as some of you may have noticed, i have been on an extended hiatus from posting anything on this blog for quite some time. this was not due to any one reason, but rather a confluence of events – day job demands, website host issues, redeyegin studio renovations, etc. – that pushed me in other directions for a while. another contributing factor was lack of inspiration. although i have been listening to new music the whole time, nothing had really jumped out to me that was worthy of writing that ‘new post’ after being off the grid for so long.
enter this new collaboration from john hiatt and the innovative jerry douglas band. hiatt is one of my favorite singer/songwriters of all time, and jerry is maybe the most widely recorded bluegrass artist there is, the greatest dobro player on the planet. recorded in nashville at the famed rca studio b, it has that element of a natural bond that is hard to replicate. it comes out this friday, but i have heard enough on the radio and from videos i have found to break the ice here and get back to sharing some new music with you.
this one might seem a little off the beaten path for my usual musical tastes, but i heard about this on outlaw country and was intrigued by the lineups and the interview he did for them. essentially he wanted to revisit the gibb brothers songbook and do it with some of the country and americana artists he had come to admire over the years.
it is produced by grammy award winning producer dave cobb and was recorded at the legendary rca studios in nashville. contributing artists include keith urban, jason isbell, brandi carlile, alison kraus, dolly parton, miranda lambert, sheryl crow, and david rawlings with gillian welch.
his idea for the record was to have the artists pick the songs, and he would do some cameos. but cobb convinced him to have more of a duet approach, and most of the songs fit into that category. although barry might not have the same vocal chops as when the brothers were at the top of their game in the seventies, he can still bring it. the duet of him and alison kraus doing ‘too much heaven’ is downright ethereal.
and although this is on the charts as a country offering and chock full of nashville artists, i would be hard pressed to describe it as such. cobb does an excellent job as usual, but he is not afraid to add some string arrangements and stay reasonably true to the pop feel of the originals. this is just ear candy and a bit of a guilty pleasure (and i mean that in a positive way). i grew up in a household in the seventies where the soundtrack to ‘saturday night fever’ was a constant in my parent’s 8 track tape player.
it really is just a feel good story.
speaking of stories, by a bit of a coincidence, a documentary about the bee gees came out on hbo last month, and it is worth checking out as a complement to this new album. i learned quite a bit about them.
it is usually a pretty good indicator when i have numerous loyal readers turn me on to something they think i might be interested in. i can think of no better example of this recently than the new album by steve earle. most people know that i am a huge fan of steve earle, but also his less well known son – justin townes earle. tragically we lost justin last year way too soon, and this is his father’s tribute to his life and music. steve and justin’s brother handpicked ten songs from justin’s songbook, and steve wrote one to add to the list.
when asked why he decided to do it now, he mentions that it was a cathartic process, but that he also wanted to get out in front of any potential tribute album that might come down the pike. he was quite frank in his reasoning for the latter. he felt that some of the artists who might participate in such a venture would be some of the same people who had enabled justin’s habits over the years, and as such directly or indirectly contributed to his death. steve wanted no part in that project.
all proceeds from this album go to a trust fund for justin’s daughter.
the songs here were all done with steve’s band. his interpretations of justin’s songs are not in any way an attempt to replicate the originals, and clearly have the father’s stamp on them. as one who is on record for my deep appreciation of justin’s career, i mean that as a compliment, and i think it works really well.
this is the third in steve’s tribute series. the first was to townes van zandt (whom justin is named after), and the second was to one of his other influences – guy clark. but this one was clearly very personal. the last song is called ‘last words’. it is steve’s reflection on his son, including their last phone call, which was the day that justin died. if you are a fan of both of these guys, you will find it difficult to not get choked up at the end. i for one failed in that endeavor.
when sturgill had to cut his ‘sound and fury’ tour short due to the pandemic, he retreated back to his home and ruminated on his next step. he did a fundraiser for musicians in june to an empty ryman auditorium with a bluegrass band, and made a promise to his fans that if they raised enough money, he would record a new album. well, he kept his promise, and the setting in retrospect was omniscient.
because nearly everyone stopped touring, he was able to gather up some of the best bluegrass minds around, and get them all in a studio to revisit 20 songs from his catalog. you could be suspicious and think that this was going to be a throw away ‘picking with sturgill’, but you would be wrong. you see, sturgill got started in the music business as a bluegrass artist, and only turned to country and americana formats later in his career. in a recent interview i heard he did with elizabeth cook, he said that after going through these sessions, he realized that many of these songs were at their heart bluegrass in nature, but were molded to fit the genre he was working in at the time. i knew most of these songs already, but they sound so natural in these new settings that he may be completely right.
let us first start off with the musicians he worked with. maybe first and foremost is the incredibly talented sierra hull, who kills it on mandolin here, and also does some great backing vocals. tim o’brien and mark howard are on guitars trading rhythm and leads, scott vestal is on banjo, and stuart duncan is on bass. his longtime bandmate miles miller is on the drums. it was recorded at butcher shoppe studios, unfortunately the last session ever done there.
the band and sturgill sound like they have been playing together forever. sturgill’s vocal stylings are not what you would consider to be in the bluegrass tradition, but it works so well here. on top of that, his often metaphysical lyrics sound better and more profound in this setting. it really just gels and sounds like it should have always been this way.
if you like sturgill or you like bluegrass, either way you will want to add this to your collection. i just found out that he released volume two this weekend, and i have heard a handful of cuts off of that. you might as well get both.
because he got his start in nashville, both with the band steeldrivers and writing hit songs for other country artists, it was probably natural that when he hit it big with his 2015 ‘travellers’ album, he was cast in the country genre. but that album, and his next two, showed that he was comfortable adding other influences to his songs.
when i added the cd to my itunes library, it tagged it as ‘country & western’. it is not. this is a multi genre album that skillfully mixes r&b, rockabilly, americana and soul, just to name a few. chris is at the top of his game here, and i think this is his best album yet. it opens with ‘starting over’, and ends with ‘nashville, tn’ – the latter a farewell to the city that got him started. he is clearly trying to make music of his own interests, while also making it hard to categorize his work. as i have mentioned before, i tend to be attracted to artists that defy description.
he coproduced it with dave cobb, and every track is well constructed and artfully played. he wrote or cowrote 11 of the 14 tracks. his three covers are an obscure john fogerty song, and two from guy clark (interestingly placed back to back near the end of the album). the lineup is considerably strengthened by adding in some outstanding work by the two ex petty hands, mike campbell and benmont tench. as always, his wife morgane adds great backup vocals.
listen to mike campbell’s guitar on this rocker:
but this is probably my favorite song. if you have ever had a dog that held a special place in your family, and then watched it succumb to old age, you will have a hard time keeping your emotions in check on this track. one of the great dog songs ever.
this post is dedicated to kobe, our friends’ dog who embodied everything about this song. ‘i can tell you right now, that a dog has a soul’. yes it does.
