Author: mark

allman betts band, ‘bless your heart’

the allman betts band has backed up their wonderful 2019 debut album (‘down to the river’) with an equally impressive sophomore offering, ‘bless your heart’. as a reminder, the lead members of the band are devon allman (gregg’s son), duane betts (dickie’s son), and berry duane oakley (berry oakley’s son). All are reluctant to categorize themselves as an ‘allman brothers’ sons’ band, but for various reasons they have drifted together and created something that advances the legendary band’s legacy while also allowing them to forge towards new directions and sounds. recorded at muscle shoals studios in alabama, under the watchful eye of engineer/producer matt ross-spang (isbell, margo price, john prine), the 13 songs clocking in at 72 minutes feature a wide variety of styles and arrangements – acoustic, blues, soul, and straight up rock and roll. their fathers’ musical heritage is in their genes, and you can hear it infused in much of the music, but you will also hear other influences like black crowes, ryan adams, grateful dead, and many others.

that being said, the centerpiece of the entire album might be the 12 minute instrumental ‘savannah dream’, penned by betts. i have seen it compared to one of his father’s masterpieces, ‘in memory of elizabeth reed’, which is both fair and unfair. fair in that it is a gorgeous and expansive composition that has unique melodies and layers, with room for improvisation from all of them and also gets downright nasty in the guitar solo sequences. unfair in that he will always be compared to the career of his father. at least for now.

even though the three descendants had known each other nearly all their lives and played together occasionally, this version of the band had barely played much together before recording their first album. they took that out on the road last year and began to gel as a unit. by the time I saw them in early february of this year, they were a well honed machine, putting on one of the best shows i have seen in a while. with a three guitar attack of allman, betts, and slide player johnny stachela, they not only have distinct styles but serious chemistry.

i am looking forward to seeing them on the road again soon.

toots hibbert, 1942-2020

let me tell you a little story. in the early eighties i was in college and my musical horizons were exploding. in the summer between my junior and senior year i was getting heavy into reggae, and as usual, once i lock into something i go in deep. i was starting to build a little catalog of not only the biggest names – marley, tosh, jimmy cliff and the like – but also newer acts like black uhuru and steel pulse. and, of course, i had a great little album called ‘funky kingston’ by toots and the maytals.

so i felt well prepared when a few guys from my fraternity decided to head down to jamaica for our senior spring break excursion. we had our little boom box and i brought my tape case that probably had room for 12-15 of my best reggae tapes. after an arduous flight into montego bay, we had about a two hour taxi ride to our campsite in negril. we found a guy willing to take us there, and he helped us secure a case of barely cold red stripe beer. as we started making our way through the countryside, i asked him if i could play one of my tapes for the ride. he said yes, and so i started rattling off some of the names above, until i got to toots. all of he sudden he turned and said ‘toots, mon, play the toots, mon’. and so i did.

and so a few white kids from the midwest got our first taste of the jamaican back country as our driver careened through those roads, listening to ‘funky kingston’, occasionally seeing the western caribbean coastline as we headed to the small town of negril.

it was my first realization that there is reggae that we were exposed to in the states, and then there was the music that was popular on the island itself. and there is really no one who is more loved and respected on that island than toots hibbert. he had 31 number one singles there. there are some that say he first coined the term reggae, with his 1968 song ‘do the reggay’.

besides being one of the founders of the genre, he was also arguably it’s most soulful singer, often compared to otis redding. and by most accounts that i have seen, he was also a very kind and generous soul who always called jamaica home. he had a long and prosperous career, and i last saw him at jazzfest two years ago. he still had it going on at the age of 75.

‘reggae got soul’. yes it does, and toots was the best.

if you want a little something to get an idea of the influence he had here in the states, i would recommend a tribute album to him done in 2004 called ‘true love’, where the likes of clapton, bonnie raitt, keith richards, and so many others played with him on his biggest hits. it is really a fantastic compilation.

there was also a documentary on his life put out recently by the bbc that was really well done.

rest in peace, my friend.

bill and brint, this one’s for you.

kathleen edwards, ‘total freedom’

i started listening to kathleen edwards when she released her first album, ‘failer’ , in 2003. that launched a fairly successful career and she was a fixture on the americana scene from that point moving forward. i wasn’t exactly a diehard fan though, and so i was a little surprised a couple of months ago when i heard a new track of hers on sirius xm and thought to myself ‘i hadn’t heard that name in quite some time’. unbeknownst to me, she had been frustrated with the commercial success of her 2012 effort ‘voyaguer’ and, battling clinical depression and health issues, completely gave up on the music business and opened a small coffee shop in ontario (amusingly called ‘quitters’).

the shop was a success, she straightened out her life, and she got used to the quiet suburban life with her dogs. she found sustenance in the daily interactions with her customers, and didn’t look back.

then maren morris asked her to come to nashville for the weekend a couple of years back to help her cowrite a song, and she went, thinking it would be a nice break from the coffee shop. the process was intriguing to her, and all of a sudden she felt the urge to start writing her own songs again, and the flood gates opened.

she had been through a number of troubled relationships, both during her musical career and the hiatus, and much of the material is a reflection on that. as her producer said, this album is about ‘dogs and exes’. she gets much of her original band back together, and you can tell she put her heart and soul into it. the songwriting is right up there with some of her best, and the melodies are usually quite infectious. my first run through it was on my back porch on a beautiful saturday evening, and i got hooked on the very first track (‘redfern’).

welcome back, kathleen.

arlo mckinley, ‘die midwestern’

the last act that john prine signed to his ‘oh boy’ record label before he died was a fellow by the name of arlo mckinley. arlo, a native of cincinnati, is a veteran of the kentucky/ohio/west virginia music scene, much like a few of the recent success stories like tyler childers, sturgill simpson, and a fellow i wrote about recently – ian noe.

he released his first album in 2014, and has been working on his second one here for a few years. recorded in the legendary sam phillips studio in memphis, produced by matt-ross spang (prine, isbell, margo price, etc.), and surrounded by some of nashville’s best studio musicians, arlo delivers one of my favorite albums of the year so far.

he comfortably distills country and folk to use as his palette to reflect on good times and bad times, broken relationships, and tales of addiction in the underbelly of the midwest.

when prine saw him for the first time during a showcase event at a small venue in nashville, he performed ‘bag of pills’, a song that had been in his repertoire for a few years. this song, as well as a few others on this collection, remind me of isbell’s work on the same topic. one of my favorites is a little honky tonk nugget called ‘she’s always around’, and it took me a couple times through it to realize that ‘she’ was not actually a woman, but rather a narcotic that was always there when he was vulnerable (much like neil young’s ‘old laughing lady’ wasn’t a woman either).

the whole album just has a natural feel to it, as if you had known some of these songs all your life. he has a distinctive voice, the songs are expertly crafted, and the production is supportive and impeccable.

if you are a fan of any of the artists i have mentioned above, then i am going to ask you to trust me on this one and just buy it. this is a really tough time to make your national debut, and i think this guy deserves a shot.

justin townes earle, 1978-2020

we lost one of my favorite singer songwriters over the weekend. i think the first album i ever got of his was 2010’s ‘harlem river blues’, and i have been hooked ever since. unfortunately i never got to see him live. some say that in order to be a good blues singer you have to live the blues. i don’t necessarily believe that, but it could possibly be true of justin. he certainly led a troubled life, and we may eventually find out that it led to his early demise. i hope that turns out not to be true. regardless, he was a great story teller, and he attached all types of musical styles to that prose – blues, swing, country, folk, you name it. i have pretty much everything he ever released, and they were always well done and enduring. he grew up in his father’s shadow, but, as i have said here before, i think he is a better songwriter than the old man. if you are not familiar with his work, i think last year’s release, ‘saint of lost causes’ was some of his best, but the aforementioned ‘harlem river blues’ is also a good launching point.

just another bullet point to add to this already shitty year. he was such a huge talent. it is a tremendous loss to his family and the musical community. the family suggested on his instagram post that we listen to his ‘looking for a place to land’ today, in his memory.