BEST OF 2012 - #4 - BOB DYLAN "TEMPEST"

One of the first big releases of 2012 was a 4 CD Bob Dylan tribute Chimes Of Freedom put out by Amnesty International.  It had legends (Elvis Costello, Joe Perry and Pete Townshend) younger acts (Band Of Skulls, Gaslight Anthem) and pop stars (Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus).  It was a great tribute and showed the man's far reaching influence.

But as if to remind us of his continued relevance and greatness, a few months later Bob released his latest album, Tempest. It's not a huge departure from what he's done lately:  he takes a lot of influence from pre-rock and roll Americana (a lot of the music that he used to play on his satellite radio show Theme Time Radio Hour), adding his distinct lyrical touch.

I don't love Tempest as much as his last album -- Together Through Life was my favorite album of 2009. Still, its another incredible addition to his untouchable cannon of songs.

I love the first single "Duquesne Whistle" (which, like all of Together Through Life, featured lyrics co-written with The Grateful Dead's lyricist Robert Hunter). The video kind of set the scene for the album, which turns out to be kind of violent.

My favorite song on the album is "Pay In Blood" ("... but not my own!").   There are other songs haunted by death.  The title track is about the Titanic, and even references James Cameron's famous movie.  And "Roll On John" is about John Lennon.  In the very Chess bluesy "Early Roman Kings" he says "I ain't afraid to make love to a bitch or a hag."

It's kind of shocking that this guy who is seventy-something, doing his thirty-something-est album, still has so much edginess to him.  But as he says in the aforementioned song, "I ain't dead yet/My bell still rings/I keep my fingers crossed/like the early Roman kings."  No doubt!

Other than the above video and one very contentious Rolling Stone cover story, he didn't promote the album too much, which is too bad.  On the other hand, it's fine and very Bob.  I guess the deal is, if you're a fan you have it already, and if you're not, it's probably not a good starting place for you.  But there's not a clunker here, the album is great from start to finish.

One other thing I have to mention: David Hildago of Los Lobos, who played on Together Through Life and Christmas In The Heart, joins Dylan again on this album.  He definitely adds a vibe to the album, and I hope Bob uses him again in the future.

TRUE BLOOD SEASON 5: THE MUSIC

First off, I'm happy to announce "30 on 30," a challenge that some of my colleagues and I issued to ourselves: we're attempting a post a day to our blogs through the month of August.  I'm particularly "out of shape" (although I write a few posts at my day job every day, so it's not like I haven't been writing at all). I'm looking forward to it.

Last year, I posted about how much I enjoyed the music on True Blood, even as I thought season 4 was a total letdown. I even mentioned Music Supervisor Gary Callamar by name.  So, it's been one of the very fun parts of my new job that I've been writing a series of weekly posts on CBS Local websites that covers the music of True Blood. And I get to talk to Mr. Callamar himself!

This year has had some great music moments, both for the soundtrack and in the context of the show.  Here's a brief synopsis:

The season premiere, "Turn! Turn! Turn!" had some great moments, but none topped Jessica and Jason rocking out to The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" on Guitar Hero.  The episode's title track was a new take on the song by My Morning Jacket, which worked quite well.

"Authority Always Wins" featured a very cool and very different cover of John Mellencamp's "The Authority Song" by a rockabilly artist who I never heard of, Bosco Delrey, who I'd never heard of.  Actually writing this reminded me that I have to check him out, so I just downloaded another one of his songs, "Wild One," on iTunes.

"We'll Meet Again" features the World War II hit as covered by the great Los Lobos, a great musical moment.  The funniest music moment, however, was Sookie lying on her couch, drunk, singing "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)."

"Let's Boot And Rally" features a brand new song written for the episode, penned by Mr. Calamar himself.  Nice work if you can get it!  Read the story about it here. It is a duet between Iggy Pop and Best Coast singer Bethany Costentino. An interesting combination: I personally would love to see someone pair Iggy up with Kills singer Allison Mosshart, who would have been amazing on this song. You can buy "Let's Boot And Rally" on iTunes now (but Mr. Calamar told me the next True Blood soundtrack wouldn't come out until season six).

The episode called "In The Beginning" featured a song by the same name by an artist named K'naan. But the best music moment featured a karaoke version of "You Light Up My Life" that has to be seen to be believed.

The latest episode, "Somebody That I Used To Know," had an interesting music twist.  The episode originally planned to use the very odd smash of the same name by Goyte.  But as the song got more popular - and has been used on American Idol, The Voice and Glee - it got a little too popular for True Blood. They ended up not using it, instead opting for a song with the same name by the late Elliott Smith.  I think they made the right choice.  As unusual as Goyte's song is, it would have been a bit too obvious for True Blood at this point (I actually thought there'd be a cover by an unlikely artist).  But the best song in the episode was Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightnin'" which was used during a particularly steamy scene.

I'm looking forward to the music from the rest of the season.  Also, I should mention that I ended my last True Blood post hoping that season five would make up for season four.  I'm glad to say that I think  it has, and then some: this season has been pretty great.  I really dig The Authority.

By the way, I'm not going to use my CBS stories as launching points for all of my posts this month.  Tomorrow I plan on writing a review of Helmet's show at Webster Hall. I haven't seen them in years, and I'm wondering if they'll be as great as I remember.

LOS LOBOS AT BROOKLYN BOWL - EXCELLENT

First off, I apologize to everyone, I haven't been very disciplined with No Expiration lately.  I've gone to a bunch of shows, but I usually write less opinionated reviews for my day job at CBS Local Digital.

The Los Lobos show at Brooklyn Bowl took place a few weeks ago, but right afterwards -- funny enough -- I went to Mexico.  So I'm trying to catch up.

Los Lobos was actually one of the few bands still playing that I had never seen and wanted to.  I have missed them at least 20 times, so I'm glad I finally caught them - and they were great.

They opened with a set of traditional Mexican songs on acoustic guitars which was great.  It's amazing that they can go from that to putting on electric guitars and rocking.

I sense that their fans gravitate to a certain albums:  Kiko, Will The Wolf Survive? and Colossal Head.  And some of the songs from those eras got pretty great reactions from the crowd: "Kiko," "Will The Wolf Survive?" "Don't Worry Baby" and "Mas Y Mas" were some of the biggest crowd pleasers.

The other big crowd pleasers, unsurprisingly, were covers: Sonny Boy Williamson's "One Way Out" (which they do in the style of The Allman Brothers Band's cover) and The Grateful Dead's "Bertha," which they covered for a Dead tribute album a few decades ago.  I'm sure they got tired of doing "La Bamba" a long time ago.

I went without expectations of hearing any specific eras, but I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play songs from their most recent album, 2010's Tin Can Trust, one of my favorite albums of that year.

But really, I was just happy to finally see them perform and they didn't disappoint.  I would definitely go again. Here's hoping that'll be soon!

GRAMMY WATCH: BEST AMERICANA ALBUM

Out of all the categories in this year's Grammy Awards, the most difficult for me as a voter was the Best Americana Album category. All five of the albums are incredible.

First is Rosanne Cash's The List, which came out in early 2010. The title is a reference to an actual list that her father, Johnny Cash, made for her of some of the greatest songs of all time, like "Long Black Veil," "Motherless Children" and "I'm Movin' On." It's mostly a solo album, but there are duets with Bruce Springsteen, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Tweedy and Elvis Costello. It's a really great and moving album (and kind of seems made for the Grammys, I was kind of surprised it didn't get more nominations, but the fact that it came out so long ago probably worked against it).

Los Lobos' Tin Can Trust was one of my favorite albums of 2010, I've written about it before. I'll just say that Los Lobos never seem to get their due. I love this album, I love the band. In 2011, I'm planning on completing my Los Lobos CD collection. I've never seen them live, this year I hope to change that. It shouldn't be hard, they seem to tour very frequently.

Willie Nelson's T-Bone Burnett-produced Country Music was another album that I loved, and I'm sorry that it didn't get more attention. I guess part of Willie's problem is that he is so prolific, people can hardly keep up with all of his albums. Country Music really was great... of course, it wasn't "country" in the current mainstream Nashville sense, but it did have great songs like "Dark As A Dungeon," "House Of Gold," "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down" and "House Of Gold." Willie and T-Bone's regulars cooked up a great brew (among other things, probably) of amazing music.

Robert Plant's Band Of Joy was another of my favorite albums of 2010. I listen to it all the time, and am still amazed by it. Also amazing is the strength of his vision and his commitment to it. At this point, he's not only turning down lucrative Led Zeppelin tours to do his own thing, he's turing down the follow up to his multi-Grammy winning collab with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand.

Ultimately the album I loved the most was my second favorite album of 2010, Mavis Staples' You Are Not Alone... the title track was my favorite song of the year and one of my favorite songs of all time. Also - I don't vote based on this - I was surprised to learn that Mavis has never won a Grammy! This is a career record for her, and I'd love to see her get the recognition, so here's hoping she wins on Sunday.

BEST OF 2010 - #10 - LOS LOBOS "TIN CAN TRUST"

I've written about Los Lobos' Tin Can Trust earlier this year, urging you not to sleep on them. I hope you took my advice.  Back in the day, critics used to pay a lot of attention to Los Lobos.  In the '80s, How Will The Wolf Survive? got a lot of attention and great reviews, and in the '90s ditto for Kiko and Colossal Head. Sometimes I'm not really sure if reviews actually help a band, but with Los Lobos, I bet they did.  I know that's how I got into them.

So let me urge you to check Los Lobos out, and if you're unfamiliar, why not start with this album, it's really great.  This album makes me want to have a few beers and sit on my porch, that's the vibe they bring, but they've got some bite to them as well. One of my New Year's resolutions shall be to listen to more Los Lobos.

Check for: "Burn It Down" (featuring guest backing vocals by Susan Tedeschi), "Yo Canto," "Tin Can Trust," the instrumental "Do The Murray," "All My Bridges Burning" (co-written with Robert Hunter of The Grateful Dead) and "West L.A. Fadeaway" (a Dead cover, it's better than the original).

DON'T SLEEP: LOS LOBOS "TIN CAN TRUST"

Every time Los Lobos puts out a new album, it's kind of an "oh yeah..." moment.  Meaning, "Oh yeah, EVERY TIME they put out a new album it is really good/great." I talked a bit about this on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick recently, how people take them for granted.  I guess that, in a way, I am guilty of that also.  I have never seen them in concert!  I remember a couple of years ago they co-headlined with The Chieftans, I wanted to go but couldn't. I've got to catch them next time around.

On Tin Can Trust, they supposedly got back to basics by recording in a no frills studio situation in L.A.  I never think that their sound is too "frilly" anyway, even when they were recording with Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake.  But they produced this one themselves (that must be interesting, the band has numerous songwriters, I'm sure they all have ideas about production as well). But they are tight as hell, and this album has all the elements that make them great: the garage punk sound, some real weird sounds (very weird solo on "Jupiter Or The Moon") and the traditional Mexican stuff.  They are one of the only bands I can think of who could tour with The Dead (or Furthur, or whatever they call themselves these days), Social Distortion and even someone like Tom Waits.

The songs are great, it isn't just about the sounds.  The first song, "Burn It Down" (with backing vocals from Susan Tedeschi) should be the opening sequence of a movie. I have no idea what "Yo Canto" is about, but it makes me want to dance.  "All My Bridges Burning" (featuring lyrics by The Grateful Dead's Robert Hunter) is great... and their cover of the Dead's "West L.A. Fadeaway" beats the original.  I have lots of Los Lobos albums, but I don't listen to them enough ( and I still don't have their box set, Mas Y Mas). Listening to Tin Can Trust reminds me that I need to amend both situations.

THIS MORNING ON OUTQ

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET, I am a featured guest on the SIRIUS XM OutQ channel show The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Of course, I talk about music.

Last week, I talked about new hip-hop releases - some of which I am a really big fan of. But some listeners weren't into it!  This week, I'll be focusing on some great Americana-type music, and I'll be writing about these records more in the coming weeks.  Los Lobos' new album Tin Can Trust, the first single from Robert Plant's upcoming Band Of Joy album, "Angel Dance" (which is a Los Lobos cover!), The Black Crowes' collection Croweology (newly re-recorded acoustic versions of thier songs, this is a gift to fans before they go on another hiatus), something new from Dr. John and music from two relatively new artists, Trombone Shorty and Eli "Paperboy" Reed, either of whom has gotten too much hype, but I believe people will really like both if they get the chance to hear them.

A WORTHY TRIBUTE

Some people really hate on tribute albums: not me. A worst... well, they can be pretty bad, but it's not like they're hurting anyone. At the very least, they probably turn on new fans to older artists. And, if you're lucky, there will be a couple of great cover tracks that put a new spin on a great song. In the pre-iTunes era, I was a real sucker for buying tributes, soundtracks, and other various compilations: it seemed like they all had one song I had to have: these days, iTunes makes it so much easier.

This Fats Domino tribute album is obviously well-timed and well-deserved. According to amazon, the album "will help raise desperately needed funds specifically earmarked for instruments to be donated to New Orleans public school children. Monies raised from the sales of Goin Home will also go toward the rebuilding of Fats Domino's home and to create a community center in the Crescent City s still ravaged Lower 9th Ward. Proceeds of Goin Home will fund additional community related programs." I'm not planning on making this blog too political (check out Product Shop NYC for a good mix), but this addresses two tragdies: the bigger one being the fact that New Orleans is still ravaged by the effects of Katrina. The other being: Fats Domino is one of the architects of rock and roll and pop music. It wouldn't take most contemporary stars over two years to rebuild thier homes, but obviously Fats isn't in their tax bracket. What an injustice. With artists like Fats Domino, I've always felt that you just can't overstate their importance to music. Of course, "importance" helps you to appreciate music, but not necessarily to enjoy it. Fats Domino's music is beautiful, everyone should hear it. I was actually turned on to it by a 1994 tribute - it was the soundtrack to Fast Track To Nowhere, which featured Iggy Pop, Sheryl Crow, The Smithereens, The Meat Puppets and Los Lobos. That turned me on to some of his stuff other than "Blueberry Hill" and "Ain't That A Shame."

Anyway, I'm looking forward to buying the album, which will feature Neil Young (doing "Walking To New Orleans," which he recorded for a New Orleans fund raiser post-Katrina), Robert Plant, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams, Ben Harper, Toots & The Maytals, Willie Nelson and Los Lobos, among others.