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April 28, 2008
* Merlefest moments
Just back from an eighth straight year of attending Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina....a few scattered thoughts on this year's festival:
It's tempting to call this Merlefest "The Year of the Piano" in that keyboards seemed to figure fairly prominently in many of the most memorable performances. None were better than Ollabelle, whose keyboardist, Glenn Patscha, repeatedly cast mesmerizing trances and tones with his organ work during the band's stellar Saturday-afternoon set in the drizzle at the Americana stage. Their version of the Grateful Dead's "Ripple" on the Cabin Stage later that night was a show-stopping beauty. Merlefest may generally be all about the banjos and fiddles and guitars and mandolins, but when you hear a good keyboardist in the midst of all that, it ends to stand out like a clarion call.
A more spotlighted piano-centric highlight was Saturday night's mainstage performance by Bruce Hornsby with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder. The two played material they recorded together on last year's duo album, plus the obvious hits reworked for the format (Hornsby taking a lead vocal on the Bill Monroe staple "Uncle Pen", Skaggs' band Kentucky Thunder driving the tempo and feel of Hornsby's "The Way It Is"). Hornsby's an interesting cat, in that the runaway pop success of "The Way It Is" in the '80s allowed him the opportunity to do many things with his stardom -- and he parlayed it into such seemingly unexpected ventures as joining the Grateful Dead and teaming up with Skaggs. His musical talent is unassailable, as he showed most especially on wondrously complex yet poignant minor-key piano runs during "Mandolin Rain".
Piano also played a significant role in Tift Merritt's packed-house performance at the Walker Center on Saturday afternoon -- or at least it sounded that way from the lobby. The house was so packed -- after a sudden torrential thunderstorm sent everyone scurrying to the festival's scant few indoor venues -- that we never did actually get in to see, though it sounded good from outside the theater doors.
Finally, a rather brief but highly affecting piano interlude came during the Avett Brothers' Friday-night headlining set. "Salina", an ambitious track from the band's 2007 breakthrough disc Emotionalism, went from serene to sublime when guitarist Seth Avett switched midsong to piano, emphasizing the tune's quasi-classical references. The Avetts' legions of fans still respond most voraciously to their high-intensity numbers -- on this night, they caused a minor but lovable ruckus when they began passing the reserved-seat chairs overhead behind them to create a mosh-pit up front -- but it's those moments of melodic magic that continue to set the band apart from others in the punk-trad realm.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
April 22, 2008
* A note about musicians and health care
Musicians, as you probably know, tend to be very in tune with the notion of taking care of their own -- in part because we live in a land that mostly does not take care of them. (You'll find considerably more support for the arts, not to mention broader health care, in many other nations...but I digress, inevitably.)
What follows, then, is an abbreviated roundup regarding several musicians in the extended Americana community who have recently fallen victim to health problems. Sadly, a couple of them have already left us, but the efforts of their fellow musicians (and fans and friends) are continuing nonetheless:
* Drew Glackin, bassist for the Silos and Tandy and a contributor to several other acts both onstage and on record, died in early January from a thyroid condition that had gone untreated in part because Glackin could not afford health insurance. A handful of tribute-show benefits already have taken place to help raise funds for Glackin's family to defray medical and funeral expenses. Next up, on May 3-4 in Raleigh, North Carolina, is "Get The Hint," a two-day concert series designed to raise awareness and funds for the Future of Music Coalition, which is seeking to help musicians obtain health insurance.
Performing on May 3 at the Pour House are Tres Chicas (plus a Hazeldine reunion), Chip Robinson with the Heavy Beat Outfit, Patty Hurst Shifter, Chris Mills, the Silos, Quarry Hill, Tandy, BJ Barham, Glory Fountain and Port Huron Statement. Robinson plays again on May 4 at Sadlack's Heroes along with Kenny Roby, Lou Ford, Joe Swank & the Zen Pirates, and the Cartridge family. More info is at: http://www.myspace.com/the_hint
* Accordionist/guitarist Chris Gaffney, known for his work with the Hacienda Brothers, Dave Alvin, and many others, died April 17 of liver cancer, in the midst of a handful of benefits that were being arranged to help with his expenses. That benefit effort is still ongoing; more information is at http://www.helpgaff.com
* Guitarist Duane Jarvis, who has released several solo records in addition to playing with the likes of Lucinda Williams, John Prine and Dwight Yoakam, was treated for colon cancer in late 2007. A benefit to help with his medical expenses is scheduled for June 12 at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland, Oregon.
* Pianist and entertainer Candye Kane was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A benefits is scheduled for May 5 at Humphrey's in San Diego, with other events in the works for the Seattle and Austin areas. Donations to help with Kane's medical expenses can be contributed via paypal.com using the address candyekanetour@aol.com
Please feel welcome to add comments in regard to any further details about these folks and events, and/or to add news about anyone else you believe warrants a mention here. It's up to all of us to help get the word around.
And, on yet another major primary election night, let us keep in mind the significance of health care reform in this coming presidential election. Whoever you vote for, here's hoping they'll help to fix a system that's long past broken.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 7:45 PM | Permalink
April 18, 2008
* "wasn't i always a friend to you...."
I'll make this brief cuz it's 3 a.m. and we just got back from a long drive after a couple of beautiful days seeing our nation's monuments in D.C. ... but I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge a certain video that popped up on YouTube a couple days ago, from a Monday-night concert in Houston:
I guess sometimes these "artist of the decade" quixoticisms can have pretty happy endings.
A hearty congratulations to Alejandro Escovedo (and to his co-writer of "Always A Friend", Mr. Chuck Prophet).
And a heartfelt thanks to Bruce Springsteen and his posse, for realizing such a dream.
(And, by the way -- that song? I guess I don't really much believe in the concept of "hit singles" anymore ... but if in fact they still exist, this is the best one Escovedo has ever made. Just wait till you hear the recorded version, due out June 10 on his new album, Real Animal....)
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
April 15, 2008
* "these are halcyon times...."
I'd like to be able to tell you that if you tuned into The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on Wednesday night, you could see the Drunk Stuntmen perform.
That isn't quite the case, but it's not far off. The Northampton, Massachusetts, band -- which I wrote about at length in ND #44 (March-April 2003) -- won't be listed as appearing on Leno's show, but two of its members, Steve Sanderson and Freddy Freedom, will be in the band accompanying the Young At Heart Chorus, an ensemble of senior citizens who sing rock 'n' roll songs and are the subject of a new Fox Searchlight documentary film.
The Stuntmen teamed up with Young At Heart (which is also based in Northampton) a few years ago; the two groups toured together and even made a live-performance DVD (which Barry Mazor reviewed in his Film At 11 column in ND #73). When I interviewed them in 2003, the Stuntmen seemed a singular bunch -- a band of southern-rockers somehow geographically misplaced in Massachusetts, but more importantly, possessing a charm and spirit that made them stand out from the bar-band pack. That they ended up backing a choral group of seniors only underscored the degree to which they stood apart.
They also have their own new album, titled State Fair, due out on May 20. So if you miss them with Young At Heart on Leno Wednesday night -- or Thursday during the morning/daytime hours (depending on where you live) on Ellen Degeneres' show -- check out their record.
Posted by Peter at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 9, 2008
* "on the cover of the Rolling Stone...."
We (occasionally ourselves amid tangents in reviews or features, sometimes our readers via letters to the editor) have once in awhile given a hard time to Rolling Stone in the pages of No Depression, and there are ways in which it's well-deserved, certainly (this is, after all, a magazine that has put Britney Spears on its cover multiple times).
On the other hand, whenever I run into longtime Rolling Stone writer David Fricke at South By Southwest (as I did again this year), I feel a little bad about it. David has consistently brought both great writing and great critical judgment to the pages of RS, championing the likes of our artist of last decade (Alejandro Escovedo), pioneering alt-rock acts such as R.E.M., and old-school greats such as the Stooges. At SXSW, we talked briefly about Led Zeppelin, with whom he'd recently spent time in the midst of their reunion hoopla, and also about Robert Plant's side-project with Alison Krauss that has become a huge deal in its own right. Talking with Fricke is a good reminder that Rolling Stone does still cover some very worthwhile things musically. (And politically, too; give them credit for the recent Barack Obama cover).
More to the point, though, the one thing that's beyond debate about Rolling Stone is its place in the history of American music journalism. No national publication had covered rock 'n' roll so thoroughly before they came on the scene in 1967; and while their gradual ascendance to mainstream culture left the door open for hundreds of underground magazines in the ensuing decades, every single one of those magazines has owed a debt to RS. (Including No Depression, quite obviously -- and not just because a small handful of our regular contributors were among the original voices in Rolling Stone.)
All of which is a preface to this blog-entry's plug for Rolling Stone: Cover To Cover, an enormously valuable DVD-ROM collection that was recently released in conjunction with Bondi Digital Publishing. Prices on this set vary considerably depending on where you get it, and while it's worth looking for the bargain deal to get it for less than its $125.00 list, you could make a pretty fair case that it's actually well worth the list price.
What you get with this thing, via three discs, is, amazingly, every single page of every issue Rolling Stone ever published in a nearly 40-year span, from its debut in November 1967 up through May 2007. The database (which includes an installation disc of software which allows you to navigate through the archives) is rather well-organized and superbly indexed, which means it's quite simple to search for specific topics or time-frames that may be of specific interest to you.
Being the self-centered snot that I am, my first search was for "Peter Blackstock," and, sure enough, it turned up both of the small news items I wrote for RS back in 1995 (shortly before my attention was diverted to starting my own magazine later that year). A search for "No Depression" located, rather amusingly, a live review of Mary Lou Lord which mentioned her performance of the song "His N.D. World" (which was adapted from Lord's original "His Indie World" by, uh, well, some self-centered snot...).
Getting beyond the ultra-provincial focus, other searches turned up some real revelations. For instance, an article in the October 25, 1973, issue about the Joshua Tree death of Gram Parsons (and subsequent coffin-heist) shares a page with an article about the plane-crash death of Jim Croce. While I knew they'd both left us in the early '70s, I had no idea their deaths were just one day apart -- Parsons on September 19, Croce on September 20.
That's just the tip of the iceberg of what's here, of course. Every page of every issue of Rolling Stone is one hell of a lot of musical and cultural history -- and as a card-carrying college history major, I find it to be endlessly fascinating. I could probably spend a month solid just paging through these archives. (And maybe I will, given present circumstances....)
By the way -- one last little connection: You probably recognize the subject-line to this entry as the title of Dr. Hook's 1973 top-10 single. What you may not know is that it was written by the late Shel Silverstein, whose nephew, Mitch Myers, contributed to ND on occasion for many years. And yes, Mitch has a byline in the RS Cover To Cover set, too -- he wrote the obituary for his uncle in RS #815, June 24,1999, page 26.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
April 7, 2008
* "fill it up to the brim...."
Just continuing the lyric from the subject-line of Grant's blog this morning, fyi. (And, yeah, Ted Hawkins for me too. That's the first version I ever heard, on a cold Seattle night at the old Ballard hotspot the Backstage -- December 1, 1994, according to my logs, with San Francisco's Stephen Yerkey opening. Must've been an early show because my logs indicate I also played a set of my own later that night at the Owl & Thistle, along with my pals Kitchen Radio.... Hawkins, by the way, died exactly one month later, on New Year's Day 1995 -- the year we started ND. And exactly two years to the day before Townes Van Zandt passed away, on New Year's Day 1997. There stands the glass, indeed.)
Had you caught me when my own glass was filled (with champagne) last night, just past midnight, I probably would've spilled out all sorts of thoughts and recollections and ruminations -- as I did, in fact, to my wife, who kindly and patiently listened to all the stories and back-stories and side-stories as we moseyed through the page-proofs of #75, which went to the printer this morning. A survey of the tabletops in the living-room indicates we also consulted issues 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 in the process, though I don't recall just now what we were digging up from those pages. Pretty much everything tied in some way to #75, which proved a remarkably reflective final bow, when it was all said and done (even though it wasn't a "special" or "commemorative" issue, but rather just 144 pages of pretty much what we've always done). We hope you'll like it. I'm pretty sure you will.
Surveying the tabletops in the office, by the way, I find the evidence of what we listened to last night, after I decreed it should be a vinyl-only passage. The artifacts: Uncle Tupelo's No Depression (side one), Son Volt's Trace (side one), Wilco's Being There (side two of four), the Scud Mountain Boys' Pine Box (both sides), T Bone Burnett's self-titled album (both sides), Rank And File's self-titled album (side one), X's See How We Are (side one), and The Original Carter Family: From 1936 Radio Transcripts (side one). Lisa asked me where I got that last one, and I showed her a sentence in the handwritten note I happened to receive about a month ago from Flo Wolfe of the Carter Family Fold in Virginia: "In Aug. 1997 you ordered my very last Original Carter Family album with the song No Depression." Yeah, that's where I got it, all right.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)