Okay ghouls and goblins, just in time for Halloween – and season 3 of the Walking Dead – Corb Lund plays a restless corpse in the newly released video for his song “Dig Gravedigger Dig” from his excellent new album Cabin Fever (my review.)Â Dig it!
Category Archives: New Releases
Video Feature: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – “Danko Manuelâ€
On Nov. 20, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit will be release their first live album Live From Alabama on Lightning Rod Records/Thirty Tigers.The album captures highlights from two sold out shows at the WorkPlay Theater in Birmingham and Crossroads in Huntsville in the Summer of 2012.
Let’s be honest, The Drive-By Truckers were a better band when Jason Isbell was in the fold. Songs like Dank Manual are the reason why. This beautifully shot black and white video from the live performance has Isbell and his band taking the original spare performance from the DBT’s Dirty South and building up to a more nuanced and meatier performance with keyboards and horns.And of course Isbell kills on the guitar as well .
Free MP3 Download: Daniel Romano – “Middle Child”
Don’t let the the cover of Daniel Romano’s Come Cry With Me fool you. Sure the digitally weathered album cover (what’s that?), his Nudie-style cosmic Americana getup and hipster ‘stache might lead you to dismiss Romano as peddler of glib irony. But judging album covers are a lot like judging book covers. When you listen to the songs you know this comes from a deeper place.
Born in 1987, during what Steve Earle called “Nashville’s great credibility scare of the mid ’80s,†this Canadian visual artist, producer (City and Colour) and musician (with a history of punk and post-punk rock) uses his keening pitch to perfectly capture loneliness and heartbreak in “Middle Child, ” a tale of maternal abandonment.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/63517997″ iframe=”true” /]
Music Review: Cigarettes & Truckstops – Lindi Ortega [ Last Gang Records]
Let’s deal with the obvious first, yes, Nashville-by-way-of-Toronto Lindi Ortega’s soprano trill is reminiscent to a certain buxom, bewigged country music superstar. It’s not something she shies away from. Hell she even name-checks Dolly on the title cut. But where Dolly would chirp hopefully within every syllable leading to a home-spun happy ending Ortega takes a dreamy Julie Cruise into a beautifully melancholic coastal journey driving the protagonist toward a reunion with a love that may (or may not) end well.
The Day You Die is a dark tune about enduring a loveless marriage, though you might miss that with it’s lively shuffle. Despair and hopelessness also runs through Lead Me On, where a the title plays on the equine and behavioral definition. This tale of unrequited love is as beautifully sad and gritty and echos classic heartache from the Tammy Wynette songbook.
“Don’t Wanna Hear” simmers with rockabilly sass that show’s why she was slated to open slot for Orange County roots-punkers Social Distortion. The Middle-East tinged dobro of the confessional Murder of Crows and the Old Testament haunted Heaven Has No Vacancy are beautiful dark roots dirges that would make Lonesome Wyatt wail in agony.
Colin Linden ( Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, T-Bone Burnett) production does an excellent job of allowing Ortega’s tales of darkness and love to glide over the entirety of “Cigarettes & Truckstops” by setting just the right amount of solemn atmosphere or shifting into an open road twang when necessary.
“Cigarettes & Truckstops,” Lindi Ortega’s follow-up to 2011’s excellent “Little Red Boots,†proves the lady’s no fluke. The nearly flawless album displays a maturity and depth that ” Boots” only hinted at and gives us one of the best Americana music releases of the year.
Music Review: Dwight Yoakam – 3 Pears [Warner Bros.]
It’s been seven long years since Dwight Yoakam’s last proper release, 2005’s Blame the Vain. Since then he of painted-on jeans and low-hanging Stetson has done some acting – most notably the opening scene in The Wedding Crashers and as the manic Doc Miles in the hilariously over-the-top Crank films. Yoakam has done some music producing an an excellent tribute to his mentor Buck Owens, but for the most part, for a man you couldn’t escape in his heyday, Yoakam’s been MIA.
His newly released album 3 Pears neatly connects a path of trajectory Yoakam’s career. The road he’s been traveling since the early 80’s L.A. cow-punk scene where he was perfected his craft in clubs like Club Lingerie and The Roxy opening for local bands like The Blasters and Los Lobos. Almost as soon as he set foot on SoCal soil Yoakam became part actor – taking the cowboys imagery from 60s films like Paul Newman’s Hud and Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns, and part honk-tonk disciple – taking his sound from the 50s Bakersfield sound of Merle Haggard and his mentor Buck Owens. Yoakam always appeared assured and to be a man embodying s place he had planned to be all along.
3 Pears has all the trademarks you’d expect of a Yoakam work. Skillful performances within taught arrangements The hillbilly vocals topped-off with a hiccup finish. The swagger that won him legions of fans. All here without a skip or a a thought to ape modern trends. Even where on paper you’d think he might be a buckling toward commercial pressures -Â like inviting Kid Rock to co-write the album opener Take Hold of My Hand – with it’s brash bass moving toward a spirited sock-hop snap resulting in no discernible trace of Rock’s Southern /classic rock regurgitation influence at all.
Waterfall is a lingeringly paced cut skirting between whimsey and DaDa showing Yoakam’s not afraid to throw out the classic handbook of country music themes. The song achieves a level of absurd imagery that would make Roger Miller smile. ” If I had a waterfall, It might not make no sense at all, But that won’t matter much to you and me.’
Yoakam shows his Guitars, Cadillacs Etc. Etc. roots with Joe Maphis’ honky-tonk take on the Honky-Tonk angel theme Dim Lights, Thick Smoke, which was also extensively covered by The Flying Burrito Brothers. Yoakam’s Trying moves into sweet Memphis soul territory with a “Dock of the Bay” vibe and a lovely Wurlitzer accompaniment.
Indy rocker Beck co-produces two tracks; the bittersweet Missing Heart is great rendition of a classic pedal steel weeper but Mr Hanson’s pastiche sensibilities are most apparent on A Heart Like Mine with it’s guitar lick echoing I’m a Believer from one of Yoakam’s stylistic influences, the Monkees. ” The slow rocking Rock It All Away cribs a bit close the melody of The Who’s Baba O’Riley for me to just enjoy the song on it’s own merits.
Yoakam is nothing if not the American ideal of the self-made man and 3 Pears proves that we are all, ultimately, a product of his influences. Yaokam has taken those influences and composed one of the best albums of his career.
Choice cuts – Dim Lights, Thick Smoke , Wateerfall , Trying
Jamey Johnson and Alison Krauss Perform “Make the World Go Away” [Video]
David Letterman continues to champion great Country and Americana music by inviting Jamey Johnson and Alison Krauss to appear on the Late Show. The duo perform a breathtaking rendition of the classic “Make the World Go Away,” from Johnson’s tribute to his friend, the just-released “Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran.”
Don Imus also showed his love for great Country music by featuring Johnson earlier in the week. He did “Love Makes A Fool Of Us All†and “I Fall To Pieces†from “Living for a Song…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eW0o7-2Ffk
Amy LaVere and Shannon McNally to Release Chasing The Ghost
Amy LaVere and Shannon McNally were initially brought together by North Mississippi Allstars’ lead guitarist and vocalist Jim Dickinson as part of the roots/jazz/soul collective The Wandering. The two Americana singer/songwriters bonded over similarities, one of which was a their mutual predilection for bourbon neat, and the collaboration turned fruitful one. On October 13th the duo will release their EP, Chasing The Ghost — “Rehearsal Sessions,”
Armed with a set of songs the ladies headed to the Music+Arts Studio in Memphis, TN, for rehearsals a few days before getting into the van to start touring with The Wandering. With LaVere on stand up bass and vocals, McNally on acoustic guitar and vocals the tape-recorded session was rounded out with Robert Mache on guitar, mandolin and Shawn Zorn on drums.
These two songs from the EP promise good things. LaVere’s jazzy influence is heard in the bittersweet lament of “Never Been Sadder” and McNally’s laid-back style is stamped all over the jaunty ramble of “If It Were Mine to Keep,” The similarities and differences of both artists complement and contrast each other beautifully.
Take a listen and let me know what you think.
Look for LaVere and McNally on tour for Chasing The Ghost in October
Music Review: Malcolm Holcombe – Down The River [Gyspy Eyes Music]
Malcolm Holcombe should be huge. Perhaps the lack of acclaim for the North Carolina native are the boyish looks that have long faded from his Music City days due in large part to years of substance abuse. Maybe it’s the baked gravel voice, or the enigmatic themes that wind you in circles. Maybe it’s the raw, human heart that beats in every word delivered like emotional shrapnel. maybe Holcomb is too real, too lacking in veiled irony. This is not the lily-livered , Fedora-wearing, twee folk music that’s permeated the music culture over the last decade. I can imagine Malcolm Holcolmb acoustic guitar emblazoned with “This Machine Kills Hipsters.”
Holcomb’s ninth album, Down The River, bursts to life with “Butcher In Town” featuring Darrell Scott’s dobro acreens off Ken Coomer’s kick drum and Tammy Rogers-King’s jumping mandolin. “You a’int from here, When the shit hits the fan, There’s more meat on a pencil, From the butcher in town.” reels the chorus warning us of “All black and white, From the wars of the souls, Too much whiskey, Money and gold.” Abuse of power is a theme throughout Down The River. Whether the personal delusions of a man bilking a woman from her earnings and blowing it up into a greater vision of grandeur in “I Call The Shots” or the mass manipulation of world corruption in the frenzied “Twisted Arms.” The palpable indignation of “Whitewash Job” recounts recent topics of disasters and federal incompetence buttressed belied by a jaunty breakdown of Holcombe masterful picking.
Corruption is also represented, on “Trail O’ Money” guest vocalist Steve Earle, who once stated that Holcombe is ..”the best songwriter I ever threw out of my recording studio,†sounds comfortable with proletariat lines like “My instincts are wounded, My schools bleed with guns, My children are recklessly, Lost in the sun” He and Holcolmb join in the rallying chorus “Gangway i’m comin’ with a trail o’ money, Gangway stay outta my way, Gangway i’m comin’ with a trail o’ money, No room for the poor to stay.” No simple election sloganeering here.
Love songs fare little better in this hard soul’s terrain. “Gone Away At Last” brings along the river bank drums, stippling banjo and a fiddle dervish into a funnel cloud of a love song Cormac McCarthy could love.”The search lights beg to dim, In the blood of nightimes cover, No human sounds within, The lonely thoughts of lovers.” “the routine hammers solid, in the heads of spit and spoiled, (only) broken from contentions, Of the jealous snake’s recoil.” This is a long journey into the heart. “In Your Mercy” is a lament of a widow living in dire situation which is lightened briefly by the lovely lilt of Emmylou Harris.
These are not spoon-fed narratives guiding you gently through linear slices of life. Soapboxes are splintered for bonfire kindling and flags are shred and made into rags to dab tears or blot up blood. This is the human parade in all it’s violent and glory.
Mumford & Sons On ‘SNL’: ‘I Will Wait’ & ‘Below My Feet’ (VIDEO)
The mainstreaming of Americana music moves into hyper-speed with the upcoming sophomore release of Mumford & Sons’ “Babel.”
There are few mainstream milestones then playing SNL. Beside showing up in some sketches to parody themselves as teh “Poor man’s Beatles,” including Lead singer Marcus Mumford complete with a mop-top wig and turtleneck. At the end of the sketch host Joseph Gordon-Levitt and cast members helped Mumford & Sons led the crowd and cast in a singalong of The Beatles’Â “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.”
In addition to the comedy, Mumford & Sons also performed “I Will Wait” and “Below My Feet,” (below)Â Babel is out on Sept. 24.
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Americana Association Music Awards 2012
It was another night when the disciples of roots music congregated within the hallowed walls of the Mother Church of Country Music, and the Ryman Auditorium, to homage to that which ties us together and makes us whole. Music.
The evening got off to a funk – soul start as Buddy Miller and the house band turned up the heat on Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist recipient Booker T Jones’ Green Onions. Drive-By Truckers front man Patterson Hood presented Jones with award recounting the DBT backing him on the Grammy winning “Potato Hole” and recognizing the legendary musician and producer for his contributions to the Stax Records and Memphis soul music sound.
“It means so much to me to receive this award, and it’s especially good to receive it from Patterson, I am so honored to accept this award in such great company. It really touches me.”
Bonnie Raitt presented the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting and guitarist extraordinaire Richard Thompson. Thompson’s songs have been recorded by The Del McCoury Band, Robert Plant, Los Lobos, Elvis Costello, Blind Boys of Alabama, REM, Linda Ronstadt, Buddy & Julie Miller and Raitt herself.
Thompson, a Brit, said “I know we’ve had our differences, and especially that whole 1776 thing. But we do share a love of the folk music from the old country.” It Then broke into a sizzling version of his Vincent Black Lightning.
Raitt herself received the Lifetime Achievement for Performance, presented to her by by singer/songwriter John Hiatt who’s song “Thing Called Love” was a big hit for her when she covered it on her “Nick of Time” album. “I am proud to have an umbrella like Americana. Who cares what kind of music it is, if it is great music. Tonight we are putting aside generations and genres to celebrate roots music.”
Peter Cooper and Lee Ann Womack ‘s performance of Song of the Year nominated ” I Love” – Album from the Songs of Fox Hollow children’s album – was rendered even more eventful by a surprise appearance by the 76 year-old icon.
The greatest moment for me was an appearance by the legendary Guy Clark. The tribute This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark – produced by Tamara Saviano and Shawn Camp- won album of the Year. The noticeably frail Clark performed a song dedicated to his recently deceased wife Susanna, and “My Favorite Picture of You.”
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit snagged Song of the Year honors for “Alabama Pines.” Gillian Welch was named Artist of the Year, while The Civil Wars took home Duo/Group honors (and I won another bottle of whiskey from John Paul White!) Alabama Shakes were presented the Emerging Artist award and David Rawlings was named Musician of the Year.
Jim Lauderdale again was the perfect MC for the televised live event which moved at a more clipped pace than past years.
Excellent performances by Justin Townes Earle, Robert Ellis, The Mavericks, the Punch Brothers, Casey Chambers, Shane Nicholson, Hayes Carll, Cary Ann Hurst and the Carolina Chocolate Drops drew from the historic surroundings and often brought the crowd to their feet.
The evening closed with many performers joining by Emmylou Harris to pay tribute to the late Levon Helm, led by his daughter Amy Helm, who in a rousing version of The Band’s “The Weight.”