Our Americanaroots Podman of the Board Von recently turned me on to a couple new artists on his show Americana Rock Mix.  One was Nolan McKelvey.  Von played a couple of tunes from his 2009 album A Matter Of Time and I had to hear more, so I got my ears on a copy of the whole disc.  Nolan spent time with among others,the Boston based band The Benders but is now on his own and calls Flagstaff Arizona home.

What draws me to his music is Nolan’s voice.  It has something extra to it;  a certain inflection or geographically unrecognizable twang that would let him fit in playing in Boston, or Texas, or Tennessee, and apparently Arizona! His voice really shines on the tune Fireflies. Nolan’s tunes on the disc are a mix of softer ballads (The Best Is Yet To Come) and  lively head-bopping tunes with more hook to them than most of the Americana I’ve listened to lately. The disc opens with the catchy tune All We Ever Needed, which “caught” me right away. Other standouts include Entwined; Song of Hope, Song of Joy; and the closer Regarding Proposition (H)8.

Folk on the disc include Nolan, guitar, vocals; Tim Hogan, bass and vocals; Jeff Lusby, electric and acoustic guitars, organ, vocals; Ethan Rea, drums; and Mike Sweitz on Wurlitzer, Organ and Rhodes. This is an excellent disc by a seasoned singer, songwriter and performer.  I certainly look forward to following his career and look forward to any future releases by Nolan. Check him out!

If you’ve been hangin’ around AmericanaRoots for some time then you have heard of Doop & the Inside Outlaws, whether it be hearing them on one of our podcasts or reading our review of Doop’s last disc Blood River. We’re happy to say Doop is back with another helping of his brand of Rust-Belt Americana on his new disc Everett Belcher.  It is definitely a late entry into my top 10 of 2009 list!.

The Inside Outlaws is a group of singer-songwriters and musicians based loosely out of the Downriver area of Detroit (my hometown) whose goal is to find and develop talented singer-songwriters. One of these is Don “Doop” Duprie. His bio reads;

“Born and raised in the industrial enclave of River Rouge, MI, this son of an auto mechanic and an Avon lady learned early on that hard work and doing the right thing always provided for his family. A veteran firefighter, Doop now conveys that same work ethic and honesty in all aspects of his musical career as a full-time singer/songwriter signed to a publishing deal with Nashville based Highland Publishing. He now divides his time between the two music cities.”

Now to the new disc. The title track is an excellent one, about an old moonshine runner.  Even with jobs as scarce as they are in Detroit, Doop takes a jab at one in MFNJOB. He’s too rockin’ to call strictly country, but too country to call rock’n'roll.  He’s a great mix of it all.  He even adds a great cover of Springsteen’s tune Prove It All Night.

We have had so much great music come out of Detroit.  I think hands down the best songwriter we now have to offer the Americana World is Don “Doop” Duprie. Check him out!

I recently learned of a record label I had not heard of before, Six Shooter Records.  This is  another fine label  Canadian label delivering some  great Americana (Canadiana) music. I’d support them just based on their label slogan, “Life is too short to listen to shitty music.” So true.  The two discs I received from them are both excellent; Blood’s Too Rich by Luke Doucet and the White Falcon and Man Descending, by Justin Rutledge. Both are 2008 releases.

Justin Rutledge’s disc is on the slower, mellower side, highlighted by his soft mid-range voice. Upon hearing the first line of the first tune, St. Peter, you’d guess Justin has spent some time with music by fellow Canadian Neil Young who he certainly echoes vocally. His tunes are backed mainly acoustically by his band and countless guests, including Canadian superstar Ron Sexsmith lending his voice to one of the tunes.  Justin wrote all the songs, highlighted by a nice instrumental piece called Honey Houses and another standout A Penny For The Band, highlighted by some soft piano in the intro.

The Luke Doucet disc is a wonderfully diverse collection of tunes from an artist I can’t wait to hear more of.  He is a great blend of singer and songwriter.  I haven’t had many discs capture me lyrically the way this one does. The lyrics were certainly not an afterthought on these tunes.  Here is a part of one of the many standouts on the disc, Cleveland:

“I met a little white man, he said he played guitar.  His wife’s in jail and that broke my heart. (the stories you hear when you’d rather be left alone)                     Roller coastin’s what I do for fun, I buy two seats but only use one. The other I keep safe for my old girl, she gets out by Labour Day” …

The discs runs the gamut from soft acoustic to rollicking electric; he even adds several old fashioned electric instrumental fade out endings for the guitar hero in us.  Other standouts include the opener, Long Haul Driver and The Day Rick Danko Died.  Luke wrote all the tunes except one and produced the disc.  His band, The White Falcon, consists of  Rich Levesque on bass and Melissa McClelland on guitar/vocals. My biggest complaint about the disc is the liner notes.  They are written in about a size 2 font, and since I sold my electron microscope at my last garage sale, I couldn’t read them. I’d highly recommend picking up both discs however, just order some reading glasses as well!