Lists : Five Debut Albums That I Love

May 24, 2010 Lists

This list is in no way comprehensive nor is it in any order. These may not be the best debut albums of all time or even my favorite ones if I gave it a lot more thought. They are however five debuts that blow me away every time I hear them. Sometimes an artist or band just gets it right the first time around.

1. Steve Earle : Guitar Town (1986)

Earle comes out of the gate with an instant classic, Guitar Town, what’s crazy is that he was already 31 when this record was released. This record was over ten years in the making as Earle honed his songwriting chops hanging out with Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark.

Before this album, Earle worked in Nashville writing songs for other as so many writers do and had recorded another album that was not released. However, when it finally hit the shelves it helped make Steve the next big thing as it rose to number one on the country album charts.

Within its ten tracks are so many great songs. Highlights for me are the title track, “My Old Friend The Blues”, and “Daddy’s Little Rock n Roller”.

2. Todd Snider : Songs From the Daily Planet (1994)

I am so conflicted with this album. I love every song on this record, even the songs that have become the cliche Snider songs to like. While some of the album versions of the songs are great a lot of them leave something to be desired. I think the record company people tried to make Todd sound entirely too pretty and that would be a theme on a few of his albums and they don’t capture the raw energy of Todd with his then band the Wrecks or the emotion he plays with solo.

Having said all of that, this is still a great record to listen to. The songs that are nailed here are phenomenal and the ones that could have been recorded differently are still great songs. Snider is one of the best writers working today in my opinion and he let that shine through right from the beginning.

Of the songs that are great on the record, my favorites are “Turn it Up” (because sometimes you just have to rock out), “Somebody’s Coming”, and “Spoke Like a Child”.

3. John Prine : John Prine (1971)

Got to love when one of the “Next Bob Dylans” becomes the first John Prine. I’m not sure if there is another debut album that contains so many classic songs. With his unconventional delivery, Prine released what I feel are some of his best songs on the first go round. Many of these songs would go on to be covered by everyone under the moon and to me the best versions can still be found on this gem of an album.

As for favorites on the album, how can you go wrong when you have “Angel From Montgomery”, “Sam Stone”, “Far From Me”, “Illegal Smile” and “Paradise” and that only makes up half the record?

4. The Counting Crows : August and Everything After (1993)

This record may not seem to fit among the others, but I love it just as much. Ever since its release I have been listening to it on a regular basis and it never gets old. Unfortunately they have never released a record as good as this one again. I have liked just about all of their albums, but they seemed to get progressively worse the farther away from August they got. Their newest release however did break that pattern slightly.

Back to August and Everything After though. From top to bottom the songs on this release are pretty depressing but, extremely well written and they sound incredible. It’s one of those records where I never skip a single song while listening and that is rare even from good ones.

My favorite tracks follow each other back to back in the middle of the album. “Perfect Blue Buildings”, “Anna Begins”, and “Time and Time Again” make for a great three song run.

5. Adam Carroll : South of Town (1998)

The most recent release of this list, South of Town is the first look into what is becoming a great career for Adam Carroll. I love this guy’s writing and his style. He has a way of writing things that sound really poetic and at the same time common. The way he strings words together is beautiful and then he delivers the songs with an aw shucks sound that is often times behind the beat and just comes off sounding amazing.

There is definitely a reason that he is becoming one of the most covered artists to come out of the Texas music scene recently and that reason is prominently displayed on this record. A lot of these songs appear again on his live records as well, but you get a great feeling from the down home recordings found on the studio versions.

Listening to this again last night, I  decided my favorite tracks on it were “Smokey Mountain Taxi”, “Cane River Blues”, and “Home Again”. If you are not familiar with Carroll go and buy this and all of his other records immediately.

That’s it for this list, while most of you probably own these records or at least know of them, hopefully you will revisit them after reading this. This list was fun, I think I will continue it some other time, feel free to comment with some of you favorite debuts if you feel the urge.

On another note, look for the first edition of the Broken Jukebox podcast early this week. It has been recorded and will be up soon.

Tags: adam carroll, counting crows, john prine, Lists, Steve Earle, todd snider

R.I.P. Matt Scott

May 15, 2010 Rant

You may be asking yourself, who the hell is Matt Scott ? Matt Scott was an uncle of mine that I was very close to for years and he’s been on my mind a lot lately.

To fully understand why this is relevant and why I have been thinking of him recently, I must give you the short version of the back story of our relationship. I grew up pretty close to him and my aunt; my mother and I even lived with them for a short time when I was too young to remember it. For most of my youth he was just my uncle. When I was 18 or 19 we were all at a family gathering and he asked me if I knew who Keb’ Mo’ was out of the blue. Well, I was absolutely floored, never having thought about what it was my Uncle Matt listened to much less figuring he was into Keb’ Mo’.

This new discovery led to us spending the entire evening discussing different blues guys and finding out that we shared an obsession with not only blues, but all kinds of music. Over the next few years he became one of if not my best friend. We shared many a night with good smoke and better music. He was the only person in my family that not only understood my need to own more music than one person could ever need, but he had the same affliction.

At least once a week we would get together and play the game of “have you heard… (insert artist name) and copying the other’s cd’s. He turned me on to Steve Earle and Billy Joe Shaver. In turn I got him into Gov’t Mule and the Drive-by Truckers. We would go on to discover a plethora of new artists together. I remember the first time I heard Todd Snider. I had traded for a Snider show and was listening to it in my car, three songs in my plans had changed, I was going to Matt’s because he had to hear this guy.

All of this has been filling my mind lately because Fred Eaglesmith has released a new album and I am eagerly awaiting it’s arrival in my mailbox. Fred was one of Matt and my best discoveries. I had just arrived home late one evening from work and I got a phone call. On the other end of the phone was an excited Uncle Matt, “you have to come over now and hear what I just downloaded”. I  had no choice, I changed clothes and headed over.

When I walked in the door there was a song playing on his computer that immediately had me intrigued after only hearing the chorus…

Time to get a gun

That’s what I’m thinkin’

I could afford one

If I did a little less drinkin’

Time to put something

Between me and the sun

When the talkin’ is over

It’s time to get a gun

What the hell was this and more importantly why had I never heard it before. Matt goes on to tell me, this is Fred Eaglesmith, an artist he had stumbled onto and found a few tracks of on limewire or something. He proceeded to play me, “Alcohol and Pills”, “Spookin’ the Horses”, “He’s a Good Dog”, and “Wilder Than Me” . Man, was this stuff good.

The next day, he and I went to the locally owned record store (remember when those existed) and had the proprietor order us up some Eaglesmtih albums. (Side note: There is a lesson here record companies…we downloaded, liked, and immediately bought everything available) . Over the next couple of weeks we digested as much Fred as we could possibly stand.

To this day anytime I hear anything by Fred, I immediately think of Matt. There are so many songs that were just perfect for my uncle. He was a car guy (“Pontiac”, “Mighty Big Car”) who drove fast (“105″) and who loved his dogs more than most humans (“He’s a Dog”, “I Shot Your Dog”) . He was also not a perfect man and Fred had songs that addressed that as well (“Drinkin’ Too Much”).

My Uncle Matt passed away very unexpectedly at a fairly young age. He had given up drinking and was getting all of his health problems under control so it came as a total shock when I got the call saying he had died. It’s been going on three years now that he has been gone. I was two days away from leaving for my wedding when he died and I thought he would not have wanted me to dwell on his passing. I don’t think I ever have really come to terms with his death, but I  do so a little at a time. My aunt has since married again to a great guy, who takes care of her, but sometimes it’s hard for me to see her without Matt and I’m not sure that will ever go away.

As they were cleaning out his things, my father called asked me if there was anything that I wanted of his to remember him. I  thought long and hard and decided that no, none of his material possessions could ever give me the memories of my Uncle that the music we shared would, so I didn’t need anything. So now whenever I am looking through a cd case of mine I will come across an album or a mixed disc with his writing on it and I have to listen to it. They inevitably make me sad and happy at the same time.

So in a week or so my copy of Cha, Cha, Cha will arrive via the postal service and I will spend a couple of hours listening to it and assuredly Matt’s memory will come up. I  know everyone has a person in their past that leaps into their minds when a certain song, album, or artists comes out of the speakers. I’m not talking about the annoying ex-girlfriend who played the shit out of Janis Joplin, but rather someone who you have shared a positive musical experience with. I’m asking you to join me in remembering those people this week and break out that old tune, have a drink, laugh, cry a little and just remember.

In Matt’s Memory here a couple of Youtube clips, the first is Fred Eaglesmith “Time to Get a Gun” and the second his personal theme song, “Mustang Sally” performed by Buddy Guy.

Tags: Billy Joe Shaver, Drive-by Truckers, Family, Fred Eaglesmith, Gov't Mule, Steve Earle, todd snider, Youtube Clip