Category: feature

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Bob Wills: Talkin’ ‘Bout the King of Western Swing

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The first time I heard the name Bob Wills was in the Brian Setzer/Joe Strummer-penned tune “Ghost Radio” from Setzer’s Guitar Slinger album. I learned a little more about Wills and his Texas Playboys from one of my many visits to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and decided to take the plunge and scrounge some of Wills’ western swing to actually listen to.

Confession: I hated it.

Wills constant, high-pitched interjections of “A-haaa!” and “Yes, yes…” got on my nerves in record time. I could appreciate the music, but I couldn’t get past Wills’ voice. So I set Wills aside, thinking it just wasn’t for me.

A few years later, I checked out the first volume (and the only volume that my library has…) of the PBS documentary series American Roots Music. Not only was Wills mentioned in the doc itself, but one of the extras on that first disc is a full performance of Bob and his boys playing “Sitting on Top of the World”.

I kinda fell in love.

It seems in the later years, Bob cut down on the high-pitched interjections and cranked up the funny asides. I decided it was time to give Mr. Wills another go. I found that if I started with the later work, I could get past the frequent “Ahhh!”s of the early work. I could even begin to enjoy them because they started to make me smile.

Wills’ music not only hits the spot on two-stepping, but it also throws in some down ‘n’ dirty booty-shakin’ and it also fills a niche for music I don’t have enough of: sweet, languid fiddle music that puts me in mind of a mild summer evening, sitting on a porch swing with a glass of sweet tea and a sweet boy.

This is the very performance that turned the tide for me. Please try to ignore Bob’s old man pants. And the wife beater seen through his shirt. I repeat, DO NOT STARE DIRECTLY INTO BOB’S CLOTHING.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sS5jSbV0Vg]

And a clip from one of a number of film appearances that Bob and the boys made, this one of my favorite Wills tune, “Stay a Little Longer”:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM50ZQpSSTY]

Bob Wills Official Website

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Weapons of Mass Creation Festival: NXNEO

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Weapons of Mass Creation Fest presented by Go Media

Cleveland rocks! You’ve heard it. Some of us have heard it for what seems like our entire lives. And we’re constantly being challenged to prove it. Jeff Finley thinks he has the definitive evidence. With the help of a number of other creatives in the northeastern Ohio area, he is organizing the Weapons of Mass Creation Festival this spring.

Touted as Cleveland’s answer to SXSW, WMC Fest will feature music, art and film from around the country with a concentration on creators from our region. NTSIB is, of course, most excited about the music aspect. Check out some of the youngsters who will be throwing down. They’re a bunch of promising punky and folky… uh… folks. NTSIB is currently most compelled by Saintseneca, a quartet from Columbus, Ohio, with lots of strings and a strong roots influence.

WMC Fest will center in the bustling (that’s right, I wrote “bustling”) Ohio City neighborhood on May 22 and 23. Tickets are affordable, and they’re even more affordable (i.e. free) if you volunteer or donate.

We’ve been watching some of the WMC Fest team (including Erin from fellow Cleveland music blog Dust Sleeve) organizing and promoting on Twitter, and their enthusiasm for this project is infectious. We’re looking forward to being a part of it.

Weapons of Mass Creation Festival

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R.I.P.: Alex Chilton

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Alex Chilton died yesterday.

As I suspect was the case with most music-lovers around my age, Chilton wove his way through my life in a non-direct fashion. My first brush with Chilton was through the 1967 hit he had with his young band the Box Tops, “The Letter”. When my father was a younger man, before my arrival, back when he was the sort of person who had friends in bands, he got up at a party and sang a song with his friend’s band – “The Letter”. Anyone who knows my father now would have a difficult time reconciling this fact with the gruff, curmudgeonly Italian-American they know. That is likely the very reason why the song always felt significant to me, that connection to a version of my father that was more like me. That, and it’s a good song. Chilton’s husky, soulful voice is commanding, and the modern sensibility of the song was always a captivating thing to hear in the midst of all the other songs played on the oldie goldies radio stations.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD9mCp8SifM]

My next, very roundabout exposure to Chilton was the obvious one: the Replacements’ fantastic paean to the singer/songwriter, “Alex Chilton”. A practically perfect song in every way.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52PPm1fozqU]

I have to admit that I didn’t fully understand who Chilton was until my third exposure, when Jeff Buckley took to covering Big Star’s “Kanga Roo” at his shows.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-7YvAC3j9g]

While I never became a fan of Big Star, I came to understand, appreciate and respect the influence the band had on so many of the artists I have loved. I was excited when I learned that Big Star were slated to play SXSW this year. They were set to take the stage in Austin this coming Saturday. Bad timing, Alex.

Thanks for being with us, Alex.

Bonus: Follow the link to view one of the weirdest band T.V. show appearances I’ve ever seen, the very young and awkward Box Tops on a teen dance show called “Disc-O-Teen”.

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The Famous: Really working to be happy

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On first listen, the Famous’ new album, Come Home to Me, sounds like the soundtrack to a roadtrip* wherein Very Bad Things Happen. Can’t speak for your world, but in NTSIB’s world, that’s more than enough to merit a second listen.

The Famous has a birth story reminiscent of the birth story of the Rolling Stones, but instead of Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters albums, the chance meeting of Laurence Scott and Victor Barclay hinged on them both owning the same car: the ’65 model Ford Galaxie. The Rolling Stones comparison could be extended to the way the Famous take an old American songstyle (in their case, country & western) and mix it up with modern sensibilities… but that would be facile and trite, so we won’t do that. We could exaggerate the facts to make it seem that Laurence Scott left his life of farming for the life of a rock ‘n’ roller, but we’ll leave Scott’s 2nd place award in the 1983 Junior Farmers competition at the Dallas Farmer’s Market for excellence in radishes and swiss chard for the tabloids to uncover and twist when the band blows up big.

Though we can tell you that Scott and Barclay have secret identities, Barclay masquerading by day as a UI developer and Scott missing the whole “secret” part by being a reporter/anchor for the San Francisco Bay Area arm of NBC. And we can tell you that, both being veterans of the Bay Area music scene, they know their way around the phenomenon known as “rockin’ it”.

(We can also tell you that Barclay is the kind of noble man who will save sweet, innocent beer from being poured down the drain just because it happens to be a little past the expiration date.)

Come Home to Me is a follow-up to their 2005 debut, Light, Sweet Crude, and it is an all-around tighter and more focused album. Their penchant for down-and-dirty roadhouse country is brought to the forefront, and Scott’s voice is now strong and resonant in its timbre and twang. On closer inspection of their lyrics, there is a lot of love-gone-wrong here, but of the sort many can relate to, as evidenced in the succinct first lyric of the album opener, “Off My Mind”: This makes me sick. But I’ll make myself sicker. There are guts spilled all over this album, from the words to the guitars to Scott’s agonized howl midway through “Cold Tonight”.

But there is a lot of fun to be had in the listening. (Doubly so if you are a word nerd – “Perspicacious” had me laughing out loud the first time I listened to it.) So pop open a beer, no matter the expiration date, and have a listen.

Come Home to Me

Ain’t Much Wrong

The Famous Official Website

*NTSIB may be a little fixated on the idea of roadtrips at the moment.

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John Fahey: Poor Boy

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It seems that when one falls in love with music, when it becomes something one feels the need to know everything about, the more one moves forward, the further back one ends up. Or perhaps that’s just my own experience. I may be a special case (feel free to define “special” however you want there), but I find when I fall in love with a new artist, I want to know what moved him, who influenced her, what did they listen to that caused them to pick instruments and play? I’ve found many favorite artists whom I might never have heard otherwise that way: Doc Watson, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Django Reinhardt, etc.

So when A.A. Bondy listed “John Fahey’s right hand” alongside influences/inspirations like trains, people who play bowed saws and James Jamerson’s pointer finger, I had to look Fahey up to satisfy my curiosity. And, as with many of these backwards discoveries, I felt stupid for having never heard of the man before.

John Fahey was an exceptional finger-picking guitarist who was born in Washington, D.C., in February of 1939 and died in Salem, Oregon, in February of 2001 after a sextuple heart bypass operation. In between, he heard Bill Monroe’s cover of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel No. 7”, bought his first guitar from a Sears-Roebuck catalogue, released his own albums (sometimes secretly slipping them in amongst the stock at record stores and thrift shops), graduated college with degrees in philosophy and religion, created the legend of Blind Joe Death, earned a Master’s degree in folklore, brought bluesmen Bukka White and Skip James back into the public eye, drew on influences from the blues to classical to Gregorian chants, did a hell of a lot of finger-picking and influenced a number of artists, who in turn have been influential themselves – like Sonic Youth, down the line.

Sadly, not dissimilar to so many of the stories of the blues greats who influenced him, Fahey died poor after years of miserable health. But, also similar to those blues greats, his influence keeps reaching forward and lacing its way through music today.

http://www.lala.com/external/flash/SingleSongWidget.swf

John Fahey Official Site
Blind Joe Death Memorial Site

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Down the Old Plank Road: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Frank Fairfield & Blind Boy Paxton

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As has been mentioned in a previous post – and as would likely be obvious from the overall content of NTSIB – I am a roots music fan. This used to mean mainly old blues: Robert Johnson, Son House, Howlin’ Wolf. It would be disingenuous to deny the role of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack album in opening me up to more styles of roots, or “old timey”, music, like Southern gospel-style music, string bands, bluegrass, etc., but it was the advent in my musical life of modern string band hustlers Old Crow Medicine Show that led me to discover that there are a number of young artists keeping the basics of the old music alive while also adding their own, up-to-date flair into the mix. One of the most exciting of those acts is the Carolina Chocolate Drops who are bringing the black string band tradition back to the forefront while evolving the possibilities of string band music with the injection of their modern sensibilities. This confluence of old and new is on exhilirating display in their treatment of Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘Em Up Style”, performed below during their appearance on WDVX’s Blue Plate Special.

 

Carolina Chocolate Drops performing "Hit 'Em Up Style"

 

There are also artists who keep so closely to the essence of the original sounds and styles of roots music that they almost defy belief and have you checking the calendar to confirm what century you’re in. Frank Fairfield and Blind Boy Paxton are prime examples. And they look the part, Fairfield with his Brylcreemed hair and shirts buttoned up to the neck, a piece of rope serving as the strap on his banjo, and Paxton sometimes sporting a suit and fedora, sometimes a pair of overalls. Their sound is so authentic that you wait to hear the hiss and pop of old vinyl after each verse. Indeed, it’s so authentic that some have been led to ask, “Why bother?” Why recreate so precisely the sound of the old string bands or the old bluesmen when those original recordings are still available to hear? I’m sure part of the motivation is purely selfish: for the joy of playing the music. But Fairfield and Paxton also perform an important service to the music itself: they bring it to the attention to people who might otherwise not listen to old time music. If the old music is not listened to, it can’t continue to influence musicians today and, it could be argued, future music would lose much of its soul. Also, if old music is not listened to, it can’t be preserved, and the loss of these roots would be a shattering crime.

 

Plus, damnit, it’s just fun to listen to.

 

Here Fairfield and Paxton jam with Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops:

Nouveau Oldtime Jam: Blind Boy Paxton, Dom Flemons, Frank Fairfield (Boing Boing Video)

 

Old Crow Medicine Show Official Site

Carolina Chocolate Drops Official Site

Frank Fairfield MySpace

Frank Fairfield Daytrotter Session

Blind Boy Paxton MySpace

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Baby Dee: And Yet

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On the surface, it can seem like an anomaly that someone like Baby Dee could come out of Cleveland, Ohio. At a glance, Cleveland looks like a blue-collar town that’s lagging ten or twenty years behind the times. People in Cleveland still think the Michael Stanely Band is a big deal (Dear Clevelanders – No one outside of northeastern Ohio has heard of the Michael Stanley Band. I know. I’ve asked). But when you dig into Cleveland, pushing aside the curtain of low self-esteem that the city has blanketed itself with, you find that it’s a complex, layered place. In this regard, it makes complete sense that a town like this could produce a performer like the singular Baby Dee.

When I first learned of Baby Dee, she seemed like a slightly eccentric but mostly unassuming musician, but when I began to dig, I discovered that she has been a member of the Coney Island Sideshow, has been a tree climber and has worked companionably alongside such artists as David Tibet and Current93, Will Oldham, Andrew WK and Marc Almond. This is just a hint of what Baby Dee has done.

Baby Dee’s music is just as complex. She is an accomplished musician (playing harp, piano and accordion) and a fearless performer with an indelible sense of humor. Baby Dee’s oeuvre ranges from theatrical cabaret numbers to quietly touching ballads, all performed with a naked heart, on display for all to see. That is probably what draws people to her the most. To see a person, a fellow human being, put herself out there in the way that Baby Dee does – in a way that so many of us might want to but can’t – is captivating.

Baby Dee promises us a new album this March, and she will begin a European tour on February 22 in Newcastle, England, working her way back to our shores in April, making an appearance at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland on April 15 before continuing to weave her way around the States and Canada.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EuLuhYWPfU]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJIbvKy-1g]

Baby Dee Official Website
Baby Dee MySpace

Baby Dee photo by Rose

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mr. Gnome: I Can See My Soul from Here

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This is a good example of why I try to avoid saying “Artist X sounds like Artist Z” – aside from the fact that I have found many of those sorts of comparisons can project the wrong idea into a reader’s mind depending upon their relationship with Artist Z’s work – I would have to use three or four different artists to describe the sound of Cleveland duo mr. Gnome. Just within one song. Moving from gauzy dreamscapes to razor-sharp nightmares, sometimes within seconds of each other, mr. Gnome is the sort of band whose willingness to experiment with sound and whose ability to pull it off with confidence makes me proud to be a fellow Clevelander.

A couple of things you should know before listening to mr. Gnome: Nicole Barille will crush your head with her guitar. And if she can’t finish the job, Sam Meister will be right in to beat the pulp to liquid. But then they’ll sing a pretty lullaby and smile down at you just before you pass out.

Yes, Barille’s voice can sound childlike and pixieish (something I have confessed to often disliking), but it also howls like an apocalyptic wind through an industrial warehouse. No, there isn’t a bass, but Meister will make you forget about that with his muscular, sometimes tribal beats. And, yes, you can catch them live. They will be playing Musica in Akron, Ohio, on February 27 (with If These Trees Could Talk and Simeon Soul Charger) and are getting ready for another leg of touring which will bring them back home sometime in May. Keep an eye on their Myspace page for future dates. Give them your money. They’re nice people.

mr. Gnome – Night of the Crickets
mr. Gnome – Sit Up & Hum

mrGnomeWeb

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Hell and Half of Georgia: You Could Fix Me Up with a Smile

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Okay, here’s what you do: Go download Hell and Half of Georgia’s self-titled album, play it through once, then set it aside and go do something else.

Now, come back and listen again.

The first thing you’ll notice is that you’ve gotten adjusted to the raggedness of Sean Fahlen’s voice and can now hear the sweet center of it. The second thing you’ll notice is that the band’s simple and friendly melodies have already lodged themselves in your brain. These are the best kind of country songs, made of heart and backed by solid musicianship. These songs feel like they belong inside a barn that has been cleared for a dance or at an old gas station during a rest stop on a long roadtrip through the dusty Southwest. When you listen to these songs, you feel like you’re listening to good friends play. And you can practically feel the sun of the band’s homestate of California shining down on your skin (which is very helpful as I sit next to a Cleveland window through which I can see several inches of Ohio snow – thanks, boys).

Hell and Half of Georgia – made up of Sean Fahlen, Kevin Burwick, Mike Troolines, Charlie Breneman and Captain Ed Brady – don’t have a label and, at the time of this writing, they are preparing to play their first show. But they are not new to the world of music-making, and, as Fahlen puts it, “we gots our fill of chasing any music dreams”. HaHoG began as a two-man (Fahlen and Burwick) project that they ended up liking so much that they decided to turn it into a full-fledged band, just for the love of the music and sharing the music. “[W]e just wanna play some songs,” says Fahlen, “tour round th southwest in a 88 chevy van with no radio, drink some whiskey nd make new friends along th way.” They back up this philosophy by offering their album for free to anyone who wants to download it. “[W]e are putting our music out for this moment here, you diggin it and sharing your feedback with us and anyone else that you want to share something you like with.”

“Sharing and connecting” could be a rally cry for HaHoG, putting them in good company with NTSIB favorites the Felice Brothers and A.A. Bondy. They will put in their time with websites and Facebook pages because they know these tools are a useful means to an end, but what they want most is to “connect person to person when we can”. In an unrelated conversation, Fahlen said, “[S]ometimes runnin round th country playin music pays off. [N]ot literally pays rent that is, but pays off one way er another…”

Hell and Half of Georgia – Bellingham
Hell and Half of Georgia – California

Hell and Half of Georgia Official Site (Scroll down for free download of their album)

Hell and Half of Georgia on Facebook

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The Heartless Bastards: I’m Gonna See What Tomorrow Brings

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I am guilty of misogyny in my listening practices. I am not the most girly of girls, and hearing twee and breathy vocals can turn me off to a song faster than mentions of pina coladas and getting caught in the rain or riding through the desert on a horse with no name. I find a great many female singers either sound alike to me or give me nothing I can connect to. This is one reason I am grateful for Erika Wennerstrom and her band the Heartless Bastards.

[Author’s note: In recent years, this line of misguided chatter has haunted me, and I feel shame whenever I think about it. I’d like to offer my apology for it. Women in music, women in general, people in general, deserve better.]

To say Erika Wennerstrom has a powerful voice is a bit like saying meteor showers are pretty. True as it is, it doesn’t get the whole idea across. By all accounts a diminutive woman, Wennerstrom can belt out vocals like she’s eight feet tall. Though her power is not just in volume, but also in the emotions she can convey: weariness, toughness, heartache, hope. Backed up by the Bastards with buzzsaw guitars and stomping beats, one might be inclined to dub the Heartless Bastards listening experience “empowering”. I prefer to think of it as bringing out my inner badass, and Wennerstrom effortlessly takes her place alongside rock ‘n’ roll heroines like Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Kim Gordon and the Deal sisters. (One might be tempted to posit a theory that there’s a correlation between being from Ohio and being a wickedly cool lady.)

The Heartless Bastards will be playing two stateside dates at the end of this month (February 25 in Shreveport, Louisiana, and February 26 in Houston, Texas) before heading out on a Eurpoean tour. There has also been talk of a Heartless Bastards headlining tour with A.A. Bondy playing support for several shows, which seems like a perfect match.

On a sidenote, I would love to hear Erika Wennerstrom and A.A. Bondy duet. What stories those two voices could tell together!

The Heartless Bastards – The Mountain
The Heartless Bastards – Sway

The Heartless Bastards official site