June 28: Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Despite Steve Earle's proclamation that Townes Van Zandt is America's best songwriter and he would stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table and yell it out, to me there is no doubt that Bob Dylan is still the best songwriter this country has ever produced. There are pitfalls when writing about Dylan, as there are already chapters, books, movies about every aspect of Dylan's career. Despite this, and as much as an influence Dylan is on my own songwriting, there are many great Dylan albums I haven't sat through. There are few artists that divides people along the lines of which album is their favorite, but Dylan does that. From various friends I have heard that Blond on Blond, Nashville Skyline, and The Freewheelin Bob Dylan are all favorites, but for me it is Highway 61 Revisited. Dylan has also called this the favorite album of his, but Dylan says lots of things. This was his sixth release in the three years since his debut in 1962, which makes the depth and scope of these songs all the more amazing. This was his first album with a full rock lineup, and came out shortly after his controversial performance at the Newport Folk Festival, where he played with an electric guitar.

This album is peopled with characters full of desperation, facing an uncertain world. It opens with what many consider to be the best song in rock history, Like A Rolling Stone. The story of a young woman from a privileged background now having to scramble to make a living on the streets. I always thought the woman left her life of privilege for a life in the counter-culture, only to find herself abandoned and alone. Dylan has no sympathy for the main character, at once mocking her privilege, "Ah, you never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns/When they all did tricks for you/You never understood that it ain't no good/You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you," but having no compassion for her once she leaves that life, "You say you never compromise/With the mystery tramp, but now you realize/He's not selling any alibis/As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes/And say, 'Do you want to make a deal?'" Along with Ballad of a Thin Man, make up the two most cutting portraits of people out of their element. On Ballad, Dylan fills verse after verse exploring a new language and a new way of looking at the world, and those that can't keep up are left behind, as our protagonist Mr. Jones, representing the culture left behind, discovers:

Now you see this one-eyed midget
Shouting the word "NOW"
And you say, "For what reason?"
And he says, "How?"
And you say, "What does this mean?"
And he screams back, "You're a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home"

And you know something's happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

It's on this album that Dylan so nimbly ties his vast collection of references into cohesive narratives, weaving historical, musical, mythical and literary figures into a singular vision of the world. On driving and upbeat Tombstone Blues, Dylan sings:

The ghost of Belle Starr she hands down her wits
To Jezebel the nun she violently knits
A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits
At the head of the chamber of commerce

Mama's in the fact'ry
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for food
I'm in the kitchen
With the tombstone blues

He quickly and easily takes a jab at business interests (and their head guy, Jack the Ripper), tying their interests with the poverty of the family, and just as quickly moves on. Later in the song, he imagines Beethoven and Ma Rainey as tramps on the road together. On the title track, an upbeat and lighthearted blues riff with its crazy whistle sound at the beginning of each verse, he delivers what may be might my favorite verse in rock, tying together biblical myth with Highway 61, a road that follows the Mississippi River and was the path so often traveled by African Americans escaping the south:

Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son,"
Abe say, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No," Abe say, "What?;"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run;"
Well Abe said, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God said, "Out on Highway 61."

Just like Tom Thumb's Blues and Queen Jane Approximately deal with a world that is only full of disappointment, "I started out on burgundy/But soon hit the harder stuff/Everybody said they'd stand behind me/When the game got rough/But the joke was on me/There was nobody even there to bluff/I'm going back to New York City/I do believe I've had enough," on the former, and "When your mother sends back all your invitations/And your father to your sister he explains/That you're tired of yourself and all of your creations/Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?" on the latter. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry and From A Buick 6 anchor the middle of the album with two blues rock numbers, easy stories told in a way only Dylan can, "Well, she don't make me nervous, she don't talk too much/She walks like Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch/She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead/Well, if I go down dyin', you know she bound to put a blanket on my bed" on From A Buick 6. The eleven and half minute Desolation Row closes the album, a summation of what was happening on the rest of the album, a mid-tempo track with a Spanish inspired guitar lead, where Dylan sings through the entire song (and it doesn't have a chorus). Desolation Row is the place where dreams go to die, and apparently where everyone ends up at some point, "Cinderella, she seems so easy/'It takes one to know one,' she smiles/And puts her hands in her back pocket/Bette Davis style." The album ends, as if saying goodbye to the acoustic folk of his earlier career, with this verse:

Yes, I received your letter yesterday
About the time the door knob broke
When you asked how I was doing
Was that some kind of joke?
All these people that you mention
Yes, I know them, they're quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name
Right now I can't read too good
Don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row

The revolutionary spirit of Dylan's earlier work seems to have faded to a jaded spirit where everyone is lost, no matter which side of the revolution you were on. His cutting wit is honed to a sharp point, and everyone could be subject to it. Some of the best lines of Dylan's career came off this album, full of social commentary and an endless array of cultural references. People have dedicated better parts of their lives trying to decipher Dylan's career, and there is much to be said that I could never get to, but I always thought part of Dylan's power was his ability to say non-sensical things, to construct sentences on rhyming patterns and rhythms only, and make it sound like it's the deepest thing you'll ever have heard. This album, probably my second favorite of all time, seems to have come at a turning point in his career, where he was examining his own approach to his music, instrumentally, politically, and lyrically. And that sense of everything being up for grabs shows through in every aspect and line of this album.

Listen:

Ballad Of A Thin Man
Highway 61 Revisited

Desolation Row (first half)

It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry

June 27: Conor Oberst (2008)

Conor Oberst made his name as the front man for indie-folksters Bright Eyes in the late nineties and early 2000's, based in Omaha, Nebraska. Oberst has been in and out of bands since the early nineties, and released solo albums prior to the success of Bright Eyes, but this is his first solo release after that success. The band that backed him on this album, which was recorded in Mexico, later became The Mystic Valley Band, which is the band he now tours with. He is often considered emo, which is a label I still don't understand to this day. To me he has always seemed to make an updated Dylan-esque sort of music, with a literate country/folk that more closely aligns with Townes Van Zandt and Dylan that the radio friendly alt-rock that seems to get labeled emo most often.

Cape Canaveral opens with an easy strummed guitar and a single quarter note drum beat. A number of images all lined up, explicating a number of relationships, all set against a backdrop of the title, "Like the citrus glow off the old orange grove/Or the red rocket blaze over Cape Canaveral/It's been a nightmare for me, some 1980's greed/Gives me parachute dreams like old war movies." Sausalito is an upbeat country tinged track, and like many of the lyrics here, tends to bounce around the heart of the story, filling it with imagery and metaphor, "I know that trouble's been your good friend/Kept you company on the weekends/Kept you company even once your mind was made." Get-Well-Cards is full of beach imagery and has a Joe Strummer like delivery on the choruses. Lenders in the Temple is a finger-picked then easily strummed guitar with a subtle organ underneath, a rough relationship told through disconnected imagery, "There's money-lenders inside the temple/That circus tiger's gonna break my heart/Something so wild turned into paper/If you love me, then that's your fault." Danny Callahan has a country-ish Belle and Sebastian like indie pop feel, with choruses that change slightly each time they're repeated, with the title character being given a verse, a small boy that died of cancer. I Don't Want To Die (In The Hospital) is a country/cajun upbeat number about someone trying to escape the confines of said hospital before he dies, "They don't let you smoke and you can't get drunk/All there is to watch are these soap operas/I don't wanna die in the hospital/You gotta take me back outside." Eagle On A Pole has that emotive high warble that is more associated with his vocal delivery in Bright Eyes. NYC-Gone Gone has a distorted bluesy riff, stomps and hand claps, and a twisted children's song type of delivery. Moab is a Tom Petty influenced roots rock number with the refrain "There's nothing that the road cannot heal." Valle Mistico (Ruben's Song) is just the blowing of a conch shell by one of the locals in Mexico. Souled Out! has a Replacements rock out feel, and is a loosely recorded with conversation by the band being recorded as they are recording, with a big chorus, and woman speaking Spanish words in certain spots. Milk Thistle closes the album, an easy finger-picked guitar and lazily delivered lines, "Lazarus, Lazarus/Why all the tears/Did your faithful chauffer just disappear/What a lonesome feeling."

Oberst has turned into a reliable purveyor of country-rock. He has a penchant for good, sometimes great, lyrics, has an ear for a melodic hook, and a loose approach to recording that is reminiscent of early Dylan. And more importantly, he's gotten rid (for the most part) of that over the top vocal delivery that defined so much of the Bright Eyes sound. His intermittent use of Spanish could come across as a bit gimmicky, but he pulls it off without much interference with what's going on the rest of the song, giving it a feel of respect for his surroundings more than a cheap shot. Here he pulls out his Dylan and Petty and Van Zandt influences, gives free rein to his backing band, and in the process creates a solid piece of folk/country rock.

Listen:

Souled Out! (Video)

Cape Canaveral

I Don't Want To Die (In The Hospital)

June 26: Townes Van Zandt, For The Sake Of The Song (1968)

Townes Van Zandt is a religious figure in some circles, considered to be one of the best songwriters of the last half century. But this high regard never resulted in commercial success. He never had a hit record or album, although a number of his songs have been recorded by other artists, most famously Pancho and Lefty which Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings took to #1 on the country charts in 1983. Although his work is little known outside a cult following, within those circles naming Van Zandt an influence is critical. Firmly within a folk and country tradition, he wrote literate songs full of poetic imagery and stories mostly about people on the rougher side of life. With obvious influence from Bob Dylan and other singer-songwriters of the early to mid-sixties, he would go on to shape the sound of the singer-songwriter genre of the 70's as heard in people like Harry Chapin and John Denver. Although he moved around as a kid, at heart he was a Texan, and resided there throughout his adult life. His manic depression and substance abuse posed problems for his recording career, and he was mostly concerned solely with the writing of songs and turned over recording authority to his producer Jack Clement. This is his debut album and has some of his most well known songs like Tecumseh Valley and Waitin' Around to Die.

The focus is on his acoustic guitar and his voice, but the production of Clement also was grounded in the singer/songwriter aesthetic of the time, which means lots of strings, flutesand oohs and aahs of back up singers (which Clement later stated he regretted). It gives the album a dated feel, where as the songs by themselves don't feel dated at all. The album opens with the title track, which showcases his gentle and sad voice. It is a song about how hard communication in a relationship is, and that "Maybe she just has to sing, for the sake of the song/And who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong." Tecumseh Valley is a finger-picked guitar and a story about a free-spirited woman who found herself in the namesake valley, looking for work in order to return home. Things don't turn out the way she had hoped, and in metaphor Van Zandt tells of her choices, "She turned to walkin' down the road/From all the hate inside her/And it was many a man/Returned again/To walk that road beside her." Many A Fine Lady is about the lovers he's had, and Quicksilver Daydreams of Maria shows Van Zandt's ability to turn a phrase, "One stood among them I remember most clearly/Well her sorrows were heavy and her laughter was slow" on the former, and "So the serpent slides slowly away with his moments of laughter/And the old washer-woman has finished her cleanin' and gone/But the bamboo hangs heavy in the bondage of quicksilver daydreams/And a lonely child longingly looks for a place to belong." Waitin' Around To Die is full of diminished chord sadness and tension, with each verse ending with the title, "Sometimes I don't know where/This dirty road is taking me/Sometimes I don't even know the reason why/But I guess I keep a-gamblin'/Lots of booze and lots of ramblin'/Well it's easier than just a-waitin' around to die." I'll Be Here In The Morning is the closest thing to a straight ahead country song on the album, mid-tempo with a Hank Williams melody, strummed bass and harmonica, and a four piece backing chorus. Sad Cinderella is mostly plucked harp and light snare rolls, and is a take on Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, "When the bandits have stolen your jewelry and gone/And your crippled young gypsy, he's grown tall and strong/And your dead misconceptions have proven you wrong/Well then, princess, where you plannin' to turn to?" Talkin' Karate Blues is another take on Dylan's talkin' blues series, a not so politically correct track about visiting a Karate school run by a "Jap" named Lee Hung Chow. All Your Young Servants is a story about someone who has lost what they once had, but maintain the facade, "Your castle is dingy and dirty and dismal/Your carpets are faded, your walls are all grey/There's dust on your silver and cracks in your crystal/And all your young servants have drifted away." Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls closes the album with an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western feel, another showing of Van Zandt's poetic approach, "She died few in years with breasts still small/Seeing sixteens summers and fifteen falls."

For a debut this showed how much promise Van Zandt had as a songwriter, with his clever use of words and rhythms, and why he is so revered by other songwriters. Even as bad as the production is at points, the album is still highly listenable and highly enjoyable, and there is a lot to dig into as far as his lyrics go. There was a constant sadness and tension that ran through his music, even though on the surface it could seem gentle and pretty. Maybe that was one reason he never reached a larger audience. But that emotion that is built into the soul of every song is the thing that made Van Zandt Van Zandt.

Listen:

Tecumseh Valley

Waitin' Around To Die

I'll Be There In The Morning

June 25: Tom Brosseau, Grand Forks (2007)

Tom Brosseau is a North Dakota raised, LA based singer/songwriter that has been on the circuit since 2002. He hasn't garnered much more than modest success. This is his sixth release, and has released three more since. He is playing an older form of American folk music, with his music being dominated by simple and easy guitar and a high pitched and delicate voice. This album was co-produced by John Doe (formerly of the seminal punk band X), which adds some heft to the outing. This album is a concept album about the severe flooding of his hometown, Grand Forks, in 1997. The flood destroyed 90% of the city and required the evacuation of all 52,000 residents.

There is a general sense of easy, western US folk music built in, think cowboy songs. His high register voice comes across like Nick Drake if he'd been born on the plains of the midwest. Alternating bass notes opens the album on I Fly Wherever I Go, and has a Moldy Peaches lightness to it, with a vocal melody that goes in and out of falsetto, "At my leisure or in a race/I always try to keep the piece/I double knot each lace/For whatever terrain I face," with brushes on a snare drum, an intermittent organ that feels like a xylophone and pedal steel. Fork In The Road features Doe on vocal harmonies, a waltz-time piece with a beautiful violin melody between vocal lines, a story about encountering a metaphorical fork in the road, and having to leave his lover. There's More Than One Way To Dance simple lines about the different ways one can dance "Go between a pair of legs/Go between a pair of pegs/Come on take a chance/There's more than one way to dance," with pedal steel giving it texture. Blue Part of the Windshield is another one in 6/8, and has a guitar line that mimics the vocal melody, with a doubled up violin. Down On Skidrow is Tom Waits like minor key track with a cello playing the role of the bass, and has strings playing an easy eerie melody, a simple sketch of bums down on skid row. Here Comes the Water Now seems to be the first song that tackles the subject of the flood, "You're going to have to leave your home/You're going to have to go and roam." Plaid Lined Jacket is another story, told from the first person, about a homeless man that despite everything "I keep my plaid lined jacket clean," sung to a quasi-blues riff with forward moving drums during the vocal breaks. Dark And Shiny Gun is the eerie and easily told story about a group of children playing with a gun found in one of their parent's bedrooms. 97 Flood is an examination of the that aforementioned flood and the communities response. It's a nice piece of history in song.

There are definitely some interesting and enjoyable moments on here, but I found myself being thankful it was only thirty-three minutes long. There is such little variation from song to song, with similar strumming styles and vocal delivery, which is the point, making the album about Brosseau's delicate voice and straight forward lyrics. There isn't a lot of depth either melodically or instrumentally, and the lyrics are easy in their descriptions, which means that after an initial listen there isn't much left there to explore. And as a concept album it doesn't really work either. There are a few songs that deal with his memories of that flood, but the album rather feels just like a collection of songs.

Listen:

Fork In The Road

Down On Skidrow

Plaid Lined Jacket

June 24: Richmond Fontaine, Post to Wire (2003)

Richmond Fontaine are one of those bands that have been grinding it out for so long it's easy to forget how long they've been around. Starting out in 1994 in Portland, Oregon, they've been touring, releasing albums, and playing their hometown steadily in that time, and gaining a little more success and fame with each passing year. The band has had a rotating cast of musicians over the years, with songwriter/singer/guitar player Willie Vlautin and bass player Dave Harding anchoring the group during that entire time. The band is firmly grounded in the alt-country genre, with similarities to Jay Farrar's country tinged roots rock, but also with nods to the 80's/90's indie rock of bands like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. There is plenty of electric and acoustic guitar, bass, and drums, with pedal steel and keys adding depth and texture. Vlautin is also a published author, which informs his literate approach to storytelling in song.

The Longer You Wait opens the album, with driving drums, subtle pedal steel, and ominous sounds rolling low in the mix, a story about escape as a couple drives late into the night with the heartbreaking image of a relationship barely holding together, "It's been two months since he kissed her face/Twice as long since he held her/The longer you wait," the harder it is. Mid-tempo country-ish tunes define most of the songs here (Barely Losing, Through, Two Broken Hearts, Polaroid), but there are also rock out numbers with power chords and forward moving drumming (Montgomery Park, Hallway). At times Vlautin's literal approach to lyrics leaves something to be desired, "We're having dinner at the Santa Fe and/We're walking underneath lights and/We're staying on the seventh floor of the Fitzgerald" on Barely Losing. While on other songs his imagery only gives a hint to the story, "A man came from the house/With white spit on his lips and his tattooed arms/Were trembling as he ran after them, " leaving no clue to who this man is on Two Broken Hearts. Deborah Kelly does a guest appearance for shared vocal tracks on Post to Wire and Polaroid, as a couple tries to reconcile on the former. He has a tendency to use imagery from his favorite places, and he sings about the landmark sign in NW Portland, in Montgomery Park. He has spoken pieces (as if reading a postcard) and instrumental pieces throughout the album (Walter's On The Lam, Postcard From California, Postcard Written With A Broken Hand, Postcard Postmarked Phoenix, Az.), creating a sense that there is some larger story holding this album together, although that is never explicitly stated. Willamette and Valediction close the album. The former a tale of wanting to escape, "At night we'd sit on the banks of/The polluted Willamette River/And we'd try and we'd try to piece together our lives/Away from there," over a Nick Cave like darkness and intensity. The latter an instrumental with a pretty pedal steel melody.

Vlautin's voice has a distinct similarity to Jay Farrar's, with its tendency to dance around melodies as much as sing them. But he also has a lazier delivery, as words are stretched out, waited for, and sang almost independently of what's happening musically at times. He will repeat some lines, while rushing through others. His at times hyper-literal lyrics leave me wishing for just a little poetry. But they make a solid sort of alt-country with all the right influences.

Listen:

The Longer You Wait

Montgomery Park

Polaroid

June 23: The Flatlanders, Now Again (2002)

The Flatlanders are a super group of sorts, only that they did it backwards. Forming in 1972 in Lubbock, Texas, home of a unique style of Texas country, they recorded one album that was only released on 8-track as a contractual obligation, before disbanding. The three members, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, and Joe Ely, then went on to each have successful solo careers as west Texas based singer songwriters. When word leaked out about this lost album, Rounder re-issued it in 1991. This is the second album by the band, and came out 30 years after their debut, and was highly anticipated by fans of the three.

The instrumentation is what one would expect out of west Texas. There is lots of acoustic and electric guitar, dobro and steel guitars, mandolin, bass, drums, and keys, with the occasional accordion, musical saw and harmonica. All the songs tend to move at mid-tempos. There are the folk and country influences, ala Townes Van Zandt and Waylon Jennings, with heavy blues influences as well. The opening track, Going Away, is the only cover on the album. It was written by professional hobo and anarchist troublemaker Utah Phillips, and might be the best song on the album. All the other songs on the album, with the exception of track two, are credited to the three Flatlanders, with Julia being written by Butch Hancock. There are the midtempo country-rock numbers (Going Away, Julia, Down in the Light of the Melon Moon, I Thought The Wreck Was Over, Yesterday Was Judgment Day), blues and blues rock numbers (Wavin' My Heart Goodbye, Right Where I Belong, Pay The Alligator), country swing (My Wildest Dreams Wilder Every Day), and straight ahead folk (Down On Filbert's Rise, The South Wind of Summer ). The three have distinct voices, with Gilmore's high register warble, Ely's thick tenor, and Hancock's rough around the edges rasp. They know how to sing together well, creating great harmonies throughout. Lyrically there isn't much to dig into, they tend to be love songs, good and bad, and full of predictable imagery and rhymes, "Night wind blows/Stars above the blue/Heaven knows/Only love will do," on Julia, "The moon sees you, the moon sees me/The moon sees who I want to see/I'll see you soon/Down in the light of the melon moon," on Down in the Light of the Melon Moon, or "Livin' with her liked t' killed me/Living without her might as well/At first I thought I'd died and gone to heaven/In fact I lived and gone to hell" on I Thought The Wreck Was Over.

They all know how to construct a song, having done it for a living for thirty plus years. This might be their greatest strength and biggest flaw. They take no chances here, putting everything right where it should be. It's enjoyable enough, but doesn't have a lot of edge to it. It's predictability is its biggest shortcoming. It's not offensive in the least, and like a lot of modern folk seems thin emotionally and in its vision.

Listen:

Going Away

Waving My Heart Goodbye

Down On Filbert's Rise

June 22: Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots (2004)

Munly came out of a Denver scene that produces dark, alt-country bands like fruit from a tree. Along with Munly, bands like Sixteen Horsepower, Slim Cessna's Auto Club (of which he is a regular member), The Denver Gentlemen and Devotchka have all arisen out of the streets of that prototypical western city. Coming out of that same tradition, Munly takes American folk music and lore from the Appalachian regions as well as from the American West, injects it with a modern and dark attitude and kicks out a music that is at once traditional and forward looking, full of dark imagery and melodies. Munly has a vocal range like few I've heard, his deepest notes are barely audible, and he will easily switch to an ungodly high register yelp before returning to his dark tenor. This is Munly's fifth release, and the first with the Lee Lewis Harlots, and collection of scene musicians from around Denver.

Munly creates a world that belongs to just him, and we might get a glimpse into that world, but we will never know what's really going on in there. Galloping drums, driving strings, old folk guitar riffs, and Munly's haunting and menacing vocals move this music in a forward direction, but it is a music grounded in the darkest traditions of American folk music, with touches of punk thrown in for good measure. The band is masterful at building tension, letting the quiet moments be quiet and coming in like a wildfire burning through a dry field of grass when need be. This album is a full seventy-seven minutes, with fifteen songs. The stories Munly tells are long, but there is plenty of space for the music to explore as well. A women's chorus will often come in, singing melodies based on Irish traditional music as filtered through Appalachian mountain music. As dark and intense as the music is, it is only a setup to the darker stories that Munly has to tell. They are stories that feel like they come from the turn of the last century, full of religious imagery and scenes from a less technologically developed rural life. He delves into the collective id, with stories about sex, violence, fear, god, murder, redemption, and loss. His tales are intricate, yet obtuse. His colorful descriptions only get you part way to the heart of the matter. On the opening track, Amen Corner, Munly begins, "It's glorious today so you know it will pass away/The doves and snapping turtles bite at me/Catatonic ash, don't bump against them tender wounds/This petunia land smells of timothy." On Big Black Bull Comes like a Caeser, he ties his own breach birth to that of the calf fathered by the title character, describing his brother carving words into the wood of the kitchen table, "I never could tell what they say,/But I could tell they were dirty. Dirty, dirty." On Another Song About Jesus, A Wedding Sheet, And A Bowie Knife he sings "Someone needs to take a rusty Bowie knife to you--/From your groin to your chest-bone, spill the truth" to a pretty melody over easily strummed guitar and pizzicato violin. Munly sings the entire Cassius Castrato The She-Male Of The Men's Prison in falsetto, interrupted by Irish inspired chorus. Song Rebecca Calls, "That Birdcage Song," Which Never Was Though Now Kind Of Is Because Of Her Influence has a Gogol Bordello like energy and violi melodies. The most haunting line might come from Goose Walking Over My Grave, as he begins "She said 'punch me in the stomach.'/I said 'girl I do not know./If I punch you in the stomach/Then our child inside will not grow'/She said 'if you truly love me/You'll do this thing for me.'/So I punched her in the stomach/And she fell down to both of her knees." There is much more where this came from.

I couldn't sit through the album in a single sitting, because the musical and lyrical content is so heavy. If you're a fan of Sixteen Horsepower or Nick Cave, this album is right up there with anything either one of them has done. But it's dark imagery can be a lot to take in large doses, which doesn't mean it is not absolutely enjoyable because it is. And there is a lot going on to provide endless amounts of material to dig into. If you like being challenged by music, there might be few albums that are more challenging than this one, and there's a lot to be said for such things.

Listen:
Amen Corner

Denver Boot Redux

June 21: Dolorean, Violence in the Snowy Fields (2004)

Dolorean, mostly a project of Al James, are based out of Portland, Oregon and make a quiet, country tinged music that tends to not be in a hurry to get anywhere. Pulling from alt-country and folk of artists like Townes Van Zandt, he puts just a bit of twang in his voice, but also pulls from indie rock, especially slow core bands like Low and Yo La Tengo.

They tend to go back and forth between two personas, the quiet and introverted full of finger-picked guitar, and the full band slow core that can come across like a rootsier Yo La Tengo. Both seem to work equally well. On songs like The Search, To Destruction, and the title track, the full band fills in behind James' guitar and vocals nicely, finding just the right spots to place piano chords or steel guitar runs and building dynamics throughout. The Righteous Shall Destroy the Precious is the most slow core of the songs here, a six minute track that builds, falls away to a lonely whistle, only to build again. The slow finger-picked numbers like Put You To Sleep, Holding On, My Grey Life (Second Chances) and In The Fall can feel almost like Iron and Wine's quiet whispered folk. There are instruments that fill in these songs as well, like steel guitar and fiddle, but they are more sparse. Lyrically James tries to put more heft into the songs than the words themselves necessarily merit. There are nice lyrical images placed throughout, "Where is the place of understanding/And where can wisdom be found?" on The Search. He compares it throughout to precious metals only to decided that wisdom is worth more. On Put You To Sleep he tells the story of a person being woken up by their lover's bad dreams, set to haunting pedal steel. Dying In Time might be the throw away track here, a 70's FM radio feel with the line "Baby lets die at the same time." Holding On shows James' penchant for making small things mean more than they should as he sings about the loss of a lover, "Your Coat your keys/Your blankets and sheets/Your favorite blue jeans/I'm holding on to anything." The title track is full of religious imagery, as he assures himself that he is living a good and pure life, "And on a night like this when nothing stirs about/If I hear the hoof beat pounds I will not turn/I will not be afraid of how I spent my days/I may go down in flames but I shall not burn." My Grey Life might be the most heartbreaking song on the album as he sings goodbye to a lover over slow finger-picked guitar and not much else, "I believe in second chances/For everyone but you."

Dolorean know how to construct a song, and the musicianship on here is top notch, full of perfectly placed lines. The album is very pretty, sometimes too pretty. There are moments, especially in the slower, sadder songs where tension builds, but there is a lot of the album that is just too easily digestable. But in its thirty seven minutes there are very nice moments, both lyrically and musically

Listen here:

Recommended - The Search, My Grey Life (Second Chances), Violence in the Snowy Fields

June 20: Whiskeytown, Stranger's Almanac (1997)

Ryan Adams, before his self-indulgent and self-destructive solo career, led Whiskeytown, based out of North Carolina. Firmly rooted in the alt-country/country rock tradition of Gram Parsons and Uncle Tupelo, as well as 80's and 90's underground rock of bands like The Replacements or Dinosaur Jr., they had a tumultuous go of it, with many line up changes and only releasing three proper albums before Adams moved onto a quite successful solo career. This is their second of those three albums.

There is little contentment to be found on this album, whether it's his own or someone elses. For the most part it is stories of lost love, or just feeling lost, or both. The songs tend to be packed with a quiet, desperate energy as songs build musically over the course of four or five minutes. Acoustic guitar, distorted electric guitar, lots of banjo, bass, drums, pedal/lap steel, fiddle, lead and backing vocals. Each song is built up from some combination of this instrumentation, and the instruments slowly come in, until the full band is in. Given this depth of instrumentation, the quiet moments seem all the more intense because of it. They tend towards country rock with lots of drums, fiddle and steel guitars (Inn Town, Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart, Dancing With The Women At The Bar), quiet folk influenced songs (16 Days, Houses On The Hill, Avenues, Somebody Remembers The Rose), and more straight ahead roots rock with indie rock influences (Yesterday's News, Turn Around, Waiting to Derail, Losering). They also have a touch of Muscle Shoals influenced soul with the horns on Everything I Do. Caitlin Cary's fiddle and harmony vocals create a depth that helps define the album, but ultimately it is Adams' ability to inject so much angst with his voice that makes this album an emotional experience. He is able to sing otherwise unremarkable lines but make them feel like all the sadness in the world is wrapped up in those words. Whether he's singing about returning to an unfulfilling life as on Inn Town, "Hang around with the people that I used to be/Hang around on a corner waiting to go have a seat," an lost love on 16 Days, "I got sixteen days/Got a bible and a rosary/God, I wish that you were close to me/Guess I owe you an apology," or about love letters his grandmother wrote to a love lost in WWII, "Well I found them in the northwest corner of the attic in a box/Labeled tinsel and lights/Didn't know what I was I looking for/Maybe just a blanket or artifacts/Eisenhower sent him to war/He kept her picture in his pocket that was closest to his heart/And when he hit shore/Must have been a target for the gunman," each is filled with such gravity as to make it feel like you were the one left or found the letters. Even on a song like Losering, where the lyrics consist of little more than the repeating of the title, they somehow find a way to do that for four minutes and make it mean something. Adams is also very good at capturing small moments, "Somebody remembers the dress/How it was handsome/Beautifully pressed," on Somebody Remembers The Rose or on Not Home Anymore, "I left all the lights on/In our old room/To pretend that you and I were home."

I picked this album up on a whim ten or so years ago, and it is one that I return to often. It has kept me company on many a long and lonely drive. There were no fewer than fifteen members of this band in its short life, with only Adams and Cary being there from beginning to end, which helps explain the tumultuousness of the music in a way. But whatever it was, this album is packed with heart and feeling, and is the reason I can return to it again and again and continue to connect with it.

Listen:

Avenues

Dancing With The Women At The Bar

Houses On The Hill

Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight

June 19: Marty Robbins, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959)

Marty Robbins was the golden voiced sage of country music through the late fifties and throughout the sixties. He worked mainly from a country music platform, but had plenty of cross-over success, as this album, and its most well known song, hit #6 and #1 on the pop charts respectively. Having an affinity for Hawaiian music, which the pedal and lap steels came from, he helped foster that relationship which would go on and define the sound of country music for decades. Living through the depression as an adolescent in the American west informed some of his world view, and the stories of the old west is told in myriad ways on this album. It is a combination of traditional western songs, Robbins' originals, and a few written by others.

It is a simple musical line-up, with rhythm and lead guitars, bass, drums, and Tompall & the Glaser Brothers singing backups. This simplicity in instrumentation and arrangement makes the album ride on Robbins' silky voice. He has an unusually large range, covering several of octaves while making it sound effortless. There is little fluff in the vocals, these are stories told in straight forward ways. There are characters that are developed, meetings and conflict, and almost always some resolution or redemption. The songs are wordy, as each one is in effect a short story told in three to five minute time spans. The stories tend to be told in very straightforward ways, as there is no dancing around the meaning of what is happening in the song, but there are nice moments of imagery and ideas. The songs revolve around characters and situations unique to the American west, and especially the lawless wild west of American folklore. There are the songs about outlaws and gunfighters. Big Iron deals with an Arizona Ranger coming to take Texas Red "Alive, or maybe dead," with a vivid description of the final gun battle. Billy the Kid is a short biography of the infamous outlaw in the plains of New Mexico. Running Gun tells the story of a man trying to escape a life of killing other men by getting to Mexico, but meeting his fate before he could get there. There are also the crimes of passion, as on They're Hanging Me Tonight, a story of being left by his partner to be with another man, and when seeing them together shoots them both, "They're burying Flo tomorrow, but they're hanging me tonight," or on Robbins' best known song El Paso, the protagonist finds his love for 'Felina' is in vain, and he kills that man that gains her attention. He flees only to return, "Maybe tomorrow a bullet may find me/Tonight nothing's worse than this pain in my heart," and dies in Felina's arms. Master's Call tells of a young man gone bad, who should have died in a cattle stampede only to be saved by a miracle, and he turns good and towards the lord. There are also scenes of pastoral life, the pleasantness of it (A Hundred and Sixty Acres), or wanting to return to it (The Little Green Valley). There's the Robbins' original, In The Valley, the only thing that passes for a directly told love song. And finally there are stories about just trying to survive in the harsh west. The Bob Nolans' written Cool Water tells the story of being stuck in the arid west, hoping to come across water but only being fooled by mirages, "The nights are cool and I'm a fool/Each star's a pool of water/Cool water/But with the dawn I'll wake and yawn/And carry on to water." Utah Carol tells the story of the protagonist seeing his best friend get killed in a cattle stampede while trying to save another. The traditional waltz Strawberry Roan is a tale of an out of work cowboy who gets hired to break an old bronc that no one else has been able to ride, "Said 'He's got one, a bad one to buck/At throwin' good riders, he's had lots of luck,'" and is full of great imagery, "He's about the worst bucker I've seen on the range/He'll turn on a nickel and give you some change."

Instrumentally there's not anything that could be considered a solo on the album but the lead guitar lines are perfectly placed, filling out the sound without taking away from the vocal lines. Using nylon stringed guitars it gives the music a Mexican feel at times, while at others Hawaiian melodies are used. Even though the songs are so wordy, they rarely feel too much so.

This might be one of the albums I listened to most in my childhood days. Growing up in rural New Mexico in a family of people who had made or were making their livings off the hard-scrabble western landscapes, and told old stories about the American West, made this music seem more real. And the fact that New Mexico gets mentioned quite often throughout automatically gained our appreciation, as we felt isolated from so much of the rest of the country. But ultimately what drew me then, and still draws me to this album, is that they are very good stories told through a voice with a golden touch.


Listen:

Big Iron

Cool Water

El Paso

Strawberry Roan

June 18: M. Ward, The Transfiguration of Vincent (2003)

M. Ward came up through the Portland, Oregon music scene, and has since come to be a favorite of musicians from a number of backgrounds, playing with artists like Cat Power, Jenny Lewis and Bright Eyes. His early recordings were heavily influenced by John Fahey's American primitive guitar style, an approach that used unusual tunings and blues/Appalachian inspired finger-picked guitar to make intricate, instrumental music full of unexpected melodies and rhythms. But he also has an affinity for good lyrics and story telling. On this album, his third studio release, he uses a combination of the Fahey inspired instrumental, as well as a folk based approach to songwriting. Although he does bring in other instruments, using a full band at points, the focus stays on his guitar work and his barely above a whisper, sad intoned vocals.

The album is bookended by the instrumentals Transfiguration #1 and Transfiguration #2, the former a country-ish full band piece, the former a sad diminished-chord piano that works a single melodic theme. Along with the Mississippi John Hurt finger-picked blues Duet for Guitars #3 make up the three instrumentals on the album. The rest of the album works a sad theme, sometimes with a full band and forward moving rhythms (Vincent O'Brien, Fool Says, Helicopter), sometimes quiet and contemplative with the full band (Poor Boy, Minor Key, Undertaker, Voice at the End of the Line), sometimes with not much more than acoustic guitar and voice (Involuntary, Dead Man). Lyrically there is a theme that runs throughout his music, and it is the death of a friend. Although he never says it outright (although Vincent O'Brien has become this moniker), many songs revolve around death. On Vincent O'Brien he sings ""He only sings when he's sad/And he's sad all the time/So he sings the nighttime through/Yeah he sings in the daytime too," while on Undertaker he sings "Oh, but if you're gonna leave/Better call the undertaker/Take me under, undertaker/Take me home." On Dead Man he sings as if the person is listening, "Dead man, dead man don't cry/Don't cry/When you die it ain't the end/It ain't the end when you die." He also deals with issues of love and lost love, and escape from a world gone mad "I am somewhere in the city, I am climbing up a fire escape/I am somewhere in the city, I am climbing up a fire escape/I have gotta save my baby from a mess this world has made," hoping the titled Helicopter will come down and rescue them both. On Sad Sad Song, a track put together like an old folk tune, he goes around asking different beings (doctor, whippoorwill, whale) advice on getting a lover to return. On Poor Boy, Minor Key he sings of a couple, "One day they will be as giants/stronger than the sun/but that day ain't yet come." While much of his music tends towards the sad, he does break out of that with Get to the Table on Time, with its upbeat and light melody, and simple lyrics. He does a five minute acoustic guitar and voice cover of the Bowie Let's Dance, taking the dance beats out of it and making it a contemplative plea.

There's a heft in M. Ward's music, that he is able to draw the listener into quite effectively. Much of his music betrays a sadness, even in the upbeat and faster paced songs. He draws from a number of influences, combining them all, and in the process creating a music that is comfortable and familiar, yet still uniquely his. In that process he draws from the white folk music of the American south and Mississippi delta blues, mid century jazz, a touch of rock and roll. His willingness to experiment with instrumental music also separates him from many of his contemporaries.

Listen:

Go here to listen to Undertaker, Transfiguration #2, and Voice at the End of the Line.

June 17: Lyle Lovett, The Road to Ensenada (1996)

Lyle Lovett can spin a hell of a tale. That's probably the thing I've admired most about him as a songwriter, a performer, and a band leader. Hailing out of Texas, and approaching country music as a Texan (that has to go through Nashville), but refusing to believe that country is just one or two or three things. Avoiding many of the clichés of modern country music, he has succeeded commercially and critically from pretty much the time of his debut. Having won the prestigious songwriting competition at the Kerrville folk festival, he quickly established as a writer and performer with some heft. Pulling equally from Willie Nelson's outsider country, Bob Wills' country swing, and Townes Van Zandt inspired singer/songwriter, he creates music that is funny and heartbreaking, big band swing and quiet balladry, and somehow does it all competently and without missing a beat.

Here he touches on a number of themes, both musically and lyrically. But there are always the standard instruments, no matter where the music is coming from, fiddle, pedal steel, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drums. There is the quiet and sad fingerpicked songs, reminiscent of Townes Van Zandt or Richard Buckner (Who Loves You Better, Christmas Morning, Promises). There is also standard Nashville issue country, ala Randy Travis and George Strait (It Ought To Be Easier, I Can't Love You Anymore), Texas style country (Don't Touch My Hat, Fiona, Long Tall Texas with its blues progression) and Texas swing, ala Bob Wills, (That's Right (You're Not From Texas)). And finally, a Bossa Nova rhythm on Her First Mistake.

There are the expected leaving and being left by love stories, but where Lovett seems to do his best is in his funny, unexpected storytelling. Don't Touch My Hat is an ode to the title, "If it's her you want/I don't care about that/You can have my girl/But don't touch my hat," full of quick musical breaks and a bluesy finish. Her First Mistake is a story about him trying to woo a woman by trying to convince her he's from, in order, Boston, Alabama and Lousiana, trying to find out which is closest to her. That's Right (You're Not From Texas) is full of horns, fiddles and boasting the way only someone from Texas can. Long, Tall Texan lays out the stereotypes of Texans of wearing ten gallon hats and riding horses enforcing justice, with Randy Newman singing the duet part. Lovett is good at little bits of poetry within his wordy story telling, "And would if my fingers/To cut off and give you/Could gain my redemption/I'd cut off my hands" on Promises.

One thing about certain musicians that I love is their refusal to be boxed in by labels. Lyle Lovett, although firmly rooted in the country tradition, is willing to jump outside of that box and delve into other modes of expression, especially pulling from blues and big band jazz traditions. And that has made him one of the most interesting and acclaimed artists in country music over the last two decades.


Listen:

That's Right, You're Not From Texas

Her First Mistake

Long Tall Texan

Christmas Morning

June 16: Gram Parsons, Grievous Angel (1974)

This album was the follow-up to Parsons' debut solo album, GP, and was released posthumously. He again assembled much of the same band that backed him on GP, including Emmylou Harris as a duet partner. Also like on his debut, he penned just over half the songs here, looking to old country standards to fill out the rest of the album. The time between the release of his debut and the recording sessions that would eventually turn into this release found Parsons touring with his backing band. This can be heard in the amount of confidence that shines through on this release. He seems to be a more sure-footed songwriter, as well as performer, and his own voice shines through more. Whereas on GP the influence of Jerry Garcia and Merle Haggard showed through, here his voice is stronger and feels more like his own. There are still those influences present, as much of this album is still rooted in American country music; melodically, instrumentally, and thematically. And that influence is still intertwined with west coast rock.

Return of the Grievous Angel, a song that has become somewhat of an anthem for Parsons, opens the album. The harmonies between Harris and Parsons are much more refined, and their voices intertwine more confidently. It is a story of being on the road, with outlaw country influences, and Parsons' lyrics showing more poetic leanings, "The news I could bring I met up with the king/On his head an amphetamine crown/He talked about unbuckling that old bible belt/And lighted out for some desert town," with pedal steel, electric guitar and fiddle filling in the solo space. Parsons is leaning towards the 70's singer/songwriter, ala Harry Nillson, with the piano based Brass Buttons and $1000 Wedding, a ballad that builds and tells the story of being left at the altar. He does the Jerry Lee Lewis inspired I Can't Dance, a song written by Tom T. Hall. And along with Ooh, Las Vegas, with Carl Perkins inspired guitar riffs, shows his range of influences includes early rock and roll, "Ooh Las Vegas, ain't no place for a poor boy like me/Every time I hit you're crystal city/You know you're going to make a wreck out of me." The affection for the Buck Owens/Merle Haggard Bakersfield sound is still apparent with the Louvin brothers penned Cash On The Barrelhead, where along with the original Hickory Wind, is full of stock honky tonk crowd noises cheering for the harmonies and the solos. Hickory Wind is another track that shows Parsons increasing poetic lyricism, "It's hard to find out that trouble is real/In a far away city, with a far away feel/But it makes me feel better each time it begins/Callin' me home, hickory wind." The album ends with the Parsons and Harris penned In My Hour of Darkness, full of beautiful Dead-like harmonies, dobro and fiddle, and seems fitting posthumously, "In my time of darkness/In my time of need/Oh, Lord grant me wisdom/Oh, Lord grant me speed."

I've never quite understood why alt-country fans hold Gram Parsons in such high regard. It's not that he isn't good, because he is, but there were people like Merle Haggard and the Grateful Dead (not that they're not held in high regard, but don't seem to be treated with the same reverence as Parsons), doing much the same thing only better. With this album we could start to see the promise of Parsons as a solo artist, with his confidence and his performances being heads and shoulders above those on his debut. Maybe it's that arc that got cut short, where we can imagine what he would have done if he had not died in the fall of '73, that allows us to live with our expectations without having to measure them up to reality.

Recommended here:

Hickory Wind

The Return of the Grievous Angel

Brass Button

In My Hour of Darkness

June 15: Gram Parsons, GP (1973)

Gram Parsons is often looked to as the father, or at least a founding member, of alt-country. His work with The Byrds, his membership in The Flying Burrito Brothers, and his tragically short solo career established him as an artist with a definite affinity for traditional country music, but with an interest in and ability to expand on that tradition, either in the way he approached country music, or his dabbling in other forms. He only recorded two solo albums before a drug overdose claimed his life at the age of 26. In many ways Parsons was playing the same country and country rock that had was being played for half a decade prior. Acts such as The Byrds and The Grateful Dead had been using country music as a touchstone for some time, and country acts like Merle Haggard and Buck Owens had brought West Coast rock into their own music, so as a hybrid this was nothing that new. Parsons had a professed affinity for both Haggard and Elvis Presley, whose backing band he hired for these studio sessions. On this album he does a fairly even mix of covers and originals, and has Emmylou Harris singing backup, where she found her first commercial success as a performer.

The influences are varied throughout the album.  There are the classic country influenced tunes, the Parson's penned Still Feeling Blue, with its upbeat, fiddle driven story of lost love. We'll Sweep Out The Ashes In The Morning, a medium tempo duet about a doomed and passionate love affair, A Song For You, a slow ballad full of pedal steel, fiddle and Hammond Organ, and along with She and How Much I've Lied, has a vocal delivery reminiscent of Jerry Garcia.  Streets of Baltimore may be the best song on the album, and was written by Tompall Glaser and Harlan Howard.  It is classic Bakersfield with electric guitar lead and tells the story of the protagonist and his lover leaving the country to return to the namesake city, only for him to find out "she loved those bright lights more than she loved me."  It showcases Parson's ability to nail those heartbreaking country melodies.  She has 70's FM pop and R&B influences and rural imagery about a woman in the delta who "sure could sing."  That's All It Took, a George Jones co-written tune is classic Nasheville country.  Kiss The Children has a Jordanaires like big chorus as a backup.  Cry One More Time is Fats Domino like R&B with quarter note chords pounded out on piano, bass sax, and a country-ish guitar solo.  The Parson's co-written How Much I've Lied is George Jones style country.  Big Mouth Blues is early rock and roll as filtered through the Rolling Stones, with a driving bass sax.

Listen here:

Recommended:  Streets of Baltimore, How Much I've Lied, Cry One More Time.

June 14: Willie Nelson, Red Headed Stranger (1975)

This was the breakout album for Willie Nelson as a performer. Prior he had penned some of the best known songs in country, Crazy and Hello Walls, to name just a couple. But after being frustrated with the direction of his career in Nashville, he picked up and moved to Austin. This was the first album he recorded once he got there and became one of the most loved and respected albums in the country canon. It is sparse in its production, with much of the album just being Nelson's guitar and voice. It is a concept album built around the title track, an old country song written in the 50's by Carl Stutz and Edith Lindeman. Nelson penned a few new songs for the album, and grabbed a few others to fill in the story. It is about a preacher that kills his wife after she leaves him for another man, then goes on the lam, traveling through the American west, until he finds a woman to accept him, where he settles down again. As a concept album, it is barely held together, but as a collection of songs there are great moments.

A lot of the album is defined by Nelson's easily strummed acoustic guitar and his rich voice. He returns to themes, both musically and lyrically, giving the album a rich sense of cohesion. Time of the Preacher, the opening track, sets the stage for the protagonist. I Couldn't Believe it Was True is an Eddy Arnold and Wally Fowler song and splits up the two parts of Time of the Preacher, with the whole song falling on each side of track two. It is a classic sounding country song, when the influence of old time and Appalachian music was still apparent in country music. Drums, piano and a bass harmonica come in for just a few measures then drop back out. Red Headed Stranger comes in two parts as well, the first time as a medley with Blue Rock Mountain, and is split up by Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain, one of Nelson's biggest hits. Blue Eyes helped establish Nelson's torch song approach to country ballads, giving a jazzy feel, in delivery if not musically. Red Headed Stranger is the tale of a man who wanders the west with just his stallion, trying to get away from the pain of losing a lover. Just As I Am is an instrumental, with piano and guitar and chromatic harmonica all featured in different verses. Denver is a sub one minute tune, a quick story about the beauty of Denver, and the protagonist finding a woman and feeling at home because "An' it's nobody's business where you're goin' or where you come from/An' you're judged by the look in your eye." Down Yonder is a upbeat piano driven tune feeling like an old barrel house saloon song you'd expect to hear in Denver, circa 1869. The Hank Cochran penned Can I Sleep In Your Arms? is a classic country ballad that Nelson wraps his voice around, making it his own. Remember Me is an upbeat number, with jazz inspired electric guitar lead and bluesy piano breaks. Hands on the Wheel another country ballad that centers around stand up bass and guitar, with the rest of the band coming in for the ends of the choruses. The album ends with a nice and easy instrumental, Bandera, with a lonely harmonica giving the feel of Texas plains, and piano that alternates between a country delivery and a classical one.

As a concept album the story is loosely told, but one thing that does work is the musical and lyrical themes that are returned to time and again. But putting that aside, these little sketches (many songs are less than two minutes, with a couple clocking in at less than one) are interesting and beautiful. The sparse production, a rejection of the Nashville pop approach, provides plenty of space to explore musical themes, and makes the other instruments, when they come in, that much more present. And Willie Nelson has one of those voices that just sucks you in, welcoming and rich as it is.

Listen:

Time of the Preacher

Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

Hands on the Wheel

June 13: Merle Haggard, Sing Me Back Home (1968)

Merle Haggard has one of the most interesting biographies in country music. Having done a stint in San Quentin for armed robbery, he saw Johnny Cash's concert that turned into Live From Folsom Prison. Having had minor musical success before heading to prison, this was one episode that scared him straight, and convinced him he could make a run at the music biz. Having been born in Bakersfield in the midst of the depression, and losing his father at a young age, he was in and out of delinquency. But he was living in the midst of a new country sound that went on to be defined by him and other artists like Buck Owens, and would be called the Bakersfield sound. It was a response to the over-produced Nashville sound, with scaled back production and Fender Telecaster guitar leads taking a large role in the music, and incorporated elements of West Coast rock. Haggard tends towards two subject matters (besides good, bad or broken love), hard scrabble people and drinking. Into the 70's Haggard would become a part of the outlaw country clique that included the likes of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.

Haggard sings on the title track about a man in prison being led to be put to death, and just wanting to hear Haggard sing one more song. On Look Over Me he recalls the smooth style of Marty Robbins, clearing off the rough edges of his voice, and shows his vocal range, the story of seeing an ex-lover and asking her to "Please look over me/While I cry." The Dallas Frazier penned Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp has a surprisingly upbeat melody while it tells the story of the protagonists mother turning to prostitution in order to feed fourteen children after their drunkard father ran away with another woman, "Oh the path was deep and wide from footsteps leading to our cabin/Above the door there burned a scarlet lamp/And late at night a hand would knock and there would stand a stranger/Yes I'm the son of Hickory Holler's tramp." Yet they never had a hungry day and he has nothing but respect for his departed mother. Wine Take Me Away is classic sad Bakersfield country, with strong harmonies over the chorus, "Wine take me away where I can lose myself/Take me where I won't even see the light of day/It's my life and I wanna live it it's my will and I wanna give it/Help me friend of mine wine take me away." The Buck Owens tune Where Does the Good Times Go, is a more upbeat Bakersfield sound with rockabilly inspired electric guitar lead. I'll Leave The Bottle On The Bar has bluesy guitar lines, but is classic country through and through, a story about a man who will quit drinking if only his woman would take him back. Home Is Where a Kid Grows Up has a Dylan-esque picked guitar and has a west coast folk feel. Good Times is another bluesy number with easy piano and acoustic guitar lead and solo, and has a feel like it could have been recorded last week, a Haggard written tune about living in the moment, "Now I won't think about tomorrow/When the happy times are gone away/The good times can't last forever/But the good times are here today." The album ends with Seeing Eye Dog, an upbeat rockabilly inspired number about a man so blinded by love he needs the title character in order to get around.

Haggard's voice had a depth and authenticity that made him one of the most revered singers in country music, and you can hear his influence in those that came after, superstars like Garth Brooks, George Strait, and Randy Travis. Haggard authored or co-authored seven of the twelve tracks here, showing the depth, not just of his performance but his ability to pen a hell of a good country song. Haggard was a part of a generation of country stars that did their best to stay away from the vacuousness of Nashville, and ended up creating a music that was much more authentic and influential, and had much more staying power. His ilk created, and still creates, a music that feels timeless. His shadow stretches far and wide, influencing everyone who is attempting to make any sort of country music, from Dwight Yoakam to Jay Farrar, and everyone in between.

Listen:

Sing Me Back Home

Wine Take Me Away

I'll Leave The Bottle On The Bar

Seeing Eye Dog

June 12: Tom Waits, Rain Dogs (1985)

If I were to do the old exercise of If you could only have one artist on a deserted island... Well that would be Tom Waits. And if I could only have one album, it might very well be Rain Dogs. This is his second album after jumping over to Island Records and deciding to leave behind his rough and tumble lounge singer persona and adopted a street wise operatic one. There he began making a music defined by unpredictability, the oompah jauntiness of Eastern European traditions, dirty blues, and by beat inspired street tough stories. And with a beautiful ballad thrown in every now and then for good measure. Being equally inspired by Kurt Weill (of Three Penny Opera fame), Captain Beefheart, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, he made (and still makes) albums that are definitely his. Nothing sounded quite like it before, and nothing has sounded quite like it since. This album, along with with the albums released on either side of it, Swordfishtrombone and Frank's Wild Years, redefined Waits as an artist, and is one of the most interesting turns in pop music history.

This is the first album that Waits worked with guitarist Marc Ribot, who in many ways helps define the Waits sound of the mid-80s onward. Slight distortion, with a inclination towards tremolo and Cuban Son inspired lines, his open, spacious and sometimes dissonant playing is the perfect partner to Waits' too-much-whiskey-and-cigarettes voice. It's melodic but unpredictable. Minor key progressions command most of this album, as do juanty rhythms and strange stories about stranger characters. Singapore opens the album with synchopated guitars, undefined percussion, marimba and stand-up bass holding everything in place. A story of sailors stuck on a ship and all of the fantastical encounters and experiences that come along with that, "The captain is a one-armed dwarf/He's throwing dice along the wharf/In the land of the blind/The one-eyed man is king, so take this ring." Clap Hands, one of his best known songs, opens with simple guitar floating underneath a moving marimba, and a distinct Ribot solo. It is one of his more accessible songs, not because it's predictable but because of its soft delivery, feeling like it is delivered on cotton. Cemetery Polka comes on with that rough edge of pots and pans percussion, with the bass line being held down by brass, and a circus-y organ break. It is a song of quick character sketches of crazy aunts and uncles, "Uncle Bill will never leave a will/And the tumour is as big as an egg/He has a mistress she's a Puerto Rican/And I heard she has a wooden leg." Jockey Full of Bourbon showcases Ribot's affinity for Cuban melodies, a groovy number with ominous, undefined sounds moving throughout. Tango 'Til They're Sore is an easy moving bass line with simple piano lines and muted trombone circling around it. It's a sort of self-eulogy, "Just make sure they play my theme song/I guess daisies will have to do/Just get me to New Orleans and paint shadows on the pews." Big Black Mariah is a dirty blues number with Waits doing his best throaty growl, delivering lyrics only he could know what they mean. Diamonds and Gold is a Weill like sad and dissonant piece, it recalls depression era train hoppers, "Broken glass, rusty nails where the wild violets grow/Say goodbye to the railroad, the mad dogs of summer/And everything that I know." Time, full of some of the best imagery in the Waits canon, is sang over sad and easy moving guitars, "Well, the smart money's on Harlow/and the moon is in the street/the shadow boys are breaking all the laws/and you're east of East St. Louis/and the wind is making speeches/and the rain sounds like a round of applause." (The rest can be found here). The title track, a reference to dogs who can't find their way home after a rain storm destroys their scent trail home, has angular percussion and Ribot's guitar, and opens with a masterful solo accordion, "Aboard a shipwreck train/Give my umbrella to the Rain Dogs/For I am a Rain Dog, too." Midtown is his first attempt at an instrumental, a chaotic brass number, with hints of James Bond themes. 9th and Hennepin, a reference to a Minneapolis intersection, is Edward Hopper Nighthawks-like character sketches, delivered in a spoken word style over ominous brass and angular double bass and marimba, "And no one brings anything small into a bar around here/They all started out with bad directions/And the girl behind the counter has a tattooed tear, one for every year he's away, she said/Such a crumbling beauty." Gun Street Girl is a lazily told story about a man on the lam told from the view of the protagonist in prison, over Waits' percussive guitar style, "Bought a second hand Nova from a Cuban Chinese/Dyed his hair in the bathroom of a Texaco/With a pawnshop radio, quarter past 4/Well he left Waukegan at the slammin' of the door." Union Square and Walking Spanish are dirty Chicago blues with beat inspired lyrics. Blind Love is a lost love country song filtered through Waits' unique world view, "Now you're gone, and it's hotels and whiskey and sad-luck dames/And I don't care if they miss me, I never remember their names." Hang Down Your Head and Downtown Train, made more famous by Rod Stewart, are straight ahead rock ballads. Bride of Rain Dog is a strange instrumental with that distinct Waits' synchopated jauntiness and lack of definition. Anywhere I Lay My Head closes the album, with Waits delivering his lines like a gospel singer, over counter-melody brass lines, "My head is a-spinning round/My heart is in my shoes, yeah/I went and set the Thames on fire/Now I must come back down," that ends with a New Orleans style brass band section.

Even after listening to this album so many times, I'm still never quite sure where it's headed. There are endless surprises throughout, from the production to hearing lines in new ways, to the sheer range of styles and influences. In the end, Waits creates a world that only belongs to him. But that's part of the beauty of it. We get a glimpse into this sometimes mad genius' inner workings.

Listen:

Cemetery Polka

Gun Street Girl

Time

9th and Hennepin

June 11: Kanye West, 808's and Heartbreak (2008)

Kanye's Late Registration was just about a perfect album for me. It was an exacting mix of the personal as political, clever cultural references, both lyrically and musically, and undeniably catchy production, moving from light-heartedness to dead seriousness without missing a beat. After three masterful hip hop albums, Kanye, one of the biggest stars in music over the last half decade, moved away from straight hip hop on this album. He has capital to spend, which provides him opportunities to try brand new things, which he does with this album. Moving into territory more familiar to artists like Björk or, more recently, Santigold, this is more electro-pop than hip hop, trading in his samplers for synths, and making heavy use of drum machines (the 808 refers to a Roland model), as well as the voice flattening effect of the auto-tune.

Say You Will opens the album with sparse percussion, synth chorus, and panning blips, with piano coming in over the chorus. It's a wide open song that settles in and never moves much beyond its initial ideas, but doesn't get boring, as Kanye sings about a lost love he can't get over. That leads right into a cello opening Welcome To Heartbreak, with a more industrial production full of ominous and dark synth sounds. It's a strange tale of how much he's missed because of a life of fame and fortune, "My friend showed me pictures of his kids/And all I could show him was pictures of my cribs/He said his daughter got a brand new report card/And all I got was a brand new sports car." Heartless, the first single off the album, has Kanye singing the chorus through auto tune and rap/singing the verses, with quarter note synth chords and spacious production, and Kanye layering vocals. It's a story about a woman he can't be with, but can't quite leave either, "Decided we weren't gon' speak so/Why we up 3 A.M. on the phone/Why does she be so mad at me fo'?/Homie I dont know, she's hot and cold." Young Jeezy guests on Amazing, with him and Kanye boasting about their life and success in hip hop, with a pop piano break. Love Lockdown has a heavy auto-tune with marching band drums during the chorus, as a counterpoint to the spacious verses, with poly-rhythmic beats to end the song. Paranoid is full of mid-80's pop synth sounds, giving it a definite throwback feel reminiscent of bands like Cameo or DeBarge. Robocop goes back and forth between heavy industrial sounds and string driven pop, and tells the story of a woman that's only been trouble but he loves the drama. See You In My Nightmares has Lil Wayne, and shows the ability of the auto-tune to flatten the uniqueness of each human voice as both Kanye and Lil Wayne use it at points and it makes it hard to differentiate between the two. This is interesting because Lil Wayne has one of the most unique voices in hip hop. Coldest Winter is the last studio song on the album (there is a live bonus track), and has the strongest and most capable singing by Kanye on the album.

Besides the typical, good, bad and crazy love themes, there is also an undercurrent of dissatisfaction that runs throughout (Street Lights, Welcome to Heartbreak). The 90 degree turn in musical styles would seem to open the opportunity to play up these themes, as it freed him from the confines of being stuck in a single genre.

I'm not sure what I think about the heavy use of auto-tune as it's used in hip hop and pop especially. On the one hand it's the latest step in the industrialization of music production where musicians have been systematically replaced by electronics and machines. But even through that there was still the need of the human voice, the most unique instrument in the world, to deliver vocals. It has taken the uniqueness out of that instrument and maybe soon will replace the need for humans to even deliver vocals. From an intellectual perspective this is very interesting, but from an artistic perspective one reason we listen to music is because we are interested in somebody's view of the world as delivered through song, which includes how that song is performed. If we take that last step that the auto-tune is heading towards, that all vocal performances are identical, then we lose maybe the last unique thing in music. But in a a way this is hand wringing that occurs every time some new innovation happens in music.

For me it's always enjoyable when an artist expands their boundaries and tries something brand new, and succeeds, which is what Kanye does here. Is he better at this than the hip-hop he has done prior? Definitely not, but this isn't bad. He has an ear for production, which he transfers over to pop song structure quite effectively. And his vocal performance, while not able to match the best of the genre, still he provides his own take on what a modern R&B/pop song can be, and it's a pretty good take.

Listen:

Love Lockdown (Video)

Heartless (Video)

Welcome To Heartbreak (Video)

June 10: Sam & Dave, Hold On, I'm Comin (1966)

Sam & Dave, as a duo, were one of the most powerful and successful acts to come out of the 60's soul revolution. With perfectly matching voices, the song writing of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, and the Stax studio backing band, Booker T. and the MG's, behind them, it was a nearly perfect combination of factors that led to this debut album. Taking the gospel and doo-wop influences of their early years, they transformed that into the high energy soul music of the 60's that was so prominent in places like Memphis and Detroit especially. With groovy bass, big horns, full organ sounds and funky drums and guitar, it was an infectious and undeniable sound that Sam Moore and Dave Prater stepped right into, creating one of the best combinations in popular music.

The title track opens the album, with big horns that give way to Prater rough drawl and Moore coming in behind him as a response. The bass sound is big, there are nice, unexpected chord changes, the horns come in and drive the song forward. It's one of the best tracks in the Stax catalogue, which means it is one of the best tracks in American popular music. If You Got The Loving is a slow soul burner with Sam and Dave sharing vocals, pulling from the Memphis blues, with its synchopated beats, that informed much of the Stax sound. The album tends to break down into these camps, the high energy, forward moving soul (I Take What I Want, It's A Wonder), slower burning numbers (Don't Make It So Hard On Me, Don't Help Me Out), as well as Otis Redding like Detroit soul (Ease Me, I Got Everything I Need, Just Me). Booker T. plays several types of pianos and organs, adding to and changing the texture from song to song. The combo of Hayes and Porter show songwriting subtleties that made them one of the best songwriting teams in popular music, like the quick key change and quick return on Don't Help Me Out. Don't Blame Me (Blame My Heart) is the last of the twelve tracks, and finishes the album with a smoldering cry to try and keep love.

Lyrically, the songs revolve around the various stages of love, getting, having, losing, but is so much more forgivable when it's coming from the old soul guys. As a debut album this is ranked high up there. Even though the duo had been working together for close to a decade prior to going into the studio to record this album, and found a near perfect match with Hays and Porter and Booker T. and the MGs. This is a reminder of why soul music of that era remains so vital and never seems to age.

Listen:

Hold On, I'm Comin'

You Don't Know Like I Know

June 9: Michelle Shocked, Arkansas Traveller (1991)

I've never allowed myself to get to far into Michelle Shocked. She always came across as a hyper earnest folk singer which always seemed out of place to someone who valued the cool detachment, self-deprication and irony of bands like The Pixies, Modest Mouse and Pavement. But there is no doubt that she is a musical force, as she's been making music successfully for 20 plus years, and has found a way to chart her own course through the eat-em-up and spit-em-out music industry. Coming out of the plains of Texas, much of her music revolves around the blues and folk music that that area has produced so abundantly. She has a long list of collaborators and producers on this album, ranging from Pop Staples to Don Was to Uncle Tupelo. This was her fourth release for Mercury Records, but was re-released by her own label in 2004.

33 RPM Soul opens the album, a blues rock tune along the lines of Susan Tedeschi or Keb Mo'. The title a metaphor for sinning ways, "Should never have tried to rock/Should never have tried to roll/Aw but damn I don't regret/The 33 RPM Soul." As with many of these bigger acts that I've never gone out of my way to listen to, there always one or two songs that pop that I've heard that I never knew it was that artist. Come A Long Way is that track here. It has the best melody on the album as Shocked sings over the chorus "I've come a long way/I've come a long way/I came 500 miles today/I've come a long way/I've come a long way/And I never even left LA." The Don Was produced track is decidedly poppier than anything else on the album, a drive through LA landmarks. The band backs her up on Secret To A Long Life, with subtle accordion lines, and a predictable story line about a bank robber who shacks up in the desert with a woman with a "ruby red mouth." Contest Coming opens with an Irish fiddle line before banjo and Shocked come in. It eventually kicks into a bluegrass mood and imagery, about a young fiddler practicing because there is "A contest coming and a ticket to Nashville/And the Jones boy aims to win." Over The Waterfall is an Irish jig about a protagonist that wants to go over the waterfall of a mountain stream with a wah guitar solo in the middle. Shaking Hands features Uncle Tupelo, it is a mandolin heavy dirge that jumps in between major and minor keys, a story about confederate soldiers fighting proud before becoming addicted to the morphine, "Soldier's Joy, oh what's the point in pleasure/When it's only meant to kill the pain." Jump Jim Crow is a take on the heavily racially stereotyped Disney feature Song of the South that only partially successfully challenges those stereotypes in the film, and feature Taj Mahal grunting his way through a vocal solo, "Tarbaby, Tarbaby, tell me true/Who is really the jigaboo?/Is it the white man, the white talking that jive/Or the black man, the black trying to stay alive?" Strawberry Jam, with Doc Watson, a call to make your own homemade jam and to "close down these corporate jam factories." Prodigal Daughter makes a move towards the prodigal son story, being warmly welcomed back, while the prodigal daughter returns to find "It's draw your shades and your shutters/She's bringing such shame to the family name," but never follows up on this theme for the rest of the song. But despite this the harmonies of Shocked and Allison Krauss are just about perfect, then ends in three plus minutes of expert bluegrass soloing. The title track is an Appalachian instrumental with banjo, mandolin, violin and spoons, and with Hee Haw style comedy breaks in between, with jokes like "Hey farmer! You're not too far from a fool are you?/Just a barbed-wire fence between us." Woody's Rag finishes out the album, an instrumental with a bluegrass progression and the instruments taking turns at solos.

Michelle Shocked is deeply rooted in the American folk tradition, and at times recalls Joan Baez type sixties folk, as well as older Appalachian bluegrass and Irish inspired folk, as well as souther blues. She doesn't do much on this album to break out of those confines, but she does that genre very well, and maybe that's enough. She does well to add to that canon, but at times comes across as a little too predictable.

Listen:

Come A Long Way (Video)

Thirty second samples of the songs can be found here.

June 8: Kaki King, Until We See Red (2006)

Kaki King is considered by many to be a fairly young (30) guitar vituoso. This has gotten her noticed by many admiring musicians (including Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder), but not much in the way of mainstream success. She was featured in the soundtrack of the Sean Penn directed Into The Wild, and toured with the Foo Fighters. This is her third album, and breaks away from the formula of her first two which were largely instrumental albums. Here she sings on a number of tracks with her layered, ethereal voice drifting in and out like wispy clouds. This album was produced by John McEntire, who also drummed on the album, and is known for his membership in post-rock experimental projects Tortoise and Sea And Cake.

The album opens with Yellowcake, full of finger-picked guitar and King singing over herself. The title track is indicative of her approach, layered guitar (acoustic, electric, slide) filling in much space as the song slowly builds up with chaotic drumming before settling back down to end. You Don't Have To Be Afraid is an 8+ minute piece that seems to be two different songs shoved together, with the only lyrical line tying the two together, "You don't have to be afraid of what's inside you." It returns to its first theme for the final three minutes and builds into a solid indie rock number with a crumbling guitar, and flugelhorn and trumpet to end it. Goby comes across like jazz-lite filtered through post rock chord progressions, with easy drums and a light organ sound. Jessica is the tale of a love affair that never developed that comes across like Sea and Cake or Gastr Del Sol in their more accessible moments, with experimental guitar sounds floating low in the mix. First Brain has elements of Andre Segovia like classical guitar, a quick fingered finger-picked guitar track with a backing of flitting electronic sounds and amorphous vocal. I Never Said I Love You comes across like a jazzy torch song with quick lead lines that come in and out of rhythm, and fall in and out of dissonance. Ahuvati leads effortlessly in to These Are The Armies Of The Tyrannized which again builds and drops, adding layered guitars and driving drums at points. On Second Brain, she blithely asks, "Are we to have another century of guitar/When the best instrument in the world is still the piano?" The Footsteps Die Out Forever recalls the Hawaiian influence on early country music. Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers closes the album, an instrumental with a catchy guitar line and an ethereal slide guitar interspersed within.

I was initially skeptical about this album, as the term guitar virtuoso brings to mind the vacuousness of Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmstein, but after several listens the teaming of McEntire and King seems like the perfect fit. McEntire's production seems to give the music an edge that it might otherwise lack, and King's obvious ease with the guitar and grasp on a number of styles gives a wide and deep palette to work with. They infuse the music with an infectious energy, and while there are few lyrics to grab onto, there are plenty of both pretty and interesting moments, and there is a lot to be said for that.

Listen:

I Never Said I Love You

These Are The Armies of The Tyrannized

Yellowcake

Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers

Life gets busy

The perfect storm of finals week, a big conference of fellow grad student union activists, and the release of my own bands latest CD has put a dent in my daily output. I will catch up soon.

Wes

June 7: The Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004)

The Arcade Fire, based out of the fertile Montreal music scene, came to the forefront of indie-rock with this release, they debut album. Prior they had self-released an EP, that garneredd them enough attention to get signed to indie label Merge. They make a cacophonous music, full of energy and varied instrumentation. Writing within a pop/rock tradition with big choruses, they tend to sit on chords with no rush to move through changes. They touch on 90's indie rock like the Pixies and Pavement, as well as 80's Brit pop like Echo and The Bunnymen or Elvis Costello, with nods to David Byrne and the Talking Heads as well. They have a large vision with their use of instrumentation, which includes the expected lineup, along with violin, viola, cello, accordion, xylophone, synths/keyboards, horns, recorders and lots of percussion. There are no fewer than 15 personnel on this album, which tends to be the way they tour as well.

The album opens with Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), with a Yankee Foxtrot Hotel disjointed production, as instruments quickly join the mix and Win Butler sings of digging through snow to reach a childhood love, then they disappear from the world, losing touch with everyone they knew. It has a distorted guitar that feels like is barely holding together deep in the mix. Neighborhood #2 (Laika) follows, with an accordion opening and distorted and distant talking vocals over the verse, reminiscent of Pixies era Frank Black. It's the story of a brother that causes chaos on the house, "Our older brother bit by a Vampire!/For a year we caught his tears in a cup./And now we're gonna make him drink it./Come on Alex don't die or dry up!" Un Annee Sans Lumiere is a slow moving number with one of the prettier melodies and harmonies on the album, much of it sang in French. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) might be the best known song on the album, a forward moving song full of energy, with a prominent xylophone that gives way to cello over the chorus sections. Another childhood story, a metaphor for a chaotic household, "Ice has covered up my parents hands/don’t have any dreams don’t have any plans/Growin’ up in some strange storm/nobody’s cold, nobody’s warm." Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) is a slower moving number with heavily effected violins and easy percussion and a simple guitar line, "I am waitin’ ’til I don’t know when/cause I’m sure it’s gonna happen then/Time keeps creepin’ through the neighborhood/killing old folks, wakin’ up babies just like we knew it would." Crown of Love moves like a doo-wop piece with quarter note piano chords. Haiti is an acoustic guitar ode to lost homeland, sung mostly in French by Regine Chassagne. Rebellion (Lies) is full of dance-y drums, a meditation on escaping by sleeping. In The Backseat closes the album, with Bjork like vocals coming in, "I like the peace/in the backseat/I don’t have to drive/I don’t have to speak/I can watch the country side/and I can fall asleep," over piano and strings, which give way to strings and a heavily distorted, but subdued guitar.

One of the things the Arcade Fire do so well is they take all of the varied instrumentation and place it perfectly, with nothing ever sounding out of place. They also use this effectively in their tendency to move in and out of their dense production, making their open spaces that much more prominent when they come around.

Listen:

Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) (Video)

Neighborhood #2 (Laika) (Video)

Rebellion (Lies) (Video)

June 6: Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Ballad of the Broken Seas (2006)

This is one of those unlikely duos. Isabel Campbell, the mastermind behind this album, is a former member of indie-pop band Belle and Sebastian, where she sang and played cello. Lanegan is the former lead singer of 90's alt-rock stalwarts Screaming Trees. Campbell left B&S in 2002 to pursue her solo career. Lanegan made a name for himself post Screaming Trees by going acoustic and playing a form of dark country music. This album is folk based, drawing from a number of traditions, but is largely an acoustic album, full of acoustic guitar, simple but full drums, and Lanegan's gruff, gravelly voice and Campbell's angelic like delivery. Various instrumentation fills in around that formula.

The album opens with Deus Ibi Est, and has Lanegan reciting the lyrics in his husky voice, a story about a man drawn to go to war, while Campbell sweetly sings the chorus in Latin while referencing an Irish dirge, over acoustic guitar and a quarter note frame drum. Campbell does the lead vocals on Black Mountain, which also has an Irish folk feel and an unexpected melody during the chorus with a quick fiddle break. The False Husband has Lanegan singing the chorus over a spaghetti western production, and Campbell comes in on the verses singing over string heavy 70's inspired pop. It's a story of a relationship on the edge, "And all the while that you would burn/Your tongue was working overtime/Love foregone and life's so good/Aren't you darling." The title track has Lanegan sounding like a cross between Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen, over piano, with a cello solo, and nice vocal harmonies by Campbell. Another story of a relationship on the brink, "Ours was an ocean to swim around in/Ours was an ocean I should have drowned in/My doctor reports that we must be strong/But I'm praying that it won't be long." Ramblin' Man is a Hank Williams cover filtered through Tom Waits, with pots and pans percussion, and Marc Ribot-like guitar. Campbell quietly answers Lanegan's claims that "When God made me he made a ramblin' man" with her own calls for him not to stay away too long. Saturday's Gone is fingerpicked guitar, simple hand percussion and a sweet minor key melody sung by Campbell. It's the story of a woman we're not allowed to learn much about, other than things are uncertain once you are in her presence, "See the sapphire in the skylines so blue/See the diamond in the dirt/When you think the subject won't turn to you/She got demons up her skirt." It's Hard to Kill a Bad Thing is an mid tempo major key instrumental with acoustic guitar and bongos, that leads into a string section for the end. Dusty Wreath opens with a clavinet(?), in waltz time. The Circus Is Leaving Town has a late period Bob Dylan feel with Lanegan's voice and the presence of a Hammond organ.

At first the dinstinctness of their voices seems almost shocking, but after several listens I started to see how those voices weave in and out and fill in the empty spaces of the other. The album moves slow mostly, but there is enough variation in influence and production to keep it interesting. The melodies reveal themselves slowly, but there are very pretty and engaging parts throughout.

Listen:

Ramblin' Man (Video)

Ballad Of The Broken Seas (Live)

June 5: Califone, Roomsound (2001)

Califone came out of the remnants of 90's underground rockers Red Red Meat. It was started by Tim Rutili, and consists of him and a rotating cast of musicians. With close connections to the Chicago post rock scene, he eschews the alt-rock of his former band and trades it in for a more wide open sound based around dirty blues and gothic folk, with tinges of Tortoise-like experimentation. This was Califone's full length debut album.

The album opens with Trout Silk, a dirty blues number imbued with sadness, and has a vocal delivery like a darker Lyle Lovett. It is an acoustic guitar riff with bass drum and electric lead that gives way to piano and flitting sounds, spending the last two minutes exploring. The lyrics double on this experimental approach, "dissection wise/half onion stone/stuff your mattress/loose dog loose." Bottles and Bones (Shade and Sympathy) also bases itself around a simple and open spaced strummed guitar chord progression, that leads into a full sounding chorus with a pop melody as Rutili sings "Steal your sweet decline/This is the longest goodbye." The rest of the album flows along at its slow pace, steel and acoustic guitar based numbers and lyrics with their meanings buried deep. It's full of simple drums and piano that come and go, with a variety of other instrumentation that make quick entrances and exits (fiddle on Fisherman's Wife, flute on Porno Star vs. Rodeo Clown, Hammond organ on Tayzee Nub, ). There are little moments within Rutili's subdued vocal delivery (which never rises too far in the mix) that show brilliant, "the cardinal staggers, vinegar skies/burned up carpet, lazy to change/the cashier grins an electrical storm/dizzy and shortchanged charms you blind" on Fisherman's Wife, or "Warm your hands, a smokestack heart/Swear on your cloudy eyes/Someone's talking through your mouth/Some monkeys sleep through anything" on Slow Rt. Hand. Half the tracks on this album stretch out over five minutes, usually devolving and evolving slowly as the song goes on well past the point of the lyrics. The album closes with the increasingly and then decreasingly noisy New Black Tooth.

It'd be easy to place this beside the dark folk of acts Palace or Sparklehorse, or even new folk artists like Iron and Wine or Devandra Banhart, but Califone's vision seems to be wider than these other acts, even though they share American folk roots. Coming out of a Chicago scene that values noisy experimentation has affected the bands sound and expanded their musical palette.

Listen:

Tayzee Nub (Sample)

Rattlesnake Smell Like Split Cucumber (Sample)

June 4: Camera Obscura, Let's Get Out Of This Country (2006)

Camera Obscura is another of those bands where I see their name enough to know they exist, but not enough to actually know what they are about. Hailing out of Glasgow, Scotland, this is their fourth release, with their debut coming out in 2001. They make a 70's inspired pop music, and would seem to be closely aligned with fellow Glasgowians Belle & Sebastian. With a soft around the edges approach, they tend towards clean guitar sounds, melodic bass lines, keys and strings and trumpets, and Tracy Anne Campbell's sweet vocal delivery. With production values taken from Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach, and drawing from more modern pop like Belle and Sebastian or Of Montreal, the music moves smoothly and cleanly along, with flourishes of roots rock, ala Neko Case and Calexico, thrown in here and there. Campbell's voice can come across like Beth Orton's rich delivery at times as well, and has a delivery like Isobel Campbell's (formerly of Belle and Sebastian) at others.

The album opens with a church organ on Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken, an ode and reference to Lloyd Cole. Up-tempo beats and strings come in while Campbell belts out a sweet melody over driving drums and guitar lines. Tears for Affairs comes across like bossa nova tinged 70's rock, with a prominent accordion. Dory Previn goes towards American folk and country, with a lightly chorused guitar and simple drum beat full of rim shots, evoking the American west as she sings about escaping to Montana. The False Contender is a waltz beat with accordion and organ, as Campbell sings about wanting her current lover to leave her because she hasn't gotten over someone in her past. The title track is full of big string sounds, arpeggiated guitar, keys and drums, and is a song about escape, "Let's get of out this country/I'll admit I am bored with me." Country Mile moves like a more upbeat Nick Drake as she sings of having to leave a lover, "The more you look forlorn, the more to you I warm/I won't be seeing you for a long while/I hope it's not as long as a country mile." If Looks Could Kill and I Need All The Friends I Can Get start with two chord progressions, and has a 60's girl group feel. Razzle Dazzle Rose closes the album, with Calexico like trumpets and snare rolls moving at a medium tempo, and finishes with a minute plus outro.

If you're a sucker for catchy, pretty melodies there is a lot to enjoy on this album. The production on the album also keeps things constantly moving forward and interesting. Lyrical content for the most part is heart-broken lost love songs, but they are delivered in such a way as to never seem too trite.

Listen:

Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken (Video)

Let's Get Out Of This Country

Dory Previn

June 3: Low, Things We Lost In The Fire (2001)

Low, hailing out of Duluth, Minnesota made a name for themselves by creating a quiet, electric, contemplative music at a time when being loud and angry was all the rage, releasing their first album in 1994. That is a theme they continue to work with to this day. It is a music that moves slowly, with lots of space for the band to explore. Songs tend to develop slowly, with mostly lightly strummed electric guitar, bass and simple drums and married couple Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk's harmony vocals defining their sound. On this album they also bring in a line of musicians playing strings, keys and trumpet. Taking elements of shoegaze and dreamy pop, they create a sound that depends on My Bloody Valentine guitar tones at times, and the slowed down, stretched out sounds of bands like Galaxy 500 or The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The music is pretty, with quiet, whispered vocals at times (Medicine Magazines). But it can also get repetitive, as on Dinosaur Act, where they repeat the title endlessly, punctuated by non-sensical two or three line verses. Laser Beam has just a tremoloed guitar and Parker's delicate voice. Mostly it's easy percussion, repetitive bass lines, and interesting guitar tones. But you need to be willing to have some patience if the slow going isn't your thing. Cuz slow going this is. Like walking knee deep in mud. Like A Forest has a tinny piano, and small viola lines. The lyrics tend towards indie-rock style obtuseness. Rhymes for the sake of rhymes, obscured meanings and isolated imagery. "Every time they lift you up/Every time more thread to cut/Seems like you've been cut enough" (Kind of Girl). The album ends with In Metal and is tom rolls, tambourine and acoustic guitar, and actually seems to have the most energy on the album (though that's no saying much).

It's easy to see that some of the quiet folksters, ala Iron and Wine and Laura Gibson, would have been influenced by the moods of Low. I know there are ardent supporters of Low. It is really pretty at points, but the music always feels like it is barely moving, and that is hard to sit through sometimes.


Listen:

Sunflower

Laser Beam

Like A Forest

June 2: Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, Pig Lib (2003)

Stephen Malkmus, better known as the front man for 90's indie rock stalwarts Pavement, relocated to Portland, Oregon after the breakup of Pavement in 1999. Once there he proceeded to put together a rotating cast of musicians that would come to be collectively known as The Jicks. Using the same moods as much of the 90's indie rock, there are also elements of psych rock and the updated indie rock that looked to Pavement and its contemporaries for inspiration. Still having a strong bent towards guitar rock, there are a variety of keyboard sounds to accompany the guitar, bass and drums. Malkmus' distinct vocal style, with its dry and lazy delivery, and its barely in tune quality at times, is still ever present and defines much of the mood of this album.

The album opens with Water and a Seat, with a smooth guitar intro before the band kicks in with touch of psych rock, and a shifting time signature. Most of the song is in 13/8 time, but moves in and out of 5/4 and 8/8 time in unpredictable ways. It has Malkmus' indicative obtuse lyrical style, "wicked weed and logic creed/I need a tremendous seat/A cup of snow, a snowflake kid/He is coming off the grid." Ramp of Death has a simple and easy keyboard sound throughout and moves like Pavement's slower stuff. (Do Not Feed The) Oyster has the catchiest melody on the album as Malkmus sings "Do not feed the oyster/under a cloud/he'll suck you like a seagull/into the sound," and it has a big guitar break with 70's radio rock harmony guitar leads. Vanessa From Queens has a lighthearted touch on the lyrics, "There's aggression in the air this morning/Got your ballerina tights around my head/In a samurai pose on the bed," making quick references to Bob Packwood and "Vanessa from Gresham." Sheets has a dirty 70's rock vibe with the wah guitar line mimicking the vocal line, with breaks in 7/8 time. Animal Midnight is easily strummed guitar and organ and opens with "Sacrifice for you is just flirtation/And friendship a cold convenience/I wonder sometimes what you're made of/Is it rayon or is it dust?" Dark Wave has a Spoon like feel, with its broken instrumental lines and dance-y drums. Witch Mountain Bridge wonders about simpler times where simple spells solved problems, "In better times a spell could save you/The wine that we threw into a chasm came right back to you," only to now live in an age where skeptics rule. It all ends with along psych rock solo. Craw Song is acoustic guitar and hand drums with a subtle keyboard line. 1% of One is nine plus minutes and jumps from a lazy vocal delivery full of stream of consciousness lyrics to big rock guitars, to slow sludge rock inspired sections, and back again. Us closes the album with harmony vocals, giving an almost Dead or Phish feel at points. It is an easy moving song with its once again obtuse lyrics, "I don’t really know your taste in ceilings/I don’t know the rpm you rev."

Malkmus has always seemed to define himself by not taking himself too seriously, that he combined with a cutting wit. And that continues here. But he is also experimenting with new sounds, marrying the dark intensity of psych/sludge rock with the lighter feel of his easy indie rock. There are lots of nice moments here, and if you're a fan of 90's college rock there will be lots to enjoy here. Malkmus has a way of putting nice melodies together, and then shrouding them in his dry delivery. That might be the most enjoyable part of this album.

Listen:

Do Not Feed The Oyster

1% of One

Dark Wave (Video)

June 1: Sixteen Horsepower, Sackcloth and Ashes (1996)

In the mid-90's I was driving around Santa Fe listening to the local college station when a sound came on like none I had never heard before. It was instruments that were all quite familiar; guitar, drums, banjo, bass, but there was dark, raucus quality to the music that was unlike anything I had heard up to that point. When the DJ came on and said that was Sixteen Horsepower off their new album Sackcloth and Ashes (for the sake of the story) I headed straight to the record store and picked it up as a cassette tape, which I eventually wore out. Using the instrumentation of American folk music, but bringing with it a dark, bible verse filled version of the world, the music was intense and interesting, instantaneously magnetic. Based heavily in the folk traditions of Appalachia, their songs are stories redemption and trying hard to stay within the good graces of God in a world full of sin, with biblical images, as well as that of rural mountain life.

The first sounds on the album are snare rolls and minor key slide guitar over strummed guitar and bass on I Seen What I Saw. When David Eugene Edwards' voice comes in, with its dark intense yowl, the mood of the album is quickly established. With its story of sneaking upon a house only to see something he wanted no part of, and "Then I climbed up on the big horse strapin'/Put the spur down to blood/He took off sixteen horses strong/Left me lyin' in mud." Black Soul Choir is the battle to stay true to God when the world makes people evil, "Yes an no man ever seen the face of my lord no/Not since he left his skin/He's the one you keep cold on the outside girl/He's at your door let him in," with a chorus of "Every man is evil yes an every man is a liar/An unashamed with the wicked tongues sing/In the black soul choir." All over fingerpicked banjo, bass and backbeat drums. Scrawled in Sap is the temptation of untenable love. Horse Head, with its distant vocals, is full of guilty imagery over electric guitar and driving drums, "You are not needed here/To help me feel low down/I'm doin' it fine all on my own." Ruthie Lingle is full of the temptations of sex, as he begs "Black eyed Rebecca take me home/Here buxom Gretta take me home/The curse of those red lips o me/Goddess Samantha take me home," but in the end wants to run from that temptation, "Meek mother Mary take me home." Harm's Way opens with a bandoneon, a button accordion used in many types of South American music. Again, Edwards is battling the demons that haunt him, "An like the fool I am for my own gain I pray/You say you found, a way back inside my closet/Ol' bones upon bones an joints upon sockets." Black Bush has some of the most direct Christian references on the album as he sings, "My knees was made for kneelin'/An that's just what they'll do." Red Neck Reel is the unusual major key track, with a hoedown energy with banjo and fast drums. Strong Man closes the album with just solo slide guitar and Old Testament imagery of a vengeful God, "There will be no pity for him/We must kill him where he stands/No there will be no mercy for him."

I had a friend while living in Denver who grew up and played in bands with Edwards in their younger years, and through this friend I know that he and Edwards both take their Christian faith seriously. The imagery here isn't appropriating biblical imagery to create art, but rather art as a form of struggle and worship. But the faith on this album isn't exalting the lord, but is rather one man's struggle to live a life faithful to what he believes. Whether it's what you believe or not, watching a person struggle honestly and openly with their demons seems to make good art.

Listen:

Haw (Video)

Black Soul Choir

I Seen What I Saw

Harm's Way

May 31: TV On The Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)

One of the first albums I did as this project was TV On The Radio's latest, Dear, Science. Among people who think about such things, TVOTR might be one of the most innovative and important bands making music today. With their combination of programming and live instruments, the shared vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone, and with enough energy to fill up a room several times over, they make some of the most engaging music being released today. Coming out of the fertile Brooklyn scene, they have quickly risen to the top of the indie-rock mountain. This was their third album (not counting an EP release).

The album opens with drum machine and synth generated strings on I Was A Lover. With its disjointed instrumentation, full of synths, programmed drums, keyboard piano, and electric drill guitar, it is a clarion call that this album will be pushing boundaries. Over this cacophony Malone sings in his falsetto "We don't make eye contact, when we have run-ins in town/Just a barely polite nod, and nervous stares towards the ground." Hours has bass sax and shifting synth sounds with snare rolls throughout. Province is slow electronic soul with vocal harmonies reminiscent of Prince, as Adebimpe and Malone sing "Hold these hearts courageously/As we walk into this dark place/Stand steadfast beside me and see/That love is the province of the brave." Playhouses has hyper drumming with synth swells and free time vocals, only to break down in the middle with a distant jack hammer sound before kicking back in to the combination of live and programmed drumming, it finishes with a flurry of guitar feedback. Wolf Like Me was the most played song on the album, a high energy guitar and drum driven number, it slows down in the middle with synths and glockenspiel sounds. The song starts with "Say say my play mate/Won't you lay hands on me/Mirror my malady/Transfer my tragedy." Method is not much more than various percussion instruments backing a harmonized a capella vocal performance. Lyrically TVOTR tend to bounce around ideas versus taking them head on. Meanings are more clear at certain times than others. Method being one of the less clear times, "Broken plates on dirty highways/Pave the way for alien grace." The sounds on Let The Devil In recall mid-90's industrial music without being as dark. Dirty Whirl opens with a Rhodes sound and easy moving chord progression, and showcases Adebimpe's powerful voice as the music underneath feels less hectic than much of the rest of the album. The story of a tumultuous relationship told in metaphor, "So shake the shame from it/Burn me up inside you/Let me churn in your furnace of whirl/Dirty little whirlwind." Blues From Down Here also recalls early industrial/goth, along the lines of Bauhaus or Joy Division. Tonight is a spacious track with easy, but distorted guitar and synth sounds, dominated again by Adebimpe's voice and Malone's harmonies, "Could keep it silent and tortured,/or shove it unto the floorboards/A rusty heart states to whine/In its tell tale time/So free it up tonight." Midway through a clarinet and Adebimpe share a melody line for just a few measures. Wash The Day closes the album over heavily distorted My Bloody Valentine guitar tones and some sound imitating a sitar.

Part of the power of this album, which was so critically acclaimed (gaining album of the year status from a number of music mags/sites) is that it moves so effortlessly from sound to sound, style to style. No two songs on here sound quite the same. They vary their song structures, instrumentation, and moods from song to song yet it never feels disjointed. They pull from modern rock, neo soul, electronica and DJism equally, creating an amalgamation that only belongs to them. It is not necessarily easily digestable music, but there is enough there (especially the shared vocals) to make you not want to walk away. Many critics (for whatever that is worth) put them just on this side of Radiohead as being the most important rock band playing today, with their innovative approach and emotional elements of the music. For an album that is full of synths and drum machines, this album never feels cold or distant, a testament to the power of Adebimpe's and Malone's vocal delivery.

Listen:

Dirty Whirl

Wolf Like Me (video)

Wash The Day

May 30: Smog, A River Ain't Too Much To Love (2005)

Smog is the working name of Bill Callahan. He began releasing tapes in 1988, gaining a name for his low fi and simplistic approach to songwriting and recording. Defined by his deep baritone, acoustic guitar, sparse vocal delivery and heavy lyrical matter, it was music that found contemporaries in Palace and Mark Eitzel, and helped define the current round of indie folkish singer-songwriters working today, such as Iron and Wine and Devandra Banhart, if not in sound at least in approach. He has recently changed his moniker, releasing Sometimes I Wish I Was An Eagle under his own name.

The songs here are defined by acoustic guitar and voice, with the occasional accompaniment of bass, drums, harmonica, keys or strings. But these extra instruments always exist far behind his guitar and voice. His guitar tends towards simple finger-picked lines, often just plucking out two notes at a time. His voice comes across like Richard Buckner's, with his tendency to take single words and stretch them out over up and down melody lines, or Greg Brown's Iowa drawl at points. Sometimes he backs himself up with harmony vocals or will be the response to a call. On The Well, he kicks up the energy and tempo just a bit with drums as accompaniment. On I Feel Like The Mother Of The World, mountain dulcimer and strings accompany the guitar and voice, giving it fullest sound on the album. He does a version of In The Pines, an old traditional tune most famously done by Leadbelly and Nirvana, pulling from verses rarely heard on other versions.

Nothing ever happens quickly in the music, much the same with the lyrics. Stories develop slowly, words get stretched out. There might be long stretches without words, or he might repeat a line again and again. It always feels like there is something just below the surface waiting to explode. Like the songs are a sort of therapy, as he works out adolescent experience, "I remember drinking at the dam/With the jarheads on the other side/Warm beer and tearing up the cans/And all of us yelling abuse" (Drinking at the Dam), family relations "I love my mother/I love my father/I love my sisters too/I bought this guitar/To pledge my love/To pledge my love to you," (Rock Bottom Riser), or looking back while trying to live in the present, "I did not become someone different/I did not want to be/But I'm new here/Will you show me around," (I'm New Here). On the opener, Palimpsest, he sings "Winter weather is not my soul/But biding for spring." It feels like his songs are ways to make amends at times, "I could not work/So I threw a bottle into the woods/And then I felt bad for the doe paw/And the rabbit paw/So I went looking for the pieces/Of the bottle I threw" (The Well).

In the end this is music is music that has to be sat with and contemplated. His deep voice tends to cut through whatever else might be happening in the room, demanding a certain amount of attention. His melodies and vocal delivery create a tension that doesn't let you get comfortable, and his stories, delivered in their minimalistic ways, keep you guessing at their deeper meanings.

Listen:

Rock Bottom Riser (Video)

I Feel Like The Mother of the World (Video)

May 28: The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)

The Velvet Underground is like the Blarney Stone of indie rock. If you visit this land you gotta kiss The VU. They are a touchstone for much of the music that has followed the forty years since this album, their debut. Having said that, I can't say I have ever pulled a Velvet Underground album down off the shelf and put it on. It's not that I'm unfamiliar with their music, how could one be? But my level of familiarity isn't as deep and wide as it should be.

Coming out of the New York art scene, and pushed and supported by Andy Warhol, they established and/or were given a unique niche. They lived and sang about the underground, with all of its dirt and grime and intrigue. Warhol, who is nominally the producer here, pushed the band to include Nico in the recording process, where she ended up lead vocals on three songs. Stylistically the band touches on a number of influences, as well as creating a sound that only belonged to them. Garage rock (Run Run Run, There She Goes Again), Bossa Nova (Femme Fatale), jangly psychedelia (All Tomorrow's Parties), easy pop (I'll Be Your Mirror, Sunday Morning), noise rock (European Son), and gothic storytelling (The Black Angel's Death Song, I'm Waiting For The Man) all make a strong showing here. There is the expected instrumentation, as well as the occasional electric viola played by John Cale. The sound of the electric viola on Venus In Furs is unlike any other sound I have ever heard on any other recording, with an Appalachian menacing and melodic feel. The subject matter isn't dealing with love here. Drugs (not just any drugs, but heroin), disaffection and marginalization, and interesting women all are sung about here. Lou Reed's unsteady vocal delivery only adds to the sense of this music existing on the edge, and is a counterpoint to Nico's diva-esque delivery.

There are few bands that are considered more important than The Velvet Underground, as evidenced by their long shadow. This album is more diverse than they are generally thought about, with references to a number of styles. The fact that you can hear the influence of The Velvet Underground in acts as diverse as Sonic Youth, Belle and Sebastian, and Nick Cave is testament to their uniqueness and importance in rock music.

Listen:

Venus In Furs

I'm Waiting For The Man

European Son

May 29: What Made Milwaukee Famous, Trying To Never Catch Up (2006)

This debut by Austin, Texas' What Made Milwaukee Famous was originally self-released, but was picked up and re-released with added tracks by Seattle's Barsuk Records. They mine the back catalogue of pop rock, sounding like Elvis Costello sometimes, sometimes like Mark Eitzel of The American Music Club, maybe The Smiths or The Shins. Singer Michael Kingcaid comes across like singer/songwriters David Gray and Jeff Buckley at times. The songs are full of the expected instrumentation, layered guitars, toe tapping drumming, thick keyboard sounds, solid but not unexpected bass lines.

At their worst, they sound like radio friendly pop rock, along the lines of the Foo Fighters, Ben Folds or a more rocking Jack Johnson. At their best they sound like lesser versions of indie pop bands like The Shins or Spoon. But this is a debut, and as such the band is experimenting with finding their own sound. The performances are all solid, and there is nothing offensive about the music. They do show a tendency to try lots of different things. The first sounds on the album sound like rave music. On Trying to Catch Up, within the first minute they have humming over battlefield snare rolls, a finger-picked acoustic guitar, and then big radio friendly guitars with shoe-gaze delivered vocals. Curtains opens like a Shins' song, but quickly turns to a Foo Fighters rip off. Sweet Lady has quarter note guitar chords and drums chunked out, and has a catchy melody over one line that belies the rest of the song which comes a little to close to Jack Johnson for my tastes.

The band does decent lyrics, and might be the strongest part of the band. On Hellodrama they sing, "When you show up it's like a landmine, close enough to leave indelible scars." They open The Jeopardy of Contentment with "Basically, this is an apology/I still know what's the best for both of us, kid." On Sweet Lady, he sings about his problematic lover, "But you're running at a hundred miles/Flashing that million-dollar smile/And everybody turns to stone when they see that you're alone."

The music on this CD isn't bad, but it lacks some definition. Are they indie-pop, radio rock, are they trying to find the place where the two can coexist? They released their second album last year, to a fair amount of critical acclaim. There is good energy throughout, and maybe that's enough.

Listen here: Sweet Lady, Idecide, Hellodrama