Welcome To The New Era

I'm back with a new exploration in '06. And while it may not be as exciting as Derek Small's Jazz Odessey, I think it'll be an interesting twist on the jamband music blog. (Justin over at LiveMusicBlog.com has lots of great information, insight, along with links to live audio posts and poscasts, for example.) But I got to thinking about all the obscure covers that we hear jambands do. I mean, along with being some amazing musicians, a lot of the players are veritable encyclopedias music knowledge. The songs they choose to cover oftentimes are ones most of us have never heard of. Sure, "Watchtower" gets covered a ton, but more often than not, it'll be a relatively unknown soul tune that sends us googling "Ya Mar" the next morning.

So without further ado....

"Get Out My Life Woman" - Allen Toussaint

Jerry covered this one on his amazingly, appallingly underrated live album from the early 90s. Both his version and Allen Toussaint's version drip with smirking, bitter emotion. Toussaint is one of those wonderful songwriters who get a far too little recognition for their influence on a wide range of music. He's the kind of artist who would probably be listed on Top Ten lists of guys like Jerry, Trey, and Jojo Herman. And you say to yourself, "Who???" Then you'd go listen to his stuff and you'd say to yourself, "Wow! That sounds just like 'Moma Dance,' except that it was recorded in 1968!"