T-Bone Burnett in 2010

Maybe this makes me sound like a Grammy delegate or an old, clueless man - but T-Bone Burnett has had quite a great year so far. Dude has been reviving tired acts and producing albums that all in the top-tier of Americana/Country records I've heard in 2010. Good for him, making me excited about roots music again.

It started with the much talked about soundtrack to "Crazy Heart" which suddenly threw Ryan Bingham into the spotlight and showed off a talent that we didn't know Jeff Bridges had. The originals T-Bone produced for the album are almost all excellent and the tracks he threw into the movie and soundtrack with them fit perfectly. Not a great movie, definitely a great soundtrack.
Jeff Bridges - Hold On You


He then went ahead and made Jakob Dylan relevant for the first time since the "One Headlight". Teaming him up with some of the best female vocalists in roots music and stripping the music down to a real minimal level, Jakob finally has music to accompany his voice. Simple, effective. A real surprise. I wanted to dislike "Women + Country" but it happens to be one of those albums that keeps getting better.
Jakob Dylan - Everybody's Hurtin' (Live at WNYC) with backing vocals by Neko Case and Kelly Hogan


One that slipped under my radar somehow was Willie Nelson's "Country Music". Now, if you know me, you know that Willie is probably among the 5-10 people I would consider my favorite musicians and as far as personalities go: he's probably at the very top. The last few years of Willie's music have been hit and miss, often within the same album. Two years ago he put out an "old timey" record with Asleep at the Wheel that was fun but ultimately left me yearning for something different. He put out a terrible reggae inspired record, another tin-pan alley inspired record, etc. He's still great when he's great. but his source material just isn't working - he's not quite in Rod Stewart territory, but sometimes he might get a little close. This album though, with only one of his own songs puts him back into that great 70s era Willie. Obviously it's not as classic as some of those early 70s releases, but by today's standards and the fact that it was cut by Willie Nelson at his age: this is definitely an album that deserves a lot more attention than it's getting. If you like country music and it's history - you should probably find this album.
Willie Nelson - Freight Train Boogie (Delmore Brothers) Live on Letterman


I don't really care for Robert Randolph & The Family Band on record (nor do I really care about them live) but he also produced their latest record which is gathering mixed reviews as those records always do. I didn't like it - you might.

The real surprise of the year and maybe the best of all the records T-Bone has produced this year is "No Better Than This" by none other than John Mellencamp. Yes, the Cougar. Now, Mellencamp has had a comeback lately, Rolling Stone gave his last album like the 5th best of 2008 or 2009. But the thing that is truly cool is that I've never really liked Mellencamp. I respect him, what he stands for, the content of many of his songs - but he just came off as a cornball most of the time. But this album works for one reason: mono. Recorded in mono, with vintage equipment, Burnett makes Mellencamp sound like old folk 78s. It's a novel concept that will turn a lot of people off, but really works for me. The songs are good - the sound is awesome. It's just a lot of fun and suits Mellencamp's voice a lot better than the glossy productions he is usually backed by.
John Mellencamp - Love at First Sight


Lastly, T-Bone has reconnected with up and comer Ryan Bingham and produced the given him the finest, most cohesive album of Bingham's career. I've liked Bingham a lot since he came out a few years ago - "Mescalito" was a bright spot in 2007; a really strong year for country and folk music. His followup "Roadhouse Sun" was a mixed bag, with shades of future genius intespersed with cheesy production and songs that tried a little too hard. But "Junky Star" is his best album yet. It's dark, it's pretty minimal, and Bingham's gravelly voice is always at the front. His backing band is great and the songs have lyrics that quite often shock. It's a solid record and definitely worth a listen.
Ryan Bingham - Making "Junky Star"


So I'm not claiming any of these albums to be among the very best albums of the year, but as I said earlier - they're all good and all have moments of greatness. For a year where I'm not finding nor really looking for much Americana and roots music, T-Bone Burnett has stepped forward to produce some of the strongest work of his production career.

Oh - and there's still an album yet to come out by Elton John & Leon Russell which will be...interesting.

A To Z: King Biscuit Flower Hour (Live 1976) - The Band

If THE BAND were any other band, their name would be audacious, obnoxious and forgettable. As it turned out, The Band aka The Hawks deserve the title of THE quintessential group of musicians and calling themselves THE BAND is as fitting a title as any.

I've loved The Band since high school. I'd seen The Last Waltz, more for the other musicians involved than The Band themselves. I found an old copy of their self-titled second album at a garage sale among the first week or two that I started collecting records. I knew "Up on Cripple Creek" and "The Weight" and a couple of other songs before I knew who sang them. I didn't know their story and I was hardly even into Bob Dylan at the time, but The Band was something special to me in those formative years.

Or rather, I claimed them to be.

After my initial exposure to The Band, I loved a handful of songs and appreciated what they were doing but I didn't really get it. I knew liking them was cooler than liking CSNY or CCR or other similarly styled bands that blurred the lines of rock, country, blues and folk. These scraggly dudes were accomplished musicians, that is what the internet told me. Robbie Robertson was one of the best songwriters of his generation, or so I heard. It took me years to finally succumb and agree.

This radio broadcast recorded live in 1976 isn't the best live document in The Band's catalogue, but for my money nothing they ever performed live was bad. It's good for a bootleg, but not the best audio quality ever. There is some major riffs and solos, but few instances that show what these musicians are actually capable of. The organ on this recording seems louder than actual studio albums which gives the songs a bit of a unique sound. They perform the songs you know, maybe some you don't. Good overview but no Last Waltz.

If you are a fan of The Band though, you should probably have this.



This is from The Last Waltz, but it still gives me chills, so I included it.

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When The Morning Sun Has Stopped Shining (A Mix)

Part two of two for my girlfriend's road trip. I guess the title is sort of foreboding, but it's not. Line from the Huckleberry Flint song included (Humboldt represent). This one isn't "mixed" like the other, just a collection of folk, country, bluegrass, americana songs that I like and thought would go together pretty decently on this mix. There is a chance that the Leon Redbone song is untagged in the artist field, so tag it as such. Also the Laura Cantrell song might be tagged as track 8, but should be 15. Otherwise there isn't much to say...just enjoy if you want it.

1. kate wolf - riding in the country
2. phil ochs - bullets of mexico
3. the seldom scene - hello mary lou
4. leon redbone - desert blues (big chief buffalo nickel)
5. willie nelson - three days
6. bill anderson - sittin' in an all-night cafe
7. doc watson - interstate rag
8. huckleberry flint - good night darling
9. uncle earl - sleepy desert
10. wilco - forget the flowers
11. calexico - dub latina
12. carrie rodriguez - never gonna be your bride
13. the wailin' jennys - devil's paintbrush road
14. wanda jackson - fujiyama mama
15. laura cantrell - yonder comes a freight train
16. hamilton camp - a satisfied mind
17. brenda lee - speak to me pretty
18. ricky nelson - i'm walkin
19. the brothers four - where have all the flowers gone
20. louise massey & the westerners - my adobe hacienda
21. norman blake - salt river
22. heron - sally goodin'

Link Removed by DMCA - let me know if you want it.

Etta Baker - One-Dime Blues (1991)

Etta Baker was one of the most important and revered musicians of all time that created music in the Piedmont Blues style. For those unknown, the Piedmont blues is a finger-picking blues style that typically alternates bass strings plucked by the thumb that supports the melody on the rest of the strings. The effect is much more in line with the white string bands of the Appalachian region than with Delta Blues. The very fact that Etta Baker is so important an influential (she taught the style to Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan just to name two), is perhaps most remarkable because of the 35-year gap between her first recording in 1956, and this recording of 20 songs that came out in 1991.

The album is primarily focused on traditional and public domain blues songs and rags, and it heavily leans on instrumental numbers. However, Etta does sing on a few tracks and the aging in her voice lends something special to these songs.

You can listen to much of this album and think it is someone like a Jack Rose or John Fahey or many of the other famous ragtime guitarists that we think of, but something about the way that Etta plays just makes it connect on a whole level. It's really really beautiful and well...American.

I meant to post this on February 7th, when I uploaded it but I waited. It's great and everyone should download it.

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Etta Baker Wiki

Floratone - Floratone (2007)

Bill Frisell side project from last year, where he formed a "band" with drummer Matt Chamberlain, and then the other two "members" of the "band" are producers. I guess it's sort of jazz, but not really. It's not really avant-garde either at all. It's just instrumental music that is sort of a blend of a ton of styles and is just awesome. Also features a lot of Viktor Krauss and Eyvind Kang, so string-wise it's pretty set. Awesomely executed stuff.

A casual listen might suggest that Floratone is a new Bill Frisell project (and that would be mostly correct), except every indication is that this is a fully collaborative project between Frisell, drummer Matt Chamberlain, and Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend. Composition credits are all shared and they all appear on the front cover. Why is that notable? Because while Frisell and Chamberlain are both credited with "loops" along with their respective instruments, Martine and Townsend receive only "production" credits -- no instruments. That's because on Floratone, the pure elements of sound and space are given as much attention as the music itself. Not only are there cool shimmering loops coloring the tunes, but any musical element can get treated, delayed, bounced around, echoed and twisted through 360-degrees of the stereo spectrum. With titles that invoke the South, the songs mostly float along at a languid pace anchored by the bass of Viktor Krauss. Ron Miles (trumpet) and Eyvind Kang (viola) also contribute to several cuts but don't really figure prominently. The focus is squarely on FrisellChamberlain and the soundworld they've created with Martine and Townsend. There's the slight reggae lilt of the title cut with some great dub-style echo and the New Orleans flavored "Mississippi Rising" with its second line rhythm. "Louisiana Lowboat" is somewhat lumbering and clanky, coming across almost like a Tom Waits instrumental. "Monsoon" rocks things up a bit and "Threadbare" gets a bit noisy, but this is mostly a pretty laid-back affair. It's great to hear Frisell messing with the delays again in a big way (see also the "West" disc of East/West) and the pure sonics of Floratone are as much of a treat as the playing. It's pleasant enough for background music, but careful listening will be rewarded. Try this one with headphones.
-Sean Westergaard, AMG

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Jerry Garcia & David Grisman - So What (1998)

So from the beginning of the 70s until his death, Jerry Garcia was an active participant (though not usually given his due) in to the "new grass" bluegrass revival scene. Most notable was his friendship with legendary mandolin player David Grisman. The two recorded many records together most of them striking a great calm balance between Grateful Dead and the bluegrass virtuosity that Rounder records was putting out at the time. This record, released in 1998 on Acoustic Disc is a collection of Miles Davis (and Milt Jackson) covers recorded in the early 90s. The disc actually has 3 different recordings of the classic "So What", two of "Bag's Groove" and "Milestones" and then right in the middle of the record is a Grisman original "16/16"

Though the record has little variety in the songs that are actually presented here, the musicianship and the unique takes on these familiar jazz tunes are perfect for fans of new grass and jazz equally. It's a really beautiful and enjoyable cd, with enough funk to get you nodding your head but enough relaxing strings to wake up with again and again. It is a great, unique recording and one of my favorites the duo put out.

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Fruition String Band - Hawthorne Hoedown (2008)

I am feel kind of bad posting this, but I'll consider it an opportunity for exposure.

Fruition String band it a little quartet of 20-something folks from Portland, Ore, my home city. Last Friday, here in Arcata they played at one of the local coffeeshops to a crowd of jeez, 15 maybe? The 15 of us there had a great time, because Fruition puts on a great show (and have a small dedicated following up in Portland). They're not big, will probably never get big, and can barely book dates on their west coast "tour" that seems more like a vacation for them, but they are a lot a lot of fun.

The music contained on this disc is roughly recorded (they say it was recorded in a treehouse and all the songs are first takes). It sounds distant, like someone just turned on a microphone on a front porch jam and let the band have at it. The band (1 female and 3 male) share songwriting duties as well as singing and also who plays what, except for the bassist who just chugs along back there having a blast. The recording is not the best, the songs are not the best, but the live show and their attitude about just making music to make it really thrilled me. Obviously there are hundreds of bluegrassy/jam bands like this out there playing in college towns every day and Fruition isn't necessarily different. They have the potential, but more than anything, they inspire others like me to just get out there and make some god damn music. Download the record, listen to it once, it's short. If you hate, whatever get rid of it. If you like it, maybe contact the band at Myspace and try and buy it somehow (they don't sell it online) and their asking price is sort of whatever you have.

It's good to feel good sometimes.

Myspace

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The Tony Rice Unit - Manzanita (1979)

My love and wonderful girlfriend turned me onto this album. I knew Tony Rice and had an album of his, plus other albums where he was just the guitarist, but this album is just something else.

It's like a 5/5 bluegrass album. Tony is one of the best guitarists and this is just beautiful. His side players on this album are in top form as well. It's a mixture of trad. and original songs, and everything is great. Nothing else to say really except you probably need to download it.

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A To Z: T - Texas Cookin' by Guy Clark

This record is basically the result of all the best country singers and writers of the early 70s getting drunk one day, playing some games, eating some food and then going "hey lets make a record"

I love Guy Clark (though I only have 4 of his albums), and though this record isn't quite as good as his first album, it is definitely more country. It's a blast, throwing in more fun songs than most of his other recorded work. His songs are still clever and well written, and the help he receives by people like Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings and Hoyt Axton (to name only a few) is great.

On the new Rodney Crowell album (which is excellent), he sings about his love for Guy Clark, and there is a reason. Guy Clark is an underrated gem of great song writing, one that who will probably NEVER get his due, though will remain respected and revered by the correct circles for years.

Guy Clark's sophomore effort sounds more like a party of friends who got together to pick together on a Saturday night that it does a sensitive singer/songwriter outing. Essentially that's what it is, coming as it did in 1975 at the height of the outlaw movement fever. Recorded at Chips Moman's American Studios in Nash Vegas, there is no producer listed on the set, so you can assume Clark did it himself with the aid of his many compadres here, who include but are not limited to Emmylou Harris, Susanna Clark, Johnny Gimble, Jerry Jeff Walker, Hoyt Axton, Waylon Jennings, Tracy Nelson, Brian Ahern, Mickey Raphael, Rodney Crowell, David Briggs, and Chip Young. Songwise, Clark's on a roll here; first there's the wooly party tune, "Texas Cookin'," that celebrates the Lone Star State's particular ability to make their food taste good with beer, and then there's the stunning "Anyhow I Love You," with Emmylou, Waylon, and Crowell accompanying Clark as a chorus. Jennings' harmony singing here is the best he did in his career. There's the mid-tempo "Good to Love You Lady" with Walker, Axton, Crowell, and Harris singing in a smoky contralto, an honest to goodness country song, baring its fiddles, pedal steel, and a trio of acoustic guitars to carry those rough and sweet voices through the story. And while the up-tempo tunes here are wondrously raucous fare, Clark's strength as a ballad writer is almost unequaled among his peers. Nowhere is this more evident than on "Broken Hearted People" (since retitled for the refrain, "Take Me to a Barroom"). Clark's version of the song lacks any sentimentality. He is one of the tune's subjects; his resignation is to spend his mourning days on a barstool after discovering a lover's faithlessness, but he's already wasted and can't even get there under his own power. His devastation is only eclipsed by his desperation: "Take me to a barroom driver/Set me on a stool/If I can't be her man, I'm damned/If I'll be her fool." In addition, Clark's "The Last Gunfighter Ballad" is a signature song, like his "Randall Knife" or "Desperadoes Waiting for a Train." It's a song; it's a story; it's a movie with acoustic guitars a bass, a cello, finger cymbals, and Waylon. Chilling, stirring, and unforgettable, just like the album itself. - Thom Jurek, Allmusicguide

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A To Z: J - Joya by Will Oldham

A look at my Last.Fm profile would reveal Bonnie 'Prince' Billy at the top of my most played artists. Granted, compared to many music fans like me, the number of plays is not anything to write home about, but he's still at the top. I have a certain obsession with Oldham's voice. I don't know what it is, it's not great, but it is still the best. I have an affinity for his beard, for his lyrics, for his acting in Old Joy.

Joya is an album where Will Oldham is...himself. Under his actual name, not the Palace or Bonnie moniker. The album isn't vastly different from his other recorded work, but it still retains the quality that we come to expect with an Oldham release.

As a reference point, I would say the album that sounds most similar to this record is 2005's Superwolf record with Matt Sweeney, primarily because the guitar work on this album. These aren't acoustic-in-an-unlit-room songs. These are plugged-in-but-playing-in-the-backyard-at-night songs. It's beautiful stuff, and is as essential as just about every other Oldham release, which is to say that it's very essential.

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Joya

A To Z: H - Hard Rain by Bob Dylan

In a catalog full of records in which opinions are divided, maybe no other record in Bob Dylan's career is more divided than his 1974 live disc, Hard Rain.

A look at the AMG review of the album, and one gets a 2-star rating, dismissing it as a record of excess without the sound quality to match. A mess of a record, yes. That's why it is great. This, perhaps as much as his Royal Albert Concert Hall performance, is Dylan the punk.

In his catalog it follows Blood on the Tracks, probably one of his more mellow and contemplative records. However, where that record is full of the insight of his failing marriage and brutally honest, with Dylan sounding emotionally torn, Hard Rain is a big FUCK YOU and takes the songs (with the help of the Rolling Thunder Revue) to a level of near insanity.

Most of the songs are screamed and shouted, not sung. This is a passionate performance that holds nothing back. Songs of break-up, with new lines that shed light on the shambles that Dylan is in. One listen to "Lay Lady Lay" will show you that this is different. It pleases in the way that a live Stooges record does, or a live Stones record. This hardly sounds like Dylan, it's loud and raucous.

So while opinions are certainly going to continue being divided, this record is an important document into the career of Bob Dylan. And I love it.

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Hard Rain

A To Z: G - Great San Bernadino Birthday Party & Other Excursions by John Fahey

Actually titled "Guitar Vol. 4" the album is subtitled "The Great San Bernadino Birthday Party" and features the 19-minute song of the same name as the leadoff track.

This is probably the most experimental release of Fahey's early years on Takoma, and gives a good indication where he would expand his sound in the years that followed. The title track is epic in every sense of the word, sounding like the soundtrack to an old west silent film that we've never seen. His guitar picking going between incredibly thought out raga's and moving to very simplistic modern classical sounding pieces, the song retains the romantic feeling of the city and area of California from long ago.

From here, the rest of the record gets much more experimental.

"Knott's Berry Farm Molly" employs the use of crazy tape loops that Fahey created with a standard mobile tape recorder. He tunes his guitar to an usual sound, starts picking and then suddenly starts using the backward loops, giving the track an entirely different feeling. The track goes back and forth between the two, and is a bit uneven, and not smooth in execution, but it pretty interesting regardless.

His take on "Will The Circle be Unbroken" one of the more famous traditional folk songs sounds unlike any version of the song at the time. The recording sounds like it was done in an open room with really cheap equipment. A field recording in a graveyard almost. The track is dominated by an organ played by Flea (not RHCP), and though it is far out itself, the organ line is the only way to tell this is the song the title states.

"Guitar Excursions into The Unknown" is wonderful. It's harsh, terribly tuned guitar, but glorious picking. It really sets up what is known as that whole "free folk" movement out of Finland that has been really popular in the last years. Again sounds like a field recording or on terribly warped tapes, it truly is a track that sounds like it is recorded for the "unknown"

on "900 Miles" we get a beautiful track, but one in which the guitar is not at the forefront. Again Fahey puts himself in the background, framing the track around Nancy McLean's flute playing.

Other than the tile track, "Sail Away Ladies" is probably the best track on the entire collection. Featuring Al Wilson of Canned Heat on veena, the middle eastern feel to the track changes the course of old America, but is really beautiful on it's own merits.

"O Come, Oh Come Emanuel" is another traditional and goes back to the old Fahey style. Clean guitar picking, a perfect way to close out the record.

Fahey later went on to regard the record as one of the worst in his discography, but many critics of him, myself included, feel it belongs among his very best work. A retrospect on the genius that had been producing music for a decade and it also lays a blueprint for where he was about to go with his music.

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Great San Bernadino Birthday Party

A To Z: F - Fly Through The Country by New Grass Revival

Not many bands can say they gave a genre its name, but that is more or less what New Grass Revival did. Though they have gone through many incarnations and are most known for helping to launch perhaps the most famous banjo player in the world, Bela Fleck, it is their earlier albums that I truly enjoy.

Fly Through The Country and is that 70s bluegrass (or "new grass") sound that was made somewhat popular by them and fellow bands like The Seldom Scene and Hot Rize. It is pretty traditional sounding and not breathtakingly fast, but remains solid the whole way through.

The album is a great combination of instrumental prowess, slower romantic songs, and great harmonizing. It can be almost cheesy at first, but repeated listens reveal small revelations about how the musicians use their instruments to truly frame the vocal parts. It sounds natural, and though the sound is clean, it doesn't sound like their is too much studio trickery on the album. You seen those old-timey bluegrass guys on the corner of the market having a good time? That sound stems from New Grass Revival, and for anyone remotely interested in the modern bluegrass sound, this is a great place to start.

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Fly Through The Country

A To Z: C - Chrome Dreams by Neil Young

More or less the scrapped "bootleg" album by Neil Young in 77. Probably in my top 5 Neil albums, which is saying a lot. Huge story behind it, but the truth of the matter is that it just rules.

Neil Young was on a creative high in 1975. By the end of the summer, Zuma was finished, though still not released. Yet Neil carried on recording his new songs. Sometimes he recorded solo and sometimes with Crazy Horse. Lots of these songs would remain unheard by the public until quite a while later, but by late ’75, Neil had already written and recorded versions of such future classics as Like A Hurricane, Powderfinger, Sedan Delivery, Pocahontas and Ride By Llama.

He carried on recording in 1976. More great songs were put down on tape, such as Will To Love, Stringman and Campaigner. Some of us may feel that the Long May You Run album with Stephen Stills robbed us of the natural successor to Zuma, but Stills always suspected that Neil was holding back his best stuff for his solo album. That solo album was a work in progress throughout this period. Titles were reported in the press: Ride My Llama, In My Neighborhood, American Stars ‘N Bars, Chrome Dreams.

When American Stars ‘N Bars was released in 1977, Neil had scrapped most of the material he’d been recording since late ’75, replacing much of it with a series of rough hewn cowboy songs. Fun stuff to be sure, but had Neil committed the latest in a series of difficult to explain career suicides? Who else, except maybe Bob Dylan, would sit on a stash of such quality songs and not let the public hear them?

Tracks 1 to 12 of this compilation are thought to be the unreleased Chrome Dreams album, readied for release weeks before Neil recorded those country hoedowns and rethought his strategy. Some of these song titles will be more than familiar to you, but the actual performances may surprise you.

Powderfinger is performed as an unadorned solo acoustic song; Sedan Delivery, a second song destined for Rust Never sleeps, is presented in its pre-punked up arrangement and, in many people’s opinion, sounds all the better for that. You’ll also find the definitive Stringman, a song not given an official airing until Neil’s Unplugged set, heard here in a 1976 live performance enhanced by subtle yet beautiful studio vocal and guitar overdubs; Hold Back The Tears is another solo performance, longer and more ghostly that its later remake for American Stars ‘N Bars; Pocahontas is the same performance as the one that made Rust Never Sleeps, but in its original "Naked Mix;" Too Far Gone wouldn’t be officially released until the Freedom album in 1989, yet here’s a version from 14 years earlier with Poncho Sampedro adding a tasty mandolin part.

-Jules Gray

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Chrome Dreams

A To Z: A - American Son by Levon Helm

This is the worst gimmick ever, but on Facebook I have listed as favorite music, 26 albums starting with a letter in the alphabet. Whatever, I decided to upload them for friends. So let's start with A.



Probably the best solo album from a member of the band, Levon Helm's 1980 masterpiece is one of the true gems of the country-rock sound.

The album came to be during Helm's work covering "Blue Moon Of Kentucky" for the soundtrack of Coal Miner's Daughter where he played the father of Loretta Lynn. The song and session went so well with Fred Carter Jr. that they just decided to go ahead and cut an album of other lesser known traditional songs (none are original here). What resulted from these sessions is Levon getting down to what he does best, the more country-oriented sound rather than the funky stuff he was trying to do prior. Tracks like "Violet Eyes" will wrench your heart out, but subsequent songs like "Stay With Me" will get your head bobbing and foot stomping.

American Son is the most Band-like album by Helm and just one really fun listen. This version I have uploaded has a couple pops in the sound, but they are hardly noticeable. Enjoy and leave comments.

James Tappenden reviews American Son
AMG

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American Son