folk

Saturday Music Interlude — Margo Price: A Midwest Farmer’s Daughter

Margo Price is a country music sensation, there is just no getting around it, but she has come to it the hard way.

Hailing from Aledo, Illinois, her Allmusic bio states that she dropped out of college at the age of 20 in 2003 and moved to Nashville to pursue her musical dreams.  She formed the band Buffalo Clover with bassist husband Jeremy Ivey in 2010, which released three albums until the breakup of the band in 2013.  Personal tragedy then intervened with the death of her firstborn son to a heart ailment.  After that unfathomable heartbreak her website bio confesses that she fell into a deep depression that involved alcohol abuse and a brush with her darker side that pitted her against the law.  Coming through that period with the help of family and friends led her to the conclusion that she was “going to write music that I want to hear.  It was a big turning point.”

Pain, heartbreak, tragedy, hardscrabble experience all lay the foundation for great art.  It is a great artist who can channel the energy from that passion and pain into their art without spinning out of control or falling into self-pity.  Margo Price is a great artist with an amazing instrument of a voice and it is great art that is achieved with her solo album entitled Midwest Farmer’s Daughter.

The first song from the album is entitled “Hands of Time” and here she is performing it at SXSW thanks to NPR Music Front Row:

My first impression of the video is that she looks and sounds for all the world much like the reincarnation of a young Lesley Gore.  One could make references to the obvious influence of Loretta Lynn, informed by the modernist attitude of a Kasey Musgraves.  But I say this with a great deal of self-doubt, because the music for this album is so special and so singular, that is sounds both familiar and new.  Margo Price has created her own tradition and it will be interesting to see where she goes from here.  For the fact of the matter is that her songs could be sung by either a man or a woman, and that’s what makes them special.  Rather than speaking from a overtly female perspective, as much of female country music has done in the past, Ms. Price speaks from the heart of some great consciousness that speaks to feelings and experiences that we all understand, with which we can empathize, and which we feel in our own psyches.

For something a bit more energetic, here she is performing “Tennessee Song”, also from SWSW 2016 and NPR.

 

Finally, here she is on CBS This Morning from March 26, 2016 performing “Since You Put Me Down” where she channels the spirit of Hank Williams Sr. and other country music pioneers.

 

 

 

Sunday Music Interlude — Adia Victoria, SHEL, and onDeadWaves

I haven’t written about music in a while, so it’s time to catch up on some of the more interesting new acts and new projects that I’ve come across.

Originally out of South Carolina, Adia Victoria now calls Nashville home.  Her interesting bio can be found at Allmusic.com here.  Her original music is a combination of country and electric blues, punk, garage rock, and a modern type of dark Americana roots music borne of the narrative tradition and neo-folk.  Her voice consists of a girlish rasp wrapped in an alto silkiness.  You can learn more about her at her website at www.adiavictoria.com.

She was named WXPN’s Artist to Watch for July 2016, and just performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.  The performance from this last appears below.

 

SHEL is a group of four sisters out of Fort Collins, Colorado.  I wrote about them back in September 2014 as they were just out of the egg, featuring their neo-folk music after an EP and first album.  They have since matured and have come out with a critically hailed album entitled Just Crazy Enough.  They just played live on Echoes.org with John Diliberto.   Here they are performing a couple of selections that reveal both their developing maturity and natural talent informed by that maturity.  The first is “Let Me Do.”  The song begins as a deceptively simplistic song that then changes both tempo and melody, carried by the ethereal combined voice of their harmony vocals in the call and response from narrative to chorus.

Speaking of ethereal, here is SHEL performing “I’m Just a Shadow.”  This is first class neo-noir folk and roots music.  The following Lyric Video highlights the emotional power of the lyrics.

It is probably time for a shout-out to John Diliberto at Echoes.org.  I actually came across John’s taste in music through the program Star’s End, which is still on-going.  There I was introduced to ambient and space music in the 1970s when I split time between visits to my home state of New Jersey and during trips from my job in Washington, D.C.  FM radio waves being as they were, especially in the early morning over weekends, I would occasionally be able to tune into the program, which memory serves was out of Philly, while driving down some deserted highway with the star-streaked night sky above, and wish that the feeling of my movement through time and space, the fresh air from the open windows, the firmament of the night sky, and the music–which seemed to transport me to some other dimension–would never end.  Then, after years traveling and at sea, I was reintroduced to John as music critic through his contributions to the long-missed CD Review magazine.  His thoughtful, eloquent, and informative reviews opened my world to new music and new musical genre’s that I would probably not otherwise have explored.  There are a few critics that fall into this category which, for me, includes Ralph Gleason, Leonard Feather, Ira Gitler, John McDonough, Robert Christgau, Gary Giddins, Orrin Keepnews, Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh, Michael Cuscuna, and David Dye, among a few–all good company.

This serves as introduction to another project to which I was introduced through Echoes.org and Mr. Diliberto.  It is the group onDeadWaves.  The group consists of British singers Polly Scattergood and James Chapman.  Their maiden album is this month’s Echoes CD of the Month.  According to the review by John Diliberto, onDeadWaves’s sound is like “a meeting of Lanterna, driving across the desert in a 57 ‘Chevy, with Leonard Cohen and Lucinda Williams in the backseat.”  Their music, also called “shoegaze west”, seems more varied, especially when confronted by the 60’s Byrd’s-like guitar and unrestrained punk of the song “California.”  Overall, though, I can hear the influence of the moodier neo-noir song-styling of Lana Del Rey through most of the songs.  Perhaps Ms. Del Rey was onto something after all.

Here they are the song “Blue Inside”.  Other videos are also available at the Echoes site linked above.

 

Wednesday Music Interlude — Homage to Guy Clark

Guy Clark, famous luthier, songwriter, and singer died last week while I was on travel, and so this tribute is somewhat late.  I had heard Clark’s songs through other artists but came late to his music, being a sailor and preoccupied with other concerns.  But finding myself on dry land one day I picked up and listened to a copy of Dublin Blues.   The title song froze me in my tracks and I was hooked.

Here was a man with the ability to take the internal voice that animates and provides narrative to our everyday lives and put it to song with all of its emotional rawness and nuance intact.  That ability in itself marks a true artist.  To sing that way in front of others requires emotional honesty and courage that few possess.  Using that same courage he could also be topical, and his songs “El Coyote” and “Heroes”, both from 2013, are as topical as anything done by Guthrie, Seeger, or Dylan.

To me Clark was a folksinger–one of the most important this country has ever produced.  He led the Nashville progressive country music scene and was one of the leaders of the Outlaw country movement along with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard, among others.  His musical approach was deeply influenced by Townes Van Zandt, and you can hear his influence in the songs of both Steve Earl and Lyle Lovett.  A few years ago I had the pleasure of hearing him, along with Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, and John Hiatt in concert, unplugged as they say.  Just four old boys playing heartfelt music, like sitting around the campfire.  Waiting for Woody and Pete to show up; and maybe Doc and Hank Sr. too.

His voice will be missed.  Here he is singing the song that introduced me to his music.

Saturday Music Interlude — Shaver performing “Old Lump of Coal”

Billy Joe Shaver is one of those stories of a common man who overcomes many obstacles to achieve his potential.  He was a working man who became a little known, but much respected, songwriter, and–after a few false starts–has since become a successful singer-songwriter in his own right.  His songs, as those of any great folksinger, focus on the internal and external struggles, hopes, fears, and yearnings of everyday men and women.

I heard this song just last week on the radio.  It’s one those songs meant for an introspective Saturday.  Here he is performing it six years ago in concert arranged by AMSD.

Sunday Music — Lucinda Williams performing “The Ghosts of Highway 20”

Since I listened to an album entitled Sweet Old World, I have been mesmerized by the gritty and poetic music of Lucinda Williams. At this point in her musical life, her torn and ragged voice fits perfectly with the subjects of her story-songs.  She has slowly worked toward being among the pantheon of the American folk tradition, updating a traditional form to fit in with our modern world.  Even when singing the blues, her songs are uplifting and full of hope and determination.  She records both the shortcomings and fulfillments of the American experience, the universal desire for human dignity and freedom, and living a life of meaning.  She has a new album out and here she is on Nic Harcourt’s Transmissions (apparently the website is still under construction) singing the title song, “The Ghosts of Highway 20.”

Saturday Night Music — Patty Griffin performing “250,000 Miles”

Holiday preparations have caused a short hiatus from blogging on my latest topics.  Watch for a new post at AITS.org soon, as well as further posts on project management and a follow up on the Materiality vs. Prescriptiveness controversy in auditing, and in public contracting and project management.

For now, however, is some music by Patty Griffin.

Oftentimes artistry comes from pain, and that is probably true in describing the start of Patty Griffin’s musical career.  Her bio states that she was born in Old Town, Maine in 1964 and showed no interest in pursuing a musical career, though she learned to play the guitar and undoubtedly has a beautiful singing voice.  Then came the breakup of her marriage in 1992.  She began writing and performing songs in Boston coffeehouses and small clubs, where she had lived when her marriage ended.  Her insightful lyrics and strong musical voice attracted other established artists, the likes of which were Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, and the Dixie Chicks.  They began covering her songs at about the same time that she was began releasing albums beginning in the late nineties, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Personally, I came to her music early with the release of the album Flaming Red, in 1998.  It and the one that preceded it, Living with Ghosts, are considered essential albums in the singer-songwriter genre, though her following albums are just as accomplished and have won her many musical accolades, not only from her audience but also from other songwriters and musical artists.

I saw her perform in concert at the now defunct Thirsty Ear Music Festival at a venue that consisted of a movie western set outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2008.  She paused her performance to remark about the colors of the hills to the east she was facing–awash in yellow ochre and shades of magenta and pink–which she viewed as she sang her songs.  The landscape there has inspired many artists.  Behind her the desert sun was low in the sky, about ready to set, illuminating from behind the thin plains of clouds hanging in the air, the colors of red, orange, yellow, and grey.  Then she resumed and sang “Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)” and in that moment it seemed to me that if there was a voice that would come from the throat of a muse, this was it.

Her latest album is entitled Servant of Love.  Her website describes this album as exploring all of the aspects of love: both its positive and negative aspects, its pleasure and pain, its fulfillment and its loneliness.  In this way her music continues to record and explore the human experience.  Here she is performing “250,000 Miles.”

 

Sunday Music Interlude — Warren Haynes with Railroad Earth performing “Coal Tattoo” and “Blue Maiden’s Tale”

Warren Haynes hails from Asheville, North Carolina and is one of the most sought after–and accomplished–guitarists and songwriters in the world.  Rolling Stone has listed him as one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”  His resume’ is simply phenomenal.  He started out at the age of 20 in David Allan Coe’s band in 1980.  After four years with Coe he played with The Nighthawks and penned, along with Dennis Robbins and Bobby Boyd, the Garth Brooks hit “Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House”, which appeared on the album No Fences.  In 1987 he then worked on the Dickey Betts band as backup vocal and guitarist.  He also continued to write, contributing the title song to Gregg Allman‘s Just Before the Bullets Fly.  In 1989, when the Allman Brothers Band decided to get back together, he was picked up there and continued to play with the band until 1997, when he formed Gov’t Mule along with drummer Matt Abts and the late bass guitarist Allen Woody.  After a short hiatus from the Allman Band he has continued to perform with the band, among other projects.  These projects have included performing as guitarist for the Grateful Dead after the death of Jerry Garcia, as well as releasing solo albums and performing with groups as diverse as the Dave Matthews Band to Railroad Earth, heard on these songs.  This last week the XM Satellite station “The Loft” interviewed Haynes, where he talked about his storied career and upcoming album Ashes and Dust, due out on 24 July.

Unfortunately I haven’t found a live version of “Coal Tattoo” but here is the official audio from the album.

Here he is with the band on the PBS program Front & Center performing “Blue Maiden’s Tale”.  You can find additional songs on the site.

 

 

A Saturday Music Midnight Special — Meg Mac performing “Roll up Your Sleeves” and Lucinda Williams performing “Protection”

It’s getting into early Sunday morning here on the east coast.  I’ve been listening to a number of recently released music from both new artists and old favorites and, given both the hour and variety, I began thinking about the old Midnight Special television show.  The talent that appeared on that show was incredible both for the breadth of artists that appeared and the fact the performances were live, at least until near the end.  It’s unfortunate that we don’t have an equivalent today.

While in today’s new media environment instant gratification is achieved through music downloads and music videos, there is a significant missing component to these largely self-reinforcing navel-gazing technologies: the absence of the sense of community that we used to experience through the shared event.  While some may dismiss this observation as being a typical “old guy” perspective in critiquing new-fangled technology, I think it best to pause.  As a geek I have been enamored with new technology and media through all of its iterations–and use them now, hence this blog and the 200+ apps on my smartphone.  I had high hopes during the early days of “I Want My MTV” that the synthesis of visualized media with music would free the artist to communicate in new ways–and some have pushed the envelope in that direction.  Largely, though, it comes down to people trying to look cool in front of the camera, and more than a few pretty people with marginal talent (at best) scooping up a good portion of the rare money that is available on which to make a living through music.  Largely for my own enjoyment and for those of you who have the patience to subscribe to this blog, I’m providing just a little variety in covering two artists: a newcomer in the form of Meg Mac and the musical legend that is Lucinda Williams.

According to Billboard, Meg Mac is the nom de plume of Megan McInerney.  She hails from Melbourne, Australia, and began getting attention from the triple j unearthed site in 2013.  There she uploaded some songs including the video “Every Lie”, which can be viewed at the same link, and won their Falls Festival competition.  Her early songs show a powerful voice with a neo-soul demeanor in the vein in Adele and Amy Winehouse.  She has a website that provides some additional details of her musical influences, as well as her past and current projects.  She was identified as the New Artist to Watch for June 2015 by WXPN.  She released an EP self-titled Meg Mac, and is in the process of putting together her first album.  The following live performance on 89.3 The Current has her performing “Roll Up Your Sleeves.”

At the other end of the spectrum we have Lucinda Williams.  I first came across her unique voice through an album of original songs that I picked up from the Smithsonian Institution store during a visit to D.C. back in the early ’80s entitled Happy Woman Blues.  This was actually her second release and I was so taken by her original vision, voice, and authenticity that I quickly sought out her debut album, which consisted of covers of traditional folk and blues songs that she seemed to make her own through the timbre of her voice and her emotional connection to the songs communicated in a manner that I had never heard before: Ramblin’ On My Mind.  She has had many successes since that time with breakthrough albums that are an essential part of the American songbook.  Late last year she released her first double album: Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone.   Her voice is now a bit worn, raw, and weary-sounding–reminding me of the same metamorphosis that happened to Billy Holiday’s by the time she released Lady in Satin in 1958.  Here she is performing “Protection” for KEXP.

 

Sunday Early Morning Music — Ryley Walker performing “Primrose Green”

Designated the March Artist to Watch by WXPN in Philadelphia, Ryley Walker is a guitar virtuoso and folk/singer-songwriter out of Chicago.  His first CD, which was released last year, was the well-received All Kinds of You.  His talent is extraordinary and his musical interests span traditional folk, Celtic, jazz-folk, British late ’60s era folk-rock, country blues, and psychedelica.  His new full-length CD is entitled Primrose Green.  The title song is what follows and it is very reminiscent of Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and Donovan.

 

Sunday Early Morning Music — Steve Earle Performing “King of the Blues”

Originally a roots rocker from the mid-1980s Steve Earle has become an American treasure, singing songs that cross genres that include folk, protest, country, rockabilly, Americana, and roots music.  Born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, but raised outside of San Antonio, Texas, independent-minded and rebellious, Steve Earle has always followed his own musical vision.  Since the appearance of Guitar Town in 1986, he has produced one milestone album after another, many of them scorned and ignored when first released.  When I first heard his first album he seemed to possess a combination of the east coast attitude of Bruce Springsteen combined with the mid-west swagger and rebellion of John Mellencamp.  Then came the neo-traditional country that was reminiscent of the songs of Dwight Yoakum, Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark, and Randy Crowell.  Then from there he was off on his own and I have followed him and his muse ever since.

This should have been no surprise.  He met and was influenced early by Townes Van Zandt and, after moving to Nashville, was part of Guy Clark’s backup band in the 1970s.  He has since incorporated those influences and pushed the music forward, honoring the tradition, but incorporating new elements.

Steve Earle produces story-songs that trace and record the life of the common man and woman.  His songs embody the hopes, joys, sadness, disappointment, and sometimes anger that is part of American life.  His character role in the TV series Treme’, which itself was an artistic achievement that represents an archive and testimony of our own time: a view of early 21st century America as seen through the lives of the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and the indifference, vicissitudes, day-to-day struggles, and political corruption they overcame in its wake.  His song “This City” still rings in my mind.  Aside from music and occasional acting, Earle also is a talented novelist.

His latest album, released last month, is entitled Terraplane.  The song that follows is “King of the Blues.”