All over the internets you can find those that are unhappy with the Country music you hear coming out of the radio. Although there is some debate how large the group is, there is no doubt they are vocal. Just hang around SavingCountryMusic.com for any length of time if you don’t believe me. If you fall into this group, AM Country Heaven is a must have for your collection.

Instead of straddling the fence, as many country artists do, and putting out an album with a classic country “feel”, Jason has gone head first into recreating classic country. There is no updating the sound here. From the start you are transported back to the 70s.

The CD opens with the title track, which can only be described as the ultimate song for the country disenfranchised. Inspired by a line from a guy after a show in Luckenbach, TX, who said, “Welcome to Hill Country, home of AM country heaven and FM country hell,” it laments the death of traditional country and condemns the rise of pop country.

After venting his frustration, Jason moves on for the rest of the album to more typical traditional country topics: hard times, hard drinkin’, and hard love. “Old Guitar” sounds like it could have come from any Waylon album. “Longer Walk in the Rain” could easily fit into Keith Whitley’s catalog. And on “Paid My Dues”, when Jason sings, “Maybe it’s the cocaine, maybe it’s the pills, maybe it’s the habits, maybe it’s the bills,” it doesn’t take a large leap to imagine Hank Sr. singing that same line. One of the highlights of the CD is an outstanding duet with Patty Loveless, “Man on a Mountain”. Jason’s breathy twang flows easily with Patty’s iconic vocals, which are as strong as ever.

It’s clear from listening to this CD Jason’s love for old country runs deep. To be able write songs so uniquely true to the history of country music, Jason must know that history inside and out. And for those who deeply love that history, it is a relief to know that there are young musicians who love that history as well. There is hope that it won’t fade away.

Jason Eady – AM Country Heaven
Jason Eady – Man On A Mountain
Jason Eady – Paid My Dues

Jason Eady’s Official Site, Jason Eady on Facebook, Jason Eady on Spotify, Buy AM Country Heaven

This is one of those song-by-song reviews of the first time a reviewer hears an album you’ll see here sometimes, except I’m not limiting myself to 140 characters because I have lots of pent-up brain “activity” to dump out. I like this format because it’s like an experiment and I can use the scientific method.

Problem: It’s nice out and you should be listening to music. There’s an album by an amazing songwriter out there that won’t get loads of press because it was just released on Bandcamp and the artist doesn’t get to tour that much. Also, I’ve run out of regular sentences and need some kind of altered framework to force myself to write the review. Can the lazy music reviewer convince his audience to give this gem of an independent album a listen? (Listen to it yourself on Barnett’s Bandcamp; you don’t even have to read this review!)

Background Research: Branden Barnett is the songwriter and lead singer for Columbus Ohio indie rock band Ghost Shirt. Up front, I love Ghost Shirt. “History of the Radio” is a “Heroes and Villains“-grade great song. Barnett and co. followed it up with one of the decade’s best albums, Daniel. I’m serious about how much I love Ghost Shirt. If you take out the occasional Leonard Cohen update, Ghost Shirt is better than any band covered on Pitchfork. They should be college rock legends by now. They haven’t been as active since they attempted a 52 songs in 52 weeks campaign in 2010, but instead wound up with the concept album, Daniel; since then, Barnett has been working on his solo album, Verse, Chorus, Curse, which he funded through Kickstarter. Barnett also produced Shane Sweeney’s The Finding Time.

Hypothesis: Going into this listen, I expect the songs won’t be as lush and orchestral without the rest of Ghost Shirt behind Barnett. I anticipate a sharper sound with lots of synth. WIth a title like Verse, Chorus, Curse, I’m on the lookout for songs that subvert that basic pop song structure. All this based on the two singles and a collection of cover songs Barnett released over the last year to tide folks over while he was building the album.

Here we go: good writing from Barnett, bad writing from me!

Data:

1. “Verse, Chorus, Curse” — A song about breaking routines in love and songwriting, I think. Good, steamrolling intro to the album. “It’s a battleship love.”

2. “Finnegan” — Beatles / Nick Lowe-style power pop. Breaks out into video-game guitar solo at the bridge. “I fed her engine with all of my dreams and slept on the spirals of smoke.”

3. “Last Rites” — Machine whistling leads to more danceable power pow, leads to soul-saving back-half refrain and back to more machine whistling. Brilliant. “If only licking wounds was foreplay.”

4. “Paralyzed by Love” — A different version than the single he released last year. Rusty, gorgeous violin from Ghost Shirt bandmate Samantha Kim, who produced this whole affair. Song of Joey Ramone-esque sincerity and simplicity.

5. “Jack-O-Lantern” — By this point, Barnett has killed it on every chorus; but this might be the catchiest so far. This song could fit on a Ghost Shirt album. Should be on the radio (cough).

6. “Shadow of Vultures” — See, I’m running out of ways to say “Yes. Yes, keep on rocking.”

7. “I Wanna Be Your House” — Total Brian Wilson–Stephen Merritt synthesis, but wholly Barnett’s presence. “I wanna be your house, I’ll be your morning paper.”

8. “Heart Won’t Bend” — This was the other single he released last year; this version sticks pretty close.

9. “Bricks and Wires” — Closer on piano, violin joins late. Standard and fucking devastating. “You have always been the city to me, bricks and wires pass right through me.”

Conclusion: Essential Listening. The songs don’t necessarily subvert the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-repeat structure; they tinker, hone, and restore that structure. “All that I want is a head full of nothing, and ocean of sound, and the heart of a beautiful girl. This is all that it was, this is all that it ever could be.” The pop curse broken by a batch of well-crafted songs that you can drink and dance and drink and dance alone to. What more could you want?

Works Cited:

Visit Brandon Barnett’s bandcamp, listen to the album in-full, and buy Verse, Chorus, Curse. Buy it from iTunes*. Visit Barnett’s website. Follow Ghost Shirt on Facebook.

* iTunes has a different track order than Barnett’s Bandcamp. Actually, it looks like it would be a pretty good sequence. But I went through the Bandcamp bill.

Branden Barnett – Finnegan
Branden Barnett – Last Rites
Branden Barnett – Paralyzed By Love
Branden Barnett – JackOLantern

Justin Townes Earle has returned with his 5th album which has a title long enough for the next two, Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now. I have a feeling that the title, along with the subject matter of a lot of this album is a reference to his well publicized battles with drugs and his relapse last year. I feel no need to rehash those battles here. If you’re a fan of Americana music you already know all about them, and if you don’t you’re better off for it.

The wife and I recently took off on a 4 day beach getaway up in North Florida and I brought this album along for our listening pleasure. I only mention this ‘cause I wanna explain how intimately I got to know this album over those 4 days. In the end, I expect I spent about 15 hours listening to it and thinking about how I was enjoying it. I’ve seen some people pan the album for various reasons, and I can’t tell you whether or not you’re gonna like the it. I can, however, tell you that I like the cd. I like it a lot. Like, Essential Listening lot, and here are some of my thoughts about it.

The first solid opinion I had on the the album hit me somewhere around Starke. The wife was sleeping and I was in the middle of one of those rainstorms I don’t think you get anywhere outside of Florida. Mentally, I was at total peace, as I love thunderstorms and the brand new tires on the truck, plus the inability to exceed 25 mph and see out the windshield alleviated any hydroplaning worries. There, in the middle of the rain, I realized how perfect this album is for solo road-tripping. The mild pacing of the album seems almost made for driving alone.

The second solid thought I had about the album was how much I hated the song “Unfortunately, Anna” while my third was how “Unfortunately, Anna” sounds like it should be a Counting Crows song. I still don’t like “Unfortunately, Anna” as a JTE song but I am pretty confident I’d love it if the Counting Crows covered it.

The next thought that really settled in was how well the “Memphis sound” fits Justin’s songs. I probably could have talked about this when I was mentioning how good of a road trip album this is, but I wanted to mention it separately. It seems like there is a definite trend in the Americana scene right now to implement horns and keys and justify it by saying they wanted to add some Memphis swag to their sound. I don’t doubt any of them, and some are doing it with great success (see Lucero) but Justin doesn’t sound like he’s “going Memphis” with Nothings Gonna Change, at least…not to me. With Nothings Gonna Change it sounds like Justin tapped into the heart of where his soul currently is. Some reviewers have called it “tired”, others have called it “haggard”, but I think it’s sincere. I really feel like this album’s sound and feel was born out of recovery, and the need for complete honesty with one’s self during that process made its way into the writing and recording of this album.

Justin Townes Earle – Am I That Lonely Tonight?
Justin Townes Earle – Memphis In The Rain

Justin Townes Earle’s Official Site, Justin Townes Earle on Facebook, Justin Townes Earle on Spotify, Buy Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now

New London Fire of Asbury Park, NJ experiments with sound, creating an exciting, and often surprising, aural landscape that propels the superb first half of their third album, The Dirt The Blood The Faith.

Kicking off with “Other Side of Town,” the band careens like an old wooden roller coaster car whizzing dangerously fast along a rickety track. “Rise,” another standout, becomes an ominous, atmospheric anthem that perfectly segues into “Until the Light Goes Out on Me,” a short campfire hymn presented as a sing-along. “I Don’t See You Anymore” has the breezy vibe of vintage Gram Parsons, and would be a perfect pick for a Golden Smog-inspired playlist. “Arizona” is one of two bloody murder ballads, along with “The Dirt The Blood The Faith,” and both rank among the best cuts off an album rich with choice tracks. “The Dirt The Blood The Faith,” with its dark overtones and arena-ready chorus, reminded me instantly of Pink Floyd’s 1987 classic, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, where David Gilmour took the reigns and created a sonic masterpiece.

If there’s a complaint to be made, it’s simply that the second half of the album loses focus and becomes too repetitive. That isn’t to suggest that the final four songs, “The Jungle,” “Ain’t Wagin War,” “Brothers” and “October,” are bad or qualify as filler. They aren’t, and they don’t. They just fail to leap up and grab you like the earlier songs. And, since they are the final four songs, the album sadly limps off instead of saving one last ass-kicking tune for the very end.

Still, an album with six stellar tracks out of 10 total is an album deserving to be heard. And New London Fire is absolutely a band to watch.

New London Fire – Other Side of Town
New London Fire – Rise
New London Fire – The Dirt The Blood The Faith

New London Fire’s Official Site – http://www.newlondonfire.com/, New London Fire on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/newlondonfireband, New London Fire on Spotify, Buy The Dirt The Blood The Faith

Two years ago we’d booked Lee for the Saturday ninebullets.net day party out at SxSW. It was about an hour and a half before they were supposed to play and I realized I had no idea if he was there and, more importantly. I had no idea what he looked like. So, I wandered over to Shane (Two Cow Garage) and asked if he knew who Lee was and if Lee was in the building yet. Shane said (and I quote), “You’ll know him. He’ll be in overalls, carrying a gallon of water and he’ll be the best looking dude in the room.” The minute Lee walked in the room I understood just how terribly accurate Shane’s description had been. An hour later, Lee proved he and his band weren’t just a few pretty faces by completely destroying the room (figuratively not literally). Since then, I’ve been waiting on pins and needles for a Lee Bains album and, finally, we’ve gotten it in There’s A Bomb In Gilead.

Lee Bains, as most of you probably know, was the guitarist for The Dexateens (now Ex-ateens) and the Glory Fires are Matt Wurtele (guitar), Justin Colburn (bass) and Blake Williamson (drums), all well-seasoned vets in the Alabama music scene. Finding himself gigless after the sudden dissolution of The Dexateens, Lee and Co. went to work fleshing out the raw material Lee had that was suddenly without a home.

The result?

In a word, There Is A Bomb In Gilead is sexy .The result is everything The Drive-By Truckers have been trying to become since Jason left/was kicked out of the band. The result is pure rock and roll. Pure Muscle Shoals. Pure Essential Listening. Pure American music.

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires – Roebuck Parkway
Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires – Righteous, Ragged, Songs
Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires – Ain’t No Stranger

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires Official Site, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires on Facebook, Buy There Is A Bomb In Gilead

I admit it. From time to time, I listen to pop music.
Yes. There it is. My wife works at a commercial radio station, and whenever I listen to her show I get bombed with all sorts of crappy mass produced “music”.

That’s why I love this band dearly. They prove that you still can make good quality pop music in the spirit of The Kinks, The Smiths, The Beach Boys and The Beatles. Bands with THE in their names. Why Number Seven Deli doesn’t have a “The” in their name is quite strange, all things considered.

Number Seven Deli was founded in 1997, by Rune Berg, Johnny Hide, Per Amund Solberg and Simen Mæhlum, while at school. Rune Berg moved to Liverpool to attend Paul McCartneys LIPA school, but soon quit when he decided he wanted to MAKE music, not just learn about it.

While in Liverpool he used to take his lunch at the Number Seven Deli in the part of Liverpool called Toxteth. A legendary part of town where the just as legendary footballer (that’s soccer to you americans) Robbie “GOD” Fowler grew up. And so did Ringo Starr and Gerry Marsden.

When Berg reappeared in Norway, Number Seven Deli was rebooted, with the addition of Asbjørn Ribe on piano and organ. Their debut album “Faulkner Street” came out to wide critical acclaim in 2003, and got a nomination for a Norwegian Grammy. The follow up “Seconds” came out in 2006, and was also well received. Asbjørn Ribe left the band after the first album, and drummer Simen left after recording the second album.

Rune Berg was busy with his other (and equally fantastic band) The Margarets, and both Hide and Solberg focused on their families. Number Seven Deli went quiet. And stayed that way for years.

But a couple of years ago they started playing together again. Simen Mæhlum was back behind the drums, and with that the band had come full circle – yet again being the four friends who had created music while at school together.

They soon started work on what would emerge as “Toxteth”, another sign they had come full circle – their sound has matured, but at the same time they once again sound like that band from 1997. Their lyrics have matured even more, but at the same time it’s the story of those four guys and what life threw onto them we’re presented with.

The album is produced by Rune Berg, who have established himself as a well renowned producer in Norway, known for his love for analog sounds and original equipment. And with an ear who knows a good hook or melody when he hears it… and the production on this album is nothing short of beautiful.

Personally I prefer music that’s raw and sometimes underproduced, giving me the artists feelings straight without anything to interfere. But I still mean Paul Simon’s “Graceland” is the best album ever released, so that duality in my brain gets a real kick when I hear music like this. With beautifully arranged instruments that raise the melodies and the words to a level that the song would never reach if delivered with just a voice and an acoustic guitar. The songs have a way of creeping in your ear, and wedging themselves in your brain, demanding attention and refusing to ever let go.

And lyrically a good number of the songs tells a story about growing up, like the two I’ve included here. “No More Crushes” – where he’s content with his life, and don’t want to be caught off guard by a crush on someone new. When we hear “The One’s We’ve Been Waiting For”, it’s a lovely little story about the search and the result.

I don’t know.. I love this album, and in essence it just makes me happy – and to me that’s a lot of what music is about.

Give the guys in Number Seven Deli a try, and tell me what you think…

Number Seven Deli – No More Crushes
Number Seven Deli – The One’s We’ve Been Waiting For

You can visit them and buy signed copies of their previous albums at their website:
http://numbersevendeli.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Number-Seven-Deli/144164948943583
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007D5A55K/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1335261903&sr=8-4
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/toxteth/id504563152
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/3Ua8Ke55nLfdLb5OK9BeVV (don’t know if that works in the US)

Keith Morris! (Black Flag, Circle Jerks)
Dimitri Coats! (Burning Brides)
Steven Shane McDonald! (Redd Kross)
Mario Rubalcaba! (Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes)

The exclamation mark might be the most appropriate part of their name! 16 tracks on the cd! CD is 16 minutes long! Say what you need to say and get the fuck out! Pure rock! Stripped of it’s pomp, ripped from it’s vanity and beaten outta circumstance by gnashed teeth, clinched fists and a highly focused point!

It’s a recipe for awesomeness! Stream the entire album here!

OFF! – Feelings Are Meant To Be Hurt!
OFF! – I Got News For You!
OFF! – Toxic Box!

OFF!’s Official Site!, OFF! on Facebook, OFF! on Spotify!, Buy OFF!

Billy + Joe is the duo of Vancouver-based songwriter Billy the Kid and Richmond’s Joe McMahon, who fronts the rock band Smoke or Fire. Their first collaborative project was a youtube onslaught of 31 cover songs in 31 days this past January. Now, they’ve released their first batch of original songs–the Breathe EP. You should listen to it.

They make such interesting partners–Billy’s songs sound a little like a Smoke or Fire singalong anthem, and Joe’s songs seem to owe a lot to Billy the Kid’s bedroom chorales. The back-and-forth between them isn’t cheap lust, it’s total respect–like a Gaye/Terrell duet. They bring out the best in each other, they make riskier choices on this EP than in their solo work. It’s rare to hear a duo wherein both the male and female voices can be both muscly and vulnerable. It makes for a balanced album and a ton of great choruses. Listen to this if you like Archers of Loaf or Aimee Mann or if you know what’s good for you.

Billy + Joe – Blood
Billy + Joe – Falling
Billy + Joe – Whiskey

Buy Breathe on iTunes, keep up with Billy + Joe on Facebook, and watch all their videos, including the 31 cover songs (which prove to be one hell of a punk rock oral history), on the billyplusjoe youtube channel.

I’ve been a Counting Crows fan from the day I heard “Mr. Jones”. In my opinion, people willing to sit down and listen to the songs Adam Duritz writes will find unfairly ridiculed gems. I said that to my wife and she scoffed, saying, “Nobody but you listens to that band, Bryan.” Her “nobody but you” really referred to our little circle of commercial radio scoffing snobs, but the point was made and it hung in the balance between us. I can’t say I’ve ever turned her into a Counting Crows fan, just like I doubt I ever made any new Mellencamp fans around here, despite my continual raves of his albums.

That said, reading that the band was putting out a covers album left me incredibly underwhelmed. I am naturally distrustful of the cover song. Why did the band include this track? Did they love it? Were they unable to write an original that they were happy with and needed to fill some time? Why? Why? Why? You never truly know with a cover song, and ever so rarely am I truly happy with the result. But I’m talking about a song on an album. This…this is an album of songs. And they’re all covers.

As you can imagine, my distrust of the cover track expands exponentially when it’s a cover album. Don’t like the idea of them. Not one bit. Too often, a band puts out a cover album that sounds exactly like that; a band playing other bands’ songs. To be honest, there are moments where Underwater Sunshine sounds exactly like that. Lucky for us, they’re pretty far and few between.

On my second pass through this album I took out a sheet of paper and made 3 columns; “Good”, “Bad”, “Okay” and I started counting songs. The final score played out like this: Good (7), Bad (2) and Okay (7), and for a cover album, that’s a homerun.

The highlight of the album very well may be their version of a (once our very own) Kasey Anderson track, “Like Teenage Gravity”. Listening to it is funny. More so than any other track on this cd, “Like Teenage Gravity” feels like it is a Counting Crows song. Honestly, it’s given me a desire to go back and listen to Kasey’s discography with a renewed focus and, in the end, isn’t that the focus of a cover album? Judging from Adam’s track by track writeup on Paste, I think he would say yes…

Here are two of my favorite tracks and one I hated.

Counting Crows – Like Teenage Gravity (Kasey Anderson)
Counting Crows – Hospital (Coby Brown)
Counting Crows – Jumping Jesus (Sordid Humor)

Counting Crows’ Official Site, Counting Crows on Facebook, Counting Crows on Spotify, Buy Underwater Sunshine

I am sucker for songs about Billy The Kid and if toss in a song about bootlegging and drugs you’ll have me hooked. That’s exactly what Jordan Minor has done with The Cottonwood Tree. That’s what sucked me in but it ain’t what kept me. You see Mr. Minor is a storyteller and I love me a storyteller. Top it off with him being a Red Dirt artist and it’s pretty much a guarantee that I’d find something on this album that I’d really like and I did.

Now this album isn’t perfect and at times it’s obvious that this is a first album but for all its faults it’s still pretty damn good. You see, the thing is that the good tracks are really good and the others are only a little off. This is a country album through and through and I love it for that alone but Jordan’s storytelling sets him apart. He has a way with words when he isn’t trying too hard. Some of the subject choices are kind of trite and some of the lyrics seemed forced but for all the faults I could find with The Cottonwood Tree I think this kid has a helluva lot of talent and will be worth supporting and watching. Not everyone’s first album is perfect and I think that it’s obvious Jordan put a lot of work in to this one. Overall this is a pretty fun album and you could do a whole lot worse these days.

Jordan Minor – The Ballad Of William Bonney
Jordan Minor – The Cottonwood Tree
Jordan Minor – Still Shinin’

Jordan Minor’s official site, Jordan Minor on Facebook, Buy The Cottonwood Tree