The Marshall Tucker Band New Year’s In New Orleans Roll Up ’78 and Light Up ’79! MT Industries
Recorded at the legendary Warehouse venue in New Orleans, which held an audience of 2,000+ on a regular basis, this 2-CD set of a live concert was broadcast to the American nation on New Year’s Eve 1978. The original recording was captured on two 24-track tape machines and it was mixed by original producer Paul Hornsby who not only worked with the band on the early Capricorn Record releases but also sat in on keyboards, organ and piano in the studio.
The band was comprised of Doug Gray (vocals), Toy Caldwell (guitar/vocals), Tommy Caldwell (bass/vocals), George McCorkle (guitar), Paul Riddle (drums), and Jerry Eubanks (flute/sax/vocals). Their Southern rock sound was augmented by the use of flute and horns, giving the band an eclectic sound when compared to rival acts at the time, such as the Allman Brothers, the Outlaws or Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Disc One is just shy of 70 minutes in length and is packed with great guitar driven dynamics across the twelve tracks, all of which are taken from the band’s first seven releases. Included are old favourites Blue Ridge Mountain Skies, Hillbilly Band, Fire On The Mountain, Long Hard Ride, Fly Like An Eagle, Ramblin’ and an extended jam on 24 Hours At A Time.
Disc Two is much shorter at 24 minutes, but given that it concentrates on the end of the show, when the New Year was about to be celebrated, this is entirely understandable. Included in the New Year’s countdown is a rousing Auld Lang Syne, with proceedings ending on a thoroughly joyous version of the traditional song, Will The Circle Be Unbroken.
This original band broke up in 1983 so this live recording is a unique opportunity to catch them at the peak of their powers. The fluid guitar work of Toy Caldwell is always a delight and his duelling with Jerry Eubanks on flute and sax is always inventive and leans towards jazz-based workouts on a number of occasions. Doug Gray sounds somewhat hoarse on some of the early tracks, something he declares later into the set, but it never takes away from the quality of the songs and the four-part vocals from the band are always very engaging. The band play with an understanding that only years of touring America can bring and the interplay is really enjoyable. If you want to take a trip down the nostalgia highway and indulge yourself in a sound that matched the Allman Brothers in quality then this is certainly the release for you. A memorable night indeed.
Review by Paul McGee
Dave Vargo Spaces In Between Self Release
Having graduated with honours from the Berklee College of Music and acting as a session player for many different artists over a period of years, Dave Vargo decided to take a career turn and focus on his own vision and innate skills. He released his debut album in 2016 and this experienced and highly talented musician returned with this second outing in the latter part of 2019.
This release is another fine example of his prowess, both as a musician and a songwriter. He pushes towards a big guitar sound with strong melodies and great hooks, something that builds upon his studio synergy with Tim Pannella, his co-producer and contributor on drums and percussion. The sound is really bright and airy, with lots of space for the arrangements and melodies to breathe.
Call it Americana, but it is really more a definitive statement by a singular talent who is exploring his boundaries as both a guitar specialist and a songsmith. The focus for the eleven songs would appear to centre around the personal struggles we all face in life and the challenges to keep going through the fog in search of direction. Opening with the fluid guitar lines of This Moment On and a message of ‘day at a time’ and optimism for the future, the following Without A Fight is a search for meaning and reasons to keep moving forward, all wrapped in an inventive guitar solo.
And on it goes, with each track revealing more superb dynamics in the tempo and guitar parts. Battle Burns looks at the scars that living brings and searching for new opportunity while In Between reflects on relationship woes and the differences between lovers. Tracks is an acoustic number that slows everything down in examining the past and the memory of choices made. Nowhere Else is another reflective song with great guitar and a hint at running from yourself as some kind of skewed answer. Some of the songs have the vocal somewhat dampened in the heady mix and it can be difficult to catch the words, something of a drawback when you are looking for the songs lyrical meaning. However, this is a small issue in the overall sense of listening to something that is alive and vibrant.
The backing vocals of Audra Mariel are really excellent and add a lot to the harmonies and the colour of the arrangements, while Jeffrey Thompsen plays superbly on bass. Kim Boyko sings backing vocals on two tracks and Dan Haase adds his talents, playing bass on another two tracks. The closing song, Not Alone, sums up the message that there is always a way to find the light and to look for meaning. A very impressive album and one that comes recommended.
Review by Paul McGee
Watermelon Slim Traveling Man Northernblues
You have to go way back to 1973 in order to track the career of this blues legend. In that year, Slim released an anti-Vietnam album called MERRY AIRBRAKES, as a military veteran and a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Move forward into a blue-collar life of various jobs, including forklift driver, funeral officiator, small-time criminal, newspaper reporter, saw miller, and truck driver for industrial waste, among others, and you are faced with someone who has walked the walk and talked the talk.
In 1979, he bought a piece of land and took up watermelon farming. The vocation was not one he embraced but his nickname stuck and he went on to start a career as a blues/roots musician that has taken him into the hearts of many. In 2003, he released BIG SHOES TO FILL and his career trajectory just took off from that moment towards the status that he now holds as the definitive Mississippi Delta player of these times.
These two discs total 98 minutes and 18 tracks, featuring Slim on vocals, harmonica and electric slide guitar. Long-time friend, Chris Hardwick, is again at the production controls and there are two gigs included across a few months in 2016 at Oklahoma venues. You might wonder if the music gets to sound somewhat repetitive, given that it is just one player, over a lengthy set, but the dynamic throughout is timeless and you just slip into a slow groove along with the essence of this pure form of musical expression. The harmonic precision of voice and guitar are perfectly aligned as Slim plays his unique, backwards style of bottleneck slide.
Slim grew up in Boston and he was christened William Homans III, a name that now only appears on his song-writing credits. Indeed, the eleven albums that he has released are all honoured for their authenticity and he has been the recipient of multiple awards for his output. Eight of those records are represented here, in a set that includes seven cover songs.
The album that features most is UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL (2004) with six tracks included, among them Smokestack Lightning (Howlin’ Wolf) and Two Trains Running (Muddy Waters). We also get Blue Freightliner, Scalemaster Blues, Archetypal Blues and The Last Blues. There are four tracks featured from the Watermelon Slim and the Workers releases, one of his projects along the path, and Jimmy Bell, Into The Sunset, Devil’s Cadillac and Frisco Line all hit the sweet spot.
His most recent albums also feature with GOLDEN BOY (2017) contributing Dark Genius and Northern Blues while CHURCH OF THE BLUES (2019) has 61 Highway Blues and Holler #4 included. This is absolute immersion in the root of all music, given that bluegrass, country, jazz, jug band, ragtime, rhythm ’n’ blues, rock ’n’ roll, all could be said to evolve from this original source.
During the live performance, you can hear him urge “play that thing now” on a number of occasions, as if summoning up the energy to carry on, at the age of 70 years. However, as he represents the true face of blues music - this is the real deal, no chaser. Get on the train.
Review by Paul McGee
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbours Dragons Self-Titled Thirty Tigers
Family is a theme that runs through this eight studio release and Family is the opening track with an addictive hand-clap beat, salsa rhythm and upbeat groove setting a standard for the rest of the ten tracks to meet. End Of The World follows in a similar vein with a rootsy, radio friendly tempo and a big drum sound that kicks ass. For a band that started life back in 2005 with their debut release, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbours has fared better than most in the stormy seas of the music industry over the intervening years.
It is to his credit that he has never compromised on self-belief and songs like But I’ll Never Forget The Way You Make Me Feel (featuring wife, Ellie Holcomb) bring us back to the beginning with a promise to remember the good memories of younger days. Title track, Dragons, features the Lone Bellow and is a statement to live life large against all the doubts and fears that may arise along the way. See The World, again with wife Ellie on vocals, is a great reminder of all that really matters is Family and the joy of a new life in the World.
Nathan Dugger (multi-instruments) and Rich Brinsfield (various bass and acoustic guitar) remain from the original band and are joined by Will Sayles (drums, percussion) and Cason Cooley (piano, synths) who also engineered and produced the project. Holcomb takes lead vocal and plays guitar and wrote all the songs, including five co-writes. You Want What You Can’t Have features Lori McKenna and looks at our unease and always looking at the other man’s grass and assuming it’s greener. The track, Maybe, features Natalie Hemby (The Highwomen) with a message that “Maybe we’re lost in what we want, not what we need.”
You Never Leave My Heart is a tribute to his brother, who died from spina bifida complications as a teenager and the song has a strong lyric and a soaring arrangement. Bittersweet takes a look at the roles we adopt in life and how it all passes so quickly, “You better take a picture, you better write it down, What you always wanted, won’t always be around.” Another excellent chapter in the ongoing story of an artist who follows is own vision.
Review by Paul McGee
The Remedy Club True Hand True Heart High Flying Disc
LOVERS, LEGENDS & LOST CAUSES, released in 2017, was the first instalment in the career remodelling of husband and wife team Aileen Mythen and Kj Mc Evoy. Having recorded two albums previously as B and The Honeyboy they regrouped as The Remedy Club. The change in name did not spell a dramatic migration from their musical style, more so a new start with a blank canvas and a determination to prevail in an increasingly difficult marketplace.
That debut album was recorded locally but mastered by Ray Kennedy at his Room and Board Studio in Berry Hill, Nashville. This time around they have gone one step further by packing their bags for Music City to record TRUE HAND TRUE HEART at that same studio. The production was overseen by Kennedy, whose accolades include 5 Grammy Awards, one of which he won for Steve Earle’s excellent THE REVOLUTION STARTS…. NOW. I’m reminded of the production on that album on The Remedy Club’s latest, which is similarly loaded with positive energy and is a considered mix of roots and country with a splash of blues on the side.
The album kicks off in fine style with the raucous Sweet Symphony. The track is very much where Lucinda Williams’ energy is at present with a power house sound and compelling beat - it’s also the first single from the album. Reclaim is an immense and muscular sound, with Mythen’s booming vocals reaching glass breaking levels and Mc Evoy’s screeching guitar not far behind. The title track has a rolling blues tinged sound, fleshed out by some slick guitar riffs and razor-sharp harmonica bursts. Nonetheless, it’s not all fire and brimstone and the album also delivers songs that console and soothe, with Mythen displaying the ability to do quiet every bit as well as hell raising. Let The Good Times Roll is a wistful conventional country song and Time Won’t Wait For Me is simply divine, as impressive a ballad as I’ve heard this year. Mournful pedal steel from David Murphy features on both of these tracks.
The Remedy Club’s prized assets are a combination of Mythen’s gorgeous vocals and Mc Evoy’s guitar skills. Both are in evidence here alongside well-crafted songs and great harmonies from the duo. They’ve poured their hearts and souls into this recording and the results are a hugely convincing album that should further enhance their fast-growing reputation both locally and farther afield. A brooding masterclass in Americana from Wexford via Nashville and one that you’re well advised to investigate.
Review by Declan Culliton
Kevin Anthony & G-Town Eh Ha Ha - A Tribute To The Original Cajun Fiddle Of Harry Choates Self Release
Country music historians will be more than familiar with the name Harry Choates. The master of Texas Swing and Cajun music, Choates was renowned for both his full-on fiddle playing and his equally rampant hard living. A household name in Texas, he seldom ventured outside Texas and Louisiana, spending his all too short career playing the dance halls, bars and honky tonks mainly along the Texas coastline. With a somewhat similar early career to Hank Williams, he cut his teeth in his early teens playing barber shops for tips before reaching the age at which he could legally perform professionally. He passed away in an Austin jail at the age of 28, from alcohol burnout.
His legend is honoured in this fourteen-track tribute recorded at Sugar Hill Studios, formerly Gold Star Records, where Choates had himself recorded. Lost Bayou Rambler’s fiddle player and vocalist Louis Michot was in control of production, with Kevin Anthony playing fiddle and adding vocals. They successfully managed to capture the atmosphere and turbulence of a live Coates show on the album. The G-Town musicians are Christopher Smith Gonzalez on bass, Dwight Wolf on guitar, Jim Hall on steel guitar and Nicole Mendell on drums.
They combined to generate a toe tapping compound of western swing, Cajun, Zydeco, rockabilly and old school country. Particularly notable are Jole Blon, Harry Choates Blues and Louisiana Boogie but in essence the album is a good time listen from start to finish.
Review by Declan Culliton
Matt Harlan Best Beasts Continental Song City
A winner of the title Singer/Songwriter of The Year in the Texas Music Awards in 2013, Houston born Matt Harlan shares a gift with many of his fellow Texans songsmiths. He’s equipped with the ability to create musical landscapes from simple everyday occurrences and his latest release is further proof of his talents. Current political events in America have been the catalyst for numerous recordings across varying music styles of late and that theme is central to much of the writing on BEST BEASTS. It’s his fifth recording and a mixture of laidback ballads alongside some cracking upbeat offerings. You get value for your money also, with no fewer than thirteen tracks, five of which include female vocalists (Betty Boo, Libby Koch and Kelley Mickwee) backing Harlan to particularly good effect.
The characters he creates across the album are a collection of typically ordinary people, trying to survive with the odds stacked heavily against them. “We’re just trying to be the best beasts we can be”, he announces on the title track and the album’s tour de force. A crunching rhythm drives the track along, screeching guitars, thumping bass lines and layered vocals combining to maximum effect.
Darla Mae, checking in at six minutes, is by far the longest track and a lovely listen that brings to mind Robert Earl Keen. What We Saw pulls no punches as Harlan considers all too familiar anxieties and concerns (‘Teachers left wondering, what’s that I hear down the hall’ and ‘Living high on the gun and getting low on the floor’). K&W is a killer country duet of a ruined relationship, with the previously noted (and member of The Trishas) Kelley Mickwee strikingly trading vocals with Harlan.
Low Pressure would sit comfortably on any Warren Zevon album and Gemini Blues offers a rich funky groove with impressive keyboard breaks and splashes of trumpet. The album closes on a realistic rather than sanguine note, the song Another Bad Day emphasising the hopelessness of the cast that populate the songs that went beforehand.
Review by Declan Culliton
Patsy Thompson Fabulous Day Self Release
This album appears to be something of a return to duty for the Canadian-born singer. Something that is apparent from the opening title song. The impetus for this would appear to be Chris Rolin, who produced and played guitar on the album. He also co-writes with Thompson (on four songs) who herself had a hand in writing all but one of the 10 featured tracks. They are number of influences here that she has drawn from, from Patsy Cline to Aretha Franklin and Merle Haggard to Bob Seger. Thompson’s career began in the 1990’s where she spent time in Austin but it was interrupted when she took time out to take care of her mother. Understandably, there is a passion and presence here in her vocal delivery - her seventh album - from the full-on opening track to a more bluesy take on Dreamin’.
Rolin has rolled a number of noted players in to track these songs including Redd Volkert on guitar and Bruce Bouton on steel guitar. This is not old school country/honky tonk nor is it falling into the current overproduced pop country, but rather something more classic in feel and genre crossing than fitting any exact category. Something that Americana seems to be the overall umbrella tag for these days.
The one outside song, recorded by Merle Haggard, Misery And Gin highlights a mature arrangement and the wide range of her vocal ability. The song that worked best for me here is the self written Passion. It includes a nice use of the accordion to give it a different feel along, with some violin and Spanish guitar. Most of the tracks cover her experiences and those ups and downs that life has to offer. Someone To Blame is a fair example of this train of thought. The album closes with I Think About You a big sounding song with old school harmonies and some nice twang guitar that sound like a welcome throwback to another era but a welcome one.
FABULOUS DAY will be a welcome return to those acquainted with Patsy Thompson. It may not suit everyone’s taste but is the work of an artist, singer and songwriter who still has a lot to give overall.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Jesse Daniel Rollin’ On Die True
With his second album Jesse Daniel has raised the stakes in terms of production values and songwriting. From the get go, this is a prime example of what contemporary country should be. It picks up on the West Coast Bakerfield sound without actually aping any particular artist. From listening to some of his favourite performers, like Jim Lauderdale, he was particularly taken with the sound of those produced by Tommy Detamore and so reached out to him to work on this album. Detamore came onboard and the result is a killer album of hardcore country that from its cover on, wears its heart on its sleeve.
Daniel co-produced the album together and recorded in Detamore’s studio in Floresville, Texas where they gathered together some of the best and most in tune players around. The rhythm section is Tom Lewis on drums and Kevin Smith on bass, with T Jarod Bonta on piano, Hank Singer and Bobby Flores on fiddle as well as John Carroll on lead guitar and contributions by Micheal Guerra on accordion. Detamore played his customary exemplary pedal steel. Daniel’s partner and manager and sometimes co-writer Jodi Lyford has added enticing harmony vocals, while Daniel played acoustic and electric guitars. A potent combination as this release testifies to and is underlined by the skill set on display throughout but more apparent in the instrumental Chickadee.
Having endured a background of addiction and an unsettled upbringing, Daniel knows how to bring some real emotion and true-life messages to his writing. Nevertheless, it is not in any way a hard listen, as Daniel has a knack for a hook and melody that makes these songs sound exuberant and fresh. Daniel has seen this album as an opportunity to move ahead and away from any ties that bound him in the past. A time to be rollin’ on and discovering free skies, new experiences and open roads.
Therefore, it is logical that the road Daniel was on is reflected in the songs on the album. Champion is a story song that views life from a particular perspective of the addict and those people encountered while leading that life. That darker side sits alongside other cuts like Bringing Home The Roses wherein the flowers are meant as a peace offering from a serial barroom-inhabiting offender. Old At Heart is about a performer playing small venues to little or no response, but who on occasions becomes someone else through the music - something that keeps him, a young man old at heart. There isn’t a track here that doesn’t fit the parameters of country music in one form or another and Daniel has written all 12 songs here, 6 with Jodi Lyford and one with McCoy Tyler. This is an album that will take you on a journey - either in isolation or out on the open road.
Review by Stephen Rapid