While researching the last days of Hank Williams, Brian Turpen has run down many leads and collected several stories having to do with Hank’s life. Turpen, a policeman by day, became interested in Hank’s life after reading Colin Escott’s seminal Hank biography (Turpen even appeared in Escott’s Honky-Tonk Blues documentary). His interest and his experience in police work lead Turpen to delve deep into the last days of Hank. In the midst of that research Turpen also wrote occasional articles on various aspects of Hanks’ life for fan newsletters.
The subtitle of the book is “Short Stories from the Life of Hank Williams,” and Turpen has brought together information on nearly aspect of Hank’s life. Turpen has put many years of research into stories on things like Hank’s birth certificate (it was filed ten and a half years after Hank’s birth), several of the places Hank played, his radio days, his songwriting and his love of baseball.
One of the best stories is the detailed recounting of the 1949 Grand Ole Opry tour of Europe. The tour required the permission and the cooperation of many government officials and the artists, which included Red Foley, Little Jimmy Dickens, Minnie Pearl and other, played for our troops who were still stationed throughout the continent.
If you are a fan of Hank Williams or of country music history you will enjoy this book and the perspective it lends to the life of one of the greatest songwriters in music history.
Nov
30
2007
Category : Reviews
Nov
28
2007
Category : Reviews
The band effectively mixes the mood and feel of the music on the disc, from the eerie, spooky sounding opener “Bottle & Suitcase,” to rollicking upbeat and pop-ish tune “Oh Trudy,” to the softer sounds of Sheila’s voice. Sheila handles lead vocals on the beautiful “popgrass” tune “Stay” and sounds remarkably like Alison Krauss. This really is a great song, and I hope the band makes more use of Sheila’s voice as lead in the future. Another song she handles lead on, “Won’t Ask Why” is another whisper of a song; mainly Sheila’s voice and soft strings-cello and guitar. I hear more and more bands using the cello, which I think lends a great deal to the songs in which it is used. The next tune couldn’t be more different. It is a guitar driven, feedback laced instrumental called “Wrecking Ball,” which I really like.
The songs on the disc sound like they could have been played by two or possibly three different bands; a bluesy, guitar focused band, a country/bluegrass type band, and a band dedicated to writing more “radio friendly” tunes, such as “Mystified.” The band handles all these styles well on the CD, which is a great debut CD by a band whose members are certainly not rookies! I especially like the following lines directly from the bands Web site, www.thegetawaydrivers.net, which shows they share some of the same values we at least think we have here at the Web site!
“Thanks for stopping by our website. We hope you’ll like our music. More importantly, we hope you’ll support local music and teach your children to appreciate music for it’s own sake and encourage them to take up an instrument if they have an ounce of interest in it. The world would be a much sorrier place without it.”
Nov
28
2007
Category : Reviews
Another highlight of the CD is the reflective “Never to Return” where the singer tries to understand his own life and some of his actions. After his father walks out when he is three, he gets married at age 23. “I never thought I’d see a sunrise, without her there beside me, until I woke up May 14 of 1999. I looked at her sleeping form, cursed the day I was born, cursed my mama and my pa and walked out of the door.” This song really hit me at first. May 14, 1999 is MY Exact wedding day (Don’t worry Michelle, you’re stuck with me!) Two of my other favorite tunes are the previously mentioned “Can’t Tell a Man,” a rowdy roadhouse type tune that must sound great live, and the rocker “Ravenous.” All in all, Careless Hearts is a very enjoyable debut CD from a band I look forward to hearing more from in the future.
Nov
26
2007
Category : Reviews
The CD is a diverse collection of alt-country, americana tunes that vary from slower stripped down ballads to uptempo full band rockers. More than any other CD I’ve heard recently, this one had me really focused in on the vocals. In an e-mail Joe mentioned that he really works on the vocals. Whether it is hard work, talent, or both the lyrics really shine on the disc. “This Foolish Heart” starts things off with a bang. The very catchy chorus “this foolish heart can’t take a hint, and keeps me comin’ round your door.” The next cut is “Let Me Down” where the singer laments a lost love and its effect on him, singing “All I seem to play are the minor chords, the major ones won’t show their face no more.” Whyte uses multiple instrumentation , frequently highlighting mandolin and fiddle as well as pedal steel and piano. He also has great vocal range for a male singer. “Mercury” starts off slowly and with the lyrics “left stranded on your couch, just dreaming about your mouth.” As this relationship rises and falls like “mercury” so does the tempo, picking up in the middle with the addition of mandolin.
My favorite song on the CD is the hard driving “Linden to LA.” which starts off with harmonica much like “I Feel Alright” by Steve Earle. I’m sure Joe will get some comparisons to Earle, who also writes his own tunes and skillfully mixes instruments and tempo on his CDs. One of the slower tunes is “No More,” which is essentially a vocals/mandolin tune with a nice harmonica/mandolin bridge in the middle of the tune. I imagine this would be a particularly effective tune live. This is followed by the pretty ballad “Out of Tune” on which Joe is joined on harmony vocals by his friend Kelly McRae whose beautiful voice and music I hope to be reviewing on this site shortly. The CD closes with the simple but very nice tune “Ring Around the Moon,” another tune that makes me think Joe may have better success with music than with relationships. He sings “I miss your keys, left in the door that let me know you made your way home, and all your shoes thrown in the hall, your favorite ones that made you seem so tall.”
Apparently others have lauded Joe’s songwriting ability. For the past three years Joe has been a recipient of an ASCAPlus award which is a merit-based songwriting grant from ASCAP. He has also had music placed in the PBS show “Roadtrip Nation.” Do yourself a favor, take the “Desperate Housewives Season 1” DVD off your Christmas list and replace it with Devil in the Details by Joe Whyte. Besides having a great CD to listen to you won’t be teased as much by the guys on the bowling team!
Nov
26
2007
Category : Reviews
Infused with country and blues and with a gospel core, Sam Baker’s sandpaper voice conveys the numerous shades of meaning coloring his lyrics. And every word (every word!) has a place, a need to be right where it is and nowhere else. You get the feeling that with every decision made on Pretty World, whether lyrical, musical or aural, what we’re hearing is the inevitable conclusion, that there could be no other way than what we are privileged to hear right now.
Sam Baker lives in Austin and grew up in a small Texas town. The proud sensibilities of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett among others are certainly in evidence. Producers Tim Lorsch and Walt Wilkins have made the wise choice to feature as much white space as the sparse CD cover art indicates is contained within Pretty World. The choice of instrumentation is certainly a factor; Lorsch contributes violin and mandolin, Wilkins plays guitars and sings and players such as Lloyd Maines on resonator guitar and pedal steel, Fats Kaplan on accordion and Gurf Morlix on vocals and electric guitar lend delicate support along with Baker’s excellent regular band.
Much of what I’ve written here can be applied to Sam Baker’s debut CD Mercy, but Pretty World is even more self-assured and sonically rich that his previous effort. On both releases, Sam Baker has accomplished what few others have done: He’s given us a window to another view of the world.
Nov
21
2007
Category : Reviews
With so much success as a writer, one might think he should stick to the pen and leave the vocal talents to others. In his most recent CD titled The Bluegrass Diaries, Lauderdale shows he can do it all�and do it well.
Lauderdale writes, or shares writing credits, on all eleven songs. He truly shines in the bluegrass genre, by mixing his ability to write a classic love gone wrong song such as �This Is The Last Time(I�m Ever Gonna Hurt)� a humorous bluegrass hook theme such as �One Blue Mule,� and gospel redemption in �Can We Find Forgiveness.�
He also surrounds himself with talented musicians (Shawn Camp, Randy Kohrs, Richard Bailey, Jesse Cobb, Jay Weaver, Clay Hess, Aaron Till, and Cody Kilby) that accentuate the songs with superb lively picking throughout the CD. Lauderdale even allows these fine musicians to keep running on the songs final cut �Ain�t No Way To Run,� as if to salute their great work.
Harmonies are also important to any bluegrass music. Providing soaring harmony vocals here are Kohrs, who also produced the CD, Cia Cherry Holmes, Dave Evans, and Ashley Brown.
Lauderdale has the innate ability to paint a picture with his music, which is a perfect mesh with the bluegrass genre. His voice inflections add depth to much of his music as well. He has found his niche. This is easily one of the best CD�s of the year.
This CD is to be the first of 3 to be released by Lauderdale in the next 9 months. The others find him paired with guitarist James Burton and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
Nov
20
2007
Category : Reviews
The best description I’ve heard of Amy is "a rootsier, more dangerous Norah Jones". Her music doesn’t fall into the ‘pop’ category as easily as Jones’. Amy is much more diverse and has her roots more in traditional country, but like Jones she has a flowery, even softer voice and chooses more challenging and varied music. When you see a photo of the beautiful but small LaVere and hear her soft voice it is hard to imagine her in a punk band, let alone wrestling with an upright bass. She is definitely a student of music and music history and has been a tour guide at Sun Studios in Memphis.
Let me explain when I say I’m not quite sure what to make of this record. Plastered across the top of the promotional flier that came with the CD is the following quote; "It’s one of the best records I’ve ever made". This quote is not from Amy herself, but from the producer Jim Dickinson. While Dickinson definitely has the credits to made this statement, this seemed odd to me. Shouldn’t the big promotional tag involve the musician, not the producer? This left me wondering who was driving the bus here. While I enjoyed most of the songs on the album, they vary so much in style that I wondered whether or not the producer was trying to show how he could produce a widely varied CD of music.
The CD opens with a song called "Killing Him," inspired by a quote Amy heard from a woman who had just murdered her husband of 30 years, "Killing him didn’t make the love go away". This is definitely one of the highlight of the CD. Amy then shines on the slow and beautiful classic country ballad "Tennessee Valentine." "Washing Machine" has a blues feel that didn’t seem to work as well to Amy’s talents and made me wonder who brought this one to the table. As she ventured into the funkier side, I did enjoy her slow version of the Carla Thomas song "That Beat," with a haunting violin, but I didn’t care for the oddly funky tune "People Get Mad." Near the end of the CD comes my favorite song "Cupid’s Arrow," written by Amy. This song really works to her strengths and highlights her beautiful voice, as well as guitar and violin. The CD closes with a good rendition of Bob Dylan’s "I’ll Remember You." I think Amy LaVere is a very talented musician and songwriter as most of this CD shows. I just feel she could choose some of the songs she does more carefully and play to her strengths more than cover so many styles at once.
LaVere also has some acting credits, among them playing Wanda Jackson in the film Walk the Line, as well as playing Jesse in the film Black Snake Moan staring Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Timberlake.
Nov
19
2007
Category : Reviews
There’s heart, soul, and substance in this CD and great sound too. It’ll grow and grow on you, or at least it has with me.
On my list, Bleu is one of the top five young acts to come out of Texas in recent times. There�s not much country about Bleu; he hails from young Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Rick Springfield rock and roll territory. But if that isn’t Americana then what is?
Bleu searched his soul for this one. Then he took an axe to a frozen heart and found a strong warm pulse beneath the ice. Many of the songs document battles and wounds suffered in the strange battlefield fought in the bars and honkytonks or our land�a place where those that lead with the heart get savaged.
For any that accuse Bleu of getting soft, you’d have to be brain dead not to realize that this world and our country in particular is in bad shape. People look but don�t see, they listen but don�t hear. We live in a dark time where prayers hardly make it though the haze and answers are not always forthcoming: a time and a place where people have been raised with the best the planet has to offer, are surrounded by luxury, yet have become little more than hollow shells, almost soulless in their selfishness. Bleu is blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with seeing and hearing everything and trying to make sense of it. It may be the only world he has known, but down deep, he knows something�s wrong and he�s doing his best to describe how he feels.
It’s no wonder he feels lost sometimes.
On Lost Boy, Bleu Edmondson doesn’t sing Rock and Roll, he bleeds it.
Nov
15
2007
Category : Reviews
Dwight Yoakam was thinking all these things. He had idolized Buck Owens, and enjoyed working with him whenever possible. Buck passed away in 2006. Yoakam felt even though he could never do it like Buck, he could honor his life by singing a few of the songs which helped shape Buck�s career. Just as Yoakam states in the CD liner, however, �this CD took on a life of its own, as if Buck demanded it.�
Dwight succeeds on every detail in honoring Buck. Being blessed with one of the most versatile voices in music, Dwight holds back nothing here. He allows his passionate feelings for Buck and the music to flow with every note.
Of course, Dwight adds his own touches to a few of the 15 songs which appear on this CD, while still allowing Buck�s music to hit its mark. Some songs, such as �Act Naturally� were left virtually untouched. Why mess with something that works so well? Dwights version of �Close Up The Honky Tonks� takes a more haunting look at love lost than the original. No one can make you feel pain better than Dwight.
There are a few songs Dwight allows guitar wizard Eddie Perez to run with and have fun. Eddie does a great job with the harmonies throughout the CD, too. In �Down on the Corner of Love� and �Above and Beyond,� you can hear Dwight utilizing his own �Elvis and Buddy Holly� mixes, where Eddie shines doing an outstanding job.
The ultimate climax is in the final song on the CD �Together Again.� This song is perfection. You can hear the passion in Dwight�s voice as he sings the song dedicated to Buck, his ex-wife Bonnie who also recently passed away, and long time fellow late musician Don Rich. Then, just to add to all the love flowing within the lyrics, Dwight adds a lonesome instrumental version as a way of saying �take it Buck.�
As daunting a task this was, Dwight did not disappoint. Being the perfectionist he is probably helps. There is nothing here which fails to reach the mark. Dwight would not allow that. Especially in a tribute to his idol.
Nov
13
2007
The result of all this is a very enjoyable album from start to finish. The songs are bluegrass influenced acoustic gems. Christiana’s love of the country-side of the Grateful Dead is quite evident on this record, with several songs reminiscent of the Jerry Garcia-David Grissman collaborations. Andrew Hendryx’s mandolin playing truly anchors the band’s sound, along with the smooth vocals/lyrics of Blake, who claims to use Gram Parsons as his songwriting measuring stick.
One of the CDs highlights is the second cut, �Bad, Bad Man,� alternating between mandolin, fiddle and banjo runs with the singers admission that "I’m a bad, bad, man, candy in my pocket, broken woman on my hand�" �25 Years� is highlighted by some great harmony vocals and is one of the tunes with a definite Grateful Dead feel to it. Other gems are the up-tempo �Don’t Break My Heart Again,� and the beautiful �Angel in Woodstock,� which Christiana says he wrote one night after listening to two Gram Parsons albums.
The band has toured heavily in the east in preparation for the release of this CD. If they come to a town near you I highly recommend you check them out. Their website is http://www.yarnmusic.net/, where they have a few live sets you can download.