Author: mark

nathaniel rateliffe & the night sweats, tearing at the seams

nathaniel ratliffe spent the better part of a decade performing and recording as a folk/americana act with little commercial success. before giving up and going back to his day job as a gardener, he switched gears and decided to put out an album with material reflecting his boyhood love of sixties soul music. stax records – the iconic r&b label that recorded legends such as otis redding and booker t and the mg’s – signed him to a record deal. he added seven musicians dubbed the ‘night sweats’. their first break occurred when they got a spot on the jimmy fallon show, where he performed ‘s.o.b’ – a tribute to his struggles with alcohol – and they became a cult favorite in 2015. as a result, the band toured relentlessly for three years, typically performing 175-200 shows a year. part of the price of success was the collapse of his marriage, but their professional career was advancing exponentially. this is their sophomore offering. although the eponymously titled debut album was basically written by rateliffe – with the musicians brought into the studio as an afterthought – this one is a much more collaborative affair. the songwriting credits are still predominantly attributed to rateliffe, but the whole band spent considerable time in a new mexico studio, working on the songs, before heading to another studio to record. it is also obvious that their overall sound and interplay reflects the time well spent on the road.

ms. redeyegin traveled to red rocks last summer to see him and came away very impressed. nathaniel adds a few tracks that are outside of the stax genre, and i am less impressed by these cuts, but overall it is a good addition to your collection. there are a few solid contenders for your summer back deck playlist. i imagine that much of the material will sound even better in a live offering, and i suspect that if they come to your area, you will not be disappointed.

steve winwood, ‘greatest hits live’

i was hesitant to get this when i saw it come out last fall, but i finally looked into it and decided to check it out. this is not a career ‘live’ collection, but rather it is culled from performances he has recorded of his current touring band over the last few years. granted, he revisits some of his greatest compositions, spanning from the spencer davis group to his more pop oriented offerings from the eighties and nineties, but he repackages them in his own distinct fashion. his extremely talented band can tackle everything from the soul classic ‘i’m a man’ to the early acid rock era of traffic, to the more jazz oriented later period traffic (post dave mason). and steve sounds the same as he did in the mid seventies. if you listen to the original ’empty pages’ off of the 1970 ‘john barleycorn’ and the video below, you will not be able to see any discernible difference. the percussion section often gives many of the songs an afro-cuban vibe, and the soloists are able to stretch things out very nicely. this is somewhat of a ‘comfort food’ selection. if you are a fan of his overall work, you really won’t be disappointed. he is currently on tour in the midwest with this band, and i might go see him next week.

colter wall

colter wall hails from swift current, saskatchewan – a prairie town about two hours north of montana. he is not yet 23, but you wouldn’t know that by listening to his work. his voice is a deep gravelly baritone that sounds like it has weathered the effects of decades of cigarettes and life on the road. his songwriting gives you the impression as though he has lived those years on the road, spinning tales of jealous murders, whiskey marathons, run ins with the law and other character yarns. even though he has been described as part of the revivalist outlaw country movement, he is actually more of a folk singer. think tom waits meets townes van zandt. steve earle recently declared that ‘colter wall is bar-none the best young singer-songwriter i’ve seen in twenty years’. if you want to just stop after hearing that and go order this album, i’ll wait.

one of the things that i think is most promising about the young man is his respect for classic singer songwriters, like the above named van zandt. he has clearly been infusing his soul with old folk music. as i mentioned, if you closed your eyes, you would swear you were listening to a 60 year old veteran of the texas folk circuit. but instead he is the son of brad wall, a conservative politician descended from mennonite homesteaders and is the current premier of saskatchewan. the province is nearly the size of texas, but has only a million citizens. colter claims that the big sky environment of his youth has put a stamp on his creations.

produced by dave cobb (it seems more and more like i have to write that in every post), their mission statement going in was ‘less is more’. most of the arrangements are simply colter and his guitar. tyler childers does a guest vocal appearance on townes’ ‘fraulein’ (i was first turned on to colter by that blonde i ran into at tyler’s concert here, along with cody jinks). i have had this for awhile and have been spinning it relentlessly. but i was holding off on writing about it as i saw that he had a release coming out last week. turns out it was a rerelease of his debut ep from 2015. i listened to that all weekend and i can recommend both. if you have to pick one, i would get ‘colter wall’ first, but the ep is very good and only costs seven bucks. you heard it here first.

anderson east, ‘encore’

for anderson’s newest offering, a bevy of nashville musicians helped him create a soulful and bluesy package that should further establish his reputation as an up and coming singer-songwriter . owning a natural growling tenor vocal, he is supported by a solid cast – some famous, and some not. the album is expertly produced by dave cobb, ryan adams contributes some guitar, and chris stapleton co-wrote the opening track. cobb also plays various instruments on many of the tracks. recorded in nashville, including at the historic rca studios, the overall sound is as much a throwback to the southern soul and r&b of anderson’s birthplace of alabama than anything else. there are only two covers on the 11 tracks, notably willie nelson’s ‘ somebody pick up the pieces’. i think my favorite cut is the final one, ‘cabinet door’. the song is about an elderly widower talking to his recently departed wife and sharing how he is dealing with his loss. just anderson on vocals, piano, and some gospel vocals. very moving. officially released friday, he heads out on tour next week to support it, including a stop here at the beachland in april. i am going. see you there.

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cody jinks, ‘less wise modified reissue 2017’

yes, chris stapleton’s newest is a damn fine album, and you should buy it. but this is better. originally released in 2010 and considered his breakout album, he has recently repackaged it and added some outtakes to it as a way to introduce his work to fans who don’t know about him. when i was at a recent tyler childers show i ran into a fan of his that was in town on business and i asked her ‘if i like tyler, who else should i be listening to?’ cody jinks was one of the first names out of her mouth (along with colter wall – more on him very soon). growing up on country music in texas, he originally rebelled against that and started a thrash metal band and continued with that for about 5 years, then took some time off and started writing country songs. and he can write. part of an ever increasing movement of artists who are going against the mainstream bro country presence on radio, cody is a man who speaks from his heart and reflects on the state of the downtrodden and disaffected folk from lower and middle class america. coupling a classic country vocal presence with a very competent backing band, he is great in the studio but also has a loyal following to his constant live touring. his two most recent releases are also worth checking out.