Category Archives: Free Download

Gary Nicholson: Texas Songbook

A country songwriter sings his Texas songs

Gary Nicholson is a Texan who’s had a lot of success in Tennessee. His songs have appeared on the albums and singles of country stars Patty Loveless, Montgomery Gentry, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, marrying the hooks required of a Nashville hit with the complex emotions and deep country roots of Texas songwriting. His recording career has been more eclectic, starting with California country-rock in the early ‘70s, blues-rock in the mid-90s, and a return to his roots with an alter-ego tribute to Texas blues legends on 2008’s Gary Nicholson Presents Whitey Johnson. Last year’s Nashville Songbook, Volume One reclaimed a number of songs he’d peddled to Music Row, adding a songwriter’s expression that’s rooted in first-hand truth rather than interpretation and performance.

His new album sticks to the Texas tip, but in country style with a band full of Texans and Texas-reared guests (Delbert McClinton, Ray Benson, Marcia Ball, Mickey Raphael and Joe Ely) playing and singing songs about the Lone Star state-of-mind. Despite the length of time Nicholson’s spent in Nashville, he still writes in a native’s voice, even as he obliquely notes his two musical families with “Woman in Texas, Woman in Tennessee.” He celebrates the Texas character – tall tales (“Talkin’ Texas”), independence (“Fallin’ & Flyin’,” from Crazy Heart), and the bit of Texas that Texans carry with them wherever they go (“She Feels Like Texas”). The outsized scale of Texas geography is mapped in the compass points of “Lone Star Blues,” drawing a trail of mishaps for a luckless protagonist, and the ups and downs of a relationship are mirrored in the tumultuous “Texas Weather.”

Nicholson may not have the head-turning voice of those who’ve made his songs into hits, but as noted earlier, he sings with a songwriter’s feeling for lyrics and imagines a wide array of musical possibilities for his songs. The arrangements include fiddle-and-steel ballads, Texas two-steps, Western swing (including great steel from Tommy Detamore), New Orleans second-line rhythm and roll, Tex-Mex and country-folk. The album closes with “Somedays Your Write the Song,” co-authored with fellow-Texans Guy Clark and Jon Randall Stewart, and the title track for Clark’s Grammy-nominated 2009 album. The lyrics capture the hold that writing places on its writer, and provide a fitting cap to an album of songs that traverse both the truth and the legend of Texas living. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Live, Laugh, Love
Gary Nicholson’s Home Page

Patrolled By Radar: Be Happy

Rocking blend of country, pub rock, post punk, folk and blues

Patrolled by Radar is a long-running Southern California quintet, previously known as 50 Cent Haircut, and led by singer/songwriter Jay Souza. Their music mixes country, folk, blues, psych, pub rock and post-punk. Souza’s singing occasionally suggests a rustic, nasal incarnation of the Bongos’ Richard Barone, but he also brings to mind the promenading music hall soul of Ray Davies on the horn-lined “Pachyderm,” and a polished, yet equally disturbing version of Holly Golightly’s blues on “Widow Next Door.” Souza’s lyrics are more poem than narrative, leaving behind impressions and images rather than story arcs. You’ll find yourself singing “my skull was cracked / like a cathedral dome,” but you may not know why. More easily digested are the teary loss of “Coat of Disappointment, the alcoholic’s spiral of “Fast Life, Slow Death,” and a soldier’s consideration of his circumstances in “Carried Away.” The songs are often dressed in catchy melodies and clever word play that initially obsure the lyrics’ underlying darkness, but the contrast makes this both immediately accessible and grist for deeper consideration. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | New Fight Song
Patrolled By Radar’s Home Page
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David Serby: Poor Man’s Poem

Folk-country song cycle relates 19th century issues to today

David Serby’s 2009 release, Honkytonk and Vine, was a welcome blast from Los Angeles’ honky-tonk past. The pointy-toed cowboy boots he wore on the album cover were matched by twangy country two-steppers that recalled the mid-80s Southern California roots renaissance of the Blasters, Dwight Yoakam and others. His follow-up retains the country melodies, but drops the rhythm-driven honky-tonk in favor of acoustic guitars, accordion, mandolin, banjo, dobro, fiddle and harmonium.

The ten songs essay the economic and social concerns of nineteenth century workers, but find repeated resonance with contemporary issues: union turmoil, damaged soldiers returning from war, displaced populations, and investors swindled by financiers. Though the specifics have changed – Iraq rather than Gettysburg, gentrified neighborhoods rather than the Sioux Nation, computers rather than assay offices – the results are despairingly the same. But so too is the spirit and bravery that Serby’s characters demonstrate, as miners return to the dark recesses of their work, and a destitute teenage mother turns from tears to a hopeful prayer.

This is an imaginatively written record, the sort that Johnny Cash pioneered with his historical travelogues at Columbia. The CD package is superbly finished, with the cover’s weathered edges complemented by the booklet’s vintage typography and poster reproductions. Those looking for another whirl around the dance floor may be disappointed by the introspective nature of the project, but anyone who enjoyed the craft of Serby’s earlier releases will find even deeper artistry here. Where Honkytonk and Vine spun clever song titles into smoothly rhyming lyrics, Poor Man’s Poem tells stories from the characters, and in doing so reflects on the struggles we all face today. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Watch Over Her Baby
David Serby’s Home Page

Research Turtles: Mankiller – Part 1 of 2

Terrific EP from Lake Charles, LA power poppers

Research Turtles are a terrific power pop band, but releasing records out of their Lake Charles, Louisiana base, and playing mostly local shows, they still haven’t broken through commercially. But their lack of national renown isn’t for want of great music or promotional savvy; they’ve effectively worked music bloggers, and last year they organized fans to vote the band’s self-titled album as Radio Six International’s “Record of the Year” for 2010. The Turtles have recently knocked out the first of two EPs, deepening the punch of their rhythm section, adding fullness to their guitars and adding layers to their vocal harmonies. The band’s five new songs include the rapturously upbeat “You Are So,” the mid-tempo “Bugs in a Jar” and the heavier (and glammier) “Rhinestone Gal.” Influences include Cheap Trick, T Rex, Badfinger, the Cars, Greenberry Woods, Hollies and Beatles, but without too vigorous a nod to any one of them. Won’t somebody sign this band and get them some wider attention already? [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Bugs in a Jar
Research Turtles Home Page

Gardens: Gardens

Driving Detroit rock spiked with punk and psych

Detroit may have taken a body blow from the recession, but it only seems to have intensified the city’s music. This Motor City quartet has the aggressiveness of a ‘70s punk band weaned on the Stooges, Amboy Dukes and MC5 and the range of a band that’s listened through the transitions from garage to psychedelia and punk to post-punk. Things fall apart, Velvet Underground-style, on “Ideas to Use,” but snap back together for the driving bass-guitar-drums riff of “Safe Effect.” Touches of organ and a low-key lead on “River Perspective” down shift momentarily, as does the experimental “Poems,” but it’s the mid-tempo, hard-strummed numbers that will move you and make you move. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Safe Effect
Gardens’ Home Page

Burns & Poe: Burns & Poe

Nashville country duo sings with terrific passion

Keith Burns (previously of Trick Pony) and Michelle Poe form this unabashedly mainstream Nashville duet, but beneath the grooming, market trending and AOR production, you can hear real passion in their vocals. Burns sings with the husked edge of Don Hensley (and the chiseled looks of a model) while Poe has a clear, soulful tone that works both as a lead and harmony voice. Their material doesn’t break any new ground – sunny days, broken hearts, the healing power of love and a man’s love of trucks – but their talent and enthusiasm are truly infectious. Beyond the singles (“Don’t Get No Better Than That,” “How Long is Long Enough?” and “Second Chance”) there are many rewarding album tracks, including the sharp kiss-off “Life’s Too Short” and the bluesy rocker “Gone as All Get Out.” The fourteen tracks are split between two CDs, with the second disc given over to duet arrangements. The latter disc opens with the conversational back-and-forth of “Second Chance” and culminates in a live medley that salutes Kenny & Dolly, David & Shelly and Sonny & Cher. Producer Mark Oliverius balances the interests of radio and roots, mixing big guitars with quieter twang (including some chiming 12-string on “Move On”), showcasing the vocalists on everything from power ballads to gentle weepers. Burns and Poe are talented singers with an artistic vision that’s polished, but not subverted, by Nashville’s commercial demands. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Second Chance
Burns and Poe’s Home Page
Burns and Poe’s MySpace Page
Burns and Poe’s Facebook Page

Where in the world is Richard Buckner’s next record?

It’s been five years since Richard Buckner release his last album, Meadow. Five years filled with crushed opportunities, murderous accusations, larceny and equipment failure. Finally, on August 2nd, Our Blood, hits the shelves in both digital and analog form. Here’s the press release:

Since 2006’s Meadow, fans of Richard Buckner have been clamoring for new material and wondering what was keeping their hero from releasing the new songs he would perform on the road. Well, it’s a long story!

First, there was the score to a film that never happened. Then there was a brief brush with the law over a headless corpse in a burned-out car that had all eyes in Buckner’s small hometown in upstate New York turned toward him and his long-suffering truck. Shortly after a move to a safer, less popular corpse dumping ground, the death of his tape machine led to yet another reboot. After Richard called in pedal steel and percussion players and put new mixes on his laptop, his new “safer” place was burglarized. Goodbye, laptop.

Buckner says: “Eventually, the recording machine was resuscitated and some of the material was recovered. Cracks were patched. Parts were redundantly re-invented. Commas were moved. Insinuations were re-insinuated until the last percussive breaths of those final OCD utterances were expelled like the final heaves of bile, wept-out long after the climactic drama had faded to a somber, blurry moment of truth and voilà!, the record was done, or, let us be clear, abandoned like the charred shell of a car with a nice stereo.”

And so finally, we present Our Blood, to be released on CD and LP on August 2, 2011. This is the first Richard Buckner album to be released on vinyl!

Check out this track from the upcoming album.

MP3 | Traitor
Richard Buckner’s Home Page

Tara Nevins: Wood and Stone

Nevins explores her country and Cajun roots

Nevins’ second solo album (her first since 1999’s Mule to Ride) hangs on to the rootsy underpinnings of her musical day job with Donna the Buffalo, but cuts a looser, more soulful country groove than does her long-time group. Without a co-vocalist sharing the microphone, Nevins’ voice carries the album, and without a second writer, her songs stretch out across all her influences, including fiddle- and steel-lined country, second line rhythms and the Cajun sounds of her earlier band, the Heartbeats. The latter appear together on the energetic fiddle tune “Nothing Really,” and individually on several other tracks. Additional guests include Levon Helm (drumming on two tracks), Allison Moorer (tight trio harmony with Teresa Williams on “The Wrong Side”) and Jim Lauderdale (harmony on the acoustic “Snowbird”).

Producer Larry Campbell fits each song with a unique groove and adds superb electric and pedal steel guitar. The girlishness in Nevins’ voice and the layering of double-tracked vocals add a hint of the Brill Building, which is a terrific twist on the rustic arrangements. The lyrics cast an eye on relationships that refuse to live up to their potential, with music that underlines the certainty of a woman who will no longer suffer others’ indecision, inaction or infidelity. Three deftly picked covers include the standard “Stars Fell on Alabama” (from the film 20 Years After), the traditional “Down South Blues,” and Van Morrison’s “Beauty of Days Gone By.” Campbell and Nevins work some real magic here, creating a musical platform that often feels a more crafted fit for Nevins’ singing than that of her long-time group. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Wood and Stone
Tara Nevins’ MySpace Page
Donna the Buffalo’s Home Page

Owen Temple: Mountain Home

Country, folk, bluegrass and blues from talented Texas songsmith

Owen Temple’s last album, Dollars and Dimes, took its concept from the socio-political ideas of Joel Garreau’s The Nine Nations of North America. Temple wrote songs that explored the regional ties of work and cultural belief that often transcend physical geography, zeroing in on the life issues that bind people together. With his newest songs, he’s still thinking about people, but individuals this time, catching them as a sociologist would in situations that frame their identity in snapshots of hope, fear, prejudice, heroism, and the shadows of bad behavior and disaster. As on his previous album, his songs are rooted in actual places – isolated communities that harbor dark secrets and suffocating intimacy, a deserted oil town lamented as a lost lover, a legendary red-light district, and the Texas troubadours in whose footsteps he follows. The album’s lone cover, Leon Russell’s “Prince of Peace,” is offered in tribute to a primary influence.

Temple’s songs are sophisticated and enlightening, offering a view of the Texas west that’s akin to Dave Alvin’s meditations on mid-century California. He writes with a folksinger’s eye, observing intimate, interior details of every day life, and painting big, mythological sketches of Sam Houston and Cabeza de Vaca. The latter, “Medicine Man,” was co-written with Gordy Quist, and recently recorded by Quist’s Band of Heathens. Temple’s music stretches into country, bluegrass, gospel and blues, and he sings with the confidence of a writer who deeply trusts his material. Gabriel Rhodes’ production is spot-on throughout the album, giving Temple’s songs and vocals the starring roles, but subtly highlighting the instrumental contributions of Charlie Sexton, Rick Richards, Bukka Allen and Tommy Spurlock. Temple has made several fine albums, but taking intellectual input from Garreau seems to have clarified and deepened his own songwriting voice. This is an album that ingratiates itself on first pass, and  reveals deep new details with each subsequent spin. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | One Day Closer to Rain
Owen Temple’s Home Page
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Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs: No Help Coming

Country and blues reflected in a cracked funhouse mirror

Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs (comprised of Golightly and multi-instrumentalist Lawyer Dave) continue to mash the hard-charging folk dynamic of Richard & Mimi Farina with a primitive (rather than the oft-labeled lo-fi), live-sounding recording aesthetic. The percussion prevalent on 2008’s Dirt Don’t Hurt continues to add punctuation, giving several of these tracks, such as the exotic “Burn, Oh Junk Pile, Burn,” the off-kilter feel of mid-period Tom Waits. But these blues are more hill-bred than Bowery, and the jittery twang of the title track will make you wonder what the Feelies would have sounded like if they’d grown up in Tennessee instead of New Jersey. Golightly croons a few tunes, and though it gets low and dark for “The Rest of Your Life,” the girlishness in her voice lightens what could be a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins track. Lawyer Dave hollers his tale of a summertime DUI, “You’re Under Arrest” and the duo comes together for a cover of Bill Anderson’s “Lord Knows We’re Drinking.” The album closes with a psych-tinged, foot-stomping take on Wendell Austin’s bizarre country novelty, “L.S.D. (Rock ‘n’ Roll Prison),” which may just explain the uniqueness of the Brokeoffs’ cracked country and blues sound. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | No Help Coming
Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs Facebook Page
Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs MySpace Page