Top Albums 

Chris Knight/Little Victories – Libertarian-soaked hard times

Damien Jurardo/Maraqopa –  Psychedelic lonely indie goodness

 Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Psychedelic Pill – Dirty gritty Rock and Roll

 Todd Snider/Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables – Hard truths with a laugh

 Dwight Yoakam/3 Pears – Country gold

Top Songs/Playlist

Nothing On Me/Chris Knight

Damien Jurardo/Museum of Flight

Walk Like a Giant/Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Too Soon To Tell/Todd Snider

Rock It All Away/Dwight Yoakam

Father John Misty/Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings

Opening Night/Company

90 Miles An Hour Down A Dead-End Street/Tommy Womack

Summer Heat/The Whigs

Yesterday/Cory Branan

What Makes a Good Man?/The Heavy

Jericho/John Fullbright

Michael Praytor, Five Years Later/Ben Folds Five

Fergus Falls/Field Report

Some Things About Me You Should Know/Steve Poltz

Rented Room/Craig Finn

Silver Harps and Violins/Joe Pug

Used to Believe/JKutchma & The Five Fifths

Click here for more Twangville Best of 2012 coverage.

McLeese also does little to flame the fire in the failed relationship with producer/guitarist Pete Anderson, who worked with, and helped shape Dwight’s sound for years. The subject is breached, but neither party has much to say about the matter, and both are very aware that they accomplished something special together in the years worked together. And both cashed some pretty big checks during the same time frame.

The book is sprinkled with interviews from Yoakam, with equal time given to Anderson, and a few quotes from Warner Brothers insiders, musicians there at the beginning, and others in the music business, but it seems McLeese met with Dwight merely once or twice when compiling the book. I suppose though, for this type of writing, numerous interviews were not needed. McLeese is definitely a fan, and the book is written as such, and when he swoons about Yoakam’s live show, I could do nothing but smile and agree as each time I have seen him I have been blown away. The only thing that bothered me when reading was that a lot of the highlights seemed to be repetitive with the beginning and ending of chapters blurring together.

Overall, this is fun book for fans and the casual listener looking to learn a bit about Yoakam’s music. It did get me to break out Dwight on shuffle and listen more closely to some of his past albums which I have always enjoyed, so I consider it a success. Now, if McLeese would just go out and spend the next five years with Yoakam and come back with a memoir like Jimmy McDonough’s Shakey, I’d be satisfied.

RIYL: Bakersfield Biscuits, Guitars, Cadillacs, etc., etc.

The twelve songs, many filled with religious imagery, are solid and I often caught myself referencing Jason Isbell’s debut album a few years back. Fullbright’s songwriting is just as strong and the production qualities are similar, albeit there is more harmonica here than on an Isbell record. Standouts include “Satan and St. Paul”, “Moving”, and “Gawd Above”, along with “All the Time in The World”, which features some of my favorite lyrics from the disc:

Moses was a man of action, action
He slapped the water and it turned to blood
I ain’t no kind of leader for reaction, no son
I know when to leave when the leaving’s good

There’s also the tune “Jericho,” (which could also be titled Walls) a song I instantly remembered from the Baker show, and I challenge you to listen and not go away singing the chorus for days on end.

Audio Stream: John Fullbright, “Jericho”

On that night I saw Fullbright perform, I remembered Baker making the comment that John was from Okemah, Oklahoma, home of Woody Guthrie, and this is also in the second sentence of Fullbright’s online bio and mentioned in many of the pieces I have read on him. I guess everyone has to have an angle, but I could care less where the boy is from. He can obviously craft a damn fine song.

RIYL: Barns, Yard Sales, The Seattle Supersonics

The album is awash with electric guitars and the dreamy, often lazy, vocals of songwriter Brian Hannon. The masterpiece of this ten song collection is “Opening Night” which has a melody that sticks in your head like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth and easily sounds like it could be played on modern rock radio, if there even is such a thing anymore. Give it a listen and you’ll spend the rest of your day walking around the office humming and singing, “It was opening night/There were angles calling down to you” and then questioning, “Is that what he said?” immediately not caring and going back to singing. Good stuff.

RIYL: marshmallows, sunshine, IPAs

Early favorites include “Working Titles” which contains trademark Jurado dark lines reading:

You could use to be more like your heroes.
A darker shade of damaged distortion.
Wearing death like a cape or a costume.
Cut your ties and leave town when you want to.

“Museum of Flight” is another standout with a simple effective chorus that repeats thrice and hooks you with one listen. Consisting of only ten tracks, Maraquopa is a mellow enchanting album that is great for late night repeat and a worthy addition to Damien’s stellar catalogue.

RIYL:  warm candle wax, hard rain, sad poems

1.  Frank Turner/England Keep My Bones

Peggy Sang The Blues:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Ns6ouwO1g&ob=av2e

2.  Butch Walker/The Spade

Synthesizers:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz0EAMDsyVc

3.  My Morning Jacket/Circuital

Circuital:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsD8-Sx2QKw

4.  Gillian Welch/The Harrow and the Harvest

Hard Times:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k35haKwqY14

5.  Kasey Anderson/Heart of a Dog

The Wrong Light:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9qeGxUafeo

6.  The Felice Brothers/Celebration, Florida

Ponzi:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElTS7gv5ffQ

7.   Florence + the Machine/Ceremonials

Shake It Out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbN0nX61rIs&ob=av2e

8.  Adele/21

Rumor Has It:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_6BBAVfzqM

9.  Iron & Wine/Kiss Each Other Clean

Walking Far From Home:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg5403yj4II

10. Wilco/The Whole Love

One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa2XnouRXKo

11. The Low Anthem/Smart Flesh

Ghost Woman Blues:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpadm5i_CKU

12. Drive By Truckers/Go Go Boots

Mercy Buckets:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOMdN6X–7c

13. Jason Isbell/Here We Rest

Codeine:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V_vBPaI1d0

14. Hayes Carll/KMAG YOYO

Grateful for Christmas:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5er6FZLRm1U

15. Lucinda Williams/Blessed

Buttercup:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6z7b5aIi4

Columbia, SC Local Music Year in Review

Local journalist (armed with video camera) Kevin Oliver posted some highlights of the local scene here in Columbia on his youtube page.  Or at least the highlights that he recorded this year.  The link to the entire listing is here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL31D79D06C47E4864&feature=g-all-a

My favorites include:

Number 4:    Zach Seibert, Darla

Number 8:    Honey Dewdrops, When Was the War

Number 22:  David Adedokun, Professional Travel On a Closed Course

Number 44:  Tom Hall and the Plowboys, Carter’s Garden

Number 49:  Sea Wolf Mutiny, Lovers

Number 52:  Bill Wells Blueridge Mountain Grass with Willie Wells, Another Night

 Neil Young:  For the cool, rainy days, it doesn’t get much better than Harvest or Harvest Moon.  Throw in After The Goldrush and Tonight’s the Night and you can pretty much get through the season with Young along.  Even more recent efforts such as Prairie Wind and Le Noise can paint colors as pretty as the changing leaves.

 Greg Dulli:  I tend to associate the Twilight Singers with the Fall.  Play Blackberry Belle or She Loves You one night while downing a bottle of wine and argue with me.  That’s what I thought…

 Erik Bachman:  The frontman for the band Crooked Fingers’ dark, melancholy ballads are the perfect way to finish off an evening or for a dark drive through an unknown town.  Just keep the windows cracked a bit so you don’t drift off. 

 Margon Timmins:  Margo Timmins crooning for Coletrane?  Ye-haw Cowboy Junkies, sign me up.

 Dave Doughman:  AKA Swearing At Motorists, Doughman’s tunes often provide the perfect soundtrack for a crisp Fall breeze. The More Songs From the Mellow Struggle and Number Seven Uptown albums hold fine examples.

The book is basically the long version of the song “Going Back / Going Home” from his 2008 album Sycamore Meadows (probably my favorite Butch album) which goes as follows:

Cut to a life
Being born in ’69
Low class suburb,
Everything’s fine.
Fondue parties
My mom and my dad,
Drinks being drunk
And fights being had.
I lost my virginity to a girl in my band
She was four years older, she made me a man.
So addicted to sex
Every chance that I got.
With whoever I wanted
Until I got caught.
So I took my penicillin and I took my band
To a town made of glitter girls and cocaine friends.
Got handed the job by the age of eighteen.
Saw more than most people that I know had ever seen.
Played every bar, drank till black and blue.
Did the morning show bullshit
And went to China too.
Where they left us to die, without a ticket to flee.
Inciting the riot, we were only 23.
Packed it up, started over just as fast as we can.
Selling tapes making merch in the back of a van
Living hand-to-mouth for the next five years.
Took up drinking wine, gave up drinking beer.
Signed another big deal with a devil in a dress.
A ‘one hit wonder’ I think, describes it best.
Decided to burn out, then to fade away.
Went back to the van the very next day.
Picked it up, made a living without any help.
Made amazing friends, if I saw so myself.
If living like this at thirty-eight is a bore,
Then c’mon God, please give me thirty-eight more.

Of course the book also focuses more on the production side of things and how he has worked with some of today’s biggest stars (Pink, Avril, etc.) in production/writing while maintaining his ultra-cool persona and being true to himself. Basically it is a book for Walker’s fans, (of which I am a big one) but accessible to anyone that has tried to “make it” in the music business, and for the casual reader as well. At a little over 200 pages it is a quick, easy, enjoyable read, not unlike some of Walker’s best songs!

Not anymore. The new album has been in my car for about 3 weeks and it keeps getting better with every listen. From the haunting opener “Fire at the Pageant” to the burning closer “River of Jordan” the band shows that they are much more than a one trick pony. The album is laced with samples and loops that sound anything but contrived. (For contrived see: Steve Earle). It could be that the songwriting is so superb that the tracks could work filled with kazoo fills, but it’s more than that. To me, the sounds complement the songwriting to create the empty haunting feeling of the characters from the songs. I have to say it has been a long time since an album has conjured up so many different images in my brain or left me with so many questions about the fate of the characters.

Standouts include the aforementioned tunes above along with the horn laden “Honda Civic” and the sing along chorus of “Ponzi” (see video link below) but there really isn’t a bad track on the album. I don’t know the band’s history or aspirations, but in my mind this is their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, signaling that they shouldn’t be labeled an Americana or Alt-Country band, but should be labeled truly as musicians. They are making an artistic statement. They have documented a period of where they are creatively. And we are the lucky few who get to share it.

RIYL: Faulker, Schitz, Chicago

Ponzi

The album has a bit for everyone in the slow country balladry of “Show Me Your Silence” and some nice Southern Rock cowbell and guitar riffage on “Struggle.” Thematically the album focuses on the wild west mixed with a band of troubadours trying to make a living playing music.

RIYL: whiskey (not whiskey sours), leather, beat up old guitars

I caught up with lead singer Jason Bible to discuss the new record:

Where, when, and with whom was the new album recorded?

We cut all the tracks at Elevated Basement Studios in Savannah, GA in 2010. Miles Hendrix and Kevin Rose produced, recorded and mixed the album with us co-producing. Terry Manning masterfully mastered the album.

How do you go about writing songs for a new album? Also, there seems to be a couple of themes running through the album. Can you explain?

When we finished “Whiskey and War” I began looking for songs and really wanted the second album to be a concept thing with themes that evoke images of the wild west and the south. A cowboy type thing with a modern twist on the things that make me want to write. Tennessee Mare was intentionally a spin off of the Tennessee Stud. I wanted a Johnny Cash type murder song and we got the story to go over Stu’s dobro line.

I write some with Dave Williams and some with Stu Harmening. The Train Wrecks work out arrangements and we usually try them all live. Eric Dunn worte the bass line for Southern Skies years ago and we all added our parts and I wrote some words about Hawaii and put the vocal over it. I look for concepts and subjects to write about and usually they come quickly and I bounce demos on piano or acoustic and finalize them with Dave and or the band. My buddy Whiley Workman IV had these words for Hang Me High and I wanted it to sound like it come out of Sun Studios. We added and changed a few words and there it was.

Fortune and Fame developed over a year of having the verse chords and words for the chorus. I finally got the verses together and it took shape. Markus really kicked ass on the drums and his input on all the songs was vital. The percussion end and the vocals he added were great. It is wild to hear the first demos of alot of the songs and then to hear them on the record is pretty amazing to see how they turned out. We worked really hard on this record and are really proud to be The Train Wrecks!
The themes are there. I know the main two are freedom and stopping at nothing to do what you love. It’s really about the struggle of life and the pursuit of being a songsmith……I don’t know shit! I am just really happy to play with the best musicians and writers and studio folks that I have found!

What are The Train Wrecks’ plans for the rest of 2011?

God has been good to me and the boys! We are all gonna keep playing shows and get more tours happening in 2011! Making our way to New Orleans in the summer! Really want to stop and play some shows for people hit by the oil spill along the way.