Tag Archives: Country

Eilen Jewell: Butcher Holler- A Tribute to Loretta Lynn

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Cool tribute to Loretta Lynn

On last year’s Sea of Tears [review], Eilen Jewell stepped up from folk and country sounds to electric twang. She dropped the fiddle and harmonica of her earlier releases and sang solo with a rockabilly-styled trio of guitar, bass and drums. That same trio format, with the thoroughly stellar Jerry Miller on guitar and pedal steel, is employed for this terrific salute to Loretta Lynn. The band plays blue and lightly rocking across a dozen covers, melding Jewell’s jazz-tipped vocals with twang-heavy guitars and tempos that turn the ballads into sorrowful two-steppers and the rest into perfectly restrained rockers. You can hear Lynn in every track, but what you won’t hear is Jewell copying the subject of her tribute.

Jewell isn’t as feisty a singer as Lynn, which keeps “Fist City” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” from delivering the originals’ heat. To be fair, Lynn wrote and sang these songs when such outspokenness, at least from a female country singer, delivered a shock and element of liberation that’s not available to a contemporary vocalist. Jewell’s cool approach works perfectly on the sly “You Wanna Give Me a Lift” as she brushes off an overly amorous suitor with the lyric “I’m a little bit warm, but that don’t mean I’m on fire.” For “Don’t Come Home A- Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” Jewell offers a promise of forgiveness in place of a half-cocked frying pan, and it works very nicely.

Lynn’s originals are filtered through Jewell’s influences, so while these new recordings pay homage to the hits, they’re distinct interpretations influenced by the blue emotions of Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Connie Francis, and the torchy styles of Big Sandy and Julie London.  Jewell sings most everything solo, doubling herself on the superbly forlorn “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” and leaving Miller’s guitar to provide the second voice elsewhere. Miller’s steel playing on “A Man I Hardly Know” is superb, and the bouncy “You’re Looking at Country” closes the album on a convincing note: Jewell’s a bit jazz, a bit blues, a bit rockabilly and a whole lot country. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Listen to samples from Butcher Holler
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Johnny Cash: Setlist – The Very Best Of

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Nice overview of Johnny Cash as a performer and entertainer

The Legacy division of Sony continues to explore new ways to keep the CD relevant. Their Playlist series was the first out of the gate with eco-friendly packaging that used 100% recycled cardboard, no plastic, and on-disc PDFs in place of paper booklets. Their new Setlist series follows the same path of a single disc that provides an aficionado’s snapshot of an artist’s catalog. In this case the anthologies turn from the studio to the stage, pulling together tracks from an artist’s live repertoire, generally all previously released, but in a few cases adding previously unreleased items. As with the Playlist collections, the Setlist discs aren’t greatest hits packages; instead, they forgo some obvious catalog highlights to give listeners a chance to hear great, lesser-known songs from the artist’s stage act.

Johnny Cash’s volume of Setlist features fourteen tracks drawn from only five years of performing, 1968-72, yet the range of venues and audiences shows off the breadth of Cash as a performer and entertainer. In addition to his two iconic live albums recorded at Folsom and San Quentin Prison, Cash also performed for down home audiences at the Ryman Auditorium and uptown city slickers at Madison Square Garden. He sang for Swedish prisoners and American presidents, and hosted a national television show that bridged hippies and squares. Everything here has been issued before, but unlike the full-concert albums and videos, this collection gives a sense of Cash’s universality, rather than the depth with which he connected to each specific audience.

The Folsom and San Quentin tracks (“Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Got a Woman,” “Wreck of the Old 97,” “I Walk the Line” and “Big River”) are the most familiar – and if they’re not, you’re recommended to the full albums and videos [1 2]. Less famous is Cash’s performance of his original “What is Truth” at the White House in 1970. He shook off Nixon’s request for “Okie From Muskogee” and “Welfare Cadillac,” and challenged the sitting president with songs of the underclass. Cash seems nearly exhausted by the cultural conflicts of the times as he asks for understanding of the young people who would soon inherit the country. Cash’s humor and his chemistry with wife June are shown in a warm 1969 medley of “Darlin’ Companion,” “If I Were a Carpenter,” and “Jackson” recorded at the home of the Grand Ol’ Opry for his television show.

Cash sings his Christian faith in a pair of gospel songs, but it’s the firmness with which he stands by the world’s underdogs that really shows his beliefs in practice; every time he steps onto the stage he earns his Man in Black nickname. Cash’s best-known live song, “A Boy Named Sue,” which he debuted at his 1969 San Quentin concert, is heard here in a 1972 performance at Sweden’s Österåker Prison. By this point the song had been a big hit, and so the audience doesn’t have the hysterical reaction of the earlier recording, but Cash still sings it with the same sly smile as the single. The collection’s tracks are thoughtfully selected and sequenced, with tracks from different concerts flowing impressively. This is no substitute for the full concert recordings, but it’s a terrific single-disc introduction to Johnny Cash in his performing prime. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Flynnville Train: Redemption

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Rock-solid southern rock

This Indiana-bred country-rock band is a real throwback to the southern rock of the 1970s. The quartet is looser, wilder, harder and seemingly less-calculated than redneck-rock acts like Big & Rich and Gretchen Wilson, but they play to the same blue collar crowd. Their songs will strike a deep chord in a nation where political and business institutions seem to be at odds with the populace. The lead single, “Preachin’ to the Choir,” effectively expresses Joe Sixpack’s pent-up frustration without resorting to the divisive tropes of talking-head politics. It doesn’t pose any big solutions, but the opportunity to vent one’s frustration in a like-minded crowd, and in this case, an anthem-singing country-rock crowd, is quite cathartic.

There’s a nostalgic streak in the band’s songs, including the comforts of their childhood “Home,” and a satisfied recounting of their career in the optimistic “On Our Way.” They take you inside the legendary Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in “33 Steps” (the title cleverly measuring the walk from the Grand Ol’ Opry) and to the track for the NASCAR-themed “Turn Left.” There’s hard-charging electric guitar twang on the upbeat tracks, but even when the band slows down for banjo, steel and mandolin additions, the bass, guitar and drums remain solid. There are songs of rowdy Saturdays (“Alright” and “Tip a Can”) and guilt-wracked Sundays (“Friend of Sinners”), love and sex. The latter, “Scratch Me Where I’m Itchin’,” opens with a great Johnny Winter-styled riff.

In addition to the original material, the band covers the Kentucky Headhunters “The One You Love” and closes the album with a strong cover of America’s “Sandman.” The latter, originally released in 1971, is repurposed to address America’s current military crises and conflicts. The song is played more heavily than the original, including a period-invoking electric sitar solo and a stinging guitar duel. The harmonies are sung with the power and stridency of CSN&Y’s anti-war songs, putting a serious end to an album that’s often lighter in topic. It’s a great way to end the album, and really shows off the group’s heartland grit, heart and soul. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Manning-Dickson: Drive

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Strong male duo sings honky-tonk, acoustic roots and 70s-styled harmonies

After listening to this Ft. Worth band’s debut, one might assume they’ve spent some time playing cover songs. That might be read as an insult, but it’s not; it’s an acknowledgment of the ease with which they cover a lot of country, country-rock and soft-rock sounds. The album opens with the foot-stomping “Cold as Her Heart,” effortlessly throwing out the lyrical hook, “if I could only find a beer as cold as her heart.” But the song’s harder honky-tonk sound is a bit of head fake, as the duo moves on to smooth, Eagles-styled harmonies that bring to mind ‘70s acts like Gallery, Brewer & Shipley, Alabama and the Stampeders. A little research reveals that Jason Manning leads the Eagles tribute band, 7 Bridges, and brings his influences with him to this duet.

The album punches up the vocals into modern rock-based country on the title track, but it’s the softer songs that really hit home. The whispery harmonies of “No More California” and West Coast sunshine pop of “Backroads” are superb. After tracking through all ten originals, the leadoff turns out to be an anomaly, which isn’t really disappointing – since the rest of the album is so perfectly tuneful. Perhaps there’s more boot scootin’ in their live set, but their quieter songs – including an acoustic reprise of the title tune – show this band’s ace-in-the-hole is their vocal prowess. Now that Brooks & Dunn have finally retired, perhaps Manning-Dickson can break through as a duo! [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Various Artists: Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein

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Sweet tribute to Shel Silverstein and his songs

A surprising number of people know Shel Silverstein only as an author, cartoonist, poet or the writer of Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue.” But when you start to reel off the songs that were hits for other singers, such as the Irish Rovers’ “The Unicorn,” or Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show’s “Sylvia’s Mother” and “The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” most will see they’re more familiar with Silverstein’s music than they previously realized. Mention Marianne Faithful’s comeback cover of “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” and his work gains a layer of indie cred, and spin them Bobby Bare’s Lullabyes, Legends and Lies, and the books and hit singles start to look like commercial peaks atop a vast catalog of artful and endearing music.

This fifteen-song tribute was produced by Bobby Bare Jr. and Sr., whose shared professional acquaintance with Silverstein dates back to a 1974 father-son duet of the Silverstein-penned “Daddy, What If.” That song transcends to a new generation as Bare Jr. revisit its heart-tugging lyric of parental love with his daughter Isabelle. Unlike tributes to recording artists, tributes to songwriters can mine the part of their canon that hasn’t yet been turned into icons. Better yet, Silverstein’s songs are sufficiently rich to merit additional shades when re-interpreted in new contexts. Dr. Dog’s Beach Boys-styled production and Four Freshman harmonies, for example, provide an interesting, fresh spin to “The Unicorn.”

Bluegrass phenomenon Sarah Jarosz sings “Queen of the Silver Dollar” with a thread-bare sadness that would otherwise seem beyond her eighteen years, and her resigned desolation is deeper than earlier interpretations by Dr. Hook, Emmylou Harris and the Kendalls. Of course, the song’s lyrics are so perfectly crafted as to even stand up to Micky Modelle’s earlier disco remake. Lucinda Williams sings “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” with the heartbreak, disillusion and wear that few vocalists can hold to a melody. John Prine, Ray Price, Bobby Bare Sr. and Kris Kristofferson each use the age in their voices to texture to their selections, with the latter one-upping Bobby Bare’s original take on “The Winner” by adding grizzled old-guy, spit-eyed gumption.

Even “A Boy Named Sue,” a song whose clever ending most listeners already know, and whose Johnny Cash performance is a country music classic, is worth another visit. Todd Snider doesn’t add anything revolutionary, but he hits the song’s tough, sly, wise tone perfectly. Less impressive is Black Francis’ take on “The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” which hasn’t the jug band goofiness of Dr. Hook’s original, and the Boxmasters drop the melodrama (and rush the tempo) of “Sylvie’s Mother.” The album’s title track, originally a poem from A Light in the Attic is brought to song with a wonderful melody, vocal and string arrangement by Andrew Bird. This is a fine collection that thoughtfully pairs singers and songs, and a nice way to hear these lovable (and beloved) Shel Silverstein songs. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Drunk on Crutches: People. Places. Things.

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Rootsy California rock from transplanted Georgian

Transplanted Georgian Jennifer Whittenburg isn’t entirely comfortable with her adopted Los Angeles. Her music has the earthy country-tinged California rock sound of Sheryl Crow’s Tuesday Night Music Club, but her lyrics aren’t fully settled into the City of the Angels. She writes of harbored doubts and indecision in “Calif., You’ll Have to Wait,” and the city’s nocturnal lures nearly wear her out in “Using Me Up.” There are lights, music and bars in other cities, but the intensity of late-night Los Angeles threatens to unmoor and consume the singer. This contrasts with the opening “Tupelo,” in which Whittenburg seeks action in a “slow motion scene,” suggesting she’s not fully at-home at the other extreme, either. Having written these songs while she traversed Atlanta, Nashville and Los Angeles, the results do not naturally settle into any one place. The relationships of “Waitin’ on You” and “Oh Well” are in emotional limbo, and the seething anger of “Drink Up Buttercup” speaks to an ending that hasn’t been completed. Ironically, the album’s most decisive moment is found in the never-intended-to-be-kept promises of “One Night Stand.” The album’s lone cover is a relatively obscure Neil Young number, the fever-dream “L.A.,” from 1973’s Time Fades Away. Whittenburg’s voice suggests a rootsier version of Natalie Merchant, and with her band and producing partner Andrew Alekel, and friends like Wallflowers keyboardist Rami Jaffee, she’s waxed a solid rock album whose guitar, bass, drums and organ reach back to the early ‘70s, when rockers were exploring country and long-hairs were still frightening the Nashville establishment. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Waitin’ on You
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Mark Chesnutt: Outlaw

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Heartfelt covers of ‘70s outlaw classics

Like many fine artists discarded by the mainstream Country music machine, Mark Chesnutt’s artistry has grown even as his commercial fame has waned. Having parted with his last major label (Columbia) after an eponymous release in 2002, Chesnutt released a series of indie albums that returned to his hard-country roots. Starting with 2004’s Savin’ the Honky Tonk, Chesnutt developed a sound that favored the twang of the roadhouse over the processed sound of the studio. On this latest, Chesnutt returns to the inspiring songs of his youth, covering titles written or made famous by friends and heroes that include Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, and Hank Williams Jr.

Producer Pete Anderson’s reigned in the production touches with which he pushed Dwight Yoakam, delivering Chesnutt classic arrangements of guitar, fiddle and steel that focus on the songs and singing. The album is a tribute, but settles even more easily into the sort of dancehall Saturday night that leaves you smiling on Sunday morning… once the hangover’s gone. The vocals generally follow the originals’ templates, but the productions shed the studio sounds of the 1970s and 80s. Anderson’s guitar is meatier than the original on “Are You Ready for the Country,” the string arrangement of Kristofferson’s “Lovin’ Her Was Easier” is changed into a mournful fiddle, and “Sunday Morning Coming Down” is played without the dramatic climbs of the original. The song list is a combination of tunes Chesnutt’s been singing live for years, including “Black Rose,” “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” and “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound,” treasured album cuts like Waylon Jennings’ “Freedom to Stay,” and tunes suggested by his label, including “Desperados Waiting for a Train.”

Many of these are songs that Chesnutt’s long loved, but for various reasons (often, the difficulty of learning the wordy lyrics) he’d never sung. In a couple of cases, such as with “Black Rose,” he dug back past the version he knew, by Waylon Jennings, to the original approach of the song’s writer, Billy Joe Shaver. In other cases, such as with “A Couple More Years,” he stuck with his memories of the hit, by Dr. Hook. The album was cut in Los Angeles, and Chesnutt and Anderson took only two nights to get masters for all thirteen vocals – a mark of their preparation and the synergy the pair found in the vocal booth. Anderson adds plenty of hard guitar twang throughout the album, and the backing band includes Gary Morse (pedal steel), Donny Reed (fiddle) and Mickey Raphael (harmonica). While this doesn’t push Chesnutt forward, it’s a great opportunity to hear a terrific country vocalist sing some great country songs. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Mark Chesnutt’s Home Page
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Shinyribs: Well After Awhile

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Gourds’ lead vocalist sings country-soul

Kevin “Shinyribs” Russell has taken a break from his front-line duties with the Gourds to record his second solo album. The voice and obtuse lyrics will be familiar to fans, but the sound isn’t as driving or rough as the Gourds’ records, sitting instead in a deep country-soul groove that sports unusual production touches around the edges. The second-line rhythms that pop-up with the Gourds are still here, but relaxed from a march to a stroll, and electric piano is dominant on many tracks. Russell sings with the sort of choked vocals made famous by Boz Scaggs, and though this music is lighter with its blues, the vibe may remind you (those few of you who are remindable) of ‘70s concert stalwarts the Climax Blues Band.

The album opens with a lunar creation myth that manages to evoke both ancient times and space-age travel, and “Country Cool” essays Russell’s easy-going, unpretentious tastes. There’s a fever to “(If You Need the) 442,” though it’s not exactly clear what the testimony is about, and the unusual selection of goods at the “Poor People’s Store” will be familiar to those who know their city’s thrift store treasures. The band turns funky for “East TX Rust,” bringing to mind Dr. John’s Gumbo and Swamp Dogg’s Cuffed, Collared and Tagged. It’s a shame Russell didn’t cover “Sam Stone,” though he does close with a wailing solo version Sam Cooke’s “Change is Gonna Come,” and it’s a treat to finally hear him sing a straightforward lyric. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Shores of Galilee
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Joe Whyte: When the Day Breaks

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Singer-songwriter folk, country and Americana

East Coast Americana singer-songwriter Joe Whyte returns with an EP that strips down the band production of 2007’s Devil in the Details to acoustic folk-country. Whyte’s joined on a few tracks by Catherine Popper (bass and harmony vocals) and Dan Marcus (guitar, dobro and mandolin), and takes several with just his guitar and harmonica. The quieter arrangements allow Whyte to sing with more texture and nuance than with an electric band, leaving him to focus on his contemplative lyrics of leaving, hard living and uncertain futures. His protagonists are truckers and night owls whose problems are self-made, and soldiers and flood victims whose troubles are visited upon them. Whyte’s been playing out solo, and now brings that act to the studio with this latest EP, available for free download here. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Please Believe Me
Download When the Day Breaks for Free!
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Stone River Boys: Love on the Dial

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Dave Gonzalez and Mike Barfield cook up country, rock, soul and funk

Out of tragedy, new opportunities sometimes spring. With the passing of vocalist Chris Gaffney, the Hacienda Brothers were shuttered, and Gaffney’s partner, Dave Gonzalez, was left to seek a new musical outlet. As a founding member of the California-based Paladins, Gonzalez had explored rockabilly and blues, and crafted a reputation as an ace electric guitarist. His work with Gafney on three Hacienda Brothers studio albums refined his playing with quieter country and southern soul flavors. His new partner, the Texas-based Mike Barfield, cut his teeth leading the Houston-based Hollisters, folding together country-rock hillbilly twang, tic-tac train rhythms, and deadpan baritone vocals that brought to mind Johnny Cash and John Doe. After two group albums, Barfield turned solo, issuing the superb Living Stereo in 2002.

Barfield’s second solo album, The Tyrant, was heavier on the funk rhythms than his debut, and though elements of that remain in this new collaboration, its his background in southern soul, blues and swamp rock that makes him a natural fit with Gonzalez. This isn’t Hacienda Brothers Mark II, as Barfield and Gaffney are very different singers and songwriters, but the songs, including a few well-selected covers, draw on similar sources. Barfield reprises his cover of Tyrone Davis’ “Can I Change My Mind,” which appeared on Living Stereo in more raw form. Here the earlier twin guitar leads are replaced by Dave Biller’s pedal steel and James Sweeny’s Hammond organ, and the entire track finds a deeper, smoother soul groove atop Scott Esbeck’s bass line. Barfield also revisits his own “Lovers Prison,” slowing it down slightly and adding more bottom end. It ends up sounding like a winning cross between the Buckaroos and the Lovin’ Spoonful.

The album’s most unusual cover is a take on Goffin & King’s “Take a Giant Step” that melds the psychedelic inflections of the Monkees’ original (the B-side of their first single) with the slow tempo of Taj Mahal’s 1969 cover. Barfield and Gozalez’s originals, written both separately and together, include southern-funk dance numbers, country rock, and most winningly, country-soul tunes that include the Gonzalez-sung “Still Feel the Feeling” and the co-written “Love’s Gonna Make It.” Barfield’s Texas sensibilities fit well with the Memphis influences Gonzalez picked up working with Dan Penn [1 2 3], and both fold perfectly into the duo’s country roots. Backed by a band that’s equally at home with twang and deep bass, the Stone River Boys are all set to burn it up on the road. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Boomerang
Stone River Boys’ MySpace Page
Mike Barfield’s Home Page
The Hacienda Brothers’ Home Page