Album Review : Rod Picott : Welding Burns

Feb 4, 2012 Album Reviews

This review is late as this album was released in the fall of last year, however I feel I need to write something about it. I did not keep a running list of my favorite records of last year but, if I had Welding Burns would have been easily in the top three and maybe the top spot.

For the longest time I only knew Rod Picott as the guy who co-writes a bunch of songs with Slaid Cleaves. This thought kept going even after I had purchased a few of his earlier records, whether it was just not having enough time to listen to them intently or my own laziness. When Welding Burns came out last year I made it my mission to give this guy the proper time and effort to see what I actually thought of him. Man am I glad I did.

I’ve seen a lot of people talk about the blue collar subject matter and feel of this album, and no doubt it’s very much here. More importantly this record is American and not in the cheezy over the top patriotic way, but in that all of the characters of the songs live in our neighborhoods. The tired, down and out, blue collar workers that build what is left being built stateside and occupy the bar stools at the corner pub and fill the auditoriums for high school basketball games are all here in this album. Picott doesn’t write and sing about them like an anthropologist observing from the sidelines, instead he immerses himself in their lives. When you listen to this album you come away with the feeling that Picott has hung sheet rock, toiled away in a dying factory and in fact does have the welding burns that lend their name to the title of the record.

As far as the sound and feel of the songs, they are perfectly matched with the subject matter. The slow tired sound of “Rust Belt Fields” is perfect as is the up tempo beat and guitar work on the more frantic “410″ . Picott’s vocals are something I have definitely overlooked in the past and here they are often front and center on the songs.

The highlights of the disc start right at the beginning with “Rust Belt Fields” ,a co-write with Cleaves, where a factory has closed and the narrator offers one of the greatest group of lyrics I have ever heard,

“They’ve figured it out, shipped the elbow grease

down to Mexico off to the Chinese

I’ve learned a little something about the way things are,

no one gets a bonus for bloody knuckles and scars,

no one remembers your name, just for working hard”

From one closed factory to another, in “410″ the laid off worker chooses a 410 shotgun as his new tool for his newly created job robbing liquor stores. The desperation of a broken man really shines through in this one. After tackling some people that have lost their jobs, Picott moves on to the story of a guy who can’t seem to get rid of his job. In “SheetRock Hanger” the protagonist feels that he never is going to get away from his employment even after death as he’s “pretty sure the devil runs a sheetrock hanging crew” . The comments in this one make you believe there is no way that Picott has not spent some time on a construction site.

In the end, I am so glad I gave this record my complete attention, as it has found it’s way into the permanent rotation at my house. Picott has managed to capture the feelings and lives of an entire nation on this album. People say that Springsteen writes for the common man and that is his appeal, those people need to hear Welding Burns and see what it’s like when someone really does so. Check out Picott on his website: www.rodpicott.com .

Tags: Rod Picott, slaid cleaves

Album Review : Graham Weber : Women

Jan 31, 2012 Album Reviews, Reviews

I once heard John Prine say on a live recording that if you got your heart broken you got a really good song, but if you got a divorce you get a whole damn album. Apparently, if you spend a year separated from your wife, thinking you are going to get a divorce before reconciling with her you can still channel those emotions into a great record. That is the story of Graham Weber’s latest release, Women.

This album was a long time in the making, but the wait was well worth it. Weber continues to hone his songwriting abilities while really creating an “album” feel. In the day and age of Itunes singles it is still refreshing when someone sets out to make a complete record. When you listen to Women all the way through, you get to travel the emotional roller coaster that Graham experienced during the  aforementioned year.

The reason for the album’s title is quickly apparent as Weber has enlisted a talented crew of female vocalists and musicians to help convey his feelings. The list includes Betty Soo, Carrie Rodriguez, Amanda Shires, and his wife, Michelle Keffer (another perk of making up with his talented wife) on vocals.

The songs range from the full band feel of the opening track, “Sweet Virginia Brown” that comes complete with Hammond B-3 and a saxophone to the sparsity of the heartbreaking  “Baltimore”, where Graham stands alone with an acoustic guitar and his vocals. The production on this record is in my opinion the best on any of his records to date, as his songs are backed and highlighted by the backing music perfectly.

I always try to throw out my favorite tracks on a record and that was a difficult process with this one. “Baltimore” appeared on his last live release, so I was definitely looking forward to hearing it on record.  “All About You” has Graham handling the vocals alone and is him telling his lost love that the songs have always been about her, and that the happy songs are the hardest to play without her in the crowd.

Michelle shows up in “Black and White” which is Weber looking at an old black and white photo of the two of them (provided in the inside cover) and longing for the time and mood of when the picture was taken. Co-wrote with Graham’s mentor Slaid Cleaves, “Still Be Mine” brings Carrie Rodriguez in on harmony vocals as Weber seeks to get his girl back by his side.

Finally, “Sleep it Off” features Betty Soo on vocals and ends the album on an upswing as the two separated lovers are once again back together and looking towards the future as they sing, “We’ll sleep it off and start it all again”.

Overall, this is the best complete album in Weber’s relatively short recording career. He continues to show that he is an amazing wordsmith and displays the ability to blend seamlessly with all of the vocal styles of his female guests.

To purchase Women, visit Graham Weber’s Website.

Tags: Betty Soo, Carrie Rodriguez, Graham Weber, john prine, slaid cleaves

Album Review : Michael O’Connor : The Devil Stole The Moon

Sep 10, 2011 Album Reviews

Former Artist of the Month, Michael O’Connor returns with another amazing release. How often are you discussing an artist and something is mentioned about how their early records or debut is really the greatest work they’ve done ? With O’Connor, this is most certainly not the case.

On The Devil Stole the Moon, O’ Connor shows that he’s has continued to grow as a songwriter and performer. The record has a very dark feel, with the seedy characters that you have to love that populated his release with Adam Carroll last year.

With a rhythm section consisting of Rick Richards on drums and Jack Saunders (Bass), O’ Connor fills in the rest of the record by playing everything short of the kitchen sink. The ability to make a record that sounds complete without over production, shows that musically O’ Connor is a force to be reckoned with. Another thing that I noticed while listening to the album is the similarities to Warren Haynes’s vocal style, another singer that I believe to be thought of as a guitar player before a vocalist. In both cases, I believe this to be a great injustice as their vocal qualities are what drew me to both artists.

Michael’s songwriting has always been phenomenal and this release is no exception, as he wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. While I love his work as a sideman especially with Slaid Cleaves (and I’m sure those gigs pay his bills) , The Devil Stole The Moon really hammers home the fact that O’Connor should be doing his own thing full time at this point.

Highlights on this record include a couple co-writes with the aforementioned Carroll, “Raining on the Dark Side” and “Rough Side” which would have felt right at home on Hard Times. The title track rivals “Devil’s Lullaby” as my favorite O’ Connor track to date, with lines such as “…with the courage for the blade, but not for the blood…” this sinister sounding song really showcases his ability with word play.

“Burn”, the story of a tired rock n roller, features some really classic O’ Connor guitar work, where he seems to know exactly what to play and when. The song really captures what I imagine it feels like to continue touring and playing shitty bars long after it has lost its appeal. Following that is the “Homesick Boy” the album’s closing track that is somewhat the singer songwriter companion to “Burn”,  with lyric so good I could quote them all here.

After only one listen of this album, I was convinced it was his best effort to date, and I love his other records.  It is available now on his website and other places that you can purchase music.

Tags: adam carroll, michael o'connor, slaid cleaves

Album Review : Slaid Cleaves : Sorrow and Smoke

Sep 3, 2011 Album Reviews, Uncategorized

It’s been quite a long time since I posted anything on this site, let alone a review that I wrote.  I can think of no greater album to give me a reason to return and the motivation to press forward.

I have to start this review by stating a couple things. First, I love live albums and second I have been eagerly awaiting a live album from Slaid Cleaves.

Sorrow and Smoke : Live at the Horseshoe Lounge, will be officially released this coming Tuesday and no doubt will have a lot of people excited to hear what Slaid has to offer.  The record was recorded at the famous club that Slaid immortalized in song on his album, Brokedown, over two shows in the first half of 2010.

Alongside Slaid on this one is longtime lead guitarist/ backing vocalist, Michael O’Connor and multi-instrumentalist,Oliver Steck.  As always Slaid’s voice is in top form, Michael’s guitar work is spot on and Steck’s contributions really fill out the songs in a live setting. I have never had the pleasure of seeing Cleaves live, but if I do I would be quite happy if this were the lineup as the three of them play well off each other and give the songs a great over all sound.

Now for the songs that appear on this double disc set. The selection of tracks on this record is perfect. They span Slaid’s entire career and include every one of my favorite Cleaves’ originals as well as a couple yodeling Don Walser tracks. If I were to create a setlist for a Slaid show this album would not be far off of what I would write down.

Highlights for me pretty much consist of my favorite Slaid songs, there are great live versions of “Brokedown”, “Drinking Days” and obvious crowd favorite, “Horseshoe Lounge”. The aforementioned Walser Yodeling set is preceded by what Slaid calls a warmup yodeling song, “Horses”.

It was also nice to see that a few of the best tracks from 2009′s studio effort, Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away, are also included on this set. So often when someone releases a live album they avoid songs from their latest release and if that were the case here it would have been highly disappointing. Included here are the Rod Picott co-write “Black T-Shirt”, “Tumbleweed Stew” and another co-write this time with Adam Carroll, ” Hard to Believe” .

A few more standouts include the crowd participation heavy, ” Breakfast in Hell”, in which the audience is turned into a logging crew as they assist the hero Sandy Gray break a log jam, before, he, like so many other folk heroes, gives his life for the cause. Also my all-time favorite Cleaves track, “One Good Year” shows up towards the end of the second disc. This song includes the line “I’ve been chasing grace, but grace ain’t so easily found” which has been a favorite line of mine from the first time I heard it and live the song has an even deeper feeling of desperation. Closing out the set is the previously unreleased “Go For The Gold”, a spiritually based song about the one rule we all should follow regardless of religious beliefs.

After just the first listen of this live record, it landed on the short list of my favorite live offerings and definitely one of the best things to be released this year. It only makes me want to check out a Slaid show even more than I already did. My only complaint about the record is that he avoided the cover songs from his album, Unsung. While I understand the reasoning behind not putting a ton of covers on the album, and really wanting to highlight the Cleaves’ songs and co-writes, I do really like some of the songs on that album of covers and would love to have heard some live versions.

With only that small complaint this album is wildly successful in my book and is absolutely a must own. I do believe the release day is this Tuesday so go over to Slaid’s website and order your copy today !

Tags: adam carroll, michael o'connor, Rod Picott, slaid cleaves

Album Review: Audrey Auld : Come Find Me

Jun 5, 2011 Album Reviews

Come Find Me
Audrey Auld
Reckless Records

I used to read an online forum about Fred Eaglesmith called “The Digest” as religiously some folks follow their favourite sports team. That’s the first place I heard about Audrey Auld after she and Bill Chambers had played at the Roots on the River Festival in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Bill’s daughter Kasey Chambers was breaking big in North America with her album The Captain around that time and I remember being excited when I heard that title cut on a Sopranos episode.

Sometime after that I met my good friend and Austin-based singer-songwriter pal Joe Gee, who was as enthusiastic about Audrey and her music as as a dog is about meat. I have a picture of him sitting in a lawn chair in the pouring rain for one of her shows. Most of my encounters with this pretty, witty, humorous and sometimes ribald lady have been around Fred shows or events around North America.
It was a year or two later that I first saw Audrey at Roots on the River and heard her pronounce “Roots”(in her Tasmanian accent) as a North American might say “Ruts” and tell us that in Australia a root has the same meaning as a rut would over/up here! I next saw her perform at Saengerhalle in New Braunfels, Texas and now her name was Audrey Auld Mezera and she had an album called Texas. That show was the one that turned me into a fan…I bought the CD and played it a lot over the next few years.
In November of 2009 I was lucky enough to travel on a train from Winnipeg, Manitoba up to Churchill to see where I’d been born and to see Polar Bears while there were still some to see. It was a Roots on the Rails trip (www.flyingunderradar.com) with Fred Eaglesmith and his band, Washboard Hank & Lance Loree, Gurf Morlix, Jon Dee Graham and Audrey who was accompanied by the incomparable Andrew Hardin on guitar. What a hoot we had! Performers and passengers totaled around 90 folks and we played and drank and laughed and laughed and laughed our way up from Winnipeg, heading north past where the roads end and the trees get shorter and shorter, across the muskeg and snow to a small town on the edge of James Bay. There were daily open mics where I got to play with Mr. Hardin and Elsabe Kloppers, a naturalist and fiddler, song swaps with various mixes of performers, concert shows from all the pros and the very best part – late night jams in the baggage car! With the side doors open to vent the cigarette smoke and the back doors open where you could see the tracks rolling out from under the car, this was the place to be.
Audrey’s suitcase and beloved Taylor guitar had somehow travelled a different route to Winnipeg than she had and didn’t make it onto the train so she was without them on the two days up to and one of the days there in Churchill. The title cut and album opener ‘Come Find Me’ was written on this trip and may have originated as a little prayer from Audrey. It has a waltz time beat to it and I can’t read the words without hearing the melody in my head. If this CD is the first time you’ve heard Audrey, than this song is the invitation into her words and music.
I was and am a fan of all the performers on that trip but was most excited to get to spend some time around Jon Dee Graham. He was still in a lot of pain from a recent car accident and shortly after the trip he fell from a ladder…but’s he’s tough, profane and resilient and he goes on. Petals (for Jon Dee) is the fourth cut on the CD and is Audrey’s rap song about “The King of Austin”. I had heard the majority of these songs live and on a couple of EP’s before the CD but not this one. It immediately grabbed my attention with it’s poetry and beat. Ms. Auld-Mezera is good at tribute songs, on Texas she used her admiring pen to write about Woody Guthrie and Billy Joe Shaver and on this album she gives us “Orphan Girl”, with the lyrics by Australian Terry MacArthur, about Mary Gauthier, whom Auds has attentively covered in the past. She sings this a cappella to great effect.
I was closer to fifty than forty when I first heard “Forty”, a sardonic, minor key commemoration of that milestone in her life. The chorus of “I’m halfway home” made me think about my own mortality while smiling at the other wry observations in the song. I think Audrey Auld is the only Tasmanian I’ve ever met and she tells us about her birthplace in the song “Tasmania”. She has said in promo material that Tasmania has more trees than people and the song “Tree” examines the nature of beauty in inanimate objects, with a nice melody.
“Just Love” is a co-write with her husband Mez, and if there is such a thing as singles these days this song would be my pick for one. I first heard it at a concert at Gram’s Place in Tampa that was organized by my friends George & Marlene. I’m amazed that someone can write another song about the subject of love and make it profound, memorable and radio friendly all at the same time.
The album has a dozen tracks, the last song being “Bread & Roses”. It takes it’s title from an organization in California that brings artists into prisons to work with inmates. Audrey was working with them, going into San Quentin to do songwriting workshops with the residents and the rules are pretty stringent as to what can be brought into the facility. It’s my favourite song to attempt to sing but a lot easier because it’s included in her songbook “Write out Loud” and is available at www.audreyauld.com.
CD Baby lists Kasey Chambers, Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin as other artists that you may like but this album, I feel, has appeal beyond the country rock or Americana genre. If you’re already a fan, you’ll love this album, if your new to Audrey Auld, accept her invitation to “Come Find Me”, you’ll be happy you did.

Tags: Audrey Auld, Fred Eaglesmith, jon dee graham

Album Review : Roger Marin Band : Silvertown

Nov 16, 2010 Album Reviews

Silvertown shows up on Wikipedia as being part of Niagara Falls, Ontario. I’ve heard Roger introduced as being from the Falls as well as from St. Catherines or Thorold, and if you’ve driven in that area lately you know it’s hard to tell where the individual towns end and another starts. I think that’s called urban sprawl. Roger’s previous two albums had a little more twang to them than this one…there’s still some twang but there’s a lot of rock and roll and an urban feel to it too.

The cover of this CD shows the band standing outside the Silvertown Chinese Theatre and by their attire and courtesy of a couple props they are trying to convey Grauman’s Chinese theatre from Hollywood. There’s even a couple of palm trees in the picture; I don’t know if palm trees grow in southern Ontario. I do know there’s a few in Port Dover, the hometown base of Fred Eaglesmith, in whose band Roger labored as guitarist/pedal steel player/bus mechanic. In Dover they take the palms into a nursery each fall and replant them in the spring. Roger is wearing a Homburg, holding a cane and has unfastened polka dot suspenders, a wide black clip-on tie and handkerchief on a white shirt that gives him a cross between a Charlie Chaplin and a Stan Laurel type look. Bass player Phil Bosley has abandoned his ubiquitous black tee shirt for a white button down shirt and grey sports jacket. Matty Keighan has a black tee but compensates with a sports jacket that can’t cover his ripped knee jeans. New guy guitarist Mike Tuyp peaks over Rogers shoulder and is too hidden for me to convey his sartorial choices.

The Grauman’s theme is continued with chalk outlines of RMB’s members hands (instead of the hands in concrete) on the back cover. It states that the album was recorded and mixed by Matt Kieghan and Roger Marin Band and was mastered by Matt. Kudos on that boys – the production sounds as awesome and better than many big studio efforts I’ve heard.

Track one – You Hate Yourself puts me in mind of rolling around town in a buddy’s car on a weekend night listening to Foghat and Aerosmith on the 8 track. It’s a co-write with Texas co-writing slut Mark Jungers who has also penned songs with Adam Carroll, Scott Nolan, Brock Zeman and probably dozens of other partners. I first heard RMB (there’s no the before RMB) do this song in Bellows Fall Vermont this past June. There’s a key part of the song where they all scream, onstage only Phil did, so when I put the CD on driving home it sounded strange to hear all the voices. It was a hell of a rock and roll scream though…right up there with the one in Won’t Get Fooled Again.

Long before Americana became part of my musical lexicon, I liked Springsteen and John Mellencamp a lot and thought of Bruce as the urban and John as the country side of that coin. The title track of this CD – Silvertown, sounds like a co-write by those two guys. Roger released this song online as a preview to the CD, and it really caught my attention. I would have (and did) buy the album on the strength of this song alone. Thankfully the rest are really good too

Thirteen or fourteen years ago I heard Blackie and the Rodeo Kings’ first album, High or Hurtin’ a tribute to Willie P. Bennett. I immediately had to hear more and see the man himself. I searched on a very new World Wide Web (before Google!) and tracked him down playing in a band with some guy named Fred J. Eaglesmith who turned out to be from the same part of Southern Ontario as I am, and then I went to see the band at a weekend long festival near Port Dover. Roger was brand new in the band then. There’s been hundreds of Fred shows and weekends since then and I started travelling to Vermont, Texas and across Canada to see shows and meet up with friends from all over the world that liked this kind of music. Willie P. died way too young in February of 2008. The Christmas shows in Port Dover in 2007 were Mr. Bennett’s last with Fred’s band. Roger, who had gone off on his own a couple years before, was opening the shows solo and sitting in with Fred’s band that weekend. He told of a late night call from Willie where he’d answered the phone to hear him say “ Roger…write this down – Whiskey take me off the shelf. You’re welcome”, click. The song as presented here is great, and lists Mark, Joy Junger and Adam Carroll as co-writers.

I first saw Adam Carroll (and Hayes Carll and Chris Knight) in Bellows Falls, Vermont, in 2004. Friends thought I was crazy to travel that far to see a bunch of folks they’d never heard of. I made friends and saw music that changed my life that weekend, and when I got to Texas a couple of years later I saw Mark Jungers do a set at Gruene Hall because he had a song on a Fred tribute album. Scott Nolan was there that weekend too and a few years later he said “When I met Roger Marin and made friends with him I immediately became friends with about 200 other people scattered across this continent.’ I know what he means.

The first album is called Roger Marin Jr. The second is High Roads and attributed to Roger Marin. Silvertown is by Roger Marin Band, and it is very much a band album. It Brings Me Down penned and sung by Matt K. is about the road. It’s as bright as his smile and as cool as that beard of his. Phil checks in with Bring It Home which lists the various vagaries of living the life of a travelling musician, but also acknowledges that he loves it. Roger has always been egalitarian in sharing the mic with his bandmates onstage, and it’s cool to see them singing their own songs here. Phil recently made and met a challenge of writing and recording 30 songs in 45 days, I listened to several of them on Facebook and was very impressed. The album closes with How Ya Doin’ Tonight which is a cowrite with Erica Poley and former RMB member Rod Standish. The song switches from Roger’s daughters singing those words spookily over a languid drum beat, to Roger speaking some lyrics to James Standish freestyling rap style and back and forth throughout the song. It’s a cool way to end this excellent album which is available on CD BABY and iTunes. You can find Roger on line here.

Tags: adam carroll, Fred Eaglesmith, Mark Jungers, Roger Marin, Scott Nolan, willie p. bennett

Album Review : Duane Rutter : Waiting Room (2007)

Oct 25, 2010 Album Reviews

When I first heard Waiting Room by Duane Rutter it was like finding an album by a really good 70’s singer-songwriter that somehow I’d missed. It’s a cohesive album, that is an album as opposed to a collection of songs with disparate themes and styles. It flows, it’s easy, and there is a slight feeling of melancholy that runs through it. Although it is a debut album, it sounds more like the fifth or sixth album of a distinct and mature voice that has been filtered through the charcoal of life.

Duane and Dan Walsh produced the album and it was recorded and mixed at Dan’s place near Port Dover, Ontario. Waiting Room was recorded the year before Dan teamed up with Brock Zeman for The Bourbon Sessions, (which should be familiar to faithful Broken Jukebox readers). It was at a Brock and Dan gig in my hometown that I met Duane when he showed up at his Busted Flat Records label-mates with his just released album. He gave me a copy of Waiting Room that night and it was a few days later that I first listened to it. I’ve listened to it hundreds of times since and it has become one of my favorite albums of all time. The writing, singing and production of this record is a standard that I use to judge work by new and established artists by.

The disc opens with “I Waited For You”, which Duane has said was inspired by waiting for his teenage son to come home but I find the lyrics are poetic and wistful and more suggestive of waiting for a lover. Duane and Dan both play acoustic guitar on this one and Dan also plays the drums and dobro on it. Cindy Dell and Jenn Ryckmann add some harmony vocal work that is exquisite and the overall sound and feel of this song draws you in to the album like a door opening to a cabin on a wintry night.

Next up is “If You Loved Her That Much” with the same players and a melody that sticks in your head for days. It closes with the admonishment, “you should have told her”. The third song, “Again For You“ is full of melancholy images and self-realization of someone tending to a dying loved one. “Rachel Sings”,  features lovely harmony vocals from Lee Anne Wesseling and laments those folks we only see at weddings and funerals, despite always meaning to get together.

The 7^th track, “Goodnight Amy” is my favorite tune on this album. It finds a musician confessing pat transgressions and sins from the road, while his wife sleeps. It mines the grey area of wanting to come clean about something, giving weak reasons or justifications, but still too fearful to live with the repercussions of a full admission. He manages to hide behind the artist’s camouflage of “it’s just a song”.

The last track listed on the album is ” I Believe I’ll Take a Walk” which has the rare distinction of having a listing for Dan Walsh as “Harmony voice”! I just re-read the lyrics and I think the protagonist in the song is contemplating suicide. The song ends with the sound of a needle on an LP then goes into the hidden track “Kitchen Table Blues” which features Canadian Blues wunderkind Alfie Smith tearing it up with Duane and Dan. In this song, Duane describes himself as “a has-been who never was”. One spin of this album should dispel that notion for any listener.

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to see Duane play several times over the last couple of years, and usually pretty close to home here in southern Ontario. He does have a day job, like many talented musicians, to pay the bills, so the touring has to be done within those confines. Do yourself a favor and order a copy from Busted Flat Records’ home page or download it on itunes.

Tags: album review, Brock Zeman, dan walsh, Duane Rutter

Album Review : Eric Brace and Peter Cooper : The Master Sessions

Oct 4, 2010 Album Reviews

This is the third article in three days featuring Artist of the Month, Peter Cooper. This time paired with Last Train Home’s Eric Brace and backed by a band that features Lloyd Green and Mike Auldridge.

Let me start off by saying that this album is as close to the perfect country album as you can get. It is an absolute shame that country music radio is in the state that it is because had this record been released in say 1972 there would have been two or three number one hits on it and a couple of guys who deserve it would be reaching star status. Alas it is 2010 and instead of mainstream accolades they will have to live just having produced a damn fine record.

Everything about this album is spot on, the harmonies between the two and guests, the instrumentation, and the song selection. The vocals are superb, Brace may have my favorite country voice out there today and Cooper’s lead vocals perfectly compliment the songs where Brace handles the leads. Even more impressive is the sound the two create when singing harmonies together, hopefully this collaboration continues because they were made to sing with one another. As for the backing music, Lloyd Green once again stars on the pedal steel but shares the spotlight with former Seldom Scene dobro player, Mike Auldridge. Throughout the album these two go back and forth with extremely tasty lead breaks always adding to the songs and never overpowering them. Another standout on the record instrumentally is Jen Gunderman who plays keyboards throughout but, on a few songs breaks out the accordion pushing the sound even further.

The song selection really sticks out on this one as once again they drew from both of their catalogs as well as a few perfect covers. As was the case with their first effort there are only a couple co-writes but every song sounds as though they the were meant for this arrangement.

The album kicks off right, with a version of Herb Peterson’s “Wait a Minute”. A staple song the guys learned from going to countless Seldom Scene shows in the ’70′s. On this version the two alternate lead vocals on the first two verses before singing together on the last. Special guest, Kenny Chesney (yes I was surprised too) adds to the vocal flavor during the harmonies on this one as well. As far as I’m concerned this is now a Brace/ Cooper song from now on.

The next song on the record is the first of two Cooper co-writes with Don Schlitz (writer of the “The Gambler”). “Suffer a Fool” is an ode to a very patient wife who manages to keep her husband pointing in the right direction despite is best efforts to do the opposite.

The first Brace-penned number is “It Won’t Be Me”, written with Karl Straub, it is a good old train song, that tells of a man watching for a train to roll in so he can take the next one leaving town.

The second Cooper/ Schlitz contribution to the record is “Big Steve”, the story of a famous door man in Nashville who loves his job and has always stood up for the musicians. Although I’m not from Nashville I feel like I’ve met Big Steve in countless numbers of clubs across the country. You know the guy who works there not so much for the money, but rather because he loves the music. An interesting note on this one is that Eric handles the lead vocals on it.

“Circus” is one of the few co-writes between the two on this one. While lyrically this song is somewhat silly it really works and it gave Auldridge and Green an opportunity to play around a bit. Overall the feel of the song with the harmonies throughout and the instruments weaving in and out ends up really being nice.

The last song that I will go into is their version of Tom T. Hall’s “I Flew Over Our House Last Night”. Not one of Hall’s most famous songs, this has become one of my favorite country songs since the first time I heard Cooper and Brace sing it live.  Last Train Home included it on their live record as well and that version is insanely good, but the version on this album is what hit songs are made of. Cooper’s harmony vocals really add to the amazing job Brace does handling this tune. Once you listen to this version of the song you will be singing it in your head for days on end. I would imagine that Tom T. himself would agree that this song finally found its rightful place with Peter Cooper and Eric Brace.

If you haven’t figured out already I absolutely love this record, it is easily one of my favorite records to be released thus far this year and will have a regular place in my listening rotation for years to come. It is not very often that pieces come together in this manner forming some kind of perfect storm. If you are interested  you can order it from Red Beet Records.

Tags: don schlitz, eric brace, Lloyd Green, Mike Auldridge, peter cooper, tom t. hall

Album Review : Peter Cooper : The Lloyd Green Album

Oct 3, 2010 Album Reviews

Peter Cooper said on our podcast that he had been thanked for coaxing Lloyd Green out of retirement to work on his albums. He also said that it was like being thanked for picking Michael Jordan on your basketball team. I too would like to go ahead and thank Peter, but not really for just getting Lloyd Green on the album.

First off I have said for many years that all songs could be a little bit better if you would just add some pedal steel. Well here is an entire record where the instrumental star of the record is no less than the greatest living pedal steel player and that my friends, is awesome. Secondly, I love the fact that Lloyd Green finally has his name prominently displayed on the front of a record after spending so many years appearing on the liner notes. It’s a great opportunity for everyone who buys this album to discover who Lloyd is.

Throughout the album, Green weaves intricate steel parts in between everything else that is going on. What is amazing is that the steel parts are not the same old steel parts that you hear on every recording, Green really has the ability to transform the songs with his instrument.

With all the talk of Lloyd Green, what cannot be forgotten is that this is very much a Peter Cooper record. This album contains some of Cooper’s best originals to date and a few perfectly chosen covers. Cooper has really come into his own as a vocalist on this one and he brings in Eric Brace, Fayssoux McLean, Rodney Crowell, and Kim Carnes among others to compliment his voice on various songs. Cooper co-produced this album with Green and you can really tell that these songs were near to both of their hearts as there is not a single throw away on the ablum.

My favorites on the album start rolling right from the beginning with “Dumb Luck”, a song that could just as easily be describing my lifetime. “Ever since I was a young buck, I’ve been on a run of dumb luck”, sings Cooper which may be true, but if he continues releasing songs like this one he will be creating his own luck.

Next on the record is ” Last Laugh”, a co-write with Todd Snider, whose version appears on his last album, The Excitement Plan. As big as a Snider fan that I am, I have to say that Cooper’s version is better, I like the tempo and the feel much better than Snider’s take. “Elmer the Dancer” is the next great tune on this one, it’s the story of a local man famous for his dancing in the town bar, who is no longer with them.

The next track is my favorite Cooper tune, “Gospel Song” which I discussed in yesterday’s Artist of the Month article. I will mention that this version is more complete sounding than the one found on Clown Juice.

“Bells of Odelia” is the next on the album. A song written by Cooper’s friend, Chris Richards, that Cooper calls a great companion piece to Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down”. The narrator in this one has done some things he’s not proud of, but he is being led back to the righteous by the bells of a nearby church, even if not by choice.

Tom T. Hall’s “Mama Bake a Pie” rounds out the first six tracks on the album. That’s right, I am that taken with this one that I just ran down the first half of it. Anyways, the Hall classic still  seems pertinent today and Cooper nails the feel and heart of it on this version.

The next Cooper original is “Champion of the World” which compares his life to that of his father who was a preacher. This song really struck me live and lives up to my memories on this record.Skipping ahead to the last song on the record, “Train to Birmingham” which is a John Hiatt song, that Hiatt himself never recorded. The song is amazing and Cooper makes it his own. That is another thing that Cooper seems to excel at, the ability to pick the right mix of covers to put on his records.

When I finished listening to this record, I immediately restarted and that process continued for an entire day and the only thing that stopped that process was the record Cooper released with Brace on the same day…review coming tomorrow.

If for some reason  you haven’t already ordered this do so at his personal site or the Red Beet Records site.

Tags: album review, eric brace, John Hiatt, Lloyd Green, peter cooper, todd snider, tom t. hall

Concert Review : Graham Weber and Friends

Sep 23, 2010 Concert Reviews

This review is coming a little late, but better late than never, right?

A couple of weeks ago, I got the chance to spend a couple days taking in the Graham Weber Returns to Ohio Tour (Okay, I made the tour name up).

The first night was a Wednesday and my cousin and I made the three plus hour trip up to Kent, Ohio to see three of my favorite Ohio raised songwriters on the famed Kent Stage. It was my first ever trip to the venue and I must say it is as good as what everyone told me it was. Located right in the campus area in a brick strip mall, it was formally a theater. The sound was great and they had a well stocked bar to go along with a great atmosphere.

A good crowd of about a hundred people showed up to see Graham, Randy Horvath and Roger Hoover play on Graham’s first night back in Kent (where he started playing live) in almost five years. The crowd was very familiar with all of three performers which gave the venue a living room feel with great acoustics.

Taking the stage first was Randy Horvath. Horvath, who has not made any records yet, but possesses a voice that could stop any crowd dead in its tracks and he did not fail to deliver that kind of performance on this night. It was quite a treat for me to see him in a place that was not a bar atmosphere and a venue where that voice could really travel. He played for about 35 minutes and the set was filled mostly with unnamed originals. Highlights of his set included his opener, a song about headliner, Weber and his leaving Ohio to move to Austin a few years ago. This song is always good, but even more meaningful when Weber is present. Later in the set Horvath invited Graham’s wife, Michelle to the stage to duet on a Shawn Mullins song that I do not recall the name of. Towards the end of his brief set, Randy played two half songs about the relationship between a hooker and her pimp who eventually fall in love, along with the pre-song and mid-song banter explaining the story and the reasons why he was playing unfinished songs they were quite amusing.

Horvath left the stage and ten minutes later Roger Hoover moved in. Hoover who was the first person to give Graham the opportunity to play professionally has led the great Ohio bands, The Whiskeyhounds and the Magpies for the last decade or so. An amazing guitarist, songwriter and performer he always puts on a great show. Roger played a few songs I did not recognize and then went into one of my favorite tunes of his “Please Pick, I’m Calling” which chronicles his longing for his family while on the road. About midway into his portion of the show he played a version of  “Furry Lewis’ Blues” which really showcased his ability to play the guitar. He also had a “Pretty Lady” as he called Adam Simms, come on to the stage to join him. They did a great rendition of the traditional song, “Moonshiner”.

After another short break, the house system began playing the theme to Welcome Back Kotter, as Graham Weber took the stage. Donning a coat and tie for the special occasion, Weber immediately began to show that it was going to be a great performance. Leaning heavily on new material, he worked the crowd perfectly throughout the hour and a half set.

Early on in the performance he played songs from his upcoming album, Women, included a killer number co-written with Slaid Cleaves. One song that will be on the new album that stuck out to me was, “All About You” where the narrator tells a lost love that all of the songs, both happy and sad were always all about her.

A second album that was drawn heavily from was his latest live release, The Cactus Sessions. From that album he played, “The Way That I feel” and “Baltimore” both of which are personal favorites of mine. Early in the set he also played my request, “Tight Rope Walking” from his first album, Naive Melodies which he doesn’t play all that often. At one point he told an amusing story about some college hipsters he was playing for in a bar in Austin when he decided to start covering Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” which he promptly launched into. He did a damn good version of it only flubbing a couple of lines which is amazing for anyone attempting to play one of Dylan’s novel like tunes.

The absolute highlight of the set for me was when Weber’s wife, Michelle returned to the stage to perform two songs with him. I have to say they sound damn good together. It is not a situation that you see so many times in the folk world where a spouse is brought out as a vanity show. Their voices blend perfectly together and the emotions between them could have been seen from a mile away. They began with, “Starving Days” from Beggar’s Blues and then did a show stopping version of Tom Waits’ “Hold On”.

The entire night was amazing with all three performers delivering A plus sets.

The following evening, I flew solo to Worthington, Ohio to see just Weber at a wine bar, aptly named, House Wine. The venue was nice and the atmosphere was good, but it was obvious they are early on in their show promoting. I do however hope they continue because it definitely has a the potential to be a cool place to see acoustic shows in the Columbus area which is sorely needed and the owner was extremely nice.

The set was very similar to the previous night, with a few nice additions. “Love and Money” was played, which has always been one of my favorites in Weber’s catalog along with a great version of “Brisket”. Once again, Michelle took the stage for the songs played the night before. The biggest standout for me was the story and song about Linda Ronstadt. The song appropriately titled, “Young Linda” is about Graham’s crush he developed on Linda circa early 70′s after watching a dvd of a performance of hers with Johnny Cash. If you do not own The Cactus Sessions this song alone is enough to order a copy.

After two nights of taking in Weber shows for the first time in two years, I came away with a few things. First of all he continues to grow and develop as both a songwriter and performer, getting even better each time I see him. Second it is only a matter of time before his career takes off in one way or  another. And finally I need to moved Texas because he and so many other people that I love to see play there every night.

The Pictures in this article are from the second night of the two and also we recorded a podcast with Graham before the Columbus show in the studio that should be posted any day now.

Tags: bob dylan, Graham Weber, Randy Horvath, Roger Hoover, Tom Waits