Straylings

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Not often we get asked to mention a Bahraini/Austrian/Londonian duo but stranger things have happened. Straylings are Dane Zeera (the Bahraini/Austrian half) and Guitarist Oliver Drake (from London indeed) and they have come up with a fine sound that harks back to the old Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra days with a scuzzy Mazzy Star feel. They’re playing London’s Barfly this Saturday 14th. No sign of any Scottish gigs so far but have a listen to the single, Carver’s Kicks and enjoy.

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Carver’s Kicks

The Lost Pines, Downtown Mystic, Sean Giddings.

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The Lost Pines. Sweet Honey.

Just what we need in the depth of winter is some sweet country music that will warm the cockles of the heart and remind us of summer days and sunny skies. Fortunately The Lost Pines provide just that, perhaps it’s the hot climes of their native Austin, Texas that infuse the grooves of this album (well, if it had grooves) with an infectious warm humour.
A relatively young band they’ve gone from busking to recording in just two years with this second album being produced by the legendary Lloyd Maines. Acoustically driven they have their roots in bluegrass and folk with all 14 songs here written by themselves. While some of the songs do have a rustic feel the overall sense is that of the country pickers who over the years have bothered the popular charts, acts like Hank Williams and Bob Wills. All of the songs have memorable toe tapping melodies while the instrumentalists variously decorate or blaze away with the stand out showcase being Out of the Rain. Over the very assured and at times thrilling playing the vocals by Talia Bryce and Christian Ward drive home the sheer quality on show here. Hot picking, hot singing and hot songs. Sweet.

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Out Of the Rain

Downtown Mystic. Standing Still.

If sweet down-home acoustic picking and playing doesn’t rock your boat then why not fire up the old adrenaline with a shot of good old fashioned full blooded American rock’n’roll. The opening song on Downtown Mystic’s Standing Still certainly fits the bill here. Backdoor is a great rocker with gnarled guitars done in the best Stones’ style while Downtown Mystic mainman Robert Allen hammers home a ribald rock and roll story. Even better is Hard Enough where he’s backed up by Garry Tallent and Max Weinberg from the E Street Band. This song is a killer with Allen doing a great take on Springsteen. Of the 14 songs here there are several other belters, Modern Ways pummels away with a Chuck Berry riff while History reclaims the art of great rock’n’roll piano. Elsewhere Allen recalls the retro sound of the later incarnation of the Flamin’ Groovies on Better Day which has a superb guitar sound. The downside here is that the album is somewhat uneven. A full set of songs such as mentioned above could have produced an album that would sit quite comfortably with the likes of Dave Edmunds’ Rockpile albums. Unfortunately there are a few of Allen ‘s slower songs that leave one a little bit underwhelmed.

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Hard Enough

Sean Giddings. The Morning Greys.

In contrast to the in your face rockers above, the debut disc from adopted Californian Sean Giddings The Morning Greys is a muted affair. The inner sleeve pictures Giddings on a path in autumn and autumnal is a good description of his sound. With only six songs it’s a short season but at the end one is left with the impression that given time Giddings could come up with material to rival Bon Iver, a comparison that begs to be made after listening to this. He plays all instruments apart from the drums and has a light, ethereal voice and admits to being influenced by the likes of Mumford and Sons. The result is a collection of songs that have a resigned, at times despairing air to them. From his publicity it appears that Giddings was due to marry however it fell apart and he threw himself into his music. Perhaps it’s a bit too pop psychology to say so but this information again made us think of Bon Iver and his lost Emma, real or not.
Despite the downbeat message the songs are lush with rippling guitars and washes of keyboards over which Giddings sings beautifully. While they are all fully formed and well worth listening the stand out listen is All It Takes. A wonderful gem of a song, weightless, sparkling and dare I say it, captivating One to watch out for.

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All It Takes

Madison Violet. The Good in Goodbye.

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Back again after the festive break what better way to start Blabber’n’Smoke’s year than with a review of this Canadian duo with strong Scottish roots who are appearing as part of the forthcoming Celtic Connections.
Madison Violet moved on from their early pop rock sound (as Mad Violet) to embrace an earthier and countrified approach on their last release, No Fool For Trying. The result was almost universal praise with Americana UK calling them the best thing to come out of Canada since the McGarrigles. While we wouldn’t go so far as to say that there’s no doubt that they seemed set to become one of the bigger names on the Americana circuit.
Two years later The Good in Goodbye revisits territory covered in No Fool For Trying and is again produced by Les Cooper who also contributes various stringed instruments. With such a winning formula the old adage “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” applies and anyone who enjoyed the last album will certainly enjoy this.
Brenley MacEarchen and Lisa MacIssaac, (good Scots names) both sing wonderfully with their voices folding into each other on their harmonies. Cooper’s production is sympathetic and crystal clear while avoiding any sense of an airbrushed studio gloss. The songs themselves range from the country hoe-down of the traditional Cindy Cindy, the Stray Gator thunk of Come As You Are to the relatively unadorned celebration of a centenarian relative called Christy Ellen Francis that is sure to be a crowd pleaser (with the audience singing at the end) at their gigs. With just enough mandolin, Dobro and fiddle to satisfy the folk crowd while maintaining a very radio friendly sound expect to hear songs from this album appear on your favourite Americana, country and folk radio shows. Touring the UK over January and February they appear at Celtic Connections on 31st January and the album is available next week.

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Come As You are

Lies, damn lies and statistics.

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The kind folk at wordpress sent me this. An “annual report” detailing activity on the site. So in the interests of transparency you can read it below. And after the seasonal break expect more reviews and if I can summon up the energy some choice live gig reports. As always thanks to all who read this blog and special thanks to all artists who have considered us worthy enough to comment on their fine efforts.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,600 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Chilli Dogs. “On A Roll”

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There was a movie years ago called “Support Your Local Sheriff” and I’m sure that over the years there have been numerous “support your local band” slogans thrown around. Well, here’s our turn to hold that banner high. While gig going and seeing your heroes on stage is as fine a thrill as can be had there’s much to be said for having a local band that you can drop in on and depend on for a fine night of well played and well selected songs. Cover versions perhaps but played with dexterity and a finely honed sense of homage to the masters. Best heard in a bar, an indulgence for the band (who probably all have day jobs) and for the audience (for whom beers will flow) but ultimately all part of the musical mindscape that folk who read blogs like this inhabit.
The Chilli Dogs are one such conglomeration. They dwell on the classic Americana songbook (folk, blues, jazz, country, singer songwriter, L.A. canyon rock and all points between) and can usually be seen and heard in the folk and drinking dens of Edinburgh. Back in the days they would be so local as to be only available to local folk but due to the wonders of digital recording they’ve unveiled an album that shamelessly exposes them to the wider world, to their credit they avoid blushes and display their wares with a flourish.
Recorded in a living room the album features ten Chilli Dogs in various permutations on 15 songs written by artists as varied as Lowell George, Blind Blake, The Grateful Dead, John Prine and Sonny Boy Williamson. The basic sound is acoustic, string based music although there is some fine electric guitar from Jonathon Hearn. Fiddles blaze, guitars resonate and slide, accordions wheeze and over all this lead vocals are swapped from song to song. In fact the varied menu does its best to approximate a gig set list so that one minute you’re in Louisiana Cajun country and the next grooving to a nasty Chicago blues groove. With the opportunity to flesh out the bones of their acoustic pub sets there are some fine touches such as the organ on Help Me and the revivalist tent sounds on The Old Purple Tin, a tremendous demon drink sound (originally by The Alabama 3). With the majority of the songs covered here familiar to anyone with a decent record collection The Chilli Dogs don’t claim to improve on the originals but there’s no denying the sense of fun and joy they’ve had recording this. Songs like Before I Grow too Old, a Fats Domino song but here using the Tommy McLain arrangement from the tremendous Charlie Gillet compilation Another Saturday Night, show that they know their stuff. The best is the closing arrangement of No More Cane on the Brazos where the whole ensemble join in the singing bringing a fine little album to a fine end.
The album is a perfect souvenir for anyone who catches the band live and in the spirit of the opening sentence above well recommended for anyone wanting to support some local musicians. The album is available at their gigs, the next one at the Royal Oak this Thursday. Alternatively you can download it
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No More Cane On The Brazos

Kimmie Rhodes. Miracles On Christmas Day.

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So it’s that time of year again when cashpoints ring and Christmas music comes tumbling out of everywhere. Here at Blabber’n’Smoke we’re a little bit curmudgeonly when it comes to these seasonal offerings. With the exceptions of the granddaddy of all Christmas albums, Phil Spector’s a Christmas Gift To You and John Fahey’s The New Possibility there’s not a Christmas album that we’d really sit down and listen to. In fact with the vast majority of them we’d rather stuff our ears with stuffing and hunker down with the turkey and hope it all goes away.
So here we have Texan singer and songwriter Kimmie Rhodes’ Miracles On Christmas Day. First thought on reading the bio and finding out that it was originally released in November 2010 and that it is re-released next week is either that this is cashing in or an astute awareness that this time last year most of us in the UK were snowbound. No matter, what does it sound like?
Well, for a Christmas album it’s not half bad. Of the 12 songs nine of them are composed by Rhodes and she certainly captures that child like sense of Christmas wonderment so beloved of Hollywood and TV admen. Semi devotional and glistening with sparkling guitars and keyboard songs like the opening Miracles On Christmas Day and The Toymaker’s Hands drip with seasonal sentiment and as such wouldn’t really be listened to outwith the Christmas window. Indeed it does beg the question of what to do with a Christmas album as one is unlikely to grab one from the shelf mid summer and stick it on. However, as Christmas songs go these are immaculately played and Rhodes actually manages to fit in a few that veer away from the template. Wake Up Sleepy Town is a superb Tex-Mex ballad with Joel Guzman of Los Super Seven doing his best Flaco Jiminez impression. Her version of Patty Griffin’s Mary is given a powerful interpretation while her rendition of What Child Is This with wintry sound effects and set to the music of Greensleeves is very evocative. Listening to this reminds us that while many folk might never have known of the late Bert Jansch his version of Christina Rosseti’s In The Bleak Midwinter is now a staple of many family Christmases due to its inclusion on numerous Christmas compilations.
So who would buy this? Kimmie Rhodes fans for sure. For anyone else that’s looking for some music to get into the spirit it does conjure up a Christmas feeling and it’s a million miles better than the usual retreads.
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Wake Up Sleepy Town

Craig Finn Solo

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Craig Finn of The Hold Steady announced in July he was recording a solo album. “I had written a bunch of songs that were outside of the norm for The Hold Steady, a little quieter and perhaps more narrative,” says Finn. “I wanted to gain some experience and insight into the process of making a record by working with new people.”
Here’s the first result, a limited edition single released for the USA’s “Black Friday” commerce fest. You can listen to ‘Honolulu Blues’ below. Going by this the album should be well worth a listen.

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Honolulu Blues

Movember Musings

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Movember? Well I didn’t grow a moustache bit I did spend some time listening to these.

Society. A Crooked Mile.

Another UK crew in thrall to the sounds of the States, Society have a jangled harmonious approach to the genre topped off with some nice harmonies. As such this is country pop/rock of the type that Graham Nash excelled in all those years ago given a delivery not too dissimilar from Glasgow country rockers Kassidy. A trio consisting of Matt wise, F. Scott Kenny and Ben Lancaster providing guitars, mandolin, percussion and bass they are ably assisted on the album by a clutch of players who provide pedal steel and various keyboards which does raise the album into another realm giving them more muscle and bite.
While the first half of the album consists of well played and delivered country rock songs the band really kick into gear with their seventh song, Davey. Rooted in the sound of The Band and in particular the songs and singing of Levon Helm it’s as successful as The Felice Brothers’ similar endeavours and from here on in the songs have a tougher and darker edge to them. Matt Wise writes well within the vernacular and the closing half of this album is a delight to listen to. The Closing song Martyr’s Avenue is a bit of a tour de force with surging guitar and swirling organ backing an impassioned song.

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Davey

Jeremy Steding. I Keep on Livin’, but I Don’t Learn.

Moving on from West Sussex to Texas Jeremy Steding is a youthful baby faced singer and songwriter with a band composed of (looking at the promo pics) a bunch of guys who look as if they all have a few years on him. True or not they all do a fine job on this album of solid Texas styled country music. Guitars twang, pedal steel weeps and the rhythm section is solid and true. Be it tear stained ballads or rip them up rockers each and every song is delivered with gusto making for a very enjoyable listen, like having a honky tonk in your own house. Aside from a cover of Cash’s Don’t Take Your Guns To Town (given a fine reading here with sterling backing vocals from Shannon Lee Nelson) Steding wrote or co-wrote all of the songs and its here he proves his mettle. A few of the songs here are excellent examples of story telling. Five Aprils is a chilling Civil War tale while the opening song Annie Ray positively bursts with energy and that twang sound with an audacious and successful segue into the title song. I Keep On Livin’, But I don’t Learn in itself has a real crowd-pleasing quality to it and you can imagine it being a real showstopper live. The stand out song here is Paint the Town Red, When They’re Blue. A wonderful waltz into Butch Hancock territory it’s a tremendous piece.

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Paint the Town Red, When They’e Blue

R.Mutt Leash on Life

Just as listening to Jeremy Steding makes one long for a night in a genuine Texan Honky Tonk, time spent with this Milwaukee quartet’s album of strong armed blue collar guitar workouts makes one think of sweaty and mobbed clubs where the band compete with the bar and other diversions. Hanging together since 1988 three of the Mutts have known each other since high school with guitarist Dan Power only joining in the last year. This lot describe themselves as growing up listening to The Clash, Black Flag, Minor Threat and Public Enemy while their parents were into Little Feat, Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Gram Parsons and Willie and Waylon. What this amounts to is an impassioned and energetic set of songs that capture an American splendour delivered with a driving punk attitude. The vocals blast with a full-throated volume while the rhythm section powers away and guitars slash and burn. There are elements here of early Springsteen (and I think that some of these guys also have a sneaking admiration for the Blue Oyster Cult) along with a touch of alt country rockers such as the V-Roys. It’s an energetic ride listening to this. Beautiful Bad Day is anthemic while Big Things is a super smooth chromium plated glide. The Tale of Bobby A is a nice example of a tale of an everyman given a Drive by Truckers makeover while Sisyphus starts off with a dirty Stones’ type riff. This might seem like a bit of a smorgasbord of an album but amped up it’s a great listen for anyone who likes god honest boogie. If they were to play the likes of King Tuts I’d be there in the queue expectantly waiting to experience the R Mutt sound.

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The Tale of Bobby A

Cahalen Morrison & Eli West. The Holy Coming of The Storm

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“There’s a natural language of American music that flows from a place where strength and tenderness meet.” So begins the liner note for this fabulous album. Written by Dirk Powell, a man who is an expert on Appalachian music, these notes describe the album far better than your current reviewer could ever hope to achieve. However, to read the rest you’ll need to get the album. It is indeed a mighty work. Coming from a pair in their twenties who met up in Portland a few years ago its astonishing at times when listening to it to recollect that this is not the result of some grizzled old timers sitting around a pot bellied stove with an enthusiastic young researcher taping their efforts for the Smithsonian Institute.
Morrison and West play banjo, guitar, mandolin, bazouki and lap steel. They sing together in the best fashion of the brothers Louvin and Stanley. They write songs that sound as if they have been disinterred from dusty archives. Of the 14 songs here there are two traditionals but in a blindfold test it would be hard to pick them out. The lyrics and imagery of the originals cleave fast to traditional mores with spare plucking and weathered voices sounding like apocalyptic messengers on On God’s Rocky Shore. It’s not all doom and gloom however as they deliver the jaunty country hop of Since You Took Your Leave, the gospel tinged Over There and the moving Weathervane Waltz. The heart of the album however is the stark and dark moments that chill and thrill at the same time. To go back to Powell’s liner note “where the days are dry and dusty and full of the smell of pine but the nights are cold and crisp and you find you wanting to get next to a fire in a cabin, burning wood that crackles.” There, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Morrison and West are all over us for the next few weeks. Several Scottish dates, radio slots and a film on BBC Alba following Morrison as he traces his Scottish roots. If you get the chance to see them you’d be nuts not to.

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Over There

New Country Rehab.

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A bunch of hip young gunslingers from Canada New Country Rehab are a four piece acoustic band (fiddle, guitar, double bass and drums) who attack their songs with gusto and a fine sense of adventure utilising studio effects that enhance their fairly unique take on Americana songs. Their version of Springsteen’s State Trooper for example removes the dread and replaces it with a frantic speed changing the song’s character from being furtive into a daredevil chasing down the highway. This hell-bent abandon is captured on several of the tracks. Angel of Death which opens the album showcases the excellent playing of all four band members on a blistering song that could easily sit on a heavy metal album if you electrified the guitar. Hank Williams’ Mind your Own Business gets a dirty southern rock treatment with nasty slide guitar and voodoo drums and even a fiddle sample of the Mission Impossible theme at the end! There are three Williams covers here perhaps explaining the Country Rehab moniker as they do drag these old and hallowed chestnuts into the modern age. Ramblin’ Man initially appears to be a respectful tribute version but half way through the band get trippy and dip into dub electronica reshaping the song in an appealing fashion. The Log Train stays closer to the William’s’ original but is stripped to the bone with some fine singing from John Showman and plaintive guitar and fiddle almost defining that “high lonesome sound.” A superb rendition.
The original songs by Showman and guitarist “Champagne” James Robertson stand up well beside the covers. Cameo is a well told tale of generations escaping from danger and its smooth delivery is similar to that of the Avett Brothers recent success. The Lost Hand tells a torrid gambling story very much in the traditional style with a fantastic arrangement that builds up the tension until the denouement.
Composed of four well-seasoned session players New Country Rehab deliver the goods here. Showman’s fiddle is exemplary and Robertson on guitar, Ben Whitley on bass and Roman Tome on drums kick up a fine fuss. A striking debut indeed and it looks like Glasgow will get a chance to see then as their website lists two Celtic Connection gigs here in January at Oran Mor on the 26th and the Festival Club the following day.

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The Log Train