McMurtry and Escovedo

Last Wednesday night, my wife and I went out to see James McMurtry and Alejandro Escovedo. Though Escovedo played last, we were more interested in McMurtry's set and the crowd seemed to be mostly his as well. Lots of people were singing along to McMurtry's songs, the club was somewhat less crowded during Escovedo's set, and the biggest cheer of the night came following McMurtry's delivery of these lines from "We Can’t Make It Here":

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I’m in
Should I hate ‘em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away

According to a story I read in The Washington Post while on vacation,

Stephen King called McMurtry's first foray into political songwriting the best American protest song since Bob Dylan's epochal "Masters of War."

Escovedo's band was first-rate (including fiddle player Carrie Rodriguez) and his set was very entertaining.

More than twenty years ago, before I'd ever heard of James McMurtry, I used to listen to Escovedo's "cowpunk" band, Rank and File. Yes, I still own the vinyl records.

I'm not sure Headliners was filled to its 600-person capacity, but it was very crowded and I kept running into people I know -- a colleague from Sociology, another from my Department, a DJ friend, and a couple of former students.

It was a fun night.


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Music of 2007

My friend, Michael Young, who hosts the local Americana radio program "Roots 'N Boots" has posted his top 20 recordings of 2007. You can hear his show on WFPK every Sunday night at 6 pm ET.

As per usual, I do not own very many of the CDs Michael highlights. He gave me a copy of John Fogerty's latest (#11 on his list), I exchanged a redundant Christmas present for the Alison Krauss and Robert Plant CD (honorable mention) and my wife picked up Bruce Springsteen's Magic (ruled ineligible for the list by Michael, but apparently worth noting). That's it.

For the most past, I don't buy much new music because I have a hard time listening to what I already own. Michael lists new disks by Wilco (#7), John Mellencamp (#13), Steve Earle (#14), Ryan Adams (#15), Lyle Lovett (#18), and Lucinda Williams (honorable mention). I possess at least 25 recordings by this handful of artists. Do I really need another one just because it is the latest?

I also own one or two CDs by a lot of the other artists making the list: Ry Cooder (#17) and Nick Lowe (#20), plus honorable mention artists Son Volt, Billy Joe Shaver, John Prince, The Gourds, and Southern Culture on the Skids. Oh, and my wife and I own more Bruce Springsteen recordings than we could play in a day.

Given my reliance upon radio for new music, I won't even try to list my top 5 or 10 recordings of the year. I would note, however, that in August I received XM satellite radio as a birthday present and thus now regularly listen to Americana music on X Country (channel 12), as well as on Michael's show.

Did I mention that I don't own an iPod?

I think my favorite single of the year is "Snake Farm" by Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Apparently, it came out in 2006.


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Ameripolitan?

Thirty-five years ago, musician Dale Watson would have been a country artist. These days, however, he rejects that label because he doesn't sound much like the "country" artists working in mainstream Nashville. "To me, it automatically means crap."

Watson prefers the term "Ameripolitan" to describe his music, which may mean that he's not happy with Americana either.

Today, I was in the studio audience for a one hour "Live Lunch" featuring Watson, broadcast live on WFPK-91.9, Radio Louisville. Once they put in on-line, the entire show can be downloaded and burned.

Watson's voice is great -- classic, gulp, country -- and his songs have a reliable Honky Tonk groove. Of course, I felt like I needed a beer throughout the show. Maybe two.


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Four Horsemen

Tonight, my wife and I went to a great concert put on by some terrific Americana singer-songwriters: Guy Clark, Joe Ely, John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett. This was the first time we'd seen Clark and Hiatt, though we've been fans (particularly of Hiatt) for a long time. I bought "Bring the Family" back in 1987 and was quite pleased that "Memphis in the Meantime" was in the setlist (and "Have a Little Faith in Me"). He changed the country singer reference in the original lyric: "I dont think Ronnie Milsap's* gonna ever Record this song." Milsap was replaced with Kenny Chesney.

We previously saw Ely in Chicago at the Lounge Axe back in about 1989. That was a lone guy with a guitar show, and I remember being a little disappointed that he didn't have a loud band. Tonight, he played a terrific version of "Honky Tonk Masquerade," which is an old favorite, but he didn't play "My Baby Thinks She's French." I look forward to his promised song about Dick Cheney.

Lovett we've seen a couple of times previously, including in the same venue with his Large Band. It was great to see that he's a terrific entertainer even when stripped down to a simple guitar (with occasional assistance from the other Horsemen, including a fine set of guitar riffs from Hiatt). I think the highlight of Lovett's night was "L.A. County," though every song he played was very good. On a couple of songs about relationships with women, I kept thinking "this guy was once married to Julia Roberts."

I'm not sure that Clark played any tunes that were familiar to me, though I own a couple of his CDs. Unfortunately, he also forgot his lyrics a few times during the set (once because of a distracting noise from the audience). His lyrics tell memorable stories and the long-time fan Lovett covered what was ostensibly Clark's first song.

It was a great show. Check them out if they play near you.


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Grayson Capps

Last night, my wife and I ventured out to see a musician that our neighbor (part-time DJ Michael Young) has been promoting on his radio program and to his friends: Grayson Capps.

Mike was right! Capps puts on a terrific show and his songs (and storytelling) are very entertaining. Capps quite obviously won the crowd quite early and I'm happy to report that Mike hopes to lure the musician back to Louisville for an outdoor Waterfront Wednesday show. We bought the latest Capps CD on the way out the door.

Catherine Irwin of Freakwater was the solo warmup act and she was very good too. If you are interested, I recommend her band's excellent "Springtime," which I've enjoyed for years.


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Filed as: Americana music

Holiday cheer: feedback requested

In case you didn't notice, operations have been slow here at the blog for some time.

I had quite a bit of grading in December, then normal holiday commitments. Expect more writing and posting after the new year. Meanwhile, I certainly hope all my readers are enjoying the normal slowdown that many people enjoy this time of year.

As for me, I'm contemplating the best way to spend a gift card. I've got all the books I currently need from Powell's, so I'm planning to purchase a couple of music CDs.

I'm a fan of Americana and have already looked at the end-of-year "best of 2006" list from No Depression. I also took a look at NPR's choices, the Boston Globe's picks, and Metacritic.

I have all-but decided to purchase my second Neko Case CD.

For the next choice, I'm mulling Rosanne Cash, Cat Power, Grayson Capps, Solomon Burke, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint, Old Crow Medicine Show, Todd Snider, and T Bone Burnett.

Any advice on selections from this group?

Alternatively, what are the indispensable Americana CDs? Maybe I've missed some important work from the past decade or so?

Or, which Drive-By-Truckers CD should I buy, considering I only have one now?

I like Bob Dylan a great deal, of course, but already own much of his artistic output from a very long career. Do I really need another Dylan album?

Readers, I'd like to hear from you on this.


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Pop culture update

I'm not much of a reggae fan, but I heard a cut today that I liked: "Light Up Ya Lighter" by Michael Franti & Spearhead.

Here's a taste of the lyrics, which reveal the song's anti-war themes:

Fire, fire, fire, light up ya lighter, fire fire fire
Armageddon is a deadly day, Armageddon is a deadly way
...
Tell me President tell if you will,
How many people does a smart bomb kill
How many of em do you think we got,
The General says we never miss a shot
And we never ever ever keep a body count,
we killin so efficiently we can’t keep count

The track appears to be available here.

I heard the track on the sampler CD in last month's Paste.

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Filed as: protest music

Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose

I saw Dwight Yoakam last night at the Kentucky State Fair and he put on a great show. Over the course of two hours, the singer performed a broad sample of his hits and a diverse array of covers (many by his friend and hero, Buck Owens).

The weather was great, especially for the Ohio River Valley in August, but it was not a perfect show. Dwight Yoakam may be a performer near the peak of his artistic career, but the sound system was not especially good (at least where I was sitting) and his voice lacks some of the range and force of his youth.

The title of this blog post is a track title from Yoakam's 1990 CD, "If There Was a Way." It's a song about a guy trying to use (loud) music to forget a "memory that's driving me lonely, crazy and blue." It was one of the most inspired songs Yoakam sang last night. His voice effectively conveys dispair and loneliness, and I don't think the guy in the song is able to overcome his pain.

Indeed, as Marty Rosen wrote in his published review, Yoakam "ventured off the trail into places of primeval madness — 'Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose' dissolved into soft yips and barks that might have come from a den of wolf pups."

Primeval madness. Hey, that reminds me of somebody else...

In fact, the song's chorus reminded me, author of this political blog, of a post I did not complete yesterday about another guy in trouble and his most recent pathetic attempts to deflect his suffering.

Did I mention that Yoakam began the evening with "Blame the Vain"?


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Sam Myers, RIP

I first saw Sam Myers sing and play the blues on his harmonica back in 1988. It was a relatively small club in Mountain View, California, and Myers was the featured performer fronting Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets. If you ever saw the band, you'd remember.

Funderburgh is a technically skilled Texas blues guitar player, and looks a little like a grownup Eddie Haskell from "Leave it to Beaver."

Myers, a traditional Mississippi bluesman, suffered from cataracts as a child and was nearly blind. Consequently, he wore dark sunglasses even while performing -- kind of like John Lee Hooker, only Myers would mostly stand throughout a show, belting out the blues and playing his harmonica. He added tremendous warmth to Funderburgh's cool playing.

That year, 1988, Myers won a W.C. Handy Award for best harmonica player, which many describe as the blues equivalent of a Grammy. Myers, Funderburgh & the Rockets won 8 or 9 Handy awards after they teamed up in 1986 (I've seen both figures reported).

In other words, when I first saw Myers and the band perform, he was a living legend. He had already been performing for more than two decades and had played with many of the most famous blues musicians.

Unfortunately, last Monday, Myers died of throat cancer at age 70.

Ultimately, I saw Myers, Funderburgh & the Rockets a number of times -- at the Kentucky State Fair and at another local venue that I cannot currently recall. As it happens, a friend roomed with someone who knew Funderburgh well. I never really got to meet anyone in the band, but the connection provided an extra reason to check out their local performances.

Anyway, I hope Myers rests in peace.



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(Pop) culture update

I went to a club the other night to see Philly's Marah, but by 11:40 the band still wasn't on stage and we had a babysitter deadline pending. Meanwhile, "warmup" act Jackie Greene was terrific -- kind of a cross between Delbert McClinton and Bob Dylan. He's a versatile multi-instrumentalist in a porkpie hat, singing blues, rootsy folk, etc.

Saturday, I ordered Greene's latest CD, which was produced by Steve Berlin. In the '80s, many of my favorite albums either featured, or were produced by, Berlin, a veteran of Los Lobos and the Blasters. Greene's act and the entire "Americana" genre owe a lot to "American Music."

Greene will be back in Louisville Wednesday June 28, performing a FREE live show as the headliner down on the Waterfront.

I did finally catch about half an hour of Marah. They were OK...but too loud.

If you don't have a chance to see Jackie Greene, find out if "Inside Man" is still playing at a (likely second run) theater near you. It's a Spike Lee heist film starring Denzel Washington, Jody Foster and Clive Owen. Good stuff.

"A Prairie Home Companion" was much better than I expected. I have not read Garrison Keillor or listened to his radio program, but went to see it because I'm a big fan of other Robert Altman films. The film was quite entertaining: thumbs up!


Update: This entry has been expanded a bit since it was originally posted.

In comments, Ryan Clark Holiday points listeners to StreamJackieGreene.com. You can select the songs you want to hear in any order.

Dylan skeptics: give "Talkin' Midtown Woman" a listen.


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Best music of 2005

My friend Michael Young, a part-time DJ, posted his "Top 10 Americana Albums of 2005" on public radio station WFPK's (91.9 Louisville) website. Mike's show "Roots 'n Boots" is available in streaming audio, Sunday nights at 6 pm until 8. I listened to it regularly even when in Boston for five months and hate missing it when I'm traveling.

Unfortunately, because of a late flight arrival, I did not catch this past Sunday's show when Michael played songs from his top 10 albums. However, I can present his top 10, with a few excerpts from his accompanying comments:

10. Freakwater – THINKING OF YOU [Thrill Jockey] Cathy Irwin, Janet Bean & Co. tackle hurt, pain & politics with a few foot-stompers thrown in for a well-balanced album. Their first since 2000, and perhaps their best.

9. Merle Haggard – CHICAGO WIND [Capitol/Hag] If this were produced by Rick Rubin, it would be getting all the raves of that tripe put out by Neil Diamond which is more “Heartlight” than “Cracklin’ Rose.”

8.Danny Barnes – GET MYSELF TOGETHER [Terminus] With his second straight jaw-dropping solo release (after 2003’s Dirt On The Angel) Danny is an artist deserving of much wider exposure.

7. Lucero – NOBODY’S DARLINGS [Liberty & Lament] Heart wrenching, yearning, and rocking all at once -- reminiscent of Springsteen in his Born To Run prime. If Kurt Cobain was raised on Hank Williams instead of the Meat Puppets, you’d have Lucero lead singer Ben Nichols. Beautiful despair.

6.Grayson Capps – IF YOU KNEW MY MIND [Hyena] The year’s best debut by far. With “Get Back Up” this Louisiana songwriter wrote the perfect New Orleans recovery theme before the hurricane.

5. John Prine – FAIR & SQUARE [Oh Boy] His humor, political bite, and relationship perspective shine though in a strong collection of songs.

4. James McMurtry – CHILDISH THINGS [Compadre] Captured the mood of many across the country in “We Can’t Make It Here,” THE anthem of 2005. McMurtry said he hates protest songs, so it has to be really bad if he has to write one.

3. Son Volt – OKEMAH AND THE MELODY OF RIOT [Transmit Sound/Legacy] Jay Farrar has rediscovered melody!

2. Mary Gauthier – MERCY NOW [Lost Highway] Currently, America’s best songwriter....I hate to constantly compare artists, but Lucinda’s got some catching up to do.

1. Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockrell – BEGONIAS [Yep Roc] This is rot gut, cry in your beer, no holds barred HURT pressed into vinyl (or plastic, or whatever they make CDs out of). It doesn’t get much more straightforward than “Don’t Make It Better, Make It Over.” But it’s not all gloom and doom because many of these breakup songs are delivered in bouncy, sunny country melodies.

I don't own any of these albums, yet, but Mary Gauthier (Mike pronounces it Go-shay) has a great track ("I Drink") on "This is Americana" volume 2, which I received from a friend. That CD is well worth the $1.98 cost. It also includes a Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell cut, "Party Time."

The best 2005 Americana album I own is Los Super Seven's "Heard in on the X," which I blogged about in early June. Because that album included a couple of tracks written by Doug Sahm, I asked for and received "The Best of Doug Sahm & The Sir Douglas Quintet 1968-1975." It's a great album, but it was issued in 1990 and the music is more than three decades old.

I also received the very good"Kids in Philly" Marah CD from 2000.

Since buying it some months ago, another favorite CD this past year was J.J. Cale's 1998 release, "The Very Best Of J.J. Cale."

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Los Super 7

I know that a lot of people are visiting this site for the first time, thanks to a post about IR blogging by Dan Drezner.

Welcome.

Most of the time, this is an IR blog. I've blogged frequently about the war in Iraq, the problem of Iranian proliferation, the Bush Doctrine, and the legitimacy "crisis" of American foreign policy.

If you must have an IR angle, check out my dissertation advisor's latest article: "If teh Nuclear Taboo Gets Broken," which appeared in the Naval War College Review, Spring 2005.

Don't look for comment here though (yet). I'm still tired from my move and am trying to relax.

Just last week, over some beers with a friend in Davis Square, I realized that I hadn't purchased a 2005 CD (is it really June already?). To remedy that problem, I just opened a 2005 CD. If you haven't checked out Los Super Seven, I urge you to do so soon. Their "Heard in on the X" is great!

Note that I'm a fan of "Americana" music (especially alt-country, or what was called "cow punk" in the 1980s). Los Super Seven's CD is Tex-Mex music, performed by Delbert McClinton, John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, Raul Malo (of the Mavericks), Rodney Crowell (Johnny Cash's former son-in-law), etc.

It's like a highlighted tour of my record collection.

"The feel-good hit of this endless summer"

That's a line from "The Ballad of the Kingsmen" by alt.country musician Todd Snider. If you haven't heard the song, find it and give it a listen. Call your local radio station or visit your favorite CD store. Or buy it from Snider's record company.

The title refers to the song "Louie, Louie," by the Kingsmen, which was supposedly the subject of a long-ago FBI investigation because of hard-to-understand lyrics. Even if that's a myth, it serves an artistic purpose for Todd Snider.

According to reviewer Peter Cooper, writing this past Monday (August 16) in the East Nashville Skyline Snider is making a valuable statement about contemporary American life, sort of like the point addressed in Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine":

what messes up kids' heads isn't their music, but a conflicting, war vs. meek-shall-inherit, free-market vs. love-thy-neighbor upbringing that can make the world harder to understand than Louie Louie's garbled verses. ''The next time some latchkey kid goes wrong/ It ain't gonna be because Eminem gets to say the word (expletive) in his song,'' he [Snider] advises.

Cooper called the song "unbelievably, undeniably stunning" and also wrote that "stunning doesn't begin to describe" the CD.

Needless to say, Cooper gave the recording four stars.

Cooper's praise may be a little over the top but it is a damn fine song and I wish I could hear it again.

Right now.



The CD is on Oh Boy Records.

For my DC area readers, note that Snider will be in Alexandria, VA at the Birchmere on August 26 and in Germantown, MD on the 28th at the Black Rock Center for the Arts.


Note: This weekend I'll be taking in Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, who are touring minor league ballparks.

Cross your fingers for me as they did have one rainout.

Best Albums of 2003?

I listened to my friend Michael Young's radio program last night ("Roots and Boots") and he went through his top albums of 2003. Most are "Americana," as they apparently say in the industry. I researched his top 10 on amazon.com, but am not 100% sure I've picked the correct album for each artist. These CDs were released in 2003 by the artists Mike played:

10. Calexico, Feast of Wire (Quarter Stick)

9. Los Lonely Boys, "Los Lonely Boys" (Or Music)

8. Jeff Black, "B Sides and Confessions" (Dualtone)

7. Scott Miller and the Commonwealth, "Upside Downside" (Sugarhill)

6. My Morning Jacket, "It Still Moves" (RCA)

5. Jayhawks, "Rainy Day Music" (Universal)

4. White Stripes, "Elephant" (BMG)

3. Lucinda Williams, "World Without Tears" (Universal)

2. Danny Barnes, "Dirt on the Angel" (Terminus Records)

1. Thad Cockrell, "Warmth and Beauty" (Yep Roc Records)


Previously, I noted that I didn't own many top albums according to the top 50 list published by Rolling Stone. However, I recently received both the Jayhawks and My Morning Jacket CDs. The former is terrific, and I also like the latter quite a bit.

New music?

If you had just graded 33 undergrad term papers, you'd be ready for some light blogging too...

RollingStone.com has their 50 best albums of 2003 posted (though it seems like you have to click through them one-by-one). I quickly glanced through the list in the paper version.

It didn't take long to discover that I'm not a cutting edge Rolling Stone reader. The only two albums on their list that I own are by Johnny Cash and the Drive-By Truckers.

Both were gifts too.

It's not that I don't buy music on a regular basis (no downloading MP3s for me), but I tend to buy stuff in my preferred genre, which is usually described as alt.country or "no depression." Think Uncle Tupelo (Wilco is a spin off) or Whiskeytown.

And I'm no newcomer to this music. In the 1980s, I listened to what was often called cow-punk. That would be the Beat Farmers (rest in peace Country Dick Montana), The Blasters (who were more rockabilly), Rank and File or Scruffy the Cat.

I think this is what happens when a kid who liked the New Wave hails from parents who listened almost exclusively to country music.

My Rolling Stone subscription is expiring, by the way, and I'm hoping to start taking...No Depression!

Their featured cover artists closely match my CD collection. Having Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams on the cover more than once reflects excellent editorial decision-making.

Update: I forgot to mention that readers can listen to alt.country music on the web in streaming audio. My neighbor and friend Michael Young has a great two hour radio show that I try to catch every Sunday night at 6 pm ET called "Roots and Boots."