C-60 Low Noise

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2012-01-28T19:05:00.002+01:00

Harmonica Frank Floyd - Swamp Root

Tiny Tim "Over The Rainbow - A Retrospective" (1992)

2011-04-14T11:00:00.002+02:00

THE TINY ONE IN THE TULIPS

Tiny Tim was born Herbert Khaury, and gave his birth date as April 12, 1932. The son of a Lebanese father and Jewish mother, he grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, and was a loner, eventually dropping out of high school. He took his name from Tiny Tim (real name "Tim Cratchit"), who was a fictional character in the classic story "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. He is the son of Bob Cratchit. The character is based on the invalid son of a friend of Dickens who owned a cotton mill in Ardwick, Manchester.

His interest in American popular music (chiefly from the 1890s to the 1930s) began at a young age, as did his desire to be a singer, and accordingly he learned guitar and ukulele. His first performances -- under the alias Larry Love -- took place in the early '50s, and according to legend, he debuted at a lesbian cabaret in Greenwich Village called the Page 3, where he became a regular. Khaury performed at small clubs, parties, and talent shows under a variety of names; his parents tried to discourage him at first, but relented when they saw that not every gig ended in ridicule.

By the early '60s, he had gained a cult following around the thriving Greenwich Village music scene, particularly after he began to incorporate bizarre renditions of contemporary songs into his repertoire. He finally settled on the name Tiny Tim after, as mentioned, the character in Dickens' A Christmas Carol (according to some accounts, it was suggested by a manager accustomed to working with midgets). Tim's appearance in the film "You Are What You Eat" led to a booking on the hugely popular comedy series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. He was an instant sensation; whether or not he was seen as an object of ridicule, no one had ever seen anything like him. He appeared several more times on Laugh-In, and became a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, also performing on the Ed Sullivan and Jackie Gleason variety shows. His eccentric personality became as well-known as his music: he was obsessed with bodily cleanliness, and his distaste for sex seemed logical when paired with his gentle, asexual demeanor.

A hot commodity, Tim signed a record deal with Reprise and issued his debut album, God Bless Tiny Tim, in 1968. His signature rendition of "Tip-Toe Through the Tulips" became a hit, and the LP sold over 200,000 copies. Striking while the iron was hot, Tim recorded a follow-up, Tiny Tim's Second Album, which was released at the end of 1968. Its follow-up, an album of children's songs titled For All My Little Friends was released in August of 1969.

On December 17 of that year, Tim married his girlfriend, 17-year-old Victoria Budinger (known as Miss Vicki, in typically respectful Tim fashion), on the Johnny Carson show. The couple later had a daughter, Tulip, but mostly lived apart, and divorced after eight years. Following his wedding, Tim continued to perform around the country, including some lucrative gigs in Las Vegas; unfortunately, many of his business associates took advantage of his naïveté, leaving him with few savings from his run of success.

By the early '70s, perhaps due to simple familiarity, America's fascination with Tiny Tim had waned. Even after the TV appearances and high-profile gigs dried up, Tim kept plugging away, performing whenever and wherever he could. He recorded steadily for a series of mostly small labels throughout the 70's and 80's.

He remarried in 1984 to 23-year-old Miss Jan. They lived apart most of the time and the marriage lasted until 1994. Tim joined a circus for 36 weeks. In August of 1995 he married for a third time to Miss Sue, and he moved to Minneapolis.

During the mid-'90s, Tim raised his public profile with appearances on the Conan O'Brien and Howard Stern shows; however, in September of 1996, he suffered a heart attack while performing at a ukulele festival in Massachusetts. Upon his release from the hospital, he continued to play concerts despite the warnings that, due to the fragile state of his heart, he could die at any moment. While playing “Tiptoe Through The Tulips” at a Gala Benefit at The Woman's Club of Minneapolis on 30 November of that year, he suffered another heart attack on stage. He was led out by his third wife, Susan Marie Gardner (whom he had married on 18 August 1995), who asked him if he was okay. Tim responded, “No, I'm not!” Those were his final words. He collapsed shortly thereafter and was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died after doctors tried to resuscitate him for an hour and fifteen minutes. He is buried in the mausoleum of Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.

Tiny Tim was an extraordinary person who was a good friend with The Beatles, Bob Dylan and other big stars from the sixties. He often been called a novelty act, but despite his lack of hits in the 70's and 80's, always had a big cult following him, and still is a household name to those who loves the music from the 60's.

Track-List in the Comments

More info about Tiny Tim

Tiny Tim on YouTube:

Tiny Tim singing Tip Toes.." on a American TV-Show in the 70's

Tiny Tim on Johnny Carson

Tiny Tim "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy"

Tiny Tim on The Uncle Floyd Show

Tiny Tim & Miss Vicky "Why"

Tiny Tim Interview June 26 1996

MixTape Vol. 3 - "The Garage Years"

2011-04-10T18:05:00.000+02:00

IN THE GARAGE

Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name. In the early 1970s, some rock critics retroactively labelled it as punk rock. However, the music style was later referred to as garage rock or '60s Punk to avoid confusion with the music of late-1970s punk rock bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash.

The garage rock revival is a musical phenomenon largely influenced by the original garage rock of the 1960s. Its earliest roots can be traced to the early 1970s, following the release of Nuggets in 1972 and continues to this day through the Western World as modern youngsters continue to pay tribute to a vanished golden age of rock and roll that was 1960s garage rock. Proto punk bands of the early '70s such as The Stooges and The New York Dolls were arguably garage rock revivalists. Iggy Pop had been in a mid-sixties, Detroit garage band, The Iguanas, who released a version of Bo Diddley's "Mona" in 1966 and recorded many other songs that fit within the genre.

In the 1980s, another garage rock revival saw a number of bands earnestly trying to replicate the sound, style, and look of the '60s garage bands (see The Chesterfield Kings, The Fuzztones, The Milkshakes, and The Cynics as examples of this); this trend coincided with a similar surf rock revival, and both styles fed in into the alternative rock movement and future grunge music explosion, which some say was partially inspired by garage rock from Seattle like The Sonics and The Wailers, but was largely unknown by fans outside the immediate circles of the bands themselves.

Here are some of my garage-highlights, from Link Wray to The Mono Men. If I have to pick a top three, it has to be Cramps "Garbage Man", Tav Falcos "Bad Motorcycle" and The Sonics "Walkin' The Dog". And of course the all time favourite "Rumble" by Link Wray. After all he is the king of Garage!

Track-List:

01. The Sonics - Walkin' The Dog 02. The Cramps - Garbage Man 03. Juliette & The Licks - Smash & Grab 04. Strap ons - Psycho ghost trucker 05. The Makers - Sharp leather walkin shoes 06. Cosmic Psychos - Lead Me Astray 07. Spacemen 3 - Mary Anne 08. The Funseekers - I'm dancing as fast as I can 09. Count Five - Psychotic Reaction 10. Lime Spiders - Beyond The Fringe 11. Bangtwister - Rave-Up 12. Dukes of Hamburg - Green eyed woman 13. Tav Falco's Panther Burns - She's a Bad Motorcycle 14. The Prime Movers - (Can't Stand) The Way You Move 15. The Fuzztones - Strychnine 16. The Hard-Ons - Bye Bye Girl 17. Frenzal Rhomb - I Love Fucking Up 18. The Mono Men - Slammer 19. The Scientists - Atom Bomb Baby 20. Pink Slip Daddy - Elvis Zombie 21. Link Wray - Rumble

Mix-Tape Vol. 2 "Diamonds and Rust: The Covers"

2011-04-10T11:51:00.001+02:00

THE COVER STORY

Here are some great cover-versions for you. Some strange, some hilarious, some better than the original and a few plain stupid. Senor Coconut does one great longue-version of "Smoke on the Water" and Richard Cheese shows really bad taste on "Sunday Bloody Sunday". The SPace Lady does one really strange version of "Major Tom" and Meat Puppets "Everybody Hurts" is just plain weird.

But some of the songs are really killers as well. Listen to Judas Priests version of "Diamond & Rust" the Joan Baez classic, and my personal favourite at the moment have to be Nouvelle Vagues "Too Drunk to Fuck", a kind of late night Jazzversion of Dead Kennedys punkclassic.

Track-List: 1. Flaming Lips - Seven Nation Army (2:51) 2. Senor Coconut - Smoke on the Water (3:30) 3. Tad Morose - Knowing Me, Knowing You (3:26) 4. James Last - Fireball (1:46) 5. The String Quartet - Boys don't cry (3:55) 6. Richard Cheese - Sunday Bloody Sunday (2:37) 7. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Let It Be (3:33) 8. Björk Gudmundsdottir - Alfur Ut Ur Hol (3:15) 9. Pee Wee Herman - Surfin Bird (2:38) 10. Nouvelle Vague - Too Drunk To Fuck (2:12) 11. The Space Lady - Major Tom (5:05) 12. Miss Tammy Faye Starlite And The Angels Of Mercy - Surrender (4:23) 13. Groovie Ghoulies - Funny Funny (2:18) 14. Shonen Knife - Top Of The World (3:56)15. Robyn Hitchcock - Kung Fu Fighting (Studio) (3:25) 16. Meat Puppets - Everybody Hurts (4:23) 17. Brooke Brown - Proud Mary (4:29) 18. Teddy and Darrel - These Boots Are Made For Walking (2:25) 19. Mark Savage - Do You Think I'm Sexy (3:00) 20. Judas Priest - Diamonds and Rust (3:27)

MixTape Vol. 1 "The Singers and Their Songs"

2011-04-10T11:03:00.000+02:00

A SONG AND A MIC AND A DAMN GOOD MELODY

Here are some really good stuff for everyone who likes singers/songwriters. A few well known name and a lot of unknown artists you really should get to know. My favourites at the moment got to be Mary Gauthier and Frank Carillo.

TRACK-LIST:

01. Townes Van Zandt - For The Sake Of The Song (4:45)

02. John Prine - Sam Stone (4:15)

03. Jackson Browne - Sing My Songs To Me (3:25)

04. Sam Baker - Orphan (3:21)

05. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Nomadic Revery (All Around) (3:58)

06. Ane Brun - The Fight Song (4:30)

07. Cat Power - Yesterday Is Here (3:34)

08. Kasey Chambers - Hard Road (3:59)

09. Lloyd Cole - Morning Is Broken (5:19)

10. Al Deloner - The Dead End Of Me (5:13)

11. Nick Drake - Northern Sky (3:45)

12. Steve Earle - Down The Road (2:46)

13. Mary Gauthier - Drag Queen In Limousines (5:42)

14. Frank Carillo - With Her Pajamas On (3:15)

15. Jackie Greene - Love Song; 200 am (5:05)

16. Jeffrey Foucault - Americans in Corduroys (4:49)

Ray Wylie Hubbard "Snake Farm" (2006)

2011-03-13T00:39:00.003+01:00

TRUE GRIT

Ray Wylie Hubbard's "Snake Farm" is one evil, growling monster of a record, a finely focused muscular effort that effuses grit, malice, and funk. The sound ripples with thick, raw grooves that compliment the subject matter: the devil, women, redemption and damnation, hexes, and guitars. Clearly, this stuff is middle-of-the-night music, fuel for bonfires, dice, and showdowns.

Though Mr. Hubbard's considerable sense of humor and keen wit are not lost, his music has changed a great deal. To see how dramatically Mr. Hubbard's, listen to "Dangerous Spirits," a much more freewheeling, country-laced sound. More specifically, compare the earlier, lilting version of Resurrection with the darker vibe that runs through the same song on "Snake Farm."

Nearly all the tracks feature Hubbard along with a now familiar cast of characters: his producer and guitar player Gurf Morlix, stalwart Rick Richards on drums, and steady George Reiff on bass. A smattering of guests keep matters interesting without altering the focus.

Time to get yourself down to the "Snake Farm."

More info about Ray Wylie Hubbard

Fred Eaglesmith "Drive-In Movie" (1996)

2011-03-11T11:07:00.000+01:00

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE

If you don't know Fred Eaglesmith then this is the album to start. The emotion and images he emotes are priceless.

When I first saw Fred open for Robert Earl Keen in Houston several years ago, I was blown away. Had I not been told he was from Canada, I'd have sworn he was from West Texas. He has the same edgy, heartfelt yet humorous approach to songwriting that such Texas legends as Robert Earl Keen, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Joe Ely, and Steve Earle share.

Eaglesmith's voice is rough as rocks, and fragile as men's hearts. The 'backing' by W.P.Bennett (Juno this year) and R.Schipper is great as always, and D.Pendrith's bassplay and P. Vonalthen's drumming is solid work. Still, and again, it's the feeling of the record that gets to you. The feeling only an Fred Eaglesmith album can bring to life. His lyrics is down to earth, white-thrash kinda beautiful statements on trains and cars and relationships and, well; life.

Four songs in particular are suberb. "Crashin' & Burnin'" is what I call a heartbreaker in real terms. No hope, no salvation, just a big black hole. "White Rose" is about an old gas station just outside of town that they are shutting down and the lyrics tell its story "And that neon sign was the heart and soul of this ol' one horse town; And it's like it lost its will to live, the day they shut it down."

The other songs that I find exemplary are "Soda Machine" (now, come on, how many people can write songs about a soda machine and almost bring you to tears!) and of course, the title song "Drive-in Movie" with lyrics like "The phone broke the silence like the screaming of the siren and I just sat beside it took another drag on my cigarette swore I'd never smoke again and I watched the rain."

Be dumped by your woman through seven years, get drunk, and stay drunk - for about three weeks, wake up and play 'Drive-in Movie'. It gets the feeling just right. Makes me wanna go way up in the mountains and just listen, just feel.

More info about Fred Eaglesmith

Corb Lund "Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!" (2007)

2011-03-10T09:16:00.001+01:00

MARCHING ON

Corb Lund is Canada's best kept secret: a refreshing voice who has been making music for a while. His songs are full of emotion, both delight and sorrow, which is perfectly illustrated by the first and last song on this album.

"I Wanna Be in the Cavalry" the first cut, is a celebration of glory and honor from the naive point of view of a new recruit. "I Wannna Be in the Cavalry; reprise" -- the last cut -- is a serious reflection on the horrors of war. But between the first and last cuts are some hilarious songs: "Family Reunion" and "Hard on Equipment", some introspective songs: "Student Visas", "What the Song Means Now" and "Especially a Paint."

Of course, Corb is nothing if not irreverent as in "Brother Brigham, Brother Young." Might not want to have your Great-Aunt Grace listen to that one.

The Hurtin' Albertans, the backing band, are much improved as a band all around, but especially the guitar player Grant Siemens who has really honed his chops and is allowed to cut loose on a number of tracks. Corb's lyrics continue to be very engaging and occasionally eyebrow raising as he delves into interesting and sensitive subjects. Corb is the first to admit his singing is adequate, it gets the job done. I think he should get some support with other vocalists backing him or others taking on the singing duties on occasion.

I certainly have a soft spot for using a Stan Rogers melody for "I want to be in the Cavalry", which I admit I couldn't place until reading the credit in the liner notes. "Hard on Equipment" is humorous but very much like a previous Lund composition "Roughest Neck Around".

What REALLY makes the album, however, is that it is recorded PERFECTLY. I've rarely heard anything sound so good. The drums and as crisp and natural as possible and the lead guitar work and sound simply runs away with your attention.

More info about Corb Lund

Curtis Eller’s American Circus "Wirewalkers and Assassins" (2008)

2011-03-09T11:05:00.002+01:00

EERIE AND CARNIVALESQUE

Curtis Eller, self-described “yodeling banjo player” has been a fixture of the New York oldtimey scene for awhile. Wirewalkers and Assassins is his album from 2008, and it’s brilliant, one of the best in recent years, with a frequently eerie, carnivalesque feel. Eller sings in a strong, unaffected voice, really knows his history and has a knack for an offhandedly lyrical knockout punch. His tunes span the oldtime Americana spectrum, with elements of country, vaudeville and a lot of blues. The album's production is smartly rustic and minimalist, mostly just Eller’s voice and banjo backed by a rhythm section with occasional excellent lapsteel guitar by Gary Langol. It kicks off on a particularly auspicious note with Eller’s best song, the haunting, apocalyptic "After The Soil Fails".

Sung from the point of view of a Sarah Palin type, "John Wilkes Booth (Don’t Make Us Beg)" effectively shines a light on the kind of psychology that would drive someone to murder a Lincoln or a Kennedy. Amy Kohn’s accordion and a choir of women singing backup sweetens the sarcasm. The slow, lapsteel-driven 3/4 ballad Hartford Circus Fire, 1944 commemorates one of Connecticut’s blacker days. “The maestro kept a short leash on the band,” Eller sings nonchalantly early on, “Except for the nightmares and the coughing, it’s like the circus never passed through.” Sugar For The Horses is a fast, cynical minor key shuffle that wouldn’t be out of place in the Jack Grace songbook. "Sweatshop Fire" is another scorching, cynical, minor-key barn-burner with a murderous lapsteel solo from Langol.

The circus fire motif returns in "Plea Of The Aerialist’s Wife", a blackly humorous, straight-up country number told from the perspective of a woman who wants her man off the wire before he gets killed. "Firing Squad" is another dark, lickety-split, brilliantly lyrical number that evokes LJ Murphy at his most sardonic. “It’s just another blackout for New York City, this town can’t get no sleep,” Eller rails, chronicling one impending disaster after another. The album ends with the wrenchingly beautiful "Save Me Joe Louis". If you haven’t heard this album, you have been deprived.

More info about Curtis Eller’s American Circus

Steve Goodman "Steve Goodman" (1971)

2011-03-08T17:04:00.003+01:00

A GOOD MAN

A very solid debut for one of the better acoustic performers of the last century. Steve Goodman, like his buddies John Prine and Jimmy Buffett, had a penchant for writing clever and comical songs. His trademark song, "City of New Orleans" is here as well. I would recommend Steve Goodman's debut to anyone who enjoys John Prine's debut album. Goodman and Prine were not only close friends, but they also shared a witty, fresh approach to folk music.

The music ranges from warm and touching (Would You Like to learn to Dance, Yellow Coat, Would You Like to Learn to Dance, Jazzman) to witty (Eight-Ball Blues, The I Don't Know Where I'm Goin', But I'm Goin' Nowhere In A Hurry Blues, Election year rag, Turnpike Tom). Steve Goodman's charm and humor are evident in every song (even the most serious ones, and there are several somber and even melancholy songs here). The covers of other people's songs are just as revolutionary: doo-wop ("So Fine") and trad country ("Mind Your Own Business") were never so catchy before.

Bob Dylan, who is not known for his humility, loved Goodman's work and even volunteered to play on several of his songs (one, "Election Year Rag," is included as a bonus track).

Not every song is a Goodman original, but the arrangements show a broad range of Goodman's musical and interpretive ability.

More info about Steve Goodman

The Sadies "Tremendous Efforts" (2001)

2011-03-08T15:53:00.005+01:00

TRAVELLING BACK IN TIME

The Sadies' 2001 release Tremendous Efforts begins unassumingly enough with a '60s-style, country rock instrumental. In fact, there are five instrumental tracks scattered throughout the disc. However, that's not to say this is anywhere close to a throwaway album meant to bide time between inspirational bursts. Instead, it's quite the opposite. With the aptly titled Tremendous Efforts, The Sadies has put together the type of release its members have been trying to achieve since the group's debut in 1998.

During Wearin' That Loved on Look, The Sadies reaches its stride, evoking a positively searing Beatles For Sale-era John Lennon pose. And Tremendous Efforts only gets better from there. The Creepy Butler sounds like a lost track from Brian Wilson's sessions for Pet Sounds; Ridge Runner Rag and Ridge Runner Rell wouldn't sound out of place amidst Bob Dylan's country musings on Nashville Skyline, while Flash merges early Rolling Stones with Dylan's blues-oriented Highway 61 Revisited period; and on the Carole King-Gerry Goffin-penned Wasn't Born to Follow, The Sadies successfully manages to outdo the supreme rulers of psychedelic country — The Byrds.

On and on, The Sadies goes, traveling back in time and reconnecting with a bygone era — so much so that it's hard to believe the disc was recorded and released in 2001. No matter. The future of rock has always come from mining the past. Many recent efforts — such as Steve Earle's Transcendental Blues and Wilco's Summerteeth — as well as many older classics — such as Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead — have successfully done just that, while still sounding fresh and vital. Though The Sadies is still not in the same league as these legends, Tremendous Efforts is an extremely rewarding release

More info about The Sadies

Great Lake Swimmers - I could be nothing (VJ Paulus Ladoni remix)

2010-10-19T10:19:00.001+02:00

The final chapter in the Ladoni-Mix I been working on this autum.

Last Harbour - No-One Ever Said (VJ Paulus Ladoni remix)

2010-10-12T15:45:00.001+02:00

Number two in the Ladoni-Mix I been working on this autum.

Bonnie Prince Billy - Nomadic Revery (VJ Paulus Ladoni Mix)

2010-09-29T08:09:00.003+02:00

Haven't got the time at the moment for new post. To busy with to much work. Coming back later this year, and in the meantime, here is something I been working on.

Gordon Gano "Hitting The Ground" (2002)

2010-08-15T09:00:00.001+02:00

SONGS FROM THE WELL

My initial reactions to this album were mixed and quite varied. As a huge, longtime Violent Femmes fan, I was both overjoyed to hear that Gordon Gano was releasing a solo album and somewhat troubled by the fact that he was doing this apart from the Violent Femmes. Then, when I got my first look at the album, I was perplexed to find that Gano lends his unique voice to only three of the eleven songs. The whole "I wanted Gano to sing all the songs" thing had a negative effect on my initial impressions of the actual music, as did the fact that I was quite unfamiliar with some of the selected vocalists. In a short amount of time, however, I came to realize just how significant and frankly amazing this album is. These 11 tracks introduce a whole new image of Gano the songwriter and musician, expanding the realms of his musical triumphs to areas I never imagined him setting foot.

Hitting the Ground definitely hits the ground running with PJ Harvey's rendition of the title track. Harvey actually "out-Ganos" Gano on this one, reproducing his trademark yips and vocal stylings to a remarkable degree while playing a mean guitar like nobody's business. Gano's own performance of the song, which closes the album out with a bang, can do no more than equal Harvey's remarkable effort. Gano's delivery of Make It Happen is a song steeped in Violent Femmes mystique; Gano proves that he still has all of the passion and fire of youth with the brash, in-your-face, frenetic, nostalgically idiosyncratic vocals he cuts loose on this frenetic little gem. The third track featuring Gano's voice is It's Money, a short (1:21), upbeat duet with Martha Wainwright. Amazingly enough, his normally forceful delivery maintains a subdued quality that meshes quite well with Wainwright's voice.

The real magic of this album is found in the tracks performed solely by other artists, for it is here that Gano's incredible songwriting ability shines through most brightly. The selected singers bring out the kind of beauty and emotion that Gano's voice would be hard pressed to elicit. Two prime examples of this are Oh Wonder, a song whose quiet beauty is showcased magnificently by Mary Lou Lord, and So It Goes featuring Linda Perry of 4 Non-Blondes, a song that begins slowly and hauntingly and builds in emotional intensity throughout. Merry Christmas Brother (performed by country singer Cynthia Gayneau, who just happens to be Gordon Gano's sister) is an unusual song featuring a strange duality of voices blending together to produce a warm, folk music type of feel. Darlin' Allison, performed by They Might Be Giants, has an oldies, creepy feel to its surprisingly standard delivery, while Don't Pretend features a staccato-type piano accompaniment to John Cale's strangely soothing voice.

Of course, this album has its share of Gano-esque rocking tracks, as well. Lou Reed's Catch `Em In the Act is driven by a frenetic type of background sound I would classify as controlled cacophony. Then there is Frank Black, who sings as if he has just downed about 30 cups of strong coffee. His deep, guttural voice and energetic (to say the least) performance is memorable indeed.

I would urge Violent Femmes fans to give this album a chance; it will not only grow on you, it will amaze you. A lot of these songs sound like nothing the Violent Femmes would ever consider trying to perform, yet the spirit and talent of Gordon Gano clearly reveal themselves in the words and music. At a little over 32 minutes in length, Hitting the Ground is a comparatively short album, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality.

More info about Gordon Gano

Dumptruck "For the Country" (1987)

2010-08-14T09:00:00.000+02:00

A FORGOTTEN TREASURE

Extremely good alternative jangle rock. Every song is layered with guitars. It is sort of like fusing a little Velvet Underground, a little Dream Syndicate and whole lot of Byrds. Far more refined with many more hooks than their first two efforts due to the band's compositions being solely taken over by Seth Tiven.

The first two songs, "Island" and "50 Miles" are a strong beginning. Likewise for the two closing "Wire" and "Barking up the Wrong Tree". There is one song that is so slow and beautiful "Dead Weight", that lift the album even higher. This sounds like an 80s-era R.E.M. album recorded after they had listened to a lot of early Byrds' stuff. Perfect harmonies and jangling guitars from this underrated band. So it sounds pretty good.

More info about Dumptruck

Andy Dale Petty "All God's Children Have Shoes" (2008)

2010-08-13T09:00:00.002+02:00

BETWEEN JOHHNY AND THE LORD HIMSELF

How far can a banjo take you? As long as there are young men who in their heart and spirit combine an open mind with a feeling for history and a lust to wander the country to see what the people really want, it can take you pretty far. Across a continent and down a century or two, if you let it. Andy Dale Petty is exactly such a person as described above. He picks his banjo and starts to ramble the country and life around him in increasing perimeters. He meets love, fun, joy and happiness, but also hardship, pain and loss. He sees the preachers talking about sin and salvation, he hears the country stars and the rock stars sing about wide variety of things, he hears the politicians of various colours talking their slang, but most of all he hears the stories the people tell. And at night he listenes to the sounds of nature. Unlike William Elliott Whitmore, the other young man who rambles the country with a banjo, he does not carve out a niche all of his own, but he collects the scraps and records of others and builds his world from there. Which makes his world a lighter, better and warmer place to live in.

Only in this mindest is it possible to play songs by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash on the same record as playing christian traditionals (“in christ there is no east or west”) or sing about traditions in self penned songs. And finally hit a hard note by covering John Fahey at the end of the record. That is the span Andy Dale Petty covers and it is pretty far by all means. In the middle he does a haunting version of “Joe Hill” and comments in the liner notes: “the anarchist poet and fighter who in 1915 was murdered by capitalist swine for defending his God-given right to work.” Pete LaFarge would stand up and say something, but I am still amazed by the wideness of ideological input a person can take. But wasn’t it Walt Whitman, who said in his penultimate US-american poem (before “Howl” probably…) about contradicting himself: “I am big, I can take many things.”

And he didn’t even know Johnny Cash. I am very careful when comparing somebody to Johnny Cash, for everybody knows that he sits to the right of the Lord in my personal religion, but when I stumble upon a young god-abiding socialist from the backwoods of the USA, then I find some paralells. As if to put blame on blame Petty covers “He turned the water into wine” by Johnny Cash, the hymn from his most bible-fearing record escapades and the result of a travel to Israel of June Carter and him.

Enough of that. Later on it is songs about the American folklore character The Goatman, strange songs about lost love, cowboy waltzes, bootleggers and other bloddy deeds. The music is constantly rather uplifting and basic in instrumentation: banjo, acoustic guitar, a little piano here and a little percussion there. Probably recorded in somebody’s wood-panelled living room. It only gets dark at night, right?

Most fortunately, “All god’s children have shoes” strays away from any bland retro-superficiality. Though the cover of the album is strictly from the old country and hillbilly song collections and the intro sample of Petty’s grandma welcoming him home, definitely have a feel of a little kitsch, but the musical selections and their interpretation are strictly rooted in the here and now. But I guess you can listen to it anytime.

More info about Andy Dale Petty

The Knitters "Poor Little Critter On The Road" (1985)

2010-08-12T09:00:00.003+02:00

X AND THE BLASTERS EQUALS ONE HELL OF A RECORD

Finally back in print after several years in limbo, this delightful album is an ad hoc collaboration between Exene Cervenka, DJ Bonebrake and John Doe of X, and Dave Alvin of The Blasters. More country-oriented than the former group, more rocking than the latter, the folksy songs here give ample evidence that much fun was had by all involved, and the fact that this album inspired two tribute albums in its wake is a testament to its ultimate influence. Especially good are the title tune, the violently humorous "Call of the Wrecking Ball", and the closer, a light-speed rendition of the classic "Rock Island Line".

John Doe has a voice of gold (who knew he could croon so well?) and really shines on songs like "Crying but my Tears are Far Away." Exene is a bit off-key as usual on solos, but her strength is sounding like a slightly boozy Patsy Cline, and as usual she sounds great harmonizing with John. Dave Alvin does some great pickin' guitar work. The whole thing has an irreverant, casual quality to it, and yet shows the band members' reverance for such classic groups as the Weavers (Weavers...Knitters...get it?)

The one weak song on the album is surprisingly the X song "The New World." It has a pretty weak melody that doesn't really stand up to being countrified, and just sounds the best as a revved-up X song. "Call of the Wreckin' Ball" is the most subversive song on the album, about a guy that loves to stomp chickens to death. It's a crack-up, though, in its sick way. I like the slow numbers the best. John Doe is actually a darn good country singer.

More info about The Knitters

Vienna Teng "Dreaming Through the Noise" (2006)

2010-08-11T09:00:00.000+02:00

VIENNA CALLING

Most singer-songwriters didn't start out as software programmers, who then dumped the job for the sake of piano pop. In a lot of cases, it would be a stupid decision. But Vienna Teng continues to prove that her decision was the right one, in her third album "Dreaming Through the Noise." It's Teng's strongest album, and her delicately powerful voice and solid musicianship make this a quiet delight for anyone sick of slick pop music.

"Blue blue caravan/winding down to the valley of lights/my true love is a man/who would hold me for ten thousand years," Teng croons in the opening song, over a bed of murky guitar and delicate piano. It's a soft, misty, slightly tense song that draws you in for the rest of the album. That sound continues in the tripping melody of "Whatever You Want" and the sweeping balladry of songs like the quirky "I Don't Feel Well" and tries out a jazzy sound in the the rueful, meditative "City Hall." Teng trips down her ballads with rippling piano and lots of delicate sentiments, and lyrics written so that images pop right into your head.

If a few songs had been snipped out of "Dreaming Through the Noise," the album might have been perfect -- a few simply don't fit in, and don't grab you with images and musical beauty as Teng usually does. "Love Turns 40," for instance, is like a quirkless Regina Spektor song, a sound that Teng conquers successfully in the oddballish "1 BR/1 BA."

"Singer-songwriter" usually makes me think of coffeehouse singers, holding a big acoustic guitar. Vienna Teng is a different variety, with refined and complex piano pop and polished songwriting. She's like a less angsty, more meditative Sarah McLachlan, or a more romantic Regina Spektor. Her piano is still the main instrument, whether tripping over a quirky melody, or cascading gently through a ballad. In addition, there's a bit of folky guitar creeping just under the piano. But Teng also adds some new flourishes, such as a viola, or the scrapy fiddle that pops up every now and then.

And Teng's songwriting skills are still excellent, with the lyrics knack and potent imagery of really good poetry. Even better, there's an element of human sorrow, love or thought in most of the songwriting: "For my true love is a man/Who never existed at all/Oh he was a beautiful fiction/I invented to keep out the cold..."

I do prefer this her album over the previous two ones because she sounds more original on "Dreaming through the noise".

More info about Vienna Teng

Blue Rodeo "Outskirts" (1987)

2010-08-10T09:00:00.000+02:00

COME TO THE RODEO

The first Blue Rodeo album certainly gave us a hint as to where they were headed -- it's uneven and ranges from weird and interesting to just plain weird to kind of beautiful, but on the whole holds up very well. Of course, twenty-one years later I may just be reacting to long exposure to the band -- but really, just hearing the opening chords of "Rose-Coloured Glasses" always lifts my spirits.

This album features less of Jim Cuddy's clear tenor voice than subsequent ones, but he and Greg Keelor share vocals to good effect on songs like "Heart Like Mine." "Rebel" and "Underground," while pretty good songs in their own right, foreshadow Jim's later development as ballad-guy extraordinaire. "Try" is, of course, one of those songs practically everyone in Canada knows -- again, a heartbroken ballad that is just beautiful to listen to.

Greg Keelor's shaggy vocals are perfectly suited to the strange swing of "Pirahna Pool" and "Floating." (Greg has always been a major reason these guys have such unpredictable moments -- and that's a good thing.) He sounds just disgruntled and disillusioned enough that his disbelieving "where does she get off telling me that love could save us all" in "Rose-Coloured Glasses" comes off as a head-shaking moment of admiration for the character he's singing about.

The songwriting hadn't yet reached the point at which the whole album shines but the main elements were there. This was clearly a band with potential.

Track-List in the Comments

More info about Blue Rodeo

Doll by Doll "Doll by Doll" (1981)

2010-08-09T09:00:00.017+02:00

WHAT A RECORD!

“I put a penny in the toilet door
then I quickly stepped inside
to some graffiti and a greyhound paper
and the gentle thought of suicide
a razor blade would make the perfect bride.”

Unlike the sixth song on ‘Doll By Doll’ (first track on the second side of the vinyl release), “perfect romances” and revisited memories rarely live up to our expectations. Recordings unheard for 25 years usually amass a kind of mental hyperbole in the interim; a promise no revisit can fulfil. Having built up the album in my mind, I feared that this might be the case with ‘Doll By Doll’ but, after repeated listens over the last few days, although I can scarcely believe it, it actually exceeds my expectations. And one song is so stellar I’d go so far as to say that it represents the finest few minutes of pop I’ve ever heard by anyone, ever.

There always seemed to be something subterranean about Doll By Doll; as though a secret network of subversives existed to mould their image, design their record covers and promote their appearances — in fact, it did, and they called it Hard Ventures, back in the glory days when they were the special guests of acts such as Devo at the Hammersmith Odeon.

Although recorded in 1980, in a Maida Vale basement, using a mobile studio, ‘Doll By Doll’ sounds as original today as it did when it was first released. And it hasn’t dated because it wasn’t produced with the aim of being fashionable in the first place. ‘Wild’ Tom Newman (the co-producer of Mike Oldfield’s original ‘Tubular Bells’, and of ‘Doll By Doll’ with Leven) created a crystal-clear soundscape of crisp, rumbling basses and rippling trebles, blending to form an atmosphere of electrical energy. The wimpy 1980s’ mid-range frequencies, later beloved by Duran Duran and the New Romantics, were eschewed in favour of a crystalline hardness; and yet the result sounds remarkably balanced.

Figure It Out, with its Stones-ish rhythm guitar touches and derisive tone, is a noble pop song but probably shouldn’t have been the album opener; that they took the risk is proof the music industry was a different, not-yet-extinct animal in the 1980s. Leven’s voice, it has to be said, is characteristically huge from the very first note and lends his lyrics the right tone of biting sarcasm. But if I’d had to choose the opener it would have been the next song, Caritas.

Caritas represents the closest I’m ever likely to get to hearing perfection in songwriting and recording. A special extended version was released as a 12-inch single, backed with Murder on the Highway (3’25”) and An Honest Woman (8’44”), the latter recorded live in June 1981 at Richard Branson’s Venue on London’s Victoria Street. It should have been a top 10 hit at least. Of course, there’s never been justice in pop music, and I’m sure BBC Radio One’s producers didn’t know what to make of it. From the first, angry notes of guitar feedback to its crunch ending, this is what yearning, terror and beauty in music are all about. Leven’s voice is edged with threat, and the phased guitar arpeggio that builds out of the intro; the trebly chopped funk chords; and Tony Waite’s ribcage-rattling bass provide the impetus that drive Caritas forward. But it’s Jo(e) Shaw’s overdriven lead guitar that steals the show. His mainly low- and mid-register guitar solo is thoughtful and doesn’t noodle. But he saves his best for the lick 02’26” into the song, between the fifth and sixth of the short, three-line verses. In context, the most beautiful two seconds in all of pop music come after the line: “…the blue jets scream into the sky.

Not only is the impossibly fast, stuttered “now” Jackie’s, but also the swirling falsetto background vocals; highlighting the sheer range of his voice before his larynx was crushed in the assault. At 04’15”, this is on the long side for a pop masterpiece, but since it received hardly any radio airplay at the time it was released, that’s irrelevant.

Soon New Life starts pensively, with a tentative, melodic bass before a calypso guitar transforms it into a celebration of coming fatherhood. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover Jackie can no longer listen to this song. As he explains on the liner notes to his album ‘The Argyll Cycle – Volume One’, at the time of recording it, not only was he about to experience near murder by strangulation and symptomatic heroin addiction, the love of his life was about to run off with the Dalai Lama’s bodyguard. The chant-like chorus line of this song seems to repeat “Since you left”, and not the song’s title; this album predates much of Jackie’s misery, but so many of the lyrical ideas seem to prophesy it that the entire album may feel to him like some dreadful form of alternative therapy.

You can hear faint echoes of the next song, and the traditional melody upon which it’s based (the one he sung for Diana), in many of Leven’s later tunes; not least My Spanish Dad from 2001’s ‘Creatures of Light and Darkness’ and Classicnortherndiversions from 2003’s ‘Shining Brother Shining Sister’. But Main Travelled Roads is the source at its purest. When Jackie’s voice gets down and dirty for the third verse the melody comes into its heartbreaking own, and he hits some high notes that seem unlikely after you’ve heard him hit the lower ones.

The Perfect Romance strikes up harmlessly enough. But again, Tony Waite’s bass impels this short (03’14”) track forwards, and it’s undoubtedly the darkest and most dangerous song on the record. The chorus is wondrously debauched; Leven sounds like a crazed Scottish laird serenading his ghost bride amidst the wreckage of a bacchanalian feast. Only Nick Cave gets darker, but Jackie out-sings him, out-baritones him and out-mans him.

The intro to I Never Saw The Movie is redolent of a hobo plucking a guitar in railroad car, but thudding bass and howling bottleneck soon put paid to that. The glorious bridge (“I was so dazed / I should have been praised / I will never feel that beautiful again”), the rumbling false-ending and consequent fade-in prevent you from dismissing this as an insubstantial pop tune built around a catchy chorus.

Up is as advertised; from its claps, finger-clicks and chiming harmonics to its rowdy, shouted “I wanna be up / Don’t wanna be down again” chorus, pre-dating Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’ by at least 15 years. Shaw turns in a lovely piece of 1950s-style rock ‘n’ roll guitar before the song turns full circle for the chiming simplicity of its ending.

There are three absolute standout tracks on ‘Doll By Doll’: Caritas, The Perfect Romance and A Bright Green Field. And if you remain unmoved by the latter, you have no pulse, no blood coursing through your veins, no soul. Waite’s bottom-E rattles your skeleton, but this is Leven’s five minutes and thirteen seconds to shine, and he’s incandescent. Listen to the supernaturally intense way in which he stretches the notes on the word “rain” and “sand”. The dexterity, range and sheer variety of his vocal is mind-boggling, and the lyrical imagery — with its centaurs, demons and holy wine — gives him plenty of room to manoeuvre. He sounds possessed and extrapolates every note beyond its comfort zone.

The darkness that characterised Doll By Doll was of a different order from that conjured up by their west London contemporaries Killing Joke; it’s less demonic, less gothic and more humane. Leven slept rough and lived in squats through much of the 1960s and 1970s, and his encounters with damaged souls can’t help but have affected his songwriting. And yet, despite the fortress of sullenness that Doll By Doll constructed around themselves, this is a remarkably cheerful album. The contrast between light and dark is never over-done and no emotion is oversold. Each note has been agonised over without any sense of the spontaneity having been lost.

Twenty-nine years on, it’s clear what a brave band this was; recording for an uncompromisingly commercial label, the musicians and producer stuck to their guns, made an intelligent record with an unmistakeable identity and a recognisable sound, only to be punished by a cloth-eared industry that didn’t know where to put anyone who defied pigeonholing. I defy you to find a more cohesive and satisfying record.

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The Long Ryders "Years Long Ago - A retrospective" (1995)

2010-08-08T09:00:00.001+02:00

RE-POST BY REQUEST

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

The Long Ryders (Sid Griffin, guitar, autoharp, bugle; Stephen McCarthy, guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, banjo ; Tom Stevens, bass; Greg Sowders, drums) were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s and originally associated with a movement sometimes called the Paisley Underground. With a sound reminiscent of Gram Parsons-era Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Flying Burrito Brothers, but with a harder edge, they anticipated the alternative country music of the 1990s by a decade. (Former Byrd Gene Clark added vocals to the song "Ivory Tower," on the 1984 "Native Sons") The group disbanded in 1987, but reunited in 2004 for a brief European tour, including a performance at the Glastonbury Festival. Further touring is possible for summer 2008.

Apart from occasional Long Ryders activity, Griffin, who relocated to London, has kept busy as a solo artist and bandleader (The Coal Porters, Western Electric), and as a music journalist and critic. McCarthy, after a stint leading his own band, Walker Stories, returned home to Richmond, Virginia; he played in the indie supergroup Gutterball with Steve Wynn and fellow Richmondites Bryan Harvey and Johnny Hott of House of Freaks, and in 2003 began playing with The Jayhawks. Stevens returned to his native Indiana, earned a degree in computer science and continues to release solo albums. And Sowders, who was married for a time to the singer Lucinda Williams, went to work in music publishing.

Origins & Lineup changes: The Long Ryders formed from the ashes of the Los Angeles band The Unclaimed. Founding members were Sid Griffin and the Long Ryders' original bassist Barry Shank. Their initial studio release (EP 10-5-60) consisted of Griffin (native of Kentucky), replacement bassist Chris (Des) Brewer from Australia, Stephen McCarthy (Richmond, VA) and Greg Sowders (Los Angeles, CA). Brewer was replaced after 10-5-60 by Tom Stevens (Elkhart, IN), thus forming the permanent lineup (Griffin, McCarthy, Sowders, Stevens) which would remain in place until their eventual breakup (and later reunion). The Long Ryders brought the hellfire snot and energy of punk to a musical tradition sated on the blood of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young and Hank Williams.

This is a kind of "Best of"-album with songs from all three original studio-album and the EP "10-5-60", and there are also some rarities and B-sides. "Years Long Ago - A Retrospective" is a nice way to get to know one of the most important band of the 80's, who had very much to do with the Americana-wave that came in the 90's. Lots of bands pay their tribute to The Long Ryders, as well as The Long Ryders had paid tribute to artists and bands like Gram Parsons and The Byrds.

Track List: 01. Join My Gang 02. And She Rides 03. Final Wild Son 04. Run Dusty Run 05. Wreck Of The 809 06. Looking For Lewis And Clark 07. Mason-Dixon Line 08. Years Long Ago 09. Capturing The Flag 10. State Of My Union 11. Lights Of Downtown 12. Gunslinger Man 13. I Want You Bad 14. Harriet Tubman's Gonna Carry Me Home 15. Spectacular Fall 16. Baby's In Toyland 17. He Can Hear His Brother Calling 18. You Don't Know What's Right, You Don't Know What's Wrong 19. Pushin' Uphill 20. Christmas In New Zealand

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James Moors "Hush" (2007)

2010-08-07T09:00:00.001+02:00

GOODBYE STERLING WATERS - HELLO JAMES MOORS

“Hush” is a document of transformation. This is one man’s unblinking and unveiled declaration of his life conversion offered to his family and the world.

James Moors put a mirror up to his personal and musical lives, saw a soul divided and made major life alterations. Gone is the aging child who lived a nomadic existence caring principally about himself. Enter the young adult who has embraced a family and stability. Gone is the loner who medicated away pain, responsibility and problems. Say hello to the clear-eyed friend and neighbor. Gone is the song-crafter who worked for more than a decade from behind a pseudonym.

“Hush” is wreathed in the love, the pride and the relief that Moors’ liberation has produced. It’s an honest account that takes listeners on an uplifting ride. Moors has found an oasis in his metamorphosis. Moors’ adoration of his young daughter is captured on two songs, the title track and “Sunshine.” “Hush” is such a wistful lullaby that I felt like I was eavesdropping on a father tucking his child into a warm bed on a cold night: “I pray that all your dreams are true, and you can chase what talks to you.”

“Sunshine” is the story of how seeing Lily Jane for the first time was the catalyst of change and a defining moment in his life. “I had to take a deeper look, until I shook myself up right. It was no easy dance.” It is a celebratory song of a man going through the fire of change, and it invites you to join the celebration.

Moors earlier works — “Passages” (1998), “This Moment” (2000) and “Let It Go” (2002) — rarely contained love songs. “Anne Louise,” a portrait of his wife on this new release, was worth the wait. His vivid picture of lovers in the tall grass under the stars reinforces that Moors has invested himself in this album. These songs have dimension.

Making this production even more powerful is the heavy-hitting array of solid gold talent providing tasteful backing. Lisa Germano (David Bowie, U2) not only helps on violin and vocals, but was Moors’ biggest cheerleader who encouraged him long-distance from L.A. to bring this idea to fruition. Marc Perlman (Jayhawks, Golden Smog) lays down supportive bass lines. Ben Wisch (David Wilcox, Marc Cohn) adds touches of keyboards. Canada’s favorite son, Danny Michel, helps out on a variety of instruments and with production.

The group adds finesse and class, but the songs remain the bricks between the mortar. Rest in peace Sterling Waters, the name Moors’ took after his brother went missing in the Colorado Rockies in the mid-90’s. One aspect of many great artists is simply being themselves. In the realization of his new life, Moors has produced an unencumbered, earnest work that is inspirational.

More info about James Moors

The Dead Brothers "Dead Music For Dead People" (2000)

2010-08-06T09:00:00.004+02:00

ALL ABOARD THE GHOST TRAIN

Legend has it that The Brothers recently gathered in a remote Swiss mountain village and fueled by wicked wine and strong spirits,cut a disk that merges the worlds of Richard Wagner, Dashiell Hammet and Georges Brassens. It will not take long for the analysts to enter the scene and ask: Is it Jazz? Is it blues? Is it avantgarde folk? Or is it simply Rock ‘n’ Roll? The answer is: YES!

It’s all of that, tightly wrapped into an exotic little package. For the Dead Brothers nothing is sacred and everything is profane…or is nothing profane and everything sacred? So one day when the good Lord sits down to a few glasses of Escorial after a hard day’s work and the light is just right you might see The Dead Brothers pulling their pump organ, upright bass, banjo, lap steel guitar and singing saw down the main drag of your home town and sitting down at a Mahogoni bar at the Marquis de Sade’s, holding up glasses of Escorial and toasting toward heaven before hitting the stage and seducing you into a world of love, pain and magic.

Perhaps taking a closer look at their music will shed some light on this investigation. Bluegrass clashes with Macedonian funeral marches, Jimmy Rodgers goes line dancing with Bauhaus and Swiss hillbilly folk music becomes the soundtrack to a hardboiled film noir. The sound is bewildering, poisonous and intimate at the same time. String orchestra meets mountain folk music, punk rock meets Wagners’ gothic and they invented a new style: blackgrass, the dark side of bluegrass. Cowshit on snakeskin boots...

Fiddles, mandolines and cellos, a devlish slappin’ double bass, a great pump pedal organ from the turn of last century, banjos, the sixties twangy Hopf guitar, hawaian lap-steel, a singing saw and other hobo suitcase percussion. The Dead Brothers welcome you on board the ghost train. Yes, that's the sound of the Dead Brothers!

More info about The Dead Brothers

Giant Sand "Chore of Enchantment" (2000)

2010-08-05T09:00:00.010+02:00

A DESERT ELEGY

"Being way too tall for any self regulation/I'd invite the devil in and his entire nation/What in tarnation?"

So asks frontman Howe Gelb in "Raw," one of the seemingly countless American Beauties he's created in the service of examing yourself, lacerating yourself and laughing at yourself whilst whistling by the old graveyard. (Helpful hint: the devil and his nation are the guests that never leave.)

By turns funky, psychedelic and folksy, "Chore of Enchantment" touches so many emotional rails over the course of its languorous sojourn that you can't quite tell what's jolting you.

It's truths are harsh, humorous, ironic and frighteningly on target, from gum drop stains revealing an absent heart on "Astonished" to a drunken binge that reconnects lost nights with fearful days on "Way to end the day." When Gelb whisper-croaks, "Reinventing the unending day/in high isolation," you feel his protagonist's buzz of happy futility.

Sure, think Tom Waits. Think Yo La Tengo. Think Lou Reed. Hell, think Leonard Cohen or Neil Young (circa "On the Beach.")if you want. When you think of Calexico and Lambchop you shouldn`t forget this great album of the band that served for the basics.

Think all of them, then throw it all away, because Giant Sand practically reinvents pop minimalism. Just let the beauty, sadness and mystery of "Chore" envelop you. (I'm not much for serendipity, but how else do you attribute the nearly coincidental arrival of "Chore of Enchantment" with the Mekon's equally forlorn but illuminating "Journey to the End of Night"?)

Gelb and his crew have endowed us with something special and something stunning -- spiritual desolation has rarely sounded so lush and so damn true to the heart.

A career highpoint. As someone pointed out it's music inspired by the desert - not surprising since the band hail from Tuscon, AZ - but there's a lot of different kinds of styles mixed together here. It's quite a mysterious album with some weird lyrics.

Something of a classic. Atmospheric and deeply felt in tribute to his lost friend and collaborator. A desert elegy.

More info about Giant Sand

Dirtmusic "Dirtmusic" (2007)

2010-08-04T09:00:00.007+02:00

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE

A kind of philosophical question – if three known cult musicians organize a band will it be a super cult band or a cult superband?

In the new year of 2007, three reknowned musicians – each of them with a long history in the alternative scene of rock music - decided to form a new band together. Their vision of this band was to strip back their music to the bare essentials and rediscover the original folk music which was the source of their inspiration.

Using acoustic instruments - guitars, dobro, banjo, harmonium, melodica, foot percussion and harmony vocals - Dirtmusic made a European tour to develop their sound and material at the end of which they recorded their debut album in the Sono studio in Prague for the German independent label Glitterhouse Records.

The Dirtmusic sound evokes the landscapes of the artists’ origins: the pacific north-west USA (Chris Eckman), southern Australia (Hugo Race) and the atlantic north-east USA (Chris Brokaw). All three are or have been expatriates and have travelled widely around the world with their various music projects. Drawing on the folk music traditions of these ex-frontier societies, Dirtmusic tell stories of individuals searching for orientation in the urban wilderness of a ‘new’ world. Melodies are drawn from blues and folk, but refashioned through the life experience and musical journeys of this international trio.

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Tav Falco's Panther Burns "The World We Knew" (1987)

2010-08-03T09:00:00.000+02:00

IN THE SWAMP

I witnessed `Tav Falco's' live in "The Well" in Memphis, where he "played" a Hofner fiddle guitar (not a Beatle Bass, a guitar). "Falco" proceeded to produce as much feedback as possible while shrieking a version of "She's a Bad Motorcycle'" - which he either extended for 30 minutes or played multiple versions of in succession, depending on your interpretation. Within weeks he had formed a band, and soon was roaming the streets of Midtown Memphis on his vintage Italian motor scooter and plastering his oddly visual handbills advertising his art scenes at "The Well" various other improbable locations.

To characterize Panther Burns as No Wave during this recording would be to name the baby too soon. The boundaries between artist and audience were thin during this time, since only a handful of Memphians could stand the cacophony that is all too faithfully recorded here. Yet A Panther Burns show had both a hypnotic and irresistible appeal, for, after all, even if it was crazy, there actually was something going on in the swamp on Saturday night. Best bring a lanthorn and go.

In addition to Falco's invitations to arrive and gain free admission if you wore a diaper to his performances (true), the show frequently featured Southern Belles in full lace cotillion dresses and satin shoes dancing in a slow groove towards a carnal and decadent madness that bespoke the "She's my Witch" persona from which arose its inspiration. You knew the evening would end on a long dark country road with an inappropriate song coming from the radio while you washed blood from a wound with whisky.

The music that was standard and acceptable during this era in Memphis was a payola horror of boogie, soft rock, and no rock, for this was a town where z-list bands such as "Foghat" sold out the largest arena. So desperate were the residents to hear anything that was not programmed straight for the boardrooms of Capitol Records they'd listen to anything, and for this birthplace Panther Burns had fertile ground. Tav Falco were taking pages from inspiration that was rejecting ascendant and bland Southern Calvinist culture in favor of the poor white Scotts-Irish meet the creepy mixed-blood French Catholic Arcadians, and a good time was had by all. This album, therefore, is both timeless and a product of its time.

By reaching back to the roots of `rock and roll' Tav Falco gave it new life and a new audience. By Falco's tireless appeal towards both the visual and the random of a sonic event, he made both this album and his shows lively and bursting with gothic potential. And by refusing to polish songs until they became lifeless, Panther Burns invoked the Dionysian over the apollonian at a time when even punk bands strove for the production values of a Steely Dan record. Falco just said, and said loudly, that that was all wrong. The music world has been better for it, and this classic album should return to print.

More info about Tav Falco's Panther Burns

The Long Ryders "Native Sons" (1984)

2010-08-02T09:00:00.000+02:00

IN THE SEARCH FOR GRAM

As part of the so-called Los Angeles paisley underground of the early '80s, The Long Ryders were hardly secretive about their influences. While the Bangles, Three O'Clock and Rain Parade were following more pop and psychedelic footsteps, the Long Ryders were pressing down the road charted by Gram Parsons, The Byrd, The Buffalo Springfield and others.

Native Sons was the first full-length album by the Long Ryders and the one that established their eclectic mixture of Byrds/Clash/Flying Burrito Brothers' influences. The band wore those influences on their sleeve, literally, going so far as to recreate the cover of an unreleased Buffalo Springfield album, Stampede, for Native Sons and using the producer of the first two Flying Burrito Brothers albums, Henry Lewy.

The Album lovingly captures the band's musical obsessions, while turning in an original sound that became the banner for both the paisley underground and cow punk styles in the mid-'80s. Highlights include several forays into country on "Final Wild Son," the Mel Tillis composition "Sweet Mental Revenge," "Fair Game," and the humorous "Never Got to Meet the Mom," complete with a raging down-home banjo break. "Ivory Tower," featuring the late ex-Byrd Gene Clark on vocals, remains the greatest song the Byrds never wrote and one of the most sincere tributes to that band's sound.

Native Sons final track, "I Had a Dream," reveals the punk sensibility, cranking the jangling Rickenbackers up to ten, closing with cacophonous feedback. On Native Sons, the Long Ryders pioneered a musical design that future alternative roots rockers would use as a manual.

Track-List in the Comments

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Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs "You Can’t Buy A Gun When You’re Crying " (2007)

2010-08-01T09:00:00.007+02:00

GOD DON'T LIKE IT BUT THE DEVIL DON'T MIND

Picture a clearing in Wyoming, just gone midnight. The campfire slowly burns and hipflasks of bourbon are passed between calloused cowboy hands. A tied horse snorts and paws the ground, while a pretty cowgirl plucks at her guitar and sings throatily of men who’ve done her wrong. Hear that music? Well, that’s exactly what You Can’t Buy A Gun When You’re Crying sounds like.

Which is fairly extraordinary, considering Holly Golightly is from East Sussex UK, not the Wild West. Over eleven albums in as many years, Golightly achieved cult fame with her idiosyncratic take on Western country, rockabilly and bluegrass, before a collaboration with the White Stripes introduced her to a far greater audience. But fans worried that fame would go to Golightly’s head can rest easy: this new collaboration with 'Lawyer' Dave is as determinedly low key and lo-fi as ever. There is no Nelly Furtado style reinvention here. Indeed, collaborating with a genuine Texan seems to have ignited an even more stubborn passion for pre-electric country in her belly.

From the shuffling percussion, keening slide guitar and echo-laden vocals of “Devil Do”, the album sounds uncannily authentic and atmospheric, and could easily be imagined soundtracking a Tarantino film. Indeed, the album often sounds cinematic, with the waltz-time torch song of “Just Around The Bend” summoning up a sultry Almodovar ambience while the sugary surface and seedy underbelly of “I Let My Daddy Do That” is very David Lynch.

It's still a heartily ramshackle affair, with pots and pans for percussion, rudimentary banjo picking, and what sound like first take on every track. The album's clattery rawness is its chief appeal.

More info about Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs

Holly Golightly "Truly She Is None Other" (2003)

2010-07-31T09:00:00.003+02:00

FULL BLOODED WOMAN ON A TWANG

For those hip to the neo-garage scene, Holly Golightly has been the go-to girl for guest vocals; she turned in a well-received spot on the Greenhornes' 2002 Dual Mono (about which more later) and of course joined The White Stripes on the winking three-way "It's True That We Love One Another", the closing track on the White Stripes' Elephant. Her instantly-recognizable voice brightened those already-fun albums and widened her fanbase, yet Golightly has had a 18-year stint in the music industry -- first as part of Billy Childish's British all-girl-garagesters Thee Headcoatees, and since her 1995 solo debut, Good Things, she's pretty much been the reigning queen of folk-garage, releasing consistent albums chockfull of '60s R&B, garage, and British Invasion pop. While the formula hasn't changed on her latest, Truly She Is None Other, it seems that the time spent with the Greenhornes and the White Stripes has remained in her system; as a result, Truly is an inspired album.

For starters, the album's cover could be the cover of Meg White's solo album some years down the road -- all red and white and black, Golightly looking regal yet approachable. And the music within is right up Meg's alley: a handful of Truly's tracks were recorded at London's Toe-Rag Studios, the preserved mid-'60s recording studio where Elephant was recorded. Included among the Toe-Rag tracks is "There's An End", which originally appeared on the Greenhornes' Dual Mono (and was called "There Is An End", for what it's worth). It's Truly's closing track, but it's a perfect place for us to start. The song, with Golightly's voice that straddles girly and come-hither, along with the dreamy guitars, gives off a vibe that doesn't scream, so much as it does whisper, 1965; recording on 35-year-old equipment at Toe-Rag will do that. The result is a sexy record, of a kind that no one else seems to be making anymore. (I'm not talking Britney-style sex-kitten sexy; Golightly is a full-grown, full-blooded-woman-type sexy.)

Plenty of other tracks corroborate this notion. The shuffling blues of "Walk a Mile" finds Golightly exercising her inner torch singer (though I could do without the echo that producer Liam Watson tacks onto her voice). "All around the Houses" is more of the same, only twangier and with some offbeat (not offbeat) percussion from Bruce Brand. Maybe it's just the reprints of her earlier album covers, with their faux-mod stylings, found in the liner notes, but one gets the feeling Golightly was born 40 years too late; her head and heart are still in the sultry '60s.

There's also a domestic side to Golightly (though who is to say domestic and sexy are mutually exclusive?), as evinced by liner note photos of her, apron-clad, in her kitchen nursing a mug of tea, and looking quite content. And she tosses in a few covers from her spiritual father, the Britrock king of domestic, pastoral tranquility, Ray Davies. Golightly turns the Kinks' studio outtake "Time Well Tell" (from Kinks Kontraband) into a rousing go-go number, while "Tell Me Now So I Know" makes for a good rumba; though she is a bit too coquettish on the tune, I can't help but melt when she pours out lines like "I live just for you". Sigh.

Not crazy about sexy or domestic Holly? Despite your pickiness (and aversion to her two best incarnations), Truly She Is None Other echoes other female singers with different personae from that of Golightly: the acoustic blues cover of composer Jessie Mae Robinson's "Black Night" proves Meg White has a ways to go to catch up in the girly-blues department (common knowledge, but still); "It's All Me", with its bright guitar lines, could be a less-brassy Neko Case, circa The Virginian; and in a few places, notably "You Have Yet to Win", Golightly makes like Liz Phair in her folk-rock mode.

Yes, all these women were influenced by Golightly, and not the other way around; Truly She Is None Other shows that three disparate female singers can trace their musical roots back to her. More importantly, Truly proves that Golightly is not content to coast on her title and reputation. Sure, the songs sound 40 years old, but Golightly is leading the charge of retro-futuro garage. Not too shabby for a woman who enjoys sitting around her kitchen sipping tea.

More Info about Holly Golightly

Harlan T. Bobo "Too Much Love" (2005)

2010-07-30T00:03:00.000+02:00

LONELINESS, DESPAIR AND SOME HOPE

This is a nakedly honest, very personal album of nine incredible songs about love and obsession, all written and performed by Memphis artist Harlan T. Bobo with the creme de la creme of local musicians backing him up.

Backed by members of the Reigning Sound, Fuck and Viva l'American Deathray Music, and recorded at Easley McCain Studio, Harlan's record has already been hailed as the best Memphis record of the last five years by the Memphis Flyer. Too Much Love made every Memphis music writer's Best Of list and was named Record of the Year 2005. And rightfully so- it's a purely, perfectly Americana album, wide open and alone with touches of melancholy, paranoia, loneliness, despair and simple hope coloring every little moment. Love will do that to you.

Songs range from the delicately beautiful "Only Love" to the frantic "Zippers and Jeans" and the twangy "Bottle and Hotel." "Left Your Door Unlocked" is a personal favorite. All songs were recorded at Memphis' famed Easley McCain Studio (White Stripes, Loretta Lynn, Wilco, Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse....).

A masterpiece by an extraordinarily talented artist, this is music I guarantee you'll still be listening to many years from now.

Warning: Too Much Love is extremely addictive!

More info about Harlan T. Hobo

Rank and File "Sundown" (1982)

2010-07-30T00:01:00.000+02:00

A PLEASANT SUNDOWN

With nine songs clocking in at a whirl wind 31:15, Rank and File's 1982 debut record "Sundown" is hands down a great 1980's roots rock record in the same league as "Truth Decay", "How Will the Wolf Survive?" and "The Blasters", and it is undeniably one of the seminal precursors to the alt.country movement of the early 1990's. Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, the Waco Brothers, The Sadies and many others all owe a huge debt of gratitude to the original cow-punks, Rank and File.

I could go on and on about what a great country & roots rock record "Sundown" is, how it speaks to the plight of the downtrodden outsider, and about how tight and inspired a sound that brothers Chip and Tony Kinman, Slim Evans and a budding Alejandro Escovedo wrung out of their combo of guitars, bass and drums. Superlative gushers include Robert Christgau who rated Sundown A- in his Consumer Guide column, the Los Angeles Times which hailed "Sundown" as "one of the strongest American debut records in a decade", and Jimmy Guterman who ranked "Sundown" at number 47 in the list of 100 records that he wrote about in his terrifically informative 1992 book, "The Best Rock `n' Roll Records of All Time". Believe them all, as "Sundown" is that good.

That "Sundown" was so long out of print is one of those unexplainable record company business decisions and just a doggone shame. Fortunately, for us, the nice folks at Collector's Choice Records (a subsidiary of Rhino) re-issued "Sundown" in 2005 without any bonus tracks...just with some interesting new liner notes by Chip Kinman and with improved sound (much better sounding than my old non-chromium dioxide cassette which disintegrated a long time ago). Chip Kinman's new notes are enlightening as he describes the process of connecting with his fellow band mates in a pre-internet era, and of getting the musical inspiration they needed to do it themselves as they listened to Merle Haggard sing while standing outside of New York City's Lone Star Cafe...too poor themselves to buy tickets to the show.

I'm guessing that Chip and his fellow band mates eventually made some money in the music business perhaps not as Rank and File in the early 1980's, but that scene described by Kinman is a metaphor for what Rank and File's music was and is...outside mainstream country but deeply rooted in country's core traditions of simple honest playing and singing. In a larger sense it's also a metaphor for what alt.country stands for but I can now hear myself shuffling off into the fog of St. Mark's Place.... That `No Depression' magazine did not include this record in their list of Top 20 re-issues of 2005 is puzzling, but "Sundown" has proven the test of time and now it can be heard again in all of it's country-punk glory by hopefully a larger audience.

For heaven's sake stop reading this semi-pretentious review and get this record...and rock on!

And just for the record:

The people who form the major portion of any group or organization, excluding the leaders: “The rumors of corruption at the top disturbed the party’s rank and file.” This phrase comes from military usage, where enlisted men march in ranks (close abreast) and files (one behind another), whereas officers march outside these formations.

More info about Rank and File

Danny Cohen "Dannyland" (2004)

2010-07-29T09:00:00.015+02:00

WELCOME TO DANNYLAND

The ancient stereotype that aging artists have a tendency to spiral downwards has echoed through the past, present, and will continue to do so in the future. Sure, it’s understood that Dylan will never release another Highway 61 Revisited and Van Morrison will never return to the caliber of Moondance, but what about the artists who avoided fame for most of their career? Danny Cohen has been making music for almost fifty years, perhaps most notably known for fronting the Charleston Grotto, who achieved the hit single ‘Kill The Teacher’ in 1961.

The most misused word in current journalism is the easy-to-apply, but always used superficially, concept, "deconstruction." The word should apply to the philosophical undertaking of undermining the status quo by freeing the subject from the subject's objective world, by calling into question the past, and by inverting aesthetic models from the inside out. Danny Cohen, in his wondrous and wonderful 2004 work, Dannyland, does all this and more: with humor, intense lyricism, with various voices, many emanating from the primordial ooze of his playfulness, Cohen has persisted successfully in his creative and revolutionary attack on songwriting laziness, MTV re-productions, and ignorant or apathetic listening to pop songs. A hybrid of various sources-jazz, spoken word, Rodgers and Hart, the Beatles, smoldering New Orleans voices from the grave - Dannyland is a killer album.

By deconstruction I mean this: instead of bemoaning loss of pop song meaning, Cohen revels in the child-like play of surfaces, and in these curious interplays between surfaces. Within each distinct song, as well, Cohen explores whimsically dense studio effects: tape loops; modulated voices, electronic orchestration. Baroque and trippy, pleading and tenuous, these unusual art songs benefit from a series of producers who allow Cohen's vast imagination to negotiate difficult turns of phrase. It does not hurt that the players share Cohen's enthusiasm for the difficult and dense, and are able to seamlessly portray his world of random, miniaturized soundscapes that hearken back to nursery rhymes, cowboys riding the range, and the weird border areas of Chinatown, the Alamo, John Lennon's death, Redd Foxx, dating Catherine Deneuve at the Louvre, and Siberia. A couple of Chico pals, John Lapado and Dave Hurst, handle the bulk of the keys and strings, and on 2 cuts, multi-whiz Ralph Carney produces and adds musical sounds that should be played at simultaneous celebrations of a wedding and funeral.

Expert bassist Mike Howe and Hurst handle the bulk of the production and they smartly allow Cohen's addled vocals to ring clearly, like a warning siren from the Northern Cali coast. The percussive restlessness sounds like a Soft Machine rehearsal; the songs' structures often dip into the land of Tom Waits-closed lately due to boredom-but with a higher sheen of beauty; the vocalizations signal Daniel Johnston, but with greater certitude and variety. If Van Dyke Parks arranged the mid-period of Captain Beefheart and had Limey eccentric Ivor Cutler handle the production, then maybe you get the idea, but, hell, the past ain't important. This is music of the now: we all should move to Dannyland. It's open 24 hours a day, but just not always consecutively.

More info about Danny Cohen

C-60 Special: Endless Highway 5 - All Covered Up

2010-07-28T09:53:00.001+02:00

C-60 SPECIAL - ENDLESS HIGHWAY Vol. 5 - ALL COVERED UP

Nowadays life without cover songs is hard to imagine. Permanently we run into these remakes while we listen to the radio and sometimes we even don't know that this song has existed for a long time and is now only covered in a rough-and-ready way. Mostly the original versions are much better, but not always. Sometimes an artist makes it not only to copy the original song, but also improves it drastically.

I don't know if this is the case here, but Endless Highway Vol. 5 is all about cover versions. You will find lots of familiar tunes in new suits. I had a very good time trying to find the great cover-versions. Some of the stuff I heard was deep down scary, some where quite funny and some where just plain stupid. The 20 songs that is on the album is one and all just great stuff to my ears.

What about Eric Anders folky version of Violent Femmes classic "Blister in the sun", or Casual doing a naive little version of the big doomy Soundgarden hit "Black Hole Sun"? The Watson Twins is doing a great Americana-version of The Cure "Just Like Heaven". My favourite right now is Hillary & The Democrats doing a lo-fi version of Bruce Springsteens antheme "Thunder Road" and Jessica Brandos lovely chillout version of Radioheads classic "Karma Police". Endless Highway Vol. 5 - is all about covers and I hope yoy enjoy it!

Track-List for vol. 5 - ALL COVERED UP (org. art.)

1. Sparklehorse - Galveston (GLENN CAMPBELL) (4:03)
2. Cult with no Name - Golden Brown (THE STRANGLERS) (4:19)
3. Jessica Brando - Karma Police (RADIOHEAD) (3:07)
4. Ryan Adams - Wonderwall (OASIS) (4:04)
5. Hillary & The Democrats - Thunder Road (BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN) (5:16)
6. Willie Nelson & Calexico - Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) (BOB DYLAN) (5:13)
7. The Watson Twins - Just Like Heaven (THE CURE) (4:12)
8. Tara MacLean - Mad World (TEARS FOR FEARS) (4:17)
9. Eric Anders - Blister in the Sun (VIOLENT FEMMES) (3:16)
10. Kathy Mattea - Down on the Corner (C.C.R.) (3:29)
11. Michelle Malone - Wild Horses (THE ROLLING STONES) (5:17)
12. Ari Shine - Waterloo Sunset (THE KINKS) (3:13)
13. Evelyn Evelyn - Love will Tear Us Apart (JOY DIVISION) (2:48)
14. k.d. lang - After the Gold Rush (NEIL YOUNG) (3:58)
15. Kasey Chambers - Better be Home Soon (CROWDED HOUSE) (3:15)
16. Heath Brandon - Billie Jean (MICHAEL JACKSON) (5:10)
17. Casual - Black Hole Sun (SOUNDGARDEN) (2:32)
18. Jenny Reynolds - Mercy Street (PETER GABRIEL) (4:35)
19. Craig Cardiff - God's Comic (ELVIS COSTELLO) (3:56)
20. Imaginary Johnny - Bird on a Wire (LEONARD COHEN) (3:46)

John Langford and The Pine Valley Cosmonauts "The Executioner's Last Songs, Vol. I" (2002)

2010-07-27T19:07:00.004+02:00

GOOD MORNING AMERICA

Here are the Pine Valley Cosmonauts and a dazzling array of guest singers, including Steve Earle, Rosie Flores, Brett Sparks (Handsome Family), Janet Bean (Freakwater), Neko Case, Edith Frost, Paul Burch, Sally Timms and many more delivering 18 songs penned by such luminaries as Hank Williams, Louvin Brothers, the Adverts, Johnny Paycheck, Stanley Brothers, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, and celebrating/mourning America’s grim fascination with the savage cycle of crime and vengeance -- all to benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project.

It's a great idea, an album to benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project, and who better to execute it (pun intended) than the linchpin of the Chicago alt-country movement, Mekons and Waco Brother member Jon Langford? He's reassembled the occasional Pine Valley Cosmonauts to back a bunch of artists on tales of death, murder, and execution. There's everything from the traditional and gruesome ("Knoxville Girl" from Brett Sparks and a very powerful, gritty "Tom Dooley" by Steve Earle, as graphic as any gangsta rap) to straight-up country (Johnny Paycheck's "Pardon Me (I've Got Someone to Kill)," which these days stands almost as a parody of a country song, albeit a chilling one), all the way to standards (post-punk feminist icon Jenny Toomey on a lovely acoustic rendition of Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets"), punk (the Adverts' "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" interpreted by Dean Schlabowske), and originals (Johnny Dowd's "Judgement Day," among others).

It's an odd assemblage, but it hangs together very well, not just because of the thematic content, but also the intensity of the performances, like Edith Frost's luminous "Sing Me Back Home" or Dianne Izzo's raw take on "Oh Death." Apart from contributing guitar and some vocals throughout, Langford does get a couple of moments in the spotlight, duetting on the Dowd cut, then on "The Plans We Made," a tale of love gone awfully wrong that he sings with fellow Mekon Sally Timms.

There's no bad cut here, although Tony Fitzpatrick's "Idiot Whistle" proselytizes a little too much, and "The Hangman's Song" from Christa Meyer and Tim Kelley of Puerto Muerto is just plain weird (but in a great way). But this album makes its points in very plain, blunt terms, and offers some excellent music along the way. If you still don't think music and politics can mix, start here.

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts include: Jon Langford (Waco Brothers, Mekons), Tom Ray (Devil In A Woodpile, ex-Bottle Rockets) and Steve Goulding (Wacos, Mekons, Graham Parker). Their previous records have feted Johnny Cash and Bob Wills.

Since 1989, 13 innocent men have been exonerated and released from Illinois' death row and 99 total from death rows nationwide in the U.S. of A.. A chilling, harrowing record for a chilling, harrowing thought. Could it be more timely?

More info about the project

Track-List:

01. Knoxville Girl - Brett Sparks 4:03 02. I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive - Rosie Flores 2:18 03. Gary Gilmore's Eyes - Dean Schlabowske 2:17 04. The Snakes Crawl At Night - Janet Bean 3:03 05. Tom Dooley - Steve Earle 4:34 06. The Hangman's Song - Puerto Muerto 3:56 07. (Pardon Me) I've Got Someone To Kill - Lonesome Bob 3:41 08. Poor Ellen Smith - Neko Case 2:07 09. Miss Otis Regrets - Jenny Toomey 4:08 10. Judgement Day - Johnny Dowd And Jon Langford 3:56 11. Great State Of Texas - Chris Ligon 2:42 12. Sing Me Back Home - Edith Frost 3:30 13. Oh Death - Diane Izzo 4:54 14. Hanged Man - Rick Cookin' Sherry 3:38 15. The Plans We Made - Jon Langford And Sally Timms 4:53 16. 25 Minutes To Go - Frankie And Johnny Navin 3:34 17. Idiot Whistle - Tony Fitzpatrick 1:52 18. Walls Of Time - Paul Burch 4:28

Puerto Muerto "Songs of Muerto County" (2005)

2010-07-27T09:00:00.004+02:00

LOST LITTLE TOWN

The sticker on the jewel case of my copy of Puerto Muerto's Songs of Muerto County proudly proclaims the album "a 'lost' soundtrack to the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE." It's an audacious claim, as the album is not "lost" and postdates the movie by more than thirty years. Instead, it's actually an homage to the scariest and most brutal 70s horror film, which was set in the fictional Muerto County, home of the most terrifying family in Texas (okay, maybe the second most terrifying). No strangers to carnage (previous albums include See You in Hell and Your Bloated Corpse Has Washed Ashore), the Chicago-based duo of Tim Kelley and Christa Meyer were inspired by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell's atmospheric and often atonal noise soundtrack and the generic country tunes that eerily emanate from every radio frequency within county lines.

Unlike that "lost" Wizard of Oz soundtrack called Dark Side of the Moon, Songs of Muerto County is not meant to match up song for scene, but rather to evoke through music the creepy otherworldliness of the flat, hot Texas landscape, remote and craggy with cedar underbrush, and to create a macabre setting wherein a John Larroquette voiceover would not be out of place.

While the mission is different, the music and the Americana setting are similar to Pinetop Seven's reimaginings of silent films like The Wind and Laugh, Clown, Laugh. If the source material is much more notorious, Songs of Muerto County transcends its audacious gimmick because Puerto Muerto are interested neither in retelling the story through song (Alice's Chainsaw Massacree, anyone?) nor in explaining away the horrors perpetrated in the film (one of the 2003 remake's many fatal flaws). Instead, Meyer and Kelley take inspiration from the incidental music and evoke that wide-open claustrophobia-- all that room to run, but nowhere to hide.

The first half of Songs of Muerto County sets up musical themes and tones that reappear throughout the album, suggesting that americana has the potential to be much creepier than the corporate metal that fills so many horror soundtracks. Over Kelley's dusty acoustic guitar melody, Meyer sings the introductory warnings of the lead-off track, "Muerto County", but mostly she relies on wordless aah-aah's, which subtly mimic a spooky pedal steel and imbue "Ghostee" and "Walking" with a nightfall dread.

The second half of the album translates those melodies to more traditional settings, creating songs that have no narrative relation to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but would sound perfectly creepy crackling from the dash speakers of that soon-to-be-abandoned van or from a grimy gas station radio. "What Have I Done?" and "Apple Pie" are ramshackle Americana; songs well suited to Kelley's unpretentious vocals. He plugs in his guitar for "Cherries" and "Road Song", whose relentless, percussive riff hammers home the song's cautionary lyrics. Aside from "Walking", which is interrupted halfway through by a violent burst of noise, these songs benefit from a lack of special effects, a no-budget aesthetic that informs the simplicity of Meyer's waltzing "Wondering" and the knife-sharp strums of closer "Goodbye".

There's a fine-line restraint to Songs of Muerto County: on one hand, Kelley and Meyer adhere to the traditional adage that a good soundtrack should not be more memorable than the film it supports. On the other, they aren't actually making a soundtrack, but a record that must stand on its own despite its inspiration. Occasionally, the album sounds too beholden to its source material-- music to dismember your victims by. At its best, however, Songs of Muerto County refrains from stating anything outright, the songs merely suggesting their emotional terrors and-- like the film-- leaving the hideous details to your imagination.

More info about Puerto Muerto

Urban Junior "Music for the Asses" (2005)

2010-07-26T09:00:00.015+02:00

GUERILLASHOWS BEHIND BARS

Guitar! Synth! Drums! Megaphone! Urban Junior is about the Good and the Bad, the Nice and the Ugly, Night and Day, Black and White, Love and Hate. You know what we're talkin about.

Urban Junior played his first show in 2003. He started off as a jukebox hero. Name a song and he’ll play it. Two years later his first longplayer was a wild blues-trash-garage-punk stomper. “Music For The Asses” came out on Fistfuckerrecords. 10 songs all written by Urban Jr, recorded and mixed in 2 days.He played Guerillashows behind bars or on public toilets. On the other hand he was supporting acts like Iggy and the Stooges, G. Love and Special Sauce, Test Icicles or the Monsters.

In 2006 his songs appeared on compilations from Burning Sound Records, Rocknroll Purgatory and the Berlin based label Squoodge Records. Shows in England, Scotland, Belgium, France, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania were following.

Go see him live…You deserve it!!

More info about Urban Junior

The Watzloves "Catch me a Possum" (2006)

2010-07-25T15:16:00.003+02:00

PURE ORIGINAL HILLBILLYS FROM HELL

The Watzloves was formed in 1998 as a duo, then changed into a trio in 2001. Together with DM Bob and Jakobus, The Watzloves have done three albums so far and several tracks on compilation albums, touring Europe several times.
One accordion and a girl with a hell of a voice, the Watzloves, from Hamburg / Louisiana, are the band built around the accordion wild girl Silky Toss, low brow painter and musician traveling around in a bus selling paintings and making the best cajun and swamp blues outside of the bayou. DM Bob the Drummer, boyfriend of Silky, is a legend himself, having played in several other bands. The most famous of which was DM Bob and the Deficits and is a low brow painter…his roots are in Louisiana, where he grow up.

Jakobus, the multi-instrumentalist, is a natural crazy and a painter, as well. He makes crazy shit and has exhibitions all over Europe, and besides playing in the Watzloves, he’s also in Ja König Ja, a Hamburg-based band that is pretty famous in the German speaking area of Europe.

The stories and lyrics that Silke sings is far beyond normal girly stuff; it’s mad, sad, angry and funny. DM Bob plays the laziest and most laid back drums, the true swamp blues drum… Jakobus switches in one song from trombone over to the slide and guitar and brings the craziness into the band.

CATCH ME A POSSUM is the 3rd album by the Watzloves. 13 songs and a couple of duets from Silky and Bob, “you made me what I am today” is a slow country burner as well the opener and nervous stomper “whay don’t you ask me”, "Sugar coated love" is pure party, as well the fantastic "You’re on my mind…"

All in all The Watzloves deffenetly have found their own sound trough the years and there is no one who sounds like these guy.

More info about The Watzloves

C-60 Special: Endless Highway 4 - Lost Girls and Blue Boys

2010-07-24T09:09:00.003+02:00

THE LOST GIRLS AND THE BLUE, BLUE BOYS

Back with another edition of Endless Highway. This time around it's all about the troubadours that travels the country with sad songs of yesterdays and no tomorrows. But not all is lost. There is always hope. The singer is hanging on by a thread.

It all starts with a uptempo tune by Gina Villalobos and a song about waking up on a sunday morning, then it's time for a long lost friend in "Ten years" from James Moors. Rick Spreitzer sums it all up in last song, "Back to Blue".

My favourites at the moments have to be the beautiful voice of Vienna Teng and "Blue Caravan", the pure bitterness of Ruby James and "Happy Now" and the acoustic little masterpiece of Aerodrum "Plane".

Enjoy!

TRACK-LIST:

01. Gina Villalobos - 10million (3:29) -
02. James Moors - Ten Years (3:28) -
03. Kathleen Edwards - Asking for Flowers (5:02) -
04. Gary Louris - True Blue (5:02) -
05. Carrie Newcomer - A Map Of Shadows (4:07) -
06. Denison Witmer - Steven (2:26) -
07. Rosie Thomas - Much Farther to Go (4:15) -
08. Aerodrum - Plane (3:32) -
09. The Innocence Mission - Rain (Setting Out in the Leaf Boat) (4:13) -
10. Andy Elwell - Her Salt (4:41) -
11. Hayley Sales - Paint by Numbers (4:27) -
12. Will Kimbrough - The Day of The Troubadour (3:19) -
13. Sarah Harmer - New Loneliness (3:15) -
14. Luke Doucet - Emily, please (4:11) -
15. Ruby James - Happy Now (4:56) -
16. Tres Womack - Nothing Left (3:30) -
17. Vienna Teng - Blue Caravan (3:56) -
18. Ray Wylie Hubbard - Drunken Poet's Dream (4:15) -
19. Kara Suzanne & The Gojo Hearts - Ritalin (3:46) -
20. Rick Spreitzer - Back to Blue (2:42)

Midnight Choir "Amsterdam Stranded" (1998)

2010-07-24T09:03:00.001+02:00

DARK VOCALS AND MOURNFUL SONGS

"Amsterdam Stranded" is the third album by singer Paal Flaata, bass player Ron Olsen and piano/guitar player Al DeLoner, like the second produced by Walkabouts´ boss Chris Eckman at Estudios Valentim de Carvalho, outside of Lisboa, Portugal. Their entourage also included English engineer Phill Brown (Talk Talk, Roxy Music, Robert Palmer etc.) and Walkabouts drummer Terri Moeller. That´s how the connection to Glitterhouse was made.

The band's songwriter Al DeLoner has come up with a haunting set of melodies that perfectly underscore the lyrical themes of religious and personal doubts sung by Flaata with a voice that would make a reading of Oslo´s phonebook sound intense.

Chris Eckman and Phill Brown are responsible for the weird little sounds that crop up frequently, a definite help in achieving their ambitious undertaking of making widescreen rock, and at the same time stear clear of the pompousness of conventional art-rock.

"Amsterdam Stranded" is simply a Norwegian beauty as breathtaking as the country's nature itself. Midnight Choir is taking the place of Jeff Buckley or Jeffrey Lee Pierce and celebrate a romantic suffering just like the Tindersticks (without their crooning), the clear intensity of the vocals are reminiscent of Tim Buckley and the minor-key mood will appeal to fans of Nick Cave. With melancholic strings drenching its dark vocals and mournful songs of spiritual and personal doubt, it could stem from the same hymnal desert Americana roots as Willard Grant and Handsome Family.

Midnight Choir got their name from a line in Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a wire", and that suits the music perfectly. "Amsterdam Stranded" is one of the true classics from the 90's.

Track-List in the Comments

More info about Midnight Choir

Midnight Choir "Olsen's Lot" (1996)

2010-07-24T09:00:00.006+02:00

AN EPIC JOURNEY THROUGH LOSS

Midnight Choir released "Olsen's lot" in 1996. Their second album was a huge step away from the debut. Where the first was quite light in form, this album was full of nervous breakdowns, drugs and alcoholproblems. And the lovelife was hitting rock-bottom. "Olsen's Lot" will forever be the groundbreaking mastrerpiece of Midnight Choir even if the next album "Amsterdam Stranded" over all is better.

The coverart is a picture from an old graveyard and is setting the mood straight. The songs are dark, nearly suicidal at times. There is no hope, the lights gone out and no one knows how to switch the light on again. The album opens with "Long Hard Ride" ...There is a room for crazieness..you and me baby was born on the dark side..and I long for a long hard ride... Wow, that sums up nearly every feelings you got when listening to Midnight Choir. And Paul Flaata have a voice made in heaven. Similar to Chris Isaak and with a touch of Elvis Presley. He has to be one of the best vocalist around.

...I have this illusion of you, dancing in my head, at the crack of dawn, in someone elses bed........Doing things to her that belongs to you. Doing things to her I never thought I do....."In the shadow of the circus" is where this record nearly stops breathing. The song is about to almost kill the band, with complete darkness. Not the black aggressive darkness some bands like to dwell with, but the darkness of a man who done all the seven deadly sins, and waking up in pain and anxiety, ....But there's no end to what I don't know.There's no end to the way I feel............Nothing in here worth dying for. Nothing in here is for real..........Ain't no drug is gonna cure this pain. Ain't no God to stop that rain...

Al De Loner is the songwriter, and while he is fighting his own demons, he let us in on the fight It's dark, but also very beautiful, and you can hear that this is music straight from the heart and the nervesystem. Let there be no doubt, this is naked, lonely and sincere to the bone.

Once you start listen to this record, it will never stop haunting you.But don't be afraid, I can assure you that you want to be haunted!

Track-List in the Comments

More info about Midnight Choir

The Great Crusades "The First Spilled Drink of the Evening" (1998)

2010-07-23T09:00:00.000+02:00

THE DARK SIDE OF LIFE

Brian Krumm, formerly of Suede Chain, wrote all of these trememndous songs, sang a great baritone lead and played a very skillful lead guitar on this great album. The musical talent Krumm has increases exponentially from album to album, going back to the first days of Suede Chain.

There is a darkness on the album that is very familiar to the likes of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and The Pixies. The lyrics is often a bit on the morbid side, and reflects the dark side of life. Catch them live if you can, cause The Great Crusades is one hell of a live band.

You will not be disappointed with this album, especially "When The Stars Have Run Out Of Souls" and "Two Fisherman" and the beautiful "Caroline".

More info about The Great Crusades

Carrie Elkin "The Jeopardy of Circumstance" (2007)

2010-07-22T09:00:00.001+02:00

SONGS ABOUT HOME

Carrie Elkin's sweet-voiced melodies and navel-gazing lyrics paint pictures of starry skies and heartbroken mornings. Starting with "Obadiah," one of the sadder songs on the disc, Elkin establishes herself as a well-intentioned story teller ready to pull in listeners any way she can.

There's something almost theatrical about The Jeopardy of Circumstance. You can almost imagine the scene as if it were made for the stage—Elkin singing in the bathroom, Elkin singing in the kitchen. These are the songs of someone's home, songs that fill up rooms and lonely nights.

If this album is full of songs about home, "Roots and Wings" would be the song for the garden. "There is light that noone can find," Elkin sings at the top of her voice. "She's got roots, she's got wings, she's gonna fly." It's here where the band is at its finest and most synchronous. It's welcome change from so many of the quiet, lulling tunes that surround it.The Bottom Line

Carrie Elkin is clearly a gifted, intuitive songwriter. The country-ish "Gospel Song," the topical "Black Lung," and sentimental "Shell of a Man" are all good examples of what she's capable of with her craft.

Sometimes it takes some fashioning for a good songwriter to become a maker of good records. Those two things don't always go hand-in-hand, but Elkin's off to a terrific start. You can bet whatever kinda tune she's singing will have some goodness in it.

More info about Carrie Elkin

C-60 Special: Podcast - Prg. 1 - Death You Know

2010-07-21T17:16:00.007+02:00

click on the picture to get a big version

C-60 LOW NOISE PODCAST VOL. ONE - DEATH YOU KNOW

Well, C-60 Low Noise been around for a while (since 2007 actually), and it's bloody time for our first Podcast. From time to time we will do a special, and the first program is about, well, death. OK, it sounds not exactly like lots of fun, but you know...don't be sure!

The podcast is made like a musical collage around the theme, with music and soundeffects from movies, TV, radio and live sounds. It's about 30 minutes, it's made by Time Bandit and I would love to hear from you, what you think about it.

Prg. 1 - Death You know 01. From Baretta 02. Theme From The Three Pennies - Bily Vaughn 03. You Beat Kicks Back Like Death - Scout Niblett 04. From American Dad 05. You Don't have to die - Reverend Beat-Man and The Un-believers 06. More from American Dad 07. Baby play dead - The Wreckery 08. From Strangelove - A documentary 09. The Death of Love - Cradle of Filth 10. From Wiseguy 11. Dead Skunk - Loudon Wainwright III 12. Have My Own way - Larrnakh 13. More from Wiseguy 14. The Dead Brothers - Human Fly 15. Bear in mind (Unknown TV from the 50's) 16. Country Death song - Violent Femmes 17. Dawn of the Dead news report 18. Psycho - Beast of Bourbon 19. From American Movie - The Making of northwestern 20. The Road That Leads To Heaven - Jim White

Mark Erelli "Mark Erelli" (1999)

2010-07-21T01:00:00.002+02:00

WEAVING TALES OF HONEST AND TRUE PASSION

Effortlessly balancing songs of love and protest, resignation and redemption, Mark Erelli is a singer/songwriter who proudly wears his heart on his sleeve. He has taught himself to play steel guitar and mandolin, and experimented with western swing stylings and roots music, weaving tales of honest and true passion.Mark's debut was released in 1999, after he was discovered at 3 am in a hotel room showcase during a music conference.

Some artists hope to end up where Mark starts out with his first release. An album that can't be pigeon holed as folk, country or rock.....it's all of them neatly rolled up into a top notch package. Smart songs... starting with the first cut, Do It Everyday, and closing with Northern Star, this album is a brilliant work that demands replay. Thought provoking lyrics, sung with style and grace, accompanied by great musical talent and produced perfectly.

An extremely solid debut.

More info about Mark Erelli

Johnny Dowd "Cruel Words" (2006)

2010-07-20T09:00:00.001+02:00

THE DEAD LONGUE

This is a work that is undeniably American, straightforward and unapologetic in its tales of characters who may have slipped through this crack or that, but who refuse to go unnoticed or bowed by their circumstances. They're not necessarily angry, but you're left with the sense they're not resigned to their lot in life, either.

This is not an album geared to casual listening. From the pounding drum intro of "House of Pain" to the dying strains of "Johnny B Goode," Cruel Words demands the listener pay attention. This is the aural equivalent of film noir, deceptively simple on its surface but laced throughout with complex ambiguities. The characters who populate this landscape, from the disillusioned wheelchair-bound vet of "Praise God" to the newly divorced man residing in "Poverty House" to the dead lounge singer of "Final Encore," may be marginalized, but they hardly represent the underbelly of America. Largely, they have fallen on bad times and are not above the solace of the bottle, but they live with a cynical hope that things that will be alright in the end. "Jesus waits behind the counter/Waiting for the soldiers to return/From the long march to Bethlehem," Dowd growls in "World of Him," as he drunkenly but deftly maneuvers the minefields of the culture wars.

Johnny Dowd is generally catalogued under the "alt-country" file, one of those catch-all terms, like "progressive jazz" or "new punk," that sound authoritative (at least to lazy journalists) but have no meaning in reality. While Dowd's lyrics, structurally speaking, are perhaps rooted in a working class base, his music draws inspiration from a number of sources, all of which are distinctly American.

With Michael Stark's Hammond B3 organ strains punctuating almost every song on Cruel Words, Dowd (vocals and guitar) and Brian Wilson (drums and bass pedals), along with Kim Sherwood on backing vocals, meld blues to acid jazz, roots soul to Texas swing, surf rock to lounge music, run it through a blender from hell and somehow manage to serve up a concoction that sounds wholly unique. Toss in a little British punk from the Mekons' Sally Timms and Jon Langford on "Drunk" for a dash of spice and Cruel Words emerges as a feast from the bland, albeit an acquired taste.

Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands "Snake in the Radio" (2006)

2010-07-19T01:05:00.000+02:00

AMERICANA - THE SEATTLE WAY

Maybe it’s a more natural connection than indicated at first blush, but who would have guessed that the leaders of the ‘90s Seattle grunge explosion would now be making serious inroads in the Americana scene? Sure, there’s earlier evidence of cross-pollination; the Supersuckers have lived in both worlds for years (they once called Seattle’s Sub Pop Records home, you’ll recall), and Pearl Jam buddied up with Neil Young ages ago.

Lately though, the grunge-to-Americana connection has been gaining steam, with enjoyable results. Mudhoney’s Steve Turner, uh, turned in the fantastic, if little heard, Steve Turner And His Bad Ideas back in 2004, and Mark Lanegan of the Screaming Trees has, on his solo albums, been exploring the creepy/gothic side of Americana since his band’s demise. To this list, we can add Mark Pickerel, who was the Screaming Trees drummer during the band’s stint on SST in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. His first solo album, Snake in the Radio, for alt-country outpost Bloodshot Records, puts him near the top of the lengthening grunge-guy-gone-Americana list.

Not that Pickerel’s new to the scene, having worked with alt-country siren Neko Case on the Wanda Jackson tribute album, Hard Headed Woman (they turned in “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”). Still, on Snake in the Radio Pickerel sounds like he’s been an Americana guy since birth. The opener, “Forest Fire”, boasts a friendly lope and plenty of steel guitar (courtesy of Margrethe Bjorklund), while “Come Home Blues” is a convincing mid-tempo desert trail number. You’d never guess he still calls Washington State home.

Throughout, Pickerel sounds like a less-ravaged Lanegan with a more upbeat outlook on life. To wit, there’s the beautiful ballad “I’ll Wait”, where Pickerel’s narrator patiently will “wait another day / To hear the words you want to say” (hint: “I love you”). He loves a shy girl and is in no mood to rush: “Even this panther knows when to move slow,” he promises. Toss in a sweet, shambling guitar solo, and “I’ll Wait” is easily one of the album’s best tunes.

That distinction is shared with the title track. But before I get too far along, ya gotta love the cover art, drawn by Pickerel. It’s a clever take off on His Master’s Voice, and is a near-perfect summation of radio’s current problems. But and so, the song itself is crackly, haunting and atmospheric, as if beamed in from another era. Pickerel never identifies the “snake”, letting the listener chose his/her favorite scapegoat for radio’s demise, but there’s genuine anger (and disappointment?) in lines like “It had poisoned all the airwaves / Poisoned all the shows”. Yes, picking on the radio is akin to shooting fish in a barrel, hell, even the Vines have done it this spring, but Pickerel’s passion helps the song transcend cliché.

And since Americana isn’t just backwoodsy twang, Pickerel also tackles soul(ish) roots rock on “You’ll Be Mine” and “Sin Tax Dance” (think Boston’s the Gentlemen), the bluesy/punky “A Town Too Fast For Your Blues” and the blues/oom-pa-pa mash-up “Town Without the Blues”. Pickerel, to his credit, is convincing on nearly every track; only the vague character sketch “Graffiti Girl” fails to connect.

Call it maturity, wanderlust, the need to maintain artistic relevance, or the realization that much of grunge was roots rock with more guitar distortion, but this Americana-by-way-of-Seattle storyline (for lack of a better description) has been an enjoyable development. We may never see a Chris Cornell/John Hiatt team-up, but whoever next joins this musical fold will have a tough time topping Snake In The Radio.

More info about Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands

Douglas Greer "Just a Man" (2006)

2010-07-18T00:02:00.000+02:00

A MASTER OF TELLING STORIES

Douglas Greer's debut-album reminds me of what I think americana should be, but so often isn't: it should tell poignant stories about everyday people, have a tune you can't stop humming and there should be something in the voice of the person singing it that pulls at your heartstrings.

Attending UT Law School in Austin in the early ‘90’s, Greer was befriended by neighbors Mark Lyon and Keri Leigh of the local blues group the Blue Devils, and received a musical education just as much as a legal one while in Austin. “We went to all the best shows,” says Greer. “John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers at the old Liberty Lunch, John Hammond at the Cactus Café, South by Southwest in its formative years, we saw a lot of good music then.” Seeing so many performing songwriters who could turn their experiences into art inspired Greer.

While practicing law in Beaumont in the ‘90’s, Greer set up a music booking agency and developed friendships with various local acts that soon led him to the stage. He became lead singer and songwriter for Amos Moses, a roots rock band with a sound somewhere between the Old ‘97’s and Son Volt.

Several club dates over the years earned Amos Moses regional success, but the group eventually disbanded for personal reasons.In 2004 Greer relocated to Austin to get serious about his passion for writing and music. While still new to town he was introduced to local producer Michael Ramos, who came to produce Greer’s debut album, “Just A Man.”

In “Just A Man” Greer presents rich stories and articulate character sketches examining the plight of the average flawed man, largely drawn from his days in Port Arthur. The delivery has a feel similar to Ryan Adams, Steve Earle, James McMurtry or Joe Ely, but with a musical twist largely influenced by Ramos.

A classic example of how, in my opinion, Americana is supposed to sound. Greer is a master of telling stories and drawing character sketches. A real beauty!

More info about Douglas Greer

Eliza Gilkyson "Hard Times in Babylon" (2000)

2010-07-17T09:00:00.000+02:00

HARD CORE EMOTIONS

I was lucky to be in Austin in March 1999, having the time of my life listening to more singer-songwriters than I ever had before. I guess the stars were with me back then: One of those stars was Eliza Gilkyson, who performed at the Cactus Cafe with Cliff Eberhardt and Jimmy Lafave.

There was this woman in her early forties, singing with her high voice, and chilling the audience as if it were the first time she had ever sung there, or the first time anyone had ever heard her. When I first listened to her album, Hard Times in Babylon, I wondered why the songs sounded so familiar, until I realized I remembered many of them from that special evening in Austin. Gilkyson's songs are immediately catchy, without in any way being the commercial stuff they try to sell us as music these days.

Many of the songs in this great album deal with loss, and the holes left in us by people who leave us. The production is very clear and very good, and although the promo sheets says this is a minimal production, I still wish there was less. Most of the time I longed for the stripped down versions with vocals and guitar that she sang at the Cactus Cafe in Austin. But then, this is a record I can listen to again and again, while great memories can change and improve with time. And that is what this album is about.

A winner.

More info about Eliza Gilkyson

Gina Villalobos "Miles Away" (2007)

2010-07-16T09:00:00.000+02:00

THE REAL THING

There is that long lost lonesome in the grainy reed of songwriter Gina Villalobos' voice that takes the listener by the collar or pulls his hair and pulls him down to that level where truth is mitigated between one person's desperations, hopes and longing and another's. Gina Villalobos grabs the listener by the hair with a smile on her face and does so by using rock & roll's brash dynamics, country's instantly catchy melodies, and the lyric imagery of a guttersnipe poet. Over the course of her recording and touring career, Villalobos has deepened the indelible marks left on her heart from the endless travelodges of the world, the trashy streets of Los Angeles, the endless smoky club stages and those faces and souls she's encountered rightfully and wrongfully in the process of becoming a songwriter of such power, depth and immediacy that she makes most of her peers seem like poseurs. She rips open her skin and lays bare that pulsing, thirsty, raw organ and makes it sing.

If you want comparisons, fine: think the rough and rowdy Lucinda Williams meeting Joan Jett and Patti Smith for a drink and things getting out of hand. Villalobos is a sinner who is seeking the redemption she can see but never reach. Her songs are loaded with tough, edgy guitars, clean taut lines and a raw, in-your-face presence that only underscores their beauty. This is the kind of music Nashville may be afraid of throwing out there in all its ugly, tarnished elegance, but is trying to cut through indirectly via the rock & roll-drenched sound of artists like Sugarland and, to a lesser degree Little Big Town and Gretchen Wilson. This is americana first and foremost, topically, musically, and compositionally, but it's rock & roll in spirit, texture, and presentation.

Villalobos is the real thing. Check "Face on the Sheets" with its wide-open electric guitar wrangling by Kevin Haaland and pedal steel boss Sean Caffey. She rolls right on top of the din as the snares pop and the bass plods: "I can't brush off this stain/Someone tape up my face again/'Cause it studies my feet/I'm such a case and I lie about my medicine...Come on baby/I heard you had to sell your sheets again/Come on baby/Rub yourself on the sheets again/Take it from me..." She nails it as guitars scream and wail, breaking down the four walls she's sought shelter in. Fittingly enough, the next cut is a ballad called "Let's Fall Apart."

Amid the sound of whining pedal steel, banjo, fiddle, and big wide-open six-strings and electric violin, Villalobos stretches her limited range to the place where the valves take hold and take over. The verses are so gentle and fragile and the refrains suffocating: "...The concrete in the rain it makes a taste/And weighs down on your skyline/I'm ducking for some cover and passing out/Oh let's just fall apart/Let's just lose ourselves/And find us a dying art/That's what we've become..." All of this is done with spiky teeth, some sense of what Hank Williams was after, and the smeared walls of broken-down Hollywood's empty promises as portrayed by its graffitied walls and shambolic old hotels.

In other words, it's this woman's microcosmic look at America, hell, a world, that cannot be summed up but needs to be dissected in desolation and love, and sometimes they are the same thing. Villalobos' songs, such as the title track, bang and clatter, full of hooks and phrases that are so memorable you'll find yourself humming them long after the record's played itself.

More info about Gina Villalobos

Tift Merritt "Bramble Rose" (2002)

2010-07-15T08:00:00.002+02:00

A RISING STAR

Imagine that Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and Lucinda Williams get together to jam. About halfway through the session, Caitlin Cary and Sheryl Crow arrive and join in. They are later joined by two visitors from rock and roll heaven, Patsy Cline and Dusty Springfield. The result? Tift Merritt's astonishing debut album, BRAMBLE ROSE.

This may be one of the best debut of 2002. The album contains a delightful combination of folk, rock, and traditional country influences that any music fan will find pleasing, and eleven gorgeous songs enhanced by Tift's lilting and gorgeously airy voice. The range of her extraordinary talent is heard in the opening cut, "Trouble Over Me," the influences of Emmylou and Caitlin can be heard in the hauntingly lovely "Virginia, No One Can Warn You," and the bluesy ballad "Bird of Freedom" gives this amazing artist a chance to showcase her amazing voice. On the heavily country influenced "Are You Still in Love With Me" and "Diamond Shoes," you can almost hear the voice of Patsy Cline, while the uptempo number "Neighborhood" shows a more rockin' side of Tift's music. The true standout of the album, though, is the final track "When I Cross Over," a beautiful song full of sheer emotion and talent.

This is not a teenaged girl falling in and out of crushes like so many so-called strong women of the day. This is a woman who happens across men, considers the possibility of a relationship with them, then feels her way through the rest of life. "You're not my boyfriend/I don't want a boyfriend" she asserts in the first line of "Trouble Over Me," "I don't want you for life/but don't we get along fine." The rest of her album explores life and love in much this same way. This is a real woman, a complex woman, one with a life and friends as well as a man.

Tift Merritt's BRAMBLE ROSE is an amazing debut album showcasing the phenomenal talent of one of music's finest rising stars. In this day and age when traditional country and folk music seems to be receiving a surge in popularity, I am hopeful that this tremendous talent will receive the attention she so well deserves. Check out this album and prepare to be moved.

More info about Tift Merritt

Grant Peeples "Down Here in the County" (2007)

2010-07-14T08:00:00.001+02:00

A LONG WALK DOWN A GRAVEL ROAD

In 1995 Grant Peeples divested himself of what he owned in America and moved to a remote Caribbean island off the coast of Nicaragua. After eleven years of official ex-patriot status, he sold the small hotel he had built there and returned to his native North Florida. And ever since, he’s been writing and singing songs about what he found and faced upon his return home.

Down Here in the County, Grant Peebles debut-album from 2007, speaks in a clean but brooding Americana sound. He’s a finger-in-your-eye songwriter. Biting, edgy and irreverent. Singing his thinking-man’s songs in an articulate twang and growl. Part Prine, part McMurtry, part Che Guevara. Environmentally and politically charged, and yet there’s poignant love songs, too. All of it swinging and crashing from the wry and witty…to the dark and angry.

Grant is on a roll here, painting evocative pictures of the New American landscape. Writers like this are hard to come by. Listening to this record was like taking a long walk down a gravel road with an authentic Leftneck. If Kitty Wells and Lefty Frizell's daughter married John Prine, and they had a son that married the daughter of Kris Kristopherson and Lucinda Williams, and they were to have a child----it would probably make music kinda like Grant Peeples.

More info about Grant Peebles

Doll by Doll "Gypsy Blood" (1979)

2010-07-13T09:00:00.003+02:00

THE LOST MASTERPIECE

"Gypsy Blood" by Doll By Doll is the lost masterpiece of British rock, by the greatest band you've never heard of. First released in 1979, this lush classic of near-psychotic beauty has everything you could ever want from a rock album.

A widescreen, windswept epic, featuring layered, micro-detailed arrangements, it sweeps from the tender to the terrifying, often within a few bars.

The playing is elegantly syncopated, technically impeccable, darkly dramatic. The singing is pure mercury and silver, band leader Jackie Leven's voice gliding effortlessly from baritone to falsetto, improbably lifted through the bloody guitars and hammering drums by Beach Boy harmonies and gospel choirs.

And the songs: well, the songs are stunning, weirdly constructed, richly melodic and boldly lyrical, beautiful, poetic songs about seeking meaning amid the harshness of life. With the grandeur of Dark Side of the Moon, the strangeness of Forever Changes and the bleak beauty of The Bends, it really is as good as any album ever made.

Utterly out of time amid the post-punk fires and new-wave angles of the late 1970s, it came out on a small label, Automatic, to good reviews and meagre sales. Doll By Doll did not much help their own case with their belligerent, challenging attitude to audiences and critics.

Gypsy Blood sounds as good now as it did then. So good, in fact, that it is baffling that it failed to turn Leven into a rock god, but he acknowledges that it was probably the making of him. "The bitterness of the defeat was a true bitterness. But it's that salting of wounds that, frankly, we all need in our life."

Word, Jakie Leven.

Doll by Doll "Remember" (1979)

2010-07-12T09:00:00.001+02:00

THE BAND THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

The only time I saw Doll By Doll was in August 1979 at Reading Rock Festival. I had gone there looking forward to seeing the latest New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) bands. I came away with one lasting memory. Doll By Doll.

Four figures in black playing the most incredible rock music I'd ever heard. Following this I soon bought their first single "The Palace Of Love", followed by "Remember", which is still my fave Doll By Doll album followed each year by "Gypsy Blood", "Doll BY Doll" and finally "Grand Passion". Each one a classic in its own right.

Great musicianship and songs with lots of dynamics and brilliant if somewhat disturbing at times lyrics sung to perfection by Jackie Leven. They could be a quite terrifying group, a swaggering bunch of hard-drinking, drug-taking, borderline psychotics in their late twenties who revelled in their otherness. They had a cult following, but made many enemies. When their masterpiece flopped, the band shifted labels before eventually breaking up.

They were a band that changed my life. They should have been big! All my friends didn't like them, so I dumped my friends! Get this album! You can be left in no doubt regarding how wonderful "Remember" is.

More info about Doll by Doll

Johnny Dowd "Wrong Side of Memphis" (1998)

2010-07-11T09:00:00.003+02:00

WELCOME TO THE WRONG SIDE OF TOWN

Well here it is. The moment when the screwed up gothic country of Johnny Dowd was first unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Dowd was touching fifty when Wrong Side Of Memphis was released and you can't help believing he needed to live a life before all this bizarre material could be given a voice. Combining haunting images with minimalistic guitar and and drums, this album suceeds in territory both strange and eery.

Johnny Dowd's voice creeps out like a snake in the gravel: part Tom Waits, part Jim White, and wavery like a wet dixie cup in the wind. The songs, filled with murder, betrayal and loneliness, are expertly crafted and show a life overflowing with experience. Stand out tracks like "Average Guy" (in which Dowd explores a psyche that's anything BUT average) and "Welcome Jesus" have a fairly stripped down sound that really showcases Johnny Dowd's vocal stylings while providing a stark contrast to the strange subject matter of his lyrics.

Fans of Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and Patti Smith should relish in the oddity that is Johnny Dowd. The music is the punctuation: the exclamations, the questions, the strident full stops. It's used for emphasis and embellishment. And that's because the power of Johnny Dowd is firmly rooted in his lyrics.

The album opens with the fittingly titled "Murder" which is so raw in execution it could have been penned and performed by Robert Johnson back in the thirties. Then there's the ragged "Papa, Oh, Papa" with Dowd's voice sounding so cracked and ancient it could easily be a death bed confession from a man twice as old. The death row lament is brilliantly captured in "Ft. Worth, Texas" with the line "I won't say I'm lonely cause there's too many voices in my head" resonating long after the final breath has been drawn. Or how about the warped love / hate of "Just Like A Dog": "Like a needle in a junkie's arm. Like a blanket keeps a baby warm. Like slop to a Georgia hog. You were to me what sunlight is to fog." Not exactly the conventional way of saying "I love(d) you!" Finally there's "Average Guy" which sounds like it was recorded in the darkest of cellars with Dowd banging the heating pipes with a spanner for company. When he sings "I'm so full of paranoia I must be in love. I’m an average guy. I don’t mean anybody any harm" would you believe him?

All of that and Wrong Side Of Memphis has still more than half its length to run, with the excellent "Ballad Of Frank And Jesse James", "First There Was" and "Thanksgiving Day" still to come. And not to forget: With "John Deere Yeller" there's even a beautiful lovesong on this great album. (thanks Korla)

If you like your music to reside in the darkest recesses of a tortured soul then Johnny Dowd is definitely for you and Wrong Side Of Memphis is the perfect place to start. When the album closes with the line "welcome Jesus to my suffering mind" there was never a truer word spoken.

More info about Johnny Dowd

Jackie Leven "Lovers At The Gun Club" (2008)

2010-07-11T00:21:00.001+02:00

A TERIFFIC STARTING POINT TO GET TO KNOW JACKIE

The most criminally overlooked talent in popular music delivers a album full of surprises, even to a seasoned fan, making "Lovers At The Gun Club" a strong contender for Jackie's best album yet.

The title track, drawled by soulmate Johnny Dowd, presents a swaggering man out for kicks before showing him to be violent, screwed up and alienated from family and a past lover. Fareham Confidential is brilliantly observed from the most mundane details of a trip to his local burger truck. Images such as The Innocent Railway's woman remembered in a blue icy halo light up the listener's imagination from start to finish. Even the odd practice of including a song by another artist (the excellent David Childers' appropriate Heart In My Soul) fits here - it's also used as an imagined song from a radio in his late dad's car in a scrapyard run by Johnny Dowd and used as a confessional box.

It's really frustrating that after more than 30 years making music, Jackie still remains a cult without, for example, one appearance on British TV (Jools Holland et al, please rectify!). With folk making a comeback, Jackie's name seems never dropped. But if you're new to this wonderful voice, make "Lovers At The Gun Club" a teriffic starting point to get to know one of the few genuinely poetic and soulful performers in popular music. You won't regret it.

More info about Jackie Leven

Slim Cessna's Auto Club "The Bloudy Tenent Truth & Peace" (2004)

2010-07-10T09:00:00.001+02:00

SACRED, SARDONIC AND TERRIFYING

"This is the country band that plays the bar at the end of the world." - JELLO BIAFRA

From the music to the lyrics, Slim Cessna's Auto Club redefines americana, the lyrics are like nothing I've ever heard. Many of the song plots take you back to much earlier times, its just brilliant, from the opening track, "This is how we do things in the country", the theme is set, and I found myself wondering if they were being satirical, or glorifying a very backward southern gentleman.

Behind Slim Cessna's hollering, yodeling, and whooping vocal style is a solid group of musicians including Rumley, who plays steel guitar, organ, and the like; Danny Pants, bass; Ordy on drums; and the one and only Rev. Dwight Pentacost on electric and double neck guitar. To the side of Slim: that's Munly Munly, vocals. Of course that's not all he does; like Slim and the rest of the band, he plays different instruments.

But Munly could be seen as a mascot of sorts, as well. He's a living, walking embodiment of the garish aesthetic that solidifies SCAC. With cowboy boots, belt, and hat, he resembles a countryman's ghost. All in all, SCAC is the last fleeting glimpse of the spirit of American country music - twisted, reinterpreted, and modernized. This ain't no Toby Keith.

The lyrics: the backbone of SCAC. This band would not be what it is if it weren't for the stories told. This is where Munly comes in, who is a published author. Stories range from apocalyptic visions, to country-minded backwardness, to Indian conversions, to an unwelcome Government warmongering. Although it all sounds very black and white, the band is extremely soft-spoken; the lyrics, like I said, are rich, therefore the subtext is truly what counts towards the story.

Get this just as much for the words as the music, and just as much the singing as the words, a renaissance production from true renaissance gentleman, like nothing I've ever heard or seen, nothing but praise.

More info about Slim Cessna's Auto Club

Jeremy Fisher "Goodbye Blue Monday" (2006)

2010-07-09T08:00:00.000+02:00

ENJOYABLE, BRAIN-MELTINGLY CATCHY SONGS

Paul Simon needs to get himself to a doctor and order up a series of X-rays, because someone has apparently stolen one of his ribs and used it to create a singer/songwriter named Jeremy Fisher. And not the post-midlife crisis Paul Simon, either.

Drawing a line from one artist to another is a hallmark of the lazy critic, but in this case, the comparisons are close to unavoidable; Simon’s influence on Fisher’s work transcends your typical level of RIYL stab-in-the-dark familiarity, to the point that a number of the songs on Fisher’s American debut, Goodbye Blue Monday, sound almost like lost songs from one of Simon’s stellar early ‘70s solo albums. And this isn’t a knock on Fisher, not in the slightest – yes, the vocal similarity is plain, and yes, a handful of his chord changes are wholesale Simon rips, but what Fisher really captures here is the feeling of a talented songwriter confidently coming into his own. The album is a solid block of effortlessly enjoyable, brain-meltingly catchy songs that only dig their hooks deeper with further listens.

And oh yeah, it works well as an album, too. On nine out of ten 2007 releases, a song as hooky and flawlessly compact as leadoff track “Scar That Never Heals” – think “Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard” turned sideways, with a dash of “Blister in the Sun” – would be the undisputed prize in the Cracker Jack box, a hit single in waiting among filler cuts. But Fisher keeps knocking ‘em out of the park – there’s the singalong swagger of “Cigarette” and “High School,” the deceptively soothing “Lay Down (Ballad of Rigoberto Alpizar),” the effortlessly catchy title track…the list goes on and on; in fact, there really isn’t a bum song in the bunch.

The album’s production – handled by Canadian pop icon Hawksley Workman – adds to the material’s timeless vibe, buttressing Fisher’s hooks with an assortment of classic pop gewgaws including handclaps, xylophone, accordion, and gang background vocals that defy you not to break out in a big, stupid grin. Fisher’s American label, Wind-Up, has had a lot to answer for since unleashing bands like Creed and Evanescence on an unsuspecting public; with Goodbye Blue Monday, they’ve begun inching the scales of musical justice back in their favor.

More info about Jeremy Fisher

Michael J. Sheehy "Sweet Blue Gene" (2000)

2010-07-08T09:00:00.001+02:00

A TOUR DE FORCE OF SONGWRITING

Set within a decidedly bleak lyrical landscape of fraught relationships, crises of faith, betrayal, and death, Sweet Blue Gene runs the musical gamut from lingering ballads to industrial waltzes—a diverse repertoire that gestures to an equally broad array of influences, among them This Mortal Coil, PJ Harvey, Barry Adamson, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and Hank Williams.

Former frontman for the Dream City Film Club, Michael J. Sheehy's solo debut strips down the murkiness and aggression of that band, and strives toward a brittle, more personal experience. Instead of Dream City Film Club's all-or-nothing attack, Sheehy relegates the darker side of his persona into perhaps three of the ten songs here, and it's the other seven songs that are the true revelations. Sheehy packs so much emotion into his mostly delicate vocals that his voice reads like a diary into his soul. In the place of Dream City Film Club's squalid guitars are violins, cellos, and pianos that sweep around and complement Sheehy's confident delivery. With Sheehy himself playing more than half of the instruments, Sweet Blue Gene is quite an accomplishment.

“Oh Sweet Jesus” is a chugging, harmonica-driven, gospel-blues swamp thing. This tale of abortion, insanity and remorse gives Nick Cave a run for his money in the noir stakes and is more chilling insofar as it’s shorn of the camp excesses that often make such brilliant comedy of Cave’s work.

The hypnotic, stripped-down funk of “Everything is Beautiful” conjures up an unsettling sense of menace which undermines its cheery title. Similarly threatening is the unusual “Auditory Nerves,” a dark ambient piece looped around a monologue on the physiological and neurological workings of fear—think Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier” crossed with Hawkwind’s “Sonic Attack.”

Elsewhere, Sheehy takes the opportunity to get a few things off his chest, telling it like it is on the brooding cocktail blues of “Cross.” Alluding to the kind of sleaze and sordidness which Marc Almond would document in all its gory, shameful detail, “Cross” is a weary, “I’ve-had-it-up-to-here,” final brush-off directed at that friend we’ve all had who tries to take over our life with his or her problems. Much more aggressive is “I Shame You With My Kisses,” a song about betrayal which proves that revenge is a dish best served up in manic, fairground, 3/4 time—musically like Colin Newman’s “The Classic Remains”—complete with distorted and vaguely deranged vocals.

Although the album as a whole is a tour de force of songwriting, most compelling are the simple, melodic tracks that emphasize what is perhaps the essence of Sheehy’s talent: namely, an ability to articulate a highly subjective vision—often imbued with raw emotion—and to render that personal moment vivid through a deceptively straightforward musical framework.

On “Just Love Me,” with its minimal, taut guitar, rustle of keyboards and percussion, Sheehy’s plaintive vocals respond—not without irony—to a lover’s infidelity. “Daddy Is a Good Man” revisits childhood and the manipulations of an estranged father, its understated piano and vocal melody placing it somewhere between This Mortal Coil and Pink Floyd.

In its most powerful moments, Sweet Blue Gene resonates with the affective tenor of some of the finest hymns. Notable in this regard is the version of the Virgin Prunes’ “Sweet Home Under White Clouds”—made all the more poignant by its almost stationary, mournful piano and haunting strings. However, the real standout is “I Can’t Comfort You Anymore,” on which Sheehy’s measured, soulful vocals and simple guitar accompaniment coalesce into a resigned, intimate meditation on matters of faith.

Compared with a great deal of independent and alternative fare whose lyrics never venture far from the easy confines of fashionable self-reflexivity or cynicism, Sheehy is bold in his willingness to tackle pain and melancholy without glorifying misery. Instead, he conveys something meaningful but ultimately inarticulable. His principle strength resides in an ability to write lyrics that have no pretensions to being poetry, a trap into which many songwriters fall when they do actually attempt to express something of substance, often with the unfortunate result of sounding earnest and sincere in the worst possible ways.

Sheehy knows his place as a songwriter and he knows the place of words in the overall canvas of the song: he neither places excessive weight on his words nor does he dress them in literary devices. Paradoxically—as is the case with the most accomplished songwriters—it’s often not necessary to understand the words independently, since their meaning is rendered in the shape and feel of the music itself and in Sheehy’s richly emotive voice.

In the case of the closing track, “The Licensing Song,” this process becomes wryly ironic. Although the song has a moving sonorous gravity to it—stemming largely from its melodic citation of the hymn “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?”—Sheehy is in fact singing about the sorry state of British pub opening hours and the classic country-music scenario of a man left with no woman and no more booze.

All in all, Michael J. Sheehy’s short—although not particularly sweet—solo debut is a slight masterpiece from a considerable talent and a versatile songwriter.

More info about Michael J. Sheehy

Antic Clay "Hilarious Death Blues" (2007)

2010-07-07T06:00:00.000+02:00

RED GRASS, BLACK PASTURES AND DEEP DARK AMERICANA

When Myssouri disbanded in 2003, Michael Bradley adopted the name Antic Clay and traveled to a friend’s studio in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. From these sessions comes the audacious double-album debut “Hilarious Death Blues”, a title inspired, like the pseudonym Antic Clay, by the dark westerns of reknowned American novelist Cormac McCarthy.

A slow dark ride across the scorched hide of America. Think Johnny Cash riding a skeletal mule to Hell. Not without moments of beauty and hope, however. Antic Clay take us along on a long hard ride.

This album is an epic collection dusty roads, wrong turns and bad decisions. Musically it's simple and to the point. Guitar, Harmonica, voice. But intellectually its dense. history and writing are a constant reference, but one that is obscure enough that most probably won't reconize it. Here is a song named for an old folk singer, there is an old chanty. The title of the album is a literary reference as is the artist's new name Antic Clay. But for all its love and understanding of olden things Hilarious Death Blues is a modern folk album. It's most apparent in the wry humor of Non-Prophet Blues.

Evoking a time gone by, yet sustaining a sense of timelessness, "Hilarious Death Blues" is Antic Clay’s intense and striking debut. The music finds its base in a dark Americana and blues, implying a country and western that rings more true than the music produced by “country stars.”

The music takes the listener on a journey through a desolate America, through ‘red grass and black pastures,’ through blood and sadness, searching for salvation. In fact, the double album does pair quite nicely with the world of (the referenced) McCarthy’s masterpiece, “Blood Meridian.” Despite the fact that this review is saturated with words such as dark, sadness, violence and so on, the album is not lost on humor, albeit sometimes pitch black, but other times somewhat playful. As a whole the album’s design is compelling, but the individual songs are just as so.

“Look Down the Dark Barrel,” “Tithing Blues” and “Hey, John” are full of swagger and intensity. The listener must prepare for the deep melancholy found on “Sago Mine” and “The Table of Souls,” where the guitar and harmonic sound grieved with loneliness. In certain songs such as the superbly rousing, “Roll! Black Ocean!” one can hear the Irish influence found in traditional American music. The excellent “Non-Prophet Blues” would fit right at home on Johnny Cash’s American Recordings series. Then there is “Violence Is Yours,” which in its own simple and unassuming way is actually breathtaking.

A note on the instrumentation which consists mostly of guitar, harmonica and Bradley’s commanding yet sensitive vocals: while somewhat sparse, these songs never seem like “stripped down versions” of themselves. They feel full and satisfying—from the wonderfully percussive guitar to the reverb on the vocals. It’s apparent this is a musician who knows what he is doing—someone making the best choices for his songs. Hilarious Death Blues is formidable document, the sparse but unique packaging make complete the experience by providing the listener with a beautiful artifact to hold in hand.

More info about Antic Clay

C-60 Special: Endless Highway Vol. 3. - A Crooked Road

2010-07-06T12:00:00.003+02:00

A LOW NOISE SPECIAL

Here's volume three in the series of C-60's favourites. This time around the music shifts from the soft chords and words of Darell Scott, through the sadness of The Sad Riders, till the tough, rough music of Tim Barry. But everybody has the road in common. They might be riding on different highways, but be sure they gonna make music out of it.

If I have to pick some highlights, I have to say The Bean Picers Union with "Photograph", Frank Carillo with "With her pajamas on" and Kate Mann with "Things look different when the sun goes down". If you ask me next week, god knows! This is 20 great songs, if you ask me (so please stop asking!)

This is some of the artists we have been introduced to over the past month, and it's a pleasure to present it to the people who follows C-60's blog. You will find some of the artists if you look in our archive and some will soon be explored closer.

Every now and then a new compilation will come our way, and Volume Four is already in progress.

Enjoy!

Track-List:

01. Darrell Scott - A Crooked Road (4:11) 02. Douglas Greer - Damn sure gone (3:37) 03. The Sad Riders - Evil (2:07) 04. Ruth Moody - Cold Outside (4:14) 05. Phantom Puercos - Automat (4:10) 06. Wes Weddell - By the side of the lake (3:36) 07. Chuck Ragan - Rotterdam (2:32) 08. Tim Barry - Church of Level Track (3:28) 09. Jason Eady - A Conversation With Mr. Williams (4:52) 10. Jackie Greene - Love Song; 2:00 am (5:05) 11. Frank Carillo - With Her Pajamas On (3:15) 12. Felice Brothers - Rockefeller Druglaw Blues (5:14) 13. The Bean Pickers Union - Photograph (3:19) 14. Gordie Tentrees - Alfred (3:06) 15. Antic Clay - Look Down the Dark Barrel (5:06) 16. Weinland - Sunken Eyes (3:57) 17. Blanche - Last Year's Leaves (4:21) 18. Kate Mann - Things Look Different When The Sun Goes Down (3:19) 19. Rob Lutes - I Know A Girl (4:13) 20. Ben Nichols - The Last Pale Light In The West (2:48)

Half Acre Day "Primo De La Rocket Suit" (2002)

2010-07-06T09:00:00.003+02:00

THE SPLENDOR OF MUSIC EXPLORATION

Half Acre Day is an amalgam of space and time. For 14 years the band has been experimenting with an alchemy of sound and words.

If you think hard about how you relate to music and your relationship with the songs and albums that you love, you find that the pieces that truly mean the most to you are the ones that speak honestly to your heart. They use sound to move ideas and emotions into your head space and re-kindle chemical reactions that you crave. Typically the music is the vessel and the lyrics are the cargo and before they dock with you and off load, you get to imagine how the journey went.

This album represents what the absolute very best in songwriting is. It's the marriage of the vessel and the cargo. It's the emotion and the truth. It's the need you have and the dreams you dream. In a world where we have pushed the art of songwriting to the wayside and retreated to the quick and easy, "Primo De La Rocket Suit" pulls you back, with intelligent songwriting and craftsmanship. It's a record that is daring, yet accessible without being full of itself in the artsy fartsy way. It invites you to the splendor of music exploration and each song takes you by the hand and shows you something better than what you've been listening to.

Musical swapsies ensues a lot with H.A.D.; one glance at the inlay will show you that any one member is capable of handling four or more tasks, and will do so on various tracks, keeping things fresh and styles either slightly or to a much greater extent, different.

I don't know what the hell they are, but each track on "Primo de la Rocket Suit" is an insular piece, and I don't think any one could really be confused with another (something which seems to be apparent on the EP in one or two cases). In fact, sometimes a track will end in a completely different way to its beginning. The result is an album to which it is a pleasure to listen.

The album is easy enough to listen to when you're tired and you just want a little music, but it also can hold up under a closer scrutiny, for when you'd like some intelligent lyrics. Half Acre Day play infectious indie-pop. They make songs that are vivid, catchy, creepy, weird, wonderful, horrible, and beautiful.

More info about Half Acre Day

Cary Hudson "Cool Breeze" (2005)

2010-07-05T08:00:00.000+02:00

SOME GREAT DOG HOWLS

Howard Hawks famously said that to make a good movie, you need three good scenes and no bad ones. Maybe the same can be said of albums. This solo effort by Cary Hudson certainly has, by my count, four great songs with the rest being very, very good.

Call it Exile From Blue Mountain, with an emphasis on the blues. Since the dissolution of both his marriage and the highly-regarded band he shared with his former wife, Laurie Stirratt, Cary Hudson has tapped even deeper into the musical wellspring of his native Mississippi. With his second solo release, he draws inspiration from the likes of John Hurt (on the playful sensuality of this album’s title track) and Fred McDowell (the slicing slide guitar of “Haunted House Blues”) on a collection that barely acknowledges the country side of alt-country.

This is easily the most accomplished of all of Cary's work that I am aware of. There is not a bad song and he touches all the bases that we have come to know him for. Alt-country/alt rock gems, blues rockers and acoustic blues and folk and some great dog howls.

Fans of Blue Mountain won't be disappointed in this soloalbum. Cary has stepped it up a notch, and turned up the distortion a bit, but his old time country and blues background are still here. The guy can flat out play some mean guitar, and also write a great song. If you can catch Cary live, don't miss it. He is a treasure who needs to get the recognition he deserves.

More info about Cary Hudson

Blue Mountain "Dog Days" (1995)

2010-07-04T09:00:00.002+02:00

MUSIC FOR LAZY SUMMER AFTERNOONS

It's nice to know that justice occasionally prevails in the music business, that art is not always victim to commerce. Take a talented husband and wife duo (Cary Hudson on guitar/mandolin/vocals and Laurie Stirratt on bass/vocals) from Oxford, Mississippi, send them to L.A. to seek their fortune, and what usually happens? In this case, they spend a disillusioning year-but don't sell out-move back to Oxford, pick up a drummer (Frank Coutch), and sign a record deal with major distribution for the release of "Dog Days". Cool.

Blue Mountain mine the same laidback country-folk-rock sound that is prompting indie bands the nation over to affect drawls and add country influences to their music, thanks to the success of the "No Depression" movement, led by the likes of Son Volt, Wilco, and the Jayhawks. (Not that we're against the trend, understand. A twang will beat a whine six hands out of seven.) Of course, playing this type of music is not as easy as putting on a beat-up hat and hiring a steel guitar player, and one listen to Blue Mountain will tell you that they're the genuine article.

Hudson's unassuming Delta twang is perfectly suited to a high and lonesome acoustic ballad. "Eyes of a Child" and "Mountain Girl" are relaxed tunes that reminisce about the simple joys of rural life. Direct and simple, they include beatific country harmonies and wheezing harmonica, but also have enough rough edges to keep them interesting. Elsewhere, Blue Mountain pays folksy homage to fellow southerners Elvis Presley ("Epitaph") and Jimmy Carter ("Jimmy Carter") without getting too sentimental.

Beneath its friendly veneer, Dog Days also has plenty of bite. Reprising Neil Young's riff from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Ohio," "Let's Ride" perfectly captures the willful abandon and promise of the open road. The chugging "Hippy Hotel" features chicken pickin' guitars and poignant lyrics that lament land developers who are tearing down a decrepit hotel ("When they clear away the wreck/They're going to raise the roof on a discotheque/Mirror balls and woofers cranked to 10"). "Soul Sister" has some Outlaws-style (you heard right) guitar work and tells a tale of lost young love. The wistful "Let's Go Runnin'" features bluesy slide work and forlorn lyrics ("Have you ever had a stranger/On the corner of your bed?").

With strong melodic skills, sure-handed lyrics, and fine instrumental interplay, Dog Days is a good choice to get you through them lazy summer afternoons.

More info about Blue Mountain

Say Zuzu "Highway Signs & Driving Songs" (1995)

2010-07-03T02:00:00.002+02:00

BAD NAME, PURE GOLD

Say Zuzu is a roots rock band originally based in Newmarket, New Hampshire. The group was formed in 1992 by brothers Jon and James Nolan, and their longtime friend Cliff Murphy. Though they achieved little commercial success in America, the band developed a strong following in Italy where they toured for several years

Great rock'n'roll doesnt always have a great name. For nearly ten years, Say ZuZu has been making some of the best independent roots rock in spite of a name that causes many to think they're a world beat group.

1995's "Highway Signs and Driving Songs" marked the moment when the young NH roots-rockers Say ZuZu found their sound - an alt-country album in the days before alt-country was a dirty word in the music industry. The innocent, heartfelt and often dreamy americana soundscapes on HS&DS capture the magical experience of a band on a magical pilgrimage to Tennessee to soak up some of soul in the southern soil. Having Bradley Hartman (Willie Nelson, Emmy Lou Harris, Rosanne Cash) on board didn't hurt either.

The result was an endearing and heartflet album that compelled the Italian roots magazine Buscadero to proclaim the band "The Best Band in America without a recording contract." Subsequent touring in Italy only solidified their status as cult heroes in the country. Their successes in Italy eventually led to otherselsewhere around Europe and ultimately a recording contract with Germany's Blue Rose Records.

Cliff Murphy now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife and daughter. He plays music locally with his backing band, the Massachusetts Trust Company. Jon Nolan remains on the seacoast of New Hampshire where he continues to play music and make solo-records.

More info about Say Zuzu

Jon Nolan "When the Summers Lasted Long" (2005)

2010-07-02T05:06:00.002+02:00

FOREVER SUMMER

In my mind I find myself once again on a desolate stretch of Route 66 between Seligman, and Williams, AZ. Both front windows are down-no AC, and the breeze ruffles my hair, and the wirr of my tires plays counter point to the music coming through my speakers. You can hear traces of Roger McGuinn, Jackson Brown, Glen Frey,, and others, along with the stamp of Jon Nolan, as he carries on the legacy of these masters, and blends in a freshness, and pure influence of his own making. Great for driving, singing along with, or just kicking back and listening. A true collection for everyman, and a must for anyone who loves the lure of the road, and needs a great companion to take along.

As for Nolan’s Summers, they’re seasons I’d like to spend a lot of time in. Fans of Say ZuZu (Nolans old band) will find themselves transported. The heart-felt purity of Nolan’s voice comes through in waves of warm sunshine, and even the packaging captures that hint of nostalgia his songs engender even in their first listen. You ever hear a Smiths song and tear up just a bit over the first girl in Doc Martens you fell for? "Mary (Won’t You Come Along)" had me swooning similarly at the two-minute mark.

The darker themes just throw the sparkle into high relief. In the best tradition of Brian Wilson, Jonathan Edwards, Sam Phillips or Tom Petty. There's just an unexplainable quality to this record that makes one feel good.

Keep it up, Jon ! Where do I sign up for the fan club?

More info about Joe Nolan

The Bean Pickers Union "Potlatch" (2007)

2010-07-01T09:00:00.000+02:00

WEALTH OF MUSICAL GOODIES

When I was thinking of selling the car that's served me for the last 80,000 miles, I took it to a mechanic friend to give it the once over. He took it out for a run and when he got back he didn't say much, just nodded at it as if to say he was impressed despite himself and eventually pronounced: 'That's a whole car, that is.'

I knew just what he meant, and his summation of that car's virtues were brought to mind about the fifth time I played 'Potlatch'. Ten tracks that clock in at under 35 minutes in total don't sound much like value for money but this recent trend for greater quality control pleases me; I have more than enough cd's on my shelf that outstay their welcome as every last recorded morsel is thrown on. The Bean Picker's Union is essentially songwriter/guitarist/singer Chuck Melchin, with strong support from Eric Lichter on piano, bass, drums and production. A fair host of other musicians appear in the course of things as we go from the quiet, reflective, acoustic sound of 'Home' to the intense driving rock with a full band on 'Warrior'. It took me about 10 seconds of the first track, “Photograph,” to get the feeling of Potlatch. Those first few piano notes set the tone for a stunning debut from Bean Pickers Union. “Photograph” examines a town torn apart by a flood and they lyrics combined with the music makes the town come alive. The music absorbs you and places you at the scene that singer/songwriter, Chuck Melchin, paints for you.

Otherwise, I think Chuck Melchin's a guy in love with guitars; there's a huge range of guitar sounds on 'Potlatch', and they're all good. There's Eric Lichter's slide guitar, dominating the atmosphere on 'Reaper', a modern murder ballad; there's Steve Saunders' e-bow guitar on the mighty 'Jenny Anne' that closes the album and there's the beautiful interplay of Chuck and Eric on assorted guitars and mandolin on 'Bride'. This last song has more than a hint of Led Zep in acoustic mode about it, and who's to complain about that? Lyrically, though, Chuck's a long way from Led Zep territory, with thoughtful, individual reflections on events and people that catch his interest. I guess he's covering similar territory to Loomer, rock'n'rolling with a country heart. At times, as I listen, The Silos or The Walkabouts are brought to mind and I'd say 'Potlatch' is as good as anything by those guys. It's a 'whole album', carefully wrought, not a duff track on it and with a wealth of musical goodies for you to uncover.

More info about The Bean Pickers Union

Hem "Funnel Cloud" (2006)

2010-06-30T09:00:00.000+02:00

WHINING SWEETLY

New York based folksters Hem sound like an exercise in restraint. Without ever taking to their instruments with an aggressive hand, they create emotionally potent songs by pulling in various instruments at just the right times. The delicate compositions sound like the most fragile and beautiful flower you have ever seen. Hem's power comes as much from the strikingly crisp vocals of Sally Ellyson as it does from the expansive band, who weave a lovely acoustic folk web around listeners' heads; encapsulating them for the entire scenic ride of Funnel Cloud.

Opening with the breathtaking beauty of the slowly twirling "We'll Meet Along The Way", Hem and Ellyson reel listeners in with an intimate sound that is nearly impossible to resist. Acoustic based at heart, Hem relies heavily on the warmth of lap steel guitar for setting the comforting tone of the album. Whining sweetly in the background, the lap steel slow dances with the piano on "He Came To Me", as the stunning melodies of Ellyson's vocals and rich acoustic folk tones dig their hooks deep into listeners' ears. As wonderful as Ellyson's vocals are, the instrumental "The Burnt Over District" proves that the power of Hem does not rely solely in the vocals; sounding as compelling without the vocals as they are with them.

Just as "District" has tricked listeners into nearly believing they could listen to an Ellyson-less Hem, "Resivoir" sweeps in to remind you of what you would be missing. Acoustic guitar and lap steel draw a breezy country road for Ellyson to drive down with soothing vocals. Plucking along like a summer sky floating by in stop-motion, "Funnel Cloud" is as light and dreamy as you would expect a song with 'cloud' in the title. With tender intimate verses that lead into a swelling chorus, "Hotel Fire" is a perfect example of how Hem creates a wave of rousing emotion with instruments rather than aggression.

For all the laid back folk goodness contained within Cloud, Hem is equally effective when stepping up the pace a bit. With fiddles shimmying in the background, "Too Late To Turn Back Now" is a gorgeous end-of-the-road classic country song, delivered in matter-of-fact fashion, making it stand out. Confident vocals by Ellyson and the bluesy tones of the harmonica and acoustic backdrop drive home "The Pills Stop Working", selling listeners well before the horns come in and roll around with the jangling piano. The laid-back folk chill verses of "Not California" gallop steadily into a powerful emotional hook that Ellyson belts out before quickly fading back to the passive verses. Ellyson's pleading lines, "I'm the one who wants to be with you tonight / And I'm the one who wants to be the one you're with tonight" bring the song to its heartbreaking conclusion. Wonderfully mesmerizing, "California" proves to be the best of the album.

The only issue with Cloud comes rather late, in the Carpenters infused sleepers "Great Houses Of New York" and "Curtains". Both songs turn to easy listening snore-fests because of the lonely piano backing. Ellyson's vocals are stunning, as always, but the music feels a bit flat. At fourteen songs long, Hem could have tightened up the album by leaving these songs off. Only a few songs later, "I'll Dream Of You Tonight" provides a glimpse of what "Houses" and "Curtains" could have been, had Hem incorporated the signature lush folk sounds to them. Still an incredibly strong album, these few sleepy songs are all that keeps Funnel Clouds from being essential listening.

More info about Hem

Tim Barry "Rivanna Junction" (2006)

2010-06-29T06:00:00.007+02:00

SOUTHERN INFLUENCE

Let's clear the air right now. Tim Barry is widely recognizable for fronting the south's mightiest hardcore band, Avail. However, other than the distinctive vocals, you won't find much comparison to Tim's main gig within his solo debut full-length, Rivanna Junction.

The album kicks off with "Trash Inspirations," one of the more upbeat tracks that immediately establishes the overall country/bluegrass tone of the album. The twang from Josh Small on the resonator guitar provides the extra bluegrass appeal to this song, and Tim's vocal range goes from gruff to harmonic melody and back several times. Following is the slower and more personally reflective "Avoiding Catonic Surrender." Lyrically, a vibe similar to Tim's Avail songs is noticeable, however, the apathetic undertone and straightforward abrasiveness is dramatically mellowed by the soothing violin of Tim's younger sister, Caitlin, who is also the subject of the fictatious story in the next song, "Dog Bumped," which could be the best track on the album. Tim sings of being locked away for the death of his sister's abusive ex-husband in a manner very similar to the late, great Johnny Cash. I won't give away the ending, but here's a couplet pair that just stuck out to me:

Well, I took my last breath of fresh free air, found that piece of shit asleep in his relaxin' chair, I hit him good, a solid right, a solid left, And forced him to his feet for his last breath

What really sets this album apart is the eclectic variety in the songs, tempos and subject matter. As previously mentioned, Josh Small frequently contributes on the dobro, and the family spirit is kept in tact with his sister Caitlin on violin, and brother James on piano. Tim also joins with instrumentation to accompany his vocal duties, handling duties on the acoustic guitar. On "C'mon Quinn," he is once again joined by sister Caitlin for a love song reaching into the depths of care-free love; tales of train-hopping and carrying beers in a bag while riding a bike paint quite the vivid picture.

Tim Barry seems to have taken a very relaxed approach in this effort. None of the songs seem forced, conceited or half-assed -- symptoms that seem to plague many frontmen opting to take the solo road. Instead, Rivanna Junction is a humble offering of life, love, and a few good stories to entertain. The influence of country, bluegrass and folk are all present and blended in a manner that just hums of the obvious southern influence. For those unaware, the south has more to offer than racism, bible-thumping and backwoods/toothless/both rednecks. Lost in the midst of these stereotypes are the amazing qualities southern life has to offer: genuine hospitality, amazing food, beautiful landscapes and a much slower and relaxed way of living. But the summer humidity is horrific...

More info about Tim Barry

More info about Avail (Barrys old h.c.band)

Michael McNevin "In the Rough" (2008)

2010-06-28T10:04:00.005+02:00

LIGHT AS A FEATHER

I'm a steady rollin man, and I roll both night and day - Michael McNevin

There is something truly remarkable, heartwarming, inspiring, and compelling about the gypsy soul California songwriter Michael McNevin. He stands like a missing link between the 60s folk poets and the slicked up market conscious singer songwriters of today. He records and releases his own records, has a small independent booking agent, and covers many of the states every year gigging.

Lot of singer songwriters I know have ancillary angles that fill out the schedule, widen the profile and pad the bank account a little. Some give lessons, songwriting workshops or other programs in schools, sell poetry or books at gigs, artwork or jewelry. But McNevin is probably the only notorious Etch A Sketch artist in the pack. You laugh--but check it out. He sometimes has his Etch A Sketch art photographed, exhibited, and sold. There's something fascinating about that approach, because it's usually intended to be erased, like the breathtaking sand mandalas of the Tibetan monks or the sand paintings of the Navajos. He is also known to take his art into the schools and do special programs with kids. In his songs, McNevin paints scenes and situations as clear as his Etch A Sketch compositions. He uses plain and unpretentious language and yet vividly creates a reality instantly recognizable to all of us.

"In The Rough" is mostly just the excellent new-folk picking of McNevin, and matter of fact, very conversational poetry and melody about life, love, and work, without making the slightest deal whatsoever about any of it. None of it's overthought, oversung, overplayed, or overproduced. It's a lovely mixture of a well-seasoned performer and traveler with a young turn of mind. McNevin picks up songs like furniture picks up dust.

More info about Michael McNevin

Antje Duvekot "Big Dream Boulevard" (2006)

2010-06-27T09:00:00.015+02:00

MISS THIS AND IT WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU

Just how good is Antje Duvekot? The Boston Globe picked "Big Dream Boulevard" as the #1 folk release of 2006, above Springsteen. I'm not sure how one could call either Duvekot or Springsteen folk, but who's to argue? The point is that Duvekot produced, with the help of Black Wolf's Ellis Paul and Ralph Jaccodine, a major league album which holds its own against and surpasses most of what is accepted as the cream of today's crop. And they did it alone, without the deep pockets which are seemingly at times the only thing keeping major labels major. God love the album that thrives on the strength of the music. "Big Dream Boulevard" does just that.

Go Now has a bit of the touch that made Audrey Martell's Life Lines CD so great, the chorus one great hook and perfectly produced, from the slightly wavering voice to the funky acoustic guitar and the perfecto background vocals. It is full-on band and makes me want to dance or pound my feet (it is beyond toe-tapping for me).

Diamond On Your Hand again reflects the sound of one of my favorite finds of the past year, that of Oami's Day In the City. Soft and floating with soft piano and (I assume) programmed keyboards toward the backside, it catches the heart and drags it twenty yards, as Emo Phillips would say. The harmonies are haunting. I can't get enough.

Duvekot changes gears on Sex Bandaid, falling in with the best that Linda Thompson or Marianne Faithfull have produced. Eerie and full of reverb and echo, it drags you to the chorus willingly and then thrashes you with the chorus and the band buildup, stacked harmonies beautiful yet demonic. If that intrigues you, how about these lyrics?

Open the floodgates - Throw a sex bandaid on my open wounds - Kiss me, I will swallow my pride - I will swallow my pride - And when you come down, - I will meet you out on the burning fields - For another damn spin on your merry-go-round.

Face it. Marianne and Linda both would kill to come up with stuff that good.

And if you want a song that brings you to tears, Anna does that. An 85 year old lady lies in a hospital dying and her relatvies surround her, but her heart is in 1925 New Orleans with her father and her brother at the Harborfest "and your Daddy will by you something… at the end." Anyone who has watched someone they truly loved slip off this mortal coil will understand. The harmonies send chills up the spine.

Hold On tugs at the same heartstrings, but the depths are your own. If you've never hit bottom emotionally you might not relate, but few of us have not lost our way here and there and Duvekot writes this song for us all. A perfect capper.

In today's chaotic world of music, it won't be easy, but Black Wolf and Duvekot have decided it best to do it on their own. My question, though, is what is she going to do for an encore? "Big Dream Boulevard" is as good as it gets. Miss this and I guarantee it will come back to haunt you.

More info about Antje Duvekot

Tim Grimm "The Back Fields" (2005)

2010-06-26T13:33:00.008+02:00

BACK TO THE RURAL LIFE

Another great piece of Americana writing and playing. In these days of troubled times it’s good to hear the other side of America coming through loud and clear. If you scratch the surface hard enough you will find the real writers shining through.

The music just really tells such great stories, conveys such deep emotion, I don’t know, it just really touched me like nothing has in a long time.

Tim’s songwriting reminds me of Guy Clark. The songwriting is simple,straightforward yet full of poetry. It closely observes everyday life and distills the small moments of joy and pleasure. Grimm’s vocal style also reminds me of Guy Clark’s unassuming way of putting across a song. It’s a voice in service to the lyric.

Tim Grimm reminds us of the authenticity of rural life and it’s heartfelt emotions, a life lived close to nature, in consonance with the cycle of the seasons. In this time we live in, when all seems inauthentic, when our politics are debased by rulers gone mad with power, Tim’s music helps reaffirm my faith in what music should sound like when you put your soul in it.

More info about Tim Grimm

Alastair Moock "Let it Go" (2004)

2010-06-26T08:47:00.005+02:00

WITH RUGGED CLARITY

A great album from raspy-voiced roots-rocker Alastair Moock is another collection of insightful, mostly uptempo songs that often suggest the road-hoaned wisdom and good-natured humor of Woody Guthrie and the grit of Steve Earle. Whether hitting the highway with no apologies in "My famous Leaving Song" or nervously hoping for a chance at romance in "Red Ribbon Waltz", the Boston-based Moock is a likeable-sounding storyteller who's obviously done his musical homework.

He sings with the heart and gravel of a much older man and his songs are philosophical and seasoned, without a trace of bitterness or self-indulgence. Thanks to Michael Dinallo's dynamic production and gorgeous, exciting work from, among others, guitarists Kevin Barry and Steve Sadler, the sound of "Let it Go" is shot through with rugged clarity.

He opens his latest album with "My Famous Leaving Song", the loudest of the collection that immediately demands your attention. With the drums in the rhythm of a fast moving train and a howling harmonica, you might as well stand on a platform in your living room and that train doesn't stop. Of course, that's the theme of the song, running away from love by whatever means available. "Death Don't Have No Mercy" written by Rev. Gary Davis shows Moock's talent for covering the songs of others and making them his own. This is a great rendition in a "dirty blues" way, screetching guitars and gravel voice.

Put this disc in. Turn up the volume, dim the lights and prepare to be blown away. This is Americana as it should be, combining intelligent lyrics, a driving beat and marvelous music.

More info about Alastair Moock

Radiogram "All the Way Home" (2002)

2010-06-25T23:39:00.004+02:00

A FORGOTTEN AMERICANA MASTERPIECE

"All The Way Home" was the beautiful sophomore release from Vancouver's Radiogram in 2002. Radiogram had become one the most acclaimed and well-respected bands in Canada. With that knowledge, it came as no surprise to me that there isn't a single weak spot on this collection of ambient folk; every song is completely beautiful. "Gone To Stay," one of the ten tracks here, is a wonderful song; it features beautiful instrumentation and lovely leading vocals - the latter of which is provided by Ken Beattie. The trumpet also works great, lending the the track a warm, classical accent.

Meanwhile, "Summer Song Summer" is one of the greatest tunes to come out of Vancouver in a long while. The male-on-female vocals add a lot to this song, and the wonderful lyrics only add to the excellence ("My idea of a perfect day/Would be to lie in bed and melt away..."). Despite its immediate upbeat tendencies, this song has the power to induce crying on a sad day, so watch out!

The closing track, "Not Here," is an eight minute epic of ambient folk; you don't come across such an emotionally potent song every day. Beattie's wonderful vocals sing the melodies flawlessly, and the instruments help to further build the piece's mood. When the song finally comes to a close, don't be surprised if you're lying on your back, looking at the stars.

Altogether, "All The Way Home" is a moody, moving album. This was, without doubt, one of the best albums of 2002.

Track-List in the Comments

More info about Radiogram

C-60 Special: Endless Highway

2010-06-25T07:00:00.004+02:00

A LOW NOISE SPECIAL

A long time ago there was a blog called Wild Safari. This blog was the reason I discovered a whole bunch of great, great artists, and I'm forever greatful. Wild Safari has left the Internet-building, but the spirit lives on, and this compilation is C-60's way of saying thanks.

40 songs from great artists I have discovered the last two years. Some of them directly from Wild Safari, and some because I started to dig deeper after similar music and artists.

I could go on and on about the music, but instead I reccomend that you just grab the albums yourself, and start playing it again and again.

Enjoy!

Endless Highway Vol. 1: Male Travel Guide

TRACK-LIST:

01. Alastair Moock - My Famous Leaving Song (3:32) 02. Tim Grimm - Sometimes trouble is a Gift (4:35) 03. Stephen Simmons - County Lines (3:58) 04. Bill Passalacqua - Chloe And Caity (3:26) 05. John Train - Already Gone (7:30) 06. Jeff Kanzler - Asheville Undone (4:01) 07. Nathan Hamilton - Shape I'm in (3:56) 08. Joe Mannix - Silver Girl (3:10) 09. Jefferson Pepper - Good Morning Mrs. Stine (3:25) 10. Brad Yoder - Any Day (3:14) 11. Two Fingers of Firewater - Endless Highway (2:18) 12. Dave Potts - Poker Face (3:09) 13. Michael McNevin - Early Bird (3:39) 14. Chuck Brodsky - No more Mr. Nice Guy (4:28) 15. Jack Williams - Hometown Boy (3:48) 16. Todd Snider - Combover Blues (2:05) 17. James McMurtry - Just us Kids (5:04) 18. Hayes Carll - She left me for Jesus (4:00) 19. Jeffrey Foucault - That's the Way the World Goes Round (2:54) 20. John Gorka - Riverside (3:57)

Spotify Link (only Europe)

Endless Highway Vol. 2: Taste of Female

TRACK-LIST:

1. The Be Good Tanyas - Waiting Around To Die (5:10) 2. Anne McCue - Love's Not Passing Us By (3:24) 3. Dawn Mccoy - Dandelion (4:24) 4. Antje Duvekot - Vertigo (5:41) 5. Serena Ryder - Just Another Day (3:59) 6. The Sunny Cowgirls - Dancing On The Darling (2:57) 7. Kasey Chambers - Runaway Train (3:25) 8. Alela Diane - Pirate's Gospel (2:55) 9. Eilen Jewell - Where they never say your name (2:32) 10. Pieta Brown - Wishes Falling Through the Rain (2:53) 11. Mary Gauthier - March 11, 1962 (5:47) 12. Oh Susanna - Greyhound Bus (3:46) 13. Shelby Lynne - Willie And Laura Mae Jones (4:10) 14. Dayna Kurtz - Another Black Feather (4:18) 15. Carlene Carter - I'm So Cool (3:24) 16. Kimmie Rhodes - Sex & Gasoline (4:21) 17. Diana Jones - Better Times Will Come (2:53) 18. Caroline Herring - Paper gown (4:31)

19. Anna Fermin's Trigger Gospel - Oh, Lonesome Me (4:49)

20. Nora O'Connor - Looks Like I'm up Shit Creek Again (3:57) Spotify Link (only Europe)

Nathan Holscher "Even the Hills" (2007)

2010-06-24T19:14:00.008+02:00

TRAILS OF EMOTIONAL DESTRUCTION

'Even The Hills' is the second album from Nathan Holscher. Another series of absorbing songs, Holscher fixes his thousand yard stare on the landscape whilst looking inwards, taking acoustic country-steeped folk on a painful emotional journey. His is the voice of the last man left in town. Scarred, torn and twisted lives scream an emotional fragility that's superbly at odds with the strength of the songwriting. The world-weary sense of despair is evidence of an astonishing maturity, as Holscher fashions scenes from far beyond his mere 25 years.

The record gets off to a flyer. ‘My Sweet’ is bright and compulsive, but the infectious melody only serves to make the ache more poignant and prominent.

‘Even The Hills’ is a title track characterised by a rolling rhythm where pastoral imagery is a key feature of the lyrics(a recurring theme of the album as a whole). Enhanced by the hollow, radio mic. reverb, Holscher’s voice is delicate and resigned,

As the record develops, so the strings become more intricate thanks to Joe Bollinger’s banjo playing and the pedal steel manned by Kenny Holycross. Tasha Golden’s fragile backing vocals add delicacy to the sense of sadness that pervades each song.

‘That Was Telluride’ is a short burst full of longing. Heartbreak is conveyed beautifully and briefly, whereas ‘Pretty Words’ is weary and full of regret, concerned with the love-hate paradox and focused on the passing of time. Quickly divided possessions and legal bills, even the huge guitar sound and rattling percussion can’t quite lift the mood of a song that sighs this heavily.

There is travel as well as time (both are measured in mistakes rather than months or miles), but each song is nailed down by a sense of retrospective stillness. There’s a helplessness here too, the sense of being powerless to alter fate or halt a cycle of self-destruction. ‘Too Many Roads’ (the title could be taken as a reason for this) features a tapping echo that conveys numb with shock or extreme apathy but Holscher’s song-writing skill is superlative and exudes quality.

The banjo-led journey of ‘Back To New Mexico’ retraces a trail of emotional destruction, sifting through the mess for pieces to pick up, though there’s no chance of ever finding them all or fixing anything whatsoever.

Straight up, this is a hands-down success, and a triumph of skill and artistry over commercial potential that carries its understated appeal far beyond the alt/country/Americana sphere.

More info about Nathan Holscher