I live in Indianapolis. I love Indiana rock and roll. Hoosier albums come my way a lot; through stories and review I write for NUVO, and through unsolicited packages. To call much of it Mellencamp infused and influenced would be far too simplistic. But much of the really good music from Indiana does contain “Scarecrow” and “Lonesome Jubilee” echoes, even if only faintly heard. But there is usually some Petty. It has Seger. I even hear R.E.M influences in a lot of it. Oh, and add some country shit too. Maybe Cheap Trick, but then I think any great rock band that has come of age after 1981 is influenced in some way by Cheap Trick. – it’s one of my idiosyncrasies. Whatever. I can’t help it. I could go on, but the more I think about it, the more I think I may be wrong. There are those bands, but also weird, sensational, inspired surprises that come from the best Indiana artists, hidden – or not – in their music.
Shelby Kelley is probably known best in Indianapolis as a member of Creepin’ Charley and the Boneyard Orchestra, but here steps out on his own for a raw-but-clean solo album.
With the appropriately named “Alone”, Kelley gives us an acoustic guitar-based, Americana album, featuring Kelly’s voice, guitar and occasional harmonica as the only instruments. He strips down the garage rock of his Creepin’ Charley band, and crafts an intimate-yet-rocking solo record that showcases his folk rock side
Standing somewhere between Tom Petty and Robert Earl Keen, the record proves inviting and engaging, though the lyrics, despite some good lines, are always fighting to keep up with Kelley’s terrific rhythm guitar. If you are going to make a record as simple and basic as “Alone”, listeners need both memorable melodies and meaningful lyrics. There is no crash-bam-boom drums or gritty guitar solos to provide rescue. When Kelley’s music and lyrics do connect (“Based on a True Story”, “End of It All”, “Down This Road”), listener patience is rewarded.
“I Know” opens the record in a Petty “Free Fallin’ feel, with lyrics peering, from an outsider viewpoint, into the soul of girl’s lost innocence, while “Down This Road” is a country-tinged rocker, hinting that Kelley may have some Joe Ely cassettes at home. Kelley’s hard strumming rhythm guitar makes the tune one of the best on the album. The sweet harmonica solo in the middle is all the more powerful because of the sparse use of instruments on the record.
“End Of It All ” carries the record into the rough pop-rock hooks and Springsteen themes at which Kelley excels.
Kelley’s channels Pretender-era Jackson Browne on “Wish Upon Wish”, letting his voice become the leader; his California rock sound no more evident than here.
Part of the success of the record comes from the clarity-plus-fullness sound. Recorded without much evident reverb, there’s immediacy to the sound that helps pull a listener’s ears into the album. Recorded at Stable Studios in Spencer, Indiana and engineered by Michael Osborne, the production gives the album a sound much like a Kelley live solo show.
A bit less successful is “Camelot is Burning”. Not as pop-influenced as other songs, and tougher to instantly like, Kelley and Osborne add a bit of processing to the guitar, giving the song a different feel than the rest of the songs on the album. And the breakdown before each chorus effectively builds musical tension and becomes the tunes’ hook. Similar to “Dead End Skies” later it the record, they are two of the album’s songs that take more than one or two listens to find their heart
“Based on a True Story” ends the eight-song album with a powerful flourish. Again into Robert Earl Keen/Todd Snider territory, taking his shot at the story-song “Road Goes on Forever” template, it is one that works well for Kelley.
It’s the consistent energy and in-the-room sound produced from Shelby Kelley’s gut-grabbing three-chord guitar playing that gives “Alone” the needed push. It makes the full-yet-simple guitar and vocals record worthy of a listen for fans of Americana singer-songwriters.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsZzCiuwslI]
album reviews/previews
Review: Bruce Springsteen – "Working on Dream"
The Bruce Springsteen album Working on A Dream is getting roundly ripped for being rushed and lyrically vapid, and also earning some glowing reviews that focus on the well-executed pop/rock sonic departure and commend him for not using his platform to perform a soundtrack to the Obama juggernaut.
Here’s what it really is: Working on a Dream actually allows us a new way to listen to a Springsteen album. Is rocks and pops like nothing he has made. Clear and undone of the muddy Brendan O’Brien production on Magic, it positively gleams. The band shines, even if much of it was overdubbed after a core group of Bruce, pianist Roy Bitten, drummer Max Weinberg and bassist Gary Tallent cut the basic tracks. But it moves me. And I wasn’t trying to like it, anymore than I was trying to hate it. I was just listening.
There are hooks and shining chord changes and plenty to make it as interesting — in a spiritually musical sense — as any music coming from any artist.
Lyrically, I’ll agree with those who say the gut-wreching, subtle universal truths revealed by Bruce are fewer than on, say, Darkness on the Edge of Town. Yet it feels like a record (and I will periodically still use the term “record” to refer to albums. I won’t however, say eight-track) that will grow, peeling back to reveal more good tracks than bad with repeated listens. As I write about the latest Old Crow Medicine Show album, Tennessee Pusher, the best albums are never just a sugar buzz, though need enough instant gratification out of the case to warrant a deeper dive.
Bruce has something good here. So I will continue to dive in. More listens will tell me if this one is a masterpiece hidden by those who bemoan because of what it is (different), or if it is really just a 2009 version of Human Touch (shiny and empty). I’ve been wrong before. But my gut is saying interesting and worth the time to get to know it
I’ve been right before too.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoVqnzr5VUQ]
album review – Cracker – "Gentlemen's Blues"
album review
Cracker
Gentlemans Blues
By Rob Nichols
Listen your way through Gentlemen’s Blues from Cracker, and there is enough familiarity (ie Dylan-era Hammond B3’s and Ray Davies-sounding vocals) to make you keep going .
From the band that grew from the burned-out years of the band Camper Van Beethovan, leader David Lowery and his fulltime sidekicks Johnny Hickman and Bob Rupe (one of the founders of the band The Silos) have evolved from goofy early 1990’s alternative rock and roll into a band that echoes the Kinks. And Dylan. And alternative country bands consider Cracker an influence.
Gentleman’s Blues has an intelligence that is subtle and a sound that is homegrown. We hear intimate sounds, like pianos, buried steel guitar, handclaps and tambourines.
It makes the rock and roll band basics of guitars, snares and pumping bass sound, well, smarter. Lowery has always been a songwriter with a few lyrical quirks. Songs like “My Life Is Totally Boring Without You” and “I Want Out Of The Circus” are memorable for their titles alone. Much like the latest Grant Lee Buffalo release, this one gets better with repeated chances in the CD player.
Guests like Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, along with drummers Steve Jordan (Keith Richards X-Pensive Wino’s) and Phil Jones (played on nearly every track on Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever and on other Cracker releases) lend to the familiarity. Davey Faraghar (John Hiatt’s bass player and alum of earlier incarnations of Cracker) sings backup on six track.
Lowery’s voice and Hickman’s lyrics are the paste that holds the album together, through the circus flourishes (Out Of The Circus), country rock romps (The Good Life) and Todd Snider-ish gospel songs (Hallelujah). The album contains tiny pleasurable flourishes, like the “Soul Man” riff on the song “Seven Days”. It is a album of unexpected hooks.
If music and artistry was a competition, these boys have now recorded an album better, deeper and smarter than the latest from Sister Hazel, Matchbox20 and Hootie and the Blowfish. For whatever that’s worth. Same music genre, but more hidden fun.
Review – Cheap Trick – "Music For Hangovers"
Mini Spin
Music For Hangovers
Cheap Trick (Live)
By Rob Nichols
For a band that hit the big time with a sonically inferior live album recorded in Japan under adverse circumstances, the new live CD from Cheap Trick Music For Hangovers is a chance at a little redemption.
Taken from a four-night stand at the Metro in Chicago last spring, the band has put together not so much a greatest hits package but rather set of songs that remind us why Cheap Trick is so valuable.
On each of the four nights, the band would tackle one of their first four albums in it’s entirety, then play some more off other albums during encores. The first night, the band performed the entire Budokan album, followed on successive nights by performances of 1977’s Cheap Trick and In Color from the same year, and concluded the stand with a performance of Heaven Tonight, originally released in 1978.
Only four songs on the new live CD cold be considered hits, with performances of “Surrender”, “I Want You To Want Me”, “If You Want My Love” and “Dream Police”
While “Surrender” sounds great, the reason for this album to exist is to help us remember how a band should age. Cheap Trick revisits a bunch of songs 20 years old and reinvests themselves into the music, with a not so surprising rock and roll punch. They treat listeners to an album of guitar rock and roll.
Robin Zander’s sounds like only Robin Zander can sound, which is like a he’s been preserved in a 1978 time capsule, while drummer Bun E. Carlos is terrific. Guitarist and main songwriter Rick Nielson wrote some great pop songs and his playing sometimes get lost behind his image. Not here.
They sound good. They look good. We find some songs we used to know. It’s a nice package.