It's been a very strange couple of weeks at Mixamorphosis HQ in deepest, darkest Aberdeenshire. It's been, and continues to be, a mixture of good and bad, happy and sad.
Last weeks mix on Soundcloud, the blog post here and the Twitter promo were all created in advance and scheduled to post automatically, and that all went smoothly and as planned. I was down in Norwich collecting my new bike on the Friday, stopped to visit family for the day in Grimsby on the Saturday and the music/posts went live on the Sunday whilst I was riding home - I was around Scotch Corner when it would have all went live at 9am.
This coming week takes in what would have been my Mum's 68th Birthday, on the 19th of May. I contemplated a selection of music that could have been heard from her stereo through the years but for the most part it isn't really music I have much of myself. She loved pop music for the most part and was a very big fan of Annie Lennox who she went to school with in Aberdeen, but you might also have heard some Barry White, ABBA, Elton John and Madonna being played, among others. Having said that, she liked a lot of music I would play to her and talk about with her in latter years, so I'm sure she would approve of at least some of the tunes in this weeks selection.
This coming week also sees my football team appear in the Europa League Final on the 18th. I've been a Rangers fan since I was a wee boy. My Granda was born a couple of minutes walk from where Ibrox Stadium stands and my father was also a Rangers supporter, although he did try and get me to support Aberdeen (my local team and where I am from), but I wanted to be the same as him and I liked to be different from the rest of the kids around where I grew up. So, it was Rangers for me, and it still is. Last year was a big step forward by winning the league title following a decade of turmoil and some terrible custodianship stretching further back than that. This year we were pipped to the title by the team that shall not be named, but we have done amazingly well to reach our first Euro final since 2008 and it's an achievement I'm sure I am not alone in thinking we would never see again, at least in my liftetime. The odds are stacked so heavily against Scottish teams - we have some terrible and useless people running our game, there is next to no investment in the game from media and sponsors and even though it is our national sport it is very parochial and could be viewed as hating itself to death. The politics in the game holds us back, no doubt. But, you know what? I don't think I would want it to change, well, perhaps a wee bit... not too much. Perhaps I am too old school, but I like my football to have a bit of passion, playing for the shirt (or against another), pride with a healthy mix of blood and thunder. So, that's something I'm looking forward to this coming week - fingers crossed for the win - what and achievement that would be!
Now, how do I tie all this up and tenuously link it in to my weekly musical post? Well, first let me say, the numbers of listeners have been slightly up recently, until last week when it fell off a cliff again. This is the 20th week in a row I have posted a mix / selection and that in itself is a bit of an achievement for me, but I am doing it with a goal of raising some funds for Sue Ryder and that's dried up completely. The largest portion of donations so far have come from my own household, including a portion of some of my recent Discogs sales of records from my shelves. It is hard enough to keep motivated and stick with this... when you struggle to garner much interest, or raise funds which it is ultimately about, it makes it all the harder.
Anyway, I digress. I was talking about how to tie together the ups and downs, the happy and the sad. So this week I am posting a selection of music that centres around the Blues, taking in what most people would consider "Blues" music with some Soul Blues and Jazz Blues in there to mix it up a little. I'll leave you to decide how I arrived at the tenuous link. As ever, I will try to provide some links where you can buy the music, but I would encourage you to support the artists / labels where possible and as ever, if you enjoy the selection and are in a position to do so, perhaps you could chip in a wee donation to my fundraiser for Sue Ryder via my Just Giving page. All donations are much needed and much appreciated, no matter the size.
Tracklist
Shuggie Otis - Gospel Groove (Epic)
Esther Phillips - Scarred Knees (Kudu)
Gary Burton - Pain In The Heart (Atlantic)
Marlena Shaw - Call It Stormy Monday (Cadet)
Messengers Incorporated - Rebecca (Jazzman)
Francis Coppieters - Blues In The Basement (Be With Records)
Dudley Moore Trio - Blues For Boots (Decca)
John Heartsman & Circles - Everyday I Have The Blues (Jazzman)
Nina Simone - Brown Baby (Coolpix Records)
The Deirdre Wilson Tabac - The Other Side Of Life (Be With Records)
Isaac Hayes - Hyperbolicsyllabicesquedalmistic (Stax)
Donny Hathaway - Tryin' Times (Rhino Records)
Marlena Shaw - Liberation Conversation (Cadet)
Wilbert Harrison - Let's Work Together (Sue / London)
Baby Huey - Running (Curtom)
Willie Wright - It's Only Life, That's All (Numero Group)
