Danny Schmidt. Man of Many Moons.

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Another album from Red House Records who are building up an impressive artist roster, Danny Schmidt is another Austin based songwriter who is touring the UK later this month. With fellow label artist Carrie Elkin and Raina Rose assisting on harmony vocals this is a fine, laid back acoustic stroll. Aided and abetted on occasion by Will sexton on bass and guitar, Ray Bonneville on harmonica and Keith Gary on piano the overall feel is limpid and relaxed with Schmidt’s vocals soothing in the main. For a writer who has penned ten of the eleven songs on show it might be considered disheartening for one to latch on to the only cover, a version of Dylan’s Buckets Of Rain initially. However it has to be said that this reading is sublime indeed. The weary delivery with some fine acoustic guitar interplay and a warm and sympathetic bass sets this up as one of the best Dylan covers I’ve heard, simply superb.
While Schmidt describes the album as a struggle “around the process of making peace with Commitment” (see his webpage for his detailed notes on the album and the lyrics) and speaks of the moon as a metaphor, always changing but always there, the listener can simply wallow in some fine meditations such as Guilty By Association Blues which starts out like a talking blues before going into a fantasy about capitalism (I think) and Almost Round The World which actually talks about the confusion raised by the previous song. When its references to parrots and pigs were taken up wrongly by animal rights activists he describes the effect this had on him and his family. Both are delivered in a mellifluous manner and invite repeated listening.
Overall this is an album that can induce a sense of calm, an opportunity to listen to some lyrics that merit some thought. The sprightly Ragtime Ragtime Blues slightly upsets the mood but other than that its a fine listen.
Schmidt plays in the UK at the end of June and the beginning of July including a date in Glasgow at Lauries Acoustic Music Bar on 5th July. I bet there won’t be a queue outside so go along and wallow in his moonshine.Other dates on his webpage

Almost Around The World

The Pines. Tremolo.

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David Huckfelt and Benson Ramsay are The Pines, a duo based in Minneapolis. They are currently touring the UK and appearing in Glasgow on December 1st. On this, their third album they are joined by an impressive band who conjure up a great rootsy sound that resembles Bob Dylan’s recent forays into America’s folk and blues past particularly on Time Out of Mind. Of particular note is the guitar playing of Bo Ramsay (album producer and father of Benson). On Lonesome Tremolo Blues he plays spectacular slide guitar but throughout his playing is a delight while J.T. Bates on drums, James Buckley, bass and Alex Ramsay (another family member) on keyboards provide a sympathetic bedrock.
Vocally Ramsay and Huckfelt resemble Dylan or at times John Prine, their parched voices sound vulnerable, earnest and honest and they draw you in to the songs which by and large are all outstanding. For the most part these are moonlit poems set to crepuscular music. Twilight hymns that tell no stories but which are packed with arresting images, mysterious allusions and overall a sense of alienation and loss. At times one feels as if one were listening to the poems of W. B. Yeats set to music. Even when they play what appears to be a simple love song as on Hearts and Bones the lyrics seem more like a script for a surrealist movie
Last night you were in my dreams/Heart and bones/When I woke up you were next to me/Heart and bones/Blood is red and the sky is blue/Heart and bones/And I’ve never met anyone like you/Heart and bones/Big bright moon over old St. Paul/Heart and bones/I met you when the apples fall/Heart and bones.
There are two cover songs on the album, “Spider” John Koerner’s Skipper and His Wife and Mississippi John Hurt’s Spike Driver Blues are given fairly straightforward run-throughs with the latter reinforcing the John Prine comparison, both sit well in the overall feel of the album but in the end it is the Pines’ own songs which stand out.
This is a tremendous album, one of the best of the year and there is an opportunity to see this duo on their first UK tour as they play in Glasgow on December 1st at the Woodend Bowling Club supported by the Wynntown Marshals (a definite bonus there).
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Lonesome Tremolo Blues