{"id":1985,"date":"2011-10-25T11:58:55","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T16:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=1985"},"modified":"2012-02-22T12:33:45","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T17:33:45","slug":"ellen-mcilwaine-toe-hold-bw-up-from-the-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=1985","title":{"rendered":"Ellen McIlwaine – Toe Hold b\/w Up From the Skies"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ellen McIlwaine<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Ellen McIlwaine – Toe Hold <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download – Ellen McIlwaine – Up From the Skies <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

Greetings all.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was wandering (not aimlessly<\/em>) through the vast expanse of digimatized music looking for something to tickle my fancy and after picking out a few particularly tasty things and setting them aside for the full blogging treatment, I tripped over something very cool indeed.<\/p>\n

Ellen McIlwaine<\/strong> is another one of those artists that I read about long before I heard any of her music.<\/p>\n

I used to see her early records (including the album she recorded with her first band, Fear Itself<\/strong>)<\/a> were perennials on crate diggers \u2018finds\u2019 lists, and then back in the 90s I picked up a compilation of her Polydor recordings.<\/p>\n

What that collection revealed was a very talented and multi-faceted performer.<\/p>\n

McIlwaine, who spent her early years in Japan (her family were missionaries) found her way to New York in the mid-60s where she shared stages with a wide variety of blues and folk performers.<\/p>\n

Like many of her contemporaries, she was less interested in being shoehorned into a single genre, instead choosing to weave her own mixture of blues, rock, jazz, soul and folk\/world sounds.<\/p>\n

The two tracks I bring you today come from her first solo album, 1972\u2019s \u2018Honky Tonk Angel\u2019, one side of which was recorded live at the Bitter End in NYC.<\/p>\n

The first \u2013 her cover of the Isaac Hayes\/David Porter* <\/strong>classic \u2018Toe Hold\u2019 is a great example of how a largely acoustic band can still manage to be funky (thanks in large part to McIlwaine\u2019s guitar playing).<\/p>\n

McIlwaine is also a particularly talented and interesting singer who manages to kind of sail all over the map without ever losing her way. While I was digging for information about the record I happened upon one of Robert Christgau\u2019s<\/strong> old Consumer Guide reviews of this album where he makes the point that while at first impression her vocals might seem \u2018overambitious<\/em>\u2019 she manages to succeed by virtue of the power of her instrument.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been a big fan of \u2018oversingers\u2019 but I have to agree with the old sage that unlike so many others (especially in these times where vocal acrobatics seem to be the go to<\/em> substitute for soul), McIlwaine has the wherewithal, balancing talent with taste, to stay just inside the lines.<\/p>\n

The second track is a particularly groovy cover of the Jimi Hendrix Experience<\/strong> track \u2018Up From the Skies\u2019. It always bugs me that so many people seem to forget that Jimi had a soulful side. McIlwaine\u2019s treatment of \u2018Up From the Skies\u2019 taps into \u2013 and expands on \u2013 that sound.<\/p>\n

If you can find either of her first two solo albums (or the CD comp that collects them) grab them. Her later stuff moves further into an electric\/rock sound but is still pretty cool.<\/p>\n

She still records and performs today, and her recent stuff is particularly interesting, mixing her guitar with tabla and harmonium (dig her cover of \u2018Take me To the River\u2019).<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tunes, and I\u2019ll be back on Friday with something cool.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peace<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

* Recorded by Johnnie Taylor, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave among others<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ellen McIlwaine   Listen\/Download – Ellen McIlwaine – Toe Hold Listen\/Download – Ellen McIlwaine – Up From the Skies Greetings all. I was wandering (not aimlessly) through the vast expanse of digimatized music looking for something to tickle my fancy and after picking out a few particularly tasty things and setting them aside for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37,89,58,11,14,30,64,12],"tags":[163,166,164],"class_list":["post-1985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-eyed-soul","category-blues","category-cover-songs","category-funk","category-funky16corners","category-lp-tracks","category-rb","category-soul","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-w1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1985"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2090,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985\/revisions\/2090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}