Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon’s autobiography is entitled “I am the Blues” . So I’m not sure what to make of that statement but according to Wikipedia he wrote over 500 songs so you have thank him for one heck of a contribution to the blues music scene.

Here is a list of some of the most recorded Willie Dixon tunes:

  • Hoochie Coochie Man
  • I’m Ready
  • I Just Want To Make Love To You
  • Spoonful
  • Little Red Rooster
  • Bring It On Home
  • Wang Dang Doodle
  • Same Thing

Here is an awesome documentary on YouTube ” Willie and the new generation of blues. Documentary from the Berlin jazz festival 1977″.

If you’re wanting to kick back and hear the jazzy and bluesy side of Willie Dixon here is a full 2 hours of the best of Willie Dixon.

Thanks to Willie Dixon for all that wonderful music.

Tom Waits

I frequently find myself reflecting on an artists work as maturing and mellowing with age. Like fine wine musical tastes get more refined and in my case at least lean towards the mellower melodic soothing sounds. That’s probably why I like Tom Wait‘s older stuff more than his performing arts of recent years. I never actually realized that my favorite songs are the title tracks to the albums but I can honestly say there is not one song I don’t love on each of these albums. So with that in mind here are my favorite three Tom Wait’s albums and a song from each.

From the 1974 Album The Heart of Saturday Night the title track (Lookin’ for) The Heart of Saturday Night.

From the 1978 album Blue Valentines album the title track Blue Valentines.

From the 1980 album Heart Attack and Vine.

My favorite Tom Wait’s quote is “there’s only reason you write new songs: you get sick of the old songs“. Tom’s an original there is no doubt of that. When I listen to his musical trajectory its like he started where most of us end up and he’s going towards a more raw but still very entertaining performance. He’s like the Benjamin Button of my musical tastes.