The 2010 Americana Music Association nominations were announced this week, and for fans of the Americana/alt-country rock-and-twang genre (like me), it’s an interesting little list:
Album of the year nominees:
The List – Rosanne Cash (…gonna win because Johnny gave his daughter aformentioned “list” – and Springsteen duets on one of the songs)
A Friend of a Friend – Dave Rawlings Machine (…co-writers and performers include Old Crow Medicine Show, Bright Eyes, and members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
Downtown Church – by Patty Griffin (…most beautiful voice of the four – and many more)
A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is no c) – Ray Wylie Hubbard (…legend, but not the best album)
Artist of the Year
Ryan Bingham (…wrote two tunes – and sang them – for “Crazy Heart”, the Jeff Bridges film = winner)
Patty Griffin (…see note about her from above)
Levon Helm (…still has the great foghorn voice of the Band days)
Steve Earle (… tribute album, Townes, with 15 songs written by his late friend and musical mentor Townes Van Zandt. Interesting that the album is not nominated but he is)
Ray Wylie Hubbard (…well-loved in the alt-country field, but not gonna win)
Duo/Group of the Year
The Avett Brothers (…how can they not win? One of the hottest bands of the past year)
Carolina Chocolate Drops (…too new to win, but are playing a folk festival in Madison in a little more than a week, so that counts for some love here)
Band of Heathens (…I really like the way they rock = but not enough of a widespread buzz for them just yet)
Dave Rawlings Machine (…underdog)
Song of the Year
“The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)” Written by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett-performed by Ryan Bingham
“Drunken Poets Dream” Written by Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard – performed by Ray Wylie Hubbard
“Ruby” Written by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch – performed by Dave Rawlings Machine
“I and Love and You” Written and performed The Avett Brothers
americana
Hoosier Americana: Bobbie Lancaster Finds Home
Arriving at a meaningful place in life requires detours and surprises. And then, the destination can still be unexpected. We know this is true, because every damn one of us has been there.
And a pair of new albums last year, and two more on the way, Bobbie Lancaster may have finally found her road home. She has finished recording her first solo album, a second children’s CD, and along the way, developed a gutty yet sweet stage persona.
Her haunting vocals on “I’m on Fire” as part of this summer’s Grimm-organized “Hoosier Springsteen” concerts made the short, brooding song one of the best performances of the show. The Bloomington singer’s bouncing, smiling, in-the-moment stage presence cemented the musical package; the woman can crank it up like Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Riatt, and engage a crowd with her subtle stage charms. Watching Lancaster feels like we’re seeing a woman who knows her strengths and power, but is only beginning to refine and unleash it.
“I was scared to death,” she says of the shows, talking on the phone from her Bloomington home. “We had a rehearsal and I just felt I had to get in there and give everything I had. And at the end of the gig, I felt really good about my performance and overcoming that little confidence hurdle I had before the show.”
With an upcoming solo record, she is putting herself in front of whatever comes with it. In September, she recorded the album at Farm Fresh studios in Bloomington, with a band brewing a stew of rootsy, Americana music.
“I have cried and squealed with joy so many times that I think they (the band) are worried about me. It’s the most incredible thing to hear these songs I wrote on a mandolin be brought to life,” Lancaster says.
This new record will come a little more than a year after she released a catchy preschool-focused children’s album (“Bobbie Lancaster’s Little Folks”) and an Americana/folk record called “On with the Show” with the duo Stella & Jane.
“On with the Show” is an intriguing piece – Jane is Lancaster’s middle name. Using a middle name isn’t the quickest way to wider recognition, right? Maybe Bobbie wasn’t ready to come out from behind the one-name middle-name anonymity? That seems to have changed.
“I am looking forward to focusing on doing more solo stuff. It’s where I feel led to go right now,” she says. “Every CD I have done has been with a group and a compilation of different writers. I have probably 50 or 60 songs that I’ve just been sitting on, plus have written seven new songs since May – I have just had a nice creative spurt lately.”
As happens with most good stories, it hasn’t been a simple process to wind up where talent and opportunity intersect.
Some 25 years ago, Bobbie Jane Lancaster’s mother and father had her take in piano lessons, from kindergarten until fourth grade. She’d always had the gift to be able to sing, and even earned a full ride scholarship in music vocal performance to Indiana University, but blew the opportunity. It became a long road and indirect route that’s brought Bobbie to the point of making her first solo album.
“I was so young when I went (to IU), I wish I had a better grip on myself at the age that I went to college,” she says. “But I didn’t and I gave that up, nor really realizing what a gift it was to get that scholarship.”
She ended up going to Vincennes University, held three jobs while there, and started singing in a coffee shop when she was 19.
“That’s when I first found my own voice,” she remembers.
She has spent the past five years starting a family, and playing music – first with a Bloomington blues band called Code Blue, and more recently, with musical partner Stella Suzette Weakley.
“I was a real estate broker for about seven years, and actually got fired by some guy,” Lancaster admits, recounting how she and Weakley got together. “I had never been fired in my life and was shocked. I called Suzette – I had met her just once before – and went to work a real estate company she owns.”
From that sequence of workforce events, the two started playing music together. Weakley essentially served as Lancaster’s mentor, musical partner and teacher. Bobbie started by singing some background vocals when the two met at Weakley’s house.
“She had a little Contessa mandolin in her basement and said ‘Why don’t you pick this up, I’ll show you a few chords and see what you want to do with it’. When I picked up a mandolin, it just felt like I had been holding it forever,” Lancaster says.
“She taught me three chords, and I went home that night and I played until my fingers couldn’t stand it anymore. Then I iced them and I kept playing.”
On the Stella and Jane (with help from multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Jeff Foster) album , Lancaster’s singing shines on the self-penned CSNY-ish “The Rain”, the bluesy, sassy, Hammond B3-drenched “Fast Car” and especially on “Low Down”, a shorter than three-minute pop-rocker, hinting at a healthy John Hiatt influence.
“I have been really open with everybody in Stella and Jane (about the new solo work). I have their support,” she says. “We just all care about each other an awful lot, and I think by being open and honest makes those conversations easier. I think they both understand I am just coming into my own right now.
“I’ve been thinking about cutting my own album for years, and my friends have asked me to do it for years, and I’m at this beautiful stage in my life where I feel like I’m ready,” she says.
Lancaster says she wants to have the album out before February, when she travels to the Memphis Folk Alliance.
In addition to her new solo record, Lancaster cut a new kids album, recording a recent WFHB live radio broadcast of her show. Children’s music is a burgeoning part of her musical career, and includes weekly musical sessions at four different preschools, and appearances at Central Indiana public libraries, performing for kids and parents.
“I know what I want, I’m happy with what I’m writing, and these amazing people have shown up in my life and wanted to help me do this,” she says, referring to her studio band, led by Scott Kellogg, “I’m feeling the love right now.”
And more than ever before, Bobbie Lancaster is coming out from behind the middle name. She seems willing to show us the soul – nurtured with piano lessons, surviving through the opportunity lost at IU, and allowed to blossom on the bumpy road that has followed – that she knew existed all along.
Concert Review: Will Hoge Brings His Influences to Indianapolis
Will Hoge began the final night of his 2009 tour by sitting in a chair at the front of the stage, playing acoustic guitar. By show’s end Saturday night at Radio Radio, he was in full Pete Townshend windmill, testifying frontman mode. He was sweating, screaming and generally doing what Will Hoge does in a live setting: channeling his inner Petty and Springsteen to create Memphis via Nashville soulful rock and roll. And damn, if he isn’t about the best at what he does.
Ambling on stage in a white dress shirt, back vest, and black tie with an unbuttoned collar, Hoge dotted his 2 hour, 10-minute, 28-song show with songs from his five studio albums, leaning most heavily on his first (“Carousel”) and his latest (“the Wreckage”). Opening with the title cut to the new record – it served as a metaphorical reminder of the nearly year-long battle Hoge fought to recover from a serious scooter accident in August 2008, suffered on his way home from a studio session during the recording of the album.
While the sold-out show (a sign was posted on the front door of Radio Radio just before 8:30pm) pushed showgoers together and created a palpable energy of expectation, Hoge’s initial two songs, played seated, had much of the audience struggling to see the singer and dive into the moment. His voice is gritty, blue-eyed soul when he slows his music down, and his plaintive, tough yet-sensitive lyrics shine.
But with “Highway Wings” from the new record, Hoge stood up, the audience energy came with it, and the rock and roll began. The three song-suite, featuring the ultra-hooky “Secondhand Heart” and the rocker “She Don’t Care”, played to Hoge’s strengths: Petty-esque, anthemic pop/rock, dirtied up with loud Fender Telecaster rhythm and a band that fits nicely and loudly into the mix.
The sound at Radio Radio is always some of the best for any venue in the city, and this night was no exception, treating the audience to clean, crisp instrument separation: just the right thump of Adam Beard’s bass and Sigurdur Birkis’s drums (and they may be the best rhythm section I have seen in 2009), with dueling, jagged guitars, and vocals that rode just atop the mix. Nearly perfect.
Hoge and his band built energy in five or six song bursts, starting with an acoustic song or two before heating up the room with the electric guitars. As the band rocked Hoge would hold his blond Tele above his head, and lean backwards and sideways into the microphone to sing a lyric.
He mentioned how nice it was to have an audience that knew the words, and responded by playing “Heartbreak Avenue”, a song he said the band rarely tries, pulled from the “Carousel” album. “Favorite Waste of Time” had a Smithereens crunch to it, while “Better Off (Now that You’re Gone)” from his underappreciated “Blackbird on a Lonely Wire” album showcased the band’s ability to take a sugary rock song and infuse it with off-the-beaten-Nashville-path twang. Halfway through the show, it was evident Hoge was back. Sure, he sat a few times, either to rest or for effect. Either way was OK, because when he did stand, strap on the electric guitar, and rock, that’s the Will Hoge experience that most seemed to relish.
And you have to be proud of Indy to pack 500 or so into a club for a band whose music doesn’t fit neatly onto the radio in 2009. It’s a shame, a sham, and a pity; Hoge is the guy delivers energy and connection with his rock music, not to mention some great fuckin’ lyrics on top of the guitar snarls and snare snaps.
The staccato riffs of “Your Fool” revved the song and audience up, and the current radio song “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” proved to be anthemic, as expected, singing about the powers of ambition filtered through the radio of a kid. It began a sweep into the back half of the show that found the audience finding their voice, and singing with Hoge.
The crowd knew and sang with “Ms. Williams”, the Elvis Costello-ish “Hard to Love” and laughed along with a story of him breaking into one of the band’s two hotel rooms to find the guitar and bass players on the web, watching video’s of 80’s heavy metal band the Scorpions..
Ending the set by sitting at the piano for “Too Late Too Soon”, Hoge and the band soon came back for a nine-song, end of tour blowout encore, channeling the Georgia Satellites, Todd Snider, The Faces and The Who as they sweated their way through “Just Like Me,” , Long Gone” and a beautiful “Highway’s Home” featuring guitarist Devin Malone on pedal steel.
Near the end. Hoge said the band was going to do a “social experiment” and took them into the back of the room, with only acoustic instruments, and sang and played unamplified, quieting the crowd with harmonies, before he jumped back on stage to perform a sublime, gospel-influenced, “Washed by the Water”. It found Malone moving over to play the keyboard, and eerily emulating a church organ. The audience sang the chorus back to Hoge as the singer waved and walked off the stage.
Will Hoge’s ability to rock and roll with aplomb and walk away with a big smile was a far cry from the days following his accident, after a van driver failed to yield and Hoge smashed into the side of the vehicle. He broke numerous ribs, his sternum, leg, knee cap, shoulder blades, and required more than 100 stitches. So it’s quite a distance traveled for Hoge. Just only once did he quickly mention how “tough it had been” before he fell back into his show, performing like he was glad to be back.
Great, up-close video from the show – November 21, 2009 at Radio Radio
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_3PzKRvwaw]
Indiana Music: Gamblin' Christmas
The opening track of the Gamblin’ Christmas album “Alaska” earned its way onto my list of favorite discoveries of last year – “Blue Lights” a piece of Americana that is anthemic, in the way James McMurtry or Joe Ely can drawl and then fire a song into your consciousness.
Make no mistake, the magic possessed by Patrick Flaherty and Kurt Franke – the duo that are Gamblin’ Christmas – is in their harmonies; Cutting, beautiful, unique moments that blend Flaherty’s throaty Texas-influenced foghorn with Franke’s upper-register and distant siren. The two are a little more than a year into a musical reconnection that followed each getting married, the addition of two kids for Patrick and a year-long stint for Kurt in Austin, Texas. But it makes sense for them to be play music together, if for no better reason better than damn good harmonies.
Gamblin’ Christmas brings their Americana/folk/alt-country sound to Bear’s Place in Bloomington on September 4.
Ball State grads, both now living in Indianapolis, are about to commence work on a follow-up to the 2007 release “Alaska”, a minimalist-yet-powerful effort, showcasing their voices above Patrick’s strident acoustic guitar playing and Kurt’s nimble bass guitar.
“We have seven or eight new songs that haven’t been played live or recorded, and another 12 or 13 that we do play that also aren’t recorded,” Flaherty revealed. “We are going to get ready to record another album and have been playing the songs out live. The energy is there.”
Kurt, who has a degree in Music Engineering, adds they are looking for something even more organic this time.
“Interlochen (in Michigan, where they recorded “Alaska”) was amazing, but I want to capture the sound of us in a room where we are very comfortable, rather than a studio,” said Franke. “Its really a struggle balancing a folk approach to performance with classical training in theory and recording, but it is exactly that which keeps me interested”.
The folk approach stems from a mammoth multi-record album of songs they both listened to while in college.
“We both sort of started to take an interest into the ‘Harry Smith Folk Anthology’,” Flaherty said. “It is a collection made in the 1950’s, by someone going all over the country, with a really basic recorder, catching people singing, before they died. Really hardcore folk.”
“When you first listen to the album, it is sort of disorienting, because it is so raw. That kind of music resonated with us.”
It led to playing some Muncie gigs and open mic nights. Sharing a house after college, beginning in 2004, their combined skills and musical strengths began to blossom.
“We were renting a house on Central Avenue and lived together for a year and a half,” Flaherty says. “That it was a time that was amazingly productive, “ Flaherty remembers. “We’d practice and record.”
Eventually, Flaherty got married and moved out, and Kurt and his fiancé (now wife) moved to Austin in late 2006, bringing and hiatus to their partnership.
“My wife and I were expecting a child and we didn’t really want to leave the safety net of family,” Flaherty said. “The plan was for all of us to go down there, and not necessarily relocate. Just to see Austin. It was sort of this mecca. Townes Van Zandt lore. Then when he came back last year, we picked back up again.”
And picking back up meant relearning old songs, writing new songs, and finding that vocal harmonies were still intact.
“I think when the Silver Dollar Family Band (a former four-piece band were both in) was whittled down to Gamblin’ Christmas, we started to realize that our voices sounded really good together.” Franke said. “It has taken a long time to develop the harmonies though, and it was about the time we recorded “Alaska” that it finally all sort of fell into place.
“I think we are worlds beyond that in terms of singing, plus Pat has started to sing harmonies on my songs, which is a huge addition to the sound.”
Steadfast in pushing their own writing and music, their live performance at a recent Sunday night at Melody Inn appearance still mixed in a couple public domain-type covers and one Simon and Garfunkel song (the brilliantly chosen “Duncan”). At that show,. Flaherty, pounding the chords out on his acoustic guitar, frequently grounded his feet twice shoulder-width apart, and bounced his back foot as he sang, sounding equal parts McMurtry, Robert Earl Keen with a bit of Gordon Lightfoot. Kurt leaned in and nudged the songs to a higher place with his high and lonesome harmonies.
“We want to have that vocal chemistry,” Patrick says “The new songs are more mature. More than just relationship gone wrong. More about life. More complicated, with more layers.
“But it’s like the guy who asked Neil Young if he had written the same song at least a 1,000 times. Well, maybe,” Flaherty says. “It’s not like there are a whole new system of rules.”
“I feel like every new song we write keeps getting better and better,” Franke says. “Knowing that the longer we stick with it, the more fun it is, the better it sounds, and hopefully people will feel as strongly about it as we do.”
Concert Review: Bodeans Rock and Roll the Vogue – Again
While there are no guarantees in rock and roll, a BoDeans show at the Vogue is something that rarely fails to inspire an audience with the joy of rock and roll. And there’s always a little bit of muted pain too, because just below the surface of many of Kurt Nuemann’s and Sammy Llanas’ songs are bits of melancholy, rejection and loss.
And because this is a band that may deserve a little more success than the music business has given them.
The two singer/songwriters, who are the BoDeans, pulled into Indianapolis on Friday night, and had, by the end the 16-song, 110-minute show, given the mostly 40-something roots rock fans a reminder of where the buzz started for the band. The songs and music off of the band’s 1986 debut album “Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams” carried the most musical weight and lyrical resonance, and the bands performance helped remind why that album deserved it’s remastering and re-release earlier this year.
Opening with the ethereal “Pretty Ghost” from 2008’s “Still “album, the band proceeded to then knock out two from 1993’s “Go Slow Down”, with the blending of the singer’s voices shining on “Idaho” and then getting the audience bouncing with “Texas Ride Song”, highlighting Bukka Allen’s accordion playing. He was featured prominently on that instrument throughout the evening, giving a uniqueness of sound to add to the harmonies and Kurt’s’s guitar playing, always a integral part of the gig.
After “Everyday”, from their new record, came a surprising early set inclusion of one the band’s regular show closers. “Good Work”, from 1989’s “Home” with it’s Chuck Berry riff and breakneck pace was the first spot for the band to get sweaty and dirty, hear the drums crashing, and crank both the crowd and band energy levels.
Subtly, the sound mix was short of great. While the band would end up trumping what Lucinda Williams had done with her encore three days earlier at the same venue, her house sound mix was superior to the less distinct and at times boomy sound on Friday; simply not as crisp for the BoDeans, though never bad enough to hinder the performance. I moved around to numerous spots in the theatre, searching for a “best” spot. To the right of the soundboard proved to be as good as it got. Within 15 rows of the stage, the volume coupled with band and crowd energy was also a good position, making up for nuances not in the mix.
From LHSD, Sammy introduced “Still the Night” by asking how many had seen them before (big cheer), thanked the audience for being their “little family on the road” and promptly jumped into the song that never fails to get a BoDeans crowd excited. Smartly, they dropped in a lyrical and musical snippet from “Hey Pretty Girl”, from their 1996 “Blend” effort, and was a sweet little teaser for hardcore fans who picked up on it. By the end of the song, the band was again chugging hard, something they did throughout the night – extending the songs, not with noodling, but finding another rock and roll gear.
“She’s a Runaway”, also from the first album, was recast at half speed, as Sammy, who began the song slapping his palm on his acoustic guitar strings, told the audience after playing it that “sometimes Mary needs a new dress”.
Following the sweet harmony showcase of “Stay On”, it was again back to the first record for “Fadaway” and then the sugary melody of “First Time” from their new record – It’s a pretty pop song, memorable in it’s simplicity.
After the slow dance version of “Naked”, they played “Feed the Fire”. The rocker from “Go Slow Down” is usually overshadowed by the same album’s more familiar upbeat burner “Closer to Free”, but on this night provided a podium for the band to drop pieces of classic rock songs onto the end of it. “Gimme Shelter”, “In the Midnight Hour”, “Gloria”, “Light My Fire” and Sly Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher” found places on the back end. The aforementioned “Closer to Free” closed the set, giving the 600 or so at the Vogue a pairing to keep them wanting more.
Unlike Williams’ trio of encore songs that had fallen a bit flat, the BoDeans used their set coda to do what Sly Stone wanted.
“Misery”, one that sits in it’s groove and burns, kept the connection between band and crowd working, with a spot-on audience effort, shouting back on the call-and-response chorus.
“You Don’t Get Much”, from the excellent “Home” record started with Kurt’s best Edge/U2 channeling (the group had opened for U2 ‘s stadium tour before recording the album) and ended with Kurt and Sammy facing each other at center stage, then heading to stand on the front monitors. They did the same with “Good Things”, shredding the song as they finished, and again six inches from each other’s face before talking, smiling and finally simultaneously jumping up and down to the beat to bring the tune to a crashing finale.
Sam and Kurt and the rest of the band were having obvious fun, sweaty and grinning at the end. It’s what we have come to expect from the BoDeans. They delivered again.
Twang Rock Report: Jason and the Scorchers reunite for album, New albums from Todd Snider and Low Anthem, plus WTF on the Gaslight Anthem dates?
A Nashville rock/punk/country band reuniting, a Hoosier going beyond back-to-basics, and one the hottest bands in the country avoiding Indy again. All that, and a whole pile more…
ROB’S TWANG NEWS
Reunited?
Late 80’s cowpunkers Jason and the Scorchers is in the process of getting a new album completed; they reunited for their first recording session since 1998. Jason Ringenberg has been playing a lot of solo gigs (including a cartoonish kids singer named “Farmer Jason”) over the years, and Warren Hodges has been ripping it up on guitar in Dan Baird’s (Georgia Satellites) band.
Have You Heard?
The Pawn Shop Lifters (from Virginia Beach, VA) – American Rock with a little Steve Earle, a hint of Georgia Satellites – you listen and decide a third influence.
Of the Indiana American rock and roll bands I’m diggin, check out what Henry French and the Shameless are doing. Here’s a sample of their goods, from Birdy’s late in 2008, performing a song off their “Swagger and Sway” album.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLwFyk3CYSc]
And speaking of Indiana roots rock – The Elms and the 2009 Indy 500 highlights have been paired for a new cool little video. Pretty well done.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2EfhqgudzM]
Quick Hit – Upcoming Shows To Know:
June 12 BoDeans – Vogue
June 20 Hoosier Springsteen featuring Tim Grimm, Jennie Devoe. Gordon Bonham and Jason Wilber – Danville Town Square
June 21 Matthew Sweet – Vogue
June 28: Jonathan Richman w/ Vic Chestnut – Radio Radio
July 2 – Yonder Mountain String Band – Vogue
July 2: Vigilantes of Love – Radio Radio
July 17: Shelby Kelley w/ The Common – Radio Radio
July 23 Old 97’s – Vogue
June 26 – Steve Earle- Buskirk Chumley Theatre – Bloomington
Out this week:
The Low Anthem – “Oh My God, Charlie Darwin”
Americana/folk/alt-country/old-timey all rolled into a sweet little album. Gorgeous. They will play at Locals Only on August 6.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIoFq42ccr8]
Todd Snider – “The Excitement Plan”
Less overtly political, more of the Todd that is a brilliant examiner of the human condition. Or stoner guy. Or both. – read Spin review
BTW: How the hell does Indianapolis not get a Gaslight Anthem show? And Cincinnati gets a show…? The band has announced a series of new tour dates and again Indianapolis is not on it. While the band continues to perform in support of 2008’s The ‘59 Sound, this tour is rumored to be the band’s last before heading back into the studio to record a follow-up to that record.
09.08 Pittsburgh, PA: Mr. Small’s
09.09 Cincinnati, OH: Bogart’s
09.10 St. Louis, MO: Pop’s
09.11 Omaha, NE: Sokol Auditorium
09.13 Denver, CO: Ogden Theater
09.16 San Diego, CA: House of Blues
09.17 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theater
09.20 San Francisco, CA: Fillmore
09.22 Portland, OR: Berbati’s Pan
10.03 Minneapolis, MN: Epic
10.04 Milwaukee, WI: Turner Hall
10.06 Detroit, MI: St. Andrew’s Hall
10.12 Buffalo, NY: Town Ballroom
10.13 Toronto, ON: Kool Haus
10.18 Philadelphia, PA: Trocadero
10.21 Richmond, VA: The National
10.22 Washington, DC: 9:30 Club
10.26 Columbus, OH: Newport Music Hall
Spin ‘em at 33 1/3 everybody…
Since I have a working turntable for my vinyl after a 20 year hiatus, I pulled the albums out of my parent’s house. I have about four large cardboard boxes stored in a nicely ventilated upstairs attic – thanks Mom.
Not wanting to bring all four boxes home, I grabbed one and pulled some stuff to hear that I hadn’t played since about 1992. Keep in mind that two factors affect my choices: Available inventory (most everything will be 70’s and 80’s), and previous career opportunities. I was a radio jock for 10 years, meaning I bought some of my own stuff to play (I worked at places where I was either in charge and could do what I wanted, or was at a station that still let jocks make music choices – I know, it’s shocking…) Plus, I also kept some records the stations deemed no longer necessary for their success, or records that they weren’t hip enough to know was good shit when they heard it.
Here’s my scratch and pop vinyl love for this week….roll ’em boys.
The Knack – “Get the Knack”
…Because I haven’t listened to it in about 20 years and want to see if there was still some magic nearly 30 years after the release. And despite the misogyny implications, the sound of “Good Girls Don’t” is still damn infectious. And forget the chorus, “My Sharona” becomes great when the guitar solo and entire band get extra -rocking just after the middle of the song.
R.E.O. – “T.W.O.”
Kevin Cronin back on board for this one. Not a killer album, but is a piece of 70’s midwest melodic hard rock from a bar band that had not yet discovered the power ballad.
The Rave Ups- “The Book of Your Regrets”
Ultimately likable but forgettable 80’s alternative rock, from an LA band, redeemed only by their Pittsburgh roots. I hear a Rust Belt/Joe Grushecky influence in some of their phrasing. Obtuse reference? Probably. Look Joe up.
Steve Miller Band – “Number 5”
Guess what album this was for Miller? Not his fourth. This was more like the predecessors and their hard-and-spacey 60’s guitar sound than the radio rock that was to come from Miller. There are hints of his greatness, but the cleaner pop production of “Book of Dreams” and “Fly Like and Eagle” aren’t on here.
Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”
Her debut record, full of Ramones speed, hints at a Stone-sy attitude. She was turned down by more than 20 record companies before deciding to launch her own label (Blackheart Records) with pal Kenny Laguna. They used his daughter’s college fund, so it’s good things worked out. Laguna and Jett are still friends and regular business partners. Not as powerful as her follow-up, which would make her famous via “I Love Rock and Roll”. (Interesting note – the video for “I Love Rock and Roll” was shot in color, but someone thought it lacked something, so they went down to black and white, so that was how it was released.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3T_xeoGES8]
Now watch color version!
Greg Kihn Band – “With the Naked Eye”
Man, I was into that power pop thing, wasn’t I? This one has the Springsteen-penned “Rendezvous” as track 1, side 1.
How about St. Louis this week?
One of the older, smaller alt-country festivals of the summer features a great lineup – and St. Louis is a great city.
Twangfest 2009
Wednesday, June 10 – The Pageant
Alejandro Escovedo
Hot Club Of Cowtown
Amy Lavere
Thursday, June 11 – Duck Room at Blueberry Hill
Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys
Bruce Robison
Eilen Jewell
Brothers Lazaroff
Friday, June 12 – Duck Room at Blueberry Hill
Asylum Street Spankers
Andre Williams
Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles
Jon Hardy & The Public
Saturday, June 13 – Duck Room at Blueberry Hill
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
Daddy (with Tommy Womack and Will Kimbrough)
The Deep Vibration
Theodore