i bought this on the strength of buddy miller’s name, plus the line up of artists he put together. i briefly remember some mention in the description about being recorded on a ship, but it wasn’t until i opened up the liner notes did i truly appreciate the story behind the creation of this recording. unbeknownst to me, there is a cruise ship that sets sail every year featuring a plethora of americana artists on a week long excursion into the caribbean.
apparently buddy has been involved for a while, and in the last two years has taken over one of the lounges and turned it into a studio to record material and broadcast to his sirius xm outlaw country program. here we have 11 tracks featuring recent cruise attendees. we have shawn colvin doing ‘wild horses’, lucinda williams doing gram parson’s ‘hickory wind’, and kris kristofferson doing his own ‘sunday morning coming down’. brandi carlisle and the lone bellow do prine’s ‘angel from montgomery’, kacey musgraves puts her own spin on buck owen’s ‘love’s gonna live here’, and richard thompson covers ‘wedding bells’. buddy duets on almost all of them, and the back up musicians are stellar. the next ship sails in january, and i put myself on the mailing list.
i just love this album. do me a favor. order this. when you get it, put aside some time and get yourself a good bottle of bourbon. pour a healthy bit of that bourbon over ice in a tumbler, and then slip this album on in a room where you can listen up good. this girl can sing, and her band knows how to get behind her in a simplified but organically country way. there is not a mediocre cut on this album. check out ‘needle and thread’ below. i first got turned on to her stuff when i got her 2011 release ‘queen of the minor key’, and then quickly picked up her 2010 tribute to loretta lynn, ‘butcher holler’. she is coming to my favorite venue here on her current tour of this release, and i plan on being there.
“Needle and Thread” is about the mountain town where I spent a lot of time as a child: Idaho City, Idaho. It boasts a population of about 450 these days, though some maps list it as a ghost town.” “My family has some land up there. It’s mostly timber, dirt and rocks. Both Idaho City and the land around it have certainly seen better days. It was once the capitol of the Northwest — during the Gold Rush — but the miners took most of the gold out of it, and then it burned down twice. We love it though.
it was about this time two years ago that derek trucks announced that he would no longer be playing with the allman brothers, presumably to concentrate his efforts on his own band. legend has it that his name is one of the inspirations for the band name derek and the dominoes (his uncle is a drummer for the allman brothers). his wife susan is simply one of the flat out best blues singers around today. this is their most recent effort. if you are already a fan of the band, then this is an easy decision. it is worth the pickup. spend the extra to get the bonus version, as it has an extra disc that is worth it for the three live songs at the end – specifically the tribute back to the ‘layla’ album he is named after. david hidalgo from los lobos joins the band for a ripping version of ‘keep on growing’ .
you can have your own opinions on the current state of country music, especially the more commercial end of the business. but one thing that has been true forever – it has always been a good source of songwriters and homespun musicians. the key, i think, is to be open minded about anything that gets thrown into this genre, and to occasionally take a flyer on a few of them. here are three that i have found that you might find interesting.
turnpike troubadours is a band out of oklahoma that i have a been fan of for a few years. i have seen them live, and you should as well. this is their latest effort. i am not sure it is their best release, but it as good as anything else they have done (and i have everything, if that means anything). they have a knack of writing some great songs, and then marrying them to some good ol’ boy country licks. add a six pack of pabst blue ribbon tall boys, and you got yourself a hayride.
chris stapleton gets a nod for album of the year on this one. chris has one of the best country vocals out there today, period. previously of the steeldrivers, he set out on his own and this is pretty much his initial effort in this regard. produced by dave cobb, who also did the last two jason isbell releases, the overall sound is very well done. stapleton is a good songwriter (not great), and a few of the cuts here sound like an attempt to marry country with sammy hagar vocalizations. but he does touch a nerve overall, and here he makes a good stab at adding his name to some of the great outlaw country players. it is evident from the lyrics of a few of the songs that he is a veteran of the road, and the fabric of this experience is woven throughout this album. ‘whisky and you’ is one of the most honest songs about drinking this ear has ever heard.
Kacey Musgraves released her sophomore effort last year, and it is one of the most critically acclaimed of the year. her songwriting is simple but clever, and her harmonies sound natural and genuine. she is a big fan of alison kraus, but i also hear lucy kaplansky in both her timbre and phrasings. the back up band is spot on, and the guitar work, especially on the slide side, is top notch.
it seems to me that richard thompson is the type of musician you either love or discard. you either think he is one of the great guitarists, and a hell of a songwriter, or you have either never heard of him or don’t particularly care for his work (usually his vocals). i am in the former camp, and have been for years. in my mind he is england’s closest equivalent to dylan, and a much better guitar player. his musical legacy is long and diverse. his influence is so profound that he was recently knighted for his accomplishments.
he picked jeff tweedy of wilco to produce this one, and it was recorded at tweedy’s loft studio in chicago in 9 days. the songwriting is excellent and eclectic. the playing is solid and unadorned. it closes with a song called ‘guitar heroes’, where he does a mashup of styles based on the guitarists who influenced him – django reinhart, les paul, james burton, chuck berry, etc.
if you have the ability to get the bonus edition, get it. it has another 5 songs recorded elsewhere, with a smaller band (it also has the song ‘fergus laing’, which he admits is about donald trump).
