casapete

Turn, turn ,turn -The Byrds

Dirty laundry - Don Henley

Me and the farmer - The Housemartins

School days - Chuck Berry

Two astonishing vocal performances - I alternate between preferring George Benson's version and Whitney's. Hers is more perfect and polished but his (despite being maybe a touch 'pitchy' to my ears ) has that indefinable something. I remember hearing it for the first time when working in music retail in 1977 and it stopped me dead. Teddy Pendergrass's voice is yet another one that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Amazing Also apologies for posting a bit more Luther - don't let Jools Holland put you off from listening, this performance is fantastic.

Both great voices, Ray just wins for me but it's a close call. The song isn't too shabby either of course.....

Tonight the bottle let me down - Merle Haggard / Emmylou H.

+1 for Barbara Dickson. A superb voice IMHO, although wasn't keen on the 'Another suitcase...' type stuff. 'Answer me' was a great single, produced by Junior Campbell and featuring a wonderful pedal steel solo, I think by Sneaky Pete Kleinow from The Byrds / Burrito Brothers.

Two more bottles of wine - Emmylou Harris / Delbert McLinton

Another criteria I go by is whether the music would work with a minimal arrangement, maybe unplugged kind of thing? One of the ways to establish it’s a great song / performance for me. I’m mainly drawn to fairly basic and ‘live’ sounding bands / recordings too, so tons of overdubs and studio trickery don’t really cut it for me. Love stripped back / raw performances that connect, even those that aren’t ‘perfect’ - in fact give me rough cuts to polished sheen every time.

Drink in my hand - Eric Church

Gin soaked boy - Tom Waits / Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes

I’d have to add Daryl Hall as one of those great voices too. Seen H&O live a couple of times and he is amazing. The ‘Daryl’s House’ stuff is all worth watching too, great band etc.

Gin house blues - Andy Fairweather Low / Amen Corner

Little ole wine drinker me - Dean Martin

Stone cold sober - Rod Stewart

Hearts of stone - Bruce Springsteen / Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes

Yup, same here. Soul music for me provides the best vocalists - David Ruffin, Marvin Gaye, Stevie W, Luther Vandross, Whitney H, Aretha, Levi Stubbs - just a few of a very long list.

I do try to expand my horizons, but to be honest at 62 I find less stuff outside my comfort zone these days that does it for me. It has to connect fairly quickly I’ve found - all my preferred music has mostly been like this. I do like to be proved wrong occasionally though. For me it is about whether I think the artist means it, does it have ‘soul’ for want of a better word, does it make me immediately want to hear it again and does it make me feel something. That’s why I can’t really do with aggressive / shouty / ranting stuff - did that with punk to a certain extent but now my days of wanting that stimulus are over. Not enough to go for jazz in a big way though....😆

A good heart - Feargal Sharkey

In dreams - Roy Orbison

Little Queenie - Chuck Berry

L’il red riding hood - Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs

Here comes my baby - Cat Stevens / The Tremeloes

Soak up the sun - Sheryl Crow