Category Archives: Music Releases

CD Review Gary Allen – Living Hard (MCA Nashville)

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I went to see Chris Knight about a year ago at a dive here in New York City. It was a great, albeit cozy, show. Once when Knight was about to launch into a song more geared to the tastes of the ladies he stated matter-of-factly “This is a song I wrote to broaden my appeal to the female demographic.”

The new release by Gary Allen – “Living Hard” – co-produced with Allan and Mark Wright, Allen co-wrote six of the album’s 11 cuts – seems to be him doing the same.

No artist has straddled the chasm of Nashville pop-mainstream and gritty Outlaw badlands better than Gary Allen in his career. By the time he made 1999’s Smoke Rings in the Dark Allen had marked his territory somewhere between the Bakersfield sound of his Southern California regional home and the early rockabilly-pop of Johnny Cash and Elvis. Though many times Nashville has attempted to drown Allen’s roadhouse mojo with sick production somehow his talent and spirit has won out.

“Watching Airplanes” kicks things off with a raucous yet lonely song that can only be pulled off on a country music album. Written by Jim Beavers and Jonathan Singleton the song is big and fearless. Mandolins, electric guitars, pedal steel and twinkling piano (!) blend with a string section and build to a point where Allen voice almost seems overtaken by the expanse.

The rhythmic opener for “We Touched the Sun” – written by Allen with Jim Lauderdale and Odie Blackmon is the opposite of the first. In spite of the power of the electric guitar and the lyrics that refer to breaking earthly limits he power of love, the song never breaks from the opening monotonous metronome.

“She’s So California” is where things go bad. Written by Allan with Jon Randall and Jaime Hanna. Sounding like a John Mellencamp ripoff we are treated with clunky lines like “She’s So California, She’s a wildfire out of control headed for ya.” Current natural tragedies aside the song makes me wish he had actually set fire to the song by breaking out with a jangly-pop straitjacket it suffers from. Short of that a match under the song-sheet might suffice.

“like It’s a Bad Thing”‘s lyrics give testament to the rebel Allen can be. “They say I drive a little fast, Say I like to push the limit everyday I’m living my life as if it were my last.” This is a song were Allan and the band really shine. The guitars are big and loud and the drums are booming and tight. The keyboard are right out of a 70’s metal handbook.

With “Learning How To Bend” we’re headed down the road of Grey’s Anatomy pop. Weepy relationship melodrama with strings. I have to admit, this song hurt me to listen to such a man “bend” so low.

Except for the excellent “like It’s a Bad Thing” the rockers on ” Living Hard ” don’t rock (think Bon Jovi) and the country seems watered down (again, think Bon Jovi.) The entire release seems like a pulled punch from an artist not known for timidity. If this were a Kenny Chesney or Tim McGraw album, and I accidentally reviewed it, I would give them extra credit for branching out. For Allen, a man that has built his reputation challenges, this is a step back to safety.

Perhaps with everything he’s been through “Living Hard” is a signal that Allen is healing and getting past it all. Maybe this is the sound of his catharsis. If so I’m happy to hear it, I just hope it doesn’t also mean he’s no longer willing to take chances.

Hank III New Release – Damn Right Rebel Proud – December 18.

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Right from the dreaded Curb site, Hank III’s new release , Damn Right Rebel Proud, will be unleashed December 18 on edit: now the site reads “Coming Soon.” Mike Curb is already pulling the same shit.

It’ll come in raunchy and wussy flavors.

Let’ s hope Curb is smart enough to drop this baby on schedule.

the tracklist:

1. The Grand Ole Opry
2. Wild & Free
3. Me & My Friends
4. 6 Pack Of Beer
5. I Wish I Knew
6. If You Can’t Help Your Own
7. Candidate For Suicide
8. H8 Line
9. Long Hauls And Close Calls
10. Stoned & Alone
11. P.F.F.

Props to Ninebullets.net for the news.

Hank III – Dick In Dixie-Cunt In County – Allentown PA – 9/26/07

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jsMMUDlXmU[/youtube]

Dwight Sings Buck – New West – 10/23

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Some things are naturally occurring, Texas Summer heat , death, taxes and Dwight Yoakam at some point in his career would release an album of covers by his mentor and friend Buck Owens.

After his fist release Dwight was soon introduced to the Texas native and they collaborated on Buck’s revived “The Streets of Bakersfield” to top the charts in 1988. The two stayed good friends until Buck Owen’s death on March 25, 2006 of a heart attack only hours after performing at his Crystal Palace restaurant and club.

Since releasing his first major label debut “Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.” in 1986 Yoakam has been the heir apparent of the twangy, electrified, rock-influenced flavor of hardcore honky-tonk entitled the Bakersfield sound (from it’s regional birthplace Bakersfield, CA.) and made famous by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Like it’s mountain cousin Bluegrass, Bakersfield is the kind of music that separates the country music aficionado from the tourist. It wears it’s hillbilly roots on it’s Nudie suited spangled sleeve while also using rock arrangements and technology to move forward.

The Bakersfield sound was also a bracing counter to the syrupy country-pop being produced in Nashville in the ’60s. Yoakam was able to deftly revive the sound in the ’80s in reaction to the very same insipid country music environment.

Now comes the inevitable and precisely if obviously titled “Dwight Sings Buck.” A reprisal of fifteen of Buck Owens’ greatest releases including 11 top five hits, eight of which reached #1 on the country charts, spanning 1956 to 1967. Though there are no real stretches or deviations with Dwight’s arrangements of these familiar classics, there are some pleasant tweaks here and there.

The release kicks things off with a bang with “My Heart Skips A Beat” to let you know just what is in store. Rave up electrified guitars twang out a solid back beat. The songs melts deftly into “Foolin Around” with an even faster beat and innocent double entendres. The breadth of this release and Dwight masterful delivery of the songs reminds the listener just how influential Buck Owens was and how his Hee Haw corn–pone persona allowed people to dismiss him as the innovator he was on country and rock.

“Only You” is a cut with a noticeable difference in arrangement. It’s still a slow loping testament to lost love but Dwight starts out the song with an organ bringing to mind a church procession. The song then moves into a waltz and Dwight’s voice aches, cracks and brings out the lonely ache of wanting in the song’s lyrics.

That same ache also occurs on Dwight Sings Buck’s first released single “Close Up The Honky Tonks.” That ache that is at once lonely and comforting when you realize someone is out there putting these universal feelings to hillbilly poetry.

This Fall is shaping up to be a great one for country fans, Dwight Sings Buck is the joyous and passionate release on the top of that list.

 

Dwight Yoakam – Close Up The Honky Tonks

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CedRLmqTvDc[/youtube]

Cash American VI News

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Thanks to JakobGreen at the Hank III board for this one –

American VI will be the second album of songs from the final recording sessions Johnny Cash made before he died. Like its predecessors, American Recordings, Unchained, American III: Solitary Man, American IV: The Man Comes Around, and American V: A Hundred Highways, American VI is produced by Rick Rubin and will be released on Rubin’s American Recordings record label. Lost Highway Records currently distributes country releases from the American Recordings label. Though the liner notes of Unearthed (a box set comprised of outtakes from the first four entries into the series) claim “around 50” songs were recorded during the American V sessions prior to Cash’s death on September 12, 2003, only two albums worth of material will be released, including American V: A Hundred Highways.

One track known to be recorded during these sessions but not included on American V is “There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down”. Another track that could possibly be included is “A Satisfied Mind” which was released on the soundtrack to Kill Bill, Vol. 2. Rubin is credited as producer and the track is copyrighted 2003, which would suggest that it came from Cash’s final sessions.

Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day” was recorded by Cash weeks before his death and is a likely candidate for inclusion on American VI.

Doug Kershaw has told audiences in 2006 that he has heard Cash’s recording of Kershaw’s signature song “Lousiana Man”, but its status for inclusion on American VI is unknown.

According to a USA Today article, American VI could be released in early 2007. Most likely it will be released Mid-2007.

Track listing…

“A tentative track listing has been revealed on ManInBlack.net, a Johnny Cash fansite. It includes the following songs…”

1. “San Antonio”
2. “Redemption Day”
3. “Here Comes a Boy”
4. “That’s Enough”
5. “1st Corinthians 5:55”
6. “I Can’t Help But Wonder”
7. “Nine-Pound Hammer”
8. “North to Alaska”
9. “His Eyes on the Sparrow”
10. “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again”
11. “The Eye of an Eagle”
12. “Don’t Take Everybody for Your Friend”
13. “Belshazzar”
14. “Loading Coal”
15. “A Half a Mile a Day”
16. “Flesh and Blood”
17. “I Am a Pilgrim”
18. “Beautiful Dreamer”
19. “Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down”
20. “Family Bible”

Oh Boy Records to Release Tom Snider’s Peace, Love and Anarchy – Rarities, B-sides and Demos

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Hey Todd Snider fans, good new coming by way of Upstage: (Nashville, TN) — Though singer/songwriter Todd Snider released his last album on Universal Records, he built up a strong and loyal following during his five-year tenure with Nashville based Oh Boy Records. Oh Boy Records sifted through their archives – and with Snider’s help – compiled a collection of rarities, B-sides and demos appropriately titled Peace, Love and Anarchy (Rarities, B-sides and Demos, Vol. 1). The album, which streets on April 3, is an invitation for us to peer in and watch a gypsy whittle, and for us to whistle along while he works.

Snider, praised as a next-in-line luminary by folks such as John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Billy Joe Shaver, appears onstage as a barefoot tipsy gypsy, looking for all the world like he’s stumbling into brilliance, eloquence and gut-busting humor. It’s a great act, and this is not to say that he’s not himself out there. He is, and it’s his best self. It has landed him in hallowed performance halls, on the Jay Leno and David Letterman shows and in the good graces of his heroes.

What people don’t see, though, is the fellow who wakes early each morning, picks up a guitar and works on his poems. He writes them out by hand, and at first a Snider song is something like a big block of good wood. Then the knife comes out, the wood is shaped over days and weeks and sometimes years, and he shows it to people once he’s done with it. His recordings, too, blend the inspiration of a moment with a thousand afterthoughts. They wind up on finished recordings because they are… well, finished. Even the jagged stuff is there on for a purpose.

All of which makes Peace, Love and Anarchy (Rarities, B-Sides and Demos, Vol. 1) something of a revelation. Here are Snider’s songs at first blush. Some of these compositions – among them, “Nashville,” “Feels Like I’m Falling In Love” (for co-writer Jack Ingram), “Deja Blues” (for co-writer Shaver) and “Feel Like Missing You” – grew up to become master recordings, while “Nashville” was whittled down some more before appearing on the East Nashville Skyline album. The title song of the latter album never made the album in question, and it appears here for the first time, complete with resplendent harmonica/steel guitar interplay between Snider and the legendary Lloyd Green.

“Cheatham Street Warehouse” is a full-on rock ‘n’ roll tribute to a favorite Texas haunt, with Snider’s tough-as-the-blues electric guitar duel with Tommy Womack in the middle and Green’s searing steel solo dominating at song’s end. “Combover Blues” is a slice of poignant wit, and Snider can’t recall precisely why it was left off his original Oh Boy recordings. “I Will Not Go Hungry” is a weather-beaten spiritual reach, while the “Dinner Plans” haiku is all red wine reality.

“Stoney” is taken from the much-bootlegged but never-issued Todd Sings Jerry Jeff album that he recorded over a few nights in East Nashville as an aural thank-you note to one of his inspirers. He sat in a chair with eyes closed and played the songs from memory: Todd Snider knows Jerry Jeff Walker songs as well as he knows anything in the world, including but not limited to rolling paper techniques, lighter fluid methodology and San Francisco Giants baseball. “Some Things Are” is another openhearted endeavor, as is “From A Rooftop,” Snider’s postcard from the right side of town.

Peace, Love and Anarchy is not a post-contract, drag-the-lake affair. It is a carefully constructed collection, and a testament to the potency of a catalogue built during Snider’s five-year tenure with the small-but-stout Oh Boy Records family.

Todd Snider – Austin City Limits- This Land Is Your Land

Hellwood

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Hellwood is a gothic roots-rock group featuring Jim White, Johnny Dowd and drummer Willie B.(Neko Case, Sally Timms). Recorded in a cabin in central New York, in a room with walls covered in newspaper clippings of musician obituaries, Hellwood’s “Chainsaw of Life” beings the minimalist approach of Johhny Dowd, the honky-tonk trip-hop of Jim White and the intricate percussion of Willie B. Hellwood wrapped up a Europeon tour late last year and the band is planning a tour of America this year.

Lucinda Williams looks “West”

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From the press release:

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Loss and loneliness are at the core of Lucinda Williams‘ largely down-tempo album, “West,” the singer/songwriter’s first release since 2003.

The disc, slated to be released February 13 via Lost Highway, finds the Grammy winner coping with another painful breakup and the passing of her mother, whom she reminisces in songs like “Mama You Sweet” and “Fancy Funeral.” In such songs as “Come On,” “Learning How to Live” and “Everything Has Changed,” Williams again deals with heartbreak.

“The songs deal with a chapter in my life and they definitely tell a story,” Williams told Billboard.com. “It’s probably been the most prolific time in my life as a writer. I’d been through so many changes — my mother’s death and a very tumultuous relationship that ended badly — so obviously there’s a lot of pain and struggling, but it ends with a look toward the future.”

Featuring the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, celebrated drummer Jim Keltner, longtime Bob Dylan bassist Tony Garnier (both of whom played on her “Essence” disc) and Williams’ longtime guitarist Doug Petibone, “West” was co-produced by Williams and Hal Willner, whose credits include Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Bill Frisell, who also guests on the “West.”

But “West” is not a completely somber affair. “Mama You Sweet” is upbeat and “Come On” is a nasty, almost raunchy kiss-off, musically akin to “Atonement” from 2003’s “World Without Tears.”

She injects doses of hope and light in tracks like “What If,” in which she imagines a world where the president wears pink and a prostitute is a queen.

“I get tired of people looking at my songs and feeling that they’re all sad and dark,” she said. “There’s more to them than that. Some people might read Flannery O’Connor and see that as simply dark — and it is dark and disturbing — but there’s a philosophical aspect, even a comical aspect to it as well. I think that’s all there on this album. It’s a full circle, like I’ve come through a metamorphosis.”

Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard – Pitchfork Review (8.8)

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Pitchfork has a fine review of Hag: The Best of Merle Haggard.

an excerpt:As an introduction to Haggard’s music– or even to  the Bakersfield sound that he helped popularize– Hag may be  unparalleled. Born in Bakersfield to transplanted Oklahomans,  Haggard was at heart a California artist, reared on 1940s and
50s country and influenced by Bob Wills, Tex Ritter, and Spade Cooley. You can hear their influence– especially Wills’– in songs like “Living with the Shades Pulled Down”, on which Haggard calls out his band members to solo, adopting a falsetto much like his hero’s. It’s an original tune, but it could very easily be a Wills cover.

Hag recently collaborated with another Country legend, George Jones, on the release ”
Kickin’ Out the Footlights…Again.”