Tag Archives: I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House

The Best of 2010

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It’s that time again. The end of the year list that are as common as as spam in your inbox, but it’s tradition and I’m a sucker for tradition. So here we go!

If you follow my twitter feed (http://twitter.com/#!/TwangNation) you’ll already know what’s on this list. I did the countdown as seperate tweets lest week and I got a great response. You also know that its not merely a top 10 but a top 25! That’s right, you get 25% more music for your money.

It has been another great year for Americana/roots music, and from what’s currently coming across my desk for 2011 we can look forward to another. Old-timers are beating on the barn door and upstarts are using old parts to make new works that advance the form while staying true to the roots.  The genre appears to be attracting and cultivating the type of nurturing and craftsmanship that labels used to practice in the golden days of the 60s and early 70s. Of course this time without the lavish pay-out. The music industry is in turmoil from the corner office view but from the touring van and the laptop it’s  a prime-time for opportunity. And if you’re a burgeoning musician concerned about the current conditions I urge you to purchase Dr. Ralph Stanley’s book Man of Constant Sorry and learn about what REAL hard time look like.

So I raise a pint and celebrate an embarrassment of riches that show the love of craft and and honor in roots that defines a road of American culture that is often overlooked and forgotten but often leads to the promised land.

As the year comes to a close, I’m reflecting on the past four years of writing Minkin’s Music and all the good times with people I’ve met along the way. May the spirit of the season touch your soul and let comfort and joy shine upon you throughout the upcoming year.

  1. Mat D – Plank Road Drag – goo.gl/JmxJL
  2. Jamey Johnson – Guitar song- goo.gl/quZFh
  3. Ray Wylie Hubbard – A: Enlightenment B: Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) – goo.gl/VMe2Z
  4. Truckstop Darlin’ – Truckstop Darlin’ – goo.gl/jcRi0
  5. Reckless Kelly – Somewhere in Time- goo.gl/gwqGM
  6. Miranda Lambert – Revolution – goo.gl/Ana72
  7. Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues – goo.gl/ZIU2V
  8. Lindsay Fuller – The Last Light I See – goo.gl/wZsFI
  9. Elizabeth Cook – Welder – goo.gl/kiEVi
  10. Jason & The Scorchers  –  Halcyon Times – goo.gl/gzf0g
  11. Mandolin Orange – Quiet Little Room – goo.gl/tPcHS
  12. Black Twig Pickers – Ironto Special – goo.gl/sipmJ
  13. Possessed By Paul James – Feed The Family – goo.gl/0BjNl
  14. Joe Thompson – Yankee Twang – goo.gl/whgRF
  15. Joe Pug – Messenger – goo.gl/VQt31
  16. Carolina Chocolate Drops  – Genuine Negro Jig – goo.gl/38tmF
  17. The Sadies – Darker Circles – goo.gl/z5nMt
  18. 6 Day Bender – E’ville Fuzz – goo.gl/xLDK6
  19. I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House – Sounds of Dying – goo.gl/AhIG1
  20. Doc Dailey & Magnolia Devil – Victims, Enemies & Old Friends – goo.gl/twVaZ
  21. Shineyribs – Well After Awhile – goo.gl/8kgWY
  22. Patty Griffin – Downtown Church – goo.gl/YVXav
  23. Whitey Morgan & the 78′s – Whitey Morgan & the 78′s- goo.gl/HM2af
  24. Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers  – Agridustrial – goo.gl/ldsGN
  25. Mary Gauthier – The Foundling – goo.gl/fKAJb

Suburban Home Records Mix Tape Vol. 5, Someone’s Gonna Die

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Denver, Colorado’s Suburban Home Records has released a fine compilation (Or for this roots music blogger, a convenient sonic crib sheet)  of new and classic roots rock and Americana music entitled Suburban Home Records Mix Tape Vol. 5, Someone’s Gonna Die. The title is inspired by I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House’s new album, “The Sounds of Dying (featured here as the first two cuts as well as ICLASOBITH lead singer Micahel Dean Damron ballsy solo version of Townes Van Zandt’s Waiting Around to Die.) This mix was bound for greatness. How can you not trust this kind of music to a label owned by a guy named Virgil?

Go grab this release (via You Send It)  for some fine music for your next Summer cookout or that next riveting game of whiskey-fueled Russian roulette.

1. I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House – Swear to God
2. I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House – Postcards and Apologies (Two Cow Garage cover)
3. Two Cow Garage – Postcards and Apologies
4. Micahel Dean Damron – Waiting Around to Die (Townes Van Zandt cover)
5. Townes Van Zandt – Waiting Around to Die
6. Austin Lucas – Sleep Well (Demo)
7. Trampled By Turtles – Wait So Long
8. Oblio’s Arrow – End of the Burning Moon
9. Tim Barry – Exit Wounds.mp3
10. Slobberbone – Placemat Blues.mp3
11. John Moreland and the Black Gold Band – Bastards of the Highway
12. Jeff Rowe – Kate
13. The Replacements – Unsatisfied
14. Jon Snodgrass – Fast in Last
15. Arliss Nancy – Stella Lovely
16. Jr. Juggernaut – Another Two Weeks
17. Alexander Hudjohn – Down So Low
18. Calling Morocco – Break Your Heart
19. Tin Horn Prayer – Louis Collins
20. Jared Grabb – Devil Between
21. Lucky Old Sun – Back in Style
22. Armchair Martian – …Not Fine (Demo)
23. The Takers – Drift
24. Look Mexico – Take it Upstairs, Einstein
25. Geraldine Fibbers – Lilybelle
26. Pariah Beat – Elvis in Jerusulum
27. Drag the River – Beautiful and Damned
28. BEERS – I Love You (But I Don’t Trust You)
29. The Evening Rig – Half Asleep
30. Hank Williams, Jr. – If You Don’t Like Hank Williams.mp3

Michael Dean Damron “Father’s Day” (In Music We Trust Records)

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Portland Oregon’s Michael Dean Damron, or Mike D. as he was known when fronting his former hell-raising roots-rock band I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House, isn’t your garden variety sensitive, market tested, conveyor belt type of singer/songwriter. The emotion, fear and anger is laid out on his third solo release Father’s Day for all to feel. He’s not just singing, he’s testifying.

The youthful flame-thrower intensity of ICLASOBITH has been condensed into a focused,  welding torch constructing a dark and twisted terrain of one mans life and soul.

The lost love songs here – Dead Days, Boy With A Car and the provocatively titled I Hope Your New Boyfriend Gives You Aids (do NOT judge the album based on the title of this song, it doesn’t show up once in this beautifully heart wrenching cut.) display just as much defiance as they do remorse. Love songs are welcome, whining is not.

The specter of the Damron family patriarch is summoned and exorcised in the title track. The song tells of Damron’s father’s life as a hard, violent, and lonely one. The song is both a celebration and an unflinchingly cautionary tale. The excellent Angels Fly Up carries on the divisional theme, devils and angels, suicide and celebration- that seems to run through Fathers Day.

Tornado Song is a chugging blues-Gospel number veined with wailing harmonica and I’m A Bastard has Damron unmitigated affirmation of his place among the best of the worst in the troubadour trade.

As if the original songs weren’t enough to make this a fine album the three covers Damron has chosen to include speak volumes, fit nicely and are done with deftness and deference. Drag the River’s Beautiful And Damned is a solemn pedal-steel laced number and a ’round the campfire treatment of Thin Lizzy’s Dancing In The Moonlight are wonderful. The real courage, as with anyone willing to cover the Late Great Townes Van Zandt, comes with the inclusion of an accomplished rendition of Towne’s bleak tale of perseverance Waiting Around To Die.

Damron’s whiskey-and-dust vocals  brings to mind modern day contemporaries like Ryan Bingham, Drive By Truckers’ Patterson Hood, William Elliot Whitmore and Lucero’s Ben Nichols. The worn nature of the delivery adds another depth of ragged beauty to each of these gems. Damron sites Steve Earle, Alejandro Escovedo, Townes Van Zant and Waylon Jennings as heroes. But I believe that the true Patron Saint to his unique style of edgy storytelling, with a penchant for tenderness might well be David Allen Coe.

Sure Father’s Day is not a sunny Summer party album, who cares. It’s a great example of a  mature and excellent singer/songwriter venting his own private Winter.

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Father’s Day mp3

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDIYDNi2uTI[/youtube]