DALE WATSON – THE TRUCKIN’ SESSIONS VOLUME 2

Apr 302009

In this music era of microblogging, soundbites, hyper-hyphenation and genre interloping, Dale Watson may as well be a god damned Norman Rockwell painting. Dale Watson makes country music the way your grandparents did, and there ain’t a single drop of irony in it, either.

As the album title suggests, The Truckin’ Sessions Vol. 2 is a follow-up to his 1998 release, The Truckin’ Sessions. The overall feel/sound of the album would lead you to believe that these are obscure 60′s trucking songs that Watson has unearthed and reworked, but the truth is all 14 tracks are freshly penned products. Redd Volkaert (guitar), Don Pawlak (pedal steel), Don Raby (fiddle), Gene Kurtz (bass) and David Bowen (drums) accompany Dale on the album and are as tight as a trucker’s ass coming down an icy road in the Rockies.

One thing that really stands out about this album is its straight ahead simplicity. There is no effort to create a new sound, just make theirs the best as they can, and the result is nothing less than Essential Listening.

I defy you to not tap your feet and smile while listening to this cd. If there was an award for “Most Fun CD of the Year”, The Truckin’ Sessions Vol. 2 would currently have my vote.

Dale Watson – Jack’s Truckstop & Cafe
Dale Watson – Hey Driver
Dale Watson – Truckin’ Queen

Dale Watson’s Official Site, Dale Watson on myspace, Buy The Truckin’ Sessions Vol. 2

I WENT TO A KATY PERRY SHOW AND I LIKED IT (see what I did there?)

Apr 302009

Yup. Your faithful country music listening, whiskey swilling, smell my finger blogging buddy, Autopsy IV, willingly went to the Katy Perry show here in St. Pete on Tuesday night and wrote a recap for Creative Loafing (our local free weekly). As anyone who is following me on Twitter knows, I did a lot of it via live blogging on Twitter. Well, if you wanna read the recap of the show you can read it here.

As a side note, if that link gets enough clicks I get paid cold cash money so click it you sumbitches!

THE DEVIL MAKES THREE – DO WRONG RIGHT

Apr 292009

I originally came to know of this Santa Cruz trio via a link in the .sig of an unrelated PR email a year ago, and I’ve been in love ever since. The band consists of Pete Bernhard (guitar/vocals), Lucia Turino (upright bass) and Cooper McBean (guitar). Their sound is largely based on loose around the edges music that’s pulled together by their vocal harmonizing. The first time I ever wrote them I described them as such:

[They're] a vaudevillian mashup of country, punk with a little pirate, and ragtime tossed in for good measure. [Their] dusty old 78 feel will almost make you feel guilty about listening to it on your iPod.

And really, that summary does as good a job here on their fourth cd as it did on their first, so I feel no need to further expound on it.

The other day the wife and I were driving around car shopping and listening to Do Wrong Right when it dawned on me that one of DM3′s strength’s/gifts is their ability to make every song feel like a sing-a-long. I bet that really comes through in their highly praised live shows, Something I hope to experience some day. Till then, I’ll crank this in the car and add one part dissonance to their harmonies.  And despite my best efforts to ruin it by singing along, Do Wrong Right is still Essential Listening.

The Devil Makes Three – Working Man’s Blues
The Devil Makes Three – Gracefully Facedown
The Devil Makes Three – Do Wrong Right

The Devil Makes Three’s Official Site, The Devil Makes Three on myspace, Buy Do Wrong Right

HEADLESS HEROES – THE SILENCE OF LOVE

Apr 282009

Man, since I posted the latest podcast my life went into fast forward. I bought a new bike in the form of a fully rigid, single-speed 29er. It’s a Motobocane and the price was right, so I can goof off without being too fiscally invested in the setup.  And if I decide I hate it, I can throw slicks on it and call it a commuter. Then the wife and I bought a new car and on top of all that our puppy had surgery, so we had to babysit him all weekend. What does all of this mean to you? Well, nothing except that through all of that, the one thing that didn’t happen is finding time to commit to ninebullets. Hopefully we’ll get through the week, but there may be a little quiet time. Okay, enough about my life; let me tell y’all about a record.

This has been a pretty busy beginning of 2009 for Alela Diane. Back in March she released her fourth album, To Be Still, on Rough Trade Records (9b post here). Now, a mere month later, she’s on the verge of releasing a collaboration with Eddie Bezalel under the moniker of Headless Heroes. The album is a collection of covers of more obscure songs chosen in hopes of promoting further investigation into the original source.

For me if Alela Diane’s involved that pretty much makes it a must listen. She has one of the best voices in Americana music right now. The album comes out May 19, here are some samples:

Headless Heroes – Hey Now, Who Really Cares
Headless Heroes – Just One Time
Headless Heroes – True Love

Headless Heroes Official Site, Headless Heroes on myspace, Pre-Order The Silence Of Love

WHOA SHIT! THIS IS AWESOME:

Apr 282009

I just saw this on Gizmodo and knew I needed to share it immediately.

From Gizmodo:

This cover of Stand By Me was recorded by completely unknown artists in a street virtual studio all around the world. It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician called Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Grandpa Ellitott—a blind singer from the French Quarter—added vocals and harmonica while listening to Ridley’s base track on headphones. In the same city, Washboard Chaz’s added some metal percussion to it.

And from there, it just gets rock ‘n’ rolling bananas: The producers took the resulting mix all through Europe, Africa, and South America, adding new tracks with multiple instruments and vocals that were assembled in the final version you are seeing in this video. All done with a simple laptop and some microphones.

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