featured
new releases
Richard
Shindell, Courier
(Signature, February 12, 2002). These live recordings find
the seminarian-turned-new-folkie in his element: playing before an
attentive, enthusiastic audience in his native New Jersey and New
York, spinning mythic stories of fateful battlefields, haunted
truckers, and visionary saints and lovers alike. Fronting an
easygoing band of expert pickers, Richard Shindell turns in
surprisingly solid covers of Little Feat and Bruce Springsteen
tunes. Cry, Cry, Cry partner Lucy Kaplansky wraps Shindell's
nasal, sinewy delivery in subtle harmonies, pushing the best of
these songs, including "Next Best Western" and his finest, most
poignant take on relationships, "Are You Happy Now," past
previously recorded versions. As an introduction to Shindell's
spiritual lyricism and as a live document for longtime fans,
Courier is a cache of reflective, gently glowing gems. -- Roy
Kasten
Panama
Red, HomeGrown (Kinkajou,
2002). Originally released in 2000, this little gem of an album
became something of a cult item - and ultimately tough to come by.
This re-release on Kinky Friedman's Kinkajou label by ex-Texas
Jewboy Panama Red should solve that problem. The following is from
a review from Down Under by Keith Glass of Rhythms Music Magazine:
"This is the kind of album they don't make any more - a bloke and
ten of his songs naked (metaphorically speaking) in front of a
microphone - imagine that! . . . And Red (nee Danny Finley) is a
soulful singer, the same way that applies to someone such as
Donnie Fritts or Billy Swan - lived-in maybe the more accurate
term. He sure nuff knows how to write a song, as is well and truly
demonstrated by the midway point of track 2 Heaven On Earth which
hits a groove and stays there. His earthy guitar playing is
another plus And he swoops down on that bluesy thang in Poor Boy
like a solo John Fogerty. It's raw, uncompromising and most of all
honest." I couldn't agree more.
other
featured releases
Rod
Picott, Tiger Tom Dixon's Blues
(The Orchard July 2001). Another
excellent CD we missed from last year. This is from John Hood of
Music Row Magazine: His sound? Barbed wire lyrics wrapped
around whisky and gravel vocals. Hints of Springsteen, Earle and
Lucinda Williams abound. But it's the wallop of soul in his
passionate vocals and the earthy groove of his melodies that give
Picott his own distinct sound. He's just beginning to hit his
stride as a writer; Slaid Cleaves took their co-write "Broke Down"
to No.1 on the Americana charts. He's a narrative storyteller
tapped into the trials and tribulations of the working class. He
intuitively understands heartache, desperation, joy and small
hopes (small, not inconsequential) ignore class boundaries. And
because of that, his characters possess a certain nobility, a
dignified humanity that belies their bleak circumstances. Plus the
man can turn a phrase like nobody's business. Give this man a
listen, he's America's next great songwriter.
Various
Artists, Let It Be Real (Stand
on the Ocean, 2001). Just weeks ago, we featured another
collection - Lowdown, Dirty, Mississippi Delta Blues - from
this new Chicago-based independent label dedicated to recording
authentic roots music at its source. This is the flip side of the
same coin - an album of Deep Gospel likewise recorded in the
Mississippi Delta, but churches have replaced the dives and juke
joints of the Blues effort. No, people, we're not trying to
"church you up" like Cab Calloway did to Jake and Elwood Blues.
Listening to this modern Gospel as music is more than enough, as
its as passionate as its Blues sister and outdoes in intensity not
only most of the tripe that passes as gospel today, but much of
its R&B and R&R children, as well. What's fascinating,
too, is how the latter secular forms have come back to influence
their roots.
The following is from a review by Jeff
Harris, Bad Dog Blues, WITR 89.7 Rochester, NY: "If church
sounded anything like the recordings on Let It Be Real I'd
never have a problem getting up on Sunday mornings. The nine
groups on this collection play in a variety of styles but all
share a raw edged passion that's sadly lacking in most
contemporary gospel. Like the above collection all these groups
are homegrown products recorded live at the Travelers Rest Church
and Moorhead and Christ Temple in Cleveland, Mississippi.
Highlights include . . . the very bluesy Delta Country Boy on the
rocking, harmonica-driven "This Train", Sarah Blair & The New
Life Singers on the moving "You Ought To Live", William McGhee
& Greenwood Jubilee on the tough, bluesy "You Gotta Move" and
Aurther Strong Jr. delivering a strong message on "Hang Up Your
Hangups."
riffs
As
Sunday is St. Patrick's Day, Sisyphus' stone will be
turning decidedly green. While we don't plan on playing Irish
music exclusively on the holiday, there will be a strong dose, so
stock up on your Guinness now (what, did you think we would
picture a 4-leaf clover, leprechaun, or other cliche like Saint
Paddy himself? This one tastes a helluva lot better) . . .
There was some talk of the great American
banjoists Dock Boggs and Uncle Dave Macon this past
week on a couple of music lists, so you can expect to hear some
from both this week on SR . . . This is our last week of
Winter, and cold-weather songs will go out with it as Sisyphus
begins to contemplate the warmth and bloom of rebirth (his lot is
for eternity, of course, but he can enjoy the smell in the air and
think about touching something a lot softer than rock, right?) . .
. While there will be no tribute as such to Harlan Howard
on SR, we are planning something for a future Pushing
Uphill program to honor the great songwriter who passed away a
bit over a week ago.
Notes by Michael Westerfield
unless otherwise indicated.
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