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March 18, 2008

COLLIN HERRING Past Life Crashing (self)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Fresh off a couple of stops in rehab, Fort Worth's Collin Herring releases his third album, an unflinchingly autobiographical journey through the heart of a troubled songwriter. Not surprisingly, the material here is much more somber (and sober) than that of his fantastic sophomore effort, The Other Side Of Kindness, but the lower volume doesn't necessarily mean less intensity. "I listen to you, but you don't listen to me/Now I'm beside myself," sings Herring on "Beside", one of several remorseful ballads that examine loneliness from unexpected angles. The rocking "Yard Cars" is more akin to Herring's earlier work, a glorious mix of Husker Du and Merle Haggard topped off with his sneering vocals and his father's aching pedal steel.

-- DARRYL SMYERS
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Darryl Smyers.

Posted by Peter at 5:37 PM | Permalink

March 16, 2008

KASEY ANDERSON
The Reckoning
(Terra Soul)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Kasey Anderson's sophomore effort delivers on the promise of 2004's Eric Ambel-produced Dead Roses -- and then some. A versatile and confident songwriter and singer, Anderson nails these hard-luck tales with grit and gumption. He blends clever barroom rave-ups like "Wake Up" and "Hometown Boys" with more complicated fare such as the title track, a raw politically charged dirge that opens the disc. Other notable tracks include the piano-and-feedback-driven "You Don't Live Here Anymore" and the fully-realized character sketch "Buddy Bolden's Blues" (with Ambel on trumpet). Keith Christopher (one of Ambel's cohorts in the Yayhoos) and Catherine Popper (formerly of Hem and Ryan Adams' Cardinals) also contribute, but Anderson himself is front and center.

-- ANDY TURNER
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Andy Turner.

Posted by Peter at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 11, 2008

SHAWN MULLINS
Honeydew
(Vanguard)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Shawn Mullins' 1998 breakthrough Soul's Core amplified his folky soft-rock with full-band backings that wrapped his detailed lyrics in more broadly palatable pop productions. 2000's Beneath The Velvet Sun rounded some of Mullins' edges; its commercial disappointment resulted in a move from Sony to Vanguard. His new label found that idiosyncrasies weren't a marketing barrier, and last year's 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor was winningly divided between acoustic country-folk and bluesy rock, showcasing an artist finding his way rather than a label foraging for hits.

Honeydew retains that integrity, opening with a reworking of Mullins' prospective theme for TV's "Scrubs", recast from its light 2002 original into a deep soul search. The introspection continues with the memo from therapy "Song To The Self (Chapter 2)" and a personal reckoning of the country's direction on "For America". The latter's pining for lost people and faded times is also heard in the elegiac "Home" and the nostalgic "See That Train".

Though Honeydew isn't a concept album, several songs twine in thematic opposition. "Homeless Joe" celebrates a musician who has lived his dream, while "Fraction Of A Man" catalogues the mid-life crises of those who haven't. "Leaving All Your Troubles Behind" follows a young girl's escape from a meth-riddled mountain town, just as "Cabbagetown" finds a city slum dweller returning to his rural roots.

The light rasp at the edges of Mullins' voice fits both the folk tunes and the rockers. He's unerring in arrangements that include Wallflowers-styled Americana, singer-songwriter acoustic, laid-back and electric blues, and pop-rock. His production remains mainstream-friendly but without blurring his characters' definition. His earlier commercial success is now matched by his artistic achievement.

-- ELI MESSINGER
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Eli Messinger.

Posted by Peter at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 10, 2008

SOLACE BROTHERS
Bad Will
(California Beach Club)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Built To Spill introduced the world to this band on a recent tour. It's a good fit, but the Solace Brothers range further, and may actually have more chops. The Brothers convey edgy punk emotionalism without dropping a note, even in complex melodies and harmonies. Arrangements are tasty and unpredictable, incorporating ingenious, brassy fuzz-guitar flourishes, guttural and occasionally surprising bass lines, and arrangements tricked out with a modulation here and a tempo twist there. Highlights include "Frankie And Johnny", nine verses backed by a rumble that builds to a scream of furious tension, and the sixteen-minute trip "It Might Be Real": spectrum-wide variations on a theme with star turns by Calexico's Joey Burns and Volker Zander on cello and upright bass, respectively. Anyone interested in the Brothers' influences can sample them all in "Melody Line", which is rife with snatches of stolen licks and lyrics.

-- LINDA RAY
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Linda Ray.

Posted by Peter at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 9, 2008

TOM LAVERACK
Cave Drawings
(Sojourn)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- With twenty years gone by since his debut album, Tom Laverack has honed his writing and performing into a perfectly matched set. His voice and songs meet one another on varied turf and go gallivanting about the hillsides. World-weariness runs through the the entire set in a way that a man two decades younger couldn't have fully comprehended. "Not much changes from place to place but the scenery," Laverack sings in "Dead Dog". The soulful, horn-bolstered "Running Out Of Road" delivers on its title with a certainty tempered by a still-unquenched thirst for life. "Foolish Enough To Think" weds pop smarts to a rough-and-tumble groove and leathery vocals. The title song, rich with allegory, hypnotizes along the course of its folkish structure, punctuated with Joni Mitchell-like chordal turns and thoughtfully compelling drumming.

-- DAVID GREENBERGER
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or David Greenberger.

Posted by Peter at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 8, 2008

WINK KEZIAH & DELUX MOTEL
Working Songs For The Drinking Class
(Great South)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- On his latest release, North Carolina's Wink Keziah, with support from his band Delux Motel, proves not only that he has mastered a variety of musical styles, but also that he understands everyday life in rural America. Produced by Mark Stuart from the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, the album reflects the influence of everything from honky-tonk to contemporary blues to bluegrass to the Bakersfield sound. Throughout, Keziah captures the highs and lows of the human experience with his poignant and perceptive tales of love and life -- tales that never stray too far from rich country soil in which they were cultivated. Although Keziah's distinctive nasal vocal delivery doesn't allow him to stand out from the crowd, he makes his mark with his ability to create honest and insightful music about people who work hard during the day and party even harder at night.

-- GREG YOST
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Greg Yost.

Posted by Peter at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 7, 2008

ARLEN ROTH
Toolin' At Woodstock
(Aquinnah)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Arlen Roth is known as one of the great guitar teachers; he's written instructional books and hosted many "Hot Licks" videos. His latest album comes as Exhibit A in disproving the old adage that those who can, do, and those who can't, teach. Arlen Roth is a teacher who very clearly can, and does.

This is a wonderfully relaxed series of sessions recorded mostly at Levon Helm's home studio in Woodstock, New York. With Helm on drums and a couple of vocal cuts, and guest appearances by Bill Kirchen, Sonny Landreth, Levon's daughter Amy Helm, and Arlen's daughter Lexie Roth, the performances here are comfortable takes on mainly old pop, rock and country standards.

Despite the prevalence of incredibly slick guitar licks from Roth, Kirchen and Landreth, there is never a sense that chops are overwhelming the delivery of songs. Helm steals the show with his vocals on Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" even as Roth outshreds the original guitar master. Kirchen and Roth bring new life to the Joe South classic "Games People Play", and Lexie and Amy harmonize beautifully on "Just One Look". That said, it's the Berry blues instrumental "Deep Feeling" that leaves the strongest impression, as Roth and the incomparable Landreth trade slide licks with constant invention and escalating emotional resonance.

-- STEVE PICK
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Steve Pick.

Posted by Peter at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 6, 2008

COAL PORTERS
Turn The Water On, Boy
(Prima)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- After last year's ragged live reunion release of some of the Long Ryders' best-known songs, former frontman Sid Griffin and his English acoustic bandmates the Coal Porters deliver an album that sounds like something from Griffin's native Kentucky, not his adopted London. This is genuine mountain music, with lively melodies, earnest singing and shimmering production. The instrumental restraint, the lower-register vocals, and the absence of high harmonies broaden its appeal beyond the bluegrass audience. "Final Wild Son" (a Ryders banjo-mandolin re-do), "Silver Raven" (an homage to Gene Clark), and the swinging "These Four Walls" ring true. Byrds-man Chris Hillman lends his mando to "Mr. Guthrie", a symbolic link that shows where all of this is coming from. It's not just the best of the three Porters albums, it's the most heartfelt effort by Griffin yet.

-- BUZZ MCCLAIN
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Buzz McClain.

Posted by Peter at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 5, 2008

DARRYL LEE RUSH
Live From The River Road Icehouse
(Palo Duro)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Dallas' Darryl Lee Rush has been playing roadhouses and honky-tonks all over Texas for nearly a decade, but he didn't get around to recording his marvelous debut, Llano Avenue, until 2005. He does his best work onstage, though, so it was a natural choice to make his sophomore effort primarily a live release.

And yet it's the two studio tracks which bookend the live cuts that really stand out here. "Lot" and "Shotgun Annie" are the type of character studies that benefit from Rush's detailed eye for the ins-and-outs of the rural experience. "Behind these doors, there's not much worth taking/but I guess it's her lot in life," he sings on "Lot", examining a meager existence of a woman living paycheck-to-paycheck in a ramshackle trailer.

"Town Too Tough To Die" leads off the live material, and Rush's fiery band blazes a trail that leaves both performer and audience nearly out of breath. Included in the rowdy portion of the set is a cover of Steve Earle's "Johnny Come Lately" that suits Rush's everyman persona just right. When he gets to the lovely ballad "Truale", it's surprising the audience has enough left to sing along. Those roadhouse crowds get into the rocking songs, but Rush knows his way around the slower, tender stuff as well.

-- DARRYL SMYERS
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Darryl Smyers.

Posted by Peter at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 4, 2008

WAIFS
Sundirtwater
(Three Little Fishy/Compass)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Formed in Australia more than a decade ago, the Waifs earned double-platinum success in their native country with their 2003 album Up All Night. Thanks in part to the patronage of Bob Dylan, who gave them the support slot for his North American tour that same year, the trio has carved out a substantial following in the United States as well.

Sundirtwater, the band's fifth studio album, should bring new fans to that base. Recorded in Nashville, the disc boasts the sort of spare, no-nonsense arrangements that often accompany strong songwriting. Tracks such as the blustery "How Many Miles" and the sinister "Sad Sailor Song" find the group rocking out in ramshackle fashion, with siblings Donna Simpson and Vikki Thorn offering up fittingly feisty vocals. "Sweetest Dream", a ballad cut through with organ swirls and close background harmonies, sounds like Dusty Springfield tackling an Otis Redding song. And on the ukulele-and-clarinet closer "Feeling Sentimental", the band crafts the sort of Tin Pan Alley revisitation that Sam Phillips has lately favored.

The album sags in the middle, with the centerpiece tracks "Get Me Some" and "Eternity" coming off as pedestrian and slight. But when the Waifs explore roots-rock's outer fringes, as they often do, they shine.

Posted by Peter at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BODEANS
Still
(He & He)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- No one knows better than the BoDeans that American bands have a way of sounding better on record with T Bone Burnett producing them. This is the third time the darlings of Waukesha, Wisconsin, have hooked up with him. But those looking for them to recapture the spark of their 1986 Burnett-produced debut Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, or reinvent themselves through his innovative studio effects, will be disappointed.

At its best, as on "The First Time" and "Hearing", Still recalls the richness and bite of T Bone's work with the Wallflowers. Organs swirl, guitars ring, and an overall urgency drives the tunes. But overall, the production is one of Burnett's most conservative; for all its texture and roominess, it can't rescue the BoDeans from their worst instincts, and with three different drummers, can't project the chemistry of a band.

If founding BoDeans Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas once aligned themselves with the likes of the Everly Brothers and the Louvin Brothers with their striking vocal harmonies, and Buddy Holly with their freshness and vitality, they now seem to take their cues from old arena bands such as Journey and the Marshall Tucker Band. You can't expect them to preserve the youthful urgency that once enabled them to sound at home on a punk/new-wave label. But singing of ghosts and dreams, heavy hearts and long nights, they sound a bit weary, weighed down by the past.

Posted by Peter at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 2, 2008

NADA SURF
Lucky
(Barsuk)
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Nada Surf's latest effort begins on an ominous note, an aching guitar figure setting the tone for a chamber-pop anthem that couldn't sound more disillusioned. "Everyone's right and no one is sorry," Matthew Caws eases in with a sigh. "That's the start and the end of the story/From the Sharks and the Jets to the call in the morning." The songs themselves are typically more buoyant than the lyrics would suggest, often mining a wide-open power-pop vein that makes you wonder if Caws could have followed the Gin Blossoms straight to the top of the pop charts. "Beautiful Beat" is a jangle-rock gem, with its shimmering wall of Teenage Fanclub-worthy harmonies, while "Here Goes Something" is jaunty folk as Paul McCartney understood it in the Rubber Soul days. While there's nothing here as unconventional as "Popular", the song that made them almost famous for a minute, the highlights make it hard to miss the quirks.

Posted by Peter at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ERIC MATTHEWS
The Imagination Stage
(Empyrean)
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Aptly titled, this set of lush romantic pop is symphonic in scope, from the writing to the arrangements to the performances. While there's a surface gloss, there are nicely barbed elements throughout, and the cover's rough-hewn portraiture even underscores that point. Eric Matthews is no stranger to this terrain, having made his mark on the front-line of the return to orchestral pop that harks back to Jimmy Webb and Brian Wilson -- first with Cardinal and then with a solo career that commenced in the mid-'90s. Matthews played all the instruments (with the exception of the strings, which he scored) and also double-tracked his voice on most songs. His musical inventiveness keeps preciousness and bombast a continent away, though his lyrical inclinations can be cloying, wearing a poetic heart on their sleeve as they dart in and out of the perfectly articulated musical landscape.

-- DAVID GREENBERGER
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or David Greenberger.

Posted by Peter at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PACK A.D.
Tintype
(Mint)

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Twenty years from now, Jack White will be remembered for many things: his retina-searing fashion choices, his formidable fistic prowess, and his, um, disturbing relationship with his "sister." His greatest legacy, though, will be how he made it credible for the most Pillsbury Doughboy-pallored of white hipsters to play the blues. Parts of Tintype -- the feedback-splattered "Gold Rush" and the crash-and-stomp "Paper Bag" -- suggest Vancouver's the Pack A.D. cribbed everything they know from the White Stripes. And that's only partly because drummer Maya Miller comes on like Meg White channeling the Shaggs' Helen Wiggin. What sets the two-piece apart from the post-Stripes hordes is that singer-guitarist Becky Beck seriously sounds like she mainlines unrefined Mississippi Delta mud. Whether howling like the spawn of Screamin' Jay Hawkins on the thumping "Snow" or showcasing her formidable slide chops on the 3 a.m. comedown "Got Up", Beck has a bad case of the blues. Little Jackie White isn't the only one who should be impressed.

Posted by Peter at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)