Happy Martin Day! Today is the birthday of Martin Guitars founder, Christian Friedrich Martin, Sr. (1796-1873). Why is this not a national holiday?

Star Time by James Brown (Polydor/1991) - Super solid 4-disc set tracking James Brown’s amazing career. If you don’t have any JB in your library, you need this, and it still seems to be in print. So no excuses.

The Monkees: The Day-By-Day Story of the ’60s TV Pop Sensation by Andrew Sandoval (2005) - I’ve already noted my abiding fascination with the bizarre tale of The Monkees. If you want to know more, this is the most serious and fact-packed book on the subject. As the subtitle may tip you off, it uses a day by day log format, covering nearly every damned thing that happened in the core years. The detail is almost overwhelming, drawn from film and recording studio documents, period media coverage and latter day interviews with the principals, crew and others. There is much debunking of old myths and clarification of confusions. And I finally know exactly who played on what and when. Is the journal format a good ‘read?’ Not really. It’s a bit like having someone drop a big (very well-sorted) crate of research in your lap. But it does deliver maximum information density, and as a benefit, you’re free to put your own reading on the events, rather than accepting an author’s agenda. Essential.

Omnibus by Paul Cain (1933) - A 2006 reprint of his notorious 1933 novel, Fast One, along with the short story collection, Seven Slayers. This is one hard-assed slab of hard-boiled writing. Cain’s work may not have the authority of Hammett’s, or the style of Chandler’s, but it does have acres of mean, amoral attitude. Ouch!

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood by Neko Case (Anti/2006) - A fine new collection of twang noir (as I’m choosing to describe it) from Neko Case. She’s got a helluva voice, and here has set it in a batch of rather interesting material with backing from a small tribe of people you may know from other cool projects.

Time (The Revelator) by Gillian Welch (Acony/2001) - This is another album of recent years which holds up well for me. I think it’s the strongest album from Welch and unbilled partner, David Rawlings, having the highest proportion of songs which feel like their own evolved thing, rather than simply recreating old styles. And their own thing is a fine and spooky thing indeed.

Radio Django is a new web radio station featuring the music of Django Reinhardt and other gypsy jazz artists. If this were an old-fangled radio radio station, I’d glue the tuning knob in place right here.

The new/old Narthex album, Twin Cities, is now also available via iTunes, if you’re into those ghostly digital formats.