My Amazon Reviews: Traveling Wilburys "Volume One"

A Really Super Supergroup
5 Out Of 5 Stars

Roy Orbison. Bob Dylan. George Harrison. Tom Petty. Jeff Lynne. A cross generational, odd musical but stunningly workable combination, they dubbed themselves The Traveling Wilburys and cut this one off, one of a kind album. Each man brought their A-game and checked their egos. Ultimately, "Volume One" became a surprise hit, going Top Ten and generating a hit single via "Handle With Care."

Even as odd as the combination seemed, the members all had connections. Dylan toured with Petty and the Heartbreakers, Harrison had just wrapped up "Cloud Nine" with Lynne at the helm as producer, who had also produced Orbison and Petty. "Volume One" somehow managed to use the best of each member, making the album a light, fun affair. It's easy to feel the joy the band gets as they plow through "Tweeter and The Monkeyman," which is so Dylan, it could be mistaken for a Dylan parody. Or Orbison's ranging vocal on "Not Alone Anymore," using that mammoth voice of his to enchant the listener.

But the capper is "Handle With Care," where each member gets a turn at the mic for an utterly charming piece of rootsy rock. Same with the second single, "End Of The Line." Given the amount of talent in the room, it's amazing just how seamless this all is. Lynne's polished production job makes the blending also feel effortless. There weren't many supergroups that could flaunt the title without having a shoving match for the spotlight, but "Volume One" was that rare triumph.

Sadly, Orbison died shortly after the album came out, and the surprise success pretty much guaranteed a second try, but the chemistry was not there and the self-referencing (like "The Wilbury Twist") became obvious instead of effortless. You can get "Volume One" without worry, "Volume Three" is a fielder's choice.

     

My Amazon Reviews: John Mellencamp "Mr. Happy Go Lucky"

Mellencamp Transitions Yet Again
3 Out Of 5 Stars

John Mellencamp has never been one to allow his muse any slack. Be the disputes he's had over his name, his image and even his sound, Mellencamp has been kicking at the prickles since he started out. For 1996's "Mr Happy Go Lucky," Mellencamp again threw a spanner into the public's expectations and hired noted dance producer Junior Vasquez to man the production booth. Purists immediately cried foul over the album's dependence on drum loops, samples and other gimmicks, but they missed the point. Mellencamp, who had just recovered from a major heart attack, was compelled more than ever to explore his music on his terms and "Mr Happy Go Lucky" succeeds more than it fails.

Even with the touches added by Vasquez, the album still depends mainly on the kind of rootsy/folkish rock Mellencamp had been coaxing out of his songs sine "Big Daddy." The big hit, "Key West Intermezzo," glides atop a shuffling groove, but has the traditional drum clap and home-baked electric piano moving things along under Mellencamp's usual gruff melodic singing. Even with a dance producer, Mellencamp sounds more like Springsteen than Madonna. In fact, the one or two times that Mellencamp seems to be letting Vasquez push him, like "This May Not Be The End Of The World," sound forced.

You'll still be getting plenty of the patented Mellencamp sounds (I count "Key West Intermezzo" among them), like "Just Another Day" and "Circling The Moon," plus his deepening love of roots rock, like "Jackamo Road" and "The Full Catastrophe." Never one to sit on his laurels or cater to anyone's expectations, John Mellencamp was still capable of bending genres and confounding expectations. "Mr Happy Go Lucky" was another one of those albums and a worthy disc out of Mellencamp's library.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Dave Rawlings Machine "A Friend of a Friend"

The name speaks a certain truth
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Dave Rawlings has been siding along the Americana and Roots music scene for over a decade, primarily with singer/songwriter Gillian Welch. But you may have heard his work on albums by Bright Eyes, Old Crow Medicine Show and Ryan Adams (whose song they co-wrote for Adams' "Heartbreaker," "To Be Young," appears here). Along with Welch, several of Rawlings' friends appear on "Friend of a Friend," and is all the prior mentioned artists ring your musical chimes, you're going to enjoy this CD.

Welch is in heavy rotation on "Friend," she is either playing guitar or harmonizing on most of the songs. Rawlings also lays some reclamation to his previous contributions to others, like the aforementioned "To Be Young," as he takes an Old Crow song - "I Hear Them All" - and claims it for himself. But he's more than adept on covers; when he combines Bright Eyes' "Method Acting" with Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer," the songs' resonant themes blend seamlessly. Rawlings and Welch also have some fun with their rootsiness; "Sweet Tooth" is a singalong that may be about something deeper then a craving for candy, and "How's About You" is a convincing porch rocker.

"Friend of a Friend" is an affirmation of Rawlings' individual talents. It's a charming album that wears its traditionalism on its sleeves, and will make fans want for more contributions than from what you usually hear on Welch's fine recordings.

   

My Amazon Reviews: The Gaslight Anthem "American Slang"

They Cut Me to Ribbons and Taught Me To Drive  
3 Out Of 5 Stars

What strikes me about The Gaslight Anthem and their album "American Slang" is just how quintessentially New York/New Jersey they sound. There's nothing arty or pretentious about them, and their songs run on the same kind of fuel that fires up the best of Springsteen devotees. At the same time, there's a punkish element about the sound that puts them separate from the millions of Asbury Park wannabees. Mix in some Against Me and Thin Lizzy, and you get "American Slang."

There's a lot of braggadocio and bluster to be found here; nostalgia is a thing to be discarded. "God help the man who says if you'd have known me when" lead singer Brian Fallon snarls on "Old Haunts." Like Springsteen, The Gaslight Anthem's kids are too busy racing in the streets or fighting in the rings ("Boxer") to worry about the past. There's a slugger's soul pumping behind the best songs on this album. There's also an ambitious band finding its core. On "American Slang," these guys try to find out if it's buried in the heart of the Bronx, and make a glorious racket in their hunt.

   

My Amazon Reviews: The Avett Brothers "I and Love and You"

I and Love and This 
5 Out of 5 Stars


I was fortunate enough to see The Avett Brothers at The 50th Newport Folk Festival, and they were the new find of the year for me there. I picked up Emotionalismand was eager to hear the songs that the brothers previewed from an album they kept mentioning from the stage to be released in the fall. This is everything I was hoping for after seeing them live. It captures the brothers' dynamic as Scott and Seth Avett, along with bassist Bob Crawford and their melding of bluegrass and rock (which leans way towards the non-rock side of things).

In fact, this album almost single-handedly rescues the moribund "Americana" genre from too many bearded bands that have forgotten that empty spaces often say more than over-layering the tracks. Songs like the title track and "Ten Thousand Words" are naked with emotions, yet the band knows that "Kick Drum Heart" or "Slight Figure of Speech" are just as OK with a pop hook then without. They've discovered (and I would bet producer Rick Rubin - who signed them to his American label personally - influenced this) that you can make epic music without being grandiose or saccharin.

When the Avetts get to the album's final song, "Incomplete and Insecure", they sing "I haven't finished a thing since I started my life, I don't feel much like starting now." "I and Love and You" utterly blasts that as a lie, because this album, which captures all the best elements of older groups like The Bandor Rubin's mining of Johnny Cash's forgotten talents, The Avett Brothers are now showing that they have what it takes to make it in the majors, and do so on their own terms.

My Amazon Reviews: James McMurtry "The Best of the Sugar Hill Years"

He was a Drinking Man with a Guitar Problem

4 out of 5 Stars

James McMurtry had a brush with major label fame when his John Mellencamp produced Too Long in the Wasteland brought him attention in the early 90's. James' lyrically brusque songs echoed Mellencamp's worldview, and the McMurtry family tradition of quality wordsmithing covered the album like so much dustbowl dirt. But that attention was short lived, and CBS let James go after three albums. The roots label Sugar Hill scooped him up, and this compilation covers three albums between 1997 through 2002.

It's a good baker's dozen covering James' oft-told favorite stories; losers that have given up ("60 Acres"), the decline of the world as we know it ("No More Buffalo") and those that wrestle with our inner demons (the amazing "Choctaw Bingo"). These are not 'feel-good' songs, pointed out bluntly by the first song's family-infight over grandma's farm and the will the family squabbles over in "60 Acres."

Glory glory, Hallelujah,
Right back at'cha, don't she look natural.
Don't look at me like there's something growing out of my head!
Just 'cause that old bird's dead."

There's the alcoholic trying to regain control right after in "Every Little Bit Counts," and the dry delivery to "Broken Bed" underscores the pain of the singer's romantic break-up. And when the occasion calls for it, he can turn a phrase with the best of them, like "Fast as I Can's" tale of "a drinking man with a guitar problem."

While the political detonation that occurred on 2005's Childish Things "We Can't Make it Here" had yet to reach its flash-point, "The Best Of The Sugar Hill Years" presents a rootsy singer with a hard-boiled journalist's eye. James McMurtry belongs in the same company as Steve Earle, Don Henley and Mellencamp. This is a great place to make a discovery, then go back for more.

My Amazon Reviews: BoDeans "Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams"

Still Surviving on the Street,

4 Out of 5 Stars

Back in 1985/86, Slash Records seemed to be on the brink of starting a whole new American Breed of Rockers. They had new albums and new bands from Los Lobos to The Blasters to The Bodeans. They all got sort of lumped into the 'new wave' category, but there was something more going on here. "Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams" was one of the best embodiments of this group of bands, and reissue, almost 25 years after the fact, shows why.

The Bodeans were young and enthusiastic kids who wanted to make their own sound. Being from Wisconsin, they has no burning desire to be trendy or fashionable, just to make music that felt like escape to them. With the first thrilling notes of "She's A Runaway" and the rocking theme of breakout the song offers, it's an instant classic that should have slotted in comfortably next to the Springsteen or Mellencamp hits of the day. T-Bone Burnette heard the truth inside the songs and the vocal magic Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas made, and hauled them away to Los Angeles to make this album.

"Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams" is a missing link of an album, the chain the runs between The Everly Brothers and The Rolling Stones (from whom the album nicked its title). The remaster sounds incredible. The BoDeans were still fresh and excited, with T-Bone at the top of his early production game. "Rickshaw Riding" has sudden space in its slowbreathing sound. "Looking for Me Somewhere" sounds like Johnny Cash passed on it to hand it over to these youngsters. And the bonus track "Turn Your Radio On" makes you wonder why this Chuck Berry-ish rocker got left behind.

The there's the DVD, a homecoming of sorts with a live Minneapolis concert from 1985. Again, there's this brash enthusiasm that only a hungry young band could muster, and it's great fun to watch. It's east to see why (if you believe Kurt's liner notes) the T-Bone urged the suits at Warners to sign The Bodeans because "they're gonna be bigger than The Beatles." It includes songs that never made it to the studio albums done in front of a hometown audience, excited that their local heroes just might be the next big thing. "Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams" captures that desire, and this re-issue - from the good folks at Rhino - makes you scratch your head as to why it didn't happen.

My Amazon Reviews: Black Crowes "Shake Your Money Maker"

Shaking it up with the Black Crowes,
5 out of 5 Stars

It's hard to believe that, as the 80's drew to a close, an album like this was taken to heart and to the charts. A band that mixed the greasier aspects of The Rolling Stones and the Southern rock of the Allman Brothers, along with a little soul and gospel, would fit in during the last dregs of New Wave and the mad popularity of the Jackson clan. But the lo-fi rocking of "Hard to Handle" and "Jealous Again" turned this booze soaked pair of brothers into stars.

Between vocal brother Chris Robinson's approximation of Rod Stewart's vocal swagger and Rich's muscular riffing, "Shake Your Money Maker" snagged an audience of classic rockers that were being under-served in 1990. The band also knew how to make a stoner anthem ballad with "She Talks To Angels," an acoustic classic that captured the band's versatility. Striking, direct and to the point, "Shake Your Money Maker" kicked off a career that The Black Crowes have stuck to ever since. What was dismissed by many as retro some 20 years ago still has the groove of classic rock in its veins, even as such newer albums as Warpaint continue their mastery of the genre.

My Amazon Reviews: Slaid Cleaves "Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away"

Making the World Safe for the Millionaires, 5 out of 5 Stars

I've long posited on Amazon reviews that Slaid Cleaves is America's best working young folksinger and one of our finest interpretive singers. I considered his Unsung to be one of that year's best records. Yet, he has outdone himself on this album, "Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away." This is Slaid's most political and least romantic album to date. The feel bad album title should be a dead giveaway right off, but the subject matter skirts into some bleak territory. "Hard To Believe" looks hard at a midwestern town that is slipping into oblivion as the factories shut down and the first person's romance leaves. And then he tucks in the barb "Here comes another blown up kid from over there, making the whole world safe for the millionaires" as the blue collar remainders head for the local watering hole. It's a part of the hidden bite to all the songs here; Slaid sings in a honey-rough voice that belies the sting of his words.

Many of the folks in Slaid's song still live (as he has put in many of his albums) on the whiskey and smoke, but now they are wondering why they've been forced to swallow a "New coat of lies." The mundane horror of life keeps popping up again and again, like the new widow on "Green Mountains and Me," who learns of her loss as she watches "your Daddy shakes the soldier's hands, frozen in the doorway where he stands." Or the horrific/deadpan delivery of the hanging that takes place on "Twistin'." Like the coal-mine widow he sang of on Broke Down's "Lydia," family loss is just a recurring dream that never seems to lose its sadness...and as he adds in "Dreams," the good dreams just disappoint you as they die.

Yet the music, downbeat as the descriptions sound, is thoroughly likable. The hopeful "Beautiful Thing" swings hard at the liars and manipulators in the belief that "the goodness of man" sees us through "the new dark ages." I got to see Slaid play most of these songs at Philadelphia's Tin Angel and his deft and casual delivery makes the bitterness of some of these songs easy to digest, and his hopeful demeanor carries through "Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away." The playing and production is pure Americana roots music - and it makes "Everything" Slaid Cleves' best to date in a career that already has several terrific albums on the player.