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Pew Playlist: 3 Albums That Should Be On Your Radar, 5/19/17
Pokey LaFarge—Manic Revelations
On his last album, Pokey LaFarge and his swoon-worthy trembling tenor seemed to celebrate the sounds of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and on Manic Revelations, out today, LaFarge has dipped a toe or two in the early 1960s. Though he relishes the sonic styles of yesteryear, his lyrics are timeless, and at times, ripped from today’s headlines; album opener “Riot In The Streets” is a snapshot of his St. Louis hometown’s struggles in the wake of political and racial tensions. Named for the state where artists create, LaFarge says of the album: “I got to the point in writing these songs where I felt like a house on fire that just kept burning. This album is about confronting yourself. It’s about confronting your city, its relation with the world, and all its people.”
Colter Wall—Colter Wall
Produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, Canadian artist Colter Wall’s recently-released self-titled debut was recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A. Upon a cursory listen, you might imagine him sharing a post-show drink with the likes of Waylon or Willie, a contemporary of our favorite outlaw music makers who follow no one’s path but their own. His grizzled voice and masterful balladry are the stuff of legend, and create vivid desert-esque mental imagery. He’s only 21 years old, y’all. Don’t miss this one.
Will Payne Harrison—East Nashville Blues
Louisiana-bred Nashville-based troubadour Will Payne Harrison is back with East Nashville Blues, a ten-track album of brutally honest introspection delivered through the sounds of rockicana with a touch of bluegrass—and thank the good Lord those beautiful fiddle-infused Louisiana roots periodically peek through. Harrison follows in the footsteps of his heroes, telling stories that can make you smile right before they make you cry. Willie Nelson and John Prine would be proud.
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Album Review: The Steel Woods – Straw In The Wind
An ominous steel guitar introduction ushers this eager listener into the journey that is Straw In The Wind, the debut LP from Nashville-based country rock outfit The Steel Woods—as the song builds like it’s virtually rising from the mighty cypress swamps in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. The strike of a bass drum at the beginning of each musical phrase echoes like a sledgehammer pounding big tent stakes into southern red dirt, and you know right away that The Steel Woods are here to stay.Building their sound on the same stylistic supports found in the historical foundation of American music, The Steel Woods seamlessly blend Appalachian-infused roots with gritty country, barn-burning blues, and good old rock n’ roll, creating a stunning collection of blue collar tales for the everyman that feels as familiar as an heirloom quilt or the smell of your Maw Maw’s homemade biscuits baking in the oven. To complement their powerful sound, their mastery of double entendre shines through in poetic and clever lyrics that encompass hellfire and brimstone, superstition, and love gone awry. “I’m better in the fall, before the cold comes, the harvest is near, I thought I was in love,” wails vocalist Wes Bayliss, in “Better In The Fall,” a rocking confessional written by the prolific Brent Cobb, as he admits that his talents lie in the thrill of falling in love, rather than in the prospect of a creating a lasting relationship.
And of course, there’s murder. The title track is a dusty ballad of snake oil salesmen, ne’er-do-wells, and abusive lovers, who, interestingly enough, seem to disappear in this town like straw in the wind. There’s never a dull moment on this album, no room for complacency, and no danger of disappointment—they even cover Black Sabbath’s “Hole In The Sky,” which is nothing short of perfection and a tribute that would make The Great Ozz himself proud as a peacock.
The Steel Woods take no prisoners in this arena-sized debut; whether you’re nursing a wounded heart, headed out for a sunny road trip, or gearing up for a beer-fueled cookout hang with your friends, Straw In the Wind is the perfect precursor to summer. Don’t sleep on this one.
Purchase Straw In The Wind, out May 19th via Woods Music/Thirty Tigers: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/straw-in-the-wind/id1213629162
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Premiere: “Sin #2” by Bern Kelly
“I buried that bag of money, in a ditch on Highway 21; I drove that car straight off the levee, and I laughed the whole way down,” recounts Nashville-based troubadour Bern Kelly, in the ominously spare introduction of “Sin #2,” the new single from his forthcoming album, Lost Films, set for release on June 23rd via Underpass Records.
Written over the course of three long years during which Kelly mined his own life experiences and honed in on a distinct, dense narrative style, Lost Films features an array of Nashville’s brightest studio pros, including producer Patrick Damphier (The Arcs, Tim Easton, The Mynabirds), steel-guitar legend Russ Pahl (Dan Auerbach, Patty Griffin, Miranda Lambert), drummer Jon Radford (Steelism, Lily Hiatt, Leigh Nash), and bassist Travis Vance, making the album truly a community-minded effort, the result of his decade-long tenure as a singer/songwriter in the Music City. Channeling his influences—from Josh Ritter and Bruce Springsteen to Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith—Kelly holds fast to the idea that the song comes first, whether he delivers his carefully-crafted stories through folk-tinged power pop or reverb-laden Americana.
“’Sin #2’ finds the main character burying money, ditching cars, and heading back into his lost love’s town looking for revenge,” Kelly explains. “I wanted to come up with something like a noir version of songs like John Phillips’ ‘Me and My Uncle’ or Marty Robbins’ ‘El Paso’—old-school murder-ballads. The ‘2’ in the title originally came from the second instrumental demo that I had marked as the keeper and it just ended up staying on—although, I guess for our antagonist, he’s resolved to the fact that his second sin in the song is probably going to be his last.” Swampy tremolo guitars and minor chords produce an eerie,True Detective-esque vibe, as if you’re slinking down a dark and dreamy road with the song’s main character, fueled by fear and simmering fury.
Without further ado, Mother Church Pew proudly presents “Sin #2” by Bern Kelly:
VINYL PRE-ORDER: http://underpassrecords.bigcartel.com/product/limited-edition-vinyl-lost-films
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Preview: BJ Barham at City Winery on 5/15/17
Photo: Alysse Gafkjen Prolific singer-songwriter BJ Barham is hitting the road this summer on The Great 48 Tour–carrying just his guitar and his songs, Barham will perform acoustic shows in 48 states across the United States, which brings him to Nashville’s City Winery on Monday, May 15th.
The American Aquarium frontman is touring in support of his debut solo album Rockingham, which landed in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart and Americana/Folk Albums chart, and garnered much acclaim for his masterfully-crafted storytelling and narratives that reflect upon the meaning of home and growing up in rural america.
Rockingham was written in the days following the Paris terrorist attacks on Nov. 13, 2015. Headlining a show that same night in Belgium, the impact and shock of the moment gave Barham perspective on the circumstances that helped shape him. The tragedy prompted him to think of all the people and places who had walked with him throughout his life. Thus, Rockingham was born, a compelling collection of songs about fictional characters set in Barham’s real-life hometown.
With stories revealing the struggle of blue-collar labor, a regional sense of pride and heartbreaking reflections of life’s twists and turns, Rockingham is easily identifiable to Barham’s hometown of Reidsville, NC. Once a thriving community supported by tobacco production and textile mills, Reidsville, like so many other towns, suffered from economic depression as the companies that supported so many shut down. With songs like “American Tobacco Company,” “O’ Lover” and “Madeline,” Barham paints his picture of small town life through a striking analysis of the brokenness of the American dream.
Click here for tickets and show information.
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Interview: Jake La Botz
Photo: Joshua Black Wilkins “It was 1991. I had just moved back to Chicago, and I was driving back from West Virgina in a 1959 Chevy Apache pickup, and I was living in the back of it,” reminisces modern vintage rock n’ roller Jake La Botz, as he recalls how me met friend, producer, and Hi-Style Records founder Jimmy Sutton. In fact, I quickly learned that it wouldn’t really be an authentic Jake La Botz story without such an introduction, as La Botz has lived at least 100 lives already.
His formative years spent in Chicago, La Botz frequented Detroit, where his mother lived, and often stayed with his grandparents in San Diego. “When I got big enough to steal a car, I started going out that way as often as I could,” he explains. “I wanted to be adventurous like my heroes in books I’d read and the blues musicians I’d listen to. My grandpa had been a hobo during The Depression, and I wanted to see the world like he did, using whatever means were available at the time. I wasn’t ever a hobo though, I’m probably too lazy for that. I wish it was a part of my story, I’d probably sound about twenty percent cooler,” he laughs. “I liked to get out of Chicago in the winter. I’d try to find work where the weather was better in my teens and 20s for months out of the year—hanging rain gutters, working in factories, things like that. I busked and played gigs for a while to try to make money too.” As a youngster, La Botz had found an emotional connection to music, and discovered it was the way he could express himself best. “I got really into the hardcore punk scene in Chicago, and was in a band there. It was some of the most fun I’d had in my whole life,” he says. “It’s how I learned to play music, if you can call it music.”
La Botz became a drifter, and found himself in trouble in more ways than one. “I was floating around, I was a heroin junkie; I went pretty far downhill, and wound up in Los Angeles as a dope fiend living in a hotel,” he recalls, though he continued to play music. “I was able to make a little money playing the blues. I used to hang out and play with these old blues guys in Chicago, and they taught me a lot. I really connected with them, and I felt that they really cared about me,” he continues. “I went to LA to escape Chicago and my drug addiction, but it turned out they had drugs there too! I was in the gutter, but I finally got help.” In the midst of getting clean, La Botz fell into acting, and rekindled a passion he had developed as a kid. “I wanted to be an actor when I was a kid; I bought a second-hand suit at Salvation Army and got a job as a theater usher so I could see plays for free,” he recalls. “I wanted to be near the action, and the magic, the mythology and the storytelling, that creativity. I crashed a movie premiere, which is something everyone in LA has to do at some point, and I met Steve Buscemi; I invited him to a gig, and he actually came out, such a cool dude.” Buscemi began to frequent La Botz’ shows, and the two struck up a friendship; before long, Buscemi was set to direct a film, and wrote in a role for La Botz.
Now living in Nashville, La Botz is set to release his new record, Sunnyside, produced by Jimmy Sutton and released via Hi-Style Records, on May 12th. A listen to Sunnyside is like taking a wild ride on a reverb-y time machine, evoking images of pompadoured greasers wearing white t-shirts with packs of smokes rolled up in their sleeves, but the subjects and lyrics are timeless—covering everything from freedom and self-discovery to the tongue-in-cheek ribbing of people who preach the power of positive thinking, and use it to circumvent reality. “He’s got this really artistic way of working with space that’s so unique,” he says of mastermind Sutton. “He helped me define my sound more and figure out how to express what I‘m trying to say. He’s really good at that.”
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Album Review: Head For The Hills – Potions and Poisons
Sometimes when you spin an album for the first time it takes you back to a familiar place. With their forthcoming release, Colorado-based Head for the Hills transports you to an intimate hillside amphitheater at sundown but Potions and Poisons also takes the time machine back to the era of the Prohibition speakeasy. The Colorado quartet offers up their unique string sound–old grass, new grass, with some soul to boot. The central theme weaves together the concepts love and death by expressing a melancholy outlook of human existence.“Suit and Tie” tries to flip the darkness and pull a loved one from the depths: “It might be time you held your head up higher, it ain’t time to let it go.” The excellent picking in between verses lends a pleasant tone to a heavy subject. “Floodwaters,” an energetic instrumental track that features a small jam session, showcases the group’s telepathic communication, and offers a contrast to the LP’s otherwise somber tone.
“Candy, the coffee, the cocaine, the coitus. Grant us the power to stop making choices,” they sing, as everyday vices are spun out in fashion in the album’s title track. The band lends something to which everyone can relate, the power that our painful struggles and mental weaknesses hold over our lives.
“Happy” and “cheerful” may not be the best descriptors for the subjects tackled on Potions and Posions, but technical prowess, cohesive musicianship, poetic lyrics, and emotive vocal stylings make it all worth the listen. The band bares its soul on this group of tracks, which will entice and appeal to all kinds of listeners, as well as traditional bluegrass fans.
Purchase Potions and Poisons, set for release on Friday, May 12th: http://headfor-thehills.squarespace.com
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Premiere: “Lost In This Canyon” by The Two Tracks
Heartfelt emotion. Soul-stirring sound. These are ways to describe Sheridan, Wyoming’s The Two Tracks, who will release their forthcoming album, Postcard Town, on May 19th. Produced by the legendary Will Kimbrough, the record features 11 new tracks inspired by the spirit of the open road. Today, the band releases “Lost In This Canyon,” a single from Postcard Town.
“‘Lost In This Canyon’ was written about a time in my life when I was a winter caretaker of a backcountry lodge in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California,” explains multi-instrumentalist and vocalist David Huebner. “People would often accidentally ski off the backside of the nearby ski area and get lost in the woods near my cabin and that idea of me living where others would get ‘lost’ is what sparked the chorus of the song. The first lines, ‘the mountains are empty but they are my friends, they never judge me,’ are an adaptation of something a friend told me one day while we were out skiing near the cabin, he’d been judged rather harshly for some things in his past and found sanctuary in the open spaces of the backcountry,” he continues. “The second verse mentions ‘my mother, she tells me it’s too easy to let it all pass by, you’ve got to stop and find positivity,’ but what it doesn’t say is that my mom has maintained this positive focus despite being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in the 1980s, and ending up in a wheelchair as a result. The strength with which she’s handled the disease has been an incredible inspiration, and celebrating that positivity in this song is very special for me.”
The song also pays tribute to Huebner’s literary heroes, Henry Thoreau and Gary Snyder, and celebrates the freedom of living in the great wide open, the rich cello and pedal steel flourishes accentuating the yearning felt upon realizing that there is something more, and that it is yours for the taking.
Without further ado, Mother Church Pew proudly presents “Lost In This Canyon” by The Two Tracks:
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Interview: The Grand Southern
“My dad was the lead singer in a band called Three Dog Night, so I was kind of thrust into music, and totally supported in it,” says drummer Dash Hutton, who, with guitarist Jesse Tyre, makes up folk rock duo The Grand Southern. “I started playing the drums when I was a kid, and my brother and I started a band. I found Jesse at a local bingo night, no I’m just kidding,” he laughs. “No we met on Tinder, kidding again. We met through our producer, and discovered we had the same interests. I admired Jesse’s music, and we got along and started writing. Jesse, you don’t get a backstory by the way,” he says, but Tyre wants his voice to be heard. “I was raised on John Prine and Bonnie Raitt; my parents were hippies, and there was a drought that year, and they almost named me ‘Drought,’ but ended up naming me after Jesse Winchester and Jesse Colin Young. I got lucky,” Tyre declares. “I played in bands and everything, but none of it meant anything until I met Dash.”
At times, it is difficult to determine whether I’m chatting with a band or a comedy duo, but these brilliant senses of humor definitely explain The Grand Southern’s ability to craft infectiously clever and catchy songs. “Most of the time, when we write, it’s with an acoustic guitar or a piano. The players we work with make a big difference, and it just so happens that we know some amazing pedal steel players,” explains Tyre of their twangy style. “When you put pedal steel on anything, it all of a sudden becomes country or Americana. There wasn’t ever really a goal to have a certain sound, it’s just what came out. We didn’t have a plan, it was just fun to write, and we played acoustic shows,” Tyre adds. “It’s more fun when there are two of you playing open mics and heckling other artists together.”
After unleashing their EP, Traded Heaven, earlier this year, The Grand Southern released a video to accompany the title track, featuring Evan Peters from American Horror Story and directed by Blacklist star Ryan Eggold. “We’ve been friends with Evan and Ryan for almost 10 years,” explains Tyre. “We love their work; we’d never watched them practice their craft, and it was neat to see them interpret our music through that medium, see them work, and find out how talented they are,” he adds. “They were super generous with their time, and they were a fun part of the process.”
The band now has a brand new single, “Sleeptalking,” out now ahead of another EP in the works. “We’ll release the whole thing soon,” says Tyre. “Or maybe just one verse at a time.”
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Interview: Driftwood Solider
Photo: Kyle Cassidy Philadelphia-based mandolinist Owen Lyman-Schmidt and bassist Bobby Szafranski met coincidentally and, as musically-inclined folks tend to do, started playing together. “We were a good musical fit, and I stopped looking for other players,” recalls the quick-witted dry-humored Lyman-Schmidt. “Speaking of fit, since there were only two of us, we were able to tour in a Honda Fit, which gets a good 37 miles to the gallon and makes it possible to make sort of a living.”
The pair, who call themselves Driftwood Solider and their style “gutter folk,” have found their place amongst the hardscrabble, DIY work ethic of the Philly scene. “The simple reason we play gutter folk music is so we can be the best at it,” he laughs. “No one else plays gutter folk, so we are number one. However, if we do a good job making gutter fool a style, more people will get into playing it, and I’m sure they will be better than we are.” Finding an identity in the storytelling aspect of traditional folk, Driftwood Solider infuse everything from the blues to the punk music of their adolescence, expressed through Lyman-Schmidt’s mandolin and Szafranski’s melodic bass stylings and junk percussion—a suitcase, a license plate snare, and “the Jangler,” a bottle cap tambourine contraption. Their instrumentation combined with Lyman-Schmidt’s Nick Cave-esque jarring baritone growls produce a uniquely rootsy sound that is much grittier than most would expect, in the best sense of the term.
Driftwood Solider, who released their debut album, Scavenger’s Joy, in 2014, unleashed an EP, Blessings & Blasphemy, on March 24th, which houses old-time gospel as well as anti-religious original tunes. “The idea was to juxtapose reinterpreted gospel music with anti-religious music we wrote. It comes out of feeling that power behind gospel music, and the spiritual force of music in general,” explains Lyman-Schmidt. “I’m not a subscriber to a particular religion, but I wanted to talk about how religion has been used to push agendas of intolerance and oppression. I love gospel music, it moves me, but I think it’s important to think critically about the content, and what it’s being used to promote.”
“A lot of times, there doesn’t seem to be room for dialogue and discussion when it comes to religious dogma,” he continues. “That being said, I’ve been in lots of spaces where people were doing a lot of amazing work coming from a spiritual motivation. I’ve been part of sacred harp singing communities and old time gospel groups; that tension has been present in my life since I can remember—people moved and motivated by their spiritual convictions doing amazing work, and people using dogma to shut down communication and as an excuse not to empathize with others.”
Lyman-Schmidt sees the common and usually heated approach to this subject matter as a barrier to relationships; the goal for Blessings & Blasphemy is discussion. “If you just put out an album of anti-religious music, you make a point, but you also imply that that’s the audience you want to cultivate, and that they are the only people you’re interested in talking to, that believe what you believe,” he says. “If you put out an album of gospel music, you send the same message to a different audience. If you’re like us, and you apparently don’t aspire to have any audience at all when you make something, then you put them out together,” he laughs. “We wanted to let people decide where they fall on the subject. If you say to someone, ‘this is wrong and I don’t understand it,’ there’s no point in having a conversation about it. But if you say, ‘I feel what you’re feeling, but I think something different,’ that leaves room for understanding.”
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Pew Playlist: 3 Albums That Should Be On Your Radar, 5/5/17
Rev. Sekou – In Times Like These
Probably one of the most important and relevant albums yet of 2017, Rev. Osagyefo Sekou combines the blues learned during his youth–the sound and the experiences as well–with testimony-inspiring Pentecostal roots gospel. Sekou, a noted activist, author, documentary filmmaker and theologian, has infused in his album, In Times Like These, produced by six-time Grammy nominated Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, featuring Luther’s brother Cody Dickinson, and supported by Thirty Tigers, the sounds of field hand spirituals, the guttural cry of chain gangs, snippets of contemporary street protests, and the sweat-inducing stylings of backwoods juke joints and shotgun churches. Spend time with this one.
Andrew Pope – Stoned On The One
Stoned On The One, the new album from Andrew Pope out today via Alacob Music, was written as a concept album following a man that is dealing with a breakup and searching for closure. “Most of these songs came about during difficult times of my life,” Pope shares. “Sometimes when you are dealing with sh*t and searching for answers, a song is born. That’s how this record was molded and it ain’t no love song record. I’m very proud of this record, more than I have ever been proud of anything in my life.” The album’s 13 solid tracks are the cure for your honky tonkin’ classic country itches, the songs punch you right in the guts and resonate deep in the soul, and that just the way country music should be.
Sean Quinn & The Tremblers – Never Meant To Last
Nashville up-and-comer Sean Quinn‘s new album, Never Meant To Last is the perfect soundtrack for all your summer roadtrips–Quinn covers everything from heartstring-tugging 60s-inspired slow dance rock, to Muscle Shoals-style blue-eyed soul, to edgy rockicana. Check it out.