Amoeba's Secret by Paul McCartney

It is always interesting when an artist of Paul McCartney's stature and accomplishment goes on a late career roll. Often, a string of records that would have been heralded as a watershed period earlier in an artist's career is downplayed or simply ignored. It's as if we take the genius of legendary artists like McCartney for granted. Before we can acknowledge the greatness of their current music, we require them to eclipse not only their finest work but, even more difficult, our memory of their finest work, which is tangled up in nostalgia for wherever we happened to be in our lives when we first heard it.

Beginning with the release of "Driving Rain" in 2001 and carrying through "Chaos and Creation In The Backyard," "Memory Almost Full" and especially last year's incredible "Electric Arguments" (released under his now not so secret alter ego The Fireman) McCartney has been quietly making the best music of his post Beatles career and some of the best music of his entire career. I don't know if it was the death of his longtime wife Linda or a new found desire to prove that he is still a vibrant, adventurous artist with something to say but Paul McCartney has without a doubt made some of the best music of the decade.

"Amoeba's Secret" is a four song live ep that was recorded at a rare in-store appearance Paul made with his band when "Memory Almost Full" was out. It includes a rocking version of "Only Mama Knows," from that same album, a rare live airing of an obscure Wings b-side called "C Moon," the playfully nostalgic "That Was Me" and a rambunctious airing of "I Saw Her Standing There." The thing that really jumps out at you is just how much fun McCartney, his band and the audience are having. It's really hard to believe that this is a man in his sixties and hard to think of a time when he has ever sounded better.

For those of you who have been ignoring what amounts to a period of rebirth for one of the most important artists of the rock era, do yourself a favor and spend seven dollars on this funky little ep. Or better yet, you can buy the download for a mere four. Either way you won't be disappointed.

The Best American Short Stories 2007, Edited by Stephen King, Series Editor Heidi Pitlor

When I was a kid, even before I wanted to be a musician, I wanted to be a short story writer. Not an author or the more generic title of "writer," but specifically a short story writer. As an adolescent, I would sit in my room and read the short stories of O. Henry, Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe and pretty much anyone else I could get my hands on. I certainly read lots of novels and probably more nonfiction than someone my age would usually read but, it was the short stories that made me dream of one day becoming a writer.

I guess I still carry this dream around or at least the love for great short fiction. While cruising the Amazon Kindle Store trying to choose a new book to read on my beloved Kindle reading device (if you don't know what that is and you're even a semi serious reader, you owe it to yourself to visit the Kindle page at Amazon) I ran across a new collection of short stories by Stephen King. I've always loved his short fiction so, I clicked the link to read the descriptions and reviews of the book. In the description it mentioned that King had rekindled (that's probably an unfortunate pun, since I was reading about this on my Kindle) his interest in writing short fiction while editing the 2007 edition of the popular "Best American Short Stories" series.

While I still plan to read King's new collection, my interest immediately shifted to this anthology. One of the great things about Stephen King is that he is not only a gifted writer, no matter what the literary snobs sometimes think, but he is also one of the world's foremost fans of fiction and his selections for this yearly collection did not disappoint.

The titles and authors of the powerful stories in this book are too numerous to mention here so I'll just say that there wasn't a week story in the bunch and there were several which had me thumbing to the author notes at the back of the book to find out what else they had written. I hadn't read one of the annual best of books for several years and I had forgotten how strongly they reaffirm my belief that short fiction is not dead and, like blues or jazz in clubs all over the world, is still being practiced and honed to a fine art in dozens of literary magazines just outside the window of mainstream fiction.

The question is, did this collection make me want to be a short story writer again? I would say yes but that particular dream has never completely died.

Already Free by The Derek Trucks Band

The first time I ever heard The Derek Trucks Band was a few summers ago when I saw them open for the Allman Brothers Band at the Plain Dealer Pavillion in Cleveland, Ohio. They were already onstage when we arrived at the venue and I just remember being enveloped by the sound of this singing slide guitar. At first it sounded like the ghost of Duane Allman risen from the dead but as I found my seat and settled in to the music, it started to feel like a completely different thing. The band had elements of blues, jazz, world music, jam band music and pretty much any other style you can think of. At one point, they played a version of the John Coltrane arrangement of "My Favorite Things" that changed the way I looked at that song. The next time I listened to Coltrane play it, I found myself thinking about that live rendition, with Derek Trucks' slide guitar taking role of Coltrane's saxophone.

The next day I bought "Songlines," which was their current album at the time, and was pretty much astounded by it. I had heard Trucks play with the Allman Brothers many years before - I think he was still a teenager - and he sounded good but his playing was a little immature. Young musicians, especially those roaming into blues and jazz territory, often sound like they need to live a little bit to flesh out the blood and guts in their playing. By the time "Songlines" came out, which was 2006, Trucks had been on the road as a member of the Allman Brothers for ten years or so, first sharing guitar duties with Dickey Betts and later with Warren Haynes. His playing had not only matured, it had moved far beyond his early musings as a near perfect imitator of Duane Allman into a full throated, distinct voice to be reckoned with.

Two years later, we have "Already Free," which takes the passionate, unique jazz and blues of "Songlines" many steps further and sees the band developing into a force to be reckoned with. The album was recorded in Trucks' home studio, with the whole band playing together in one room. From the opening cover of Bob Dylan's "Down In The Flood" through the deep south gospel groove of "Sweet Inspiration" and the introspective, funk/blues of "Get What You Deserve" this album positively crackles with electricity. The record is a bit of a mixed bag of blues, jazz, gospel, alt country etc., but the distinct personality of the band and that slide guitar somehow hold it together as a cohesive listening experience that works best when taken as a whole, as opposed to playing just a song or two.

2008: A Look Back At My Year In Blogging

At the beginning of 2008, I decided that I wanted to write more and I thought that this blog would be as good a place as any to get that ball rolling. Because I've always loved to read, it made sense to write about the books I read on my blog. Before this year, activity on this blog was sporadic at best but, in '08 I wrote here more regularly than ever before and also began co-authoring the Subject To Debate blog with my friend John Bertosa.

I read, and wrote about, 18 books in the past year, which is actually a little less than I thought I would. I was hoping to be in the neighborhood of two per month. I've never kept track of the number of books that I read in any other year so, I really don't have anything to compare that number with. I also wrote four additional posts that weren't about books. This year, I plan to continue writing about each book I read but I also plan to write about each new album I purchase. I think I'll probably stick to new releases but, who knows, I may try to write about every piece of music I buy. Over the course of any given year, I buy a lot of music so, that would be a tall task.

In terms of sheer numbers, I wrote 22 posts on this blog in 2008, which is ten more than I've ever written in a single year before. I also wrote twelve posts over at Subject To Debate. So, a total of 34 posts in one year isn't too bad. I know there are plenty of people who write on their blogs once a day, sometimes two or three times a day but, as I said, my history has been pretty sporadic so, I feel good that I've kept it up a bit more regular this year.

I'm hoping that I can continue writing steadily in 2009. Actually, I'd like to get on more of a weekly schedule with this blog. Maybe having a deadline will help keep me focussed. Anyway, however it goes for me blogging this year, I want to thank anyone who has taken the time to read some of my writing in the past twelve months. I hope you've enjoyed and I'd love to hear from you.

Black Sabbath's Master of Reality: 33 1/3 by John Darnielle

For those who are not familiar with it, 33 1/3 is a series of short books published by Continuum. Each book focuses on a different rock album. The subject of this book is, you guessed it, Black Sabbath's classic "Master of Reality."

I haven't read any of the other 33 1/3 books but, from what I've read about them, most take the form of either critical essays or rock journalism on the making of the record in question. John Darnielle, who is himself a musician being the singer, songwriter and principle member of a band called The Mountain Goats, has crafted something entirely different and ultimately more satisfying. "Master of Reality" is a short novel about a troubled teen in a psych ward who is a devoted fan of Black Sabbath.

Darnielle chooses to tell the story from the perspective of his main character, who's name is Roger. The first half of the story is Roger's journal while a 16 year old patient at a psych ward in 1985. Later, the story is picked up in the form of a letter from Roger to one of his therapists, written ten years after the main events of the story took place.

Although the character in the story was several years younger than me (five to be exact) and I never spent any time in a psych ward, it was impossible for me not to empathize with his passion for music in general and Black Sabbath in particular. In many ways, I think that Black Sabbath's role has always been to speak to the troubled teenager that many of us once were and that still seems to live inside. His passionate pleas to his therapist, whom he assumes is reading the journal, to give him back his Black Sabbath tapes, or at least "Master of Reality," made me think of the hours and hours I spent as a teenager listening to and talking about music. For that matter, it made me think of the huge amounts of time I still spend in these endeavors as an adult.

To put it simple, this little book blew me away. It is a very quick read but I wanted to turn back and reread it as soon as I had finished. In the reading and rereading, I found myself thinking about periods of my life that I hadn't thought about in a long time. Like Roger, I have changed greatly since my misspent youth as a troubled teen but, also like Roger, I look back on that time of my life with a complicated mixture of pain and affection. In this wonderful little book, John Darnielle has perfectly captured the complexity of those feelings while also conveying the dark masterpiece that is Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality."