Top 10 2012

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Don’t think we’ve done this before but it looks like everyone in the world this year has come up with a “best of” selection. So, here’s our tuppenceworth.

1. John Murry The Graceless Age. Bucketful of Brains
A narcoleptic diary of hard times that shimmers with a beautiful heat haze.

2. Cahalen Morrison & Eli West. Our lady of The Tall Trees. Independent
Songs carved from old wood and turned into objects of beauty

3. Dan Stuart. The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings. Cadiz Music.
Back from the almost dead with a vengeance

4. Deadman “Take Up Your Mat and Walk” Blue Rose
An Americana primer, they gather in their influences and forge a fresh sound

5. Otis Gibbs. Harder Than Hammered Hell. Wanamaker Recording Company
A solid set of songs of the working man that packs a Southern punch.

6. Nels Andrews. Scrimshaw. Independent
A delicate and impressionistic set of tales from New York

7. Giant Giant Sand. Tucson. Fire Records
Expanded and emboldened Howe Gelb delivers a country rock opera as only he can

8. Petunia & the Vipers. Petunia & The Vipers. Trapline Productions
Left field country pop and rock with yodelling and guts

9. The Illegitimate Sons. American Music. Independent.
Bourbon soaked rootsy rock delivered with panache

10. Sacri Cuori. Rosario. Décor Records.
Italian band delivers some superb instrumental Americana that channels Calexico and Ry Cooder

Honourable mentions

Calexico. Algiers,
Chuck Prophet. Temple Beautiful,
For Fear the hearts of Men Are Failing. The Wonderful Clatter
Mark Lucas. Uncle Bones,
Malcolm Holcombe. Down The River
Richard Hawley. Standing At The Sky’s Edge
Michael Rank and Stag. Kin
Heritage Blues Orchestra. And Still I Rise
Ry Cooder. Election Special
Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Psychedelic Pill
Marvin Etzioni, Marvin Country!
Lincoln Durham. The Shovel vs the Howling Bones
Grant Peeples, Prior Convictions
Hat Check Girl. The Road To Red Point
Woody Pines. You Gotta Roll
Hurray For The RiffRaff. Look Out Mama
Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three. Live In Holland

Sacri Cuori. Rosario.

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This album has been in heavy rotation here at Blabber’n’Smoke ever since we were able to get a copy at Sacri Cuori‘s superb gig with Dan Stuart at King Tuts last month. From Italy and primarily an instrumental band press releases and record label notes would lead one to expect a spaghetti western version of Calexico and that’s a little bit unfair on the band as they have much more to offer than dust blown soundtracks to non existent cowboy movies.
Having said that there’s no doubt that they are influenced by the sounds of the American south west. Their first album, Douglas & Dawn was recorded in Tucson with some of Giant Sand and Calexico in attendance and John Convertino appears here. However there is a heavy European influence also present which is dominated by the music of Nino Rota, best known for his film scores for Fellini and The Godfather theme, with whirls of circus like tumbles and mournful swollen horns such as tuba recalling his dizzying work. Elsewhere there are glimpses of Joe Meek’s clockwork science fiction sounds and occasional glimmers of Krzysztof Komeda.
Essentially a trio (Antonio Gramentieri, guitars, Christian Ravaglioli, various keyboards and wind instruments and Francesco Giampaoli, bass) Sacri Cuori are expanded here with Diego Sapignoli providing various percussive effects and sound samples while Enrico Mao Bocchini drums on several tracks while Denis Valentini adds percussion and horns. Ravaglioli and Sapignoli in particular beaver away on so many instruments with the result that the album is a multilayered cornucopia of delights while Gramantieri evokes surf music, Santo and Johnny’s Sleepwalk, The Lounge Lizards jazz noire and Link Wray. While they proved at King Tuts that they can pull this off live as a quartet on the album they are joined by a stellar cast of supporting players including Convertino, Jim Keltner, David Hidalgo, Stephen McCarthy, JD Foster and Marc Ribot.
Although this is essentially an instrumental album another star guest opens the proceedings as Isobel Campbell sings the opening Silver Dollar. With her trademark whispy voice Campbell croons as the band swoon around her in a dreamlike state with keening lap steel and banjo from Stephen McCarthy. Like a Lee Hazlewood song scored by Angelo Badalmenti it’s a fine curtain raiser. Campbell reappears and does another fine job on Garrett, East, a relatively unadorned song featuring Dobro and prepared piano that is delicate as gossamer. It’s worth noting that Campbell wrote the lyrics for both songs.
The remainder of the album is an atmospheric broth of tunes with only occasional voices, sampled or sung, to add colour. While each and every one has its own beauty and repeated listens reveal new delights a few gems merit mention. The stately slow tango of Fortuna has some outstanding guitar work from Gramantieri while Lido recalls the Cuban sensuality captured so well by Ry Cooder and Manuel Galban on their album Mambo Sinuendo. Sipario’s swirling keyboards revisit the heady delights of Rota’s Amacord while Teresita starts off with Tex-Mex keyboards before the song swirls into outer space. Finally the juggernaut drive of Sei takes the listener down dark menacing highways with squalls of guitar, screeching horns and a disembodied voice. Short and to the point if David Lynch decides to remake Lost Highway he’s got his opening song right here.
This album is ridiculously good. As we have said it repays repeated listens as the ear discovers and hones in on yet another fine detail and the mind paints pictures to go with the music. Hopefully it won’t be long before these Italian suoni maghi are back in Glasgow to thrill and delight us.

website
buy it here

Dan Stuart

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The great Dan Stuart is among us again. The voice of Green On Red and one half of the fabled bar band Danny and Dusty Stuart barnstormed and howled his way into our consciousness as part of the burgeoning California post punk roots movement back in the eighties. A bunch of young bucks, Green On Red crawled from Tucson to L. A. and released a crop of albums that owed as much to the sixties sound of The Seeds as it did to Hank Williams. Always teetering on the edge they fell over it when the band imploded with Stuart keeping a low profile for several years afterwards. Successful reunions of Green On Red and Danny and Dusty around 2006-7 saw him in fine fettle but again he retired from sight until now. Teaming up with Sacri Cuori who are very simpatico Stuart returns in the guise of Marlowe Billings on his latest release. Delivering a set of songs that may be autobiographical (although as with much of his mythology it’s cloaked in layers of mystery) his voice remains strained and compelling, second only to Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Who is Marlowe Billings and what is his relationship with the mysterious author of the Treasure of The Sierra Madre? We don’t know but Dan was kind enough to take the time to respond by email to a couple of questions we threw his way just before his Glasgow gig..

So who is Marlowe Billings and where do you fit in?

Me and Marlowe Billings? We try to accommodate one another, although we have competing narratives. He thinks he’s smarter than me… there’s a book as well with the same title for those that still can read. I’m lucky now cause I get to play a lot with a great band (Sacri Cuori) but I’m not actually in one. Bands are replacements for one’s family of origin which seldom are happy… bands are often worse.

What are your biggest influences and your most significant moment?

I could reply with a laundry list of the agreed upon canon but really “Blonde on Blonde” ain’t that big of a deal… or “Pet Sounds” for that matter. Of course I love Dylan and Brian but musicians are generally completely full of shit when it comes to what’s “good” or “bad”. Jimmy Cliff recently told an interviewer that he had been listening to Katy Perry… I thought that was hilarious. As for a significant moment, surviving when my brain broke…

What venue/gig do you most want to play?

The old places I used to play filled with sullen kids who hate the world. Now I have to play some roots venue with clean bathrooms of all things. How the mighty have fallen…

What is your favourite song you have written?

There’s a couple I’m proud of… Vivian Girls covering “Sixteen Ways” was a special treat.

What does the next six months have in store for you?

Playing Europe this fall, enjoying life and writing in Oaxaca, a west coast swing in the USA, maybe I’ll even get laid…

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Either walking the streets of San Felipe Del Agua or resting in its panteón… whatever Juquila decides.

Any recent sounds you might want to recommend that would gladden our ears?

Both my old compadre Chuck Prophet and his buddy John Murry have released great records recently… Sacri Cuori has a record coming out next month called “Rosario” that is fantastic. “Venice Dawn” by Adrian Younge is intriguing…

And intriguing is one way of describing The Deliverance Of Marlowe Billings, Dan’s new album. Backed by the Italian band Sacri Cuori Stuart is in fine voice while the songs are for the most part superb with a couple of killers inside. I’ve reviewed the album at Americana UK while you can check out Dan’s website

Dan Stuart and Sacri Cuori. King Tuts Wah Wah Hut. Wed. 5th September.

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Dan Stuart, former wild frontman of Green On Red has been sadly missing from action for several years. Despite occasional sightings in the mid 2000’s with (successful) reunions of Green On Red and Danny and Dusty there’s only been the occasional low key album release. A few months back a new release The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings was announced and then a European tour which mercifully included Glasgow on the short itinerary.
And so it was that a few of the faithful (too few by far) gathered in the bar at King Tuts to see and hear the enigmatic Stuart, lured by the legend and perhaps somewhat nonplussed by the recent stories of his incarceration and subsequent escape from a New York psychiatric institution, his settlement in Oaxaca, Mexico and his current hook up with an Italian country rock band.
Sacri Cuori played a short opening set and immediately it was clear that country rock does them a grave injustice. A four piece they unveiled an astounding palette of sounds that ranged from surf and Duane Eddy type guitar to Nino Rota cinematic whirls with Joe Meek electronica and superb percussion to take the audience on a trip through some weird places and left us feeling as if we were in the middle of Jodorowsky’s El Topo. Guitarist Antonio Gramentieri tackled the introductions informing us that local girl Isobel Campbell sings on their latest album Rosario and pretty much had us eating out of his hand by the end of their all too short set.
Mr. Stuart then came on and within a few minutes of his superb, humorous (with some barbed stabs at a few sacred alt country cows) introduction any possible doubts about his mental health were dispelled. Revelling in his banter he was a hit before even striking a note but it was clear from his opening song, a solo rendition of an old Green On Red song, Death and Angels, that he was totally in control. Delivered as a lament with his voice a warm croon and some fine guitar picking it was miles away from the old band version. Another Green On Red song You Couldn’t Get Arrested with Stuart joined by Christian Ravaglioli on accordion was next and it was spellbinding. A sly dig at Mick Jagger and his abandonment of his sixties Chelsea drug store decadence one could have heard the proverbial pin drop as the audience paid full attention; we could have listened to the solo Stuart all night. From here on in however Stuart bared his fangs and with the assistance of Sacri Cuori delivered a blistering set of tunes, old and new that featured his sardonic and sneering vocals while also offering a glimpse into his love and passion for Spanish and Mexican tinged ballads with an edge. Sixteen Ways kicked it off while amped up renditions of Zombie For Love and Gravity Talks showed that he still has some fire in his belly. Two Lovers Waiting to Die swung mightily with a heavy Neil Young swagger.

Along with the back catalogue Stuart unveiled several songs from the new album with What Are You Laughing About ? delivered almost like a Joe Strummer thrash, fittingly enough as it’s a translation of a poem by Mario Benedetti, a Uruguayan poet who had to flee right wing political persecution, Strummer would approve. Gringo Go Home utilised the exotic sounds of Sacri Cuori to their utmost as Stuart channelled Lee Hazlewood on what appears to a satire on the perceived dangerousness of Mexico for visitors while on Clean White Sheet the Joe Meek type organ exhilarated as the band went stratospheric towards the end.

Overall Stuart seems to a man at the top of his game, proud of his past and rightly proud of the new material, if you get a chance to see him then we would heartily recommend it.

We should mention the two local opening acts. Eilidh Hadden and her band were a nice whispy folk tinged crew with Hadden using a tape loop at times to multiply her guitar playing while Danielle Tonner delivered a solo set of covers and some of her own songs. Both acts delivered their material in good Scots voices, something we seem to be seeing more of these days.