Month: January 2016

just outside the country mainstream

you can have your own opinions on the current state of country music, especially the more commercial end of the business. but one thing that has been true forever – it has always been a good source of songwriters and homespun musicians. the key, i think, is to be open minded about anything that gets thrown into this genre, and to occasionally take a flyer on a few of them. here are three that i have found that you might find interesting.

turnpike troubadours is a band out of oklahoma that i have a been fan of for a few years. i have seen them live, and you should as well. this is their latest effort. i am not sure it is their best release, but it as good as anything else they have done (and i have everything, if that means anything). they have a knack of writing some great songs, and then marrying them to some good ol’ boy country licks. add a six pack of pabst blue ribbon tall boys, and you got yourself a hayride.

chris stapleton gets a nod for album of the year on this one. chris has one of the best country vocals out there today, period. previously of the steeldrivers, he set out on his own and this is pretty much his initial effort in this regard. produced by dave cobb, who also did the last two jason isbell releases, the overall sound is very well done. stapleton is a good songwriter (not great), and a few of the cuts here sound like an attempt to marry country with sammy hagar vocalizations. but he does touch a nerve overall, and here he makes a good stab at adding his name to some of the great outlaw country players. it is evident from the lyrics of a few of the songs that he is a veteran of the road, and the fabric of this experience is woven throughout this album. ‘whisky and you’ is one of the most honest songs about drinking this ear has ever heard.

Kacey Musgraves released her sophomore effort last year, and it is one of the most critically acclaimed of the year. her songwriting is simple but clever, and her harmonies sound natural and genuine. she is a big fan of alison kraus, but i also hear lucy kaplansky in both her timbre and phrasings. the back up band is spot on, and the guitar work, especially on the slide side, is top notch.

richard thompson ‘still’

it seems to me that richard thompson is the type of musician you either love or discard. you either think he is one of the great guitarists, and a hell of a songwriter, or you have either never heard of him or don’t particularly care for his work (usually his vocals). i am in the former camp, and have been for years. in my mind he is england’s closest equivalent to dylan, and a much better guitar player. his musical legacy is long and diverse. his influence is so profound that he was recently knighted for his accomplishments.

he picked jeff tweedy of wilco to produce this one, and it was recorded at tweedy’s loft studio in chicago in 9 days. the songwriting is excellent and eclectic. the playing is solid and unadorned. it closes with a song called ‘guitar heroes’, where he does a mashup of styles based on the guitarists who influenced him – django reinhart, les paul, james burton, chuck berry, etc.

if you have the ability to get the bonus edition, get it. it has another 5 songs recorded elsewhere, with a smaller band (it also has the song ‘fergus laing’, which he admits is about donald trump).

bob dylan 1965-1966 the cutting edge

volume 12 of bob’s always reliable bootleg series focuses on the incredible 14 month period surrounding the recording of three of his best albums – bringing it all back home, highway 61 revisited, and blonde on blonde. it is arguably one of the highest creative streaks for any musical artist ever, and this compilation does a great job of chronicling the whole affair. there are actually three versions of this – the 2 disc ‘best of’ version, a 6 disc option that comes with 2 books (one being a track listing with extensive liner notes, the second being a great collection of photographs), and the third is only available through his website, an 18 disc tour de force that has every single track. the casual bob fan will find great value in the 2 disc version, both in the material and the very reasonable price. i opted for the 6 disc deluxe version, due in large part to the fact that this my favorite period of his career, and i just had to have it.

the significance of this period on pop culture includes two parallel strands. the first is his evolution as a lyricist from the greenwich village folk singer to the stream of consciousness beat poet style of cascading imagery. the second is his decision to break from the ranks of the traditionalists and incorporate the use of a band, and more importantly, introduce the element of electrical guitars to the recordings. it was during this period that he famously went electric at the newport folk festival, and began touring with the hawks, later to be known as the band. this compilation seeks to explore the mechanics behind the process, as well as to shed light on the evolution of the artistry and the creative process. it does this in two ways. the first is to provide alternative takes on songs from those three albums, plus feature outtakes that never made it on one of the finished albums. the second way is to use the sequence of multiple takes on a song to show how it developed, both musically and lyrically, in the studio. ‘visions of johanna’ gets 5 takes here, all with the band, with various changes to the key and tempo, and they never quite get it right. bob scraps it and doesn’t approach the song again until he gets to nashville months later with a bunch of local session musicians and does it in one take. disc three is entirely comprised of 20 different attempts at ‘like a rolling stone’. throughout the collection he is constantly changing lyrics, musicians, studios and producers to get it to sound like it does in his head.

i was already in awe of his output during this time, but i am so much more impressed now that i have thoroughly digested this. very informative, and a pleasure to listen to, especially the 2 disc version.