Picks & Pans
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Stacy's Ratings
*****Outstanding
**** Good
*** Promising
** Fair
*Makes A Good Coaster
Jake Ybarra
Rating
Jake Ybarra's first full-length album showcases the Harlingen, Texas native's ecletic approach to songwriting, delivered with a high-energy baritone and sometimes intense vocal style.
Ybarra
(prounounced "e-BAR-a")
is a remarkably "old soul" whose storytelling songs belies the obvious:
that Jake was clearly not around as far back as 1903, with equally
vivid memories of 1953 in the
year 2023; the need for suspension of disbelief underscored by the
remarkable fact that Ybarra is a mere 25 years-old!
Jake, who considers South Carolina home, recorded these 10 songs at The Castle Studios.
Though obviously a student of history, changing times and values, Ybarra brings a decidely contemporary 21st century flair to a debut collection highlighted by a couple of songs fans are already streaming: notably the opener (Late November) and A Whole Lot to Remember, as well as the title song and Jake's upcoming radio single, Bloodfire.
Miller
Time
Alex Miller
Rating
Don't
let
his baby face fool you: American Idol alum Alex Miller is not only (though just
barely) old enough to legally imbibe, he sings the fire out of both
modern-day
original traditional-sounding songs and a couple of standards to boot.
Standing
6’6”and hailing from Lexington, Kentucky, Miller blends elements of
bluegrass with
his traditional country sensibility, nodding to country-gospel.
A
writer or co-writer
(with Alex's producer, veteran singer/songwriter Jerry Salley) on half of the 10 songs found here,
some of
Miller’s relationship-driven material, like much of traditional country
music, evince a #MeToo-era misogynistic tinge (e.g., I'm Over You, So Get Over Me). Knowingly
or unknowingly in defiance of that perception,
Alex’s first single, the somewhat mournful Through With You, alters the stereotypical
stone-country gender-specific
definition of victimization and vulnerability- to a
point.
Breaking
the
Bank and Don’t Let the Door Hit Ya spotlight the Miller
persona’s sardonic
sense of humor while Girls Must Be Clumsy is a slightly gentler, clever
poke
and ego stroke.
Kentucky’s Never Been This Far From Tennessee sums up a wistful side of a romantic connection. I'm Done is the blunt, reverse side of that coin (as Alex rhymes "bull" and "fool" as only he can!).
Milller seems to be channeling Jimmy Martin (rather than Keith Allison and Mark Lindsay) as Alex brings a fresh exuberance to his rendition of Freeborn Man.
The
album's closer, I'm Gonna Sing gives
the Hank Williams' gospel favorite new life as Miller
enlists The Oak Ridge Boys to provide the perfect vocal
accompaniment.
Nature
Child- A Dreamer's Journey
Sylvia
To
those of us on the older end of the Baby Boomer spectrum, the mention of Avalon
provokes memories of Venus and the Beach Party franchise.
But
centuries before Francis Thomas Avallone’s 1940 birth Avalon became
known as a
legendary island that continues to be steeped in mythology.
Enter
Sylvia. The
Grammy-nominated
singer/songwriter’s own Avalon word-association has inspired Nature Child: A
Dreamer’s Journey best described as a concept album for “children
and dreamers
of all ages.”
Beginning
with the first of 12 songs, aptly-titled Avalon, Sylvia takes listeners to a
land of enchantment, where closed eyes open us to a world of
possibilities in a
“magical place that resides beyond the realms of time and space.”
The
curious and imaginative are treated to expansive ideas and themes of
self-actualization,
with the abandonment of fears and the embracing of opportunities here
for the
taking.
Sylvia,
who had a hand in writing each of these vignettes, enlists Verlon Thompson,
Craig Bickhardt, John Mock, and Thom Schuyler, in the actualization of her vision.
Favorites
include: Every Time A Train Goes By, Don't Be Afraid to Dream, My Best Friend, (Hey, Hey, Hey) It's a New Day and I Love You for Who You Are.
Small
Town Dreamer
Daryl Mosley
Rating
Daryl
Mosley’s
sophomore solo album, like his previous release reviewed here last
year, is
once again a nod to Daryl’s “target audience of fundamentalist
Christians who
enjoy a little preaching along with their bluegrass.”
The
idyllic
appeal of life as Daryl has known it and lived it is also evident in
lyrics
that herald simplicity (Bringing Simple Back), pay tribute to values-based
beliefs (The Way I Was Raised) and his sources of
inspiration (Mama’s Bible, Hillbilly
Dust, He’s With Me, Here’s to the Dreamers) and even that singularly
special
person in his life (You Are the Reason).
Mad
Twenties
Taylor Rae
Rating
At 27, Taylor Rae believes
she has
experienced enough of her “mad
twenties” to musically reflect on life
or-
perhaps more accurately- relationships as they have revealed themselves
to her.
While those of who have a
few decades
on the singer/songwriter/acoustic guitarist (think boomers) chronicle
that
journey through the proverbial rear-view mirror, Taylor Rae takes us on
a
real-time millennial trip to places we have been. Such
is the universality of human emotion.
Taylor Rae does so with a
clarity of
mind and voice, with lyrics that alternately evince strength,
vulnerability,
dependence, independence and, at points, indecision.
Taylor’s been compared to
other
singers whose names listeners know (though not, as far as I know, to
country music's other
Taylor) and style to several musical genres, but to these ears she is
unique,
promising and genre-defying.
There is that voice of a
“broken
lover” who yearns to be a Fixer Upper.
Taking Space will be familiar to those who are
thwarted by
letting
another live “rent free”- in their heads- and thus know the frustration
that
ensues when “You always win.”
Anyone who has ever
mistaken,
metaphorically, another voice for their own, will find the message of
Forgiveness nothing less than arresting.
Not to say that Taylor Rae
has not
found a release from all of the inner turmoil: Listeners will find it
in the
simplicity of what some call Zen, others, like Taylor Rae, "the key”
to
happiness: Just Be.
Stand
For Myself
Yola
Rating
Depreciated
John R. Miller
Rating
John R. Miller, who wrote all 11
songs on this compilation, brings a blend of literate simplicity to his
lyrics
that veer from the ethereal imagery and steam-of-consciousness to
storytelling
variety.
Lookin’ Over My Shoulder speaks to
accountability. Borrowed Time, another mini-morality
play, warns of the urgency of a similar accounting and its depreciating
value that
seems to have inspired Depreciated, the title of this collection sans,
strictly speaking, a title song.
Miller brings a novelist’s
sensibility and descriptiveness to his narratives.
Depreciated’s sole instrumental, What’s Left
of the Valley, puts a spotlight on John’s musicianship, as he joins
fellow West Virginian Adam
Meisterhans on acoustic guitar, accompanied by fiddler Cloe Edmonstone,
mandolinist John Looney and Justin Francis on congas.
Motor’s Fried, another highlight, is
a creative reminder of the opportunity to turn the sourest of lemons
into
lemonade.
Glimpses of Miller’s sense
of humor
are apparent on many of these songs but John's wit is in full force on
the quixotic
Half Ton Van.
This, Miller's debut solo
album, and its originality leave the listener gladly anticipating
John’s
plans for a sophomore solo release.
The
Triumph of Assimilation
Mark Rubin
Rating
Killbilly and Bad Livers' co-founder Mark Rubin (a/k/a Jew of Oklahoma, in homage to Rubin's ethnicity and Sooner State birthplace) is "tired of being treated as an outsider in his own country, where his skin protects him from indignities non-whites suffer, but his DNA still marks him for hate."
Having paid his dues "melding acoustic music and hardcore punk" and "playing polkas in dance halls and honky-tonks across Texas (not to mention "merging Klezmer and Romani music in The Other Europeans project") singing/songwriting "bluegrass-and-old-time-country-loving tuba and stand up-bass virtuoso" Rubin has long since earned- and enjoyed- his status as a solo act.
Fusing an anger borne of childhood memories (police officers' constant harassment and humiliation of his father, whose Oklahoma home was scene of incidents ranging from a cross-burning in the yard to bricks shattering windows on Adolph Hitler's birthday, to Mark's being denied access to his community's swimming pool) with a joyful, though sometimes sarcastic, sense of humor, Rubin's has produced a collection of songs of triumphing over what Bari Weiss now calls Jew Hatred.
Contrary to expectations however, the dark, discomforting (as they should be) album openers A Day of Revenge and It's Burning do not set the tone for several of the eight songs to follow. Case in point: Down South Kosher, a creative and funny bone-tickling take on the everyday challenges of adhering to kashruth experienced by Jews who call the heart of Dixie home.
Murder of Leo Frank revisits the famous 1915 lynching of a Jewish American falsely accused of a crime he did not commit. And, if you can appreciate the brilliance of putting the Frank lynching to song, you’ll appreciate Mark’s segue to an instrumental cornucopia aptly-titled Yiddish Banjo Tunes.
Ironically, Danny Barnes'
banjo lends
itself to Rubin's descriptive My Resting Place
(based on Morris Rosenfeld's
poetry), while
Rubin's
rendition of Avinu Malkeinu
(a
traditional Jewish prayer, translated as "Our Father, Our King," set
to music and recited during the High Holidays) is not to be
missed.
Good Shabbes
is a joyful, musical extension of Jews' traditional Sabbath greeting
and the holiday spirit remains in full force with Mark's adaptation of
the Yiddish Hanukkah favorite, Spin the Dreidel.
My favorite song on an album of gems? Si Kahn's Unnatural Disasters, a disarming, yet pointed jab
ridiculing Jew Hatred you don't have to be Bari Weiss, Mark Rubin, or
even Jewish to love.
Never
Mind
Margie Singleton
Rating
Fans who bemoaned Margie
Singleton’s
retirement will be glad to know that, at the urging of her son (and
co-writer),
Stephen Singleton (son of the late producer/record
label owner Shelby
Singleton), Margie has retired from retirement!
Having interrupted her
career to care
for her ailing second husband, late country hitmaker Leon Ashley, one
gets the
sense this widow, lulled into an extended retirement,
might have had a 21st century
widowmaker had Steve not convinced Margie that, rather than rest on her
considerable laurels, Margie's best performances were yet to
come.
Making music her inspirational way at age 85, the original Harper Valley P.T.A. artist (who got her start as a cast member of The Louisiana Hayride), began her recording career in 1957. Margie has since written, recorded, or both written and recorded, many hits (some of the latter, before becoming a duet artist and popular soloist, as one of The Merry Melody Singers session vocalists).
In the “second act” stage
of her long
and illustrious life, Margie underscores her commitment to music with
the
formation of her newest record label and its publishing arm,
aintquittinmusic.
Aintquittinmusic’s
publishing
division is credited with four of the five songs (each of which Margie
cowrote
with her eldest son) including the title song, an autobiographical
excursion
down memory lane.
Sometimes
sassy, sometimes
earnest in
tone, Margie’s latest compilation of songs has a classic sound that
will be
appreciated by new generations of fans, for whom she is a “new artist,”
as well
as those who can appreciate the history of the songs’ cover art. (That’s Margie, back in the
early ‘60s, photographed at one of
Nashville’s long-running
Centennial Park bandshell concert series
performances, backed by
legendary
musicians Ben Keith and Billy Byrd.)
The newer material is
rounded out by
Margie’s recording of Lie to Me, the 1962 Brook Benton hit Margie
co-wrote
(with Benton) and sang on as one of the aforementioned Merry Melody
Singers.
Symbolically appropriate
to close
this extended play album, where once Margie Singleton provided the oohs
and
aahs to compliment Brook Benton's smooth, baritone-to-tenor lead vocal,
Margie is
appropriately once again front-and-center herself, with Margie’s own
style
affirming how Lie to Me
resonates timelessly.
Swing
for the Fences
Phil Leadbetter and
The All Stars of Bluegrass
Rating
*** 1/2
Lead
singer/resophoic guitarist Phil Leadbetter,
joined by
an all-star band (Alan Bibey on
mandolin, Jason Burleson
on banjo,
guitarist Robert Hale and Steve Gulley on
bass),
truly does, as the title song
indicates, Swing for the Fences
with
this 10-song collection that includes the album's first single, One Way Rider (Ricky Skaggs' #1 hit in 1982 and
written by Rodney Crowell).
Phil and the band of
bluegrass
favorites sing of enduring love, hurt and loss, and, yes, faith and
optimism
and manage to include an instrumental ( Avery Stokes )
along the way.
Relying somewhat on
proven
favorites, these six-time IBMA award nominees revive Johnny Rodriquez'
1977
recording of Bob McDill's I'm Gonna Make It After All
, J.D. Crowe and the New South's 1978 recording of The Hurtin' When You Go and
Vern Gosdin's 1977 Top Ten hit, Yesterday's Gone. (The latter, features
the vocal performance of Steve Gulley's widow, Debbie.
Steve Gulley
succumbed to pancreatic cancer on August 18, 2020 at age 57.)
The only clinker is Ready and
Waiting. The performance is flawless, but the song's
manipulative message
of fear-based religion as being somehow preferable to the alternative
is a
value that is less than socially redeeming.
Halfway
From Nashville
Sean Harrison
Rating
After veteran
singer/songwriter Sean
Harrison, the late novelist/screenwriter William Harrison’s oldest son,
had
risen through the ranks to share the stage with some of music’s most
popular
pickers, songwriters and singers and was about to reap the benefits,
Sean
sabotaged his grip on the brass ring.
Addicted
to familiar
culprits (drugs
and alcohol), the worldwide traveler, band musician and sometimes
busker
who was
poised to embark on a promising solo career descended to the depths of
despair. By Sean’s own admission, he
wasted too many
years before getting clean, sober and ready to pick up where he left
off.
At
that point, Harrison
began to make
a series of better decisions. He
recommitted to songwriting, hired an experienced publicity (Martha
Moore) and
promotion (Bill
Wence) team, and has now released what may be his
finest recordings
to date.
As many would-be stars are
adhering
to a plan in place that has taken them halfway to Nashville, Harrison’s
title
song explores the reverse side of that coin.
Harrison
obliquely references Harlan Howard, namechecks
“Merle,” “Dylan”
and “Mr. Cash” (the latter lauded, among other reasons,
for having “been everywhere,”
which begs the
question, why no mention of Hank Snow?) as inspirational touchstones
offering a compass as well as
relief from a community of “schmucks,” “losers” and “abusers.”
Big Decisions, Harrison's take- with a twist- on the shared division of labor, is reminiscent of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s He Thinks He’ll Keep Her and is equally as radio-friendly. By contrast, Paydays approaches the male-female dynamic from another angle and is otherwise evocative of a familiar stereotype.
Listeners become willing accomplices on Sean’s journey of self-discovery. Intimacy, rough edges, humor- it’s all here with an originality and candor that make Halfway From Nashville “must” listening.
Crazy
House
Rating
If Johnny Cash were alive today and singing bluegrass, he’d be tempted to join Turning Ground, especially after hearing Crazy House.
The
quintet shares an affinity with the Bad News singer for songs about infidelity, murder
and other high crimes like a Bad Deal that could land an Outlaw with a cunning rivaling
that of Jesse James behind the bars of a Crazy House.
My
favorite is a mini-soap opera of evangelical villains and hypocrites
including
the sinister minister known as Reverend Jackson (no, not that other Jesse) and his nemesis, the cuckolded
Bobby who got even in way
pro-lifers will not appreciate.
There
are songs of despair such as the one where we find our protagonist Tore Up From
the Floor Up, balanced nicely by the believer who finds himself Strongest on My
Knees.
From
flights of fancy there is a directional shift to the reality of Still My Mama,
a weeper caretakers and other loved ones of those battling dementia
will
appreciate for take on coping.
In
short, Crazy House is an impressive potpourri of
selections that will
alternately delight and intrigue.
Blue
Haze
Robert Hale with
the 8th Wonder Band
Rating
You’ve
heard all of these classic hits before- but not covered by bluegrass
artists.
Robert
Hale’s EP features seven familiar songs from other genres performed
to a
bluegrass beat.
Can
you imagine The Beatles, Eric Burden, or The Rolling Stones performing Uncle
Pen or Fox on the Run?
In
the reverse, the message may be that not every non-bluegrass standard
lends
itself to bluegrass. Of course, given
the number of bluegrass artists who are now providing at least one such
reinterpreted track on their album, listeners can only surmise- and
maybe even
be among those who will vouch for the fact- that the demand is there.
Certainly,
if Blue Haze listeners are open to the gimmick,
experiment or however they wish
to characterize it, and especially if, in a few cases, they’ve never
heard the
originals, it’s easy to defend the move.
For
Hale and his band (which includes- my fellow Leadership
Music inaugural
classmate- the superb Missy Raines on bass) prove they are able to make
songs
like Help, Mr. Bojangles and House of the Rising Sun and the four other past
hits featured here their own. Utilizing
such techniques as fiddle, banjo and/or mandolin featured prominently
in the
turnarounds, when necessary to distance themselves from the originals
Hale and
his band have produced a project well worthy of listener’s (and
skeptics’)
consideration.
Old
Road, New Again
The Dillards
Rating
Rodney Dillard enlists the remainder of the current “Dillard incarnation” (as John McEuen accurately refers to Becky Dillard, Tom Wray, George Giddens and Gary Smith), in collaboration with “featured artists” Don Henley, Ricky Skaggs, Herb Pedersen, Sharon and Cheryl White, Bernie Leadon and Sam Bush and a number of “special guests” in the presentation of this, The Dillards’ first album since 1991.
I
don’t know what took them nearly 30 years, but I do know that ever
since America
fell in love with The
Darlings on The Andy Griffith Show (1963) the
(extended
Dillard) family has been a part of its musical (and sometimes comedic)
consciousness.
I
hope my friend, Lanny Smith hears The Earthman (the lead single from
this
album) and that fans of The Dillards will enjoy the other songs found
here,
including the title song and the group’s unlikely bluegrass rendition
of the
‘50s favorite, Save the Last Dance for Me.
On
my “pans” list: Tearing Our Liberty Down.
Sorry, guys but I’m not a fan of populist preaching set to music
when
the lyrics cite vague problems, blaming only the mysterious (i.e.,
unidentified
“they,” a tactic universally employed by bigots) and offer no
solutions.
The Old Side of Town
Alecia Nugent
After “going off
the grid
for a decade” IBMA and multi SPBGMA award-winning bluegrass favorite Alecia
Nugent emerges with a collection of songs that showcase her country
side and
strength as a songwriter.
Alecia also
breathes new
life into her cover of April Verch’s lyrically-quirky I Might Have One Too.
They Don’t Make ‘Em Like
My Daddy Anymore is not a repurposing of a similarly-titled Loretta Lynn’s 1974
Top Ten hit, but rather a moving tribute to Nugent’s father that Alecia
wrote
with Carl Jackson. The
centerpiece of
Nugent’s new music video, two different renditions of the song are
featured
here, the latter bluegrass version as a “bonus track.”
No
longer off the grid, Alecia returns, rescuing listeners from the
gridlock of
her absence and, appetites whetted, awaiting what she’ll come up with
next!
The Mavericks en Español
The Mavericks
Most soloists (and perhaps some
groups) of stature have that album
project that they’ve always wanted to do.
Their fans usually hear about it when media day interview
embargoes are
lifted so that publication coincides with the release of said dream
project.
Having received an advance copy
of The Mavericks en Español I’m
not sure that this, The Mavericks’ first-ever Spanish language album,
fits that
description, but it’s obvious Raul Malo, Eddie Perez, Jerry Dale
McFadden and
Paul Deakin have not phoned it in.
I’m preaching to choir of those
who have heard the first two
singles: Poder Vivir (literally translated as “the power to
live” or,
as
credited translator Rick Rodriguez prefers, simply
“To Live”) and Recuerdos (translation:
“Memories”).
Assisted by The Fantastic Five
(a group of musicians that add
instrumentation and vocals to those provided by The Mavericks
themselves), along
with several other special guests (notably Flaco Jiménez) and
individually credited
musicians, lead vocalist Malo and cohorts have listeners singing along,
thanks
to an accompanying booklet of the lyrics to each song along with
Rodriguez’
Spanish- to- English translations.
The poetry of Spanish is
evident in the songs of this, The Mavericks' 30th anniversary album, as
is the
realization that if, if recorded in English, much would be lost in
the translation.
No Vale La Pena, one of my
favorites, is Exhibit A. Apart from the
title’s English translation
("It’s Not Really Worth It"), an English language rendering of the song
would sound
stilted, as
Gringos don’t typically express ourselves, for example, by telling the
objects
of our affection that their “requests for dates are lacking” and that
their
claims of love don’t “feel sufficient.”
While nearly half of the 12
songs on The Mavericks en Español
were
written (or co-written) by Raul Malo, the album includes a few Spanish
language
standards. As soon as I heard its chorus, I immediately
recognized one in particular- but not, as Rick Rodriguez asserts, as Cuando Me Enamoro- an "original
standard by Andrea Bocelli” (as apparently suggested by Bocelli’s 2015
recording, let alone Enrique Iglesias’ recording of the same song,
translated “When
I Fall
in Love" five years earlier).
No, the English translation is
not even recognizable to fans of the
standard first popularized by Doris Day,
but one I recognized from the earworm chorus of Engelbert Humperdinck’s
1968
smash that was a big hit when I was a teenager: A Man Without Love.
Creole Skies
Johnny & the
Mongrels
Johnny & the Mongrels' co-founders,
singer/songwriters Johnny Ryan and Jeff Bostic, join with guitarist
Scott Sharrard, keyboardist Bill McKay and drummer/percussionist Eddie
Christmas, and another equally-talented group of musicians and backup
singers, to produce a debut album worthy of your attention.
The opening bars of Louisiana Girl (a Ryan/Bostic/Sharrard
composition) suggest a Tony Joe White group sound. And while that
song, as well as eight of the other ten selections found on Creole Skies, was written by one or more of the
above-mentioned quintet's members, one of the best feel-good songs on
the album, Saturday Night In Oak Grove Louisiana was written,
and first recorded (in 1973) by White himself.
The Colorado-based zydeco quintet's
"News Orleans infused swamp funk and bayou soul" may confound
rack-jobbers (suggested genre: Americana/Blues/Jamband/Rock), but,
for
the rest of us, music is music. More specifically, good music is
good music, whether it's the title song or any of the others.
Mama Said is not a cover of The Shirelles' 1961 hit, but rather a tribute to a
woman who encouraged her sons to be all they could be, using that "one
shot" to "give all you've got to give."
On an album full of a number of infectious songs guaranteed to make you smile, dance and/or sing along, Music Man, another jewel, namechecks that celebrated master of funk: James Brown.
At a time when others want to drain the
swamp, Johnny & the Mongrels make the case for exempting swamp
blues.
The
Secret of Life
Daryl Mosley
Daryl Mosley made a name for himself by writing songs that have been recorded by both major country and bluegrass artists. Fans who have followed Daryl from his days with various award-winning bands will be especially interested in Pinecastle's release of Mosley's first solo album; a collection of 11 songs Mosley has variously written or co-written.
Leading off with A Few Years Ago, the
first single from The Secret of Life, Mosley sings of life lessons
learned, suggesting that wisdom may well be a privilege of age.
It is easily the strongest lyric and best performance on this
collection of radio-friendly songs. It Never Gets Old is
an ode to enduring love I can see lending itself to any number of
advertising promotions and/or movie soundtracks.
Similarly, the title song recounts the wisdom of a Humphrey's County (or Waverly, Tennessee, the county seat, to be more precise) barber who shares what he's learned about priorities, coping and otherwise finding balance in life.
Story-songs, morality plays, songs with a
message- they're all a part of Daryl's oeuvre, rhythmically set to a
bluegrass beat.
Mosley shines, playing to his strengths. He's
an excellent vocalist and an artful songwriter. Daryl clearly
knows his target audience of fundamentalist Christians who enjoy a
little preaching along with their bluegrass. This style is most
effective when it equates living a righteous life with common
sense. Mosley's slightly modernized message, set against an
original melody, of Do What The Good Book Says is
not as secular as Jimmie Dodd's inspirational homily first released on a 78 (vinyl)
in 1956.
As with most preaching, within, as well as exclusive of, a musical context, there's no openness to other viewpoints (other than, perhaps, to lump them together and mischaracterize some of them).
But with songs like In
A Country Town (which conflates
conservative values with patriotism), Hands in Wood, All the Way Home and
harrowing "my way or the highway" message of The Deal, it is
evident that Daryl has a laser focus on his fan base and that its
growth will never be at the expense of Mosley's compromising a
strongly-held world view that brings him and those of like mind comfort
and inspiration, in the absence of multicultural appeal.
Roll
Up the Rug
The Roe Family
Singers
My
fellow Minnesotans, Kim and Quillan Roe, accompanied by their chosen
family of fellow traditional musicians comprise The Roe Family Singers.
This motley crew know how to roll up the rug
to the vocal accompaniment of a potpourri of country, folk and
bluegrass sounds, courtesy of a banjo, autoharp, washboard, spoons,
guitar (archtop, resonator, bass and flat-top), dobro, mandolin and
even musical saw, with their own style of Appalachian clogging thrown
in for good measure.
There are 15 songs in all for your musical
pleasure, including When the Red, Red Robin
Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbing and a couple of 19th
century standards (The Red River Valley, My Grandfather's Clock);
songs I haven't heard in decades. The Roes' renditions of those
songs alone are worth price of the album that also includes songs that
are even older (The Fox) and other
country classics (Hey Good Lookin', Tennessee Stud).
The Roe Family Singers put their unique stamp
on Bill Monroe's The Rocky Road Blues and
listeners will enjoy the work of several songwriters, including the Roe
Family Singers themselves (What Did He Say?).
Thankful
for Country Music
Shane Owens
Peace
in Pieces
Betty Fox Band
Betty Fox is billed as a
“powerhouse blues and roots soul stirrer ” (with no apologies to Sam Cooke) and
the lead vocalist/acoustic guitarist of Betty Fox Band certainly lives
up to that description.
When Betty and her bandmates (electric
guitarist Josh Nelms, bass guitarist Barry Williams and drummer Chris Peet) brought their blend of blues, gospel,
funk and soul to record at Muscle Shoals legendary Fame Studios, they wouldn’t take no for answer
when told that a road band has a whole different skill set than studio
musicians.
The powers that be needn’t have worried. Betty’s
backup band was equal to the task, augmented by the music of industry
veteran Spooner Oldham and his equally-
talented session cohorts.
With 14 songs (all but one penned by Betty
and/or her-cowriters) on the Best of the Bay and 2015
International Blues Challenge finalists’ third
album, there is a little something for everyone who loves Betty Fox
Band’s genre-defying sound. The
title song, with its theme of Zen-rooted accommodation, is a sharp
contrast to the co-dependency of Runnin’ Back to You;
the latter sounding a different tone than the independent spirit of Rising Strong who
is “ready to fly.”
Parenthetically, it should be noted that,
just as the aforementioned Barry Williams is not the guy we remember Growing Up Brady, so too, Sweet Memories is
not a cover of the Mickey Newbury classic.
Sweet Goodnight briefly
channels Doris Day which will be a
surprise to fans of Janis Joplin and Beth Hart (two of several
singers whose vocals, Betty, with her husky, grit-impassioned
performances, is often favorably compared) as it conjures an image of
what it might sound like to have Fox “sing your favorite lullaby.”
Feels So Good is
just that: a feel good song while Magnificent Hallucination might
be best characterized as the esoteric extension
of Tommy James & the Shondells’ Crimson and Clover.
The album’s closer, ‘Til the Storm Passes By,
is a song of prayerful hope that leaves the listener wanting more.
Earth
Sister Hazel
Earth is
the natural title for the fourth in a series of Sister Hazel’s “elements” compilation series,
given that the six-track EP is the follow-up to Water, Wind, and Fire.
This final volume of the series (that would
be titled, as I erroneously predicted in my Fire review, “Air”) is the
extension of the group’s most recent efforts.
Anyone who has ever parented a child (or who
was once a child, for that matter) can identify with Raising a Rookie, an
empathetic observation written by Darius Rucker, Barry
Dean and Sister Hazel’s own Drew Copeland.
I Don’t
Do Well Alone is bit of well-written (by Jerry Flowers and Sister Hazel’s Ken Bock) self-flagellating candor wrapped in
self-absorbed dysfunction.
Sister Hazel’s Jett Beres joined Copeland and
Dean in the writing of the metaphorical Slow Lightning while
Drew and Jett teamed with Billy Montana to
write Memphis Rain about
a breakup in the Bluff City.
Copeland and Montana continue the breakup
theme from a slightly different perspective while Follow The River (with
Billy Montana, Randy Montana, Copeland and Beres sharing writers’
credits) speaks to the self-confidence of knowing what to expect from a
relationship.
Elements IV (Remember Me) is
Bock’s benediction to the elements series. As
for (further) interpretation, I recommend the Hermann Rorschach approach.
Lemonade
Bobby Messano Featuring Bob Malone
Heal Me, Bobby's second single (which, like The Bad Guys, Messano wrote with Meredith Reed Salimbeni, to whom he Messano dedicates the project) is the first of eight songs variously featuring Bob Malone's vocals, clarinet, strings and string arrangements.
Messano and Malone collaborate on the title song, (Bobby's current single; a reasoned response to adversity), Junk Jam, an intricate instrumental interlude, followed by It's Just the Money That's Missing, a funky, sarcastic truism and bit of ear candy with which many, if not most, creatives can identify.
Be prepared for the darkness of A Thursday in June and the realism that permeates the songs that follow, including the finale, a CCNY cover, Find the Cost of Freedom.
Blue Sun
Rises
Debra Lyn
This, the Americana/folk singer/songwriter’s third (Nashville-based) Palette Records album, is a departure from the first two.
Debra Lyn’s inspiration this time around is found
in the culture and music of her Irish/Scotch/English heritage.
The opener, Pull Me Down (The Maids of
Mitchelstown) fuses original, navigational love
lyrics by Debra and producer/arranger Jeff
Silverman with a traditional Irish tune.
The title song finds
our protagonist, no longer navigating the waters, lamenting lost love
by clinging to the memories that remain.
Traditional
British folk (Billy Taylor)
and Scottish (The Bonnie Banks of Loch
Lomond) songs follow, then, lest the listener stay ensconced in a
European musical travelogue, Debra sings the praises of personal time
(though, admittedly to the beat of Jeff’s Irish step dancing) with a
universal theme titled Workin’ for the Money.
Love Will Never Die (featuring the traditional Irish reel The Star of Munster) is a tale of a heart denied choice, followed by Debra’s putting her personal stamp on the classic, Wayfaring Stranger.
Devil With the Blue Eyes is yet another diversion, conjuring familiar Christian imagery while Preacher Man challenges the judgmental who preach funerals with an agenda that overrides that of memorializing the deceased.
And you don’t have to be Scottish, nor even a drinker, to enjoy Debra’s rendering of The Parting Glass.The finale, Ode to Billy Taylor (The Sun Rises Blue) builds on Billy Taylor, the aforementioned story-song, taking the sailor’s saga to a new level.
Debra Lyn’s stated mission is to honor her heritage with musical influences “intricately woven into original and traditional songs throughout.”Mission
accomplished!
American
Highway
Marty Brown
There’s enough precedent for musical second acts that it's a good bet that, with the release of American Highway, Marty Brown, who took "a two decade self-imposed 'break' from major recording," will retain his loyal following (a steadfastness that began for many of us when we first became acquainted with Marty on a pre-true crime edition of CBS' 48 Hours) while winning, literally, a generation of new country-music fans.
Hedging that bet is the "expect the unexpected" quality, arrangements and musical direction of most of the songs found here.
Brown and Jon Tiven wrote the picturesque title song. They also wrote the remainder of these songs, writing I'm On A Roll (Better Than It's Ever Been) with Marty Brown, Jr.
The momentum, which hints of a concept album worthy of a movie soundtrack, is broken by Umbrella Lovers. Yes, it's a creative, imaginative tune, but one that not only breaks the continuity, it sounds like the answer to a musical challenge to incorporate two words that usually don't go together in a song.
This gimmickry, which often works as a
commercially viable radio hit, is redeemed by the remainder of the
songs. These include Casino Winnebago,
a song that might exhibit the gimmicky cited above, but one that is
saved by
Let's Be
Frank
Trisha Yearwood
“That’s a great album!”
So said the young repairman attending to the
small cracks in my windshield, as he peered into an open window of my
parked Honda, noticing the album jacket for Trisha Yearwood’s Let’s Be Frank on the passenger
seat opposite the seat-belted driver.
I hadn’t finished listening to the CD, but
that seal of approval from the audience Yearwood hopes to reach may
make what follows superfluous. (I
didn’t try to do the repairman's job- I still want to
do mine- so here goes:)
As anyone would expect, Trisha’s tribute album contains many of the Frank Sinatra standards fans of Ol' Blue Eyes would insist upon (Witchcraft, All the Way, Come Fly With Me, The Lady is a Tramp et al). But it also features songs more associated with other artists, such as Judy Garland (Over the Rainbow) John Raitt, Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones (If I Loved You), five other standards and a song Sinatra didn't live to hear; the "Ms. Yearwood" and Garth Brooks-penned For the Last Time.
Trisha's done them "her way."
Indeed, the beauty of Trisha Yearwood’s interpretations of these songs is that, while singing (mostly) hits from the Big Band era and The Great American Songbook, she doesn’t try to be anyone other than herself- let alone Frank Sinatra.
The result is that, while it ain't country, Let's Be Frank pleases both Yearwood's fans and those of the Chairman of the Board.
Diesel Palomino
Fate McAfee
Walk Through Fire
Yola
Fire
Sister Hazel
Hard Way to Go
Jimmy Charles
The release of Jimmy Charles’ seven-song EP is the latest fans
are hearing from the American Idol (Season 9) alumnus
(as opposed to Jimmy Charles, the recording artist of A Million To One fame).
The similarities between the
two Jimmys begin and end with the identical stage name.
Most recently Idol’s Jimmy Charles led Nashville’s November, 2018 Cancer Survivors March, crossing the Cumberland River with fellow marchers by way of the JOHN SEIGENTHALER Pedestrian Bridge, in support of Jimmy's #IAMNOTALONE charity, an event preceding the singer/songwriter's prerelease party for Hard Way To Go.
The EP's title song, which closes out an array of material showcasing the range of Jimmy's talent (beginning with the energetic rocker, Blue Spaces, shifting to the pensive torcher, She's Where I Belong, the seemingly autobiographical Rollin' On and the self-explanatory tribute to God and a Woman), is a prayerful "tale of addiction," choices and consequences. Other highlights include I Am Not Alone, a paean to faith in troubled times, and Superman (not to be confused with Donna Fargo's 1973 hit of the same name), which offers tear-jerking support to those tasked with the impossible objective of doing and having it all while battling cancer to boot!
Glen Campbell Sings for the King
Glen Campbell
Livin' the Dream
Tim Atwood
Lee Shapiro Plays the Hits of Frankie Valli: A Piano Tribute
Lee Shapiro
It’s
been years since instrumentals have been regarded as (terrestrial)
radio-friendly. (One of the
earliest indications came when the Country
Music Association eliminated its “Instrumentalist
of the Year” category.)
Some
of my favorite recordings are instrumentals and, in my capacity as a
music reviewer, I try to do my part to see that they are not overlooked. Enter Lee Shapiro, whom Four Seasons’ fans remember as the group’s musical
director and arranger and as the talent, in his own right, who went on
to assist his mentor, Frankie Valli when Valli
embarked on a solo career.
Though Lee has gone on to work with many other popular music artists since, with the resurgence in interest in the music of Valli and fellow Jersey Boys, courtesy of Broadway and the silver screen, Shapiro rightly believes many of the hits featuring Four Seasons’ lead singer Frankie’s falsetto adapt themselves to piano solos.
The
result is Shapiro's instrumental interpretations of 10 familiar songs,
four of which Can’t Take My Eyes Off of
You, My Eyes Adored You, Swearin’ to God,
and Fallen Angel, are really the only true
Valli solo releases. I’ve Got You Under My Skin,
like like Save it For Me, was
released by “The Four Seasons Featuring the ‘Sound’ of Frankie Valli.” (The
former, of course, was a cover of Frank Sinatra’s original hit version of the Cole Porter classic first
performed by Virginia Bruce.)
Dawn and Marlena were
Four Seasons’ hits, while Our Day Will Come,
Frankie’s 1975 release was one of several covers of Ruby & the Romantics’ #1 hit (released in
1962).
Silence is Golden,
written by Seasons’ group member Bob Gaudio and the quartet’s
producer, Bob Crewe,was a Seasons’ 1964 B-side, the song is
best remembered as a 1967 hit for The Tremeloes.
Music
history/marketing lessons aside, Lee Shapiro breathes new life and some
new twists into his arrangements of the above-mentioned songs, sticking
close to the familiar versions where it makes sense to do so.
Lee
and his fellow Hit Men band
(including album producer, Jeff Ganz) are, at this writing, performing these
favorites as a touring band on their aptly-named Don’t Stop tour.
Don’t Stop pretty much summarizes the reviewer’s sentiments upon hearing Lee’s piano tribute. Fans won't be able to resist singing along, though, so karaoke, to say nothing of Nashville demo material for aspiring singers who don't write music, may well take up the sales slack if (terrestrial) radio doesn't do its part to make these songs instrumental recurrents.
Can't Be Denied
Mark Wayne Glasmire
Love &
Wealth: The Lost Recordings
The Louvin Brothers
Come See
About Me (A Benefit for the IBMA Trust Fund)
Various Artists
Sideline, Donna Ulisse, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Lonesome River Band, Balsam Range, Love Canon, Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Chris Jones & the Night Drivers, The Grascals and the Mountain Home Family have come
together in a musical show of solidarity, to offer these performances
of 11 songs, with proceeds benefiting the International
Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA)
Trust Fund.
The spirit of unity is apparent from the
beginning, setting the tone (no pun intended) of what is to follow with
Sideline’s performance of Their Hands Made the Music, Mark Brinkman’s original composition saluting
bluegrass’ icons and all of the “pickers” who seek to carry on the
tradition.
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver's All of the Good Things We
Could Do, with its uplifting call to action, is one of the best
songs found here.
Not so The Grascals’ bluegrass version of The Beatles’ Help! Though
what has, only in recent years, become a tradition that may have begun
much earlier with Ray Stevens’ recording of Misty, grassers have
been seemingly all but stepping over each other in order to record a
song that has become a classic in another genre.
There are three reasons to do so:
1). To improve upon the original by making it
your own to the point where the original is all but forgotten.
2. To redress a grievance when a classic was
denied the shelf life and/or recurrent status it deserves.
Or
3. To give a classic a comedic turn as
Stevens did with a Johnny Mathis hit or to
otherwise parody it (think Homer & Jethro, Pinkard & Bowden, Weird Al Yankovic, etc.).
The Grascals fail all of these objectives, though their desire to
assist the IBMA trust fund is, obviously, to be commended.
BTW, songwriters’ credit for Help! reads “John W. Lennon and
Paul J. McCartney.” John Winston
Lennon’s co-writer’s full given name is James Paul McCartney.
All of which brings us to the title song. While
it might be a disappointment to The Supremes’ fans, who remember the Motown trio’s
1964 hit of the same name, to country and bluegrass fans Come See About Me is
a completely different song, written and first recorded by Conway Twitty in 1977.
In any event, the Doyle Lawson-produced Come See About Me serves as a
historically fitting finale, given new meaning with its We Are The World thrust, courtesy
of some 20 performing contributors.
Wind
Sister Hazel
Sister Hazel’s
six-song EP Wind is
a welcome addition to the crowded field of largely upbeat,
radio-friendly new releases vying for the attention of music fans
everywhere.
With Whirlwind Girl grabbing
the most attention (and deservedly so) from those of us
receiving prerelease copies I’m also partial to Small Town Living,
a paean to what are often seen as nostalgic, though they are arguably
timeless, values; ideals certainly worth preserving.
Taken as a whole, Wind evinces
Sunshine state sensibilities fashioning an optimism and sense of
security that is sometimes tempered by lyrical sentiments of
frustration and exasperation.
However, as themes and emotions seemingly run
the gamut, this collection, the latest in the six-man-band’s Elements series,
proves that, after 25 years together, the Gainesville gang of “sisters”
(or, more accurately, “brothers [from another mother]"?) still has
it.
From
The Crow's Nest
(John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band featuring Herb Pederson, Jon Randall & Mark Fain)
Listen To That Beautiful Sound is the title of not only the opening song from this collection, it sets the stage for a series of sonic delights, offset by themes of sadness and tragedy.
If the 15 songs featured on this project, recorded at SHERYL CROW's home studio, atop a horse barn, seem familiar it's because they were one-third of John's limited edition, 2015 three-CD Divertuoso box set now repositioned to reap the rewards of a wider release.
Jorgenson and his all-star collaborators present timeless music, blending story-songs such as Wandering Boy (a snapshot in time of young Rodney Crowell and his Houston roots) and Whiskey Lullaby (the disturbing, twisted tale of self-destruction) with a few instrumentals ( Ladies Bluff, Feather, Gina) spotlighting the musicianship that brought these respected pickers in their own right together.
Second
Bloom: The Hits Re-Imaged
Years ago RCA Records hired me
to update Sylvia’s press kit biography. Part
of my assignment was to use the bio as a means of public
disclosure of Sylvia’s divorce- though I was not to use the then
presumably-stigmatizing “D” word.
The result was, as best I
remember, a description that referenced Sylvia as a “newly single,
independent woman of the ‘80s”- or something like that.
The reinvention was consistent
with the odd inconsistency of Sylvia being known to her fans, from the
time of her first major label release, by her first name (a distinction
afforded singers like Barbra Streisand, Reba McEntire, and so forth, only after their
first and last names were fully pressed in public consciousness).
Immediately known popularly by
her first name, Sylvia was constantly asked her surname. And,
periodically, Sylvia has added that maiden name or married name, as
seemed to make sense at the time, for performance billing or other
promotional purposes.
Sylvia brings that same
deliberation to the task of choosing just 10 career favorites, then,
respecting listeners’ reverence for the originals, re-imaging them with
a 21st century sound that showcases Sylvia’a creativity and artistic
growth along with the work of today’s most in-demand musicians and
background vocalists (not to mention the iconic Jim Glaser).
Sylvia fulfills her challenge
to bridge that gap between the performances that created her fan base
and the artistic growth that has sustained it. All the while Sylvia
manages to keep the integrity of the partnerships she formed with the
songwriting team of Kye Fleming and Dennis
Morgan (Nobody, Tumbleweed, Sweet Yesterday, Like Nothing Ever Happened, Snapshot and- the only
song in this collection that wasn’t released as a single- You Can’t Go Back Home)
and the other songwriters whose work is also featured here.
And, just to underscore that, with the
passage of time, you really can’t go home again, Sylvia’s 1985 Top 10
hit, I Love You By Heart (written
by Jerry Gillespie and Stan Webb) featured Michael Johnson. That pairing of solo
artists is sobering in light of the notation, on Second Bloom...'s track listing of I Love You By Heart.
This time out, Sylvia relies on background singers to take up the
slack as she dedicates her performance "in memory of Michael Johnson."
Crazy
Like Me
Heard in tandem with Billy Burnette’s book of the same name (reviewed here)
or purchased as a standalone musical treat, these 14 songs feature Billy Burnette at his best.
Now rockin’ with a
Medicare card (issued May 8, 2018), Billy has lost none of his
arresting musical inheritance; the chops, musicianship and swagger that
brought him to the attention of his erstwhile bandmates, Fleetwood Mac.
Billy accurately describes his latest album as a “mish-mosh of hits and things people have never heard.”
Burnette opens with his
appropriately-energized version of Tear It Up, the
classic written and recorded by The Rock ‘N Roll Trio rockabilly
pioneers Dorsey Burnette, Johnny Burnette and Paul Burlison. Billy first released the
raucous, infectious audience favorite on his self-titled CBS in 1980
and later Fleetwood Mac seized the opportunity to adopt it as its
standard response to its stage audiences’ demands for an encore.
Burnette’s performance of (All I Can Do) Is Dream You,
a song Billy and David Malloy wrote for Roy Orbison, makes it easy to understand why
Orbison embraced the lyric.
The title song (which Billy
wrote with Dennis
Morgan and Shawn Camp) evokes appreciation for a
mirror-imaged mate.
Billy’s rendering of River of Love, another
Burnette, Morgan and Camp copyright, will please Burnette’s fans as
much as George Strait’s cut (which became Strait’s 57th
number one single in 2008).
Billy’s ability to make Do I Ever Cross Your Mind (co-written with Michael Smotherman) Burnette’s own is quite a testament to those who might wonder if it’s possible to breathe new life into a song sung by Ray Charles and Bonnie Raitt.
It's Late is yet another example of Billy’s timeless musical tributes to his father, Dorsey Burnette (who wrote it) and to the Burnettes' friend, Ricky Nelson, who had the 1959 hit version.
So grab your blue suede dancin’ shoes
(saddle shoes will do) and let Billy Burnette supply the
rockabilly. You still have it- and so does Billy!
Just
Like in the Movies
Jana Kramer may
have written (with Brian Kierulf and Catt
Gravitt) and recorded it first, but the title song, one of 14 found
on Southern Halo’s newest release, and project
finale, is a perfect fit for what the sister trio’s Natalia “Nata”
Morris quite rightly describes as a concept album.
Indeed, with only a year
in age separating the eldest Morris sister (Nata) from middle sister
Hannah, with Christina (“Tinka”) Morris arriving a year after Hannah’s
birth, the Morris sisters are
close enough in age, not to mention DNA, to have experienced the gamut
of emotions that tie the themes of these songs together.
The lyrics to Southern Halo (which
Nata cowrote with Roxie Dean) answer the questions of why and how
the Morris sisters bill themselves as something more attention-getting
than- well, say, The Morris Sisters.
As a matter of fact, the
(semi)-autobiographical themes throughout these songs resonate with
songs like My Girls and Me (suggesting,
like Sisters Sledge, the Morris siblings, too “are
family” with an unbreakable bond), Missing Mississippi (and what
homesick native, born into a generation for whom the Dixiecrats are
largely ancient history, doesn’t pine for the Magnolia state?) and Famous (Nata
and cowriter Alex Dooley’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek take on
celebrity).
Listening to Notice Me it
seem like the song should be titled “Hey Boy.” Until,
a few songs later, a song with an entirely different theme actually
titled Hey Boy appears.
Not a celebrity? No
sisters? Not from Mississippi?
No problem.
If you over-analyze, are
resilient, have been in love, have been dumped when you didn’t see it
coming and/or have found your soul mate, you’ll want to add Just
Like in the Movies to your collection.
Front
and Center
Rating ****
Sideline‘s
fourth album includes 12 songs- like most LPs used to- that are an
eclectic blend of old-time bluegrass instrumentation with traditional
Christian dogma and familiar lyrical themes.
There are story songs of
complex characters like Thunder Dan and
(to a lesser degree) Lysander Hayes along
with salutes to other influences such as a Bluefield WV Mtn. Girl. Along
the way, things get a little bit preachy for those not among the
flock (I Long to See His Face, Satan’s Chains), while
another values song, Old Time Way will either
strike a chord or seem less than innovative, depending upon the
listener’s mindset.
Along the way listeners
are treated to a mix of memories and melancholy with Sideline’s interpretation of Gordon Lightfoot’s Song for a Winter’s Night being
a real standout.
Sideline closes with a little
dance music; an instrumental version of Cotton Eyed Joe that
heightens fans’ awareness of the sextet’s musicianship that positions
them Front
and Center.
Here's
To You
Rating ****
Here’s To You would be
memorable, and otherwise have an historical significance, simply
because the album was recorded only days before Troy Gentry's death from injuries sustained in a
helicopter crash.
Posthumously issued
releases traditionally sell more copies than those that drop (no pun
intended) independent of such sorrow, but Eddie Montgomery remains very
much alive and has vowed to memorialize Gentry by continuing the duo’s
music.
Thankfully, Montgomery
is able to do so on the strength of an album that stands on its own,
beginning with Shotgun Wedding a
lyrically-clever story-song, written by Eddie, Phillip Eugene O’Donnell and Gary
Hannon, that works despite (or perhaps because of) what Troy opined
was the song’s similarity to Hillbilly Shoes.
Better Me, written by Jamie Moore, Randy Montana and Josh Hoge, the first single out of the chute, is thought to be a song Gentry wished he’d written himself. Played during Troy’s funeral, the song seems autobiographical, in that, by all accounts, during what turned out to be the last years of his life, Gentry was beginning to take stock of his choices and was working to change what needed improvement.
I found eight of the
remaining 10 songs variously entertaining, this, despite the fact that
a couple of them aren't all that strong. Needing a Beer is
a reworked update of a song or, more accurately, a series of songs,
variously pandering, or paying homage, to the working man/people,
patriots/those thought to be conservative/fringe
Republicans, white collar professionals or whatever demographics are
deemed currently topical and, in this case, Montgomery Gentry fans.
“God Bless America,
Baby,” indeed!
Similarly, That’s The Thing about
America is a reworked update of any number of
songs; in this case those purporting to be patriotic statements about
polarizing points-of-view and the freedom to express them.
The message is tolerance, but given two
drastically opposing views on several issues and the sometimes
stereotypically-inflammatory manner in which the lyrics address them,
the listener knows exactly where the Troy stood and where the writers (Craig
Wiseman, Jeffrey Steele and Shane Minor) and Eddie Montgomery stand.
Water
Rating *****
If you enjoyed Unplugged from Daryl’s House Club you’ll
love Sister Hazel’s newest release, Water.
An EP with seven great
tracks, Water features a song for every
mood just as H2O, whether it represents drowning, a raindrop or a tear,
arguably figures figuratively, if not literally, in the themes of all
of these message songs.
Roll On Bye has
a breezy, carefree vibe bolstered with lyrics that exude confidence
consistent with knowing the water's always fine when your significant
other has your back.
The First Time second-guesses
as it ponders the what ifs of a broken relationship.
You Won’t See Me Again is
the title of a story song embodying dark despondency followed by
(spoiler alert?) prayerful recovery.
Shelter is
a song about just that- the importance of protection from the elements,
others and sometimes even that which is less than your best self.
More Than I Want To is
a tale of falling short of your own expectations, or the person you’d
like to be, and somehow being present enough in a relationship to where
it might work.
The collection rounds
out with Elements Part 1 (Abilene) a
rather strange karmic refrain; but one that works even though listeners
can’t imagine- or maybe we can- what is missing in the absence of a
“Part Two.”
Bold
Like A Lion
Rating ****
According to a news release issued by Meghan Linsey's publicist, Joey Amato, Linsey calls this the best album she's ever released.
Reviewers had some fun with Jeanne Pruett when, over the
course of her recording career, Jeanne would appear with Ralph Emery and proclaim, like
clockwork, the same superlative sentiment about whatever her
newest release happened to be with
each of Pruett’s singles over Meghan may well be right. This CD’s
baker’s dozen of largely well-written songs, variously infused with
energy, attitude, independence (or the lack thereof), and social
conscience, begin with a roar (no pun intended), right out of the box,
as the title song opens with lyrics and
a sentiment that sets the tone for what follows.
Mr. Homewrecker, Bold…’s first single, lays the responsibility for
breaking vows where it belongs. Say It To My Face (featuring Aloe Blaco) is a self-explanatory message to
Internet trolls. Freak 4 the Beat (featuring Fred Schneider of the B52s), if properly promoted, will certainly
broaden Meghan’s audience, more accustomed to the nuance defining the
fine line between Exes and Friends.
I
could do without Lover (I
find it repetitive and not especially creative filler) but
record-buyers, assuming they agree, will readily
overlook this lapse, realizing that one-third of the proceeds from Bold Like A Lion are earmarked
for Phlando Feeds the Children, “an organization created in memory of Philando Castile, which raises money to provide
lunches for elementary school children.”
The
Life & Songs of Kris Kristofferson: All-Star Concert Celebration
Rating ****
A twist on the usual tribute album, this CD version is, in effect, an edited version of live performances, featuring not only other artists singing the honoree’s song, but performances by the subject of the tribute himself (i.e., Kris Kristofferson).
Yet only the concert itself captured the total experience. The various edits result in the need for some clarification from Rob Rauffer: “Lady Antebellum (Help Me Make It Through the Night) and Darius Rucker (Under the Gun) are on the broadcast, CD and DVD. Martina McBride (Here Comes That Rainbow Again) is on the CD and DVD but not the broadcast."
As someone who would rather hear Kris sing his own songs,or,
failing that, hear them from Johnny Cash, Sammi Smith, Ray Price, Roy Drusky and Billy Walker, (who, had they lived, would have
been the
most logical choices for any multimedia Kristofferson tribute
project), I’m probably not the best one to review these
performances. Though the artists
mostly stick to the original melodies and lyrics, the slightest
deviation drives me crazy.
But, to paraphrase Hank Williams, Jr., if you want Bocephus’
participation in the project, as Kris (or someone Kristofferson
deferred to) evidently did, as the artist best-suited to sing If You Don’t Like Hank Williams…,”
then Hank, Jr.’s taking the most number of liberties with a
Kristofferson song of any of the participants paying tribute was part
of what it took to secure Bocephus’ participation.
Some of the artists, who have no discernible connection to
Kris, appeared to have spotted a gravy train and jumped on board. In
industry terms, being able to market marquee names, as being associated
with an industry “legend” who, paradoxically, has been long put out to
pasture, give the project street cred that, in turn, translate to sales.
But if the listener can take, at face value, Eric Church’s explanation of why pairing him with To Beat the Devil has
not only context but relevance for Eric’s fans, then it’s easier to
believe that Kris’ music has some relevance to those cast as his
acolytes- even if, “in real life,” they’re not cutting any of his
chestnuts (i.e., the ones like A Moment of Forever that
have not already been covered to death) for their own projects.