Hey y’all-

Thought I might post my Christmas list online (since no one asked for it in person)….so here it is. Numbered and complete with links for easy buying.

1. A new Jeep Wrangler.

This is one nice ride...

2. A Santa Cruz Guitar – Tony Rice Professional Model.

Tony Rice Model Guitar

3. The Message (Eugene Peterson’s “remix” of the Bible.)

4. An iPhone.

5. Lyle Lovett’s new record “Natural Forces.”

6. Cracker Barrel Sunday Fried Chicken platter.

7. Insulated Workboots.

8. Socks and underwear…..

Buy as you see fit. (Shipping address provided upon request.)

Merry Christmas,

Uncle Jeff

Another (at least in Germany) not very well known singer/songwriter/country musician – Lyle Lovett. Famous only as a musician, also as an actor – and he was married to Julia Roberts. Yes. Really. Read more about him here. And: I like his haircut

If I had a boat

I’ve been to Memphis

North Dakota

Long tall Texan

That’s right, you’re not from Texas

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Jeff Bridges, Justin Timberlake, and Mary Steenburgen star in writer-director Michael Meredith’s tale of a young man looking to reconnect with his long-lost father–a famous athlete–and bring him back to the bedside of his ailing mother. Lyle Lovett, Harry Dean Stanton, and Kate Mara fill out the supporting cast in the Perfect Weekend production.

Lyle Lovett

How many folk songs begin with some variation of the phrase “Here’s my story, I’ll tell it to you true?” It’s as old as a wandering bard and a set-up for every tall tale, fable, and mischievous yarn spun. There’s something comfortable about a familiar story or song. I suppose it’s why we listen to the same records for years without tiring of them. There’s also though, a fine line between working in tradition and becoming cliche or an anachronism.

To be cliche is to also be completely unoriginal. It’s a blonde joke. Worse than being offensive, because offensive can be hilarious, they’re just not funny.

We’ve also all seen wonderfully rendered anachronisms. Those museum pieces of times gone by. Earnest re-tellings of bawdy songs, or jokes explained and put into historical context. Have we always had boring torch bearers of history or is this an illness of a post-modern world in decline? It can’t even truthfully be called nostalgia. That at least has a wistfulness to it, an emotional connection to a place or time, be it experienced or imagined.

The folk tradition (did that just make you shudder?) in my mind is simple. There’s history and memory, foundations to stand upon. It doesn’t live in a vacuum, it shifts and squirms around and teases us. It gives us something familiar in a new way.

Lyle Lovett knows where he comes from and seemingly, also knows where he is going.  Born outside of Houston in 1957 in a town founded by his great-great grandfather amongst fences and fields the dust of that place still fills his voice. This is a man who swatted a mad bull on the head with his hat antagonizing  it to release his pinned down uncle and was rewarded with a broken leg for his efforts.

Since the 1980’s Lovett has delighted and perplexed listeners with his sideways songs. He’s country because that’s what he is, not because a consultant told him to be that or he sounded like a country singer. He’s country in the same way that Jim Reeves and Ray Price and Charlie Rich will always be country even at their crooniest. He has no other way to be. The bull story illustrates that.  Since 1986 he’s released 13 albums. His latest release, Natural Forces, is bittersweet. Filled with melancholy ballads like “Whooping Crane” and “Empty Blue Shoes” that remind me of his most still moments as a singer like Pontiac’s “Simple Song,” and punctuated with kickers like “Farmer Brown” and “It’s Rock and Roll.” There’s a sublime version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Loretta” which maybe I’ll write about someday, but not now. We’re talking cliches and there’s nothing cliche about Van Zandt.

On the album there’s two versions of a song Lovett has performed live for years. A fan favorite as it were, widely bootlegged and captured on youtube “Pantry” finally finds an album home. The song kicks off with the line “My dear I have something to ask and I’ll try to get it right.” Here’s his story, he’ll tell it to us true.

He then drops in a reference to the Light Crust Doughboys and Martha White, which is a bit showy of course, but we love it. It’s a long standing country tradition to drop in references of those who came before. Lovett does one better though. Here’s a song essentially about food and he name drops the Doughboys and Martha White. Nothing is accidental in his writing.  “Pantry” is almost filled with cliches. They’re more reference points though, sly nods to things we know. Take the line “Oh the way to someone’s heart dear/That old expression’s true. He doesn’t need to tell us the cliche we already know. The whole thing though is really just a set-up for a bad joke. It could easily be a pun gone wrong like saying “Life’s a Ditch” which is at best vaguely amusing for about as long as a fire fly lights. On “Pantry” however, Lovett takes the cliche “keep it in your pants” and flips it inside out into a song about overeating and cheating. It works like an Escher drawing. It keeps spiraling over on itself until the first joke is last.

How many bawdy folk and blues songs use food as a euphemism for sex? Chalk one more up, sort of. That’s why this song is so funny. It doesn’t just do that, like it doesn’t just rest on a bad pun or a country tradition of infidelity. It does all of this, sometimes at odds with each other and simultaneously. Lovett is good, good, good at this.

Tradition isn’t something to leave behind discarded. It doesn’t have to be a relic of the past though either. I don’t know if “Pantry” will ever be anything more than a fun two-step for Lyle Lovett fans, but it makes me laugh and does what it’s supposed to do. I’ve never been one though, to go hungry and this makes me wanna go get a girl and dance.

Post Scriptus ~ Alec Wilkinson does a fine profile on the singer and the bull incident in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/03/01/040301fa_fact1

Ever been to a concert at Massey Hall in Toronto? I love seeing performers in a theatre-setting like that one. Sure, the building is showing its age (hell, it was showing its age 25 years ago) and the seats are a little on the snug side. And while a sell-out means just over 2700 in the hall, it’s still a remarkably intimate venue. Over the last 100+ years, the grand dame of Toronto concert venues has seen an incredible range of performers grace its stage, from Canadian icons like Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Oscar Peterson and Rush to a who’s who of American and international performers. I’ve seen a handful of shows there, including Lyle Lovett, Paul Simon and most recently, Steely Dan.

For 2010, the roster is building nicely. Already scheduled are homegrown faves like Colin James (January 26th), Jann Arden (January 27th-30th) and Blue Rodeo (February 2nd and 3rd). Blues legend Buddy Guy comes to town on April 9th, and another guitar virtuoso, Mark Knopfler plays later in the month on April 29th.

Now comes word of three new additions to the Massey Hall calendar, with tickets all going sale within the next week. First up, Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace will play two shows on March 12th and 13th. Tickets are $42.50-52.50 and go on sale to the general public Saturday December 12th @ 2:00 p.m. ET at ticketmaster.ca. According to the Massey Hall website, the band will perform their album “Clumsy” in its entirety on March 12th, and “Spiritual Machines” on March 13th. Each show will be rounded out by selections from the OLP catalogue.

On March 23rd, singer-songwriter Norah Jones takes the stage to promote her latest cd, The Fall. Tickets are $55.50-65.50 and go on sale to the general public Monday December 14th @ 12:00 p.m. ET at ticketmaster.ca. You can listen to music from the new cd streaming on Jones’ website here.

And then on May 13th, the always interesting jazz guitar legend Pat Metheny hits the stage for a solo show, of sorts. Metheny’s new disc, Orchestrion, will be out in January. According to his website, the disc is described as follows:
“With Orchestrion, Metheny dramatically redefines the concept of the solo album. He is indeed the only live musician on this recording, but it’s the opposite of, say, the austere 2003 One Quiet Night, in which Metheny hunkered down in his home studio to explore the musical possibilities of a single new guitar. Here Metheny works with a magical set-up of acoustic and acousto-electric instrumentation, assembled for him by a far-flung team of mad musical scientists and digital dreamers. “
Make of that what you will. I am a huge fan of the Pat Metheny Group (featuring long-time collaborator, keyboardist Lyle Mays) and have seen them in concert a couple of times. This is probably the configuration for which he is the best known and popular. Tickets for the Metheny show are $42.50-85.50 and go on sale this Friday December 11th at 10:00 am on tickemaster.ca.

All good stuff. Can’t wait to see how the rest of 2010 fills out.

Our Lady Peace:

Norah Jones:

Pat Metheny Group:

On the 1st Sunday of every month I host and program a show on KOOP Community Radio called “Up on the Download”. I play roots/blues/gospel/country, anything that can be described as Americana from the KOOP music library or, as the show title suggests, was downloaded from the web.

Here’s the set list for my first show on December 6, 2009 and a recording of the show to listen to. Happy listening!

1. Shake For Me – Howlin’ Wolf
2. Gambling Man Blues – Jack Dupree
3. Low Rising – The Swell Season
4. Sugarfoot – Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
5. Heavy Heart – Joanne Shaw Hart
6. Garlic Blues – Helen Humes
7. Me & My Chaffeur Blues – Memphis Minnie
8. Bad Luck Got My Man – Big Mama Thornton
9. Scratch my Back – Taj Mahal
10. Houston Bound – Lightnin’ Hopkin
11. The Rose Hotel – Robert Earl Keen
12. John Hardy – Leadbelly
13. Down in Mississippi – Pinetop Perkins
14. Delta Blues – Big Joe Williams
15. Pantry – Lyle Lovett
16. John Henry – Mississippi Fred McDowell & Johnny Woods
17. Fear No Evil – Coco Montoya
18. I’m Gonna Cross The River Of Jordan – Some O’ These Days – Jaybird Coleman
19. Glory Glory Hallelujah – Reverend Robert Wilkins
20. Lost Highway – Willie Nelson
21. Chitler Rag Blues – Sylvester Weaver
22. Lucinda / Ain’t Goin’ Down To The Well [Live] – Tom Waits

Link to all archived shows

Whoa. A surreal moment. Never thought I’d stumble onto a GlobalGiving project and see Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson among the top donors. I guess it deconstructs the algorithm here – largest donors appear at the front.

This project is:

1000 Voices for Hope – Building Mahiga Hope High

posted by Turk Pipkin, who I think was an actor on the Sopranos. He also visited the Africa Conservation Trust in Kenya in 2009 and did a documentary about the wonderful reforestation / reef preservation work they are doing.

But the biggest news of the day is that I won my NaNoWriMo for 2009!

When I wrapped up my recent Lyle Lovett theme weeks, I held out hope that he would break out of the slump he’d been in for the past dozen years or so. His last album, It’s Not Big It’s Large, was a step in the right direction — a bit slight, but featuring stronger material than he’d released in years. I figured his next turn at bat would be major.

I was wrong.

Natural Forces is another stop-gap Lyle Lovett album, enjoyable enough for what it is but a shadow of the man’s best work. It contains only four original songs and most of those aren’t even as good as the covers that make up the rest of the album. It’s a pleasure, as always, to hear Lovett and his peerless band perform but it’s a fleeting pleasure when what you really want is the next Road to Ensenada or Joshua Judges Ruth.

The album begins well. The title track, written by Lovett, is a country and western epic accented with a foreboding fiddle. “I’m subject to the natural forces,” Lovett sings… “Home is where my horse is.” Track two, ‘Farmer Brown/Chicken Reel,’ is a traditional Dixie romp that’s enjoyable enough but for the repeated phrase “I’m gonna choke my chicken,” which makes it difficult to listen to in mixed company. ‘Pantry,’ another Lovett original, is a country jam that stretches a food/infidelity metaphor about as far as it can go. The chorus is too repetitive but it’s a fun song. The third song Lovett penned, ‘Empty Blue Shoes,’ is Lyle-by-numbers, a slow blues number that treads ground he’s wandered over for decades.

That’s basically how I feel about the album as a whole… been there, done that and with much better songs. A few of the covers stand out (most notably ‘Bohemia’ and ‘Loretta’) but it feels weird when my favorite songs on a Lyle Lovett album aren’t written by Lyle Lovett.

I wonder if I’d like the album better had I not known the songwriting credits ahead of time. Would ‘Bohemia’ feel like an even better song if I was under the illusion it was penned by Lovett? I’d love to put that theory to the test somehow because it might say a lot about expectations and fandom. Why hold it against a great songwriter if he performs a great song that isn’t his own? I guess because it feels as though he’s wasting precious time he could be contributing something new to the music world.

So Natural Forces is an enjoyable listen but I suspect it will spend most of its time on the shelf. And I’ll keep listening to my favorites while I wait for the next great Lyle Lovett album.

Natural Forces (Live):

Last week whilst in College Station for some meetings, qb hustled over to downtown Bryan to check in with the good folks at Los Nortenos.  The “Brent Averman Special” (see previous post) costs $7.99 now instead of the $1.92 that qb paid when it was a la carte, but the plate is bigger, it still comes out steaming hot throughout, and it tastes as wondrous as it ever did.  All of my eating companions loved their Tony’s Specials and the carne guisada.

And no, qb gets no kickbacks or royalties.  He pays full price, even when he pays with a credit card.

It’s on S. Main St., across from the LaSalle Hotel.

—–

For qb’s “Brush with Greatness” file:

This old porch is like a steaming, greasy plate of enchiladas

With lots of cheese and onions

And guacamole salad

And you can get ‘em down at the LaSalle Hotel in old downtown

With iced tea and a waitress, and she will smile every time

Lyle Lovett, “This Old Porch”

—–

In case you’re interested, the double-meat, double-Death burger at the Dixie Chicken still rocks.  Be sure and sweep your billiard table before you play, though…lots of little shards of chalk in inconvenient places, especially around the side pockets and along the rails.

A few weeks back when I featured Lyle Lovett’s music for two weeks, I mentioned in my write-up of The Road to Ensenada that I would feature its two best songs on the blog at a later date. Well, that later date has arrived for one of them.

‘Her First Mistake,’ the epic second song on Lovett’s best album, is the tale of a man who strikes out so winningly in trying to woo a lady that she eventually succumbs to his charms. It’s funny and sweet and it’s got a swinging, almost bossa nova, feel that sets it apart from the rest of Lovett’s work.

Lyrically it’s clever as hell, containing such pearls of wisdom as “the only certain thing for sure is what I do not know” and this winning final line: “I just keep on running faster, chasing the happily I am ever after.”

My favorite lyric in ‘Her First Mistake’ makes up the fourth verse, and it’s a splendid example of playing off of expectations:

Notice how the “mean” and “seen” lines set you up for him to say her eyes are the loveliest shade of green. But he twists the line at the last minute and instead rhymes “jade” with “shade,” and winks at the expected lyric by choosing a color that is in fact a shade of green. This is advanced stuff, boys and girls… well played, Mr. Lovett.

Street festival food booth lights
Marion, Ohio

Lyle Lovett – If I Had a Boat

Det ska tydligen vara nåt med Townes Van Zandt i år. Som jag skrivit om tidigare har Steve Earle släppt ett helt album där han tolkar folksångaren Van Zandt. När nu Lyle Lovett släpper “Natural Forces” är Van Zandt högst närvarande i såväl sound som känsla och representerad genom låten “Loretta”.

Lyle Lovett är folk- och countrymusikartisten från Texas, USA, som även har gjort små gästspel i Hollywood,. För den lite större publiken är Lovett förmodligen mer känd för sitt äktenskap med Julia Roberts i början av nittiotalet, än för sin konstnärliga insats. Lovett släppte sitt debutalbum “Lyle Lovett” 1986 som blev tämligen framgångsrikt, inte minst genom låtar som “Cowboy man” (min ringsignal på mobilen) och “This Old Porch”.

Lovetts nya är i många stycken en tillbakagång till ett lugnare sound efter förra albumet “It’s Not Big, It’s Large”, där Lovett med sitt storband, givetvis kallat The Large Band, stundom gör storbandscountry. Men eftersom Lovett är en berättelsernas man skymmer inte arrangemangen historierna, och “It’s Not Big, It’s Large” är smyckad med ett antal timida countryballader av högsta rang. Inte minst “South Texas Girl” med magisk intro- och outrosång av legendaren Guy Clark (vars The Guitar var Dagens låt häromdagen).

Men nu var det senaste “Natural Forces” det skulle handla om, och främst “Loretta”. På sitt nya album bjuder Lovett på ett par uptempospår som inte gör fans av förra skivan besviken. “Natural Forces” är emellertid främst ett balladalbum där den akustiska gitarren ackompanjerar Lovetts historier med stor närvaro. Fiol, elektrisk gitarr och ett och annat munspel, ibland ett piano har tagit ett steg tillbaka och agerar stämningssättande medspelare med den äran.

“Natural Forces” har många starka spår som lämpar sig väldigt väl till kvällsteet i soffan en ruggig höstkväll. Lovetts version av Van Zandts “Loretta” är tveklöst ett av dessa spår, som Lovett gör med bibehållen respekt utan att kopiera rakt av. Där Van Zandt slår an strängarna till sin akustiska gitarr för att berätta historien om Loretta, kvinnan i baren utan sorger eller bekymmer som förmodligen är lite för bra för att vara sann, inleds Lovetts version istället med piano och fiol som på ett ögonblick får din uppmärksamhet.

Du kan lyssna på alla spåren från Lyle Lovetts “Natural Forces” på skivbolaget Lost Highways hemsida här.

Med Spotify kan du lyssna på förra albumet “It’s Not Big, It’s Large” här.

Nedan spelar Lyle Lovett “Loretta” live tillsammans John Prine på en Bluegrass-festival i San Francisco i början av oktober i år:

Written By: Jeff Markunas
(Americana/Country Editor)

Label: Lost Highway – Rating:

The most frustrating thing about sitting in the Reviewer’s chair rather than the Producer’s chair is that I can’t pull down the master fader, leave the control room, walk into the studio and take care of business.

Reviewers can only deal with the horrible aftermath of a musical meltdown – Producers can grab the offending musician by the collar while yelling in his ear – GET OUT or I’ll call your mother and have her play guitar on this album – you stupid – no talent, S.O.B!!!!! And judging by what crosses my desk, musicians who think they have talent, but don’t, are like sand in the Sahara.

What keeps me in my chair are the Lyle Lovett’s of the musical world. The true, working-man, professionals who buckle down and get the job done with great form and style.

Listen to “(keep it in your) Pantry” for a start, an old school romp that takes it back to a great night at the Opry, or old time Country radio, when even the commercials were great songs. Pay close attention to the band that swings in and out with perfect timing and exquisite sound, as if they were a seven headed, one-man band playing with one heart, one mind and one pair of hands.

Lyle has a superb talent for crafting a song the way a master mason might build a cathedral. One perfectly cut note placed after another that crescendos into a five minute master built song. “Bohemia” fits this blueprint like the perfect church spire.
And then he has musical characters like Farmer Brown, who inhabit his songs, but can’t move to the city for fear of exposure.

Perfection and an incredibly droll sense of humor – not your average pompadour with a guitar.

Alright – you knew it was coming – I’d rather be tied up, gagged, hung upside down in the worst sewer of the 3rd world and left for dead then to ever listen to a ballad (just a small personal quirk.) However, Lyle is a Balladeer of the first water, who makes pathos seem totally natural and appealing. Although to me, one Ballad is twelve too many, a couple more medium and up-tempo tunes probably couldn’t have hurt.

Rock Bottom Line
A true Talent in top form backed by giant size musicians and besides some people like Ballads.

CWG Rating – 3.5 Guns

Frisch, elegant und so abwechslungsreich wie nie zuvor präsentieren Shawn Colvin und John Leventhal ihr nächstes Album A Few Small Repairs, welches Colvins eigentlich einzigen richtigen Hit hier in unsren Breiten enthält: Sunny Came Home. Auf keinem anderen Album ist das Songmaterial so abwechslungsreich gestaltet und schmuck und gefällig arrangiert. Man hat durchaus den Eindruck, dieses Album solle Lebenslust verkörpern. Und das tut es auch.

Neben Shawn Colvin an Stimme, Gitarren und Piano hören wir John Leventhal (Gitarren, Mandoline, Keyboards, Percussion, “One-Finger-Violin”, Harmonica, Bass, Pedal Steel, Organ), Kate Markowitz (Vocal), Michael Rhodes (Bass), Shawn Pelton (Drums), Sandra Park und Carol Webb (Violine), Robert Rinheart (Viola), Eugene Move (Cello), Larry Farrell (Trombone), Bob Carlisle (French Horn), Lyle Lovett (Vocal), Tony Kadlek (Flügelhorn), Rick Depofi (Bass Clarinet, Tenor Sax, Recorder, Piccolo), Mark Plati (Bass), Chris Botti (Trumpet), Danny Ferrington (Background), Judith Owen (Vocal), Malcom Burns (Bass, Keyboards, Vocals, Guitars, Drum Programming), Charlie Sexton (Guitar), Craig Ross (Circular Guitar), Rafael Gayol (Drums), sowie Streicher- und Bläserarrangements von Leventhal und Stephen Barber.

Diese Masse an Musikern wird auf wundersame Weise durch John Leventhal zusammengehalten, der alle Songs produziert hat, bis auf What I Get Paid For von Malcom Burns.

Song 1: Sunny Came Home

Eine gute Wahl für ein Intro in ein Album, denn dieser Song enthält alle Elemente, die Colvin/Leventhal Produktionen so gut machen. Wo sich das vorige Album Fat City noch mehr Gitarren mit reinen Akkorden erlaubt, setzen sie jetzt mehr Gitarren mit Melodien ein, was ihrer Musik eine neue Qualität gibt, und sich sehr von ihren vorigen Werken absetzt. Man könnte sogar sagen, dass A Few Small Repairs ein Gitarren-Album sei. Aber nicht nur die Gitarren haben sich geändert, auch die Drums und Percussion, die Leventhal jetzt viel besser handlen kann als vorher (und Drummer Shawn Pelton ist einfach großartig). Und all das präsentiert Sunny Came Home dem Hörer: ein Colvin-üblicher intelligenter Text, einfache, aber wirkungsvolle und elegante Melodien, Arrangements mit Sparsamkeit an den richtigen Stellen und Dynamik, wenn nötig, alles im Leventhal-Mixer harmonisch zusammengemischt, ein geschmackvoller Cocktail guter Einfälle und Musik.

Song 2: Get Out Of This House

Eine eindeutige Aufforderung. Eine coole Harmonika von Leventhal. Eine etwas verhaltene Stimme von Colvin. Viel Drums und Percussion von Shawn Pelton und viele kleine Gimmicks, die man gar nicht alle gleichzeitig hören kann. E-Gitarren sind bei Colvin zwar nicht wirklich selten, aber so wirklich rocken dürfen sie selten. Schön, dass es Stücke wie dieses gibt, bei denen das zumindest ansatzweise so ist. Und Leventhals Mundharmonika ist eben cool.

Song 3: The Facts About Jimmy

“Duett” mit Lyle Lovett, sehr ruhig, musikalisch vielleicht eine Vorschau auf das kommende Album Whole New You, bei der man Shawn Pelton’s großartige Drums wieder gut hören kann. Sehr zart und bescheiden gesungen, aber Colvin klingt immer irgendwie leicht erkältet – was aber ihrem Charme nicht schadet. Eine sehr schöne Melodie, sehr sparsam und erfreulich unaufdringlich produziert.

Song 4: You and the Mona Lisa

ist wohl der zweit-schwächste Moment des Albums. Zwar ist auch dieser Song elegant und unaufdringlich wie alles, was Shawn Colvin und John Leventhal ausbrüten, aber irgendwie hat dieser Song weder den “Drive” von Sunny Came Home oder gar Get out of this house, und ist auch nicht so sparsam wie The Facts About Jimmy oder Trouble, und das tut dem Song wohl nicht gut. Naja, Shawn Pelton kann den Song retten – einigermaßen.

Song 5: Trouble

Ja, da ist das kleine Meisterwerk, eine große Leistung von Colvin, Leventhal und Pelton (mehr Musiker sind an dem Stück auch nicht beteiligt). Hier zeigt Leventhal, welches Genie in ihm steckt. Es ist nicht leicht, mehrere Instrumente alleine nacheinander einzuspielen, aber Leventhals Kopf sorgt nicht nur dafür, dass alles im “Takt” bleibt, sondern dass am Ende ein außergewöhnliches Arrangement herauskommt, dass mit seiner Leichtfüßigkeit sogar Tori Amos’ stillste Arbeiten zu voll erscheinen lässt. An diesem Stück merkt man auch, wie großartig die Aufnahmen, das Engineering und natürlich Bob Clearmountains Mix sind.

Song 6: I Want It Back

ist der schwächste Moment des Albums. Mir gibt das nix.

Song 7: If I Were Brave

Wenn Shawn Colvin schon mal selbst am Klavier sitzt, sollte die Aufnahme davon doch besonders sorgfältig gemacht sein. Hier scheint das nicht passiert zu sein, und so fehlt schon ganz am Anfang ein kleines Stückchen Material, als wären die Lautstärkeregler erst noch aufgedreht worden, als sie zu spielen begonnen hat. Auch ist die Tonqualität nicht besonders berauschend. Davon abgesehen ist das Stück lieb (lieb im Sinne von Häschen-Niedlich).

Song 8: Wichita Skyline

Juhu. Es gibt nichts besseres als diesen Song für eine längere Zugfahrt an einem sonnigen Frühlings- oder Herbsttag. Ein fast konventioneller Song, aber wie immer elegant und einwandfrei produziert, mit einem kleinem Harmonie-”Knick” und einer kleinen Überraschung ganz am Ende des Songs.

Song 9: 84.000 Different Delusions

Dass es so etwas wie erkältete elektrische Gitarren gibt, wusste ich nicht, bis ich zum ersten Mal den Anfang dieses Stücks hörte. Dass Colvins Stimme selber manchmal irgendwie leicht erkältet klingt, sind wir ja schon gewöhnt, aber diesmal hat Leventhal sogar eine ganze Produktion “erkältet” klingen lassen.

Song 10: Suicide Alley

Obwohl es der Titel nicht gerade nahe legt, ist dieses Stück wieder ein fröhlicher Song darüber, dass das Leben weitergeht. Punktet durch sehr klare Stimme, und Peltons und Leventhals Unverwechselbarkeit (wie Sie schon gemerkt haben, ist Shawn Pelton für Colvins Band ein wahrer Segen).

Song 11: What I Get Paid For

Deutlich setzt sich diese Produktion von Malcom Burns vom Rest es Albums ab. Ich kann mir nicht recht vorstellen, warum dieser Song auf dem Album enthalten ist, wenn er sich doch so sehr von Leventhals Stil unterscheidet, dass es fast unangenehm auffällt. Dabei ist der Song von Colvin und Neil Finn eigentlich gar nicht schlecht, und auch nicht schlecht produziert. Er klingt nur eben anders. Wäre es nicht schade um einige Minuten mehr für Leventhal, würde ich diese Abwechslung auch begrüßen.

Song 12: New Thing Now

Eine Gitarrenballade, die etwas darunter leidet, dass sie an einigen Stellen übersteuert wurde, aber mit schönem Text und schöner Melodie punktet. Und das, obwohl Colvins Gesang bei diesem Stück auch nicht der beste ist (aber Colvins schlechtester ist immer noch besser als … naja, so was wie …).

Song 13: Nothing on Me

Colvin und Leventhal entlassen uns mit diesem beschwingten “Rutsch-mir-doch-den-Buckel-runter-wenn-dir-was-nicht-passt”-Song. Wieder beweisen die beiden ihre große Stärke darin, einige einfache Melodiestückchen zu einem herrlichen Ganzen zu vermischen.

Fazit:

Das bei weiten abwechslungsreichste Album von Shawn Colvin und John Leventhal, mit überragenden Musikern, einem überragenden Produzenten (Leventhal) und einer so guten Shawn Colvin wie nie zuvor. Produktions- und Arrangement-Technisch ist nur das nächste Album Whole New You noch besser, aber das Songmaterial ist auf A Few Small Repairs das Beste, und abwechslungsreichste. Von melancholischen Balladesken wie Trouble und The Facts about Jimmy über rockigere Hau-bloß-ab Stücke wie Get out of this house zu fröhlich-frischen Sommerstücken wie Wichita Sky Line und Nothing on me gibt es alles, was das Herz begehrt. Colvins Stimme war nie so gut, und ihr Songmaterial nie so abwechslungsreich. Darüberhinaus haben alle beteiligten Musiker eine großartige Arbeit abgeliefert. Besonders hervor stechen Shawn Pelton und Michael Rhodes, die auch auf dem nächsten Album wieder mit dabei sind. Dies ist auch das Album, das ich jedem “Einsteiger” empfehlen würde, weil die stilistische Spannbreite hier am größten ist.

5 von 5 Sternen.

Alright, so I have decided to blog more. Why, you might ask? Could it be that I have something interesting to say? No, not particularly. Perhaps I am embarking on some sort of quest/journey that could be interesting/informative? Nope. Do I plan on posting pictures of cute animals? Maybe, I can’t really say a definitive no. Is it because I have nothing else really going on in my life right now? Precisely.

So…how to begin…

I am going to borrow from one of my favorite movies of all time: High Fidelity (staring John Cusack and Jack Black, check it out). No, I am not going to display Cosby sweaters or chronicle epic breakups of my past. Rather, I am going to delve into the world of ALL TIME TOP FIVE lists. It is a pretty much epic game that is played in one form or another when getting to know a new friend/group of people/significant other/potential significant other until you find out Savage Garden is in their ALL TIME TOP FIVE musical artists.

So come along my friends, it’ll be fun, and perhaps give you a better sense of who I am (although then we’d have to discuss whether or not we are defined by our likes and dislikes, but I digress…).

**DISCLAIMER** I reserve the right at any time to change/edit any information on any and all subsequent ALL TIME TOP FIVE lists. This is helpful for new arrivals and my scattered memory. Thank you.

And so, without further ado, here is one of my most difficult lists to compile.

ALL TIME TOP FIVE MUSICAL ARTISTS (in no particular order)

• Ryan Adams
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Pink Martini
• Lyle Lovett
• TIE between Dave Matthews Band and Oasis

Alright, I cheated with the tie, but its my blog so boo. Other front runners in this category include Ray LaMontagne, Kings of Leon, Ray Charles, and Bon Iver, among others…

So what do y’all think? Like the new format? Yes/No? Don’t care? No one is reading? Ok, fair enough.

PLEASE feel free to comment with your own ALL TIME TOP FIVE-ers or any other ideas for lists you’d like to see.

Stay classy and thanks for stopping by.

– A N I –

Today I realized, while looking at a poster of the event that hangs on the wall behind me, that exactly twenty years ago I was standing on the steps of Queen’s Park in Toronto, facing a crowd of 1500 concerned citizens. I’d come down to the big city from a remote camp on a lake in the Temagami area of northeastern Ontario. For six weeks I’d been living with a group of activists who were blockading the construction of a logging road. I was a member of the board of the Temagami Wilderness Society who had initiated the blockade. We started off with over two hundred enthusiastic supporters in September, many who were arrested for standing their ground against the big machines, and as the weeks went by we held our position but with less and less visitors. They were either cops or construction workers, Indians from the area, the occasional journalist with a budget to fly-in, or committed souls hardy enough to make the day trip paddle into the camp. Those of us who lived fulltime in the bush throughout the several weeks of the blockade were all folks who thrived in this natural environment, but by the sixth week we were definitely getting kind of bushed.

When a rally was called for October 29, 1989 in Toronto to support the action in the Temagami forest – “Halt the Chainsaw Massacre!” the t-shirts proclaimed – organizers wanted someone to come and describe what was going on up there. So I cleaned up and went south to the city.  

I was on the same bill as half a dozen people, including a powerful anti-racist and warrior for aboriginal rights, the late Rodney Bobiwash, as well as Bob Rae. In his finest hour, the year before he became Ontario’s first NDP premier, Bob came and supported our action in the woods, getting taken out in the paddy wagon. He also helped keep the issue in the news and on the government’s agenda. That afternoon on the concrete steps, each of us spoke about the need to protect the old growth pine forests and the integrity of the wilderness surrounding Temagami and search for long term solutions for jobs for people living in the area. We also spoke of the great responsibility the government had to finally settle the local first nation’s land claim that had been steeping in a bowl of tepid  tea for years. The Teme-Augama Anishnabai’s struggle for justice was peaking. It was a very powerful time, one of those moments when you think that what you are doing might really make a difference to the future of your community and our planet.

 I remember walking up those steps, feeling a little shaky, and turning to face a sea of excited and expectant faces After having lived a very primal existence for weeks, albeit one kept charged by constant intense discussion and political awareness, I felt like a wild beast who’s been invited to the dinner table.  I truly don’t remember exactly what I said but I know it was received warmly. I knew that TWS wanted me to explain our present position – that the action was still alive, we were hoping more people would come and stand strong with us against the construction, that we were still in talks behind-the-scenes with the government to get the road stopped. Organizers had told me that people needed to put a human face on activism and so to just speak from my heart (which tends to be the only way I wanna go). Because the blockade was five hours north on the highway and another several hours in by lake, they wanted me to bring the thoughts and feelings of the protestors to supporters in the city who couldn’t take that long trip north.

The fifteen minutes that I spoke flew by in a haze of culture shock that I survived due to my great belief in the cause and my ability to ramble on. I didn’t get to see a recording as this was before everyone carried a cell phone.  I only know that it was a powerful hour or so that we spent on the front landing of Queen’s Park. And I came to realize, clearer than ever before, that there is nothing in powerful political action that can substitute for sharing first-hand experience, bringing the issues down to the human level, maintaining open dialogue, and feeling passion for justice.

The other thing I remember about that whirlwind trip to Toronto (I quickly retreated back to the camp the next day) was going to see Bonnie Raitt in concert but ending up falling for Lyle Lovett. One of my buddies in the bush, Eddy, knew that Bonnie was going to be playing and insisted that I buy a ticket for myself with his credit card and enjoy the show for the dozen or so folks left at camp. Her latest album, Nick of Time, was one of the few cassettes that we had with us to listen to at camp on our little battery-run cassette player – it became a big part of the soundtrack of the blockade and we were all huge fans.

With my friend Cocky and a couple of others, we went to see the concert. This guy we had barely heard of shared the bill with Bonnie. By the time Lyle Lovett and his Large Band played their larger-than-life set, we were all blown away by his talent, energy, and the range of his music. We were exhausted by the time Bonnie came out – she was fantastic too, but Lyle had been the bomb.

Yes, October 29, 1989 was an amazing day in my life.

Twenty-years later, I find myself living half of my life in a city (the hard rock Hammer), the other half in Costa Rica (which I barely knew a thing about in 1989), communicating through a thing called a blog, staying in touch by e-mail, and hanging from time to time in a strange community called the Facebook.  I’ve written a book about a man, Wolf Guindon,  I hadn’t yet met in 89  (but would soon) and loved then lost a few men more. I had cancer but it didn’t kill me. I just spent October 29, 2009 healthy, happy and with pretty much the same political beliefs and value system that sent me from a camp in the bush to the steps of Queen’s Park twenty years ago. And music is still a huge part of what I love about living.

They say as you get older you get more conservative. Fortunately, that particular sickness doesn’t seem to have struck me. I may better understand and anticipate the results of my actions and the risks I’m willing to assume in all matters of life now, but I still believe in working for social justice and that still falls on the left side of the pendulum swing. I believe in the power of the grassroots, that establishing peace is paramount, and that a just world would be a healthier world (and vice versa). Besides that, it’s more complicated than ever, the questions becoming more numerous, the answers always dangling ahead of us like a carrot that baits the rabbit that  tempts the dog – in the end no one wins if we don’t hook on to the solution. I try not to lose perspective or hope. I refuse to not feel joy on a daily basis despite all the news that forces a thinking person to the dark side. I continue to retreat to the bush or the jungle or to the base of the nearest tree to regain my balance, renew my passion, and self-medicate myself with nature’s restorative elixirs.

Fortunately, in about three weeks, I have a date with a tropical cure.

This is Lyle Lovett’s cross to bear: Twenty years and eleven albums into his career, he’s doomed to be forever derided as a “consistent” artist — as though that’s such a bad thing. So the man makes albums that are all so good, it’s hard to pick which one’s the best; how dare he! I admit that his albums have more or less all been cut from the same cloth, and, on a stylistic level, Lovett’s music can sound a little samey. But each album is like a variation on a theme, and each one tends to have its own character, if not its own sound.

Natural Forces might be the quintessential Lyle Lovett album — the one that best sums up what he’s done and what he’s about. As such, it’s likely to be a big hit with his faithful fans, and unlikely to win over any of his critics, who will no doubt hear it as just another Lyle Lovett record, which it is. Thing is, it’s a very fine one, and in some ways it seems to pull together all the different strands of his work; Lovett has always been a sharp songwriter, but he’s also shown a keen interest in interpreting the work of others, especially Texas songsmiths, as heard on his all-Texan covers album Step Inside This House, and Natural Forces is an organic fusion of those two passions: It’s half Lovett originals, half Texan covers.

Read the rest at Stereo Subversion.

Caution Children are one of the many bands that characterize Ithaca sound

Nestled in the foothills of the Finger Lakes, right in the heart of wine country, Ithaca is a community secluded from the rest of the world. There are no major interstates that cut an unsightly swath through its downtown; no passenger trains rumbling across the Cayuga Valley.  One could easily assume that if it wasn’t for Cornell University and Ithaca College, Ithaca would have just been another Podunk upstate burg at the edges of the Rust Belt.

Yet this small college city, just over a one-hour drive from Syracuse and a little under five from New York City, is home to one of the country’s most eclectic, powerful, and thriving music scenes.

After all, the ever-elusive “Ithaca Sound” was created here, a fusion of familiar and ethnic music styles, fundamental to the popularity and acceptance of Roots. Acclaimed reggae group John Brown’s Body considers Ithaca home, as do country singer Johnny Dowd and folk singers The Burns Sisters.  College-town venue The Nines has been hosting the Blue Monday jam session for over 29 years. And the local award-winning college radio station WICB carries such programming as “Home Brew,” a weekly show dedicated to local music, while graduates at the School of Music at nearby Ithaca College go on to play with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

“Whenever you have a college town like this, you have a naturally reoccurring base,” says Dan Smalls, a concert promoter who has been part of the Ithaca scene since his freshman year in 1989. “A scene is only as good as the musicians who lived here, and there were always great musicians here. If you continue to do cutting-edge music then you’re going to have a good scene.”

Putting a face to Ithaca’s intricate personality is difficult at best, simply because it has too many faces to represent its storied history:  the veteran blues artist, the bartender at one of the hottest venues on the Cornell hill, the bouncer who’s worked all across town, the respected Visitor’s Bureau promoter, the music writer turning the city inside out, and the students who, in just three years, have carved their place in the scene. Each of them has their own stories about the music and the people, the bands and the bars, and none of them can ignore the impact this scene has had on their own lives.

THE BLUESMAN

Music in Ithaca always changes. The scene flows in four-year waves, rising and ebbing with each incoming and outgoing college class. But there are still some elements of permanence here: take Pete Panek, for example – one of the few, rare constants in a city whose musicians often grow up and move out.

“We’re the old guards,” says the 58-year old guitarist and lead singer of his epynomous band, Pete Panek and the Blue Cats. “We’re constant, we’re here forever.”

A consummate bluesman, Panek can recite a who’s-who of blues legends he has shared the stage with: Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, Charles Musselwhite. He played with the legendary Bo Diddley as his backup band, twice.  Since moving to Ithaca in October 1982, he’s been jamming at The Nines in Collegetown each week — one of the longest-running open blues jams in America, he’s quick to point out.

“In its heyday in the mid-’80s, right after Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughn came out, it was crazy,” he says. “One night 24 guitars showed up to jam.”

As a forum for students to meet and experiment, Ithaca is fertile ground: Panek estimates that 80% of the bands playing at Ithaca’s major venues are college students, as opposed to out-of-town bands.

Yet it’s retaining these acts that’s the major problem.

Panek acknowledges that bands in Ithaca frequently outgrow their small college-town status. Those that move to Boston or New York to take their chances are rarely heard from again—if they even stay together.

“It could be a case of big fish in a small pond,” he shrugs.

Once band members graduate after being popular for 3 or 4 years, there’s “almost like a scramble” for another band to fill the void. Other times, bands that find success in Ithaca usually stick around, sometimes for a few years, sometimes more.

“There’s always a lot of bands, but the ones that really make it to the top have been together for a while. It takes time to get tight.”

And what works in Ithaca may not always work elsewhere in the country, as Panek points out.

“To be honest with you, a lot of times the bands that are really popular locally for a while, don’t leave town for a reason. Because they’ll get their asses kicked.  Some of the bands are pretty good for Ithaca, but if they leave town they’ll get burnt to death. All of a sudden, they’re a little lightweight. It’s a problem.”

But with the talent from the music schools, Panek knows that Ithaca won’t come up short for new and diverse bands anytime soon, and especially now.

“The music is good, the bands are as good as ever, and getting better,” says Panek, keeping an eye on how the current school year is progressing. “It remains to be seen. This semester’s so young.”

THE BARTENDER

Talk to enough people in town about good venues for live music, and a few names will emerge from the riffraff: The Nines. Castaways. Felicia’s Atomic Lounge. The Shop.

Ask John Peterson his favorite venue, and he’ll surely tell you the Haunt Bar and Grille, which he owned until 1996.

Originally, Peterson had intended to stay in Ithaca only for one summer after graduating Cornell. He took up a bartender job at The Haunt in 1972, back when the venue featured one or two local bands covering the Allman Brothers every week. Peterson didn’t stand for it.

“I knew exactly what the college kids wanted,” says Peterson. “It was later in the 70s, between 1976 and 1977 that we started bringing live entertainment back. Strictly original bands. No bands that played covers. I wanted bands that played original music.”

More original bands started to filter in, playing original reggae and blues.  And eventually, Peterson became a partner and stayed in Ithaca to steer The Haunt towards becoming the institution it is now.

In those initial years Peterson took a trendsetting approach to booking, oftentimes bucking the trend on mainstream music. For him, working at The Haunt was a “labor of love.”

“Having a nightclub was just a cool thing and I was very enthused about bringing these bands in,” he said.  “I would promote them really hard, and as opposed to bringing in what people really wanted, I brought in bands I thought I could develop a market for.”

Those acts included the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn, who Peterson paid $250 for in 1981 — the same Stevie Ray Vaughn who went on to record Texas Flood and cement his reputation as one of the most acclaimed guitarists of this generation.

“I used to let the bands stay at my house back then,” recalls Peterson, “and Stevie was leaving kind of late after the act. He planned to stay in their van, but he stayed at my place for four to five nights. With his guitar.”

After being in town for so long, someone like Peterson starts to notice trends. Jam bands are on their way out, he says, a sentiment he shares with Panek. Heavy metal struggles to find a thriving audience. Soul and funk are currently crowd-pleasers, as well as African-inspired roots music mixed with good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll.

“The thing that makes me happy about Ithaca now is that it’s known as a town that really supports alternative ethnic music,” Peterson said. “People in Ithaca have a broad taste of music. It’s that kind of community… there’s a definite vibe in Ithaca that makes creative type people stick around that will help keep the scene alive.”

THE BOUNCER

Tim Mavros may be a self-proclaimed metalhead, but his job takes him all across town and across all different genres of music. He’s a bouncer who’s worked almost every major club in Ithaca and tossed drunks and underage kids out of most of them, but he is a man who enjoys the crowd too much to be confrontational.

Working directly with the shows also means that he’s seen the scene change from time to time and knows which venues he enjoys working with (Dark Star Orchestra are among the most entertaining of the “hippie shows”) and which ones may give him trouble (the nascent hip-hop scene isn’t his cup of tea). He enjoys the crowd, he enjoys the glimpses of the show he catches from the door, and he clearly enjoys his job.

He’s also felt the sting of the economic recession, which threatens to pull the carpet out from under the entire scene.

“The prices of everything went up,” he explains. “New York State wants to raise the liquor taxes. So you’re forcing the venues to up their prices, and it deters them from buying what they would usually buy.”

Venue owners rely on college students’ billion-dollar-strong disposable income to survive and thrive. When the recession hit, club owners were worried that their crowds would disappear, and reacted by reducing shows during the slow weekday stretches. But mercifully, the crowds haven’t disappeared altogether, the talent hasn’t vanished like the money has, and musicians are simply requesting more free gigs.

And the love-hate relationship between the permanent residents of Ithaca and the rowdy students on the Hill makes for an interesting dynamic.

“Townies don’t like the students,” explains Mavros, “but they know they bring the jobs. Even mine.”

THE PROMOTER

Fortunately for Bruce Stoff, this summer’s tourism season shook off the worst effects of the recession. A 10-year Ithaca resident, Stoff is the communications manager of the Ithaca/Tompkins County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. His job entails drawing visitors to hike along Ithaca’s famous gorges, tour the wineries on the nation’s first wine trail, kayak down Cayuga Lake, go swimming at Buttermilk Falls, and do some shopping in the newly refurbished downtown Ithaca Commons.

And, while they’re in town, maybe catch a show or two.

“We just love the local music scene here, it’s fun. And we love getting all the national acts coming through,” says Stoff. “But from a tourism perspective, from the visitor’s bureau we just like to spread the word that people can come here and catch a good show.”

Stoff has been involved with the annual GrassRoots Festival for years — the “festival of music and dance,” featuring performers like Donna the Buffalo, has become a staple for folk fans across the country. And it’s one of the many promotions Stoff has worked on during his tenure here.

“We did a CD of local Ithaca music,” explains Stoff, “featuring some of the bands that are popular here. And we inserted it into 12-packs of Ithaca beer that were sold throughout the Northeast. And that was cool, just putting local music out with beer and letting people know there’s a fun music scene here.”

Additional projects target nearby metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, whose NPR station is working with Stoff to bring Lyle Lovett to town for an interview on the program “World Café.”

And the Chamber of Commerce does what it can to help out small and new businesses, says Stoff. Finding sources of funding for clubs, with their razor-thin profit margins, can be difficult, but when they become successful these businesses are a boon to tourism. That’s why local nightclub Felicia’s Atomic Lounge was recently picked by the Chamber as the Best New Business of the Year.

“You don’t expect a chamber to pick a bar or a club as the Best Business of the Year,” says Stoff. “That’s how they try to bring attention to it.”

Seventy to 80 percent of the 750,000 visitors to Ithaca are in town primarily for the waterfalls and the downtown attractions. And after that, the remaining tourists are evenly split between the restaurants, the water sports, and the wine. To them, the music scene almost feels like an afterthought—a testament to Ithaca’s relative isolation on the national stage.

“It’s a little hard to get on the national radar like that,” says Stoff. “But there’s a really strong contingent of national performers who live here, especially with the roots scene.”

It’s a challenge for Stoff, who acknowledges that while student musicians develop their talents in Ithaca, they make their professional impacts in major cities like New York.

“The biggest stumbling block is, how do you keep the talent here long enough to really develop a name for the location? As soon as they start getting really good and popular, they move on to where they can get big shows and media attention.”

THE JOURNALIST

Or perhaps there are those in town who wouldn’t want Ithaca to become huge and corporatized, like the faceless record conglomerates in Los Angeles. Jim Catalano has been covering the scene since 1992, when he wrote a weekly music column entitled “Soundoff” for the Ithaca Journal. Despite being laid off in June 2009, he plans to continue covering music.

Being a music journalist means that he caught a lot of shows, including Dread Zeppelin, Soul Asylum, Buddy Guy and Jeff Buckley. When he first moved to town The Haunt was located downtown instead of by the waterfront, Castaways was a metal bar called Max’s, and locals could earn a good living not only by playing clubs but also fraternities, hotels, and college dorms. The scene ebbs and flows, he says, “but that’s mainly due to the types of venues in town and the local promoters, rather than the musicians themselves.”

Today, Catalano believes the scene is poised for another upswing. With talented and dedicated promoters who understand the scene well, and two newly refurbished venues set to open, “I think it will continue to be bright,” says Catalano.

He believes underground shows like Popcorn Youth, the Ithaca Underground, and Cornell University’s Fanclub Collective are shaping the contemporary scene today. Local bands such as the Sim Redmond Band, J-san & the Analogue Sons, and John Brown’s Body are also putting out new music that, no matter how large or small the crowd is, will manage to draw an audience.

And mercifully for his career, Catalano always finds something to write about.

“I’ve had people ask me how I could possibly write a weekly music column for 17 years,” he saoid. “I usually tell them that between the strong local scene, the number of cool national touring acts that visit, and the variety of regional concerts in the summer, when it’s easier to travel, there’s almost always something worthwhile to write about.”

THE YOUNG BLOOD

Worthwhile new acts, in fact, lie no further than Ithaca’s South Hill, home to the music-intensive Ithaca College and dozens of young student acts.

The six beard-toting, flannel-wearing members of Caution Children spent their junior year in a house on South Hill, drinking Utica Club, recording demo tracks for Myspace and playing gigs on and off campus when they had the time.  Though they’ve since moved into separate houses, they’ve still become something of a fixture on the college scene — so much so, in fact, that they seem to open, headline or otherwise involve themselves in every show that IC puts on.

But for keyboardist and IC senior Aaron Terkel, at least, Caution Children are more a band from Ithaca than a band from Ithaca College.  It’s an atmosphere that he and other college acts say is very hospitable to young bands, largely because the local scene itself is so vibrant.

“There’s a lot of music in this town,” Terkel said by e-mail.  “It has been said that there are more musicians (or at least, musically inclined people) per capita in Ithaca than anywhere else in upstate NY… Local music will always be present and be a big driving force behind what keeps people going in this town.”

Caution Children originally formed in 2007, after an open mic night at IC’s Campus Center.  The band began as a kind of free-spirited collective, sitting on a rainbow parachute and jamming out on toy instruments.  As they began practicing more regularly and playing actual songs, they gained a small following and a reputation for spirited, often riotous, live shows, complete with the token parachute and the “pistols in the sky” hand gesture that have become something of a calling card.

Last year, they opened for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Cornell University.  This month, they’ll play an IC homecoming event.  And over the upcoming winter break, the band intends to record their debut album with Sixteen Sixteen, an artist label and collective started by frontman Steve Burton’s high school friend Chris Ploss and home to fellow IC acts Radio the Ape, Kites in Space and Dandy Little Lions.

But Caution Children are a part of the four-year cycle that Pete Panek and other scene vets cite as critical to Ithaca’s music scene: most of the band’s six are not native to Central New York, and though they groan — literally — at the mention of post-graduation plans, it doesn’t seem that they’re likely to stay in the area.  Few college bands do, said CJ Knowles, a 2008 IC grad and the former frontman of now-defunct folk-pop act the Tundra Toes.

“College bands are in a lot of ways flashes in the pan doomed to fizzle out once everyone graduates,” he wrote in an e-mail interview. “But each one definitely leaves behind some influence, particularly on the administration’s support for college music and the local venues’ ideas of its worth.”

Knowles said that Jack Bauer and Stanley and the Livingstons were critical in paving the way for his band, while Tundra Toes went on to clear the way for Caution Children.  There’s a lot of crossover between the three bands: Caution Children’s saxophonist, Reece Lazarus, used to play with Tundra Toes, while Knowles once played with Stanley and the Livingstons.

Caution Children also share their bassist, Mike Grippi, with Dandy Little Lions, a noise-driven electro act that went on hiatus when keyboardist Jake Forney and drummer Nick Carr graduated last spring.  Forney has since relocated to Brooklyn, while Carr lives in Rhode Island.  There’s no word on if or when the Dandy Little Lions will return.

But that isn’t the case for every college band playing Castaways and The Nines these days.  Nick Bullock, Jason Pratt and Devon Reehl met in the IC dorms in 2000 — nearly 10 years and two line-up changes later, Revision remains a staple of the funk/jazz scene.

Keyboardist Jonathan Petronzio said that it’s a scene on the brink — a fact that explains why Revisions, at least, have never left.

“I’ve often wondered why and how Ithaca isn’t viewed as the Nashville of the Northeast,” he said.  “I compare Ithaca’s music to the likeness of a Carnival quarter machine where all of the quarters are lined up teetering on the edge, and ready to fall at any time… We only need one band to break.”

When all is said and done, the future of the Ithaca music scene appears as strong as ever, in spite of the recent recession, changes to the scene and changes to the industry overall.  The trendsetters of contemporary music are still here, coming and going every four years: these kids know what they want and they are ready to reshape this weird and beautiful town in their own ever-changing image.

“So do what you want, don’t follow trends, make your own trends,” Panek advised newcomers to Ithaca’s music scene.  “And then let them follow you, wherever that may be.”

– story by Blake Rong and Caitlin Dewey
– additional reporting by Donata Lockett and Jamie Miles

Lyle Lovett

What an amazing concert. I don’t know if there’s anything else I can add to that. Lyle Lovett was incredible. His band was alive. His backup singers (three older black men who could sing and move!) were inspiring.

And Lyle totally missed his calling as a standup comic. Oh, yes. The man can sing, write and play, but he can also crack a joke with the best of them, which he did several times between songs, keeping the energy of the audience turned up high. To say I was impressed would be an understatement.

I knew before that I loved Lyle. If I hadn’t, though, I would now. He’s playing in Atlanta soon, and I am seriously thinking of taking a trip up there to see him again.

I probably won’t, but the time and expense would be more than worth it.

Julia Roberts is an idiot. You shouldn’t be. If Lyle comes to play near you, even if you have no idea who he is, go!

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, Tallahassee Civic Center, Wednesday, October 28, 2009

So, apparently there are some people in this city who lack a sense of humor. Let me preface this quote from an anonymous person in the local newspaper by saying this was kept to a minimum, has occurred at every concert I’ve ever attended and the people doing it were perfectly quiet and respectful during Lyle’s musical performances. It only occurred between songs:

Bought a ticket to see Lyle Lovett and got to hear the hoots and hollers from inconsiderate, self-absorbed rubes for free.

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009910300315

There’s a car outside
And there’s a road
There’s a time to stay
And a time to rock and roll
You’ve been a real good friend
But I’m on my way
If I don’t see you real soon
I’ll see you down the road someday
Jimmy LaFave  “Car Outside”

I’m a rolling stone, all alone and lost,
For a life of sin, I have paid the cost.
When I pass by, all the people say
‘Just another guy on the lost highway.‘
Hank Williams “Lost Highway”

And this traveling around
Going to be the death of me
Lyle Lovett “This Traveling Around”

Music and travelling, especially by car, have always been good companions.  Did you know that the Motorola company got its name when it started manufacturing car radios in the early 30’s?  Do you remember when car radios were options on a new car?  When they only had an AM band? Some of us now judge a car not by what’s under the hood, but by the quality, number and location of the speakers.

The music we listen on the road matches our moods – sadness when we are leaving someone, delight when we are returning home, a beat when we are rolling down the interstate, something moody when we are driving at night, something electrifying when we need to stay awake.  Something light and cheerful when the top is down, something that matches the beat of the windshield wipers when it is raining.

Perhaps there are so many “Travelling Blues” because travelling often can be lonely.  Are there so many songs about the road because musicians spend a good amount of their lives travelling from town to town?  Certain roads have been the subject of many songs (US 61 and 66 most notably.) Not to mention songs about cars themselves (we know of songs about Fords, Chevrolets and Studebakers, among others.)

This afternoon, Great River Radio will tackle road music.  What was just going to be a Confluence theme has blossomed into an entire show.  It’s been two years since we’ve done road music on GRR – and there is so much great music that works well in the car, or refers to the act of driving and leaving and returning and running away and just moving.  We’ll hear from everyone from Sarah Vaughn to Tom Waits, Son Volt to Talking Heads, there will be new music (Ruthie Foster) and old (Hank Williams), some of your favorites and some you’ve never heard before.

Next week we’ll return to the shorter Confluence form – since we are in Halloween season, send us your ideas on the theme of monsters.  Not too scary, please.

Playlist
Angels On The Banks-Katie Herzig
Lost Highway-Hank Williams
When It Don’t Come Easy-Ruthie Foster
Route 66 (theme)-The TV Theme Players
Detour Ahead-Sarah Vaughn
It’s Rock And Roll-Lyle Lovett
Car Outside-Jimmy LaFave
Ol’ 55-Tom Waits
Goin’ By Feel-Ray Bonneville
Please Tell My Brother-Golden Smog
Road To Nowhere-Talking Heads
Dirt Road Blues-Bob Dylan
The Road (theme)-Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Driving With The Brakes On-Del Amitri
Chevrolet-Taj Mahal
Ford Econoline-Nanci Griffith
Studebaker-Jordan Zevon
Rules Of Travel-Rosanne Cash
Yakima-Erik Friedlander
Drive (live)-REM
61 Highway-Corey Harris
Afterglow 61-Son Volt
Drive South-John Hiatt
You Can Sleep While I Drive-Melissa Etheridge
Last Chance Texaco-Rickie Lee Jones
This Traveling Around-Lyle Lovett
Long Way-Antje Duvekot

(If you listen to this song, let me know in the comments if you like it or not.)

Every once in a while, usually while I’m driving in traffic, an awful, violent thought flashes through my mind. Then, I think, “Wow, that was unacceptable”; I pop another Lexapro; and I move on with my day. I can imagine singer/songwriter Alec Ounsworth having a similar experience, but instead thinking, “What a great idea for a song.”

 (Left, Singer/Songwriter Alec Ounsworth; Right, Friendly Serial Killer, Dexter)

As an example, see an excerpt of his lyrics from the new song, “Bones in the Grave.”

Listen to an excerpt of the song here

(Help me out with the correct lyrics if you know them.)

“Bald head and John’s convict tattoos
Ice raining, ice for hours
Ready, see medicine boy
Leaps the ??? …
But the nurse has yet to arrive

“So I killed Johnny’s pregnant shadow
While he was fast asleep
The doctor says don’t let him go
He wants me six feet deep

“Gotta’ get them bones, in the grave
Get them bones, in the grave
Get them booooones…”

Disturbing! Is Alec a serial killer in the making? Nah. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s a creative guy who exorcises his demons through his art…or something like that.

Musically, I love everything about “Bones in the Grave,” on the album, “Mo Beauty,” which was recorded in New Orleans. Drummer Stanton Moore begins the song like he’s an animal in a cage, rattling noisy chains with his teeth. An organ, creeping like a spider, joins a guitar playing whatever the hell it wants, not necessarily in tune with anything else.

Ounsworth’s nasally voice is front and center, channeling 1982 Gordon Gano (singer of the Violent Femmes) to great effect.

By the time the band finishes the chorus, I’m clapping and singing along.

So just in time for Halloween and as the fourth season of Dexter is well underway, solo artist Alec Ounsworth (also from the musical projects Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Flashy Python) gives us a great song in a scary package.

Thanks, Alec, and take those meds, it helps!

To experience “Bones in the Grave” for yourself, listen to the album, “Mo Beauty,” released Oct. 20, 2009, Anti, Inc. Ounsworth’s Web sites include www.myspace.com/alecounsworth and www.anti.com/artists/view/73 .

Source: www.anti.com/artists/view/73 (Ounsworth’s artist page)

Second and Third Favorite Songs This Week: 2. Miguel Zenón – “Esta Plena” from the album, “Esta Plena” (Latin Jazz) and 3. Lyle Lovett – “Pantry” from the Album, “Natural Forces” (Country)

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