A fantastic live performance by this mid-60s British freakbeat band. Double points to the drummer Bruce Finley for his awesome tom-tom work.
The Sorrows: Take a Heart
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Owen Temple: Stories They Tell
A literate album from an observant songwriter
Owen Temple is a singer-songwriter with a sociologist’s eye. His third collaboration with producer Gabriel Rhodes extends a string of albums that looks at people, society and the interrelationship between the two. The triptych began with 2009’s Dollars and Dimes, inspired in part by Joel Garreau’s The Nine Nations of America and his thoughts on the shared beliefs that bind people across geographies. On 2011’s Mountain Home, Temple narrowed his focus to the emotions and situations that frame individuals and create identity. For his latest album, he draws from Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects, threading his songs with observations of the things people make, including physical objects, relationships, and as demonstrated by his latest set of songs, art.
The self-defining act of songwriting dovetails neatly with Temple’s stories of people finding their place in the world. His characters build identities around concrete artifacts (“Make Something”), ephemeral accumulations of power (“Big Man”), mythical cities (“Cities Made of Gold”) and the relationships they form with others. Temple layers his creation theme with the metaphorical garden of “Homegrown,” and its suggestion that building something worthwhile takes time and attention. Rebuilding too, as “Johnson Grass” imagines a retired LBJ groping for a new identity. As a thesis statement, the album’s title track suggests that humanity’s most indelible mark is houtis stories, and by obvious association, our songs.
Temple’s songs are entertaining, but meant to be more than entertainment; the current batch grew out of a five-month-long song-a-week challenge with the Band of Heathens’ Gordy Quist (who pitched in to co-write “Cracking the Code” and “Six Nations of Caledonia”). The material, however, came from Temple’s ever-observing songwriter’s eye. His lyrics outpace his melodies at this point, but the mostly low-key backing tracks include solid rhythm from Josh Flowers (bass) and Rick Richards (drums), graceful steel licks from Tommy Spurlock, and a handful of everything from multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Rhodes. Temple continues to emerge as a philosophical man who promotes empathy with the shared feelings, observations and stories of his songs. [©2013 Hyperbolium] 
OST: Running Wild – The Life of Dayton O. Hyde
Steve Poltz soundtrack for a documentary on Dayton O. Hyde
Steve Poltz’s soundtrack for Suzanne Mitchell’s documentary Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde, features eight new lyrical songs interspersed among seventeen short instrumentals. Poltz wrote his songs after visiting with Dayton Hyde at the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary he’d founded in 1988. The instrumentals tend to atmospheric and contemplative, though a few longer tracks, “Happier Hour” and “El Centro,” are full-band arrangements; the former is a bouncy country tune, the latter a growling rocker. Hyde’s background as a cowboy, rancher, rodeo rider, photographer and author were perhaps the only possible path to his ultimate role as a savior of wild horses. His accomplishments are extensive, often extending far beyond his personal well-being, and his gratitude is both deep and widespread.
Poltz employs country, rock and blues, collaborating with director Mitchell to fine-tune his songs to the film’s take on its subject’s character. The only track not written by Poltz is Lily Kaminsk’s “Phantom Love,” a haunting, lo-fi pop ballad performed by her band She Rose, and originally released in 2012. Poltz is a prolific artist and well-traveled troubadour, having released more than a dozen solo albums, including a disc full of answering machine recordings and a live CD/DVD package. But with all that under his belt, this is his first venture into soundtracks, and the flexibility of his style turns out to be well suited to both the needs of a film soundtrack and the strong character and fine shadings of this story’s protagonist. [©2013 Hyperbolium]
The Coals: A Happy Animal
West Coast Americana of country, folk and a taste of Dixieland
Though this Los Angeles band’s second album includes eight tracks, it clocks in at only twenty-two minutes. With an average song length of 2’45, you might expect music that’s a throwback to Top 40 pop, but the Coals are a folk-flavored Americana band, with road-weary vocals, acoustic and resonator guitars, drums, bass, keyboards and accordion. Vocalist Jason Mandell is an economical writer, and the band’s instrumental breaks provide accents rather than extended solos. Mandell is also a man in search of romantic redemption, brooding over unwanted farewells, pining for unrequited love, seeking the renewal of second chances and gently shedding the skin of failed relationships. He starts several songs in a shell-shocked monotone reminiscent of Leonard Cohen, but as the lyrics gain emotion, so does his voice gain melody. The band takes a New Orleans turn for “Dirt Road,” heads south of the border with Ryan Ross’s trumpet on “Maria,” falls into an easy country groove for “Steal My Heart,” and gives some old-timey twang to “Lord Lord Lord.” That’s a lot of range for eight short songs, but other than the hanging ending of the opener, none of the tracks feel incomplete. Mandell likes to make his point and move on to the next, which gives the album a jaunty pace. [©2013 Hyperbolium]
Stewart Eastham: The Man I Once Was
Day of the Outlaw front-man goes solo
Former Day of the Outlaw front man Stewart Eastham debuts as a solo with this semi-autobiographical album documenting his transition from Los Angeles to Nashville, and his rebirth in Music City. Ironically, given the genesis of his new songs, the album was actually produced by former band mate Burke Ericson in Los Angeles with West Coast musicians, including Ted Russell Kamp and steel player John McClung. Eastham began his musical journey as a drummer, working his way to the microphone of the band Minibike and its follow-on, Day of the Outlaw. As a vocalist and songwriter, Eastham’s folk-like storytelling provides continuity between the group’s two releases and this solo outing, but where Day of the Outlaw’s The Retribution Waltz leaned towards Stones-ish rock, his solo outing starts with traditional country at its core.
With change clearly on his mind, Eastham’s considered many sides of transition. The gospel-tinged opener “Let It Go” sets the stage by proselytizing an optimistic, future-facing outlook. One can imagine this song helping Eastham let go of the comfort he’d developed in Los Angeles by looking forward to the then-unknown opportunities of Nashville. That cross-country journey is essayed in the steel-heavy, foot-stomping “Born in California,” exploring the dichotomies – countryside and city, home and adventure – that have threaded throughout Eastham’s life. He describes the layer between his lyrics and characters as having gone transparent for this batch of songs, and you can feel the autobiographical connection both directly and in allegory. The co-dependent relationship of “Broken Hearted Lovers,” for example, may be a tie between people, or between Eastham and Los Angeles.
There’s a sorrowful edge to many of Eastham’s vocals, whether lamenting lost love or grappling with the ghosts that still haunt better times. His longing is sad, but not defeated, even in the face of the title track’s fictionalized horrors. He pulls out of the nosedive for the honky-tonk kiss-off “The Lights of Tennessee” and escape of “Butte County Line,” with the latter bouncing along with the small-town problems of Steve Earle’s Guitar Town set to the open-road rhythm of the Allman Brothers The album ventures away from twangy country with strings on “Someone New” and funky organ and bass on “Crawl Up Your Bottle,” but the solid singer-songwriter vibe reinforces Eastham’s decision to go solo, and the results are more personal and powerful than anything he’s recorded before. [©2013 Hyperbolium]
The Band of Heathens: Sunday Morning Record
Band of Heathens refine and expand their sound
The Band of Heathens continues to surprise. While their new album offers up the Americana and Little Feat-styled funk fans have come to expect, there’s a thread of late 1960s production pop that’s a welcome addition. This opening track, “Shotgun,” tips the album’s surprise with its nod to “Everybody’s Talkin’.” Gordy Quist sings the opening “I heard that you were talkin’ ’bout me, I heard you had a smile on your face while you cried, cried, cried,” with a rhythm and melody that easily brings to mind Fred Neil’s original couplet. The song quickly establishes its own sound, but the unison singing, keyboards and electric sitar-like guitar preview echoes of Curt Boettcher, Gary Usher and Brian Wilson heard in several of the album’s tracks.
Ed Jurdi opens the album’s second song with a voice as warm and soulful as Quist’s. Where the opener was pleased to see an indiscreet ex-lover (or, perhaps, a recently departed, smack-talking founding member of the band) receding in the rear-view mirror, “Caroline Williams” is rife with the pain and confusion of the left behind. Recently arrived drummer Richard Millsap adds both rhythm and melody with his tom toms, and a short instrumental pairing of piano and wordless vocals echoes another element of late-60s studio pop. Jurdi and Quest wrote this album amid both personal and band changes, and transition is a running theme. In addition to relationships in formation, reformation and dissolution, there’s a longing for stability and simplicity.
The Heathens’ complexities come to the fore in the personal inventories of “Since I’ve Been Home,” the funky “Miss My Life” and the media-saturated world of “Records in My Bed.” The latter, with some terrific 70s-styled electric piano by Trevor Nealon, fondly remembers the thrill a favorite record brought in a world not yet fragmented by always-on media. Jurdi and Quist are memorable vocalists, ranging from husky soul to fragile Elliot Smith-like falsetto, but  the variety of duet styles they manage is even more impressive. In addition to rootsy blends of country and soul, they bind tightly for pop harmonies that suggest Simon & Garfunkel, CS&N and the Beatles. Nealon and Millsap have added new elements to a band that was already multidimensional, making the Band of Heathens’ fourth studio album their most adventurous yet. [©2013 Hyperbolium]
James Booker: Classified – Remixed and Expanded
The last studio recordings of a New Orleans legend
Though often cited as one of three primary New Orleans piano legends, James Booker’s popular renown never grew to the size of Professor Longhair’s or Dr. John’s. Launching his career in the mid-50s, he was sidetracked by a late-60s drug bust and continuing brushes with the law. One of those brushes, apparently, was with legal counsel Harry Connick, Sr., whose son became one of Booker’s students. The mid-70s roots revival brought renewed opportunities for Booker, particularly in Europe, and upon returning to the U.S. he took up residency at the Maple Leaf Bar. At the end of this run, in 1982, he hurriedly recorded this last studio album, and the following year succumbed to the physical and mental ravages of his drug use. Rounder’s remixed and expanded 2013 reissue adds ten bonus tracks to the original dozen, including nine previously unissued performances.
Booker is heard here playing solo as well as with a quartet of Alvin “Red” Tyler, James Singleton and Johnny Vidacovich. Playing “with” the quartet may be an overstatement, as they often seem to be chasing songs that he selected on a whim. Still, his playing and singing both show a lot of verve in each setting. The material is drawn from an incredible array of sources, including R&B (Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” Doc Pomus’ “Lonely Avenue,” Leiber & Stoller’s “Hound Dog” and Titus Turner’s “All Around the World”), country (Roger Miller’s “King of the Road”), classical (Richard Addinsell’s “Warsaw Concerto”), jazz (“Angel Eyes”), film (Nino Rota’s “Theme from the Godfather”) and the great American songbook (“Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” and “Baby Face”). Booker also drew from the New Orleans repertoire with Allen Toussaint’s “All These Things,” Fats Domino’s “One for the Highway” and a Professor Longhair medley; but even when he was playing outside material, the Crescent City was always in his fingers.
The fluency with which Booker plays this wide range of material is breathtaking. He’s equally adept at classical fingerings, florid jazz changes, blue R&B chords and the rolling arpeggios of New Orleans. There are many highlights among the original album tracks, including a lighthearted take on “Baby Face” that shows more finesse than Little Richard’s 1958 hit, with a vocal that maintains the spark of Al Jolson. The reading of “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” added to this reissue is even funkier, with Booker on organ, a wicked second-line drum beat from Vidacovich and some fat sax from Tyler. There’s little hint of Eddie Cantor here (and perhaps a touch of Ricky Nelson‘s sax man), but the core emotion is swing. Booker’s classical training comes forward for dramatic readings of the Rachmaninoff inspired “Warsaw Concerto” and the title theme to the 1966 Lana Turner film Madame X. Note that “Madame X” was listed by its subtitle, “Swedish Rhapsody,” on previous reissues, but it’s the same track.
From the pop songbook, Booker tears into Leiber & Stoller’s “Hound Dog” and Roger Miller’s “King of the Road.” The former is played with great percussiveness, the latter as a haggard ballad. Booker’s singing never really matched the easiness of his piano, but it serves both of these songs well, the former coy and sassy, the latter a bit shopworn. The bonus solo take of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” is speedier than the band version included on the original album, but each approach has its own merits. Booker’s originals include the album’s title song, the bonus track “I’m Not Sayin’,” and the original closer, “Three Keys.” The first two have edgy rhythms and unusual fingerings that bring to mind Thelonious Monk, the third weaves “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” into a rolling New Orleans’ piano solo.
Rounder’s reissue was remastered from the 24-track analog tapes, and includes Bunny Matthews’ 1983 liner notes alongside new notes by producer Scott Billington. The latter’s stories of Booker’s fragile and agitated state belies the remaining solidity of his musical mentality and ability to perform. The song list is all over the map, but Booker’s intellect and talent are enough to hold the album together. He pays homage to New Orleans in both song and style, giving traditional R&B tunes their due and pulling everything else into his Crescent City orbit. There are few who could so naturally give the “Theme from the Godfather” a helping of rhythmic soul and then add romantic flourishes to the jazz standard “Angel Eyes.” The album’s original lineup can be heard by programming 6, 20, 10, 9, 17, 19, 1, 12, 7, 14, 2, 21, but the expanded, rearranged track list plays as beautifully as Booker’s piano. This set makes a nice companion to Lily Keber’s documentary Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker, and a good introduction to the breadth of Booker’s genius. [©2013 Hyperbolium]
Hypercast #1: Americana
A collection of recently released country, Americana, rock and folk, plus a few catalog items for good measure. Click the artist names below for associated album reviews.
Vince Gill and Paul Franklin “Nobody’s Fool But Yours”
Brian Wright “Over Yet Blues”
Escondido “Bad Without You”
Merle Haggard “The Fugitive”
Left Arm Tan “69 Reasons”
The Band of Heathens “Records in Bed”
One Mile an Hour “Sunken Ships”
Hall of Ghosts “Giant Water”
Greg Trooper “All the Way to Amsterdam”
Rick Shea “Gregory Ray DeFord”
The Barn Birds “Sundays Loving You”
Mando Saenz “Breakaway Speed”
Stewart Eastham “Crawl Up in Your Bottle”
Kris Kristofferson “Why Me”
Dwight Yoakam “Two Doors Down”
Nick Ferrio & His Feelings “Half the Time”
Kelly Willis “He Don’t Care About Me”
Various Artists: Live at Caffe Lena
An extraordinary collection of live folk performances
Three hours north of Greenwich Village, Caffe Lena proved as important to the folk revival as Gerde’s FolkCity or the Bitter End. Opened in 1960 by Bill and Lena Spencer, the coffee house has been run as a not-for-profit organization since Lena Spencer’s passing in 1989; its fifty-three year run is thought to be the longest for a U.S. coffee house. But more important than the business is the broad array of artists – famous, soon-to-be-famous and never-famous – who trod upon the venue’s stage. Caffe Lena played host to acoustic singer-songwriters, bluegrass bands, Irish fiddlers, gospel singers, delta bluesmen and the many others who fit under the umbrella of “folk music.”
In 2002, the Caffe Lena History Project began exploring and assessing the archive of documentation left by the cafe’s founder. This grew into parallel projects that investigated photographic and recorded materials, including a hundred reels of live recordings made in the 1960s and 70s, and cassettes from later decades. What’s particularly extraordinary about the recorded material (aside from the restoration’s ability to weave five decades of disparate tape sources into a surprisingly cohesive album) is its passive documentation of live performance. These performances were aimed entirely at the audience (whose applause and laughter are integral elements of the proceedings) rather than the tape recorder (or, in modern parlance, a smartphone YouTube posting). The performances were meant to live on in memory and influence, rather than recorded posterity, and that lack of permanence fosters an ephemeral intimacy with the audience.
Tompkins Square’s three-disc box set cherry picks forty-seven previously unreleased performances from the available tapes, and adds previously unpublished period photographs. The artist roll features many famous names of the 1960s, including Tom Paxton, Utah Phillips, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Arlo Guthrie, and Pete Seeger, but also leading lights of later decades and artists whose renown never matched the quality of their work. Caffe Lena was a launching point for both fame and art, and at times, the intertwining of the two. Missing from this set (either because tapes or rights weren’t available) are two of the cafe’s most famous patrons, Bob Dylan and Don McLean, but their absence can’t dim the bright lights presented here. This is a treasure for folk fans, and hopefully only the leading edge of additional archival releases. [©2013 Hyperbolium]
Suburban Legends: Dreams Aren’t Real But These Songs Are
Brassy, upbeat and joyous ska covers of classic Disney songs
Suburban Legends is a third-wave ska band (the first wave having been those from Jamaica, the second-wave being the British 2 Tone movement of the late-70s) that formed in Southern California in the late ’90s. Their new EP of classic Disney songs connects with both their earlier covers of “Under the Sea” and “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” and their tenure at the Disneyland resort. It was during the hundreds of concerts performed at Disneyland that the band experimented with dozens of cover songs, adding familiar, crowd-drawing titles to their set, while still maintaining their integrity as an original band. The six titles covered here are drawn from Cinderella (“A Dream is a Wish”), The Little Mermaid (“Kiss the Girl”), Pocahontas (“Colors of the Wind”), Toy Story (“You’ve Got a Friend in Me”), Beauty and the Beast and Duck Tails. The brassy arrangements are bright and fun, bridging the upbeat joy of ska with the craft of Disney’s songwriters. This EP will make a great stocking stuffer for Disney-loving kids or ska/pop-loving parents who can’t take one more spin of the original soundtracks. If you’ve ever stood in a long line for the Nemo submarine ride, and finding your toe tapping realize that the band on the Tomorrowland stage is really tearing it up, connecting with kids, parents and anyone else within earshot, you’ll know the sort of happiness that Suburban Legends brings to this EP. [©2013 Hyperbolium]