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.
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.
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.
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??
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 DraperSteam 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.
If you have an iPhone and are a music lover you could do a lot worse than drop $2.49 on the TuneIn Radio app, which streams radio stations from ... well, just about everywhere. I've only had it a couple of days and haven't explored beyond the USA but I've heard great things about the African, Caribbean, South American stations you can get. Was just tuning into some bluegrass show on the legendary WSM Nashville and then surfed to Cajun Radio 1290 out of Lafayette. Been very impressed with its reliability on 3G, trundling on the bus down George St didn't even upset it. I'm told the bandwidth usage is very reasonable too, so all in all four hoofs and a tail up for TuneIn Radio.
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 ...
Hat tip Tim. I read about Crazy Heart ages ago but never followed it up, now we have a soundtrack and a trailer.
Cool. Robert Duvall is mandatory for such a fillum. Sorta glad its fiction though, don't think this old world could cope with "a combination of Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard." Talk about never getting out of this world alive.
Was dubious about Colin Farrell's tracks but he's not half bad -- none of the above but pretty passable for the job.
If I Needed You is IMHO in TVZ's bottom half of songs buts its the most covered go figure.
I beg to differ with the writers of the "Goofs" section of IMDB for it though:
Revealing mistakes: When Tommy and Bad walk out of a restaurant supposedly in Phoenix, cars are shown with Arizona licence plates on their front bumpers. Arizona does not provide licence plates for front bumpers.
Let's Just Stay Here - Carolyn Mark and N.Q Arbuckle - released in January 2009 but only discovered by me in December in the few weeks I've had it has rapidly climbed into my Most Played list. Carolyn Mark is a Canadian country-folk singer and N.Q Arbuckle is a Canadian country band, neither of whom I'd heard of but who are apparently well established in the (alt) country circuit of the far north. The gruff twang lead vocals of N.Q Arbuckle come courtesy of Neville Quinlan and Mark was formally in an outfit with Neko Case and indeed before I knew that fact that's who she sort of reminded me of. The songs really are uncommonly good, full of winning little details and fun dashes of wry humour. Must have!
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.
This is tremendous news. Someone has written a full length book on one of my favourite records and, in my view, one of the most significant and interesting records of popular music.
That someone, Antonino D'Ambrosio, has an article in Salon which covers the ground much more briefly but is a must-read. I'm glad he hits upon the point of Cash being a folk singer as much as a country singer, that's a song I've been singing for years and is the only way you can appreciate him in full.
Cash demanded that the industry explain its resistance to his single. "I had to fight back when I realized that so many stations are afraid of Ira Hayes. Just one question: WHY???" And then Cash answered for them. "'Ira Hayes' is strong medicine ... So is Rochester, Harlem, Birmingham and Vietnam."
This is a great video I hadn't seen before, Cash doing "Apache Tears" live in 1988.
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.
PS. As well as She Ain't Going Nowhere by Guy Clark I can't believe I left THIS song off my fave country songs list. I SUCK! The dreaded "embedding disabled by request" but GO HERE. I love that whole rekkid those three did together. WHERE IS IT? I own it. WHERE IS IT??
Well here's Guy now, which cannot make up for my shameful omission. Like for reals this song is only pipped by If You See Her Say Hello as my my favourite song ever so how did I blank it that night? Neuroplasticity, how you mock me.
It's not the whole song but it includes my favourite bit of hillbilly haiku:
Well the wind had a way with her hair
And the blues had a way with her smile
And she had a way of her own
Like prisoners have a way with a file
PPS While we (I) are (am) on a YouTube kick -- Dublin Blues by Guy Clark is also a perfect song. The perfect essence of a song, all Platonic like.
Forgive me all my anger
Forgive me all my faults
There's no need to forgive me
For thinking what I thought
I often think this quatrain should be my next tattoo.
As previously mentioned, the delectable Rosanne Cash has an album coming out shortly called The List, which is 12 songs chosen from a list of (I think) 100 country songs her father gave her, as comprising an education in that discipline.
I trust you shall agree this is a pretty good list.
1. "Miss the Mississippi and You"
2. "Motherless Children"
3. "Sea of Heartbreak" (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
4. "Take These Chains From My Heart"
5. "I'm Movin' On"
6. "She's Got You"
7. "Heartaches by the Number" (w/ Elvis Costello)
8. "500 Miles"
9. "Long Black Veil" (w/ Jeff Tweedy)
10. "Silver Wings" (w/ Rufus Wainwright)
11. "Girl From the North Country"
12. "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow"
I thought I would do my own. Also 12 songs, my own list if in a parallel universe I could sing. These are not meant to be an overview of the history of country music (there's nothing before the early 60s for a start) but just a solidish collection of songs I could listen to all day. I put the last two in brackets just because those are the versions I chose to include but could have used any number of other versions -- both "She's Got You" and "He Thinks I Still Care" have male and female pronoun versions so I chose one of each. It's hard, but on the other hand the top 10 or so really write themselves then the final two spots are tough to divide between about half a dozen tracks. "Sea of Heartbreak" gets brackets cos basically I'll love anyone singing that song. I cheated and gave myself a bonus disc ....
I Drink -- Mary Gauthier
All Her Lovers Want to Be the Hero -- Steve Young
Big River -- Johnny Cash
Once a Day -- Connie Smith
She's Got You -- Loretta Lynn
Pancho & Lefty -- Townes Van Zandt
Sing Me Back Home -- Merle Haggard
Choices -- George Jones
South of Cincinnati -- Dwight Yoakam
Goodbye -- Steve Earle
Sea of Heartbreak -- (Rosanne Cash feat. Bruce Springsteen)
The Lord Knows I'm Drinking -- Cal Smith
Bonus Disc:
Goodbye -- Steve Earle
Willin' -- (Linda Ronstadt)
He Thinks I Still Care -- (Patty Loveless)
Hm. It's not very ... upbeat, is it?
Under the bylaws of 8tracks you're not supposed to make a playlist anywhere (so it mimics internet radio) but ... eh, I hope I can be forgiven this one time. So here it is! (and a direct link)
As even cursory readers of this blog may know, I am a big Tom Russell fan and have been very much looking forward to the new album, not the least because it might be the catalyst for him to actually tour Australia sometime.
Thanks to Shout! Factory I have a free and legal MP3 here to give you from the forthcoming (Sept 15) record Blood and Candle Smoke recorded with Gretchen Peters and Calexico.
"Santa Ana Wind" is a pretty classic Russell song where the historical and mythical American west meet, a grand stage for the doing of love and art and death. And as always his voice is like the wind itself, hot, dry and surging. I'm also a big believer that mariachi horns improve any song.
As I have mentioned several times on the blog before, Tom has been posting reflections on each of the songs from the new album, here's the one of Santa Ana Wind.
Enjoy!
The band:
Tom Russell (vocals) Gretchen Peters (vocals)
Joey Burns (Spanish guitars, bass)
John Convertino (drums)
Barry Walsh (Wurlitzer, piano)
Craig Schumacher (percussion)
Jacob Valenzuela (trumpets)
Nick Luka (steel guitar)
I've been listening to the audiobook of Michael Conolley's The Scarecrow and the moral is all about how easy it is for freaky serial killers to track your every move via the Internet. Like, you can know exactly what I'm listening to when via my lastfm page which updates what I'm playing live. Have at it, stalkers! Incidentally, this is the first novel I've read where people actually use the Internet the way I do -- not that I stalk people and hide them in the car boot, but I mean, look any and all things up in Google Image Search as second nature. Anyway.
There were the heady days of 26-28 August where I listened to Nina Simone straight for two days. You can never have two much Nina, but this Philips box set is quite indispensable as the definitive collection of the Nina force, force of personality and force of musicianship. The peak of her vision realised (not that she had troughs) and a sublime listen from beginning to end.
More lately, I had a big raid on eMusic which I haven't done since the changes in July. But a few things showed up I particularly wanted and they started giving people 50 "loyalty" credits - more than a whiff of desperation about that move but I'll take 'em. I more or less get every new Afrobeat or Afrorock release that comes up, the latest is a really fabulous collection calledThe Legends of Benin. The label Analog Africa is always a solid bet. The first track "Dadje Von O Von Non" by Gnonnas Pedro & His Dadjes Band is pretty much the perfect (to me) family reunion between African and "western" funk. Here's Honoré Avolonto - Na Mi Do Gbé Hué Nu on YouTube. More such meetings are on Many Lessons: HipHop, Islam, West Africa from the "world" music specialists Piranha out of Germany (as so many of these labels are), I listen to a bit of hip hop but my tastes are quite narrow (so far) and lean towards the fusiony end of the spectrum and it's good if you like such things.
And then I got Town and Country by Humble Pie. Going through a 60s British blues/rock supergroup phase. Still chucking on Blind Faith a lot. Using this ripper music search engine an eMusic subscriber developed I discovered Humble Pie. You plug in an act and it spits back a heap of similar/related artists. It brings up a lot of artists I know which is good because you can see how well calibrated to the original name it is, but also heaps of new folk. It's optimised for eMusic (clicking on the photos takes you to their eMu page and greyed out photos means no albums on eMu) but it's great just to find people generally. Anyway, Humble Pie, apparently "hard rock" (70s performances on YT bear this out) although this is their acoustic blues-rock album. I don't really know anything about Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott, apart from their names (years of reading Mojo and Uncut cover to cover) but this is pretty good in a generic late 60s British rock blues type way but it's one of the generic sounds I like.
Natural Born Boogie:
El Barrio: The Bad Boogaloo Nu Yorican Sounds 1966-1970 brings the music of Spanish Harlem to you. Features La Lupe, the Queen of Latin Soul.
Also features the track Happy Soul With a Hook by Dave Cortez which I seem to have on about five different compilations by now. For Latin but with a much deeper level of pure funk, try Si Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba. Waxing Deep is/was a great Latin soul/funk podcast, the podcast is in hiatus but they've branched out into being a label. Si, Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba Volume 1 was a great collection of 60s and 70s tracks, and so I immediately bought Volume 2 and even bought a hard copy. Having the liner notes is fine, and it's nicely put together all round.
I've got the new Allen Touissaint record Across The Bright Mississippi on order so I went revisiting his oeuvre, which basically means ... take your pick of any New Orleans music from the 1960s on. Super Bad by Don Covay is according to Herr Doktor Guugle a collection of the soulmeister's 70s cuts and its quite an intriguing mixture of styles from rock (one song sounds like mid 60s Stones), country ballad touches to varying flavours of soul and funk a la New Orleans. Allen Toussaint - Saint Of New Orleans is a compilation with a couple of songs sung by Touissaint and a stack of others written and produced by his. This Lee Dorsey/Toussaint track isn't on there but it's just too good.
And finally, a version of "Sea of Heartbreak" from Rosanne Cash's forthcoming album featuring Bruce Springsteen got released on iTunes this week. Sea of Heartbreak is one of my favourite songs. Cash slows it right down, for a song about how sad, lonely and adrift the singer is, it's usually done in a very bouncy way. Bruce might be trying too hard to croon in the background, let Bruce be Bruce and not Ray Price but I like it more each time I hear it. The chorus is still one of the most singalongable in history.
Country music death beats fear not because I have the new Delbert McClinton, the new Guy Clark, the new Kris Kristofferson and some others coming up in the rotation!
As grand as the canyon is, for pure wow value, you know, I really have to say i thought Sedona was tops. My photos certainly, and no photos I've even found on the net, really do it justice. The red rocks loom up to and over the town and are coloured in a most astounding way.
It is also a world's best practice centre of woo being a locus of various vortices, UFO-fanciers, Kokopelli channelers and allied commercial enterprises. A hoot.
Before my trip I made sure to get three anticipated singer-songwriter countryesque records to spend some quality time with, Journeyman's Wager by Chuck Mead (singer of BR549), Everything you Love Will Be Taken Away by Slaid Cleaves and Beautiful Day by Charlie Robison. After listening to each of them about ten times over a month .... well, I don't have much to say. I can remember the song titles of about two tracks from each, and fewer lyrics or hooks. Journeyman's Wager is the one I feel I should give another shot, there are some catchy up tempo acoustic countrybilly tracks on that one -- such as I Wish it Was Friday. Can't argue with the sentiment anyhow.
I will recommend Dirt Town City Limits by Mat d and the Profane Saints. Jim Pipkin does a great job reviewing it at Hickory Wind, and I'm grateful he pointed out. I haven't got the CD yet -- I will when it gets added to CD Baby -- but I love the tracks on the website. i got Mat d.'s solo record Gasoline Rattle which i also enjoy but I really love the fullm on full band sound on this new one. Check it out!
Of other new records, I listened on rotation all weekend to Quantic and his Combo Barbaro's Traditions in Transition. Quantic is a ackshully a lad from Worcestershire named Will Holland who for many years has been exploring eclectic nooks and crannies of funk and soul under various names and combinations of musos. A few years ago the record the Quantic Soul Orchestra did with singer Spanky Wilson was scorching.
On Traditions in Transition he takes on Latin sounds, and it was recorded in Cali, Colombia with various big names of the genre. It traverses a lot of styles but I like his stuff because it never feels like a dilletante wunderkind dabbling in something exotic, even when there are some subtle hiphop beats under a track it all feels loved. Some are more funky, some dreamier, some more traditional ballroom style Latin, some vocals and some instrumentals, there is even an Indian (as in the sub continent) influence, but all pretty hot.
Apart from that my favourite record at the moment is the Blind Faith album, the one with the Bill Henson-esque cover! I went download shopping for Derek and the Dominoes (after watching this) but Blind Faith was cheaper. All those EC super groups sound the same anyway.
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