the devil makes three is an interesting trio that i have been listening to for a few years. a curious blend of folk, bluegrass, old timey ragtime and the blues, they are a very enjoyable bunch. on their most recent release, they go a slightly different route and do a concept album of sorts. the first ‘side’ is six songs about ruin – tales of drugs and alcohol written by such legends as robert johson, muddy waters, kris kristofferson and townes van zandt. the second ‘side’ is six songs about redemption – gospel tinged nuggets by such luminaries as ralph stanley, tom waits, charlie monroe and hank williams sr.
i have a few of their previous albums and it is all pretty much original material, and so it is a little interesting that this release is all covers, but they are all well selected and well played. recorded at john prine’s studio in nashville, they round out their trio with a great backup band and some notable bluegrass stars such as jerry douglas, emmylou harris, tim o’brien, and darrell scott.
i love their enthusiasm for older genres and their ability to fuse them all for a new audience. this is a good starting point if you have never heard of them.
nathaniel rateliff and the night sweats have been touring so incessantly promoting their breakthrough debut album from 2015 that they haven’t had proper time to write and record new material, so in the meantime they released some outtakes and live tracks from the original release. both are worth having. mix a little sam cooke with the asbury jukes and you get a modern version of a good old fashioned r&b party band. they just announced last week they will be the opening band for the kings of leon summer tour. i would rather see them in a smaller club, but hopefully this will help them get some traction for a larger audience.
a recent post paid tribute to the 40th anniversary of the band’s great film, ‘the last waltz’. coincidentally, the main driver of that film also recently released his autobiography, ‘testimony’.
from his young childhood learning guitar on his mother’s mohawk reservation in toronto, to running off to play lead guitar with ronnie hawkin’s band at 16, to touring with bob dylan on his electric tour in 1966, being part of forming the band and recording the famous basement tapes, although the way up to their final concert chronicled in ‘the last waltz’, this is robbie’s version of a period of musical history that helped shape the music of the late sixties and early seventies.
a criticism i have seen of the book is that robbie toots his own horn here a bit too much, and that is true. but you often don’t get to the top unless you have a bit of an ego. another snipe is his defense of how he got the lion share of the recording royalties, even though it is clear even in robbie’s telling that the band used a collaborative effort when laying down tracks. levon helm was the most vocal about this in later years, but robbie’s side of the story is compelling here, and i have read other sources to back him up to a certain degree. quite frankly, other than garth hudson, all of the other members of the band got caught up in the rock and roll life and stopped caring as much about the music after the first few albums. in my opinion it is not a coincidence that garth and robbie are the only surviving members of the band. out of all of them, levon has always been my favorite, but i think he was not exactly 100% truthful in his side of the story, and he took that bitterness to his grave. robbie visited him in the hospital in his last days before succumbing to throat cancer, and he won’t reveal what they talked about, but i think it says something that he made the effort to be there to help get closure on a subject that had divided such a soulmate friendship.
if you are a fan of this period and this genre, then this is a must read, if only for the inside dope from a guy who lived through all of it. it is a remarkable story, one fraught with tales of unbelievable musical genius but also tales of the excesses of the rock and roll lifestyles that eventually killed a few and limited the careers of others, including the members of the band. i consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about the band and early dylan, but i can tell you that i learned an awful lot by digesting this book. i devoured it in a couple of sittings, and will probably need to tackle it again soon just to make sure i didn’t miss anything.
longtime reader bill vv suggests this podcast as some useful background:
for their fifth album, this north carolina duo recorded with a full band, and the results are outstanding. i think it their finest work to date. more fleshed out and mature than their last one, i can safely say i enjoy every track. on my review of their previous release, i compared them, maybe unfairly, to gillian welch and dave rawlings. on ‘blindfaller’ they have developed more of their own sound, successfully fusing traditional bluegrass with contemporary folk lyrics. andrew marlin and emily frantz both have superb and distinct voices, but when blended together it is easy to hear their appalachian roots.they just announced their spring tour. catch them live if you can.
here are a few things that i have been listening to. none of it conforms to any unifying theme, other than the fact that a selection either wasn’t really a recent release, or it didn’t completely overwhelm me. the first one is in the former category.
i had a group of neighbors over new year’s eve. i had recently introduced one of them to this site, and he asked me if i ever listen to ‘newer material’. it was his impression that my recent posts were dominated by older artists, and that is fair. as in many things in life, it all goes in cycles. i just really haven’t heard too much in the last couple of months that have really inspired me. he suggested that i check out leon bridges. i had heard of him, and he consistently showed up on my ‘recommended’ lists at various sites, but had never pulled the trigger. so i ordered it the next day. glad i did. leon was discoverd in fort worth texas in late 2014, and released this album in the summer of 2015. honoring the great r&b sounds of the sixties, it is a flawless little piece of soul. i am anxiously looking forward to his next release.
blue rodeo is band from canada that has been around for over 30 years. i had never heard of them, but found their most recent on my recommended list and took a chance.
my best way to describe this is a canuck version of the jayhawks, with maybe a more commercial feel. you can hear a lot of influences on this, whether the aforementioned jayhawks, early r.e.m. (specifically peter buck), roger mcguinn, newgrass revival, and others that i haven’t quite put my finger on. harmonies are superb, the musicianship spot on, and the songwriting is very good. there are many cuts that are really good, but maybe half of them are a tad overdone, over produced, a little too polished.the last cut seems to flirt with prog rock, and should have been left off. but i will keep an eye on them moving forward.
my cousin tom was over thanksgiving, and we got to talking about music. we discovered we had a mutual appreciation for ryan adams, and he turned me on to a release of his from 2015, ‘live at carnegie hall’. of course, there is a 6 album vinyl box set of these shows, but i opted for the 2 disc version.
all acoustic, extremely well performed, and amusing banter between a few of the songs. he has a reputation of being less than friendly live sometimes, but not here. not quite sure why, but one of my favorite songs of his is ‘sylvia plath’. a great version is included here.
in turn i turned him onto the 2016 release of the deluxe version of his solo debut, ‘heartbreaker’.
two discs, the first being a remastered version of the original, the second outtakes and demos. also included is a dvd with a live acoustic concert from the mercury lounge in nyc from 2000.
in a previous post i reviewed a book about owsley ‘bear’ stanley, a legend from the sixties who was known for a number of things, one of them being a recording archivist for much of the sound coming out of the bay area. in the book he referenced a recent release from his archives, a live performance of big brother and the holding company, featuring janis joplin at the carousel ballroom in 1968.
so i bought it. bear was very opinionated in his theories on recording music, and he was a technical genius. without him, we would have less of a glimpse of what this truly innovative era sounded like. it is in this tradition that he felt it was important to get this out in the public domain. historically significant, it is a little bit rough around the edges. janis had been thrust upon the band by their manager, and what we have here is the established san fran psychedelic band doing their best to share a stage with a newcomer to the area, someone who would eventually outgrow them and become a shooting star.
she would be dead a little over 2 years later. here she is in her breakout performance at the monterey pop festival. the woman in the crowd wearing shades that looks mesmerized is mama cass from the mama and papas.
