• Rock n' Folk

    New from Bruce Cockburn: ‘O Sun O Moon’

    In 53 years of writing and recording, there’s been an undercurrent of spirituality in the music of Canadian Bruce Cockburn. He’s always had a knack for painting a picture of his Christian faith in a way that doesn’t hit you over the head, using the beauty and mystery of the natural world to illustrate the wonder of it all (just listen to my all-time favorite album of his, Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws, and you’ll know what I mean).

    His innate kindness and empathy for his fellow humans has always drawn me to him. Bruce Cockburn is one of the good ones (and criminally underappreciated in these United States, but I’ll digress).

    With O Sun O Moon, due out May 12th on True North records, Bruce’s spiritual side steps out of the shadows and, well, “Into the Now.”

    Bruce Cockburn will turn 78 this month, and after a tough collective few years for all of us, Bruce brings out themes of faith, mortality, love, conflict and climate in this beautiful collection of songs.

    Recorded at on/off band member, album producer & pal Colin Linden’s backyard studio in Nashville, the album features some quality guests – from Buddy Miller and Sarah Jarosz to Shawn Colvin and Allison Russell (have you heard Nightflyer?).

    From the get go, Bruce faces that ticking clock and his faith head on with “I’m On A Roll”:

    Pressure building left and right / Timer ticking, just out of sight / I’m taking shelter in the light

    Time takes its toll / But in my soul / I’m on a roll 

    The powerful “Orders” addresses the oft overlooked yet plain and simple mantra of “Love thy neighbor”:

    The sweet, the vile, the small, the tall The one who rises to the call / The list is long — as I recall / Our orders said to love them all 

    Not an easy concept to adhere to, is it? But nonetheless, as Bruce illustrates so well throughout the record, it’s the foundation of his faith.

    With the backing of Shawn Colvin’s beautiful voice, the sweet, laid back front-porch feel of “Push Comes to Shove” continues the message: “push comes to shove / It’s all about love.”

    In July 2021, Bruce vacationed in Maui with Dr. Jeff Garner, the lead pastor of the San Francisco Lighthouse church, which Bruce attends. In addition to helping lead a Sunday service, Bruce spent some quality time writing tunes. The first song he wrote is my personal favorite, “Into the Now,” which has been a staple of his solo acoustic show ever since (I was lucky enough to see him play it in Scottsdale last year). It’s a Cockburn special: timely, poignant lyrics, a chorus that varies each of the first three times before tying all together exquisitely at the end; strung together words like: “Light as the feet of birds hunting on sod / Love trickles down like honey from God”; Sarah Jarosz on harmonies and mandolin. I mean, come on (!), it gets no better.

    Photos by Daniel Keebler.

    Another Maui-written song, “Colin Went Down To The Water” was released to streaming services a few weeks back. Featuring background vocals by Allison Russell (seriously, have you heard Nightflyer?), Buddy Miller and Colin Linden, the spiritual call and response of the song instantly connected with me (listen below).

    The third Maui song is “King of the Bolero,” where Bruce channels a raspy, bluesy vocal to tell the story of a nightclub guitarist who’s “Got a double chin all the way round his neck / And a pot belly in the back.” Not a flattering image, and it makes me wonder who inspired this (internet sleuthing tells me the nightclub in the the Maui Grand Wailea Hotel is the Botero lounge. The Colombian artist Botero is mentioned in the song. Did Bruce write this while taking in some entertainment at the Botero? Hmm…).

    Bruce’s resonator guitar, Gary Craig’s glockenspiel, Viktor Strauss’s bowed bass and Jenny Scheinman’s gorgeous violin usher in the sublime “Us All” (also available on the streaming services). It’s a hypnotic, mournful plea to “let kindness reign for Us All.”

    The welcome sound of Bruce’s dulcimer rings in “To Keep the World We Know,” a sobering take on climate change, sung with indigenous Canadian artist Susan Aglukark (who sings in a native Inuit language called Inuktitut). An important message; and rhythmically reminiscent of Bruce’s great 1977 tune “Arrows of Light.

    The closing songs of O Sun O Moon bring it all back to the theme of faith & mortality in their own unique ways. The penultimate tune is the prayerful “O Sun By Day O Moon By Night,” featuring spoken word verses building to a joyous chorus prayer with gospel-soaked background vocals:

    O sun by day o moon by night / Light my way so I get this right / And if that sun and moon don’t shine/ Heaven guide these feet of mine / To Glory

    The album finale, “When You Arrive,” culminates in a singalong chorus featuring the full cast of previously mentioned characters. With a sauntering, New Orleans style rhythm, the repeated chorus brings to my mind an image of Bruce and the gang second-lining lazily down a French Quarter street, shuffling contently off into the distance – firm in their faith – and ready for whatever may be waiting around corner.

  • Rock n' Folk

    Katie Queen of Tennessee

    The song is sweet, catchy, and mesmerizing. It got me right from the moment I saw this video on Palladia. I’d never heard of the Apache Relay. They’re from Nashville, and they took their name from a scene in the 1995 movie Heavyweights (co-written and co-produced by Judd Apatow – he’s everywhere).

    The video is a good match for the song – random, unexpected, and pretty damn delightful…

    The Apache Relay (Amazon)

  • Rock n' Folk

    Required Viewing: Fred Eaglesmith

    I experienced my first Fred Eaglesmith show Wednesday night as Fred’s ‘Traveling Steam Show” rolled through Arizona.

    How to even begin? The great music, the between-song monologues that are a show unto itself, the kickass backing band (including the talented and quite lovely Tif Ginn). My face hurt from laughing so hard, and I am still riding a high from that great night of music.

    Fred and the band are inside their vintage tour buses rolling into Texas now as I write this, with a good number of dates left on this tour (up through the midwest and into Canada).

    I can’t put the experience into words and do  it justice.  A good start is this full show from the 2007 at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.

    Folks, if Fred Eaglesmith and his Traveling Steam Show stops through your town, drop what you’re doing and GO.

  • Rock n' Folk

    Delta Spirit on Austin City Limits / “Vivian”

    Austin City Limits is amazing week in and week out as it is, but when one of my favorites hits the stage for the 30 minute showcase, it always seems to capture something special that gives me a brand new appreciation for the music and the artists I admire (one previous example: John Prine’s 2006 appearance when he introduced me to Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons.”

    This weekend’s premier episode with Delta Spirit and Bob Mould brought that same type of moment for me when Matt Vasquez (of Delta Spirit) introduced and sang the song “Vivian.” Matt wrote the song about his grandparents Vivian and Jerry. It’s written from Jerry’s perspective after he’s passed away. He’s up in Heaven and plaintively lamenting the loneliness of it without Vivian. With each chorus, he’s moving closer and closer to her. He moves from “above the clouds” to “below the clouds” to “above your house” and finally, to “beside your bed.” It’s such a moving and heartfelt declaration of love – “not separate even in death.”

    I’ve heard and enjoyed the song many times on DS’s History From Below, but seeing it introduced and performed this way, with Matt’s parents in the ACL audience, in the town that he grew up.. well, it hits me in that sensitive sweet spot (where music so often does).

    Some moments propel me to this chair & keyboard to share with like-minded music-loving folks. This is one of those moments.

    From History From Below

    Watch Bob Mould / Delta Spirit on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

  • Rock n' Folk

    Recap: Band of Horses at the Marquee Theater in Tempe

    It was starting to feel like Band of Horses may never actually make it back to Phoenix. Last year, they were scheduled to open for Kings of Leon at Ashley Home Store Pavilion, but that got axed. Then this year, they were scheduled to play downtown Tempe as part of the second installment of the Railroad Revival Tour with Willie Nelson, Jamey Johnson, and actor/musician John C. Reilly, but that fell apart a few weeks prior to the October 26th date.

    Luckily, Band of Horses wasted no time and promptly booked gigs in the cancelled tour towns, including an October 26th stop at the Marquee Theater in Tempe. For fans like me, it was a big win, now getting a full headlining gig versus an abbreviated festival-like set.

    And so deliver they did, playing a roughly two hour set for (what had to be) a sold out crowd – the set list drawing from all four studio albums. In fact, at the end of the night, only four songs showed up from their latest release, Mirage Rock.

    Some friends and I got to spend about fifteen minutes chatting with lead singer Ben Bridwell after the show, and he talked about the fun they’re having with these last minute headlining dates. They’re giving themselves the freedom to relax, have some fun, and play outside of the box a little.

    It showed with the 23-song set list that included a couple of rarely seen covers: keyboardist/guitarist Ryan Monroe took to the organ for “Ain’t No Good To Cry,” a late 60’s tune by Hour Glass – the L.A. band that Gregg and Duane Allman were a part of before forming the Allman Brothers Band. How’s that for obscure? (Thanks to Ryan Monroe for the Twitter reply confirming the song name). The other cover was the encore finale, an old deep soul track called “Am I A Good Man?”, originally by a group called Them Two. They’ve pulled that one out quite a bit in the past.

    We got a song premiere too, “A Little Biblical” from Mirage Rock, a tune they had never performed live.

    But by and large, the band delivered lots of familiar Band of Horses favorites:

    • The night opener, “The First Song,” with Ben sitting down with this pedal steel.
    • “Marry Song,” with Ryan and Ben synched up perfectly with that gorgeous harmony.
    • “No One’s Gonna Love You,” a night highlight, with only Tyler Ramsey on guitar and Ben on vocals – a very intimate few minutes and clearly a crowd favorite.
    • Another slow burning highlight: “Detlef Schrempf,” where Ben came down to the crowd to share the mic during the chorus, letting crowd members sing “My eyes can’t look at you any other way…”- and by the way, I asked Ben after the show if former NBA star Detlef Schrempf knows there’s a song named after him. The answer is yes – Detlef and Ben keep still keep in touch, and try to hang out when Ben stops through Seattle.
    • “The Funeral” was the regular set closer, and since Ben’s amp blew out during the prior tune, it didn’t feature the familiar guitar riff from his Les Paul Standard. Instead, Ryan worked the riff on the organ. They may have stumbled on something there… very cool to see an oft-played tune done in a different style.

    Just an amazing night overall – for the super fans like me on down. And to be able to chat it up with Ben after the show was the icing on the cake – such a genuinely nice guy.

    Back in October 2008, on the morning after their Austin City Limits Festival set, I saw Ben in the Austin airport, so I went up and said hi. When I mentioned that encounter last night, unbelievably to me, he remembered meeting me on that bleary-eyed morning. So naturally, I asked him to reenact the photo we took in the airport. Kudos to Ben for removing his ball cap to style his hair a la 2008…

    2012

    2008

    Ben promised the crowd that it wouldn’t take so long for the band to make it back to the Phoenix area. From what I can find, the last time they were in Phoenix was a June 2006 stop at the Rhythm Room. That is a long time.

    Here’s hopin’ and beggin’ and prayin’ they stop through again soon. Special band. Special night.

    Band of Horses Web Site

    Band of Horses on Amazon

    Set List

    Marquee Theater
    Tempe, AZ
    Oct 26, 2012

    The First Song
    Laredo
    Great Salt Lake
    Islands on the Coast
    NW Apartment
    Electric Music
    Ain’t No Good To Cry (Hour Glass cover)
    Blue Beard
    Cigarettes Wedding Bands
    On My Way Back Home
    Marry Song
    Everything’s Gonna Be Undone
    Older
    Knock Knock
    A Little Biblical
    No One’s Gonna Love You
    Is There a Ghost
    Weed Party
    Ode to LRC
    The Funeral

    ~ Encore ~
    The General Specific
    Detlef Schrempf
    Am I A Good Man? (Them Two cover)

    ** Thanks to Nicole LaRochelle for some of the photos above.

  • Live,  Rock n' Folk

    Recap: Los Lobos at Ovations LIVE! Showroom, June 15th

    Have I ever mentioned that I love Los Lobos? I have? Well, I’ll say it again: I love Los Lobos. Last night, they stopped into town at the Wild Horse Pass Casino outside Phoenix, playing the relatively new and impressive Ovations Live Showroom (pat-on-the-back mention: no money spent on gambling!).

    There are few things in this life that I enjoy more than listening to and watching David Hidalgo, Cesar Rojas, Louie Perez, Steve Berlin, and Conrad Lozano play their music (not to mention new drummer Enrique “Bugs” Gonzalez – whose infectious energy clearly rubbed off on the rest of the band).

    The diverse crowd was charged up (plenty of quality people watching, both inside the showroom and especially outside in the smoky expanse of the casino floor), pretty ladies were dancing in the aisles, and all was right with the world…

    Set List…

    Los Lobos
    Ovation Live Showroom
    Wild Horse Pass Casino
    Chandler, AZ
    June 15, 2012

    La Pistola y El Corazon
    Las Ojos de Pancha
    Arizona Skies >
    Borinquen Patria Mia
    Teresa
    Sabor a Mi
    Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes
    The Neighborhood
    Chuco’s Cumbia
    Come On Let’s Go
    Wicked Rain
    Yo Canto *
    Papa was a Rolling Stone > *
    I Can’t Understand > *
    Oye Como Va *
    Volver Volver
    Bertha

    Encore:
    La Bamba >
    Good Lovin >
    La Bamba

    * Marcos Reyes from War on percussion

  • Rock n' Folk

    Recap: Deer Tick at the Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix

    The great thing about Deer Tick live is the no frills, no bullshit, “it’s only rock n’ roll” attitude. Lead singer/guitarist John McCauley is the embodiment of it all. He’s clearly in it for the music, and doesn’t much care about self-image or putting on those rock band front man airs. But that’s not to say he doesn’t have a good time and doesn’t embrace some of the – um – rock star lifestyle.

    Shuffling on stage last night with three bottles of Coors and the red plastic cup that was never too far from his grasp, John and the band rocked the face off the Crescent Ballroom last night – growling, spitting, and, yes, snot-rocketing his way through a 90 minute, 19-song set full of new tunes from their brand new album Divine Providence, along with some older tunes spanning their first three albums (most from their debut, War Elephant) and a couple of well-placed covers.

    They opened with the great Divine Providence album opener, “The Bump,” which serves as a great introduction to the band: “We’re full grown men! / But we act like kids! / We’ll face the music / Next time we roll in“; and the ultimate intro to John: “I got a name / They Call Me The Bump / One night with me / Is gonna mess you up … I’m a drunken devil! / I’m not the king of cool!

    And off they went. The set featured 9 songs from the new album, including two sung by guitarist Ian O’Neil (the hard charging “Walking Out The Door” and the southern rock ballad-feel of “Now It’s Your Turn”) and one by drummer Dennis Ryan, “Clowning Around” (Dennis wrote the song about John Wayne Gacy). The first released single from the record, “Miss K”, is good-time rock at its finest, and really pumped the crowd.

    John and the band are loose and relaxed between songs, noodling around like they’re in rehearsal. It’s fun to see. Between songs, we were treated to the theme from Law & Order, AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”, and my favorite, drummer Dennis Ryan singing a verse of Santana & Rob Thomas’ “Smooth” – but sung as Tom Waits. Classic.

    Deer Tick played five tunes off of War Elephant, including another highlight of the night, a slowed down “Ashamed” with a killer sax solo from Rob Crowell. Just as cool was the song they chose next, a raucous cover of the Replacements’ “Bastards of Young.”

    Speaking of covers, the band also showed off their alter ego Deervana, with a spot on version of Nirvana’s “On a Plain.”

    The night wrapped just after midnight, with the party anthem off the new album, “Let’s All Go To The Bar.” They were on for a full 90 minutes, but it still seemed short, and there wasn’t even enough time for an encore (I’m guessing the Crescent Ballroom curfew is 12 midnight). Everyone was ready for more, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, I made my way out back and chatted with the band for a few minutes (along with my smuggled can o’ Four Peaks Hop Knot IPA – shh).

    me & john mccauley

    To me, there’s nothing as invigorating as a solid, genuine, live rock n’ roll show. Deer Tick are as real as they come – an unaffected group of guys who clearly love playing music together and insist on having a great time doing it. It’s all for the love of the music – and luckily, those of us in the crowd get to come along for the ride.

    Deer Tick Set List
    October 28, 2011
    Crescent Ballroom, Phoenix

    The Bump
    Easy
    Baltimore Blues No. 1
    Main Street
    Chevy Express
    Walkin’ out the Door
    Ashamed
    Bastards of Young (Replacements cover)
    Clownin Around
    Funny Word
    Choir of Angels
    These Old Shoes
    Now It’s Your Turn
    Miss K.
    On a Plain (Nirvana cover)
    Not So Dense
    Mange
    Let’s All Go To The Bar

  • Indie,  Rock n' Folk

    Triple D Playlist (more Deer Tick, Dawes and Delta Spirit)

    To make sure I leave no stone unturned in my music geekitude, I’m now a premium subscriber to both Spotify and Rdio. You’d think I’d have all the bases covered for any song or album I’d like to hear, and for the most part, that’s true. There are still some holes though. Spotify, surprisingly, has no Delta Spirit and none of the three Deer Tick full lenghts. So I turned to Rdio to craft a special “Triple D Attack” playlist.

    This playlist features Dawes, Delta Spirit, Deer Tick, with a healthy smattering of Middle Brother songs. Let’s just say I’m knee deep in a Triple D phase.

    Song numero uno on the playlist below is “Dirty Dishes”, a song that is so beautiful and tortured and perfect that I just can’t stop listening – and it’s been months.

    In Dawes news, many of you have probably heard about the recently announced tour with Blitzen Trapper. If you’re here with me in Arizona, they’ll be stopping in at the newest music venue in town, the Crescent Ballroom in downtown Phoenix. It’s a much needed mid-size venue that hopefully will attract a lot of talent. Dawes & Blitzen Trapper will be there Monday, October 10th. My ticket is secured, and I can’t wait.

    Delta Spirit just helped kick off the opening day of Lollapalooza on Friday. The good folks at the Audio Perv already have the webcast up (all tunes I saw live last week in Newport).

    So here’s the Rdio playlist. Always worth the 7 day free trial to check it out…