Compass Records had a Black Friday sale, with free shipping on orders of $50 or greater. I was ordering to get a coupla LP’s of Shannon McNally (my most recent female vocalist discovery. Only took me twenty years ;-) . To get the free shipping, I added a coupla CD’s to my order. One is only "merely" good---Sixty by John Cohan (he sings with too much vibrato for my liking). The other is great:
Transatlanticana by Bill Kirchen and Austin De Lone, my favorite "new" record of the year (new to me; it was released in 2016, CD only). De Lone’s name is one with which I am familiar, unlike his recordings. Bill Kirchen’s music, on the other hand, I am very familiar with. He was a founding member of and Telecaster player in Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, the late-60’s/70’s band best known for their hit single "Hot Rod Lincoln", fantastic guitar playing and solo courtesy of Kirchen. You may also be familiar with their " Seeds And Stems (Again)", the song’s lyrical hook being (....and I’m down to seeds and stems again ;-) . Cody & His Airmen provided a welcome alternative to contemporaneous mainstream bands like the dreadful Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin (whose singer pretended to be a Blues singer. He is currently pretending to be an Americana singer. Don’t fall for his ruse.). Kirchen went on to have a solo career, with a number of albums on the great Hightone Records label.
This album was recorded in Sausalito CA, Austin TX, and London England. The songs recorded in Austin feature guitar playing by the wonderful Gurf Morlix, Lucinda Williams’ Los Angeles-period (80’s and 90’s) band leader/guitarist/harmony singer/producer. I saw Lucinda and her Gurf-led band perform around L.A. before she got her major label deal, one time in a pizza parlour, to an audience of a half dozen. Fantastic!
The Austin line-up recorded what is now my favorite version of "The Times They Are A-Changin". Smokin’ hot Rock ’n’ Roll! Listening to it just now, I got goosebumps. The album is full of great songs, playing, and singing. Essential!