Blabber’n’Smoke’s Top Ten for 2013

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I succumbed to the idea of a top ten for the first time last year and if nothing else it’s been useful looking back at it over the past few days and comparing it to the list below. Was it a good year for music? I don’t know. Has there ever been a bad year? All I can say is that I’ve enjoyed listening to music this year as much as the last one and the year before that and so on. Many of last year’s list still get regular plays here so at least I liked them and the number one, John Murry’s Graceless Age has had a second wind with its eventual release Stateside. It may seem odd to have an artist with two entries in the list but both albums by Michael Rank & Stag are simply superb examples of what Blabber’n’Smoke would define as Americana; rooted in the country with a frontier outlook and a fierce regard for the common folk. And a happy coincidence to have two works from Howe Gelb mentioned also as he continues to plow his singular field. Both albums have striking images of Gelb threatening to turn him into an Americana icon, part Mt. Rushmore, part Dorothea Lange, for Blabber’n’Smoke, he’s a hero. Anyway, here’s what rocked our boat over the past twelve months.

1. Doc Feldman & the LD50. Sundowning At The Station. This Is American Music

Soiled songs and dusty ballads sounding like a wounded Crazy Horse. A triumph for label of the year, This Is American Music.

And here’s the man himself

2. Michael Rank and Stag. Mermaids. Louds Hymn

Wracked and raw country folk and rock from North Carolina’s Michael Rank. In the space of two years he’s delivered three albums (one a double disc set) that in a fit of hyperbole we said it sounded as if Keef had left the Stones in ’69, joined The Band and recorded with Neil Young frying honeyslides in the kitchen. At the very least it comes close.

3. Israel Nash Gripka. Israel Nash’s Rain Plains. Loose Music

Guitars weave and wander with a ferocity and lyricism that defies description and he repeats this throughout the album and there’s a moment in the title song where the guitars fizz and burn just like the best firework you’ve ever seen.

4. Cam Penner. To Build A Fire. Independent

“Ukuleles, guitars, banjos were strummed. Floors were stomped. Kick drums were kicked. Feet stumbled. Thighs, knees, hands, slapped, clapped. Voices strained and bent. Fingers gripped, grabbed, picked. Arms and hands flung. Skin wrapped tight strained and stretched. Body and sound thrown against wood and metal.”

5. Michael Rank & Stag. In The Weeds. Louds Hymn
No apologies for the second appearance from this tall, stick thin North Carolina rock’n’roll ragamuffin. The sonic slurry he conjures up is nothing less than mesmerising.

6. Sam Baker. Say Grace. Independent

Baker’s wounded heart goes from strength to strength

7. Diana Jones. Museum of Appalachia Recordings. Proper Records.

She’s not well known but whenever we mention her there’s a flurry of activity from folk who recognise Jones’ ability to sound as old as the hills and bang up to date, the thinking man’s Gillian Welch?

8. Birds of Chicago. Birds of Chicago. Independent.

JT Nero makes an honest woman of Allison Russell as they formally pair up for a laid back celebration of harmony singing and some Tupelo honey.

9. Dead Flowers. Midnight at The Wheel Club Hee Haw Records

Dark and deep, vocally and lyrically, a trip through North America and the soul.

Dead Flowers – The Beach from deadflowers on Vimeo.

10. Wynntown Marshals. The Long Haul. Blue Rose.

Local heroes, The Wynntown Marshals survived some turbulent years with band members coming and going. With new crew on board they came up trumps with a bigger, more layered sound and another fine songwriter in the shape of bassist Murdoch McLeod who penned the amazing Tide. Topping off a great year for them the band were snapped up by the very discerning blue Rose label.

Honorable mentions

Howe Gelb. The Coincidentalist
Howe Gelb. Dust Bowl
Mark Collie & his Reckless Companions. Alive At Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary.
J. R. Shore. State Theatre.
The Coals A Happy Animal
Benjamin Folke Thomas. Too Close to Here
Slaid Cleaves. Still Fighting The War
Thriftstore Masterpiece presents Lee Hazlewood’s Trouble Is A Lonely Town.
The Quiet American. Wild Bill Jones
Amanda Pearcy. Royal street
Heidi Talbot. Angels Without Wings
Jim Dead I’m Not Lost
Rachel Brooke. A Killer’s dream
Great Peacock E. P.

The Quiet American and Pharis & Jason Romero.

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Husband and wife duo Aaron and Nicole Keim, collectively known as The Quiet American have come up with a neat concept on their album Wild Bill Jones. While it’s not as well known as similar songs such as Stagger Lee or Long Black Veil Wild Bill Jones is a staple of the old time country songbook telling the tale of Jones being caught in flagrante delecte and shot dead by his lover’s lover. The album takes this song and weaves a back story around it creating an artefact that works on several levels. Taken at face value it’s a superb selection of songs and tunes that showcase the Keim’s virtuosity as they deliver a collection of traditional and self penned numbers along with a few selected covers. With guitar, banjo, ukulele, lap steel, keyboards, percussion and glockenspiel at their disposal (along with assistance on fiddle and harmonica) they conjure up an old time feel that is sepia toned and reeks of authenticity. Delve a little deeper and the storyline emerges, almost a screenplay as they inhabit the protagonists in this fatal love triangle and add an audio backdrop that lends colour and veracity to the story.
The album starts with a boastful swagger depicting young girls as ripe for the plucking on Apple in the Fall and the meeting of Bill and Posey at a dance in Give The Fiddler a Dram. Bill puffs his chest out on the strutting Come Walking With Me while Posey ponders on her beaus before offering a witness account of the killing as she chose to go with the dashing Jones. Thereafter the killer has a chance to reflect on his afterlife on Keys To The Kingdom before he is led to his punishment depicted by a rousing version of Gallows Pole. Posey, bereft, wonders What Are They Doing In Heaven Today. Gathering her strength she rallies with the uplifting Free Little Bird and finally reflects on the whole goddamn mess as they end the album with a cover of Daniel Johnston’s True Love Will Find You In The End.
Story told but in between these songs the Keims add colour and atmosphere with a slew of instrumentals that recreate the era including a fine version of John Fahey’s Sunflower River Blues along with some fine traditional tunes with John Brown’s Dream being particularly evocative. This almost forensic investigation recalls the methods employed by film critic David Thomson in his novel Suspects where he unearths the unedifying truths that connect It’s A Wonderful Life and The Shining. On a more prosaic note one recalls Fairport Convention’s album on the failed attempts to execute Babbacombe Lee. As an imaginary soundtrack Wild Bill Jones is excellent.
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Strangely enough the song Wild Bill Jones features on Long Gone Out West Blues, the latest offering from Pharis & Jason Romero. Another couple it’s almost spooky to consider that both Jason Romero and Aaron Keim are accomplished luthiers and that both couples are drinking from the same traditional well. Pitched up in British Columbia where Jason runs the J. Romero Banjo Company the pair have lengthy and separate musical histories before hitching up in 2007. Long Gone Out West Blues is their second album and it’s a perfect offering of handpicked and hand plucked songs and tunes, some new and others borrowed from the canon. Using banjo and guitar they share and swap vocals and listening to this it’s not unlike hearing a Gillian Welch album with David Rawlings sharing more of the spotlight.
The spare sound of vintage Martin guitars and Jason’s self built banjos is superb and there are moments here when one is mesmerised by their picking. Both sing well and their harmonies are divine throughout. The two instrumental numbers delicately highlight their instrumental empathy and they deliver fine versions of Wild Bill Jones (acknowledging a debt to the Doc Boggs version), Waiting For The Evening Mail, a Riley Puckett number and Truck Driver Blues from the pen of Ted Daffan. Pharis’s own songs are indistinguishable from these vintage offerings with the title song, I Want To Be Lucky and The Little Things Are Hardest In The End standing out, the latter in particular sounding like the saddest song the Everly’s never recorded. A tremendous album and well recommended.
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