i have been gone way too long, for various reasons. probably the biggest reason is writer block, due to lack of inspiration. i have been listening to an awful lot of music this summer, but i really haven’t stumbled across an album that really catches my ear so far – a release that makes me want to sit down and compose a letter to my followers and tell them why they need to buy it. so instead let’s try an honorable mention column giving brief blurbs about what i have spent some time on, and why it may – or may not – pique your interest. these are in no significant order.

reminds me of a young and up and coming version of gillian welch and dave rawlings. a talented duo from the carolinas, this is their fourth release, from 2015, and they have a new one due out this month. andrew marlin does the songwriting, and most of the lead vocals. my only real beef is a desire to feature more of her vocals. she has one lead vocal on this one, and it is one of my favorites on the album.

 

sophomore release from them. became part of the sound track to our outer banks trip this summer.some real catchy tunes, but songwriting leaves a little to be desired. simple without being profound. but sometimes that is ok if it all you really want to do is hum along with the melody. if you liked the first one, you will like this one.

 

a group of musicians who regularly meet once a month in a bar in los angeles. featuring sean and sara watkins (of nickel creek fame), benmont tench, fiona apple, and a few others. all covers here – notably robert earl keen, gordon lighfoot, and the dead. plus a few country standards. playing is outstanding, and vocals are shared by all (although sara has the most). did i mention i have a crush on sara?

 

 

hayes carll is just flat out one of the best singer/songwriters in the country, hailing from texas. i am a huge fan of his overall work, and you will not go wrong by picking up anything in his catalog of work. this new one is a departure from his usual style of barroom stories laced with humor, alcohol, self deprecation and biting insight. having recently gone through a divorce and swearing off alcohol and cigarettes, this is a more stripped down version. honest and introspective, he seems to be using the process of creating this album to help him reestablish where he is in this life. and i am ok with that. i like the old hayes’ work better, but i will stick with him and support his new approach to the world. i look forward to his next release.

 

that’s it for now. i have another batch to review, and will get that out to you real soon.

this is m. ward’s eighth  full length solo album. four years in the making, it was originally intended to be a true solo effort, but he eventually brought in some top notch contributors to flesh it out. peter buck, k.d. lang, and neko case are among the talents offered here. the artist admits that part of the premise of the release is ‘music to listen to on a shitty day’, and opens with a recording of a rainstorm. there is also somewhat of a tribute to doo wop here, and there is one cover of a beach boys’ song. i listened to it about 4 or 5 times straight before i felt the need to move on to something else, and enjoyed it a little more each time. this is a pretty fair review of the album:

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/24/467647156/first-listen-m-ward-more-rain

 

the great merle haggard passed away yesterday, on his 79th birthday. i wrote this post a while back, and for whatever reason never got around to publishing it, but i feel compelled to share it now:

this is a fun joint venture between two crusty veterans. it is very clear throughout that merle and willie are great friends and enjoy performing together. the backup musicians are golden, and the songwriting is very good for the most part. this has a few too many mediocre tunes to be considered a great release, but i quibble. there are at least a half dozen songs that make this worth checking out if you have a country leaning. the title track is a tribute to some of the musicians that inspired these two to take up a guitar. ‘it’s all going to pot’ is a rave up that has a great horn section. included here is one of the best covers of dylan’s ‘don’t think twice, it’s all right’ i have heard.

 

lucinda has never been one to shy away from throwing the turmoils of her personal life into her songs, but this might be her most personal work ever. previously those stories were usually populated by the memoirs of failed romances, but this one is haunted by the ghosts of her family life. she lost her father to alzheimers last january. miller williams, a famed poet, was maybe the largest influence on her, both personally and from a songwriting standpoint. she ran all of her lyrics by him before recording them in the early stages of her career, until he finally told her to stop – she had ‘graduated’ (he was also a professor). several of the songs here are either directly or indirectly about him. ‘if there’s a heaven’, ‘if my love could kill’, and ‘dust’, which is actually a poem of his that she set to music. there is also ‘death came’ which was written about her mom, who passed away some time ago, and ‘place in my heart’ which is about her estranged brother.

the title track sets the theme for the whole album – inspired by a recent trip she made to macon, georgia – it is a reflection on a highway in the south where she grew up that tied together the cities her family traveled when she was young. she has said in interviews that she considers this a bookend to the album that first made her famous, ‘car wheels on a gravel road’. ‘louisiana story’ here is similar to ‘bus to baton rouge’ off of her ‘essence’ album.

 

‘house of earth’ is an adaptation of some woody guthrie lyrics, and she also covers springsteen’s ‘factory’. it closes with a 12 minute ‘faith and grace’, which i originally felt went on 6 minutes too long. but then i heard her explain that the original was 19 minutes long, and was just a jam they caught live in the studio. the drummer used to play for peter tosh, and was there on the day he was shot (also getting shot himself that day as well). so i listen to it a little differently now. bill frisell, the noted jazz guitarist, is featured throughout the album. he does amazing work here, and all the guitar play is worth paying attention to.

at 63, her voice is roughened up by decades on the road, but the emotions come through more clearly than ever. if you are not familiar with her work, i might not suggest starting here, as she is a bit of an acquired taste at this point in her career (‘car wheels’, mentioned above, is a good place to start). but if you are an avid fan like i am, owning pretty much everything she has made, i think this is a must have.

 

 

 

here lucinda gives a summary of every studio album she has ever made, plus more background on the making of this one:

Lucinda Williams Looks Back on Every Album She’s Ever Made