I don’t really know all too much about Chad Elliott’s musical work and don’t own his latest album Redemption Man which this track is taken from (yet), but I do know that he’s also a very talented visual artist. Judging from this splendid, relaxed and downright lovely song it’s hight time I rectify that (I will soon). The fact that it also features background vocals by Pieta Brown, who I also admire greatly, as you can tell from checking out this post or this one and was produced by Mr. Bo Ramsey, further add to the appeal this song holds for me.
In March 2013 I finally, and belatedly, discovered the music of Greg Brown and through his albums, also that of Bo Ramsey, his long-term musical partner, and not only in my opinion I guess, guitar genius. How fond I have grown of either artist should come as now surprise if you have browsed through this blog before. I posted raving reviews of Greg Brown’s album If I Had Knownand Bo Ramsey’s very fine album Fragile and have been listening to both artists a hell of a lot of time last spring and summer (and still do, actually). When planning last year’s trip through the Midwest which lead me, only partly coincidentally, through Iowa, I was looking to find out if Greg Brown was playing any shows in the 2 weeks I was there – without too much hope that would actually be the case. So I guess you can imagine that I was more then overjoyed to discover that both were playing a show in the central Iowa town of Ames which I could easily fit into my schedule. After spending about 10 exciting and interesting days on the road travelling through Nebraska and Iowa their show on the 27th of September was ideally timed towards the end of my trip so the timing was right too.
Unfortunately I neglected to take notes about the songs they played but it was, naturally, an excellent show. I was especially surprised and delighted about Bo Ramsey’s brief 7 or so song set in the beginning. He sounded quite different compared with his album Fragile, which was the only album of his I currently know (a fact I plan on rectifying soon). He sounded very energetic, slightly rough, with songs, as far as I could follow the lyrics, mainly about travelling on dirt roads, trains and other similarly rustic subject matter, which was of course much to my liking.
Their set together was also splendid, but as I wrote above I can’t really remember exactly which songs they played. As Greg Brown has released about 25 studio albums throughout his career, they have obviously got a wide variety of brilliant songs to choose from. Unfortunately I wasn’t really able to take good quality photos as the show was packed and I was a bit locked in the middle of the audience, so the photos on here are rather poor, sorry about that. But just being there was a dream come true and most probably a chance to catch them playing a show together I won’t have again, so I am absolutely happy with how things went.
Pretty much the only song I do remember hearing is Here In The Going Going Gone. As I didn’t possess The Poet Game at the time, it was brand new to my ears. It immediately became one of my favorite Greg Brown songs, in my opinion it’s one of his finest compositions, both musically, but especially lyrically. It was also immediately stuck in my head, so back in my hotel I tried to find a video of it on YouTube, I didn’t find one of his versions but I found this absolute gem of a cover version. I must have watched the video about 10 times that night (and many more since). The guys playing this seem to be only gigging in the Seattle area and I could find very little information about their work, and, sadly, no recording. I was a little bit sceptical about the singer’s voice at first, but have become quite fond of it in the meantime. And that violin is just wonderful. A cover version doing a great song more than justice.
Further to my post from earlier this week here’s another splendid track by Joshua James. I can’t really decide which version I do like better, the full-band one or the acoustic version, which one do you prefer? As for the ‘videos’, I love the photo of a train on the prairie (acoustic version), naturally (make sure you turn on the full-screen view to get the best possible experience out of that photo).
While doing research for my previous post, a review of Bright Eyes’ 2007 album Cassadaga (see here) I found out about Coyote Song. It’s a statement of support and part of Sound Strike, an artist cooperative taking a stand against Arizona Law SB1070, to learn more about it check: https://www.facebook.com/thesoundstrike/info
This is an excellent piece of work – acute in context, both beautifully and hauntingly executed, both with regards to the music and video treatment.
Leave the bright blue door on the whitewashed wall
Leave the death ledger under City hall
Leave the joyful air in that rubber ball today
Leave the lilac print on the linen sheet
Leave the bird you killed at your father’s feet
Leave the sideways rain in the crooked street remain
Leave the whimpering dog in its cold kennel
Leave the dead starlet on her pedestal
Leave the acid kids in their green fishbowls today
Leave the sad guitar in its hardshell case
Leave the worried look on your lover’s face
Let the orange embers in the fireplace remain
Everything it must belong somewhere
A train off in the distance, bicycle chained to the stairs
Everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that’s why I’m staying here …
I Must Belong Somewhere (excerpt)
The lines quoted above are just the most amazing of many exceptional lyrics to be found on Cassadaga and I can’t help being utterly captivated by them when listening to the song. I always knew that Conor Oberst was something special with regards to his lyrical abilities (I have been following his work for a long time – actually since their first EP Every Day And Every Night), but with many of the lyrics found on Cassadaga he more than proves what he is capable of. Actually, it was even evident on some of his early bedroom recordings, some of which date back to as early as 1995 when he was very young, and which were released later on CD and as part of a lavish 7-LP boxset spanning the years from 1997-2001 (which I am the proud owner of). But the lyrics quoted above really top everything he’s written before in my opinion. A simple but wise idea, poetically and beautifully expressed, with images I can picture only too well in my mind. The haiku style seasonal references, ‘Leave the autumn leaves in their swimming pool’, ‘Let the sideways rain in the crooked street remain’ work equally wonderful. The music to the song is a rolling, upbeat and uptempo country shuffle is excellent too, and the 6+ minutes length of the song further adds to the hypnotic quality of the song.
Cassadaga is a mighty fine album all round, with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 only slightly weaker songs (Lime Tree, Make A Plan To Love Me). There are many excellent tracks on there, in a wide variety of tempos, instrumentation and moods. A plethora of instruments is used on most tracks so it wouldn’t be wrong to call the album lavishly produced.
Much to my liking of course, the prevailing stylistic influences on Cassadega are Folk and Country (in comparison to Bright Eyes’ latest album The People’s Key which sounds distinctly more modern). On tracks such as Make A Plan To Love Me, Cleanse Song and No One Would Riot For Less there are also chamber music and Neo-Classical influences to be heard. That said, it’s only natural that the songs displaying those Country-Rock sounds most prominently, such as If the Brakeman Turns My Way, Four Winds, Classic Cars, Soul Singer In A Session Band, are among my favorite tracks on here.
I also have to quote some more of the amazing and profound lyrics from the album, this time from If The Brakeman Comes My Way. As I have said before, they are a huge part of what makes the album as outstandingly good as it is in my opinion.
‘When panic grips your body and your heart is a hummingbird Raven thoughts blacken your mind until you’re breathing in reverse
All your friends and sedatives mean well but make it worse Every reassurance just magnifies the doubt
Better find yourself a place to level out…’
and a bit later in the song
‘…first a mother bathes her child then the other way around The scales always find a way to level out…’
Musically, the track is gorgeous as well – like a couple of the songs on here not without leaning towards the bombastic side a little bit – that’s not normally a characteristic I would use to describe music I like all too often, but on here it’s fitting and not at all bad. Just the opposite, it works very very well in each of the songs fitting that description (Soul Singer In A Session Band, Classic Cars, No One Would Riot For Less).
Middleman is brilliant too, although there are many instruments featured too, in contrast to most other tracks on here, it sounds rather sparsely arranged with a light and airy sound. It also features one of the best uses of bongos I have ever heard, an instrument I normally hold little affection for. Cleanse Song is a rather the simple, but maybe exactly because of that, highly affecting and wonderful Folk and chamber-music influenced song getting its special appeal from a variety of woodwinds and a lap steel guitar used that make it sound utterly pretty – in a good way. Four Winds sounds breezy, easy going and is heavily dominated by violin and a mandolin – and the lyrics are among the most astounding on the album too. The somber, orchestral No One Would Riot For Less is amazing too, starting with only an acoustic guitar and vocals but later developing a steady build up of tension (and pure gorgeousness) which does find its release with a crescendo of strings, lovely female voices and a gorgeous pedal steel guitar, and an ending mirroring the start of the song most wonderfully.
Cassadaga is probably the highpoint of Conor Oberst’s and Bright Eyes’ career so far for me (and he’s only in his mid-30’s), but I will most probably regret that statement the next time I listen to the band’s 2000 album Fevers And Mirrors or I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning from 2005.
A new discovery through Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids (where he’s playing on the 16th of this month) for me, although he’s been around since 2007 and did release his most recent album back in 2012. Haven’t got that yet but I will be writing about it on here in the near future I guess. This track is splendid and lovely.
It’s been 20 years since Bloomed was originally released on German label Glitterhouse Records. It became, at least for me, an integral part of the Alternative Country music experience. 20 years later I still count it as one of the very best. On top of my head I can only count Uncle Tupelo’s March 16-20, 1992 as having a similar profound impact on my life as a music lover and being quite as excellent as well as related in sound, from that period.
Fast forward to March 2014 and the album is re-released on Buckner’s current label home Merge Records, bless them for it. Haven’t got that release (yet!), but I hope that some of you reading and not knowing what I am talking about, will possible be encouraged to check it out (it’s even released on vinyl, all you vinyl buffs out there).
Let me tell you, you are in for a hell of a treat. Some of the facts first. At the time living in San Francisco and playing in a band called The Doubters, Buckner recorded this album in Lubbock and Austin, TX with producer Llyoyd Maines and a bunch of artists that Maines recruited, Texas music legend Butch Hancock amongst them. To say these musicians and their contributions are merely the icing on the cake would be both wrong and right. Right, because, as the 5 bonus tracks (also included on the Merge re-release) on the 1999 Rykodisc/Slow River re-release I am writing about here, attest to, show, that none of the 12 tracks on the original album would be something short of brilliant without them. Wrong because they are absolutely stunning and outstanding. (Almost) exclusively acoustic instruments, no drums (just a tiny bit of percussion) add to the airy, open and crystal clear sound, with Buckner’s striking (once heard, never forgotten) Californian drawl that is very well suited to the music found on here.
To call it Alternative Country is maybe a little bit misleading but it’s certainly not straight, old-fashioned Country either. It’s very hard to name personal faves on here – I love all of the 17 songs on here, really. The range of different moods encountered on Bloomed range from the dark, brooding and slow (22, Mud, This Is Where), to the lively, uptempo songs, such as Daisychain and Rainsquall and everything in between. Buckner’s excellent acoustic guitar work is always featured prominent in the mix, but as I said before, the cast of aces accompanying him add a whole lot to making the album as great as it is too. Take Surprise, AZ, featuring some exquisite harmonica by Butch Hancock and a Dobro by Lloyd Maines alongside Buckner’s acoustic guitar and what you get is one of the best and loveliest songs I have ever heard. Album opener Blue And Wonder is augmented to fine effect by Joe Carr’s mandolin, Rainsquall features a what I suppose to be slightly distorted and quite loud pedal steel guitar to rather dramatic, but well suited to the lyrics of the song, effect.
To mention all of the great contributions Lloyd Maines adds to Bloomed would be very cumbersome indeed, but as he is well-known musician I hope some of you know what he is capable of – being not intimately acquainted with his work I would say he outclassed himself on here (feel free to correct me).
Also adding to considerably to Bloomed’s quality are Buckner’s lyrics. Although they are mainly about personal matters and relationships, both imagined and experienced, but when listening to the album I have to say I’m taking a long road trip in my mind. Imagining it starting in California and ending in Texas you probably get the right idea of what I’m talking about.
Sights and people encountered in small, modest towns on a long drive (The Last Ride) and during a rainstorm on the highway (Rainsquall) while thinking about a woman in a ‘Gauzy Dress In The Sun’. Perhaps it’s indicative of the American psyche of having time to think about you, your own little world and the people inhabiting it while being on the road is what the album’s lyrics are all about. They contribute a whole lot to Bloomed’s appeal for me.
It’s a real shame that Richard Buckner’s career has been so fragmented and never lived up to the things promised on this album – I pretty much lost track of his work after 1998’s Since. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s supposedly not being very easy to work with preventing him having a stable working relationship with some people, musicians and label-wise, that would be befitting for his music and career. But that’s pure speculation on my part and he’s worked with Merge Records for the last 10 years so I may be wrong.
In any case, Bloomed is an utterly fabulous album, and my words cannot begin to adequately describe its class and certainly not how much I adore it.
The Pines are the next in a line of great artists out of the Midwest scene that brought us Greg Brown, Dave Moore and Bo Ramsey, all artists I hold in very high regard indeed, as you will undoubtedly have noticed if you visited my blog before (see here, here or here or have a look at my tag cloud). Not only share two members of the Pines the surname with Bo Ramsey, they are indeed his sons Benson and Alex. Benson is one of two principal songwriters alongside David Huckfelt, his brother Alex can be heard on keyboards and piano. They are based in Minneapolis, also home to their label Red House Records. I have to applaud The Pines for chosing Red House as their label home anyway, as it is perhaps not one of the hippest labels to be on if you are young musicians (which they are). Which of course isn’t to say Red House isn’t a good label as far as I’m concerned, just the opposite as I have come to have a tremendous love for a lot of their artists (and I am by far not finished exploring their roster in more detail).
The fact that the Ramsey brothers and Huckfelt hail from Iowa is very much in evidence in their music and extends to the cover design of both records that feature barns, scarecrows, fields and woods. Given their ages, naturally their sound is a tad more modern than that of the artists mentioned above, although it has to be said, rather marginally so.
Having found out about the Ramsey brothers involvement in The Pines somewhere I wasted no time to do a bit of research and luckily found the live in studio recording of one of Dark So Gold’s best tracks All The While (see my post from a few weeks ago) and I have to say that the live version is actually even a bit better than the one on the album, as it is a perfect rendition with a superb arrangement (see the outstanding and understated percussion work of drummer J.T. Bates for example).
Dark So Gold (2012)
Their style can be described as Gothic Americana Folk, with some moderate blues leanings, and it’s fitting then that I hear traces of Sixteen Horsepower in a number of songs, most notably Be There In Bells, which is one of the few tracks on either album which could almost be described as a rock song – thankfully, and surprisingly given their young age, in my opinion is the fact that they totally avoid the temptation to ‘rock out’ and make do without the usual distorted guitars that more often than not go with bands their age – I for one am very happy about that.
Others hear traces of Ryan Adams in Benson Ramsey’s vocal delivery (Rob at 45spins), a comparison they can probably live with well too, I should imagine.
As mentioned above, instead of turning up their amps, they fortunately prefer to imbue their music with melancholy and a rather peaceful (if sometimes a tad moody), dreamy atmosphere and introspective and rather soft arrangements that don’t sound one bit lifeless or dull. Things are helped further by the skilful acoustic-electric guitar interplay and Alex Ramsey’s keyboard/piano sounds. In contrast to the predecessor Tremolo the band also took on a more hands-on role with producing the album that shows how much they have grown together as a band. Three tracks, Moonrise, IA , Grace Hill and album closer Losing the Stars are rather short instrumental tracks, short in length maybe but high on ambience. Other highlights for me on Dark So Gold are the dark opener Cry Cry Crow, the lovely and slightly uptempo If By Morning and the rather optimistic and catchy and folky Chimes.
Tremolo, the 2009 predecessor to Dark So Gold doesn’t sound much different compared to their latest release. The main difference being the fact that at this stage The Pines were actually a duo comprised of Benson Ramsey and David Huckfelt also most of the other musicians that can be heard on Dark So Gold are on here as well. Also noteworthy and clearly audible is the bigger role Bo Ramsey does play on here. This can most outstandingly heard on Behind The Time which features one of his trademark sparse, understated and soulful electric guitar solos that literally make the hairs on my arms stand up almost every time I listen to the song – nobody I can think of on top of my head can do that sort of thing better than him. He also does provide the beautiful Weissenborn that can be heard on Lonesome Tremolo Blues.Alex Ramsey’s keyboards are given slightly more space to shape a couple of songs, namely a contemporary update of Mississippi John Hurt’s Spike Driver Blues and album closer Shiny Shoes. The album is chock-full of excellent songs, I especially love the exceedingly tuneful (and fittingly accompanied by brushed drums and/or percussion) songs such as Heart & Bones, Meadows of Dawn and Skipper And His Wife – the latter being written by Spider John Koerner, apparently a semi-legendary Folk artist I wasn’t familiar with at all until recently, but one I will most definitely be investigating in more detail in the near future – Skipper And His Wife being an absolutely wonderful song, although the arrangement on here I suppose is quite different from his.
The Pines offer a very welcome alternative to the myriad Alternative bands around – theirs is not the sound of an urban generation but decidedly just the opposite. Their voice is one infused with true values and a rural background which is pervading pretty much every inch of their sound and making them something rather special and absolutely cherishable in today’s music scene.
This post isn’t meant to be an academic study of the American Bison or anything in that area, I am posting this purely because seeing them has been such an impressive experience for me. Having read about them and the sad story of their near-demise in the 19th Century quite a bit recently I have become increasingly fascinated by them and when the time came to plan my recent holiday in the Canadian province of Alberta I was more than delighted to learn that they can be found in a couple of places throughout the province. First and one of the best addresses (as far as I am aware) being Elk Island National Park, located less than an hour east of the provincial capital of Edmonton (which was my first stop). So I didn’t hesitate (I even joked with my friends that I wouldn’t return from my trip before I managed to have seen at least one), to drive over to this delightful, 184 km² big National Park with its captivating mix of aspen parkland and boreal forests after my arrival. Fortunately I didn’t have to search too long to spot some, although I didn’t encounter large herds of them (apparently there are over 300 living in Elk Island National Park) so here are some photos I took, being thoroughly impressed, as well as a bit intimidated by their size and statue, although they apparently are rather peaceful fellows from all I heard. Wandering around one of the park’s biggest lakes, Astotin Lake, I felt a bit uncomfortable to be honest, as there was faeces lying around in a number of places, which given its size could only have come from them and I didn’t exactly know what other types of wildlife are living in the park (I am a bit of a coward) It being March, I had the park pretty much to myself and it was snow-covered and the lake iced-over – which apart from me being a bit worried, was a wonderful experience and probably my closest encounter was wilderness so far (and I love snow).
So here are a few photos from the bison I saw at Elk Island National Park
Another encounter with them took place at Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site where they were fenced in somewhat but that site otherwise being equally fascinating and rather eerily quiet and forlorn at this time of year. I imagine there are a lot more people there in summer, but there were none apart from myself on my visit.
To celebrate my first ever trip to Canada starting tomorrow here’s one of my all-time favorite tracks, taken from Blue Rodeo’s 1991 album Casino. It still sounds perfect to me, one of the best songs ever when it comes to 1980’s/early ’90’s Power/Guitar-Pop in my opinion. I really should do a mix with my favorite tracks from that period and style, come to think of it (remember REM being great?).
Ever since I first got that album over 20 years ago, I decided to go to Canada one day. It took me all that time to make it happen, but now the time has finally come and I’m feeling very excited.
Back Road Bound 