i have been drawn to this band’s unique sound ever since i first heard them in 2010. this is their fourth album, and it is at least as good as anything they have done so far. when describing their sound, one often runs across the phrase ‘spaghetti western’, and there is some value in that. many of the songs offer up aural landscapes featuring echo saturated melodies, soaring vocals, and dreamy orchestral flourishes. and all of this is packaged in catchy, well crafted songs. all i can say is you just have to listen to a few songs to get an idea of their sound. my guess is that you will either like them immediately, or you will decide that it’s just not your thing.
ben schneider founded the band in 2010, and he is the main songwriter. hailing originally from lansing, michigan, he now resides in los angeles and works primarily out of whispering pines studio. the studio, originally built in the 70’s by aretha franklin’s bandleader, provided some of the inspiration for the theme of this album.
schneider and his band imagined all the country and soul artists who might have played there, and created a cast of fictional characters and their stories. it is presented as a concept album, and the liner notes ask you to listen to it sequentially and all the way through in one sitting. there are small transitional segments narrated by an emcee, which gives it the feel of a seventies tv music show. schneider says he wanted it to ‘feel like a long lost classic you missed somehow – nostalgic and familiar in a way, but you can’t quite put your finger on it’. and i think that seems about right.
maybe you are going somewhere this summer where you can kick back and try to read a book or two. and maybe you were looking for something to expand your musical knowledge as well. i know that is on my agenda soon, so send me some suggestions if you have time. here are a few things i have read in the last few months that you might find of interest.
chris hillman – ‘time between’
this is an autobiography, chronicling his entire career, which is fairly substantial. if you are a fan of the byrds, the flying burrito brothers, gram parsons, and even his foray into country with the desert rose band, then i think you will find this engrossing. as with most musician biographies, he starts off with his childhood, and then gets into how he got started in the music business. as an aside, i should note that i usually skim through the early sections like this, as i usually find them to be only moderately useful in understanding their later careers. more on that later. but once he gets to the explosive path to stardom for the byrds, and how the original group crashed so early, you start to get hooked. throughout the entire book, chris is humble and fair to his musical partners. this is not a sex, drugs and rock n roll tell all, but rather a true and multi talented musician trying to let everyone know how it all went down on a musical level.
one things he mentions is that there are only a few people who knew gram parsons best, himself and emmylou harris being two of the three, and he delves into their relationship, both bad and good. i was not at all familiar with his career after the flying burrito brothers, specifically the desert rose band, but it was interesting to see how he kept things going, and then dealt with some health issues he suffered and eventually survived. because at the end of the day, he is a rock and roll survivor, and a voice of reason in what is often an unreasonable career.
my only quibble is his need to give an accounting of all the various bend members in all of the iterations of all the various bands he was in, and sometimes you just lose track of who they are. but overall it is a labor of love about the music he made, and the stories he felt were worth telling.
jeff tweedy – ‘how to write one song’
partially a follow up to his autobiography from a couple of years back, partially a companion piece to his solo album he put out in january, it is mainly a tutorial from a prolific songwriter to anybody interested in understanding his approach to the craft, and how to incorporate it into their own process. as a tweedy/wilco fan, i found it very interesting. it helps explain his unique lyrics and the sheer volume of his work. he pretty much writes every day. if you are thinking ‘well, i am not a songwriter, and have no intentions of being one’, i can say that there are life lessons in there if you choose to be open minded, which i hope i am. he has a very disciplined approach, every day. and i think that if you approach every day with whatever inspires you and set aside time like he does, you can have a better chance of achieving your goals.
richard thompson – ‘beeswing’
another autobiography, this one spanning his early life up until 1975. i assume there will be a follow up book for the rest of his career. but fans of thompson, of which i am certainly one, will know that this was maybe the most groundbreaking part of his career. his membership in fairport convention is very important, and he goes into great detail about how that band evolved and grew over time. analogies are often useless in the music world, but i do not think it is too far of a stretch to give a rough equivalency to their american counterparts – the band. both were at the forefront in organically fusing folk and rock traditions into a unique and honest way. the difference of course being that fairport folk inspirations were from the english and celtic lexicon.
there is also the explanation of why he eventually left fairport convention and went out on his own to a solo career, partially with his wife linda thompson. and then their eventual divorce.
like chris hillman above, he really steers away from the tell all aspect you often find in rock books, and instead is humble and honest with himself and his own shortcomings. it is a very well written book in my opinion. i am looking forward to the next one.
barney hoskyns – ‘small town talk’
this is probably one of the best chronicles of the musical history of a small town in new york called woodstock. i had read it before, and it has been out a while, but i thought i would tackle it again as i am going to woodstock in a couple of weeks to go see the above mentioned richard thompson play at levon helm’s barn for a two night run. kind of a bucket list thing. if you are interested in dylan’s post motorcycle crash period, the band’s early years, basement tapes, albert grossman, van morrison moondance period, and so much more, you may find this interesting. it is not about the famed concert, which as you may know was not actually held at woodstock. it is about a small town that had a rich musical and artistic community way before dylan got there, and a unique character that survives to this day.
holly george-warren – ‘janis, her life and music’
i am only partially through this one, and so i will give a full review soon, but so far it is as advertised – a full and fair rendering of her amazing and tragic career. at this point she is still in high school, but contrary to my opinion above, it is real clear that her early life very much informed the demons that would haunt her until her untimely death. as i was reading the other day i wondered if there were any good documentaries covering the same material, and so i watched this last night:
hope you enjoy. let’s go see some live music. heading out to see billy strings this friday.
as some of you may have noticed, i have been on an extended hiatus from posting anything on this blog for quite some time. this was not due to any one reason, but rather a confluence of events – day job demands, website host issues, redeyegin studio renovations, etc. – that pushed me in other directions for a while. another contributing factor was lack of inspiration. although i have been listening to new music the whole time, nothing had really jumped out to me that was worthy of writing that ‘new post’ after being off the grid for so long.
enter this new collaboration from john hiatt and the innovative jerry douglas band. hiatt is one of my favorite singer/songwriters of all time, and jerry is maybe the most widely recorded bluegrass artist there is, the greatest dobro player on the planet. recorded in nashville at the famed rca studio b, it has that element of a natural bond that is hard to replicate. it comes out this friday, but i have heard enough on the radio and from videos i have found to break the ice here and get back to sharing some new music with you.
this one might seem a little off the beaten path for my usual musical tastes, but i heard about this on outlaw country and was intrigued by the lineups and the interview he did for them. essentially he wanted to revisit the gibb brothers songbook and do it with some of the country and americana artists he had come to admire over the years.
it is produced by grammy award winning producer dave cobb and was recorded at the legendary rca studios in nashville. contributing artists include keith urban, jason isbell, brandi carlile, alison kraus, dolly parton, miranda lambert, sheryl crow, and david rawlings with gillian welch.
his idea for the record was to have the artists pick the songs, and he would do some cameos. but cobb convinced him to have more of a duet approach, and most of the songs fit into that category. although barry might not have the same vocal chops as when the brothers were at the top of their game in the seventies, he can still bring it. the duet of him and alison kraus doing ‘too much heaven’ is downright ethereal.
and although this is on the charts as a country offering and chock full of nashville artists, i would be hard pressed to describe it as such. cobb does an excellent job as usual, but he is not afraid to add some string arrangements and stay reasonably true to the pop feel of the originals. this is just ear candy and a bit of a guilty pleasure (and i mean that in a positive way). i grew up in a household in the seventies where the soundtrack to ‘saturday night fever’ was a constant in my parent’s 8 track tape player.
it really is just a feel good story.
speaking of stories, by a bit of a coincidence, a documentary about the bee gees came out on hbo last month, and it is worth checking out as a complement to this new album. i learned quite a bit about them.
it is usually a pretty good indicator when i have numerous loyal readers turn me on to something they think i might be interested in. i can think of no better example of this recently than the new album by steve earle. most people know that i am a huge fan of steve earle, but also his less well known son – justin townes earle. tragically we lost justin last year way too soon, and this is his father’s tribute to his life and music. steve and justin’s brother handpicked ten songs from justin’s songbook, and steve wrote one to add to the list.
when asked why he decided to do it now, he mentions that it was a cathartic process, but that he also wanted to get out in front of any potential tribute album that might come down the pike. he was quite frank in his reasoning for the latter. he felt that some of the artists who might participate in such a venture would be some of the same people who had enabled justin’s habits over the years, and as such directly or indirectly contributed to his death. steve wanted no part in that project.
all proceeds from this album go to a trust fund for justin’s daughter.
the songs here were all done with steve’s band. his interpretations of justin’s songs are not in any way an attempt to replicate the originals, and clearly have the father’s stamp on them. as one who is on record for my deep appreciation of justin’s career, i mean that as a compliment, and i think it works really well.
this is the third in steve’s tribute series. the first was to townes van zandt (whom justin is named after), and the second was to one of his other influences – guy clark. but this one was clearly very personal. the last song is called ‘last words’. it is steve’s reflection on his son, including their last phone call, which was the day that justin died. if you are a fan of both of these guys, you will find it difficult to not get choked up at the end. i for one failed in that endeavor.
redeyegin 