I had a very interesting week of music with more twists and turns than you can throw a stick at.

I started off listening to a record in the country & western music genre. It was a tip of the hat to my parents. C/W music was all they listened to. I don’t know where my diverse musical taste comes from. I know I passed that diversity on to my son, who has a taste in music very similar to mine.

The Honest To Goodness Country Music Hits brought back lots of memories. It has Hank Snow, who my recently deceased Mom liked listening to. Porter Wagoner and Pee Wee King are two artists that I got to see at The Grand Ole’ Opry. Classic old-school C&W, I love it. Jim Reeves was a favourite of my Mom-in-law. Besides these C&W stars, there are nine more top-notch songs from very talented artists.

Cowboy Junkies have been on my turntable since the 1980s. I saw them at a show in the University of Alberta’s Power Plant room in 1988. I was mesmerized and bought the Trinity Session album, which I still listen to at least once a year.

The Trinity Session album was recorded in Toronto‘s Church of the Holy Trinity on November 27, 1987, with the band gathered around a single microphone. The album includes a mix of original material and covers of classic folk, rock, and country songs. Notable among the songs is the band’s most famous single, a cover of The Velvet Underground‘s “Sweet Jane“, based on the version found on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live.

Trinity Session has appeared on many lists of accolades; in 2000, it was ranked number 999 in the third edition of the book All Time Top 1000 Albums. Pitchfork listed it as the 42nd best album of the 1980s in 2002. In Bob Mersereau‘s 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums, The Trinity Session ranked 62nd. In 2015, the album won the 1980s category of the inaugural Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, an annual Canadian music award for classic albums released before the Polaris Music Prize. It was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. And Norman thinks it is a very good album that balances Margo Timmins’ whispery voice with the top-notch playing of the band backing her up.

This week, I got a nice CD of Cowboy Junkies‘ first album, Whites Off Earth Now!! It came out two years before Trinity Sessions. I had never heard it before yesterday, but I was blown away when I heard it. Whites Off Earth Now!! is a more aggressive album than Trinity Sessions and showcases Margo Timmins’ voice.

I have been a fan of The Clash forever and still listen to them frequently; of course, London Calling is my favourite, but Armageddon is a very close second, and their eponymous first album is a tight third.

Joe Strummer didn’t sit on his laurels and collect royalties for his work in The Clash. Since the band broke up in 1986, Joe Strummer has been busy. Strummer’s other career highlights include stints with the 101ers, the Latino Rockabilly War, the Mescaleros, and the Pogues, as well as solo music, acting, scoring television shows and films, and hosting the BBC Radio show London Calling.

Unfortunately, Joe Strummer passed away in 2002 at the age of 52. Before that fateful day, Joe recorded Streetcore with his backing band, The Mescaleros. Martin Slattery and Scott Shields completed the album after Joe Strummer’s death, and it was released on 21 October 2003.

I love Streetcore. Due to Strummer’s death, many of the vocal performances are first takes. “Midnight Jam” has no lyrics; instead, samplings from Joe’s BBC Radio show, Joe Strummer’s London Calling, are intermixed with the music. Other tracks, such as a cover of Bob Marley‘s “Redemption Song” and “Long Shadow“, were recorded with famed producer Rick Rubin, and it is unclear whether these tracks were originally intended for this album. Another notable track is “Long Shadow“, which was originally written by Strummer for Johnny Cash. Rubin would, however, get Strummer and Cash, who died a year after Strummer, together in the studio as the two recorded a version of “Redemption Song” that was featured on Cash’s posthumously released Unearthed box set.

I want to give a big thank you to Shauna McLarnon at Shameless Promotion PR contact@shamelesspromotionpr.com for suggesting Know Associates by The Paranoid Style. It is an interesting album. Led by husband-and-wife duo Elizabeth Nelson and Timothy Bracy, this album introduced me to a band that’s been around since 2012; it is their fifth album, but I didn’t know them until Know Associates came up in my inbox. Some of them slip by under the radar.

Elizabeth Nelson’s vocal style reminds me of Ferron on her album Shadows On A Dime. It is an evocative voice that emphasizes the words and harmonizes with the instruments. I like it. Musically, The Paranoid Style explores a rock-and-roll landscape, not as gentle as Ferron’s musings. Spin’s Dan Weiss said that The Paranoid Style plays “some of the smartest rip-and-roar you’ll hear”. The Vinyl District‘s Michael Little said, “I love Nelson and her band, paranoid or not. I expect great things of The Paranoid Style, because they have it all. They’re a thinking person’s rock band that never fails to set Nelson’s ingenious, humorous musings to great melodies, then jack up the volume to remind you that what you’re hearing is good old-fashioned, explosive hard rock.

Lyrically, The Paranoid Style do not create sappy love stories. Their lyrics include plenty of references, from politics to observations on the human condition. They are indeed a thinking person’s rock band. If you take the time to really listen, you will find yourself drawn into the orbit of The Paranoid Style.

I listened to a bunch of other recordings and had a very pleasant time doing so.

Until next week, happy listening.

The Saint James Society	Bab(A/Y)Lon Rising
Carly Simon	No Secrets
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros	Streetcore
Joan as Police Woman	Real Life Evolution
David Byrne	Who Is The Sky
Billy Joel	Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II
Shack Of Peasants	Classic Blues Volume 1
Hey Rosetta!	Plan Your Escape
The Paranoid Style	Know Associates
Uriah Heep	The Magician’s Birthday
Neil Young	After The Gold Rush
Cowboy Junkies	Whites Off Earth Now
Robert Beaser / Paula Robison, Eliot Fisk	Mountain Songs: A Cycle Of American Folk Music