2006 Top Ten - Features

01.25.2007 -- Feature by: Gregg Geil

10. White Ghost Shivers � Everyone�s Got �Em

This mix of string band and hot jazz instrumentation leads to a compelling m�lange of styles: �hot jazz, hokum, blues, and hillbilly music,� I think their show poster reads. Quite campy, I know, and by no means claiming any sort of �authenticity,� this CD shows how fun it can be to play and listen to roots music. Favorite song: �Little Kisses.�

9. Gary Bennett � Human Condition

This may be the most honest and heart-felt CD of the year. Gary breaks with the retro vibe that sometimes seemed to overshadow him in his former band BR5-49 and focuses here on his songwriting. Not to say that this is a singer/songwriter album�it�s not�Gary plays finger-style guitar on one track, but largely leaves the instruments to a good cast of supporting players, including notables such as Marty Stuart, Kenny Vaughan, and Lloyd Green. The result is a musical background that is both compelling and focused on the songwriting. Favorite song: �Headin� Home.�

8. Grayson Capps � Wail and Ride

This New Orleans-based singer/songwriter�s second solo release is dedicated to the recovery of his city. Primarily a heavy blues-based sound, he also incorporates aspects of New Orleans R&B, particularly on a few tracks featuring piano reminiscent of Professor Longhair or Allen Toussaint. Similar to Gary Bennett, Grayson features interesting instrumentation, helping this album transcend the singer/songwriter label, but the backing music is always at the service of the songwriting, which shines through. Favorite song: �Give It To Me.�

7. Old Crow Medicine Show � Big Iron World

Old Crow largely stick to their formula on this album, but there�s nothing wrong with more of the same, when you�re the premiere old time string band in the country. They do stretch themselves a bit, covering both Lieber/Butler and Woody Guthrie. They also give a much more prominent position to the harmonica. But their amazing three part harmony remains central to this album. Favorite song: �I Hear Them All.�

6. Solomon Burke � Nashville

Solomon Burke has been toying around at the edge of country music for almost fifty years; on this album he finally crosses over incontrovertibly and doesn�t disappoint. Producer Buddy Miller lets Burke�s powerful voice take center stage on this record, cushioning it in instrumentals undeniably country yet perfect for Burke�s soulful singing. Favorite song: �Valley of Tears.�

5. Johnny Cash � A Hundred Highways

Although not the best of the American Recordings, this is a powerful album�Johnny truly seems to be speaking from the grave. Death pervades this album in a way that cannot be found in the work of younger people who feel prematurely near death. Johnny�s slow, deliberative delivery in his already-rough voice further exhausted by age leaves a subtext of death in all of these songs. Or maybe it�s just the knowledge that he died shortly after recording these that makes death so apparent. Whatever the reason, this is a haunting album. Favorite song: �God�s Gonna Cut You Down.�

4. Hank Williams III � Straight to Hell

Two or three years in the making, this album doesn�t disappoint. This album relies heavily on old-time instrumentation, going without drums for half of the tracks, often preferring Dobro to the more countrypolitan steel, and featuring some amazing claw-hammer banjo by BR549’s Donnie Herron, giving us a thoroughly Appalachian sound, although updated to include more than a nod at Hank’s parallel interest in metal. While III�s rhetoric of mayhem may lead to fatigue, well, so what, you can sleep when you�re dead, right? Favorite song: �D. Ray White.�

3. Kris Kristofferson � This Old Road

This album is very sparse and atmospheric, yet not vapid as Kristofferson’s lyrics come to the front. I could see comparisons to Cash’s American Recordings, especially the character of the old voice. The production here, by Don Was, is much less obvious than Rick Rubin’s on the American series, though. The songs are mostly rather sparse, with Kristofferson on guitar and harmonica with mandolin, drums, bass, and piano also appearing. The lyrical content of this album is what you might expect of a lefty during a conservative political swing, but Kristofferson’s writing skills haven’t lessened over the years and he once again proves his place as one of the great songwriters. He deals subtly with topics that might be approached more clumsily by lesser writers. Favorite song: �Pilgrim�s Progress.�

2. Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies � Blood to Dust

I wasn’t expecting much from a CD that wasn’t even formally pressed, just burned off a computer and hand labeled with a Sharpie, but this album blew me away. Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies, when I saw them, were a Bob Wayne (who I’ve found out is Hank III’s guitar tech) on acoustic guitar, Joe Buck on bass, and a really good banjo and telecaster player who’s name I don’t know. The CD includes drums and some other instruments.

Bob Wayne (I assume) writes really pensive and spiritual songs. I could easily see these same songs becoming maudlin in the hands of an unskilled singer/songwriter, but Bob Wayne doesn’t fall for undue dramatics. This album is also the most honestly spiritual set of songs outside of true gospel, referencing God and the devil on almost every track. But, unlike some �alt-country� indie rockers, he’s not being ironic or dismissive. In fact, his subtle understanding of the sin/salvation contrast of gospel and the blues might give discomfort to some hipsters who are only familiar with ironic spirituality or cherry-picked, tourist versions of Buddhism or Kabbala. Favorite song: �27 Years.�

1. Scott Biram � Graveyard Shift

I left this CD in my car stereo for five weeks, playing over and over uninterrupted. This is the second Bloodshot album by Austin-based �dirty old one man band� Scott H. Biram and his fifth album overall. Unlike his previous record, this record really is just him, singing lead and harmony vocals and playing all the instruments: guitars, harmonica, Hammond B3 organ, and a plethora of percussion and �random noise.�

This record is rather morose, as is indicated by the title and the album art. Scott continues to work through his near-death experience in a head on collision with a semi. His deep ambivalence to death and spirituality is puzzling as it makes him hard to categorize. His frequent use of the gospel call and response form as well as calling out to Jesus both come off as neither sincere nor insincere. His use of religious musical forms certainly cannot be grouped with the so-called irony of current indie rock, but it also doesn’t have a place within gospel.

While this album doesn’t quite teeter precariously between Saturday night and Sunday morning (it’s more Saturday night) the way Bob Wayne’s Blood to Dust does, I feel that it further represents a revival of the ambivalent relationship between gospel and the blues that was so important in the formative years of what we have come to call country music and which has been somewhat lacking recently. Favorite song: �Been Down Too Long.�

Joel Luber is a student in the masters program in American Studies at the University of Kansas. He studies popular music in American culture, focusing on country and �roots� music. When he�s not engrossed in esoteric critical theory, he keeps a vaguely alt-country-oriented audioblog Postmodern Sounds in Country and Western Music.