Pony Boy, aka Marchelle Bradanini, puts a seductive, modern twist on the Americana sound with sultry vocals atop twangy, buzzing guitars. “Greatest Unknown” is simultaneously beautiful and eerie, sounding as though it belongs on a Twin Peaks soundtrack. Catch her live show in March and April as she opens for Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rockettes:
3/23: Birmingham, AL @ Zydeco
4/8: Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
4/9: Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
So digging this new discovery. Tom Shaner is a singer-songwriter whose music (according to his bio) has been described many different ways, but there is usually a very rooted quality to it. Shaner is readying the release of his new album Ghost Songs, Waltzes and Rock and Roll produced by Charles Newman (Magnetic Fields) for Mother West Records. This is the official video for the first single, “Unstoppable Hipster” – am loving its Bob Dylan/Elvis Costello vibe. Review to come!
Looking at The Jerzey Street Band and listening to its raucous, rootsy, country-folk anthems on debut album Breaking Radio Silence, one would never think that the band hails from Manchester, England instead of New Jersey, USA! But of course, it’s a known fact that the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty have always done great business in the UK and it’s obvious that the members of The Jerzey Street Band- Dave Wrobel (Lead Vocals & Guitars); Neil Wrobel (Guitars & Vocals); Roger Crombie (Guitars & Vocals); Russ Blakeley (Bass); Keith Ashworth (Pedal Steel Guitar & Dobro); Andy Lawson (Keys) & Mike Weaver (Drums & Vocals) are huge fans of the aforementioned American rock n’ roll icons.
What I really like about Winfred E Eye and its latest LP – Today Was Another Day – is that the band does not sound like it’s really trying too hard to please anyone. Except maybe themselves. There’s a casual, laidback vibe on this collection of songs that is both charming and daring. In some ways, songs like the ethereal “Void” and “Sentimental Junk” might come across like something off Bon Iver’s sophomore effort but it does not take itself as seriously. Know what I mean?
No? Well simply put although there are elements of ‘indie cred’ in Winfred E. Eye’s songwriting, overall the sound is so rustic and homespun, it seems that the band is taking the piss! It’s all very 70s Laurel Canyon most of the time, equal parts Neil Young and James Taylor in approach especially in songs like “Hard Time Comin’” and “Burnin’ Alone”. In fact, on the latter track, the discerning music lover may also find traces of Giant Sand’s so-called Desert Rock agenda. It is spare and uncomplicated, letting the plain folk melody and emotive words carry the power.
All said and done, Today Was Another Day is Americana at its very best – in whatever era you might be listening from, this arcane country-folk-blues-rock transcends mere ‘genre’ to deliver a potent magical strange brew. For want of a better word, this is magnificent alternative country.
Nothing quite like arcane americana even if it’s made north of the US border. This Canuck alt-country outfit revels in all things twangy and you can easily put their music side by side with Fleet Foxes, Jayhawks and Band of Horses. Quite brilliant.
While ah have your attention – check out Fire here.
New album from Yukon Blonde due in 2012. Stoked!
I love alt-country/roots music/Americana (whatever) but you knew that. Here’s another country-folk chanteuse that will go all rustic on your ass. 24 year old Caitlin Rose has released her debut album – Own Side Now – and this live video of Spare Me finds Caitlin in conversational mood and performing with a crack band on the rooftop. And it’s a breezy number which will chase all your blues away. Don’t forget to check out the little story that Caitlin shares right at the end – worth the wait as well!
Caitlin Rose – “Spare Me” – Le Loft Rooftop from DUKE STREET on Vimeo.
I really hate to be one of those cynical reviewers who accuse a band of bandwagon-jumping, but let’s face it: there’s no way Seattle-based outfit The Head And The Heart can avoid the Fleet Foxes comparisons. What do you expect when you ply your trade in rootsy, old-time Americana?
RED WANTING BLUE These Magnificent Miles CD/DVD (Fanatic)
I will shamelessly confess to the fact that there was a moment in the DVD documentary that I had to stop and basically broke down in tears. The culprit? The Red Wanting Blue track Finger In The Air, along with the band members talking about what that song was all about.
They say, “give up and go back where you belong/Dreaming’s for the dead, kid, the road is too long”/Middle finger in the air, I’m still here/Egging them on…
For every dreamer who’s ever had to fight for what they believe in, this song resonates powerfully and it fit perfectly with the story that unfolded on this simple yet touching documentary.
ANGIE MATTSON Skeleton Arm (Radio Nine)
LA-based singer-songwriter Mattson seems to possess all the superficial elements required to be noticed in the modern pop-rock scene. She’s certainly easy on the eyes (as her previous modeling history attests) and the ears (her sultry larynx brings to mind Margo Timmons, Aimee Mann and Chrissie Hynde) but to her immense credit, Mattson refuses to bank on these assets solely.
Instead of merely investing in pop fluff (the kind that makes the world go round), Mattson (on this mini-album, her sophomore effort), gets rough, ready and rustic with swampy country-folk blues that are at turns arcane and earthy. For me, integrity is the mark of a true artist and listening to Skeleton Arm, you cannot help but struck by Mattson’s attitude and purpose.
So it may take a little more time to truly get into some of these songs but the rewards are worthwhile. If you, like me, consider yourself a rock scholar, then you know what the roots of our beloved music are. So does Mattson obviously, as she builds her back-to-basics Americana on tribal rhythms and the primal allure of the clash of country music and the blues.
Think: the deeper bluesier moments of Bob Dylan, CCR, the Doors and the Stones and you’ll start to get at what Mattson is alluding to. This power is evident in songs like Cool Water and Mary, where Mattson sings about this strange existence we call life with internal rhythms driven by an almost-funeral dirge.
Skeleton Arm may only last for 28-odd minutes but it represents everything that I believe about good ol’ country-folk-blues as the most soulful music on our planet. Personally, I am excited that I get the chance to watch Mattson when she plays at TAB Singapore from 3rd to 8th August. More info about that at www.tab.com.sg.
In the meantime, check out Angie Mattson at www.angiemattson.com.
DEVIL MAKES THREE Do Wrong Right (Milan)
When you live in a tiny tropical island in the midst of the Malay Archipelago, the stretched out parched valleys of the old westerns seem awfully far away. Put on Do Wrong Right, though, the latest release from Santa Cruz three-man outfit The Devil Makes Three, and one is guaranteed to be instantly transported to the dusty cracked deserts of old-time America, where men who speak in gruff whiskey splinters break with their tough-guy image and invite you to join in their raucous cowpunk country romps.
The band, consisting of Pete Bernhard on guitar and vocals, Cooper McBean on guitar and banjo, and Lucia Turino on stand-up bass, is an anomaly and anachronism in today’s age of Autotuned radio, but what a delightful anachronism they are. The youth of today, born and bred on a mixture of grunge, punk rock, indie and R&B music might find themselves baffled at first listen, but closer inspection will reveal that The Devil Makes Three is just as thoroughly punk rock as anything on radio today. Simply substitute furious distorted guitars for pluck and strum acoustics, crashing drums for a stand-up bass and half-shouted singing for a warm southern drawl, and hey presto! A hillbilly punk wielding a banjo with a wicked glint in his eye and mayhem on his mind.
The record opens with All Hail, an energetic chugging rhythmic number topped off with fiddle and banjo flourishes that nonetheless manages to name-drop contemporary terms in a odd juxtaposition that works brilliantly, and sets the tone for the rest of the record. The title track is a gleeful exhortation to screw up gloriously and a tribute to the devil-may-care attitude of the old times, as is Gracefully Facedown, a drinking song updated for modern times. For Good Again is an utterly charming number that narrates the tale of a band struggling to overcome their own inertia, with laugh out loud lines like, “We drank and we threw up, sometimes we practiced and played, our drummer couldn’t figure out whether he was straight or he was gay.”
The record hits a small road bump on Johnson Family, a track that, with its European influences, sounds oddly out of place amidst all the Americana. Thankfully that road bump doesn’t last beyond one track. Help Yourself channels the good sense and sensibility of the common folk and snippets of biblical narrative into the simple reminder that “the Lord helps those who helps themselves”. The Devil Makes Three continues to reflect the sentiment of the people into Working Class Blues, a song that, with its apocalyptic streaks of howling harmonica, updates the protest song from the Great Depression into the 21st century’s own Great Recession. The somberness continues in shades until the album closer, Car Wreck, a mournful, pensive track that ends the album with a stirring reminder of the times we live in.
One will need some time to slip into and out of the charming oddball record that is Do Wrong Right, but the band should be applauded for having made old time country music relevant in this technological day and digital age. Impish, infectious, and sorrowful by turns, The Devil Makes Three reminds us that heart and soul is timeless and that good music speaks past genres and decades.
(Samuel C Wee)
Check out Devil Makes Three’s Myspace page.
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