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Justin Townes Earle @ The Factory By
Amanda
on April 10, 2010 12:38 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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I'll update with comments tomorrow (today!). "Today", "end of next week" same same.

Well, after a while it becomes redundant to review a JTE show -- I've seen him now three times in two years and what's more to rave that I haven't raved? To paraphrase Brian Clough, if he's not the best singer-songwriter under 30 going round then he's in the top one. In terms of overall performance I'll put Dan Sultan on a par, but there in a class of their own right now. OK, one thing new - Jason Isbell did a great job as sideman for about 3/4 of the show. And that's it really. He was briliant, you were a fool to miss him and I can't wait to show No. 4.

All your JTE news at Halfway to Jackson.

The Flatlanders By
Amanda
on April 2, 2010 1:10 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)


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Just perfect.

Update. Did a Flatlanders themed 8tracks. Them together, solo and Terry Allen's "Gimme a Ride to Heaven" which they do as an encore sometimes. Bunch of other mixes there since last I mentioned it here too.

Dr John @ The Basement By
Amanda
on March 28, 2010 6:26 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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Dr John's Piano

I've seen Dr John a few times before and since this time of year is saturated with gigs I might have missed him this time round, except he was at The Basement and the chance to grab the show in such a small venue was too much to pass up. Lead guitarist from the Lower 911 John Fohl warmed up the place with some very impressive blues, which also set an appropriately old school tone. The album they released last year didn't impress me very much, so honestly I was pleased the show was three quarters classics. Iko Iko, I Walk on Gilded Splinters, When the Saints, Goodnight Irene. It was, as the young people say, awesome. Pure New Orleans. Dr John even busted out the guitar which I hadn't seen live before.

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I live tumblr'd an audio snippet of Iko, Iko. Just recorded on my iPhone so its a bit fuzzy but gives you a flavour.

Speaking of New Orleans, Lil Band o' Gold are here for Byron. I have their first album and would love to see them but they're only sideshowing in Melbourne and ... Moruya. What the heck is in Moruya??

Mary Gauthier -- Notes Newtown By
Amanda
on March 26, 2010 10:13 AM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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Signing after the show

Another truly troubled troubadour
Writing songs to even up the score
A tune for every single body blow
And I sing them at the sideshow

Mary Gauthier has a new record out which I bought a few weeks ago but hadn't listened to by the time I saw her two nights ago. (My god, trying to watch all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the space of a month has been a ginormous time-suck.) The Foundling is a "song cycle" about her own experiences of being adopted, finding her birth mother at 45. I won't detail the narrative here but you can read all about it in her artist's notes (link is to a word doc). So it's an album more personal than most and also meant to be appreciated as a whole, at least at first, so when I realised the night of the concert was creeping up I decided rather than try to cram in a listening to the CD, I'd wait for the show. Thanks to Cat Politics' review I knew she was doing The Foundling in its entirety in order from beginning to end so I decided to let it hit me everything fresh and new on the night. The set list Anne has provided is essentially the same as the Newtown show. Check out the great photos there too and thelonger version at Nu Country (I know we finish with the same riff about the Hatch Show Print but I thought of mine separately, honest.)

The Foundling was bookended by some of her older songs; "Between The Daylight and the Dark" and from the album of that name "The Last of the Hobo Kings" about Don Draper Steam Train Maury - complete with a very funny spoken word introduction. "I, Drink" put in an appearance of course, which I would have loved hearing anyway but I extra loved her delivery on it. On the album (and other live versions I've heard) it's of course a melancholy number where the total unreliability of the narrator is obvious, this version was delivered with a sincerity and passion which made you think, hey she really is happy. A quite compelling direction to take the song, chilling perhaps but beautiful. This and the intro to "The Last of the Hobo Kings" were also a good in setting the stage for the extra theatricality of the The Foundling songs.

The first thing to say is to allay your understandable fears that such an emotionally weighted autobiographical project will result in songs that can't stand by their own and sacrifice musicality and craft for ripped-from-the headlines literalness. The sound is similar to her last couple of albums on Lost Highway, mixing acoustic songs with some with more dense instrumentation, gently crunching guitars mirroring the emotional crescendos. There is good variety in the songs musically and their emotional pitch. I'll single out for its melody and meaning, "Sideshow", an ironic ode to the singer-songwriter life. The heart of the project I reckon, both emotionally and being sequenced in the middle of the story, is "March 11 1962" a spoken word reconstruction of phoning her birth mother for the first time. I won't "give away" the result but it is in the artist's notes linked above. Suffice to say, wow. And: sniff.

So a really special and genuinely moving show, and a whole new album of favourite songs. I really loved also the stage persona Mary showed us here, released perhaps by the one woman show (although I don't mean to ignore Ed Romanoff who weas a great sideman on guitar) nature of the project. She is an accomplished songwriter and uber-cool presence in her glasses and velvet jackets, but you knew that. She's also very funny with great comic timing and great sense of an audience, I enjoyed finding that out.

I have all her CDs so I bought and got signed a gig poster designed by Hatch Show Print, out of Nashville makers of posters for decades. You'll recognise the style even if you don't know the name. Mary added that they used to make posters for Elvis and Johnny Cash but "the state of country music being what it is is" they now make them for her. She has no reason to be embarrassed by the comparison.

Mary Gauthier By
Amanda
on February 5, 2010 10:39 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Good news for our friends west of the Blue Mountains, when she tours in March Mary Gauthier will be doing a gig in Bathurst. I'll be getting along to the show at Notes Alive in Newtown, a newish joint I've not been to before.

Marianne Faithfull -- Opera House By
Amanda
on February 5, 2010 10:22 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Marianne Faithfull at the Opera House the other night was a very satisfying affair in front of an engaged and appreciative audience. She went through most of Easy Come, Easy Go plus the old stand-bys "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan", "Broken English", "As Tears Go By" and "Why'd You Do It."

The band mostly stayed out of the way and were good without being dazzling; they were a little heavy handed at times but I was in a box on the side so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that that was a function of the always loose acoustics in that room. There was a low musical point (for me) during "Sing Me Back Home" featuring a musical saw. We can finally answer the question, most robustly in the negative, whether a musical saw is any replacement for a pedal or lap steel. It's a party piece, comrades, not a musical instrument.

There's a fragment of "Broken English" here, questionable phone recording quality but evidence the old trooper is still in fine, passionate voice.

Rogues By
Amanda
on January 29, 2010 3:33 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So Rogue's Gallery - Hal Wilner's star-studded sea shanties thing - at the Sydney festival is getting bagged from all quarters (lots of unhappy commenters there) which I can't say surprises me. The whole event had "underwhelming" written all over it from the start.

I did mildly enjoy the Leonard Cohen tribute a few years back, a Wilner and friends love-in along the same lines, but the concept does lend itself to self-indulgence and complacency. I thought this event offered all the pitfalls of Came So Far for Beauty (acts not learning the songs, lack of rehearsal etc) but with the added variables of uncertainty about outside acoustics, the weather and ambient noise of one of the country's busiest commuter and tourist hubs. The Opera House forecourt should be left to Australian Idol finales and triathlon finishing lines.

Despite Marianne Faithfull being singled out for a shellacking I'm still very excited about her solo show, it's hard to judge whether I would've felt so hostile to her performance. i don't really mind divas getting drunk and slurring out of tune, really, in fact I quite like it. I'll be sure to let you know Wednesday night.

Coming Up By
Amanda
on January 23, 2010 6:15 PM | | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

As any Australian music fan (our kind of music, anyhoo) knows late March and April is always a busy time as we enjoy the spillover of acts brought out for Byron Bay. Sometimes you have to make the choice of two rarely seen (on our shores) highly regarded acts whose only local shows clash with each other.

Not Byron-related but kicking off the season in style is Marianne Faithfull only the week after next. Playing the Concert Hall at the Opera House -- ugh, I have a prejudice against it for popular music -- and I only have a seat at the back of one of the mezzanine boxes but still I can't wait.

"Solitude"

Then, Dan Sultan at the Factory on February 27th -- for a measly $20. For realsm his recent album of late 2009 -- Get Out While You Can -- is a gem of soul, rock and country. For twenty bucks you can't afford not to go.

The above dodgy but illustrative video of Dan was taken by me at the Blue Mountains Music Fest the year before last and that will be my next port of call, in March. As well as seeing two of the Bluesfest drawcards for me Chris Smither and Nanci Griffith, the rest of the line-up is superb. My posts from my previous visit. I'm sure there will be a number of new discoveries but I'm also looking forward to revisiting with the boys from Genticorum, who do fabulous traditional Quebec music.

As for the rest of the Byron folk, well The Flatlanders top the list but they haven't announced any sideshows yet. I'll be there when they do (they have to, right?) I've lined up to see Dr John and the Lower 911 at the Basement; seen him a few times before (but not for yonks) and I might have wavered but the opportunity for a show at a joint that size (real small) cannot be passed up. And ... that might be me tapped out for another year ...

My Favourite Albums -- 2009 By
Amanda
on December 18, 2009 6:59 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Best Dylan Album -- Equal winners: Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart (I'm with Tom Russell on this gem)

Best Non-Dylan Albums:

I think if you looked at my most played album released in 2009 it would be Leonard Cohen: Live in London but I'm gonna exclude live recordings, reissues and compilations from this ...

1. Easy Come Easy Go - Marianne Faithfull. I got this back in January and here it still is, top of the list.
2. Blood and Candle Smoke - Tom Russell. Typically full-bore TR effort of weaving biography and myth, now with mariachi horns
3. The Bright Mississippi - Allen Toussaint. Refreshing, transfixing, dreamy masterclass
4. Midnight at the Movies - Justin Townes Earle. No sophomore nerves here, proving the first album was not a fluke.
5. Hills and Valleys - The Flatlanders. Slipped a little in list over time but still an album of a grade Americana song to song
6. Traditions in Transition - Quantic and his Combo Barbaro. Genre tinkering with respect and passion, Latin on the wild side
7. One to the Head, One to the Heart - Gretchen Peters. What I said at the time
8. A Friend of a Friend - David Rawlings Machine. Should be higher really, but couldn't drop anything.
9. Mountain Soul II - Patty Loveless. Infectious bluegrassy country, highly polished but full of affection
10. Get Out While You Can - Dan Sultan. Well now, I only got this yesterday so given a few more days it could have really shot up the charts. Brilliant collection of soul, country and blues and heaps more soul. Dan is a star, no doubt.
11. Potato Hole - Booker T From the show in April
12. What Have You Done My Brother? - Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. Preach it, sister
13. Dirt Town City Limits - Mat d and the Profane Saints. See Jim's great review.
14 Today, Tomorrow and Forever - Pete Molinari feat. The Jordanaires. Only an EP, but a perfectly formed one.
15. For the Mission Baby -- Malcolm Holcombe.
16. Ready for the Flood - Gary Louris and Mark Olsen. Was rather "meh" on it for eight of the last nine months but sort of started to grow on me ....
17. Animals in the Dark - William Elliott Whitmore. Should be higher also, what can you do? Lists are stupid. Hat tip Phineas, some very cathartic tracks on here believe me.
18. Cotton - Sam Baker. Also needs more time but exceptional story songs and that kind of creaky Texas voice I love.
19. Lucky One - Raul Malo A little bit country, a little bit croony, very pleasant listening.
20. The Soul of Black John - John Black

Update: Bah I forgot about Shemekia Copeland's Never Going Back. Bah! Should be in the top 10, if the top ten could have 15 places.

Bluesfest By
Amanda
on October 29, 2009 6:22 AM | | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

First Byron announcement. Here's who I'm excited about:

The Flatlanders -- YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr John & the Lower 911
Lyle Lovett
Béla Fleck and Oumou Sangaré
Buddy Guy
Jeff Beck
Robert Gordon
Peter Green & friends
Justin Townes Earle

I'll keep an eye out for the Sydney show/s of Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club too but they'll probably play somewhere horrible like the Opera House so I'll stay home and listen to Bebo Valdes records.

JTE Time #2 By
Amanda
on October 10, 2009 7:01 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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Justin Townes Earle during encores at the Annandale. Very similar to last year's gig, which is to say, excellent. Some random YouTubes here.

Note to guitar nerds, that is Henry Wagons' guitar as he broke some strings (for the second time) on his own just before encore. Well, he does have thumbs like sledgehammers, as Guy Clark said!

JTE Time By
Amanda
on October 1, 2009 8:12 PM | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Update: JTE at Basement Discs in Melbourne today. LOVE that pic, Anne!!

Still time to get yer tickets for Justin Townes Earle at the Annandale next Thurs (and the Clarendon in Katoomba for the mountainfolk.)

The Wagons support.

Justin Townes Earle touring By
Amanda
on July 16, 2009 2:43 AM | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Just checking in from holidays to post that Justin Townes Earle is touring Aust/NZ again in September and October. Tickets here. I think it is not letting me buy one because I am not located in Australia, ironic ha. Hope there are some when I get back.

Moshcam and Justin Townes Earle By
Amanda
on June 14, 2009 5:21 PM | | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

I stumbled on Moshcam a while back, been meaning to post about it. They film gigs around Sydney -- the Metro, Enmore, Factory, Annandale etc -- and make them available for streaming.

A lot of yer hipster indie types, but they just added Seasick Steve (who doesn't excite me in the least but is all the rage) and some other of interest. The quality is great, with multiple angles. I was close to the front at the JTE and if I noticed the cameras (?) they didn't distract me.

I have been revisiting that brilliant Justin Townes Earle gig.

NB, I assume these are available for viewing outside the Commonwealth, I can't find anything in the FAQ to say otherwise but you never know the way such things go. Perhaps one of my foreigners can let me know.

Here's an embed of one of the tracks to give you a taste. I haven't said anything about his new record Midnight at the Movies not because it isn't excellent because it is. The first album hit me full square in the side of head at a million mph, partly because I wasn't expecting anything from it but you don't get that rush from second albums, no matter how excellent. So here's "Mama's Eyes" from it (misnamed "My Father's Son" although that's understandable since it wasn't released at that time.) And after that, one of my faves from the first record, "Far Away in Another Town." But if your bandwidth can spare it, watch the whole thing.

PS, I also took an interest in their Public Enemy gig at the Metro since I actually had a ticket to it but lost my wallet the day before so didn't have any photo ID (and forgot to bring my passport) so the stupid bouncers would let me in!!!!!!!11111!!!! True story. I had a mournful cocktail at that pub across from the Metro and went home to bed, early. It takes a nation of one to hold me back.


Compulsory By
Amanda
on June 11, 2009 5:08 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I heart Andy Baylor. Be there for sure.

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All Stars By
Amanda
on June 9, 2009 7:27 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yeesh. Justin Townes Earle just tweeted this. What a line up.

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Rodney Crowell -- The Factory By
Amanda
on April 16, 2009 6:19 AM | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

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I was going to write this up on Friday or the weekend, but the "i" key on my keyboard has stopped working. Thus liberated from the blogging obligation, I went back to bed to read the latest Val McDermid in between naps. And now it's Monday I'm back to not having time. I will just say it was an extremely satisfying night. Heavy on the last couple of albums, and only "'Til I Gain Control" and "Ain't LIving Long Like This" from that 70s-80s run of form (and if you are not familiar or have forgotten how good those records are, I recommend a revisit), but The Houston Kid is one of my desert island discs so I was happy. Starting with the hardboiled almost spokenword "Highway 17" is I think what they call in the TV biz a "cold open", throwing you right into to the disorienting action without any easing into it. Interrupted a couple of times by the noise of low flying aircraft -- a real authentic inner west Sydney experience that, to go with the authentic Texas singer-songwriter experience ...

Cat Politics reviewed the Melbourne gig.


Highway 17 (solo)
The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design
I Want You #35
Moving Work of Art
Earthbound
Til I Gain Control Again
Dancing Circles Around the Sun (Epictetus Speaks)
Riding Out the Storm
Walk the Line (Revisited)
Closer to Heaven

Will Kimbrough solo:
Hill Country Girl
Yellow Mama
You Made Your Bed (w/ RC)

I Wish it Would Rain
Wandering Boy
Topsy Turvey
Rock of My Soul
Telephone Road
Fate's Right Hand
Still Learning How to Fly
Ain't Living Long Like This

It's Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night
Pancho and Lefty

Love is All I Need (solo)

Booker T and the Drive By Truckers By
Amanda
on April 12, 2009 12:44 AM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

May add some words later. Now with words. In any event, pictures.

A further update: Here is video I took of "Green Onions." It's all over the shop shaky. This is because I was "groove-ing." And here is "Time is Tight."

It was firstly very nice to meetup with Dangerbird of High Noon Saloon (who has written up the night) for the gig.

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The new Booker T record Potato Hole with the DBTs (and Neil Young) is not I thought out until the end of April but they had them for sale at the gig, which was mostly a run through of those songs plus the inevitable "Green Onions." I like Potato Hole, it's basically the MGs done rockier. I was, as you see from the pics, right infront of Booker's Hammond B3 and the sound was supreme. Perfect, every feather of his magic fingers came through. He is a connection to a whole musical world that means a lot to me (and I'm visiting Memphis in July) so it was a great pleasure to be there. Surprisingly when I bumped into my friend Austin at the bar in the break he said they could barely hear Booker back there. Which is weird, usually it is the other way round and you trade off sound quality for proximity. When the DBTs came on for their solo set, I was at the back for the most and also found the sound back there was much less easy on the ears than towards the stage. Backwardass acoustics at the Factory! But anyway I went up the front for the last couple of songs and the encore which was cool because "Let There Be Rock" rocked, verily. I will be back there tomorrow night for Rodney Crowell.

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A full house and a rock and roll band By
Amanda
on April 11, 2009 8:36 AM | | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

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Lucinda Williams Enmore Theatre Sydney 6th April 2009


About four years overdue, Lucinda Williams finally took the stage at the Enmore on Monday night and I had my front row centre seat which appropriately had me literally sitting at her feet, gazing straight up. Nice for the metaphor, murder on the neck.

Lucinda's lyrics, especially in latter years but it was always there, are the most comprehensive compendium of modern adult womanhood I know of and this naturally includes a recognition of what you can and cannot compromise on, and an acceptance of any losses that causes. (The way reviewers harp on her loneliness or whatever really irks me as it really elides the complexities.) It's a difficult sensibility for some I guess but really hits home for me and why I get lost in the newer records more than others. The point is: live, her presence mirrors this familiar daily trajectory, laid bare. Nervousness channeling the unquestionable strength of her voice and vision.

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A word on the reservations of my comrade, FXH. There hasn't been solid twang - apart from her voice - on any album in the last decade and the current band recreates the gauzy rock she's been cultivating so I don't see any angle for complaint there. Sure, I'd love more of the earlier country rock and more of the ballads, but then I say that about everyone. 1987 is gone and ain't never coming back and that's all you can say about that. It is the same sound as the whole album live shows she did, which I have listened to on CD a fair bit. Mind you Buick 6 were loud, so that they shook my ribcage during their opening set and lead me to stay out there in the foyer rather than take my seat. As one of the Walkman generation my hearing is already headed to an inevitable early demise, and I wince a bit more a buzzsaw guitars close up than I once did. That made me a little wary, but with Lucinda they settled into their complementary groove, without overwhelming. There was a pedal steel layed out, but I don't recall if it got played?

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Nice tatt.


But to be the honest the band to me was always going to be, at most, a distraction. It usually is. So sorry, hard grafting musos but I'm a singer obsessive and as long as you don't get in the way of the Voice, you're probably cool with me. After Melbourne I buttonholed Tim Dunlop, late of the blogosphere, for his impressions (especially as he had travelled from Adelaide just for it) and nodded along when he replied it was "all about her voice" and thus, what's not to like? The setlist was a good balance, even a couple of the earliest Folkways songs, through to a few off Little Honey (I still don't think much of "Little Rock Star" I have to say.) Of course there were a dozen others, at least, at minimum, just for a start you'd want to hear but it covered all reasonable bases. She started with "Fruits of My Labor", one of those songs which pulls me in irrevocably and haunts me. And thus as we had begun, we continued.

And they call bloggers self-indulgent By
Amanda
on March 10, 2009 8:17 AM | | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Shorter Bloke Who Prob Got His Ticket For Free: Eric Clapton should tailor his show much more to people who don't really like him much.

Props to my Twitter peep who suggests George just stick to Blueshammer.

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