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Music Notes

On December 2, 2023

At 7:01 pm

In General

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It’s been freaking forever since I did one of these. They take a lot of work and at this point in the semester…..But I am pulling something together here.

I’ve seen a bunch of shows lately. Let’s get through them and get that caught up.

I recently saw Bob Mould for the first time at the Columbus Theater in Providence. I wonder why I hadn’t seen him before? In any case, it was good–a solo show and sure I’d love to see a band, but it was still just what you want from Bob. A few Husker Du numbers, a couple Sugar songs, a bunch of his solo stuff. He is still writing and it’s mostly still good. Plus you got Cranky Bob Mould. Someone in the audience shouted out for a song. He was nonplussed and also annoyed. He was like,” Husker Du stopped playing that in 1985″ and then said something like “Audience interactions, so great.” LOL, OK Bob. Good rock and roll from the crankiest man in the business. Here’s the setlist.

Then, when I was in Los Angeles late last month for a conference and of course all these graves, it so happened that there was a free jazz festival there that week. What? Oh my. Of course I couldn’t go to much given the conference, but I did have one night free and….oh my. It was a two act night. The first was the saxophonist Tim Berne, the cellist Hank Roberts (who I have seen in so many different formats, including playing the intro music for a friend’s wedding!), and Aurora Nealand on accordion, clarinet, and voice. I didn’t know Nealand at all, but she’s super talented. Berne I’ve listened to for years and had never seen so that was great to check him off the list. It was a very solid show. But then the second act…..OMG it was Harriet Tubman. This is the legendary jazz power trio that’s about as close to a rock/funk power trio as you can get and call it jazz. These guys are total legends and it was an absolute honor to be in the same room with them. That is J.T. Lewis on drums, Melvin Gibbs on bass, and Brandon Ross on guitar. If you are a rock person who wants to explore jazz, this is a great place to start. Lots of Black liberation songs that, OK, have to be explained since the songs have no lyrics, but still, to see them come from this place is really just so very powerful. Also, being LA where this sort of thing happens, they called up the hippie-soul singer Georgia Anne Muldrow to sing with them on a song! OMG! She’s so great. What a shock and a surprise that was!!! Dammmnnnnn, now that was a fucking show. Highlight of the conference, quite honestly.

I have another show to report on too, but I think I will save it for next week.

Obviously the big news of the week is the death of Shane MacGowan. Hey, he made it to 65! Who ever would have thought it! Look, the guy had his issues, lord knows, but a couple of things here. First, he was an absolutely brilliant writer and any decent songwriter and all the great songwriters will tell you the same thing. When I saw Steve Earle recently, he did a MacGowan song and talked about this, said it would help if anyone could understand anything MacGowan sang, which lol it’s true. Second, The Pogues were such a necessary correction to the overly slick music of the 80s, which he hated and most of which I don’t like either. I am not Irish-American, so the absolute adoration of the band is not quite my thing (my Irish-American wife’s dog as a child–yep, it was named Pogues), but obviously a hugely important figure.

We also lost the punk guitarist Scott Kempner. Jean Knight, one of the great one hit wonders of the early 80s, passed too.

Here’s a really cool article on Black musicians reclaiming American folk traditions long categorized as white.

A long lost Gram Parsons recording has been uncovered. Cool.

Jimbo Hart, Jason Isbell’s bass player from the moment he went solo, has left the band. It’s unclear whether this is on his own volition or not. I know there’s been substance issues. It’s a bummer though, not so much because Hart is some astounding bassist, but just because it’s a big break from the early years of Isbell’s career.

40 years of The Violent Femmes.

Playlist from the last month or so I guess, which is interesting for me to go back on and consider given the length of time. Over a month, all of eight albums got played twice and nothing was played three times.

Sturgill Simpson, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
Iggy Pop, Lust for Life
Wussy, Forever Sounds (x2)
Amyl & the Sniffers, Comfort to Me
Dilly Dally, Heaven
William Parker & Raining on the Moon, Friday Afternoon (x2)
Art Blakey, Hard Bop
Tom T. Hall, ….The Storyteller
Ray Wylie Hubbard, Crusades of the Restless Knights
Johnny Paycheck, Someone to Give My Love To
Justin Townes Earle, Harlem River Blues (x2)
Bruce Cockburn, World of Wonders
Frank Ocean, Nostalgia, Ultra, Sno-Cheetah
The Band, Stage Fright
Richard Thompson, You? Me? Us? (Nude)
Wussy, Funeral Dress
Marianne Faithful, Broken English
Noname, Room 25
The Grateful Dead, August 6, 1971, Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, California, 1st set
Chuck Prophet, Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins
Henry Franklin, The Skipper
The Tallest Man on Earth, The Wild Hunt
John Coltrane, Africa/Brass
Tammy Wynette, 20 Greatest Hits
The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers
Buddy Tabor, Earth & the Sky
David Budbill/William Parker/Hamid Drake, Songs for a Suffering World
Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy
Steve Coleman, Synovial Joints
John Moreland, High on Tulsa Heat
Doug Kershaw, Spanish Moss
Merle Haggard, It’s All in the Movies
Drive By Truckers, Welcome 2 Club XIII
Soccer Mommy, Color Theory
Lilly Hiatt, Trinity Lane
Yo La Tengo, This Stupid World
Fairport Convention, Full House
Sonic Youth, Dirty
The Flatlanders, Live at the One Knite
Tom T. Hall, Ballad of Forty Dollars
Rodney Crowell, The Houston Kid
Grateful Dead, May 8, 1977: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Johnny Horton & Billy Barton, Abbott Alternates
Nitty Gritty Dirty Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, disc 2
Torres, Silver Tongue
Wadada Leo Smith, America’s National Parks, disc 1
Keith Jarrett, Birth
Wussy, Attica!
Gram Parsons, Grievous Angel
Amanda Shires, Take It Like a Man
Angel Olsen, All Mirrors
Bill Frisell, Nashville
Emmylou Harris, Pieces of the Sky
Ann Peebles, I Can’t Stand the Rain
Laura Veirs, The Lookout
U.S. Girls, Bless This Mess
Daddy Issues, Deep Dream (x2)
Gram Parsons, G.P.
Lori McKenna, The Balladeer
Ray Charles, Modern Sounds in County and Western Music
Loretta Lynn, The Definitive
Leonard Cohen, Songs from a Room
Bob Dylan, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, acoustic set
George Jones, Live Texas 1965
Robert Earl Keen, Walking Distance
Hard To Find 45’s On CD: Sweet Soul Sounds (this is actually a great collection of relatively obscure late 60s and early 70s tracks)
Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
George Jones, The Essential, disc 1
Silver Jews, The Natural Bridge
Ali Farka Touré, Savane
Janelle Monae, The Electric Lady
Colombia! The Golden Age Of Discos Fuentes. The Powerhouse Of Colombian Music 1960-76
Tracy Nelson, I Feel So Good
Billy Bang, Outline No. 12
Terry Allen, Juarez (x2)
Parquet Courts, Sunbathing Animal
Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life, disc 1
The Flying Burrito Brothers, Farther Along: The Best Of The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Who, Who’s Next
Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out
Natalie Hemby, Pins and Needles
Fontaines D.C., A Hero’s Death
Tal National, Zoy Zoy
The Regrettes, How Do You Love? (x2)
Gregory Alan Isakov, Evening Machines
Drive By Truckers, Live at Plan 9 Records, July 13, 2006
Yola, Stand for Myself
Chuck Cleaver, Send Aid
The Beths, Expert in a Dying Field
Hayes Carll, You Get It All
Doc Watson, Southbound
Johnny Paycheck, She’s All I Got
Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud
Old 97s, Too Far to Care
Margo Price, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter
Merle Haggard, Down Every Road, disc 1
Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, Balance
William Parker, Mayan Space Station
Alejandro Escovedo, A Man Under the Influence
Tanya Tucker, Delta Dawn
Wussy, Rigor Mortis
Tom T, Hall, The Rhymer and Old Five and Dimers
Billy Joe Shaver, Old Five and Dimers (x2)
Old & In the Way, That High Lonesome Sound
Jimmie Dale Gilmore and the Flatlanders, self-titled
Johnny Paycheck, Slide Off Your Satin Sheets
Drive By Truckers, Decoration Day
Jerry Lee Lewis, Country Songs for City Folks
Gene Clark, No Other
Guided by Voices, Alien Lanes
Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours
Doc Watson, Elementary Doctor Watson
Jessi Colter, A Country Star is Born
Jimmy Martin, 20 Greatest Hits
Emmylou Harris, Luxury Liner
Old 97s, Hitchhike to Rhome
Richard Thompson, Amnesia
Freddie Hubbard, Breaking Point!
Kidd Jordan/Hamid Drake/William Parker, Palm of Soul
Elizabeth Cook, Aftermath
Drive By Truckers, The Big To-Do
Ian Tyson, Cowboyography
Willie Nelson, Red Headed Stranger
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, disc 1
The Osborne Brothers, From Rocky Top to Muddy Bottom
Tom Russell, Indians, Cowboys, Horses, and Dogs
James McMurtry, The Horses and the Hounds
Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
Rodney Crowell, Ain’t Living Long Like This
Wussy, Getting Better
Bonnie Prince Billy, Greatest Palace Music
The New Pornographers, Whiteout Conditions
Margaret Glaspy, Emotions and Math
Billy Bang Sextet, Live at Carlos
Bonnie Prince Billy, Ease Down the Road
Bluegrass Alliance, Tall Grass
Rodney Crowell, Texas
Laura Veirs, My Echo
Boygenius, the EP
Caitlin Cary, While You Weren’t Looking
The Coathangers, Nosebleed Weekend
The Ramones, self-titled
Neil Young, Tonight’s the Night
Tammy Wynette, Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad
Melissa Laveaux, Radyo Siwel
Bobby Bare, The Winner and Other Losers
Neko Case, The Tigers Have Spoken
Steve Earle, Ghosts of West Virginia
Drive By Truckers, The Dirty South
The Paranoid Style, A Goddamn Impossible Way of Life
Ennio Morricone, The Legendary Italian Westerns
Big Thief, Dragon New Warm Mountain (x2)
Chris Stapleton, Traveller
Indigo de Souza, All of This Will End
Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock and Roll
Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Hillbilly Music: 1960
Doc Watson, self-titled
Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, King & Queen
The Louvin Brothers, When I Stop Dreaming
Jason Isbell, Something More than Free
Gary Stewart, The Essential
Bradley Lubman: Steve Reich Ensemble, Reich: Proverb, Nagoya Marimbas, City Life
Guided by Voices, Motivational Jumpsuit
Chuck Prophet, The Land That Time Forgot
Bill Callahan, Dream River
Johnny Paycheck, Modern Times
Bob Dylan, Desire
Tom Russell, The Rose of the San Joaquin
Marty Robbins, Saddle Tramp
Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
Rusty & Doug Kershaw, Louisiana Man
Terry Allen, Smokin’ the Dummy
Matthew Shipp String Trio, Expansion, Power, Release
Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain
Tom T. Hall, In Search of a Song
Noname, Sundial
Bonnie Prince Billy, The Letting Go
Jon Dee Graham, Full
Hank Locklin, Please Help Me I’m Falling
Jake Blount, The New Faith
Alice Coltrane, World Galaxy
Marissa Nadler, For My Crimes

Album Reviews:

Vince Gill & Paul Franklin, Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price & The Cherokee Cowboys

A solid effort by two veterans, and of course Gill has been a huge star in the past, to relive some of the great songs of Ray Price, who doesn’t get enough attention these days. Even among people who do listen to old country, Price is a decidedly secondary figure because he’s not Hank Williams or Johnny Cash and wasn’t considered part of “outlaw country.” He was a crooner and those guys are often not seen as “real country,” whatever that means and which has only been debated since The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers laid down their versions of old-time and train music in 1927. I don’t know that this is going to spur a big revival in Price’s music, but these are professionals laying down professional takes on a great one in a labor of love. So it’s cool and worthy.

B+

Henry Threadgill, The Other One

This is one of these jazz releases where this streaming-adverse genre only allows a couple of tracks to be streamed, but I will evaluate from that I guess, with the caveat that there’s much more to hear. Plus Threadgill is one of the featured artists at Big Ears 24, with 4 announced sets so far, so I need to engage more with his history and recent projects. This project is not one of those sets, but still. It is basically chamber music, which has long interested Threadgill, with a large band although not in fact an orchestra (is there actually a difference?). Again, not having heard the whole thing, I can’t totally say, but it sure sounded pretty sweet to me. Interestingly, Threadgill doesn’t play here at all. He conducts. There’s a few people I know here–Sara Schoenbeck on bassoon is great and I know her from her work with Wayne Horvitz, Jose Davila is on tuba, and David Virelles is on piano. But most of the musicians are new to me. That’s cool, expands my horizons. So yeah, this is at least worth buying for more listens.

A-

Typically, none of this is on YouTube, but here’s a different Threadgill project for your pleasure:

Eddie Vedder, Earthling

Huh, an Eddie Vedder solo album? I can’t think of the last time I even thought about Pearl Jam. But hell, let’s check it out….

And I dunno, it’s fine enough straight ahead rock and roll I guess. That’s about all one can say. I guess it’s fine? Why one would need to hear it repeatedly, that I am not sure.

B-

Car Seat Headrest, Making a Door Less Open

I always like this band more than I think I will. I always kind of remember liking them, but not so much that I listen to them more than once a year or so and then I do and am like, oh yeah, this is a pretty good band. Here I go again, with their 2020 album released at the beginning of the pandemic, which is 3 1/2 years ago but feels like 500. It’s a very strong set of indie tunes. I sometimes find them a bit too 2000s in terms of production for my preferences–maybe a bit too much Death Cab for Cutie or Vampire Weekend in there–but that’s fine. It’s solid work, another example of just a solid career.

B+

Elle King, Come Get Your Wife

So the first thing you have to get over here is that Elle King is the daughter of Rob Schenider. I am going to ignore this, but I really think Schneider is terrible, so there’s that. But you can’t help your family, that’s for sure. So let’s not hold this against her. And in truth, she is a completely functional country musician. She isn’t really moving the music anywhere, no, but it’s country music. It doesn’t move much. She has a great voice and a good sound, sometimes. Yeah, it can rest on the cliche from time to time. But this is fine, minus a few numbers where she overly leans into douche country-pop. Unfortunately, this includes the big hit from the album “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home), which is a very dumb duet with Miranda Lambert that sounds like something Journey would have done in 1982. On the other hand, I liked “Try Jesus” a lot, which is a song about how men suck so bad that she might as well try the last guy who hasn’t fucked her over. There is also a song with very bad advice. “Worth a Shot” is a duet with Dierks Bentley. It is an advice song–the relationship is struggling and communication is at a low point. So let’s get wasted and then talk about our problems. Sure, that’s likely to work. Nothing goes better with a declining relationship than massive alcohol consumption……..

The better tracks are worthy, but there are too many not better tracks here.

C+

Lydia Loveless, Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again

Having seen most of this album played live over a few nights when Loveless opened for Drive By Truckers this spring (Patterson Hood said he’s pretty sure she has opened for them more than anyone else ever), I was very excited to hear the album. I’ve between liked and loved all her previous projects. Not surprisingly then, the new album kicks a ton of ass. “Sex and Money” is one of my favorite songs of the year and is a pretty good encapsulation of her aesthetic. “Toothache” is another fantastic cut. I’ve really enjoyed Loveless’ transition from country-punk into an artist with a unique approach that keeps that brand but adds synth pop to the mix. Moreover, it’s the songs. That is what drives this. Great, great songs. Fantastic album.

Bethany Cosentino, Natural Disaster

Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast fits a type. She was the young, hard-partying woman of California who over time, as she entered her 30s, realized that this kind of life had its limitations. The drinking and the drugs and the parties seem fun as a kid but they are a very limited way to go about life, even when your day job is leading a popular band. That young fun LA life has been replaced by the reality of being in your mid-30s, now sobered up, not feeling old but not feeling young anymore either. Well, this is a smart set of grown up indie rock/pop songs. Catchy but also a reflection of real life experience, it’s still the sunny LA world, but one in which climate change and terrible people are a real thing, not something you can ignore when you are 25 on the beach. Some reviews of this album have been less positive. And I can see that if you are into someone who has a long history of one kind of positive music that a dour new reality is less appealing for you. I felt that way in the Trump years when Tacocat wrote an album that was about how life sucked and that aesthetic just didn’t work for them. So big Best Coast fans might not want to hear a bunch of songs about sobriety and climate change. But I thought that for a type of person in a particular moment of their lives, this was a reasonably powerful statement.

Thought this lengthy New Yorker review was pretty good too.

A-

Whitney Rose, Rosie

Rose is just a very solid country songwriter and singer. I’ve enjoyed her work in the past and she does a great of job of a roots country from a woman’s perspective, which is one of the things country music has always been good at, despite plenty of sexism in the industry. But more than almost any other genre, women’s voices singing songs about the struggles and joys of women have been centered, if for no other reason than they sell. Well, Rose is not exactly on the Opry, but she is a fun artist working in a classic genre effectively. I’m not sure I like anything here as much as the astoundingly good relationship/hook-up song “Home With You” on We Still Go to Rodeos from 2020. But I’d say this is a better album than that stem to stern. “My Own Jail” is a good song about screwing your life over. There are witty lines throughout. And that good ol’ steel guitar never disappoints on a country album.

A-

Angel Olsen, Forever Means

Quick little 4 song EP Olsen put out recently. Might not be the greatest release of her career, as EPs usually aren’t, but her evocative powerful voice is in full effect here and any fan will want to own it.

B+

Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (world war)

This posthumous release (fuck heroin) demonstrates just what we have lost when the great trumpeter overdosed last year. This is so good. In fact, it’s probably her greatest work. She always did combine her trumpet with not only jazz but rock and hip hop influences and she turned this project up a notch from the previous two albums. It’s funky and brilliant and beautiful and it rocks. She never did really learn to sing, but the lyrics work better here than on the previous album.

Neil Young, Somewhere Under the Rainbow, 1973

There’s most certainly nothing wrong with another Neil live release. But at some point, the performances just aren’t that different than the other performances. Tonight’s the Night era Neil has been covered pretty extensively in the archives and for good reason. Because of that though, I wasn’t able to get into yet another revisiting of the performances of that era like I might have if this was released a few years back. I guess it’s interesting to hear him talk about how “Albuquerque” is an especially meaningful song for him. But Neil is not the Grateful Dead. The songs don’t change much night to night. So great for the hardest core fans, totally fine for the casual fan.

DaShawn Hickman with Charlie Hunter, Drums, Roots, & Steel

Jerry Joseph, Tick

In 2020, Jerry Joseph released The Beautiful Madness, which is one of my favorite albums of the last decade. The man so channels the violence and horror of America, past and present, into his music. He’s got a rough voice sure, but any guy who does everything from parachute into Afghanistan to run underground rock camps for girls to writing songs about Confederate statues from the perspective of the statue is going to be interesting at the very least. I haven’t heard all his albums, but of the ones I know, this was my favorite.

Tick is an odds and sods follow up that includes some tracks that didn’t make the album and then part of his performance with Drive By Truckers backing him up in 2020 at the DBT homecoming shows in Athens. The songs I hadn’t heard before are more than good enough to be on any album of his, but my god the songs with DBT backing are fucking incredible.

Makaya McCraven, In These Times

Quite possibly my favorite McCraven album. Generally, I’ve liked all of them, but often found them just a bit wanting in terms of pushing the musical conservation forward. He’s a great percussionist, obviously. And he has a serious vision. I thought it came together really well here. This is just a huge step ahead. Now, I think he is really pushing it forward. Between his use of hip-hop ideas, the track at the beginning that pipes in Harry Belafonte talking about John Henry in a fascinating use of sampling, the big sound, and the great melodies, this is just very solid work. Huge band and the only one I really knew was the guitarist Jeff Parker. Just a fine meshing of a century of musical history into a forward-thinking production.

Jochen Rueckert, With Best Intentions

Very solid post-bop set here. Rueckert is a German drummer who has been based in New York for a good long time now. The band is himself, Doug Weiss on bass, Joris Roelofs on bass clarinet, Mark Turner on sax, and Nils Wogram on trombone. As is the theme with this post, I don’t know any of these guys. Clearly I need to know them. The two-rhythm, three-horn mix works well here. Roelofs and Weiss have excellent chemistry and they provide great propulsion for the horns, who each have their moments. Might not be my very favorite album of the year, but it is certainly one that bears multiple listens.

B+

As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.

bob mould, harriet tubman (band), music notes, tim berne