In British music critic Peter Doggett's fine book "Are You Ready for the Country: Elvis, Dylan, Parsons and the roots of country rock" (2000), I came upon this funny story by Levon Helm, winner of the 2010 (first ever) Grammy award for best Americana album for "Electric Dirt," about choosing a name in 1967 for his most famous group, The Band (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Class of 1994):
"We were going to call ourselves the Crackers [i.e. Southern black slang for poor white folks]. I was proud to come out of an Arkansas farm, and the other guys [all Canadians] weren't exactly rich, either. So we thought we should tell it like it is. And then we figured, no, maybe it will piss people off. Sometimes I wish we had gone with the Crackers, just to push it in their faces."
Fellow Band member Richard Manuel, who committed suicide by hanging after a post-gig conversation with Helm in Florida in 1986, said that they also wanted to call themselves The Honkies. Serious as they usually sounded, The Band certainly had a sense of humor. Guitarist Robbie Robertson, writer of perhaps the Band's greatest songs ("The Weight" & "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down") let Levon take the lead vocal on those numbers. A very good move, as it turned out.
Congratulations on the Grammy, Levon. Sure wish I could attend one of those Midnight Rambles on your rural property in upstate New York. That would be a wonderful & possibly weird evening of old-fashioned entertainment.
Showing posts with label Americana music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Americana music. Show all posts
Monday, February 1, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Time travel in Nashville: radio triggers imagination
Here's a snapshot of Weirdland, Music City Section:
Driving on a cool grey Sunday afternoon through tree-lined Richland, an old planned residential district on Nashville's southwest side near Elmington Park & West End Middle School, I was lucky enough to have my VW's radio tuned in to WRVU (91.1 FM), Vanderbilt University's fine community radio station. My soundtrack for that short excursion (from the carwash on Charlotte along undulating Bowling Avenue onto upscale Woodmont Boulevard unto mall-choked Hillsboro Pike) was provided by WRVU's "Spoonful of Bluegrass." The DJ was playing scratchy old recordings circa 1930 by Fiddlin' John Carson, the Skillet Lickers & other so-called hillbilly acts from a time before country music had acquired any respectability -- despite its widespread popularity.
I tried to imagine what that old weird America (that inspired Dylan & the Band's "Basement Tapes" in 1967-68) looked like, smelled like & sounded like. How did a winter Sabbath afternoon in Nashville go down in the Depression era? Back then, the woman who became my Grandma Crawford had to leave the farm in Arcadia, Wisconsin & go to work as a maid for a rich family in Whitefish Bay; Grandpa Crawford was glad to be employed at a CCC camp & therefore able to send money home to his widower Pa; Grandpa Mrazek fished for food & rode the rails. I cast my mind back to those hard, intense times before television kept people indoors getting fatter & lazier. Before most people had cars that isolate them from one another & inflate their egos to a dangerous size. I longed for a taste of life free of the techno-media-cocoon that threatens to smother us all. My imagination did not let me down.
I envisioned streetcars clanging along rutted roads bustling with pedestrians: embittered men whose heads were covered with felt fedoras & tweed caps, anxious woman in ankle-length skirts concealing petticoats & other elaborate underthings, hungry kids in woolen knickers & gingham pinafores. I smelled coal-burning furnaces blackening the skies, piles of horse manure in the gutters, cold rivers ready to receive the baptized come spring. I heard pianos playing in parlors, tobacco-stained saliva hitting brass spittoons in taverns, preachers summoning sinners to salvation on downtown streetcorners, gospel choirs harmonizing in vaulted redbrick tabernacles, a gunshot.
And then I returned to the present, a rush of traffic & crammed consumer aisles at the Harris Teeter grocery store. At least my radio & my imagination still work.
Driving on a cool grey Sunday afternoon through tree-lined Richland, an old planned residential district on Nashville's southwest side near Elmington Park & West End Middle School, I was lucky enough to have my VW's radio tuned in to WRVU (91.1 FM), Vanderbilt University's fine community radio station. My soundtrack for that short excursion (from the carwash on Charlotte along undulating Bowling Avenue onto upscale Woodmont Boulevard unto mall-choked Hillsboro Pike) was provided by WRVU's "Spoonful of Bluegrass." The DJ was playing scratchy old recordings circa 1930 by Fiddlin' John Carson, the Skillet Lickers & other so-called hillbilly acts from a time before country music had acquired any respectability -- despite its widespread popularity.
I tried to imagine what that old weird America (that inspired Dylan & the Band's "Basement Tapes" in 1967-68) looked like, smelled like & sounded like. How did a winter Sabbath afternoon in Nashville go down in the Depression era? Back then, the woman who became my Grandma Crawford had to leave the farm in Arcadia, Wisconsin & go to work as a maid for a rich family in Whitefish Bay; Grandpa Crawford was glad to be employed at a CCC camp & therefore able to send money home to his widower Pa; Grandpa Mrazek fished for food & rode the rails. I cast my mind back to those hard, intense times before television kept people indoors getting fatter & lazier. Before most people had cars that isolate them from one another & inflate their egos to a dangerous size. I longed for a taste of life free of the techno-media-cocoon that threatens to smother us all. My imagination did not let me down.
I envisioned streetcars clanging along rutted roads bustling with pedestrians: embittered men whose heads were covered with felt fedoras & tweed caps, anxious woman in ankle-length skirts concealing petticoats & other elaborate underthings, hungry kids in woolen knickers & gingham pinafores. I smelled coal-burning furnaces blackening the skies, piles of horse manure in the gutters, cold rivers ready to receive the baptized come spring. I heard pianos playing in parlors, tobacco-stained saliva hitting brass spittoons in taverns, preachers summoning sinners to salvation on downtown streetcorners, gospel choirs harmonizing in vaulted redbrick tabernacles, a gunshot.
And then I returned to the present, a rush of traffic & crammed consumer aisles at the Harris Teeter grocery store. At least my radio & my imagination still work.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Steve Earle makes it to age 55
Stephen Fain Earle turned 55 on January 17, 2010. Despite his past addictions & fascination with firearms, Steve managed to outlive his songwriting hero & hellraising mentor, fellow Texan Townes Van Zandt (who died at age 52 on New Year's Day 1997).
Steve covers several of Van Zandt's transcendental songs on the critically acclaimed 2009 tribute album "Townes." His son Justin Townes Earle is now a noteworthy musician in his own right. Steve's 6th wife (in 7 marriages - he has one double-ex), singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, is expecting their first child (together) quite soon.
Born in Virginia & raised in Texas, Steve Earle came of age in Nashville, but he never fit in with the conservative Music City establishment. In addition to his many great albums since 1986 ("Guitar Town"), Steve has worked as a record producer, a writer (of fiction, poetry & a play), a Sirius Satellite Radio DJ (the "Hardcore Troubadour" show on the Outlaw Country Channel) & even an actor, appearing in several episodes of HBO's "The Wire" as a recovering addict named Walon. Steve is also a high-profile activist on anti-war & death-penalty issues. He kicked heroin & crack-cocaine while incarcerated in the mid-1990s, following a 2-year period that he described with typical dry wit as his "vacation in the ghetto." Steve frequently collaborates with other musicians, including Patti Smith (he plays banjo on her cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), folk legend & fellow leftist Joan Baez, and the bluegrass master Del McCoury.
Here are a few more fun facts about Steve Earle, a/k/a the Hardcore Troubadour:
* He has been nominated for 14 Grammy awards, in country & folk categories (it's high time he won one too, I reckon);
* He was given the 2004 "Spirit of Americana" Free Speech Award by the Americana Music Association & the First Amendment Center.
* He's the subject of the documentary film "Just an American Boy," directed by Amos Poe, & the fine biography "Steve Earle: Fearless Heart, Outlaw Poet" by David McGee.
I encourage those of you who don't know his earthy yet sensitive music to check out "Copperhead Road" (1988) & "Transcendental Blues" (2000). Happy Birthday, Steve! I raised a toast to you, your art & your political courage Sunday night in Nashville.
Steve covers several of Van Zandt's transcendental songs on the critically acclaimed 2009 tribute album "Townes." His son Justin Townes Earle is now a noteworthy musician in his own right. Steve's 6th wife (in 7 marriages - he has one double-ex), singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, is expecting their first child (together) quite soon.
Born in Virginia & raised in Texas, Steve Earle came of age in Nashville, but he never fit in with the conservative Music City establishment. In addition to his many great albums since 1986 ("Guitar Town"), Steve has worked as a record producer, a writer (of fiction, poetry & a play), a Sirius Satellite Radio DJ (the "Hardcore Troubadour" show on the Outlaw Country Channel) & even an actor, appearing in several episodes of HBO's "The Wire" as a recovering addict named Walon. Steve is also a high-profile activist on anti-war & death-penalty issues. He kicked heroin & crack-cocaine while incarcerated in the mid-1990s, following a 2-year period that he described with typical dry wit as his "vacation in the ghetto." Steve frequently collaborates with other musicians, including Patti Smith (he plays banjo on her cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), folk legend & fellow leftist Joan Baez, and the bluegrass master Del McCoury.
Here are a few more fun facts about Steve Earle, a/k/a the Hardcore Troubadour:
* He has been nominated for 14 Grammy awards, in country & folk categories (it's high time he won one too, I reckon);
* He was given the 2004 "Spirit of Americana" Free Speech Award by the Americana Music Association & the First Amendment Center.
* He's the subject of the documentary film "Just an American Boy," directed by Amos Poe, & the fine biography "Steve Earle: Fearless Heart, Outlaw Poet" by David McGee.
I encourage those of you who don't know his earthy yet sensitive music to check out "Copperhead Road" (1988) & "Transcendental Blues" (2000). Happy Birthday, Steve! I raised a toast to you, your art & your political courage Sunday night in Nashville.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The Infamous Stringdusters pack The Station Inn
On Wednesday, January 13th The Infamous Stringdusters charmed a nearly full house at The Station Inn, warming us up on a chilly night in Nashville. That six-pack of young bluegrass-inspired acoustic harmonizers even brought their own microbeer brand from Virginia (see my mini-review below). Their performance was intoxicating in a sober kind of way---a bit too clean, controlled & contrived for my taste. But then I'm a sucker for Appalachian murder ballads & honky-tonk grit. Anyway, I went as a proxy for my German pal Raphael, a TIS superfan busy working on an Arizona cattle ranch.
The Infamous Stringdusters lineup is a non-Dixie geographical smorgasbord: the memebers hail from Idaho, Colorado, Wisconsin, upstate New York & Long Island. From stage left to right, the players strum, pick or slap the following instruments: banjo, dobro, fiddle, double bass, mandolin & 6-string guitar. They play their acoustic instruments well & with enthusiasm. Their repertoire consists of originals in a bluegrass boogie style, with lead vocals embellished by 2- & 3-part harmonies. The Stringdusters' most acclaimed song so far is the title track to their 2007 debut album "Fork in the Road." They swap solos with jam-band gusto--I imagine that both Bill Monroe & Jerry Garcia would dig these guys.
The Stringdusters write and perform with levity, as in the whimsical tune "You Can't Handle the Truth," but they mix in some moments of gravity. For example, the guys dedicated a bluesy compassionate number to the people of Haiti, ravaged by an earthquake this week. Instrumentals & covers are thrown in for variety's sake. They have an admirable rapport with the audience--bassist/singer Travis Book even thanked a lady near the stage for her tropical perfume. His big grin & blissed-out guffaws, however, wore thin on me.
The second set featured a lovefest with guest singer/songwriter/guitarist Sarah Siskind, who's had a song covered by the great Alison Krauss & whose boyfriend is in the band. She told their meet-cute story about an open invitation to jam at a festival in the Rockies, but her songs sounded mediocre to my jaded ears. I couldn't help but think that the obscure part-timers in Folkswagon (from Racine, WI) put on a better, more moving show than these full-time professionals.
The Infamous Stringdusters are doing a weekly January residency at the venerable venue on Twelfth Avenue South, where the audience was overwhelmingly comprised of 20-somethings apparently turned off by the pop pablum that still dominates the mainstream media. In between a heavy tour schedule roaming the byways of America by van, the band released "The Infamous Stringdusters" album on Sugar Hill Records in 2008. Check them out if you like fine string music with pleasant harmonies.
Insider Info: Prompted perhaps by my flattery, Stringduster Andy Falco (guitar/vox) told me that their special guest next week (Jan. 20) will be the acclaimed country star Dierks Bentley. But the boys are trying to keep it on the down-low for fear of a mob scene at The Station Inn, so don't tell anyone else. The club only seats 200 people & the bar is tiny.
Beer Review: I tried the Starr Hill (Virginia micro-brewery) Jomo Lager that the Stringdusters supplied for this gig, but I found it a bit bland compared to the piquant local Yazoo Dos Perros ale. At least the lager was a buck cheaper than the ale ($3 vs. $4 per bottle). I got drunk & lost a leather driving glove--my second this month! What does that Freudian slip suggest?
The Infamous Stringdusters lineup is a non-Dixie geographical smorgasbord: the memebers hail from Idaho, Colorado, Wisconsin, upstate New York & Long Island. From stage left to right, the players strum, pick or slap the following instruments: banjo, dobro, fiddle, double bass, mandolin & 6-string guitar. They play their acoustic instruments well & with enthusiasm. Their repertoire consists of originals in a bluegrass boogie style, with lead vocals embellished by 2- & 3-part harmonies. The Stringdusters' most acclaimed song so far is the title track to their 2007 debut album "Fork in the Road." They swap solos with jam-band gusto--I imagine that both Bill Monroe & Jerry Garcia would dig these guys.
The Stringdusters write and perform with levity, as in the whimsical tune "You Can't Handle the Truth," but they mix in some moments of gravity. For example, the guys dedicated a bluesy compassionate number to the people of Haiti, ravaged by an earthquake this week. Instrumentals & covers are thrown in for variety's sake. They have an admirable rapport with the audience--bassist/singer Travis Book even thanked a lady near the stage for her tropical perfume. His big grin & blissed-out guffaws, however, wore thin on me.
The second set featured a lovefest with guest singer/songwriter/guitarist Sarah Siskind, who's had a song covered by the great Alison Krauss & whose boyfriend is in the band. She told their meet-cute story about an open invitation to jam at a festival in the Rockies, but her songs sounded mediocre to my jaded ears. I couldn't help but think that the obscure part-timers in Folkswagon (from Racine, WI) put on a better, more moving show than these full-time professionals.
The Infamous Stringdusters are doing a weekly January residency at the venerable venue on Twelfth Avenue South, where the audience was overwhelmingly comprised of 20-somethings apparently turned off by the pop pablum that still dominates the mainstream media. In between a heavy tour schedule roaming the byways of America by van, the band released "The Infamous Stringdusters" album on Sugar Hill Records in 2008. Check them out if you like fine string music with pleasant harmonies.
Insider Info: Prompted perhaps by my flattery, Stringduster Andy Falco (guitar/vox) told me that their special guest next week (Jan. 20) will be the acclaimed country star Dierks Bentley. But the boys are trying to keep it on the down-low for fear of a mob scene at The Station Inn, so don't tell anyone else. The club only seats 200 people & the bar is tiny.
Beer Review: I tried the Starr Hill (Virginia micro-brewery) Jomo Lager that the Stringdusters supplied for this gig, but I found it a bit bland compared to the piquant local Yazoo Dos Perros ale. At least the lager was a buck cheaper than the ale ($3 vs. $4 per bottle). I got drunk & lost a leather driving glove--my second this month! What does that Freudian slip suggest?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Brit magazine's list of top 2009 Americana albums
I know I still have a lot to learn about the relatively recent & very elastic music genre known as "Americana" (a term first popularized circa 1994), but I hadn't heard of half of the artists listed below. Any favorite records of yours among them?
The January 2010 issue of "Uncut", a hip London-based magazine, offers this odd list of the Best Americana Albums of 2009:
1. The Low Anthem - "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin" (cutesy title, but a nice band name)
2. Alela Diane - "To Be Still"
3. The Duke & the King - "Nothing Gold Can Stay"
4. The Felice Brothers - "Yonder Is the Clock"
5. Richard Fonatine - "We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River"
6. Levon Helm - "Electric Dirt" (still rockin' 41 years after The Band's debut)
7. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "Beware"
8. Neko Case - "Middle Cyclone" (to know her is to love her, and I do indeed)
9. Monsters of Folk - [eponymous title] (a rare supergroup that didn't disappoint)
10. M. Ward - "Hold Time" (one of the Folk Monsters scores twice)
11. Patterson Hood - "Murdering Oscar"
12. Steve Earle - "Townes" (a moving tribute by a master to his dead mentor)
13. A A Bondy - "When the Devil's Loose"
14. Arbouretum - "Song of the Pearl" (why the British spelling? Very un-Americana)
15. Guy Clark - "Somedays the Song Writes You" (a cool Dualtone release by perhaps Townes Van Zandt's best friend, after Guy's wife Susanna Clark)
16. Kris Kristofferson - "Closer to the Bone" (groovy video for the title track too)
17. Deer Tick - "Born on Flag Day"
18. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - [eponymous title]
19. Devon Sproule - "Don't Hurry for Heaven" (I'll try not to, sir)
20. The Handsome Family - "Honey Moon"
Notably absent from those UK editors' selections: Buddy & Julie Miller's "Written in Chalk", Wilco's "Wilco (The Album)", Justin Townes Earle's "Midnight at the Movies," The Avett Brothers et al. Nominate your own best Americana records of all time here. Mine just might be Bob Dylan's 1966 album "Blonde on Blonde" (recorded in Nashville with such session players as Charlie McCoy on harmonica,etc.).
The January 2010 issue of "Uncut", a hip London-based magazine, offers this odd list of the Best Americana Albums of 2009:
1. The Low Anthem - "Oh My God, Charlie Darwin" (cutesy title, but a nice band name)
2. Alela Diane - "To Be Still"
3. The Duke & the King - "Nothing Gold Can Stay"
4. The Felice Brothers - "Yonder Is the Clock"
5. Richard Fonatine - "We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River"
6. Levon Helm - "Electric Dirt" (still rockin' 41 years after The Band's debut)
7. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "Beware"
8. Neko Case - "Middle Cyclone" (to know her is to love her, and I do indeed)
9. Monsters of Folk - [eponymous title] (a rare supergroup that didn't disappoint)
10. M. Ward - "Hold Time" (one of the Folk Monsters scores twice)
11. Patterson Hood - "Murdering Oscar"
12. Steve Earle - "Townes" (a moving tribute by a master to his dead mentor)
13. A A Bondy - "When the Devil's Loose"
14. Arbouretum - "Song of the Pearl" (why the British spelling? Very un-Americana)
15. Guy Clark - "Somedays the Song Writes You" (a cool Dualtone release by perhaps Townes Van Zandt's best friend, after Guy's wife Susanna Clark)
16. Kris Kristofferson - "Closer to the Bone" (groovy video for the title track too)
17. Deer Tick - "Born on Flag Day"
18. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit - [eponymous title]
19. Devon Sproule - "Don't Hurry for Heaven" (I'll try not to, sir)
20. The Handsome Family - "Honey Moon"
Notably absent from those UK editors' selections: Buddy & Julie Miller's "Written in Chalk", Wilco's "Wilco (The Album)", Justin Townes Earle's "Midnight at the Movies," The Avett Brothers et al. Nominate your own best Americana records of all time here. Mine just might be Bob Dylan's 1966 album "Blonde on Blonde" (recorded in Nashville with such session players as Charlie McCoy on harmonica,etc.).
New York Times' narrow notion of Nashville
In the Sunday (January 3, 2010) Arts section, the NY Times featured an article by Jon Caramanica headlined "Nashville Inches, Ever So Grudgingly, Into the Future." In that reductive piece Caramanica makes several controversial claims, including this one: "[C]ountry has been the most commercially significant genre with the smallest amount of stylistic innovation. In addition it's been particularly slow on the uptake with digital and social media, making it less accessible to younger audiences, and more deaf to their desires."
Caramanica dismisses Taylor Swift's massive crossover success as being "marked with an asterisk" & he never even bothers to mention such breakout young artists as Miranda Lambert & Lady Antebellum. Instead, he focuses on tired old stories, like the travails of the Dixie Chicks, who were "all but excommunicated" from country radio after their public attack on Pres. Bush in 2002. "It felt like a warning shot to upstarts of any kind: Thank you for coming, Nashville will neutralize you now," he concludes.
Describing Music Row as "lumbering, stubborn" & "the last vestige of the record industry as it used to be," Caramanica completely ignores the vibrant Americana scene in Nashville. What do those whom he refers to as "the city's oligarchy" make of that Yankee journalist's comments? I'll follow the Music City press & let you know--should the industry's mouthpieces or local music journalists here bother to react at all. But I reckon that those folks have grown impervious to attacks by the Yankee intelligentsia.
Caramanica dismisses Taylor Swift's massive crossover success as being "marked with an asterisk" & he never even bothers to mention such breakout young artists as Miranda Lambert & Lady Antebellum. Instead, he focuses on tired old stories, like the travails of the Dixie Chicks, who were "all but excommunicated" from country radio after their public attack on Pres. Bush in 2002. "It felt like a warning shot to upstarts of any kind: Thank you for coming, Nashville will neutralize you now," he concludes.
Describing Music Row as "lumbering, stubborn" & "the last vestige of the record industry as it used to be," Caramanica completely ignores the vibrant Americana scene in Nashville. What do those whom he refers to as "the city's oligarchy" make of that Yankee journalist's comments? I'll follow the Music City press & let you know--should the industry's mouthpieces or local music journalists here bother to react at all. But I reckon that those folks have grown impervious to attacks by the Yankee intelligentsia.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Townes Van Zandt's 1969 Carnegie Hall concert on Dualtone
Late last night I was reading John Kruth's biography "To Live's to Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt" when I came across this passage on p. 97: "A Gentle Evening with Townes Van Zandt", finally released in 2002, reveals a set of nine songs [plus "A Joke"] that Van Zandt performed that evening [in 1969 at Carnegie Hall]." Hallelujah for that!
Issued by Nashville's hip Dualtone Vintage label (see dualtone.com; price: $13.00), the album opens with the controversial "Talking KKK Blues" & includes such classic TVZ numbers as "Tecumseh Valley," a heartbreaking tune about a prostitute, as well as his minor-key waltz "Rake" & the moving "She Came and She Touched Me." This first-ever live recording of Townes, in an unusual venue for him, closes with a cover: "Ira Hayes," Peter LaFarge's ballad about the tragic alcoholic Pima Indian, a flag-raising hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima. That song was a 1964 hit for the compassionate Man in Black. Oddly enough, TVZ was followed onstage at that weird New York show by an equally brilliant fellow Poppy Records artist, the legendary black comedian Dick Gregory.
Kruth goes on to quote Wisconsin folksinger Bill Camplin, who offers this insight about hippies & Van Zandt: "Townes didn't strike me as much of a hippie at all. What makes a hippie? Being a free spirit? Townes was only interested in heaven once he was down in hell and looking up at it." Indeed. And the music world is a better place for his having described so well in song his journeys to hell & his visions of heaven.
Issued by Nashville's hip Dualtone Vintage label (see dualtone.com; price: $13.00), the album opens with the controversial "Talking KKK Blues" & includes such classic TVZ numbers as "Tecumseh Valley," a heartbreaking tune about a prostitute, as well as his minor-key waltz "Rake" & the moving "She Came and She Touched Me." This first-ever live recording of Townes, in an unusual venue for him, closes with a cover: "Ira Hayes," Peter LaFarge's ballad about the tragic alcoholic Pima Indian, a flag-raising hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima. That song was a 1964 hit for the compassionate Man in Black. Oddly enough, TVZ was followed onstage at that weird New York show by an equally brilliant fellow Poppy Records artist, the legendary black comedian Dick Gregory.
Kruth goes on to quote Wisconsin folksinger Bill Camplin, who offers this insight about hippies & Van Zandt: "Townes didn't strike me as much of a hippie at all. What makes a hippie? Being a free spirit? Townes was only interested in heaven once he was down in hell and looking up at it." Indeed. And the music world is a better place for his having described so well in song his journeys to hell & his visions of heaven.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
My Year in Music (2009 edition)
I ain't ashamed to admit that I wept hard when my 18-year-old cat & best pal ever, Miss Miko-san, died in February. But then Wilco "(The Album)" came along & gave us another "sonic shoulder to cry on." Fortunately, I had more cause for joy than sorrow this year. My Song of the Year award goes to Neko Case for "People Gotta Lot of Nerve" (from her brilliant 2009 album "Middle Cyclone"), a perfect pop tune with an animal-rights/wildlife-revenge theme.
Both of my favorite concerts occurred outdoors in the warm Wisconsin summertime:
* Justin Townes Earle twanged up Cathedral Square in downtown Milwaukee, a benefit for WMSE-FM ("anti-Established in 1981"). In addition to performing originals by the gifted son of hardcore troubadour Steve Earle, JTE & his mustachioed cartoonish seed-cap-wearin' hipster-hillbilly sidekick covered Mance Lipscomb & Hank Williams songs. [The Grand Ole Opry has sinned--time to let dead Hank back in.]
* Shemekia Copeland (daughter of Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland) shouted & growled the blues with a confidence far beyond her 30 years. She even stepped into the crowd sans microphone at the Racine Zoo's natural amphitheater. Backed by a tight band grooving hard on the moody murder ballad "Never Goin' Back to Memphis," Shemekia shared her powerful talent with an appreciative crowd of mostly whitefolks. God, she has soul to burn!
Watch for Racine's own folk 'n' rollers Folkswagon, a fun new band that inspired my move to Nashville. Their moving, heartfelt Thursday night sets at J.J. McAuliffe's bar on Monument Square, proved that Folkswagon & its charismatic singer/songwriter Rachelle Laundrie have a promising future. They're about to release a debut record, "Fresh Fruit"--buy it if you can find it. Better yet, catch them live the next time you're near Racine, Wisconsin.
Bob Dylan dropped a bomb, the bizarre & abominable charity project "Christmas in the Heart, but he redeemed himself with "Together Through Life," a bluesy bucket of guts that opens ominously with "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'." Thanks, Jack Frost (Zimmy's producer persona)--keep on nippin' at our ears!
Honorable mention goes to fellow Badger resident Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons, who put on a fantastic December show at the Exit/In in Nashville. Check out his 2009 album "Death Won't Send a Letter" for some fine alt-country/retro-rock sounds.
Best of all, I discovered my mission on planet Earth this year. While acting as an agent for Kenosha bands Ash Can School (original rock) & The Hot Club of Rambler City (gypsy jazz), I devised a prickly alter ego named Joe Impresario. A showbiz wannabe, keen cultural critic & ecstatic poet all in one, Joe's motto is "Music is Life, y'all--Dig It!" After turning 49 in October, I took his advice. I abandoned my condo on the Root River in Ratscene U$A and hightailed it to Dixieland. I've found a temporary home at Music City Hostel, where American bohemians, budget travelers & international adventurers rub shoulders, entertained by Google, Ron & Tracee's tiny Boston terrier hostel mascot.
Ah, the old reliable geographical cure saves me again. Now it's time to convert a weird epiphany ("Go South, man!") into a paying profession. God knows I'm tryin', y'all. Wish me luck 'cause I'm a-gonna need plenty in this shark pool. What does the New Decade have in store for me, for you, for our culture? Stay tuned.
Dedicated to Vic Chesnutt (1964-2009) & Miko-chan (1990-2009). Rest in peace.
Both of my favorite concerts occurred outdoors in the warm Wisconsin summertime:
* Justin Townes Earle twanged up Cathedral Square in downtown Milwaukee, a benefit for WMSE-FM ("anti-Established in 1981"). In addition to performing originals by the gifted son of hardcore troubadour Steve Earle, JTE & his mustachioed cartoonish seed-cap-wearin' hipster-hillbilly sidekick covered Mance Lipscomb & Hank Williams songs. [The Grand Ole Opry has sinned--time to let dead Hank back in.]
* Shemekia Copeland (daughter of Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland) shouted & growled the blues with a confidence far beyond her 30 years. She even stepped into the crowd sans microphone at the Racine Zoo's natural amphitheater. Backed by a tight band grooving hard on the moody murder ballad "Never Goin' Back to Memphis," Shemekia shared her powerful talent with an appreciative crowd of mostly whitefolks. God, she has soul to burn!
Watch for Racine's own folk 'n' rollers Folkswagon, a fun new band that inspired my move to Nashville. Their moving, heartfelt Thursday night sets at J.J. McAuliffe's bar on Monument Square, proved that Folkswagon & its charismatic singer/songwriter Rachelle Laundrie have a promising future. They're about to release a debut record, "Fresh Fruit"--buy it if you can find it. Better yet, catch them live the next time you're near Racine, Wisconsin.
Bob Dylan dropped a bomb, the bizarre & abominable charity project "Christmas in the Heart, but he redeemed himself with "Together Through Life," a bluesy bucket of guts that opens ominously with "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'." Thanks, Jack Frost (Zimmy's producer persona)--keep on nippin' at our ears!
Honorable mention goes to fellow Badger resident Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons, who put on a fantastic December show at the Exit/In in Nashville. Check out his 2009 album "Death Won't Send a Letter" for some fine alt-country/retro-rock sounds.
Best of all, I discovered my mission on planet Earth this year. While acting as an agent for Kenosha bands Ash Can School (original rock) & The Hot Club of Rambler City (gypsy jazz), I devised a prickly alter ego named Joe Impresario. A showbiz wannabe, keen cultural critic & ecstatic poet all in one, Joe's motto is "Music is Life, y'all--Dig It!" After turning 49 in October, I took his advice. I abandoned my condo on the Root River in Ratscene U$A and hightailed it to Dixieland. I've found a temporary home at Music City Hostel, where American bohemians, budget travelers & international adventurers rub shoulders, entertained by Google, Ron & Tracee's tiny Boston terrier hostel mascot.
Ah, the old reliable geographical cure saves me again. Now it's time to convert a weird epiphany ("Go South, man!") into a paying profession. God knows I'm tryin', y'all. Wish me luck 'cause I'm a-gonna need plenty in this shark pool. What does the New Decade have in store for me, for you, for our culture? Stay tuned.
Dedicated to Vic Chesnutt (1964-2009) & Miko-chan (1990-2009). Rest in peace.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Paying my dues in Music City
Down But Not Out in Nashville by Joe Crawford Mrazek (Dec. 27, 2009)
I've been cursing (mostly under my breath) at having to play part-time janitor & handyman at Music City Hostel in exchange for my accomodations, which are admittedly quite comfortable now that the owner has upgraded me to a bedroom in a condo instead of bunk in a claustrophobic dorm room. I take solace from this fact: Kris Kristofferson was working as a janitor at Columbia Records Nashville studios when, in late 1965, Bob Dylan showed up to record his masterpiece double album, "Blonde on Blonde" (1966). I can only go up the ladder now, right?
At least I'm within walking distance of Music Row. And I recently managed to get inside a studio, Bayou Recording on Seventeenth Street, to observe a demo-record session. I'm determined to make it as a promoter & manager of Americana artists. I know I have the skills & the savvy for this difficult mission, so nothing gets me down for long anymore. I try to look at my apparent humiliation ("I got a law degree for this shit?") as Zen lessons in modesty or a tonic against arrogance, which I am prone to. Wish me luck, y'all. I'll need lots of it.
I've been cursing (mostly under my breath) at having to play part-time janitor & handyman at Music City Hostel in exchange for my accomodations, which are admittedly quite comfortable now that the owner has upgraded me to a bedroom in a condo instead of bunk in a claustrophobic dorm room. I take solace from this fact: Kris Kristofferson was working as a janitor at Columbia Records Nashville studios when, in late 1965, Bob Dylan showed up to record his masterpiece double album, "Blonde on Blonde" (1966). I can only go up the ladder now, right?
At least I'm within walking distance of Music Row. And I recently managed to get inside a studio, Bayou Recording on Seventeenth Street, to observe a demo-record session. I'm determined to make it as a promoter & manager of Americana artists. I know I have the skills & the savvy for this difficult mission, so nothing gets me down for long anymore. I try to look at my apparent humiliation ("I got a law degree for this shit?") as Zen lessons in modesty or a tonic against arrogance, which I am prone to. Wish me luck, y'all. I'll need lots of it.
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