The CD Part Of Town
Band: Black '47
Album: Bittersweet Sixteen
Label: Gadfly
It's every band's dream: A unique sound, loyal fanbase, steady gigs, attention from the press, packed houses, a residency, celebreties in the audience, music industry honchos stopping by, getting signed to a major label..... No, not the latest band of blazer-wearing schmoes from the Lower East Side, but none other than Black '47. (Well, you knew that from the heading, but still.) But then what?
Old skool as well as old world, Black '47 formed in 1989, when the standard operating procedure in the music biz was to get the A&R guy's attention, get signed to a major label, put out a single, make some videos for MTV, release and album, chart on Billboard, win awards, lather, rinse, repeat. Not exactly how things worked out for Black '47, so Bittersweet Sixteen can't really be called a "greatest hits album" since the band never really had many "greatest hits", per se. The 16 tracks here are representative of their 16-year career--meaning that some of the standards are on it, because the album is (and we all saw this one coming from a mile away) the story so far of Black '47. Many of the tracks originally appeared on Home Of The Brave and Green Suede Shoes, incredible albums that were unfortunately deleted by their respective record labels. 5 of the tracks on BS16 were also on the Shanachie Records sampler, Ten Bloody Years Of Black '47. Of course two tracks on 10BY--and which also appeared on HOTB and GSS--are missing from BS16, for obvious reasons, making this more of an abridged story. Some of the tracks on BS16 were originally perfomred live on Idiot's Delight. BS16 (and I'm not going to point out how the title abbreviation is BS because that would be mean, tho it would be remiss of me not to) comes on the heels of last season's Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes, (the companion CD to bandleader Larry Kirwan's memoir, Green Suede Shoes) another album rooted in the past while looking toward the future.
Still, it's doubtful that many NYC bands that form and/or have formed recently will have as long a reign in NYC as Black '47, so here's to the next album with (new) songs about what's been going down in New York Town.
Rating:
Album: Bittersweet Sixteen
Label: Gadfly
It's every band's dream: A unique sound, loyal fanbase, steady gigs, attention from the press, packed houses, a residency, celebreties in the audience, music industry honchos stopping by, getting signed to a major label..... No, not the latest band of blazer-wearing schmoes from the Lower East Side, but none other than Black '47. (Well, you knew that from the heading, but still.) But then what?
Old skool as well as old world, Black '47 formed in 1989, when the standard operating procedure in the music biz was to get the A&R guy's attention, get signed to a major label, put out a single, make some videos for MTV, release and album, chart on Billboard, win awards, lather, rinse, repeat. Not exactly how things worked out for Black '47, so Bittersweet Sixteen can't really be called a "greatest hits album" since the band never really had many "greatest hits", per se. The 16 tracks here are representative of their 16-year career--meaning that some of the standards are on it, because the album is (and we all saw this one coming from a mile away) the story so far of Black '47. Many of the tracks originally appeared on Home Of The Brave and Green Suede Shoes, incredible albums that were unfortunately deleted by their respective record labels. 5 of the tracks on BS16 were also on the Shanachie Records sampler, Ten Bloody Years Of Black '47. Of course two tracks on 10BY--and which also appeared on HOTB and GSS--are missing from BS16, for obvious reasons, making this more of an abridged story. Some of the tracks on BS16 were originally perfomred live on Idiot's Delight. BS16 (and I'm not going to point out how the title abbreviation is BS because that would be mean, tho it would be remiss of me not to) comes on the heels of last season's Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes, (the companion CD to bandleader Larry Kirwan's memoir, Green Suede Shoes) another album rooted in the past while looking toward the future.
Still, it's doubtful that many NYC bands that form and/or have formed recently will have as long a reign in NYC as Black '47, so here's to the next album with (new) songs about what's been going down in New York Town.
Rating:
posted by heather @ 2:22 PM
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