Tag Archives: Country

Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez: Red Dog Tracks

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chiptaylor_reddogtracksTwangy, relaxed, confessional country duets

Hit songwriter Chip Taylor’s performing career is having quite a second act. Or third, or maybe fourth. After his initial foray as a singles artist netted little success in the early ‘60s, Taylor penned a string of hit titles for others (including “I Can’t Let Go,” “Wild Thing,” “Country Girl, City Man,” and “Angel of the Morning”). In the 1970s he embarked on a moderately successful second pass at recording with a string of solo works. His songwriting continued to make more headway than his performing, and at decade’s end, he retired from the music business (apparently to become a professional gambler). He resurfaced in 1996 with Hit Man, an album of newly recorded versions of songs others had made hits, and the following year returned as a contemporary songwriter with The Living Room Tapes.

What was clear from his new songs, which continued across a trio of albums on his own Train Wreck label, was that Taylor had returned to performing and writing with more rustic country intentions than with which he’d left at the end of the 1970s. The roots movement had opened up space for country-oriented singer-songwriters to lay down their wares without the interferance of anything Nashville, and that space could just as well benefit old masters as young guns. What sent Taylor’s performing career to the next level, however, was his meeting of fiddler Carrie Rodriguez. Taking her on tour as an instrumentalist and backing singer, he gradually drew her out as a duet singing partner for 2002’s Let’s Leave This Town.

This 2005 release is their third, and the chemistry that was immediate on the debut has greatly deepened. The growing confidence in their vocal interplay allows them to sing more leisurely and provides more breathing space for their music. Acoustic bassist Jim Whitney keys the band’s relaxed pace, and Bill Frisell’s guitar winds all around the vocals. Rodriguez’s fiddle is heard more as accompaniment than solo, the focus staying with the vocals and occasional instrumental flourishes. Taylor wrote most of the songs, co-writing one with Rodriguez, pulling two from Hank Williams (“My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It” and “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love With You”) and one from the public domain (“Elzick’s Farewell”).

Taylor’s songs retain the folkiness of his earlier days, particularly as rendered with relaxed tempos and quiet instrumental passages that provide reflective moments between verses. The contrast of his rougher vocal tone to Rodriguez’s plaintive style works especially well as they converse in melody, employing long drawn notes and an intimate, confessional tone. The ease with which they sing together demonstrates the pairing that began as a serendipitous meeting at SXSW has blossomed into a complete partnership. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Chip Taylor’s MySpace Page
Carrie Rodriguez’s MySpace Page
Train Wreck Records

Border Radio

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borderradioFascinating subject, so-so writing, poor editing

Border Radio chronicles the “quacks, yodelers, pitchmen, psychics and other amazing broadcasters” that populated the high-powered radio stations once arrayed just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The characters profiled, including the goat-gland transplanting John Brinkley, the cancer treating Norman Baker, the flour peddling soon-to-be Texas governor Pappy O’Daniel, and a parade of singing cowboys, astrologers, patent medicine salesmen, soul-saving preachers, and late-night DJs, are colorful, to say the least. So to were the battles fought over, around and between the stations, owners, operators, performers, competitors, politicians, and regulatory agencies, both within Mexico and between Mexico and the U.S.

Yet as rich as is the book’s subject matter, the authors’ historical account isn’t nearly as engaging. The book’s timeline meanders back and forth, failing to provide a through-line of the medium’s development, and there’s insufficient context to really understand how border intertwined with its more conventional brethren and within depression, war and post-war society. At times the narrative wanders from the primary subject, such as a lengthy discourse on Pappy O’Daniel’s career as a politician, and the same material pops up in different sections. For the most part, the failure is in the hands of the book’s editor, who failed to mold the author’s extensive research into a compelling story with a coherent structure.

Though the authors conducted extensive new interviews, the copy still reads like a patchwork of researched sources, seeming to fall into recitation without offering specific quotes. The narrative feels detached, rarely getting inside the characters. None of the writing, for example, communicates the intense creepiness displayed in the photo of Dr. Brinkley in a 1930s operating room. The authors have done their research and know their subject, but their knowledge is inadequately served by their writing. That said, as the only book in print on the subject, this is worth reading, even if it doesn’t always live up to its promise. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Chris Darrow: Chris Darrow / Under My Own Disguise

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chrisdarrow_undermyowndisguiseCalifornia country-rock pioneer’s mid-70s solo LPs

Given Darrow’s musical pedigree, it’s a wonder his name and these two early-70s solo albums aren’t better known. In the 1960s he put together the California bluegrass group, Dry City Scat Band, was a founding member of the eclectic psychedelic band Kaleidoscope, spent a few years in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, toured behind Linda Ronstadt and did studio work for James Taylor, John Fahey, Leonard Cohen and others. In the early ‘70s he signed with United Artists and recorded this pair of albums, the self-titled Chris Darrow in 1973 and Under My Own Disguise the following year. The latter was previously reissued on CD on the Taxim label, and the pair was previously issued as a two-fer by BGO. This deluxe reissue is remastered from scratch, offering each album on individual CDs and on individual 180-gram vinyl LPs, all housed in gatefold covers and sporting a 48-page 12” x 12” photo and liner note book.

Chris Darrow models itself after the breadth of Kaleidoscope, but without the overt psychedelia. Darrow’s songs cover rambling Allman Brothers styled country-rock, reggae rhythms crossed with New Orleans’ fiddles, a hot-picked double mandolin instrumental, piano-based ballads, old-timey country, Celtic fiddles, close harmony and Stonesy blues. He mixes originals with traditional tunes (“Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down”) and selected covers (Hoagy Carmichael’s “Hong Kong Blues” and Cy Coben’s country bluegrass “A Good Woman’s Love”). The original “Faded Love” is sung to a mandolin and flute arrangement that’s distinctly Japanese, and the closing “That’s What It’s Like to Be Alone” is given a chamber pop arrangement replete with harpsichord. Darrow’s “We’re Living on $15 a week,” with its upbeat depression-era optimism is sadly applicable amid the ruins of today’s world economy.

Under My Own Disguise follows a similarly varied course, but more tightly bunched around country sounds, including fiddle-led Zydeco, steel guitar ballads, Allman-styled rock, dusty gospel soul, acoustic rags, blues, and the sort of pop-country-rock hybrid that Gram Parsons termed “cosmic American music.” The album’s featured cover is a Hot Club styled country-jazz take on the Ink Spots’ “Java Jive.” Darrow has an appealingly unfinished voice – tuneful, but unpolished. He’s mixed especially low into the instrumentation on Under My Own Disguise, giving the impression of an introvert more comfortable as a sideman than a leader. No matter, as his melodies and musical textures carry a great deal of emotion. Thirty-five years on, these tracks sound fresh and contemporary, and offer up hidden nuggets of California country. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Take Good Care of Yourself
Chris Darrow’s MySpace Page

chrisdarrow_boxset

Jamey Johnson: That Lonesome Song

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jameyjohnson_thatlonesomesongGritty country self-portrait

Johnson’s second album took a lot of people by surprise, even those who’d enjoyed his 2006 debut, The Dollar. As engaging as was his first album, particularly for his moving baritone voice, what emerged two years later was a much darker, much deeper songwriter. Despite writing chart-topping hits (including George Strait’s “Give It Away” and Trace Adkins’ “Ladies Love Country Boys”), Johnson lost both his record deal and his wife, and hard living caught up to him. Retreating to his writer’s pen, Johnson poured his pain into this set of songs, initially released independently, and subsequently picked up by Mercury. It’s doubtful that an album this hard-core country could have been recorded under the watchful eye of a major label, particularly as a follow-up to a commercially stiff debut. Luckily for listeners, Johnson followed his own road and let the label play catch-up.

The reckoning at the album’s core is front and center in the opening song’s catch line, “the high cost of living ain’t nothing like the cost of living high.” Johnson imagines himself in prison, rummaging through the emotional wreckage left in the wake of a wasted, out-of-control life. He lingers over the painful moments, as if they’re a cilice worn in repentance, as if to hasten redemption. The music lingers as well, with slow waltzes, instrumental passages verging on country jams, and dripping steel guitar codas that wind down as last gasps of contrition. The recovery sought in this suite (the songs often segue without gaps) is to be found in a crooked line of ups and downs that bounce between the realities of a gritty present and the dreams of a hopeful future. You can hear Johnson writing his way out of the hole he’d dug, working through admission, decision, inventory, amends, awakening and sharing.

By opening and closing each song informally, as if the band is warming up to a groove and searching for definitive endings, Johnson gives the album a compelling, off-the-cuff storytelling device. There have been few country albums – not songs, but albums – in recent years that have this one’s thematic focus. Rodney Crowell’s recent string of autobiographical albums comes to mind, but few others compare. If Waylon Jennings had ever stopped to doubt his most painful life choices, he might have written an album like this. Allen Reynolds “Dreaming My Dreams,” made famous by Jennings, is sung here in a dissipated voice that recasts the song’s idle wondering into a quiet prayer for salvation. Johnson was clearly touched by something larger when he wrote this album, finding a route to recovery and having the external awareness to write about it. It’s not pretty, but it certainly is breathtaking. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Jamey Johnson’s Home Page
Jamey Johnson’s MySpace Page

Raul Malo: Lucky One

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raulmalo_luckyoneFormer Mavericks vocalist summons country, swing, Latin and more

Following three albums that visited MOR supper-club pop (2006’s You’re Only Lonely), swing (2007’s After Hours), and a broad palette of seasonal sounds (2007’s Marshmallow World and Other Holiday Favorites), Raul Malo returns with his first album of original material since 2001’s Today. His latest songs circle back to the genre-stretching experiments of the Mavericks’ last two albums for MCA (1995’s Music for All Occasions and 1998’s Trampoline), but approach from the other side: rather than shedding country sounds to make room for pop and jazz influences, Malo reintroduces twangier elements into the purer strains of crooning that had become the meat of his solo career.

As on the Mavericks’ albums, Malo’s baritone draws the ear’s focus. The soaring vocal of the album’s title track is laced with twangy guitar and punctuated by a three-piece horn section. Country sounds are brought to the fore on “Lonely Hearts,” with Malo doubling his vocal, Buck Owens style, and a chugging organ adding Tex-Mex flavors ala the Sir Douglas Quintet. Malo hasn’t forsaken the Rat Pack vibe of his recent solo outings, as “Moonlight Kiss” hoofs along on a Latin rhythm, “You Always Win” sports a jazzy countrypolitan sound, and “Ready For My Lovin’” offers Ray Charles-styled gospel-blues. The baritone guitar of “Something Tells Me” offers a familiar twang to Mavericks fans, and the emotional vocal on “Hello Again” and dramatic crescendos of “Crying For You” suggest Roy Orbison’s spirit hovering nearby.

The ballad “So Beautiful” closes the album in dreamy emotion, with Malo’s voice accompanied by piano and strings. This album isn’t the left turn of Today, but aside from “Moonlight Kiss” and “Haunting Me,” it’s also not as ring-a-ding-ding kitschy as Malo’s last three albums. This new set represents a summation of all the musical flavors Malo’s touched so far, playing more as a collection of singles than a cohesive album. Fans longing for the Mavericks’ country roots will be pleased, as will late-night swingers and those who just love Malo’s incredible voice. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Lucky One
Raul Malo’s Home Page
Raul Malo’s MySpace Page

Ted Russell Kamp: Poor Man’s Paradise

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tedrussellkamp_poormansparadiseCountry, country rock and blues with a loose ‘70s vibe

Ted Russell Kamp is an L.A. session player and regular bass player for Shooter Jennings who’s released a string of solo albums that began with 1996’s jazz session Dedications. Nine years later he returned as a front man with a whole new sound that combined roots and rock. The rustic inflections saw him through NorthSouth, Nashville Fineline, Divisadero and now his latest, Poor Man’s Paradise. Kamp sings in a voice similar to Rodney Crowell, but the loose vibe of his music has its roots in the 1970s, the free-swinging twang of Nashville, the laid-back cool of California country-rock, and the Southern inflections of Florida’s Criteria Studios and Alabama’s Muscle Shoals. He even adds a one-man horn section of overdubbed trumpet and trombone on a few tracks. Kamp writes frequently on matters of the heart, including departed lovers still too close to be forgotten, couples staring at one another across a chasm of faith, and the contentedness of having your soul mate by your side. In league with his talents as a multi-instrumental, Kamp’s a genre-hopping songwriter, offering up southern rock (“Long Distance Man”), talking blues (“Ballad of That Guy,” with Marvin Etzioni picking mandolin) and blue-eyed soul (“Never Gonna Do You Wrong”), in addition to country-rock. Though he’s best served by the ballads and mid-tempo numbers, just about everything here is nicely crafted and worth a spin. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Just a Yesterday Away
Ted Russell Kamp’s Home Page

Gurf Morlix: Last Exit to Happyland

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gurfmorlix_lastexittohappylandQuietly intense, rough-voiced, sweet-sounding Americana

Gurf Morlix has produced many of the who’s who of Americana, including Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keen, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. He’s added guitar to works by Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Peter Case and others, and crafted a low-key solo career starting with 2000’s Toad of Titicaca. Morlix sings with a bit of Buddy Miller’s moan and a bit of Tom Waits’ grit, but his confessional exhalations are more the parched tone of a dusty back road than the worn sidewalks of the bowery. He sings here with Patty Griffin, Barbara K and Ruthie Foster, but most impressively, he sings with his own instrumental accompaniment, as he plays everything but the drums (which, as on 2004’s Cut ‘n Shoot, are handled perfectly by Rick Richards).

In less capable hands, a one-man-studio-band can sounds manufactured, with the artist’s secondary instruments slaved in tempo and mood to their primary axe. But Morlix approaches each instrument as a native, insuring each instrument’s sound has individual depth and character as it’s blended into an organic band sound. If you didn’t know this was the product of overdubbing, you’d be inclined to think it was recorded live – such is the interplay between the “players.” The arrangements and production show the sort of sensitivity to Morlix’s songs that could easily be sacrificed in a self-contained project. It’s not unusual for a writer to hear a song’s musical concept in his or her head, but it’s much rarer for the writer to successfully play and produce that sound into reality.

The album opens with a one-time killer’s path from armament to remorseful condemnation, freeze-framing the fatal bullet’s path, examining it in lyrical detail and tagging it with the conscience-nagging chorus “one more second, was all it woulda took / another thought, a closer look / the thunder cracked, and blood ran cold / one more second, mighta saved my soul.” Morlix’s facility for description stocks “She’s a River” with a dozen metaphors, and the allusive path of “Hard Road” is set upon with the memorable introduction “I set out on my own, look out here I come / Whatever there might be, I was gonna get me some / Pure gun powder, I was ready to explode / The fuse was lit, I was out on the hard road.” That same road may be the one Morlix resolutely walks into the teeth of Hurricane Katrina in “Walkin’ to New Orleans,” and the Crescent City’s blues is heard in the restless soul, low-twang and wailing backing vocal of “Drums of New Orleans.”

The edge in Morlix’s voice works just as well against lighter backings, such as the Shel Silverstein flavored “Music You Mighta Made” and the closing duet with Patty Griffin, “Voice of Midnight.” His songs are shot through with fatalism, but their tunefulness and Morlix’s inventive production keeps this from devolving into complete darkness. This is a beautifully crafted album from a thoughtful singer-songwriter whose producer and musicians (all of whom happen to be Morlix himself) add perfect musical color to his limited, but deeply soulful, vocal range. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Hard Road
Gurf Morlix’s Home Page
Gurf Morlix MySpace Page

Michael Martin Murphey: Buckaroo Blue Grass

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michaelmartinmurphey_buckaroobluegrassCountry-folk rides onto bluegrass

Michael Martin Murphey is forever lodged in the memories of pop fans for his 1975 hit “Wildfire.” And those who checked the credits of the Monkees’ Pisces, Aquarius, Capicorn & Jones Ltd. would have found him as the writer of the Mike Nesmith-sung “What Am I Doing Hangin’ ‘Round.” In contrast to this brief flirtation with the pop charts, Murphey’s career, before and after “Wildfire,” has been extensive. He co-founded the Lewis & Clark Expedition, recorded an album for the same Colgems label that produced the Monkees, and supplied songs to Flatt & Scruggs, Bobbie Gentry, and Kenny Rogers. He recorded a string of country-rock albums throughout the ‘70s, and after peaking with “Wildfire,” returned with “Carolina in the Pines.”

Murphey’s success on the country charts took off in the ‘80s, stoked in part by re-recordings of his earlier works. “Carolina in the Pines,” originally a modest hit in 1976, became a full-fledged country top-10 with a 1985 reworking. As the ‘80s waned, so did Murphey’s country chart success, and in 1990 he waxed Cowboy Songs, the first of several albums mixing Western standards with original contributions to the canon. On 2001’s Playing Favorites he took yet another pass at “Wildfire” and “Carolina in the Pines,” setting in place a pattern of reinterpreting fan favorites. This time out, Murphey sets two new tunes (“Lone Cowboy” and “Close to the Land”) and nine earlier works to acoustic bluegrass arrangements, once again discovering new layers in the fan favorites.

Thirty years after his first pass at “Carolina in the Pines,” Murphey’s voice adds an appealing edge. Dropping the ‘70s drums and guitars leaves the banjo, guitar, bass and fiddle to create an earthier mood. The same is true for “Cherokee Fiddle,” whose 1976 original was turned into a hit for Johnny Lee on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack; as reworked here it’s a twangy concoction of fiddle, guitar, mandolin and banjo. Murphey reaches all the way back to 1972 for “Boy from the Country,” adding a fiddle and mandolin to the original singer-songwriter arragnement.

Others have taken Murphey’s songs for a bluegrass spin, such as Dwight McCall’s recent take on “Lost River,” but it’s a joy to hear Murphey cut his own mountain groove through the song with Rhonda Vincent singing harmony. His new version of “What Am I Doing Hanging Around,” written from life at the age of 19, is now a terrifically nostalgic memory at age 63. Murphey’s fans already know what a treat it is to hear him add perspective to his catalog, and those who lost track after “Wildfire” will find this a terrific reintroduction. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Listen to Buckaroo Blue Grass
Michael Martin Murphey’s Home Page

On Tour: Raul Malo

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With a new solo release, Lucky One, due March 3rd, vocalist Raul Malo of the Mavericks hits the road in March and April:

March 6 PORTLAND, OR Aladdin Theatre*
March 7 SNOQUALMIE, WA Snoqualmie Casino, opening for Jewel
March 8 SEATTLE, WA Tractor Tavern*
March 10 SAN FRANCISCO, CA Great American Music Hall*
March 11 ANAHEIM, CA House of Blues*
March 12 LOS ANGELES, CA House of Blues*
March 13 ARROYO GRANDE, CA Clark Center Theatre*
March 14 SPARKS, NV John Ascuaga’s Nugget Hotel*
March 16 SOLANA BEACH, CA Belly Up Tavern*
April 3 PORT WASHINGTON, NY, Landmark on Main Street
April 4 RIDGEFIELD, CT, Ridgefield Playhouse
April 5 GLENSIDE, PA Keswick Theater

* With Shelby Lynne

Press Release
Raul Malo’s Home Page
Raul Malo’s MySpace Page

Andy Friedman & The Other Failures: Weary Things

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andyfriedman_wearythingsFolk, country, blues and recitations from the wilds of Brooklyn

The mean streets of Brooklyn, NY are host to a thriving collection of hootenannies, hoedowns, jamborees, and scattershot oprys, jugfests and birthday bashes that must leave Manhattan city folk jealous of their outerborough cousins. Third-generation Brooklynite Andy Friedman found his way to the scene by drawing ever-widening musical circles around a background in visual arts. He started with recitations of spoken word lyrics placed alongside his paintings and drawings, added layers of improvisational musical accompaniment at his live shows, and slowly transformed his work with more traditional arrangements that span folk, country rock, twangy blues and studio touches. You can still hear the self-guided evolution in singing that reveals Friedman’s narrative voice.

The title of this sophomore album, Weary Things, highlights the physical lethargy in Friedman’s singing, as well as the mental wear of yearning for feelings and times that have aged out of a grown-up’s life. He’s tired, but it’s often a good kind of tired: the tired born of life experience and coping with the curveballs thrown by the world. Friedman gazes longingly at the irresponsibility of youth and the grab-bag freedoms of a cross-country trip. He finds independence in touring but is subsumed by the road’s isolation from family, declaring the former in the electric blues shuffle “Road Trippin’” and giving in to the latter on the acoustic apologia “Road Trippin’ Daddy.” Cleverly, the lyrics of both songs are the same but the arrangement and vocal tone rewrite their meaning.

Friedman’s self-discovery offers a matured version of Jonathan Richman’s childlike wonder. He’s humorous without being jokey, arch without being ironic, like writer Nicholson Baker without the OCD. Well, mostly without the OCD, as the encyclopedic eulogy for his home base, Freddy’s Backroom, stretches to eight-minutes of barstool detail. He writes philosophically of his background as a painter, and like many of the Brooklyn hillbillies, paints against the backdrop of their urban milieu. He’s sufficiently self-assured to pierce his own hipness with the overly dramatic aside, “Hello young loners, wherever you are,” and closes the album a rousing take of “The Friedman Holler” recorded live in Chicago. Friedman’s sentimental, tough, sloppy, resilient, irascible, capricious and pragmatic, but most of all he’s honest, and that honesty is the fuel of country songwriting whether it’s ignited in the hills of Appalachians or the heights of Brooklyn. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Idaho
Andy Friedman’s Home Page
Brooklyn Country Home Page