new releases

the main purpose of this site – letting you know about albums i have discovered that need attention

turnpike troubadours, ‘a cat in the rain’

i love this band. i think i was an early adopter and caught them right after their first album came out and dutifully followed them through the next few albums, saw them live once, and then they seemed to fall off the face of the earth. there seemed to be lots of rumors about broken marriages and alcohol abuse, and then the pandemic. but i started to hear glimmers of hope that they were coming back about a year ago, and they have now put out their first album in about six years, and i quickly picked it up as soon as it came out.

for those familiar with the band from the red dirt country of oklahoma, i think you will find this a welcome release. produced by shooter jennings (waylon’s son) at the legendary fame studios in muscle shoals alabama, it is a really great return to form for the entire band.

it became clear early on in their evolution that their lead singer and songwriter, evan felker, was becoming a key to their signature sound. he really has a knack for turning a phrase and painting pictures. but maybe just as importantly, crafting the lyrics to not only be clever, but lyrical as well. what i mean by that is that the songs are just so damn infectious. and for the most part he returns to form here. it is by now no secret that the main issue that they were facing in their hiatus was evan’s drinking problem, and he spends some time in some of the songs reflecting on that. but his new sobriety brings a clearer eye to his perspective on life, and we are all better for it.

this is not to diminish anything from the rest of this great band. they are all great musicians in their own right and work very cohesively here, as good as they have ever been. in fact, the vocal harmonies on this album are arguably more inclusive and better than on anything they have done before.

this is an album that will sound pretty good the first time you here it, and will get better upon repeated listening, especially as you try to better understand the tales that are being woven.

welcome back boys, and i hope to see you on the road soon.

grateful dead, ‘here comes sunshine’

on the eve of what would have been jerry garcia’s 81st birthday i thought i might take a quick look at the most recent box set that the archive team has put together.

‘here comes sunshine’ is a five show release from the spring of 1973:

iowa state fairgrounds (5/13), u cal santa barbara (5/20), kezar stadium, san francisco (5/26), and then 2 shows at rfk stadium in washington d.c. (6/9-6/10). the latter 2 were a twin billing with the allman brothers. the dead opened up the first show, and the allmans opened up the second show.

it has always been a bit of a mystery why that last show had not been released until now, because it has been highly traded as a bootleg for a long time, nearly legendary in status. the dead did three long sets, lasting nearly five hours, and dickie betts and butch trucks sat in for the third. i had a raw version i downloaded of the internet back when the dead still allowed that, but this sounds much better. owsley stanley (bear) did the sound and the recording of the jfk shows, and betty cantor jackson did the other three. if you have already gotten this box, or intend to, be prepared to spend some time digesting it. all of these shows are long, the shortest one being three and a half hours.

but much more importantly, these shows capture them at what i consider to be one of their finest iterations. there has always been a lively debate as to which touring year was their best – 1971, europe 72, the wall of sound in 1974, and the fantastic run of spring 1977 to mid 1978. you could even throw in there the spring of 1990. but to my ear and taste, i think they were never better than in 1973, pretty much all year.

what do i attribute this to? there were a number of factors, starting with the fact that all of them were much better players then they were previously, and the effects of the rock and roll lifestyle didn’t start to take hold until the grueling wall of sound tour the next year. they were also arguably at the most cohesive level they would ever achieve, at least on a night to night basis. they were vastly familiar with their older material, and they had a new batch of music (‘wake of the flood’, which turns 50 this year) to show off.

most observers of this period (and to a certain extent 1974) comment on the fact that the band took on more of a jazz influence than in any other era. they were nimble, creative, and brave enough to stretch a song out at anytime. to me the key to this was the rhythm section of phil lesh and billy kreutzmann. phil almost plays the bass at times as a lead instrument, and you will find the drumming on this tour better than on any era over their thirty year history, period. once you had that solid architecture at the bottom, jerry, bobby and keith were able to flesh it all out.

most of the shows had 25-35 songs in each one, and my only very small gripe would be that there is quite a bit of overlap. i think there were at least 3-4 ‘box of rain’ renditions, which at this stage of phil’s singing career were probably three too many. i believe i read it in the liner notes that they only played it a few more times after this before abandoning it for at least a decade.

but don’t let that discourage you. this is a wonderful pickup for the end of your summer or for those early fall firepit sessions(it is a limited edition, by the way). so much great music, even when they do repeat a song from the last show. there is an ‘eyes of the world’ on each show, and they are all completely different and glorious.

i know it is a big package, but if you are still reading this, then it is likely you might find it to be a good addition to your collection.

duane betts, ‘wild and precious life’

i first started following duane betts when i first heard of the allman betts band maybe 5 years ago. i saw them play at a local house of blues club right before the pandemic hit. it was a great show, and they seemed to be gathering momentum nationally. duane is the son of dickie betts, and devon allman is gregg’s son. berry oakley jr. was also playing bass for them, son of berry, the original bass player of the allman brothers.

unfortunately that show i saw was right before the pandemic, maybe the last live show i saw. for the next couple of years i did not hear much about them, and i got the feeling once things opened back up that they might be going their separate ways.

they are touring this summer, and mrs. redeyegin caught them in new hampshire just a couple of weeks ago, and thought they were great. but if you go on their website, they only have one more show on there, tomorrow in the buffalo area.

another indicator is that duane just released a solo album, which officially comes out friday, although i got my copy sunday. i have listened to it three times now, and it is pretty damn good. recorded at tedeschi trucks band’s swamp raga studios in jacksonville, it features some great guitar playing, as you would expect. duane has grown up in the shadow of his father, and he may not be as good as dickie when he was at his peak, but he is close. he also has their ‘third’ lead guitarist from their band, johnny stachela, throughout. throw derek trucks on one track and marcus king on another, and giddyup. we also get tyler greenwell, one of tedeschi truck’s drummers, on every track.

it looks like duane will be heading out on the road this summer (unfortunately, as far as i can tell, not around here), but i would guess it would be great show. in the meantime, check out this album.

two summer considerations

sometimes when i listen to a new release it almost seems to write itself right out of the gates. two that i have been listening to fall into that category.

tommy emmanuel – ‘accomplice two’

i got turned on to this one from a review in no depression magazine. i have heard his name before and have seen him on videos playing with other artists that i admire. the word ‘accomplice’ in the title refers to the fact that each cut here is a collaboration with another artist(s), and ‘two’ refers to the fact that this is his second installment. when i read the review, i hit the purchase button automatically because, for the most part, they were all people that were in my wheelhouse.

first of all, if you were also not very familiar with his name, let me say that, of all the reviews i read, many used the term ‘a guitarist’s guitarist’. he is an extraordinarily gifted acoustic guitarist, and he dabbles in a number of genres.

i will give you a broad sampling of who he plays with here, and i will tell you that if you were like me and have a lot of these people in your musical collection, you should probably just stop here and get it. billy strings, molly tuttle, sam bush, nitty gritty dirt band, little feat, jorma kaokonen, jerry douglas, jamey johnson, david grisman, michael mcdonald, and many more.

really well done.

molly and tommy doing towne van zandt’s ‘white freight liner blues’. i saw her with her band in new orleans about a month ago. please make and effort to see her. she is going places.

van morrison – ‘moving on skiffle’

i just got this one two days ago, and have gotten through it twice, but i have heard enough to try to entice you to add it to your early summer playlist. his last two projects spent a lot of energy on his political disagreements with the covid lockdown policies – especially, but not limited to, their effects on the music business. somewhat controversial in some people minds, but van has never been one to back down on how he feels, and i respect him for that.

for this session he returns to the skiffle era that he first started in back in the sixties. this is not a genre that i am very familiar with, but you don’t need to be either to get sucked into the energy. and in fact, they are not all done in the skiffle style, and they are not all skiffle songs from that era. of the 23 songs, about half are traditional covers of standards, with new arrangements by van, and the other half are covers of american folk and country artists such as hank williams, roy acuff, jim reeves, jimmy rodgers, elizabeth cotton, and so on.

backed by a crack band that can keep up with him in any style, van rides on top of it all with his distinctive vocal prowess. at 77 he can still bring it. i was listening to the last half a dozen tracks or so on the way into work this morning as the sun was coming up, and it just put a smile on my face.

give it a chance.

mighty poplar, and other bluegrass adjacent thoughts

i subscribe to ‘no depression’ magazine, which is a great roots/americana music publication. i highly recommend it. i get the hard copy version, but i am also signed up for their email list. i get a couple each week, and one of those is their review of new releases. a few weeks back i found one with a band called ‘mighty poplar’. they sounded interesting, so i grabbed it.

in a nutshell, this is somewhat of a bluegrass ‘supergroup’, although none of these artists currently hail from traditional bluegrass bands. noam pikelny (banjo) and chris eldridge (guitar) are in the punch brothers group, greg garrison (bass) is in leftover salmon, alex hargreaves (fiddle) tours with billy strings, and lead vocalist and mandolinist andrew marlin is the frontman for watchhouse (formerly mandolin orange).

if you are familiar with the folk and bluegrass festival scene, you will likely recognize all of those bands, and as such these artists typically cross each other’s paths on the festival circuits. more importantly, they often jam with each other – either onstage or in the backstage sessions that are so frequent during these festivals.

they started to build a camaraderie and a text group chat, but finding time to get together to record some music proved difficult over the years, due to their conflicting travel schedules. and then covid hit. they discussed songs to record and arrangements all online or in their group chats. they chose not to write any of their own material, but instead focus on either older standards or bluegrass interpretations of songs they liked in common.

once ready to go, they did a quick 3 day recording session in nashville in october of 2020. for whatever reason, they did not get around to mixing and mastering it until last year, and they put it out a few weeks ago. i have made my way through the material 3-4 times, and it has really grown on me. they have a real chemistry and respect for the genre. (the band title comes from a live recording they admire of bill monroe, where he introduces a song and explains that it has been ‘mighty poplar in these parts’.)

somehow they have found a way to tour together, and they head out on the road next month. we have just recently discovered they will playing at one of my favorite local venues in september, and i am sure i will be there. please check them out.

nickel creek, ‘celebrants’

either in that same article, or some other source at the same time, i read about nickel creek’s new album, ‘celebrants’. they haven’t released any new material (or toured together) since 2014, so i decided to check it out. i was not quite prepared for what i was about to hear. my recommendation here is to stream a little bit before you commit. i don’t necessarily mean this in a bad way, but it is not what i was expecting. it is brilliant, though. if you are thinking this is some variant on a bluegrass recording, it is not. it is three exceedingly talented musicians playing traditional bluegrass acoustic instruments in a very progressive way. the writing, arrangements, playing and vocals are all very well done. it definitely requires concentrated listening. there aren’t really any toe tappers here. i will give you a sample below. they are also touring soon.