If you go back to the beginning Mr. Palmer was a good English boy who released music that sounded like he had lived in New Orleans his whole life. His first solo album "Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley" was him backed by funk band The Meters and produced by Little Feat leader Lowell George. It is filled with track after track of great rock funk fusion and featured songs penned by Palmer, Lowell and the great Allen Toussaint.
On his second album "Pressure Drop", he was backed by Little Feat and even went on tour with them. Once again, the album had a mix of song by Robert, Lowell, Toussaint, and he even covered the classic Maytals reggae song that is also the album title.
What I love about discovering all this early music that I didn't really know about is I've developed a new respect for Robert as an artist. The music he made in the beginning of his career is in heavy rotation on the turntable right now and because of that I've turned a few friends on to it as well. And that is the great thing about digging into the past. You uncover stuff you had overlooked or weren't even exposed to. I am smart enough to understand that I don't know everything about the music that is out there and when I find old songs that are new to me I get a great rush. It's all about the journey and the exploration of music. And the sharing. Friends getting together and discovering, or re-discovering, music is one of my favourite things in the world.
In honour of the two great albums, I present to you one track from each. From 'Sneakin', side 1, track 1, the Lowell George song 'Sailin' Shoes'
And from 'Pressure Drop', another Lowell track, from side 2, song 2, 'Trouble'
Enjoy, and if you hadn't heard these before, go out and find these albums, you won't regret it!
No comments:
Post a Comment