It’s hard to imagine another year is drawing to an end, a year which saw further bifurcation between artistry and commerce. Contrary to conventional wisdom there’s a lot of innovative and enjoyable music being made. The challenge is in finding a delivery system which allows us to readily discover it. Downloads continue to supplant physical sales but somehow the industry manages to slowly adapt. Next month I’ll survey a few of my favorite 2012 releases. In the meanwhile, here are some recent—and not so recent—discs that deserve a bit of attention.
Six Organs of Admittance
Ascent
Drag City
No one will ever accuse Six Organs of Admittance of being complacent. After the subdued Americana aspirations of 2010’s Asleep on the Floodplain (which made my top-10 list) the band has taken another unexpected twist, crafting an album of spiraling guitar fireworks that is as far removed from Asleep as might be possible.
Much of this shape shifting is a result of the bands revolving door membership: Only guitarist/vocalist Ben Chasney remains as a founding member and the quintet he has assembled clearly suits his needs for wild eyed experimentation.
In some regards it’s a rather traditional rock albumbuilt largely around six strings, bass, and drums, but the adornments that sit atop the main course are what makes it all so exciting. The balance between lengthy blues-rock jams and Utopia styled spaced-out psychedelia keeps the flow even and assured. The album kicks off with “Waswasa,” a persistent and intentionally chaotic instrumental before breaking into “Close to the Sky” a stunning bit of Doors like intoning built around a solid bass and drum bashing. Its trippy stuff and I mean that in all the best ways!
Other highlights include the masterfully textured and haunting “They Called You Near” but that’s really just one delight among many. Aided by the incredibly nuanced bass playing of Noel von Harmonson and the thumping drums of Utrillo Kushner Ascent rarely lets up and never loses its sway. While it sounds more like a Ben Chasney solo outing than the group effort it wants to be that in no way detracts from its power, immediacy and sheer wonder. ****1/2
David Olney
Robbery & Murder
Dead Beet Records
Continuing his string of EP releases, seven or eight track collections running well under 30 minutes, Olney offers up another snapshot of love gone wrong, painful choices and memory dipped in bittersweet. He’s seldom veered from his folkie roots and these tales of murder and mayhem (best exemplified in the mournful “Another Place, Another Time”) lay firmly in that tradition.
What makes them work is the careful interplay between Olney and his longtime compatriots Jack Irwin and Jim Hoke. They have played together so long they no doubt think as one. When Hoke’s saxophone kicks up their remake of Chuck Willis’ classic heartbreaker “Betty and Dupree” it raises the song to an entire new level.
Like his other releases Robbery & Murder it succeeds largely on Olney’s capable way of making the universal seem as intimate as a stolen glance or a shared cup of brew. His growl-like-voice certainly isn’t for everyone and might resonate best depending on the mood you’re in, but for certain late night loneliness or early morning regret Robbery & Murder hits just the right note. ***
Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
Wreck and Ruin
Sugar Hill Records
The notion of a thriving Australian country music scene may seem baffling to some but that nation has always shared a commonality with the American South: Both can directly trace their musical ancestry to the Scottish Highlands and British farming communities from which they were largely settled. So, if Kasey Chambers (a native of Southern Australia)so easily masters Appalachian folk melody you can understand why. But that short changes her own considerable skills; as a singer and songwriter Chambers has talent aplenty.
She also works hard at what she does, taking nothing for granted while continually honing her craft. Chambers and her husband, the equally talented Shane Nicholson, have followed their superb 2008 effort Rattlin’ Bones expanding on the acoustic premise of that album in logical and rewarding fashion.
The result is some of the purest and most satisfying country sounds of anyone working today, a record that reminds us how great music is rarely restrained by geography. Most of the tunes on Wreck & Ruin are unconventional love songs, slightly off kilter numbers in which Adam and Eve are cast as outlaws on the run, and where good men are held responsible for saving troubled women.
“Familiar Strangers” is a heartbreaking study of a relationship gone wrong, while the title tune is a cheerful celebration of turmoil and personal failings. The harmonies are excellent, both in technique and emotion, and the baker’s dozen songs the pair wrote for this project are sublime, hitting their target with impressive skill whether they’re trying to elicit tears, laughs, or some concoctive mix of both. Wreck & Ruin has a natural, easygoing feel that never undercuts the skill or force of the performances, sounding like it was cut live in the studio with support musicians clearly sympathetic to the material.
The end result is an album that hearkens to the past while leaning towards a bright future. And you can bet that Chambers and Nicholson will be an integral part of whatever lies ahead. ****1/2
Jeff Lynne
Long Wave
Frontiers Records
It must be wonderful to be Jeff Lynne, having the time and money to pretty much do as you wish without the burden of having to please anyone other than yourself. One can easily envision Lynne wandering around the vast hallways of his English castle (he really does own one) calculating the royalty checks from his days with the Electric Light Orchestra and mulling what unorthodox project he should next take on.
It’s obviously a nice problem to have. Yet despite that luxury, Lynne has never forgotten his roots. As a youngster he listened to music on long wave radio, absorbing the sounds coming through the big box into his living room. Long Wave is a loving tribute to the often (and unfairly) maligned days of pop in the years before the Beatles transformed his homeland, music and just about everything else.
It’s not quite a standards album, although Lynne does revisit everything from show tunes to ‘50s big-band vocalists, but rather a history lesson of the era, which included the first inkling of rock-n-roll. And not the operatic rock of ELO, but rather the more primal music that preceded it by some 15 years. He tears through Chuck Berry’s “Let It Rock” with surprising grit and glee, but can just as easily slide into the transcendent harmonies of the Everly Brothers “So Sad.”
His cover of Don Covay’s “Mercy, Mercy” is a sublime delight, as Lynne digs to the essence of the song while infusing it with his own distinct sound. These are the cuts that stay closest to the original hit recordings. When Lynne tackles Rodgers & Hammerstein “If I Loved You”, Rodgers & Hart “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, and Chaplin “Smile” he does so with surprising restraint, reducing the songs to their melodic core. And while there’s no shortage of Lynne’s trademark layered arrangements they avoid the saccharine dilution he too readily falls back upon.
The overall affect is not unlike the prime ELO years, when Lynne and company virtually ruled the radio waves; in that sense he’s gone full circle, creating a sort of blueprint in reverse. By going to back to his roots he ends up better understanding where they have taken him. ****
Edie Adams
The Christmas Album
Omnivore Records
While best remembered as a lovely and gifted actress/comedienne, not to mention the wife and show business partner of Ernie Kovacs, few people today seem aware of Edie Adams’ successful career as a singer. First breaking through in 1951 as a regular on Kovacs’ television series, she frequently displayed her vocal gifts on the show, playing a role far beyond that of Kovacs’ comic foil.
The two married in 1954 and while Adams was a recurrent presence on television and movies well into the ‘90s she continued to perform in a number of successful stage musicals and top flight nightclubs. Classically trained she even dipped her toes into opera, starring in the Seattle Opera Company’s production of Offenbach’s La Pericole.
Beginning in 1952 Adams was frequently called upon to sing Christmas-themed material on the Kovacs Unlimited show; the Edie Adams Christmas Album is comprised of 15 air check she made prior to her proper radio performances, giving this album high mark in both entertainment and historical significance.
The songs were all performed live, with just a piano for accompaniment, and have been preserved here as they were originally done. There’s no fixing the occasional flub (such as when Adams garbles the lyrics on “It’s A Marshmallow World”) but that only adds to the charm and immediacy of the music. As for Kovacs’ contributions, he may have been one of the most wildly inventive comedians of his time, but his two duets here demonstrate his shortcomings as a singer.
No matter, as Adams is in superb form. That she had a fine voice is no surprise but what does startle is the charm and imagination she brought to the table. She was equally at home delivering the cool jazz of “Winter Wonderland” or the poignant reflection of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” On “I Wonder as I Wander” she manages to sound both contemplative and hopeful while the playful romance of “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve” is both sexy and refined.
The album includes a fine liner essay from Edie’s son Josh Mills which attests to both her love of the season and his own dedication to preserving her proud legacy. She was in a class of her own, and these recordings are a testimony to just how uniquely talented she was. *****
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
The Boxed Set! (2000 / 2012)
What would the holidays be without at least a few killer box sets? This career-spanning bonanza of three CDs and a DVD celebrates a legacy that looms larger than that of any blues-rocking guitarist since Jimi Hendrix. And despite a surplus of posthumous releases, there’s plenty of previously unreleased material herein.
Highlights extend from Vaughan’s swaggering apprenticeship with Paul Ray and the Cobras to slash-and-burn concert performances from the final weeks of his life. There are obligatory dips into the songbooks of Hendrix and Buddy Guy, appearances on MTV Unplugged and Austin City Limits, and instrumental interplay with his brother Jimmie and tour mate Jeff Beck.
Though his guitar never loses its flamethrower intensity, the set documents his progression from the showoff licks of the young “Stevie Rave On” into a fully rounded artist of soulful depth. Vaughn’s monster chops, huge sound and deep soul won adoration from rock fans and blues stars around the world, all of whom will want to indulge themselves with this collection: 18 live and studio tracks plus 36 unissued recordings (some very early and amazing tacks) including an astounding DVD of never-aired Austin City Limits performances.
At over four hours (4 discs plus a 72-page book) it might be an embarrassment of riches but for the diehard SRV fan too much is still not enough. ****
Dave McGraw & Mandy Fer
Seed of a Pine
Dave and Mandy Music
It’s always a pleasure when an album sneaks up on you, grabbing your consciousness in unexpected fashion. Such is the case with this understated nugget, a collection of 11 story-songs that pull and tug with restrained ferocity.
Prior to being sent Seed of a pine I was completely unfamiliar with either artist; now I feel compelled to seek out more. Both are based in Arizona (Fer has released a handful of solo records under the name Mandy Ferranini) and both have performed with the relatively unknown but terrific songwriter Peter Mulvey. In fact it is his band that provides the musical heft for this effort. What I do know is they’ve crafted an album that overflows with excellent songs, wonderful playing and exquisite vocals.
Although they don’t co-write (dividing that role nearly equal) the two are so well matched in style and the vocal harmonies seed of a pine is nearly seamless. The opener “So Comes The Day” brings to mind the dust bowl ballads of Calexico (although it’s not as tightly arranged) while “Forget the Diamonds” is a stark and powerful declaration of intent. McGraw’s voice sounds a bit like the great Tom Rush which is high praise indeed, while Fer has one of those malleable deliveries that sounds at once both familiar and distinct.
The songs are well served by the minimally impressionistic backing (although Fer does let loose with a couple of outstanding guitar breaks) while the cello/piano arrangements conjure memories of early Pentangle and Nick Drake. Seed of a pine is by no means a statement album it could do with a bit more oomph and at times the song pacing weighs things down, but its strengths easily sustain it and provides ample evidence that these two are clearly on to something fine. The next release should be even better, and this time it won’t escape my notice. ***1/2