New WFHB Add Pool Reviews for August 22
DATE: 8.22.05ARTIST: James McMurtry
TITLE: Childish Things (Compadre)
GENRE: COUNTRY/ALT
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: Musical tumbleweed McMurtry just gets better with age. Always the wise curmudgeon, he is always noted by critics for his observational story-songs of true grit, dished out with sly humor and wordplay. What the crits sometimes forget is that he has also been working with the same fine rhythm section for many years and that his guitar leads snake through the songs with wicked verve. James is not a happy camper with the state of the world today, and he'll tell ya all about it while his engaging music keeps your attention.
REVIEWER: Jim Manion/WFHB
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: Cowboy Junkies
TITLE: Early 21st Century Blues (Zoe)
GENRE: ROCK/MAINSTREAM
GRADE: B+
REVIEW: From the most laid-back band in Canada comes an unlikely, but sadly timely, concept album, in which the Timmins family turn their hand to songs of "war, violence, fear, greed, ignorance and loss". There is everything here from traditional songs through to lesser-known pieces from the likes of U2, Dylan and Springsteen, and a couple of strong new songs by Michael Timmins. It's an intriguing idea, but much of the album is merely classy and respectful. Margo Timmins has a quietly sturdy, breathy voice, but when it comes to covering songs such as Springsteen's Brothers Under the Bridge, she doesn't have the same emotional range, and she certainly can't compete with Bono's treatment of the optimistic finale, One. Still, there are some impressive sections. There's a welcome revival of Dylan's Licence to Kill, from the mid-1980s, a strangely successful soporific treatment of the old slave lament No More, and a genuinely original treatment of Lennon's Don't Want to Be a Soldier. Now dressed up with a drum loop, bass riff and even a burst of rapping, it shows that the Junkies can still surprise.
REVIEWER: guardian.co.uk
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: Pieta Brown
TITLE: In The Cool (Valley)
GENRE: FOLK/SS
GRADE: A-
REVIEW: Recorded live at Ardent Studios in Memphis, In the Cool, is a collection of deep-grooved songs rooted in a visionary outpost where blues, country, folk and rudimental rock converge. Lyrically and musically poetic, Brown’s deceptive simplicity and seductive purity create songs that meet definitively somewhere between the Carter Family and Tom Waits. On In the Cool, Brown delves in to the age-old subjects of love and loss, with traces of addiction and flashes of feverish edge, realizing an accessible yet fresh and singular voice. Co-produced by Pieta and guitarist Bo Ramsey (Greg Brown, Lucinda Williams), the album features an all-star lineup including bassist Dave Jacques (John Prine), keyboardist Kevin McKendree (Delbert McClinton, Etta James) and drummer Bryan Owings (Buddy & Julie Miller, Shelby Lynne). Iris Dement and Greg Brown also make appearances. Being the eldest daughter of Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Greg Brown, Pieta has music in her blood. With In the Cool, Pieta proves not only her prolific tendencies, but her apparent dedication to a deep tradition of highly crafted song-writing and musicianship.
REVIEWER: angrycountry.com
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: Tim O'Brien
TITLE: Cornbread Nation (Sugar Hill)
GENRE: FOLK/BLUEGRASS/COUNTRY
GRADE: A
REVIEW:Here's one of two new albums by folk icon Tim O'Brien. Fiddler's Green is the more Irish of the two discs, but Cornbread Nation reveals that the connection between Ireland and the American South is firmly entrenched within the music. On the latter, O'Brien's vocals occasionally come across as the Americana equivalent to jazz artist Leon Redbone. Tyminski is along for the ride again on a traditional version of "House of the Risin' Sun," along with Jerry Douglas. The title track, "Cornbread Nation," is cross between Randy Travis and Steve Earle vocally. "Moses" is a long tune based on Negro spirituals, and "California Blues" is O'Brien's take on a Jimmie Rodgers song. The disc is filled with pictures of the Old South, with tunes like "Walkin' Boss," "Boat Up the River," which somehow evokes Huck Finn, and "When This World Comes to an End."
REVIEWER: phantomtollbooth.org
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: Laura Viers
TITLE: Year of Meteors (Nonesuch)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT/SS
GRADE: A+
REVIEW:The follow-up to last year's acclaimed Carbon Glacier finds Laura Veirs in an expansive mood. The Seattle songstress has ventured a good way from her beginnings as a plaintive folk balladeer. Year of Meteors is a modern, fuller hybrid: the sparse, silvery fiddle of 'Magnetized' is imbued with a vivid urgency, while 'Black Gold Blues' flaunts a menacing electrified guitar. Mermaids, birds of prey and bees flutter in on Veirs's intimate vocal, which recalls the purified style of Suzanne Vega, albeit stiffened with a no-nonsense biting edge. Impeccably executed and absorbingly understated, this puts Veirs a cut above most interchangeable coffee-table troubadours.
REVIEWER: observer.guardian.co.uk
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: Siegel-Schwall Band
TITLE: Flash Forward (Alligator)
GENRE: BLUES
GRADE: A+
REVIEW:With "Flash Forward," The Siegel-Schwall Band releases its first album of new studio recordings in 31 years. Despite the title, the band serves notice from the top that its Chicago blues sound and sense of humor both remain intact with the kickoff shout from Corky Siegel's harmonica and the line "If I don't tell you I love you, you should kick me in the shin." Highlights include "Afraid of Love," the song quoted above, written by Siegel and sung by drummer Sam Lay; Siegel's "Twisted," a first cousin to his 1970 classic "I Don't Want You to Be My Girl"; and Lay's "Going Back to Alabama," which injects country blues changes on the guitar into a full band setting. Guitarist Jim Schwall grabs his mandolin and hops in his Geo Metro for the Old-Timey romp "On the Road" and has some fun with a too-literal reading of the Bible in "Hey Leviticus." A not-so-subtle dig at George W. Bush, Schwall's down-and-dirty "The Underqualified Blues" recalls the band's "I Won't Hold My Breath" and "Out-a-Gas?" from the `70s and features perhaps the grungiest solo he's ever recorded. The album's real gem, however, is bass player Rollo Radford's surprising jazz song, "Pauline," which features perhaps the sweetest, most melodic playing Schwall has ever recorded. Fans of 1973's "953 West," in particular, should feel a warm vibe listening to "Flash Forward," but, really, any fan of Siegel-Schwall should rejoice at hearing this smart, fresh set of new songs.
REVIEWER: polyphonia.co.uk
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: North Mississippi Allstars
TITLE: Electric Blue Watermelon (ATO)
GENRE: ROCK/MAINSTREAM/BLUES/JAM
GRADE: A-
REVIEW:The North Mississippi Allstars pay homage to their blues heroes on their fourth album, Electric Blue Watermelon, due September 6th. "In the Nineties, what just turned me around completely was getting to know Otha Turner, R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough," Allstars singer/guitarist Luther Dickinson says. "I just learned so much from those guys. My father [Rolling Stones sideman/Replacements producer Jim Dickinson] couldn't believe that we were able to have that musical relationship. So the album's a nod to that multi-generational passing on of how blues becomes rock & roll." Turner died in 2003, at the age of ninety-four, but his lyrics live on through Electric Blue Watermelon. "After Otha passed, I really started writing for this record," Dickinson says. "I went through all these old tapes of him and me sitting on his front porch drinking moonshine, playing guitars and joking around. I transcribed the lyrics that Otha would improvise, and I organized them into three songs." For "Hurry Up Sunrise," which Turner's conceived of as a conversation between a man and a woman, the Allstars recruited Lucinda Williams to sing the female role. Musically, the Allstars -- brothers Luther and Cody (drums), and Chris Chew (bass) -- continue to lace their brand of blues with a rough rock & roll edge (witness the searing guitars on "Moonshine"), and Electric Blue Watermelon is often as eclectic as its name. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band offer a New Orleans-style funeral march as a coda to "Horseshoe," and fellow Southerner Al Kapone adds some menacing raps to "No Mo" and "Stompin' My Foot," which also features Robert Randolph on pedal steel guitar.
REVIEWER: rollingstone.com
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: Holopaw
TITLE: Quit +/or Fight (Sub Pop)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A
REVIEW:In 2003, Holopaw's self-titled debut prodded the overlap between vague electronic twitterings and scrappy folk tradition-- its follow-up, Quit +/or Fight, sees Holopaw striking a slightly more symbiotic medium, the line between their blips and strums now appropriately faded. Quit +/or Fight may lack the immediate melodic punch of the band's debut-- it forsakes pristine strums for skewering electric guitar and scrappier arrangements-- but what the record sacrifices in warmth, it makes up for in atmospherics. Holopaw's juxtapositions may be less striking now, but the results are more cohesive. Still, Quit takes a little extra time to settle into: Without being purposefully difficult, Quit +/or Fight can still be willfully (and successfully) obtuse, scrappy and determinably distanced from the shiny perfection of Holopaw. Opener "Losing Light" is all pause and thumping drums, punctuated by prickly guitar lines and overdubbed vocals. “Velveteen (All Is Bright.)" is painfully transformative and one of the band's strongest tracks to date. Unsurprisingly, Quit +/or Fight is also a breakup record, heavy with heartache and dark, belly-punching bits. Orth always had a photographer's sense of detail and light, and here, watching becomes an essential thematic reprise. In "Curious", a lover is shakily peered at from a clearing, and in "Losing Light", Orth's eyes turn to a sleeping body. Musically, the band stretches its muscle: "3-Shy-Clubs" funnels mysterious percussive smacks into a groove-heavy bossa nova rhythm, while "Curious" folds in bass clarinet and sinewy falsetto. The title track originally appeared as a FOUND Magazine (publisher of found notes, letters, photographs, and stories) song of the month, and features a mess of snagged lyric crumbs, cobbled together into a shockingly logical whole. Still, the track, which mixes tinkling bells with steel guitar caws and high, layered harmonies, has moments of chilly clarity: "You've done enough/ Quit and/or Fight," Orth implores. It's the perfect title for a band that demanded self-evolution, and got exactly what it wanted.
REVIEWER: pitchforkmedia.com
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: Gogol Bordello
TITLE: Gypsy Punks (Side One Dummy)
GENRE: PUNK/GYPSY
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: With each release, Gogol Bordello further establish themselves as snubbers of assimilation, be it cultural or musical. Madman/vocalist/mustachioed visionary Eugene Hutz leads his brigade of border-smashing punkers on a mission to rescue world music from the bowels of academic beard-strokery. The band's sound remains unchanged: three-chord fury hopped up on Gypsy violin, accordion and two-step rhythms. Yet on tracks like "Not A Crime" and "Immigrant Punk"," the band expands their sound to include Clash-styled reggae riffs, dub sound effects and even a hint of Django Reinhardt. Regardless, the outcome is no less surly. Steve Albini, who plays field recorder rather than producer, superbly captures the contagious chaos laid out within the band's 15-point program for international cultural revolution. To the uninitiated, Gypsy Punks may sound like an ethnomusicological trainwreck, but it holds true as an anarchic goulash uniting the world's varying rebel music traditions.
REVIEWER: cmj.com
DATE: 8.22.05
ARTIST: Orenda Fink
TITLE: Invisible Ones (Saddle Creek)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT/SS
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Most people who look at the cover of Invisible Ones before listening to it will think Azure Ray’s Orenda Fink has completely lost her shit. The face paint, it turns out, concerns her recent spiritual quest to Haiti; her debut solo album, on the other hand, is the most accomplished collection she’s appeared on that’s not by Bright Eyes. Ranging from world beat experimentalism to grand, symphonic emotional electronica, Invisible Ones proves Fink is ready to join other out-in-front female mavericks like Tori Amos and Bjork. This inversely means that it sounds nothing like her Azure Ray running mate Maria Taylor’s fragile and pristine solo debut 11:11 released earlier this year. That record also sounded a lot like Azure Ray; Fink’s album succeeds mostly because it doesn’t. So take that for what you will. Who knew that could be such a compliment?
REVIEWER: harp.com
posted by WFHB Music @ 9:16:00 PM
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