Tag Archives: Country

Gary Nicholson: Texas Songbook

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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
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The Greencards: The Brick Album

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Genre-blending Austin-based acoustic string band

If you imagine an intersection where the traditions of country and bluegrass meet the inventions of newgrass and the changes that swept through British contemporary folk, you’ll have a sense of the music spun by the Greencards. Their songs feature the tight harmonies of country and bluegrass, the sophistication of jazz, and the pluck of folk. As on 2009’s Fascination, the band traverses numerous styles from song to song, but unlike the contrasting colors of their previous outing, here they explore varying shades of their progressive string-band sound. The opening “Make it Out West,” though sung about modern contemporary emigration to the coast, still manages to conjure pickaxes and transcontinental rails with its rhythm. Similar   changes are also heard in the jig “Adelaide,” while the album’s second instrumental, “Tale of Kangario,” hints at South American styles.

Vocalist Carol Young moves fluidly from country to jazz to pop, occasionally transitioning within a single song. The bass and plucked mandolin of “Mrs. Madness” provides a ‘30s supper club setting for the verses, slides into contemporary harmonies on the chorus and adds modernly picked fills. The longing of “Faded” and harmony blend of “Naked on the River” lean more toward pop harmony groups like the Rescues than to traditional bluegrass or country, but the mandolin (courtesy of guest Sam Bush), fiddle (from recent addition Tyler Andal) and guitar (from the band’s other recent addition, Carl Miner) keep the song anchored to the group’s roots. Vince Gill adds a duet vocal on “Heart Fixer,” and several dozen fans star as financial supporters, with their names emblazoned on the covers.

You can imagine several of these songs turning up on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy or another lovingly curated television show’s soundtrack. The Greencards have combined their diverse musical interests in a showcase that highlights the ingredients without sounding forced. They sound modern, but still rooted, a group whose acoustic framework is still recognizable to bluegrass, country and string band fans, but one that could also appeal to contemporary pop listeners. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Heart Fixer
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Ray Price: Songs of Insipration

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Country hall-of-famer sings inspirational songs of faith

Varese Sarabande extends their lineup of country legends singing songs of faith with this remastered reissue of K-Tel’s The Old Rugged Cross (something K-Tel also reissued as Country Gospel). The tracks were originally recorded in the mid-90s, and though Price’s voice wasn’t the polished instrument of his earlier hit-making years, he still sang strongly; there’s some wavering in his pitch, but it’s balanced by passion and conviction. The arrangements are mostly by-the-books (or by-the-clock, as per Nashville recording practice), though the uncredited steel and fiddle players add some nice lines. If you’re a fan of the singer, or simply a fan of inspirational song, you’ll enjoy hearing the older Price sing these works of praise, but if you’re new to Price’s catalog, you’ll want to start four decades earlier with his 1950s honky-tonk sides and his subsequent turn to crooning in the 1960s and 1970s. For the bigger picture, check the anthology The Essential Ray Price. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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Buck Owens & Susan Raye: The Very Best Of

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Terrific early ‘70s duets from Buck Owens and Susan Raye

Susan Raye was a solid 1970s country hit maker, but having shared peak years with Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette, her long-term fame has been overshadowed and her Capitol catalog has been neglected by the reissue industry. The last collection of her solo work, Varese’s 16 Greatest Hits, was released over a decade ago, and is now joined by this selection of fourteen duets recorded with her mentor, Buck Owens. The pair recorded four albums between 1970 and 1973, launching six chart hits, all of which are featured here. The hits include Buck Owens originals “We’re Gonna Get Together,” “The Great White Horse” and “The Good Ol’ Days (Are Here Again),” as well as endearing covers of the Browns’ “Looking Back to See” and Mickey & Sylvia’s “Love is Strange.”

Owens had been a hit maker for over a decade when he and Raye cracked the charts as a duo. He continued to be a strong presence in the Top 10 for another five years before switching to Warner Brothers and successively peaking lower and lower through the rest of the decade. In 1970, however, Owens could virtually do no wrong; he was co-hosting Hee Haw, and the stinging Bakersfield sound he’d pioneered with the Buckaroos had broadened over the years alongside his public appeal. Owens had long been absorbing pop influences, heard here in the harpsichord on “The Great White Horse,” and the rock ‘n’ roll dynamics of the Buckaroos continues to spark up the twang. Amid all the influences, though, Owens’ voice always retained its country core.

Raye proved to be an excellent traveling partner for Owens’ explorations. The duo’s song list reprises several of Owens’ earlier hits with the Buckaroos, including “Together Again,” “Cryin’ Time,” “I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me),” “Think of Me When You’re Lonely,” and “Your Tender Loving Care.” Many of Owens’ recordings with the Buckaroos were sung with his own voice doubled in harmony, or with the backing of Don Rich, but Raye adds a female dynamic that winningly changes the tenor of the lovelorn lyrics. Owens’ albums with the Buckaroos have been extensively reissued, but most of these superb sides with Raye have previously remained in the vault. Lawrence Zwisohn provides liner notes and the CD is screened in the orange of a 1970s Capitol label, but the gold is in the grooves. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Patrolled By Radar: Be Happy

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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
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Gallery: Nice to Be With You – All Time Greatest Performances

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Early ‘70s soft- and country-rock from Detroit three-hit wonder

Though they had three Billboard chart entries (including a cover of Mac Davis’ “I Believe in Music” and the original “Big City Miss Ruth Ann”), the fame of their first and biggest single, 1972’s “Nice to Be With You,” and the reductionist view of oldies radio has reduced this soft-rock band to a one-hit wonder. Formed in Detroit by singer/songwriter Jim Gold, the band recorded two albums for the Sussex label before splitting; Gold recorded a few more solo releases, and continues to write and make live appearances to this day. Though the original recording of the single appeared on a few well-sourced compilations, such as Rhino’s Have a Nice Day Vol. 8, it’s been released in re-recorded form on dozens of MP3 collections. The original albums were reissued on the grey market Nice to Be With You 2 on 1, but this appears to be the first fully licensed reissue.

Included here are all but one of the tracks from the group’s two albums, omitting a cover of Jay and the American’s “Sunday and Me” from their debut. Perhaps the reissue producers felt that Gold’s voice sounded enough like Neil Diamond (who wrote “Sunday and Me”) on “Nice to Be With You” to balance the omission, but with enough space on a CD to host both albums, the cover song’s absence is disappointing. Gallery’s soft-rock is tinged with both pop/rock and country sounds (most notable in Cal Freeman’s steel guitar on the hit), settling into the early ‘70s groove then inhabited by the Stampeders, America and Lobo. Surprisingly, the band was produced by Dennis Coffey, a Motown guitarist who’d hit for himself only a few months earlier with the hard funk instrumental “Scorpio.” It’s great to have these albums back in print; now where’s “Sunday and Me”? [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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David Serby: Poor Man’s Poem

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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
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Mel Tillis: The Best of Mel Tillis – The Columbia Years

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The missing chapter of Mel Tillis’ singing career

A decade before Mel Tillis found 1970s fame as a singer on Kapp and MGM, he recorded a number of terrific, often adventurous sides for Columbia. Tillis had been writing hits for years charting sides with Webb Pierce, Bobby Bare, Stonewall Jackson and others, but his own singles, including “The Violet and a Rose” and “Sawmill,” found only limited success. Legacy’s 24-track collection, a digital download reissue of Collectors’ Choice’ out-of-print CD, is a treasure-trove of Tillis originals, many co-written with Wayne Walker. Many of these titles were hits for other singers, including eight for Pierce, and while it’s a treat to find Tillis’ original versions of “Honky Tonk Song,” “Holiday for Love” and “A Thousand Miles Ago,” it’s even more interesting to hear the range of styles he tried out. There are Louvin-inspired harmonies inn “Georgia Town Blues,” a twangy proto-rock guitar in the tall tale “Loco Weed,” a calypso beat for “Party Girl,” and a cover of “Hearts of Stone” (which was also recorded by Elvis Presley, Connie Francis and Red Foley) that has wailing sax and Cameo-Parkway styled backing vocals. Tillis’ lack of hits at Columbia no doubt contributed to his stylistic flexibility, and though he sounds most deeply at home on honky-tonk sides “Heart Over Mind” (a hit for Ray Price) and “Tupelo County Jail,” he remained engaged and enthusiastic when singing the Johnny Horton styled historical tale “Ten Thousand Drums” and teen tunes like “It’s So Easy.” Tillis would found tremendous fame as a singer and personality in the 1970s, but these earlier sides for Columbia show convincingly that his success in the spotlight should have come much sooner. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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Wanda Jackson: Let’s Have a Party – The Very Best of Wanda Jackson

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Capitol sides from the Queen of Rockabilly

With Wanda Jackson’s profile raised by her new Jack White-produced album, The Party Ain’t Over, Varese Sarabande offers up sixteen sides from her key years on Capitol. The set opens with 1956’s “I Gotta Know,” storms through rockabilly classics “Fujiyama Mama,” “Mean Mean Man,” “Rock Your Baby,” and “Let’s Have a Party,” adds incendiary takes on The Robins’ “Riot in Cell Block #9,” Little Richard’s “Rip it Up” and Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On,” and fills out the picture with a few of Jackson’s country ballads, including two Top 10 hits, “Right or Wrong” and “In the Middle of a Heartache.” It’s a quick look at a catalog that is deeper on both sides – rockabilly and country – than could fit into sixteen tracks. More specific collections can be found in Ace’s Queen of Rockabilly and The Very Best of the Country Years, and Bear Family’s monumental Right or Wrong and Tears Will Be the Chaser for Your Wine. Fans might also want to pick up Capitol reissues of Jackson’s original albums, but for a quick introduction to her musical brilliance, this is a good bet. Tracks 1-7 and 9 are mono, the rest stereo. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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Rosanne Cash: The Essential Rosanne Cash

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Career- and label-spanning summary of a second-generation legend

For an artist of her stature, Rosanne Cash has been the subject of surprisingly thin compilation releases. Several 10- and 12-track single disc collections have been issued, but only Raven’s imported 21-track Blue Moons and Broken Hearts and to a lesser extent Legacy’s earlier Very Best Of really dug beyond the hits. That list is now expanded with this two-disc, thirty-six track collection, featuring a song list picked and programmed by the artist herself. The set opens with “Can I Still Believe in You,” from her 1978 self-titled Germany-only debut, and closes over thirty years later with a trio of tracks drawn from 2009’s The List. The latter selections include a cover of Mickey Newbury’s “Sweet Memories” previously available only on the Borders Books version of The List.

Included are all eleven of Cash’s country chart-toppers, seventeen of her twenty country chart entries, and tracks drawn from all twelve studio albums she’s recorded for Ariola, Columbia and Capitol/EMI. There are augumented with bonuses drawn from earlier antholgies, and duets from albums by Vince Gill (“If It Weren’t For Him”) and Rodney Crowell (“Its Such a Small World”). The bulk of the collection is devoted to Cash’s tenure with Columbia, with the second half of disc two stepping through her more recent work for Capitol/EMI. These latter tracks find Cash reinventing herself from a country hit maker to a writer, album auteur and Grammy nominee. This plays out as a worthy soundtrack for Cash’s recent memoir, Composed, provides a terrific overview of her hits and a useful guide to the rich album tracks in her catalog.

Though Cash isn’t prone to complimenting her debut, the strength of her songwriter’s voice is evident from the start. It may be difficult at mid-life to fully reconnect with the yet-to-be-fulfilled longing one felt at twenty-three, but the early songs provide telling snapshots of a young writer who was already able to express her soul in words. A year later, on 1979’s Right or Wrong, Cash sounds more confident, singing as an equal with Bobby Bare on “No Memories Hangin’ Round,” and producer Rodney Crowell deftly blended roots with radio-friendly touches. Her follow-up, Seven Year Ache, broke her career wide open with an album and title track that each topped the country chart; the single also crossed over, stopping just shy of the pop top twenty.

Cash’s songs and vocals, and Crowell’s production fit easily across a variety of styles, including pop ballads, twangy roots, countrypolitan jazz, and horn-lined soul. Several of the hits, particularly those in the mid-80s, tended to crystalline guitars, big piano and booming drums, but Cash also topped the chart with the locomotive rhythm of “My Baby Thinks He’s a Train,” the Brill Building soul of John Hiatt’s “The Way We Make a Broken Heart,” and most endearingly, an acoustic shuffle of “Tennessee Flat Top Box” that recalled her dad’s early days at Sun.

Cash’s introductory notes provide a peek inside the discoveries that occur when an artist anthologizes her own catalog – thinking back to the places and people that influenced one’s work, and wondering who they were when a particular song was written or performed. It’s hard to tell if the songs provide mileage markers for her life, or her life provides the events that demarcate the phases of her career; a bit of each, it seems. The set’s affectionate and perceptive liner notes are written by Rodney Crowell, to whom Cash was married and who produced her first five albums. The booklet adds detailed session notes, including chart information and personnel, and fleshes out this terrific overview of a second-generation country legend. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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