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, the Professionals, and Carla Thomas.
Each of the above acquisitions grew what had previously been a perfunctory presence by the artist in my CD library. Most of these are best-of sets; the Professionals and Carla Thomas discs are individual albums. The expanded reissue of Carla Thomas' The Queen Alone is particularly revelatory, taking me beyond the familiar singles I know from my Stax/Volt boxed set. The delight of new discovery can bend perception, but I think I may prefer "When Tomorrow Comes" even over her classic "B-A-B-Y."
Brenda and I spent just three nights in Massachusetts. It was a short, welcome getaway after the all-of-this of all of this. Vacation. All I ever wanted. Work and responsibility will still be there, when tomorrow comes.
CHRIS VON SNEIDEN: Goodnight Sailor
AMY RIGBY: Tom Petty Karaoke
One pressing responsibility is the task of prepping our own new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5 for a projected September release on Kool Kat. We finalized the track selections and sequence on July 2nd, and we'll be sharing that information very, very soon. I have turned the master tracks over to the studio wizard who's going to make 'em all sound great together--I'll keep that wizard's identity a secret for today--and will need to start work on the liner notes ASAP. Meanwhile, I've listened to a rough mix of the compilation, and I do think you're going to fall in love with it.
For TIRnRR # 5, expatriate Central New Yorker Chris von Sneidern has given us a fab new track called "Goodnight Sailor," and the mighty Amy Rigby has allowed us the use of her inspiring 2018 digital single "Tom Petty Karaoke." On both counts, we could not possibly be more thrilled.
The CVS and Amy Rigby tracks join an assembled Avengers line-up of Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Carolyne Mas, Laurie Biagini, Gary Frenay, Maura and the Bright Lights, Justine and the Unclean, Deadlights, Kelley Ryan, the Mayflowers, Perilous, Kid Gulliver, Kingmixer, Hoover and Martinez, Arielle Eden, In Deed, Ballzy Tomorrow, the Villas, the Jangle Band, Tall Poppy Syndrome, and Eytan Mirsky. A quick vacation accomplished, and now the return to work on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. Life is good.
TRACEY ULLMAN: They Don't Know
THE WALKER BRIGADE: I'm Tired
Covering Madeline Kahn may not seem particularly rock 'n' roll (the late Ms. Kahn's undeniable greatness notwithstanding). Specifically, the idea of a rock band covering "I'm Tired," Kahn's mock-Teutonic camp romp from the film Blazing Saddles, might strike one as, I dunno, not a terribly promising prospect.
The Walker Brigade pull it off. As the current single from their recent album If Only, "I'm Tired" finds the Walker Brigade shtupping the beat--hey, they're Beat Shtuppers!--and flashing their own blazin' saddles with tongue in cheek and hands on guitars. Tired? The Walker Brigade have just the quicker picker-upper you need.
BARRY HOLDSHIP: It's Only Make Believe
One of the infinite number of varying blueprints for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) included an intention to spotlight Conway Twitty's incredible 1958 hit "It's Only Make Believe." I never got around to writing that chapter, and the song fell out of my proposed Table of Contents as I streamlined my plan. But, for now, suffice it to say that I love Conway Twitty's "It's Only Make Believe."
And now, I also love Barry Holdship's new cover of "It's Only Make Believe." Our Barry throws his entire self into this performance. It would be over the top if it weren't perfect.
And it is perfect.
The track comes to us from Sing Me A Song--A 50th Birthday Celebration, which is a 74-track digital compilation curated by Adam Waltemire on behalf of his own fab show Pop Garden Radio. I'm going to try to tear myself away from Barry's "It's Only Make Believe" long enough to program some other tracks from Sing Me A Song in near-future playlists. It's not make-believe to think I'll accomplish that.
But you better believe we'll be playing "It's Only Make Believe" again, too.
LISA MYCHOLS AND SUPER 8: I Can't Explain
Dana and I have a long-standing history of digging tribute albums when they're done right. Jem Records has a proven track record of doing tribute albums right, and we for damned sure dig previous efforts Jem Records Celebrates John Lennon and Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson. The righteous digging continues with the forthcoming Jem Records Celebrates Pete Townshend, currently teased by an advance single of Lisa Mychols and Super 8 transforming "I Can't Explain" into something like Peggy Lee could have done (and done well). Torch, meet Mod. Mod, shake hands with Torch. We're all gonna get along just fine.
Dig?
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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl
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