Roots Roundup: The Warren G Hardings, The Railsplitters, Bradford Lee Folk.

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The quality and variety of string band music that arrives at Blabber’n’Smoke varies greatly. In addition it seems everyone in the world (and their brother) has picked up an instrument and released an album and the pending pile here has steadily grown. So to clear the decks an intensive listening session was in order (with appropriate fuel, thanks here to Innis and Gunn) resulting in the following cherry picked recommendations.

The Warren G. Hardings. Get A Life.


Named after the 29th POTUS the Hardings, from Seattle, are very un presidential with their frantic picking and scrubbing on the majority of the songs here. Hi energy bluegrass is the name of the game here with the band touted as similar to Trampled By Turtles although they come across as much warmer and, for want of a better word, authentic, without the jam band tendencies of the Turtles. While they’re able to lay back and deliver the excellent honeysuckled bliss of Anonymous Waltz and The Devil’s In The Roots begins as a gentle tip toed ballad before picking up steam the pell mell attack of the opening numbers, Treehouse and High & Low take the breath away. The playing is top notch with the classic interplay of guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo thrilling at times over a solid string bass thump. With a mischievousness apparent in Post Suburban Recession Era Blues (a slacker bluegrass anthem!) they’re at their best on the jitterbug syncopation of What Can I Say?

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The Railsplitters

Hailing from Colorado the four piece Railsplitters initially appear more traditional than the Hardings. Two guys and two gals, they have the rippling mandolin, banjo and piercing fiddle down to a T and add some very sweet pedal steel on several of the songs. The opening song, Jackson Town, hillbillies into view with Lauren Stovall’s vocals well grounded as she praises her hometown while the band slap and pick excellently. Boarding Pass (that’s the way it is) lopes along in a very pleasant fashion with the pedal steel reinforcing the country feel but the following song, My World is nothing less than astonishing. A polished (to a sheen) country pop song that has a driving rhythm with some very fine mandolin playing throughout it’s elevated by an astonishing vocal performance from Stovall while there’s a powerful hook in the chorus almost demanding that the song should be blaring from the radio this summer. Elsewhere they capture a Carter Family wildflower sound on Where You Are while Family Waltz tears at the heartstrings in the best way. There’s a brace of instrumentals on the album allowing the band to show off their chops with Longs Peak a gentrified instrumental that recalls the work of The Nitty Gritty Dirt band on their album Symphonium Dream.

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Bradford Lee Folk and the Bluegrass Playboys. Somewhere Far Away.

Louisiana born, Missouri raised and now resident in Nashville Bradford Lee Folk comes straight out of the traps with a quintessential bluegrass song, Foolish Game of Love, on his album Somewhere Far Away. He really does have a “high lonesome sound” in his voice and the playing here is excellent with the fiddle in particular hauling all sorts of historical baggage as it flails away. If the remainder of the album was similar then it would be well worth listening to but Folk turns out to have the gift of writing what could well be called pop songs played within the bluegrass idiom and on several occasions he reminded me of the early John Hartford, writer of Gentle On My Mind. Folk’s light tenor voice floats over some very fine playing creating an oasis of calm on the wonderful Somewhere Far Away while The Piper swarms with a woody warmth that recalls Michael Hurley. Soil and Clay ends the album on a sombre note as Folk delves into mortality on an impressionistic ballad that is baroque in its twists and turns, almost at times like early Tim Buckley. A great album that deserves to be heard and the pick of the bunch here.

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Floyd Domino and Maryann Price. Upfront. New Tex Records

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Floyd Domino and Maryann Price are both veterans of the Western Swing revival of the seventies, Domino most memorably as a member of Asleep At the Wheel while Price was the voice on several of Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks’ finest recordings. Both have extensive CVs beyond these achievements with Price being an integral part of the Kinks’ 1974 line up and also spending time with (those guys again) Asleep at The Wheel, Domino playing and recording with Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, George Strait and Waylon Jennings. So far so pedigree.

Upfront finds them in the company of Gary Bristol on bass and Michael Holleman, drums along with Kenny Kosek (ex Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band) on fiddle as they delve into the jazzier roots of their respective careers on a selection of covers and self penned originals that run the gamut from Annie Ross vocalese to Gypsy swing and some sumptuous late night jazz sophistication. Price’s voice has moved on from her Hot Licks days, a little lower, more experienced but with a fine sense of mischievousness lurking within while Domino’s piano shines like Oscar Peterson’s or even the Duke himself at times. Allied to some very fine fiddle from Kosek and the solid rhythm section the set is as tight as the proverbial duck’s A while retaining the essential element of swing with all of the numbers at the very least toe tapping or (on the slower numbers) causing the listener to cast about for a dance partner.

Aside from the performances the song selection is something of a triumph. No dog eared covers here that have been trampled to death in the past. Dan Hicks has two numbers featured, Cowboy’s Dream #19 and O’Reilly At The Bar both of which recall the Hot Licks’ hip reinterpretation of swing music with the latter’s bar fight shenanigans wonderfully portrayed. Henry Hipken’s Who Knows What Tomorrow Might Bring swings mightily with Chico Marx piano (only better played) and vibrant gypsy fiddle opening a world of romance and danger. Another Hipkens cover, I Must Be Doing Something Right has Price playfully adopting a naive innocence delivered with a Mae West tongue in cheek as the band lay down a fantastic backdrop, cheeky and elegant. On The Last Day Of Pompeii (by Michael Peter Smith) is another number that recalls the vapid elegance of the pre war jet set, fiddling while Rome burns ( to mix a metaphor) as Price relates all the things she could have done had she known the top was about to blow. Is All Of this For Me is a velvet curtain of a song, dinky, late night, almost orchestrated as the fiddle hovers over an excellent piano solo and a Noel Coward like stiff upper lip romance.

Price maintains the quality with Everybody’s Talking About The Same Thing a witty and coquettish inquiry into love while The Apology (co-written with Domino) allows her voice to slip and slide within an update of Julie London’s Cry Me A River. They close the album with the excellent The Damndest Finest Ruins, written by Domino that pulls in Steely Dan and Charlie Mingus with the vocals adorning the jazz chops of the band with Holleman sparkling on cymbals while Domino plays his best.

It maybe odd to find what amounts to a jazz album coming from Texas but these guys have the chops and the end result encapsulates music from New York to San Francisco with a detour south in between. Some time spent looking at the New Tex website shows that they have several other tasty offerings with Domino featuring on piano on The Great Recession Orchestra’s album, Double Shot, a tribute to the Mississippi Sheiks and 1940’s Texas swing while there’s a tribute to Milton Brown featuring many of the same players. Hear over here to check them out.

get the album here

Ernest Troost. O Love. Travellin’ Shoes Records

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Blabber’n’Smoke last encountered LA based Ernest Troost when we reviewed his fine Live At McCabe’s album two years ago. An Emmy award winning film and TV composer Troost is also a natural talent when it comes to folk blues guitar picking and singing with all three of his previous albums recommended. O Love maintains the standard and adds a tougher edge on occasion as Troost ventures into rockier ground with a couple of the songs featuring him on electric slide guitar (which he plays quite wickedly) along with a rhythm section. The first of these, the opening Old Screen Door, fairly rips along sounding not a million miles removed from the rockabilly noir of Jace Everett as Troost paints a grisly family crime scene where “The snakes were hissin’ in the hedges/ the rats whispered ‘neath the floor/ and the moon was just watchin’/ through the old screen door.” With its scatter gun guitar breaks it’s pretty thrilling stuff. Weary Traveller is another band effort, this time a tumbleweed strewn southern romp with lap steel guitar snaking throughout while the title song seesaws along with nimble finger picking pitching in between a highway rush of wailing guitar which recalls the likes of Twilight Hotel.

For the remainder of the album we’re in more familiar territory, particularly if you have a copy of the Live at McCabe’s album as there are no fewer than six songs here that Troost initially unveiled back then (odd as usually it’s the other way around with live versions following the studio effort). However here the songs are retooled, some more than others with Bitter Wind getting an added bass drum kick and Storm Coming revamped as a bluesy growl while O Love gets the makeover mentioned above. Aided and abetted by several of the players who appeared on the live album, in particular Nicole Gordon who sings harmony on the majority of the songs here along with Mark Goldberg on bass and Debra Dokin on drums along with a crack crew of LA music veterans Troost delivers some excellent songs.

Close is a classic country rock love song with rippling guitars, jaunty mandolin and classic harmony sounds that sends sunshine vibes through the speakers while Harlan County Boys is more dappled with an Appalachian air and an antiquarian feel as Troost recalls the perils of mining and union struggles. The Last To Leave is as good a country waltz as we’ve heard for some time and comes with the appropriate sense of lost love and hurt. Troost hits the mark time and time again revisiting the sunshine vibe with I’ll Be Home Soon and twanging his guitar on the spiritual lament of All I Ever Wanted.

Troost says that the songs on O Love are “a collection of love songs, viewing love from different angles.” Strange angles indeed when death and loss sit side by side with the joy of a song like Close. However love is expressed in different ways at different times and Troost has captured its highs and lows perfectly here on an album that sees him very much in form.

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Gina Villalobos. Sola

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There was a time a few years back when Gina Villalobos was the next big thing in Americana. A regular visitor to Glasgow, her songs were played on the righteous radio shows and live she was a powerful performer. As is the way of the world things moved on and it was only when this album popped up that we realised it had been some time since Ms. Villalobos had come to our attention. Five years in fact as she appears to have had an extended sabbatical, reasons unknown, although the publicity for Sola states that “exhausted and creatively empty” she took a break from making music and enrolled in a music course of some sorts at Los Angeles City College. Now, reinvigorated, she lays this seven song mini album before us and it’s gratifying to say that the rest (or recuperation) has done its work as Sola is a gripping and visceral piece of work with Villalobos’ gritty vocals and soulful writing as good as ever while her band (with Eric Heywood on pedal steel well to the fore) delve deep.

There’s a grittiness in Sola that removes it somewhat from her previous releases, almost as if there’s a cathartic element to the album. A dedication to Michelle Falvey, a psychotherapist who passed away last year might be an indication as to where Villalobos is coming from but there’s no doubting the sense of hurt that oozes from the songs here. Sola is naked in the way that Neil Young’s Tonight’s The Night Was, an exorcism of sorts but portrayed with a passion that rivets the listener.

The opener, Everything I Want, is a dark howl with rumbling guitars occasionally sweetened by pedal steel as Villalobos rails against a perfect world and growls with an existential angst, searching for a square to put into a wheel and other impossible goals. Taillights glowers and swells as the acoustic intro is gradually enveloped by a huge band sound, churning and roiling guitars threaten to drown out the desperate vocal on what is a bravura performance. Come Undone lowers the temperature somewhat as Villalobos launches into what appears to be a simple country lament but as the song progresses Josh Grange’s guitar looms as large as a thunder cloud, low and reverberating, undermining any sunshine here. This muscular guitar sound dominates the astonishing Hold On To Rockets, a song that might be a nostalgic nod to better days or a grim warning against present perils. Whatever, the song is a mighty clusterfuck of guitars bass and drums with Villalobos crowing victory over it all. Tears Gone By is tender and aching and again the band are thrilling with some excellent interplay between gut strings and pedal steel.

With seven songs and around 30 minutes playing time Sola might be considered a stop gap but there’s no denying that it’s packed with soul and emotion and some really excellent playing. Here’s hoping that it’s the first of a phoenix like revival for Ms. Villalobos.

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Zoe Muth. World Of Strangers.

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Blabber’n’Smoke reviewed Seattle’s Zoe Muth’s debut album back in 2010 likening her and her band, The Lost High Rollers, to Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band. Since then Muth has steadily toured and built up her reputation releasing her second album, Starlight Hotel in 2011. Three years on we find Muth relocated from Seattle to the sunnier climes of Austin Texas leaving the High Rollers somewhat lost (bar drummer Greg Nies who lugged his kit along for the album) and while there’s no great departure from the two previous discs Muth sounds as if she’s settled well and made some fine new friends in the process.

She opens the album with the sparkling Little Piece Of History which details her relocation setting off for Texas on New Year’s Day. Up tempo with rippling mandolin and piano it captures the sense of a new start with echoes of The Byrds in the free flowing energy expressed in the song. Mama Needs A Margarita finds Muth firmly ensconced in the Lone Star State with piano and pedal steel well to the fore on a song that Doug Sahm would have loved. While Muth doesn’t have the ballsy swagger of Sahm Make Me Change My Mind shows that she can rip it up when required as the pedal steel swells, fiddles saw and Nies pile drives the drums. Too Shiny is another turbo charged rocker with some fine Telecaster twang thrown in which recalls Lone Justice but the best moments here are on the ballads which allow Muth’s splendid effortless voice free rein.

Somebody I Know is a glorious song that builds in intensity from the lengthy instrumental intro before Muth waltzes in sounding like a younger Lucinda Williams with her sultry presence. Bruce Robison joins in on harmonies towards the end as the song takes flight. Muth is joined on vocals by Brandy Zdane (Twilight Hotel) for the sumptuous Waltz Of The Wayward Wind, a standout here as the guitars and pedal steel ebb and flow while the barroom piano tinkles forlornly, a classic song. She closes the album with another belter, the stately What Did You Come Back Here For which recalls prime Jackson Browne as piano and organ twin up providing a swirling backdrop for Muth’s evocative vocals.

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Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra. Talk About The Weather.

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Carrying coals to Newcastle is a common expression denoting a somewhat pointless enterprise and one might reasonably ask why should youlisten to a jumpin’ jive old time blues and ragtime crew from “the Toon” given that the “genuine” article is not too hard to find. Not too hard perhaps but for the most part ragtime et al has been polished to a sheen and presented as preserved in aspic typically by the likes of The Pasadena Roof Orchestra. While Robert Crumb has valiantly championed old time music over the years credit must be given to Pokey LaFarge who has reclaimed the vibrancy and occasional loucheness of the genre. Rob Heron & The Tea Pad Orchestra follow the LaFarge route with their loose limbed (although tightly played) blasts from the past with their sights set firmly on the most important aspect of this vintage music, namely that it swings. No stiff suited formality here as Heron and the band stroll insouciantly through an album that incorporates western swing, scattting, Hot Club de Paris jive, zoot suit hipsterism and even some rockabilly.

Aside from their threads which portray the band as descendants of Richard Attenborough’s portrayal of Pinkie in Brighton Rock there’s a sense of dedication here as they delve into a monochrome and foggy world of slot machines and end of pier escapades. There’s a significant gear change from their debut with the band as synchronised as a well oiled machine while Heron’s writing has moved on apace. The opening Drinking Coffee Rag zips along with a fine sense of glee and finely honed guitar while the rhythm section and horns vamp wonderfully. Soleil is a bass driven and accordion laced weather report that struts magnificently while Junk On the Radio incorporates a clip clop western intro before Heron laments on the soullessness of modern media and a deranged keyboard approximates the fiddling about with wavelengths. There’s a hint of Slim Gaillard on Mr. Landlord along with some very sweet and fat pedal steel while Small Time Blues harks back to Hank Williams with some fine fiddle playing and Heron’s yodelling. It’s apparent by now that Heron and the band are well tuned into their lodestone but Killed By Love towers above its predecessors as the band vamp excellently and Heron dredges up biblical allusions on what amounts to an aural equivalent to a penny cinema show. Great stuff here. High Speed Train updates Lonnie Donegan with regard to the proposed high speed trainline to the north while I’m Feeling Blue will touch anyone who’s turned to the bottle after a setback. They finish off with the clattering blues of Penny Drop Mambo as if they were zoot suited on Brighton Pier and transported via Canvey Island to Rio De Janeiro while the Spike Jones type romp that is Don’t kick That Oven Door again zips along with some splendid percussive breaks that are just this side of zany.

Overall this is a great slice of old time music that beefs up its influences and points to a great time ahead. They’re slick, syncopated and swing. And in the end that’s what counts.

http://www.teapadorchestra.co.uk/

Massy Ferguson. Victory & Ruins. Spark & Shine Records

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You have to admit there’s not too many bands named after heavy road vehicles. Buffalo Springfield were apparently inspired by a steam roller and it didn’t seem to hamper their progress. Here we have a crew from Seattle who maybe think that a tractor company (although they miss out an “e”) will draw folk in, at the very least it’s a memorable name and should avoid the harhums and ‘ums that often accompany a momentary lapse of memory when telling a pal about this great new band.

While great might be too over the top to describe Massy Ferguson (and they’re not particularly new) it’s fair to say that Victory & Ruins is as fine a slice of rip roaring rootsy Americana rock as I’ve heard in some time. With a classic four piece line up (Ethan Anderson, bass and lead vocals, Dave Goedde, drums, Adam Monda, guitar and backup vocals and Tony Mann on keyboards) they aren’t the most original band around but then neither were The Blasters. What matters is that Victory & Ruins is one of those albums that you can whip out and play when someone asks you to define American roots rock. With elements of The Drive By Truckers, Son Volt, The Jayhawks, Bottle Rockets and others all cramped in the driver’s cab they set out to harvest some prime roots music pausing briefly to pick up additional passengers including Jason Kardong whose pedal steel sweetens several of the songs and Zoe Muth who delivers a very fine vocal on The Hard Way.

The album opens with the jackhammer guitar and drums of Hello, a song that harks back to snappy power pop times with arm punching precision, a great chorus and a pile driving finish. Renegade however trumps this with its flowing country rock feel, the percussion lighter and the guitars rippling on a song that’s not too far removed from local heroes The Wynntown Marshals. 2 AM Beauty Queen continues in this vein with a harder edge and again the Marshals come to mind with Anderson’s voice capturing that slightly hoarse, slightly worn at the edges, dusty delivery. Here the band do deserve to be called great as the barrelling guitars and organ drive the song while there’s a tremendous dynamic with lulls in the musical maelstrom allowing Anderson to ponder on the rights and wrongs of falling for the titular beauty. Everything’s Done is a hard luck tale with a bold palette as the organ swirls throughout, the bass burbles and the guitars slowly burn while Goedde adds the most sympathetic cowbell heard in some time. Zoe Muth steps to the front to duet on The Hard Way, a very fine country piece that lopes along with gliding pedal steel guaranteed to melt the heart of cosmic cowboys everywhere. The band visit DBT territory with the rambunctious Flexed-Arm Hang but the following songs (Compromised Intelligence and Wait Love Maybe) lack the bite of their predecessors. The Beatles’ like opening chords of Labour In Vain however has the band back in full swagger with clarion guitar ringing away as they mix Tom Petty, The Byrds and The Truckers in equal doses. Apartment Downtown departs from the template with a cello adding a sonorous depth to this tender love song while they lower the curtain with the sweet and sour melancholic country rock sweep of Bring Back Something, a fine end to a very fine album.

Good news, Massy Ferguson are touring here next month, bad news, no Scottish dates. However on the strength of this they are well worth seeing.

Website and tour dates

http://massyfergusonband.com/track/501500/2am-beauty-queen?autostart=true

http://massyfergusonband.com/track/501502/hard-way-feat-zoe-muth?autostart=true

The Bills. Yes Please.

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Yes Please has been available for a while but it’s getting a push on the back of The Bills‘ current UK tour which takes in several Scottish dates starting next week. A Canadian export, The Bills are Juno winning artists in their homeland but have a fairly low profile overseas and it appears that Yes Please is their first album in almost eight years.

So what to expect? Simplest comparison I can make at present is with Brighton’s Mountain Firework Company who travel along similar lines. There’s a fine thrust to many of the songs with fiddle and mandolin well to the fore as singer Chris Frye drives the songs forward. The opener Hallowed Hall is a fine example while Not the End and The Plant Song sound like they could be audience pleasers while Shining Face is a powerful piece with a surging fiddle and accordion led accompaniment.

There’s a wide range of influences on show here and plenty of space for the band to show off their instrumental prowess with five instrumentals on the album. While at heart they’re a folk rock band they take in swing jazz (covering a Django Reinhardt tune, Love’s Melody), tango (Scotch Bonnet), Eastern influences (Gale In My Sail), bluegrass (Blackberry Ivy and Broom) and there’s an undoubted Celtic influence in the fiddle tune After Music.

An eclectic bunch then but the playing here is exemplary and their shows will offer a rare opportunity to see them live. Dates below.

Wed May 28: The Met, Bury
Thurs May 29: St Andrew’s Church, Grinton, Swaledale (Reeth Memorial Hall / Swaledale Festival joint promotion)
Fri May 30: The Ropery Hall, Barton upon Humber
Sat May 31: Selby Town Hall
Sun June 1: Brookfield Village Hall
Tues June 3: The Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline
Wed June 4: Eastgate Theatre, Peebles
Thurs June 5: The Sage, Gateshead
Fri June 6: The Brewery, Kendal
Sat June 7: Gate to Southwell Festival, Notts

Crosby Tyler. The One Man Band Rebellion. Bohemia Music.

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LA based Crosby Tyler has proven his affinity for the American folk and blues tradition with his two previous releases, Ten Songs of America Today and Lectric Prayer. On these he was backed by some stellar musicians including Peter Case (who produced Ten Songs), DJ Bonebrake and members of Nickel Creek. The One Man Band Rebellion is exactly that, Tyler on guitar, bass drum and harmonica, a genuine one man band with all songs recorded in one take, no overdubs or studio gimmickry. As he says ” It seemed that nobody knew how to record direct, one-take style, as a one man band. The bass drum posed a problem for most modern day engineers.” Tyler credits producer/engineer Jamie Bridges for capturing the sound he wanted and it has to be said the sound is excellent capturing the old time roughness of spontaneous playing with a sparkling clarity while the bass drum/guitar/harp set up is perfect for Tyler’s hobo folksiness.

The album itself continues Tyler’s mission to document and champion the underdogs, society’s cast offs be they junkies, bikers, hippies, white trash which was evident on Ten Songs. The language is raw (and not radio friendly) but it speaks of the streets with some arresting tales and images and the overall impression is similar to a collection of short stories in the tradition of Willy Vlautin with some Bukowski thrown in (up) for good measure. And while the subject matter might be downbeat the delivery is at times very up with slide driven acoustic blues and gospel tinged campfire songs sidling up against some very fine songs in the manner of Kristofferson and Guthrie.

Tyler opens the album with the scrubbed country blues of Live Or Die featuring an escaped convict who “jumped barbed wire had myself a weekend/I drank tequila sang Johnny Cash tunes/I got my face on the six o’clock news” who’s sitting with a stick of dynamite waiting to die. Merle haggard and Willie Nelson get name checks as they’re playing on the jukebox in the one horse town Tyler rides into on Bikers, Hippies and Honky Tonkin’ Cowboys, a foot stomping portrait of the type of bar Thelma and Louise visited with the denizens described as “you can love them hate them but there ain’t no better crowd.” Red Cross Blues eases on the gas as Tyler fingerpicks his way through the sorry tale of a wounded vet returning home and worried how he’ll be able to face his child. It’s an impressive and affecting performance with a sense of anger hidden in the pathos. This unsentimental portrayal of hurt and damage continues in Us Black Sheep Ain’t Like The Others, a fine raw slice of drug addled lives where “our blood is hustlin’, dealin’, stealin’ and some days killing, Black sheep we ain’t like the others, we were born to be rowdy motherfuckers.” Their poverty is highlighted at the beginning of the song in the line “there ain’t no McDonalds here in Mendocino.” The bleakest moments come in the magnificent Bloody Mary Mornin’ Till I Die where Tyler applies Willie Nelson’s momentary sense of regret to an entire life as his character “is dogging from the law holed up in Little Rock, Arkansas/held up a 99 cent store/something that I drank made me so irate/almost put a granddaddy in his grave.” Unlike Nelson, who’s flying away from his regret, here we have a man who “just shaved my head/ laid all day in bed/watched Porky Pig cartoons” and who appears doomed, never to reach California as “the orange blossoms wither” and he’s stuck until he dies. Powerful stuff indeed.

Tyler offers further snapshots of drug addled, booze ridden captives in Pissed It All Away, Never Trust a Junkie and It Ain’t Easy to Be Me with his voice wearied and road worn while his trusty guitar, drum and harp accompany this bleak roll call of America’s underbelly. All in all a great album.

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Us Black Sheep Ain’t Like No Others

Seth Lakeman

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Getting into a folky mood after cuing up some albums tonight (Liege & Leif and the Albion Band’s Rise Up Like the Sun if you ask) so it was nice to recieve this video of Seth Lakeman performing his new single Last Rider from his latest album Word of Mouth. It’s a cracking driving performance. Seth will be playing at London’s Royal Albert Hall on 6 June as part of BBC Radio 2’s D-Day 70 Years On Concert where he will perform a song with the BBC Concert Orchestra.