Jim Lauderdale Game Changer Sky Crunch
Once again Jim Lauderdale proves himself to be an artist who defines the original definition of Americana - a blend of country, bluegrass, country-soul, and country rock. For this, his thirty-fifth album proves he is either a natural talent or persistent. The truth is in both. Despite many changes from a number of major labels through to the top-notch indies, Lauderdale has consistently produced the goods. There is a thought that maybe fewer releases would give him an opportunity to put the best songs onto a smaller selection. Given that he is, first and foremost, a songwriter, that notion flies against the way that he thinks and works. There is also the added factor that Lauderdale tours a lot and his fans have come to expect a new album each time he goes on the road. Now by releasing material on his own imprint, he is calling the shots without anyone looking over his shoulder.
That this new release is a consistently good showcase is a testament to his ethos. Other than his undoubted melodic skills as a writer, his distinctive and maturing vocal style is something that many would envy. He is able to phrase his lyrics in a manner that has strong echoes of his heroes and musical icons that shaped his direction. Yet the end result is most definitely Jim Lauderdale.
He has co-produced the album with Jay Weaver, who also plays bass here, as he has done on many previous albums. Which is a good time to mention that Lauderdale also hand picks the musicians for his recordings. This is equally true this time out with Kenny Vaughan, Chris Scruggs, Rush Pahl, and other fine players among the many credits alongside background vocalists Lillie Mae and Frank Rische. There are twelve new songs and several immediately deserve a place on that enlarging “best of” list, including That Kind Of Live (That Kind Of Day), Wishbone, Friends Again (with a nifty Telecaster guitar riff) or We’re All We Got, a co-write with Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris. As with other songs here, there is a realistic observation of the kind of relationships which, while they may not have the fire of passion of youth, but instead come with an acceptance of what is a real possibility of connection. Lauderdale has largely always written about the pursuit of love and has done so from both a down-to-earth attitude as well as one tinged with a romantic oversight.
This is one of Lauderdale’s recordings that sits more into the solid classic country mode, doing so in an old-school way with some great touches of Buck and Bakersfield in the mix. To be this rewarding at this stage of his career is proof of an enduring talent that, while he has never reached the commercial heights that he, no doubt, hoped for when he started out, has continued to do what he loves and thrives on. He hasn’t changed his game at all here with GAME CHANGER, just built upon what he has always done so well.
Review by Stephen Rapid.
Randy Huston Tines Life These Outside Circle
First off and you are taken by Huston’s deep and patinated baritone voice. He is a working cowboy as well as a singer/songwriter and has a ranch in New Mexico, where he breeds livestock and, in his youth, broke horses and worked the rodeo circuit. He is a recognised contributor to the cowboy music arena - one which now has a number of contemporary artists who are popularising the songs and lifestyle. He has been awarded number of times for his music by the Academy of Western Artists. This is his latest album and the first I have heard, yet he seems like an old friend and the music is a welcome recognition of his talents - and those of the musicians involved in its delivery. These include Danny Parks on electric and acoustic guitars, Larry Paxton on upright bass, Eamon McLoughlin on fiddle and mandolin, and Mike Rojas on keyboards. Huston takes the credit for writing eleven of the fourteen titles and co-wrote the other three. The album was recorded in Nashville and the sound is therefore top notch.
In the main, the songs deal with subjects and issues that would relate to a working cowboy and those who associate with that lifestyle. So, there is a love of the land, his country, and companionship, at the core of Huston’s writing. The title track offers that when times are tough, we all pull together and that in times like these it is important to realise that good times are likely to come again, even if those hard times are not easy to understand. Ride Of My Life is about taking to the saddle for the titular event. Can’t Pick Your Family, surmises that you can pick your apples in the orchard, but you can’t pick your family. The Storms Go To Die and I Am The Storm choose different metaphors. The former sees the power of nature in its rawness that permits a possible apocalyptic event, while the latter sees the storm as a force, not of nature, but of aggressive intention. The Way Of The Cowboy is a summation of the life and history of the cowboy and the horses they rode and the hard nature of the work - yet one that is the way they want to live. It is reprised at the end of the album to emphasise the simplicity of the lifestyle. The Hands That Held The Child is a more poignant look at how a child can do service for the country and also honours the loss of that life that can happen in the process.
These days it seems there are a lot more authentic singer/songwriters who are following in the trail of the likes of Ian Tyson, Don Edwards, Chris Ledoux, Wylie Gustafson, and such female exponents as Joni Harms, through to more current exponents like Colter Wall. It is a growing sub-genre that has gained a number of listeners in recent times while managing to avoid becoming a plaything of the marketing moguls as they can’t get a handle on its directness, sense of authenticity, and, perhaps, its limitations (to them) in the larger marketplace. This is not an album that will change your mind if you’re not a fan, but otherwise, saddle up and listen and enjoy the ride.
Review by Stephen Rapid
Nick Nace The Harder Stuff North/South
Rather than licking his wounds, Canadian Nick Nace put the enforced shutdown and subsequent quarantine of 2020 to good use. Abandoning Nashville, where he currently resides, he crossed the border back to family and friends in Canada and spent the time composing the ten tracks on his latest album THE HARDER STUFF.
Despite the album being conceived during a pandemic, it’s anything but a pandemic album, and more a reflection of everyday events. The only song that may be pandemic inspired is There’s No Music In Music City. It reads like an observation by Nace, reflecting on a vibrant city becoming a ghost town practically overnight. Alternatively, it may be a cryptic statement on the endless stream of conveyor belt pop/country drivel so popular with the music hierarchy in Nashville.
Relationships, either real or imagined, crop up regularly on the album. Soured romance is visited on the album’s highlight for me, Someday Is Too Far Away. It’s a raunchy killer track that sounds like it was plucked from Warren Zevon’s BAD LUCK STREAK IN DANCING SCHOOL. Childhood crushes and memories surface on Little Kid and The Skin Of Our Teeth considers the ups and downs of a present-day partnership. Elsewhere, we hear of two misfits, meeting by chance and destined for harm’s way on The Piece That Fits. The title track is an instantly catchy Willie Nelson country ballad, laced with pedal steel, and the album’s closer Last Call offers a hauntingly potent serving of fascination and allurement.
Produced by Steven Cooper, contributing were a host of Nashville-based musicians, many of whom feature regularly in reviews at Lonesome Highway, and many who are accomplished singer songwriters in their own right. John Calvin Abney played accordion, Jon Lathan was on guitar, Todd Bolden played bass and drums were contributed by Erin Nelson. Also lending a hand were Megan Palmer (fiddle), John Henry Trinko (keyboards, accordion), and Owen Beverly (organ).
A compelling blend of songs that sit comfortably alongside each other, THE HARDER STUFF is an impressive collection of textured stories notably brought to song. Well worth your investigation.
Review by Declan Culliton
Mariel Buckley Everywhere I Used to Be Birthday Cake
Continuing the seemingly endless stream of talented roots artists emerging from Canada, EVERYWHERE I USED TO BE is the second full length record from Marial Buckley. Her debut album DRIVING IN THE DARK (2018), earned her the Roots Artist of The Year (Western Canadian Music Awards, 2019), resulting in her picking up a cool $100,000.
Less than a minute into the opening track, Neon Blue, I was reminded of Buckley’s fellow Canadian, the wonderful Kathleen Edwards, and that comparison remained with me throughout what is a first-rate stockpile of songs. Her writing style is not unlike that of Edwards, focusing on life’s complexities, personal anguish, and life choices. The added reality of growing up as a queer woman is no easy station and much of the material finds Buckley coming to terms with issues that confronted her during her earlier years. Explaining the motivation behind the album, she confesses ‘I wrote this album for losers and underdogs. I want every outsider and lost soul to feel seen and safe with these songs.’
On an album filled with textured stories about survival, Buckley revisits less than happy days, filled with excesses and confusion, on Hate This Town. As you would expect there is plenty of lost love and pain also. Love Ain’t Enough simply aches (‘Thought I saw you in the back of my car, you were combing your hair in the mirror, I was falling apart.’), all the more hauntingly lonesome by the inclusion of some delicate pedal steel. In a similar vein, Going Nowhere is a mid-tempo reflection on a relationship that has run its course. The powerful closing track Let You Down may also have been conceived from that same association.
Very much an exorcism by Buckley of past trauma, bad relationships, and addiction, EVERYWHERE I USED TO BE is courageous, thought provoking, and often breath-taking. Buckley more than touches on the grinding reality and torture often faced by gay people and the perilous paths that can follow. Backed by some exceptionally talented players, producer Marcus Paquin (The Barr Brothers, Arcade Fire, The National, The Weather Station), gets the perfect balance between their playing and Buckley’s warm vocals. The end product is a fiercely intense and hugely impressive album, that I’ll be returning to regularly in the coming weeks and months.
Review by Declan Culliton
Wade Bowen Somewhere Between The Secret And The Truth Bowen Sounds
Even prior to the arrival of Covid, Texan singer songwriter Wade Bowen was reaching near burnout. Vocal surgery in 2018 was followed by writer’s block, leaving him disillusioned and at a loss, having previously enjoyed approaching two decades of chart-reaching albums and successful tours.
The enforced shutdown and absence of touring offered Bowen the opportunity to regroup and consider where he was musically and in what direction he wanted to go when normality returned. Of his five previous albums, three were duets with Randy Rogers, including HOLD MY BEER VOL.1, from 2015, which charted at #4 in the U.S. Country charts. Bowen also recorded THEN SING MY SOUL; SONGS FOR MY MOTHER, a solo album of gospel songs in 2016. Going back to basics and calling on a number of old and trusted friends to assist him in both the writing and playing on his latest album, Bowen has fashioned what is arguably his strongest record to date.
In a recent interview with Lonesome Highway, Bowen made reference to the development of Zoom being one of the positives to emerge from the pandemic, citing the capacity it presented him to co-write with artists and friends like Lori McKenna and Eric Paslay, as a major feature of this album. He also, for the first time, took complete control of the production duties and called on old and trusted pals Tom Bukovac and Jedd Hughes to play guitars on the album and Chad Cromwell to play drums.
Nineties country was dominated by the mega commercial and more mainstream sounds of Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, and Brooks & Dunn. However, it also was a decade when more traditional and edgy country music emerged, from artists like Joe Diffie, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Patty Loveless, Marty Stuart, and Vince Gill. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE SECRET AND THE TRUTH more than reflects the 90s sound of the latter grouping.
Bowen showcases his rockier sound on no-nonsense tracks like Everything Has Your Memory, She’s Driving Me Crazy, and Honky Tonk Road, all three of which sound tailor made for the live setting. Equally listenable, when Bowen takes his foot off the gas, is A Beautiful World, which features McKenna on backing vocals and also the mid-tempo title track. The standout track for me introduces a superstar from that 90s decade. Bowen approached his long-time hero Vince Gill, asking him if he would contribute to the song he co-wrote with McKenna, A Guitar, A Singer and A Song. Gill obliged, singing a verse and adding an acoustic guitar solo on a song that is most likely to feature on Bowen’s setlists for quite a while, going forward.
Entering his third decade as a recording artist, Bowen has gone back to first principles with SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE SECRET AND THE TRUTH. The outcome is an album where simplicity is often its strongest point on a most satisfying and uplifting listen from start to finish.
Review by Declan Culliton
Jeff Tuohy Hudson Delta Self Release
There is a quality to this record that reminds me of the big, soulful sound of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and that same energy runs through the impressive performance of Tuohy and his band of brothers. With a really strong vocal delivery, Tuohy lays down a marker on opener, Funeral Party, a catchy, soulful rhythm with a big production sound and brass arrangement. He hits the message home with Love’s A Game, another larger-than-life brass sound and the full-on backing singers add great street cred to the song… Drunk Twice Today, has some nice pedal steel and piano, highlighting the addictive groove. The Devil’s In New Orleans is a Dr John celebratory stomp with an impassioned vocal that channels Tom Waits. Lay Your Body Down has an inventive country sound while the deep groove of Murder In A Dancehall is big, bold and dangerous. Old Roads has radio hit pasted all over it and would certainly make a strong contender for current-day country music commercial stations with a big vocal and pedal steel lifting the song arrangement .
Everything is slowed down on the superbly crafted Hear Me Out, a song that would grace any soul session, all muted horns, sweet guitar lines and warm keys supporting a stylish vocal performance. The joy of the record is the ability of Tuohy to switch moods and change lanes into a different vibe, highlighted on All My Friends Are Getting Married (I’m Just Getting Stoned); an authentic slice of heartland Americana, all swagger with pedal steel, keys and electric guitar dynamics. Again, we switch to an Irish trad influence with the Pogues-inspired, Sea Of Galilee, a racous sea shanty that would certainly get the pints flowing in the 11th Street bar, East village, New York. Another highlight.
The final song, Click, Boom, Click is a tribute to the nostalgic sound of the roaring 20’s and the ragtime jazz feel of clarinet, piano, and sax really swing. All in all, a beast of a record that demands to be heard. Impressive in its range and scale, Tuohy has delivered a really strong statement of his musical depth and vision.
Review by Paul McGee
Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears Self-Titled Curation
Despite the self-deprecating title, this is music that will appeal to the many, rather than the few who, perhaps, seek out quirky-sounding album names. A veteran of the Nashville scene, Thompson has played in a number of different bands, most recently finding a role as the primary foil for the talented Erin Rae. He speaks of ‘always wanting to make something that feels alive’ and that is exactly what is delivered here, with eleven songs that sparkle with great spirit, energy and invention.
Kicking off the album is the great band sound of New Trailway Boogie with twin guitar harmonies and room for a few solos in an arrangement that is reminiscent of The Allman Brothers in the overall groove. The following track, Saturday Drive, has some superb pedal steel to augment the tight rhythm section and again allows for guitars to harmonize and solo around the song structure. Impressive in every aspect.
The mood changes on the mellow, Before the Flowers Bloom, a song that suggests the enduring legacy of JJ Cale in the restrained playing and easy flow; guitars, fiddle and pedal steel lifting the sense of harmony. The superb band dynamic is again captured on, Instrumental Health, a laid-back chance for all the players to dovetail around a central rhythm and create a sweet melody.
The traditional country sound of, Sad Old Singer, conjures up the easy rhythm, with fiddle and pedal steel intertwined, while the more rock-based groove of, Alley Scrappers, highlights the sense of threat in the lyric, ‘This world ain’t no place to be alone.’ Again, some great guitar riffing on this track.
Proceedings wind down with the joyous, Put YR Weird Ears, and the chorus line, ‘What’s there to do anyway, but boogie all your troubles away.’ Finishing on the psychedelic country sound of the final track, Head To the Smokies, gives that special feeling of being embraced by mother nature and absorbing all the quiet calm of rural surroundings. This is a really enjoyable album and one that promises great things from Sean Thompson as a self-styled solo artist – weird title and all!
Review by Paul McGee
The A’s Fruit Psychic Hotline
Offbeat and quirky are words that could be used here. There is a scattered elegance to the ten songs however and their very individualistic delivery. The harmony vocals of Amelia Meath and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig are very idiosyncratic and interesting, full of invention and complex patterns in certain moments, while gently understated in others.
Swing and Turn Jubilee reminds me very much of the wonderful Roche Sisters who reigned supreme during the 1980s. In fact, this track is a traditional American bluegrass song from the 1950s, and the following, Wedding Dress, is an Appalachian folk song, also covered by Peggy Seeger.
Why I’m Grieving is a fine example of the duo in all their pomp, with their unaccompanied singing, and vocal histrionics that pitch and trill, before returning to the central melody. The gentle lullaby, Go To Sleep My Darling Baby, has some great yodeling parts in the arrangement, simple acoustic guitar as accompaniment, later joined by acoustic bass and twinkling piano.
Copper Kettle and Buckeye Jim are two more traditional songs, the former with a lonely saxophone part and the latter with a back-porch, crickets and frogs-at-night feel to the easy sway of the guitar and light percussive sounds. It really is a joy from start to finish, gently tickling a funny bone, or simply plugging into that deep reservoir within us that reflects upon our human condition. Well worth investigation.
Review by Paul McGee
Joselyn and Don Seeds & Bones Paintbrush
This interesting duo return with a 5-track EP to build upon the critical success of debut album, SOAR, which was released in 2020 last. The formula has not changed and the special dynamic that both musicians create is as powerful and compelling as ever. With Joselyn Wilkinson (lead and background vocals, tenor ukulele, djembe), and Don Barrozo (background vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion, horns, cigar box slide guitar, accordion), in the driving seat, these five songs roll by all too quickly and leave the listener wanting more.
Deep Down is a slow burn with atmospheric vocals from Joselyn, sweetly soulful in tone and telling the story of the spirit of Nature, quietly powerful and waiting for the time to reclaim her rightful place, ‘You can cover me with concrete, build a city on my bones, But I could bring it crumbling down if I let you hear my moans.’ If Covid lockdown proved anything it was the dawning of the realization that paradise already surrounds us if we can just slow down and appreciate its beauty.
Give Up the Ghost follows, and is a song about our legacy of hate and may allude to the Civil War and the slavery issues that continue to foster race crimes in American cities to this day. ‘I wasn’t there for the worst of it, but I still feel the hurt of it, When hate has no home, it’s gonna give up the ghost.’ Another soulful delivery from Joselyn as she continues to use her powerful vocals to great effect.
The title track is about leaving down old burdens and moving on. The partly spoken vocals tell of dreams for a better tomorrow. The skeleton that we build upon on our journey and the seeds that we try and plant for the world we leave behind… ‘Is there room for the promise that I must keep, I may not see the harvest, but my children will reap.’
Stay is a superb song that examines relationships and the benefit in sticking it out through the hard times, ‘It’s easier to walk away, The hardest part is knowing when to stay.’ Familiarity either breeds contempt, or content – the choice is not always black and white.
Light A Spark is another song about hope for the future – a Post-Covid anthem to get back living life to the full, ‘I wanna spread my arms open, I wanna shake the dust off my heart, If this rusty part is not broken, maybe we can light a spark.’
A very engaging set of songs from two artists who dovetail so naturally together. Such interesting, inviting music, and so elegantly delivered.
Review by Paul McGee