‘echo in the canyon’

this has been out for a while, but i just got around to checking it out in the last week or so. jakob dylan interviews many of the significant artists that drove the beginning of the folk rock sound, focusing on the ones who lived and recorded in the los angeles area – and more specifically – the area known as laurel canyon. a picturesque bohemian suburb uphill from the sunset strip, it became a destination for artists from around the world to convene and explore the synthesis of two musical genres that were considered somewhat incompatible just a few years before. the documentary combines conversations with artists that were there or directly influenced by the sound, video footage of the scene as it was in the late sixties, and concert and studio scenes of today’s generation of artists paying tribute to some of the classic songs from that era (i assume this is the reference to the ‘echo’ in the title). it is packed with information and i actually watched it a couple of times to make sure i didn’t miss anything.

i have two minor issues overall, the first being too much of the ‘echo’ component. my rough estimate is that maybe a quarter of the run time is devoted to newer artists tackling the material – some competently and others not so much. leaning towards the amateur musical historian that i am, i found this aspect of it less compelling.

maybe my second quibble is related to the first, but i also felt that the focus was somewhat more limited than i had hoped. it really only covers the period from late 1964 through 1967 – and it does a great job at that – but the area continued to be a driving force in the musical world for at least another five years. we see jackson browne waxing nostalgic on the byrds, brian wilson and others, but we don’t here any of his contributions to the scene. joni mitchell isn’t mentioned at all, not to mention gram parsons, the flying burrito brothers, or james taylor. if you want a good read on that, try barney hoskyn’s ‘hotel california’.

but overall i enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about where that jangly twelve string sound came from.

this one is for you, kevin:

bob dylan, ‘travelin’ thru, the bootleg series volume 15, 1967-1969′

the fifteenth edition of bob’s usually great bootleg series focuses on two things – his flirtation with the nashville sound, and his relationship with johnny cash. both of these subjects are pretty well documented, and although there is nothing here that wasn’t known by dedicated dylan fans, this is a nice package that doesn’t get too much in the weeds. it is broken down into three discs, the first being outtakes from the two albums he made there during this period, ‘john wesley harding’ and ‘nashville skyline’. the selections are well played and produced, but offer only slight variations from the tracks that were eventually chosen for release. ‘as i went out one morning’ is presented as a waltz tempo, and many of the ‘skyline’ tracks have a bit of an edge to them(‘country pie’ gets funky with charlie daniels on guitar).

the second track focuses on an impromptu session put together around the ‘skyline’ sessions with johnny cash. bootlegs of this have been going around for years (indeed, my good friend dave c. sent me a copy of this just this summer), but it is offered here from the original tapes. it is interesting the first few times you hear it, and it certainly has historical significance. carl perkins was recording in an adjacent studio, and joins the gang for a few tracks. but overall it is a little rough and unrehearsed, and the suits decided that is wasn’t good enough to issue as an album.

the third disc has more from those sessions, then three songs he did on the ‘johnny cash show’ that may. following that are three johnny cash tunes he covered for the ‘self portrait’ album, and then four songs recorded at a house in 1970 with the legendary banjo player, earl scruggs.

once again the liner notes are extensive and informative, and even a bob nut like me learned quite a few things. this video below does a good job of providing more background:

ian noe, ‘between the country’

this has been out a few months now, so i am a little late to the party, but i took a liking to him the first time i heard his material. hailing from eastern kentucky, it is not hard to see him eventually gaining national notoriety much like his fellow kentuckians sturgill simpson and tyler childers. in my opinion he may be the better songwriter of the three. his hero is john prine, and it is easy to hear that in his style and delivery. i also hear faint echos of ‘john wesley harding’ era dylan. his songs are full of small town characters, usually down on their luck. the material is raw, gritty, and real – tales covering murder, addiction, broken romances and appalachian desperation abound – but there are also glimmers of hope strewn throughout.

he has been opening up for artists such as son volt, blackberry smoke, and mr. prine himself, if that gives you any idea of the types of artists that are trying to give him his well deserved audience. dave cobb produced the album, and it is just about perfect.

this is another one of those artists i just ask you to hear him out and give him a chance.

jesse malin, ‘sunset kids’

let me just say at the outset that this album epitomizes why i started writing this blog in the first place. it demands, and deserves, a wider audience than it is likely to ever get. people often ask me where do i find new music, and i usually respond with my usual sources – friends, radio, amazon recommended lists, music magazines, etc. – but at the end of the day you just have to go find it. great music is out there.

i first heard of jesse malin when a song of his came up on the sirius xm outlaw country station. i immediately took a liking to it and took a picture of the radio with my phone, and stored it away for future reference. and then i saw an article about the new album in american songwriter magazine ( a great source, by the way). i bought it on the day it came out, and i can’t get it out of the cd rotation. it grows on me a little more every time i hear it.

i had never heard of him, but i now know that he came on the new york punk scene in the mid nineties, and is probably most well known as the front man for the legendary punk band d generation, and then went on to collaborate with ryan adams, springsteen, and green day, among others.

he first heard lucinda williams’ voice in 1996 when he listened to her duet with steve earle on ‘you’re still standing there’, and he approached joey ramone about her (they were touring together at the time). joey said he knew her and that he should buy all of her albums. jesse finally met her in 2003 at a charlie watts jazz show in nyc, and they started keeping in touch and sharing lyrics. they met again when he was in the audience for the last tom petty concert, and lucinda was opening for him. they had dinner the next night, and started talking about making an album. lucinda ended up producing it, contributing some songwriting, and sings on three cuts. billie joe armstrong of green day also shares a tune.

all of that is just background and context for what really matters – the songs. i find this to be an excellent example of the blending of outstanding songwriting, catchy and infectious melodies, and a solid backing band. i have not really known lucinda to be a producer, but all of the tracks are well constructed and clean. the genres are varied, but one of my first impressions was that maybe half of the tracks have a jayhawks feel to them. the rest have a bit more of an edge to them, revealing his earlier punk dna, but imbuing them with the wisdom of years on the road and a more mature outlook.

as i mentioned above, it deserves a good listen. i think you will be rewarded. if you don’t like it, i will buy it off of you. he is on tour now, and will be at my favorite haunt, the beachland ballroom, 11/8. hope to see you there.

nuggets, volume three: gregg allman, ‘laid back’

‘laid back’ was gregg allman’s first solo album, and arguably his best. he admitted as much himself over forty years later in his autobiography, ‘my cross to bear’. in 1972 he was still struggling with losing his brother duane in a motorcycle accident the previous october. playing music with the allman brothers band didn’t seem to be helping, and he was drinking a lot. they were beginning work on their album ‘brothers and sisters’ when gregg approached them with a song he had been working on for a while called ‘queen of hearts’. the band turned him down, telling him ‘because that song just ain’t saying nothing’. rebuked, he began to explore doing a solo album instead and started putting together a team of musicians who matched the material. one of those was 20 year old keyboardist chuck leavell, who had played with dr. john previously and opened for the allman brothers. he would also come to do some session work on the aforementioned ‘brothers and sisters’, and eventually joined that band as well. once that album was finished, gregg headed into the studio in march of 1973, and things progressed rapidly. the whole process proved to be cathartic for gregg, and all witnesses to the sessions remember that he was in a happy place while recording. the overall groove was different than the abb sound. he told his producer that he wanted it to sound ‘real swampy, with the image of moss hanging off the trees, alligators and fog, darkness, witches and shit’. the first cut is a different take on his tune ‘midnight rider’, and that set the tone for the whole thing. that was followed by ‘queen of hearts’ and its unique time signatures. a few songs later he covers jackson browne’s ‘these days’, maybe my favorite song on the album. it certainly has one of my favorite lyrics of all time when he pleads at the end ‘please don’t confront me with my failures, i’m aware of them’. that line doesn’t work on mrs. redeyegin, unfortunately, but not for lack of trying. it ends with a funky version of the traditional ‘will the circle be unbroken’, accompanied by local gospel singers and virtually the entire staff at capricorn studios as backup singers.

originally released in october of 1973, it went gold almost immediately. the allman family just did a rerelease in august, remastering the original eight songs, adding alternate versions of those same songs, and then adding a second disc of 18 offerings – various outtakes, demos, and live performances. the liner notes are fantastic and provide significant context to the recordings. if you are not familiar with the original, or if you are familiar and wanted to explore more of the history about it, i can highly recommend picking this up.