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.

rodney crowell, ‘texas’

rodney crowell is probably best known for his songwriting, having written hit songs for everyone from waylon jennings (‘i ain’t living long like this’) to bob seger (‘shame on the moon’), but he is a very talented musician as well. on his most recent release, he dives in to his rolodex and calls in some favors to flesh out a sort of tribute album to the state he was born and raised in, ‘texas’.

eleven songs about characters and regions of the lone star state, delivered in a wide range of musical styles. the guest list includes such luminaries as willie nelson, lyle lovett, billy gibbons, vince gill, lee ann womack, and ringo starr. he also shares some songwriting credits, most notably the late guy clark on ‘caw caw blues’. and mary karr (author of ‘liars’ club’) on ‘flatland hillbillies’. crowell says the inspiration for the album came about as the result of a twenty year conversation with steve earle.

crowell had written something called ‘brown and root, brown and root’, a song about a construction worker in the sixties. he had shared it with earle, and earle started playing it on tour. it was never recorded until now, and the rest of the songs just seemed to fall into place. a great introduction to his work, if you are not familiar with him.

tyler childers,’country squire’

i remember when my friend jimmy z and i first heard about tyler childers. we had headed down to mt. vernon to check out a small folk festival, with my primary goal being to meet nikki lane in person. that never happened (shocking, i know), but we did spend some time backstage with a band whose name escapes me now. they had played at another festival in kentucky the night before, and let us know that there was a kid down there that they guaranteed would be the next best thing. so i rattled the intertubes when i got back home, and found out that he had a new album out, so i bought it.

tyler childers’ 2017 breakout album was ‘purgatory’. i was quite in agreement with that band’s assessment of his talent. born in paintsville, kentucky, son of a strip miner, he had been busking around town and hitting the road a bit. his drummer made sure that sturgill simpson would be at one of the venues when they played nashville, and they hit it off. sturgill roped in johnny cash’s engineer david ferguson, got a few bluegrass studio vets, and got at it. but that is all a background to tyler’s real talents – a gifted songwriter with a remarkable attention to detail, and a voice steeped in appalachia.

that album caught hold, jumped to number 17 on the country charts, and soon he was opening for john prine and margo price. he was named 2018 emerging artist of the year at the americana awards.

simpson and ferguson are back again for this one, and many of the same musicians. it is a collection of nine songs that he has road tested for a while now, and it solid from cover to cover. tyler had been listening to allen toussant’s ‘southern nights’ album from 1975, his tribute to his local creole evenings. tyler wanted to do the same style but set in kentucky. i was not aware of that album, but i am now.

tyler’s songs are mostly set in small towns and bars and backwoods, and many of the characters are struggling in some fashion. although once again these are bluegrass musicians, they sure don’t sound like that here. rather, they often sound like that ‘country band that plays for keeps’, down at the bar in town. i can’t say enough about this guy. please give him your ear.

oh, and his videos are quite interesting.

allman betts band,’down to the river’

for fans of the allman brothers band, this is something worth checking out. featuring gregg allman’s son devon, dickie betts’ son duane, and berry oakley’s son berry jr., this is an impressive outing of mostly original songs that slot strongly in the southern rock framework – a swampy mix of blues, country and gospel. the only cover is a take on tom petty’s ‘southern accents’. although they have known each other since their teens and have crossed paths musically many times, the potential of their fused legacies did not really reveal itself until 2017, when devon put together a concert at the fillmore in san francisco to memorialize his father after his death. it was essentially the debut of his new band, the devon allman project. duane betts made a guest appearance, and then his band served as the opening act on their tour. duane would join devon’s band for a few songs, and then do some allman brothers covers for their encores. it became clear to them that it was time to take it to the next level, and so they started thinking about making an album together.

recorded in 2018 at the legendary muscle shoals sound studio in muscle shoals, alabama and produced by grammy award winning producer matt ross-spang (jason isbell, margo price, john prine, elvis presley), it was cut live to analog tape on vintage recording gear – no computers or digital editing.

without a doubt my favorite cut is a nearly nine minute ‘autumn breeze’, a mostly instrumental and uniquely allmanesque offering that is reminiscent of a live ‘whipping post’ or ‘les bres in a minor’.

the band’s first performance was march 26th, 2019 – fifty years to the day that their fathers first performed in jacksonville florida. they are touring heavily this summer, and will be here at the house of blues august 27th. see you there.

bruce springsteen, ‘western stars’

this is bruce’s first album in five years, and it has a sound like nothing else in his immense catalog. he is the first to acknowledge that he drew his inspiration from the ‘countrypolitan’ style of glen campbell and jimmy webb in the late sixties. the overall composition is a mixture of bruce’s typical characters and themes, embellished with a backdrop of music that evokes the expansiveness of the american west, and dressed up with lush strings in many parts.

the string arrangements can be a little over the top sometimes, but that is really my only cautionary advice when approaching this new output from him. the songwriting is right up there with some of his best, and his vocal delivery is still spot on, considering he is approaching 70 this fall.

maybe my favorite track is the shortest, and starkest. ‘somewhere north of nashville’ is a tale of a failed songwriter who wonders if all the sacrifices he made chasing his dream was really worth it. a realization of how quickly you can lose everything.

the title of ‘western stars’ is a phrase that comes from ‘ulysses’, a nineteenth century poem by lord tennyson that springsteen has drawn from before. the poem is narrated by a hero approaching old age, returning from a long journey only to realize he really rather prefers being on the road. and so he heads out one more time.

see you on the road, bruce.