the allman betts band has backed up their wonderful 2019 debut album (‘down to the river’) with an equally impressive sophomore offering, ‘bless your heart’. as a reminder, the lead members of the band are devon allman (gregg’s son), duane betts (dickie’s son), and berry duane oakley (berry oakley’s son). All are reluctant to categorize themselves as an ‘allman brothers’ sons’ band, but for various reasons they have drifted together and created something that advances the legendary band’s legacy while also allowing them to forge towards new directions and sounds. recorded at muscle shoals studios in alabama, under the watchful eye of engineer/producer matt ross-spang (isbell, margo price, john prine), the 13 songs clocking in at 72 minutes feature a wide variety of styles and arrangements – acoustic, blues, soul, and straight up rock and roll. their fathers’ musical heritage is in their genes, and you can hear it infused in much of the music, but you will also hear other influences like black crowes, ryan adams, grateful dead, and many others.
that being said, the centerpiece of the entire album might be the 12 minute instrumental ‘savannah dream’, penned by betts. i have seen it compared to one of his father’s masterpieces, ‘in memory of elizabeth reed’, which is both fair and unfair. fair in that it is a gorgeous and expansive composition that has unique melodies and layers, with room for improvisation from all of them and also gets downright nasty in the guitar solo sequences. unfair in that he will always be compared to the career of his father. at least for now.
even though the three descendants had known each other nearly all their lives and played together occasionally, this version of the band had barely played much together before recording their first album. they took that out on the road last year and began to gel as a unit. by the time I saw them in early february of this year, they were a well honed machine, putting on one of the best shows i have seen in a while. with a three guitar attack of allman, betts, and slide player johnny stachela, they not only have distinct styles but serious chemistry.
i am looking forward to seeing them on the road again soon.
the last act that john prine signed to his ‘oh boy’ record label before he died was a fellow by the name of arlo mckinley. arlo, a native of cincinnati, is a veteran of the kentucky/ohio/west virginia music scene, much like a few of the recent success stories like tyler childers, sturgill simpson, and a fellow i wrote about recently – ian noe.
he released his first album in 2014, and has been working on his second one here for a few years. recorded in the legendary sam phillips studio in memphis, produced by matt-ross spang (prine, isbell, margo price, etc.), and surrounded by some of nashville’s best studio musicians, arlo delivers one of my favorite albums of the year so far.
he comfortably distills country and folk to use as his palette to reflect on good times and bad times, broken relationships, and tales of addiction in the underbelly of the midwest.
when prine saw him for the first time during a showcase event at a small venue in nashville, he performed ‘bag of pills’, a song that had been in his repertoire for a few years. this song, as well as a few others on this collection, remind me of isbell’s work on the same topic. one of my favorites is a little honky tonk nugget called ‘she’s always around’, and it took me a couple times through it to realize that ‘she’ was not actually a woman, but rather a narcotic that was always there when he was vulnerable (much like neil young’s ‘old laughing lady’ wasn’t a woman either).
the whole album just has a natural feel to it, as if you had known some of these songs all your life. he has a distinctive voice, the songs are expertly crafted, and the production is supportive and impeccable.
if you are a fan of any of the artists i have mentioned above, then i am going to ask you to trust me on this one and just buy it. this is a really tough time to make your national debut, and i think this guy deserves a shot.
i was having a cocktail with a friend of mine the other day and the subject of non satellite commercial radio came up and the lack of good quality music there these days. my comment in reply to her was something like, ‘that is not measure of whether there is actually great music out there, but rather the nature of the radio business these days’. my contention is that things have never been better in regards to musical choices. you just have to seek it out. along those lines, here are 6 albums i picked up in the last few weeks.
lilly hiatt – ‘walking proof’
source – outlaw country sirius xm
one of my favorite songwriters of all time is john hiatt. here we have a great album by one of his daughters, lilly. this has actually been out for a while now, and i knew it was out there, but i can’t give you a good explanation of why i delayed. if you consider taking a flyer on any of these selections today, i would ask you to strongly consider this one. it would be unfair to compare her songwriting to her father, but i think she holds her own. i am sure if you were to ask him he would be damn proud. and she has a great voice.
pretenders – ‘hate for sale’
source – american songwriter magazine
this ageless band has put together a great new addition to their collection. chrissie has never written or sounded better, and martin chambers still brings it on drums. i first saw her when she returned to her hometown at blossom music center in cuyahoga falls in 1981 right before i went off to college. loved her then, still do.
margo price – ‘that’s how rumors get started’
source – pitchfork magazine
i was an early adopter on margo, and i posted on her first album before she became well known. i wasn’t nearly as enamored of her second album, as i think her success and political posturing got to her head. on this one she steers away somewhat from her nashville roots and gets a little seventies rock on us. sturgill simpson produces, and the songs are well done and varied in styles. i have seen a number of reviews give comparisons to latter era fleetwood mac and stevie nicks, and there is some merit to that. however, i think margo is a better singer. she easily tackles all the material here vocally
gillian welch and dave rawlings – ‘all the good times’
source – reader dave c. from jersey
somewhat of a quarantine session, gillian and dave set up an old reel to reel in their house and laid down ten cover tracks of some of their favorite songs by artists such as prine, dylan, norman blake and a few others. the version of prine’s ‘hello in there’ might be the best i have ever heard. here we have elizabeth cotton’s classic ‘oh babe it ain’t no lie’.
jerry garcia and john kahn – ‘garcialive, volume 14’
source – jerrygarcia.com
tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of jerry’s untimely passing. i am sure i will get in a retrospective mood sometime soon this weekend, and this may be part of my soundtrack. here jerry and his longtime garcia band bassist john kahn present a short acoustic set in a small venue in the heart of new york city. the crowd is part of the show here, up in the mix and egging these guys on. billy strings does the liner notes and goes into great length on how he first got turned on to jerry by listening to his bluegrass work with david grisman, and then gives great descriptions of the twelve songs presented here. i really miss jerry. the world would be a better place if he were still around.
the texas gentleman – ‘floor it!!!’
source – american songwriter magazine
as they used to say in monty python, ‘and now for something completely different’. a bunch of texas studio musicians who have also been part of backup bands for country artists like kris kristofferson and george strait, among many others, these guys just put out their second studio album, and it is highly interesting. if that description gives you a notion of what kind of music they would bring, you would likely be totally wrong. often when i have trouble explaining or categorizing an artist’s sound, i usually find it to be worth the time. and that has never been more true than with this hour long tribute to the pop and rock bands of the seventies. you will here glimpses of little feat, steely dan, the meters, solo mccartney, randy newman, leon russell and so on. not for everyone, but if that sounds interesting to you, give it a spin.
as i have been saying for months now, it has never been more important to support our musicians out there. try out a few of these.
as we head towards the midpoint of the summer, here are a few things that i have been listening to that may potentially be suitable to sonically adorn any post solstice activities you may be contemplating.
ray lamontagne – ‘monovision
his best release in years, this one takes him back to the strengths that drew me to him in the first place – organic, soulful songs that pay homage to some artists we like in common. ‘misty morning rain’ has an ‘astral weeks’ feel to it, and the opening to ‘rocky mountain healin’ will remind listeners of neil young’s ‘long may you run’. ray produced, engineered, wrote and played everything. at first i felt it might have limited the spontaneity of it, but repeated listenings have changed my mind.
blackberry smoke – ‘live from capricorn studios’
the legendary capricorn studios in macon georgia were recently totally restored to it’s original configuration. at one point in the mid seventies nearly every important southern rock band laid some tracks down there, including a local band that made it big, the allman brothers. here blackberry smoke pays tribute to some of them by covering six tracks with some guests. also comes with a dvd. all proceeds go to a covid fund that benefits musicians and venues. here is a classic from wet willie, with jimmie hall on lead vocals:
corb lund – ‘agricultural tragic’
i first heard of this guy when hayes carll played one of their cowritten songs at the last show i saw of him. outstanding songwriter – clever, authentic, and often quite humorous.
sarah jarosz – ‘world on the ground’
if you follow modern bluegrass at all, you likely know of sarah. she is an extremely talented multi instrumentalist, one of the best clawhammer banjo players on the planet. she also happens to be an extremely good songwriter, and it is the latter that is on display here. legendary producer and musician jon leventhal collaborates with her on this one, and what we get is a ten song cycle of character sketches, most of them slower paced. this goes well with a glass of wine at the end of a quiet evening.
neil young – ‘homegrown’
another one of neil’s ‘lost’ albums, this one was mostly recorded in 1974, and was supposed to follow ‘on the beach’. but much of the material was about his relationship with actress carrie snodgrass, and that was deteriorating at the time. neil reportedly found it too painful to finish the project and released ‘tonight’s the night’ instead. neil fans will recognize ‘love is a rose’ and ‘star of bethlehem’, which were eventually issued on his ‘decades’ greatest hits album. they may also recognize ‘white line’ by the crazy horse version off of ‘ragged glory’. here it is presented as a duet with robbie robertson. there are a couple of clunkers in here, but the serious neil fan will want to check this out.
jerry garcia band – ‘garcialive volume 13’
when the e street band wasn’t touring, clarence clemons would often hang out on the west coast and jam around. he played a few times with the dead, and he and jerry struck up a friendship, not only musically but personally. in 1989 jerry convinced him to tour with his band, and here we have a complete sample of that tour. the unlikely pairing clearly enjoy the format, and they push each other to the limit. i can’t point to a song from this show that approaches mediocrity. the soloing gets a little over the top sometimes as the try to outdo each other. but most of the time there is magic, and the interplay near the end of ‘dear prudence’ is just simply beautiful. a good choice for the saturday afternoon cornhole session.
one of the fringe benefits, and really one of the dynamic aspects of writing this blog, is that people send me stuff all the time. i highly encourage this, and i try to give hat tips whenever i can. here are some things that people have brought to my attention in the last few weeks:
‘searching for sugarman’
my good friend tom m watched some of my music documentaries we covered at the beginning of the lockdowns, and told me i need to see this. it is an amazing story about a dylanesque figure from the slums of detroit who never connected in the states, but by a sheer fluke, became ‘bigger than elvis’ in south africa. i watched it last night, and promptly found his debut album and bought it.
john prine
from one of my musical soul mates, kevin sent this to me the other day. the last recording john prine ever made. ‘i will miss you in the morning light, like roses miss the dew’. god, i miss him so much. what a loss. look how he looks at the camera at the end.
george jones
tracy sends me a find from a bin at the cracker barrel, a rare recording from a session in the early seventies with george jones and roy acuff’s smoky mountain boys doing a bunch of bluegrass standards. you can find it on itunes to download for ten bucks. if you like the nitty gritty dirt band’s ‘will the circle be unbroken’ series, you will love this. same era, many of the same musicians.
‘laurel canyon’
kevin’s brother from the great white north brought this new documentary to my attention last week. what could be called a companion piece to ‘echos in the canyon’ that came out last year, this one covers more artists and doesn’t stop in the late sixties, which was one of my criticisms. this one is in two parts, and the second one covers artists that were completely ignored in ‘echos’ – joni mitchell, gram parsons, little feat, linda ronstandt, etc., and also spends some time on the genesis of the eagles.
american aquarium, ‘lamentations’
greg is one of my live music partners in crime, and told me about this album about a month ago. i saw this band open for turnpike troubadors a few years ago, but for whatever reason never followed up on them. if you want a high energy album to pick you up on your friday drive home, this ain’t it. but if you want an honest and insightful look at the decay of certain areas of rural america, this is very well done. as greg warned me, it keeps drawing you in. and the videos are great. they just cancelled their album tour, and i really would have wanted to see this tour.
