Category Archives: Music Review

Spady Brannan – “The Long Way Around and Other Short Stories” (Postscript)

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

The Long Way Around and Other Short Stories is the first solo release from Nashville veteran session bass and string player Spady Brannon. For the last three decades then man has established his bonafides by touring with Crystal Gayle and Reba McEntire, and recording with Tammy Wynette, Eddie Rabbit and Phil Vassar. He’s penned hits for Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers (“Real Love” “Think About Love”), Trisha Yearwood (“I Did”) and Highway 101 (“Desperate Road”) and Roy Orbison. He even scored a European hit for one time ABBA vocalist Agnetha Faltskog with “Once Burned Twice Shy.”

For all that time working for Nashville acts Brannan’s first release isn’t typical Music Row product but reflects a roots-rock sensibility that’s more John Hiatt or Tom Petty than Chesney or Toby.

The themes are typical barroom crooner fodder, love gained, love lost, but does done with a freshness, authenticity and warmth that far surpasses most of what comes out of Nashville these days. Twang (Some Days) is mixed with Boz Skaggs-like blue-eyed soul (Long Way Round) and swamp-groove (Smilin Eyes) to round out this great forst release from a seasoned veteran who is able to separate the wheat from the chafe resulting in a satisfying helping. Here’s hoping for seconds.

Gob Iron – Death Songs for the Living – Sony

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Gob Iron (Brit for harmonica) is Comprised of Jay Farrar (Son Volt) and Anders Parker (Varnaline) together they breath life, longing and menace into retooled traditional folk songs. Recorded in the span of five days in the Autumn of 2004 Death Songs for the Living came together when Anders Parker was enlisted to take part in the recording of an aborted Son Volt album. The sound of both musicians merge and entwine so well you’d swear they’d been doing it for years.

These are songs about love, loneliness and death. Sparsely produced, mostly acoustic but with flourishes of Crazy Horse style dissonant electric guitar. The space between each songs are moody acoustic guitar instrumental interludes that fill out the overall Western-noir feel of the work.

Meat Purveyors Last Show – Bloodshot BBQ – Union Pool, Brooklyn

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

It was a cold and bittersweet day this Saturday, Nov. 4th, it was the day of Bloodshot’s Annual CMJ (weasels!) Showcase. Yes it was a great day-long party and BBQ at Union Pool in Brooklyn featuring the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Mark Pickerel, The Silos, the Deadsting Brothers, Austin’s own Scott H. Biram, Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Starvation League and, sadly, Austin’s own Meat Purveyors where to be performing their last show as their bass player, Miss Cherilyn DiMond, has decided to get married and move on to other pastures in Maine. I missed most of the shows due shooting the shit and catching up with old friends and making some new ones.

But I got to make time for my homeboy Scott H. and his crazy grease-soaked stomp-blues revival and the very last show of the Purvs. Scott did his best in the 45 min allotted for him but c’mon! He’s just getting the crowd hoping, hollering and speaking in drunken tongues.

I skipped on Bobby Bare Jr. (yeah, I know) but I was near the front of the masses for the Purvs.

Taking the stage at 5:30 and a few moments of reflection from lead singer Jo Walston the band tore into an hour-and-a-half of thrash-grass sampler from their ten year career. “TMP Smackdown”, “Pain By Numbers”, “I’d Rather Be Your Enemy,” “Truckers Speed,” “Tallboy”, “Working on a Building” it was a trip down memory lane in a meth-fueled trailer park. The band then threw in killer covers of Ratts “Round and Round” and Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” and “Lucky Star” just to top of the night right.

There were tears, laughs and discussion of weed-induced hetro and or lesbian sex by Jo as she up-ended a stiff shot of whisky. The rest of the Purvs, Cherilyn DiMond on stand-up bass (and the instigator of the Purvs demise due to that aforementioned marital commitment (Damn woman, where your priorities?!), guitarist extraordinaire Bill Anderson and on speed-metal mandolin Peter Stiles, gave the rabidly-rowdy and adoring crowd (some of which had traveled all the way from Austin to catch the show) the red Meat they came to hear.

More tears, more denial and two encores I was too drunk to recall the details of..if it had to end this is the way it should have gone.

Thanks to the Meat Purveyors for then great years and to Bloodshot for being cool to me and putting on such a great shindig,

Waylon Jennings Featured on Popmatters

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

There’s a great article/review on Waylon Jennings and the newly released box set, Nashville Rebel, At PopMatters.com.  From the article:

The “outlaw country” thing was always as much about camaraderie as anything else. It was a reason to stick with his pals, to make music with those who understood. And that feeling of walking in the same footsteps as other like-minded musicians stretched back to the past, as all of these outlaws wore on their sleeves their debt to the giants of country music. In the mid-’70s two Waylon Jennings singles, written by the man himself, made this point clear as day. First “Bob Wills Is Still the King”, a tribute that puts Wills on the highest pedestal (“it don’t matter who’s in Austin / Bob Wills is still the king”) while also declaring Waylon’s own love for the Texas tradition of honky-tonks and western music. And then its flip side, the lament “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way”. As an anti-Nashville-showbiz statement it set up Jennings as an outlaw, but it’s also a statement of solidarity with the simple, from-the-gut approach of Hank Williams.
 

Hem – Funnel Cloud (Nettwerk Records)

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

They sound like they should be making their brand of dreamy folk music over the smoldering embers of an Appalachian campfire instead of on the stop of a brownstone in their residential Brooklyn, but Hem’s music blurs place as well as time.

 

Much of Hem’s muscle comes as much from the sweet crystal clear vocals of Sally Ellyson as it does from the potently restrained songs of Dan Messe. During the recording of Funnel Cloud, Messe’s home was flooded during the recording sessions by hurricane Ivan and his father died a week later, the themes of tragedy, hope and acceptance run throughout the lyrics and the feel of the songs. Assisted by a 21-piece orchestra, Ollabelle singer Amy Helm and Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, the music fills in the spaces between the silences at just the right time for emotional impact. Funnel Cloud is a glisteningly sparse and melancholy work that show Hem continues to deliver.   

Angela Desveaux – Wandering Eyes – Thrill Jockey, Sept. 12

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

On her first CD, Wondering Eyes,  Montreal alt-country singer Angela Desveaux songs conjure images of dusty roads, weary souls and tortured hearts. Veering from Emmilou Harris sweetness (Familiar Times) and Sheryl Crow folk-pop (The title cut) with Lucinda Williams twang without the whisky grit Ms. Desveaux paints pictures of hard-luck and gun-shy lovers.


The time spent performing as a back-up singer and guitar-for-hire for various Montreal bands and after initially turning her nose at country for a while (the music her parents preferred) she then discovered the Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds, Gram Parsons and Son Volt, led her to adopt her current style. She then sharpened her chops while playing at a Sunday night bluegrass open-mic at a little local bar in Montreal called Barfly. the Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds, Gram Parsons and Son Volt, led her to adopt her current style. She then sharpened her chops while playing at a Sunday night bluegrass open-mic at a little local bar in Montreal called Barfly.
Her excellent band includes members of Wooden Stars, Arcade Fire, Strange Attractors, GYBE, and Hangedup. Engineered by Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire) and produced by Brian Paulson (Slint, Superchunk, Wilco, Archers Of Loaf.)  

 

My CMT Crossroads Experience

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Due to shear dumb luck I was able to attend an invitation only taping of Country Music Television’s “Crossroads” programs featuring, get this, Rosanne Cash and Steve Earle. I know, holy shit!

Crossroads is toutied as bridging country music and rock music. Past duets have been more like the meeting of both genres most bland, like the pairing of Bon Jovi and Sugarland. And some pair one great (Hank Williams Jr / ZZ Top) with a dud (Kid Rock / Brooks & Dunn). But sometimes they do it right like with their partnership of Bonnie Raitt and Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello, Ryan Adams and Elton John (!) and with this show.
I’ve been a fan of Earle’s since the mid-80’s when he was riding high on his first three releases and I’ve seen him once since being in New York. Rosanne Cash I’ve wanted to see mostly out of curiosity – how does the offspring of a legend stack up?
The filming was done in the 100 year-old, Mason-built Manhattan Grand Center Ballroom off 34th near Madison Square Garden. The Ballroom is now owned by the Unification Church which is led by Rev. Sun Myung Moon (I wonder if the Earle, a celebrated Left-winger, knew he was performing in a hall owned by a  Right-wing wacko)
The program director came out and had the audience run through a litany of laughter, appease and standing applause shots for the cameras and then the show was on.
The show started with Earle’s “Guitar Town” which also ended the show. Because of the magic of television if a performer, or typically the director, doesn’t care for a performance it’s simply done again. Real concerts don’t get “do overs” but the songs were so great I didn’t mind.
Other song covered were Earls “Devil’s Right Hand” and Cash’s “Burn Down This Town” and “House On The Lake” from her newest release “Black Cadillac.” The two also did a nice cover Rosanne’s Daddy’s “Big River.”
I left buzzed by being a part of Country-Rock history and taking some small comfort that Country Music Television doesn’t completely suck.

Casey Driessen – 3D (Sugar Hill)

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

One of the appeals of country and roots music is it’s feeling of time-worn familiarity. The rough croon about lost love and bottomless whisky glasses feel like a well worn leather chair. But sometimes someone comes along and fucks the whole thing up. Yeah all the bits are there, fiddle, crooner, stand up bass, dobro – but things are well, all askew. These guilty parties dwell in the lands of country and some hyphenated shadow region – electonica, jazz, and (shudder) rap. Jim White, Buck 65 and Hank III are examples of these genre straddlers, now they have company with Suger Hill recording artist Casey Driessen. The 27-year old Chicago native is a top notch fiddler (he got his first fiddle when he was six) a Berklee College of Music grad, toured China on an embassy sponsored excursion, and recorded on the soundtrack for the Johnny Cash movie Walk the Line and appeared with Steve Earle’s Bluegrass Dukes – needless to say this guy is not your run of the mill fiddler’s fare.

The styles on his newest release “3-D” are all over the place – Irish jigs, complex jazz arrangements, swamp folk and western swing – and it all works in spite of itself. There’s something daring and dangerous about the music – taking something so solid, so defined and turning it on it’s ear all without a net.

Let’s hope that “3-D” injects new life into the roots and Americana genre like Mile’s Davis’ “Bitches Brew” and the Allman Brothers “Eat A Peach” changed everything that came after.