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.
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
Artist of the Month November, 2010 : Adam Carroll
Nov 3, 2010 Artist of the Month
This month’s artist once again comes from Texas. Carroll for me really stands out among the crowd of extremely talented songwriters from that region.
I’ve always felt that there is two types of songwriters that really make an impression on me. The first writes songs that are just brilliantly literary and poetic, almost untouchable in a way. The second is the songwriters that have a way of coming off as one of us, a common guy who writes songs that we all can easily relate to. Occasionally a songwriter finds a way to enter both of these realms at the same time. Sometimes it’s for a song, or an album and on very rare occasions they permanently reside there. Carroll belongs to the latter group.
His songs have a way of immediately connecting with the listener and at the same time, being completely beyond anything we could have written ourselves. The characters in his songs live in our neighborhoods but they are so elegantly presented within the song that it makes them seem larger than life.
Once you add in Carroll’s fine guitar and harmonica playing and his off kilter vocal delivery, you have an artist that in my opinion can hold his own in any songwriting circle, no matter how high up the ladder you go. Comparisons to John Prine and Townes Van Zandt seem to come at him from all directions and they are absolutely well deserved for once. I would throw others in the mix as well, Guy Clark, John Hiatt, and the list could go on. Basically think of all the writers that get every word right and go ahead and place Carroll in their midst.
I first heard of Carroll through a couple of Hayes Carll bootlegs, where Carll stated that if he could get away with it he would sing Carroll songs for half of his set and claim that he wrote them. This was a high praise from a songwriter that I respected so I thought I would check out some Carroll’s work. I ended up with a gem of a show, that was a song swap with Graham Weber (August’s Artist of the Month). That show sent me on a journey of discovering everything Carroll had to offer and I have yet to be disappointed thus far.
A few years later I got to see him live two nights in a row with Weber here in Ohio. I was not only impressed by the ah shucks stage presence that immediately held the audiences attention but that he was that humble and quiet off the stage. It almost felt as he did not have a grasp on just how great his songwriting is.
I have talked with many musicians and fans who have crossed paths with Carroll throughout the years and everyone agrees that he is one of the most immensely talented guys working today and that just being around him is an intriguing, humbling experience. From all accounts there is not a person out there that cares more about his craft than Carroll.
On stage he is engaging and funny, even though he has a tendency to fumble lyrics occasionally. Mark Jungers, another great Texas musician and producer of Carroll’s 2008 album Old Town Rock n Roll, once told me a story about Carroll opening up for him. He said the venue was packed and Adam came out at messed up the first three songs he tried on the audience. After apologizing and making light of the situation Carroll nailed the next tune and was received with a standing ovation. At the end of the night the merch table that held Adam’s records was almost completely empty. I thought that was a perfect example of how powerful this guy’s music is.
Carroll has a pretty full catalog for someone who has only been releasing material for just over a decade. To date he has four studio albums, two live records and a phenomenal release with another former Artist of the Month, Michael O’ Connor. Every one of these albums is phenomenal and it is very difficult for me to pick out just three to tell you to start with.
His debut record, 1998′s South of Town, made my list of five great debut records , where you can read my thoughts on it in some detail. This is definitely a situation where you can start from the beginning and work forward as Carroll came out of the gates in stride on this release.
His second release came two years later and contains some my favorite Carroll songs ever. Lookin’ Out the Screen Door was produced by Lloyd Maines who worked on Carroll’s first three studio efforts and his first live 
album. Among the highlights on this record are “Race Car Joe”, which Slaid Cleaves later covered on his album, Unsung, “Errol’s Song”, the story of a hunting partner of Carroll’s father who Adam looked up to all of his life, and “Karaoke Cowboy”, which tells of a failed Nashville singer living a different life of fame as a the karaoke DJ in a small town. My personal favorite on the album is Carroll’s ode to unchanging love, “Blondie and Dagwood”. One other song that is a favorite of other artists to cover and fans to hear is “Girl With the Dirty Hair” which was the first tune of Carroll’s I personally heard.
The next studio album that I want to touch on is Old Town Rock n Roll. Recorded in Mark Jungers garage with the help of Jungers and Canadian musician, Scott Nolan this album found Carroll captured in his relaxed finest. The looseness of this record allows the quirks of Carroll’s vocals shine through the perfectly written lyrics. While Maines always seemed to find a way to present Carroll’s work in a great light this record doesn’t try to mask the scars and marks on the songs and it really is a breath of fresh air.
The standouts are “Oklahoma Gypsy Shuffler”, “Hi-Fi Love, and “Highway Prayer” all songs that make you feel good sometimes smiling and sometimes just nodding your head in agreement. To close the album is a song that makes all older guitar players grin, “Porter Wagoner (AKA the Silvertone Song)”, tells of the gap between generations and the nostalgia that comes from a cheap guitar signed by a legend.
This article would be a failure if I did not mention how much I love both of Carroll’s live albums. Live at Cheatham Street Warehouse was released in 2002 and hits almost all the best songs from the first two records along with some great stories and a few previously unreleased songs. The story and version of “Errol’s Song” on this alone is worth the price of the album.
Earlier this year Carroll released the second live album, Live at Flipnotics. This time Carroll was joined by Scrappy Jud Newcomb on lead guitar and the songs span his entire career, including live versions of “Oklhoma Gypsy Shuffler”, “Home Again”, “The Girl With the Dirty Hair” and “Billy Gibbons’ Beard”, which appeared on he and Michael O’ Connor’s ablum, Hard Times.
Speaking of Hard Times, it may well be my favorite record released this year and if not it is damn close. An album with a theme of Gulf Coast losers it really is a great collaborations. Carroll and O’Connor take turns singing the lead parts on the songs, and co-wrote most of the material on the record. “Billy Gibbons’ Beard” is my favorite song that Carroll sings on it. It is sad and funny all at the same time, which is a common thread on the album. The other Carroll standout is the title track which is kind of self explanatory.
Overall Carroll’s career is already amazing and shows no signs of slowing down. I would really suggest buying everything in his catalog because there is not a bad one among them. Also do yourself a favor and go see this guy live if he ever comes near you. You can learn more about Carroll on his site here.
Tags: adam carroll, Graham Weber, Guy Clark, Hayes Carll, john prine, Mark Jungers, michael o'connor, slaid cleaves
Artist of the Month, June 2010: Michael O’Connor
Jun 3, 2010 Artist of the Month
Like many people before me, I first discovered Michael O’Connor as a guitarist.
I was listening to some live Slaid Cleaves shows and found myself drawn to the extremely tasty lead guitar licks I was hearing.
Inevitably, on all of the recordings Slaid would introduce O’Connor as the guitar player.
From there I went on to find out that over the last couple of decades O’Connor has lent his talents to many Americana legends including, Cleaves, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Susan Gibson, Adam Carroll and others. It became clear that if you were anywhere near Texas and needed a guitar player to add class and dignity to your record or live show you sought out O’Connor.
Interestingly enough my first looks into who O’Connor was did not unearth his solo work. Thank the heavens for Slaid Cleaves’ 2006 release Unsung, an album of cover songs that featured two tracks by Mr. O’Connor. On an album filled with finely crafted songs, O’Connor’s “Devil’s Lullaby” stands out in my opinion as the best song.
So now I had to know what else was out there from this guy. I found his website (yeah I know how difficult right?) and saw that he was about to release a new album, his second. I went ahead and bought his first release, Green and Blue (2000) that was produced by Ray Wylie Hubbard.This record was very bluesy and rough. The highlight for me is “West Memphis Blues”, a pretty straight forward blues tune. 
After that, I kind of forgot about O’Connor for awhile. Green and Blue got lost amongst the records that I hadn’t listened to enough and then I downloaded a live show featuring O’Connor in a song swap with Adam Carroll. Finally I got to hear O’Connor sing the songs from Unsung along with a ton of other tunes that I had never heard before. O’Connor’s songs once again stood up against a great songwriter’s. On this show there are acoustic versions of songs from Green and Blue as well as most of the songs from his second release Giants From a Sleepy Town (2007).
Well, I began obsessively listening to this show, especially the O’Connor songs on it. I contacted his wife who does his booking and attempted to have him come up here to do a show, which unfortunately did not work out. A couple of years passed and Carroll and O’Connor released the best album of the 2010, Hard Times.
With the new record being released, I had to get my copy of Sleepy Town finally as well as Hard Times. There was 7 years between the release dates of Green and Blue and Giants From a Sleepy Town and in that time, it seems that O’Connor found his voice in the studio. The songs on this album are phenomenal and the sound is great. I do not mean to disrespect the efforts of his first record, but this second release is amazing.
Among the highlights on this release are the aforementioned “Devil’s Lullaby” which features some of the greatest imagery I’ve ever heard in a song. “The sirens wail and the church bells chime, Sounds like the Devil’s Lullaby”, sings O’Connor in this one. Another absolutely stunning song on this record is the Tom Waitsish, “Trampoline”, which details the struggles of a working musician in a graphic nature.
I can’t sing the praises of this album enough, the songwriting is superior and it’s always refreshing when an artist is recorded in a manner that lends itself to the songs. It definitely seems that O’Connor grew into his own in the time between albums.
After I listened to O’Connor’s second solo effort a few times, I moved on in an excited manner to Hard Times (2010). Here was an album that could not disappoint, two excellent songwriters collaborating on a collection of new songs with a common theme, gulf coast losers.
I was right this album is great, by far the best thing released so far this year. Once again, O’Connor’s skills stand out. He and Carroll co-wrote 9 of 11 songs on the record with the remaining two songs featuring one of them singing a cut from the others previous record.
The two of them take turns singing lead on the record, and in my opinion O’Connor drew the high card when he sang, “Bernandine” the story of a gambler praying to the patron saint of gamblers and addicts. O’Connor once 
again channel’s late 70′s Waits on the track “Throw a Nickel” which is also one of the better tracks on a great album. O’Connor also does a great job on the Adam Carroll penned “Highway Prayer” from Carroll’s release Old Town Rock and Roll.
Over the years O’Connor has solidified his spot amid the Texas music scene first with his superior guitar playing and more recently with his excellent solo work. While I am happy that it seems he will continue to appear as a sideman, I hope that he focuses more of his time on his songwriting career. Whatever he does be sure that I will always pick up any album with his name anywhere on it.
You can learn more about Michael O’Connor and buy all three of his releases on his website, www.michaeloconnormusic.com.
As a bonus here is a download of the song swap I mentioned earlier in the post: Michael O’Connor and Adam Carroll 03-20-2007 . Just right click save link as.
Tags: adam carroll, Artist of the Month, michael o'connor, ray wylie hubbard, slaid cleaves, susan gibson
