R.I.P. Charlie Louvin

I was saddened by the passing of Charlie Louvin a couple of days ago (Born July 7, 1927, Died January 26, 2011) . Charlie and Ira Louvin, in my humble opinion, were maybe the best contemporary music harmonizing duo. They informed the likes of The Everly Brothers and Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris. It's a natural part of life of course, but that makes it no less poignant. I don't have Charlie's solo work. I have Razor & Tie's excellent greatest hits package of the Louvin Brothers called When I Stop Dreaming. I have their most important gospel album Satan Is Real and finally their country & western classic Tragic Songs of Life. These are essential to any serious country & western music collector and any serious record collector in general. May you have met the maker you wished to meet Brother Charlie.

Trombone Shorty Backatown

True, I am behind on reviews. But I am inspired here for two reasons. I soon will return to New Orleans first of all, and second of all I will get to see the great Trombone Shorty in Columbia on February 5, 2011 (which is REALLY great because it is a Saturday night!).

Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews' 2010 release Backatown could have been made in New Orleans as early as 1960. It is something that is that funky-butt style or early 70s Funky Meters or 21st Century hip-hop bounce all at once.

Opening with seamless New Orleans Funk crossed with progressive southern hip-hop bounce Hurricane Season sets the tone for this classic gumbo. There is such a taste for The Meters here that you would think they are the rhythm section, as they were for so much of New Orleans bands of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

By the time you make your way to the post modern R & B of the song Something Beautiful (with backing vocals by Lenny Kravitz) you know this young trombone player has made something beautiful. Backatown is not only a Rosetta Stone of New Orleans music ranging from 50s Rock and Roll to neo-soul, he's made it accessible as hell! It is the best of New Orleans brass bands filtered through rap 'tude.

Each listen subsequently brings something new, for example, the likes of the song Neph feels like Jazz made in Egypt. And god in heaven, Andrews can arrange a brass ensemble as if the spirit of Ray Charles was hovering behind him. The hard-rocking Suburbia will blast you to your feet. Two-chord electric guitar and bass are the underbeat punch to Andrews' Spanish bull-fighting staccato trombone. It's fucking crazy!

The flavor and tones this young master possesses will someday read like other master's album catalogs...long, storied, scattered with classics that will be transcendent. He could pick any genre and do straight albums of whatever type of music and be considered brilliant. But Backatown has been chosen as a master's genre-bending sampler masterpiece. Allen Toussaint even lends piano on a track to solidify Andrews' street cred.

Don't leave home without this.

Mary Gauthier The Foundling

Mary Gauthier's (pron. Go-shay) 2010 release The Foundling starts out with the titular song, slow-waltz style; and has more in common with European cafe culture with its soft accordion and Italian folk arrangements, than what you think of as Americana singer-songwriter music.

This does not keep it from being any less visceral or poignant as this concept album is a rumination on being orphaned and searching some 40 years later for a birth mother. Sometimes coming off like a humorless John Prine (which is not a bad thing at all), by the time you get to Mama Here, Mama Gone you'll get the gist of this achingly beautiful singer-songwriter's muse.

Mary Gauthier is a rare singer-songwriter whose original and personal confessions become a nice contrast to this genre's usual observation stories. Not that the greats don't have personal and confessional songs but they don't always make whole albums about it without sounding maudlin. Goodbye starts out with the lyric 'I was born a bastard child in Louisiana.' Now that is honest.

It would be easy to compare Mary Gauthier to her fellow Louisiana contemporary Lucinda Williams, but I have to quit doing that. Primarily because they are really quite different and certainly matured differently as singer-songwriters. You are much more likely to hear New Orleans music gumbos or European folk idioms with Mary Gauthier than with Lucinda, who has chosen to pursue the more electric pursuits of rock & roll or roots rock for all its worth in order to mainstream herself in a genre she helped popularize some time ago with the brilliant Car Wheels on a Gravel Road album. And there is nothing wrong with that. Dylan is now doing the same thing and has made some of the best rock albums of this folk career here lately.

Mary though lets that musical melting pot of Louisiana really influence this album. Soft Cajun violins, New Orleans brass band and acoustic guitar permeate. It really makes the album haunting and so holds up her participating in her songs rather than writing about observations. She talks about herself in a deeply personal level without sounding like she is talking to her therapist (as is the common habit of so many of her male counterparts...Ellis Paul & John Gorka come to mind).

To make her abandonment legitimatized and forgiven she introduces a nice rock & roll style drum beat against an acoustic backdrop for the heartbreaking Blood is Blood.

'I got a heart that's ripped

I got a heart that's torn

I got a hole in me like I was never born'

The chorus is 'blood is blood and blood don't wash away'

Within the record she finally finds her birth mother and I won't give away the whole story in this excellent songscape that plays like a black and white indie movie that might not have an ending you expected, but you will appreciate it and will not be left without hope.

The New Pornographers - Together

The New Pornographers are not breaking any new ground with Together. The album is full of their usual excellent pop gems. And I mean every one. To me though, to operate in the pop rock realm and pull it off well is probably one of the most difficult things you can do without mimicking other artists...but c'mon with pop, that is exactly what you do unless you are The Beatles or Phil Spectre.

The New Pornographers are a Canadian supergroup and the only one I really know out of their group is alt-country singer-songwriter Neko Case, who I would gladly drink her bathwater. And she isn't even Canadian. Together, is reminiscent of their first three albums. I was struck though how much they really mine The Beatles. But on songs like the Crash Years we get treated to Brian Wilson via Pet Sounds. This is a strong complement. The next song following this, Silver Dollar Jenny, we get treated to the Neko Case's breathy 'wa-wa-wa-wa' sounding like that old pop easy listening classic Teach Me Tiger.

If You Can't See My Mirror is a swirling, swimming diamond ruby combining the male lead singer and brainchild of the group, A. C. Newman with Neko Case, in a cross between a Laurel Canyon Mamas and Papas and every middle 80s British faux gay alt-pop I have ever heard).

Their typical convention of making you think that you are getting verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus is turned on its ear, as they may change this completely in on itself. I don't know if it is because they are primarily Canadian, but it sure seems like you hear a lot of Euro-pop in here too. Guitars are sparse, but plenty of pianos and all kinds of Eastern European brass (especially the great brass arrangement on Daughters of Sorrow). In the classic pop sense, they let the voices of the various lead and harmony singers serve as the lead instrument. This is a great listen.

Be aware, that subsequent listens will turn you into an ear candy addict.

Belatedly, The Knitters

It was on May 15, 2010 that I saw them, but I forgot to mention that I saw the legendary band The Knitters. They are comprised of all the personnel of the seminal L.A. punk band X except for Billy Zoom on guitars. They do country music. When The Knitters are together, their staff guitarist is none other than the legendary Dave Alvin on guitar. Too bad he didn't get to sing as he has a great baritone like John Doe.

But I digress. The concert was terrific. And I forget how excellent of a guitarist Dave Alvin is. The primarily did music from their 1986 project called Poor Little Critter on the Road and their other traditional country album Modern Sounds of The Knitters (probably a play on words for Ray Charles seminal country album of similar name Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music).

In any event, before Jason & The Scorchers, before Uncle Tupelo, there was The Knitters. They are and were a punk band doing more than competent Americana, bluegrass, and Country and Western. The concert was excellent. There was much inter-band banter especially by former married couple Exene Cervenka and John Doe. Except for Dave Alvin's great surfabilly playing, it was primarily a rollicking acoustic set. I was particularly fond of the their cover of Rank Strangers. All in all a great concert where the whiskey flowed and the fun was had.

We also got to spend a little time talking to the great John Doe who came out to greet people and autograph CDs on the way out of Columbia, MO Blue Note venue.

Drive-By Truckers The Big To-Do

Ahhh yes, Southern rock. I love it. And no one does it better than my current-favorite-for-some-years now, The Drive-By Truckers. I have had The Big To-Do for a couple of months already. They have performed at my current city of Columbia, MO already. I have just hesitated reviewing for some reason. A Southern picture as always; hot, humid, political, rawking...these hard rock singer/songwriters never cease to amaze. As always, I never understand why they are not incredibly famous and popular. They can WRITE a song that kicks most other bands in the balls. This album is no different. In fact, shedding a lead guitar gave them a tougher, rawer sound on this album.

It kind of reminds me of a serious Pizza Deliverance. And that album had plenty of seriousness to it as well. I am so fascinated with a band that can continue to evolve and keep loyal to an incredible goal and sound that keeps the South so honest and raw and rural and urban even. As usual their Fualknerian ability to not explain away the duality of the South, but to embrace one of the only bits of cognitive dissonance I can possibly tolerate. Never apologists, only reporters this great piece of Rock & Roll and Southern Rock in particular keeps moving them forward.

The songwriting which has been great for years now just gets better. This album has dropped one of the lead guitars from 3 to 2 which makes it more muscular. They hopped from the New West label to ATO and chose to lean this bitch up a little. They also give their great rhythm section Shonna Tucker another two songs to sing on as well. My favorite album since The Dirty South I just never get over how much this band continues to grow and evolve. I can also never get over why they are not selling out stadiums because they have the 'tude of all the great Southern Rockers 10 fold!

The tunes are all great too, plenty of working man ennui starting with the power chord on Daddy Learned to Fly, the alcoholic paean The Fourth Night of My Drinking and the destined to be a classic This Fucking Job. Well done boys (and girl)!

Also don't miss Shonna Tucker's on-line southern cooking show.

IT'S RECORD STORE DAY

It's record store day, today April 17, 2010. Grab a fistful of your hard-earned cheese and buy some new music as well as helping out an independent business.