Jim Dead and The Doubters album launch, 13th Note, June 2nd.

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Jim Dead comes from Deadsville. An imagined place, more in the mind than on the map. Occasional visitors to this shadowland include Jim White, Hank Williams, Jason Molina, The Drive By Truckers and even Neil Young. Here the music is slow and thick, churning like the Mississippi, rich and full bodied. Jim Dead has captured this on his latest release; Ten Fires and tonight unveiled it in a hot cellar to an appreciative Glasgow crowd. This was possibly a unique event as the Doubters consist of the musicians who recorded the album with Dead but in their non Deadsville lives they all have other gigs. Reconvened for the album launch it would be a pity if they fade away as they conjured up a blissful, noisy wall of sound. Consisting of Dead on guitar and vocals, Craig Hughes on guitar and the Duffin brothers, James and Tommy on bass and drums they punched their way through several songs from the album. The twin guitars cranked up an almighty mess of sound with Craig Hughes sparking off of Dead’s solid rhythm on a sound that was reminiscent of Crazy Horse or Magnolia Electric Co. Wading through lengthy renditions of Jim Langstrom Must Die, Bone Blue Moon and Mean eyed River Snake there were several spine tingling moments wrung from Hughes’ Gibson but Dead’s knack for a well written song with strong hooks meant that this never descended into jamdom. The band ended the set with epic renditions of Untitled and The Hallelujah Revolver. Untitled started off with an Iberian Miles Davis feel before a psychedelic tinge crept in with Hughes playing arabesque lines but the closing song trumped all before it with the Duffin bothers in particular adding an almighty edge to a powerful and inspired performance. Dead hollered as if his life depended on it. A great end to the show.
Mention must be made of the support acts. Glasgow duo The Colts delivered a fine set of acoustic country tinged songs with a Ryan Adams/Keef Richards flavour while Craig Hughes showed us his day job playing powerful bottleneck acoustic blues. A bear of a man he can be ferocious on the guitar but his bottleneck style and use of sustain reminded one of Zoot Horn Rollo’s instructions from the good Captain. His song The TR7’s Have All Gone to Heaven was a particular crowd pleaser

Jonathan Byrd. Cackalack

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Jonathan Byrd hails from North Carolina and Cackalacky is apparently a colloquial term for the state. That said and having solved the mystery of this odd title the rest is plain sailing. Byrd is a jobbing musician who when touring Canada had the opportunity to hook up with a very sympathetic crew of musicians (on his birthday indeed) and in one six hour session they had this album tucked up and ready for bed. With some of The Creaking Tree String Quartet on board, banjo, fiddle and mandolin all feature well here with Byrd delivering a set of self penned songs that that are well rooted in American back porch rustic rustlings with nods to the likes of Johns Hartford and Prine. While there are references to his home state on several of the songs (including a song about the peculiarly named Scuppernong River) Bird doesn’t limit himself and manages to sit comfortably in the Americana pantheon. A song such as I Was an Oak Tree is universal. A minor gem this tale of the tree’s role in history as a slave ship, gallows and campfire is given a fine telling. New Moon Rise is a delightful amble with some superb ensemble playing while Reckon I Did sounds as if it came from one of Hartford’s albums. Again the ensemble playing is thrilling with the mandolin especially outstanding. Dungarees Overalls is a stirring romp that does recall Prine in his prime and is guaranteed to have the toes tapping on this wordy portrait of Carolina country living. The final song, Cackalack is a rousing singalong which one guesses would be a fine crowdpleaser in a live setting.
Overall a fine album that merits investigation.

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Dungarees Overalls

Ciara Sidine. Shadow Road Shining

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Dublin songwriter Ciara Sidine’s debut album Shadow Road Shining is a fine example of a writer taking a genre, in this case Americana (a broad church I’ll admit), and adding some local colour. Here the colour is undoubtedly of a Celtic hue. Aided and abetted by a crew of Irish session players including Steve Wickham (Waterboys, violin) and Justin Carroll (Van Morrison, keyboards) her songs are for the most part warm and comforting, cosseted by Carroll’s Hammond organ while Wickham’s violin adds a folky tilt best heard on the lilting The Arms of Summer. The folk roots are well displayed again on Constellations High where she duets with Jack Lukeman on a maritime tale. The meat of the album however resides in the songs which delve into the American south with the Muscle Shoals sound appearing to be an influence typified by the slow burning keyboards and guitar playing of Connor Brady. Mercy Moon has an earthy feel with churning guitar and even a hint of Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie. Hollow the Breeze is less successful in its attempt to capture that southern feel but all is redeemed by Sweet Breath On A Lonesome Flame. Here Sidine succeeds admirably in marrying her folk side to a southern groove, a beautiful song.

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Sweet Breath On A Lonesome Flame

The Wilders, Classic Grand, Glasgow. 15th May 2011.

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Kansas City band The Wilders are becoming such frequent visitors to Glasgow that going to see them has become almost akin to popping down to your local to see the resident band on a weekend. This was the fourth time this reviewer has seen them in the space of around 18 months and looking around at the audience there were several others obviously in the same boat. Having said that each show has had its own character with the one constant being the fire and occasional ferocity with which they deliver their set. Their last appearance here was at Celtic Connections playing to around a thousand folk in the Old Fruitmarket. Tonight their audience numbered in the one hundred plus but there was no difference in their approach or delivery and the intimacy of the smaller venue added to the connection that many of the audience have with this fine band.
With a new album on the shelves (review following soon) there was a slew of new songs, some of which were previewed at the Celtic Connections show. Having heard the album however one was struck by the impact the live delivery has with a song like L.A., a frenzied enough song on the album delivered in a maelstrom with fiddler Betse Ellis in particular screeching like the proverbial devil’s elbow.
In fact all of the songs from the new album gained impressively tonight, partly perhaps from only a slight listening to the CD but there is no doubt that the Wilders thrive on the stage. Whether delivering tender folk songs such as singer Ike Sheldon’s acclaimed Hi Little Darlin’ and the new album’s bitter sweet This Old Town, the honky tonk reveries penned by Phil Wade or the muscular roots rock from bassist Nate Gawron the difference is akin to that of seeing a favourite movie in high definition for the first time. Spectacular.
Highlights of the show included an inspired rendition of My Final Plea where the band conjured up the ghost of Hank Williams and several “shitkickin” (Ike’s description) hoedowns including their always crowd pleasing Keep my Skillet Good and Greasy.
To encore The Wilders invited the support band, The Dirty Beggars, a fine young crew from Peebles who played a rousing set earlier, to stand in front of the stage and deliver an Old Crow Medicine show song, Wagon Wheel which ultimately was a fine end to a fine night.

Gregory Alan Isakov. This Empty Northern Hemisphere.

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We’ve said it before and here we’ll say it again. One of the pleasures of reviewing albums sent from God knows where is that amidst the chaff there is always some wheat. An album that tumbles into our lap unannounced but which has that essence, that pull which reaffirms our belief that music can be transcendental, beautiful, moving.
From the moment Dandelion Wine poured from the speakers the ears perked up. A skeletal banjo joins a simple guitar line, mournful and desolate before a string section joins in. Isakov ‘s voice floats over this, warm and comforting before it is joined by his sometime vocal collaborator, Brandi Carlisle. A beautiful song it sets the scene for the remainder of this album which envelops the listener in an aural feast. Isakov cites Iron and Wine, Kelly Joe Phelps and Leonard Cohen as his influences but there are elements galore here of Tim Hardin, Nick Drake and the relatively unknown Hobotalk. Overall there is a sense of melancholy delivered with a resigned air as Isakov sings tales of lonely souls, travellers and lost lovers. His lyrics are rich but cloaked in poetic smoke and mirrors, his voice is for the most part wearied and relaxed and on several of the songs he is accompanied by Carlile who harmonises well. The true beauty of the album however is in the textures of the sound. For an album “recorded in many different locations, a closed down bookshop, my apartment, the studio and our friend Brandi Carlile’s house” there is a fantastic sense of dynamics. The songs ebb and flow with an organic feel and the playing is excellent. While most of the songs rest gently on an acoustic guitar bed the instrumental trimmings, be it piano, vibes, banjo, violin, viola or cello support and at times lift the songs into a sumptuous space that is at times mesmerising. He ends the album with a fine cover of a Leonard Cohen song, One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong where he and Carlile capture perfectly Cohen’s miserabilist approach.
Isakov is playing in the UK in June however at present there are no Scottish shows which is a pity.
(Edit) Been informed that there is a Glasgow gig at Brel on June 1st.
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that Moon Song

Wiser Time, Jeff Talmadge and Cam Penner

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Three fine albums here, take your pick…..

Wiser Time. Beggars and Thieves.

First up are New Jersey band Wiser Time with their third release, Beggars and Thieves. Starting off with a rumbling guitar that smacks of Keith Richards’ exiled in the south of France the opening song Love and Devotion fails to live up to the wasted elegance that comprised Exile on Main Street but nonetheless is a fine slice of slide and piano driven boogie that ultimately recalls Little Feat. Main man Carmen Sclafani is obviously in thrall to the early seventies sound of such bands however this is not a retread of tired boogiedom and some of the better moments occur when the band ease back and rock gently with Sclafani dipping into a more mellow mood. Take Me back Home for example has some elements of Steve Stills’ solo work but with a sweet fiddle and mandolin backdrop and some fine guitar work this is a tremendous song. The B3 organ that comes in at the end adds a fine organic feeling and at times this sounds like an American roots version of a Steve Winwood ballad. The following song It’s Hard Letting You Go maintains this quality, a piano based ballad with Lowell George like slide guitar from Jimmy Somma it would fit perfectly on the soundtrack to “Almost Famous.” The album closes with a superb cover of the Bad Company song, Seagull which in our mind is an improvement on the original, less dramatic and enhanced by some very sympathetic percussion and mandolin, basically an encapsulation of the whole album, an affectionate nod to those far away days.
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Take Me back Home

Jeff Talmadge. Kind of Everything.

Talmadge was a Texas lawyer who packed it in to become an itinerant musician working very much in the Texan vein with clear routes back to Jerry Jeff Walker and Guy Clark. While he hasn’t produced anything to match the best of either of these two he does provide a winning take on the genre on this, his seventh album. Armed with an attractive vocal delivery, warm but experienced, he spins tales of Texas folk buttressed by a superb line up of musicians that include Pat McInerney on percussion, Fats Kaplin, fiddle and steel guitar Freddy Holm, Dobro, Ray Bonneville, harmonica, Lloyd Maines, pedal steel and Tim O’Brien on mandolin. In fact anyone who likes acoustic albums laced with Dobro, steel guitar, mandolin and fiddle need read no more, just buy this.
While there are some upbeat songs including the opening If It wasn’t For the Wind, a David Olney cover and the jaunty Sometimes You Choose Love the meat of the album is in the moodier, darker moments with several that raise the album well above the average. One Spectacular Moon has a romantic yearning to it and features some fine fiddle playing from Kaplin. It’ll Sure be Cold Tonight is a stark tale of homelessness that raises goosepimples. Molly showcases Tim O’Brien’s mandolin on a tale that is straight out of the Townes Van Zandt stylebook. Summer Road is a classic of its sort, elegiac, wide screen nostalgia, this is dusty and vital. Finally He’ll Give Her Back This Town Tonight is a break up song that is delivered in a heartbreaking style with the band excelling on the oh so sympathetic backing, a song that could be destined for late night radio programmers everywhere.
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He’ll Give Her back This Town Tonight

Cam Penner Gypsy Summer.

Canadian Cam Penner has released several albums that can be considered “confessional.” Tender, despite his occasionally gruff voice his last release Trouble and Mercy was a stripped down affair. Here, despite recording the album in a cabin near the Rockies, he achieves a plush, warm, occasionally funky sound that is dynamic and engaging. Guitars and bass throb and thrum, strings (violin and viola) add to the drama at times and the percussion drives several songs with an almost J. J. Cale like shuffle. The title song unwinds slowly building to a crescendo that is spooky and evil sounding, as most songs with Gypsy in the title seem to do. Ghost Car has a strong pulse beat that drives the song which has a neon lit highway feel to it while the clash and clatter of My Lover & I is the sort of R’n’B shuffle that Ry Cooder has been fond of in the past, there’s a decidedly southern feel to this. The highlight of the album is the opening song Driftwood which starts off with a classic guitar /harmonica part so beloved of Neil Young. Perhaps it’s the title of the song but we find some of The Band’s influence here also as Penner delivers a downbeat tale of a relationship that’s taking some work to keep together. Here Penner and his band deliver a perfectly nuanced folk rock song. An instrumental reprise of the song towards the end of the album supports its claim to be a superior piece of music.
The closing song Come As You Are reverts to Penner’s stripped down style with just guitar, piano and voice and is reminiscent of Bill Callaghan’s work in Smog. A fine end to a fine album.
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Driftwood

Hungrytown. Any Forgotten Thing.

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When an album plops into the Blabber office with a press release noting it was recorded in rural America by a husband and wife team we generally fire up the search engine and head to backwoods Appalachia for reference points. Hungrytown however forsake old time country and down-home hoots. The reference points here are the folk duos who populated the sixties from Simon and Garfunkel (OK, two guys but you get the drift) to Richard and Mimi Farina and all points between. Back then a whiff of old time Americana music might occasionally peek through but the primary influences were English (or Scots or Irish) folk song delivered in a bright collegiate style, precious, unsullied.
Hungrytown, Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson, capture that innocent era perfectly on this, their second album. Hall has a crystal clear voice while Anderson provides accompaniment and harmonies that have a naïve, innocent vibe especially when he adds glockenspiel to his guitar, mandolin, banjo and assorted other instruments. At times there is just too much sweetness and light and although they never descend into Puff the Magic Dragon land a song like Rolling Train with it’s opening lines “You’ll never stop the wind, never stop the rain/By standing in the path of a hurricane” is just a little bit too twee. Although they teeter on this edge on a few other songs happily the majority are rescued by some excellent harmonies and on the opening song “Year Without Summer” they turn in a real showstopper. A historical tale based on the long winter that followed the eruption of a volcano in 1815, Hall sings like Judy Henske on a song that could have been delivered on her Farewell Aldebaran album. The measured delivery even has some touches of early Pentangle about it and the addition of harmony vocals from Laura Molinelli adds a fine icy grandeur. The dreamlike Calliope with its circus waltz tune and Sally Lazy, a distant cousin to Sally Go Round The Roses could sit easily on a Hollywood psychedelic soundtrack featuring the likes of Tuesday Weld running through a meadow in slow motion.
Hungrytown will be touring the UK in may with a performance in Penicuik included. Dates on the website

Year Without Summer

Branden Barnett. Covers From Hell Project

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Branden Barnett is the singer, guitarist and main writer in Ghostshirt, a Columbus, Ohio band who last year embarked on a project to record a song a week and offering them for free download. Some of the results can still be bought here. This project and the band were heartily supported by Post Card From Hell, an online community originally dedicated to the music of Uncle Tupelo, now an energetic group of folk, mostly American, who discuss music, food, beer (and music) and, importantly, support their favourite bands with an intensity that is sometimes frightening, they’ve even pitched in to help with the costs of repairing broken tour vans. Their relationship with Ghostshirt is such that the band played at a mini festival held at the home of one of the members of the Postcard group.
Having joined the email list Branden stated
“ I was trying to figure out a way to say thanks to all of you for supporting my band and my life the past couple of years and here is what I came up with. What songs would you all want to hear me cover? Come up with a list on here and I will pick ten or so, record them and release it for free.”
He was immediately inundated with suggestions and within a matter of days the first three songs have been recorded (he plays all the instruments) and posted for download.
Blabber’n’Smoke thought that this is a great example of musicians and fans interacting using the Internet and modern technology, demolishing some of the traditional barriers. With projects like Kickstarter fans have an opportunity to support musicians’ projects that goes beyond buying albums and attending gigs and this type of project can only help the artist gain more listeners and hopefully a bigger audience.
So kudos to Branden for his generosity in sharing some music. He’s OK with it being shared outwith Postcard. So have a listen and if you like it head to the Ghostshirt site and investigate them, a good band indeed.
The first three songs are
01 King of Carrot Flowers Part I (Neutral Milk Hotel)
02 Every Little Thing (Beatles)
03 When I Write the Book (Nick Lowe)
Available here, the link only lasts 6 days so grab it while you can. I’ll post the next links as they come up.

Amy Lashley travels of a homebody

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Seems that talented female singer/songwriters keep tumbling from the Americana womb. Every month several albums find their way to Blabber’n’Smoke with smoky voiced sirens, back porch country girls and rootin’ tootin’ honky tonkers all well represented. Separating the wheat from the chaff might be a thankless task but in all honesty there’s been precious little chaff of late. The latest to tickle our fancy is this grower of an album from Amy Lashley who grew up in a small (population 376) community in Indiana and who now resides quietly in Nashville with her partner Otis Gibbs, himself a seasoned performer of powerful and at times politically charged songs. While Gibbs travels the world Lashley apparently avoids live performance but together they’ve delivered this fine collection of observations and tales that resonate with a sense of being out of step with life in general.
Describing herself as an “emotional misfit,” uncomfortable in social situations there is no lack of confidence in the delivery of these songs. Lashley sings well with no obvious discomfort and the style swings from country blues (Lil’ Red Girl), old time swing (Livin’ On Beans and Cornbread) to attractive country pop (Night With No Moon). Her lyrics however point to an uncomfortable life that only now has found a sense of comfort. Having said that this is by no means a confessional type album with only the last song Older Brother appearing to be autobiographical. It’s a testament to Lashley’s skills that one is unsure if this is a celebration of or a put down of her brother. All in all it’s an album that repays repeated listening.

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