things and time will tell.

Bill Withers died almost two weeks ago now. Here's a final installment (for now, anyway) in my little tribute to him and one of the most perfect songs ever written. Isaac Hayes ‎– At Wattstax Stax ‎– SCD-88042-2 CD, Album, US, 2003 The 1972 Wattstax concert took place in LA, organized by Memphis based Stax Records on the seventh anniversary of the Watts Riots. Promoted as "the Black Woodstock," The Staple Singers, The Bar-Kays and Richard Pryor performed, Jesse Jackson MC'ed, and the concert was filmed and recorded for a movie and album released in '73. Not one for subtlety, a gold plated Cadillac drove Isaac Hayes up to the stage in the middle of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where he took the stage wearing a vest of golden chains. The whole set was recorded, but only one Hayes track was included on the original Wattstax album. But what a track it was... A 17 minute live version of Ain't No Sunshine is something special. The full set wasn...

Continuing our brief tribute to the late, great Bill Withers... Horace Andy ‎– Ain't No Sunshine Jaguar ‎– J 189 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM Jamaica, 2006 A    Horace Andy  -  Ain't No Sunshine B    Mafia & Fluxy  -  Ain't No Sunshine Version In the early 70s, Jamaican vocalist Hoarce Andy had a hit on the island with his cover of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." What we have here is an early 2000s remix of that cut by musicians and producers Mafia & Fluxy. Horace Andy has one of the most distinctive voices in reggae, crossing decades and genres yet still managing to remain relevant. Since the 1990s, he's been best known to non-reggae obsessives for his work with Massive Attack, but he's been on the scene since the early 1970s, originally releasing records for Coxsone Dodd and his legendary Studio One label. Even by the prolific standards of reggae singers, he's put out an impressive number of memorable songs and that in...

A broken hard drive cost me a lot of music, time, and peace last week. I've been piecing things together, but lost a plenty of music and am running even further behind in these posts than I would have been. I'll try to make up for lost time a little in the coming days! ____________________________________________________________ We lost Bill Withers, a truly great songwriter, last week. The man didn't just produce hits, but timeless, popular songs that spoke to regular people. I don't know the ins and outs of his life story, so you won't have to be bored with my usual trivia festival, but the handful of details that I've heard only made Bill Withers more special for me. He started his career later than your typical pop star, already in his thirties after spending a decade or so in the service. He was cutting his first recordings while working as a mechanic and released "Just As I Am," his first album, in 1971. Despite a string of classic songs and...