Dog Bites is back on the air! Catch Mike Watterston on WRNJ Radio every Saturday night from 7-10 p.m., and check back to Inside Warren every third Friday for “What’s New,” “What’s Old but Good,” and “What’s Local!”

What’s New with Mike Watterston

Bob Dylan 1970, with special guest George Harrison

Bob Dylan & George Harrison… no way this can be bad!

Released in February 2021, here’s a record that’s as fun to listen to as you may have hoped.

Nineteen-seventy was an interesting year, and a busy one, for George Harrison. The Beatles had broken up in April, this was recorded in May and his All Things Must Pass was released in November 1970. The album shows us where George was beginning to lean towards musically.

He spent most of that year hanging with and writing with “his friends,” as he’d refer to them as. Bob Dylan, the Band, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and Billy Preston were some of those “friends” during 1968–70.

It’s hard to believe this hasn’t seen the light of day until now. This is a better than expected experience. I only say that because some of those archive collection type packages sound scratchy and fuzzy. It’s not the case here.

They play a few of Bob’s compositions, a couple of George’s and a few shared favorites. The band is made of young session studs from Nashville at the time; Charlie Daniels, Al Kooper, David Bromberg, Russ Kunkel and as usual, Bob Johnston doing the producing. Their vocal harmonies are enjoyable, as well, which was a nice surprise. This was just a jam session. It was never recorded in hopes of ever releasing it. It’s all very loose.

Some of these tracks were parts of the series that included New Morning, Self Portrait and Another Self Portrait (1969-1971). Dylan’s Bootleg Series material has been phenomenal since the first installment. Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” and the Everly’s cover of “All I Have To Do Is Dream” are sweet as pie. Bob decides go to for the McCartney vocal on “Yesterday” and George hangs back and jams. Dylan’s voice is 1970 fresh and sounds terrific throughout this collection!

I love the jam in “Matchbox.” I’ve always loved that song. These are the cool kind of jams that Harrison was giving us late in the Beatles, “I Want You (She’s so Heavy),” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “For You Blue,” etc. Bob gets bluesy with “Telephone Line.” Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 is always a good time!

This is a record you’ll be happy you purchased. You’ll listen to a lot of this with a smile on your face. I find that some of these “archived” tapes sound terrible but, thankfully, that’s not the case here. Everything sounds clean and crisp. This is my definite recommendation for March.

Additional songs include “Ghost Riders In The Sky,” “Gates Of Eden,” “I Threw It All Away,” “I Don’t Believe You,” “True Love,” “Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance,” “Song To Woody,” “Mama You Been On My Mind,” “Don’t Think Twice” (instrumental), “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” “Da Doo Ron Ron” (Barry/Spector), “One Too Many Mornings I,” and “One Too Many Mornings II.”

NOTE: Afternoon Studio Session; Bob Dylan (guitar/piano/vocals), George Harrison (guitar/vocals), Charlie Daniels (Bass), Alvin Rogers (Drums), Al Kooper (guitar/piano), Ron Cornelius (guitar)

What’s Old but Still Very Good with Mike Watterston

Alvin Lee & Mylon LeFevre’s On The Road To Freedom

When I was in 8th grade I saw an older girl in my school had a patch sewn into her jeans jacket and it read, TYA. After seeing her around a bunch of times I finally asked her what that meant. She replied, “Ten Years After”. They’re a great band!” …She wasn’t wrong.

Alvin Lee was a master guitarist in the British Blues scene and founder of Ten Years After.

After knocking the Woodstock crowd out with “I’m Going Home”, he acquired the nickname “Captain Speed Fingers”. I’ve always been a fan and was fortunate enough to have seen the band live twice. The first time was at Madison Square Garden in NYC. It was May 1974 and the band was touring behind their Recorded Live & the new studio “Positive Vibrations” albums. The prior studio record was “Rock n Roll Music To The World”. It was the typical TYA fare and my favorite record of theirs. (My 2nd TYA show was at Waterloo Village in June of 1990 FYI).

In-between that album, Positive Vibrations, and touring, Alvin Lee found the time to do a solo project. It was a complete opposite from the work he was doing with TYA. He partnered up with fellow Columbia Records artist and American Christian/gospel/rock performer Mylon LeFevre. Mylon was known in the session circles and in the 1970s he played with Eric Clapton, Elton John, Billy Joel, Duane Allman, Berry Oakley, Little Richard, & the Who among others. Together they wrote a fantastic record, although oddly obscure, called “On The Road To Freedom”. It was produced by Alvin and recorded in George Harrison’s studio. He brought in some friends to help him out. Please check the personnel out on this release:

Alvin Lee – lead, harmony and backing vocals; electric and acoustic guitars; bass; sitar Mylon LeFevre – lead, harmony and backing vocals; 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars George Harrison (as “Hari Georgeson”) – acoustic guitar, dobro, bass, harmony vocals Ron Wood – electric and 12-string acoustic guitars, bass, slide guitar, drums Steve Winwood – piano, electric piano Boz Burrell – bass, backing vocals Andy Stein – fiddle Ian Wallace – drums Jim Capaldi – drums, percussion Reebop Kwaku Baah – congas Mick Fleetwood – drums.

INCREDIBLE right!?

It’s as great as you’d expect. Nothing disappointing on this collection at all. The critics loved the record but the public, not so much. It didn’t even break into Billboards top 100. The first single from it is my favorite track, “Fallen Angel”. The next single from it was George Harrison’s composition “So Sad”, which George later put out on his “Dark Horse” album the following year.

“Let ‘Em Say What They Will” was written by Ron Wood. Of course, he adds that Faces/Stones swagger to the recording. The other 10 tracks were all written by either Alvin or Mylon … or both. Tracks that rock on this are the Woody track, the title track, Fallen Angel, Riffin’ & “Rockin’ ‘til The Sun Goes Down”. The balance of this is a mix of laid back, sweet country Gospel style. I will guarantee you that this will be the most satisfying 40 minutes musically that you’ve had in a while. If you own it, dust it off. If not, I definitely recommend finding and buying this one. It’s available at a reasonable price everywhere you buy your music… I was surprisingly happy to see it wasn’t out of print.

What’s Local with Joe Hirsh

The Katie Henry Band 

We recently caught up with Katie Henry, front woman for the Katie Henry Band. This is another regional band that was on the cusp of really making some noise when COVID put a serious damper on the music scene. The band had already had a couple of tours in California under its belt and had another planned for last year as well as a southern trip.  Both tours of course, were cancelled. They did get a few gigs in but not many. The band is ready to get going again, as soon as possible!

What are your general plans moving forward this year?

We can’t wait to get back out playing again and are booking as many shows for the summer and fall as possible. We just marked the year anniversary from our last road trip and would love to get back to playing and traveling. The next album is also in the works which I’m really excited about. 

Are you currently working on a new CD or similar project? 

Yes, we are heading into Degraw Studios in Brooklyn in April and May and are really looking forward to sharing the new songs! Along with the new CD, we will also have new videos to share later this spring. 

Do you have any cool events currently scheduled for this year?

We have a lot of things scheduled and a lot more in the pipeline. In the meantime we are so excited to play at Donaldson Farms in Hackettstown (Food Truck Festival) on June 5, Bernie’s in Chester on June 12, the 4848 Festival in Snowshoe, WV on September 4-5,  and the Festival in The Borough (in Washington Borough) on September 18!

Stay up to date with The Katie Henry Band on their website, katiehenrymusic.com.