Amy Helm. This Too Shall Light. Yep Roc Records

Posted on by

a1400136712_16Amy Helm’s second album opens with a blast of guitar sounding like a foghorn announcing the arrival of what is quite a special album. That foghorn guitar belongs to the opening title song which is a masterful slice of soulful funk, the rhythm section metronomic and sly while guitars fizz and burn beneath her impassioned vocals. The song was written for Helm by Hiss Golden Messenger’s Mike Taylor and Josh Kaufman and it’s a perfect introduction to an album that is yet another addition to the grand canon of releases which celebrate the soul of American roots music.

Produced by Joe Henry, This Too Shall Lie finds Helm recording in LA, far away from her Woodstock home. The overall sound however is steeped in the south with churchlike organ, slippery guitar and gospel like harmonies present throughout. There’s a preponderance of covers here which is not a bad thing as Helm delivers a magisterial reading of Allen Toussaint’s Freedom For The Stallion, transforms the Milk Carton Kids’ Michigan into an aching slice of Muscle Shoals groove with hints of Aretha Franklin within it and offers T Bone Burnett’s River of Love an excellent soulful makeover.

Helm’s voice is a revelation here as she delves into soul and gospel, powerful and emotive this talent was only hinted at on her previous album. Her tribute to Odetta is a tour de force and its allied to a tremendous arrangement which has an almost chain gang like repetition to it as it hammers along although elaborate piano notes take the song to a higher plain. The shadow of her late father Levon Helm (who last recorded on Helm’s debut album) is cast on two songs. The Stones I Throw was a Band staple back when they were Levon and The Hawks and here it’s given an excellent rambunctious rendition as if it were the Staple Singers delivering it. The album closes with an a capella rendition of Gloryland which was Levon’s usual choice of encore. It goes without saying really that here Amy Helm and her harmony singers put their all into this Ralph Stanley song which encapsulates that southern sense of finality, glory and redemption as they close the lid on an excellent album.

website

The Sadies. Northern Passages. Yep Roc Records

Posted on by

thesadies_northernpassages_cover-350x350

It’s always been difficult to pin The Sadies down. They came tearing out of Canada in the 90’s with a fine mash up of instrumental rock and alt country detouring to collaborate with soul singer Andre Williams (and eventually becoming as well known for further collaborations as their own efforts). Gradually the instrumentals took second place to harmonic vocals and their 2007 album New Seasons is generally regarded as a minor classic and with Northern Passages they’ve assembled another album that at the very least deserves to be considered on a par with New Seasons and in this writer’s consideration is a far more assured affair. While they still offer up an agglomeration of influences The Sadies transcend them as they gather together sixties psychedelic country, proto punk aggro, Paisley Underground and college rock; the parts welded into a sleek well tuned machine.

They open with the trippy psych folk of Riverview Fog channelling the Byrds circa The Notorious Byrds Brothers before barrelling into the Detroit metal ramalama of Another Season Again fuelled by snotty MC5 like arrogance. This dichotomy runs throughout the album with dips into country rock countered by all out freakouts with power chords and feedback well to the fore, at times this occurs within the one song, witness the astounding There Are No Words and the powerful The Elements Song which is a wonderful wall of sound infused with incense, peppermints and incendiary guitars. There are wide open vistas on the frantic acoustic drive that is peppered with Morricone like guitar flashes  which is Through Strange Eyes while God Bless The Years is (almost) straightforward country rock with pedal steel almost tongue in cheek here (and recalling again The Byrds on Drug Store Truck Driving Man). The Good Years is a narrative that could have been penned by Paul Simon back in the days and delivered as if Simon and his buddy Art were perhaps on those pep pills so popular back then while As Above, So Below has a sixties like baroque pop groove.

There’s fuzz guitar and feedback. Melody and mayhem. Psych pop and strutting grooves. The curious amalgam of Gene Clark and The Yardbirds that is Questions I’ve Never Asked perhaps the best example of the duality on show here but overall Northern Passages is a thrilling ride and perhaps the best Sadies album so far.

Website

The Stray Birds. Best Medicine. Yep Roc Records.

Posted on by

Blabber’n’Smoke has been privileged to have seen The stray Birds twice this year. First time at Celtic Connections when they were promoting their excellent EP, The Echo Sessions. Next up was a Fallen Angels Club promotion at the CCA in September. In the intervening months, the engaging trio from Pennsylvania were picked up by US label, Yep Roc Records who have released Best Medicine, the band’s second album. This is great news, for the band of course but also for those who faithfully follow the stream of very fine roots musicians, incessantly touring, playing to small (but dedicated) crowds and who buy the CDS, vinyl, T-Shirts and god knows what else at the merch table after the gig. If a label like Yep Roc (home to Dave Alvin, Chuck Prophet, Paul Weller and Robyn Hitchcock) are interested then the future may be just a little bit brighter.

Anyway, down to business. The Stray Birds (Maya de Vitry -guitar, banjo, fiddle, Oliver Craven – guitar, fiddle and Charles Muench – double bass, banjo) have much in common with numerous other string bands doing the circuit, they can all sing with lead vocals shared out while their harmonies are spot on. They swap instruments with abandon, can swing or weep depending on the song and, grouped around a single mic, they can transport the listener to the Appalachians even if you’re sitting at home or hunched up in a folding seat in a dark and hot auditorium. There are two things that perhaps set them apart from the throng. de Vitry’s singing is the number one weapon here as she has a superb voice, fairly unique, no Lucinda Williams’ sultriness or sassy cowgirl grins. She seems steeped in the loam of the land, resonant and rich, a full throated voice that resounds through the ages, she should have been singing with The Band back in the days. In addition to this Craven is no slouch himself in the vocal department while Muench adds a fine earthiness with his contributions. Weapon number two is the songwriting. A song like Adelaide is very much in the tradition but the performance is well above par while Feathers And Bone (with Craven’s slightly hoarse voice leading) is a standard waiting to be picked up by others as it transports the listener to another land. The title song is far removed from traditional fare as the band sing the praises of a record store they visited. A hymn to music (and vinyl in particular) it swells with rippling guitar and an almost Gospel approach to the grooved deity.

There’s not a dud song here as the band recall the Wounded Creek Native American massacre on Black Hills, a song that towers when played live, Simple Man, a Guthrie styled tribute to land workers and Might Rain, the closing song and one which stylistically resembles the opening title song as de Vitry sings again of loss and the band sound as old as the hills with stuttering banjo and plaintive fiddle. Live, the band can whip up a storm but on the album the jollity, if we can call it that , is provided by a rousing Western Swing take on the old standard, Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor and a fine knockabout hillbilly swagger on Who’s Gonna Shoe. Make Yep Roc (and the band) happy and grab a copy, you won’t be disappointed.

website

The Stray Birds. Fallen Angels Club. Glasgow CCA. Thursday 11th September.

Posted on by

P1020678

Glasgow welcomed the Pennsylvania roots trio The Stray Birds last night with the band riding high on the news that they’ve been signed onto the roster at Yep Roc records who will release their second full length album, Best Medicine, in October. Their appearance at Celtic Connections earlier this year was one of CC’s highlights and tonight they basically repeated their set from back then but as the old adage goes if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. They’ve obviously racked up some serious fans with song requests galore throughout the set and had it not been for the auditorium set up I’m sure there would have been some serious jigging going on. If nothing else their simple set up, Maya de Vitry and Oliver Craven on various instruments (banjo, fiddle and guitar) with Charles Muench the anchor on double bass works beautifully with all three well attuned to each other and well capable of kicking up a veritable shitstorm when required. Lead vocals revolved throughout the night with each taking the spotlight in turn as the others offered their harmonies leaning into a single voice mic. A veritable holy trinity of string band excellence.

While their stirring instrumentals such as Give That Wildman a Knife/Bellow’s Falls/Waiting on a Hannah fired up the crowd and Muench’s sly delivery of Make Me A Pallet On The Floor and Blue Yodel No. 7 where expertly staged the band showed that they have the song writing chops to distinguish them from the many other string band revivalists around these days. Dream In Blue and Harlem showcased de Vitry, sultry and down-home while Craven’s tribute to The Stanley Brothers and the loam of his land, My Brother’s Hill was somewhat breathtaking while he cod confessed to murky misdemeanours on No Part Of Nothing, a fine slice of old time bravado. Best Medicine, the title song from the forthcoming album bodes well for the band as de Vita commanded attention on a paean to old-fashioned record stores that could be seen as a musical equivalent to the loss of Sam The Lion in The Last Picture Show. Despite the sense of loss in the song it seems that the new album will be available on vinyl so there’s some hope therefore that at the very least The stray Birds might have a Technicolor moment.

The new album is availabe to preorder here

website