Tag Archives: Folk

Teenage Fanclub meets Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci

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PRESS RELEASE

Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) and Euros Childs (Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) are pleased to announce details of their debut album together as Jonny. Inter-twining the musical DNA of two of Britain’s most gifted songwriters, Jonny’s debut album proclaims the advent of an irresistibly infectious new strain of psychedelic pop. The self-titled, co-written album will be released via digital download on February 1st and in stores on April 12.

Blake’s Teenage Fanclub and Childs’ Gorky’s toured together in 1997, and when Blake contributed guitar and vocal harmonies to Gorky’s bitter-sweet How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart in 2001, Euros remembers “it just felt like he was part of the band… from that point on it always felt like we might do something together in the future, it just took a few years to actually get it organized”. Euros eventually made it up to Norman’s house in Glasgow in 2006 to record “what we thought was an EP”, and the duo played a handful of rapturously received live shows, before finally getting down to putting a whole album together early in 2010.

The album artwork (image above) is also revealed to be the inspiration behind their unusual name. Blake came across the image on a friend’s website “and thought it would make a great record sleeve… and name for a band.” “Sleeve first, band-name after”, confirms Childs, “that’s always the best way.”

To kick things off, Jonny are giving away a free, four-track download EP of non-album songs.

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Jerry Reed: Explores Guitar Country

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Early Jerry Reed album explores country, soul, jazz, blues and folk

Long before Jerry Reed became a music star, breaking through with 1970’s “Amos Moses” and 1971’s “When You’re hot, You’re Hot,” and before he became a television and film actor,  he was an in-demand A-list Nashville guitar player and struggling solo star. No less than Chet Atkins felt that Reed was a major talent as a picker, encouraging him to add instrumentals and solos to his albums, and bestowing upon him the title “Certified Guitar Player.” This 1969 collection shows off the tension between Reed’s incredible talent as a guitarist and his self-image as a singer. Together with Atkins as producer, Reed creates modern-pop arrangements of standards and traditional folk, country and bluegrass tunes, adding original twists (such as jazz-inflected blues-funk on Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky”) and leaving plenty of room for his finger picking. This is a thoughtful and at times deeply contemplative album, surprisingly experimental and forward-thinking for a Nashville artist who’d yet to fully establish himself with country music fans. Those who know Reed’s later hits will enjoy this earlier work, and those who aren’t fond of Nashville’s ‘70s sounds (and perhaps favor Willie Nelson’s Stardust era interpretations of standards) will be impressed at the soul, jazz, blues, and folk flavors woven into the country base. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The Seekers: A World of Our Own

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The Seekers stretch the folk revival into 1965

Though the Seekers sound like many other American folk groups of the early ‘60s, they formed in their native Australia, relocated to London, and came to the US on the tide of the British Invasion. They outlasted both the folk revival and the first flush of UK hit-makers, crowning their U.S. chart success with 1967’s “Georgy Girl.” This 1965 album is a warm collection of folk standards, then-contemporary compositions by Bob Dylan, Ian Tyson and Bob Gibson, and original hits by the group’s manager (and former leader of the Springfields), Tom Springfield. At the time of its release, the album’s combination of double-bass, mandolin and twelve-string guitar was a throwback to the non-rock folk revivalism of a few years earlier. Springfield’s “A World of Our Own,” anchors the album with a sound akin to that of the Rooftop Singers, Kingston Trio, Limeliters and even the Weavers. Recorded and released in mono, with Judith Durham’s stirring lead vocals out front, this is a nice reminder of the optimism and sense of empowerment that preceded the darker events of the ‘60s. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

J.R. Shore: Talkin’ on a Bus

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Canadian singer/songwriter shows that Americana is of the Americas

Canadian singer/songwriter J.R. Shore brought home a whole lot of the South from his two year sojourn to Nashville. Ironically though, his new music is more redolent of New Orleans and the Tex-Mex border than it is of Music City. The banjo that opens the album gives way to a hearty second-line rhythm, dixieland trombone, and a vocal that suggests Dr. John. Shore’s songs combine images of America (he seems particularly fond of baseball) with Texas twang, the funky swagger of the Meters, and the soul of Randy Newman and Van Morrison. He writes in poetic vernacular and literary allusion, and sings with both the sweetness and rough edges of Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and Levon Helm. Much like the latter’s Band, Shore simmers his Americana influences into a stew whose flavors tell of the ingredients (country, folk, blues, soul and trad jazz) but whose whole is harmonious. This is a finely made album whose far-Northern origins are barely evident in the warmth of its South-of-the-Mason-Dixon-Line sounds. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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J.R. Shore’s Home Page

Sarah Jarosz: The New 45

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Interesting new original tune and a Bill Withers cover

With this two-song release, the nineteen-year-old singer/songwriter/string player bridges her acoustic bluegrass to a more progressive sound, and demonstrates a keen understanding of modern music marketing. While artists still issue albums, there’s a greater need to keep a constant flow of music in listener’s ears, and reverting to the time-honored pre-album single – but in digital form – is a savvy move. This “digital 45” includes a new original song, “My Muse,” that will appear on her second album, and a cover of Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands” as a “B-side.” The latter is not slated for the album, giving it the sheen of a collector’s item. Jarosz continues to astound with the fluidity of her singing, and on “My Muse” she offers a piece whose chorus evokes Rubber Soul-era Beatles, but whose sonics are more modern in their echo-y richness. Her studio recording of “Grandma’s Hands” is restrained in comparison to her gospel-tinged concert readings, and the bass-fiddle-mandolin arrangement hasn’t the bottom-end soul and beat that so effectively underlined Bill Withers’ original. In addition to her concert schedule (which is necessarily lightened by her college studies), this is a great way to keep her music on fans’ radar. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Sarah Jarosz’ Home Page

Or, The Whale: Or, The Whale

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Superb rock, country, folk and soul from San Francisco

Why isn’t this band famous? They combine the best elements of West Coast ‘60s rock pioneers (Airplane, Dead, Springfield and Grape), UK folk (Fairport Convention, et al.), and the indie roots view of music as border-free. Alex Robins and Lindsay Garfield’s harmonies on “Rusty Gold” brings to mind Slick, Kantner and Balin, while the plaintive opening lyric (“My dog died and it broke my heart / letting go is the hardest part”) threatens to renew the tears once shed for Henry Gross’ “Shannon.” Here the sorrow is more philosophical than purely sentimental, and the chorus gears up to the anthemic feel of the Airplane’s “Crown of Creation.” The band’s tagline, “voices everywhere,” is a brag fulfilled, as the studied tempos provide opportunity to deeply explore duet and harmony singing as multiple singers bend and stretch the lyrics in vocal textures that complement and contrast. Even Tim Marcus’ pedal steel adds emotional texture to the words with its instrumental voice. The band mixes rock, country, folk and soul, but not all at once, letting one style lead and others tint the songs with subtle colors that create a somber mood. You can pick out influences, such as the Gram/Emmylou (or Phil/Don) vibe of “Count the Stars,” the Neil Young riffs, or the title nod of “Black Rabbit,” but the band never loses itself in nostalgic reverie. Returning to the question of the band’s lack of worldwide acclaim, maybe it’s due to their oddly punctuated name, because it’s certainly not a lack of great music. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Or, The Whale’s Home Page
Or, The Wale’s MySpace Page

Ed Bruce: In Jesus’ Eyes

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Original country, folk and gospel songs of faith

Singer-songwriter Ed Bruce’s career evolved from  songwriting (“The Man That Turned My Mama On,” “Restless,” “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “Texas (When I Die)” for Crystal Gale, Waylon & Willie, and Tanya Tucker) to hit making in the mid-80s, but by the end of the decade he’d turned to acting. He released albums sporadically over the next decade, including the inspirational titles Changed in 2004 and Sing About Jesus in 2007. Varese’s new collection pulls together a dozen originals from that pair of self-released albums, offering testimony of rebirth and giving witness to the warmth of faith’s family. Bruce sings of Christian charity, makes the most of his resonant voice on the bluesy “Tougher Than Nails,” and works through feelings of loss on “I Know.” There’s folk, country, blues, two-steppers and gospel swing that will please everyone, and plenty of praise to please the faithful. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Ed Bruce’s Home Page

Brett Shady: The Devil to Pay

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Tuneful singer-songwriter indie pop, folk and Americana sounds

The opening track of singer-songwriter Brett Shady’s solo debut is very good (especially for the terrific lyric “For every somebody somewhere in love / there’s somebody else”), but it’s the defeated loneliness of the second track, “Jerome, AZ” that sets the album’s emotional hook. Shady sings of giving up on his big city dream and heading for open skies. But even though he didn’t give up on his own big city dream, his initial discontent with Los Angeles, born of the dislocation and culture shock felt by a gold country immigrant provides much of the album’s emotional fuel.

Shady seems to have finally made himself at home in Southern California, but at the time he wrote these songs, his lack of connection became the locus of his songwriting. Like many lovelorn pop songwriters, he balances himself on the edge of self-pity and self-strength, wallowing in the darkness but mindful that the sun still shines on the other side of his drawn curtains. Shady follows in a long line of rock musicians whose later years led them away from the outward-bound excess of rock and punk to the introspective songwriting of folk and Americana. Dana Gumbiner’s production nicely balances a minimum of studio decorations with Shady’s simple combo of guitar, bass, drums, and banjo, leaving room for the lyrics to be heard and felt.

Shady first latched onto music as a child, and looking back to acts from the ‘50s and early ‘60s in the craft of “Darling.” He suggests the song is seeded in Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby,” which you can certainly hear in the piano figure, but the vocal seems more heavily influenced by doo-wop crooning. Winningly, the production gives the whole song an indie-pop feel, which makes the ‘50s influences play more like ghosts. Shady’s country antecedents can be heard in the shuffle beat of “Red House Plea,” but here again the song takes off in an original direction with strummed guitars, a meandering banjo and an imploring vocal whose high tone suggests Don McLean and the Avett Brothers.

What’s immediately apparent in listening to these performances is the difference between a band album and a songwriter’s album with a band. There’s a singleness of tone here that you don’t often find in collaboratively written material. There’s also a sensibility in the combination of disparate musical influences – waltzing country, folk strumming, pop melodies, 50s balladry, indie-pop – that could only come from a single head full music listening. It all tumbles out so seamlessly as to make it look simple; but making music that’s both familiar and new – catchy to the ear on first spin but without feeling like a rehash of something you’ve heard before – is a nearly impossible trick, and one that Shady has managed on his first solo outing. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Brett Shady’s MySpace Page

Judy Collins: True Stories and Other Dreams

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Judy Collins finds her voice as a songwriter

Ironically, given Collins’ brilliant singing voice, she took more than a decade to find her voice as a songwriter. She’d dabbled with an original song or two on earlier albums, but for this 1973 release she wrote over half the album’s tracks, selected “So Begins the Task” from the catalog of her former paramour Stephen Stills, and opened with Valerie Carter’s intimate and homey “Cook With Honey.” The years that she’d been carefully selecting and sympathetically interpreting others’ material paid off in the imagination of her pen. She paints a colorful portrait of Long Island fishermen, shares wistful memories of her grandparents, and offers an admiring observations of her younger sister. Collins’ rendition of Tom Paxton’s “The Hostage” seethes with the prison guard narrator’s indictment of Governor Rockefeller’s handling of the 1971 Attica riot, and a pair of requiems, one for a friend who committed suicide, the second for the slain revolutionary “Che” close the album on somber and deifying notes. Musically, Collins consolidates the variety of sounds she’d explored up to this point in her career, including straight folk, country-rock and orchestrated pop; but unlike her previous studio album, 1970’s Whales & Nightingales, this one flows smoothly and creates a pleasant album experience. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Judy Collins: Whales & Nightingales

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Judy Collins embraces the 1970s

After breaking from straight folk with 1968’s In My Life, Collins continued to explore new sounds and song sources. This, her first album of the 1970s, masterfully mixes disparate material from contemporary folkies Dylan, Baez and Seeger, an Irish nationalist ballad, an Aaron Kramer poem set to music by her keyboardist Michael Sahl, a double-dip into the catalog of Jacques Brel, a two-part original, and several original arrangements of traditional tunes. It’s a more idiosyncratic collection than her earlier albums, heightened by varied recording locations that each provides a unique sonic ambiance. The result isn’t always cohesive from song to song, but Collins voice is so singularly beautiful, and her talent for interpretation so strong, that the individual pieces merit listening. The opening trio of songs, “A Song for David,” “Sons of” and “The Patriot Game,” meditate on different aspects of war: those whose principles lead them away from the fight, those who soldier on for the good cause, and those who die. Her vocal on Seeger’s “Oh, Had I A Golden Thread” soars with gospel emotion above its country-tinged piano, bass and guitar backing, and humpback whale and ocean sounds provide then-contemporary backing for the traditional whaling song “Farewell to Tarwathie.” “Simple Gifts,” a nineteenth century Shaker hymn, and a Top-20 a cappella take on “Amazing Grace” bring Collins back to simpler arrangements that revel in the soul of the human voice. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]