Groovin' into Monday! For You Blue! - Heavy Jamming Reviews

Groovin’ and easy Monday morning mix spanning the generations and genres from the Beatles and Blood Sweat & Tears over to Bruce Hornsby, Sarah Jarosz and Larkin Poe, melding Led Zeppelin with Michael Franti, and landing with Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Jam Band Americana, Rockin’ Blues and Soul, Jazzy Rock and Hippy Folk Grass, and Funky Reggae Ethno Rock. Hope you all enjoy!

Playlist link

Playlist Groovin’ into Monday! For You Blue! youtube

Playlist Groovin’ into Monday! For You Blue! spotify

I have added brief descriptions to the first half of the playlist. The remaining songs are listed with corresponding music video or alternate take if a high quality version can be found. Hope you enjoy and don’t forget to check out my social media. Keep on rockin’! Cheers

Assembly Of Dust – The Honest Hour

A very good friend of mine turned me onto Assembly of Dust and over time they have developed into one of my favorite bands. They combine their jam band sensibilities with the peaceful easy country feeling of the Eagles, and paint a timeless yet modern picture of their American surroundings with their lyrics and instrumentation. Their songs are firmly grounded in the now yet they still manage to transport you to a midwestern hippy landscape one might imagine in a college town like Lawrence, Kansas, in the early seventies – sitting on a front porch on a warm sunny day with Workingman’s Dead escaping through the windows. Kind of like the front cover of Crosby, Stills & Nash‘s first album. The recording of The Honest Hour on the Playlist is the studio version from Recollection, the youtube video below on the other hand has the in-concert version from their brilliant live release The Honest Hour. Do yourself a favor and get both of these albums. Country Folk Jam Rock at its best with great lyricism.

Transatlantic Sessions w/ Eric Bibb – Going Down The Road Feeling Bad

I discovered the Transatlantic Sessions while researching women in modern music. The sessions combine traditional Scottish, Irish, English and American music styles by inviting selected members of all styles and generations to join in and play. The mix can be quite eclectic as you can imagine but the musicianship is outstanding, adding a touch of magic to each song. I have always loved the Grateful Dead version of Going Down The Road Feeling Bad, kind of a dichotomy of a song since it invariably seemed to make me happy listening to it. Eric Bibb‘s version is brilliant, and has the same effect – he might be feeling bad, but it is pure enjoyment to listen to him sing about it. Again below a live version while the playlist has a perfect sounding studio version.

The Beatles – For You Blue

Let It Be…Naked is kind of a cool release, though I have to admit I don’t really register ever consciously listening to the clothed version enough to tell a difference. This is the version I know best and thoroughly enjoy the mix. For You Blue is a cool but short George Harrison style quirky take on the blues with a fun slide guitar solo. If the video below is legit everybody at the session seems to be enjoying the groove. One voice is overheard saying the song is good enough for Skiffle, but hell, it’s the Beatles. Their throwaways are worlds above most other songs.

Ben Harper – Homeless Child

Another of my all time favorites, Ben Harper, gets his groove going with a raw dirty blues number. Some consider him too preachy but in my eyes he can’t do no wrong. The dude combines soul, blues, gospel, rock, folk, and modern Americana like few others. The man definitely has an opinion so be warned. Homeless Child sounds like a traditional slide blues out of the old Mississippi Delta and gives Ben a vehicle to show his impeccable feel for rhythm with his soulful vocal style and eerie lap steel guitar playing. R.L. Burnside and Othar Turner would be pleased.

Larkin Poe – Freedom

Sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell aka Larkin Poe are one of the best additions to the world of Blues Rock in the last decade. They bring a fresh look at old classics and know how to pen quite a few great tracks of their own. They combine traditional delta blues with more modern day influences and give each song, whether cover or original, their very own stamp. Freedom is a perfect example of this. You can sense the ghosts of the old blues masters in the dirty riffing yet the attitude and delivery are 100% 21st century. The playlist has the studio version from Larkin Poe’s Peach release, the youtube video on the other hand a full concert with Freedom beginning around the 27:20 minute marker. Check out Preachin’ Blues prior to that. I was wavering between that and Freedom until the very end.

Freedom @ 27:20

The Black Crowes – High Head Blues

Another of the all time greats, and a true band of my generation is the Black Crowes. I remember dismissing these guys when they first came out with their made for MTV retro look. We were real freaks, about as dirty as you could get, and these guys dared to have style and look clean. Well, at least that was my perception. Little did I know they would turn out to be one of the most prolific purveyors of Rock’n’Roll of the last 3 decades, with nothing about them being made for MTV. Really glad that whole video culture died out. The Crowes have so many great songs and anyone could have been added to this mix, however High Head Blues is the one that popped out at the right time. The playlist has the studio version from Amorica, with a live rendition below nearly a decade and a half later. Luther Dickinson, not on the original, shines throughout the live version with the song ending in a crazy runaway style jam between him and Rich Robinson.

Blood, Sweat & Tears – And When I Die

They used to ( and maybe still do ) teach And When I Die from Blood, Sweat & Tears in music class as early as 5th or 6th grade in Germany as an introduction to music theory. Kind of a strange song to be analyzing with young impressionable kids, considering the message being somewhat progressive and the issue at hand very far removed from our youthful minds. All things considered, this remains a timeless classic, retaining its own youthfulness with its death defying lyricism and energetic style. You will find the studio version from their eponymous release on the playlist and a very dynamic live performance on the video below.