• Roots Rock

    Mother Road [instant fave]

    We all have those friends who decry the state of new music today. “All new music sucks!”, they say. Of course, some of these people think Creed was the best thing since sliced bread. Well, every time I hear these people, I now have another band to fire back with: Old Californio.

    Last Friday, I opened up my snail mail to find their forthcoming CD, ‘Westering Again‘, inside. Instead of tossing it on the stack of CD’s I need to listen to, it went right into my car CD player. I don’t know exactly why. Cover art? Cool band name? Fate? How ’bout all of the above.

    Less than 30 seconds into the opening track, a spiritual experience ensued. The song is “Mother Road”, and it’s easily the best tune I’ve heard all year. Rootsy, earthy, homegrown, purely American rock n roll – a perfect blend of inspiring, get-out-on-the-road lyrics, unforgettable riffs, great chord changes, and a harmonious sing-along chorus. If the Traveling Wilburys sprung back to life, this could easily lead off their third album.

    “You got to get on the mother road
    just like a river reflectin’ everything it’s told
    You got to get on
    Get your story told.”

    You’ll understand after you’ve hit the repeat button 5 times and you’re singing along.

    Old Californio is singer/songwriter/guitarist Rich Dembowski, Jason Chesny (bass), Levi Nuñez (keys, including some great B3), and Justin Smith (drums). The album was produced by the band along with Alfonso Rodeñas (Mark Olson, Los Tigres Del Norte), and recorded in their old chicken coop garage turned studio in Pasadena, California. There’s clearly a West Coast / southwest-y feel throughout the album. I hear shades of Dylan (“From the Mouths of Babes”), Calexico (the horns on “Riparian High”), and the Grateful Dead (during “Warmth of the Sun”, you’d swear that late 70’s-era Dead were morphing into “Not Fade Away”).

    I’m an upbeat person by nature, and maybe that’s why this album connects with me so easily. Among the Californian soundscapes, the reverence for the great outdoors and the escapism, there is an undercurrent of positive energy – an “It’s good to be alive” vibe. I can get behind that.

    Old CalifornioMother Road (mp3)

    Westering Again will be released on April 7th. I’ll post a links to buy when available. For now, keep these guys on your radar.

    Links: Old Californio’s MySpace page.

  • Country Rock,  Roots Rock

    New Raul Malo – Lucky One

    Former Mavericks frontman Raul Malo will be releasing his first album of original material in eight years on March 3rd. Lucky One was recorded over the last couple of years at Raul’s Nashville home. Co-producing several of the tracks is Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin.

    Here’s a free & clear mp3, courtesy of Fantasy Records, Raul’s new label. Seriously, I could listen to Raul Malo sing the phone book…

    Raul Malo Lucky One (mp3)

    Links: Pre-Order Lucky One on Amazon |Raul’s Official Site | MySpace | Facebook/iLike

  • Bluegrass,  Roots Rock

    Light of the Moon

    My main way of staying somewhat in tune with the jam band scene is by listening to Sirius-XM’s Jam_On channel. In rotation these days is this fun tune by Al & the Transamericans. They’re a supergroup of sorts: moe‘s Al Schnier is joined by members of Strangefolk, Okemah, and the Gordon Stone Trio. Okay, well supergroup to some, since I’ve only heard moe’s music.

    The tune is a bluegrass / roots tune with a banjo leading the way. A fast paced knee-shaker. The crowning moments for me come during the guitar/banjo solo, where the band’s jam background sneaks in for some nice atmospheric playing.

    Al & the TransamericansLight of the Moon (mp3)

    Buy: This Day & Age

    MySpace: myspace.com/althetransamericans

  • Folk,  Roots Rock

    Blue Car

    Everything about this song is just.. right. The cadence of Greg’s delivery. The lyrics. The electric guitar. The way the drums and the first line of the song introduce themselves together.

    I think I need to buy all of Greg Brown’s albums, hop in the car, and drive around for a few weeks.

  • Country,  Roots Rock

    ACL Highlight: Rodney Crowell

    The first full set I caught at this year’s Austin City Limits festival was Rodney Crowell. It was 12:30 in the afternoon on Friday. Maybe it was the combination of a sunny day, a cold beer, good friends, and the opening day of a great music festival in Austin, but Crowell’s set was a thing of beauty.

    Crowell, accompanied only by Will Kimbrough on guitar, and Jenny Scheinman on violin, delighted the crowd with some great tunes. Thing is, Rodney is such a great storyteller, he has a way of keeping you on the edge of your seat, anticipating where the story is going next. All the while, these stories are embedded in the sorts of wonderful, rootsy melodies that Crowell has been creating for decades.

    There were a few highlights for me. First was Scheinman on violin, who got to showcase her stuff in her own tune, and launched into a killer violin solo – yes killer violin solo – on “Wandering Boy”, also with some great interplay with Crowell’s acoustic…the ending violin strokes had the entire crowd entranced.

    Crowell’s “Earthbound” was another favorite, but it was two sublime new ones that stood out this afternoon… consider the first verse of the closing song, “Closer to Heaven”…

    I don’t like humus
    I hate long lines
    Nosy neighbours and the nation blind
    Chirpy news anchors alter my mood
    I’m offended by buzz words
    Like awesome and dude
    I look like a trainwreck
    I feel like a blob
    Till you get to know me
    You may think I’m a snob
    But I’m closer to heaven
    Than I’ve ever been

    It’s lyrics like these interwoven in a beatiful song that is the magic of Rodney Crowell.

    The other song that affected me was “Moving Work of Art”. It has that Townes Van Zandt / Steve Earle finger pickin’ ballad feel (both Townes and Earle spent a lot of time with Rodney back in the day) – and the love-lost lyrics hit you right where it hurts…

    Time is jammed and flying fast
    the brakes are bad and the potholes rough
    I’m out here running from the past
    What we had was not enough
    Heard she just touched down in Hollywood
    And her friends all say she’s looking good
    I saw it coming from the start
    She’s a moving work of art

    Beautiful stuff. The studio version is great, but doesn’t hold a candle to seeing and hearing Rodney perform the song live. He’s out on the road supporting his latest record, Sex and Gasoline (awesome cover!). Rodney Crowell is one of those underrated living legends, and I recommend the show…

    Rodney Crowell Moving Work of Art (mp3)

    Rodney CrowellEarthbound (mp3)

    From Fate’s Right Hand

    Links: Official Site | MySpace

    Set List
    Austin City Limits Music Festival, September 26, 2008

    The Rise and Fall of Intelligent Design
    I Want You #35
    Moving Work of Art
    Sex & Gasoline
    Earthbound
    U Don’t Know How Much I Hate U
    I Wish It Would Rain
    Wandering Boy
    Untitled Julie Scheinman Cover
    Fate’s Right Hand
    Closer to Heaven

  • Reggae,  Roots Rock

    Spearhead’s Say Hey (I Love You)

    Infectious riddims from Michael Franti & Spearhead‘s brand new record, All Rebel Rockers. M’ lady and I heard this on Sirius Jam On yesterday, and it was immediately flagged and tagged for later consumption. The album was produced by Sly & Robbie, the veteran reggae production team (Black Uhuru, Yellowman, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, and many more), and recorded mostly in Kingston, Jamaica.

    Irie!

    Michael Franti & Spearhead Say Hey (I Love You) [mp3, featuring Cherine Anderson]

    Buy

    Links: Official Site | Watch the Video for “Say Hey (I Love You)” | MySpace

    © Photo credit: Mike Schreiber

  • Indie,  Roots Rock

    Conor Oberst’s Sausalito

    With his new album, Conor Oberst is right back to the rootsy vibe he had going with Bright Eyes’ great album ‘I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning‘. Conor recorded the album in Tepoztlán, Mexico (a town outside of Mexico City).

    It’s this tune that suits my taste like hand to glove. It restores my faith in the man after watching his – umm – sub par job of sitting in with the Boss on “Thunder Road” early this year. All is forgiven.

    we should move to Sausalito
    living’s easy on a house boat
    let the ocean rock us back and forth to sleep

    in the morning with the sunrise
    look in the water see the blue sky
    as if heaven has been laid there at our feet

    Conor Oberst – Sausalito (mp3)

    Buy Conor’s brand new self-titled album: Conor Oberst

    Oberst Linkage: Official Site | MySpace

  • Acoustic,  Roots Rock

    Jon and Roy

    The Canadians keep comin’ hard with the quality tunes. Jon and Roy hail from Victoria, British Columbia. Their latest album is Another Noon – and it’s great. Warm, laid back, and inviting acoustic roots music.

    They scored pretty big for an indie outfit by getting the title track on a new Volkswagen commercial (I think Wilco gave VW ads that instant indie cred). If you dig Citizen Cope or Jack Johnson’s vibe, definitely check out Another Noon.

    The standout track for me after a couple of listens is “Oh Please”. It’s like drifting on a cloud. Close your eyes and escape for three and a half minutes.

    Jon and RoyOh Please (mp3)

    Official Site: http://www.jonandroy.ca

    Buy Another Noon:

  • Prince,  Roots Rock

    Prince continues to make friends, says “No Way, Norway!”

    Our purple friend is at it again. This time, his sights are set on Norway’s C+C Records, who organized a tribute box set made up of 50 artists doing covers of Prince tunes. Tip # 1, C+C Records: next time, don’t contact Prince’s people to try to send him a free copy. Odds are he won’t say “Thanks.”….

    In a rare defense of the purple one, how wise is it really to put together a box set of Prince tunes without making any legal arrangements at all? Even if you are giving it away for free?

    Eliot at Wired’s Listening Post blog has the story:

    Fifty artists who recorded Prince covers in honor of his purpleness’s 50th birthday on June 7 have been slapped with a lawsuit by the short-tempered star, whose lawyers demand that all copies of the tribute, which had reached number eight on Norway’s album charts and received several popular reviews by the Norwegian press, be destroyed.

    It’s perfectly legal to record and sell cover songs of someone else’s material, so long as you pay the compulsory licensing fee of about ten cents per song. To sell their five-disc set of 81 Prince cover songs, they would have to remit around $8 per unit sold to Prince under a compulsory mechanical license.

    However, Norway’s C+C Records distributed 5,000 of the box sets for free earlier this month, and claim that no one made any money from the giveaway. As a result, they didn’t think they owed Prince anything except maybe a free copy.

    C+C Records owner and Prince fan Christer Falck contacted the purple one’s people to try to send one to Prince, and that’s when the trouble began [bold text by Ickmusic], according to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet (now offline, via Daily Swarm), one of many publications to post positive reviews of the collection.

    For now, all 81 songs can be previewed for free on C+C Records‘ website, and some are also available on MySpace in streamable medley form.

    When this giveaway first began, there were 5,000 copies of this compilation in circulation. Thanks to Prince’s lawsuit and the publicity it will generate, we expect that number to balloon significantly in the coming weeks.

  • Rock n' Folk,  Roots Rock

    Listen Up: American Babies

    Seems like 4 out of every 5 new bands I discover these days are from Brooklyn, NY. Here’s another one: Tom Hamilton’s American Babies. This tune caught my ear recently, I think on Sirius. Influences range from Ryan Adams to Bright Eyes to Mr. Springsteen. But in this one, I hear Rodney Crowell.

    Catchy, quality roots-rockin’ goin’ down right here. Oh, also, drumming in the band is Joe Russo from Benevento-Russo Duo.

    American BabiesInvite Your Friends (mp3)

    Linkage: Official Site | MySpace

    Buy American Babies for $10 on CD Baby. Go. Now.