Jon Brooks is a Canadian Singer/Songwriter who I have only recently discovered. Still have to get one of his records, his latest album The Smiling And Beautiful Countryside was released in late 2014, so I’m probably gonna go for that. This song, Mercy is taken from his 2011 album Delicate Cages, is a splendid, quiet acoustic song with intelligent lyrics – so it’s right up my street.
To wrap up the year 2014 I made a mix with some of my most-loved songs released this year.
Follow the link below to hear them on Mixcloud
https://www.mixcloud.com/ThatContainerGuy/back-road-bounds-favorite-songs-of-2014/
The Tracklist:
Willie Dunn : I Pity The Country (from Native North America Vol. 1)
Sun Kil Moon : Jim Wise (from Benji)
Conor Oberst : Night At Lake Unknown (from Upside Down Mountain)
Willy Mitchell : Call Of The Moose (from Native North America Vol. 1)
Luther Dickinson : Bar Band (from Rock’n’Roll Blues)
Hard Working Americans : Straight To Hell (from Hard Working Americans)
Wes Tirey : Come Home (The End Is Near Blues) (from O, Annihilator)
John Angaiak : Hey, Hey, Hey, Brother (from Native North America Vol. 1)
Lucinda Williams : Burning Bridges (from Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone)
Joe Henry : Grave Angels (from Invisible Hour)
Carrie Elkin & Danny Schmidt : Sky Picked Blue (from For Keeps)
Groupe Folklorique Montagnais : Tshekuan Mak Tshetutamak (from Native North America Vol. 1)
It’s been a long while since I posted something, but this blog is still alive. Haven’t had the time to write a review, so it’s just another video.
Wussy are the successor-band of The Ass Pony’s Chuck Cleaver: I admired that band, or actually still do, for their exceedingly fine albums Grim, Some Stupid With A Flare Gun, Lohio and Electric Rock Music from waaaay back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. I can hardly believe it’s been that long, I recently listened to Grim and was still blown away by the sheer class of it. Now that’s an idea for a review.
Anyway, this is a video I found on YouTube and it’s very fine too.
I very much like this song, especially for the spoken intro. But the rest is smashing too.
Another magnificent track by Joshua James, this time, and very welcome to me, keeping it on the quiet side. It also comes with a rather nice Folky 60’s vibe and reminds me a bit of the Shins’ best track New Slang (one of my all-time fave songs).
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).
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.
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.
A brand new discovery for me (they have been around for a few years though), The Pines totally enchanted me with this utterly fabulous and gorgeous version of their song All The While from their 2012 album Dark So Gold, which I don’t know yet, as I have only just ordered it. But if it’s only half as good as this track hints at, you probably will be reading about it on here soon. One of them is also the son of Bo Ramsey whom you can see talked/written about here before. Or here. And a few times more. If you also take into account that they are on Red House Records it’s perhaps no wonder they are this good. Anyway, here it is:
Back Road Bound 