Tag Archives: Country

Janis Martin: The Blanco Sessions

Leave a reply

The original rockabilly filly heats up her final session

If you’re going to cut a rock ‘n’ roll record – a real rock ‘n’ roll record – dropping eleven tracks in two days is the way to do it. Get everyone in a room, run ‘em through the songs once or twice and let it fly. It doesn’t need polish and pitch correction, it needs abandon and raw energy, and rockabilly singer Janis Martin had the latter two in spades. Recorded only a few months before she passed away, these sides find Martin’s voice deeper than her late ‘50s work as “the female Elvis,” and though she no longer had the tone of youth, she still had the fire. Longtime friend Rosie Flores (who’d coaxed Martin into the studio to sing on 1995’s Rockabilly Filly) pulled together a talented band of Austin-based musicians and produced this album of retro-rockabilly in 2007. It’s taken five years to get it released, but it was well worth the wait.

The sessions proved a fitting farewell as drummer Bobby Trimble and upright bassist Beau Sample goose the rhythms as all-star guitarist Dave Biller and pianist T. Jarrod Bonta sling themselves around the vocals. At  67, Martin was still connected to the verve of her teenage years, and prodded by the band – particularly Trimble’s backbeats – she really belts out the tunes. The material is a connoisseur’s collection of R&B, rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and country, reaching back to the early years, as well as touch on revival material, like Dave Alvin’s “Long White Cadillac.” Backing vocals fromFloresand a guest duet with Kelly Willis (added in 2011) fill out a terrific final chapter in the career of a genuine rockabilly star. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Janis Martin at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
Rosie Flores’ Home Page

Radney Foster: Del Rio, Texas Revisited – Unplugged & Lonesome

Leave a reply

Masterful reinterpretation of a country classic

Twenty years after his debut as a solo act, Radney Foster revisits the record with which he broke through commercially. The original Del Rio, TX 1959, released by Arista in 1992, spun off five Top 40 singles, including the memorable “Just Call Me Lonesome” and “Nobody Wins.” Foster’s continued to record terrific material, including 2009’s masterful Revival, and developed an intensely loyal following, but he’s never re-struck the chart success chord of his debut. To be fair, he long ago gave up making records for the mainstream, leaving Arista after three albums for independent releases and more recently, his own label. With his latest effort, he ties the two ends of his solo career together by re-recording his debut with twenty years of hindsight and a free artistic palette.

The original album’s honky-tonk and then-contemporary country sounds are replaced here by unplugged, live-in-the-studio arrangements; the comfortably worn-in product of two decades touring this material. At 53, Foster’s new interpretations work on two levels: looking back at his 33-year-old self (who was, at the time, looking back at his even younger self), and rethinking younger responses with mid-life reflexes. The broken heart of “Just Call Me Lonesome” is twenty years further from the singer’s first and twenty years closer to his last. Experience turns out to be both informative and exasperating, and repetition both soothing and alarming. The farewells are more fatalistic than wounded, broken promises no longer hold an emotional surprise that’s due a meaningful apology, and unfulfilled expectations are met with more weariness than disappointment.

The eagerness of Foster’s 30-something self, a singer then on the cusp of his solo career, has given way to a more considered and wizened voice. The emotional centers of his songs gain layers as they’re slowed and sung in a reflective tone. “A Fine Line” initially offered the urgent feel of Steve Earle’s Guitar Town, but replays as a songwriter’s nostalgic meditation, and “Louisiana Blue” resigns from a two-stepping honky-tonk bruise to a deeper wallow in blue misery. The younger Foster sings “Hammer and Nails” with the full-throated enthusiasm of an explorer setting out on a monumental journey, while the elder Foster sings with the experience of one who’s already hacked his way through love’s jungle.

Foster’s tweaked the original album cover as well, adding the easy smile and forward-leaning confidence (not to mention gray hair) of an artist who’s proved himself. He welcomes numerous harmony singers, with particularly notable performances from Georgia Middleman (“Nobody Wins”) and Jack Ingram (“Hammer and Nails”), and Ashley Arrison sings her accompaniment on the stripped-down arrangement of “Nobody Wins” as more of a duet than did Mary Chapin Carpenter on the original. The album’s original ten-tracks have been shuffled slightly, with “Old Silver” moved up from the album’s end, “Went for a Ride” dropped to the last position, and a new track, “Me and John R,” added to the lineup. All in all, this is a terrific bookend for the first twenty years of Foster’s solo work. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Radney Foster’s Home Page

Clover: Clover / Fourty Niner

Leave a reply

Early ‘70s country-rock, blues and soul from Marin County

Clover was a Marin County, California four-piece that formed in the late ‘60s and recorded this pair of albums for Fantasy Records in 1970-71. Their renown, however, stems from later exploits, including the slot as Elvis Costello’s backing band on his 1977 debut, My Aim is True, as well as spinning off Huey Lewis and the News, and launching the solo and songwriting (including Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny”) career of Alex Call. Their original albums didn’t catch on upon initial release, and have been tough to find. Reissued on this two-fer, the performances reveal a band drawing inspiration from both the San Francisco scene and the country-rock wafting up from Los Angeles, and with additional dashes of blues and soul Clover was ready to rock the local clubs and bars.

The albums, like the band’s set list, sprinkled covers (Jr. Walker’s “Shotgun” Rev. Gary Davis’ “If I Had My Way” and a Creedence-styled jam on the spiritual “Wade in the Water” that surely stretched out to fifteen minutes on stage) amid originals that included country, electric blues, and jazz- and funk-rock. The former comes in several varieties, including the traditional-sounding lament “No Vacancy,” Bakersfield-influenced “Monopoly,” Clarence White-styled guitar picking of “Lizard Rock and Roll Band,” and bluegrass “Chicken Butt.” Guitarist John McFree shows off his steel playing on “Howie’s Song,” and drummer Mitch Howie adds funky beats to “Love is Gone.” In the end, Clover was a good band, though not particularly distinct, and their albums provide a reminder of how deep the bench was in the San Francisco scene. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Johnny Cash: The Greatest

Leave a reply

In celebration of Johnny Cash’s 80th birthday, Sony’s Legacy division has released a tributary live show (We Walk the Line) and a quartet of compilations covering his #1 hits, duets, country and gospel songs. The titles are cleverly punctuated (The Greatest: Duets) to suggest these are songs from one of country greatest artists, rather than definitive collections of the named slice of Cash’s catalog. And that’s a good idea, since reducing Cash’s greatest country or gospel songs to collections of fourteen titles is sure to engender argument. Instead, these collections provide a good sample of the riches in Cash’s enormous catalog.

Country Classics

Cash was a musical omnivore who wove his personal tapestry from folk, country, rock and other genres. He was a musical historian who married into the Carter family he’d long-since revered, and a steward of tradition as a living thing, rather than a pedant who always colored inside the historical lines. The selections gathered here are about the songs and performances, rather than the records – only one of which (“Ghost Rider in the Sky”) – was a hit single. To Cash, these songs were warp threads in country music’s tapestry. And though he wrote many of his own country classics, the producers have focused on others’ songs that meant enough to Cash to garner a cover.

“Country Classics” is to be taken in the wide screen that Johnny Cash lived as an artist. The song list here includes foundational folk songs, historical epics, murder ballads, and numerous songs of romantic longing and heartache. The recordings stretch from 1960 covers of Hank Williams (“I’m So Lonesome I Could Die”) and Hank Thompson (“Honky-Tonk Girl”) to a 1984 recording of the Browns’ “The Three Bells.” Much like the titles on Rosanne Cash’s The List, these are songs that country music listeners should know; some famous, some obscure, but each one a piece of the colorful picture Johnny Cash painted with his career.  

Duets

This collection pulls together duets from 1962 (“Another Man Done Gone,” with Anita Carter) through 1985 (“Jim, I Wore a Tie Today,” with Willie Nelson), and shows off Cash’s gravitational pull as a partner. Even when singing with strong stylists, Cash draws his partners into his own musical universe, as he does with George Jones on “I Got Stripes.” The equation is reversed as Cash sings withJennings, the latter’s ‘70s sound backing “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang.” Cash’s tic-tac and Jenning’s phased guitar mix for “I Wish I Was Crazy Again,” and the two meet in the middle with the rolling trail rhythm of 1978’s “The Greatest Cowboy of Them All.”

Friendship (or kinship) is a central theme of Johnny Cash’s best duets. These weren’t marriages of commercial convenience; they were instances of folk music’s most vital conduit. Cash was a singular musical figure, but one who drew widely for both musical inspiration and personal sustenance. Three of his four Top 10’s with June Carter Cash are here, as are duets with Cash’s younger brother Tommy, his musical fellow-traveler Bob Dylan, and fellow outlaws Willie Nelson and Billy Joe Shaver. The selections are drawn from original albums, Cash’s television show, appearances on other artist’s albums and session tracks previously released as bonus cuts. The set includes liner notes from David McGee.

Gospel Songs

Though Johnny Cash had his share of personal demons, he was a man of deep faith, and a regular singer of gospel music. It’s rumored that he moved to the Columbialabel to escape Sam Phillips’ inability to see a market for an entire album of sacred songs, and to record the 1959 album Hymns by Johnny Cash. Cash had recorded songs of faith at Sun (including the first two titles here), and continued to do so at Columbia, sprinkling them throughout his albums and recording purpose-built volumes such as The Holy Land, from which this collection draws Carl Perkins’ “Daddy Sang Bass” and the original “He Turned the Water Into Wine.”

The bulk of these selections are from the late 1950s through the 1960s, with only “Far Side of Banks of Jordan,” a duet with June Carter Cash, reaching into the 1970s. Many of these recordings aren’t really gospel; “gospel and country songs of faith” would be a more accurate title. Cash’s sanctified work from of the 1970s and 1980s can be found on the double-disc Bootleg Vol. IV: The Soul of Truth, but these earlier master recordings are a better musical spin, and provide a fine overview of material scattered across dozens of original singles and albums.

The Number Ones

This set collects titles that topped either the Billboard or Cashbox charts, forgoing several that topped the Canadian country chart without doing so in the U.S. The collection draws a diverse arc from Cash’s stark, reverb-laden Sun productions of the ‘50s to his last #1, “Highwayman,” sung with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.  Most of the titles will be familiar to even casual Cash fans, though a few of the Cashbox hits, “The Way of a Woman in Love,” “What Do I Care” and a duet with Jennings on “”There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang” remain less exposed. Tracks 1-5 are mono, the rest stereo (“A Boy Named Sue” is presented in unbleeped form), and the booklet includes lengthy new liner notes by Anthony DeCurtis. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Johnny Cash’s Home Page

Various Artists: We Walk the Line – A Celebration of the Music of Johnny Cash

Leave a reply

All-star tribute to Johnny Cash on the 80th anniversary of his birth

This CD+DVD set documents an all-star tribute to Johnny Cash that was held in April 2012 inAustin,Texas. The lineup includes Cash’s outlaw peers, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, and a lengthy list of No Depression favorites that includes Buddy Miller, Rhett Miller and the Carolina Chocolate Drops; the latter burn up their cover of “Jackson,” with Rhiannon Giddens sawing her fiddle and channeling the sass of June Carter Cash at the same time. The nineteen tracks also include pairings of Kristofferson with Jamey Johnson, Nelson with Sheryl Crow, and Shooter Jennings with Amy Nelson. Nelson, Kristofferson,Jenningsand Johnson band together to sing the Highwayman’s “Highwayman,” and the full ensemble gathers to close the show with “I Walk the Line.”

The song list stretches from Cash’s first single “Cry Cry Cry” (and its flip “Hey Porter”) to his last, “Hurt,” the latter sung pained, weary and a bit wandering by Lucinda Williams. The house backing band (led by Don Was and featuring Kenny Aronoff, Ian McLagen, Greg Leisz and perennial all-star Buddy Miller), draws continuity across the performances, and the live setting wrings terrific emotion and energy from the singers. Brandi Carlile may not have done jail time, but her growls and blue yodels hit the notes of anger, desperation and resignation Cash wrote into “Folsom Prison Blues.” Shelby Lynne sings “Why Me Lord” with arresting gospel fervor, and Iron & Wine’s “The Long Black Veil” is both sad and stalwart.

The 64-minute CD omits the stage patter (including that of stage host Matthew McConaughey) presented on the 77-minute DVD, and reorders the set list. The widescreen, multi-camera video (with either stereo or Dolby 5.1 audio) adds dimension to the performances, as you see the emotion the vocalists put into their performances and the distinction with which the instrumentalists pull together as a band. Drummer Kenny Aranoff plays with joy and freedom on “Get Rhythm,” Don Was sways blissfully with his bass as he watches Buddy Miller solo, and McGlagen’s fingers fly across the piano keys for “Wreck of the Old 97.” The DVD extras include Willie Nelson rehearsing “I Still Miss Someone,” McConaughey performing “The Man Comes Around,” artist interviews and a short making-of video. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Johnny Cash’s Home Page

Pat Green: Songs We Wished We’d Written II

Leave a reply

Second album of covers from devout Texas traveler

Texas is a big place. Big enough for musical stars to develop careers that barely touch the distant lands on the state’s borders. Pat Green was born in San Antonio, raised in Waco, attended Texas Tech, played the clubs of Lubbock, self-released four albums, found a mentor in fellow-Texan Willie Nelson, toured all over the Lone Star state and developed mainstream sponsors, all before signing with Universal in 2001.His albums have cracked the Top 20, and his singles the Top 40, but he’s never become a mainstream country star. And that’s generally been to his artistic advantage. Nashville doesn’t need someone whose maturity would resist molding, and given the size of his home state audience, Green doesn’t really need Nashville.

His latest album repeats the title and theme of 2001’s Songs We Wish We’d Written, though this time he leads his crack road band without the co-piloting of Cory Morrow. Green’s given a lot of thought to the songs that inspired him, and his choice of covers says as much about him as about the songwriters he reveres. Running down selections from Joe Ely, Jon Randall, Lyle Lovett, Shelby Lynne and Tom Petty, gives listeners a sense of what you’d hear on Green’s tour bus, and songs by lesser-known writers Aaron Tasjan and Waylon Payne, include suggestions from his friends, family and band members.

The album’s best known numbers – Lovett’s “If I Had a Boat” and Petty’s “Even the Losers” – quickly remind listeners this is an album of interpretations rather than rote covers. The former’s reverential arrangement echoes the song’s impact on Green’s formation as an artist, while the latter blends Green’s love of Tom Petty with an arrangement that grows from Springsteen-styled piano-and-voice to full-blown rock ‘n’ roll howl. The Springsteen influence is heard again in the lyrical tone of Shelby Lynne’s “Jesus on a Greyhound” and likewise on Ely’s “All Just to Get to You.” Green adds some country twists to his vocal, and his guitarist’s Allman-esque slide mates well to the E-Street vibe coming off the drums, bass and organ.

The Allman’s crop up again with “Soulshine” (from 1994’s Where it All Begins), and though the song’s become more closely associated with Gov’t Mule, Greene leans more on the bluesy treatment of the former than the jam-band flavor of the latter. Green is rightly proud of his road band, and the Celtic-tinged arrangement they provide on Aaron Tasjan’s wordy folk song “Streets of Galilee” is a nice addition. The album closes with Green and fellow Texan Jack Ingram rocking with confidence on Todd Snider and Will Kimbrough’s “I Am Too.” Green’s fans will enjoy this second helping of songs he’s wished he’d written, and fans of the originals may likewise be impressed by Green’s adulatory spins on their favorites. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Pat Green’s Home Page

Walt Wilkins: Plenty

Leave a reply

Texas hill country soul

Texas singer-songwriter Walt Wilkins gets deeper with every release. Having spent ten years as a Nashville songwriter, Wilkins returned to his native Texas. He reminisces about his time on Music Row in “Between Midnight and Day,” but doesn’t miss it, and it’s in his native hill country, physically and mentally between San Antonio and Austin, that his music has grown more earthen and multihued. The absence of songwriting appointments, clocked sessions and market-driven recording/touring cycles has provided Wilkins time to develop a stockpile of material and a community of like-minded musicians. He’s hung on to the country, rock and soul sounds of his earlier work, but there’s more of a folk-singer’s eye to his new lyrics, and the delivery has the cadence of deep thought, rather than rehearsal.

The album opens under a shade tree, sharing Wilkins love of the spot’s introspective possibilities; it’s one of several songs that find Wilkins connecting to natural surroundings. He’s contented dipping his toes in the river and professes his love for the hill country in “A Farm to Market Romance.” The assembled musicians all breathe the same Cottonwood-scented air, as their music echoes the vocalist’s unhurried delivery. Wilkins is an infectious optimist who believes life’s setbacks are no match for a strong soul and that love is nearly inexplicable in its ability to entice, captivate, excite and repair. He sees loneliness as an opportunity to seek connection, and the chilly night of “Rain All Night” is celebrated as for its drought-ending downpour. There’s country deep in Wilkins’ soul, and deep soul in his country music. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Walt Wilkins’ Home Page

Joey + Rory: His and Hers

Leave a reply

Rootsy Nashville duo’s third album stirs controversy

Rory and Joey Feek have a history of hard work and struggle that could have just as easily led them to day jobs as it has to a record deal. Rory Feek found success as a songwriter, penning hits for Clay Walker, Blake Shelton and Easton Corbin, but failed to catch on as a solo performer. Joey Feek also recorded solo material, but it wasn’t until the couple competed as a duo on the television show Can You Duet that performing success came calling. Even with a third-place finish, the duo attracted the interest of Sugar Hill, and their Top 10 debut album spun off the single “Cheater, Cheater.” Their second album also cashed in the Top 10, and after a Christmas album last year, they’re back with their third studio album in five years.

As on the first two albums, the arrangements lean to acoustic backings, but with the duo trading leads more often, and bringing their record in line with their live show. The productions are polished, but thankfully devoid of Nashville’s more overwrought crossover sounds. The drums provide accompaniment and rhythm, rather than booming bottom end, and the guitars, dobros and fiddle all twang freely. The album opens with “Josephine,” a moving letter home from an embattled, frightened and remorseful Civil War soldier. The first-person lyrics run down dire circumstances, and leave the writer clinging to the hope that he’ll one day see his loved ones at home. Joey sends her own letter home in “When I’m Gone,” but this time from an anticipated afterlife to those left behind.

There’s lighter fare, including the rockabilly-tinged “Let’s Pretend We Never Met” and the Randy Newman-esque “Someday When I Grow Up.” Rory’s songwriting regularly touch on bittersweet family scenes and matters of the heart, but some listeners will hear sour notes in his reminiscence of corporal punishment, and the idea that the world would be improved by its widespread return. The convolution of religion, discipline and Abrahamic fear (“’cause one had my daddy’s name on it, the other said King James / With love they taught us lessons, but we feared them both the same”) is already creating debate among listeners; but whether you read it as loving discipline or child abuse, it feels out of place next to the album’s other eleven songs. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Joey + Rory’s Home Page

Billy Joe Shaver: Live at Billy Bob’s Texas

Leave a reply

There’s no shortage of live albums on Billy Joe Shaver, including well-picked gigs from the ‘80s (Live from Austin, TX) and ‘90s (Storyteller: Live at the Bluebird and Unshaven: Live at Smith’s Olde Bar), but when you’re an honest-to-God troubadour, each performance is a unique combination of people, place and songs. This two-disc (CD/DVD) document of Shaver’s September 2011 show at Billy Bob’s Texas, is just as essential as the earlier volumes. Though one could never expect Shaver to fully recover from the passing of his son Eddy, he sounds more energized – and less haunted –than he’s appeared in several years. No doubt the stage is both a reminder and a sanctuary, and he throws himself into these songs in a way younger performers couldn’t even imagine. His voice sounds great, and his band plays in a deep, empathetic pocket.

The set list holds few surprises for Shaver’s fans, but mostly because they’re so fervent about his music. Those new to Shaver’s catalog will find many of his best-known songs here, and even his most well-traveled tunes are sung with enthusiasm for words that clearly remain both important and true. The two new titles are the Johnny Cash-styled “Wacko from Waco,” recounting a 2007 shooting incident (also memorialized in Dale Watson’s “Where Do You Want It?”), and “The Git Go,” deftly casting modern ills against biblical antecedents of temptation, truth and fate. Studio versions of the new tunes are also included as bonuses. Shaver’s musical range – from delicate old-timey tunes and folk-country to stomping country-rock – would be impressive at any age, but at 72, he’s hotter than most musicians a quarter his age.

On the DVD, Shaver looks older than he sounds, though his dancing and shadow-boxing, not to mention easy smile, speak to his vitality. The rapt attention and enthusiastic response of the audience clearly add fuel to his performance. The multi-camera wide-screen video runs down the same twenty live titles as the CD but also includes stage dialog and band introductions were edited out of the music-only program. Also included on the DVD are video inserts that provide comments and stories from fellow Texans Willie Nelson and Pat Green. Shaver’s mastery as a performer continues to deepen over the years, so while earlier live sets captured the firebrand energy of younger years, this one showcases his seemingly effortless state of grace. This is a superb collection for Shaver’s longtime fans, and a good introduction for those who’ve only heard his songs covered by others. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Billy Joe Shaver’s Home Page

Jimbo Mathus: Blue Light

Leave a reply

Country, soul, blues and rock with a Southern twist

Jimbo Mathus – most famously known as a founding member of Squirrel Nut Zippers – has long championed a bushel of roots music, including gypsy jazz, pre-war swing, ragtime, blues, country, folk, string band, soul and southern rock. With last year’s Confederate Buddha and this year’s new six-song EP, he’s meshed (or perhaps mashed, if you consider the southern origins) his influences into a rock-solid brew topped by soul-searing vocals. The title tune opens as a confessional before the downbeat kicks it into Allman Brothers territory for a chase down a stretch of blue highway. The ‘70s vibe continues with the electric piano and guitar of “Fucked Up World,” unloading the fed-up lyric, “I’m tired of living in a fucked up world / I with the man would get his shit together.” Mathus’ Southern roots thread throughout the EP, adding rustic soul to theChicago blues “Ain’t Feelin’ It” and rolling swampy waves under the garage rock “Haunted John.” At only twenty minutes it’s a short set, but a sweet one. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Jimbo Mathus’ Home Page