IN THE MIX Susan Cowsill Edition Vol. 1 - Psycho Sisters, Redd Kross, Cowsills, Continental Drifters & Solo!

IN THE MIX Susan Cowsill Edition Vol. 1

SUSAN COWSILL has had a long and incredible career, and despite the tough childhood outlined in the documentary about her family's band THE COWSILLS, she seems to have turned out to be a wonderful person—and is definitely an amazing singer.

She makes no secret of her love of Linda Ronstadt and possibly the best compliment I can pay her is that she’s every bit as good a singer/harmonizer.  Aside from covering Warren Zevon’s Mohammed's Radio, there aren’t many similarities between them, other than singing ability—and an unerring ability to choose material that’s perfect for them.  

Mohammed's Radio was on a digital single that also contains the lead off track It Might As Well Rain Until September—a GOFFIN/KING song that was written for Bobby Vee, & instead released as a Carole King single because Don Kirshner loved her demo of it.  King is an intensely personal & emotional singer, & COWSILL easily matches the original on both counts.

SUSAN’s versions are as dear to me as the originals of songs a vocalist has to be fearless (or foolish) to cover like Sandy Denny’s Who Knows Where The Time Goes, Brian Wilson’s Don’t Worry Baby, & John Lennon’s Julia.  Julia is a live recording with another artist I’ve given the IN THE MIX treatment; The Bangles’ VICKI PETERSON.  

PETERSON is Susan’s partner in PSYCHO SISTERS—and they both seem to love to collaborate.  They were both also in CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS, who are represented here by two live-in-studio tracks from an appearance on NYC’s WFUV, and two album cuts.  VICKI PETERSON is married to Susan’s brother, JOHN COWSILL and the couple recorded an album of songs by his brothers Bill & Barry.  SUSAN gets to the heart of Barry’s River Of Love—a song that they left alone--& one Susan started performing with her own band during the four months after Katrina that Barry was missing.

Naturally there are plenty of tracks with THE COWSILLS.  Readers who haven’t dug into their catalogue (which is packed with power pop) would be forgiven for mistaking Is It Any Wonder for The Plimsouls.  The hit versions of Indian Lake, & Hair, are included, as well as an incredible live version of The Rain, The Park & Other Things (on Huckabee's Jukebox). Recorded 52 years after she was added to the line-up, it proves that Susan and her brothers are the vocal counterparts of Dick Clark.

Jonder will be happy to see her duet on REDD KROSS’ Love Is Not Love—which could be a lost track by THE COWSILLS—and has become one of my favorite songs on this edition—but it has a LOT of competition.

Because of the high quality of her work, the songs on this collection could be randomly shuffled & it would still flow, but I spent much more time than usual on the track order.

 

IN THE MIX Tony Gilkyson Edition Vol. 1 - Lone Justice, X, Randy Weeks, & Chuck E. Weiss Guitarist!

IN  THE MIX Tony Gilkyson Edition Vol. 1

When I lived in San Francisco, I had a crazy girlfriend I turned onto my favorite hangout--a bar that had the same rockabilly band playing for free every Monday night.  The band was great, & the draft beer was cheap, & the bar itself was a hundred years old.  Because I was travelling for work, & she was there every Monday, when we split up, she got my watering hole in the separation.

So when I moved to Los Angeles, I set to work to find a similar set-up. Randy Weeks wrote Can’t Let Go, which Lucinda Williams included on her Grammy-Winning Car Wheels On A Gravel Road album, which afforded him his own night at The Cinema Bar, and a crack band.  Two other songwriters Mike Stinson, & Tony Gilkyson backed him on drums, & guitar, & they had lots of famous guests (like Lucinda Williams) drop in. 

Gilkyson is from a family of songwriters that includes his sister Eliza Gilkyson, and his father Terry Gilkyson who was nominated for an Academy Award for writing Bare Necessities for Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book.  He also wrote Dean Martin's #1 hit Memories Are Made Of This.

But while he's a great songwriter, what Tony was most known for was his guitar playing.  First with Chuck E. Weiss & The Goddamn Liars, then Lone Justice, and finally replacing Dave Alvin in X, who had replaced the legendary Billy Zoom.  Tony also produced albums for his sister, and Dances With Wolves author & poet Michael Blake.  He co-produced two of Chuck E. Weiss’ albums with Tom Waits, and also co-wrote some Goddamn Liar songs that are included in this compilation (if he can be believed).

Having seen him live at The Cinema Bar 11-12 times, easy, I can tell you that he's quiet, & unassuming, and nice, & one of the most tasteful rock guitarists there is.  And you can't go wrong with any of the albums he's put out as a solo artist.

IN THE MIX Tony Gilkyson Edition Vol. 1 contains a lot of X tracks from their Live At The Whiskey-A-Go-Go & Unclogged albums.  I feel that the admirable way Gilkyson filled Billy Zoom’s shoes live is one of the reasons the wayward guitarist returned to the fold.  Check out Tony's guitar solo on The Once Over Twice—it sounds like a creature born of atomic testing rising out of the water off the coast of Tokyo.  There are also cuts with Chuck E., Randy Weeks, & with Lone Justice on a night Bono joined the band onstage.  Volume 2 is already finished, but I’m pacing myself.

If anyone has this album by Tony & Michael Blake, it would help the cause:  https://www.discogs.com/release/3469721-Michael-Blake-6-Tony-Gilkyson-Im-Alive

 

IN THE MIX Vicki Peterson Edition Vol. 2 with Bangles, HOODOO GURUS Steve Wynn, ACTION SKULLS!

IN THE MIX Vicki Peterson Edition Vol. 2.  My musical mash note to VICKI PETERSON continues.

On Vol. 2, there are more BANGLES tracks Vicki sings lead on, which include two of my favorite songs by the group; James, and Crash & Burn.  Their amazing early track Want You is here along with More Than Meets The Eye, I Got Nothing, Lay Yourself Down, & Get The Girl (Live At The House Of Blues).  There’s even Make A Play For Her Now which Peterson co-wrote with Vinnie Vincent (formerly of KISS!)

In the early days of THE BANGLES, the whole group supplied backing vocals for HOODOO GURUS.  Vicki & her sister Debbie sang behind MATTHEW SWEET, and Vicki backed STEVE WYNN & GIANT SAND on her own.  

Vicki Peterson seems to love to be in a group, and there are tracks from her bands; THE PSYCHO SISTERS (with SUSAN COWSILL), THE ACTION SKULLS (with John Cowsill & Billy Mummy), & CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS.  And of course a cut from her newest & highly recommended release Long After The Fire (with her husband, JOHN COWSILL).  

Long After The Fire is available on bandcamp as a download, a CD, or on vinyl: Vicki Peterson & John Cowsill

 

IN THE MIX Chrissie Hynde Edition Vol. 1

IN THE MIX Chrissie Hynde Edition Volume 1 

It seems everyone wants to sing with Chrissie Hynde.  IN THE MIX Chrissie Hynde Edition Vol. 1 is packed with The Pretenders’ leader lending vocals to her friend’s songs (Chris Spedding, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello, INXS, Ringo Starr) joining legends onstage (Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart) & supporting relative newcomers (Hybrid, Incubus, Rufus Wainwright, Tube & Berger).  She adds some credibility to Russell Crowe’s band (one of my favorites of the tracks included here) & I included a couple tracks from her new duets album—songs with k.d. lang, & Julian Lennon.  Maybe my favorite track is Hynde's live pairing with another go-to duet partner to the stars; Sheryl Crow.

Hynde is a tough as leather rock chick who’s too kind to eat meat.  She's skippered a pirate ship on rock & roll's testosterone sea for 45 years without ever losing her femininity.  And to me, Chrissie sings like no one else.  The only influence I pick up from her singular vocal style is maybe a tiny bit of Cher—who I also find to be unique & unusual in a different way.

And despite all Hynde’s gone through—including the death of two of her original Pretenders bandmates in the space of ten months—she’s always written & recorded great music.  And I've always liked that she tends to keep original Pretenders drummer Martin Chambers close.  I feel like she's true to her friends, and her fans.

Even when I thought some material was weak, Hynde has proven my assessment to be inaccurate.  The songs that failed to grab me on 1990’s Packed (recorded without Chambers) like Sense Of Purpose, & Criminal, and on 1986’s Get Close’s Chill Factor, & Hymn To Her took became some of my favorites when recorded with an orchestra for 1995’s The Isle Of View.  The same is true of Revolution from 1994’s Last Of The Independents.  I stand corrected, Ms. Hynde.

 

IN THE MIX The Skeletons Edition Vol. 1 - with STEVE FORBERT & DAVE ALVIN!

 IN THE MIX The Skeletons Edition Vol. 1 POST

There were two contenders for the title of “World’s Greatest Bar Band” NRBQ & THE SKELETONS.  Both bands’ styles are nearly indefinable because they play a kitchen sink combination of rock, rockabilly, surf, R&B, bluegrass, & country.  And they both inserted obscure songs into their set-lists, and wrote songs about topics other bands didn’t.

THE SKELETONS had at their core bassist LOU WHITNEY and guitar whiz D. CLINTON THOMPSON.  Depending on who the other players were, they performed/recorded as THE SYMPTOMS, & THE MORELLS.  And they recorded with a staggering number of artists—only partly because LOU WHITNEY owned a recording studio in their hometown, Springfield MO.  It’s safe to say just as many artists recorded there because the members of these groups could be coerced into playing on their album.

D. CLINTON THOMPSON is as good as any stringbender you can mention, and with Lou the two have a chemistry that makes any number pop—which is proven here track after track. Both played with the more commercially successful OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS from time to time, and Lou’s wife MARALIE WHITNEY played keys with THE SYMPTOMS, & THE MORELLS.  Drummer RON “WRONGO” GREMP beat the skins for THE SYMPTOMS, & BOBBY LLOYD HICKS rounded out THE SKELETONS, augmented by second guitarist NICK SIBLEY & keyboardist JOE TERRY (who I saw playing with DAVE ALVIN).

STEVE FORBERT gets credit for exposing them to a wider audience by hiring them to back him for the tour promoting Jackrabbit Slim which contained his biggest hit Romeo’s Tune.  On that tour, they met FORBERT’s friend JONATHAN RICHMAN (who recorded his JONATHAN PLAYS COUNTRY album at Lou’s studio).  And LOU WHITNEY was immortalized in the song Laughter Lou (Who Needs You?) on FORBERT’s follow-up release.

On this collection, there are songs that feature one or more of THE SKELETONS backing other artists.  The whole group backs RICHMAN, BOXCAR WILLIE, RUDI “TUTTI” GRAYZELL, The Del-Lords’ SCOTT KEMPNER, & SYD STRAW.  A few live tracks by the band are included on this edition of IN THE MIX.  One is a CORNELL HURD song If You Play With My Mind (You’ll Get Your Hands Dirty).  They also back HURD on The Long Goodbye.

I was given all but one of the live DAVE ALVIN tracks over 30 years ago by a dear friend who was allowed to videotape one of Dave’s shows where he was backed by THE SKELETONS.  I had to swear I wouldn’t share them all this time, but for this collection, my friend lifted the moratorium, allowing JOKONKY to share with you a rarity around these parts—tracks that are unavailable anywhere else!

On them, it’s clear to hear the affection ALVIN has for the band in his gentle ribbing that the monitors sound “Lou Whitney-ish” before having him sing Going South, or having BOBBY LLOYD HICKS sing Crazy Country Hop, the last song of his PALOMINO set.  BOBBY LLOYD HICKS and JOE TERRY probably backed Alvin the longest.

You're in for a treat, whether you listen to this collection in your den, on a high-performance stereo system, after a long day of insider trading--or in your shed, on a boom box, after mowing the back forty.  Just shy of 80 minutes of bare-bones rock & roll by THE SKELETONS!

IN THE MIX Billy Zoom Edition Vol. 1

IN THE MIX Billy Zoom Edition Vol. 1

In the 1986 documentary, X: The Unheard Music, Billy Zoom says he read a review of The Ramones that said "all their songs were too fast, to short, only had three chords, no guitar solos, & the lyrics were dumb, and those all sounded like real positive things to me."  He (rightly) credits The Ramones with starting punk rock, & his edition of IN THE MIX includes a number he recorded with the instrumental group The Ramonetures.

Unlike other members of the LA Punk Scene he'd been a professional musician for years before forming X with bassist John Doe.  Zoom had gigged with Gene Vincent, and Billy’s first recordings were rockabilly tracks for Rollin’ Rock—the last label to record Vincent.  

This comp starts with Zoom’s Bad Boy & Say When, his contributions to the soundtrack of the X-Rated Serena vehicle YOUNG, HOT ’N’ NASTY TEENAGE CRUISERS.  Crazy, Crazy Lovin’ is from an ART FEIN compilation of the best of L.A. Rockabilly, & Pinball Heaven was Zoom’s final single on Rollin’ Rock.

There are two tracks of Billy playing with The Alligators, an early 70's roots rock combo that recorded an early version of his Bad Boy entitled I'm A Bad Boy (But An Awfully Good Man) with lead singer Dollar Varden providing vocals.

In addition to playing with Vincent, Zoom also backed Etta James, Big Joe Turner, The Blasters, & Mike Ness who featured Billy on track 10, Dope Fiend Blues.  I found a later live show online—hoping to feature Billy’s jazzier side—but pulled Breathless from it--which is straight ahead rock & roll.  It’s rare that anyone can match Jerry Lee Lewis for sheer intensity, but X does.  The Way It Is the only track from their farewell album 2024’s Smoke & Fiction but it’s not because there aren’t plenty of good tracks to choose from.

Zoom said in one interview that Johnny Hit & Run Pauline is his favorite X song, so I included it.  

Another stand-out track is X's demo for Dave Alvin's song 4th Of July.  By the time it found its way onto one of their albums in 1987, Alvin had replaced Zoom, who reportedly left because he was frustrated by the band’s lack of commercial success.  

The Blasters' former guitarist was highly regarded in his own right, but stepping into Zoom's cowboy boots wasn’t easy. He told The LA Weekly: “I was amazed when I had to actually sit down and learn 32 songs in two weeks,” says Alvin. “How Billy Zoom put his parts together was amazing. For a three-piece band, his orchestration on guitar was really tremendous. They were almost mathematically perfect arrangements. Billy likes tinkering with machines and electronics, and in some ways, his guitar parts are put together like schematics. I'm more of a primitive. I lack that kind of technique, and Billy was very, very advanced. I learned a lot; my guitar playing improved a lot after I had to sit down and learn all of his parts. There's a part of me that's forever in his debt, from having my Billy Zoom guitar lessons.”

Some of my favorite X tracks round out the collection, along with something that I haven’t seen elsewhere on the web.  If memory serves, I acquired a 1988 audience tape of Billy playing in a Los Angeles bar that I digitally converted.  In the audience is the infamous Top Jimmy of Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs whose shows were alcohol-fueled, and often ended in brawls.  Jimmy numbered Tom Waits & David Lee Roth among his friends, but the first friend he made upon moving to LA (straight out of reform school) was Billy Zoom.  It’s clear on the recordings that Billy has real affection for Top Jimmy, whose presence seems slightly disruptive.  He joins Zoom for one song (that isn’t included here) & just before Billy sings Only Make Believe (which is) he gently says: “Put the girl down, Jimmy.”

IN THE MIX Nicolette Larson Edition Vol. 2 - Rhumba Girl

IN THE MIX Nicolette Larson Edition Vol. 2 - Rhumba Girl

While accounts vary, Nicolette Larson claims she picked up a cassette off the floor of Neil Young’s truck, stuck it in the cassette player, and Lotta Love came on.  She told Jimmy McDonough in the Young biography Shakey, “I said, ‘Neil, that’s a really good song.’ He said, ‘You want it? It’s yours.’”

The song was included on her 1978 debut which luckily landed on shelves the same day as Young’s Comes A Time—which her vocals were all over.  It also contained Young’s version of Lotta Love.  

Young told Rolling Stone, “She told me, ‘I’m the best one. I can follow you anywhere you want to go. No one can follow you better than I can.’ And she could.”  Nowhere is this more evident than in the duo’s version of Ian & Sylvia’s Four Strong Winds, which became a favorite of mine putting together this tribute.

Larson’s debut included Little Feat’s keyboardist Bill Payne and guitarist Paul Barrere, as well as The Doobie Brothers’ Michael McDonald.  Her good friends Linda Ronstadt and Valerie Carter were happy to supply backing vocals.

Producer Ted Templeman was struggling to find an arrangement for Nicolette’s version of Lotta Love, and the sessions were almost finished.  He got the answer when he happened to hear Ace’s How Long on the radio.  He told Rolling Stone, “I stole that whole chord change, to put an intro.”

It really is the perfect pairing of singer and song, and Larson was suddenly in demand on TV shows from The Midnight Special to Evening At The Improv.

Larson performed at The Roxy in Los Angeles in 1978.  Her label recorded the show, and released it as a promo only item.  Listening to it now, I’m amazed that it didn’t see an official release, and feel it might have changed her fortunes if it had.  There are two tracks from it on Volume 2, as well as her aforementioned appearance on Evening At The Improv.

Her subsequent Warner Bros. releases didn’t sell like her first and, like Ronstadt, Larson appeared in musicals for couple of years, most notably Jesus Christ Superstar, with David Cassidy. 

Larson had always avoided doctors, but she wasn’t feeling well, and finally overcame her fears.  Within a week of going to the doctor, she had passed.  The complications of liver damage, & a serious ulcer lead to Nicolette having a seizure, and slipping into a coma.  She was only 45 years old.

On IN THE MIX Nicolette Larson Edition Vol. 2 there are tracks featuring Valerie Carter, Lauren Wood, & Larson, and of course Neil Young and Larson.  There’s a duet with Steve Goodman, and she joins in on the darkest song ever recorded by (her former boyfriend) Weird Al Yankovic; Good Old Days.

Nicolette backed Jimmy Buffett to great effect on his cover of James Taylor’s Mexico.  She also helped out Linda Ronstadt on her cover of I Can’t Let Go, & Rita Coolidge’s cover of One More Heartache.  That’s also her on The Doobie Brothers’ Minute By Minute.

Several of her own releases are here, You Send Me, Back In My Arms Again, & the follow-up single to Lotta Love—Rhumba Girl—which was a hit in Canada.

If you can stand a little more name dropping there are also tracks by Billy Joe Shaver, Jesse Winchester, & Hoyt Axton.

I got most of this information from an excellent NICOLETTE LARSON article in Rolling Stone Magazine by ANGIE MATOCCIO (courtesy of Mike Larson).  No link supplied because of their paywall.

IN THE MIX Nicolette Larson Edition Vol. 1 - Lotta Love

IN THE MIX Nicolette Larson Edition Vol. 1 contains a lot of Neil Young.  Young photographer/archivist Joel Bernstein said: “With the possible exception of (Crazy Horse guitarist) Danny Whitten, Nicolette sang better with Neil than anyone.  Nicolette and Danny absolutely were the two best singers with Neil who really understood his singing, his soulfulness, and what to get across.”

And, of course, Neil wrote her #8 hit Lotta Love, which was everywhere in 1978.

But she really elevated the role of backup singer and managed to supply exactly what was needed in songs by Emmylou Harris, Guy Clark, Commander Cody, Jesse Winchester, Andrew Gold, The Georgia Satellites, Gary Stewart, Weird Al Yankovic, & Linda Ronstadt who was also her roommate and roller skating partner.  In fact, Larson bought Ronstadt the roller skates she wore on the cover of her Living in The USA album.

Nicolette’s also the only female to sing on a Van Halen track.  She was a collaborator at heart, and co-wrote songs with Hoyt Axton among others.  When the pop hits dried up, she recorded country music in Nashville, and had a hit duet with Steve Wariner that’s included here.

She moved from Missouri to California to be a singer, and David Nichtern, who wrote Midnight At The Oasis, hired her to sing in his band.  She eventually married his steel guitar player Hank DeVito, & the best man was fledgling songwriter Rodney Crowell.  Hank was hired as a member of Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band, which lead to Larson’s duet with Emmylou on Hello Stranger.

Emmylou introduced Larson to Linda Ronstadt, and Ronstadt recommended her to Neil Young.  In fact, Young asked three different people to suggest a background singer, and all three of them recommended Larson.  She wound up having an affair with him, and her husband wrote Queen Of Hearts about it.  She didn't seem to have "a type" having dated; De Vito, Young, Andrew Gold, Cameron Crowe, & Weird Al Yankovic.

I’ll share some more of her history when I post Volume 2.  I really enjoyed my deep dive into Nicolette’s music, and I hope you do, too.