Last Night: Jonathan Richman at The Make Out Room

From S.F. Weekly.COM:-

By Wade Grubbs

What must it be like to be Jonathan Richman? Guessing from his Sunday night show, it's equal parts joy and sorrow in abundance. The singer-songwriter's emotions are delivered in many languages; I counted English, Hebrew, Spanish, and French tonight. And he even got heckled in Hebrew.

Richman and longtime drummer Tommy Larkins played the first of a four-night run at the Make-Out Room in the Mission, something that has become a tradition. Richman mesmerized the attentive crowd with songs new, old, and improvised. He held us all rapt, never knowing where the twists in his thoughts and strumming might lead, but willing to take the journey with him as our guide.

The music led to many places. Richman's Spanish-style guitar flourishes and meanderings were a rich accompaniment to his verbal asides. His quirkiness wasn't wasted on the crowd, which was largely composed of middle-aged farts like myself who were slightly past their sell-by date but still capable of wonderment at a good show...

Read the whole review here:-

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2009/09/last_night_jonathan_richman_at_1.php#more

This Kind Of Music

Hi ya,
Well, well, well, I got nothing new to say about our man Jojo, but I was listening to singles tonight, including the Touch-Me-Nots. On their third and latest (last?)7", the canadian couple deliver an awsome version of "This Kind Of Music". As this 7" was limited to 200 or 300 copies I guessed that some of you don't have it.
So here it is :
http://rapidshare.com/files/283145622/The_Touch-Me-Nots_-_This_Kind_Of_Music__2007_.MP3.html
I hope you'll enjoy

The Jonathan Richman songbook

Hey, you crazy kids! I ordered the songbook when it first came out, but now have looked it over and have some pictures for you!

I highly recommend this. It's for guitar, which couldn't find online before I bought it. Unsurprisingly, the two albums that are best represented are Not So Much To Be Loved As to Love and Because Her Beauty is Raw and Wild, but it still holds a nice sampling of Jonathan's songs from the past and present, including the semi-grudgingly added "Roadrunner". Of it, he says: "Plus, I no longer want to drive around the cold, sterile, industrialized highways of America's suburbs, and I won't pretend I do for love or money". And that's really what makes this songbook so great. Jonathan has a bunch of commentaries, some printed, and some notes are in his handwriting. And he's his hilarious, off the cuff self. It's probably the most that we'll ever get to hear him say about some of these songs directly, I don't even play the guitar, and I found this entertaining. There's a shot of the intro over here.

You can buy it from several different places, one of them is Hal Leonard.

Songs in the book:
Because her Beauty is Raw and Wild
Behold the Lilies of the Field
El Joven Se Estremece
Es Como El Pan
Girlfriend
Give Paris One More Chance
He Gave Us the Wine to Taste it
Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eyeshadow
I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar
In Che Mondo Viviamo
Le Printemps des Amoureux est Venu
Let Her Go Into the Darkness
No One Was Like Vermeer
Not So Much to Be Loved as to Love
Pablo Picasso
Roadrunner
Springtime in New York
Surrender
There's Something About Mary
This Romance Will Be Different for Me
Vampiresa Mujer
Vampire Girl
Vincent Van Gogh
When We Refuse to Suffer

Make-Out Room in September

Sun 20 Sept San Francisco, CA (Make-Out Room)
Mon 21 Sept San Francisco, CA (Make-Out Room)
Tues 22 Sept San Francisco, CA (Make-Out Room)
Wed 23 Sept San Francisco, CA (Make-Out Room)

Make-Out Room (link)

Thanks DMD!

Essential Recordings: Vampire Girl

In the Perfect 10 series of Rounder Records, a new Jonathan's CD will be released on Sept 22. It's called Essential Recordings: Vampire Girl (CDROUN9092 / 011661909229). A compilation of 10 songs, apparently selected for this release by Jonathan himself:

- Vampire Girl
- I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar
- Harpo En Su Harpa
- Let Her Go Into The Darkness
- California Desert Party - Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers
- Dancin' Late At Night - Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers
- Since She Started to Ride
- You're Crazy For Taking The Bus
- I Eat With Gusto, Damn! You Bet
- Twilight In Boston

http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&catalog_id=7206

Party in the desert ..

I would like to transmit a message from our friends Marc and Hillary, if you are interested you might bring a music instrument to play with...




My wife Hillary and I are hosting a Jonathan Richman sing-along party @ burningman on Mon/Wed/Fri/Sun at 11 am - from Aug 31st onwards. The event will be at the Lost Penguin Café at Esplanade and 3:30 in Black Rock City.



I would imagine that JR fans at burningman would want to know about this, so I thought I'd let you know.

Thanks !

Marc

Jonathan Plays Oldies Covers

Hello Jojo World,

You've probably heard of "Jonathan Goes Country". You've also may have heard of "Jonathan Goes Funky". (if you don't have it then look through old posts on this blog, at one time a link was posted to download it.)
Well, I would like to submit a new entry into the "Jonathan Goes ... " - "Jonathan Goes Oldies Covers"!

I am a huge fan of JR shows (new and old), and one thing that I have always enjoyed is all the old classics that he does. He must have done "Louie Louie" a trillion times in his life.

So, I put together a compilation of some of my favorite Jonathan Richman old Rhythm and Blues covers for everyone to enjoy.

Check out such classic renditions of "You Are", "Pearl", and "Peppermint Twist."
Possibly my favorite song is "My Guy" which is superbly sung by Ellie Marshall.

So, just go to this webpage(don't worry, no ads or any of that crap) and click on the songs to listen, or right click and select "save target as" to download.

Enjoy!: Jonathan Plays Oldies Covers

I have a treat for you fine people!

I know I've been kind of incognito lately, between moving and my birthday last week...well...okay, I've been incredibly lazy as well. It's my last week of freedom!



But, I bring you good tidings. My amazing friend Caitlin (you will recognize her as the girl that does all of my concert photography, like the one in this post.) found this song online and shared it with me. I had to share it with the world. It is something between a musical concert review and a story of lost love. It's by a guy named Scotter, who I have been unable to find anything about online. But he has this song. and it's great. Easily one of my favorite songs about Jonathan. The Jonathan impression in the middle of the song is worth the price of admission.

At The Jonathan Richman Show

I don't know how long this link will stay, so if it's gone and you have to have this, email me.