Favourites 5 : Make It Through This World : Greg Trooper

I first heard about Greg Trooper in a 2001 article in the now defunct magazine : No Depression. It was a review of his excellent album Straight Down Rain.   His songs are all country tinged but certainly not pure country.  They have been covered by the likes of Steve Earle and Billy Bragg. I searched out in a small record shop in Pasadena on a business trip soon after as I had never seen any of his music in NZ.

Years later I was rifling though sale bins at JB Hifi in Melbourne (before they appeared in NZ) and found Make It Through This World for less than $10.  I did not hesitate in buying it after I saw on the back cover it was clearly written "Produced by Dan Penn"

The songwriting, arrangements and productions and singing are all sympathetic and in in a country-soul vein as you would expect with Dan at the controls. I really do not think there is a bad track on the album but highlights are the title track, Dream Away the Blues, I love it when She Lies, This I'd do and the great history ballad No Higher Ground.

I was particularly taken with No Higher Ground as at the time coincidentally I had just read Eric Larsen's book Isaac's Storm about the 1900 Galveston Hurricane which until Katrina had been the deadliest to hit the US.  A book I would happily recommend as well.

I have three or four other Trooper CDs but it is this one I keep going back to.

Recent Additions 12 : Drive By Truckers : English Oceans

The Drive By Truckers are certainly one of my favourite bands of the last ten or so years.  They have been going a lot longer that but I did not really become aware of them until I heard them name checked on a Slobberbone LP and I picked up a copy of their record Southern Rock Opera.  This record sees them back to the original core members of Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley after the slow departures of John Neff, Shonna Tucker and Jason Isbell.

I was fortunate to see them three times in a weekend at Byron Bay a few years ago. Once with Booker T and then two completely different sets the second complete with two women fighting rolling around in the mud in front of Jan.  Probably a typical DBT's show -  I have already rated their live DVD  in the blog as one of the best around.

Also very pleased that Sam's band has Where The Devil Don't Stay in their set list. Looking forward to seeing them playing it when they finally get a a gig going in Wellington.

One of the things you always get with a Drive by Truckers album is a complete package. Great Album covers (with artwork provided by Wes Freed) that have days of exploring, good liner notes usually by Patterson Hood, and of course good music with a mixture of solid musicianship, social commentary and country style story telling.  So it is with English Oceans.

It has been a few years since their last album Go Go Boots. Many people did not rate that as highly as earlier albums but I really enjoyed it.  I actually introduced a few friends to the band by recommending it and they consider it their best. It maybe a case that people will always enjoy them most with the album they hear first.

So now I have their new one which has been getting rave reviews. The band even got a write up in the NZ Listener (where their almost perfect Brighter Than Creation's Dark was dismissed with a two sentence review a few years back).

So it is on its second play through at the moment - and the first thing that is noticeable is that Cooley is Back. When he is on top form his songs were always my favourites (even more than Isbell's) but he has not been on top form since Brighter Than Creation's Dark.

Patterson's songs are always interesting - great stories and always with a political or social point to make. Somehow he seems to manage to pack what could make whole series of Justified or True Detective into a single song.  On this album he excels himself on Grand Canyons and When Walter Went Crazy.

However many people (including Jan) are put off because he is not a a great singer in the traditional sense. However on stage his manner is infectious - he is having a great time and loves to tell stories.

I have always felt that one of the reasons the DBTs work is that the balance of singers and songwriters mean that the sound is never limited by any particular singer/writer's strengths and weaknesses.

Hardly any reviews of their music are made without mentioning that Patterson Hood is David Hood's son. So I won't disappoint. David Hood was/is the bass player for the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and while it was hardly relevant to mention it on their first releases I think one of the interesting parts of the band's evolution is that they have settled more and more into that groove - probably starting with their backing of Betty Lavette on her Scene of the Crime album but working with Booker T has also rubbed off.

So another solid album by the Drive By Truckers - a good place for new comers to enter before heading back into their catalogue (about which I will post later on).

I don't know much about Jazz but I did like....... The Fiji International Jazz and Blues Festival and Tom Mawi's Band

We have just had the Fiji Jazz and Blues Festival here in Suva.  A great event over four days with bands mainly from NZ and Australia, one US band and a few local bands.  Laid low by the recurring cold/flu I only managed to get to two events.  We went to the opening Gala dinner where  Renee Geyer and  Fiji's own Tom Mawi were the highlights.

Tom is a much feted jazz guitarist who has achieved international recognition.  Check out this clip.  His style not unlike Kenny Burrell but apparently his favoured guitarist is Wes Montgomery.

Last night we went to a second show where we enjoyed a few NZ Blues Bands but the nicest part of the evening was sitting down with Tom's son, Sami and daughter in law, Annie (who also happen to be his keyboard player and singer). We had a great evening talking music, life in Fiji and learning about how Sami grew up with Jazz and how Annie changed from singing Madonna covers to Ella.

They play each Wednesday at the Holiday Inn (less than 100m from work) and while we had seen them there once or twice we had not made the Wednesday connection.  I think we will be making Wednesday Jazz a regular event.

Unsung (and more recent) Heroes 7 : The Hold Steady

I started to write this as a review of The Hold Steady's latest album Teeth Dreams but in the end decided that I had better introduce the band first. The review will appear soon. 

Minneapolis has produced some great music over the years.   In fact while the 1980's were generally a period of crappy music for some reason at that time in Minneapolis there was a wealth of great music. Whether it was the hard melodic thrashing of Husker Du, the shambolic rock of The Replacements, the new americana of The Jayhawks or Prince's funk - somehow it all came together in Minneapolis.  

Pogoing along to Husker Du and The Replacements was Craig Finn who was also a massive Springsteen fan and who went on to form The Hold Steady. A band I first heard when they released their third album  Boys and Girls in America. I had read a review that among other things said that they were a bit like Springsteen on Speed.  I was sold.  I could not find any of their CDs in Singapore but managed to find a copy on a business trip to Australia.  It immediately became a favourite with memorable songs like Massive Nights, Chillout Tent, Stuck Between Stations and Chips Ahoy. 

The Springsteen comparisons were relevant especially to his first three or four albums.  Like early Springsteen the songs are frenetic and occasionally anthemic and populated with interesting characters. However rather than drama through the hope of youth and redemption and liberation through rock'n'roll Craig Finn's drama comes from a more desperate and modern take on youth exposed to drugs, spontaneous parties and casual sex. Over about a year I acquired their earlier albums  Separation Sunday and Almost Killed Me and came to know the characters better and realise that Finn had actually made them grow up through the albums. After listening to all three you felt you knew and (but maybe from my age not quite) understood Gideon, Hallelujah (Halley),Charlemagne.  

The Springsteen comparisons were conformed in 2009 when a series of major artists were asked to nominate new artists to record one of their songs for the War Child charity album Heroes.  Springsteen nominated The Hold Steady to do Atlantic City and I think it was one of the few versions on the album that actually improved on the original.

In some respects the whole Hold Steady Agenda was spelt on on Positive Jam  the first song on the first album

Woke up in the '20s and there were flappers and fruits in white suits
It was right before the crash, we got thrashed throughout the '30s
Queuing up for soup with scabby sores
Then they sent us off to war

We came back in the '40s and there were wheelchairs, guns and tickertape
We poured it on the floor and we made love to the interstates
We got shiftless in the '50s, holding hands and going steady
Twisting into dark parts of the large midwestern cities

Tripped right through the '60s with some blissful little hippie
Some Kennedys got shot while you were screwing San Francisco
And the '70s got heavy, we woke up on bloody carpets
Got tangled up in gaslines, and I guess that's where it started

The '80s almost killed me, let's not recall them quite so fondly
Some Kennedy OD'ed while we watched on MTV
And in the '90s we were wired and well connected
Put it all down on technology and lost everything we invested

We gotta start it off with a positive jam
We gotta start it with a positive jam, man
Gotta start it with a positive jam

All the sniffling indie kids: hold steady
And all you clustered-up clever kids: hold steady
And I got bored when I didn't have a band
And so I started a band, man

                                         We're gonna start it with a positive jam 

In 2008 they released what I consider to be the peak from their career so far.  Yes it lacks some of the exuberance of the earlier albums and the first fans will always say they are better but to me the vision, musicianship and songs come together best on Stay Positive.  The tales of lost urban youth are still there but now have a more positive view as expressed by the title song.  The album is packed with sing along anthems and songs with great lyrics. Sequestered in Memphis, Lord, I'm Discouraged and Constructive Summer all stand out.  The first versions also came with three hidden songs (Ask Her for Adderall, Cheyenne Sunrise and Two Handed Handshake) that are as good if not better than some of the main songs. However the band felt that they did not fit with the main album so hid them at the end.  

I was lucky enough to see them twice in  early 2009 when they toured the album.  The first time with Chris and Sam at the Laneways Festival in Melbourne and with a colleague two nights later for a full show in Sydney. Two great shows with Finn reminding me of a young but nerdier and more manic Elvis Costello.  At each concert I would have raised the average age of the audience by at least a year.  However they put on shows that deserved a wider audience and respect that maybe their songs gritty content deny them.  Anyway here is an entire live show from 2009 so you can make up your own mind. 

An interesting aside is that after seeing them play in Melbourne, Jan the Boys and I drove the Great Ocean Highway - we must have followed or been there at the same time as him as he wrote about almost exactly the same trip in the song Apollo Bay on his solo album a few years later.  

Favourites 3 : Neil Young Freedom

I am not sure why so many good bands and musicians were crap in the 1980s.  Maybe it was drugs.  Maybe it was too much money. Maybe it was because none of them really expected to still be making money 20-30 years into a career they never thought would be a a career. Maybe it was because most of the 1980's music was crap and there was no competition to spur people on to make better music - and many of the best new bands like Talking Heads were blazing new paths. Anyway it is hard to argue that Dylan, the Stones, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder or Neil Young put out much good music for most of the 1980s.  Neil Young was even sued by his record company!

Anyway something seemed to wake Neil Young up in the late 80's It's almost as if he said to himself "let's cut the crap and get back to business".  It started in 1988 when he recorded This Notes For You a pretty solid album with lots of brass but some pretty good songs.  He then released an ep, Eldorado only in NZ, Australia and Japan I think. Even though I did not buy a copy (fool that I am as it now sells for over $100!) I did hear a friends copy and it certainly showed promise.

Then came Freedom - one of my all time favourite Neil Young albums.  It really is a strong selection of songs including Someday, Wrecking Ball, Crime in the City, Too far gone, Don't Cry, Too Far Gone and of course Rockin' in the Free World.  I certainly believe if it had been recorded in the 70's it would probably be considered by many to be an all time classic.  Timing is everything I suppose.

Young's purple patch continued after this album with Ragged Glory, Harvest Moon and the sublime Sleeps with Angels.  A series of albums, that stand up well beside the albums from Everyone Knows This is Nowhere to Rust Never Sleeps.  

Now Playing : Amazing Rhythm Aces : How the Hell do you spell Rhythum?

What a good question - I always have difficulty

I have liked The Amazing Rhythm Aces since hearing their "hit" Third Rate Romance in the early 70s.  I picked up this terrific album last week at Real Groovy in Auckland.  There were a few of their albums in the second hand bin but I picked this one up mainly because it was recorded at Muscle Shoals Studio where I doubt it is possible to make a bad album.  Having songs by Dan Penn, Delbert McClinton, Eddie Hinton and Van Morrison also helped!  For those unfamiliar with their work The Aces explore the area between R'nB and Country and they do it very well.  One of those bands that don't make bad records and do not get the recognition they deserve.  Think of a more country version of Little Feat. 

Favourites 2 : Dan Penn : Do Right Man - one of my most played albums

I bought this album from a record shop when I lived in Invercargill after Elvis Costello mentioned it in his extensive and excellent liner notes to the underrated Kojak Variety. I do remember that I paid full price as it was not on sale and that at the time I really had no idea of who Dan Penn was.

Dan is a songwriter from Alabama who spent much time in and around Muscle Shoals who was part of small band of people who crossed the white/black/country/soul boundaries in the late 60's.  He wrote many classic songs over about a five year period.  Songs like;
Dark End of the Street : James Car
It Tears Me Up Percy Sledge
I'm Your Puppet : James and Bobby Purify
Do Right Woman : Aretha Franklin

However apart from an obscure release in 1971 (which I now have) he really had not recorded anything other than demos until he released this album.  To record it he assembled many of the musicians that had recorded on the original versions and made this collection of many of his most famous songs.  In my opinion apart from Dark End of the Street (which he does a great job on) he improves on all the originals.  It really is a superb album and whenever I play it with friends over at least one person will ask WHO IS THIS?

So if you ever get a chance to buy this album I strongly suggest you do. You will not regret it.

If you get hooked like I did there are now a lot of gems to search out.  He is now self releasing albums of demos he is still recording which you can get directly from his website.

However it is worth chasing out Dan was effectively the staff writer for Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals and he wrote and demoed many of his songs so he could show the singers how they might sing and record them. Last year ACE records released a double album of these demos called Fame Recordings.  This is well worth checking out as because Dan had access to many of the best studio musicians of the day the demos are better than many full recordings.





ACE have also released two collections of Dan's songs recorded by other artists and they too are uniformly excellent. Sweet Inspirations : The Songs of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and A Road Leading Home.