three spring flowers

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.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIUjMz-1OHabflcM3mZ1Vuw

grateful dead, ‘june 1976’

this year’s box set release from the vast archives of the grateful dead features five complete shows from june of 1976 – two from boston, two from nyc, and the fifth from passaic, nj. this was an interesting period for the band for a number of reasons. most importantly, they were just coming back from the longest touring hiatus of their career – having not been out on the road since october of 1974. of secondary importance was the return of drummer mickey hart to the fold. he had left the band in february of 1971. in addition to this, they also had a wealth of new songs to perform from recent studio albums. many dead fans don’t pay a lot of attention to this period, and my guess is that it may be due to two reasons. first and foremost could be the fact that 1976 lurks in the shadow of 1977, long considered to be one of their greatest years ever. the second could be that there is less material to work from – they didn’t start their return to touring till right before these shows, and ended in mid october. i know that i did not have a lot in my collection from this era.

that has now changed for me. part of the reason they had never been released from the vault before was because all of these shows were part of the wealth of tapes made by legendary engineer betty cantor jackson that found their way back to the group’s archives a few years ago. as such the recording quality is of the highest order – clean and warm at the same time. the other impression i had from listening to all of the shows was how tight this band was at the time. although it is closer in time to the renowned spring of ’77 tour, it has a feel more akin to 1974, with it’s precision and jazz leanings. everybody is at the top of their game (donna has never sounded better) and the return of the two drummer system is better than what could be expected so soon. kreutzmann himself admits that he was bitter about hart’s return. he had gotten quite used to being the only drummer for over five years. if you listen closely, you can tell that billy is still in charge here, with mickey doing basically fill on some of the larger songs. this would all change substantially by the time we get to the next year, but i think it works very well here.

one of the possible complaints of the box set (or this period) is that the song rotation is not as expansive as other periods. of the five shows presented here, there is a lot of overlap. but keep in mind that they hadn’t been on the road for quite a while, they had a new member they were reintroducing, and they had new material from ‘blues for allah’ they wanted to flaunt. if i had known ahead of time that they would play the cover of martha and the vandellas’ ‘dancing in the street’ on all five shows, i would have been skeptical. but, true to their nature, all five are really good and really different.

another possible issue is the price tag, which is around $150. but keep in mind these are five complete grateful dead shows, which means they are long. around fourteen hours of music. three cds per show, for a total of 15, or about ten bucks each.

if you are interested, you should probably grab one fast. they only made a limited edition of this, and once it sells out it is gone.

speaking of 1977, you might want to also check out this year’s first installment of dave’s picks, volume 33. this is another ‘betty board’ featuring the show on october 29, 1977 at dekalb, illinois. the first disc contains one of the highest energy first sets i have ever heard. an excellent recording of the band in peak form.

dave’s picks 34 comes out next week – a 1974 ‘wall of sound’ show from miami, and garcia live 13 comes out friday, a jgb show in 1989 at poplar creek music theater featuring clarence clemons on saxophone.

giddy up.

r.i.p., john prine

‘he was in heaven before he died’

today the music world is mourning the loss of one of my favorite songwriters of all time, john prine. even though i was aware that he had been hospitalized nearly two weeks ago with this dreaded virus and that the outlook was not good, i was still stunned when word came down last night that he didn’t make it. i have heard it said a number of times in the last two weeks that there are two kinds of people: those that love john prine, and those that have never heard of him. all you need to do is type his name on your web browser today, and you will see how many people are in the ‘love’ group. the outpouring of emotions and tributes in the musical world today is amazing, and mr. redeyegin’s eyes have been welling up with moisture all day. you can see the amount of respect and admiration that the musicians have for not only his songs and career, but maybe more importantly, the man himself. one of my favorite mantras in life is to try and give more than you receive, and this was certainly true of john – at least until the last two weeks when it all came back to him.

i am not going to go into the details of the aspects of his career here, as you can go back to that web browser and finds dozens of articles spilling ink on his nearly 50 year career. i just want to share a few thoughts on him personally, and drop a few nuggets i read about him recently.

i cannot remember who turned me on to him, but i do know that my first album i bought was ‘ the missing years’, and my friend mike t. and i listened to it relentlessly all that summer of ’91. ‘great days’ came out in 1993, which was a compilation of his work up to that point, and i was hooked (if you fall into that category above of those who have never heard of john, that is a good place to start). i own nearly his whole catalog, and i can tell you that there really aren’t any bad prine songs. there actually aren’t very many mediocre ones. his writing style was unique. dylan considers him one of his favorite writers and once said ‘prine’s style is pure proustian existentialism, midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree’. if what he was trying to say was that his writings were simple and profound at the same time, then i agree. the first three songs he performed in front of a live audience were ‘sam stone’, ‘hello in there’, and ‘paradise’. most artists would be happy to have written those three masterpieces in their entire career, but john was just getting started. the redeyegin studio has numerous playlists built to suit my various moods, and i can tell you that much of his catalog dominates those playlists and get heavy play to this day.

the last song on his last album (2018’s ‘tree of forgiveness’) was titled ‘when i get to heaven’. he writes that when he gets there he’s ‘gonna have a cocktail, vodka and ginger ale’. well, i stopped at the liquor store on the way home. going out to the porch now with ‘great days’ on random play and two cocktails in hand. one for me, and one for john.

a fifth of red-eye gin

cassettes

it was on this day five years ago that i launched this little project of mine. i first want to thank all of you who continue to follow my musings. your feedback and support is the thing that keeps me going. it also gets as to why i started this blog in the first place. if you know me personally, or if you read my blog regularly, you will know that i have a strong passion for all things musical, and this is my way of sharing that passion in a more robust way.

on average i spend about five hours to create a post. this includes listening to the music, reading about it, and then crafting the material. as many of you know, this is not my day job, so i try to get something out when i can. so i definitely appreciate it when you provide feedback in the comments section, ‘like’ me on twitter, share my posts with others, or provide support when you see me personally.

again, my initial motivation was to share my findings from the world of music with family and friends. i have toyed over the years with the idea of getting more aggressive in my marketing, so as to reach a larger audience. but most of the time what i have found was that getting to the next level involved substantially more work and commitment, and i am just not ready for that. however, i have found that in my business the best referrals come from happy clients. so, if you like this blog, consider sharing this post with someone you might think would enjoy it as well. i will add a link below where they can go directly to the site and enter their email to sign up.

again, thank you for your support. here is to another five years. be safe out there.

‘he paid his way selling red-eye gin’

phish

spring fever

spring is finally here in the midwest, and it is time to update your music libraries with some new music. in this post i will share with you some things that came out this year, and a couple others from last year that deserve a second look. again, these are in no particular order.

brandy clark, ‘your life is a record’ – this came out about two weeks past, and it is really growing on me. when the producer took a look at the songs she had brought to the table, he said ‘this is a breakup album’, and he was right. she had recently ended a relationship, and she had some things to say about it. don’t let that turn you off. if you like kasey musgraves, you will love this. i think this is better than kasey’s last one.

john moreland ‘lp5’ – his fifth album, once again showing that he is one of the most talented songwriters in america. as i have mentioned before when i reviewed his last album, his voice comes across as a hybrid of tom waits and ‘nebraska’ era springsteen. never one for a lot of instrumentation, this one is stripped down even more.

aubrie sellers, ‘far from home’ – this is her second album, and the songs are diverse in styles. she swings from southwestern americana to a few songs she labels as garage country. coming from a musical family (her mother is lee ann womack), singing and songwriting seems to be in her genes. keep an eye on this young talent.

drive by truckers, ‘the unraveling’ – another good outing from one of the better rock bands in the country. as with their last album, this has plenty of political commentary, but the songs are good and the playing is great. they do not try to hide the fact that they consider themselves to be at the forefront of the musical ‘resistance’. i will have more to say about that when jason isbell’s album comes out next month.

blackberry smoke, ‘homecoming’ – recorded live in atlanta after a european tour, they seem really at home with the crowd, and vice versa. they play a lot of their road tested standards, plus a few covers. a good introduction to the band if you are not familiar with them.

nathaniel ratliffe, ‘and it’s still alright’ – a solo album from him, without most of the ‘night sweats’. the songs are mostly melancholy in nature, due in large part to the end of a divorce and losing one of his close friends recently. if you are expecting more of ‘sob, give me a drink’, you won’t get that here. but there are a few really good songs on the album.

allison moorer, ‘blood’ – this came out last year, as did the book she wrote that accompanies it. actually the book came first, and then she thought there was some good song material. the topic of the book is not a pleasant one. she and her sister (country artist shelby lynne) were orphaned at an early age when her father and mother died in a murder suicide incident in their front yard. again, don’t let the subject matter turn you off. both the book and the album were her way of dealing with emotions she had pent up all her life, and at the end of the day it is really a message of hope. one track – ‘i’m the one to blame’ – uses lyrics of her father that she found in an old briefcase and put it to music with her sister. i had the opportunity to see her do much of the material live about a month ago, before she had to suspend the tour she was doing with her husband, hayes carll. it just happened to be the day after the tornadoes in nashville, where they live. it was a rather emotional show.