upcoming events...
Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 4:09PM 
It's a Soul Party tonight folks! All vinyl with yours truly Greg Vandy, Self-Administered BeatDown (Scotty G), Kingblind (Sir Morgan), and DJ Teenage Rampage. Smarty Pants in G-Town is the place. All the details are here.
Totally FREE!
Friday, October 29, 2010 at 3:41PM If I really had to narrow it down, I'd say the Staple Singers are my favorite group. Ever.
So the announcement that Mavis Staples is performing with sister Yvonne and a pared-down backing band at Seattle's Town Hall on Sunday makes AST pretty freakin' hyped! We are so hyped in fact, that we are offering you, dear reader, some FREE TIX to go see the show!!
All you have to do is click on Contact Us, and send a msg with your email address in the email field. In the big Message box tell us your favorite Staple Singers album. You have until Saturday at 5pm to do it. AST will select 4 winners (and their +1s!) and send you a confirmation email on Saturday night. Your name will be on the Town Hall guest list on Sunday. Easy like that.
See ya at the show!
Earshot Jazz and Town Hall present: Mavis Staples
Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 9:15PM 
Songs of death, despair, and tragedy.
This annual radio special is a real fan favorite. Chock-full of murder ballads, country outlaws, and blue devils, our sick and twisted American tradition is on display! It's the perfect companion for your pumpkin party plans this weekend. Or just sitting alone in the dark.
Enter, if you dare, a Haunted Roadhouse
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 (LISTEN TO THIS SHOW)
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 3:24PM 
We've all had moments when the heavy realization of life's wrongs smack us square in the face.
For me, it was a train trip to New Orleans in 1993. I was listening to Irma Thomas on my walkman and this seemingly well-intentioned, middle-aged man asked me what I was listening to. " 'Time Is On My Side'," I said. "Oh, by the Stones, right? I love that song", he said. "No", I said. "Irma Thomas". "No, that's the Stones, man".
Because I was alot younger, poorly dressed, and a little outta place on this train trip, I could not get this guy to buy in. I stressed the fact that it was positively done first by Irma, for Imperial Records in 1964, before Mick and Keef did their nearly exact version a few months later.
But no way; this guy, I'm sure to this day, hasn't heard the Irma version and still thinks it's a Stones song. Irma just missed on "Time Is On My Side," and like so many other New Orleans artists of that time, was victim of circumstance, shady management, and absurd record company decisions (Chess never promoted her Muscle Shoals sessions in 1967). She just missed on "Ruler Of My Heart" too. Otis Redding heard Irma's version and promptly recorded it as "Pain In My Heart," his first national hit that catapulted him to soul stardom.
Though never quite securing that national chart hit, Irma has made a comfortable living as a singer and is now managed by her husband Emile Jackson. She is highly regarded as one of the great 60's soul singers, and her early material is sought after by soul hounds and those in the know. It's been a long road since being discovered while working as a cocktail waitress at the Pimlico Club in New Orleans (she convinced band leader Tommy Ridgley to sit in).
On that train trip to New Orleans, I had seven large boxes packed with all my belongings. I was moving to the Crescent City. And within a month, I was sitting at The Lion's Den in mid-city hoping to see Irma Thomas play. I had no idea she owned the joint, and because it was early, she was there to served me my cocktail. I was shy, but did bring a CD. She called me honey and signed it.
Irma Thomas is making a rare appearance in Seattle and plays Jazz Alley for 4 nights. You should go.
IRMA THOMAS @ JAZZ ALLEY SEATTLE, THURS OCT 28 - SUN OCT 31
Irma Thomas > "Time Is On My Side"
Irma Thomas > "Ruler Of My Heart"
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at 11:02PM 
I've always been a big fan of Hattie's.
I tended that bar for 5 years and met alot of drunks, musicians, and OG Ballard types before the grande gentrification of old Ballard Ave. When I worked there, a vodka mix drink was $3 in a highball glass. We made 'em stiff. People got fawked up there and it was a natural pre-funk for all the shows at the Tractor next door (only beer and wine at the time).
So anytime I have a chance to go back, I do. And tonight's their pumpkin carving contest... sounds dangerous!
From their Facebook page:
This party is BYOP! (Bring Your Own Pumpkin)
We're going to be serving pumpkin ale and discounted Washington Apples for you to sip (or chug) while you slaughter innocent pumpkins in an attempt to win one of Sandrine's precious pumpkin pies! This is serious business. Let's make a mess!
Party starts at 8PM! Please leave your insanely sharp knives at home though, Hattie's will be providing some crucde carving implements to ensure that no one gets shanked.
There's a good chance they'll be playing my special Halloween radio show too. The haunted Roadhouse is 6pm-9pm on KEXP-FM. Then on the archive over the weekend. Don't listen alone!
And be careful with that knife!
Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 10:26PM 
If you were to get just one, this is the John Prine LP to get.
I spent many years denying my interest in Prine and ignoring friends who loved him. I thought it was a "singer-songwriter thing" and being young, I had far better things to be fascinated by. Plus, I'd yet to realize that, contrary to popular opinion, it's the song, not the singer.
John Prine the singer takes some gettin' used to. But once the songs grab hold, it's all about the songwriting. And Prine has proven he's one of America's best songwriters, starting with this one, his debut on Atlantic from 1971.
Compared to Dylan for his sly American idioms and literate songwriting, the Prine songs on this album are great commentary on everyday life. Time magazine said this about the LP at the time, "His leisurely, deceptively genial songs deal with the disillusioned fringe of Middle America, hauntingly evoking the world of fluorescent-lit truck stops, overladen knickknack shelves, gravel-dusty Army posts and lost loves. In a plangent baritone ... he squeezes poetry out of the anguished longing of empty lives." Yep.
It's one of those albums that has too many great songs to have a favorite. At first listen, it'll be his classic "Angel From Montgomery", then maybe "Paradise", then the heavy "Sam Stone". But really, the whole thing is a stone-cold classic from start to finish.
It's the songs. John Prine songs.
John Prine > "Pretty Good"
John Prine > "Hello In There"