Merit Hemmingson and Her Friends

Artist: Merit Hemmingson and Her Friends

LP: Swedish Modern
Song: "Vindarna Sucka Uti Skogarna"
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Song: "Mandom Mod Och Morske Män"

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Here's some nifty Scandinavian folk music set to a contemporary beat (well, contemporary when this record was released 47 years ago) by Swedish organist, multi-instrumentalist and hummer Merit Hemmingson. You can read all about Ms. Merit in Swedish here, and find an English translation here.

[ Merit Hemmingson ]

Earl Grant

Artist: Earl Grant

LP: Winter Wonderland
Song: "Winter Wonderland"

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Song: "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm"

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I'm still annoyed with myself for skipping the entire month of December here, and not getting to post any holiday records. But since we finally got a big batch of snow today that basically brought the entire city of Seattle to a standstill, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to pop in and post something wintry with sleigh bells! 

True, this 1965 MCA-15001 Earl Grant LP (you probably remember it as MCA-236) is technically a record for the yuletide holiday, but Earl does throw in a few tracks that aren't about Santa, the baby Jesus, or about December 25th in particular. They are simply about freezing your ass off in the snow, which is what we're all doing here in Seattle today!

Earl Grant, born in Idabel, Oklahoma in 1931, is an incredibly talented musician who, sadly, died in a car crash at the age of 39. And even though I realize it's absurd to focus on his sexuality (he was gay—who cares!), you have to admit it's fascinating, and rather surprising, that in 1958 Earl himself came forward to declare that he was "versatile" upon the release of his very first LP! 

[ Earl Grant: January 20, 1931 — June 10, 1970 ]

Billy Larkin & the Delegates

Artist: Billy Larkin & the Delegates

LP: Hole In the Wall

Song: "Agent Double-O-Soul" 
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These past few days I took another little getaway to Oregon—this time to Cannon Beach, over on the coast. Honestly, record stores were the last thing on my mind, since my friend Trevor and I would be passing through nothing but small towns and countryside—and yet, like a month drawn to the flame, I somehow managed to sniff one out! I gasped when I caught sight of Classics & Oddities on the historic main street of downtown Longview as we made our way through town to find some big bridge that would reportedly lead us into Oregon. They had some neat stuff at the store, including this 1965 Billy Larkin & the Delegates LP. Not a lot of info on the web about Mr. Larkin, but it seems he may have made music in Portland in the early 1960s. There's also a bit to read here, and liner notes from Richard Oliver (this might be his son!) are included below.

 

[ Classics & Oddities — Longview, WA ]

The Great Gavioli

Artist: The Great Gavioli

LP: Holland's Most Famous Barrel Organ

Song: "Gavioli Galop" 
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I can't believe I've only ever posted one famous Holland street organ record in all the seven years I've been putting stuff on this blog. It's high time for another, so here it is. From Capitol Records' Capitol of the World series in 1960, it's "the Big Daddy of Dutch street organs"—De Grote Gavioli!

[ Amsterdam ]

Jon Thomas

Artist: Jon Thomas

LP: Big Beat On the Organ

Song: "Hot Tip" 
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Song: "Hard Head" 
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Lately I've been trying to reorganize stuff in my apartment, and I thought it would be good if I bought some reorganizing music to help me get with it. Golden Oldies came through in spades, as usual, and I found way more there than I'd bargained—or budgeted—for. There's not a set of complete biographical information about jazz organist Jon Thomas that I could find on the web, but according to AllMusic, he was born in 1918 and someone on e-bay says that happened in Mississippi. Jon went on to become a session musician at King Records, says our e-bay contact, where he composed "Heartbreak," a hit for Little Willie John (I bet that's Jon on organ!). According to last.fm, Jon Thomas' "Big Beat On the Organ" LP was released on the first day of 1958; AllMusic says Jon died at the end of October, 1994. The photo below shows what Jon looked like, according to last.fm. I don't know how reliable any of that information is, but there is one thing about Jon Thomas we do know for sure: He was a talented jazz organist extraordinaire!

[ Jon Thomas: 1918 — October 28, 1994 ]

Odell Brown & The Organ-Izers

Artist: Odell Brown & The Organ-Izers

LP: Ducky

Song: "Get Off My Back" 
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They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Well, first of all, I invited Martin to join me for a rare almost-director's-cut 35mm screening of Ken Russell's THE DEVILS last night (I know that's technically still February, but the lion was just outside the door) and, to put it mildly, he hated it. Like, he wouldn't speak to me afterwards. Then this morning I decided to finally finish a mix-tape I began working on nearly a year ago, but my fancy state-of-the-art dual cassette player just made buzzing and clicking sounds before shutting down completely with a big letter 'E' on the display. Then, at breakfast, I asked the waitress if I could substitute tomatoes for the onions in the 'weekend special' scramble (it also had mushrooms, spinach, and blue cheese) and she snapped 'NO!' before saying it would actually be alright, that she hadn't understood what I was asking. So it's only 3:30 in the afternoon on the first day of March and I'm already ready for some lamb. 

This 1967 Odell Brown & The Organ-Izers LP is making things a lot better. I especially appreciate that it's not 'far-out' and cacophonous, or even some dissonant and punishing polyrhythmic mish-mash like just about everything else in the complex world of music today. You can read about Odell Brown here and here. 

[ Odell Brown & The Organ-Izers ]

Paul Mickelson

Artist: Paul Mickelson

LP: Paul Mickelson Plays For Youth

Song: "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" 
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Organ virtuoso Paul Mickelson played with evangelist Billy Graham in the years 1950 to 1957, beginning when he was just 22 years old. You can read more about Mr. Mickelson at the online tribute to his life and music here. There's no denying Paul Mickelson's got talent, but I find there's something belittling in the way he plays for youth on this particular LP, released on the Word label in 1961. Paul's rendition of "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder," in particular, seems to minimize the very audience he hopes to reach.

[ Paul Mickelson: December 30, 1927 — October 21, 2001 ]