Tag Archives: Roots music

Richard Inman – Heartbroken Troubadour Of The Prairie Provinces

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Richard Inman certainly does keep a low profile on Social Media (good for him) so I cannot go too much into the specifics of his background. I assume he’s First Nation, and, according to his only (as far as I’m aware) online presence on Bandcamp currently living in the small Alberta, Canada town of Pincher Creek.

Of course most of his songs can be found on YouTube, but fortunately there are also quite a few of his live performances to be found which are mainly acoustic solo performances which is fine by me, as that how I like his music best anyway. Just him, a guitar, and his more often than not excellent songs.

His first EP and LP are from 2015 and he’s also released another LP in 2016, but 2019’s Hasta La Vista is the earliest of his records I know (so far) and probably my favourite as it’s the most stripped-down and acoustic album. It does feature a whole load of outstanding and lovely songs. First track Thanksgiving Day is the first of his songs I got to know and loved it right away. It’s setting the scene for where he is coming from and what he’s writing about perfectly. As the name implies it’s about the yearly get together of a family, with reverence for the protagonists’s grandmother and a little mischief all rolled into one sentence ‘leave the beer outside behind the cars, grandma don’t like liquor bless her heart’ with a sparse backing of acoustic guitar, banjo and accordion. What I Did Wrong leads onto a well-travelled path throughout many of his songs, of lost love and regret, surely not new ground covered with that, but it’s done very well indeed and spiced up with the minutiae of small-town life in Western Canada’s prairie provinces. In which lies perhaps strong part of appeal in his music for me personally. I am not from that part of the world myself, but have travelled it a few times and what I observed on these occasions and the things Inman is writing about does encapsulate my perception of living there vividly. Sunday Morning, Pt. 2 is very much in the same vein, both musically and lyrically, but as can be said about pretty much all of the songs on the album, all the better for it. Corinna’s On Main Street in contrast is a bit more cheerful in a bluesyCountry kind of way and is dealing with his life on the road as a musician (with Corinna, I assume, being the small town prostitute) encountered in one town. No Rules is a brief taped answer phone machine/mailbox message with the opening chords of next rack Lilac played around them. Lilac itself is gorgeous. Brief, ruminative and simply accompanied (acoustic guitar and banjo) – a lovely song. Perhaps THE highlight however for me on the album is Joplin Blues (For Aaron R Schorzman) but don’t take my word for it, listen for yourself here.

Brilliant, right?

Album closer and title track Hasta La Vista is done again in a different and more band oriented arrangement on 2020’s Faded Love Better Days, as are Thanksgiving Day and Red River Racer. Especially the latter works brilliantly in this faster version (although I do love the more acoustic version on Hasta La Vista a whole lot too – it’s just a fab song). And it probably is the only song around written about a female stock car driver. Raining In December sounds perhaps a bit unusual compared with the other tracks on the album, sure it’s melancholic as hell, but the prominent lap/pedal steel guitar throughout the song does lend the lilting atmosphere an almost Psych-Pop-like touch, which is usually not heard in his music, but works very well indeed.

New Years Blues is an upbeat Country-Rock track (done even better imo in this acoustic version on YouTube ). The jaunty Truest Form Of Love somehow does remind me of John Print, especially lyrically. Like Prine, Inman has a knack for writing highly affective and accessible, musically rather simply built catchy songs. Although many of his best songs (especially the more folky ones). however, do remind me of Townes Van Zandt, but I guess he’s heard that before more than once. On this album it’s most obvious on the album closer Holding You Was Worth More, a sad melancholic Folk (although Inman apparently doesn’t consider his music Folk at all, but I guess that’s a matter of definition) song only accompanied by a fingerpicked acoustic and a beautiful Dobro as lead guitar – gorgeous.

His most recent album Come Back Through (2022) does flesh out the sound of the previous record further into classic Country and Roots Rock territory with galloping drums and a lot of steel guitar work, Loving’ Rose being the most pronounced example of the first with a guitar intro and solo straight out of Bakersfield ca. 1965. My favorite song on here for me is the sad 100000 Tears which once more deals with lost love, like many of his songs, but is appropriately arranged with only a fingerpicked guitar and harmonica – the classic folky way, once again reminiscent of T. Van Zandt, ending with the touching chorus ‘… so I sat down in the kitchen, I couldn’t bring myself to cry, you can only spend so many tears, asking yourself why’. Waiting On The River is a lovely mid-tempo song with a prominent fiddle, while Cut Fence (Let God Sort ’em Out) is about a forest fire threatening a man’s livestock, a song rooted firmly in the soil Inman is from. The Bottle Or The Truth is another standout track for me on the album with big chords strummed and a tempo that alternates between mid- and up-tempo in the verses and chorus respectively and an affecting melody, of which Richard Inman writes a great many. Listen here:

The last three songs on the album Come Back Through, Kings On The Corner and Pictures are all melancholic as fxxx with the first two sounding almost as good as Son Volt’s Tear Stained Eye and that is very high praise indeed coming from me. And Pictures is ending a very fine album on a more acoustic note (with a beautiful fiddle again).

Richard Inman certainly doesn’t break any new ground with his music compared with the few references I used above, but he does what he does damn well indeed, and for me is up with the best in the field between folky acoustic goodness and more downbeat Americana Roots Rock.

Greg Brown (& Bo Ramsey) Cold & Dark & Wet

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I only recently came upon this fine track ( don’t even know which album the original can be found on). Given that it’s indeed cold, dark and wet outside where I live, I thought it fitting to post this today.

Also, Bo Ramsey (as usual) kills it on lead guitar – no lead guitarist I know can say so much with so few notes. Outstanding.

As an additional plus, the video and audio quality in this video are excellent (there are more Greg Brown videos of this gig from the same user, do yourself a favour and check them out also if you like this).

Martin Simpson : Rooted

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IMG_6230

Not really having heard about Martin Simpson until his previous album Trails and Tribulations but falling in love with his music immediately after doing so, I didn’t waste time buying Rooted upon its release back in August. Since then there (nearly) hasn’t been a day in which I didn’t listen to at least part of Rooted. Like Trails and Tribulations it’s an album of rare and pure beauty.

As before, I greatly admire his unique and exceptional style of guitar playing. The varied guitar (and banjo) sounds are once again brought to light very well by producer Andy Bell, starting with the first song Trouble Brought Me Here and ending with the equally wonderful More Than Enough. The latter was written by Robb Johnson and is a fine pointer to Simpson’s left leaning political views (don’t know if he’d call himself a Socialist, but from all I know it’s fair to assume he might). The song’s lyrics (appropriately reflected in the music) are both sad and a hopeful (‘… there’s always the money for missiles and tanks, there’s always the money for generals and banks, there’s always the money for new ways to kill but a limited budget for you if you’re ill…’), but ending on a rather more hopeful note (‘… if we’d learn to want less and love more there’d be enough for the poor, cause there’s more than enough for us all’ – truer word was never spoken)

These also come to light in his singular reworking of the (not very well known, but still) classic Ragtime Millionaire, here called Neo (Neo-Liberal Billionaire), it doesn’t take a whole lot of fantasy to figure out the sort of people he is talking about there (‘… trickle down, that’s what I said, it’s just me pissing on your head…’). Great, upbeat song that too, with the brilliant Dom Flemons (Ex-Caroline Chocolate Drops) on bones and a (rather unusual in that context) clarinet giving it a suitable swinging old-timey  feeling. Probably the most lovely song on the album is his version of the traditional Child ballad Who’s Going To Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot, which Simpson first heard by Woody Guthrie, I don’t know that or any other versions, but his, mainly played on acoustic guitar accordion (or melodeon) and strings, is utterly gorgeous. I just love his way of playing those incredibly intricate acoustic guitar melodies, accompanying and mirroring the tunes of the songs, very few guitar players I know of can do that similarly well, maybe Richard Thompson and Bruce Cockburn are in the same league.

A large appeal for me is the fact that his music is deeply rooted in both British and American traditions. A fine example of this is his version of the traditional Joe Bowers on which he’s (if I’m not mistaken) playing a Weissenborn (style) slide guitar, and of course that does sound wonderful (love those guitars myself). The whole album is an absolute feast for (acoustic) guitar aficionados, all of the guitar parts are recorded crystal clear (the sound overall is excellent too).

Another thing I love about his music is the creative way they deal with his apparent love of nature (on Trails and Tribulations it was the amazing Ridgeway) and on here it’s Born Human (excellent song that but not written by him) and his own composition Kingfisher – the latter about a walk (?) on a cold and clear winter morning, and it’s easy to visualise that morning listening to the song. That aspect (‘… tells me how alive and lucky I am…’) is also present in the album title and artwork with the front cover finding him nestled among the roots and branches of a large tree.

Perhaps most affecting in a quite understated way of all songs on here is the (true) story of Ken Small, who in 1984 (after a 10 year struggle) succeeded in having a Sherman tank from the 2nd World War pulled out of the ocean and placed in the Southwestern English village of Torcross (where it still stands today) as a monument to the about 1000 soldiers that were killed thereabouts during an military operation in 1944. Ken Small, after a nervous breakdown, spent a large amount of his time at the shore where he found ‘… truth and healing…’  and the song sounds suitably melancholic. That’s another of Simpson’s strength – in contrast to a lot of excellent finger style guitarist out there he’s not merely an outstanding guitarist, while he undoubtedly is that, he’s also a great storyteller in his own compositions, as well as being equally adept at choosing very fine  material for his singular and accomplished interpretations.

The rest of the songs I haven’t mentioned so far are by no means any less good (the catchy and upbeat Henry Gray and Fool Me Once are all brilliant as well) – I for one could (and indeed have) listen to them over and over again.

I was fortunate enough to get the bonus disc version, the second CD called Seeded featuring 7 instrumentals including two bluesy ones A Blues and Blind Willie McTell’s Mama It Ain’t Long (Blind Willie McTell), and acoustic solo versions of Queen Jane and Who’s Gonna… from Rooted and the wonderful Waenglapiau.

I almost forgot to mention the fine contributions of the other guests on the album, apart from the lovely strings on a number of songs, especially Andy Cutting on Melodeon and Accordion does deserve a mention here, as one Trails And Tribulations before, his contributions to Rooted play a big role in shaping the sound and making various of these songs as lovely as they are, like Simpson he’s a true master of his instrument.

As stated before I am not really familiar with his earlier work apart from Rooted‘s predecessor, but it’s safe to say that Martin Simpson clearly is on something of a roll right now, which I find all the more remarkable as he’s now at an age in which most other musicians have long surpassed their best work.

Just listen to that amazing guitar playing on Trouble Brought Me Here…

 

 

 

The Pines : Where Something Wild Still Grows

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This is an unofficial video I found on YouTube to celebrate the arrival of my copy of The Pines’ latest, splendid album Above The Prairie (released early February 2016). More info and my review of the album to follow in the next few weeks. In the meantime, all that’s left for me to say is: Enjoy.

Michelle Shocked : Arkansas Traveler

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Michelle Shocked Arkansas Traveler album cover

(1992 Polygram Records)

 

Arkansas Traveler, the third and last album Michelle Shocked released for Mercury/Polygram records ‘received little commercial notice’ according to Shocked’s Wikipedia entry. Which shows you exactly how underrated this album is. Not only to ‘the public’ (which proves once again how poor taste it has, generally speaking), but also in the music critics and opinions – at leat that is the impression you get looking for information about the album in places such as her own website, not to mention other places you would expect to find one of the classic and most amazing Roots music records ever. It’s not really mentioned all too often and when it is it’s mostly the album that didn’t do well – a greatly undeserved accolade.

It was, fortunately, however re-released together with her other early work on her own Mighty Sound label, made possible thanks to the fact that she retained the rights to her work when she signed to Mercury (wise move, that). Which means that if you don’t know the album you should still be able to get it should my review entice you to do that. The album I am writing about here however is the original 1992 version.

She is undoubtedly best known and most revered for her 1988 album Shot Sharped Shocked with its iconic cover image – and the standout track Anchorage, her ‘greatest’ (and pretty much only) chart hit. However good that album is (haven’t heard that in ages I have to confess, as I don’t currently own a copy – it’s been on my to-buy list for a very long time). Of course I love Anchorage a lot too (how can you not?), but Arkansas Traveler is most definitely my favorite album of hers by a long shot.

Even just reading a list of the artists involved on here is jaw-dropping, really. And that’s a long list indeed, but I just have to give you that here,although I am not too keen on name-dropping generally: The Band. Don Was/Mitchell Froom/Jerry Scheff/Kenny Aronoff. The Red Clay Ramblers (w/Bernie Leadon). The Hothouse Flowers (Anybody rembering them?). Uncle Tupelo. Taj Mahal. Doc Watson (R.I.P) & Jerry Douglas. Alison Krauss & Union Station.Rising Fawn String Ensemble (feat. Norman and Nancy Blake). (Paul Kelly) & The Messengers. Jimmy Driftwood (R.I.P.) Her father ‘Dollar Bill’ and brother Max Johnston (later of Uncle Tupelo, Wilco and The Gourds).

So far, so good. Just names. But what this list doesn’t tell you is what each and every single artist mentioned here (and the ones not mentioned by name in their respective bands) contributes to making this album, well, one of the best albums of all-time, especially as far as Roots music is concerned. I kid you not. Of course this is an entirely personal and subjective matter. But the sheer quality you get on each track is utterly amazing. I would assume she had the time of her life recording this album – although getting all the artists together must have been a hell of a lot of work. Pleasant in nature of course, but doubtless there must have been a lot of hurdles to get them all to commit to this project. But given they must have all been artists for which the joy of playing comes first it most probably didn’t take them too much convincing to join the fun.  In any case all of the tracks on the album are brimful with energy, enthusiasm and the fun I assume was had by all is palpable anywhere, but especially in her vocals.

Irish band The Hothouse Flowers for example. Not the first band you would expect to creep up on here, but they were huge in the late 1980’s, if only for a short time (if I remember correctly). I have got no idea what became of them, but their track on here is brilliant. It’s pretty much a classical upbeat Irish Folk tune, with Tin Whistle, Bodhran and Bouzouki and it sounds exactly as you would expect it to, best part is the high-speed part towards the end – full of joy and as entertaining as the best songs that fall into that category ever sounded.

Album opener 33RPM Soul and Hold Me Back (Frankie And Johnny) are both Soul and Rhythm&Blues influenced guitar pop songs – both influences not among my favorite musical styles, but nevertheless I very much like and enjoy them both considerably. Especially Frankie And Johnny (which pretty much everybody knows in one version or the other) is a lot of fun, being recorded in Memphis’ Sun Studio and with Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown on viola and a couple of brass instruments courtesy of Brown’s band Gate’s Express it’s a classic example of that city’s musical sound. Come A Long Way sounds a bit like Anchorage but to describe it simply as a successor to that song merely written to have a follow-up hit, which sounds quite shady, would be very wrong. It’s great and a lovely, airy semi-acoustic song – it has been always somewhere in my head for the past 22 years, full of ringing acoustic guitars, harmonica and mandolins and a nice, imaginative story about Los Angeles, the city Shocked now calls her home.

Secret To A Long Life has written The Band (although I have to confess to a rather sketchy familiarity of their work) all over it, with Garth Hudson’s unmistakable Accordion the most prominent instrument. Contest Coming, recorded with the until then unbeknownst to me, Red Clay Ramblers (excellent name that btw), is the first track on here steeped ankle-(actually rather knee)-deep in traditional music with entirely acoustic instruments such as Banjo, Accordion, Fiddle and the like – the result ia a good-natured romp through Bluegrass and Hillbilly with a short vocal and a longer up-speed and instrumental Jam-band part.

Shaking Hands (Soldier’s Joy) is one of the tracks I most probably bought this album for, being recorded with what then (and still is nowadays) one of my favorite bands during the early 1990’s Uncle Tupelo. It’s also the only track on the album on which the vocals are mainly handled by somebody other than Michelle Shocked, in this case Uncle Tupelo’s Jay Farrar. If you have been following this blog since the beginning you will know how much I admire their work (and especially Farrar’s, although I have to admit I haven’t celebrated their class on here not nearly enough, but that is still to come). Anyway, Soldier’s Joy, the well-known fiddle tune with its roots in British Folk music is nowadays mainly known for its Civil War area meaning and features lyrics told by soldiers fighting on the Confederate side – absolutely fitting then that this track was chosen for them, hailing from Belleville, IL, just outside of Missouri. Musically it’s very much indicative of how they sounded in this time period, it could’ve been lifted straight from their 1993 album Anodyne. Apparently during the recording they got to know Shocked’s brother Max Johnston who would end up playing on that album as well as later in Wilco. It’s the most rocking track on the album with a driving beat and a field snare drum, although a mandolin provides the most prominent sound flourish for me.

Jump Jim Crow features only Michelle Shocked’s (or as she called herself throughout the album Arkansas Traveller’s) mandolin and voice and Taj Mahal’s guitar – his vocal contributions however are limited to growled/grunted ‘mmmh’s and ‘hhh’s. This sounds a tad stupid written here, but actually it sounds bloody amazing. The music is reduced, primeval acoustic Folk-Blues at its very best.

The following three tracks Strawberry Jam, Prodigal Daughter and Blackberry Blossom root the album even more in traditional Roots music – and up the ante even more in terms of pure loveliness. Shocked’s crystal-clear voice and Doc Watson/Jerry Douglas/Mark O’Connor’s outstanding work on guitar/Dobro and fiddle respectively work wonderfully on the relaxed Strawberry Jam. Prodigal Daughter with Alison Krauss & Union Station starts off utterly gorgeous too with both voices complementing each other very well in the first part of the song and Krauss’ fiddle hovering over the sound to very fine effect. That’s only the first 3 and a half minutes though, the other 3 minutes are given over to a breakneck-speed Bluegrass hoedown. Fantastic stuff.

Blackberry Blossom is probably the loveliest of them all. It features Norman and Nancy Blake doing what they do best, namely playing a flatpick guitar and cello (James Bryant’s fiddle work is not bad either). The result is a slightly melancholic and almost classical chamber music piece of work, with delicate and highly accomplished contributions by everybody involved.

Weaving Way with musical backing by Paul Kelly’s Messengers is a bit more conventional again, not very remarkable stylistically, but a fine guitar-centric Pop song nevertheless. Unfortunately Paul Kelly himself is not present on the finished track – he was another one of my favorite artists back then and in the late 1980’s and big in his native Australia, so I would have loved to hear his voice too.

The last two tracks on the album Arkansas Traveler and Woody Guthrie’s Woody’s Rag finish off the album in style, tucked at the end of the album they are both high points of it in my opinion. Both tracks are pretty much a family affair, with Shocked accompanied by her dad ‘Dollar’ Bill Johnston on Mandolin and her brother Max on guitar, with The Eagles’ Bernie Leadon (who also plays a rather large role throughout the album) the only non-family member (on both tracks he’s playing the Banjo). Arkansas Traveler is a largely instrumental track, only intermitted by a couple of short conversation pieces between an Arkansas farmer and a guy that’s lost and asking him for the way. They are very funny and original indeed: ‘hey farmer you been livin’ here all your life? Not yet.’ or ‘hey farmer, when you gonna fix that leakin’ roof? Aah, stranger, when it rains it’s too wet to fix it, and when it’s dry it’s as good as any man’s house’.

Woody’s Rag is rather short instrumental and sounds exactly as the title implies and is a great way to end this most amazing album indeed. As you will have noticed by now I absolutely adore it and I am slowly running out of superlatives to describe just how much I do.

Listening to the album of course it is not really a surprise that Mercury/Polygram probably didn’t handle that release very well and that for Shocked’s fans it was maybe a step too far into archaic Roots music territory. But I can’t help but wonder if that could be different nowadays as that kind of music is a bit more fashionable thanks to the popularity of films such as the Coen Brother’s O Brother Where Art Tho? and artists such as Old Crow Medicine Show and Gillian Welch (and Dave Rawlings).

However, as I said before, for me it’s one of the very best albums out there and never far from my stereo – although I did neglect it for a few years and probably did not listen to it as often as I should have back then (although I loved it from the beginning). But I was young and foolish then so it wasn’t ‘cool’ then (you know how it is, don’t you? ). Thanks God I’m a bit wiser now.

Sorry if that review turned out a bit long – I was just trying to give the album the justice it deserves, even though I know very few people will get to read it, on my little blog not many people know about.