It's Only Rock & Roll, what Lou Reed meant to me.

I didn't want to write a blog entry that would turn into a biography and I don't per se, want to overly eulogize one of my music heros. I think most of my fellow fans or anyone familiar with contemporary American Music of the last 50 or 60 years know about his life already and are mourning in multiple ways. I'm going to sit down and listen to the whole of my VU catalog. It's certainly my favorite (maybe) of his pop songwriting.

That's right, to be very honest with you, with all this talk in The NY Times or Rolling Stone articles about his "dark vision" kind of leaves me a little cold. Yes, there were some very dark themes-whole albums of dark themes. But I want to remind people of what a great, great pop songwriter Lou Reed was. For a man who was partially rapping and narrating over tunes, he could, at times write achingly beautiful melodies about being a young person in love; those pre-Beatles understanding of Rock And Roll. Not that The Beatles didn't write about puppy love or hand holding; but ultimately they are British and as much as they wanted to be American and distill American music you have to live where Lou Reed lived in order to pick up those great Eastern U.S. styles in order to do what Lou Reed did. Philly Soul, Doo-wop, Harlem Radio DJ voices, Alan Fried, American Bandstand, New York folk scene and Atlantic Records all floated through Lou Reed's ear holes I am sure. At least I like to think so.

What I wanted to write about is how much Lou Reed influenced my life and my love of popular and contemporary music. Especially my great love for a well-crafted pop song and music that helped me get through it all while I was growing up (and way into middle age). Lou Reed helped me become a man in a lot of ways. He let me know it was okay to be sensitive, but don't go indulging in that shit all the time. Life's hard and it's okay to be angry. It's okay to medicate yourself. He was a music Jesus that who impaled himself on the 'angry young man' demeanor and made himself the personal sacrifice on the altar of all our demons so we wouldn't have to. His dark messages never, ever glorify the act of the sin, but merely a narrative that takes you down a path and says "you decide".

I was late to The Velvet Underground. I was probably 21 or 22 when I discovered them through the rise of the college music underground in the mid-to-late '80s. In fact the first VU tunes I heard were covers of Pale Blue Eyes and Femme Fatale on REM's wonderful outtakes album Dead Letter Office. My future wife was forcing The Velvet Underground and Nico down my throat...and I fucking loved it. It was dark, but it could be happy and poignant too.  The album that really blew me away after that was Loaded. It was chocked full of standard Rock And Roll and today I still can't figure out why it didn't sell a million records when it came out. Rock And Roll, Sweet Jane, Lonesome Cowboy Bill, were these great tunes with great melodies written primarily by someone weened on '50s Rock And Roll. In any event Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground teed me up for punk and post-punk. I learned by listening to Lou Reed that punk was not the slam-dancing movement of screaming over one chord, it was in fact the continuation of great melody tunes. The New York punk movement of the '70s would most certainly not exist without Lou Reed. Think of all the great pop tunes and melodies written by the likes of Blondie or The Talking Heads. Bands I am sure knew the secret that King Louie imparted to us all...that's it's only rock-n-roll. It's all about heartbreak and soaring love. It's about first kisses and hand holding. It's about first loves and having fun with your friends. It's about first breakups and losing friends. It's about growing up in public (to use a later album title). It's about rebellion. Punk Rock is just another euphemism for Real Rock And Roll And Rebellion. Lou Reed taught me how to listen to Rock And Roll, critically. He taught me what was the good from the crap, by showing me that he too could make some crap...and he did on many occasion. But that is the human side of the urban folk rock he performed and invented. He taught me it was even okay to fail and you are sometimes anyway, so get used to it.

The eponymously titled album The Velvet Underground was a beautifully understated masterpiece. With such heartbreakers as Pale Blue Eyes or Candy Says or low key rockers like What Goes On and That's The Story of My Life shows me over and over again what a great songwriter Reed was. And he's the leader of a band than no one would seriously revisit for 20 years after they were made. Again, these were the musical feet that brought me the spirit of Rock And Roll for the new generation, my own generation of Generation X.

Incidentally, as an aside, I was amused by and like every one of the Lou Reed tunes that are titled "[insert girl's name here] Says." When I was young and kept "poem" journals I too would borrow this tack of taking girlfriend's names or whatever female I was obsessed with at the time and titling it "[insert girl's name here] Says". It was all very dramatic and Lou again helped me work through my love issues.

There are countless albums of his that I adore; tunes that I love, songs that helped me make it through. Up until a couple of months ago Lou was helping get over some grief. I lost my cat and best buddy Frank in June 2013. The day that we put him down (and I had no idea at the beginning of the day that we'd have to do it) we had had such a great day together. I knew Frank was very sick, but we got up together. He was sleeping on me which he hadn't done for awhile. He was hungry for his favorite treats, he was getting all around the house to position himself for his favorite form of affection of head kisses, he had good meals where he ate his favorite food and drank lots of water. He got to get in some lap cuddling and being held. At the end of the day though he lost the use of his hind legs through a blood clot that caused him to have a saddle thrombosis due to his lung cancer. All I could think of the next day after I put him down was Lou Reed's poignant song Perfect Day. "Such a perfect day, I'm glad I got to spend it with you." Listening to that song and Satellite of Love got me through a rough time and healed me up enough to do my job and get around to do my day-to-day activities.

So I think many of us are indebted to Lou. I think he did that for a lot of people. I know when I heard the radio program Fresh Air with Terry Gross interview with Lou's long time publicist William Bennett, I was moved by the description that "Billy B." gave about Lou where I paraphrase "Lou really believed in doing good and right things and it pained him that he would sometimes not do them." Who doesn't relate to that? I think Lou would be happy to know that he actually helped people, took care of them, and inspired countless people who were not simply artists but also the every day regular folks who just dug great Rock And Roll.

Jason Isbell Southeastern

Jason Isbell's Southeastern is as fine of singer/songwriter album that's come out in a long while. This self-deprecating recovery album is poignant without being preachy. He carries his writing exactly like a man telling a matter-of-fact, no frills experience.  And he does this with great aplomb as those have who have gone before him. Isbell's mostly stripped down songs draw easy comparisons to a southern Springsteen and as a friend pointed out to me not too long ago when recommending the album, Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams. Isbell started out with a not so brief tenure with the great Drive-by Truckers. I knew the major core of songwriters early on in DBT and with the advent of Decoration Day and The Dirty South with songs like Outfit on Decoration Day; The Day John Henry Day and Goddamn Lonely Love on The Dirty South; I knew a distinct writing voice had arisen in this classic Southern Rock Band. When Isbell struck out on his own and heard the first inkling of how good his solo career was going to be with Dress Blues on his fine album Sirens of The Ditch I was purely sold and knew the next generation of talented poets was safely in Isbell's hands.

The opening 3/4 time song Cover Me Up starts the heartbreak of chasing away your lover with your lack of sobriety and the hope somehow that you can keep it up and maybe she'll stay around. He easily determines she won't, if he doesn't straighten up. This becomes the theme of the album, regret without sounding maudlin or hairshirt-tugging grief. It's hard to pull off and I think that is the genius of the album. The next song on deck is the breezy southern rocker Stockholm which if listened to too closely let's you know what's ahead on the first line of "I've heard songs make a Georgia man cry." Live Oak, with its a cappella opening and continued lamentation sounds if it could have been discovered as a long lost folk song or 'murder ballad' from a Lomax field recording. With its backcountry loss or confusion on the lyric "there's a man who walks beside her, he is who I used to be, and I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me." Powerful stuff about train robbin' and killin'.

Songs That She Sang in the Shower  is probably the most earnest 'lost love' song on the album to me. Also written in 3/4 time, he explains the loss and duties of sobriety with these lyrics

"In a room by myself, looks like I'm here with the guy that I judge worse than anyone else. So I pace, and I pray, and I repeat the mantras that might keep me clean for the day".

"And the songs that she sang in the shower are stuck in my mind like 'Yesterday's Wine', like 'Yesterday's Wine' and experience tells me that I'll hear them again without thinking of them, without thinking of them".

The alt-country rave up Super 8 gives us much needed break with a nice southern fried rocker. All the trappings of endless touring, drinking, and jail, you can imagine this little ditty being played at someplace like the Golden Spike in Kirksville, MO. Rednecks with longnecks should love this priceless boot scootin' boogie tune. 

The outro of this excellent album is Relatively Easy, thematically pretty tough song. Completely hidden by the uptempo music supported with lyrics like,

"are you having a long day, everyone you meet rubs you the wrong way, dirty city streets smell like an ashtray morning bells are ringing in your ear."

"I lost a good friend, at Christmastime when folks go off the deep end, his woman took the kids and he took Klonopin, enough to kill a man twice his size. Not for me to understand. Remember him when he was still a proud man, a vandal's smile, a baseball in his right hand, nothing but the blue sky in his eyes.

"I should say, I keep your picture with me everyday. The evenings now are relatively easy. And here with you there's always something to look forward to. My lonely heart beats relatively easy. 

I regret not buying this album on vinyl because the songs are perfectly sequenced, rolling perfectly into each other. This is a testament, I am assuming, to Dave Cobb's fine work at the helm as producer. It's very much like a 47 minute video covering the human condition that singer/songwriters of worth and rank have done so well for so long. I am very happy that such a fine young torchbearer has come to state the difference between youth and maturity, most adeptly I might add. He has come along to tell us about ourselves while he tells us about himself. This deeply personal testament to licking your demons and proving that you don't have to be a drunk or an addict to write great songs also proves it helps to have something in your past like that to draw upon. 

Southeastern should be on everybody's top 10 at the end of the year. Right now it's my 'Number 1' and I don't think anything's going to knock it off.

Tim's Top Ten of Twenty Twelve

Of all the music I bought in 2012, I bought exactly ten 2012 releases. So here is my 'Top 10' in order:

1) Dr. John - Locked Down (This is my album of the year)

2) Bob Dylan - Tempest

3) Dwight Yoakum - Three Pears (Best Country & Western/Roots Rock)

4) Calexico - Algiers

5) Kelly Hogan - I Like To Keep Myself In Pain

6) The Ace Records Blues Story - eponymous, various artists (Best label reissue and best R & B record.)

7) Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three - Live In Holland

8) St. Vincent - Stranger Mercy (Best alternative rock album reissue with a DVD) Original album released in 2011)

9) Sonny Landreth - Elemental Journey (Best instrumental)

10) The Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls

Dr. John (The Night Tripper) Locked Down

Dr. John's Locked Down is produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach who also plays guitar on all tracks.  The first and title track Locked Down is as humid as summer in New Orleans. It is a thick, thick gumbo. Without trying to recreate Dr. John's psychedelic  swamp classic Gris-Gris this updated version of Dr. John The Night Tripper employs what he terms as "tricknologists" (buy it and read the liner notes) mixes a smooth, hot and tight blend of New Orleans' R & B, '50s Rock & Roll, and swamp blues. This young backing band might just have picked up the gauntlet that The Funky Meters laid down and picked up where they left off. In other words stanky-funky! Tricknology is a feeling employed by the young tricknologists and their master magician voodoo priest, Dr. John.


Auerbach may be the next Clapton He completely submits to learning from a master. He humbles himself and comes out on the other side a master himself by not indulging his guitar playing. In fact it is quite in the background. You can tell he feels himself to be a journeyman. No other track demonstrates this like Getaway, a funked up rhythm-guitar hero, action-packed, true blue, voodoo, hudu guru unselfish guitar coolness. Dr. John has gots to be proud! It's like college talent with professional aspirations. You hear the desire to learn the trade of Mesopotamian origins that predict a historian's discovery of something long hidden, but known to exist. The guitar work is some of his best.

When you have a recording capturing a musician's growth you are capturing "classicism"  in music that you typically only experience with Jazz. And this is where the mastery of Dr. John truly governs the albums production. This is where Dr. John employs his "tricknology" as a magician and a medicine man. Then he passes his craft to the young band and Auerbach with greatest of love for imparting knowledge to eager students. It's a beautiful record.

From the beginning you hear the sounds of swamp birds, then the funky bass lead kicks in on the song Locked Down, you just know this is going to be a psychedelic midnight ride through the back roads of southern Louisiana and the backatown alley ways of New Orleans. You get thrown right into some hard swamp R & B on Revolution, pinning your ears back with a baritone sax swing. Moving down the set list you get a great throwback paean to The Night Tripper that could have been taken right from the Gris-Gris sessions Eleggua complete with voodoo chants and magic shakers.

The great song cycle ends with a faux gospel rave-up God's Sure Good. Dr. John truly counts his blessings with this fine song. The album ends too soon, but that's what the replay button is for; it was my summer soundtrack. I wrote the original draft of the post on May 12, 2012...plenty buzzed up on whatever swamp juice I could muster with the best of tricknology.

Bob Dylan Temepst

From a Facebook post, I'll just make this my official review.

"If I can't work up to you, you'll surely have to work down to me someday." ~Bob Dylan, "Narrow Way, from the new album "Tempest."

New Dylan dropped today. I really like it upon first listen. For fans of late period stuff like "Love & Theft" or "Modern Times" his voice keeps getting rougher, songs keep getting darker, and he just keeps going back in time mining the Americana he helped push into the future. Country and Western, Blues, early Rock-N-Roll, pre-WWII everything, and even a little old world slow Irish jig on "Tempest" the title track.   I particularly like the opening song called "Duquesne Whistle" and "Narrow Way." It's on Spotify.

Tim Van Huss Top 10 Albums

'Tis the season for top tens. I did not get all the stuff I wanted to review, reviewed. The top three are in order, the rest is no particular order.

1) Gillian Welch - The Harrow And The Harvest
2) The Rum Drum Ramblers - Mean Scene
3) Destroyer - Kaputt
4) Ha Ha Tonka - Death oOf A Decade
5) The Bandana Splits - self-titled
6) Shamarr Allen And The Underdawgs - 504-799-8147
7) The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts
8) Carolyn Wonderland - Peace Meal
9) Drive-By Truckers - Go Go Boots
10) St. Vincent - Strange Mercy

Happy New Year!

Gillian Welch The Harrow & The Harvest

Writing partners Gillian Welch and David Rawlings write and perform songs under the name Gillian Welch (as if that was an eponymous band name). The Harrow & The Harvest released earlier in the year (2011) provides yet again a glimpse into a time both forgotten and yearned for. The tone, as her previous album releases captures rural Appalachia, the Ozarks, Okie plains, and the deep country South.

The Harrow & The Harvest opens with the rhythmic guitar plunk of Scarlet Town. A song about heading to a corrupt town and becoming...well...corrupted, finding love to lose it and finding sin that will damn you. Welch constantly seeks the dark side of rural life with bleak stories of characters who have no redemption or hope. It's no different with The Way That It Goes which opens with the lyric "Becky Johnson bought the farm and put a needle in her arm, that's the way it goes." Although modern in language it hearkens back to early 20th century folk music, operating in that amoral gloom of poverty or depression and murder ballads. It's that black and white understanding of how hard life can be. There's no judgement really, nor right or wrong...it's just the way that it goes.

Most of the songs are Welch's and Rawlings' otherworldly harmonies, two guitars or guitar and banjo. The segue into Six White Horses is old time banjo accompanied by muted, sluggish hand claps with a simple harmonica taking the music chorus. Welch takes a solo outing on the sparse Hard Times. It's just banjo and her hauntingly sweet voice except for some light harmonies on the choruses. The song is about a "Camptown man" and the love he shares with his work mule. Of the songs on this album, even though the Camptown man loses his mule, the lyric to the chorus "hard times ain't gonna rule my mind" is a bittersweet understanding that a person has to go on in the face of loss, death, or loneliness - that the alternative to those penalties of living are somehow better.

This album is not much different than the rest of her catalog. All her albums are great ciphers of a different time. The Harrow & The Harvest is no exception. Powerful, dark, literate, with no judgement of the character or actions of the uncomplicated souls that inhabit this fine set of songs.