Music is at its best when it is at it’s most universal, when it taps you on the shoulder as if to say “I’ve been there too”, It bonds with you and opens your eyes, a friend that never leaves, and you become encapsulated by a sensation to which all other senses have never known. Better than any other media, music teaches us how to love, how to express it, how to feel it, how to long for it and miss it when it’s gone. Theres a reason why love continues to be the most popular subject in songwriting, it is one of the most essential building blocks of humanity, a universal feeling.
Heartbreak, it seems, brings out the best in musicians, and perhaps none were touched more than Frank Sinatra and Tom Waits, whose albums In the Wee Small Hours, and The Heart of Saturday Night both take this universal feeling to a whole new level, in their music they make it breathe, cast a lingering darkness in the air, and place the heart in the creaks and aches of their vocals.
I had so much fun making the last Campfire Songs Mixtape that I decided to make another one. Both retro and modern with that warm familial feeling that makes a campfire so fun to be around. As always, the mixtape is free but feel free to support all the artists by buying their albums. To download a song just right-click the song link after the description, hope you enjoy. The full mixtape after the jump.
It’s very uncommon to find someone who actually knows Billy Brooks, ask people around, even musical people and they’ll probably respond with “Who?” This is nothing new in music, there have been countless talented musicians littered along the path to fame. Yet his impact on music should not be put to waste.
Billy Brooks had mostly gained notoriety as a sideman among fellow musicians, having played for the likes of Ray Charles and Tina Turner and also pioneering his own patented double barreled trumpet giving him a wide range of sounds that he could produce from the horn.
His album, Windows of the Mind would come out in 1974, boasting a jazz-funk groove that many before and after had tried in failed. The genre had seemed doomed to fail, jazz purists would cast off the funk influence as too simple, and those who liked funk didn’t like the jazz fusion involvement. Somehow Billy Brooks manages to meld the best of both worlds.
Take “C.P. Time” a slow burning jazz burner for the purists out there with some great horn and lead guitar work along with Brook’s fantastic trumpet improv.
There’s also “The Speech Maker” who’s soaring horn lines and moving rhythm beg for it to be cast in a soundtrack for an old school caper, or a Bond film.
Then there is the rollicking funk of Rockin’ Julius, with its pounding bass and foot-tapping rhythm.
Then of course, there is “40 Days” a song which was by far Billy Brooks lasting influence, a perfect jazz-funk meld that would later be sampled to perfection in A Tribe Called Quest’s Luck of Lucien, it’s a shame that ATCQ only brought attention to the song’s great groove, because the solos on here are sublime. I also made a remaster of this track to give it a more live sound, it’s up to you whether you dig the gritty 7o’s production or one that gives the horns some air to breath:
Original:
Remaster:
Overall, Billy Brooks proves to be a great arranger and this is a must have album for anybody who likes jazz or funk. All the downloadable tracks above, plus some bonus ones, including a fantastic remix of “40 Days” are all here after the jump.
It was a surprising move for Elvis Costello fans when he came out with this entirely country and western album in 1981, though it was packed along with the typically cynical Costello quip that stated “”WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners.”. Yet Costello is no rube when it comes to interpreting other peoples music (Just look at “What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding”) and he performs these country standards with quite able hands. This cut, originally left off the LP, was a Hank Cochran written, Patsy Cline performed “She’s Got You”, a beautifully delivered lyric about loss. The arrangement here is worked to perfection with some sparkling piano flourishes and Costello’s isolated lyric pushed front and center, with some heartbreaking slide guitar holding the background. Just a great performance. The downloadable song after the jump.
The Art of the Mixtape 
