Compass Records had a Black Friday sale, with free shipping on orders of $50 or greater. I was ordering to get a coupla LP’s of Shannon McNally (my most recent female vocalist discovery. Only took me twenty years ;-) . To get the free shipping, I added a coupla CD’s to my order. One is only "merely" good---Sixty by John Cohan (he sings with too much vibrato for my liking). The other is great:
Transatlanticana by Bill Kirchen and Austin De Lone, my favorite "new" record of the year (new to me; it was released in 2016, CD only). De Lone’s name is one with which I am familiar, unlike his recordings. Bill Kirchen’s music, on the other hand, I am very familiar with. He was a founding member of and Telecaster player in Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, the late-60’s/70’s band best known for their hit single "Hot Rod Lincoln", fantastic guitar playing and solo courtesy of Kirchen. You may also be familiar with their " Seeds And Stems (Again)", the song’s lyrical hook being (....and I’m down to seeds and stems again ;-) . Cody & His Airmen provided a welcome alternative to contemporaneous mainstream bands like the dreadful Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin (whose singer pretended to be a Blues singer. He is currently pretending to be an Americana singer. Don’t fall for his ruse.). Kirchen went on to have a solo career, with a number of albums on the great Hightone Records label.
This album was recorded in Sausalito CA, Austin TX, and London England. The songs recorded in Austin feature guitar playing by the wonderful Gurf Morlix, Lucinda Williams’ Los Angeles-period (80’s and 90’s) band leader/guitarist/harmony singer/producer. I saw Lucinda and her Gurf-led band perform around L.A. before she got her major label deal, one time in a pizza parlour, to an audience of a half dozen. Fantastic!
The Austin line-up recorded what is now my favorite version of "The Times They Are A-Changin". Smokin’ hot Rock ’n’ Roll! Listening to it just now, I got goosebumps. The album is full of great songs, playing, and singing. Essential!
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C.P.E. Bach: The Symphonies for Strings, Wq 182; The English Concert with Trevor Pinnock directing from the harpsichord. Very unusual, and fascinating! |
Iris Dement has a new album, The Trackless Words. She set the words of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) to music, and the results are, as always with Iris, wonderful. If you haven't discovered her yet, you could start here. |
Loomis---I'm with you on Sam Phillips. I didn't know she had been with Sutliff, a great music-maker from the N. Carolina scene, iirc. She has excellent taste in men, T-Bone now being an ex as well. I saw her at The Roxy in the late 90's, with T-Bone leading an incredible band including the best bassist I've ever seen live, Jerry Scheff (Elvis, The Doors, sessions). OMG was he great; I saw some other pro bassists in the room, at the show for a Master's Class. She's a good songwriter and singer---smart, funny, and quite fetching ( I love her "wide-eyed innocent" look---very sexy). |
Yeah yeah, Mink DeVille! I saw him live once, also at The Roxy, and he was really cool---lotsa style, great voice. I love his version of Moon Martin's "Cadillac Walk". |
Loomis--- John Wicks, The Records frontman/singer/songwriter (though drummer Will Birch also contributed songs) lives in L.A. now, and has recently survived a bout with cancer. There have been some benefit shows to raise money to help with his medical bills, organized by Vicki Peterson of The Bangles. So far, so good. I played briefly with John in the late 90’s/early 00’s, accompanying him on semi-acoustic shows around town. He gave his high-paying gigs to Blondie drummer Clem Burke! For some reason Buddy Rich didn’t care for Ginger. There was a drum "battle" between Ginger and Art Blakely organized, and Buddy was quoted as saying something to the effect of Art would prove Ginger to be the clown he was. But then Buddy didn’t like many other drummers, especially ones successful in Rock music. I consider Ginger a Jazz drummer, not a Rock one. |
You know what was better loomis? Playing with Emitt Rhodes! I did his late-90's Poptopia appearance with him. His first time on stage in a quarter century, and people came from all over the world to see and hear him. In the band was Jamie Hoover (The Spongetones, The Van Delecki's, REM sideman), Brian Kassan (The Wondermints, Chewy Marble), Walter Clevenger, and Ray Paul. Emitt's first album is a stone classic, and he has a brand new one, which I haven't yet heard. |
Agreed Loomis, about Kontiki. The cover of Emitt’s new one disturbs me; what’s with the crying face?! He’s a pretty miserable guy (his original contract, ex-wives), but c’mon, that’s no way to present him! I listened to the samples of it on Amazon, and it sounds pretty good, I'll get it. I think the producer may have helped Emitt with it somewhat, ’cause Emitt played Ray Paul and myself the stuff he was currently working on when we recorded with him at the time of the show, and the songs were in a sophisticated, Jazz-chord Steely Dan kinda style, not exactly what he is known and liked for. Can you imagine McCartney songs incorporating Jazz chords?! Since you like Kontiki, give Chewy Marble a listen. Brian Kassan was The Wondermints original bassist/songwriter, leaving them right before they hooked up with Brian Wilson, becoming his touring and sometimes-recording band. Doh! He left because he wanted to do more of his songs, so he started Chewy Marble as a vehicle for his songwriting career. Great Pop songs, very Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney influenced---melody and harmony. I'm on about half of the second album (Bowl of Surreal); all Brian wanted was Ringo Starr fills! |
The Grays! Okay ghosthouse, you win. You must also know about Great Buildings, the group Danny Wilde and Phil Solem were in before The Rembrandt’s. The singer/songwriter I was playing with in 1980-1 loved GB, so we went to their show at The Starwood celebrating the signing of their Columbia Records contract. I didn't see the attraction. GB didn’t hit paydirt, but The Rembrandt’s sure did. Danny made some okay solo albums. Much better at the turf they toiled in was Jellyfish, a really outstanding Group. |
The Rembrandts did the theme song for the TV show Friends, and had another hit single, I believe (but can’t for the life of me recall the song). They kinda seem to me like an American version of Squeeze. For anyone trying to follow the musical thread, Jon Brion and Jason Faulkner were in The Grays together, Jon then going on to become an in-demand producer and Jason a member of Jellyfish (at the time they made their debut album). Jellyfish were a quite unusual group, the lead singer of which was also the drummer. He did live shows playing a very small drumset (bass drum, snare drum, one cymbal) standing up, like the guy in The Stray Cats. Jellyfish did an instore at the Tower Records in Hollywood to promote the release of their second album (post-Jason Faulkner), and the little sound system they were going to use as their P.A. went down. So they did their set acoustically, almost a cappella. Great harmony singing, often compared to Queen but sounding more Brian Wilson-esque to me. |
Nick Lowe: The Convincer Marshall Crenshaw: #447 Steve Earle: Essential The Flamin' Groovies: Groovies Greatest Grooves (in preparation for seeing them live this coming Friday. Haven't seen them since '81, when the Group I was in opened for them in SF. I'm stoked!). |
Steve Earle: Essential C.P.E Bach: Six Symphonies (Pinnock cond.) |
Three related CD’s:
- Dwight Twilley: Soundtrack. Released in 2012, I’m just now getting back into Twilley, the one-time would-be savior of Rock ’n’ Roll (The Dwight Twilley Band’s 1976 debut album on Shelter Records---Sincerely---is a Top-10 Power Pop masterpiece). Dwight is still writing great Pop songs, and singing them in his patented Elvis Rockabilly/Beatles Rock ’n’ Roll style. But he’s now doing it on a DIY level, the recording and mixing done by his wife Jan. This is the last Twilley album to include the guitar playing of long-time Twilley band member, the late Bill Pitcock IV, one of the most exciting Rock ’n’ Roll guitarists I’ve seen live.
- After finally breaking up with my ex-wife (it’s a long story ;-), and his big-time career as the guitar player in Dwight Twilley’s band fizzling out, Bill Pitcock IV (well la de da ;-) returned home to Tulsa; back to playing local bars. He finally released a solo album in 2009, entitled Play What You Mean. Mostly instrumental, Bill plays all the instruments heard on the album, including the rudimentary drums (probably programmed electronic). Pretty low-fi, and not very interesting musically, I’m sad to report. I’m free to say that, as Bill passed away about ten years ago, the result of being a 2-pack-a-day man.
- And then there is Phil Seymour, the drummer/singer on the first two Dwight Twilley Band albums. He left after the second, pursuing a solo career which was initially fairly successful. After his 2-album deal with Boardwalk Records ended, he joined L.A. band The Textones, back to playing drums and still singing (while solo, the drummer in his band was David Crockett, later in Dwight Yoakam’s band. His guitarist was fellow Twilley bandmate Bill Pitcock IV).
Sad and disturbing note: Some time in the 80’s Phil was diagnosed with one of the cancer’s (unlike Bill, not lung), and returned to Tulsa for treatment. He got really skinny, lost his hair, and in the pics I’ve seen, took to wearing hideous "old lady" glasses. But the need to make music was still alive and well, so he and a woman close to him---with whom I corresponded---decided to make the trip back to L.A. She made a comfortable bed in the back of her minivan for Phil to lay in, and hit the road. But somewhere in the Southwest Phil passed away, the woman unaware of that fact until she stopped for a road break. OMG!
I just received (via Amazon) an album (available on CD only) of Phil’s entitled The London And Los Angeles Unreleased Recordings. I haven’t played it yet (so many records, so little time ;-), but as long as I’m talkin’ Twilley.....
On a related note, I also just listened to the 2015 release (again, CD only) from my ol’ fave, Dave Edmunds. Do you know him? If not, you should. Master Rock ’n’ Roll guitarist, also an excellent producer (Fab T-Birds, The Stray Cats, The Everly Brothers, many others). Also a member of Rockpile, the Super Group he and Nick Lowe fronted. Their lone album is FANTASTIC! Second guitarist in Rockpile was Billy Bremner, heard on some Pretenders recordings. Drummer was the great Terry Williams, a former member of Welsh group Man, after Rockpile a drummer in Dire Straits. Fantastic drummer!
Anyway, Rags & Classics---mostly instrumental---is pretty darn good. You do know most older guitarists started out copying instrumental music, right? In the U.S. it was The Ventures, Link Wray, Dick Dale, etc. In the U.K. it was their Surf equivalents such as The Shadows, a favorite of Jeff Beck. But Dave was also drawn to the playing of Hillbilly guitarists such as Merle Travis. This album runs the gamut style-wise, ranging from a nice version of Brian Wilson’s masterpiece "God Only Knows" to the Motto Allegro from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor. If the latter surprises you, know that Edmunds’ first band (in the late-60’s) was the Welsh Progressive unit named Love Sculpture. Cr*ppy name, ay? ;-) |
@ghosthouse, I feel lucky to have seen Van perform live when he was still in Them. It was in a small club in San Jose, California, 1967 iirc, though it may have been late '66. He, Stevie Winwood, and Paul Jones (Manfred Mann) were the best singers of the British Invasion bands. |
@ghosthouse, Paul Jones was in only the original Manfred Mann line up, the first four albums, I believe. He sang the early hits like "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", and left the band in the middle of '66. Manfred Mann was very different from the other British Invasion bands, being distinctly Jazz and R & B driven. Little known fact: Jack Bruce was a member for awhile! |
Dang, this is where the cool kids hang out. I’ve always liked Son Volt more than Wilco, both in songwriting and singing. But they’re both worth listening to of course. If you haven’t heard them yet guys, give The Continental Drifters a listen. It’s Peter Holsapple from the great dB’s, Carlo Nuccio, an incredible drummer and singer, Mark Walton from Green On Red (a jerk---I knew him in L.A. But hey, he's only the bass player ;-), Vicki Petersen from The Bangles, Susan Cowsill, and some guitarists. They had a residency in the basement of an old hotel on Hollywood Blvd. in the early 90’s, putting on legendarily great shows. Get the "Drifted: In the Beginning and Beyond" double album. |
Speaking of Danny Kirwin.....I love, love, love Fleetwood Mac’s Kiln House album. It came out around the same time as Moby Grape’s 20 Granite Creek, which I love in the same way. The both have a relaxed, easy-going (not "trying too hard") roots Rock ’n’ Roll 50’s feel and sound, a favorite period of mine. Where hillbilly and citybilly meet. Not many Brits pull it off well, but that FM line-up got it just right. |
That’s one problem with getting old(er) loomis---more and more new stuff sounds a little too much like something you already heard years ago. A genuinely really significant new artist doesn’t come around all that often; there are only so many Hank Williams’, Howlin’ Wolf’s, Bob Dylan’s, Brian Wilson’s, Leonard Cohen’s, Richard Thompson’s, John Hiatt’s, Iris Dement’s, etc. alive and working at any one given time. To enjoy some new stuff one must be willing and able to lower his expectations a little! |
Amen Schubert! I was introduced to J.S. by the best songwriter I ever worked with. He didn't like much Pop, only Brian Wilson and Bob Dylan really. He spent his final years recording Bach keyboard works at home on his piano. I have to play Bach last at night, as there is no one who can follow him! Mozart, then Beethoven, Bach last. |
I got to see EJ with his original band around the time of Tumbleweed Connection (70-71), and they pleased me greatly. My interest in him soon thereafter evaporated, he appearing to me to be more of an entertainer than an artist, if you know what I mean. Nothing wrong with mere entertainment---I love ABBA! |
The DV-50S is really something, isn’t it @uberwaltz? I bought mine from Arthur Salvatore. Ralph Karsten says the DV-50S is no good, but he likes horn loudspeakers ;-) . |
I too run mine balanced out to the balanced ins on my pre. I halfway got it to be able to SACD's as well as CD's. Except for a PS Audio 200C amp, my heaviest piece of electronics! |
I don't recall if I have previously mentioned this album (note: "album" is not synonymous "LP". An album may be on either, as well as tape), but if so it bears repeating: "The Notorious Cherry Bombs" by the group of the same name. A supergroup comprised of Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Tony Brown, Richard Bennett, Hank DeVito, and Eddie Bayers. Great songs, singing, musicianship, and production. A really, really good album. |
I really, really liked Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. At first. But there was something about them, or more correctly, about him, that didn't wear well with me. I at first just lost interest, eventually coming to actually dislike him. I know a lot of others still like him, and I appreciate that. But I was in my favorite Portland record store yesterday, and out of their system came a sound I recognized, a sound I love; it was The Dwight Twilley Band, a long-time favorite of mine. Wait a minute, no it's not. It's Dwight singing backgrounds on "Strangered In The Night", a song on the first TP & THB album. Now THAT'S more like it! Everyone who has and likes that album, give a listen to "SITN". See how much better that song is than the others on the album? Now, go and buy the first Dwight Twilley Band album, Sincerely. Prepare to be blown away! |
I hear ya @artemus_5 . That kind Strat tone is what turned me off towards that model. I first heard it seeing Hendrix live in ’67 and ’68, and later in my own bands. Especially bad when plugged into a Fender Twin---SO piercing! I liken it to chewing foil ;-) . The best Strat tone I’ve heard live is that of Ry Cooder. His live amp set-up is hilarious! A pile of old combo amps of various makes, about a half-dozen or so. Tone to die for! Ry of course uses very heavy gauge strings, as do most superior slide players. And high action, the strings way off the fretboard. |
Oh yeah @artemus_5, I forgot Albert played a Tele, not that common amongst Blues players (though Mike Bloomfield played one in The Butterfield Blues Band.). The Tele is just about the ipso facto standard in Country, of course. I’ve played with a lot of Tele players (I too am a drummer), and though it often sounds thin (in comparison with double-coil pickup guitars such as most Gibsons), that is affected by the player’s choice of amplifier. When I recorded with Evan Johns (his Moontan album), he plugged his Tele into a blackface Fender Super (four 10" drivers, 65 watts. Steve Ray Vaughan’s standard amp.), cranked up to 10. Massive sound, though you wouldn’t know it to hear the album (not a good mix, though my drums sound great! 60’s Ludwigs, modern Ludwig chrome-over-brass 14 x 6.5 snare, Zildjian and Paiste cymbals). The most piercing guitar I ever heard was Ray Davies’ Tele, live in 1970. The guitar was plugged into a HiWatt stack, and MY GOD was it loud. Far louder than Pete Townshend when I saw The Who in ’68 and ’69 (Gibson ES335, one of my favorite guitars), and Clapton in Cream (a Gibson SG into a Marshall stack. Mediocre tone imo, though not nearly as bad as Jack Bruce’s Gibson bass, about the worst I’ve ever heard. The Best? John Entwhisle’s Fender Precision, and Jack Casady’s Guild.). |
Well Of Mercy by Michael Kelsh. Produced by Bill Halverson (CSN&N, Clapton, Cream, Hendrix, Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys, Albert King, Keith Jarrett, Bad Company, The Texas Tornedos, Ravi Shankar. Damn!), and executive produced by Rodney Crowell (a good sign, and what lead me to the album), it is full of great songs and singing in a low-key, almost all-acoustic style. I love it! |
Well! ;-) I have heard Beck only superficially, live opening for Dylan (eh), live on TV (not good), and playing on record store sound systems while I browse (I haven’t been "engaged"). I know songwriters who like his stuff, so who am I to disagree? At least regarding his recorded work, which I have not investigated. Some people are better live, others on recordings. Perhaps Beck is the latter. They say the best is the enemy of the rest. I liked The Beatles version of "Money (That's What I Want)" until I heard Barrett Strong's version, theirs thereafter sounding like a bunch of kids. Same with The Yardbirds version of "Train Kept A Rolling" until I heard the incredible version by The Rock 'n Roll Trio (Johnny Burnette). What I look for in a songwriter and/or singer may not be what Beck does. He apparently DOES provide others with what they crave. That's great; not everyone likes the same foods either. |
Everyone knows white men can't dance. |
For Roy Buchanan lovers who haven' yet discovered him, be sure and give Danny Gatton a listen (start with the WB 2-disc CD collection). He was a good friend of Roy's, both having come up through the Washington D.C. Blues/Rockabilly/Hillbilly scene. Vince Gill nicknamed Danny "The Humbler" ;-). Roy and Danny had another peer in D.C., the Telecaster maniac known as Evan Johns. Not as precise as his two pals, but a great guitarist, songwriter, and singer. Danny and Evan were in a couple of D.C. bands together before they hit the big-time individually. |
gh, Evan made three albums for Rykodisc in the 90’s, with a backing band named The H-Bombs. In 2001 he did an album (entitled Moontan) for Big Cypress Records in Florida, with The Hillbilly Soul Surfers backing him. We recorded it over a week in Atlanta, GA---first takes only (in fact, the takes were the first and only time we played the songs. Oy!). Evan absolutely refused to do more than one take of any song. He played us his boombox demoes of the album songs once, the night before we started recording. After two days in his hotel room, there were two 18-packs of empty Budweiser cans in the hallway outside his door. We were scheduled to hit the road to promote the album, but as the album was being mastered he fell into a coma, the doc saying his liver was failing. Evan proved him wrong, but only temporarily. He died last year in Austin, his liver finally giving out. |
Damn gh, you nailed Evan's sound! His Surf element is what got us the gig for the album. By the way, the original drummer in The Hillbilly Soul Surfers was Pete Curry, now bassist in Los Straightjackets. Pete's an old friend of mine from San Jose (since '62!), and he switched from drums to bass in The HSS so we could play together. He got the offer from The 'Jackets before we recorded with Evan, and now gets to tour with Nick Lowe. Rat bastard! You're right, Danny was a very technical player, Evan a more instinctual one. The guitarist many great players (including Danny and Evan) revere is not very well known to non-musicians: Merle Travis. Merle was the model for ALL the Country and Rockabilly (and many Rock 'n' Roll) guitarists who followed him, including Scotty Moore (early Elvis), Dave Edmunds, George Harrison, and Jeff Beck (who idolizes Merle). Danny was also a very Jazz-influenced player, Evan not so much. But Danny wasn't a songwriter, or a singer. When Danny and Evan were together, Danny "just" played guitar, Evan wrote and sang the songs. Never got to see them together, damnit. I too love that first Mason Ruffner album, it's a beaut! I have it on LP, and his Evolution album on CD. Wonder what became of him? |
First takes are fine, but it's nice to have played the song at least once before you're in the studio, or at least heard it! Dylan has written songs while the recording band sits around playing cards, but he has a big recording budget. On the Moontan album, the bass player and second guitarist didn't have a chance to learn the songs before recording began, so Evan and I played them alone---to get the basic rhythm tracks, and all other parts (and vocals) were overdubbed. Evan plugged his Telecaster into a Fender blackface Super Reverb, not his normal amp (a Deluxe Reverb, many player's favorite). The engineer put the amp in an isolation closet, and Evan turned it up to 10. If you've heard a Super (Stevie Ray Vaughan's choice of amp), you know how loud that is! Speaking of Merle Travis, one song on Moontan is entitled "Shootin' The Merle", an instrumental tribute to the man. The album is half instrumental, half vocal, all Evan. |
The Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action (produced by Dave Edmunds); Dave Edmunds: Get It; Marshall Crenshaw: #447; The Everly Brothers: 24 Original Classics; Nick Lowe: The Convincer; v/a: True Faith (Mojo Magazine bonus CD included with the December 2017 issue, with covers of Dylan "Christian" songs). |
I’m absolutely obsessed with Lucinda Williams lately, and have been listening to her albums non-stop. My newest immersion has been into her West album, which is overwhelmingly great. It subtly seeps into your heart, deeper with each hearing. |
Thanks brotha, back atcha! |
@jafant, I’ve had the original Sweet Old World since it’s release in 92, and the new version is in my pile of new acquisitions, waiting in line to be heard. Too much music, too little time (left). I have to laugh when I hear old guys I know say "good" music isn't popular anymore. All they do is listen to the same records they’ve been playing since the 60's and 70's, pining for the good old days. No different than the adults did in the 60's, when the Big Bands became extinct. When the music got pretty bad in the 70's (with some notable exceptions), the best musicians I knew began a journey of tracing the music we grew up on back to it's roots---the rural Southern Hillbilly and urban Jump Blues that Rock & Roll was forged from. I ended up liking much of it more than the 'holy" 60's music. But really, nothing has changed. It has always been, and always will be: somebody writes a good song, a good singer with a good band records it, and we get to listen to it. We are SO lucky! |
Looks like the tour isn't coming to the Northwest, damn it. I haven't seen Lucinda, Steve, or Dwight live in ages, Lucinda last at The Wiltern Theater on the Car Wheels tour (Jim Lauderdale opened for her, and then played acoustic guitar and sang harmonies during her set), Steve solo about ten years ago at Amoeba Records on Sunset in Hollywood, and Dwight I can't remember where or when. One of the best shows of my life was Steve with The Del McCoury Band at The House Of Blues, all of them standing in a circle around a single mic. Fantastic! |
I may have mentioned this one before, but I just listened to it and it bears repeating: The Houston Kid by Rodney Crowell. Not only is it in my Top 10 All-Time Favorite Albums list, but is also the most consistent album I've heard since The Band's brown (2nd) album. Not a bad track, all Prime Grade-A Beef, no filler. An autobiographically-themed album (there is a complimentary book Rodney wrote, Chinaberry Sidewalks) filled with fantastic songs, singing, musicianship, and production. As good as it gets! |
The entire Iris Dement catalog. For those unfamiliar with this astounding songwriter and singer, imagine a Hard Country/Hillbilly/Bluegrass version of the more Country Blues Lucinda Williams. A favorite of Merle Haggard (from whom I learner of Iris), Steve Earle, John Prine (with whom she often performs), Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Gillian Welch, Vince Gill, Jim Lauderdale, Rodney Crowell, Alison Krauss, Marty Stuart, and just about all other Americana/Roots artists. |
A while back I read accolades from Emmylou Harris and Buddy Miller about a guy named Doug Seegers. Their praise was quite glowing, and coming from them really means something. So I got his Going Down To The River album (CD only). Oh baby, Emmylou and Buddy are SO right! He sounds like he's been playing roadhouses, honkytonks, bars, and dance halls for decades---and he has. Buddy wrote the liner notes for the album (telling Doug's story. They've known each other since the early 70's), and they are the best I've ever read. The music is 100 proof American Roots Music---Hard Country, Bluegrass, Southern (not Chicago) Blues, and all great. The material is excellent, all his own songs save for two---"There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight" by Hank Williams, and "She" by Gram Parsons and Chris Ethridge (from their time in The Flying Burrito Brothers), an incredible song that sounds like The Everly Brothers could have done it. Emmylou sings it with Doug almost as a duet. Fanf*ckingtastic! The musicians are all world class artists; acoustic guitar, electric guitar, baritone guitar (the guitarist makes the low string absolutely growl!), dobro, mandolin, pedal steel guitar, fiddle, upright and electric bass, drums, organ, and sax. Phew! If you've dipped your feet in the Americana scene, getting albums by youngin's who have only fairly recently started playing Country music (and sound like it), do yourself a huge favor and GET THIS ALBUM! |
Thanks @mental. Amazon has the LP, but they are selling it for $48.99! I like and want to support the LP, but that's a bit much. |
The Thorns: s/t. Three good songwriters and singers, great production (by Brendan O’Brien) and engineering, Jim Keltner on drums. Excellent music, mighty fine album! Issued on CD only (to the best of my knowledge) in 2003, currently out-of-print. Well worth looking for. |
I posted about this album on another thread, but it’s too good to get missed, so here it is again. It’s Walk Through Walls by Brian Capps, released on Hightone Records in 2005, when that label was amongst the best in the world (it’s now out of business). I recently got the last copy Waterloo Records in Austin had, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find. And it will be worth the effort. Capps was a member of the Roots Rock band The Domino Kings, and after leaving formed The True Liars with members of the best unknown band in the country, The Morells (who had their own album on Hightone, also excellent and well worth looking for), out of Springfield Missouri. Morells’ bassist Lou Whitney produces Walk Through Walls, the other members of the band providing exactly the kind of accompaniment I crave. Guitarist D. Clinton Thompson has worked extensively as a sideman for artists such as Steve Forbert, Jonathan Richman, Scott Kemper, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Robbie Fulks, Andy Shernoff, and The Del-Lords; he is GREAT! Drummer Bobby Lloyd Hicks has been with Dave Alvin (The Blasters) for years, and his parts are really cool. The music is 100% American Roots---Sun Records Rockabilly (especially Johnny Cash), early Rock ’n’ Roll, a touch of Hillbilly, early-60’s Frat Rock and Instrumental R & R touches, but also some Singer/Songwriter influences. Capps is a good songwriter and an okay singer, but it is the musicianship of The Morells (a favorite band of the hippest musicians I know, as a well as those I don’t---Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello have expressed their appreciation) that I love about the album. Aspiring young Rockers, THIS is how to play the music! |
@ghosthouse, I used the term hip in the sense of being hip to what makes a musician a good one, a band a good one, a song a good one. Dave, Nick, EC have real good taste, loving NRBQ and Los Lobos as well as The Morells. There are moments in every musicians life when he realizes he has outgrown those around him, and he moves on, being offered opportunities denied to those he leaves behind. I saw this for the first time when my musical world became divided in two: those who "got" The Band (and others like them), and those who didn’t. Those who didn’t stayed mired in the "old" musical world, those who did kept progressing. Awhile back there was a reunion of old musician friends in San Jose, and both factions were there. I knew what became of the latter group, as they and I had crossed paths over the years, sometimes working together. The former group was still in a 1967-8 mindset, still playing "Rock" music. I was played some of their demo tapes, and they had obviously not moved beyond the Jefferson Starship and Journey mentality. You feel pity for them. One listen to The Morells and you instantly know how cool they are. They also made music as The Skeletons and The Symptoms, and guitarist D. Clinton Thompson put out some great 7" 45’s. Their musical instincts are impeccable, right up there with Buddy Miller, Rodney Crowell, John Hiatt, Marty Stuart, and the rest of the Americana crowd. Bassist/producer Lou Whitney and drummer Bobby Lloyd Hicks have both died of lung cancer (from guess what ;-), as has my old bandmate Paul Skelton of Austin’s Cornell Hurd Band, one of whose albums Lou Whitney produced. He was a national treasure, greatly missed in my world. |
@ghosthouse, Yes! Harmony singing is almost unheard of in the vast majority of contemporary music, but it goes back much further than that. Listening again recently to mid-period Beatles (I heard them so much as a teenager, I rarely ache to hear their music), I was struck by just how good they got at 3-part harmonies, which I now prefer to even Brian Wilsons more complex and sophisticated harmony writing. When the big break occurred in Rock music in the late 60’s (between its Blues and Country elements), Led Zeppelin won the fight; Blues became the dominant influence in Rock music, and Blues does not generally incorporate harmony singing. Zeppelins 3-musician, 1 singer band format became THE standard for Rock music, and it has really stood the test of time. None of the big Rock bands since (The Stones, Aerosmith, Rush, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Van Halen---VH’s phony "harmonies" don’t count) have featured harmony singing. The Band followed Ten Years After on the stage at Woodstock, and Levon Helm later said they felt as if they would come off sounding like choir boys after the brutal assault on Blues by TYA. Levon therefore started The Bands set by saying to the crowd "Hope ya’ll like Country music". The Band weren’t a Country band, but sure had Country influences. In the southern United States, Country and Blues were like first cousins (maybe even brother and sister), not that much separation. But by the time of Woodstock, ANY Country influence put you apart from Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and all the other English bands. As I have been aware of The Skeletons/Symptoms/Morells since the late 70’s, and own all their LP’s and CD’s, I had never bothered to watch a video of theirs on You Tube. Ghosthouse, your mention of watching one inspired me to do so, and coming at them from the perspective of someone such as yourself, I must say I can certainly understand why a person would be underwhelmed by them at first blush. They sound small; a regional, local bar band, and nothing more. They were obviously never going to become a national act, never going to fill stadiums. Neither were NRBQ, yet when David Sanborn introduced them on his TV show, he called them the best Rock ’n’ Roll band in the world. I realize and accept that a lot of Audiogoners don’t find Rockabilly to their liking; it DOES sound an awful lot like Hillbilly/Hard Country---very rural, primitive, lacking in big production values and glamor. It also sounds old, the music of a past time, and perhaps a little corny. But in the right hands (not those of The Stray Cats, even if Dave Edmunds did produce them!) it’s fantastic! NRBQ did it really well, as has T Bone Burnett and other superior Americana-type artists. The Yardbirds (when Jeff Beck---a huge fan of Rockabilly, as is Dave Edmunds pal Robert Plant---was in the band) did a great version of Tiny Bradshaws "Train Kept a Rollin", but the Rockabilly original by The Johnny Burnette Trio is even better. Incendiary! |
Oops, left out U2 and REM! I could name a hundred others if pushed. In my youth in San Jose, it was the groups who had singing that were considered the best. Stained Glass had a couple of albums on RCA, but never broke nationally. I saw them first as The Trolls in the summer of ’65 (around the time I saw The Beatles at The Cow Palace in San Francisco), when they were doing Beatles songs. Bassist/lead singer Jim McPherson left the group to join Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cipollina in Copperhead. Then there was the group People, who had a national hit with a cover of The Zombies "I Love You". They had two lead singers (and two harmony singers), Larry Norman later becoming a star in the Christian Music field. We also had The Chocolate Watchband, who were just a glorified Rolling Stones impersonation. You can see them in the Roger Corman movie Riot On Sunset Strip. Drummer Gary Andrijesivich was a couple of years ahead of me at Cupertino High School, whose marching band and orchestra he played in. I would see him on the football field in the afternoon, and on stage that night ;-) . The Syndicate Of Sound hit nationally in ’66 with "Little Girl" (Hey little girl, you don’t hafta hide nothin’ no more), but by 1968 were back playing at my Senior Year All Night Party at a San Jose bowling alley. One singer, no harmony. Not one of favorite local bands, and neither were The Count Five, whose "Psychotic Reaction" was an obvious imitation of The Yardbirds version of Bo Diddleys "I’m A Man". A lot of imitation going on in San Jose! Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham played on the same San Jose High School stages as I and all the other local garage band members did in the mid-60’s, in their group Fritz. There is a picture somewhere of Stevie on stage at Mother Butler (a catholic Girls School) in a chiffon gown ;-) . When The Doobie Brothers got their Warner Brothers deal, their gig as the house band at The Chateau, a biker bar up in the Santa Cruz mountains, came up for grabs. My band auditioned, but I guess we weren’t biker enough. One of our guitarists/singers/songwriters (Lance Libby) had been in the final version of Stained Glass, who had by that time again changed their name, this time to Christian Rapid. They disbanded when McPherson left to join Copperhead. Ancient history. |
Dial ’W’ For Watkins by Geraint Watkins. Bob Dylan: "Geraint is my favorite English pianist." GW has worked with Paul McCartney, Bill Wyman, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, a bunch of others, but I’ll bet you’ve never heard him, or even OF him. Unless you’ve heard Dylan play Geraint on his radio program. Believe me, you’ve never heard a white man that sounds like Geraint. The album start with a quiet little meditation on existence, then without more than a second’s pause you next hear what sounds like could be a recording made in Mississippi or Alabama in the 1930’s or 40’s ("Turn That Chicken Down"). It’s AMAZING! This is music making on a level rarely heard, by a very creative artist. Who would think to turn Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’ precious Art-Rock mini-masterpiece "Heroes & Villains" into a Swing/Jump Blues tune with Scat singing? And it works! I LOVE this album!! Whereas most albums have songs all fundamentally the same as each other, there are no two alike on this one. The album was released only CD only (sorry, you LP purists ;-) by Yep Rock Records in 2004, and is out-of-print. But Yep Rock has nationwide distribution, so there should be used copies out there, and for cheap. |
Fun is a good adjective for the album, @reubent, one I should have emphasized. Seen performing live (as I have, in the bands of both Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe), he is DEFINITELY having a good time on stage. He appears to enjoy drink, but not to the point of making his playing sloppy. I also failed to mention that Geraint is a multi-instrumentalist, something I really respect. He lists the other musicians who played on each song on the album, so the rest are played by he. Not just guitar, but apparently drums. The small list of others who can or have done that is pretty small: Richard Manuel (The Band, of course, a GREAT drummer), Dave Edmunds on his first two albums, Stevie Wonder, John Fogerty on his first solo album (under the name The Blue Ridge Rangers, a "Hard" Country album), Todd Rundgren, a few others who are not coming to mind. The master multi-instrumentalist in my book was Levon Helm: beside being one of the greatest drummers of all-time, he played guitar, mandolin, harmonica, Jew's harp, and sang like a bird. |
Two albums on the Permanent Press label, which specializes in Pop: 1- Chewy Marble: s/t. Pianist Brian Kassan is a really, REALLY good songwriter. His chord progressions are very sophisticated (ala Brian Wilson), his melodies instantly sing-along-able, his harmonies superb. He was playing bass in The Wondermints until shortly before Brian Wilson heard and then hired them as his post-Beach Boys road band. Chewy Marble bassist Derrick Anderson is an excellent player (very melodic, ala McCartney), one of the best in Rock. More recently he has been on the road with The Bangles. 2- The Van DeLecki’s: Letters From The Desk Of Count S. Van DeLecki. Serious fans of The Andy Griffith show may get the joke that is the band name ;-). Leader Jamie Hoover is a well-known figure in the N./S. Carolina musical community, involved with the likes of Don Dixon (who appears on the album) and Marti Jones. He has also been a sideman for REM on the road. Good, hooky Pop songs, on the slightly Progressive (odd chord structures) side. I got to know both Brian and Jamie when we were all hired to back Emitt Rhodes when he made first public appearance in a quarter century. Which reminds me: - Emitt Rhodes: s/t. An absolute Pop classic. Emitt not only wrote all the songs, but plays and sings every part on the album. It was released at the same time as McCartney’s solo debut, and is by far the better album. One great song after another, fantastic production by Emitt, who also engineered. Emitt was the drummer in L.A. Pop group The Palace Guard, then the singer/songwriter/guitarist of The Merry Go Round. He and they had a hit single ("Live", covered by The Bangles and others) when Emitt was barely out of High School. A very talented guy, and a very miserable one. I spent a day with him in his studio, and it was "troubling". Bad record deal, bad marriages, all the normal stuff ;-) . |
