Lisa Loeb "Firecracker"

Lisa Loeb Firecracker album cover

Wife loved this album so much that she wore out two CDs

Framed on 11-17-2010.

Still hanging above her favorite booth.

 

 

La Pistola y El Corazon

Los Lobos - La Pistola y el Corazon

This album is a must-have for any collection, whether you like conjunto, norteño, folklórico o no, you cannot deny that Los Lobos are masters of any style, any where, any time.   Especially acoustic instruments.  A beautiful dreamwork tapestry of Mexican folk instruments and voices that speak for the ancients and the dead.

Jack Johnson and Friends - another for the wall

Well, fellow babies, it's been a long time since I showed you another of my album covers . . . in case you've forgotten, I like to decorate the walls of the café with the covers of albums which feature the acoustic guitar.   These are albums that either advance the capabilities of the acoustic guitar, or those in which the acoustic sound is an integral component to the songs.  Basically, music that can only expressed in its full emotional context using that instrument.  Also, it has to be just simply a damn good album, all the way through.

So, today I'm putting up Jack Johnson and Friends - Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film "Curious George"

Jack Johnson is a master of the laid-back, the cool, the blanket on the sand while you listen to the waves lull themselves into the shore.  And this album is no different.  But what makes it stand apart from his other albums is that these songs speak to the kid in all of us.  They are all about learning, people, worries, and friendship.

One of the best tracks is his cover of Jack White's "We're Going to Be Friends" - you hear this song and you say to yourself, "Yes, Jack, yes we certainly are!"

The Strawbs: From the Witchwood

Verble says, "Ah yes, here is one of my prized possessions!   After all these years, I finally found it on vinyl again.   The Strawbs' From the Witchwood LP.   A brilliant piece of acoustic guitar work, flourished by Rick Wakeman's ebullient, if sometimes completely overDONE, keyboards - this was Wakemen just before he went off to hit it big with Yes.   But seriously, the acoustic guitars make this: they sound just like they would have sounded in the Middle Ages, IF the current acoustic guitar design had been available in the Middle Ages.

"I could go on forever about the difference in design between the instruments; frankly, I have always found it sad that while we can replicate the instruments of the time, they always seem to be merely replicas.  We will never be able to hear what an original guitar truly sounded like in the environs of the day.  The sounds of the guitar, at least in my opinion, is not just the instrument itself, and not just the player, and not even just the room or studio that it's being played in, but it's the AGE in which it's being played.

"Seriously, listen to the albums as they go across the decades: there are similar guitars with similar designs, but the sound it different, each decade.   You may think that it's the recording techniques, and that may be part of it, but it's also the time.

"But back to the Strawbs:  I hear this album, and it feels like what it would have sounded like then, in a think-planked pub, or dining hall, or out on some minor lord's lawn.
"And if you think that's all a bunch of crap, well then, just give it a listen because it's just 10 good late 60's psychadelic folksongs!"

Overheard at Booth 3: Taking Tea with the Tillerman, Teaser and the Firecat

Where do you find this cool stuff?

It just comes to me.

I mean, this is wild.  BOTH Cat Stevens albums that were ever any darn good?   All done by these artists?   This is freaking wild.    This is a soundtrack for ANY cafe, anywhere.

Of Monsters and Men - The Wind
Among the Oak and Ash - Rubylove
Rosie Thomas - If I Laugh
Polyphonic Spree - Changes IV
Magnetic Fields - How Can I Tell Youi
Iron and Wine - Tuesday's Dead
The New Amsterdams - Morning Has Broken
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - Bitterblue
Kings of Convenience - Moonshadow
Angus and Julia Stone - Peace Train
Walk Off the Earth - Where do the Children Play?
Mumford and Sons - Hard Headed Woman
The New Pornographers - Wild World
Gregory and the Hawk - Sad Lisa
Andrew Bird - Miles from Nowhere
Okkervil River - But I Might Die Tonight
Noah and the Whale - Longer Boats
The Decembrists - Into White
Sufjan Stevens - On the Road to Findout
Tegan and Sara - Father and Son
Jolie Holland - Tea for the Tillerman

Violent Femmes 3

Nightmares - what a song. Loved that song.







Every other VF fan always goes for the first album, but that's a load of bollocks. 3 was the Femmes at their alt-punk-funky-folky best. "Fat"- pure brilliance!

Totally acoustic punk - these guys were the best, as in completely unique, funny, slightly mysterious and creepy, just a hauntingly fat acoustic guitar sound.

Neil Young - Harvest Moon

Verble points to another of the framed album covers that he has on the walls of the Zen and Tao Acoustic Café. "Harvest Moon," he says proudly, "So much better than Harvest. Harvest was a hackpiece compared to Harvest Moon, I don't care what any of the purist hippies say. This one was Neil at his best - the guitars were superlative. I don't know of anybody else who can make an album of acoustic music that sounds like it was recorded entirely in one small corner of a concrete garage - and at the same time make you feel like your ear is right next to the soundhole of the guitar. And the songs make you feel like your dancing with your honey on some wooden dance hall whose walls have been pulled down and opened to view the sunset over the desert mesa, and you and your honey are wearing nothing but one warm woolen Indian blanket . . . but then, I'm probably also inspired not just by the music but also that fantastic cover!"

Guitar Music

Guitar Music

Leo Kottke

In a frame and mounted on the wall at the Zen and Tao Acoustic Cafe.

Verble says that this album is essential for anybody who claims to like the sound of the acoustic guitar, and no album has been so profound ever before or since.

"He FINGER PICKS A TWELVE-STRINGS, fershlugginer's sake! Do you know how HARD that is?!" says Verble, every time he spots this album on the wall.

"Unfortunately," he invariably adds, "it's one of the most hideous covers I've ever seen in my life. Gak! The neon death rays!"

The Gift

Verble says, "This one has it all, truly. It's my second - well, third - favourite Christmas album, and one of my favourite acoustic albums, and it even has a cover that deserves framing. It's just magical!

"The Christmas carols played here, I mean, they sound so much like the standards, but then, they also don't sound like 'just Christmas tunes' if you know what I mean. This is just an album you can play all year long. The acoustic guitar and the woodwind, they blend perfectly together, they balance and counter each other gracefully, you even just forget that they're playing instruments at all - this album just becomes part of your background, part of your own natural rhythm. I don't know how to explain it other than that.

"Sometimes I think that this was the way these carols were originally played - by people, in a room somewhere, small house, quietly backing up to the moors. Foggy night before Christmas. The entire village packed into one guy's house. The dancing music has faded and all that's left now near midnight is the hush now, the guitar and woodwind lulling low, getting the people ready to hike their coat against the wind and head out into the fog to the church for Midnight Mass.

"Ah! It's almost like I'm remembering those days, from over four hundred years ago! That's what this album does to me - takes me back to a place I've never been and makes it a part of the fabric of my own tapestry.

"Like I said before - they don't make 'em any better than this!"

Workbook

"Bob Mould, right when he quit Husker Du, this is what he came out with. I always thought that he had been storing up these gems, but they show what the acoustic guitar can do, when it's layered over eighteen times, making his Wall of Sound.

"That's what I always liked about this guy, on both Husker Du, his own stuff, and with Sugar - he always has what sounds like a hundred guitar parts on every song, but it's always coherent, like some rich tapestry. I always consider it as he doesn't make one album, he makes five albums and then puts them to one disc, so you're listening to all five at the same time.

"And," Verble continues, "what I'm really proud about displaying this little beautiful album cover is that it's also great art, not just a great acoustic album, but a fantastic piece of art in and of itself. Reminds me of the work by Nick Bantok - the guy who did the Griffen and Sabine books, or the I Spy books.

"Regardless, beautiful, it is. Simply beautiful."

Crosby Stills and Nash

Although everybody always talks about Deja Vu, this one is really the seminal album by this group (with much apologies to Neil) not only for being a great acoustic album but a great album overall.

Stephen Stills has always been underestimated as a guitarist, an acoustic guitarist especially, and this album is really the culmination of his efforts - you can hear that just in "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes."

Every Picture Tells a Story

Verble points to another of his prized possessions,

a framed cover of this album from

1971?

'72?

Ah, I can't remember, but man, where would we be without acoustic rock like this? It doesn't get any better . . . sure, "Maggie May" might be a little overdone, but the title track just blows it all away, I've never heard a more ripping opening to an album - that track just throws you right into the whole mix.

And every track on this album is great. The acoustics are clunky, boxy, raw, and just complete rock and roll. Even down to these little fake galliard pieces in between songs. Utterly fantastic. This album needs to be listened to again and again. The only one that comes close is Gasoline Alley, but this one edges it out by a hair.

Always made me a little sad, though, to watch the man go downhill. He had other albums that showed the same promise, but they got a little less and less with each one he put out.

and by the time he got to "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" - ugh! It was all over . . .

but we'll always have Every Picture Tells a Story!

Jars of Clay

Ah - says Verble - I sees ya admiring the Jars of Clay album hanging on the wall:not only is it a nice photo, love the colour, and not only is it a great Christian album, of the type that I wish they would make more of, that is, with lyrics that are truly intense, striking to the very core of both sincerity and doubt, rather than being simply zealous outpourings, not that I mind that mind you, but it is refreshing to have somewhat more depth in the lyrics of CCM,

but back to the main point - it is a great ACOUSTIC album. The sound of the guitars is like a breeze, like a wave, like the lull of gently rolling hillsides . . . is that enough nature imagery fer ya? Do you understand? This is a great album on many different levels - those are alway my favorites.

Now that I'm on about it, I'll admit that this album contains their one single crossover pop hit in the mid-90's "Flood" but every other song is just as good, some even better, I'd say.

One thing I'll never forget about these guys is from an interview I read with them about the time that "Flood" was peaking, the lead singer mentioned that they never wanted to stray from their message of Christ - His love, His mission, His role in our lives - and he said that if it were God's will that they would never have another hit, they would be fine: all they wanted to do was to keep making music for Him, for the rest of their lives. I mean, it's decades later now, and they still are - they keep coming out with albums, all of them very nice - great sound, great harmonies, great guitar work. But no, they've never had another hit like "Flood" - but God has allowed them to keep on doing what they love.

Prove positive once again that when you praise the Lord, you will be satisfied. He promised to take care of your needs - sometimes all it takes is bringing your desires down to the level to meet your needs.

Yah, I see yer eyes glazing over at that one. Tell you what, here's a copy of the CD - you give it a listen, and you tell me if you don't feel just a little bit more content, peaceful, after hearing it. Tell me it doesn't make you feel just the tiniest bit better about sending praise straight up to Heaven.

Give me your honest opinion - and I'll give you one free mocha swirl.

A Mighty Wind

Verble points to this album cover and says, "The highest pinnacle of satire is that which gently spoofs, or, maybe it'd be better to describe it like this - something that actually loves and honors the very thing that it's satirizing. Good examples, Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, which obviously loved the Western and the Gothic Horror that it was spoofing. The best example, movie-wise, is Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, which I call the best movie that no one's ever seen. Martial arts movie, perfectly satirizes the genre, especially down to the bad English overdubbed translations.

"But back to the album - this is a soundtrack to the movie, and the movie spoofed all the folk singers of the sixties. The same guys are the ones who did This is Spinal Tap, which gets my vote for one of the greatest movies of all time - it spoofed hard rock of the seventies, but it can't go up on the wall because it's not an acoustic album, see?

"And, yeah, I know - my criteria for going up on the wall is an album that actually has at its main focus - the acoustic guitar. This one does that - in fact, every song spoofed on that album highlights the acoustic guitar - and even though all the bands and the songs are take-offs of the uber-cheesy sixties folk scene, you can listen to this album and actually know exactly what those years were like, without ever having actually to go back to bands like Ian and Sylvia or the Kingston Trio or Harper's Bizarre or any of those others.

"I made a mix of it with audio clips from the movie interspersed between the songs, I'll play it in the cafe sometime - it's hilarious! And not in the movie, but they do a cover of the Rolling Stones' 'Start Me Up' that makes me split my guts laughing each and every time!

". . . aw what the heck - hold down the fort, wouldya? I'm going home to get my CD. Be right back."

Michael Hedges - Taproot

Verble: Most people who know Michael Hedges are going to say "Breakfast in the Field" because that was his first album and it truly blew away most other acoustic guitar players. Came out in the 80's, more than just a fingerpicking style, more than just using alternate tunings, he was perhaps the first to use all that and also incorporated tapping fingers against the strings, smacking the fretboard, popping flat-handed against the body, I mean, really used the acoustic guitar as a percussion instrument rather than just a melodic or rhythm instrument - I mean, he kind of took the guitar to a whole new level . . .

But then, while for many years I had a love/hate relationship with his first vocal album Watching my Life Go By and really appreciating Oracle, I have to say that my absolute alltime favourite has to be Taproot.

Taproot apparently is a story in song-cycle, but since there are no words I've really no idea what the story is - I think it's hidden in the song titles themselves, and the only vocal composition is the last one, in which he sets an e.e. cummings poem to music, one of his best poems, actually, "i carry your heart with me" (which, by the way, I once tried to translate into Spanish in order to woo the woman who would one day be my wife, but that's another story)

Actually, though, now that I think about it, we took that CD with us on our honeymoon. Didn't play anything else but that . . . hm . . . that might be why I love that album so much.

Well, you sit here and think it over.

I'm gonna run home for awhile.

Hope she's back from the mall . . .

King Strut and Other Stories

I pointed to one framed picture on the wall, and Verble told me,

"Yeah, definitely not the most inspired album cover of all time, although the guy could pass for one of my nephews, the bohemian who's now forty-five and never really had a job, but you really gotta hear the album itself, it's a fantastic little fantasy collection of great songs, from the title track, which I suppose isn't really acoustic, but then you launch into 'Gold' a stark little song where the guitar chords themselves reflect these people dying in the cold while following a pipe dream - and 'Northern Lights' - great song, quick rhythm which simply displays the anxious desire to see something of such incredible beauty, and knowing you'll never quite make it. Should be the anthem for the Aurora Borealis - captures the elusiveness perfectly.

"Great album. Up on the wall it stays."

Songs from the Wood

"This one is a double frame," Verble tells me proudly, "I actually had to hunt down a SECOND album cover for this one, so I could put them both side by side. Originally I'd thought to have a frame where I could just flip it around, like that Kandinsky that Donald Sutherland was so proud of in Six Degrees of Separation, but instead I thought it'd be better like this, since all I'd need to do is just put it up once and be done with it . . .





"but this album is a spectacular example of dangfine acoustic music - and the epitome of Jethro Tull's earthy middle English sound - lyrically he's a genius, but this album, even though I bought it originally in the cutout bin, is really the best showcase for his mastery of the acoustic guitar. And the reason why this one is special for the cover is the back cover has a tree stump with a turntable needle - see? The rings of the tree? They're the grooves of a vinyl record! Is that just the coolest or what?"

The Artwork on the Walls of Zen and Tao Acoustic Café

Perhaps the first thing you will notice about the walls of the Zen and Tao Acoustic Café is that they are covered almost entirely by framed album covers - the old LPs, which have been mounted in solid black frames, so as not to detract from the subtle elegance of the artwork. However, the proprietor, Verble Gherulous, noted aficianado of album cover art, and who supposedly has an extensive collection at his personal home of what he considers the finest in album art, here displays only albums that he considers some of the finest examples of acoustic guitar music.



That is to say, Verble has said before, "They may be crappy covers, but if it's good acoustic music - it goes up."



One of the more interesting covers I've seen is this:


















Which I had never really recognised as an "acoustic album" but I asked Verble about it one time and he said,

"Me neither, but I read an article about it a few years back in Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and they reviewed it as a pure acoustic album: think about it, 'Dear Prudence' 'Bungalow Bill' 'Julia' 'I Will' - not to mention 'Revolution I' 'Blackbird' 'Mother Nature's Son' 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' 'Cry Baby Cry' - acoustic masterpieces, all of 'em. It goes up!"

And up it went - right above dark roast coffee.