WFHB ADDS 10/17
CATCHING UP FROM LAST WEEK...DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST:Shawn Colvin
TITLE: These Four Walls (Nonesuch)
GENRE: FOLK/SS
GRADE: B
REVIEW: Five years between albums is not unusual for Shawn Colvin. Yet while These Four Walls finds her on a new, good-match label, nothing much else has changed. Austin's premier pop diva teams up once again with longtime collaborator John Leventhal (Mr. Rosanne Cash), and besides producing, he's a virtual one-man band, playing bass, Dobro, guitar, mandolin, percussion, pedal steel, keyboards, and being co-writer on 10 of the album's 13 tracks. Reflecting her past work, Colvin skirts obvious meanings, but the bulk of These Four Walls seems to ruminate on middle age, which matches up with the local singer-songwriter having turned 50 earlier this year. The album's first five tracks are terrific, opener "Fill Me Up" an inordinately sunny bit of passive-aggressiveness. The gently lilting title track submits to living day by day, while the strident "Tuff Kid" flirts with country rock. The appropriately dreamlike "Summer Dress" and scintillating "Cinnamon Road," with vocal appearances by Austin's other contemporary folk queen, Patty Griffin, as well as Marc Cohn, are even better. Sadly, the disc then wades into self-consciousness with cookie-cutter tunes like "I'm Gone," "So Good to See You," and a pair of covers, Paul Westerberg's "Even Here We Are" and the Bee Gees' "Words," which seem more like filler than an attempt to break down barriers.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1,2,3,4,5
REVIEWER: austinchronicle.com
DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST:Various Artists
TITLE: The Harry Smith Project (Shout Factory)
GENRE: FOLK
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: some basic info from pitchfork news:The late Harry Smith, renowned musicologist, filmmaker, and painter, will be soon receive the tribute treatment with a four-disc box set titled The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited, due October 24 on Shout! Factory. The two-CD/two-DVD collection draws performances from Wilco, Beck, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Richard Thompson, David Johansen, Steve Earle, and more. In addition, it holds a new documentary on Smith's continuous influence on contemporary music, as well as three of his short films. The tracks, drawn from concerts staged by Hal Willner (who also compiled and produced Revisited) at London's Royal Festival Hall (1999), Brooklyn's St. Ann's Center (1999), and Los Angeles' Royce Hall at UCLA (2001), take inspiration from Smith's six-LP Anthology of American Folk Music. Released in 1952, it introduced listeners to artists such as Mississippi John Hurt, the Carter Family, Robert Johnson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
COMMENTS: This 2-CD set is part of the above-mentioned box set, and it's a wild and wooly ride. Some of the interpretations are very near matches to the originals, others take creative liberties. Both sides of the equation show the resiliancy of this material. JM/WFHB
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:
CD 1: all tracks, but note that 11, 12, & 13 are more experimental)
CD 2: all tracks, but note that 9, 10, 11, & 12 are more experimental)
DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST:Amy Millan
TITLE: Honey from the Tombs (Arts & Crafts)
GENRE: FOLK/SS
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Before she became the shimmering voice of Canadian indie heroes Stars, Amy Millan lived with members of bluegrass band Crazy Strings and it's her old roommates' influence - and presence - that shines through her debut solo album. Her themes of love, loss and loneliness, are nothing new, and nor are the songs, written between 1990 and 2000. But Millan has never sounded more enchanting or as exposed, oozing resignation as she relinquishes her grip in Losing You, woozily sinking to the bottom of a glass in Pour Me Up. The warm bluegrass of Blue in Your Eye sounds like a Be Good Tanyas gem, while the rocky sensuality of Skinny Boy stems from her day job.Pop fans will think it's a country album, country purists will deem it pop and contributions from friends in both Stars and Broken Social Scene adds a conflicting rock slant. What's not in doubt is that Millan makes it work.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 7, 8, 11, 12
DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST: Now It's Overhead
TITLE: Dark Light Daydream (Saddle Creek)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Andy LeMaster. Orenda Fink. Maria Taylor. This other guy. The combination of these elements creates the band known as Now It's Overhead. Of course Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink are the components of Azure Ray, and in this particular instance they assist in vocal duties along with some bass and piano stuff. But the real genius here is LeMaster, who is a multi-instrumentalist and incredible sound engineer who has not only been a part of the Bright Eyes touring band, but has also helped notable bands like R.E.M., Drive-By Truckers and Coldplay's Chris Martin record tracks and albums. Anyways, Now It's Overhead has been around since 2001, and as a collective there have been 2 albums released, including 2004's "Fall Back Open" which was met with critical acclaim. If LeMaster has anything to say about it, the band's new album "Dark Light Daybreak" (out Sept. 12th) will be an even more incredible accomplishment. Personally I think it might just be the album that gets the band the proper notice and popularity it really deserves. For the uninitiated, Now It's Overhead has a really interesting sound that's reminiscent of a dreamscape full of synths and wandering guitars. As LeMaster says himself about the new album, this is more akin to "waking up" than "dreaming," and I couldn't agree more. From the very start of the album, it feels just like waking up in the morning well-rested after a long night of sleep. It's a great feeling.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
REVIEWER: from a blog called fahronheit
DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST: Ben Kweller
TITLE: Ben Kweller (ATO)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A -
REVIEW: Life does funny things to people. One-time Radish frontman Ben Kweller's new release Ben Kweller is tender, fragile and devoted. This is Kweller’s most complete-sounding long-player yet, a fully-formed entity whereas his previous outings skipped playfully from one feel to the next. Combining touches of Ben Lee and Evan Dando in the songwriting and Ben Folds in its piano-heavy approach, Ben Kweller is highly sentimental, full of philosophical reflections of days gone by and the way life unfolds. Self-proclaimed masterpiece ‘Thirteen’ is a prime example of the former. The more upbeat ‘Penny On The Train Track’ tells of the reunion with a mischievous high-school friend, now a policeman, and the realisation that everyone, everywhere, is growing up. If there’s a criticism to be made of Ben Kweller, it's that it might be a little too straightforward in places, maybe even a little samey. A high percentage of its eleven songs are ballads or just slower numbers, rarely deviating from the path they initially set out on. The new, ‘mature’ sound is a pleasant addition to the Kweller arsenal, but after a while you yearn for a twist to the standard time signatures or a satisfied yell, something – anything - to show us that Kweller has mellowed because he wants to, and not because he’s forgotten how to do anything else. It arrives, eventually, on the final track ‘This Is War’, a gritty, grimy, foot-stomping rock number from the days of On My Way. Its placing at the album’s climax is like a final venting of rock ‘n’ roll steam, one which is contained throughout the album until the last chapter. It’s a just reward for those who prefer his more uptempo moments. You’d be hard pushed to argue that Ben Kweller is anything other than a beautiful, touching collection of songs, and one which marks an important rite of passage in one man’s career, even if it doesn’t always feel like his best work.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 11
REVIEWER: drownedinsound.com
DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST:Piers Faccini
TITLE: Tearing Sky (Ever Loving)
GENRE: FOLK/SS
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: I listen to music all the time. It's my job. Sometimes even good-to-great music sounds ho-hum to my weary ears. Then I get to listen to something totally unfamiliar that stops me in my tracks. Like this CD. Don't know much about the guy except what I hear, and what I hear is someone with a deft touch on the guitar, a pretty amazing voice (expressive with tonal slides and trills) and an organic fusion of britfolk, west african blues and a strong buckley influence (tim and jeff both). Very acoustic in instrumentation and recording tone, most songs laid back on the surface but taut and energetic below. Each song unfolds with beauty, with no sound out of place.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14
REVIEWER: Jim Manion/WFHB
DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST: Bobby Bare Jr.
TITLE: The Longest Meow (Bloodshot)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: The son of a Nashville Row country-music legend, the younger Bobby Bare has been turning out his own albums for years now, but it is here that he really comes into his own, mastering the album as art form top to bottom. Assembling a mighty cast of friends and fellow musicians (including My Morning Jacket's Jim James and Lambchop's Deanna Varagona), Bare set about to record a loose, rollicking album, and "The Longest Meow" succeeds on both counts. Beginning the album with the moody prelude "Bionic Beginning," which quickly segues into "The Heart Bionic," Bare brings out the big guns early, pulling us into his fantasy world. Bending and blending genre and convention, swaying from folker-whimsy to the multi-guitar attack of the outstanding "Borrow Your Cape," it is evident Bare's muse is both versatile and constantly in flux. On this album's second-to-last track, he goes so far as to offer a stripped-down, soulful take on the Pixies' alt-rock classic "Where is My Mind." Cast aside the misappropriated early career descriptions of Bare Jr. as an alt-country bard. Like Ryan Adams, Bare has no interest in genre prisons, and "The Longest Meow" sets about redefining both expectations and what it means to be an independent solo artist in the 21st century, flying well below the radar of popular culture. "The Longest Meow" is certainly in contention to be one of the greatest roots-rock driven albums of the year.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12
REVIEWER: livedaily.com
DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST: The Blow
TITLE: Paper Television (K)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: A new album by THE BLOW, K records cult popsters. 'Paper Television' is mischievously sassy, morphing electronic pop with verve, soul, humour, lashings of fresh hooks, furiously forward looking production & perfect songwriting. If Psapp were from Portland, Oregon then I think they'd maybe sound a little more like this. It's all in the minimalist approach I think. The songs are centered around clicks, pulses, skittering percussion, schizo bass bloops, manic synth stabs, all the while the twin pronged, street-smart birdsong vocals twist breathlessly around this free, magical music with gleeful abandon. It seems to take it's cue from fem fronted Scando-Indie pop but these two hugely talented ladies shape all the tunes into something really individual & ultimately precious.
FCC: 4 & 6 (BOTH “SHIT”)
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 7, 8, 10
DATE: 10.16.06
ARTIST: Thrift Store Cowboys
TITLE: Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping (self-released)
GENRE: COUNTRY/ALT
GRADE: A
REVIEW: With open, haunting music reminiscent of the desolate west Texas sky, Lubbock based Thrift Store Cowboys have captivated audiences from coast to coast with their dark, subtle lyrics and a blending of soaring violin draped against bottom-ended guitar and pedal steel sounds that spaghetti Western composer Ennio Morricone might envy. Following in the unique footsteps of a Lubbock legacy started by Buddy Holly, The Flatlanders, and Terry Allen, Thrift Store Cowboys add their own modern influences and flavor to the already rich musical heritage. Their new album, Lay Low While Crawling or Creeping, was recorded at Wavelab Studios in Tucson, Arizona, and produced by Craig Schumacher (Calexico, Iron and Wine, Neko Case.) The album will be released nationally in November 2006.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12
REVIEWER: team clearmont bio
posted by WFHB Music @ 8:01:00 PM
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