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$21.99 CD
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JIM FORD
Sounds of Our Time
(Bear Family)
"Harlan County"
"Linda Comes Running"
A few interesting facts about the life and times of obscure white country soul singer Jim Ford:
--Ford grew up near famed Harlan County, Kentucky, and as a youngster he would go over to Loretta Lynn's house to listen to the radio.
--He spent his teenage years homeless on the streets of New Orleans after running away from his folks.
--He eventually made his way to Los Angeles where he scored a record deal, and the chance to record with the best sidemen in the business, including the legendary James Burton, Jim Keltner, Gene Page, and Dr. John.
--He released one album with said sidemen, Harlan County, and it's the best record from 1969 you've never heard.
--Ford used excessive amounts of drugs.
--He tried to record a follow-up in England with both Brinsley Schwarz, and the Hampton Grease band, but couldn't get along with either of them, so he just went ahead and recorded forty songs by himself that have never been released.
--Nick Lowe, who was in Brinsley Schwarz at the time, claims Ford is the biggest musical influence in his life.
--Ford once emptied $3,000 worth of cocaine into legendary producer "Sy" Waronker's coffee mug.
--Ford plays on Sly Stone's There's a Riot Going On, and his photograph can be found on the cover.
--Sly and Ford were best friends, they'd party for days on end together with Bobby Womack, who says that during that time he forgot he had a wife and children.
--Sly Stone says that Jim Ford is the "baddest white man on the planet", and a "killer writer."
--The entire Temptations album Wings of Love was written by Ford.
--The superb English mod band the Koobas changed their name to Harlan County and recorded all the songs off Ford's album after hearing it.
--Ford raised two of Marlon Brando's kids.
--Ford modeled in a Sergio Leone inspired Playboy spread called The Good, the Bad, and the Garlic.
Hands down the best rock and roll reissue of the year, Jim Ford's The Sounds of Our Time will be absolutely essential for anyone who has ever dug or given two sh*ts about Exile on Main Street, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Dr. John, Link Wray's three track shack recordings, gritty southern soul, driving with the windows down etc., etc. I'm serious; it is THAT GOOD! Including the classic Harlan County album in its entirety as well as 15 more tracks that are just as good, if not better, that Bear Family fished out of the 300 hundred hours of reel-to-reel tapes which Ford's got stashed beneath his bed in a trailer park in Northern California. [MK] |
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