Monthly Archives: July 2009

Tommy Webb: Heartland

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TommyWebb_HeartlandBluegrass album of both substance and form

If you’re wondering what happened to the protest and social commentary that once pervaded popular music, you can still find plenty of it in the non-mainstream margins. Such is the track, “Heartland,” from Tommy Webb’s third album of bluegrass. This open letter to the president provides a moving plea from America’s working men and women. The societal disconnection between Midwest farmers and Wall Street bankers stands in contrast to the American economy’s impossibly arcane web of financial interconnections, and provides poignant subtext to the song’s simple wishes.

The bulk of the album is more standard country fare, starting with the opener’s story of lies, heartbreak and murder. The murderous intentions of “Teardrop Inn” are magnified by lazy fiddle and easy-going vocals that sound like the last drops of emotion wrung from a warm heart turned cold. The lack of an overt breakdown in Webb’s voice makes lyrics like “I’d rather see a cold stone above you, than to see you in the arms of Tina at the Teardrop Inn” all the more chilling.  In addition to five originals of love celebrated and lost, Webb picks up the traditional “River of Jordan” and bluegrass staple “Little Sadie,” and terrific fiddle-and-harmony tunes from Wayland Patton (“Something in My Heart”) and Robert Braddock (“She Told Me”).

Webb expands upon his concern for the family farmer with Ricky Skaggs’ “A Hard Road to Hoe” and reworks Daryl Worley’s blue collar lament “Good Day to Run” into a winning acoustic arrangement. The original “If It Weren’t for Bluegrass Music (I’d Go Crazy)” arrives just in time for the summer circuit, where the group’s low-key approach will be a restorative moment amongst the typical festival program’s parade of fireworks. There are plenty of tight bluegrass harmonies and dexterous string picking here (check out the synchronized and syncopated playing on, “Clinch Mountain Backstep”), but it’s Webb’s naturally sincere lead singing that really sells these performances. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Listen to “Teardrop Inn”
The Tommy Webb Band’s Home Page
The Tommy Webb Band’s MySpace Page

Daryle Singletary: Rockin’ in the Country

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DaryleSingletary_RockinInTheCountryCountry hit maker recaptures his commercial ‘90s sound

The warm, thick tone of Daryle Singletary’s baritone sounds remarkably true to the decade younger voice first heard on his string of 1990s hits. His low notes, reminiscent of Randy Travis (who was instrumental in Singletary’s early career), are smooth and controlled, and his mid-range is velvety rich. And that’s not all that harkens back to his prime commercial period: the production is Nashville smooth, and the songs combine heartbreak with uplifting and heartwarming stories. On the ennobling side there’s community activism in “Rockin’ in the Country,” a tear-inducing lifelong love story in “That’s Why God Made Me,” and love brought into sharp relief from “Background Noise.” Even the seduction of “Love You with the Lights On” feels more wholesome than, say, “Behind Closed Doors.” The album’s broken hearts include those pained with longing, ringed by sorrow and scarred from experience, and the classic country ballad “She Sure Looks Good in Black” cleverly twines funeral imagery with a romance’s death. The album closes with a low-key cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Those who feel Nashville’s travelled too far down Crossover Road will find this dash back to the country sounds of the ‘90s a welcome respite. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan: In Session

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AlbertKingStevieRayVaughn_InSessionSuperb meeting of two blues guitar legends

This 1983 live performance summit between a legend and a soon-to-be legend has been reissued a few times on CD, including a hybrid SACD in 2003. This latest CD is a remastered reissue of the original eleven tracks and includes three sets of liner notes. At the time the pair met in a Canadian TV studio, Vaughan was blazing a trail into the blues world with his debut album, Texas Flood. King was long since a legend in the blues world, and though he didn’t recognize the name “Vaughan,” he immediately recognized the guitarist who’d sat in with him whenever he played in Austin. Snippets of dialogue interspersed between the tracks do a good job of showing the personal bond that complemented the guitar slingers’ deep artistic connections.

King and Vaughan are backed by the former’s tack sharp road band, and run through a set drawn almost entirely from King’s catalog. You can hear what was on the horizon, though, as Vaughan rips into his own “Pride and Joy” with monster tone and a gutsy vocal. Throughout the session the players trade licks and prod each other with solos that quote all the great players from whom they learned. King’s influence is clear in Vaughan’s playing, but hearing them side-by-side (the recording does a nice job of keeping their guitars separated slightly left and right) gives listeners an opportunity to hear how the same fundamentals change as they filter through different fingers and hardware.

As free as both guitarists play, the band, the catalog, and the deference Vaughan shows King all tipped in favor of the latter orchestrating the pacing. This is a master class, King leading the way with his guitar and providing verbal tips in between songs. In any other venue Vaughan would be the master, but here he plays the role of apprentice. How many chances do you get to play with someone who can introduce “Blues at Sunrise” with “This is that thing, uh, I recorded with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin out there at the Fillmore West”? It was a good time to be the apprentice. Anyone who loves King, Vaughan or great blues guitar should catch this one. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Michael Dean Damron: Father’s Day

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MichaelDeanDamron_FathersDayEdgy singer-songwriter Americana

After three albums in front of I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House, Portland’s Michael Dean Damron transitioned fully to a solo career. As Mike D. he sang heavy and rough blues-edged rock that was at once rootsy and in-your-face. As Michael Dean Damron he’s reconstituted as a singer-songwriter, backed by a lower-key combo called Thee Loyal Bastards. His voice still has plenty of edge, but his songs are built for strummed guitars and shuffling rhythms, and with the backing band’s volume turned down, there’s more room for nuance in his vocals. He sings with the sort of grit you’ve heard from Willie Nile, Steve Forbert, John Hiatt, James McMurtry and others whose rock ‘n’ roll hearts are tattooed with stripes of country and blues.

This third solo album offers first-person emotions through original songs of dysfunctional relationships, broken hearts, suicidal situations, plainspoken social discontent (“same old shit, different day”), and memorable imagery (“poverty is a pistol, pointed at our heads”). Damron’s song titles retain the pungency of his earlier group’s, with “I’m a Bastard” rendered as a raw guitar-and-harmonica blues and the modern-day break-up “I Hope Your New Boyfriend Gives You A.I.D.S.” thankfully not repeating its death wish in the lyrics.

Damron shows off fine taste in covers with a haunted version of Drag the River’s “Beautiful and Damned,” a crawl through Thin Lizzy’s “Dancing in the Moonlight” that’s more Tom Waits than Van Morrison, and a folky solo of “Waiting Around to Die” that’s less aggrieved than Townes Van Zandt’s original. Whatever he sings, he digs into it, often using stripped down solo guitar arrangements to free himself from band time. The results have a live dynamic, with gentle plucking giving way to hard strumming and introspective realizations turning into shouted confessions. It isn’t pretty, but it’s not meant to be. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Father’s Day
Michael Dean Damron’s Home Page

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine

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DrGoldfootAndTheBikiniMachineSpy-themed Beach Party follow-on doesn’t measure up

American International Picture’s spy-themed 1965 follow-on to their successful Beach Party series does not measure up to its teen-fun predecessors nor its spy-film lampooning peers. Frankie Avalon and Dwayne Hickman each made better teen films, and though co-star Vincent price is a hoot and Susan Hart is hot, the screenplay is a dud. Worse yet, the script’s original musical bent was trimmed down to only the terrific Guy Hemric/Jerry Styner-penned theme song. The film’s low production values are mediated by great location footage of San Francisco and a terrific claymation title sequence by Gumby’s creator, Art Clokey. Like any number of 1960s spy films – dramas and comedies – there’s a lot of opportunity to pick out things Mike Myers poached for his Austin Powers series, not least of which are the gold bikini clad fembots. Lots of slapstick from the entire cast (which includes character actor Jack Mullaney), and some entertainingly bad green screen work in which Avalon and Hickman ride a motorbike amongst what seem to be gigantic trucks and cars. Keep your eye peeled for cameos from several AIP Beach Party stars. The original Beach Party films are better entertainment (particularly for their musical content) and better mid-60s spy spoofs can be found, but if you’ve exhausted both genres, see this one for completeness. Nice crisp print, but the original trailer is the only extra. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]