Tag Archives: Country

Andrew Combs: Tennessee Time

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Fetching new singer-songwriter ala Clark, Van Zandt and Earle

Andrew Combs is a young Texan who’s developed a folksy, throwback singer-songwriter sound amid the crossover dreams and overproduction of Nashville. He cites Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt as influences, and the edges of his voice bring to mind Chris Knight and Gram Parsons; Combs’ girlfriend Heidi Feek adds harmony on a few tracks, lending a Gram/Emmylou vibe. There’s a strong feel for Steve Earle in the album’s title track, particularly in the way the verses peak in the middle and trail off to find the song’s title sung as a contented exhalation. All fives tracks are taken at mid-tempo, but two are turned out as honky-tonkers and two as introspective country-rockers. Combs’ longing on the opening “Hummingbird” is shaded blue by Dustin Ransom’s barroom piano, echoing the mood Jack Ingram laid down on Live at Adair’s. Combs’ satisfaction with the Volunteer State is expressed in the comforts of “Tennessee Time” as Luke Herbert keeps time on the rim of his drum and Jeremy Fetzer adds a soulful baritone guitar solo. You can hear Hank Williams’ yearning in the confessional love song, “Wanderin’ Heart,” and the closing “Won’t Catch me” is sung with acoustic guitar and harmonica. All five tracks are thoughtfully sung and played, and a bonus cover of “Dark End of the Street,” available with EP purchase at Bandcamp, further exemplifies Combs’ affinity for Southern soul. Here’s hoping a full album is coming soon! [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Dixie Chicks: Playlist – The Very Best of the Dixie Chicks

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Short overview of game-changing country trio’s career

Whether or not Natalie Maines’ opinions give you heartburn, there’s no denying her arrival in the Dixie Chicks launched the group to unparalleled commercial and artistic success. With her lead vocals and her bandmates’ harmonies and instrumental chops, the group cut a new template for commercial country radio, finding favor with both the mainstream and traditionalist crowds. All was peaches and cream until Maines’ outspoken criticism of the Bush administration placed them at odds with the Nashville establishment and many of the band’s fans. But in the face of a country radio backlash, the group stuck to their guns, found favor with the pop buying public, and netted their fourth consecutive country album Grammy – and their first Album of the Year – with the unapologetic Taking the Long Way.

This twelve song collection includes tracks from the four studio albums recorded with Maines’ as lead vocalist, and skips over the group’s three earlier releases. It follows the form of earlier Playlist releases by combining a selection of hits with album tracks that the artist has selected as representative of their career. That means most of the Dixie Chicks’ sixteen Top 10 hits are omitted in favor of album tracks (all twelve tracks have been previously issued and are readily available on the group’s regular releases), including the concert favorite “Sin Wagon” and a poignant cover of Patty Griffin’s “Let Him Fly.” The chronological set plays quite well, giving listeners a good helping of the Chicks’ vocal and instrumental talents, and shows how they straddled the line between rootsy twang and polished radio country with their cannily selected cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.” The Dixie Chicks deftly bridged their country home base with their pop influences, magnifying, rather than losing, the potency of each.

These songs say as much about the group members’ lives as their careers, following the turbulence of divorces and marriages, professional daring, and settled family lives. The disc is delivered in an all-cardboard folder, with a digital booklet that includes six highly-styled photographs, liner notes, production/writing/chart credits, an interactive album discography (that conveniently links to Sony BMG’s online store), and a pair of desktop wallpapers. What’s here is compelling, but what’s missing is essential to really telling the group’s story; a recitation of the group’s hits can be put together from digital download services, but at a cost that’s likely to keep many waiting for a more definitive greatest hits collection or career anthology. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Shadwick Wilde: Unforgivable Things

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Depressed Americana from a punk-rock guitarist

Shadwick Wilde is a guitarist for the driving, electric punk rock bands Brassknuckle Boys and Iron Cross, but on this solo debut he’s relaxed the jackhammer tempos to more thoughtful folk strumming, but retained the intensity of his themes. There’s some angry young Dylan here, as well as some of Springsteen’s distress, but Wilde is less poetic (or, obtuse, if you prefer) than the former and less grand (or, grandiose, if you prefer) than the latter. Think of what Nebraska might have sounded like if it was Springsteen’s debut as a self-loathing country-folkie, rather than a respite from the overbearing success of the E Street Band.

Wilde doesn’t contemplate the broader plight of the world, he discovers the intimate realization that a grown-up’s life may suck every bit as much as he imagined in his rock songs. Having nearly drunk himself to death, he writes from inward feelings of depression rather than lashing out at the world in punk anger. It doesn’t always live down to the modified slogan stuck to his guitar, “This machine kills hope,” but it gets pretty dark, and by disc’s end you’ll be looking for some kind of emotional respite. The songs of broken relationships feel desperate, and even the few rays of hope are shaded by an infinite expanse of cloudy days. Anyone who’s been really depressed will know the feelings of helpless self abnegation that Wilde expresses.

The lyrics depict a world without upward momentum, of time spent drifting numbly by bromides that don’t apply, and the will to live getting ever more lean. The murder ballad “Die Alone” is particularly bitter, and though the mood improves momentarily with “Ride All Night,” Shadwick quickly returns to the darkness, undermined by habitual bad choices. His nostalgic moments are drunken reveries rather than wistful remembrances, locking into past failures rather than propelling towards new opportunities. Wilde seems to be in the middle steps of recovery, making a moral inventory, but not yet able to step past his realized shortcomings. It’s a harrowing place to be, loaded with the knowledge of his “unforgivable things” but not a map out. The emotions can be uncomfortably raw at times, but they make for interesting listening. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Girls Like You
Shadwick Wilde’s MySpace Page

John Denver: Live at Cedar Rapids 12/10/87

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Excellent John Denver live performance from the mid-80s

By the time John Denver performed this 1987 concert in Cedar Rapids, IA, he was a decade past his commercial peak of the mid-70s. He’d found continued success into the early ‘80s, but his most recent release, 1986’s One World, was both the last he’d recorded for RCA and the first album in fifteen years to miss the chart entirely. The album’s single, “Along for the Ride (’56 T-Bird),” had only middling success on the Adult Contemporary chart, and was left out of this set. Denver had forged a non-music public role as an activist, philanthropist, humanitarian, and social critic, but always remained an in-demand live performer. By this point in his career, his non-music activities flowed seamlessly into his stage performances.

This two-hour, twenty-eight track live set touches on fan favorites, social and political commentaries and well-selected covers. Denver’s voice hasn’t the youthful elasticity of his earlier years, but his investment in the songs, even those he’d been touring for fifteen years, is enthusiastic and resolute. He sings the hits at full length, rather than mashing them into medleys, and performs covers (Lennon & McCartney’s “Mother Nature’s Son” and Randy Sparks’ “Toledo”) that had been in his live set for nearly fifteen years. He was an endearing performer, as engaging with a story or a joke as with a song, and his invitations to the audience to sing-along are as warm as a summer campfire.

Denver performs most of the songs solo with his acoustic 12-string, adding a taped background for “Flying for Me” and welcoming a string quartet on stage for disc two. His material is drawn from throughout his career, going back as early as the title song of his debut album, Rhymes & Reason, and as current as “For You” (which was dedicated to his soon-to-be second wife) and the set-closing “Falling Leaves (The Refugees),” which he’d record the following year. His newer material is easily woven into the set, making evident that it wasn’t the quality or appeal of Denver’s music that had waned, only the interest of radio and the new generation of record buyers.

Disc two includes Denver’s statements on the arms race and world hunger and a segue into his then-current “Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For).” He reaches back to 1971 for the thoughtful “Poems, Prayers and Promises” and climaxes with a crowd-pleasing trio of hits. A dozen of these tracks appeared previously on a pair of PBS promotional releases [1 2], but having the entire concert start-to-finish gives fans an opportunity to relive the magic of Denver’s stagecraft. Collectors’ Choice delivers the discs in a double-digipack with a four page booklet (with liner notes by Gene Sculatti) tucked into a tight pocket beneath disc two’s tray. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

On Tour: Kinky Friedman

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Musician, writer and former Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman makes a rare West Coast swing this summer, his first in nearly twenty years. Joining him on tour will be two members of his original backing band (The Texas Jewboys), Little Jewford and Washington Ratso, and guests are signing up for various stops, including Mojo Nixon in San Diego and Van Dyke Parks in Los Angeles.

Mon., July 26  VANCOUVER, BC  Biltmore Cabaret
Tues., July 27  SEATTLE, WA   Triple Door
Wed., July 28  PORTLAND, OR  Roseland Theater
Fri., July 30   SAN FRANCISCO, CA   Great American Music Hall
Sat., July 31  LOS ANGELES, CA   McCabe’s Guitar Shop (2 shows)
Sun., Aug. 1  SAN DIEGO, CA  Belly Up, with Mojo Nixon
Tues., Aug. 3  BAKERSFIELD, CA  Fishlips
Wed., Aug. 4  SANTA CRUZ, CA  Moe’s Alley
Thurs., Aug. 5  SEBASTOPOL, CA  North Bay Live at Studio E

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Dolly Parton: Letter to Heaven – Songs of Faith and Inspiration

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Parton’s 1971 album of faith and praise + 7 bonuses

Letter to Heaven returns to print 1971’s Golden Streets of Glory, Dolly Parton’s first full album of inspirational song. The seventeen tracks of this 45-minute collection include the album’s original ten and six bonuses cherry-picked from Parton’s albums and singles of the 1970s. As a treat for collectors, the original album session track “Would You Know Him (If You Saw Him) is released here for the first time. The latter is among Parton’s most compelling vocals in the set, and a real mystery as to how it was left off the original release. Parton wrote or co-wrote ten of the seventeen titles and puts her vocal stamp on standards (“I Believe”), country (“Wings of a Dove”), gospel (“How Great Thou Art”) and classic spirituals (“Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” here reworked as “Comin’ For to Carry Me Home”). The album’s originals are surprisingly generic songs of faith and praise, unsatisfying in comparison to the following year’s brilliant “Coat of Many Colors.”

The bonus tracks fare much better. Parton’s tribute to her grandfather, “Daddy Was an Old Time Preacher Man” is joined by memories of childhood church-going in “Sacred Memories.” Her appreciation of creation’s majesty, “God’s Coloring Book” is personal and intimate, and “Letter to Heaven” retains its power to evoke a lump in your throat forty years after it was recorded. Producer Bob Ferguson dials back his Nashville Sound to light arrangements of country, soul and gospel; the twang is still minimized, but neither the strings nor backing choruses overwhelm. RCA Legacy’s single-CD reissue includes recording details and liner note by Deborah Evans Price. Fans will be glad to have this back in print, but those new to the Parton catalog might check out other key album reissues first, such as Coat of Many Colors, Jolene, or My Tennessee Mountain Home. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Austins Bridge: Times Like These

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Soaring contemporary Christian pop-rock, country and soul

Austin’s Bridge is Justin Rivers and Jason Baird, a Christian Contemporary vocal duo whose big production sound (courtesy of Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus) mixes rock, country and soul. Originally a trio, founding member Mike Kofahl has apparently exited, leaving the pair to front a studio band anchored by their producer’s bass. DeMarcus also contributes two songs, alongside the work of several Nashville and CCM pros, and three tunes written or co-written by Rivers and Baird. Neither vocalist sings with the country inflections of Rascal Flatts, and though DeMarcus gives their record a polished studio punch, their passion makes this sound less slick and more rock – something like Journey singing CCM with harmonizing vocalists in place of a single Steve Perry. The songs are tightly written and uplifting, celebrating belief, salvation and the wonder of God’s creation. The lyrics will appeal to the faithful, the optimistic, and those who like well-crafted, powerfully sung contemporary rock. Those put off by unremitting hope and blind faith may not be swayed by the album’s belief-based answers to contemporary social problems – but you’ll have to admit the music is solidly produced and sung with conviction. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Tommy James: My Head, My Bed & My Red Guitar

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Tommy James’ third solo LP offers Nashville-bred country-soul

After charting fourteen Top 40 hits with the Shondells, Tommy James began a solo career on the heels of a temporary group hiatus that turned permanent. His second solo release, Christian of the World, yielded two big hits (“Draggin’ the Line” and “I’m Comin’ Home”), but this third solo effort – recorded in Nashville, produced by Elvis’ guitarist Scotty Moore, and featuring the talents of Music City’s finest studio players – didn’t catch on with either pop or country radio. And that’s a shame, because it may be James’ most fully realized album. With a band that included Moore and Ray Edenton on guitar, Pete Drake on steel, Pig Robbins on keyboards, Charlie McCoy on harmonica and DJ Fontana and Buddy Harmon on drums, James cut a dozen originals, mostly co-written with co-producer Bob King, and a cover of Linda Hargrove’s “Rosalee” that features some fine fiddle playing by Buddy Spicher.

There are numerous country touches in the instruments and arrangements, but also the sort of country-soul B.J. Thomas, Joe South and Elvis recorded in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. James didn’t re-fashion himself a nasally country singer, instead finding the soulful style he’d developed on the Shondells’ Travelin’ fit perfectly with the textures created by the studio players and the gospel-styled backing vocals of the Nashville Edition. James’ voice is easily recognized as the one that graced the Shondells’ hits, but it sounds just as at home in this twangier setting. The productions are remarkably undated (except, perhaps, Pete Drake’s talking guitar on “Paper Flowers”), and though not up to Nashville’s current classic rock volume, they still feel surprisingly contemporary.

James and King wrote songs of faith, romance, lost-love and lovable scoundrels, but in the pop idiom rather than the country, so while their topics fit Nashville norms, the words didn’t ring of 17th Avenue. In James’ hands, even the Nashville-penned “Rosalee” sounds more like Memphis or Muscle Shoals than Music City. The religious and spiritual themes of Christian of the World are revisited in songs contemplating the hereafter, the call to community, and the sunny warmth and peaceful satisfaction of belief. Unlike the preceding album, however, none of these songs managed to grab the ear of radio programmers or singles buyers. Perhaps no one was ready for James to fully graduate from his career with the Shondells, but in retrospect, divorced from the pop and bubblegum hits that led him to 1971, one can readily hear the new level of artistry he achieved.

Collectors’ Choice’s straight-up reissue clocks in at nearly 44-minutes, making this the longest of the four Shondells/James reissues in a batch that also includes I Think We’re Alone Now, Gettin’ Together, and Travelin’. The six-page booklet features full-panel reproductions of the album’s front- and back-cover, and newly struck liner notes by Ed Osborne that includes fresh interview material with James himself. While Shondells/James neophytes might pick a greatest hits album (such as Anthology or Definitive Pop Collection) as a starter over the Shondells’ original albums, anyone who enjoys country-rock with a soulful backbone should check out James terrific accomplishments on this release. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Jeremy Parsons: Doggondest Feeling

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Young country singer with a jones for early country style

Parsons’ young years, rosy complexion and boy-next-door good looks hardly prepare you for the similarity his voice holds to that of Hank Williams Sr. on the opening track. It’s no accident, as his debut pays tribute to the country music of Williams’ era, and his grassroots marketing includes Little Jimmy Dickens pitching the CD in a spot airing on RFD-TV. Parson’s is loyal to what he considers the golden era of the Grand Ole Opry and sings with a vibrato in his voice that harkens back to country music’s roots in the late 1920s and early ‘30s, his falsetto notes ranging into the same place as Jimmie Rodgers’ yodels. He reaches back to a time before to a time before country music had to be “saved” from its repeated entreaties to the pop charts. Though he fashions himself a country classicist, his vocals occasionally favor the folk tones of John Denver and Phil Ochs in his less strident moments.

Parsons writes of Hank Williams’ final night on the album’s opener, sings of his faith in “Passenger Seat,” and imagines what it was like “When My Old Man Was Young.” But mostly he writes of relationships in various states of decay and dissolution. With his chipper voice, however, the sadness and misery, particularly in the upbeat “Since My Baby Left Me” isn’t particularly teary. There’s a bit of Haggard in the guitar figures of “I Could Be Your Pick Me Up,” and producer Bernard Porter’s done a fine job of giving this record a clean sound that plays up the twang of guitars, banjos, dobros (courtesy of guest Randy Kohrs) and steel (courtesy of guest Smith Curry). As a bonus, the title track is repeated at CD’s end, but equalized to sound like a 78 with surface noise added as a patina. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Toughcats: Run to the Mill

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Country, folk and pop harmonies both old-timey and modern

This trio lists their home turf as the Fox Islands, a collection of small land masses off the coast of Maine, 20 miles from Portland across Casco Bay. But their warm acoustic music – harmonies, guitar, bass, banjo and drums – is bred more from the hills and hollows of the mid-Atlantic and South than the open waters of the Northeast. Dan Bolles, of Vermont’s Seven Days, has described the Toughcats as Maine’s answer to the Avett Brothers, and that’s an apt comparison. Their harmony singing has a similar sort of yesteryear charm, but they’re neither a bluegrass group nor a contemporary acoustic combo. There are pop and progressive-folk sensibilities in their melodies, and the presence of drums gives the backings some polite rock ‘n’ roll punch.

Run to the Mill, the group’s second album, features eleven originals and a cover of the Tin Pan Alley “Dinah.” The latter is rendered with a feeling for the Eddie Cantor’s ragtime flair, and a bit of hot club jazz in the strings. The original songs include sunny sounds that recall the Lovin’ Spoonful’s old-timey charms, vocal harmonies that reach to pre-Bluegrass brother acts, and folk songs, like “Happy Day,” that suggest, initially at least, Ray Davies’ quieter moments. Colin Gulley’s banjo provides both melody and percussion, adding a lengthy coda to “Happy Day,” floating to the top of “Sunshine” and breaking into a friendly solo for the instrumental “Bluegoose.”

There’s are progressive changes running through the instrumental “Joshua Chamberlain” and pop tones to “In the Middle” and “Harlet Marie,” but the modernisms are grounded in rustic roots. The Toughcats aren’t throw-backs, but neither are they a hipster’s modern riff on nostalgia. Like anyone who inches an art form forward, they’ve brought elements of the past into their own times, realizing the magic of earlier harmonies and stringed instruments in songs acknowledge the past but blossom in the present. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Sunlight
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Check out one of the Toughcats’ elaborately staged entrances: