After I got run off Twitter last night for having the gall to post music instead of quasi-spam or sycophantic retweets of the latest SXSW blather, I found myself listening to some of the old RanchoCast podcasts I used to do. Those podcasts were a pain in the ass to produce, but they were fun to do. And there was some mighty good music to be heard there. I’m not sure what’s going on with the old RSS feed, so I thought I’d use all my non-Tweeting time to create a permanent, museum quality archive of the RanchoCasts.
Here’s the list, with the original descriptions. Sadly, the 3 beta versions have been temporarily or permanently lost.
You can listen directly from this page by clicking on the play buttons.
10/30/05 (Beta 1): This one only has 3 songs, including one of mine- Haunted House, which I co-wrote with Ronnie Jeffrey. It’s still in early beta, so we’ll see if and how things progress.
11/1/05 (Beta 2): This one actually has a discernable theme- great songwriting. It has songs from Steve Pride, The Star Room Boys and others. It even has a musical history lesson about Jesse James.
11/5/05 (Beta 3): Cassidy and I play 7 songs, including a rocker by the Drive-By Truckers, some Richard Buckner, the song Cassidy is named after and a live John Prine song that will blow your socks off.
11/12/05: The theme for this one is cover songs. I play some great covers by X, Iris Dement, Gerald Collier and even a cover of a song that Ronnie Jeffrey and I did a few years ago.
12/2/05: This episode contains a short review of the Rolling Stones concert and songs from my three new discoveries: Bucktown Kickback, Chuckanut Drive and The Cigar Store Indians. It also has a classic number by Jesse Colin Young and one by Baker Maultsby.
12/16/05: The theme is hard to find. I play some rare and hard to find songs by The Del Fuegos, Dancing Hoods, Steve Young, Fever Tree and The Judys.
12/24/05: Christmas Edition. It consists of nine Christmas songs ranging from the awesome Elvis Presley recording of Santa Claus is Back in Town to the great version of I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Claus by John Prine to some more off the beaten path songs by Commander Cody and 5 Chinese Brothers.
12/30/05: New Year’s Eve Edition. I talk a little about the past year and play a few New Years Eve songs by Chuck Prophet, Jim Cuddy, Slaid Cleaves and others. Next episode we’ll get back to our typical alternative country thing.
1/13/06: I play some good, off the beaten path songs, including one off Dan Zanes’ first solo record, a Scruffy the Cat number, an excellent John Starling song and a song about my son Luke’s favorite pastime.
1/21/06: The theme is the Dillard & Clark show. I play a couple of Dillard & Clark gems, a Gene Clark solo number, the first recording of Wild Horses (trivia: it was not the Stones’ version), some Syd Straw, one by The Buckets, some other good stuff and an original blues number.
2/4/06: No particular theme tonight, just some good alternative country and Americana songs. I play songs by Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Steve Pride, Robert Bobby, Neko Case, Mark Barker and others. I also talk in some detail about the forthcoming new versions of Gmail, Windows Live Mail and Yahoo Mail, which I discussed in an earlier post. Best of all, Cassidy joins me and introduces her first ever podcast song selection.
2/11/06: No theme, just some good alternative country and Americana songs by Ray Wylie Hubbard, Gary P. Nunn, Jonathan Edwards and others. Cassidy was at a friend’s house so I was once again solo in the studio.
3/4/06: Lots of good, hard to find songs, including songs by Country Joe McDonald, Daniel Moore, Ray Riddle, Hasil Adkins, Mason Proffit and more. I end the show with a great blues jam by Wet Willie. Also there’s a little more talking than normal, as I talked about the gatekeeper business, Steve Rubel’s social media tour, lessons from Bubble 1.0 and why Web 2.0 is less than it may appear. Almost 58 minutes of country rock, tech and blues.
3/10/06: The theme is the Young Bromberg Show. I play some great songs by Jesse Colin Young, the Youngbloods, David Bromberg, the Pixies, Dave Gleason and others. I also talk about Google’s office application initiative, why all nerd camps are not created equal and my new Sprint mobile phone. 57 minutes of country rock, classic rock, tech and blues.
3/24/06: No particular theme, but it has my favorite selection of songs so far, including songs by Goose Creek Symphony, Slobberbone, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Toby Darling, a funk song I spent 20 years looking for and more. The blogosphere’s been a bit slow lately, so there’s not a ton of tech talk. I did talk a little about old media arrogance in the context of the recent Berkeley CyberSalon. 50 minutes of country rock, classic rock, tech and blues.
4/7/06: Raina and the kids are visiting her parents this weekend, so Lucky Dog and I turned it up and played some of my favorite classic rock songs. Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Grateful Dead, Mountain, a live gem from the Guess Who and much more. 64 minutes of good classic rock.
4/29/06: I play a little Alice Cooper, two great songs by the Bluerunners, some more great alternative country numbers and a classic blues number by Rising Sons. This episode’s tech talk involved the Lance Dunstan lawsuit (which should be immediately dismissed in my opinion) and a great new blog I have discovered.
5/5/06: The theme is the Girl Power Show. Lots of great obscure music, most of it by female musicians and singers.
I play some gems by Holly Golightly, the Greenhornes, Neko Case, Bonnie Bishop, Rico Bell and others. I end the show with a great jazz/blues jam by Rashaan Roland Kirk. You can also hear my take on these self-important bloggers who don’t think they need to link to anyone.
5/12/06: I play some Deadstring Brothers, Pieta Brown, a two-fer from the Gourds, a song I once described as “perfectly beautiful,” a song by the greatest American rock and roll band working today and much more. 60 minutes of great music. Not much tech talk tonight, as I am profoundly bored with the blogosphere these days.
6/24/06: I play some gems by the Cranberries, the Smiths, the Cure and others. I end the show with a great live rock jam by Humble Pie. I also talk a little about blogger conferences and digital photography.
6/30/06: July 4th Edition. We play some July 4th related songs by Bruce Springsteen, Pete Droge, Lonehawk, Three Finger Cowboy, Galaxie 500 and others. I end the podcast by playing 6 great songs in a row called 4th of July.
7/15/06: The theme was the Joe Show. I play songs by all sorts of Joes, including Ely, Cocker, Tex, Henry and many more. I end with a blues jam by Big Joe Williams.
7/21/06: The theme was the Live Show. I play great live cuts by the Waterboys, Whiskeytown, the Allman Brothers, Grand Funk Railroad, David Baerwald and others. I end with a live Bruce Springsteen bootleg cut from 1978. In the techtalk portion, I talk about various approaches to blogging, and suggest the best one for new bloggers.
7/28/06: The theme was great, but under-appreciated, guitarists. I play deep album cuts by Peter Green, Frank Marino, Brownsville Station, Derek & the Dominos, The Guess Who and more. The finale is a 12 minute blues jam by Boz Scaggs. I also talk a little about HR 5319 (the MySpace Law) and the underground blogosphere.
8/4/06: I play some great songs by Jonathan Edwards, the Reivers, Jethro Tull, Jesus and Mary Chain, Leslie Gore and a 2-fer by the best blues singer ever. The finale is a blues jam by Albert Collins. I also talk a little about the marginal utility of extreme political correctness in the blogosphere.
8/11/06: It starts out without a particular theme, but quickly turns into the River Edition, as I play songs inspired by our recent trip to the Frio River. I’m hoarse from too much fun at the river, but manage to introduce some great songs by the Hangdogs, Jesse Dayton, Johnny Cash, Mother Hips, Julie Miller and others.
8/18/06: In honor of the lovefest that resulted from the newest gatekeeper discussions, the theme was the Dedication Edition.
I play great songs by Wagon, the Push Stars, World Party, Cowboy Junkies, Richard Shindell, Blind Faith and more. Each song is dedicated to a blogger, including Shel Israel, Robert Scoble, Seth Finkelstein, Mike Arrington and others.
8/25/06: The Gram Parsons Edition. Inspired by a great new documentary on Gram Parsons, I play great songs by the International Submarine Band, the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and both of Gram’s solo records.
9/2/06: I play great songs by Hem, Chris Mills, Steve Fromholz, Trout Fishing in America, Mark Barker and others. I also talk a little about the Foo Camp invitation-only debate.
9/15/06: The All-Vinyl Edition. I play hard to find cuts by The Don Harrison Band, Fever Tree, Bobby Bare, Country Joe McDonald, Eddie Hazel and more. Tech talk involves converting LPs to digital format and the myth of infinite advertising.
9/22/06: I play some great, hard to find songs by Guadalcanal Diary, Country Joe McDonald, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, Stoney Edwards, Leon Russell and more. The blues finale is a great song by Scott Dunbar.
10/6/06: No theme, no tech talk. Just great music. I play songs by the Stone Coyotes, Kate MacLeod, the Spud Puppies, Mojave 3 and a classic duet by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. The finale is a live two-fer by Thin Lizzy.
10/13/06: I play some great songs by 5 Chinese Brothers, Asylum Street Spankers, the Bodeans, Blaze Foley, Traffic, Utopia and others. The finale is a blues jam by Taj Mahal. No tech talk, but I make some book and video recommendations.
6/9/07: In a surprising reunion of the RanchoCast, I play some great music by Lloyd Cole, Charlie Robison, the Gourds, Manassas and others.
I’m thinking about a weekly video thing, but I don’t know if I’ll ever do another RanchoCast. But they were all kinds of cool while they lasted.
A word about the music files: As I noted on the podcasts, I am a songwriter and musician, and I have no desire to take money out of anyone’s pocket. To the contrary, I did the RanchoCasts to promote some great music that you likely won’t hear on mainstream radio. Go buy the records I talk about. You’ll be glad you did. These are single-file low bitrate MP3s, and I will remove any song I am asked to remove by an interest owner.
Newsome.Org 