Featured Blog Posts - No Depression Americana and Roots Music

CD Reissue Review: Irma Thomas - In Between Tears (Fungus/Alive, 1973/2013)

2013-05-19T17:38:08.000Z

Irma Thomas' lost early-70s soul sides

After relocating from New Orleans to Los Angeles, soul queen Irma Thomas largely disappeared from public view for a few years. But a series of singles produced by Jerry Williams (a.k.a. Swamp Dogg) on the indie Canyon, Roker and Fungus labels led to this eight-track release in 1973. Williams had proven himself a talented musician and producer, and in the latter capacity he leaves behind the absurdist humor of his own records to bring Thomas a helping of Southern soul and West Coast funk. Thomas' new material, much of it written by Williams, has plenty of bite, but it's more personal than broad. The wistful drama of her early Minit and Imperial sides had given way to something heavier, more worldly-wise, weary and womanly. When she sings of broken relationships, it's from the experience of being spurned rather than the hope of being accepted, and when she takes stock of her life, she's not afraid to highlight problems with the balance sheet. The transition from her earlier work is particularly apparent in a remake of "Wish Someone Would Care" which evolved from heartbroken yearning to mortally wounded. Alive's 2013 reissue adds two bonus tracks, including the pre-album B-side "I'll Do it All Over You." This little-known album caught Thomas in a fiery and outspoken mood, and its return to print makes a welcome addition to her better-known releases.

Irma Thomas' Home Page

©2013 Hyperbolium

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell at Sage Gateshead

2013-05-19T14:00:00.000Z

What can I tell you? I’ve been a fan of Emmylou Harris since I first saw The Last Waltz at the cinema in 1979 and Rodney Crowell ever since a friend gave me a copy of Diamonds and Dirt on cassette as a birthday present. So, finally seeing not only one of them in concert, but both together had made me nervously excited for weeks in advance.

If you don’t know it, the Sage Music Centre on the Gateshead side of the banks of the River Tyne is an amazing building that artists now say is one of the finest auditorium’s in the world. Local ‘music fans’ often criticise it as being ‘soulless’ and even ‘intimidating’. Personally I’m warming to it and find it perfect for concerts like this, when the crystal-clear acoustics come into their own, and the audience is made up of ‘actual’ fans that know and appreciate the artist’s full body of work.

The band was setting up their instruments when Emmylou and Rodney made their entrance from opposite sides of the stage, and the roar that greeted them was still echoing in the rafters as the opening bars to (Return of the) Grievous Angel elicited an even greater noise. It was a delight hearing Emmylou sing this song, especially with Rodney’s world-weary voice providing delicious harmonies, but I couldn’t help think it was put in so early to appease the members of the Cult of Gram who were very much in evidence, sporting grey pony-tails and t-shirts bearing his likeness.

The platinum blonde didn’t wait for the applause to subside when she slid into Wheels from the Elite Hotel album and I knew we were going to be in for a ‘helluva night.’ I was to be proved correct as she then dipped into 1977’s Luxury Liner for a heartfelt version of Townes’ Poncho and Lefty .

So far Rodney had been providing harmonies and rhythm guitar but, with no introduction stepped up to the mic for his own, Still Learning How To Fly, which proved he wasn’t there to just make up the numbers.

It was only after something like their sixth song before either singer really spoke. Emmylou introduced ‘Til I Gain Control Again as being on a cassette that he had given her before joining the Hot Band; and while I didn’t recognise it, their voices melted together like butter on a crumpet and had me checking it out again the following day.

Without actually listing every song they sang, I will tell you that individually their voices are as good as ever and a lot stronger than you could hope for when you think about how long they’ve been singing and the type of smoky venues they played in for nigh on thirty years each.

As the first half flew by their version of Susannah Clark’s San Antone Rose was simply wonderful and the harmonies that Emmylou provided on Crowell’s Houston Kid made a once great song actually spine-tingling and the normally reserved Sage audience went wild at the end with actual whoops and hollers in among the whistling and cheering.

The first hour ended with a ‘trilogy of heartbreakers,’ to quote Ms. Harris, and it included another absolute stonking Classic – Love Hurts, which had me wiping tears from my eyes as I wrote ‘#1 funeral song’ in my notepad; and it has now been written into my will.

After a short break where everyone around me in the bar either looked thunderstruck or had a silly smile on their face, the second half began with Emmylou seated alone on the stage drinking herbal tea (long gone are the days of tequila! She sighed) and introduced her homage to her friend Kate McGarrigle – Darlin’ Kate; which had even more people wiping the corners of their eyes.

She was soon joined by Rodney who also took a seat – “just like a real singer-songwriter” - and told a short story to introduce a superb song he wrote with the poet Mary Karr, but I missed the title (whoops).

As the duo went into a spell where they performed 7 or 8 songs from the new album, OLD YELLOW MOON, I found myself doubting the words of several reviewers in UK newspapers and magazines; they all seemed underwhelmed by the band. My notes have the Australian guitarist Jedd Hughes as ‘scintillating’ and ‘knows his place/solos never over 40 seconds’ with the pianist/accordionist Chris Tuttle providing ‘light and shade’; the bass and drums ‘kept time like a metronome’ (speaking of the drummer, his kit was so small it could go as hand luggage, even on Ryan Air). If I had one criticism, it was that one-time Hot Club pedal steel player Steve Fisher, while supremely excellent, could have been left off a couple of songs, especially Rodney’s. But that could just have been me being picky.

Of the new songs, Spanish Dancer was wonderful, especially with the couple of Spanish guitar breaks that Hughes provided. Bluebird Wine was given a bit of a Rockabilly treatment that really lifted the tempo and mood. But, bearing in mind the quality and history of some of the songs on offer tonight, the one that ‘stole the show’ was Matraca Berg’s Back When We Were Beautiful, which just captured the spirit of the evening perfectly.

My favourite track on OLD YELLOW MOON, Black Caffeine, took on a new life tonight with a spookily atmospheric opening, followed by a bit of a Jazzy interpretation. I prefer the original; but still gave it ** in my notes.

As I checked my watch and realised that we had gone way past the 10.30 finish normally associated with Hall I, the band cranked things up a notch or two with Ain’t Living Long Like This which had the pianist giving us his best Jerry Lee Lewis impersonation as he rattled the keys.
After the obligatory charade of leaving the stage and ‘will they/won’t they return’ (the guitar tech. clearly replaced their guitars) they returned for Stars on the Water which again featured some amazing piano playing. Then, much to my surprise after reading several previous reviews, NOT Sin City but, in memory of George Jones, a boisterous version of One of these Days.

And that was it; they left the stage and 1,600 fans made their way home after seeing two Legends of not just Americana but Country Music too, who are still at the very top of their game.

Photos www.harrisonaphotos.co.uk

Sage Gateshead
16th May 2013

CD Reissue Review: Eddy Arnold - Complete Original #1 Hits (RCA / Real Gone, 2013)

2013-05-19T17:14:08.000Z

All twenty-eight of Eddy Arnold's chart-topping singles

For most artists, a twenty-eight track collection of their biggest chart hits would be a fair representation of their commercial success. In Eddy Arnold's case, twenty-eight #1 singles only very lightly skims the surface of nearly thirty-nine consecutive years of chart success that stretched from 1945 through 1983 (he struck out, though not without a few good swings, in 1958). A singer of such renown inspires numerous reissues and collections, including hefty Bear Family boxes (1 2), but this is the first set to include his entire run of chart-toppers, from 1946's "What is Life Without Love" through 1968's "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye." Within that 25-year span, Arnold evolved from a twangy country star in the '40s to a Nashville Sound innovator and resurgent chart-topper in the mid-60s.

Arnold was always more of a crooner than a honky-tonker, and even when singing upbeat tunes like "A Full Time Job," you can hear pop stylings edging into his held notes. 1953's "I Really Don't Want to Know" drops the fiddle and steel, and is sung in a folk style to acoustic guitar, bass and male backing vocals. 1955's "Cattle Call" finds Arnold yodeling a remake of Tex Owens' 1934 tune, a song he'd recorded previously in 1944. The new version featured orchestrations by Hugo Winterhalter and signaled crossover intentions that would come to full fruition a full decade later. Arnold's chart success dimmed in the face of rock 'n' roll's rise, but by 1960 he'd regained a foothold, and by mid-decade he'd transitioned fully to countrypolitan arrangements.

In 1965 Arnold once again topped the charts with "What's He Doing in My World" and his signature "Make the World Go Away." Backed by strings, burbling bass lines, the Anita Kerr Singers and Floyd Kramer's light piano, Arnold rode out the decade with a string of Top 10s and his last five chart toppers. He pushed towards an easier sound, but his vocals always retained a hint of his Tennessee Plowboy roots, differentiating him from more somnambulistic singers like Perry Como. Real Gone's collection includes an eight-page booklet with liner notes from Don Cusic and remastering by Maria Triana. Tracks 1-21 are in their original mono, tracks 22-28 in their original true stereo. Though there's a great deal more to be told, a spin through Arnold's chart toppers provides a truly satisfying introduction to his catalog.

Eddy Arnold Fan Site

©2013 Hyperbolium

Great Escape, Brighton, UK - Day Three

2013-05-19T08:30:00.000Z

By day three I'm starting to flag, but Canada House at the Blind Tiger looks intriguing: a line-up sponsored by music organisations from three of the western provinces. I'm off to Alberta at the end of July, so this could be a good warm-up.

'We're here to show you that Western Canada is about more than just wheatfields, gravel roads and kissing your cousin behind the barn,' says the man from Manitoba Music, introducing Winnipeg sextet Royal Canoe.

"Of course, we still have all those things. But we also have stuff like this..."

And it's good stuff, too: two drummers, electronics, heavy on the vocal effects. An awful lot going on, but a keen sense of space and dynamics means it's never overloaded. There's a fractured funk at the heart of it, with counter-rhythms skittering across a generally slow central beat. They'll build up to an intense climax, with a roaring vocal taken down to Beanstalk giant fee-fi-fo-fum depths, then cut away to a single choppy guitar. I'd like to hear more.

(Special useless trivia note: Royal Canoe's guitarist bears an uncanny resemblance to the captain of the UCL team beaten in the final of this year's University Challenge.)

A few minutes later it's the turn of Lab Coast. Their introduction affirms that people 'don't tend to associate the city of Calgary with the avant garde'. Well, we still don't. The band chug along nicely, without scaring the horses, but it feels like indie-by-the-yard rather than anything particularly distinctive - with the proviso that I couldn't make out many of the words.

There's no stagecraft here: they're the sort of band where the singer keeps both hands on the mic stand and the guitarists study the necks intently, as if worried that the frets might suddenly move... I felt rather protective of them and, in the absence of other distractions, found myself focusing on the way the lead guitarist bounces on the balls of his feet before tip-toeing back and forth to his pedals, like he's trying to take them by surprise. Anyway, they relax a bit as the set proceeds and start to exchange smiles. It was enjoyable for the audience, too.

There was no reticence about Winnipeg five-piece Boats. They clearly enjoy being on stage and like to fling themselves around. Frontman Mat Klachefsky does a good line in manic stares and, at one point, managed to roll his guitar up to his neck in its strap while still playing...

There's an archness about their manner and the snatches of lyrics which were audible - what is it about Winnipeg bands and vocal effects? - which put me in mind of Sparks: the vocal swoops and higher register of Russell Mael coupled with brother Ron's glare. 'This is a song called "Advice On Bears"' ran one introduction. 'It's about advice on bears...' They may be trying too hard, but at least they're trying. It was an energetic and well-received set.

Next up were Fist City, a quartet from Lethbridge, Alberta, who play thrashy punk with all the subtlety of their name - though that name is taken from a Loretta Lynn song, I now see. Excellent energy and drive, but I'm not sure I detected a lot else in the music. They do what they set out to do convincingly and well. Oh, and bassist Lindsay Munro has very nice dimples.

By this point I was ready for a change of scene. The 'Don't Panic, We're From Poland' session at the Dome Studio was unfortunately full. So I tried Luke Sital-Singh, who can'th, I fear.

I called it a day and, heading home, looked in at the Independent Record Fayre to say hello to the Art Is Hard guys, who put out some fine music in lovely packages, and also some decidedly stylish teeshirts. Consider yourselves plugged, chaps.

(from Eden On The Line)

A Tribute to The Doors Ray Manzarek 1939-2013

2013-05-21T05:00:00.000Z

"You don't make music for immortality, you make music for the moment, capturing the sheer joy of being alive on planet Earth... Everybody should live it that way." Ray Manzarek

In the summer of 1967 The Doors played the Anaheim Convention Center. I was 12 years old. I was completely transfixed by the band. Having an older musician brother, playing the Sunset Strip, signed to United Artist Records and playing frequent live gigs, made me no stranger to live performance.

I had never witnessed anything like these four guys on stage capturing the audience with pure, inventive and passionate rock and roll. Of course, Morrison was the center of everyone's attention. It was hard to pull away from his near insane level of electric energy. But, sitting in the upper level allowed me the mobility to go from the side of the stage, to the back and around to the front again. It was then the other three musicians also caught my eye. As the set progressed, it was clear, this was no ordinary band. Each musician brought something of their own to the sound. I didn't know what to call it at the time, but what I heard Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore doing was adding a fusion of jazz to the psychedelic-blues proceedings. It was Manzarek who had me mesmerized throughout the show. He doubled Morrison's vocal and seemed to be directing the music's flow. As the concert ended, my life would change forever. I came out with an entirely new understanding of the possibilities of live musical performance. This was, in large part, due to the other three musicians on stage behind Jim Morrison and especially to the leadership of Ray Manzarek, who died today in Germany at 74 after a long battle with bile duct cancer.

Manzarek's life was not only devoted to the music he was absorbed in, but also to it's philosophical and spiritual underpinnings. As he said in a 1996 interview, the reason The Doors remained popular was because of freedom. They were, in his words the antidote to the bound and constricted age that we live in today. During the same interview, he also said the band defied categorization, which may also have been a reason for their durability. As can be witnessed through his writings and for those who knew him, Ray Manzarek's spirituality came from his own natural compassion and love for others including so many fans and friends of The Doors. He always showed a positive nature even in the face of adversity, that gave substance to much of the ideals that formed his life and times. For Manzarek, love and peace were a part of his everyday experience, not just empty ideals. And it was also this love and compassion that helped him to discover the worth in the sometimes off-putting Jim Morrison when he first met him.

Morrison and Manzarek, both film students at UCLA during the 60's, created music that would appeal to other UCLA film graduates, most notably Frances Ford Coppola, who famously opened his epic 1978 film, Apocalypse Now with the final track of the band's first album, "The End." The scene put the song and the band forever into the Zeitgeist of the Vietnam era that arguably lasted well beyond the 70's in influence and scope. And without argument, so did The Doors.

If, as the surviving Doors have maintained to this day, they were a band of four equal parts, Manzarek's contributions go back to his childhood in South Chicago learning piano at 7 years of age. Even though as he moved to Los Angeles to attend law school at UCLA, he was lured into film school and the eventual life changing meeting with Jim Morrison. They met again, after they had graduated, at Venice beach, a meeting that would impact American music in a way similar to the day Elvis first walked into Sun Studios in Memphis and Lennon and McCartney met in Liverpool. The band, formed in 1965, would be unlike any other in the already diverse and changing L.A. music scene. For Ray Manzarek, The Doors would always be destined to stand out from the rest of an already outstanding class of musicians including Love, Buffalo Springfield and The Byrds. His approach to organ in rock performance was completely new to the form. In an effort to keep the balance between the four band mates, he decided to forgo a bass player and instead recruited his feet for bass pedal during live shows.

While the lion share of material was written by Morrison and Krieger-few know today that Robby Krieger alone penned such classics as "Light My Fire," and "Love Me Two Times,"- Manzarek's hand in arranging especially in reference to the keyboard and the soundscape of lucid space he brought to the other members, gave them an unstoppable edge and enhanced their creative imagination beyond anything that was being produced in pop music at the time. Beyond all of this, along with Krieger and Densmore, he allowed Morrison to go unleashed in studio and performance. Unfortunately, that would lead the band down some mediocre roads in performance that would result in their near-demise due to the controversial show in Florida with charges for Morrison of indecent exposure. But, without these lows, Morrison never would have hit the heights he did on their first three albums and later on Morrison Hotel and L.A. Woman. It was the support and structure provided by Manzarek that allowed Morrison to go wild and remain brilliant.

His post-Doors career confirmed his brilliance as a an artist, writer and performer. He produced and performed on the classic 1978 debut album by the L.A. band, X, extending his influence into the punk era. Even though The Doors officially broke up in 1973, they would reunite for the brilliant posthumous collaboration with Morrison on his recorded poetry album, An American Prayer. Manzarek's other collaborations also became the stuff of legend including work with Phillip Glass, Beat poet, Michael McClure, Iggy Pop, Echo and the Bunnymen and an innovative spoken work-blues series with guitar great, Roy Rogers, titled Ballads Before the Rain. He also notably wrote three books including his 1998 biography, Light My Fire, and two novels, The Poet in Exile(2001) and Snake Moon(2006).

In 2002, Krieger and Manzarek returned to the stage with The Doors of the 20th Century enlisting The Cult's Ian Astbury. In 2004, at the L.A. County Fair, with my 14-son, I stood in a crowd of thousands and watched as the two musicians re-created their famous sound. That day it seemed as if the clouds cleared and once again, 'the night destroyed the day,' and the gods spoke and said, 'There will be Doors.' And there they were like some cosmic miracle. It wasn't the same band I saw that day in '67, but it sure did beat the hell out of taking my son to see a tribute band. For the next decade, they would tour as Ray and Robby, selling out venues around the world and effectively recreating that same sound I heard long ago. No other re-created band from the era would experience the same kind honor and success minus the the sometimes overshadowing influence of their tragic and popular lead-singer, who has been too often misconstrued as a the leader of the band.

With a summer tour coming up, Ray Manzarek was still ready to go out on the road and keep The Doors' music alive with Krieger and Doors tribute band lead singer, Wild Child's Dave Brock. Sadly, with Ray Manzarek's passing, this era of his music has come to an end. The authentic sound of Doors music will no longer be heard on a live concert stage. That sound will be missed along the concert trail the world over.

But, the freedom Manzarek spoke about remains as does the myriad of releases(and re-releases) that bare a full listen beyond the over-familiar songs still played today on FM stations and satellite broadcasts. The seven albums released by the band during their short productive years form the best in what we call Americana today, an impossible-to-define blend of music that is founded in the American experience.

Ray Manzarek was a key figure in breaking through the boundaries of genre. Without fear, he pursued the freedom and healing tribal spirit music had to offer and contributed a wild, poetic, sometimes primitive celebration of American music in the midst of an age when most settled only for nostalgia over inventiveness. For me, I am still, somewhere inside, that wide-eyed 12 year-old and Ray Manzarek is still that young musician behind the keyboard and that uncontrollable lead singer, exploring the edge of his imagination and always inviting us to join him on the journey to the edge of the night.

Life At the Edge

2013-05-18T18:00:00.000Z

Brown Bird's Dave Lamb faces a crisis, and his fans have his back in a big way.

Spend a few minutes hanging at the warm side of street musicians’ guitar case, lost in the rawness of word and melody, and a niggling sense will creep into your reverie: Playing for quarters and raggedy dollar bills is a scary way to make a living. That musician, however, might have paying gigs too. Hell, they might even tour with a partner or band. What a life! Unfortunately, no matter where many of these folks go, they are likely no more than a few months away from bust. Such is the life of a modern troubadour.

Singer songwriters engage in their craft because it makes them—and their fans—feel alive. Writing and performing songs keeps their blood pumping—and their beat up van chugging along. Rarely does it make them rich.

That feeling of vitality and urgency keeps David Lamb and MorganEve Swain of the duet Brown Bird on the road for weeks. Their latest tour schedule has them travelling from April through early August--or it did, until Dave landed in a Houston hospital. Now, that unsettling wind swirling at the edge of the guitar case takes on a harder edge.

If the sun was always shining and our load always light

we’d be shaking like a leaf with every God given night

and we’d break under the weight

of any pain that ever came in this life.

—Bilgewater, from the album Salt for Salt

Everyone on Brown Bird’s email list and Twitter feed received a disturbing communiqué on Friday morning, May 17th (click here for details). Apparently, on the eve of the band’s May 10th show at Fitzgerald's in Houston, Dave made a beeline to the Emergency Room, struggling to breathe. In the ensuing days, Dave has gone through a battery of poking and prodding (physically and financially). So far, we know that Dave is severely anemic, and that his hospital bills and cancelled tour dates have left him and MorganEve staring at the financial abyss

For many artists, hitting the rocks due to failing health is simply part of the tragic arc. Worse, that suffering is most often embraced in quiet solitude. In this age of instant communication, however, artists don’t have to face their troubles in isolation. No stranger to the power of social media, Brown Bird’s MorganEve reached out to the band’s fans, creating an online campaign to defray medical expenses and lost gigs (click here to learn more). Then, the magic began to happen.

Within 12 hours of launching the campaign, hundreds of the band’s friends, family and fans had donated over $20 thousand dollars. By early this morning (May 18th), they were close to $30,000. Although they’ve set a goal of $40,000, it’s clear that they’ll need more, and with 29 days to go in the campaign, odds are that they’ll get more.

Making music sometimes seems like a one way street, with the artists giving and giving until they are dry. Dave and MorganEve’s journey through these turbulent waters attests that all that they’ve given can come back to them threefold.

For more on Brown Bird, see Chris Mateer’s excellent interview with MorganEve and Dave, or search for “Brown Bird” in the NoDepression search bar. To contribute to Dave’s fundraiser (any amount helps!), visit their YouCaring.com campaign page. It’ll make you feel even better than a Brown Bird show at your local watering hole.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Michael Marotta, OnTheDownload

Down the Hiss Golden Messenger Stream: "Haw" and more

2013-05-18T18:00:00.000Z

Rivers flood broad expanses of the Southern imagination. The mythic Mississippi rolls through literature, our watery national spine, by turns torpid and apocalyptic. But there are countless intimate tributaries and every Southerner knows one. Flowing water provides blessed relief in summer, spiritual cleansing and profane recreation. If you grew up messing around in creeks and rivers, you pushed through thick, brown water past insect skaters skimming the surface in sunny pools - and learned that the cottonmouth waited on the shady bank. Haw, recently released by Hiss Golden Messenger, principally songwriter M.C. Taylor and producer/musician Scott Hirsch, is named for for one of those personal rivers, close by Taylor's former North Carolina home. And it's just one of a handful of recent HGM recordings, including a solo/band split album (Lord I Love the Rain), an expansive full-band record (Haw), and a collaboration with New York guitar phenomenon Steve Gunn (Golden Gunn). All offer rich, verdant depths where the serpent awaits the unwary.

HGM's musical output arrives as a stream, in improbable abundance. Just as 2010's Bad Debt preceded 2011's Poor Moon, Lord I Love the Rain (JellyFant) appeared a few months before Haw (Parade of Bachelors). Bad Debt shared several songs with Poor Moon (and one key song with Haw) and it presents Taylor alone, settling in to the language and emotions that would shape the breakthrough Poor Moon. Lord… is different and more varied, if still something of a workbook. Lord…'s acoustically raw first side (it was released in limited edition vinyl; new copies have just been found - buy here) opens with Taylor's arresting "Karen's Blues" and includes a slashing solo version of Poor Moon's "Westering." The second side's full-band tracks include covers of Michael Hurley and Ronnie Lane songs, and "Born on a Crescent Moon," a six-minute jam with eastern overtones, a musical thought revisited on Haw and Golden Gunn.

Lord… 's duality plays lone introspection against full-throttle experiments, the music inextricably bound but different in intent and effect – an x-ray shadowing Kodachrome. The album's notes include a short story/ dreamscape from fellow folk explorer Nathan Salsburg. Describing an attic party, and, indirectly, the record's diverse music, he writes, "The mirror is a riot of reflections; some dawdle, some stop, some stay. Stay. Music plays." Around the same time, Paradise of Bachelors released a split 45 (available on iTunes and Spotify) of HGM playing label mates Elephant Micah's lovely "My Cousin's King" and Elephant Micah playing HGM's sturdy "Balthazar's Song," which previously appeared on both Bad Debt and Poor Moon. Both worthy songs given worthy renditions, and either could have ended up on the other's album without raising an eyebrow.

Poor Moon was a bracing slap upside the head. Musically recalling and combining traditional song forms without falling into pastiche or parody, Taylor's songs starkly rendered a struggle for the soul in Biblical language and rhythms. Haw lowers its gaze and broadens the musical landscape, finding the eternal in the earthbound, homely concerns of work and family. From the first chords of opener "Red Rose Nantahala," Taylor insists on release, on an individual claim to happiness. "Sufferer (Love My Conquerer)" questions whether acceptance brings release or submission, and if, by learning to love the inevitable, we shake off the bonds of fear. Even the record's most explicit Biblical reference in "Busted Note" is grounded in work, as the chorus echoes Jesus's appeal to the Galilee fishermen to cease their worldly labors and become fishers of men. None of this is heavy going: where Poor Moon was urgent, Haw feels comfortable and confident. There are celebrations here as well as dark nights of the soul. As Haw was being written and recorded, both Taylor and Hirsch told me it was going to be a "dark" record. Taylor still thinks so. But I hear reassurance: though our time is short and struggles long, we cling hard to the dailyness of family and the children of our joy.

Haw is also musically generous, with Hirsch, who handles the recording, finding space for ambient sounds from the Southern night and the contributions of regular HGM drummer Terry Lonergan, the Black Twig Pickers’ Nathan Bowles, Megafaun’s Phil Cook, and guitarist William Tyler, a frequent touring partner with HGM, whose biting Telecaster solos push some Haw songs into classic country-rock territory. (Hirsch recorded Haw in Taylor's in-laws' house; its clarity, warmth and relaxed pocket should inspire other musicians to abandon the studio and make a beeline for Mom's living room). There is a taut balance between Taylor's songwriting and the band's support. The dawdling strum of "Cheerwine Easter" dissolves into a long, probing saxophone solo by Bobby Crow that is as fully expressive as Taylor's vocal, but of an additional idea. The string arrangements in "Sufferer…" and "Devotion" offer a modal counterpoint that could as comfortably live in Eastern Europe as North Carolina; they give the song's folk foundations a broader perspective and suggest that many around the world have walked in chains. I've begun to see the full-band recordings, Poor Moon and Haw, as a spirited family discussion between Taylor and his musical brothers. While Taylor provides the thesis, Hirsch and the band comment, question, amplify, remark, and contest; the songs thrive in the dialogue.

Golden Gunn should be an AM/FM preset on all bronze 1977 Mercury Cougars: it's the soundtrack for a luxury ride, with plenty of power, but gone kind of seedy. Aviator shades highly recommended. On this limited release for Record Store Day 2013 (listen on Spotify), a quartet of Taylor, Hirsch, HGM drummer Lonergan and New York-based guitarist Steve Gunn lay down a mostly instrumental set that can slink out of Memphis on a bass-driven blaxploitation groove ("From a Lincoln Continental") and arrive dusty and broke in Bakersfield ("Let Me Shine (Deathhouse))." Gunn, currently touring as both opening act and guitarist in Kurt Vile's Violators, expands the HGM geography as far west as Clarence White's Nashville West and as far east as his evolving take on finger-picked blues ragas. Gunn's slide and electric playing sits nicely atop a looser version of HGM melody and arrangements, and continues HGM's association with some of the brightest guitarists reworking traditional forms. (Gunn has a breakthrough record of his own, Time Off, coming on June 16 that moves his vocals forward into a band setting - a new dimension added to his prodigious talent).

The Haw is one of those intimate Southern rivers, a small tributary of the Cape Fear. The Nantahala passes through steep gorges in the Smokies, creating thick summertime mists pierced only by the noontime sun. Whether contemplating timeless rivers informed the music or not, the references ground the album in the physicality and specificity Taylor adds to the songs on Haw. All of HGM's recent records map the restless imaginations of a songwriter and his musical brethren at full flood of creativity.

Chris Mateer's No Depression interviews with M.C. Taylor are here and here.

Photo: Harlan Campbell

Freight Train Boogie podcast #211 featuring "The Moorings" by Andrew Duhon along with Deadstring Brothers, Samantha Crain and Free Range Folk

2013-05-18T17:00:00.000Z

FTB podcast #211 features The Moorings by New Orleans singer/songwriter ANDREW DUHON. Also new music from FREE RANGE FOLK, SAMANTHA CRAIN and HE’S MY BROTHER SHE’S MY SISTER.

Here's the direct link to listen now!
Here's the iTunes link to subscribe to the FTB podcasts

Show #211

ANDREW DUHON - The Moorings The Moorings
GOODNIGHT MOONSHINE - Work I Done Goodnight Moonshine
KEVIN DEAL - I Need Revival There Goes The Neighborhood
DEADSTRING BROTHERS - Like a California Wildfire Cannery Row
(mic break)
SAMANTHA CRAIN - Never Going Back Kid Face
FREE RANGE FOLK - Anyway 444
JIM LAUDERDALE - Wild and Free Carolina Moonrise
SHAWN NELSON & THE GOOD BUDS - Yea Ya Right Enough
ANDREW DUHON - Just Another Beautiful Girl The Moorings
(mic break)
AMY BLACK - Stay Live At Johnny D’s
LIAM FITZGERALD & THE RAINIEROS - Long Gone Goodbye Last Call!
MIKE AIKEN - Virginia Captains & Cowboys
CHICAGO FARMER - 200 Miles Away Backenforth, Il
HE’S MY BROTHER SHE’S MY SISTER - The Same Old Ground Nobody Dances in This Town
(mic break)
ANDREW DUHON - Gonna Take a Little Rain The Moorings

Here is the RSS feed: http://ftbpodcasts.libsyn.com/rss. Freight Train Boogie podcasts also air weekly on RootHog Radio and on Rob Ellen's Flyinshoes Review. Get the Freight Train Boogie Americana Android App from Amazon for only $1.99.

(May 17th, 2013)
Bill Frater
Freight Train Boogie

Roger Knox: Stranger in My Land (Bloodshot, 2013)

2013-05-18T16:00:00.000Z

Moving and socially significant Australian country music

Though country music is most typically associated with the Southern United States, its impact has been felt all around the world. In addition to Nashville and Texas exports, a strong but little-known strain developed among Australian aboriginals in the second half of the twentieth century. American songs were repurposed to tell stories of harsh conditions in the outback, and lyrics of country-to-city migration, drinking and prison all found resonance in the freewheeling down-under. But Australians also stretched the genre with localized stories, locations and slang, and dark themes of social injustice that had more in common with America's folk, blues and outlaw movements than country's mainstream.

Roger Knox, known as both the Koori King of Country and the Black Elvis (check out his early work on Best of Koori Classic), has been an Australian favorite for more than 30 years, but like so many from outside Nashville, his music has always been too country for country. His parallels to other outspoken artists are many, but none more so than Johnny Cash, whose sympathies for the repressed, downtrodden and imprisoned are mirrored in Knox's work. On this first new record in nine years, Knox revisits the history of aboriginal country music, reworking his own contributions and covering classics of the genre. He's backed seamlessly by Jon Langford's Pine Valley Cosmonauts, with guest appearances by Dave Alvin, Sally Timms, Kelly Hogan, Bonnie Prince Billie, The Sadies and Charlie Louvin. The latter, heard on "Ticket to Nowhere," is thought to have been making his last recorded performance.

The selections profile rough-and-ready cowboys from a frontier that lasted decades longer than the American West, natives imprisoned and stripped of their cultural practices, prejudice expressed openly and in misguided assimilation programs, and homesick emigrants whose delicate memories are like sensory poems. The devastating effects of forced social alienation - broken families, alcoholism, arrest and prison - play similarly to those essayed by Johnny Cash of Native Americans, but amid the privation and heartache are threads of optimism, expressed both in response to hardships and in positive exclamations of place and pride. This is a truly moving collection of songs and performances, and a good introduction to a pocket of country music likely to be unfamiliar to even the most adventurous listener.

MP3 | Stranger in My Country
Roger Knox's Facebook Page

©2013 Hyperbolium

The Great Escape, Brighton, 2013: day two

2013-05-18T08:30:00.000Z

It was definitely Billy Bragg's day, with a strong contender for performance of the year, not just of TGE. In comparison with the other stuff I saw, it's a bit like wondering how the rest got on when Mo Farah turned up for the dads' race at sports day...

It was probably the fifth or sixth time I've seen Billy over the last 25 years or so and the first that he's had a full band available throughout. We still got some solo and stripped-down numbers, but it was good to have the range, texture and oomph that his four collaborators brought to the show. A particular mention for CJ Hillman, swapping between a pedal steel and a Rickenbacker to great effect, but they were all excellent. (It must be a bit tricky playing country music as the 'other Chris Hillman', but CJ doesn't suffer by the comparison.)

And was it country music? Yes, sometimes. So what? Billy got to crack some gags about 'rocking the radical Kenny Rogers look' and tell some stories about pearl snap shirts, but in truth this very English songwriter sits solidly in a transatlantic tradition – as his entirely apt choice for the Mermaid Avenue project, setting previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics to new music, fully demonstrated. He played 'Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key' from that album, alongside Woody's 'I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore.'

On both, and throughout the set, Bragg has never been in better voice – deeper as he gets older, but smoother too and deployed with confidence and range. He still jokes, sipping his herbal tea at the end, that its magical properties make him believe he's singing in tune, but his strong and lived-in larynx is now a definite strength, as its foghorn side has faded somewhat over time.

That's not to say that there's any less fire or righteous anger on show, as diatribes against political cynicism and a powerful reading of 'Ideology' demonstrate. The set ranges freely across the decades and everything he choses – the overtly political and the more personal and emotional, from his current album way back to 'The Milkman Of Human Kindness' from 1983 – fits into a coherent and cohesive whole. Special mentions for a luminous 'Tank Park Salute' (I'm welling up again as I type this...) and a deftly tweaked 'Great Leap Forwards' (the uncle 'who once played for Red Star Belgrade' now says he has 'left your aunt and run off with the postman'), but I loved the whole show. There was the odd grumble on the way out that he hadn't played 'New England' - but, hey, think of what hedid play and the strength of that 30 year back catalogue. (He had a nice riposte to shouted requests for more obscure numbers: 'Thank you, madam, but you only have to remember the title...') Thanks, Bill. Five stars.

And, in other news...

I'm kicking myself for getting to the Dome too late to catch more than the last couple of songs from Del Barber, a singer-songwriter from Winnipeg, who has a clear strong voice, accomplished guitar style and confident stage manner – which is not straightforward in a half-empty 2000 seat hall. I'll be looking out for more from him.

I only saw two songs from second support Sean McGowan too, but that was a choice. He has a strong, ranty voice, very reminiscent of a young Billy Bragg, but – for me – none of Bragg's focus or songwriting subtlety. It struck me as ranting to no purpose, I'm afraid.

The pick of the shows I caught earlier in the day was punk duo L'Hereu Escampa from Barcelona. Thunderous drumming and high energy attack, speeding up and slowing down to great effect. The shouted vocals – in Catalan, apparently, but it could have been anything – might get wearing after a while, but for half an hour this was a gripping set. (I think there must be something in the water in that part of Spain that turns out great drummers: L'Hereu are not quite in the same league, but came across rather like a stripped down version of Fergusson, one of my hits of TGE 2012.)

A mention in dispatches for Kinnie the Explorer, who coped well with a disappointingly thin audience at the Brighthelm Centre and built some nicely floating prog-tinged indie from intricate repetitive patterns. They lack a naturally strong vocalist, but there is a lot there to build on.

I was less keen on Alarm Bells, a young Scottish 5-piece, clearly determined to take the world by storm, and ready to deploy the kitchen sink in doing so. Their first number included dry ice, strobes, the singer whirling the mic around on its lead, the guitarist waving his unstrapped instrument about and some siren-like wailing. They built from there. The words 'unholy' and 'racket' came unbidden to my brain and I moved on.

(from Eden On The Line)

Brittany Holljes on the Origins of Delta Rae and Her Healthy Fleetwood Mac Obsession

2013-05-18T06:47:01.000Z

Delta Rae might sound like the down-home name of a backwoods country singer but it’s really just Greek to Brittany Holljes.

“I think there are a lot of ‘Delta’ bands out there, too, so we kind of get that ... people get confused,” said Holljes, the whip-smart singer of the North Carolina-based sextet (like Deborah Harry used to say about Blondie, Delta Rae is a group). “And I completely understand.

“We liked it for that fact,” she added over the phone on a rainy day at their Chatham County home studio, where they were recording demos for their second album that’s probably still a year away. “(The group name) tells you where we’re from. We are a southern band and we wear that on our sleeves. But at the same time, it’s got a grandness. It’s bigger than the South. It’s got almost a Greek ... it’s got a mythological element to me in my mind, maybe because I associate it with the story that my mom is telling.”

Holljes, 23, is younger than her two brothers Ian (28) and Eric (26), both of whom share lead vocal duties with Brittany and wrote all the songs on the genre-defying band’s debut album, Carry the Fire, released last June by Warner’s Sire Records. Together, along with Brittany’s best friend Elizabeth Hopkins, Delta Rae creates soaring four-part harmonies that are refined and roots-oriented, yet try to go back in the heyday of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.

All three Holljes siblings can thank their mother Laurie for instilling the spirit — and providing the name — of the group, with a character she dreamed up 10 years ago for “a very magical story” she plans to have published by the end of the year.

Delta Rae “is a 12-year-old girl from the South who calls the Greek gods back to Earth to help her and her family,” said Brittany, revealing the plot line but not the book title. “It’s Delta Rae and blah-blah-blah,” she said, laughing. “I’m not gonna give it away. ... All of us kids have read it. ... And it was really good, so we’re really proud.”

Members of Delta Rae, from left: Ian Holljes (vocals, guitar), Grant Emerson (bass), Brittany Holljes (vocals), Mike McKee (drums, percussion), Elizabeth Hopkins (vocals) and Eric Holljes (vocals, piano). Photo by Smallz and Raskind.

The Holljeses are voracious readers anyway, and D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths grabbed their attention early. Especially entranced was Brittany, who graduated at age 19 from Cal-Berkeley, where she earned a degree in ancient Mediterranean religion with an emphasis in Greek mythology.

A Tennessee native, Brittany also lived in Georgia before her father Christian, who worked for Apple Computer, moved to California in 1996 to become an entrepreneur and toy inventor. He created the Fisher-Price Smart Cycle, “one of the most brilliant things he’s come up with to date,” his daughter said.

Brittany describes herself as the baby and the rebel of the family, for “so many reasons.” At age 15, she dropped out of high school and enrolled at College of Marin for two years before choosing between studying ethnomusicology at UCLA or religion at UC-Berkeley.

“I think I recognized that I wasn’t going to flourish in high school. I wanted a more flexible learning environment and teachers who cared more and to be away from sort of the social drama in high school that comes with everybody’s high school experience,” she said, adding that “in an insane twist,” her parents where hugely supportive. “In community college, I got to be a completely anonymous presence. ... It was definitely the right choice for me. Eric going off to college (two years earlier to continue a Holljes legacy at Duke University) just made me feel like my only real ally at our high school was gone and I didn’t want to be there anymore.”

Which brings us back to the band.

“It’s really probably going to be the thing I’m happiest about in my life that I chose to do,” Brittany said of the reunion with her brothers after she and Eric graduated from college the same year to form the band in Durham. “But being such a rebel in my teenage years, I had no idea that I would choose ultimately to completely get reabsorbed into my family and make sort of my family and my career and my whole life into one thing. I’m really happy that I did.”

While Brittany’s voice provides the dynamite power to such explosive tracks as “Holding Onto Good,” “Bottom of the River” and “Fire,” she credits her brothers for setting the bar high with their songwriting skills and basic instincts.

“We tend to argue occasionally but for the most part we really have a good time,” Brittany said about life on a 12-passenger Ford van with all of the band — including Grant Emerson (bass) and Mike McKee (drums) — and a tour manager. Following a brief break after MerleFest, Delta Rae is back on the road and will perform at the Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores, Alabama, on Saturday (May 18).

Brittany, who is slowly starting to write songs and may sneak one in on the next album, insists the group has never had a major disagreement. Majority rules in most matters but, when it comes to making more significant decisions, “we kinda don’t come down on either side until everybody (including manager and family friend Adam Schlossman) has all the information and can come to the same conclusion.”

Family unity also has a lot to do with living in harmony, too.

“Three siblings in a band, we were all raised by the same people, we have the same value sets and my brothers are really smart,” said Brittany, who maintains there’s no such thing as a sibling rivalry among the Holljeses. “They’re not just musicians, they’re brilliant guys. And they wouldn’t have pulled all of us into this if they didn’t have a plan.”

That firm direction has resulted in “only like a million” highlights in the 11 months since the release, she said. Among the standouts were singing and filming four of their songs (including the album’s raucous “Bottom of the River”) with a group of kids from PS 22 in Staten Island, New York; meeting first lady (and a very “mom-like”) Michelle Obama while Delta Rae campaigned heavily for the re-election of the president (left to right: Elizabeth Hopkins, Michelle Obama, Brittany Holljes, Eric Holljes.); and making an indirect but invaluable connection with one of Fleetwood Mac’s power players.

Brittany said she’s been obsessed with the supergroup since her “cool aunt” Leigh gave her Rumours for her 11th or 12 birthday.

“I remember putting it on and ... it just felt like summertime. My birthday’s in August (14), so at the point which I started playing it, it just became the soundtrack of my life, along with, at that time, Queen and Jeff Buckley,” she said.

Rumours became Delta Rae’s working model because, Brittany said, it “was a collection of bluegrass sounds and rock sounds and beautiful ballads and ... it crossed borders and it didn’t care.”

So when Delta Rae, who still perform “The Chain” in concert, decided to re-record “If I Loved You,” they were pleasantly surprised to find out that high-powered Los Angeles producer Rob Cavallo brought in Lindsey Buckingham separately to lay down a 12-string Veillette Gryphon acoustic guitar for the track.

“It was literally exactly what the track needed,” Brittany said of the song that is Hopkins’ Carry the Fire vocal showcase. “Leave it to Lindsey Buckingham, who’s just so brilliant, to know exactly ... to hear a song and hear the gaps and say, ‘I can fill in on those gaps.’ ... We were blown away and honored. If you want to talk about highlights of the year, that was one of them.”

Now if only Brittany Holljes and her Delta Rae brothers could meet the Guitar God they idolize almost as much as Zeus. Until then, this experience could be considered a near myth.

Delta Rae are scheduled to perform from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday (May 18) on the Hangout Stage at the 2013 Hangout Festival.

Last in a series. Previously in the series: Jason Isbell Opens Up About Alabama, Adulthood and Alcoholism; Ryan Bingham Will Ring Your Decibels; Lissie Draws Outside the Rock Island Lines

ALABAMA GETAWAY: DELTA RAE’S BRITTANY HOLLJES ON THE HANGOUT, COVERS AND MORE

Is this your first time at the Hangout Fest?
“It’s actually not our first time. We played the (Thursday night) opening party for the VIPs (last year). So we’re really thrilled that they asked us back ’cause I think it means that the people who saw us liked us.”

What did you think of Gulf Shores?
“I think we thought it was kind of amazing. We don’t get down to that southern a point very often. But to know that such incredible beaches are available to us and I’m so glad that festival happens there. I think everybody recognizes that the Gulf suffered a lot in the last five years, tourism and all that. They have a reason to celebrate that the environment is bouncing back, rebuilding the community there. It’s a pretty great experience all around.”

If you could hang out with another artist performing at the Hangout Festival, who would it be?
“Oh man, last year the Red Hot Chili Peppers played. I think that would be the most ideal. (Holljes is told that Tom Petty and Kings of Leon are among this year’s headliners.) Oh, God, well both of them. We’re crazy, huge Kings of Leon fans. If our drummer has been influenced by anybody, it’s by Tom Petty’s (original) drummer, Stan Lynch. He’s in love with that style. We love that documentary Tom Petty has out (Runnin’ Down a Dream). It would be incredible to hang out with either (group) at Hangout Fest.

Will you get to spend more than one day at the Hangout?
“Oh, yeah. We’ve rented a house; we’re gonna be true to the name of the festival. We’ll be hanging out full time, I think.

What can Hangout listeners expect from Delta Rae’s set?
“I think there’s gonna be a lot of raucous partying, so we’re gonna try and bring our energy all the way up to meet that demand. Four-part harmony, power, we want people to have an awesome time and be able to be moved by the music and really feel it. And we’ll be feeling it every second that we’re onstage.”

What’s either your favorite song about Alabama or favorite musician from Alabama?
“Well, I have to give props to the Alabama Shakes. They are from Alabama, though, right? ... (They formed in Athens, Alabama.) Their lead singer is also named Brittany (Howard). I think she is just nuts. I do not know how her vocal cords do it, but I’m very impressed. ... They’re busting out, making moves and I’m excited for them.”

Crowd-sourcing to crowd-pleasing: The rise of Kat Edmonson

2013-05-18T06:34:34.000Z

If Kat Edmonson ever becomes a household name, she can put it down not just to her talent as a jazz singer, but to some decidedly modern financing as well.

The 29-year-old Texan, an old-school chanteuse with a contemporary lilt, has funded production of her second album via a community workshop and through crowd-sourcing, essentially getting the people who like her to pay for it. The album, "Way Down Low", has now been picked up by Sony which is "launching" the singer outside the United States as an up-and-comer in a more traditional manner.

It is a far cry from her first album, which Edmonson simply charged to her credit card. "Go into debt and pay it back (was the idea)," the singer told me after performing at a church in central London.

The 2009 album was relatively successful and she garnered enough attention to appear with Lyle Lovett on Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show" on U.S. television but she was still pretty strapped for cash. So her second album came about differently. First, she hooked up with METalliance, a U.S. community foundation of established music producers and audio engineers who record artists they like for free, and paid for by having music fans come in to watch how they did it.

After that, however, Edmonson needed to pay for the music to be mixed. She wanted it done by Al Schmitt, whose credits include working with Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini, Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall and a host of jazz and rock greats. So Edmonson put a video of her work on the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter, offering incentives ranging from future downloads to performances at private parties in exchange for funding pledges.

"I raised $50,000," she said, and watched the album rise in the United States to No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart for new or developing acts.

Edmonson doesn't call herself a jazz singer, but only out of modesty. She says she would be loathe to so link herself to the greats of the genre. "I would be (embarrassed) to enter into a room full of scat singers," she said.

Instead, she simply says she sings the "American Songbook" - a catalogue of generally mid-20th century songs, many from musicals. She sings them with a soft, enchanting voice that is full of expression - and jazzy, whether she likes it or not.

The traditional songbook style is on display throughout "Way Down Low", particularly on the tracks "Champagne" and "I'm Not In Love", which include witty lyrics about never drinking again and about going through life wearing "entirely sensible shoes". But it also includes a couple of more contemporary tunes in "I Don't Know" and "Lucky", which are closer to something a muted Adele or Duffy might come up with.

The latter song has already made its mark in the United States. It has been sold for television, film and commercials and is on the soundtrack of the Tina Fey comedy film "Admission" that was released in March.

In Europe, Edmonson is planning concerts in Germany and Britain and then is scheduled to perform in July at the Montreux Jazz Festival on the same bill as George Benson.
(This is an edited version of an article I wrote for my regular employer, Reuters)

When to get your ass saved and when to drown

2013-05-17T20:30:00.000Z

How does the co-writing song process differ from the alone songwriting process you just wrote about?

Co-writing is quite different from writing alone. When I'm working on something alone I have complete freedom. Freedom to experiment, to make mistakes, to try things I'm quite sure won't work and the freedom to reconstruct whatever has come before and rebuild it like a bad water pump. When I'm working on a song with another writer there is the presence of a vigilant audience accepting and denying every change that is made to a song and the same goes for the other writer obviously. We can tell each other we have complete freedom to try things out but the very fact that someone else will hear what we want to try changes the nature and process of the work. It's not that you try to present something to impress your co-writer, it's not that you're being manipulative. The fact is, when you write with another writer you are trying to find common ground to stand on and that's quite different from allowing yourself to stand in quicksand. I might allow myself to sink down some murky ground in a lyric but I know how far and in what direction I need to go to pull myself out of the mire. A co-writer can't possibly know this so writing with another you are constantly looking for sure-footedness as you work. The beauty of writing with another writer is in finding someone who fills your weak spots. I have a fairly good sense of natural language that might come from a characters voice. I have an instinct for keeping an eye on language and making sure a character doesn't use a word that would be unnatural for the place and time they come from. I don't even mind language that's incorrect if the narrator would say the line incorrectly in real life. These kind of details come easily to me. I'm not, however, quite as skilled with the big picture stuff. I love to find co-writers who have a gift for seeing the 75 Nova moving down the highway while I describe the rust on the wheel wells. It's not as effective to describe the rust on the wheel wells and the peeling STP sticker on the pitted windshield. Somebody has to be the person moving the car down the the Interstate. Of course these roles are amorphous and changing. There are times when I'm the big picture guy and have the arc of the story and the details as well. There are times when what I really need is an editor. As I've become more skilled as a songwriter I find that a great editor is just as valuable as an intimate co-writer. Sometimes you simply need someone to say the story doesn't move along quickly enough, or that the subtext is too subtle or that the rhythm of the words should change from the verse to the chorus. These simple things can be the difference between just another song and a song that can become an important part of the bigger ongoing story you tell. On the other hand there are times when a cowriter would straighten up something that's beautifully crooked. Here is the first verse and chorus to Down To The Bone from the Girl From Arkansas CD. The rhyme scheme is way off balance. The second half of the verse is longer than the first half. The word "Kid" is used to rhyme with "Kidd". The list of problems with this little piece of writing is extensive and yet I wouldn't change a word. It's perfectly crooked. A co-writer [including myself] would want to pull the dents, sand the rust, prime the bare metal and give it a fresh coat of enamel but that would ruin the bike. It looks right as it is, rust and all.

An Orphan Child
A Foster Kid
Richer baby than Captain Kidd
Gold chains hanging from the smile I hid
Laughing at all the damage I did
Dirt and charcoal
Powder and Dust
Come on baby who you gonna trust?
When the frame has turned to rust
And there's no time left for us
Nobody's waiting' at the door
Down to the Bone
Down to the Bone
I'm gonna love you down to the bone
When all the mockingbirds have flown
Baby down to the bone

Other times a cowriter will really save your ass…Here is the original first verse of a song I brought Slaid Cleaves in on called Rust Belt Fields.

I grew up here
In the Rust Belt Fields
We used to make GMs
And Oldsmobiles
We worked hard
But the money was good
We saved a little something
When we could

It's good but here is the first verse after working on it together.

This is my town
Out in the rust belt fields
We were bangin' out Buicks
And Oldsmobiles
There was always a job
And the money was there
Some say we got a little lazy
Nobody seemed to care

The subtext is richer. The story moves quicker and the lyric brings more complicated elements into play sooner than the version I initially had. This is how co-writing works for me at it's best. Sometimes you want your ass saved sometimes you don't but that's how it works for me...

CD Review - Fiddleworms "See The Light"

2013-05-17T18:30:00.000Z

The ambitious new album See The Light, from Alabama quintet Fiddleworms is a cavalcade of styles with literally a parade of guest musicians including the University of North Alabama marching Band. The eleven original tracks are interspersed with snippets of radio sound effects and spoken word segments that flow from jazzy blues to stomping country rock fusion all centered around the lazy everyman vocals Russell Medford. The level of production and instrumental performance is top notch as it weaves in the elements of classic Muscle Shoals R&B from the 70’s reminiscent of Little Feat and NRBQ, with layers of superb guitar picking, hot horn jabs, retro keyboards and a rockin’ rhythm section. The album is lacking a single to hang its hat on as the band chooses rather to present this album as one continuous piece of music forming a neo progressive jam band opera, full of opaque twists and turns. Medford sings about the struggles of love one moment then laments the struggles of the working man the next. The Fidldeworms have certainly created a unique musical landscape with See The Light, hard to know if audiences will ever clearly understand the depth of this southern gothic passion play.

http://www.fiddleworms.com/live/index.php

Rick J Bowen

Interview with Raul Malo from the Mavericks

2013-05-17T15:00:00.000Z

May 2013

There are very few singers or bands that have a 100% distinctive Trademark sound; but The Mavericks achieved that very early in their career and in the UK you still can’t go to a Wedding without being corralled onto the dance-floor as soon as you hear the opening bars to Dance The Night Away.

After breaking up in 2004 lead singer and songwriter, Raul pursued a successful solo career visiting the UK several times to adoring crowds.

Without any warning; earlier this year The Mavericks released an album, of brand new songs called IN TIME to critical acclaim and they are due in the UK soon, to promote it in a series of already sold-out concerts in Manchester and Birmingham then returning in July for even more concerts.

Raul Malo kindly took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about his career and the new album.

“Music has been in my life for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Miami; the radio was always on in our house, and my Mom had a very diverse record collection and when I first heard Elvis singing ‘It’s Now Or Never’ a light went on and I became obsessed; listening to everything from Cuban music, Classical and even Reggae and Ska because some of our neighbours were from the Caribbean. Then as I grew older an Aunt introduced me to British music and I couldn’t get enough; especially during the Beatles Psychedelic period.

It was only years later; when I began touring across America that I found out most people only ever listened to one type of music.

I think our music reflects that background and I’ve strived ever since to capture the words and emotion and the spirit of the Elvis Presley song in my writing. I know I haven’t, and never will, but I want people to feel the same way about my music as I still do about that one song.

When I started writing songs for the Mavericks I was listening to a lot of songs from the ‘Great American Songbook’ and they all sounded so simple, that I thought “I can do that.” Obviously I couldn’t; and still can’t (cue laughter) and I still marvel at how those writers can get their point across so eloquently. After all of these years I never stop learning and listen carefully to new songwriters like Jack White to hear how they phrase things and there’s another guy called JD McPherson who’s channelling the classic Rock and Roll sound that I grew up listening too and; have you heard the British singer…Pete Molinari? I love his voice and the way he writes too and I’m just as influenced by those guys as anyone I listened to as a teenager.

While I was writing some songs last year I kept thinking, “This would make a good Mavericks song” and eventually called a couple of guys to come around and listen to them and before you knew it were back in the saddle again; and as soon as we had a few songs together we went to Big Machine Records who loved them, and a deal was done.

Money was never our goal; just making great music and I think we have with IN TIME; it’s the sound and feel I think we’d always wanted to create; but sometimes you have to ‘live a little’ first before it happens.

All of the songs tell stories but Amsterdam Moon is probably my favourite, because of the way it came about.

I was on a promotional tour in Europe and had been booked into a hotel near Amsterdam Airport which is miles from the City Centre and where the ‘action’ is (more laughter). I was furious with him and had to take a train ride to get there; but as the train went through the countryside I could see an amazing moon in the sky. After a few minutes I began thinking that many of my artist heroes like Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Da Vinci would have looked at the same vision and been inspired by it. By the time I arrived in the city I had the basis for the song. After a very quick meal I took the train back to my hotel and took my ukulele out of my bag and spent the rest of the night working everything out and I’m very proud to say it’s on the album.

Touring Europe has always been a pleasure. Even in the early days of the Mavericks fans; especially in the UK were very open minded about how we sounded and have stayed loyal ever since; even when our Record Companies were losing faith.

Some of the greatest moments in my life have happened in England. We’d spent years touring America and building up our reputation and fan base but absolutely nothing compared to the very first time we stood on the stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Even during the soundcheck we just looked at each other and nodded. We didn’t need to speak the words “Hey! We’ve really made it!” Every singer or band that I’d ever been inspired by had trod that stage and for me…..I was really close to tears.

Then; in 2011 I was invited to take part in the Americana SummerTyne Music Festival at Gateshead in England. At first I resumed that it would just be a normal concert, but when they asked me to perform with an orchestra, and choose songs from the Great American Songbook I couldn’t believe my ears. It took a while to sink in but I quickly agreed.

The Festival is held at the Sage Music Centre in Gateshead; which is near Newcastle and is one of the great venues to perform in anywhere in the world.

It didn’t take us too long to choose our songs; which were a mixture of classics and some Mavericks tunes too; and I only had a couple of days to practice with this incredible orchestra and I was really nervous, for once because it was being recorded for a live album.

I was shaking with nerves when I walked out onto the stage, because it was so daunting singing with such clever musicians; but the reception from the audience was amazing and the whole evening went by in the blink of an eye. It was one of those special nights that don’t happen often enough and it truly was an honour to perform with the Northern Philharmonic Orchestra. Would I do it again? Of course I would – in a heartbeat.

It’s things like that which make our jobs so cool and why we are so excited at touring the UK again; the audiences are so receptive to new things as much as they enjoy our ‘hits’ and all we really want to do is leave people with a smile on their faces.”

The Mavericks Tour the UK 17-19 May and 19-27 July.

http://www.themavericksband.com/

The Great Escape, Brighton, 2013: day one

2013-05-17T10:30:00.000Z

So, here we are again, tramping the streets of Brighton, squeezing into some unfeasibly small spaces to see bands we've never heard of...

I'd been feeling somewhat underexcited by this year's Great Escape because it the only one of hundreds of names on the bill that I knew I liked was Billy Bragg, who appears at the Dome tonight. But a quick burst of venue-hopping last night –bookended by engaging performances by two chalk-and-cheese-different Canadian 23 year olds – restored my faith and energy levels.

Coincidentally, I'd been to see Lucinda Williams the night before and was leftunderwhelmed. The voice was there and some classic songs, like 'Jackson' and 'Car Wheels On A Gravel Road'. But she didn't seem fully engaged: spending a lot of time fiddling with her guitar and consulting a roadie, and relying heavily on a big binder on a lectern for the lyrics. Guitarist Doug Pettibone was fine on the textures and crunch but, to my ear, didn't add much melodically. Even from our front row seats, what was billed as 'An Intimate Evening With Lucinda Williams' ended up being more of a low-key one.

Quite a contrast to see Mo Kenney the next day. I knew nothing about this young NovaScotian on her first trip to the UK other than that she was a singer-songwriter. She took the stage with an acoustic guitar and sang a couple of songs clearly and pleasantly to a neatly finger-picked accompaniment. Just as a 'so what?' was forming in my mind she strapped on a Les Paul and introduced Emergency, a clearly older bassist and drummer who were 'jetlagged as fuck' having flown in that morning. The rest of the set was on another level, building to a brave and excellent take on David Bowie's 'Five Years'. It transpired that Kenney has been recording with big-in-his-native-Canada Joel Plaskett and Emergency are his band. Mo deserves that sort of attention and leg-up: she has a focus and clarity about what she does, with a spare, unpretentious, line in lyrics ('your eyes are like a big black hole / the more I look the less I know'); and an engaging dry sense of humour – noting that Brighton 'is like California...only cooler'.

I had been more taken by the programme's write-up of the act that followed Kenney – Norwegian chanteuse Jenny Hval. Unfortunately, I didn't really take to her: self-consciously arty, shying away from anything that might be mistaken for a groove, her voice not really strong or distinctive enough to get away with the arch phrasing and sudden shrieks. She knows how to write an arresting line – 'last night I watched people fucking on my computer' – but when the name of a song is 'Oslo Oedipus', you know someone is trying a bit too hard. (And I've since discovered that her album is called Innocence Is Kinky...)

I then took in solo electric guitarist Dean McPhee, whose write-up drew a comparison with Mike Oldfield. Not quite, I fear, it's hard for one, seated, instrumentalist to hold an audience's interest if you're not either a striking virtuoso or have really strong melodies. Compared with some others in the field, I didn't really detect either.

Moving briskly on, I sampled the more touted Merchandise, a four-piece guitar band from Tampa, Florida. Lots of thump and energy, rather less in the way of obviously distinctive style or songs. You have to aim off a bit when you can't make out the words, and pausing at the back of the Corn Exchange on the way out, I did pick up some more intriguing echoes of Steve Harley in frontman Carson Cox's vocals. From a bit of subsequent research, the band's interviews seem to be rather more expansive and ambitious than their performances ('The Sound Of Music reimagined by Augustus Pablo' was definitely not what the hardcore I heard brought to mind), but they may well have a more subtle side on record.

I then called in to a rammed Green Door Store on my way home and was pleased to have caught Mac DeMarco, another young Canadian (raised in Edmonton) with a good ear for a hookline and an exuberant air of drunken bonhomie. He wears a backward ball cap (of course) and his grinning, bearded bassist actually wears his – a tasteful Jurassic Parknumber – sideways. Mac numbers amongst his influences diverse luminaries including Jonathan Richman and Shuggie Otis - and you can genuinely hear that in the music: he's got Richman's ability to control his own time and space vocally above the beat and (strangely, behind the boozy vulgarity) some of his innocence too. Imagine Richman joining the cast of Animal House... and then – suspend that disbelief, now – performing a pisstake of 'Stairway To Heaven', with added blow-job references. And the band can actually do a convincing southern funk, a la Shuggie. It came to me that the bassman could have been a young Levon Helm, delighted to have been served with some underage beers. It's not tasteful, but it's fun and it works. I particularly warmed to them when a know-all voice behind me opined to his companion 'This is the sort of band that gets canned off at Reading' before shouting 'You're shit!'. They're not – and most of the audience were having a great time.

(from Eden On The Line)

CD Reissue Review: David Allan Coe - Texas Moon (Plantation/Real Gone, 1977/2013)

2013-05-17T01:57:20.000Z

Outlaw country three years before RCA named it

There may never have been as iconoclastic a country artist as David Allan Coe. Though his rejection of Nashville norms drew parallels with the outlaw movement, he always seemed a notch wilder and less predictable than Waylon, Willie and the boys. Reared largely in reform schools and prisons through his late-20s, his bluesy 1969 debut, Penitentiary Blues, didn't predict his turn to country, but certainly showed off the outspoken songwriting that would sustain his career. At turns, Coe was a rebel, a rhinestone suited cowboy, a biker and a successful Nashville songwriter. After a pair of albums for Shelby Singleton's indie SSS label, Coe hooked up with a rock band for a couple of years, wrote a chart-topping hit for Tanya Tucker, and signed with Columbia in 1974.

This 1977 release on Shelby's Plantation label appears to have been recorded in 1973, on the eve of the songwriting revolution fueled in large part by Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver and Guy Clark. All three are represented (Kristofferson with "Why Me," Shaver with "Ride Me Down Easy" and Clark with "That Old Time Feeling"), along with Mickey Newbury ("Why You Been Gone So Long") and Jackson Browne ("These Days"). Coe finds a deep resonance with these then-contemporary songs, but the way he pulls older selections into his universe is even more impressive. He converts John Greer's early-50s "Got You on My Mind" from R&B to country-soul and turns Johnny Cash's Sun-era tragedy "Give My Love to Rose" into a mournful '70s ballad.

Coe wrote only two of the songs here, the sympathetic "Mary Magdeline" and the prescient "Fuzzy Was an Outlaw." Both exhibit the sort of blunt honesty that would become his trademark. By the time this album was released in '77, Coe had charted "You Never Even Called Me by My Name," "Longhaired Redneck," and "Willie, Wayon and Me," but Texas Moon drew little public notice and has been left unreissued on CD until now. Real Gone's reissue includes a 12-panel insert with new liner notes by Chris Morris, and original front and back cover art. The latter includes vintage mug shots and a list of Coe's incarcerations. This isn't the place to start a David Allan Coe collection, but it's a missing chapter that the singer-songwriter's many fans will enjoy having available again.

David Allan Coe's Home Page

©2013 Hyperbolium

Gary Atkinson of Document Records – Keeping the Blues Alive!

2013-05-17T10:30:00.000Z

DATC: Gary, tell us what Document Records is and what makes it special?

Gary: It is rather unique! I was a CD reviewer when I first encountered it. From the 1970s onwards there were labels that were reissuing pre-war country blues. Artists’ works were being released in chronological order – labels like Matchbox, RST, Wolf and so on. Johnny Parth was involved in some way with these labels. He was producing albums for a few different labels, both here and in Austria. Johnny did a tremendous amount of work on different projects and he was able to get access to a large bank of original recordings. Eventually he realized he had so many recordings he could mass them together and put it under one umbrella, one label. And so Document Records was born.

And he started releasing these recordings at a prolific rate – he actually was releasing about 100 CDs a year! He’d struck up a very good deal with Arhoolie in San Francisco whereby they agreed to take and pay for 250 of any CD that Document released. That’s any record label’s dream! It’s usually sale or return. So that financed Document in the early days.

And the first 200-300 releases of the catalogue were very strong sellers and are still popular today. But eventually Arhoolie had to implore Johnny to stop sending CDs, as they began to cover much more obscure areas that were not so popular with the record buying public – these included old preachers and sermons! Johnny didn’t take any notice of this request. So it got to the point where the Arhoolie warehouse was stacked full of Document CDS!

DATC: You got involved about 12 years or so ago?

Gary: Yes. What Johnny had done in releasing the works of artists like Blind Willie McTell chronologically was unbelievable, really. It took a certain type of person. After doing the reviews, Johnny desperately needed someone to write some booklet notes on four volumes of Ma Rainey and he asked me. And no matter what you did for Johnny, he would pay you in CDs! 10 CDs for a set of booklet notes, so I was amassing quite a bit of the catalogue – my idea of heaven really – I don’t know whether he went down to his local supermarket and offered to pay for his groceries in CDs or not!

This was around 1997 and it was at the beginning of people having PCs in their homes. And it occurred to me – a website would be great to reach out to all the fans of pre-war blues around the world. Perhaps you could make a kind of online shop – so I called Johnny and put this to him, but he just wasn’t interested. But he said – why don’t you have a go at it? And then he said, would you like all of Document? And I assumed he just meant that I could have the rest of the catalogue I didn’t have. But it soon became clear that what he meant was that he wanted me to take over Document Records.

So we talked about a deal and I said yes.

DATC: And you took over the business at that point and have seen it through the whole sea change of CDs through to downloads.

Gary: Actually I couldn’t have taken it over at a worse time – the timing was appalling! But I had committed myself to it. And it’s not like selling a commodity – there’s a much bigger weight of responsibility on our shoulders because we are acutely aware that what we have is as good as a kind of museum, with lots of precious stuff inside it. If the door was closed on it and the key thrown away, it would be a huge loss. Independent record companies have always been a bit of a thorn in the majors side. If companies likeDocument finished, the majors are not going to their vaults and say, we simply must do a boxed set of the Rev. J M Gates, orFrank Stokes. These companies are not interested in licensing anything unless it’s likely to sell up to 20,000 copies. The money side of it doesn’t particularly bother me, but what might keep me awake at night, is thinking – if Documentwasn’t around, who would take up the challenge of this precious repository of material?

Often we get orders from universities in the States and we have this curious and ironic situation where the University of Texas is ordering pre-war recordings of Texas blues artists from a little sleepy hollow in the south west of Scotland. And they need this not only for music studies but African-American social studies and so on. But what if Document weren’t around?

DATC: So if you had to articulate what is it about this early blues music that is so important, so vital?

Gary: I think that Jack White summed this up quite well a few weeks back, when he said that this was really the first recordings of ordinary people singing about their own very personal thoughts and feelings. Before that you had vaudeville, music hall songs, minstrel singers and so on – they were not personal songs. It was this or classical music. So this idea of people singing about the fact that they have money troubles of love troubles…blues music was so individual, so personal.

DATC: How have you found interest in the blues over the past, say ten years? What’s been your observation?

Gary: I think it’s still pretty much where it was in the late seventies. Up until 1961, it was black music for black consumption. Live performances, whether in a Chicago club or a juke joint down south – it was black performers for a black audience. More often than not these audiences wouldn’t just sit in their seats and clap politely – one of the first blues records I remember hearing was White, Brown Black by Big Bill Broonzy and I made the wrong conclusion that a lot of this stuff was going to be political. But it’s not, they are songs about love. Some of it is incredibly romantic, some of it absolutely brutal. But nearly all of it was danced to. You’d go into the juke joint and you’d have some couple doing some sort of grinding dance in the shadows to something like Charlie Patton’s Hammer Blues.

For us something to dance to needs to be energetic – it’s hard for us to get our minds around the fact that a lot of the pre-war music would have been danced to.

DATC: Elijah Wald makes the same point in his book Escaping the Delta, that whatever else you want to say about the blues, it was music to dance to. It was entertainment. It was a way to escape the hard week of cotton picking and then into the juke joint to be entertained.

Gary: Going into town on a Saturday night to the barrelhouse or the juke joint, drinks, hot evenings, people dancing, people talking in the shadows. Now the black record buying public follow the trends just the same as anybody else did. For them it was blues, then swing, then R&D, the boogie-woogie stuff, the swing stuff, then the powerful Chicago electric stuff – they were moving with the times. It was over for pre-war blues recordings and they moved on. And they moved on from the electric blues to soul. And then it became all the more sophisticated. So the likes of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters – fantastic as they are, and despite how you and I might appreciate them, by the end of the 50s it was becoming old music. And by the time Tamla had got a hold by the sixties, they were done, more or less, they only appealed to the older generation which had grown up with that music.

But then of course we have the Rolling Stones and the Animals, the Yardbirds, Cream. And they, unwittingly, brought another audience to this music. The record companies – like Chess – had been approached regarding artists going over the Europe to tour. All you’d had before that was Bill Broonzey, Lonnie Donnegan, and Leadbelly who went to France – and although they’d been well received, it wasn’t a major turning point for the artist. So the only one that said he’d give it a try was Sonny Boy Williamson. When he came over, there is this classic photo of him down in London, with a mini-skirted young lady sat on his knee with the bee-hive and so on, and Sonny Boy looking very pleased with himself. So he took these photographs back and showed them to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, and with that they were all queuing up at the airport to come over! Sonny Boy said, you wouldn’t believe how they treated me over there, I was like Elvis. So over they came in their droves. And they started to appear with some of the British bands like the Yardbirds and so on. But by this point there’s a compromise starting, the black blues performances started to make concessions for white audiences, and at the same time you had white musicians desperately trying to sound like their idols. And so you got this blend, and with that there were sacrifices – but they had to do it to appeal to a new found audience, because their old audience was away buying Junior Walker or the Supremes. So the music got diluted – and some of it I like, some of it I don’t really.

DATC: Do you have any contemporary blues artists you particularly like?

Gary: No, not really! When you’ve been listening to this stuff all your life, probably for several hours every day… When I started off with this, to go into a record shop with a blues section would be very unusual. And one of the things about the music back in the day was that it was very obscure, and when I was at school, the other kids would have things like T-Rex and Sweet written all over their school satchels, whereas I had things like Barbeque Bob and Peg Leg Howell! Those times were very lonely experiences! So I’ve been into this for such a long time, and when you hear something new, you’re saying to yourself, is this is just like so and so, and as the years go on you end up with these massive references you can make. So it really takes something to make me sit up and listen. But it’s nice when you hear someone these days go down, not the Buddy Guy route, but more the down home route. That’s what I like.

DATC: Is there a typical Document Records customer?

Gary: [laughs]. Yes, they’re very scary and frightening! No, actually there isn’t – when I’d had Documentabout 4 or 5 years, somebody said, do you remember the Blues and Gospel Train? It was a programme on Granada TV around 1963 or so, with Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie Magee, and a few others. And they used to commandeer this disused railway station just outside Manchester and turned it into something out of Mississippi. And it might have worked, but it was the middle of winter and all the artists were wearing these heavy coats looking frozen! So they were doing this evening all about the programme, with the original producer and so on. So I went, and I thought, is this just going to be a few old guys with big beer bellies? And I could imagine a lousy PA system giving feedback and so on. But when we got there, it was absolutely packed and yes, while there were people there of my age and older, the biggest number of people were students, and they thought it was fantastic. And at the end of it when I went into the loo, this guy said to me, what are you into then? And I said, well I like the blues. And he said, who’s your favourite? Oh, I don’t know, there are so many, I replied. And he said, well my favourite’s Memphis Minnie. And I thought, that’s a surprise. And then from another part of the Gent’s loo came this voice saying, well I love Peetie Wheatstraw, and then another one popped up, but you can’t beat Blind Blake. And I was really taken aback. And then my mate told them that I owned Document Records and they all knew about it and were all delighted – so they followed me outside and wouldn’t let me go.

So, as far as your question, who’s the typical customer of Document? Well, I’d only had it a few months when I had this strange call from someone who wanted to tell me how much he and his mate loved country blues, all sorts of blues music – it was all me and my mate like this, that and the other, and we love Document. But just at the point when I was thinking, I really must get back to work, he told me that they wanted help with a project – it would involve a book and a TV documentary and a CD. And then he told me his mate was Bill Wyman! So Document ended up doing the album, Bill Wyman’s Blues Odyssey.

At that point, I was astonished to find that the Document label was known beyond the serious blues enthusiast and collector. And the book and everything was launched down at Sticky Fingers Cafe down in London and the people that were there at the party – I was stood in the middle of this, thinking, what is going on? And people I spoke to were very, very knowledgeable about the music and they loved the music. And that was everybody from David Bowie toBob Geldoff. Bob Geldoff said to me, Ah yes Document, I love it! The whole thing was astonishing to me.

And we have now have licensed a lot of stuff to other labels and have licensed stuff for film and advertising and documentaries. And what amazes me is that the requests are very specific, for the most obscure recordings.

And again, with regards to who likes Document? Well, one of them rang me up a couple of years back – and it’s Jack White.

DATC: Yes, this is very interesting. How did this contact come about?

Gary: Well, a couple of years ago Third Manemailed and said Jack White would like to speak to me. So after quite a while, when I had just about forgotten about it, my wife answered the telephone and said, Jack White’s on the phone. So we had this great conversation, talking about what we both were about, talking enthusiastically about the music and so on. And Jack said what an influence Document had been on him and his music from when he was a teenager. Back then he’d walked into a record shop near his home and bought a large number of Document vinyl records, and he gave himself a crash course in vintage country blues.

DATC: So with the Jack White project, you’re doing Charlie Patton, Willie McTell and the Mississippi Sheiks?

Gary: Yes. At first I thought he was going to ask for “best ofs” so I was very surprised that he wanted to commit himself to the whole Document approach of issuing the music in chronological order.

People used to argue about how much you should restore these old recordings. Some collectors felt that the original records shouldn’t be touched – and, of course, sometimes when restoration is done, there is the possibility of taking out important frequencies that contribute to the music itself, as opposed to simply removing scratches and clicks. So retaining the integrity of the music of the original recording is a delicate business. I have eventually learned how to do all of this and I knew that what Jack was trying to do was something very, very special. So I took a long time over making sure we got this right.

Our ultimate goal was that these LPs would get into the hands of newcomers to the music. We wanted people to look at the covers and then start to listen and then begin to take that journey that we’ve been lucky enough to take. If a young Jack White walks into a record shop and gets interested in this music, then that would be great.

DATC: And the covers of the new albums look absolutely fabulous.

Gary: Yeah. I must admit, when I saw the Patton one at first, I was shocked. But I couldn’t get it out of my head. And now I think they’ve really captured the character of the music.

DATC: I think they’re fabulous – they really capture something of the original artist. But at the same time they are very contemporary.

Gary: Yes! They really did create something of a wow factor when they were first shown.

DATC: So the albums are available on vinyl and download?

Gary: Yeah. At first I thought Jack just wanted to keep it to vinyl. But then he said, if you want to use the artwork for your own CDs, that’s OK. And in the end we agreed that we could use the artwork for downloads from Document.

DATC: How have the LPs sold?

Gary: The albums sold out. The first pressing was 3,000 of each and they sold out within a week. And so the first set of albums are being re-pressed and the second volume is now out. There have been a few delays – with us, and also because Jack never stops – there’s always something going on, with his touring, or films or whatever. I remember saying to his lawyer at an early stage of the project, I can’t imagine this is Jack’s biggest priority, but she said, no you’re absolutely wrong, this is Jack’s main priority. And then she paused and said, but everything that he does is his top priority!

But he’s done so many interviews about Document and banged on about it! So Document has had its moments – the Bill Wyman moment, and another one with Paul Simon – things to keep us interested – but this…it’s not been the same since, it really hasn’t.

DATC: So presumably that has driven the online sales for you as well?

Gary: Oh yeah. It’s been unbelievable. It’s quite interesting – we started our Facebook page in August 2011 and my wife, Gillian, keeps that updated every day. And we were getting 5 or 6 likes a week, but when this collaboration with Third Man came along, we suddenly went up to 2,000 likes. And phones were ringing, people wanted interviews, we started to sell out of CDs. In some ways it was great and in other ways it was quite alarming!

DATC: So the second volumes are now available?

Gary: Yes, they’re available and people can buy them through our websites.

DATC: Thanks so much, it’s been a fascinating conversation!

First published at Down at the Crossroads

CD Review: Ashley Monroe - Like a Rose (Warner Brothers, 2013)

2013-05-17T01:25:17.000Z

The Pistol Annies' Ashley Monroe shines brightly in the solo spotlight

As part of the Pistol Annies, Ashley Monroe's star power was obscured by the outsized shine of her bandmate, Miranda Lambert. Though the Annies share lead vocals, they present themselves as a trio, with only Lambert's fame standing out individually. But stepping out for her second solo album, Monroe's singing talent is front and center. She sings in a voice that's both innocent and world-wise, tipped with the sweetness of Dolly Parton, and with a sense of faith unshaken by life's bumpy road. The title track, co-written with Guy Clark, is a showcase for this balance, laying out a path of endless forks that forges onward with hope and optimism. Monroe keeps the vocal intimate, even a bit shell-shocked, busting out in hints of wonder and pride only in the chorus. You can sense Monroe's grit, another trait she shares with Parton, but also humbleness as she mirrors the song's story in her vocal tone.

Producers Vince Gill and Justin Niebank serve Monroe perfectly with old-school productions of keening steel, crying fiddles and slip-note piano, but modern studio sonics that keep the album from sounding retro. It's a much better setting for Monroe than her 2006 debut, Satisfied, fitting the delicate parts of her voice more supportively and pushing her toward traditional country phrasing. You can hear the difference in her remake of "Used," sung here with a grace that escaped the earlier version. Monroe's material balances blue-tinged autobiographical ballads with honky-tonk humor, the latter heard in the call-to-marital-duty "Weed Instead of Roses" and a sassy duet with Blake Shelton, "You Ain't Dolly." At only nine tracks (and under thirty minutes), this album ends too quickly, but with the Annie's 2011 breakthrough advancing Monroe's profile, her second shot at solo stardom is sure to be a success.

Ashley Monroe's Home Page

©2013 Hyperbolium

Show Review: Steve Earle & The Dukes (& Duchesses) At The Music Hall Of Williamsburg May 8, 2013

2013-05-16T22:30:00.000Z

GRAMMY winner Steve Earle is one of America's greatest living storytellers, but he's not stopping there. Earle's 15th studio album, 2013's The Low Highway, is a road record written about what he experienced from the window of his tour bus while traveling across the United States. His latest tour stop landed him in the heart of one of the United States' emerging music neighborhoods, Brooklyn's Williamsburg, for a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 8.

Earle came prepared. Backed by a new and improved lineup of the Dukes (& Duchesses) featuring über-talented guitar utility man Chris Masterson and his wife Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle and vocals, the band's fresh take on Earle's road-worn songs nicely matched the hip Williamsburg landscape. Masterson wielded guitar tones ranging from bombastic to haunting as Whitmore's pure voice shined through. Sonically, the show was intriguing from start to finish.

Earle himself slung a myriad of different guitars, banjos and mandolins over his shoulder as he rambled through nearly 30 songs on a rainy Brooklyn night. Though he is considered the ultimate urban cowboy (the San Antonio native found success early in his career in Nashville but now lives in New York), Earle is also the first to poke fun at the intrinsic twang in his music.

"Why aren't there banjos in 'Star Trek'?" Earle teased the audience. "Because it's the future."

Musician jokes aside, the gravel in Earle's voice rumbled the room as he delivered perfectly weathered and authentic performances of his signature story songs, including the GRAMMY-nominated "Guitar Town," "The Galway Girl" and "Hard-Core Troubadour." The night also revolved around the blunt sincerity of new songs such as the abrasive "Calico County," the playful "Pocket Full Of Rain" and the empathetic "Invisible." The at-capacity crowd let out a collective cheer during "This City," a song Earle wrote for New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that came across just as relevant to a city recently devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Though Earle's songs cover the extremes of darkness from war to heartbreak and poverty, there is always a light that shines through in his voice.

During his first encore, Earle even called himself an "optimist" for having another child at age 55 before dedicating "Remember Me" to his 3-year-old son, who has been diagnosed with autism. The room erupted again in cheers of support. For his second encore, he set down the mandolin and banjo in favor of his custom Fender Telecaster, snarling into the fitting "New York City" followed by a gritty rendition of the '60s classic "Wild Thing." The show closed with his modern political anthem "The Revolution Starts Now," proving again that Earle's sights are pointed squarely at what's next.

Riding the L train from Brooklyn back to Manhattan with the dirty chime of a mandolin through a fuzzbox from "Copperhead Road" still ringing in my ears felt something like Earle must have felt looking out the window of his tour bus — a testament to just how raw, truthful, familiar, and universal his songs remain.

To catch Steve Earle in a city near you, click here for tour dates.

Set List:

"Low Highway"
"21st Century Blues"
"Calico County"
"Taneytown"
"Hard-Core Troubadour"
"I Thought You Should Know"
"That All You Got?"
"Love's Gonna Blow My Way"
"After Mardi Gras"
"Pocket Full Of Rain"
"This City"
"You're Still Standing There"
"Invisible"
"Burnin' It Down"
"Guitar Town"
"Copperhead Road"
"Free Man"
"Warren Hellman's Banjo"
"Little Emperor"
"The Galway Girl"
"Train A Comin'"
"Down The Road Pt. II"
"Down The Road"

First Encore:
"Remember Me"
"City Of Immigrants"

Second Encore:
"New York City"
"Wild Thing" (Chip Taylor cover)
"The Revolution Starts Now"

(Nate Hertweck lives in Los Angeles where he serves as Content Manager for The Recording Academy. Hertweck also plays guitar in a rowdy rock band, produces artist tribute projects and collects musical gems in all formats. Connect with Nate on Tumblr.)

Interview: José González Tells The Story of Junip

2013-05-16T16:30:00.000Z

Although José González may be best known for his acoustic solo albums (2007's In Our Nature and 2003's Veneer), his band Junip is not to be mistaken as a "José González and friends" kind of project. Instead, the trio has from the start, always been equally composed of José Gonzaléz, Elias Araya, and Tobias Winterkorn.

The Swedish group put things somewhat on hold for Mr. Gonzaléz's success as a solo artist, but in 2010 finally dropped their first full-length album called Fields (which has since been expanded into a deluxe edition, featuring the band's three pre-album EPs- which is the edition I would highly recommend picking up).

The trio's recently-released self-titled album, Junip, builds upon the momentum that Fields initially offered: González's haunting vocals and guitar, teamed with Winkerkorn's organ and synth, and driven by Araya's percussion. As a longtime fan of José González, I am absolutely thrilled to share this conversation I had with him regarding the history and evolution of Junip.

When the three of you first met, what drew you together- both musically and personally? What excited you about working together?

José: All three of us had been playing in other bands before, mainly louder bands, and we had the idea to try out some of my acoustic guitar and vocal songs as a trio. We had influences from many different genres and felt that this could be an outlet for our other musical sides. Elias with his drums, Tobias with organ and synth, and me with acoustic guitar and vocals.

How did Junip feel like growth of your solo work? What does the group dynamic offer to you as a performer, songwriter, and collaborator?

José: There's been a couple of times when we "started" to play. 15 years ago it was in contrast to the other bands and the feeling that we could have a sound that was slightly different from the rest that was popular in Sweden at the time. From 2005 it has been in contrast to my solo stuff and I felt it as a welcomed break from my touring and egocentric wanderings around the world.

With Junip it's been nice to see myself as a part of many wills and tastes, and also a moment to relax my ambitions in trying to play intricate guitar. I've learnt a lot from these two album recordings and feel more comfortable than ever to write and record on my own or with other people.

Can you briefly describe the writing and recording of the early EPs and how they led to the full length debut Fields?

José: We did some recordings around the time when we started to play in 1998-2000, which ended up as a 7" with four songs. After that there were many years when we didn't play or record that much, especially when I started to tour with my solo stuff in the spring of 2003.

We decided to get together and record again in 2005 which led to Black Refuge EP. Then another break until after I've toured with my second solo album In Our Nature. So around 2008 we decided to write our first full length album Fields.

What was most rewarding for you in the making of and touring on that album?

José: Making music that you like and playing it live is always rewarding, but for me it was also a welcome break from my solo stuff.

How did your experiences making Fields and the previous EPs prepare you for this record?

José: We felt more comfortable in the studio with our instruments and as our own recording engineers.

Did you have a preconceived vision for this album?

José: Not really. We started to gather song ideas and tried to make each one stand on its own. The aim was as always to make music that we would want to listen to ourselves.

When did you begin working on the new songs? Was there a song(s) that set the direction for the new album?

José: We had a couple of songs from the time when we were doing b-sides for Fields, but it was around late 2011 that we started writing new stuff.

What were you listening to during this time of writing and recording?

José: A lot of different stuff. Vocally, I was inspired by Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone. With sounds it was everything from John Lennon to Peking Lights, to Heldon.

Please describe the collaborative nature of Junip's songwriting, arrangements, and recording.

José: For both albums and EP's since 2005 we always started by jamming and recording parts of it, usually with drums, rhodes/ organ, and guitar. Then we continued to jam around the ones we liked the most and re-recorded until we had rough song demos. After that it has been a bit different from song to song. Sometimes we've worked all three, but most of the producing and arranging of the songs were made two at a time or each on their own. Basically, it came down to whoever had the inspiration at the time to produce and mix a certain song. I always wrote the lyrics on my own and mostly at home.

Can you describe the process of your songwriting?

José: Music always comes first. So usually I sit at home humming melodies over a demo and later I try to find words and phrases that fit the images I get in my mind while listening. Usually this leads to a half finished song that can hang around for months or years, like with "Line Of Fire".

Can you describe some of your musical and non-musical sources of inspiration (both lyrically and musically)?

José: Musically, all music inspires me, sometimes to what would be nice to bring into our music or sometimes what we could avoid. Lyrically, it is all from philosophical ideas to mundane stories from people (real or from fictional), and also from my own life.

You worked with producer Don Alsterberg. Can you describe your working relationship with Don and what he brings to Junip's albums (both Fields and Junip)?

José: He's been around as a mentor since our first recordings with Junip and solo. Coming from the same city as Tobias and also part of the music scene around the time when we were playing in different bands. Regarding our two albums, we felt that it would be nice to try to write and record most of the tracks ourselves. He helped us set up mics and gave us directions on how to record the different instruments. Also, he would come in at a later stage to give advice on how to change the songs or add certain stuff to make the songs more complete. You could call him the fourth member of Junip.

I really enjoy the artwork and packaging Junip employs for both Fields and Junip. Can you talk about your involvement/ selection of the album artwork? How do you believe the visual artwork and music inform each other?

José: For Fields we asked Fredrik Söderberg to make the artwork. We were fans of his art and liked his dreamy ocult paintings filled symbolism. On Junip we had the music ready for a while and where thinking of title and cover and decided to go with logo that Elias had made and let the album be self-titled. The rest of the artwork was made by Hannele Fernström and me. We took a weekend to photograph and make illustrations that ended up being the deer and the whale. I like the idea of people listening to the music while they're looking at the artwork and let associations run free.

Along the same lines, your video for "Line of Fire" was one I have really been enjoying. Can you discuss how it came together and your involvement in the process?

José: We gave free hands to Mikel Cee Karlsson to direct videos to "Line Of Fire" and "Your Life Your Call". He came up with the visual story inspired by the two songs in conjunction. I feel like it is a short masterpiece, worth watching without music if you get the chance.

How does being based in Gothenburg, Sweden influence you? What is most rewarding for you about your local musical community?

José: It is a relatively small, friendly town. bad weather, lots of cafes and uncomplicated living. Musically there's stuff going on every week but not every day. Not sure if it's better music climate than other cities but I feel great there.

What are your plans for 2013 and beyond?

José: 2013: have fun, 2014: work hard, 2015: relax, 2016: have fun... and so on ;)

Chris Mateer is a freelance music writer living in Portland, OR. He is the founder and writer of the Uprooted Music Revue, posts on The Bluegrass Situation, and is a featured contributor to No Depression. In addition to music writing, Chris teaches visual art and plays the mandolin, banjo, and drums.

As a player and music writer, Chris is always excited to share and learn more. He believes a community thrives on participation and enthusiasm, and he's thrilled to contribute.

You can read his posts here on No Depression and on Uprooted Music Revue at http://www.uprootedmusicrevue.com/. To follow Chris and UMR more closely, sign up on UMR's Facebook page and subscribe to UMR's twitter feed.

CD Review - The Cash Box Kings "Black Toppin’"

2013-05-16T14:30:00.000Z

It’s 2013, and most of the blues and R&B performers who once recorded for labels like Vee-Jay, Specialty, Chess, Aladdin, Duke and Peacock have departed for hopefully happier shores. However, the music that once emanated from these vintage labels – by Larry Williams, Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris, Gatemouth Brown, Memphis Slim, Mama Thornton, Lightnin’ Hopkins and many more – seems to have become part of our DNA.

That’s why, when we hear, say, The Cash Box Kings’ (CBK) version of “Walkin’ Blues” emanating from the player, we look up, like startled deer, searching for the source of that mesmerizing sound. The band’s label – Blind Pig Records – is a capable stand-in for those labels of yore wherein great American blues was laid down for posterity.

The CBKs specialize in putting down tracks that recall the golden years of post-World War II American blues and R&B and that tap into that primal place where this music resides. Listen closely, and you can hear the nascent stirrings of early rock and roll as channeled by the Kings.

With a repertoire that spans New Orleans R&B to classic Chicago electric blues, the virtuoso musicians in this band carry the message of the music – which is all about feeling the blues, whether ballad or jump or that moveable place where blues meets rock and roll.

Most of the tunes are capably penned by two band members: producer/harpist/vocalist Joe Nosek, and vocalist Oscar Wilson. Covers include “Too Late,” an upbeat blues by Willie Dixon, “Tom Cat Blues” by Jerry West, and an offbeat blues-rock selection of “Run Run Run” by art rocker Lou Reed. “Walkin Blues” is listed here as “traditional,” although its roots are in Robert Johnson’s “Walkin’ Blues,” plus Skip James’s “22-20 Blues” and “32-20 Blues.” This is a tune that’s been covered often, most notably by Johnny Winter on his Parchman Farm album in the 1960s.

Why is this band so good? One reason is the stellar musicianship. Another is the selection of tunes that lend themselves to arrangements featuring strong Chicago-style harp playing in the manner of Shaky Horton, a driving Tele lead, funky, behind the beat blues drumming by Willie “Big Eyes” Smith scion Kenny, and over-mic’d, gritty vocals that recall all those great old Specialty records from the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Black Toppin’ – the title track having been penned by Oscar Wilson – is a CD that bears repeat playing, each time calling forth the fine string work, then the period-inflected blues vocals, the rocking percussion and irresistible harp playing. This is one of the better blues albums thus far in 2013. Recommended. Michael Cala

CD Review - Various Artists "Music Is Love (A musical tribute to CSN&Y)"

2013-05-16T13:00:00.000Z

For what it’s worth; long may they run.

Crosby, Still, Nash and Young have been a part of my musical life since my early teenage years with my brother wearing out his first copy of DÉJÀ VU on the family radiogram. Subsequently I’ve become a tireless fan of Mr. Young and adding tracks from the others to VA recordings for sunny days in the garden. So; it was with some trepidation when I agreed to review this tribute album; as I know CSN&Y fans can be a picky bunch.

On opening the padded envelope I was immediately impressed by the artwork and the excellent booklet that details why each artist agreed to take part. Oh – each disc is an homage to both Reprise Records and Atlantic Records, which is a nice touch. If I’d been browsing in a record shop I’d definitely have picked it up; and when I saw the list of singer-songwriters involved I’m pretty sure I would have bought MUSIC IS LOVE; even without hearing a track, as I own albums by 10 of the 27 people who have especially recorded songs for this Charitable venture.

As I was listening to the opening track, For What It’s Worth by Ron LaSalle who I'd not heard of, but has a delightfully rich voice, I recognised about 20 of the song titles that chart the bands history, as well as solo projects, which was a good start.

Some songs work better than others, but there are a helluva lot more hits than misses, with Judy Collins giving a beautiful rendition of Stephen Stills’ Helplessly Hoping and Carrie Rodriguez finding a whole new meaning in her insightful rendition of Cortez The Killer; but I shouldn’t have been surprised when New Yorker Willie Nile spits new life and bile into Keep On Rocking In The Free World or by the way Mary Lee’s Corvette sensitively handles Crosby’s Tracks in the Dust; but I was.

One of the joys of Various Artist albums like this is discovering new singers, and I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on Jenai Huff after hearing her sing I’ll Be There For You and the Italian Bocephus King, whose arrangement of Down By The River, from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is worth the entrance fee alone.

Other tracks to look out for; and this isn’t meant to take anything away from other singers, are Out On The Weekend by Clarence Bucaro, which made me hunt out an album of his that I dismissed last year and Love the One You’re With by Jennifer Stills, who proves the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.

On a personal level; and I know it won’t appeal to everyone, but I absolutely adore The Coal Porters’ Bluegrass version of the Stephen Still’s Manassas song Fallen Eagle, which stands out like a sore thumb; but there you go.

The album ends with the title track, MUSIC IS LOVE by another favourite singer of mine; Ian McNabb from Liverpool who turns the droll David Crosby song into a mystical opus and I can’t think of a finer way to end such a wonderful mix of songs.

www.musicislovetribute.com

****

#All Profits go to the Equestrian Therapy Co-op Charity www.equestriantherapy.com so; if you download this from ‘one of those’ sites have the good grace to pass on a couple of pounds/dollars to the Charity. You know it’s the right thing to do.

CD Review - Jason Isbell "Southeastern"

2013-05-16T00:00:00.000Z

It's dark, gritty and personal, and perhaps the clearest glimpse yet into the imagination of a brilliant singer-songwriter who just gets better and better. Southeastern, Jason Isbell's fourth studio record, listens like a collection of musical short stories. Isbell's characters speak with clear voices, and generally in first person. In several songs, they bring us face to face with death. There's Andy, whose woman friend dies of cancer in Elephant. "One thing is clear to me, no one dies with dignity." There's a brush with eternity on the lighter side in Super 8, one of the few rockers in this set. Things get a little out of hand for a musician on the road. "Don't want to die, in a Super 8 Motel - just because somebody's evening didn't go so well." Our hero survives, but not until he scares hell out of the girl and a hotel maid. First responders to the rescue: "Well they slapped me back to life, telephoned my wife and filled me full of Pedialyte." Written like a man who's been there, done that. Or at least seen it done. In Live Oak, things turn dark, as we find a character with a wicked past burying his woman "so deep she touched the water table line." And in Yvette, the troubled, obsessive narrator sings that he "might not be a man yet, but your father will never be. I load up my Weatherby, I let out my breath, I couple with death, I couple with death." Cue haunting guitar and goose bumps.

It's not all death, but even so, it ain't all that light. Songs That She Sang In The Shower is about the girlfriend leaving, sick of her man's shit. The song opens with a smart-ass remark to some guy in a bar, an "eighth of a second to wonder if he got the joke," a fist to the face, and then a steak on his eye as he contemplates life alone. "Experience robs me of hope that she'll make it back home." Experience will do that. In Flying Over Water, the man is on the plane with a girl, remembering her taking a fall. "In the heat I saw you rising from the dirt ... if only you could tell me then what part of you got hurt." And there's that liquor cart. "Maybe we shouldn't start, but I can't for the life of me say why."

Isbell, the poet, is required by his craft to speak the truth, even if it slaps us hard. In Elephant, Andy feels a need to explain why didn't fuck his sick friend (that's his word), even though his compassion and companionship prove his love for her in a way mere physicality never could. It's the way we guys really are, but so often our heroes and villains are one dimensional, either good or bad, at the expense of real. So much easier to digest that way, I suppose, but Isbell gives us the hard truth and makes us like it through his voice, the music, and a few hooks thrown in for good measure. In Different Day, the man is considering a stripper while staring at pictures of runaways. "Ten years ago I might have seen you dancing in a different light, and offered up my help in different ways, but those were different days." And that old girlfriend he remembers, back when they were together, well he didn't treat her like a princess. If she gave any trouble, "it was 'Baby I love you, get off of my goddamn back.'" All this delivered with delicate acoustic sounds, suggesting through their beauty that time can bring a man around, bring him to a place where he rises above his baser self.

Rising above. We liked Isbell just fine before. We liked him as a Trucker, becoming one at a party then taking two days in the band van to learn songs as he joined them on the road. We liked him solo, as he stepped away from that group and put together his coming out record, Sirens of the Ditch. Then two 400 Unit studio records, with the second of those getting notice and recognition from every quarter, including 2012's Song of the Year at the Americana Music Awards. Since then, he's toured continuously it seems, including some time on the road with Ryan Adams. He fell in love with singer-songwriter/fiddle player Amanda Shires. He gave up the drink.

The buzz on this album is about the changes in Isbell's life, and how the music reflects those changes. I have no idea where Isbell is in any of these songs, if at all. Maybe he doesn't completely understand that himself, but a few of the songs seem to reflect takes on his current situation. Traveling Alone would top that list. This driving song opens with Amanda Shires on the fiddle, then our driver is "fighting second gear" as the snow threatens. "I know every town worth passing through, but what good does knowing do, no one to show it to." His phrasing on that last evokes the greats, like John Prine in Hello In There, who can say everything with just a few simple words. Amanda Shires sings the chorus with him. "I've grown tired of traveling alone, won't you ride with me?" She is, with her boots on. Or by the bed. In Cover Me Up, another song that made me think of the new couple, Isbell sings, "Girl leave your boots by the bed, we ain't leaving this room till someone needs medical help or the magnolias bloom."
It really goes past presumption to read too much about the artist into any art. Maybe the artist was having an extraordinary day when he painted that painting, wrote that poem, composed that song. Maybe just the opposite is true. Maybe the line you associate with him is one he overheard on a subway, or maybe it just rhymed in a way that made the song sound good. All that said, the last part of Different Day seems to fit this artist at this time, and seems a fitting way to end this piece:

And the story's only mine
To live and die with
And the answer's only mine
To come across.
But the ghosts that I got scared
And I got high with
Look a little lost.

Ten years ago I might
Have thought
I didn't have the right
To say the things
An outlaw wouldn't say
But those were different days.

Southeastern releases on June 11.

Photos by Michael Wilson.

Mando Lines listens to music a lot and writes about it a little. A lot of the little he writes is on Twitter @mando_lines. Jason Isbell is a great follow: @JasonIsbell.

Willie & Lukas Nelson - Just Breathe

2013-05-16T08:30:00.000Z

Last June, with what felt like a last breath of grief, my brother, sister-in-law and I drove down the Abilene Highway that runs between Dallas and Abilene, Texas. With the hot summer wind on our backs, we rolled toward a small town, Winters, where my mother’s casket waited for burial between my 46 year-old brother and 34 year-old dad. It was a lonely trip. At one point, these words came through the car stereo:

”Yes I understand every life must end, uh huh……Stay with me, let’s just breathe…”

There are moments in life when just breathing seems like enough.

It was Willie Nelson and his 24 year-old son, Lukas singing the words of Pearl Jam’s song. It seemed they were singing to our moment there on that heart-worn highway. The vulnerability in their voices was palatable and touching. It's a song like this, as it reached out to us, is the reason why artists record and we listen. The impact is lasting. Songs and artists like this weave into our lives in unsuspecting ways.

When I talked to Lukas Nelson months later about the song and video he said it was really an act of love between father and son. “I really loved it by Pearl Jam and wanted to sing it with my dad.” When I said how clear their love comes across in the video that was made to accompany the release of the song, he sighed and said, “You know, Dad was talking with me and my brother the other day. He looked at us and said, ‘I don’t believe we’ve ever had a cross word to say to each other in all these years.’ The three of us looked at each other and realized it was true. We’ve always gotten along. There really never has been a cross word between us.”

The video is a low-key drive through the soul of a father-son relationship that captures both the love and the sense of mortality each must face. But, there’s a faith to it that ends with a sense of hope even as they part at the end with Willie driving down the highway and Lukas sitting alone in a room where they once shared music.

One thing comes clear in both the video and the song, these two, although there is more than 50 years of age between them, share a strong and uncommon bond that. It’s clear with one listen to the early work of Willie Nelson. On demo recordings of songs like “Funny How Time Slips Away,” and “Crazy,” there is a genuine soul that transcends country stereotypes and cuts to something universal in anyone who has tried to love and lost. Then, turning to the now early work of his son, Lukas, on songs like, “The Sound of Your Memory,” and “All The Pretty Horses,” the same soulful thread is being followed.

During our short phone conversation, I made one comment to Lukas regarding the song and the video….”It seems like the two of you are just parts of the same soul.” He breathed another sigh and said with utter humility, “Well, I agree with that. Yes. That’s true. I couldn’t say it any better.”

As these two vital artists move on parallel paths, with their vocal sounds sometimes hauntingly similar, it’s their spiritual bond that is expressed in song that is becoming more striking. Although Lukas plays with a passionate fury that approaches the mastery of his guitar heroes, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn, when he writes and sings his songs, it’s the continuation of the unique soul of Willie Nelson that comes through like a cool breeze.

The video and song of Pearl Jam’s great song, “Just Breathe,” is an apt homage and tribute to a father and son relationship that is unique in its spiritual bond and its artistic kinship. Although we all have to come to closure in this life, it’s good to know that Willie and Lukas Nelson still have some miles between them before that inevitable time comes.

Lissie Draws Outside the Rock Island Lines

2013-05-16T00:00:00.000Z

Professionally known as Lissie, Elisabeth Corrin Maurus identifies with another one-word pop-culture phenomenon not named Madonna, Beyonce or Pink.

The rock-pop singer-songwriter who was raised in the Midwest still has googly eyes for Annie, the spunky fictional character she played as a precocious 10-year-old at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse in her hometown of Rock Island, Illinois.

More than two decades later, Lissie (rhyming with missy, not dizzy) still identifies with Annie, even though that past life spent inside a onetime vaudeville and movie house in one of the Quad Cities seems as far removed as silent films and soda fountains.

Lissie has since rubbed elbows with Ryan Adams, Morgan Page and Ellie Goulding, studied in Paris, covered everyone from Fleetwood Mac to Metallica and heard her own music blasted all over the airwaves on hit TV shows and feature films.

Yet the raspy-voiced performer and outdoors enthusiast, who just resumed her touring schedule with a headlining club date in London and is on the eclectic bill at the Hangout Fest that officially starts Friday, seems as natural as a daisy on a spring day.

“OK, hold on one second,” she said warmly over the phone only seconds after this interview began from her parents’ home in Rock Island, which is mere minutes away from the mighty Mississippi River. Apologizing for the brief interruption while tending to what sounded like a visit from the Orkin man, she followed a nervous laugh with the universal expression for moving forward — ”Anyways ...”

The granddaughter of an international barbershop quartet champion, Lissie had the good fortune of growing up in a household with the shared desire — and genetics — to carry a tune. But one prized possession that now hangs on a wall surrounded by guitars in her Ojai, California home gave her the proper motivation.

“I have this really nice card from my grandpa ... saying, ‘I’m really proud of you and as you go through life, try to always be like Annie. Be humble and truthful and always have a song in your heart,’ ” Lissie revealed during her family visit.

Lissie went on to perform in other musicals as well. The King and I, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Little Mermaid (the “cheap version” with songs not in the Disney movie) followed.

Tiring of the theater culture, the “angsty” eighth-grader started learning how to play the guitar just so she could write songs as a teenager, “as flaky as that sounds,” Lissie said. Starting out playing folk songs acoustically in coffee shops, she didn’t stay unplugged for long.

“Once I went electric and I had a lead guitar player, then it was possible to go a little bit further and branch away from the folk and feel like I could play what my version of rock music is to me,” she said, always eager to also try piano, bass and drums but downplaying her musical abilities, limiting that proficiency to an evocative voice and a rhythm guitar. “So I think it’s just really been an evolution of me understanding what the other instruments do.”

Growing up in an area where country was just as popular as rap, Lissie developed an appreciation for all genres, and became versatile enough to handle girl-group anthems (“Stranger”) as adroitly as beautiful, Tift Merritt-like ballads (“Oh Mississippi”).

Songwriting was an obsession that began at the age of 8, an impulse activated when “I got my feelings hurt,” she said. As the youngest of four, that would happen at times. “You kind of feel a little bit like no one listens to you. So that’s probably why I became a songwriter.” (laughs)

Though she admits having memory lapses about specific dates and occasions, Lissie doesn’t want to forget her past. She attaches almost as much sentimental value to a tattered sleeping bag — pleading with her mother not to toss out the camping gear that lingered in the basement — as she does her childhood lyrics.

Then there’s a certain little redhead that will forever stay with her.

“I still like the character of Annie,” Lissie said. “And at the age it was like she was a little bit of a little firecracker. And kind of growing up I was always a little bit of ... sometimes it can misconstrued as being a little bit of a punk. I’m just gonna speak my truth. And I think that my grandpa was someone that did what he wanted to do in life.”

The apple doesn’t fall far from the fruitful family tree. The free spirit with an engaging manner and unfiltered mind might occasionally stray off topic during the course of a freewheeling one-hour conversation. But when it comes to her career, Lissie is as focused as a successful Lasik surgery patient.

Rummaging through her past like it was a box of cherished keepsakes, Lissie entertainingly went far beyond the CliffsNotes version of a wide-open book. Just her education after high school was an exhausting series of events.

She initially enrolled at — and prematurely departed from — Colorado State University, worked and/or sang in Fort Collins venues like the Starlight and the Aggie (while connecting musically with Umphrey’s McGee and G. Love ) and dealt with the mile-high dry air in Denver (“I always end up losing my voice”).

Her idea to go pro came after she “sort of convinced my parents that I was saving them money by not going to another year and a half of college and that they should support me when I moved. ... And they did for one year.”

After another “anyways” transition, Lissie managed to succinctly sum up her professional path:

“I moved to L.A., and then I eventually got a record deal (Fat Possum), and started being able to support myself and got a manager (Peter Leak). All these things started happening. I went to London, I got a different record deal (Columbia UK) and then I made my first (full-length) record (2010’s Catching a Tiger) and toured for two years and then now here I am, ready to put out my second album. ... That’s the basic timeline.”

Lissie, whose still-untitled next album (she’s 99 percent sure it’ll be called Back to Forever) is scheduled for a September release, will turn 31 on November 21, but is still young enough to remember being “the little one (in a family with two brothers and a sister) who can’t get away with not being as good in school or as well-behaved.”

Although she said it “sounds kind of pretentious” to say, Lissie feels she has grown as an artist since her first album. Confidence is the key, along with a relaxed recording environment in Topanga Canyon, light years and moods away from the more serious atmosphere with session players in Nashville.

Lissie was pleased to record from September to November 2012 in the close-to-home studio of producer Garret "Jacknife" Lee with touring members Eric Sullivan (guitars) and Lewis Keller (bass, kick drum). Ojai neighbor and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Siebenberg, the son of Supertramp drummer Bob Siebenberg, is the group’s newest addition and also plays on the album.

The final cut will include 13 or 14 songs, with “Shameless” the first single already released.

Lissie has collaborated with the Bird and the Bee’s Greg Kurstin and English songwriters Jim Irvin and Julian Emory. Michelle Branch was such a fan of Lissie’s that she tracked down the British pair to take her back to her pop roots on 2011’s West Coast Time.

Lissie compared working with cowriters to class assignments “when you turn in an essay and your teacher circles things with a red pen and says, ‘You were being lazy here, you can make this better’ kind of thing.”

While she came this close to writing with Adams, who liked her 2009 EP Why You Runnin’, Lissie laughed about the first time she and the alt-country rocker met about a year and a half ago.

“We ended up just talking the whole time. ... We had ideas but we weren’t really in a rush and had no specific goal in mind,” she said. “But him and I have stayed in touch and we’re gonna try and do some more writing together. I respect him so tremendously. ...

“I don’t really listen to a ton of music but his ... I went through a breakup when I was 21 and I just listened to Ryan Adams for months to get over it. So it’s like so funny now to get to meet someone that you had all these intimate moments with when you didn’t even know them.”

Though she respectfully disagrees regarding how much buzz is building (“I don’t know that I’ve hit it big”), Lizzie has indeed constructed a sturdy fan base with the help of Leak, formerly of Nettwerk and currently with Red Light Management.

That successful association helped make her a media darling for numerous song placements, played on such high-profile ABC dramas as Grey's Anatomy and Revenge. Then there's an adventurous take of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" on the trailer for Safe Haven.

Yet it was Lissie’s rendition of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” on Episode 11 of Revenge’s first season, which first appeared on her EP of covers (Covered Up With Flowers), that really caught her by surprise, though she was aware it would eventually air.

“That was pretty awesome,” she said. “I’m so into the show that I, like, leave reality. So, like, as I’m getting into their whole world, it’s like, ‘Hey, that’s me singing. That’s pretty cool.’ ”

While “loving the 30s” as much as Revenge, Lissie knows she has to get back to living in the real world, too. After breaking up with another boyfriend almost two years ago, there’s no more time to waste or fences to mend.

If any detractors are out there, that little girl with the hurt feelings might make a cameo. But despite her soft features and pleasant personality, Lissie will bring along that Annie-like feistiness that’s as evident as the freckles on her fresh face.

“I kinda just feel like I don’t ... pardon my language, it’s like I’ve kinda started not giving a shit,” she said, going deeper than responding to a simple question about people knowing how old she is. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I can handle that. I’ve been through this. I’m not gonna get all worked up. I never really cared about what people think but I think I care a lot less about being insecure or nervous or wanting people to like me.”

Just realize that in an age when social media is all the rage, words can cause damage to a tender heart, especially one belonging to a precious yet wild flower child formerly (and formally) known as Elisabeth Corrin Maurus.

“If anyone says anything mean on my Twitter, which like never really happens, but if someone does write something mean on Twitter or something and I see it, it bugs me,” said the woman you can find @lissiemusic. “So I guess I haven’t completely overcome giving a shit.”

Lissie and her band — Eric Sullivan (guitars), Lewis Keller (bass) and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Siebenberg — are scheduled to perform from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Friday (May 17) on the Chevrolet Stage at the 2013 Hangout Festival. Photos courtesy of the artist.

Previously in the series: Jason Isbell Opens Up About Alabama, Adulthood and Alcoholism; Ryan Bingham Will Ring Your Decibels.

ALABAMA GETAWAY: LISSIE ON THE HANGOUT, COVERS AND MORE

If you could hang out with another artist performing at the Hangout Festival, who would it be?
“Well, who’s all playing it? Because I can’t remember. (She’s told British pop star Ellie Goulding, with whom she supported in the UK during 2010, will perform Sunday.) Yeah, I haven’t talked to her in a couple years. I saw her last year. We were friends and, I mean, we’re still friends, but she’s like, I guess, been busy. I’ve kinda fallen out of touch with her. But it would be nice to run into her.”

What can Hangout listeners expect from your set at the festival?
“Well, this new record is pretty cohesive. It’s most like a rock kind of pop record. And most of the songs on the new record are high energy. And live we get to extend guitar solos and sneak in, work in more instrumental stuff. The musicianship of my band is awesome. We really just give it our all and are excited to share a lot of new songs.”

You have an EP of cover songs and also did “Go Your Own Way.” What’s your favorite song to cover and why?
“ ‘Go You Own Way’ is one we haven’t done a lot. It sort of took off after we weren’t touring, like became more popular in the down time. 'Pursuit of Happiness' is a cover of a Kid Cudi song. We’ve been doing it for over two years but people just continue to get turned on to it. So we’ll probably end up doing that one. That one is just a whole lot of fun to do because it’s so defiant.”

What was your best or worst festival experience either as a performer or spectator?
“This is kinda my go-to answer but I really still, we played Glastonbury in the summer of 2010 and that is a massive festival (in England). There’s like 200,000 people there and it’s just so cool. I had never really been to something that big. ... And so we go there, and I think now it would probably overwhelm me. Not than I’m jaded now. I think maybe it didn’t overwhelm me just ’cause it was all so new to me. ... And then we played and there were so many people that came to see us even though I hadn’t released any music yet. Just looking out at all these people. It was just sort of a moment where, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, like this is happening. People are responding.’ ... The whole weekend felt really magical and fun.”

CD Review - Jason Isbell "Southeastern"

2013-05-15T19:30:00.000Z

Jason Isbell is quickly becoming the next prolific singer/songwriter of this generation with the upcoming release Southeastern which will be hitting the record racks on June 11^th. Although this is considered his first solo release since 2007′s Sirens of the Ditch, Isbell has been cranking out work with his band The 400 Unit since 2009. Isbell received my coveted “Album of The Year” award for the first Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit self-titled album and scored a nomination for 2011′s Here We Rest that included the Americana Music Association Song of the Year “Alabama Pines”.

Isbell speaks lyrically with his soul wide open on the twelve tracks of self-reflection produced by Dave Cobb and engineered/mixed by Mark Petaccia after the positive changes of sobriety and getting married to Amanda Shires. Isbell knew of Cobb’s work from of all things a Squidbillies theme song recording session with George Jones and trusted the gifted producer with his material. 400 Unit members Derry deBorja (keyboards) and Chad Gamble(drums) help out along with Brian Allen (bass) and Cobb (percussion). Although Isbell took his time writing out the songs, it was a pretty crazy finish on the project. He and Shires got married and went on their honeymoon immediately after finishing recording, so approval of the masters had to wait upon their return.

Isbell made Southeastern for folks like himself that like to listen to entire albums. The songs common thread is discovery, personal growth, and repentance. The record opens with the haunting “Cover Me Up”. Giving a nod to some classic songs connects listeners to the chorus of “Songs That She Sang In The Shower”. Shires plays beautiful fiddle and adds her lovely vocals to the path of loneliness outlined in “Traveling Alone”. Kim Richey returns the favor of having Isbell singing on “Breakaway Speed” from her latest release to add vocals to tracks “Stockholm” and “Relatively Easy”. “Live Oaks” is one of the more intimate tracks with the a cappella opening verse which is deeply moving. Two songs that are more southern rock kickers with blaring electric guitar reminiscent of his Drive-By Trucker days are “Flying Over Water” and “Super 8″.

Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit will be hitting the road this summer showcasing what could be another winner when the ballots get tabulated at year’s end. For those of you not familiar with his work, I recommend you listen to his back catalog as well as picking up the new disc.

Health & Happiness Hour feat. artists Joe West, Emma Mitchell, The Slim Panatellas May 14 2013

2013-05-15T16:30:00.000Z

On this week Medicine Show Health & Happiness Hour its mainly a live music show, we have Local Highland songstress Emma Mitchell, Cigar Box Don Jack & The Slim Panatellas in Session. The featured album comes from Joe West The Santa Fe Revue, new music from Vanity Fare, Semi-twang, Adam Klein, and we feature the up coming Dylan Sneed tour + looking forward to next week’s guest Tom Mason.

The Medicine Show Health and Happiness Hour is broadcast from the Highlands of Scotland on ABC Radio Alness, 2 Lochs Radio Gairloch, and Lochbroom FM Radio Ullapool. Across Glasgow on Sunny Govan Radio and Celtic Music Radio and to the worlds Country Music fraternity on www.UKCountryRadio.com

Home www.themedicineshow.eu

The Medicine Show Health & happiness Hour May 14 2013 by Rob Ellen on Mixcloud

Spring awakening: Mavis Staples and the dancing children of LEAF

2013-05-15T13:00:00.000Z

The Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) is one of the most anticipated arts events in Western North Carolina each year. People who camp have been doing so for years, in the same spot they first picked out a decade ago. People who drive in come from just about every nook and cranny between Asheville and Knoxville, down to Greenville, probably even up to Abingdon. They throw on something made of hemp, delight in local microbrews, local organic vegan food - or at least meat that was grass-fed and easy on the conscience. They show up because the festival uses solar power, sits in a pocket of mountains that glows with orange light in autumn, drips with dew-kissed greens in spring. They come for the boats and swimming and ziplines, or the hiking trails and midnight campfires. They show up because the dance barn is bumpin' at all hours of day and night as people who brought special shoes for it devote hours on end to contra and salsa and waltzing, and everything else you can imagine.

Oh yeah, and the music.

I've been to LEAF three times now - twice in autumn and once in spring - and have always been impressed at the music they get despite the fact that music is not the primary focus. Back in October, you might recall, I showed up for the Be Good Tanyas, but Tim O'Brien was on tap too, Nashville Bluegrass Band, and more. This time around, Mavis Staples - a hero, a legend - was headlining. Abigail Washburn played a few sets, so did Ben Sollee, Ozomatli, Papa Grows Funk.

There's one primary stage and a small handful of scattered stages around the property. The Roots family stage is close to the entrance/exit for easy escape when your kid is tapped and mid-meltdown. Surrounding that stage is a tent full of brass, woodwind, and stringed instruments kids can just pick up and play at will. There's a Zorb, a magic bus, painting, and an area for kids to sell their goods and services, or to busk. (In October, I had to smile at the little girl selling shoulder rubs for $5 a pop.) Sure, the family stage has its share of magic shows and puppet performances, but I was struck this year by the youth poetry slam - won by our 12-year-old friend, but peopled with brave middle school kids bearing their authentic souls through creative language in ways I wish more adults would do. They slammed about bullying, gender identity, race, and the torture of being a middle school kid who can't fast forward to a more confident, enlightened age. I came close to tearing up a few times at their unabashed honesty in front of their peers and a swath of adults.

Stringband music happens on the family stage too, though. So does socially conscious hip-hop and dance music.

Way out past VIP camping, over a creek and through some hills, there's a barn stage. The venue is upstairs, above where the livestock would typically live, felt draperies hanging from the rafters like so much seaweed or shooting stars. There, we watched Ben Sollee deliver a stirring and invigorating set on Saturday afternoon. My life in 2012 saw no shortage of Ben Sollee performances, and I've yet to see two which came off the same way. This day, Sollee was relaxed and vibing off his collaborators. There seemed to be no pressure to deliver anything hardcore. "Let's just jam," he said at the onset, shrugging a shoulder and grabbing his bow. "Good stuff always happens that way." Indeed, the set he dropped was jammed out mostly from his Half Made Man disc. But, the highlight was the songs-long dance performance from his son Oliver.

The kid jumped onstage at one point with a pair of glowsticks in his hand and just twirled and spun and ran in place with all his might. Head down, arms flailing, he looked up only for the nod of his father, approval to continue. When Ben stood up from his bazouki and tried dancing with Oliver, the kid just paused and waited, as if to say "Dad, you're taking up the dancefloor!" Sollee relented and the boy wasted no time bopping and shaking and twisting outside the beat. It was quite possibly the most joyous response to music I've seen in some time. Completely unhinged and uninhibited, ignoring the lyrics, ignoring the phrasing - just a boy and some rhythm, letting go.

It was a lesson I heeded later on, when Mavis took to the mainstage. She entered with a cane, then dropped it and grooved. The songs were all she needed for support, I suppose. Backed by a tight, intuitive band and four soul-drenched backup singers, Staples made no mistake of showing exactly why, at 74, she's still making music that matters.

"I'm here to bring you some joy, happiness, inspiration, and good vibrations," she said. "Enough to last you...well, the next six months at least!"

She danced through plenty of good old Staples Singers gospel tunes and new stuff from her new album One True Vine (her second working with Jeff Tweedy) before lighting into "The Weight" and growling with every ounce of love in her heart, "Give it up for Levon Helm!" She burst into "Freedom Highway" and unleashed herself from the groove, following the song as far as it would take her, not just singing "Made up my mind/I won't turn around," but delivering it. There, I found myself, like Oliver Sollee, just tossing my hands up and going with it. May as well, I figured. The music isn't going to dance to itself.

Book Excerpt: Springsteen Before the Fame

2013-05-14T23:00:00.000Z

One day in late 1973, the mailman delivered a review copy of Bruce Springsteen’s just-released second album. I’d barely heard of him before the LP arrived but the more I played it the more captivated I became. So I called the publicity department at Columbia Records and said I’d like to talk with Bruce. A couple of weeks later, on January 15, 1974, he phoned me at home and I interviewed him for an article that ran that March in a then-popular national music magazine called Zoo World.

Flash forward nearly four decades. A writer contacted me out of the blue via this very No Depression website and told me he was putting together an anthology of Tom Waits interviews for publication by Chicago Review Press. He’d unearthed an interview I’d done with Waits for Melody Maker back in 1974, and he wanted to use it in the book. I said OK and wound up having a few email exchanges with the publisher, during which I asked whether Chicago Review Press might ever be interested in a similar book on Bruce Springsteen. Next thing I knew, I was staring at a deadline for what became Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.

This volume starts in 1973, when he was as a struggling artist, and follows him up to 2012, when he had achieved almost unimaginable wealth and worldwide fame. Included are interviews with well-known media figures, including Charlie Rose, Ted Koppel, Brian Williams, Nick Hornby, and Ed Norton, plus some of Springsteen's most memorable speeches. Of course, the book also features my own interview with Bruce.

As I say in an introduction to that piece:

“He was working [at the time of our conversation] for about $75 a week and could still walk down the street unrecognized. He spent much of our interview making good-natured but serious complaints about how little he was able to pay his band (whose members I referred to in my article as “five unknowns”). Then–when I mentioned that while I loved his second album but had yet to hear his first–he offered to mail me his copy because “I can’t afford a record player to play it on.” I wasn’t sure whether he was joking but told him to keep the LP, saying I was confident he’d be able to buy whatever he wanted before too long.

“I’ve been wrong about many things in my life but I was right about this. Nineteen months after I talked with Springsteen, he released the last album Columbia had agreed to issue for him–his final swing of the bat at fame. He knocked the ball right out of the park with Born to Run, which famously landed him on the covers of simultaneously published issues of Time and Newsweek, went on to sell more than six million copies and changed everything.

“Having heard his earlier music–and the determination in his voice when we talked in 1974–I wasn’t surprised.”

Here’s my 1974 article on Springsteen, as it appears in Springsteen on Springsteen:

Bruce Springsteen: Say Hello to Last Year’s Genius
Zoo World, March, 14, 1974

Perhaps you know someone who at a very early age proclaimed his intention to become a doctor and, after vanishing into deep study for 20 years, emerged wearing a stethoscope. If so, you might be able to imagine the intensity of Bruce Springsteen’s lifelong obsession with music.

“I always knew what I wanted to do and where I was going,” says the singer/songwriter from Asbury Park, New Jersey. “Anything other than music was always a dead end for me.”

Now twenty-four, Bruce first picked up a guitar at age nine and has been playing, with only rare interruptions, ever since. The only “real” job he has ever had, as a gardener, ended quickly. He left behind an equally brief college career because “the times were weird, the students were weird and the school was weird.” And because the Army thought Bruce just as strange as he felt the college scene to be, he was exempted from two years in uniform.

Sidestepping these irrelevancies with pleasure, Bruce continued to concentrate on his music. After performing in more local bands than he can now remember by name, he worked for a time as an acoustic soloist. And by early last year, he had assembled his present band and had put together a solid repertoire of original material.

It was then that Mike Appel (who with Jim Cretecos manages Bruce and now produces his albums) brought him to Columbia Records. Upon hearing a few songs, Columbia’s John Hammond Sr. promptly handed a two-record contract to Bruce and his band. Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan ten years before, reportedly said that Bruce was a lot further along musically than Dylan had been at the same stage of his career.

On the strength of this praise, Columbia poured big money into promotion, but the advertising push partly backfired. Rolling Stone, for example, did a piece called, “It’s Sign Up a Genius Month” and dismissed Bruce’s first album (Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.) with a string of sarcastic superlatives.

Most reviewers, however, were genuinely enthusiastic. “One of the truly great singer-songwriter-performing talents our country has produced,” wrote a Record World columnist. “You know the kid is good when you wake up and you’re singing his songs,” commented Crawdaddy editor Peter Knobler. “Never have I been more impressed with a debuting singer,” raved a writer for the L.A. Free Press, and Al Bianculli, in these pages, said simply, “’73 is “Bruce Springsteen’s year.” Bruce, it certainly seemed, was well on his way.

But a year later, he explains that he has not yet exactly taken the country by storm. “I ain’t makin’ that much money,” he says. “I’ve got some great musicians in my band and I’m payin’ them terrible money. I pay myself the same, but it’s terrible for me, too. I mean, we’re barely makin’ a livin’, barely scrapin’ by.”

Though Bruce’s newly released second album may sell better, Greetings attracted only about 23,000 buyers, a respectable yet not spectacular achievement for a debut LP. The Columbia contract has been extended, but only for a third album. And while the critical praise keeps coming, Bruce wishes he could sell records as easily as he elicits a reviewer’s acclaim.

The second album indicates, at the very least, that he deserves a much wider audience. Written and arranged by Bruce, its highly emotional songs fuse vivid lyricism to poignant melodies. Incorporating touches of jazz, soul and Latin music, this is basically get-up-and-dance rock ’n’ roll. When the record ends, you may find yourself wishing Bruce and his group could jump out of your stereo and do an encore.

The five unknowns who comprise the backup are among the most flexible and versatile rock musicians performing today. Perhaps because they’ve been working with Bruce for a long time, they are able to inject the music with a dose of their own ideas without ever straying from his intentions or detracting from the overall cohesion.

While it is difficult to single out any one band member over the others, Clarence Clemons’s sax playing has to be considered a high point. Daubing the broad strokes of Bruce’s moody portraits, he underlines the reflective side of the singer’s style. And, when the tempo accelerates, Clemons punctuates the change with a burst of energy.

Bruce’s own immense talent is omnipresent. Like Rod Stewart, Van Morrison and Dylan, he has a limited vocal range, but his imagination and expressive ability seem almost boundless. His melodies are influenced by the work of many other musicians, most notably Van Morrison; yet, like all true originals, this composer absorbs what his predecessors have done and uses the gleanings to create music that can only be called his own.

Lyrically, Bruce accomplishes more in one tune than many artists do in an entire album. From each of his songs, which are structured like stories, one or more well-defined characters emerge. “Incident on 57th Street,” for example, is a close-up look at Spanish Johnny, a “romantic young boy” who wavers between involvement with a girl named Jane and the hard life on “Easy Street.”

Playing a “cool Romeo” to Jane’s “late Juliet,” he sits up alone and watches her while she “sleeps in sheets damp with sweat.” When she opens her eyes, he is dressing to leave and voices are heard beckoning through the window: “Hey Spanish Johnny, you want to make a little easy money tonight?”

Leaving their relationship no more or less tentative than it was when the song began, he whispers a farewell: “Goodnight, it’s all right Jane / I’m gonna meet you tomorrow night on Lover’s Lane.” Not quite sure why he is going, what he is looking for or whether he will discover it, he adds: “We may find it out on the street tonight, baby / Or we may walk until the daylight, maybe.”

“Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” similarly balances the emotions of its central character against the outer situation that helps mold them. In this vignette, some of the imagery recalls Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl,” but Bruce builds a much richer environment than does Morrison.

By the time Bruce tells Sandy that “for me, this boardwalk life’s through,” the listener has been transported by the lyrics to Asbury’s arcades, beaches and casinos. And one perceives that, for the singer, this “carnival life on the water” is a colorful, fascinating film, but one that has become stuck at a single frame.

“I just got tired of hangin’ in them dusty arcades,” he sings, “bangin’ them pleasure machines.” And later: “That tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag . . . they kept me spinnin’, I didn’t think I’d ever get off.” When the song ends, one realizes that it has not dealt so much with the “scene” as with its main protagonist, because everything is described so completely through his eyes.

Is Bruce singing about himself here? “I don’t know,” he says, pausing for a long moment. “I’ll tell ya the truth. I really don’t want to talk about it. I really don’t want to touch on the songs at all, because I’ll screw them up. As soon as you start talking about it, you’re messing with the magic, you know?”

While he himself is reluctant to discuss his songs, Bruce seems glad that other people are beginning to do just that. “I got talking with a cop last night who knew all the music, all my tunes, and it blew my mind! You know, it was an amazing thing. He was talking about ‘Sandy’ and ‘Rosalita.’ He knew all the songs.”

Visions of stardom have been known to dance in the head of a young artist as his work starts to become popular. But, says Bruce, “I don’t think about it. I can’t get involved in that. ’Cause I learned, don’t ever expect anything. I got my hopes, you know, but my hopes are completely based in reality, in what I know I can do.”

For example? “Well, for one thing, I hope to be makin’ a little more money than I am right now. I want to be able to take care of people a little better than I can right now. ’Cause if you don’t have a sufficient amount of money where people can be comfortable, they’re always going to be sweating it out, worrying whether they’re gonna make it or not.

“That’s very hard for the people in the band, ’cause there are pressures. Guys in the group gotta pay alimony, rent, food bills. And a guy may just want to go out for the evening to relax, go to a bar or something and buy a drink, you know?
“The older people get, the harder it is for them to hang on to an unprosperous thing. Even though this is a very together band. You start thinkin’, ‘Maybe I ought to go into a different profession, fix TVs, become an electrician or something.’ You start thinking a little bit more seriously, you know.”

Does Bruce find that happening to himself? “Oh, no, not to me.” He laughs. “This is it for me, you know. I got no choice. I have to write and play. If I became an electrician tomorrow, I’d still come home at night and write songs. If you can choose, you might as well quit. But if you have to, you have to.”

This excerpt from Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters is printed with the permission of Chicago Review Press. © 2013 by Jeff Burger. For more information, please visit byjeffburger.com and ipgbook.com.