RIBS TPTD: Dennis Coffey, Billy Preston & New Birth…

UPDATE (06/27/08): Hey Peeps, just realized that there was a problem with the MP3 file download. It has been fixed, so if you DL]d the file before this morning I’m asking that you DL it again so you can get the good version of the file. My apologies for the error and inconvenience.

Piping hot and finally out of the oven!

Some “funky” RIBS today courtesy of 3 artists that were HOT back in the day, but that folks seldom talk about these days…

1. Dennis Coffey
2. Billy Preston
3. New Birth

Once I decided (and “Thanks” must go out to the “PodFather” for his help with the selections this week) to feature Dennis Coffey, it only made sense to bring Billy Preston into the mix. Dennis’ big hit, Scorpio (some serious musical HOTNESS there!) was out around the same time as BPs Outa Space (or at least that’s how I remember it all these years later {smile}). When I hear one of these cuts the other almost always immediately comes to mind.

Our third ingredient in this week’s batch of soul food is another funky outfit that had a very good run back in the 70s, New Birth. Their version of Bobby Womack’s I Can Understand It still ranks as one of my favorite versions of that song, and Got To Get A Knutt is just one of those funky, “fun” songs that always brings a smile to my face.

So… take a seat, pile your plate high and dig in. Oh and when you’re finished here don’t forget to check out the question I posed in the previous post:

What Is “Soul Music”?

I’m curious as to how folks today define soul music and who you all think are the soul artists active today that we’ll be talking about years from now.

What Is “Soul Music”?

OK, so I’m listening to one of my favorite podcasts this past Friday morning, the Friday Favecast by Fave, and at about the 16 minute, 30 second mark he asks a question that I have *NOT* been able to stop thinking about:

“WHAT IS SOUL MUSIC?”

He goes on to define the question further by asking, “How do you explain to a cat over in the UK or over in Japan or Paris what “soul” is?”, especially if they have never heard it before.

“WHAT IS SOUL MUSIC?”

Ever since then I have been thinking about this question and, to be honest, have even become a little obsessive about it. I had to laugh the other day when I noticed that with every song I play or hear now, inevitably I ask myself, “Is this soul?” Like I said… obsessive. {smile}

Well, I thought I would enlist the help of my RIBS readers and throw the question out to all of you. What is soul music to music to you? How do you define it? What is the history of soul music? How would you explain what it is to someone who has never heard it?

I have been researching this topic off and on for the past week and most of what I have read centers around soul music as a “feeling” or an “emotion” that a person has when listening to or singing this music. While that is very much an integral component of soul and I don’t disagree with that definition, I do want to offer another viewpoint as an additional (and very important) component of what soul is:

Soul music has it’s roots intricately intertwined with the experience of Blacks in America to survive and persevere, especially during the years of slavery and its aftermath.

If you break it down there are four different sources which have shaped soul: racial, geographical, historical and economic factors. From a ‘technical’ point of view, it is the merging of R&B and Gospel in the late 1950’s. Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, James Brown and Solomon Burke are commonly regarded as the pioneers of this style of music.

Agree? Disagree? And what about “soul music” today in 2008? Just like I can name Ray, Sam, James and Solomon above as the beginnings of soul, who are the “soul” singers of today that we’ll be talking about 20, 30 or 40 years down the road?

Looking forward to some interesting discussion…

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Summer Meme: Sing Along/Seven Songs…

Well… I got hit with this meme tonight just before heading out to the PT/3rd shift gig and it’s right up my alley so I’m running with it.

Tagged by: the “PodFather” (a.k.a. EJFlavors)

“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.”

If you know me, then you’ll know that most of what follows is gonna be old, old school and have at least a portion of Jazz in it:

1. Save Your Love For Me - Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley [I've been on a real heavy Nancy Wilson kick for the past couple of months. Look for an "all Nancy" RIBS TPTD in the near future]
2. Shotgun - Jr. Walker and The All Stars [One of Poppa Grundy's favorites; this one was the kickoff cut on my recent mix, "Songs For My Father #2"]
3. Cafe Regio’s - Isaac Hayes [Next to the title cut, probably my favorite song off of the "Shaft" soundtrack]
4. Shake - Sam Cooke [now this cat *IS* Pop G's fav singer; dedicated this one to him in the "Color Him Father" podcast collaboration mix]
5. Mr. Bojangles - Sammy Davis, Jr. [I don't care IF the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did the popular version (1970) that most people know (the song was originally written and first performed by Jerry Jeff Walker in 1968), this is SAMMY's SONG! No one sings and/or performs this song like Sammy]
6. Let’s Stay Together - Jimmy McGriff [beautiful instrumental version of this Al Green classic]
7. Stellar Fungk - Slave [man, I LUV this tune! Had forgotten all about it until I was pulling songs for the B.B. & Q Band, Slave & Aurra mix I did last month]

Well there you go. Hmmm, pretty diverse list now that I look at it. Ahhhh, but that’s the beauty of music you can find good stuff in all different genres. OK, time to hit up some folks and see what THEY are listening to!

Tagging…

DJ Diva
Doug
DarrenKeith
Anewlis
Fave
Nikki
Vanessa

RIBS TPTD: George Duke, Stanley Clarke & Windjammer…

Whew! Finally getting this week’s mix up and running.

Today we’re bringing you some Jazz/Funk rhythms from two giants in the field and some Soulful Funk from a group that many of you have probably never heard of. On the menu this week is…

1. George Duke
2. Stanley Clarke
3. Windjammer

While I’m sure you have heard of the first two (if not, please reach into your pocket, pull out your “soul card” and hand it over. Immediately! {BIG smile}), you may have missed out on Windjammer. Formed in New Orleans, LA in the late 70’s they only produced 3 albums titled “Windjammer I”, “Windjammer II” and “Windjammer III” between the years 1982 and 1985. While this group is a case of “if you blinked you may have missed them”, they produced some really fine music during their brief run. If you like that late 70’s/early 80’s brand of soulful funk and sweet ballads, then these 3 albums are well worth seeking out.

As for George Duke and Stanley Clarke, many, many words have been written about them already. Two of the preeminent practitioners of Jazz/Funk during the 70’s these two have each carved out such an extensive and rich legacy of music, not to mention their 3 Clarke/Duke Project collaboration albums, that you could spend all day talking about them and still only scratch the surface.

Well, the buffet is hot out of the oven and the table is all set. Time to satisfy our musical appetite with this tasty batch of RIBS!

RIBS: “Color Him Father” - Happy Father’s Day!

Welcome to “Color Him Father”, our 3rd podcast collaboration mix where we’re giving love and respect to all the Fathers/”Father Figures” out there today on this, Father’s Day 2008!

There’s a lot I want to say about this topic and I’ll get to that in a little bit. However, right now I’d like to say “Thank you!” to my fellow podcasters who so generously gave of their time to record their thoughts and participate today:

• Anewlis
• Anji Bee and Celia Chavez
• Fave
• EJ Flavors
• DarrenKeith

Remember to click the links and check each of their sites and enjoy the fine music these folks provide to you on a regular basis.

Now… on to the mix:

RIBS TPTD: Songs For My Father #2…

A little today but the RIBS are finally ready!

For today’s banquet table, I’m spreading out some more tasty snacks that remember my father enjoying when i was growing up. This is the 2nd in my ongoing series that I call, “Songs For My Father”. In case you missed it, you can check out SFMF #1 here. Todays artists are:

1. Jr. Walker and The All Stars
2. Wilson Pickett
3. King Curtis

There’s so much I could say about these artists and what they mean to me and how much I’ve enjoyed their music over the years. BUT… the best thing I can say that would sum it all up is: whenever I hear something from one of these three, I ALWAYS think about my Dad. He worked hard, 6 days a week most of my life as I remember, and didn’t often take the time (more like HAVE the time!) to sit and listen to music. But when he did, songs from this week’s trio were always in the mix.

So sit back, turn the volume up and groove to some classic soul from the 60’s and early 70’s. Ha! I can’t wait to see Dad this weekend and have him listen to it too. I know it’s a couple of days early but, “Happy Father’s Day!” to you dads out there.

PodTech Chronicles #1: Organization of Music/Video Files…

Hey Peeps! I’m starting this new series of posts that I’ve been thinking about for awhile.

For lack of a more creative name, I’m calling this series “PodTech Chronicles” (or PTC for short {smile}). The purpose of these posts will be to get some discussion going about some of the technical and/or organizational aspects of producing a podcast. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not necessarily talking about your basic, garden variety “how-to-podcast” type of information. THAT kind of info can be easily found online by doing a basic search on Google (or your search engine/site of choice). Rather, my interest is more inclined towards those little, “background/behind-the-scenes” kinds of tasks that we all have to do such as:

• organizing our audio/video files (the first discussion)
• cleaning up/improving the sound quality of our files
• digitizing analog audio sources
• mixing applications
• mixing techniques

…and many other things.

In this first post I am posing the question:

“How do you organize and catalog your music files?”

Let’s face it, before you can make the perfect mix you have to select the individual song files. However (and I can speak from experience here), if your files are not properly organized and tagged the whole process can become rather tedious at best and downright painful at worst.
(Note: from here on I’ll only be using the terms “audio”, “music” and/or “song” when referring to the files we’re talking about, since I work with audio much more so than video. However, much of the conversation applies to video and graphic files as well. I just want to make sure you understand that discussion of those types of files are welcome here too)

So, as an example and to get the conversation rolling, here is the organizational structure I’ve implemented that seems to be working out best for me. Oh, that reminds me, organization and cataloging IS a pretty subjective type of thing. What I’m about to present to you here is WHAT WORKS FOR ME, TGrundy. It may or may not be the best way to do it and, it may or may not work for you. That’s part of the reason for this conversation, to see what different ways we’re all using to accomplish these tasks. Maybe I can pick up some pointers from you, maybe some of the things I use will work out for you. If we never discuss it, we’ll never know {smile}.

OK! On to the organizational structure. First I’ll outline the points in the following and then expand upon the details and/or reasoning for each item below that. Here is what I do:

1. Separation of Audio Files: files are split up on two physically separate drives
2. Created Directory Categories: I have 4 major MP3 file directories, 2 major archive file directories
3. Directory Sorting: top level category directories are sorted in alphabetical order in LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME format
4. Album Subdirectories: subdirectories are created for each album underneath each Artist/Group top level directory

1. Separation of Audio Files
One of the worst days I had a couple of years ago when I first started collecting music in electronic format was when my then current hard drive (40Gb) crashed taking 3/4 of my collection with it into the bit bucket. Suffice to say that I was *not* a happy camper that day! After that I started burning my audio archive files to CD for backup. However, as the collection grew into the gigabyte range this became time and cost prohibitive. Fortunately technology has advanced a lot since that black day and I now have a couple of 320Gb USB external drives that I store my collection on. Half (A-I) on drive #1, the other half (J-Z) on drive #2.

2. Create Directory Categories: 4 Top Level MP3 Directories, 2 Top Level Archive Directories
As stated above, I have gigabytes of files in electronic format. To make it easier to locate a specific artist or song I have arranged my top level directories into 4 major categories:

A) Music_Albums_A-I
B) Music_Albums_J-Z
C) Music_Jazz
D) Music_Blues-Gospel

These are my “working” directories that contain my music files in MP3 format. When I want to play a particular piece of music, I go to the major category and then drill down through the top level artist/group directories to find what I’m looking for.

Additionally, as another form of backup/protection, I keep a compressed archive file (RAR or ZIP) of each album also. These are stored in only two major directory categories:

A) Music_Albums_A-I_RARs&ZIPs
B) Music_Albums_J-Z_RARs&ZIPs

Lastly, the six “category” directories above are split between the two external drives as follows:

DRIVE 1
1. Music_Albums_J-Z
2. Music_Jazz
3. Music_Blues-Gospel
4. Music_Albums_A-I_RARs&ZIPs

DRIVE 2
1. Music_Albums_A-I
2. Music_Albums_J-Z_RARs&ZIPs

This is done so that in the event that either HDD crashes I’ll lose only half of my collection and (in theory) that half can be recovered via the archive files on the good drive.

3. Directory Sorting
Ah, directory sorting! This is the most subjective and (sometimes vexing) part of the entire process. Do we use FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME format or LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME? Do we lump everything together or do we break things out by different genres? And just how in the hell do we deal with artist and group names that begin with the word “THE”?!

What I have found works best for me and the way I think about music (especially when I’m searching for something) is to organize my “Top Level” directory structure in alphabetical order using the LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME format. Individual artists are organized according to their last name, while groups are organized according to the FIRST LETTER OF THE GROUP NAME. You can see examples in the screen shot below:

Group names that begin with the word “THE” always tend to throw things off when trying to sort things efficiently. After researching this particular issue quite a bit, I decided to treat the “THE” in the name as if it were the FIRSTNAME of an individual artist. So… a directory for a group like “The Dells” becomes:

Dells, The

and is properly sorted within the “D’s” and not the “T’s”

4. Album Subdirectories
With most artists/groups you will usually end up with more than one album by that particular performer. Again, what I have found to work best for me is to create a subdirectory underneath the “top level” artist directory for each album release. This IMHO, creates a nice, efficient directory structure for storing and or locating specific song files. You can see an example in the screen shot below:

In addition to storing each album’s worth of music in its own subdirectory, I also like the list of albums to be sorted in chronological order according to release date (year). Therefore what I came up with is a naming convention/format for these subdirectories as follows:

(ARTIST) - ([YEAR]) (ALBUM TITLE)

so in the case of The Dells and their album “Love Is Blue” the directory is named:

Dells - [1969] Love Is Blue

Let me offer up a couple of points of note and/or clarification here as to why I chose this particular format…

1. You may notice that I don’t use the “THE” in the artist/group name in this naming convention. Purely a subjective choice on my part; just saving some typing time is the practical reason.
2. You may also be wondering why, if I am interested in the chronological sorting of the directories, I don’t start off the directory name with the (YEAR) field instead of the (ARTIST) field. Good point. I originally did do it that way at first, however when I’m making my mixes I actually copy the album subdirectory to another drive and by starting the subdirectory name with the (ARTIST) instead of the (YEAR) field makes it easier to locate under those circumstances.
3. Another good question you may be asking is why do I use the (ARTIST) field at all in this directory name format. After all this album subdirectory is underneath the top level artist name directory, so I already know what artist it is. I’ll refer back to the point I made above. If/when I copy the album subdirectory to a different location, having the (ARTIST) field as a part of the subdirectory name makes it easier to quickly identify.

Whew! This ended up being a lot longer than I originally thought {smile}. Now, while I WAS going to talk about naming conventions for individual song files, I think that topic really deserves its own discussion space and we can tackle THAT conversation in the next installment of the “PodTech Chronicles”.

In the meantime, I am REALLY INTERESTED in what you think of the ideas outlined here and also STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to let us know how YOU go about organizing your files so we can compare notes and/or discuss the pros and cons of the variety of ways that this type of organization task can be accomplished.

Enjoy!

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