Author: mark

jason isbell, ‘the nashville sound’

the eagerly anticipated follow up to ‘something more than free’ was released about ten days ago, and i have been pouring through it ever since. a lot of the prerelease talk was about having a harder edge to the material, and that he was going to get a little more political. that didn’t exactly bode too well for me, as i tended to be a bigger fan of his ballads, and of course his ability to spin a tale like nobody’s business. but as he stated in a number of interviews, the last two albums were to a large degree a form of healing – writing about his past addictions and his new marriage. now that he is in a comfortable place in life, he had to find something else to write about. it seems to me that about half the material is written about other people dealing with life’s trials and tribulations, and the other half are his observations of the current state of affairs in our land. i think that it’s the latter where he either nails it or comes up a little flat. ‘if we were vampires’ – a lovely duet with his wife amanda shires – is a song about the prospect of living a long life together, and the inevitable prospect that eventually one them will die first. it is certainly one of my favorites of the album. the final track – ‘something to love’ – is a wonderful song about learning how to play music when he was a kid with his family, and is essentially an ode to their new daughter. the only song i really couldn’t get into was ‘anxiety’, a seven minute epic in the middle of the album that just seems to take all the momentum out of the flow.

overall though, i would say it is similar in quality to his last release from a songwriting standpoint. the 400 unit is in fine form here, and dave cobb is at the producers helm once again, recording in the historic rca nashville sound studio. as their marriage grows, so does the vocal interplay between jason and amanda. maybe not quite up to some of the classic folk or country duets yet, but they are getting there. they are on tour now, and i have some tickets in august. from what i have seen, they take the material to a new level live, and have also been playing some of his older material. ‘whipping post’, by the allman’s, has been a popular encore. go check ’em out.

‘long strange trip’

if you haven’t caught this yet, i think you should check it out. it is an extremely well produced documentary on the grateful dead. i saw it on the big screen at its debut, and have since then watched it via amazon at least a couple of times. i say ‘least’, because the streaming version is conveniently broken up into bite size pieces, usually around 45 minutes each. some segments i have watched more than others. it clocks in at four hours and is filled with all kinds of footage, some never before seen, plus an almost never ending soundtrack. for fans of the band, it is almost not long enough. for people not familiar with them, it might get a little long, but if you are an overall music fan and are interested in the culture of the sixties and seventies, i think you will find the story very compelling. for at the end of the day (and even though the band would dismiss such a notion), the grateful dead were very much an embodiment of the counterculture of those two decades. the documentary is not a glossy portrait of the band – it is an honest and thorough glimpse into the wonders and the dangers of a rock and roll life. they remain, in my mind, one of the quintessential american bands of all time.

john moreland, ‘big bad luv’

while we await the release of jason isbell’s album, i thought that it might be a good idea to look at another release by a guy i first heard of when perusing isbell’s site. there were two john moreland cd’s available, and i also noticed that he was an occasional opening act for jason. i bought both of them, and really liked them, but for some reason didn’t love them. i really dig this one. known in songwriting circles as an excellent purveyor of tunes that tug at the heartstrings (he is miranda lambert’s new favorite writer), this one doesn’t veer too far from that target. but he is recently married and that experience seems to have informed his work, in a slightly more positive way. like an isbell album, the first take is impressive, but the true depth of the lyrics become more profound as you listen to it a few more times. he sings these songs with a gravelly voice that is two parts ‘nebraska’ era springsteen and one part tom waits. the arrangements are definitely more fleshed out and varied. his usual touring partner in crime is multi-instrumentalist john calvin abney. his contributions here are significant. rick steff provides some great keyboard. it is a mature piece of work.

about twelve bucks online. the best twelve dollars you will spend today.

justin townes earle, ‘kids in the street’

when you are the son of legendary alt country rocker steve earle, and your middle name was given to you in tribute to townes van zandt, then you generally have a lot to live up to. justin has never really shied away from that legacy and has established himself as a very talented artist in his own right, but this album feels like it may be a turning point for him. his seventh album – released last week – is the first since getting married, and the first not recorded in nashville with his usual musicians. this time he employed producer mike mogis and traveled to his studio in omaha nebraska to lay down all the tracks. it seems to me that because of this arrangement the album sounds different than any of his previous releases. as usual, his songwriting is stellar throughout, and there is a wide variation of musical styles used to showcase the lyrics. ’15-25′ is a song about the period of his life between those ages, set to a new orleans dust up in the spirit of professor longhair. ‘same old stagolee’ is a new take on the old folk song, done with an acoustic guitar and accompanied by vibraphone. ‘champagne corolla’ is a swinging blues number about a girl and a car. ‘short hair woman’ is a funky little rocker that fleshes out the attributes justin seeks in a female. the title track may be the best one of all, a bittersweet lament about his childhood in east nashville and how the neighborhood has totally changed now due to the gentrification over the last 20 years.

this is one of those albums that i enjoyed from the very first song. it just has a real comfortable feel to it and never seems forced. if you are a fan of his, this is a must have. if you are new to him, this is an excellent place to start.

chris stapleton, ‘from a room:volume 1’

chris stapleton broke out on the country scene in 2015 with his ‘traveller’ album, eventually selling two million copies. this is his newest contribution, released two years to the day later. although not really a departure from his earlier work, it is really hard to categorize this – at least to my ears – as a ‘country’ album. i hear a gritty blues album with outlaw country leanings. chris has one of the more distinctive and genuine voices in pop culture today, and it is on ample display here. he is one of the few people who can turn ‘i’ into a nine syllable word, as he does frequently on ‘i was wrong’, a song he has been playing on the road for years. ‘either way’ is a bitterly honest and defiant song about divorce, and a surprising choice to be released as a single, given the stripped down nature of the arrangement and the dire message within. ‘last thing i needed, first thing this morning’ is the only cover on the album – a rework of an on old willie nelson hit from 1982. indeed, echoes of the old red headed stranger permeate much of the work here, even employing willie’s harmonica player throughout – mickey raphael.

volume 1 has only 9 songs and clocks in at a quick 33 minutes, but luckily volume 2 is slated for a fall release. the packaging is very modest – no liner notes or lyrics or photos – just a cardboard sleeve with some graphics. but the content is rich and sincere, and it is a solid sophomore followup. as i mentioned in my review of his first one, i think he is a better singer than songwriter. don’t get me wrong – most of his material is much deeper and profound than the usual country topics of beer and pickups on the radio today – but his strength lies in his interpretation and arrangements of the songs. he is also a damn good guitarist. i have been surprised by how much he has been embraced by the pop country world, but he is certainly a welcome alternative to the current slate of ‘bro-country’ acts dominating the field. here’s to hoping that more talents like this get the exposure they deserve.