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The Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?

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I was about 13 years old when I visited New Orleans. I was with my parents, visiting family in Alabama and Louisiana, and I was in the throes of a Harry Connick, Jr., fixation, so it was a well-timed visit. I remember that Connick’s father, then the District Attorney of New Orleans, was on the T.V. news due to allegations of corruption. I remember the cute bellhop at the Marie Antoinette Hotel. I remember a riverboat to Chalmette. I remember walking through Jackson Square in a light rain while a group of young boys played jazz on a street corner. I remember walking a few paces behind my parents because I didn’t want them to see me crying. New Orleans was so true to my daydreams of it that it overwhelmed me.

But the best memory I have of New Orleans was visiting Preservation Hall. Even though it’s just off of Bourbon Street, the Hall seems like its own universe in the midst of the lights, tourists and infamous debauchery that punctuates (or blankets, depending on what time of the year you’re there) Bourbon Street. It’s boards are worn, and it is narrow. The benches inside are hard and uncomfortable. And in the summer, packed in so close with so many other bodies, it only takes a few minutes to become covered in a heavy sheen of sweat. But once the Preservation Hall Jazz Band starts to play, none of that matters. The world becomes music and joy.

Even though I haven’t been back to N’awlins, my memories of and love for the city have endured, and I was greatly relieved when Preservation Hall survived Hurricane Katrina intact. And you can bet I’ll be laying down some cash for Preservation, an album to benefit the Hall, being released on Mardi Gras, February 16th. If it wasn’t enough that the proceeds from the album will keep the Hall going, check out the roster of people who stopped by to help out the effort:

  • Andrew Bird

  • Paolo Nutini

  • Tom Waits

  • Yim Yames

  • Del McCoury

  • Ani DiFranco

  • Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger

  • Jason Isbell

  • Brandi Carlile

  • Richie Havens

  • Merle Haggard

  • Blind Boys of Alabama

  • Dr. John

  • Amy LaVere

  • Steve Earle

  • Cory Chisel

  • Buddy Miller

  • Angelique Kidjo with Terence Blanchard

Even Louis Armstrong makes an appearance.

If you somehow remain unconvinced as to how great this album will be, check out the preview video.

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

They are even generously streaming the album at the official website: Preservation: A Benefit Album

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Dawes: Truth Back Under the Knife

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On paper, there’s no reason I should like Dawes. They have A) a strong vein of Southern rock/Laurel Canyon sound running through their songs and B) a very earnest songwriter. But music doesn’t take place on paper, and Dawes’ music just works. A key element to the succes of Dawes’ sound is Taylor Goldsmith’s strong, open voice that bursts with heart. And while serving the lyrics, the music itself does not sacrifice melody or rhythm to do so.

I’m hoping to see Dawes when they come to Cleveland in support of Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons on February, 18. They’ll be playing the Tavern inside the Beacland Ballroom.

Dawes – When My Time Comes (Daytrotter session)

Dawes – Love Is All I Am (Daytrotter session)

Dawes on MySpace

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Simone Felice: Long May You Run

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Simone Felice is a wonder. In 33 years, he seems to have experienced enough highs and lows to fill a few lifetimes, and he still manages to radiate the kind of sunny, loving air one would expect only from someone who has remained innocent of the depth and variety of pain the world has to offer. He came to prominence on the music scene as the drummer and rabble-rouser of the Felice Brothers (“prominence” being a term used loosely here as there are some still ignorant of the glory of the Brothers), given to off-kilter rhythms, whiskey-fueled antics and declarations such as “All ya’ll didn’t think there was any more churches left in New York City, did ya? This is the Felice Brothers Scumbag Church where you can fuck your cousin in the bathroom.” But even in the midst of the backwoods anarchy of the Brothers, the softer light in Simone still came shining through when he’d take the helm on songs like “Your Belly in My Arms” and “Mercy”.

When tragedy struck, not for the first time in Felice’s life, in the form of the still-birth of his daughter in the winter of 2008, instead of becoming hardened by the experience, Felice seemed only more determined to spread love. He bid bon voyage to the Brothers as they continued to tour, write and record and began to work on his own project, the Duke and the King, with longtime friend Robert “Chicken” Burke. What came out of holing up in a cabin with “Bobbie Bird” was an album, Nothing Gold Can Stay, that, true to its title, delivered musical poetry celebrating the beauty of the world – however painfully fleeting – and garnered Felice and Burke copious and effusive praise. Taking the show on the road, Felice and Burke continued to evolve their songs into ever more joyful noise.

Seemingly incapable of sitting still, Felice has now begun performing solo, has finished his fourth book and has just launched a website to keep the world apprised of his further creative endeavors. (One of the happy surprises of the new site is the affordable availability of The Big Empty, the eponomously-titled album of the band Felice started with younger brother Ian in the autumn of 2001, shortly after 9/11 and a few years before the formation of the Felice Brothers.)

Full disclosure: Simone Felice has become a sort of idol of mine. The dichotomy he personifies between dirtbag mountain boy and warm poet delights me, and the poetic prose of his books affects me in a way that writing hasn’t done since I was a susceptible teenager. But the clincher to his idolhood came when I messaged him via his MySpace page to ask if he could help direct me somewhere I could acquire a copy of his limited-edition novel Hail Mary Full of Holes and received a reply that not only affirmed that he could send me a copy from his own barn, but was also one of the kindest, warmest missives I’ve received from just about anyone, let alone an artist I had admired from afar.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MFM1wrocyM]

This beautiful video was shot at the Olana State Historic Site near Felice’s home in upstate New York. The postmark on the envelope that carried my copy of Mary to me tells me that it was mailed the day this was filmed.

Simone Felice’s official site

The Duke and the King official site

The Felice Brothers official site

Take This Bread: A Felice Brothers blog

Incidentally, it was my enthusiasm for the Felice Brothers that led me to the music of their former-brother-in-law-and-still-brother-in-other-ways, A.A. Bondy (and it was a little write-up in the excellent and sadly now-defunct No Depression magazine that led me to the Brothers), who shares with Simone and the Brothers not just a talent for stripped-down, honest music, but also the trait of being just a damn nice person.

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Andrew Bird: Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire

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I’ll admit it: I like Andrew Bird himself and find his creativity and talent inspiring, but I’ve had a hard time getting into Andrew Bird’s music. When I tried to just listen to him, I found myself liking “Imitosis”, “Heretics”… and that was about it. When I actually watched him play, by way of videos of live performances, I fell in love with a few more songs, like “Anonanimal” and the marvellously ungainly-titled “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left”. While all the songs weren’t clicking with me, the ones that did click, clicked hard.

I previewed samples from a few of his albums and just wasn’t finding a whole album I felt like dropping a dime on… until I hit those first two Bowl of Fire albums – Thrills and Oh! The Grandeur – then it was Hot, damn! (On the third and final Bowl of Fire album, The Swimming Hour, switched gears, delving into a variety of pop styles. Bird refers to it as his “jukebox album”. ) If, like me just a week or so ago, you have no clue about the history of Mr. Bird before his ever-growing success as a solo artist, he spent some time contributing his beautiful bow-work to classic Squirrel Nut Zippers’ albums like Hot and Perennial Favorites. That hot jazz vibe must have sat very comfortably with Bird as he went on to form Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire – which was basically Kevin O’Donnell’s Quality Six led by Bird – and the first two albums under that moniker feature all the best elements of what the Zippers were laying down (along with a little help from Zippers Katherine Whalen and Jimbo Mathus), not the least of which was Bird’s evocative fiddle-playing.

The tune “Candy Shop” is a foot-stomper of the highest order. Bird’s trademark wordplay is already on display in tracks like “Minor Stab” about a man who can’t get along with his one-man band. And if a beautifully bowed piece like “Wait” doesn’t make you want to grab a lemonade and sit on the porch swing with your best gal or fella, then I’m not sure I even want to know you.

Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire – Candy Shop

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Nicholas Megalis: 216 Reasons to Live

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Two words come to mind when thinking how to describe Cleveland/NYC artist Nicholas Megalis: sassy and sexy. Some of his songs carry a mad carinval air, some are enveloped in warm industrial fuzz, but most of them will make you rotate your hips in an unseemly manner.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE0Q03vV38Q]

I discovered Megalis, or rather, he discovered me when he began following my personal account on Twitter a while back, perfectly illustrating how the internet has changed the whole game for music.