Data-adding phenom Robert E., the first user to garner more than 100 points for liner-note scouring to add information to Music Routes, knew that album-level detail wasn’t good enough.
This allows the site to reward people who contribute data with points and badges. And if enough people actually use it, maybe there will be a leader-board too.
OK, so these things seem like gimmicks to you and they don’t excite you. Still, you’re a music nerd and you want to preserve discography data that can be found nowhere else on the web.
That’s why you’re going to log in and add information to Music Routes! Especially if you are in a band (and can thus provide authoritative information) or if you are a ridiculously knowledgable fan of a particular band, I need your help.
I’m making substantial changes to the process for adding information to Music Routes. Rather than try to get it all right and roll it out in one big blob, I’m pushing out pieces as they’re done.
Go give it a whirl and let me know what you think! Chances are you’ll come up with all the things that bother me, but you’ll have a better solution in mind.
A user submitted some minimal discography information for Monk Siddiq and mentioned in their note that:
Brian Wagoner was the bass player in the Boyd Tinsley Band and sang on “Slow Change” by Jimmie’s Chicken Shack.
Unfortunately, they didn’t provide an email address so I couldn’t follow up to ask for more information. Here’s what I need from anyone that can provide it:
Is Brian Wagoner on any recordings released by the Boyd Tinsley Band? Did the Boyd Tinsley Band release anything?
Who else is on “Slow Change” by Jimmie’s Chicken Shack? And is Brian Wagoner on the version on the Slow Change EP or is it some other version we’re talking about?
I am very excited to announce Music Routes 1.0 for Mac OS X! It works with iTunes and requires OS X 10.5 or above. Check it out and let me know what you think.
The New York Times site has a slide show called “The Music They Made”. It is a series of black-and-white photos and music snippets covering famous/important musicians who passed away in 2009.
I’ve entered most (but not all—see below) of the musicians and songs mentioned into the Music Routes database.
Some of them, like Jack Rose, were problematic because they are mostly solo performers. I was able to find a handful of collaborations that Rose did, but nothing with anyone that would hook him into the greater mass of musicians out there, even by a long chain of Rose-played-with-X-who-recorded-with-Y-who-sang-on-Z type stuff. (Help?)
Others were problematic because the relevant credits are elusive. For example, it’s well-established that Bobby Graham was the drummer on the Kinks single “You Really Got Me”. It’s less clear whether it was him or someone else on “All Day And All Of The Night”. (All Day And All Of The Night is also the title of an apparently authoritative account of what The Kinks did and when they did it. Perhaps someone owns the book and can tell me what it says about the recording of “All Day And All Of The Night”?)
In the case of Estelle Bennett, the best account I could find of the recording of The Ronettes‘ “Be My Baby” seems to indicate that she probably wasn’t on it. According to the article, the only musicians who were definitely absolutely positively on the recording are drummer Hal Blaine and singer Veronica Bennett (later and more widely known as Ronnie Spector).
Anyway, have fun with it, send me some session/discography data I need to add, send me your data for your own sessions if you’re a musician, and have a totally killer (figuratively speaking) New Year.
It’s Christmas time and that can only mean one thing here at Music Routes HQ: Lots of cat-sitting for friends who are out of town!
One of those friends, the Flannestads, left us a Christmas gift of booze and two LPs. One of those LPs is Wild Percussion And Horns A’Plenty by Dick Schory’s New Percussion Ensemble. The credits are sparse, but they do mention in the liner notes that Bill Hanley plays trumpet. That’s enough to get us somewhere.
On Christmas itself, I had dinner at Anu’s where we listened to (and, yes, did many imitations of) Christmas In The Heart by Bob Dylan.
Our listening party route this week starts with Dick Schory’s rendition of “My Funny Valentine”. The liner notes on Wild Percussion And Horns A’Plenty indicate that Bill Hanley played trumpet on this track.
Hanley also played the trumpet on Schory’s album Politely Percussive. This album is notable for the presence of two jazz greats: Joe Morello and Gary Burton. Here’s “Baby Bossa Nova” which, given it’s different mood, has some surprising similarities to Les Baxter‘s “Quiet Village”. (Both start with a bass theme centered on the same three notes. “Baby Bossa Nova” adds an incidental fourth note. Both have melodies played over the bass theme that imply C-major in contrast to the ambiguous-but-not-C-major tonality of the bass theme.)
Burton, being a jazz great, has worked with many other jazz greats including Chick Corea. Here is “Brasilia” from the album Works.
Corea was one of several keyboardists on the Miles Davis electric jazz landmark album Bitches Brew. Here’s “Spanish Key” (in two parts, probably due to YouTube time limits on videos).
The electric bass player on “Spanish Key” is Harvey Brooks. Brooks played on Bob Dylan’s landmark “Like A Rolling Stone” from Highway 61 Revisited.
And, of course, Dylan is on his own Christmas album.
With a site like Music Routes, how can it not have the Million Dollar Quartet in the database?
Well, let me explain…
The Million Dollar Quartet is a famous jam session that featured Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash (or maybe not; see below), Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Among 1956 recordings, this may be the closest thing to a USA For Africa type of one-off supergroup.
Here’s the problem: It’s unclear who is on what track. Some credible sources (such as Presley biographer Ernst Jorgensen) say that Cash isn’t actually on the recording, that he was just there for the photo and wasn’t even in the studio while the tape was rolling! Cash on the other hand, in his own book, insists that he was there the whole time and that his voice can be heard quietly and in a higher register than usual.
But even leaving aside the Cash question, it’s still unclear exactly who is on each track. There were three or four other musicians in the studio in addition to the famous quartet (or trio). They’re not all playing on every track! (Or are they?)
Are there any tracks on Million Dollar Quartet that definitely feature all three of Perkins, Presley, and Lewis playing or singing?
The New York Times site has 
It’s Christmas time and that can only mean one thing here at Music Routes HQ: Lots of cat-sitting for friends who are out of town!
With a site like