Someday I’ll be able to convince Bobby Klausner to become a contributor on Twangville. He’s a friend of Mayer’s which makes him a friend on mine. I’ve never met Bobby but I know him for at least 2 reasons. At the end of every year he sends out a very thoughtful newsletter covering his favorite music picks of the year and sometime near the end of every summer he hosts a crazy house party featuring an up-and-coming musician. This past year, I believe he played host to Eric Lindell. I wasn’t there to attend the party but I’m sure it must have been quite an event. If I can stay on his good side, one of these years I’ll pack up ye ole family van and show the kids how a rockin’ house party is all about. Anyway, enough banter, here’s a post from our guest blogger, Bobby K:
2006 MUSIC NEWSLETTER
Hey Everybody,
I am on a never ending search for those CDs or songs that give me that special feeling in the pit of my stomach. The feeling of excitement, love, an appreciation of life. I know for some of you I sound absolutely crazy, but others of you know exactly what I’m talking about. So my musical quest has boiled down to finding those CDs I want to listen to year after year, those CDs I reach for every year when I go on vacation. When we were growing-up we called these records “desert island discs.†Unfortunately, it seems to me that as time goes on we just can’t find quite as many records that become part of our lives like they used to do when we were younger. Maybe it’s because we don’t have the dramatic changes going on in our lives, like we did when we were growing up. It was easy for us during adolescence to get into the Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again or relate to Springsteen’s The Promise Land in which he sings “sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode; explode and tear this whole town apart, take a knife and cut this pain from my heart, find somebody itching for something to start”. Or what about all those love songs when we were in teenage love or when we had our hearts broken. I remember listening to Smokey Robinson’s You Really Got a Hold On Me twenty times in a row in 1981 when I was broken hearted. (I got the last laugh by marrying that girl and torturing her for the last 20 years.) Maybe it’s just that we can’t find those records anymore because our listening habits have changed. We don’t have as much time to listen to music as we did when we were younger. When we do listen to music it is often when we are in our car driving to and from work. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like listening to the Ramones or the White Stripes at 8:00 AM or at 7:30 PM after a long day. Maybe the biggest factor of all, is that as we get older we just mellow and aren’t as receptive to new things. It’s sad, but true. But every now and then, I will hear a rock ‘n roll record like Eric Lindell’s Change in the Weather or the Damnwells’ Air Stereo (see reviews below) that makes me feel alive. It reminds me I can still let loose, that I can still rock ‘n roll.
2006 was one of the best years musically in a long time. While driving in my car this year, I found a lot of good music. We received two records from Masters of the Highest Order, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Dylan’s album got terrific reviews. In fact, the Rolling Stone Magazine rated it the best record of the year. I personally think these accolades are unwarranted and based solely on Dylan’s reputation. While it is a nice record with a couple of great rock n’ roll groves and is further evidence that Dylan is still alive musically, too me it doesn’t even approach the quality of some of his best music recorded after 1980. We also received a record from Sean Lennon, the son of another genius, John Lennon. Sean Lennon’s album was well received by the critics and it appears that he may have something to contribute to the music world after all. There was an abundance of quality soul music released this year by Amos Lee (see review below), the great, great Irma Thomas, John Mayer (who seems to have found his voice as a soul singer) and James Hunter (the reincarnation of Sam Cooke). We also received some quality music from legends like Tom Waits, Lindsey Buckingham, and a superior collaboration between JJ Cale and Eric Clapton (one of the few Clapton records that I’ve enjoyed in the last 20 years). There were some popular, revved-up rock ‘n roll releases this year from bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Raconteurs, Hold Steady and the Killers. While this music may not have lit my fire, it clearly is teaching our children’s generation about quality rock ‘n roll music. Finally, there were releases by great indie artists. These are the artists that give me the inspiration to continue writing this Newsletter.
On the sad side, this year we lost the incomparable Billy Preston, Ruth Brown (who was so important to the birth of Atlantic Records, that in the 50’s, Atlantic was called “the House that Ruth builtâ€), Gene Pitney and, just the other day, the great James Brown. In the mid 1980’s I bought some early James Brown records and I realized that what made James Brown so great, what made him in the league of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, was his soul music from the mid to late 1950’s, not his funk music from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Listening to his soul music I realized why he was nicknamed the “Godfather of Soulâ€. His influence is so far reaching from the Rolling Stones (all of the early Stones records had songs which imitated Brown’s soul style) to Springsteen (Springsteen’s collapsing on stage with Clarence fanning him is an imitation of JB’s stage performance) to Prince (no explanation necessary). A case can be made that Brown influenced the rise of disco music in the 1970’s and hip hop in the 1980’s. James Brown was truly a great and unique artist.
On the concert front, I had a nice show with Kieran McGee in February and an absolutely blow-out performance by Eric Lindell in September. The Lindell show was definitely one of the best shows I’ve had at my house. Over 120 people had an incredibly musical, bluesy and boozy night.
The following is a link to ITunes to download a playlist of some of my favorite songs of the year: Bobby K’s 2006 Picks. This playlist contains a song from each of the records I reviewed below, as well as some other great songs from 2006. I took great care in arranging this playlist, which I think you will enjoy as a CD in and of itself. If you click on an artist’s name below it will take you to his/her web site. Clicking on the title of the record will take you to a site to buy the record. Enjoy the music and I hope you buy some of these records. So here goes my friends, my review of some of the best releases of 2006. I’m confident that if you give these records a chance, a few of them will find their way on vacation with you for years to come.
Eric Lindell – Change in the Weather
This man is my new artist of the year. This guy is so full of soul with a nice little funky edge. I read a review on this record in Harp Magazine, and it sounded just up my alley. I bought the CD and within 5 minutes it had my soul on fire. By the time I got to the fourth song, I needed someone to listen to this CD with me. So I grabbed my wife Amy, and we listened to the fourth song, All Alone, which sounded like an incredible Otis Redding song, with stax horns in the background, a killer sax solo in the middle and great female background singers. We were blown away. We sat down and listened to the rest of the CD and looked at each other and said, this guy has to play our house. Later that night we found out that Eric was playing in New York City, two weeks later. Amy and I went to see him and we were so impressed. The band jammed with the best of them. Although Eric is a terrific guitar player in his own right, his lead guitarist Jay Mackey is “Dickey Betts†good. As mentioned above, he played my house in September and put on one of the more memorable shows I’ve seen in a long time. All 120 of the people attending the show felt like they just saw something very special that night. Before every show I send out a CD of the artists. I must have received over 30 calls from people saying that this album is one of the best records that they picked up the years. This is an absolute can’t miss record. You have the Klaus money back guarantee on this one. There should be nothing holding back this guy from getting a substantial following. At my concert he played quite a few new songs which are as well constructed, melodic and hooky as the songs on this CD. I am confident that next year I’ll be writing another review of Eric’s second CD. Buy this one, it is an A+.
Every now and then you hear a CD from an artist and you just know that he has talent, but the record just doesn’t really click. Well, that’s how I felt about last year’s, self titled, debut release by Amos Lee. There were a few songs on that record which made me realize that this guy had a world of talent, but all in all I thought it was a fairly boring record. I felt like he was a poor man’s soul version of Jack Johnson. Well, this new release, Supply and Demand, dispelled all doubts I had with respect to this young artist. This is one soulful guy, following in the footsteps of Marvin Gaye, not Ben Harper or Jack Johnson. When I first listened to this record, the first song, Shout Out Loud, got me right away. Then I heard the second song, Sympathize which is a little dull, and I was afraid the record was going to fall into the same rut as his first release. But thereafter, the CD really picks up and doesn’t stop until a song or two at the very end. All in all, this is a terrific CD and is a great addition to my collection. Since I’ve really been getting much more into soul music this year, this record was just what I needed. The girls will love this record as well.
Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Springsteen has always had the unique ability to write and sing about characters in any day and age and convey the essence, the soul, the genuineness of the character; whether he’s singing about a father seeing his child in his mother’s arms, a fireman walking up the staircase in the World Trade Center, an ex-con struggling with freedom or a steel mill worker in Youngstown. I’ve often wondered, how does he do it, how can he show such genuine pain, joy, love, suffering of characters so foreign to him? Well, this record made me realize that one of Bruce’s special talents is that he is a transporter. He has the ability to close his eyes and transport himself into the subject he is singing about. It is a rare talent that helps brings characters to life for the listener.I must admit, that when I first heard that Bruce was releasing a record called The Seeger Sessions, I was very disappointed. I’m not a big Pete Seeger fan and I sure didn’t want to hear Bruce waste an album singing Seeger’s songs. Then I heard the record would not contain Seeger’s songs, but actually traditional American songs. I felt a little better, but I still wanted to hear a record of Bruce’s own songs. When I picked up the record, I was immediately struck by the instrumentation and mixture of genres of music, but I still did not accept this new direction unconditionally. I watched the DVD of the making of the Seeger Sessions and I finally understood what Bruce was trying to accomplish. Bruce was “recontextualizing†songs that have been forgotten for decades by synthesizing different genres. He was going back to the days when music was played on the front porch with instruments that didn’t need any amplification. Bruce was using his unique ability to transport himself into characters that are over 100 years old, like the man who was walking his mule up the Erie Canal in the 1800’s.
Shortly thereafter, I went to see Bruce on opening night at the Asbury Park Convention Center and I finally got it, I got it unconditionally. That night I witnessed Bruce and 16 or so other musicians play songs that no longer had any place in today’s world (John Henry, Old Dan Tucker, Buffalo Gals, When the Saints Come Marching In, Froggie Went A Courtin’), with a style of music that was fresh, exciting and resulted in 5,000 people dancing and smiling and hugging their companions. Every show I went to on this tour (and there were a lot), I was blown away by the mixture of musical genres (soul, blues, folk, Irish dirges, gospel and, my favorite, Dixieland jazz) and the array of instruments (upright bass, tuba, trombone, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, accordion, fiddles, pedal steel guitar, washboard, piano, organ, you name, it was on stage). During these shows I realized that while I love Bruce’s live shows, I don’t want to hear “Out In The Streets†anymore. I want different things out of this guy. I want him to continue to push his boundaries and explore his genius.
One of the things that makes Springsteen so unique is that he is so derivative, yet so original. He synthesized the style of music from Elvis, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Dylan, Van Morrison and Creedence, mixed it all together and came out with a sound, that while derivative of his forefathers, was totally original. Well, with this record Bruce pulled off that trick again, but this time he went further back in time and took folk, Dixieland Jazz, soul, gospel and blues and mixed them all together to come up with a new original, beautiful and sophisticated sound. If Bruce will continue playing this unique synthesis of music, with original songs, I believe us Bruce fans will finally have a new record that could stand side by side with his greatest records.
Willie Nile – Streets of New York
My search for that “Desert Island Disc†was satisfied early this year with the release of Streets of New York. On my very first listen of this record, I realize that I found a CD that I’ll play for years to come. This record has
an air of importance to it. It seems more like a story than a record. This is clearly the most consistent record of Willie Nile’s career, and a great rock ‘n roll record. This CD is a musical journey through the streets of New York. It contains straight-ahead rock ‘n roll songs, mid-tempo rock ‘n roll songs, Dylan-esque folk songs, punk songs, Irish songs and a reggae song Bob Marley would be proud of. Of the 14 songs on this record, I love seven of the songs and really enjoy the rest. This is one of those few albums that you can listen to from start to finish, without skipping a track and without becoming disinterested. The lyrics on this record are very clever in a Dylan-esque sort of way. The melodies are beautiful and the hooks are totally infectious. Highlights for me are Faded Flower of Broadway, Back Home, the gorgeous Streets of New York (which reminds me of Springsteen’s The Promise) and Whole World With You. Every now and then an immensely talented artist puts it all together and releases his/her masterpiece. This is Willie’s masterpiece.
After reviewing The Seeger Sessions and The Streets of New York, I need a little levity. This record is the perfect medicine, a melodic, midtempo rock n’ roll record, in many ways like a record by the Beatles (more Paul than John) or Tom Petty. While pop rock n’ roll has never cut extremely deep with me (I prefer the Stones over the Beatles), it definitely has its place. Sometimes you just need to rent Something About Mary, rather than Deer Hunter. This record is just flat out fun, filled with great hooks and melodies. The only negative about this record is that as a lyricist, Kweller falls way short. The interesting thing is that it doesn’t detract from the record at all since it is all about the melodies and hooks. Ben is a very talented 25 year old, and he plays all of the instruments on this record. Apparently, Ben was a child prodigy. He learned to play the drums at 7, he wrote his first song on the piano at 9 and learned the guitar at 11. Of all the indie artist I’ve reviewed over the past five years, Ben is clearly the one destined for stardom due to the accessibility of his songs. While this record will definitely not have an influence on one’s life, it is a record you will listen to for years to come.
Deadstring Brothers – Starving Winter Report
If you are into the late 60’s Stones, if you are a fan of Exile on Main Street, Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers you are going to dig this record. These four young men from Detroit sound so much like the Rolling Stones that it’s scary. Let’s call it like it is; if you have to sound like a particular form of music, the Stones country based, soul, blues form of rock n’ roll is the best you can do. The lead singer’s voice (Kurt Marschke) sounds so much like Mick that this record can pass for a Jagger solo record. Normally bands that flat out imitate other bands lose credibility with me, but imitating this form of music is so great that I can’t get enough. Especially since the Stones haven’t made a record like this in over 25 years. Listening to this record I feel like the Stones are continuing to make great music again. All ten tracks are real good. I especially love Sacred Heart, Lights Go Out and The Moonlight Only Knows. I can’t wait for their next release because I just can’t get enough of this sound.
When we were growing up, every now and then a basketball team would have a starting five that would click like magic. Like the 1969 New York Knicks or the 1972 Baltimore Bullets. Sports teams have championships and victories, to commemorate their accomplishments. Unfortunately, the music industry doesn’t work as efficiently. If it did, these six musicians comprising Frog Holler would be perennial contenders. It is amazing to me that six guys, playing such varied instruments can be so in-tune with each other that each instrument has its own space, without intruding on another. Each guitar lick, each fiddle stroke, each mandolin pick enhances the other instruments playing at that time. The production of this record is just outstanding. This CD had a chance to be an absolutely perfect record, but unfortunately, the band experimented with a newer sound on the first two tracks and they just struck out. It appears to me that the band was going for a more commercialized, modern dense rock ‘n roll sound in the first two songs. Starting with the third song, the CD is mind blowing, as it has a separation of the instrumentation and vocals and harmonies they just melt your heart. Starting with track 3 this CD is just so beautiful, so warm and comforting. The songwriting, structurally and literally, and the production are an A+. The layering of lap steel guitar, mandolin, organ, banjo, electric piano, harmonies and the well-placed hand claps work to perfection. I don’t mean to turn this into a battle of the bands (but that’s how I’m wired, or should I say haywired to stick with the theme of this record), but to me, this may be the best Alt-country band I’ve ever heard. Yes, I’m taking into consideration the Jayhawks, Golden Smog, Son Volt (I’ll still hold back an early Wilco). The leader of this great band, Darren Schlappich is just a fabulous songwriter. While not being an overly wordy writer, he manages to tell detailed stories with colorful characters. In the song Pepper and Salt, Darren writes “some day with a pocket full of dreams that died, I’ll reach deep inside and feign surprise… I’ll stand behind the line I’ve drawn, it’s all that I can do to carry on.†Just great writing. The more I listen to this record, the more it grows on me. I look forward to hearing more and more releases from this band over the years, as I know that they will fill my collection with consistently great records. I just hope they realize that it is the separation of sound and their knowledge of one another that makes them so special.
Dixie Chicks – Taking The Long Way
Freedom of speech baby. What year are we living in? Haven’t we learned anything over the last 50 years or are we going to let fundamentalists dictate what we are allowed to say in public. Let’s think about this for a second. In March 2003, in reaction to the US role in the Iraq, Natalie Maine of the Dixie Chicks said in front of an audience in London “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas”. Oh boy, what a terrible thing to say. Total blasphemy of the King. Instead of a beheading, the fundamentalists led a campaign to ban the Dixie Chicks from the radio, to burn their records and totally ostracize them from their public. It almost worked, but the Dixie Chick’s reaction was brilliant. First they tried to reach a broader audience by releasing an album that I wouldn’t even classify it as a country record. In fact, this record is really just a mid-tempo, melodic rock and roll album. If it wasn’t for the vocals there would be no hint of country in it at all. Second, lyrically they addressed the issues head on in the song Not Ready To Make Nice in which they sing “They say time heals everything, but I’m still waiting. I’m not ready to make nice, I’m not ready to back down. I made my bed and I sleep like a baby. No regrets and I don’t mind saying, it’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her daughter to hate a perfect stranger, and how in the world can the words that I said, send somebody so over the edge that they write me a letter saying that I better shut up and sing or my life would be over. “ These chicks definitely have balls. I never got into the Dixie Chicks before this record, and bought this CD just to support freedom of speech. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I do. Of the 14 songs on this CD I really enjoy 11 of them. If I have a complaint about this record is that it sounds to me like a collection of 14 songs, rather than a coherent record. This is the same complaint I have with all of the releases of Tom Petty and Sheryl Crow. Nevertheless, it still is a satisfying record which a lot of you will absolutely love. The Dixie Chicks sure don’t need our money, but I believe that the $14 you pay for this CD is supporting the cause against extreme conservatism, which is attempting to curtail the individual freedoms that this country is based on.
Let’s get young. Let’s rock. Let’s talk about one of the best young rock n’ roll bands in America today. Not the Killers, Hold Steady, Foo Fighters, Green Day or Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’m talking about this quartet from Brooklyn that carries on the tradition of the Replacements, with straight ahead rock n’ roll songs with great melodies, great hooks and horns sprinkled throughout. I played this CD in my car and all 3 of my boys fell in love with it. They asked me why these guys are not on MTV. I explained to them that throughout history there are great songwriters and bands that for no good reason just don’t get the exposure they deserve, like Willie Nile, Graham Parker, Garland Jeffreys etc… I wrote about this band in last year’s Newsletter as I was very impressed with their debut record Bastards of Beat. Well this follow-up effort is even stronger. Like the Replacements, this is energetic rock n’ roll with a touch of soul. This CD explodes out of the box with six terrific songs in a row. Songs 7 and 8 and one or two at the end bring the record down a notch for me, but it is still an excellent record. This is the type of music that is current, yet will appeal to us middle aged people. Your kids will be impressed with your discovery of this band. Since I heard these guys are great live, I’m thinking about them playing at my house over the summer.
The Mysteries of Life – Beginning to Move If I could set my inner rhythm to any band I’ve ever heard it would to the Mysteries Of Life. There is something calming, rhythmic, energetic and ethereal about their music. It is a sound all its own. I’ve been a big fan of this Milwaukee based band since their incredible debut Keep A Secret in 1996. In fact Keep A Secret is one of my favorite records in the last 10 years. Their subsequent releases were very good, but they didn’t equal the superlative debut record. Since 2001 Mysteries Of Life hasn’t released anything. I assumed the band broke up and that I would never hear from them again. One day last month I was perusing through ITunes and I saw that Mysteries Of Life released a new record. I was so excited and bought it immediately. I must admit that after the first listen I was a little disappointed because it wasn’t quite as good as the first record, which is still my gold standard for this group. However, after a couple of listens, I realized what a good good record this is. The sound is typical Mysteries Of Life which I have a hard time describing. Think simple pop rock (Buddy Holly, Rich Valens), with a little Lou Reed sprinkled in. Just listen to the sample song I provided which is a very typical Mysteries of Life sounding song. Fans of Cat Power and Belle and Sebastian will love this record. All in all, I’m so happy that Mysteries of Life has decided to produce new music and hope for more releases from them in the near future.
This young Irish rock-n-roll band is really good. I read a review of this fine record in which lead singer Bjorn Baillie (Irish?) said he wants to be the best songwriter of his generation. This brash statement intrigued me (I’m also a sucker for Irish bands) so I bought this record. I was immediately struck by the cover of the CD which is a picture of a cluttered desk and in the background, barely visible, is a copy of Springsteen’s The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle and Creedence’s Cosmo’s Factory. So here it is, I buy a record by a young Irish band that likes two of my favorite American icons. I’m excited and I didn’t even crack open the CD. I open it up and slip it into my CD player and what do I hear, an explosive rock-n-roll song that sounds like Springsteen’s Roulette or Be True. Wow, La Rocca got me now. I’m now anxious for the second song, which sounds like a song the Waterboys would sing. So I said to myself, what is this band’s sound? Well, let’s hear the third song and get a little clarity. What do I hear, Squeeze. So now I’m really confused. Are these guys so derivative or are they just really creative. I tell myself to lighten up and stop trying to categorize them and just listen and enjoy. My advise worked for one song until song 5 when I could swear Bono is singing and Edge is playing guitar. I reach for the jewel case and look to find if Bono and Edge contributed to this CD, but they were not mentioned. I then realized that these guys are just taking from the best and writing great new songs, using sounds that their parents exposed them to. Who cares if they are derivative. That’s music. While this form of imitation might irritate some, this CD is quite good one which me and my boys have enjoyed.
Well that’s it for this year, I’m looking forward to having an indoor show in February or March. I’ll keep everyone posted. I wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year.
Bobby K
About the author: Washington, D.C. area creative by day. Music is my muse. I host Twangville’s weekly Readers‘ Pick.