Tag Archives: Sunday Valley

Twang Nation Top Picks of 2011

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Tis’ the season for “Best of…” “Top picks…”Depending on your point of view it’s either as welcome as a gift under the tree on Christmas morning or fruit cake. This subjective separation of musical wheat from chafe, truth be told, it’s my least favorite part of doing this blog. I prefer visit each work on an individual basis. And though I do bring a wider view of music, only in rare instances would weigh a work in contrast to something I heard just the week before. This 12-month capsule is constraining, bit with constraints come opportunity to focus the mind.

First- ground rules. No albums of cover songs. So, no Gurf Morlix or Carrie Rodriguez. But ya’ll should still buy the excellent Blaze Foley’s 113th Wet Dream and We Still Love Our Country respectively. No albums where an artist revisits earlier work, or live albums of already recorded work. Sorry Levon Helm, Ramble At The Ryman might get you that Grammy for Americana Album of the Year but you won’t make the TN 2011 list.

My pick for number one spot came to me in April and I pegged it early as the one to beat. Nobody even came close. Austin Lucas’ New Home In The Old World is a fine mix of country, folk and rock delivered in such a seamless and extraordinary way that ibelieveit advances th genre in it’s existence. Same with To the Wind and On To Heaven by Sunday Valley. The Kentucky band captured my attention early in the year with their brand of high-octane honky-tonk/gospel boogie and seeing them live sealed their spot at #2.

Jason Isbell may not care for end-of-year lists but he made mine by creating his most inspired and solid solo record with Here We Rest. A chance encounter at the Grimey’s Americanarama showcase at the Americana Music Association led me to the #9 quirky duo of Hymn for Her.

Canadian Laura Repo’s debut Get Yourself Home landed in my in-box the week I was putting this list together. Repo’s plaintive voice of simple, timeless themes and and the sparse arrangements reach back to country music’s roots and secured her a slot at number 10.

Last year was a great year for Americana/roots music and I reflected this bumper crop by overindulging and creating a top 25 list. On retrospect, this was excessive. this year I’ve focused on the abloute top 10 that I love to listen to from start to finish.  Here’s no an even better 2012!
  1. Austin Lucas – New Home In The Old World
  2. Sunday Valley – To the Wind and On To Heaven
  3. Jason Isbell – Here We Rest
  4. Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers – Starlight Hotel
  5. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest
  6. Hayes Carll – KMAG YO YO
  7. Lindi Ortega – Little Red Boots
  8. Hellbound Glory – Damaged Goods
  9. Hymn for Her – Lucy & Wayne and The Amairican Stream
  10. Laura Repo – Get Yourself Home

Twang Nation Podcast Episode 1

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Yes friends, after all these years of talking (and posting the occasional clip) about great music I decided to just into the fray and get out a Twang Nation podcast. Why now? Two reasons. I came back from the Americana Music Association Conference with some great experiences and the technological opportunity fell into my lap. there you have it.

How does it stack up with excellent productions like Freight Train Boogie, 9 Bullets or Country Fried Rock ? I’ll leave that up to you dear listener.There’s a lot of great Americana and roots music out there and I hope I am able to cover just a bit more of it to bring you great music. The production is excellent thanks to my friend (and bartender) Franklyn, the “uh” and “um”marred patter between songs is less smooth (Sorry Brett Deter, at least I got you name in there after the song!)but I take the same license I do as a blogger, you get what you pay for. And it’s untimely not about my sterling delivery, it’s about the music. By chance this maiden episode happen to coincide with the 70th birthday of Guy Clark so I’ve included his classic Dublin Blues to end the program.

Best of all, this was fun and I look forward to doing it again soon. I hope you like it and find some great music , and if you like it please leave your comments below and forward it to friends. Most importantly go buy music and get out and see live shows. if you don’t our greatest fears might be realized,  great music will go away.

  1. Dale Watson – A Real Country Song
  2. Hymn For Her – Slips
  3. Hellbound Glory – Better Hope You Die Young
  4. Amanda Shires – Shake The Walls
  5. Austin Lucas – Sleep Well
  6. Wagons – I Blew It
  7. Sunday Valley  – Sometimes Wine
  8. Nikki Lane – Gone, Gone, Gone
  9. Brett Deter – The Devil’s Gotta’ Earn
  10. Lindi Ortega – Angels
  11. Scott H_ Biram –  Dontcha Lie To Me Baby
  12. Truckstop Dalrlin’ – Down
  13. Guy Clark – Dublin Blues

Twang Nation Podcast Episode 1

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Live Review: Sunday Valley – Kimo’s Penthouse Lounge- San Francisco 8/8/11

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The thing about booking your own shows is that, unless you know that terrain, you never know where you’ll end up. Making their way South and then West to their home-base nashville from the influential Pickathon festival in Oregonthe Nashville-based by way of Kentucky alt.country band Sunday Valley found themselves in Kimo’s Penthouse Lounge , a seedy little joint known for it colorful bar clientele (aka day-long boozers) and it retro-punk clientele inhabits it’s upstairs live-space nightly.  This could have been a fish-out-of-water scenario but it turned out to be a great fit.

Before the show I talked to John Sturgill Simpson, (guitar and lead vocals), over the preceding band’s tortured version of “Whipping post.” Simpson discussed the band’s influences and the pros and cons of the genre labeling. “At one festival we were billed as a bluegrass band.” he laughs. And as a fan of fellow Kentuckian Bill Monroe, as well as country music in general, Simpson knows how ridiculous this distinction is and how hard a band like Sunday Valley is to pigeonhole.

Alt.country, cowpunk, XXX, whatever…the band is a natural extension of Bakersfield electrified hillbilly and heavy-rock bravado of Southern rock. Their set ripped into gear with Old Sunshine from new new exceptional release To The Wind And On To Heaven. Though there was the occasional glib “yeeeHAAAAW!” , the crowd was soon gathering at the edge of the stage to bear witness to these brazen outsiders. By the time they slide into the burner Sometimes Wine the black leather and metal-stud crowd had recognized a musical kin of passion and workman-like DIY culture.

Kevin Black (Bass and background vocals) and Edgar Purdom (Drums) laid down solid foundation for Simpson’s slicing, snarling telecaster, He glares out at the darkened crowd like a man that might have something to prove if only he gave a shit. The crowd was eating it up.

The just over an hour-long set packed in 12 songs, including an amped up rendition of the classic murder ballad Pretty Polly and Train 45 which Simpson dedicated to Bill Monroe. That’s what makes Sunday Valley a great band. Like Monroe when he was crating the blueprint for bluegrass, tradition is held in reverence but new territories are bravely exploring sonic terra firma.

Music Review: Sunday Valley – To the Wind and On To Heaven [self-released]

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Here is a record that has been on heavy rotation at Casa Twang for the past two weeks.

For the past decade or so Music City has fumbled like a mad scientist to piece together sure-fire radio hits from the worst parts of rock and country music , though there have been major financial success, the lifespan of the work is questionable. The musical limbs seem to reject each other. And we’re not talking about rap and country music here (shut it Colt Ford!) It’s country music and rock music. They share the same DNA for tap-dancing  jeebus sakes!

These hacks should take a page from South-Eastern Kentucky’s Sunday Valley. The trio’s name ,the title of their debut album (recorded at Shangri-la Productions in Lexington, Ky with producer Duane Lundy) and sizzling cuts like Jesus Boogie might lead you to believe they are a Christan band, and they might very-well be. But they travel the road straddling the spiritual and the secular blazed by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ralph Stanley, Johnny Cash and Elvis. The borderlands of gospel, country and country music become a blur out the window of a pedal-to-the-metal 18-wheeler fueled on whiskey, a electrified Telecaster the holy Pentecost.

Case in point, the souped-up gospel of All The Pretty Colors and Sometimes Wine whips up a rightous ruckus as Sturgill Simpson sings with full-on abandon and treats his guitar like it spoke ill of his mama. Gerald Evans’ chugging bass and drummer Edgar Purdom’s tight , heated keep a heated, steady pace. There is also a nice uncredited fiddle and barrel-house piano to round things out.

Never Go To Town Again is Southern rock with the brake off. Simpson sets himself up in a John Henry-like man vs machine duet with his Telecaster. He wails and calls while the machine snarls and snaps with a fury that would  make Cerberus whimper.

Things throttle down a bit for some Allman Bros-esque Blue-Eyed soul. Oh, Sarah yearns dreamily toward a road-as-mistress theme and I Wonder and I Don’t Mind are great barroom weepers that burns with longing and regret, the latter tales off like a great, lost Marshall Tucker Band song.  Cut The Sails is straight-up acoustic fireside country ballad tracing back country music nautical roots in the spirit of George Strait  or John Anderson. These all really showcase the nuance and range of Simpson’s voice.

Simpson reportedly left a steady job with the railroad to pursue his dream of making music like they couldn’t dream of doing anything else. This is music that is as good-hearted as it is raucous,  full of piss and vinegar as well as good will, and and as ready to love as itchin’ to fight.

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