Best of 2014

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There’s a lot or pros and cons when it comes to listing end of year best ofs or favourites. Two years ago Blabber’n’Smoke eventually plumbed for the pros outweighing the cons so this is the third time we’ve presented what, when it comes down to it, is an arbitrary choice of remembered listen. Albums that have stood the test of (a relatively short) time, the ones we’ve returned to or recommended to others in the pub. Above all it’s been fun to look back, read the reviews and see if they still stand. So with this in mind the following are the official Blabber’n’Smoke 2014 picks, in alphabetical order.

Blue Rose Code. Ballads Of Peckham Rye
Birds Of Chicago. Live From Space
Fire Mountain. All Dies Down
Bradford lee Folk and The Bluegrass Playboys. Somewhere Far Away
Cahalen Morrison & Eli West. I’ll Swing My Hammer With Both My Hands
Jim Keaveny. Out Of Time
Parker Millsap. Parker Millsap
Michael Rank & Stag. Deadstock
Sturgill Simpson. Metamodern Sounds In Country Music
John Southworth. Niagara

Random honourable mentions go to

Lucinda Williams Down Where the Spirit Meets The Bone,
The Johnny Cash Native American album reboot, Look Again To The Wind,
Danny and The Champions Of The World’s Live Champs!
Dan Michealson & The Coastguards Distance
Cale Tyson’s EP, High On Lonesome,
Luke Tuchsherer’s debut You Get So Alone at Times It makes Sense,
Petunia’s Inside Of You,
Ags Connolly How about Now,
Chris Cacavas & Edward Abbiati. Me And The Devil along with Abbiati’s band Lowlands who delivered the excellent Love Etc.,
Zoe Muth. World Of Strangers,
Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys. Save Me The Waltz .
Grant Peeples and the Peeples Rebublic. Punishing The Myth.
Simone Felice. Strangers.
Bronwynne Brent. Stardust.
Sylvie Simmons. Sylvie (allowing an honorary mention here for Howe Gelb who produced).
The War On Drugs. Lost In The Dream.
Lynne Hanson. River Of Sand.
Gal Holiday & The Honky Tonk Revue. Last To Leave.
And finally John Murry’s EP, Califorlonia which is brilliant and hopefully just an appetiser for his follow up to the majestic Graceless Age.

Digging through the archives it’s been noticeable that there’s been a fine contribution this year from Scottish acts who dip into or draw from an Americana well to a greater or lesser extent. While Blue Rose Code’s Ballads Of Peckam Rye features above the following are all stellar contributions to the local scene.

Dropkick. Homeward
Dumb Instrument. The Silent Beard (with the Scottish song of the year, Suffering from Scottishness).
John Hinshelwood. Lowering The Tone.
The David Latto Band. Here Today, Ghost Tomorrow EP
Norrie McCulloch. Old Lovers Junkyard
The New Madrids. Through the Heart of Town.
Red Pine Timber Company. Different Lonesome
The Rulers Of The Root. Porky Dreams
Ten Gallon Bratz. Tales From The Long Shadows

Although his album, Little Glass Box came out in 2012, Fraser Anderson is a major find of the year while another local lad, Daniel Meade unleashes his Nashville recorded Keep Right Away in January. Hopefully folk will have long enough memories to recall this when it comes to compiling the 2015 lists. In the meantime it can be first on the New Year shopping list.

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.

website

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

June Bugs

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Old time American music continues today with countless proponents picking, strumming, fiddling and sometimes even yodelling, reaching back into the past and updating it with varying degrees of success. Here we have Western swing, Appalachian folk songs and bang up to date country rock.

The Quebe Sisters Band. Timeless

The Quebe Sisters Band are Texans who do like their Bob Wills and Spade Cooley. The three Quebe sisters all play fiddle and sing while Joey McKenzie strums and Drew Phelps’ upright bass provides the beat. The 14 songs here are all covers including “Across The Alley from the Alamo,” “Along The Navajo Trail” and “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” familiar songs, perhaps too familiar at times. That said the album starts off with a cracking “So Long To The Red River Valley” and when they tackle Billy Strayhorn’s “Take The A train” the fiddle playing and guitar sounds like Django and Grappelli duelling. Perhaps the only complaint about the album is that with the vocals sounding at times like the Andrews sisters this is a bit too retro, a bit too safe especially if you like a little bit of grit in your music.
The Quebe Sisters Band appear in the UK for the first time in July for a bunch of dates including The Cambridge Folk Festival.

Jeni and Billy. Longing For Heaven

Jeni and Billy trade in the same homespun feel as the Quebes although it belongs on the back porch as opposed to bars and dance halls. Theirs is the sparse folk sound of the mountains and backwoods folk, god fearing, hardworking, scraping a living but finding joy in family and friends. The pair play guitar, banjo and mandolin while Jeni Hawkins carries the vocals with Billy Kemp adding counterpoint. Together they create a warm, honest sound as natural as flowers in a field. With a mixture of traditional and original songs they sing of drunkards, jilted lovers and ruined lives. Half of these songs could be turned into tear-stained movies, “The Ballad of Sally Kincaid” tells of a girl seduced by a thieving preacher who hangs himself leaving her to end her days in shame. “Father Will You meet Me In Heaven” is the story of Johnny cash’s brother, Jack’s tragic death seen as a redemptive moment for their father’s godless ways. A previous album, Jewell Ridge Coal, documented the lives of miners in south-west Virginia and here they sing a song for Cecil Roberts, the President of the United Mine Workers of America. It’s a reminder that even these days mining is dangerous, deadly even.
A pretty stunning album for anyone into old-time Americana. Jenni and Bily are currently touring in England.

Zoe Muth and The Lost High Rollers.

Zoe Muth draws on classic country sounds with lashings of pedal steel and dobro and a voice that could have graced Nashville recordings anytime in the fifties to the present day. While the debt to tradition is there Muth and her band come across as an up to date Emmylou Harris and The Hot Band. Muth writes all of the songs with a worn and weary take on modern life, cosmopolitan as opposed to rural her lost souls are stuck in a neon lit nighttime dead end. The full band sound throbs and swings with some excellent playing, a rock solid rhythm section lay down a beat while steel guitar, dobro, banjo and mandolin hammer home the country roots. Over this Muth sings like a wounded angel, vulnerable yet tough and above all else she can write. All of the songs here have a hook that should have radio station playlisters drool. “Hard Luck Love” is a stone solid classic radio friendly song while “The Last Bus” is a superb portrait of a drifter drifting the lonely highways and bus stops, hungry and broke she can sing and play guitar but seems doomed to go on in ever decreasing circles. While this may be the highlight here Muth delivers again and again. “The Middle of Nowhere” is Loretta Lynn arriving in a big city while “Not You” is another Lynn type perky put down of a philandering partner. Overall this is a mighty fine album and Muth is definitely one to watch.

Listen here
The Quebe Sisters “So Long To The Red River Valley”

Jeni and Billy “I Saw A Man At the Close of Day”

Zoe Muth “Not You”