Amoeba’s ‘What’s In My Bag’ With Marshall Crenshaw

Alyson Camus|March 5, 2015

Last summer, singer songwriter Marshall Crenshaw visited California with The Bottle Rockets and he had the chance to haunt my favorite place in Los Angeles, Amoeba Music, for an episode ‘What’s In My Bag’, a series watching musicians hand picking a few vinyl and other things in the immense store, while commenting on their choices.

If you are not familiar with Crenshaw you should know that his debut album, released in 1982, included the song ‘Someday, Someway’, which reached #36 on the Billboard Top 100 chart, but he hasn’t stop writing music since. I did listen to this song today to refresh my memory, and the hooky tune hasn’t left my head since, it was such an ear worm, straight from a Buddy Holly classic, a legend whom Crenshaw even played in the movie ‘La Bamba’!

He also incarnated John Lennon in the Broadway musical Beatlemania, in 1978 (which launched his career), and much later, he toured with the reunited MC5 in 2000. Since 2011, he also hosts The Bottomless Pit on WFUV 90.7FM in New York, featuring his vast collection of recorded music, and this could explain his insatiable needs for new and old music.

So what did he choose? Mr. Crenshaw is a music connoisseur with a taste for jazz and oldies, so he picked an early album of Sun Ra, as well as a 50’s album of the gospel soul band the Staple Singers, the new album by jazz guitarist Nels Cline, some Indian Style heavy funk, ‘SitarBeat’ and the best of Buddy Collette,… but also Mitch Ryder’s autobiography, ‘Devil and Blue Dresses’, since the Detroit-native musician feels connected to the musical legacy of the city, just note that he is even mentioned in the book as a ‘a hidden jewel’.

I must admit I know almost nothing about his choices but since he is the author of a ‘Hollywood Rock: A Guide to Rock ‘n’ Roll in the Movies’ and the organizer of a compilation of ’50s and ’60s Capitol Records country artists, ‘Hillbilly Music…Thank God, Vol 1.’, he is definitively a highly refined music connoisseur. Watch ‘What’s In My Bag’ below: