Tag Archives: Country

Merle Haggard: The Complete ‘60s Capitol Singles

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MerleHaggard_TheComplete60sCapitolSinglesHaggard’s original 1960s Capitol singles – A’s and B’s

As with their collections of singles on Wanda Jackson and George Jones, Ominvore’s anthology of twenty-eight Merle Haggard sides – fourteen A’s and their respective B’s – shows off a perspective not covered by greatest hits collections or original album reissues. In addition to Haggard’s thirteen charting 1960s Capitol A-sides (eight of which topped the charts), the set includes the non-charting “Shade Tree Fix-it-Man.” Haggard wrote all but one of the A-sides (“The Fugitive,” penned by Liz Anderson), and most of the flips, but his first Capitol single was backed by a lush-stringed arrangement of Ralph Mooney’s “Falling for You,” and he later covered Anderson’s sorrowful “This Town’s Not Big Enough.”

Haggard’s B-sides are far from the filler many producers used to force DJ’s onto the plug side; the productions were carefully crafted, and the instrumental backings are often highlighted by Ralph Mooney’s piercing steel and Roy Nichols’ sharply picked electric and resophonic guitars. It’s hard to imagine how DJs kept themselves from flipping “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde” to play the equally attractive “I Started Loving You Again.” There are a few lighter sides, like “The Girl Turned Ripe,” but the lyrics are most often of afflicted love – relationships bound to end, ending, or receding too slowly in the rear view mirror. Haggard’s jazzier inclinations come out on Hank Cochran’s “Loneliness is Eating Me Alive” and the original “Good Times,” and his love of Jimmie Rodgers is heard in a cover of “California Blues.”

The collection includes singles that are among Haggard’s best and most loved recordings, commencing (with “Swinging Doors”) a run of top-charting singles that ran for nearly twenty-five years. All twenty-eight sides are remastered from the original singles mixes, and in mono for everything but 1969’s “Okie From Muskogee” and it’s flip “If I Had Left it Up to You.” The sound is crisp and leaps from the speakers, and the sixteen-page booklet includes session and release data, photos, ephemera and new liner notes by ace guitarist Deke Dickerson. Those looking for a broader recitation of Haggard’s career should seek out the 4-CD Down Every Road, Bear Family’s box sets [1 2 3 4], or the numerous reissues of his original album (including many two-fers of his Capitol work); but for a great listen to his initial run as a hit-maker, this set is a first-class ticket. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Merle Haggard’s Home Page

Wanda Jackson: The Best of the Classic Capitol Singles

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WandaJackson_BestOfTheClassicCapitolSingles

Recent collections of singles from Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Ray Charles and others have shed new light on much-loved performers. In addition to well-known hits, these anthologies highlight the valiant misses and B-sides that faded from an artist’s repertoire as their catalog was reduced to greatest hits collections. Wanda Jackson’s rockabilly and country recordings have been well-served in reissue, with both original albums and anthologies in print, but Omnivore’s 29-track collection provides an expanded view of her career as a singles artist. In addition to her well-loved A-sides “Hot Dog! That Made Him Made,” “Cool Love,” “Fujiyama Mama,” “Honey Bop,” “Mean Mean Man,” “Rock Your Baby,” “Let’s Have a Party,” “Riot in Cell Block Number Nine,” “Right or Wrong,” and “In the Middle of a Heartache,” the set is stocked with ace chart-misses and B-sides.

As early as 1956 Jackson was backing up her incendiary rockabilly singles with country flips that included “Half a Good a Girl” and the maiden recording of Jack Rhodes and Dick Reynolds’ “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.” She added a rockabilly croon to the Cadillacs’ bluesy doo-wop B-side “Let Me Explain” and shined brightly on Boudleaux Bryant’s calypso novelty “Don’a Wan’a.” Her ballads were often backed by Jordanaires-styled male harmonies and hard-twanging guitars (courtesy of A-list players Joe Maphis and Buck Owens) that keep her rock ‘n’ roll roots simmering. Even more straightforward country weepers like “No Wedding Bells for Joe” and “Sinful Heart” have downbeats that are more insistent than their Nashville contemporaries.

Jackson’s original “Little Charm Bracelet” didn’t make the charts, but it’s a cleverly written story of a relationship’s hopeful start and interrupted ending. Fans may be surprised to find that the favorite “Funnel of Love” was actually a B-side (to the country hit “Right or Wrong”), as the release signaled the beginnings of Jackson’s transition to the country charts. Still, even as the A-sides turned country, the B-sides held onto their sass with originals “I’d Be Ashamed” and “You Bug Me Bad,” and a bouncy version of Bobby Bare’s “Sympathy.” The productions are split between Los Angeles (tracks 1-17) and Nashville (tracks 18-29), and while the latter show countrypolitan touches, several of Jackson’s hottest rock ‘n’ roll records were recorded with Roy Clark and other Music City luminaries.

Jackson’s still recording vital new works today, including a 2012 release produced by Justin Townes Earle. There have also been anthologies of her rockabilly sides, best-ofs [1 2], album reissues [1 2 3 4], and box sets that tell the complete story from 1954 through 1973 [1 2]. Every one of these sets has something to offer, as does Omnivore’s look at Jackson’s singles from her rockabilly and initial country years. This isn’t a complete retelling, as its missing non-LP singles and leaves the last decade of her run on Capitol unexplored, but what’s here, all in superbly crafted mono, is terrific. The A-sides are well-known but not worn-out, the B-sides rare treasures, and the 16-page booklet includes fresh liner notes from Daniel Cooper, session and release data, photos and ephemera. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Wanda Jackson’s Home Page

Chicago Farmer: Backenforth, IL

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ChicagoFarmer_BackenforthILMidwestern folk brings country to town

Though “Chicago Farmer” was originally the name of his band, six albums in, it’s become a solo sobriquet for Cody Diekhoff. A native of Delavan, IL (population 1,825), Diekhoff replanted his rural roots in the big city whose name was bestowed upon him. He cites Woody Guthrie and fellow Illinoisan John Prine as influences, but there’s a good helping of country in his folk songs, and his voice cuts through with a high-lonesomeness that may remind you of Hank Williams, Green on Red’s Dan Stuart or Roky Erickson. He often performs solo (and does so on a few tracks here), but for this outing he’s gathered Chicago players on guitar, bass, drums, organ, resonator, dobro and pedal steel, and christened the aggregation “the Hired Hands.” You’d hardly know they were a session band, as the live-to-analog-tape performances have the we’re-so-tight-we-can-swing looseness of a road-honed unit. Diekhoff’s songs blend the details of country living with big-city realities as he sings of a small town’s suffocating embrace and the protective prescience of a rural upbringing. There are songs of rooted worry and existential angst, and the album’s title track, with its swinging steel and Merle Travis-styled picking, is sing-along ready. Audience participation is apparently a regular feature of Diekhoff’s live shows, and the inviting nature of his songs translates well to record. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Chicago Farmer’s Home Page

Jeff Black: B-Sides and Confessions, Volume Two

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JeffBlack_BSidesAndConfessionsVol2Moving set of originals from a master singer-songwriter

Nashville singer-songwriter Jeff Black complements his previous volume of B-sides and Confessions (one he presciently suffixed with “Vol. 1” back in 2003) with this second helping. It’s an unexpected treat, given that his last album, Plow Through the Mystic, is just a year old. Though a couple of tracks, including the lead-off “All Right Now,” end too quickly, the notion of “B Sides” is more a humble moment of self-deprecation than a fair assessment of the material’s quality and readiness. The latter half of the album’s title is the more apt description, as Black’s country-tinged folk music is personal and touching. Whether singing in his own voice or that of characters, Black’s songs are revealing in their observation point. “Alice Carry” is a widow looking back, but rather than memorializing regret at what wasn’t, she displays contentment with what was. Black turns inward for “True Love Never Let Me Down,” but rather than simply observing himself, he observes others critiquing his work. Black is joined by fellow singer-songwriters Matraca Berg and Gretchen Peters, and instrumentalists Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, but as on all his previous releases, his words and voice hold down center stage with a craft so deeply in the artistic pocket that it obscures anything outside. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Jeff Black’s Home Page

Henry Wagons: Expecting Company?

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HenryWagons_ExpectingCompanyDark duets album from Aussie singer-songwriter

Henry Wagons’ namesake band has been galloping about Australia since their 2002 debut, but this EP is the singer-songwriter’s first “solo” effort. There are quotes around that because, as the title suggests, Wagons welcomes partners (including the Kills’ Allison Mosshart and the Go-Between’s Robert Forster) on six of the seven tracks. The more straight-forward country sounds of 2011’s Rumble, Shake and Tumble have widened into the sort of cinematic Ennio Morricone-vein once spun by Wall of Voodoo. Wagons sings darkly themed songs in low tones reminiscent of NickCave, Johnny Cash and Lee Hazelwood. The latter’s eccentric drama attaches especially well to lyrics of rat-filled nightmares, an executioner’s lament, an unchaste ode to Mary Magdelene, cheating and second-chance appeals. The set closes with, “Marylou Two,” remade from his group’s last album, and its lyric of loneliness is sung here as the EP’s only solo vocal. This is a good taste of Henry Wagons’ music, though several shades darker than that made with his eponymous group. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Henry Wagons’ Home Page

Paul Sikes: Craft

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PaulSikes_CraftSkillfully crafted debut from a Nashville-born singer-songwriter

Paul Sikes is a rarity among Nashville country artists – a hometown boy. There are many Tennesseans in the industry, but those actually born in MusicCity, such as Deana Carter, Hank Williams III and Matraca Berg, are surprisingly rare. Sikes goes one step farther, in that he’s not the child of a professional musician; though both his parents are musical, he moved from childhood piano lessons to guitar to songwriting, and eventually to a college education in both performance and the music business. He’s worked as a publishing house songwriter (landing cuts with Emerson Drive, Billy Dean and others), but his background as both a performer and producer has led to this charming self-produced release.

Sikes sings with a sweetness that may remind you of Vince Gill, and like Gill, he’s also an accomplished picker. He’s quite soulful, as shown in the shuffling beat of the Little Feat-influenced opener, “Show You Now,” and as a writer, he finds original twists on well-worn themes. His fish-out-of-water story, “Swear I’m in a Small Town,” views big city experiences through the hometown memories he shares with his mate, and “A Seed” is sung from the perspective of a tree whose humble beginnings provides inspirational stories of possibilities. He couches the breakup of “Tin Man” in self depreciation, and sings the love song “Me, You and Malibu” as easy, supper-club jazz.

Sikes is a meticulous producer and engineer, giving the album’s title meaning beyond the songwriting. There are a few modern instrumental touches and some strings, but the clarity of the voices and guitars is the album’s calling card. The variety of styles plays like a songwriter’s demo reel, with acoustic country and blues, electric country-rock, inspirational melodies and swinging rhythms all sharing space. The CD (currently only available at Sikes’ shows) closes with a hidden bluegrass track written by Sikes’ proud Tennessean grandmother, Mildred Joyce. “My Home Tennessee” provides a sweet, home-spun ending to this finely crafted album of original Nashville song. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Paul Sikes’ Home Page

Buck Owens: Honky Tonk Man – Buck Sings Country Classics

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BuckOwens_HonkyTonkManPreviously unreleased cache of cover songs

After dozens of original album reissues, an omnibus box set series [1 2 3], pre-Bakersfield and post-Capitol material, tributes [1 2 3], and a two collections of duets with Susan Raye, one might wonder what was left in the vault. Omnivore answers that question this month with two new releases, including a previously unreleased album by Owens’ right-hand man, Don Rich, and this volume of cover songs originally recorded for the syndicated run of television’s Hee Haw. Those who enjoyed Owens’ weekly performances at his Bakersfield club might remember how enthusiastically he played requests for country classics, and how easily they mixed with his original hits. The same was true for his television performances, where the covers gave older audiences a comforting connection to country music’s past.

The eighteen tracks collected here were originally produced by Owens between 1972 and 1975 in his Bakersfield studio for exclusive use on the television show. In the recording studio, Owens would lay down a guide vocal that was dropped for the television soundtrack; Owens sang live on the Hee Haw set as the band mimed the backing track. But ever the perfectionist, Owens invested in the guide vocals, giving performances that demonstrate his deep affection for these songs. The Buckaroos, led by Don Rich on all but one recording from 1975, were as sharp as ever, and though the backing tracks were reduced to mono for Hee Haw, this CD is mixed in full-fidelity stereo from the original multi-track studio masters.

The songs reach back as early as 1928 for Jimmie Rodgers “In the Jailhouse Now,” but focus heavily on the 40s, 50s and 60s. A pair from the mid-40s include Bob Wills’ “Stay a Little Longer” and Jack Guthrie’s “Oklahoma Hills,” and Johnny Horton’s mid-50s hit “Honky Tonk Man” would become a hit for Owens’ protégé, Dwight Yoakam, in the mid-80s. Owens gives a nod to fellow Bakersfield resident Merle Haggard with “Swinging Doors” and fellow country music iconoclast Waylon Jennings with “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line.” There are three songs from Hank Williams’ catalog, a superbly forlorn take of Ray Price’s “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You” and tunes written or made famous by Hank Snow, Faron Young and Webb Pierce.

Owens, together with then-recently added Buckaroo Jim Shaw, picked these titles from the catalogs of artists who’d been early Owens influences as well as his contemporaries. The album closes with a cover of Johnny Russell’s “Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer,” connecting back to Owens’ first chart-topper, the Russell-written “Act Naturally.” These covers don’t sport the genre-busting invention Owens had pioneered in the 1960s, but neither are they mere recitations – Owens was too devoted an artist to merely fill space, even on a scratch track he never expected the public to hear. If you love Buck Owens and classic country songs, this unexpected and rare treat is for you. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Buck Owens’ Home Page

Don Rich: Sings George Jones

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DonRich_SingsGeorgeJonesPreviously unreleased solo album from Buck Owens’ right-hand man

Though Don Rich achieved greatness as Buck Owens’ band leader, guitarist, fiddler, harmony vocalist and musical foil, his solo stardom stayed on the backburner. An anthology of his instrumental and vocal turns with the Buckaroos was issued in 2000, but his only true solo album was shelved after its recording in 1970. As with the anthology, this first-ever release of Rich’s turn in the spotlight shows him to be a warm vocalist, perhaps not quite as polished a lead or as star-ready as Owens, but distinct, compelling and certainly worthy of some early ‘70s chart action. Produced by Owens in his Bakersfield studio, and backed by the 1970 edition of the Buckaroos (including Rich, Buddy Alan Owens, Jim Shaw, Doyle Curtsinger and Jerry Wiggins), the sound is much the same as Owens’ own recordings of the era.

The song list sticks mostly to Jones’ familiar hits of the early-to-mid-1960s, though it reaches back to 1957 for “Too Much Water.” Rich sings his own harmonies, but the doubled vocals sound remarkably like the Owens-Rich (or Owens-Owens) combination heard on the Buckaroos recordings. Supplementing the album’s original ten tracks are four more Jones covers originally recorded for Hee Haw and featuring Buck Owens singing lead. Neither Rich nor Owens sing anything like Jones, nor do the Buckaroos sound like a Nashville band, all of which help liberate these songs from Jones’ long artistic shadow. As with Omnivore’s companion volume of Buck Owens’ recordings for Hee Haw, this vault find is a welcome discovery and a real treat for fans of Don Rich, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Gabriel Kelley: It Don’t Come Easy

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GabrielKelley_ItDontComeEasyCountry, rock and soul

Kelley is a singer-songwriter brought full-circle to his rural roots after stops in Sweden, Nashville and Guatemala. Born in Virginia, his taste was seeded by his parents’ music: Leon Russell, Neil Young, John Prine and others. His songwriting sprouted during two years of vagabonding that eventually led to a staff writing position in Nashville. But Music City’s stock liturgy turned out to be too confining: “Nashville was kinda like cowboy hats and belt buckles, and I was more the long-haired granola kid.” He left publishing, spent more time abroad and returned to a vagabonding life that freed him to pour his experience into songs rather than songwriting appointments. What emerged, funded by a Kickstarter campaign, is a fervent, soulful singer-songwriter.

Kelley sings in his own voice, rather than one designed to capture a market segment. He writes invitations to an emotionally closed mate and anchors himself to faith as he sends out lifelines. Ironically, it’s Kelley himself who could often use the lifelines as he wavers between loneliness and forgiveness, rarely finding resolution in either. He wallows deeply in the details of his misery on the closing “Holding Me Down,” and the album’s one moment of contentment “See Ya Comin'” is more memory and expectation than here-and-now. The latter features passionate, gospel-infused backing vocals from Bekka Bramlett, Marueen Murphy and Gabe Dixon.

Neal Cappelino’s productions of guitar, drums, keyboards, pedal steel and harmonica are often quite grand, but they’re tethered by Kelley’s earthiness. The rolling guitar figures and strong walking beat of “Only Thing to Do” are supplemented by Wurlitzer piano, a string quartet and sitar-like twangs that come from either Jon Graboff’s pedal steel or Reggie Young’s guitar. The latter provides inspiring musical figures throughout, highlighting Kelley’s songs with dollops of soul, just as he did for the Box Tops and numerous others over the years. This is a sophisticated debut from a songwriter with confidence in his lyrical and singing voices, and a backing band that offers up stirring mixes of country, rock and soul. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Gabriel Kelley’s Home Page

Bill Wilson: Ever Changing Minstrel

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BillWilson_EverChangingMinstrelExtraordinary, yet virtually unknown singer-songwriter Americana from 1973

A label as big as Columbia in the early ‘70s was bound to miss a few opportunities, even ones they’d signed, recorded and released. Such was the case for this 1973 rarity, the product of an Indiana singer-songwriter, the famous producer he engaged and the all-star studio band wrangled for the occasion. The singer-songwriter is the otherwise unknown Bill Wilson, the producer, who’d already helmed key albums for Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen, was Bob Johnston, and the band was a collection of Nashville legends that featured Charlie McCoy, Pete Drake and Jerry Reed. Wilson had made Johnston’s acquaintance by knocking on his door and naively asking to make a record; Johnston agreed to listen to one song, and by that evening, was in the studio with his unknown artist and hastily assembled band.

The record features a dozen original songs, and though released by Columbia, it was quickly lost in the wake of Clive Davis’ departure from the label (and reportedly a pot bust). The few copies that circulated disappeared before the album could even make an impression as a sought-after, long-lost treasure. It just vanished. It wasn’t until former Sony staffer Josh Rosenthal found a copy in a record store bargain bin that the title dug its way out of obscurity to this reissue. Johnston and Wilson never saw one another after their recording session, but Johnston was able to sketch out the album’s background. Wilson had landed in Austin after a stint in the Air Force, and found that Johnston had set up base there after leaving his position as a staff producer at Columbia. Wilson had some prior musical experience, singing and playing dobro in local bands, but it was as a singer-songwriter with a Southern edge, that he was compelled to make music.

Wilson’s touchstones included Dylan (and perhaps Bobby Darin’s late-60s activist sides), but also Austin songwriter Townes van Zandt, singer-guitarist Tony Joe White, and the open road sound of the Allman Brothers. The quality of the songs and performances would be impressive as a peak moment among an artist’s catalog, but as a one-off it’s truly extraordinary. Wilson is confident and earthy, while the band handles his material as if they’d been playing it on tour for years. The songs, in shades of folk, blues and rock, touch on traditional singer-songwriter themes, and the religiously-themed numbers have a strong hippie vibe. The label lists this as remastered from tape, but there seem to be a few vinyl artifacts that are more patina than distraction. The album’s rediscovery is an incredible feat of crate digging, and its return to circulation is most welcome. [©2013 Hyperbolium]