Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner: Just Between You and Me (Bear Family)

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DollyPartonPorterWagoner_JustBetweenYouAndMeA monument to one of music’s greatest-ever duos

Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner’s partnership is remarkable even within a genre known for its venerable pairings. At the start of their professional relationship, Wagoner was an established star with dozens of hit singles and a weekly television program, and Parton was the new “girl singer” who had to win over fans of the departed Norma Jean. By the end of their partnership, seven years later, Wagoner’s chart action was winding down, and Parton’s stardom, which had begun its flight during her tenure with Wagoner, was about to go into hyperdrive. Parton said goodbye to Wagoner with “I Will Always Love You,” and lawsuits followed, but their chemistry as a duet was strong enough to survive their separation, with previously recorded material continuing to chart.

Parton and Wagoner were each artistic forces to be reckoned with. They were A-list songwriters and performers, and the enormous volume of material they recorded together was paralleled by a wealth of solo releases. Early on, Wagoner wrote surprisingly little for their pairings, choosing to showcase Parton’s material alongside that of other Nashville greats and a few adventurous selections, like Dan Penn’s “The Dark End of the Street.” Wagoner’s songwriting contributions picked up in the latter half of their partnership, and the pair also wrote several songs together. One has to wonder if the increasing fortunes of Parton’s solo career directed her original material to herself, and Wagoner was drawn to fill the void alongside his singing and producing duties.

Wagoner’s craft was meticulous, and the sidemen he selected included members of his road band (led by Buck Trent and featuring fiddler Mack Magaha) and the cream of Nashville’s session players (including Pete Drake, Lloyd Green, Hargus ‘Pig’ Robbins and Roy Huskey, Jr.). The catalog he produced with Parton is impressive for both its size and uniformly high quality. The songwriting, vocals, production and playing never wavers across the duo’s seven-year partnership, and their commercial appeal lasted from an early cover of Tom Paxton’s folk classic “The Last Thing on My Mind” through Wagoner’s “Is Forever Longer than Always.” Along the way, fans will find the hallmarks of both Wagoner and Parton’s individual material, including the former’s dramatic recitations, the latter’s hard-scrabble roots and both of their religious faith.

Duet singing is ultimately more about the chemistry of conversation and the revelation of interpersonal dynamics than about the individual vocalists. Wagoner’s spoken-word interlude gives Parton’s lyric of family tragedy an extra shot of morbidity in “The Party,” and the easy give-and-take of “I’ve Been This Way Too Long” could just as easily be the extemporaneous bickering of a long-time couple. Though neither family nor spouses, the pair sang with the sort of connectedness that marks blood harmonies – and feuds. In retrospect, the spark that brought even the most common romantic themes to life now seems freighted with foreshadows of their bitter dissolution, eventual detente and final emotional reunion.

Like all of Bear Family’s box sets, this set’s extensiveness is both a blessing and a challenge. The blessing, of course, are six discs of superb recordings and a lavishly illustrated seventy-eight page book; the challenge is in trying to absorb seven years of material without the division and pacing of the original singles and albums. Alanna Nash’s lengthy notes and Richard Weize’s detailed discography provide fans a guide to the duo’s intertwined paths, and the compression of their career into a box set highlights the evolution of their pairing at fast-forward speed. This collection stands tall, even among the very tall field of archival releases Bear Family has produced since it’s founding in 1975; start saving your pennies and dimes (and quarters and dollars), as this is a must-have for fans of Porter, Dolly and Porter & Dolly. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Dolly Parton’s Home Page

Vanilla Fudge: The Complete Atco Singles

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VanillaFudge_TheCompleteAtcoSinglesHeavy ’60s covers of pop, soul and folk hits in original mono

This Long Island quartet grew from a blue-eyed soul act into one of the progenitors of what would eventually be labeled “heavy metal.” The group’s soul background is evident in their selection of cover material, but their mid-to-late 60s prime was also heavily influenced by the psychedelic era. Combining the two, Vanilla Fudge turned out a series of singles that relied heavily on slowed-down arrangements of then-contemporary covers, enlarged to nearly operatic size by producer Shadow Morton.

The band’s debut cover of the Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” stalled on the charts in 1967, but reissued in 1968, it climbed into the Top 10. The arrangement, supported by Mark Stein’s organ, the heavy rhythm section of Tim Bogart and Carmine Appice and unison backing vocals was a template for what was to come. The single’s original B-side, a cover of Evie Sands’ “Take Me for a Little While,” was also re-released as an A-side in ’68, and charted in the Top 40, sounding like a heavy version of the Rascals, and showing off the quartet’s instrumental talent in Bogart’s bass solo.

The band landed a few more singles in the Top 100, including the original title “Where in My Mind” and a two-part cover of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” that was generously carved from the lengthy album track. They softened their sound into a soul croon for Bacharach and David’s “Look of Love,” but this was unusual for a single. More typical is their hard-rocking cover of “Shotgun,” with its wailing guitar and full-kit drum fills, and the strutting B-side original “Good Good Lovin’.” Perhaps the band’s most miraculous single was their cover of Lee Hazelwood’s “Some Velvet Morning,” which somehow managed to cram 7’34 onto a seven-inch, 45 RPM record. A three-minute DJ promo edit is included in this set as a bonus.

After their initial success on the singles chart, the band continued to score with albums and on the concert stage. Their later singles featured a greater helping of original material, but failed to score commercially. These eighteen tracks represent all ten of the band’s commercially released singles for Atco; all that’s missing is a DJ-only promo single of “Eleanor Rigby” and “Ticket to Ride.” As the band became an album attraction, it’s interesting to hear how they were still represented in the singles market with punchy mono mixes (all but 1984’s synth-laced reunion single “Mystery” b/w “The Strangler”) that really should have gotten more radio love. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

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OST: Any Which Way You Can & Honkytonk Man

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OST_AnyWhichWayYouCanHonkytonkManCountry music soundtracks to 1980s Clint Eastwood films

Actor-director Clint Eastwood has a surprisingly rich musical history. In 1961 he leveraged his burgeoning acting fame for a shot at recording with the forgettable pop ballad “Unknown Girl,” a couple of years later he found a more suitable vehicle in a pleasant album of Cowboy Favorites, in 1969 he starred in the film version of the musical Paint Your Wagon and in 1970 he sang “Burning Bridges” for the film Kelly’s Heroes. Eastwood continued to dabble in music, participating in the soundtracks of Any Which Way You Can, Honkytonk Man, Bronco Billy and more recently, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The first two of these soundtracks have now been reissued for the first time on CD.

The 1980 soundtrack of Any Which Way You Can features Glen Campbell’s hit title track alongside David Frizzell and Shelly West’s chart-topping “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma.” The latter was written by a rare pairing of Felice & Bordleaux Bryant with the Collins Kids’ Larry Collins, the latter of whom also co-wrote Johnny Duncan’s Margaritaville-styled “Acapulco” and Jim Stafford’s “Cow Patti.” Clint Eastwood appears with Ray Charles on the playful lead-off “Beers to You,” and the album is filled out with tracks by Fats Domino (his last single, the New Orleans’ tinged country “Whiskey Heaven”), Gene Watson and Eastwood’s co-star, Sandra Lockhart.

Many of Snuff Garrett’s productions have the gloss of late ’70s Nashville, and include string-lined country-pop and gospel-tinged ballads. Domino and Stafford get rootsier treatment, and “Cotton-Eyed Clint” is a straightforward fiddle and steel instrumental. Locke, like Eastwood, is game, but no match for the album’s stars, who rang up seven chart hits among the album’s dozen tracks. This is a nice sampling of the commercial side of the era’s country music, as well as a reminder of the film’s lighthearted tone. Varese’s reissue includes the album’s original dozen tracks and a four-panel booklet with liner notes by Laurence Zwisohn.

The 1982 soundtrack of Honkytonk Man was led onto the charts by Marty Robbins’ top-ten title track, and followed by charting sides by David Frizzell & Shelly West (“Please Surrender”), Ray Price (“San Antonio Rose” and “One Fiddle, Two Fiddle”) and Porter Wagoner (“Turn the Pencil Over”). Also on board are Marty Robbins, Johnny Gimble, John Anderson and Linda Hopkins. Gimble’s western swing, Anderson’s acoustic country and Hopkins closing blues provide the selections least dated by Snuff Garret’s early-80s production. Varese’s reissue includes the album’s original dozen tracks and a four-panel booklet with liner notes by Laurence Zwisohn. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Keith Allison: In Action – The Complete Columbia Sides Plus!

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KeithAllison_InActionLos Angeles studio musician’s mid-60s solo shot

Keith Allison’s discovery at a taping of Dick Clark’s Where the Action Is is an only-in-Hollywood tale to rival that of Lana Turner’s first sighting at the Top Hat Malt Shop. Allison had been living a relatively anonymous life as a session musician (that’s his harmonica on the Monkees “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day“) and latter-day band member for his cousin Jerry Allison’s Crickets. Allison’s appearance as an audience member on Where the Action Is quickly led to a featured slot and a recording contract with Columbia. The latter gave Allison an opportunity to work with producer Terry Melcher for a single and Gary Usher for a pop-rock album.

His first Columbia release turned Joey Brooks and the Baroque Folk’s “I Ain’t Blamin’ You” into folk-rock, and featured an excellent, original B-side, “Look at Me” that turned up two years later as a Cher album track. His next single brought him Boyce & Hart’s “Action, Action, Action” and Mann & Weil’s bounch sunshine pop, “Glitter and Gold.” The former, produced by future Scooby Doo theme song vocalist Larry Marks, is offered here in both its stereo album and mono single mixes.

Allison’s full-length album played to his television audience, who knew him for his covers of hits-of-the-day. The album’s lone original is the very fine country rock “Freeborn Man,” co-written with Mark Lindsay; the rest of the track list is filled with tunes from Boyce & Hart, Neil Diamond, Donovan, Ray Charles and Lindsay. As the liner notes highlight, the variety of material provided a showcase for Allison’s versatility, even when the covers don’t add anything radical to the better-known hits. “Louise” and “Good Thing” give an early indication of how easily Allison would later fit into Paul Revere & The Raiders, and the country-rock arrangement of “Colours” adds something vital to Donovan’s original.

More interesting is the discovery of Neil Diamond’s early single “Do It,” the rave-up “Action, Action, Action,” and a take on “Leave My Woman Alone” that adds a psychedelic edge to the Everly Brothers earlier interpretation. Real Gone’s twenty-three track collection pulls together the Columbia album and singles and adds a self-produced one-off single for Amy that backs Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” with the Byrdsian original “I Don’t Want Nobody But You.” The post-LP singles include an emotional cover of “To Know Her is to Love Her,” a rave-up medley of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis and a lite-psych version of Tommy Roe’s “Everybody.”

Despite a promising start and continuing success as a musician and songwriter, Allison’s solo career never really took off. His work with the Raiders can be heard on several albums, starting with 1968’s Hard ‘n’ Heavy, and he turned up on tracks by Al Kooper, Johnny Rivers, The Dillards and others. He dabbled in acting (including a bit part on The Love Boat!), and has recently gigged with the Waddy Wachtel Band, but the quality of these mid-60s sides suggest there was something more to be had. Stardom is a fickle mistress, and though Allison had the talent and a shot, the stars simply didn’t align. Lucky listeners can now cast themselves back and ask “what if?”  [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Keith Allison Info Page

The Everly Brothers: Songs Our Daddy Taught Us

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EverlyBrothers_SongsOurDaddyTaughtUs2014 expanded reissue of the Everlys’ deepest roots

The Everly Brothers second full-length album is extraordinary in many different ways. In addition to its basic triumph as roots music, its exposition of traditional folk and country songs was a nervy artistic statement by a duo that was helping build the foundations of rock ‘n’ roll. A string of hit singles written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, including “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do is Dream,” “Bird Dog” and “Problems,” had made the Everlys international stars, and after an eponymous album that also included tunes from Little Richard, Ray Charles and Don Everly, a simply arranged and tenderly sung collection of songs learned from the Everlys’ father was far from the obvious follow-up.

A decade later the pair would record Roots, another album of country standards, but in a country-rock vein that was of its time. In 1958, amid the explosion of rock ‘n’ roll, the acoustic guitar, stand-up bass and harmony duets of Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, reached back to both the material and performance style that were the Everly’s actual roots. These are the songs that Ike Everly sang with his sons on their 1940s radio show, and the boys’ affection for the material is evident in the gentle harmonies they lay upon lyrics of deep sentiment and surprisingly dark themes.

Varese’s reissue adds alternate first- and second-takes of four of the album’s titles and an eight-page booklet of photos and liner notes by Andrew Sandoval. The alternates range from slightly imperfect performances of the same arrangements used on the masters to an electric-guitar backed idea for “Down in the Willow Garden” that didn’t make the original album. It’s a mark of the Everlys’ deep background as live performers that the alternates are basically good enough to have passed as masters. Snippets of studio dialog and strumming give a feel for the dynamic between the Everlys and producer Archie Blyer, the latter of whom seems to have mostly let the brothers roll.

Songs Our Daddy Taught Us didn’t sell in large numbers at the time of its issue, but neither did its artistic detour interrupt the brothers’ string of hit singles for Cadence. The album’s been reissued many times, including a 1962 retitling as Folk Songs of the Everly Brothers that landed in the middle of the folk revival. Late last year the album was reissued with a second disc of earlier and original recordings, and the album’s track list was re-recorded by Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones as Foreverly. The on-going attention received by the album further demonstrates the brothers’ artistic prescience and the project’s continued resonance. Varese’s expanded reissue is a great introduction and a worthy upgrade. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

The Everly Brothers’ Home Page

Mount Carmel: Get Pure

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MountCarmel_GetPureOhio power-trio riffs on heavy ’60s and ’70s blues-rock

This Ohio power-trio’s got the riffs, chops and swagger to make you wish for a triple bill at the Agora. Rock may no longer be popular music’s prevailing tide, but Mount Carmel’s heavy bottom end, powerful drums and scorching lead guitar sound like a day hasn’t passed since Cream, Grand Funk, Rory Gallagher, Blue Cheer, Ten Years After, Mountain and others ruled the hard rock roost. Even with tasty guitar solos, the songs are concise (only two weigh in at over four minutes) and the playing is tight. Matthew Reed fronts the band without overdoing the machismo, and his guitar playing is supported by a solid rhythm section that features his brother Patrick on bass and James McCain on drums. There’s a hint of hippie-jam in their instrumental passages, but no twenty-minute Fillmore excess – at least not in the studio. If today’s popular music doesn’t have the muscle and grit to get you moving, this is one to check out. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

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Jonny Two Bags: Salvation Town

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JonnyTwoBags_SalvationTownA compelling country-rock voice emerges from a punk-rock guitarist

Despite a resume that includes Youth Brigade, U.S. Bombs, Cadillac Tramps and Social Distortion, guitarist Johnny Two Bags (nee Wickersham) turns out to have a few country bones to pick. His solo debut is full of twanging guitar rather than power chords, forlorn realizations instead of reactionary anger, and it’s all played in tempos that linger rather than thrash. The mood replaces his customary O.C. punk with a vibe that’s Los Angeles country rock, magnified by guest appearances from Jackson Browne, David Lindley and David Hidalgo, and a wonderfully versatile rhythm section anchored by Pete Thomas and Zander Schloss.

Two Bags’ vocal suggests Browne’s on “Forlorn Walls,” and Browne joins him to sing “Then You Stand Alone,” but it’s Lindley’s guitar that evokes the strongest memory. Greg Leisz provides his customarily fine pedal steel, and Joel Guzman’s accordion adds border accents. Two Bags’ voice is surprisingly sweet, but he sings of a life that’s not always been smooth. His songs are populated with loneliness, regret and, unlike a lot of Americana, physical danger. The productions are lived in but not overly polished, providing a feel of performance rather than studio craft. Producer David Kalish was spot-on in pushing Two Bags to write and record a solo project, and together they’ve realized a complete and completely unanticipated musical vision. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

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Moot Davis: Goin’ in Hot

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MootDavis_GoinInHotFine Nashville twang born of a broken heart

Davis’ fourth album, his second in partnership with producer Kenny Vaughan, expands upon the Nashville twang of 2012’s Man About Town. The influences are similar – Dwight Yoakam, Big Sandy and Raul Malo – but there’s also a helping of the Derailers’ Bakersfield hybrid and NRBQ’s irreverence. Guitarist Bill Corvino and steel player Gary Morse add plenty of twang to Davis’ songs of marginal finances, slender experience, waning sobriety and wounded hearts. Especially wounded hearts, as Davis wrote the album in the aftermath of an emotional breakup that brought forth tears, regrets and painful reminders. He croons with Nikki Lane on “Hurtin’ for Real” and struggles with the painful aftermath of “Love Hangover” and unfulfillable desires of “Wanna Go Back.” The band, which also includes bassist Michael Massimino and drummer Joey Mekler, moves easily between mid-tempo blues, country two-steps and second line shuffles, and really tears it up for the roadhouse rock of “Midnight Train” and “Ragman’s Roll.” Their flexibility recalls Commander Cody’s Lost Planet Airmen, and is a perfect match for Davis’ broadened songwriting. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Moot Davis’ Home Page

Fearing & White: Tea and Confidences

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FearingAndWhite_TeaAndConfidencesStriking collaboration between Irish and Canadian singer-songwriters

Singer-songwriters Stephen Fearing and Andy White have released numerous albums under their own names and in groups (notably Blackie and the Rodeo, and ALT), but this turns out to be only their second as a pair. Now living on opposite sides of the globe (Fearing in Halifax, White in Melbourne), the album was written in a two intense face-to-face sessions and recorded six months later with Gary Craig on drums. The material ranges from strummed folk songs to mid-tempo pop and to surprisingly heavy guitar rock, with moments that recall the Warren Zevon, Eric Clapton and Rockpile.

The duo’s songs are rife with accumulated wisdom and the craft that comes from practice. Their experience as performers is evident in the multiple ways their music supports their words. The strummed guitars and confident vocal of “Secret of a Long-Lasting Love” remain buoyant as the lyric’s loneliness and desire lead to reunion and consummation. A sense of optimism sees failed relationships as pauses rather than endings, and lost souls find paths back home. The funky shuffle “We Came Together” opens with riffs that suggest both T. Rex and the Everly Brothers, and the growling electric rhythm riff provides bedrock for “Sanctuary.”

The album’s ballads suggest the bittersweetness of Nick Lowe’s solo material. “Another Time Another Place” (which seems to give an unconscious nod to Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight” with its opening vocal hook) meditates on missed opportunities, “Think of Me Like Summer” and “Save Yourself” are pained in their separations but generous with their wishes, and the heartache of leaving in mirrored by the possibility of a new start in the “Emigrant Song.” Fearing and White are each sophisticated troubadours in their own write, but there’s extra magic in their collaboration. [©2014 Hyperbolium]

Fearing and White’s Home Page