Well, I guess it’s my turn. Kasey and RSV have already dropped their faves of the year (here and here) on y’all, so there’s just no avoiding it for me now. This year was particularly difficult due to the sheer amount of great music that came out, and had I made this list tomorrow it would certainly change. That said, you can edit forever but eventually you have to settle on something and call it your list. So, with out further ado I am gonna steal RSV’s formatting and get this show on the road:
Sure, plenty of shows come to town and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about each and every one of them. But, unlike people, all shows are not created equal. Some shows are just more worthy of your unbridled enthusiasm. Scott H. Biram falls into that category. When Scott comes to your town you need to lock up the womenfolk, drink a few whiskey shots and get your ass to the show. I think my card carrying status in Scott’s Church of the Ultimate Fanaticism Fan Club is well documented here on ninebullets, so I am gonna quote a Biram show review a friend of mine wrote after hearing/seeing Scott for the first time ever a few years ago:
“Finally it was time for Scott Biram. I had heard him earlier when he was doing his sound check and the amount of music he can generate all by himself is really staggering. He was really a great performer and musician. He was able to banter with the audience, tune his guitar, work a bass pedal to keep the beat, blow on the harmonica, and growl into his mic/bullhorn. You don’t really know what to expect when the little guy in the green trucker cap sits down on the stage. Biram looks like a guy you’d pass coming out of the bathroom at a Flying J truckstop on I-10. However he attacks honky tonk and blues with a vicious growl and doesn’t let you go until you are stomping your feet and screaming “Whiskey!”
I know Scott’s shows had started to get a bad rap as being drunken messes a couple of years back but the script has been flipped. Last years show in St. Pete (and all of Florida for that matter) were the best I’ve (or others who’ve seen him) seen. He played damned near all night and was 100% awesome from beginning to end. Don’t miss this show, Tampa Bay area. Trust me on this.
There are certain album releases that could act as national holidays here in ninebullets.net land, and a new album from Scott H. Biram ranks at the top of that list.
As everyone who comes around here very often knows, Scott Biram can be as rough and tumble as they come, releasing albums that mix equal parts country and punk with some gospel and blues added to round off the edges. With Something’s Wrong / Lost Forever, his third album on Bloodshot Records, Scott decided to show us his more tender side. The album opens with organs and the familiar sounds of a Gibson and Scott singing through a CB microphone on “Time Flies”, before shifting into what is easily one of my favorite songs Scott has ever written, “Sinkin’ Down”. From there the album unfolds like a love letter to the one that got away but it’s not all tears in your beer. There’s the god damn the torpedoes rant of our current culture in “Judgement Day”, as well as the full band jump rock track “I Feel So Good” which features another ninebullets.net fave, The Black Diamond Heavies.
Something’s Wrong / Lost Forever is also the first album recorded completely by Scott in his own home studio. One of the things he did was leave some of the mistakes in the final mixes, which I think that really adds a lot of character to an already almost perfect cd.
I know there is a certain amount of danger writing about one of your favorite acts. It would be really easy to sound like your just gushing to sell an act, but the simple truth is that listening to Something’s Wrong / Lost Forever makes me smile. I can’t help but to be happy when it’s playing. For me, it’s not just Essential Listening, it’s gonna be a top 5 of 2009.
I am later than all hell in typing this out but I have a descent excuse. Scott played St. Pete the same day we picked up our new puppy, Oscar, so my life was basically thrown into turmoil, then came the holidays and all the required year-end posts and what not. Ordinarily I would just move on and not bother mentioning a show nearly a month after it happened, so why am I bringing it up? Cause it was so freaking good, that’s why. Over the course of 2008 I had mentioned that it looked like Scott was drinking too much and his shows were starting to slip, then he mentioned to me that he’d quit drinking whiskey and I feel it is now my obligation to tell you how good his last show here was. Reports from friends of mine in other cities mirror my experience. The Scott H. Biram shows of past aren’t back…no. To say that would be selling the current experience short. Scott’s show here in St. Pete (and all of Florida for that matter) was the best I’ve (or others who’ve seen him) seen. He played damned near all night and was 100% awesome from beginning to end.
So, I gotta say…you gotta be pretty f’ing stupid to miss Scott if he’s coming through your neck of the woods any time soon. Personally, I can’t wait to see him again at Deep Blues Festival ‘09.
Sure, plenty of shows come to town and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about each and every one of them. But, unlike people, all shows are not created equal. Some, such as the Black Diamond Heavies show last month, are just more worthy of your unbridled enthusiasm. Scott H. Biram falls into that category. When Scott comes to your town you need to lock up the womenfolk, drink a few whiskey shots and get your ass to the show. I think my card carrying status in Scott’s Church of the Ultimate Fanaticism Fan Club is well documented here on ninebullets, so I am gonna quote a Biram show review a friend of mine wrote after hearing/seeing Scott for the first time ever a few years ago:
“Finally it was time for Scott Biram. I had heard him earlier when he was doing his sound check and the amount of music he can generate all by himself is really staggering. He was really a great performer and musician. He was able to banter with the audience, tune his guitar, work a bass pedal to keep the beat, blow on the harmonica, and growl into his mic/bullhorn. You don’t really know what to expect when the little guy in the green trucker cap sits down on the stage. Biram looks like a guy you’d pass coming out of the bathroom at a Flying J truckstop on I-10. However he attacks honky tonk and blues with a vicious growl and doesn’t let you go until you are stomping your feet and screaming “Whiskey!”
I know the last show Scott played here in town was a drunken mess, but the good news is that Scott has stopped drinking whiskey so the show will be up to the standards he had set the first couple of times he came through town, and we’re all gonna be better for it.
As y’all know, I try and preach the gospel of Scott H. Biram as often as possible. Today I stumbled across an interview he did for the upcoming documentary, Running Heavy and decided to do a little Dirty Old One Man Band youtube post. Enjoy:
The Crazy Redneck drops his thoughts in Scott (NSFW Language):
I wasn’t gonna say anything at all about this show. I figured since I already admitted SHB was one of my 3 favorite artists then it would be obvious that I thought the show was awesome. I did. This show was so much better than the last time he came to town. A bigger crowd made him even better and the crowd actually knew the songs. Instead of me going on and on about how good the show was I figured I would let someone else tell you. I have this friend who really digs live music who came out for the show even though he is no real fan of Biram’s recorded material. So, before the show I asked him if he would do a show review afterwards. Well, he agreed and here you go:
You know I am not the biggest Biram fan but I like live music in general regardless of genre. In my opinion that is how music is meant to be enjoyed, technology allows recording only recently and the expense of the equipment it once required is why we are now embroiled in the arguement over copyrights and illegal downloading. Long after the reason for paying for a record is gone we still do so which I find curious. Anyway, I checked out the opening acts on their respective myspace pages earlier in the day and was excited to see the first group. A large band from Lakeland called Semisoul was a great surprise. Female lead vocals, a rapper, and a horn section round out the stardard power trio very well. That and I think the female singer was checking me out a little bit. Well…maybe she was just worried because I almost bumped into her but I will give her the benefit of the doubt.
My friend Diana was excited to see the Dead Popes and I realized that I am friends with the drummer only when I saw them setting up. Fun rockabilly guys with a very tight sound and a fun attitude and I was pretty happy with the show by this point.
Finally it was time for Scott Biram. I had heard him earlier when he was doing his sound check and the amount of music he can generate all by himself is really staggering. He was really a great performer and musician. He was able to banter with the audience, tune his guitar, work a bass pedal to keep the beat, blow on the harmonica, and growl into his mic/bullhorn. You don’t really know what to expect when the little guy in the green trucker cap sits down on the stage. Biram looks like a guy you’d pass coming out of the bathroom at a Flying J truckstop on I-10.Howeverhe attacks honky tonk and blues with a vicious growl and doesn’t let you go until you are stomping you feet and screaming “Whiskey!” along with the 40 or so others that stayed allnight on a Sunday evening.
Anyway you wanted to see what I thought about the show and this is it, if you are a lover of music I think you should make time to go see all kinds of music, sometimes you find something live that you would never even consider on your Ipod or cd player.
And there you go. Biram was awesome. Go see him when he comes to your town.
OH YEAH! I also managed to take some pictures this time. If you want, CHECK THEM OUT.
Scott Biram is one of my Top 3 favorites. It goes: Lucero, Drive-By Truckers, Scott Hiram Biram. Scott will be playing The Orpheum Sunday night and you can come drink whiskey with me and see Scott for a mere 8 dollars.
Rock ‘n’ Roll ain’t pretty and neither is Scott H. Biram. The self proclaimed “Dirty Old One Man Band” successfully, and sometimes violently, lashes together blues, hillbilly and country precariously to raucous punk and godless metal.
Biram ain’t no dour ass singer/songwriter either, sweetly strumming songs about girls with big eyes and dusty highways. HELL NO!!! His singing, yodeling, growling, leering and brash preachin’ and hollerin’ is accompanied by sloppy riffs and licks from his 1959 Gibson guitar and pounding backbeat brought forth by his amplified left foot. The remainder of this one-man band consists of an unwieldy combination of beat-up amplifiers and old microphones strung together by a tangled mess of guitar cables.
Now, tell me that shit don’t sound like fun. Hope to see some of y’all out.
