Here’s the first of what will hopefully be a bunch of SXSW previews. These will not be for the bands that you already know and love; what would be the point of me trying to preach to the converted. Instead here are some of the out of the way artists (who will no doubt be playing some out of the way places!) that I suggest you check out when you are down in Austin.
Shaky Graves is a perfect first post in this series. The band is really a one man band based in Austin. His debut record, the 2011 release Roll The Bones, has been praised by the Austin Chronicle as well as influential LA based music blog Rollo & Grady. “Built to Roam” is a forlorn farewell song; an ode to leaving places like L.A. and N.Y.C. It’s these types of songs where Shaky Graves shines. His high pitched voice (similar to the great Tom Brosseau) is perfectly suited for this type of song. Here’s “Built To Roam” song that 2011 release:
Shaky Graves has just released a followup ep titled The State Of Texas Vs. Alejandro Rose-Garcia (available free via Bandcamp). Here’s “Halloween” off that new ep:
Jacob Furr is a Texan who spent some time in the Pacific Northwest. As a result of his travels and time spent on the coast you get these songs of “shorelines, leaving, and discovery”. I’m linking to the song “Voices on the Sea” since it lyrically seems to sum up the themes of the ep. While the song is propelled by a a simple strummed guitar it is also accented with pedal steel, drums and what sound like accordion.
There used to be a time in college radio in the late 80′s and early nineties that a Golden Palominos record was a big deal. REM were usually involved in some way and of course so was drummer Anton Fier – also folks like Syd Straw, Richard Thompson, Peter Holsapple, Bob Mould, and NYC improvers like John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Arto Lindsey and Fred Firth. The Palomino records that were produced with varying guests over a decade were eclectic ranging from rock to industrial.
It’s been awhile since I heard from the group but I just learned Anton Fier has teamed up with Drivin n Cryin alum Kevn Kinney to record a new Palomino record called A Good Country Mile. In fact there is a song called “A Good Country Mile” on here and it’s one of my favorite Kinney tunes. But here is “Challenge” from the new record. It’s more muscular than a typical Kinney solo outing but this is no ordinary Kinney solo outing. This will appeal to fans of Drivin n Cryin.
I started this review with a little trepidation. While I love Anaïs Mitchell and am practically an Anaïs completest/stalker, I was worried that this record might be a letdown. See I’ve been disappointed before when my hopes were so high. Sometimes it’s that 5th (or 4th or 6th) record where you might notice a dropoff. Maybe an artist has said all she needs to say, or becomes musically stagnant or unnecessarily experimental. That’s often the time an artist puts out the special guest record or the duets record or the inevitable children’s lullabies record or the covers project (I could go on and on). But I worried for naught.
That faint bit of anxiety was probably silly really, especially considering Anais broke the mold of what a folk artist can accomplish on her last record: the folk-rock opera Hadestown. The new record is called Young Man In America and is due out on Feb 21. This is a more independent release than past records (the last couple cds were released on Ani DiFrancos’ label Righteous Babe) but the production gives no indication of any expense being spared. There are orchestral moments, experimental jazz sounds, ambient echos, and dischordant fractured guitars. All these sounds fit in the context of each song and rarely overshadow Anaïs voice and her lyrics.
One of the songs with the most soaring, epic instrumentation is “Ships”; on it Anaïs matches the dynamics of the music with her powerful voice. On the standout track “Tailor” (performed here live on YouTube) Anais describes a character who goes through a litany of changes both physical and mental brought about by a lover’s remarks. The song is performed on a bed of accordion giving it a bit of a ramshackle, gypsy sound. Every nuance of Anais’ voice is present, every whispered phrase, every sigh, all the resentment and all the disappointment. On the song “Shepherd” Anaïs explores a relationship between a shepherd and his wife pregnant with child. Both have their wants and needs and responsibilities and even in the moments before an imminent birth the work of the shepherd takes precedent leading to a tragic result.
“Shepherd” is being given away free to those who sign up for Anaïs’ newsletter so you can go here (scroll down to the bottom of the page) to sign up for the newsletter. Or you can preview the song below (plus there’s a nice live video of it here).
Anaïs has an extensive touring schedule with a April 20 release show here in Chicago at SPACE. Here’s some important upcoming dates:
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 Westminster, London, UK – SOLD OUT @ Westminster Reference Library
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 Newmarket, NH @ The Stone Church on Zion Hill
Thursday, February 23, 2012 Cambridge, MA @ Club Passim
Friday, February 24, 2012 Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Saturday, February 25, 2012 Peacedale, RI @ Music at Lily Pads
Monday, February 27, 2012 Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 New York, NYC @ Joe’s Pub
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 Annapolis, MD @ Rams Head On Stage
Thursday, March 1, 2012 Philadelphia, PA @ Tin Angel
Young Man In America can be preordered now through Amazon here. This is a great chance to support independent music and come away with what will surely be one of the great records of 2012.
Cooper Thompson sounds a bit like someone from an earlier time. You don’t have to go back too far though. He get’s compared to Springsteen, Waits, and I’d add Buddy Holly to the list. His recording process is simple, organic and analog. As a result his songs are warm and have a glow about them.
The new record is called Outlaw For A Year and was produced by Kevin Augunas. The songs were recorded over 8 days and nights with the help of Richard Swift at his studio.
You can pick up the cd or the digital download here or through iTunes:
This is a pretty apt record cover for the band Mad Buffalo’s new release wilderness since the record is a throwback both lyrically and musically to an earlier time. Nowhere is this more evident than in the song “Big Joe Walker” which recounts some of the tall tails about this western mountain man.
While I haven’t heard the whole record it also addresses contemporary American problems.
I stumbled upon the upcoming record by James Low a couple of times in the last few weeks. The latest time was on an indie radio country chart. This Portland based artist has a low key country sound that borders on folk. If you are a fan of artists that straddle those two genres than you should check The James Low Western Front out. You can pre-order the album now here. Catch James Low tonight in Portland with Lewi Longmire (wrote about him here) at the Press Club or tomorrow at Al’s Den with Matt Brown.
Here’s the song “Words” from the new record; it’s got the most lovely pedal steel on it…
PS I’m a sucker for songs about states of the union. Particularly songs about California. Here’s a video off the new record for a song called “Thinking California”.
Marlowe and The Sea is basically one dude from Jackson, Ms. His label and bio claim he plays folk music with bite. That might be catchy but I don’t think it’s true. However the failure to market Marlowe and the Sea as anything but sad sack indie folk doesn’t have any effect on the quality of the tunes and the performances. And in this case both are high.
The production is a bit rough on this ep – the hiss is almost distracting. But the roughness works and the tune “A Second-Chance Love Song” is better for it – makes it seem more intimate like he was burned by some girl and retreated right to the attic to record this take. There’s plans for a debut lp out in 2012 on Elegant Trainwreck Records but until then you can stream/download this ep here via Bandcamp.
Walter Spencer is best known as the bassist of the Water Towert Bucket Boys. While I like the hard country/string band sounds of the bucket boys, I really like the odd timey blend of folk, string band, and country that Walter Spencer brings to his solo efforts (wrote about his debut here). The new record is called Red Romance and is available at iTunes and Amazon.
“Weed” is just what you expect, a song extolling the virtues of pot. It’s funny and surprisingly convincing on the medicinal and psychological benefits of marijuana.
Finding a record like Josiennne Clarke’sThe Seas Are Deep makes me realize I should continue this music blog. Here is something (and someone) that is completely breathtaking and yet is not all over the blogosphere and deserves to be. This new record is a collection of covers of traditional folk songs. She is once again accompanied by Ben Walker on guitar.
Snake Wagon’s bio is much like their music. Half funny, half serious. The problem is that in both cases it’s hard to figure out which half is which. As far as I can tell the band is composed of members of The Barr Brothers and maybe a couple of the guys from The Low Anthem. The record is called Have Fun With Snake Wagon. Here’s a few excerpts from various bios:
“What is Snake Wagon, again? A bunch of jokesters, pranksters, parodists, specialty obscurantist antique humorists, and satirical ironical songsmiths who blasted the sheet rock off the Pasta Sauce Factory walls in a quick, but fruitful, session last year.”
“Born out of twistedness and raised in revelation, the band takes its love of Christmas Caroling, Wall Drug, South Dakota, and Chinese astronomy, and transforms it daily into a truly unique and innovative sound that recalls early Motorhead having a coffee, no cream, with Linda McCartney. As the son of a Wal-Mart Greeter and Youngstown’s first female chair of the Libertarian Committee, Thom Jefferson, along with his childhood friend/violinist Ulf Zarkanius, rebelled against their fore-bearers and formed Snake Wagon in 1985, as a vehicle to spread their anarchistic belief system. In 1986, Daniel Johnston notably stated, “They’re alright.”"
“Snake Wagon is a virus. H14D2S. It came originally from Africa, and is poised to take over all living bodies in a post-DNA era. symptoms of arrest: trance, anxiety, prophylactic shock, reptilian ancestral awareness, defamation of character, certitude, unabashed desire to replicate.”
You’ll draw your own conclusions but I imagine you’ll hear a bit of Daniel Johnston, a little of the wacky solo stuff of Alex Chilton, and a fair share of whatever 60′s era garage psychedelia you became infatuated with in your early twenties. The record is available free via Bandcamp here.
I asked Charlie Parr’s people (yes, he has people!!) for a song from his new record. I haven’t heard a lick of it but told them to send any song they wished. Why? Because at this point any song by Charlie Parr is better than almost anything out there.
The “new” record is produced in acssociation with House of Mercy baptist church in St Paul, Minn. and and features Emily Parr, Four Mile Portage, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. It was recorded at Sacred Heart Music Center in Duluth on 2″ tape by Tom Herbers and will be released on both cd and vinyl. “Gospel Plow is the title track and is notable for both Charlie’s guitar playing and the call and response gospel vocals of him and the choir. Buy the new record here via Charlie Parr’s website.
It’s very rare that I write about an artist that is also then written about by other blogs. I’m a bit of an island in that sense. But with Mount Moriah my review was quickly followed up by lots of praise in the music blogosphere. Here’s what I wrote back in March:
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I’ve been checking out the moody americana rock of Mount Moriah. The band’s self titled debut record is due out April 12 on Holiday for Quince Records. The band is from North Carolina and seems to relish it’s connection to rural America. Yet on record the band is not simply acting out some retro fantasy or worse yet becoming some kind of mealy mouthed freak folk outfit (even if the beard suggests otherwise). In fact I hear much more Rilo Kiley in the lead singer’s vocals than say Gilian Welch. And musically the guitars are stiff, the keyboards awash in reverb, and the drumming taught.
Here’s the song “Lament” and below that the video for the song “Old Gowns”.
While I was poking around looking for new Christmas tunes I thought I’d check in on Caleb Groh who released some of my favorite Christmas music of the last couple years and see if he had added a vol. 3 to his carol collection (Vol. 1 and Vol.2 can be found for free here). No such luck but I did notice on his Facebook that The Boston Phoenix released a new song from his forthcoming record Bottomless Coffee. It’s the full band rocker “Catastrophic Culprit”.
I believe Caleb (along with Jeff Pianki, Nathan K, and a few of their mutual friends) is on the cusp of being the next generation of artists to achieve success along the lines of Bright Eyes, Sufjan Stevens, Jens Lekman, etc.
This is a great song off the new album from Austin based singer-songwriter Graham Weber. Graham is a favorite of much more well know Austin singer-songwriters (including Slaid Cleaves who took him under his wing and also recorded one of his songs). In his short time in Austin he’s gone from being the opener to being a headliner (I saw him MC a show at the cactus cafe at SXSW one year). His new record is called Women. I guess it’s in part a celebration and also a condemnation of that word. Graham was going through tough relationship times when he wrote and recorded the songs but also he has enlisted a treasure trove of Austin women to sing on it (Carrie Rodriguez, Amanda Shires, BettySoo, Dana Falconberry, Bonnie Whitmore, Leslie Stevens). I’ve written about Graham here and here.
I asked Graham if I could share the song “Lander, WY.” It’s a gentle song about running from your problems. Pre-order Women by contacting Graham (women@grahamweber.com) or via Bandcamp here.
Alright so yesterday I lied. I said we were going to get on with the best of 2011 type posts. But it turns out that with a little searching around the net I’ve found two more releases to feature this week. Great ones too by the way. The first is the Roy Davies project called The Coloradas. I wrote about Roy Davies here and here and am a big fan of his music.
The Coloradas are Roy Davis and Bernie Nye. They successfully combine bluegrass with americana. I know you’ll love this – contact the band (roygoodale (@) yahoo.com) to purchase their new record. “Misery” is a standout track that while rather miserable lyrically is jaunty and bouncy and it’ll have you singing along and tapping your toe in no time.
It’s that time of year again. The time of year when new releases dry up and we’ve got to look back and think about the year gone by. I never make a list but I will repost some of my favorites in no particular order.
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I know there’s a lot of music out there. Lots of different genre’s, sub genre’s, and micro sub genre’s. I know we’re all inundated with pr mailings, email submission requests and a stack of cds to plow through. And then we have our favorites that we champion. I have mine and you have yours. But I can’t believe there’s not more consensus on the music of Malcolm Holcombe. The guy is a major talent. Blogs like Nine Bullets, Herohill, Slowcoustic, Here Comes The Flood, and You Crazy Dreamers have all sung his praises and while that’s great I’d like think he could get out of our little rootsy music blog grotto.
Part of the blame rests at the feet of his label that although small, should have the resources to reach out to the music blogs and I think part of the blame rests at the feet of the premier music blog sites who are not open to blues and folk based music (unless it comes in a pre-approved hipster wrapper – Bon Iver, The Tallest Man On Earth). The new record Drink The Rain doesn’t break any new ground. The same could be said for nearly every classic record by Guy Clark, Greg Brown, John Prine, or Ray Willie Hubbard and like those artists Malcolm Holcombe has his own distinctive sound that combines amazing songwriting, a gutteral vocal delivery and a mastery of blues and folk based idioms.
I could link to any of the 12 song on the new record and you’d get my drift. But I think “One Man Singing” expresses some of the feelings I have about the artists we follow and love.
I had a couple new things I could write about but nothing struck me as much or as hard as the old stuff from Mike Nicolai. I’ve written about Mike once or twice in the past but as one of the great undiscovered songwriters in the country it won’t hurt to revisit his catalog. Speaking of which Nicolai’s catalog is hard to get a finger on – it shifts wildly from twisted folk to power pop to the occasional hard rocker (in fact the band Grand Champeen often backed up Mike Nicolai).
Mike Nicolai’s solo catalog consists of four full length records released between 2001 and 2005. I have one song from each and a link where you can buy each one on Bandcamp. These are well out of print so this is a good chance to discover or rediscover the work of one of the country’s best songwriters.
There are only a couple people I am irrationally infatuated with. Ramsay Midwood is at the top of that short list. He’s got a new record out now (probably his fourth or so). Of course it’s called Larry Buys A Lighter (how could it be called anything else?). This record continues the pattern of previous efforts and is a combination of folk, americana, southern gospel, with JJ Cale like guitar picking and a stream of consciousness lyrical style reminiscent of no one.
Here’s “Loopers” from the new record. Buy the whole thing here. You can see Ramsay when he plays his almost weekly shows at Sam’s Town Point in Austin or on Dec. 10 at Poodie’s in Spicewood, Tx.
I’ve been sitting on this song for a couple days now, patiently waiting `til honky-tonk Friday when I could post it. This is off the debut album from Minneapolis based country band The Cactus Blossoms. These guys have folks in the band that have played with The Jayhawks and The Gear Daddies and the record was produced by Brent Sigmeth (Haley Bonar, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, The Bad Plus). But the essence of the band is comprised of two brothers who have absorbed plenty of old 78′s and the entirety of The Anthology of American Folk Music. Influences certainly include Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers as well as any/every classic country duo group. You can hear all of these influences on “Lonesome and Blue” as well as some great interplay between the band members. The fiddle, pedal steel and standup bass in particular are stellar.
The band’s self titled debut record is available as either a cd or a download for $10 via Bandcamp. It’s a no brainer if you are a fan of any of the artists I mentioned above.
Glad you found me at my new url. Songs:Illinois is committed to writing about music that is under-appreciated and unique. I've found that the music I write about shares a couple of traits. And they are: lyrical integrity, musically diverse, and written/performed by compelling characters.
Most songs found here are free and legal and have been provided by either the artist or label. If for some reason you'd like to have a song removed, please email me at cbonnell (at) gmail.com.
