The Jones Street Boys - Overcome

I got a song off this album from another blog (S:I?) a few months ago and couldn’t stop playing it. That song, “Last Time,” showed the Jones Street Boys as a promising string band willing to incorporate accent instruments such as piano, harmonica, and traps drums. When they sent me their disc last month, I was not disappointed. But their record shows a greater stylistic range than I was expecting. They keep their record centered on the New York-style string-band sound, but they foreground harmonica, piano, organ, and other keyboard instruments on a few tracks. This album comfortably inhabits the uneasy middle ground between string-band revivalism, insurgent country, adult alternative acoustic, and hipster folk. The other stand-out track on the disc is a cover of the Band’s “Twilight.”

Listen:
The Jones Street Boys - Last Time
The Jones Street Boys - Twilight

Buy:
From Insound
From Amazon

Jeff Zentner - Hymns to the Darkness

A couple months ago I posted about "distortion folk" group Creech Holler. Lead singer Jeff Zentner also sent me his solo CD, Hymns to the Darkness. Unlike Creech Holler, which takes a distorted electric take on largely traditional tunes, Zentner's disc brings a baker's dozen of acoustic originals. Truly a solo album, Zentner plays guitar, dobro, steel, mandolin, and banjo, and provides his own harmony vocals.



Listen how the steel guitar hovering over the more "old time" sounding acoustic instruments creates an interesting ethereal Southern Gothic sound.



Listen:

Jeff Zentner - Rusty Town



Buy:

From CD Baby

Forty Twenty - Lowdown and Dirty

I first saw Forty Twenty opening for BR549 in the spring of 2003. In the year that followed, they must have made the trip from Lincoln down to Lawrence or Kansas City another six or seven times, almost all of which I saw. Forty Twenty is a great country bar band, playing as long as three hours with no breaks, with no set list, and including a wide range of originals, classic country standards, and unexpected covers.

Forty Twenty regularly started off their shows with a cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" in medley with their original tune "The Wagon." (Ninebullets' recent post on "War Pigs" covers prompted me to post this.) In concert, they often interpolated standards into their own songs, invigorating the standards/bar band formula.

Listen:
Forty Twenty - Drink About Her
Forty Twenty - War Wagon (live medley: War Pigs/The Wagon)

Buy:
From Lone Star Music

Yarn - Yarn

A couple months ago while vacationing in New York City, I just happened to get an email promoting New York alt-country band Yarn's debut album the morning of their CD release show as the Lakeside Lounge, which I had been thinking about attending. I ended up not being able to make the show, even though it was a scant block and a half from where I was staying, but I was fortunate enough to have a CD waiting in my mailbox when I made it back to Kansas.

Led by local roots-rocker Blake Christiana, of Blake and the Family Dog, Yarn takes a primarily acoustic approach to the Brooklyn Americana sound, focused on songwriting and underlaid with sharp guitar and mandolin work and occasional steel, Dobro, and fiddle/violin.

Listen:
Yarn - Madeline

Buy:
From CD Baby

Dressed in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash

The last half decade has seen an explosion of Johnny Cash tribute albums. Leading the pack in 2002 was this indie-country oriented set produced by BR549's Chuck Mead. This compilation, probably due to its house band of Chuck Mead on guitar and Dave Roe on bass, flows together remarkably well considering the breadth of music included: the psychobilly of Rev. Horton Heat and the punk-country of Hank III and J.D. Wilkes of the Shack*Shakers as well as the Dale Watson's honky tonking and Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis's Americana.

This album has a general sense of sincerity and comfortableness that isn't exhibited in tributes (such as the Marty Stuart-produced Kindred Spirits) featuring better-known performers some of whom seem as if they are coming to the material for the first time. This album also gives some much needed attention to several people, such as Earl Poole Ball, Redd Volkaert, and Kenny Vaughan, who are better known as sidemen or backing musicians, allowing them to step up into the spotlight.

Listen:
Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis - Pack Up Your Sorrows
Damon Bramblett - I'm Gonna Sit on the Porch and Pick on My Old Guitar

Buy:
From Dualtone
From Amazon

Creech Holler - With Signs Following

North Carolina singer-songwriter Jeff Zentner recently sent me With Signs Following, the recent album from his trio Creech Holler. While the broad categorization of alt country is probably okay for Creech Holler, a more appropriate label might be "distortion folk." A full half of the songs on this album are traditional (with another credited to Dock Boggs and four by the band), but these songs are hardly played in a manner that could be called traditional in any way. Relying on heavily over-driven electric guitar and brash rudimental drumming, this CD doesn't risk being mistaken for the work of folk purists. The songs are still very recognizable as traditional folk songs, making for a nicely jarring combination.

Listen:
Creech Holler - Wild Bill Jones

Buy:
From CD Baby

Loomer - Songs of the Wild West Island

Canadian indie-rock/alt-country band Loomer released their sophomore album last fall. I've been listening to it in my car for a while and I've been quite taken by the way they combine the often disparate sub-genres of country music. Instead of focusing on cross-generic synthesis like some indie-roots bands (the proliferation of country/soul around these days, for example), Loomer creates an intra-generic synthesis of Americana, honky-tonk, Uncle Tupelo-style alt-country, and old time. Featuring sweet pedal steel, baritone guitar, banjo, and a combination of sweet harmonies and rough vocals, this album highlights the best sounds from these often separated strands of country music.

Listen:
Loomer - Endless Holiday
Loomer - Anastasia (Live BBC Session)

Buy:
From Miles of Music
From Amazon

The Highway Sound - What Henry Ford Forgot

The Highway Sound is a project of Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Jay Zasa. The focus of the album is Zasa's songwriting, which is foregrounded by his distinctive, slightly off pitch but endearing voice that is reminiscent of Michael Stipe of REM. Jay is backed up by an ensemble playing what he calls "big Brooklyn Americana." While they never reach the ethereality of Brooklyn neighbors Hem, preferring a lower-fi aesthetic, the family resemblance is apparent. Listen for the fiddle of Mat Kane (of the Doc Marshalls) and the piano of Andy Bienen (co-screenwriter of Boys Don't Cry).


Listen:
The Highway Sound - Railroad Bill's Return

Buy:
From CD Baby

Top 10 of 2006, Part 3

Today we finish up the sample songs off my favorite albums of the year. My top two are perhaps the least well-known releases on this list, but don't think that I upped their placement just to have an unconventional top pick. I actually feel that these two albums are the best I've heard this year, surpassing the better-known and more-respected musicians who are below them on the list or not present at all.

3. Kris Kristofferson - This Old Road

Listen:
Kris Kristofferson - Pilgrim's Progress

Buy:
From Amazon

2. Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies - Blood to Dust

Listen:
Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies - 27 Years

Buy:
From Bob Wayne

1. Scott H. Biram - Graveyard Shift

Listen:
Scott H. Biram - Been Down Too Long

Buy:
From Bloodshot
From Amazon

Top 10 of 2006, Part 2

Today we continue the sampling of my top 10 of 2006. Follow the link for more detailed commentary.

7. Old Crow Medicine Show - Big Iron World

Listen:
Old Crow Medicine Show - I Hear Them All

Buy:
From Amazon

6. Solomon Burke - Nashville

Listen:
Solomon Burke - Valley of Tears

Buy:
From Amazon

4. Hank Williams III - Straight to Hell

Listen:
Hank Williams III - D. Ray White

Buy:
From Amazon

Top 10 of 2006, Part 1

Head over to Americana Roots to see my top 10 albums of 2006. All ten albums are highly recommended and I've included a brief paragraph of explanation after each choice. Here are my favorite songs from albums 8, 9, and 10. Stay tuned for the rest of the count-down.

10. White Ghost Shivers - Everyone's Got 'Em

Listen:
White Ghost Shivers - Little Kisses

Buy:
From Chicken Ranch Records

9. Gary Bennett - Human Condition

Listen:
Gary Bennett - Headin' Home

Buy:
From Gary
From Amazon

8. Grayson Capps - Wail and Ride

Listen:
Grayson Capps - Give It To Me

Buy:
From Hyena Records
From Amazon

Hem - Funnel Cloud

Hem is one of the few bands that is productively mining the intersection of country, folk, adult alternative, and indie-rock. They call their music "countrypolitan," and they do draw heavily on Nashville Sound-era country-pop, but I find that they reference a much wider range of pop musics.

I think that Hem might just be the epitome of the new "Americana" classification. They are a group that is too pop to fit comfortably as alt-country, yet too country to really make it onto pop radio. They also have much more lush and orchestrated arrangements than one normally finds in modern folk, although the singing style would certainly fit there.

I'm linking to some streams from their label Nettwerk. The first, "Not California," shows their diverse influence: it opens with Dylan-esque harmonica and ethereal steel guitar coupled with strong female vocals that build in intensity to something from when alternative was on the verge of becoming adult alternative in the mid-1990s.

Listen:
Hem - Not California
Hem - He Came to Meet Me

Buy:
From Amazon

The Pine Valley Cosmonauts - The Executioner's Last Song

I just heard a piece on NPR today about North Carolina's new Innocence Inquiry Commission which got me thinking about this CD. I actually got this several months ago during Bloodshot's spring cleaning sale, but it got lost in the mess of my car. Well I dug it out and gave it another listen.

Although billed as by the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, this is in reality a compilation album. The Cosmonauts serve as house band for the project, but every song is credited to a guest performer. The song selection is probably about the most morbid of any album I have (even more so than American V), but mostly in a humorous way, if you can be humorous about death, seeking, as the cover says, "consign songs of murder, mob-law & cruel, cruel punishment to the realm of myth, memory & history!!"

The proceeds to this album benefit the Illinois Death Penalty Moratorium Project, which I don't think exists anymore. I think maybe it goes to the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty. It may have dropped out of the news, but the moratorium is still in effect, leaving the death penalty in Illinois in a strange limbo, as it still exists de jure and several people have been sentenced since the moratorium, but it cannot be carried out. The fate of the Moratorium probably rests in the hands of the voters in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

Anyways, this album is quite enjoyable considering the weighty topic. I know we've all laughed at the Louvins' "Knoxville Girl," which is the lead off track, here performed by Brett Sparks. And we laughed through most of this album, as maybe we should, at the sheer absurdity of it. Not that there aren't serious songs here, such as "Oh Death" by Diane Izzo or "Idiot Whistle," with Tony Fitzpatrick giving a very serious recitation about the politics behind the continuation of the death penalty.

Listen:
The Pine Valley Cosmonauts w/ Frankie & Johnny Navin - 25 Minutes to Go

Buy:
From Bloodshot
From Amazon

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - Nothing But the Water

When I first got this CD by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals in the mail, I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to the scope of what I review. But after several listens, I've decided that not only is it appropriate, but that it actually highlights the cross-generic interplay which I really like and which I feel is vital to so-called roots music.

After listening to this album three times through, I'm still having trouble deciding what genre I would classify the album as. It ranges in influence from the searing vocals of Janis Joplin, to the roots funk of the Band, to the soft and smooth vocals of Norah Jones, to the (almost annoyingly) catchy pop-funk of Maroon 5. While several songs combine many influences, several are also more easily discernible as a specific genre. The album hangs together remarkably well, though, having such a variety of style incorporated.

I think the song I'm including does a good job of showing the breadth of influence. The main guitar riff is Delta blues by way of Dire Straits era Mark Knopfler; the organ almost takes us to church; and the drummer doesn't refuse to use the fundamental drumming he learned in marching band.

Listen:
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - Joey

Buy:
From Amazon

Black Ale Sinners - Honky tonkin' with the....

I'd been meaning to see the Black Ale Sinners for probably over a year. Every time they had a show, it seems like something else was going on and I figured that, them being a local group, I'd be able to catch them later. Well, Saturday, I happened to walk by a poster advertising their last show ever was going to be that night. I had been planning something else, but I couldn't put it off again, so I went.

They're a nice hard driving honky tonk and old time sextet. Many of the members switched between instruments, but usually at the same time, leading to two noticeably distinct sounds. The lead guitarist switched between archtop guitar and banjo and the steel player never played steel during a banjo song. Also, the drummer played washboard during the banjo songs, but played single snare during the archtop/steel songs. Another guy switched off between mandolin and fiddle, although his switching wasn't in synch with the others. In addition to the plethora of instruments, they also sang quite a bit of harmony. The harmony was good, but a bit gritty.

They played mostly originals, which this album features exclusively, but they also played a few standards, including a couple Buck Owens songs and a Roger Miller.

This album showcases their more honky tonk side (hence the title) and doesn't feature any banjo or washboard as far as I can tell. Many of these original tunes have a ring of familiarity about them, one of the hallmarks of good songwriting, I think. These guys are also obviously having fun, which brings out the best in their tunes. They fall into a nice place between the sometimes over-seriousness of Dale Watson and the snarky "irony" of so many indie rockers turned country.

Listen:
Black Ale Sinners - Highway 10

Buy:
Email them at blackalesinners@blackalesinners.com

Hank Williams III - Straight to Hell

Tomorrow night I'll be missing Hank III in the KC/Lawrence area for the fourth time in a year and a half. Hopefully he doesn't stop touring before I leave my second shift job, 'cause I'm looking forward to seeing him again.

I was originally hesitant to buy this album due to knowing many of the songs. I really enjoy the discovery of buying new albums and hearing stuff I don't know, and I thought that might be missing from this purchase as even two years ago when I last saw him at the Bottleneck, he was playing half of these songs. (That show on archive.org.) However, the arrangements are quite a bit different than what I remember and the bootleg versions I've come to know.

This album relies heavily on old-time instrumentation, going without drums for half of the tracks, often preferring dobro to the more countrypolitan steel, and featuring some amazing claw-hammer banjo by BR549's Donnie Herron. Hank name-checks the '70s outlaws several times, but the sound of this record largely bypasses a Texas influence, instead giving us a thoroughly Appalachian sound, although updated to include more than a nod at Hank's parallel interest in metal.

Lyrically, this album borders on the disturbing, concentrating on death and personal destruction of the chemical sort. I read an interview in which he said he isn't really that big of a hellraiser, that he saved his partying for on stage, but this album claims otherwise. Also, his insistence on the whole the-South-will-rise-again thing is somewhat annoying, especially when he parallels that with "real country" rising again, as if pop country was just another way northerners where subjugating the south. (I'm sure all the Dixie-loving Toby Keith fans would disagree.) However, when his celebration of rural Appalachian culture turns positive, such as in this song about the several famous residents of Boone Country, WV, this disc really hits the spot.

Listen:
Hank Williams III - D. Ray White

Buy:
From Amazon

Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies - Blood to Dust

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from a CD that wasn't even formally pressed, just burned off a computer and hand labeled with a Sharpie. I wasn't originally sure if Bob Wayne's scrawl on the disc of "If you don't like this shit fuck off" was a suggestion or the title of the album. After letting CDDB work it's magic, I found out that the title is apparently Blood to Dust and it's maybe the best CD I've bought this year.

Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies, when I saw them, were a Bob Wayne (who I've found out is Hank III's guitar tech) on acoustic guitar, Joe Buck on bass, and a really good banjo and telecaster player who's name I don't know. The CD includes drums and some other instruments.

The sound of this album is really wonderful. It leans toward '70s hard country-rock, but the presence of banjo as the lead instrument on several of the tracks pulls it back before it goes too far. I can't think of another band off the top of my head that uses banjo so effectively and prominently in a hard-driven country sound.

Bob Wayne (I assume) writes really pensive and spiritual songs. This combination of song and sound is unfortunately a real feat these days. I could easily see these same songs becoming maudlin in the hands of an unskilled singer/songwriter, but Bob Wayne doesn't fall for undue dramatics. This album is also the most honestly spiritual set of songs outside of true gospel, referencing God and the devil on almost every track. But, unlike some "alt-country" indie rockers, he's not being ironic or dismissive. In fact, his understanding of the sin/salvation contrast of gospel and the blues might give discomfort to some hipsters who are only familiar with ironic spirituality or cherry-picked, tourist versions of Buddhism or Kabbala.

"Road Bound" is the lead off track of the album and shows of their sound pretty well. "27 Years" is a bit slower, but emphasizes the complex spirituality that I was commenting on.

Listen:
Bob Wayne And The Outlaw Carnies - Road Bound.mp3
Bob Wayne And The Outlaw Carnies - 27 Years.mp3

Buy:
From Bob Wayne

The Doc Marshalls - No Kind of Life

The Doc Marshalls are a NYC-based country/cajun band. This is their first full-length CD. I was thinking about ordering this, but then I ran into (quite literally) Nicolas Beaudoing, the frontman and songwriter, in the very small bathroom at the Rodeo Bar.

He plays a mean squeeze box. And the songwriting's really good, too. Guest steel player Rob Segal also puts down some nice licks, and I wish he played on a track that also has accordion. Having the cajun and the country sounds, which each have their own songs on the album, more integrated would make for a more compelling album, I think.

It took me a couple listens through this CD to catch the stories in the songs. The songwriting is quite good and bodes well for the bands future releases. This song is my favorite, both for its wonderful melody and its melancholic story.

Listen:
The Doc Marshalls - Half Asleep.mp3

Buy:
From Miles of Music

Grayson Capps - If You Knew My Mind

I have to admit that I don't really know much about Grayson Capps. He played in KC last week, but I couldn't go. I think I first heard about him from Roots Rock Radio or from one of the americanaroots podcasts.

I had noticed this album at Love Garden, and then when I heard about him a couple of times on podcasts, I bought it. It was in the alt.country section, but I would say it is more of a blues type album. If you like recent Rodney Crowell or Buddy Miller, then this is probably up your alley. The backing is a bit more blues-rock informed, almost in the vein of the Black Crowes, but the songwriting is much more predominant, since he is, at the core, a singer-songwriter rather than the frontman of a band.

Listen:
Grayson Capps - Graveyard.mp3

Buy:
From Hyena Records
From Amazon

Making Singles Drinking Doubles

My local used records store, Love Garden, is very country, bluegrass, roots, etc. friendly (I suppose a mandolin playing owner doesn't hurt) and just about every time I go in I find some treasure waiting in the bins to be bought by me.

Not too long ago, I was fortunate enough to find Making Singles Drinking Doubles, the 2002 Bloodshot Records compilation commemorating their 100th release. The disc includes the usual suspects at Bloodshot, the Waco Brothers, The Meat Purveyors, Rex Hobart, and Moonshine Willy, but also includes two tracks featuring a pre-national fame Jack White backing soul legend Andre Williams.

Listen:
Andre Williams & 2 Star Tabernacle - Lily White Mama & Jet Black Daddy.mp3

Buy:
From Bloodshot
From Amazon