steve’s twentieth studio album is the result of a project he was asked to write some music for that involved a mining disaster ten years ago. in april 2010 a coal dust explosion 1000 feet underground killed 29 miners. the mining company was found to be at fault. the idea was to go to west virginia and interview the survivors and the families of the victims, and turn it into a play. the play went into production early this year, with steve doing the songs here acoustic style on the stage with them. in the meantime, steve gathered his band and the mastersons and created a more fleshed out version of these songs.

‘ghosts of west virginia’ explores the hardships of the coal mining life and does so using a number of musical styles – gospel, folk, bluegrass, celtic, and rock. recorded at new york city’s electric lady studios, it has a gritty and authentic sound to it. the first seven songs are directly from the play, and two of the last three are directly related (‘black lung’ and ‘the mine’), while the third is only tangentially related (‘fastest man alive’, about chuck yeager, who was born in west virginia). many of the songs are dripping with despair and anger, like the centerpiece ‘it’s about blood’, where steve eventually calls out the names of all 29 deceased as the song gets more and more intense. but there are also songs celebrating the good things about their lives, like the infectious ‘union, god and country’.

steve is rather well known for his liberal political views, but in a number of interviews he has mentioned that he ‘decided to make an album that spoke to and for people that didn’t vote the way he did’. another way he explained it was that if we don’t have common beliefs with others, then we need to learn how to communicate better. how appropriate that sounds right about now. steve earle absorbed the material and the people, and has told their story well.

 

upon hearing that jason and his band were ready to release their next studio album, i was preparing myself to write something i hoped would not be true – that he had hit a plateau in his career and would never live up to the phenomenal ‘southeastern’ album from 2013. even though i had been impressed with his songwriting since his drive by truckers days, ‘southeastern’ was the album that put him on the map nationally, and has since helped cement his reputation as one of the great singer songwriters working today.

his two following albums, ‘something more than free’ and ‘the nashville sound’, were very good, but not consistently great like their predecessor was. i was getting the impression that he might have been resting on his laurels a bit, or maybe distracted by his marriage and raising their daughter. if you follow him on twitter, you will know that he is very active on there, with his substantial wit, his appreciation of other artists, but also his very vocal political opinions.

so as i threw the disc in my car player on the way home from work the other day, i was already jaded and ready to be disappointed once again. by the time i got to about the third or fourth track, though, i knew i was going to be wrong. this is his best work since ‘southeastern’, and it is also substantially different from that album. ‘southeastern’ had him writing material fresh off of getting married and getting sober, and much of the material was personal in nature. the production was more sparse and acoustic, his first partnership with producer dave cobb.

for ‘reunions’ he continues his work with cobb, but his writing is less drawn on personal experience than before. he has been purposefully trending this way for a while now, with a few exceptions (‘it gets easier’ is specifically about the daily struggles of sobriety). the songwriting is about as good as anything he has ever done, which means it is as good as anybody else writing today. the sonic qualities and the production are quite different though, and that is part of the reason why i just can’t get it out of that cd player. isbell wanted a sound more reminiscent of the rock he heard on the radio in the 80’s such as dire straits and squeeze. there is more layering and depth to nearly all the songs, and i don’t think the 400 unit has sounded better musically. typical of this is the opener, ‘what’ve i done to help’, an almost later era motown/marvin gaye groove driven by jimbo hart’s bass line. oh, and that is david crosby on backup vocals. ‘overseas’ is also a standout, with some great anthemic solos from guitarist sadler vaden. on the more reflective side, he gives us ‘st. peter’s autograph’ which he wrote about his wife amanda shire’s grieving over losing one of her close friends, guitarist neal casals, to suicide last year.

jason and amanda have never sung better together, even though they were having marital issues during the recording sessions. a great example of this is the closing song of ‘letting you go’, where they envision the day that their daughter gets married. i can tell you that if one of the redeyegin twins were to become betrothed, this would be a contender for the father/daughter dance.

this one will likely be in a heavy rotation this summer, and rightfully so.

 

this is a challenging time for the overall music industry, especially for those who make a substantial part of their income by touring. i have also seen some artists postponing releasing new material, i guess for fear that people’s discretionary income is down and overall sales might suffer.

well, here are three releases that i have bought in the last month that i think might be worth your while.

the first is a new album by whitney rose – her fourth overall and first on her own label. ‘we still go to rodeos’ is a bit of a divergence from her previous efforts, which featured more of an overall country sound. on this she uses veteran producer paul kolderie (radiohead, uncle tupelo, pixies, etc) and a solid core of austin studio musicians to create a more varied palette, easily shifting back and forth between honky tonk ballads and more contemporary rockers. she has mentioned that she became intrigued when she heard marty stuart say that tom petty and the heartbreakers were the best country band ever, and you can here undercurrents of that sound on quite a few songs. some of the songs employ as many as three guitarists at a time, including gurf morlix (lucinda williams), one of the greatest rock and roll names ever.

this canadian import (prince edward island!) wrote all twelve songs, and she tackles all the material eloquently and with a voice that can match any style she tries. why she isn’t more well known is a bit of a mystery to me. she is very talented.

next up is the debut album from logan ledger, a san francisco native that moved to nashville a few years ago. he diligently  worked the local club scene, and was discovered by t bone burnett when some demos he had cut made their way to t bone’s bass player.

logan had started playing guitar at the age of twelve and quickly became a fan of the sun records sound, studying the likes of roy orbison, elvis presley, johnny cash, mississippi john hurt, among others. the first time you here his voice you will likely harken back to the great songs from the fifties and sixties, and the sonic landscapes that t bone lays down behind him are perfectly matched. burnett put together the same line up as his grammy winning ‘raising sand’, the robert plant and alison krauss collaboration from a few years back – marc ribot on guitar, drummer jay bellerose, and bassist dennis crouch.

this is a guy to keep an eye on.

last up is a bit of a west texas red dirt country super group, basically taking four singer/songwriters from four different bands and creating an album under the moniker of ‘the panhandlers’. recorded by austin artist bruce robison in his analog studio, it is a solid outing that captures the various talents of all four, and you can decide which you like the best. cleto cordero i think is my favorite, so i also started exploring work from the band he is in, flatland cavalry. if you like turnpike troubadors, you may want to check these guys out. (hat tip to reader dave c. on this one).

support these artists in any way you can. they really need you now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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