Tag Archives: Singer-Songwriter

Sandy Hurvitz: Sandy’s Album is Here at Last

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19-year-old Zappa protégé’s 1969 debut

Essra Mohawk, while then still performing under her birth name of Sandy Hurvitz, released this album in 1969 for Frank Zappa’s Bizarre Productions. Zappa quickly handed production over to fellow-Mother of Invention Ian Underwood, who seemingly had no talent for or interest in producing the album. The sound quality is that of demo tracks, which gives this a sense of performance innocence but obscures Hurvitz’s lyrics. There are instrumental cameos by saxophonist Jim Pepper and Jeremy Steig, and Hurvitz is accompanied by bass and drums on a few tracks, but mostly Underwood leaves her to wander around original compositions with only her piano.

Once you adjust to the poor production quality you’ll find Hurvitz expresses herself flowingly, like a meandering version of Laura Nyro or a less pointed variation of the young Janice Ian; she sings and plays as if the songs were extemporaneous. There’s clearly talent here, and Mohawk would go on to a successful career as a singer and songwriter (she’d  already written the haunting waltz “I’ll Never Learn” for the Shangri-Las), but the seeds of that success were obscured by Zappa’s hostile indifference and Underwood’s lack of production chops. Collectors’ Choice’s domestic reissue adds the bonus track “Life is Scarlet,” whose lyrics were printed on the original album’s back cover, but whose music was omitted from the record. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Michael Martin Murphey: Buckaroo Blue Grass II – Riding Song

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Second helping of Murphey’s bluegrass reinterpretations

Michael Martin Murphey’s 1975 single “Wildfire” was only the most public aspect of a long and rich career. He appeared on the country charts throughout the 1980s and subsequently developed a deep affinity for cowboy songs. Over the years he’s revisited key parts of his catalog, and in 2009 produced a volume of tunes reinterpreted in a bluegrass style. A year later he’s back with a second volume that sounds even more confident. His latest concentrates on songs from the early-to-mid 70s albums Geronimo’s Cadillac, Michael Murphey, Cosmic Cowboy Souvenir, Blue Sky-Night Thunder and Swans Against the Sun. He picks up “Tonight We Ride” and “Running Blood” from more recent albums and covers the Glaser Brothers’ “Running Gun.” The latter was originally recorded by Marty Robbins in 1959 for his legendary Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, closing the circle on Murphey’s love of western song.

Opening the disk with a hot-picked arrangement of 1975’s country-rock shuffle “Blue Sky Riding Song,” Murphey and his assembled musician friends serve notice that there are plenty of instrumental fireworks ahead. Pat Flynn on guitar, Ronny McCoury on mandolin, Charli Cushman on banjo and Andy Leftwich on fiddle warm up to a canter in 15 seconds flat, with Craig Nelson’s bass pushing Murphey’s exuberant vocals along the open trail. The instrumental break gives each player a chance to flash as the others provide progressive, ensemble backing. The group also turns it up for 1976’s “Renegade.” Though it’s lightened from its original country-rock sound, the acoustic instruments provide plenty of intensity as the players, including Rob Ickes on dobro, Sam Bush on mandolin, Charlie Cushman on banjo and Andy Leftwich on fiddle, stretch out for a length instrumental coda.

Murphey’s bluegrass reinterpretations provide a matured consideration of earlier performances, but also bring his songwriting into focus. Laying a bluegrass motif across twenty years of varied compositions highlights the consistent quality of his work. In some instances, like the Hot Club styling of 1985’s “Tonight We Ride,” the retooling is minimal, in others, such as the treatment of “Swans Against the Sun” and banjo lead of “Running Blood” the new arrangements bring out something new. Even the well-trod “Wildfire,” with its echoes of ‘70s soft rock, gets a fresh garland of twang and a powerful duet vocal from Carrie Hassler.

Murphey’s voice has gained an appealing edge over the years, and this set shows off both his adaptability as a performer and depth as a songwriter. His song notes show as much love for his material as does his singing; this is also evident in the feeling performances of songs he’s no doubt sung thousands of times. This is a great album for longtime fans, bluegrass listeners and all those top-40 ears that lost track of Murphey after “Carolina Pines” and “Renegade” slipped out of the Top 40 in the mid-70s. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Track Sampler for Buckaroo Blue Grass II
Michael Martin Murphey’s Home Page
Michael Martin Murphey’s MySpace Page

Lissie: Why You Runnin’

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Lissie_WhyYouRunninArresting, intense folk-rock Americana

Lissie Maurus is a folk-rock singer from the west Illinois border town of Rock Island. Although there’s a rustic Midwestern edge to her Americana, her transplantation to Los Angeles, and national and international gigs have elevated her music beyond coffee-house strumming. Her voice pulls you in close with confessional introductions and then attacks with arresting outbursts of emotion. The exclamation of “danger will follow me now everywhere I go, angels will fall on me and take me to my home” finds her bending back from the microphone to make room for a lungful of emotion. The empty spaces in the studio add presence and dimension as she steps back to keep the needles from pinning red with her fervor.

There’s a bluesy edge in her vocals, not unlike Joan Osborne, but with the earthier, more distracted air of Edie Brickell. The productions often arc from contemplative openings to emotional conclusions. “Little Lovin’” rolls through its first half with only a bass drum (and your toe-tapping) to keep the beat, but a deep bottom end rolls in, Lissie’s vocals rise and hand-clapping rhythms spur the vocals to soar into full-throated scatting. The abandon with which she vocalizes has the improvisational verve of a live jam, blowing past the artifice of studio recording. Her cover of Hank Williams’ “Wedding Bells” turns its despondency from hangdog to forlorn, and the original male-perspective lyrics (“you wanted me to see you change your name”) gain additional layers when sung in a woman’s voice.

An ode to Lissie’s native river, “Oh Mississippi,” is sung with a gospel piano and overdubbed choir, and though it may remind you of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” it turns into a fervent elegy for the failing industrial heart of America. Here too Lissie hits a second gear to bring the song to a tremendous emotional climax. Bill Reynolds’ production is spare but filled with touches – a tambourine or a tom-tom riff – that provide instrumental accents that complement the vocal dynamics. He leaves Lissie up-front, where listeners can hang on to both her emphatic notes and dramatic pauses. A full LP recorded in Nashville with a pickup band and producer Jacquire King is apparently sitting in the can, but it’s hard to imagine it captured Lissie in such disarmingly naked moments as this brilliant five-song EP. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Little Lovin’
MP3 | Everywhere I Go
Lissie’s MySpace Page

Caroline Herring: Golden Apples of the Sun

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CarolineHerring_GoldenApplesOfTheSunSuperb folk album from Austin-based vocalist

Though Herring has come to prominence in Austin music circles, her music has veered away from the bluegrass with which she began, as well as the country with which she rose to prominence. Her voice has always harbored a singer-songwriter’s intimacy, but starting with last year’s Lantana, she stepped further in front of her band and dropped the drums and steel in favor of acoustic guitars and bass. This fourth album pushes even further in that stripped-down direction, with hard strummed and rolling finger-picked guitars providing the dominant backing, augmented by bass, piano and touches of banjo and ukulele. The minimized backings reveal additional depth in Herring’s voice, an instrument that mixes the vibrato of Buffy St. Marie, crystalline tone of Judy Collins, and several dashes of Lucinda Williams’ emotional poetics.

Herring’s latest album splits its twelve tracks between originals and covers. The latter includes a brilliant conversion of Cyndi Lauper’s 1986 hit “True Colors” into a dark spiritual. Lauper’s sung this song live with guitar, piano and zither, but it was still infused with the original single’s optimism. Herring pitches the vocal ambivalently between worry and reassurance, with a moody rhythm guitar that dispels Lauper’s upbeat mood. The oft-covered murder ballad “Long Black Veil” provides Herring another terrific opportunity for reinvention, stripping the instrumental to a drone, the song is more of a distraught first-person confession than the folksy story of Lefty Frizell or Johnny Cash. Even the Big Bill Broonzy standard “See See Rider” is reborn amidst the vocal trills Herring adds to edges of her performance. Similar high notes and tremolo decorate a tour de force cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Cactus Tree.”

The original songs, five solo compositions and a co-write with Wendell Berry and Pablo Neruda, are even more closely attuned to Herring’s vocal charms. The lyrics are filled with questions of uncertain relationships, longing for escape and understanding, distant destinations and brave faces. Singing to low acoustic strums, Herring jabs with the lyrics of “The Dozens,” demanding engagement in the guise of a game of insults. The assuredness with which she sings adds weight to every word, and the emotion-laden quality of her voice can bring tears to your eyes. Though she can conjure the ghostly images of earlier times, the clarity of her tone and the forthrightness of her style are more in the folk tradition of the 1960s than the 1860s. Herring is a critical darling whose work outstrips the plaudits of even her most ardent admirers. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Long Black Veil
Caroline Herring’s Home Page
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Brooke White: High Hopes & Heartbreak

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BrookeWhite_HighHopesAndHeartbreakAmerican Idol finalist mixes ‘70s vibe with modern orchestrations

This American Idol top-five finalist’s first post-show album slipped out with surprisingly little hoopla, and that’s a shame, because she brings her retro-70s singer-songwriter vibe in spades. There are hints of country in the piano and guitars, but White relies in large part on the Carole King style she brought to her performances on AI. Unfortunately such a nakedly retro album would have little chance in the modern radio market, and so her producers have dressed things up with orchestrations that, despite the drippy George Harrison-styled guitars, tend to generic modern.

The album opens promisingly with the retro styling and starry eyes of “Radio Radio,” a tune whose quivery emotion and chorus hook would fit perfectly between top-40 hits by Carly Simon and Gilbert O’Sullivan. White’s heartfelt emotion threads through other tracks, but occasionally finds itself competing with the orchestrations. Particularly egregious is the dance beat and disco style of the title track. Still, she uses her upper range to add terrific emotional trills on “Out of the Ashes,” and sings with a directness that is enchanting. Similarly, her lower range on “Phoenix” is tremendously warm and inviting. White co-wrote eleven of the twelve songs, offering up mid-tempo numbers and piano-based ballads, and adds a cover of Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody.”

Having taken the indie route, rather than releasing her album through the AI machine, one might have hoped she’d stay true to her unique musical assets. Unfortunately, the record industry’s ADD dictates that you find a sound already friendly to radio, rather than build career momentum over three or four albums. That said, there are enough of White’s charms here to please those who enjoyed her pre-AI release Songs in the Attic, even if they’re occasionally buried or sidetracked by the production. What made White compelling as an American Idol makes her compelling as a recording artist, just not on every track. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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Brooke White’s MySpace Page

Rick Shea: Shelter Valley Blues

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RickShea_ShelterValleyBluesLow-key singer-songwriter country from SoCal veteran

Rick Shea’s been a regular on the Southern California country scene for two decades now, having first sprung forward with the defiant Outside of Nashville and following up with a cut on the third volume of A Town South of Bakersfield compilation. The Bakersfield from which Shea takes inspiration is the singer-songwriter style of Merle Haggard’s, rather than the telecaster sting of Buck Owens. Haggard’s introspective near-folkie tone is strong on this latest release, with spare arrangements highlighting Shea’s guitar playing and leaving his vocals mostly unadorned by harmonies. Ten originals are joined by a cover of “Fisherman’s Blues” that’s more spent than the Waterboys’ original. The singing is understated, with a reserve that variously suggests distraction, introspection, resignation and carefully measured joy. Even when the band plays electric blues on “Nelly Bly,” it’s low and slow. The album picks up briefly to mid-tempo for the Norteño flavored “Sweet Little Pocha” and closes with the island-flavored steel-guitar instrumental “The Haleiwa Shuffle.” This is a low-key album that’s closer to singer-songwriter folk than country, and a pleasing addition to Shea’s catalog. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Shelter Valley Blues
Rick Shea’s Home Page
Rick Shea’s MySpace Page

Charlie Faye: Wilson St.

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CharlieFaye_WilsonStNYC singer-songwriter transplanted to Austin

Faye arrived in Austin, from New York City, a couple years back, having already recorded her debut album Last Kids in the Bar in 2006. The band on that first album mixed country, folk and blues, but even with banjos and electric guitars behind her, Faye remained more of a singer-songwriter than a country chanteuse, folklorist or blues shouter; huskier voiced than Laura Nyro, but with a similar flair. And so it is on her second album, accompanied by Will Sexton, David Holt and Rick Richards, she’s replaced the East Village grit with a more bucolic Austin tone, yet remains more a singer-songwriter than a band leader or Americana artist. Faye’s songs – she wrote or so-wrote all ten tracks – are populated by carnal invitations, groupies, cheating mates, lonely nights and broken hearts. Even the sunshine of “Summer Legs” is clouded over by a survivor’s isolation. The album closes with uncertainty finally losing its footing to love on the acoustic ballad “Ready to Fall.” Faye’s found a nurturing community in Austin, but ironically, her music has become less twangy and more vocally focused with her move West. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Jersey Pride
Buy Wilson St. via Nimbit