Archives for category: Rock

Beatles Kids Showcase at 3rd & Lindsley

November 18, 2010 //

The Beatles / Ed Sullivan Show / 1964

This Saturday at Noon, 3^rd and Lindsley plays host to The Nashville Beatles Kids Concert which will feature 15 students of Suzahn Fiering who is a guest instructor at The Liverpool Institute for The Performing Arts (LIPA) a University founded by Sir Paul McCartney and Sir George Martin.

The students are between the ages of 7 and 16. Suzahn states” The Beatles catalog is a great way to tune kids onto popular music, good lyric writing, cool harmonic structure and lots of chords and harmonies. The songs speak for themselves whether they are played simply (as they are with the younger students) or with complicated arrangements. The Beatles catalog offers such a wide variety of challenges ranging from easy to difficult.”

Suzahn Fiering

The Beatles song catalog is so diverse and is a great way to raise the bar for young musicians. “There couldn’t be a better educational tool for pop songwriters, singers and instrumentalists. My students get the confidence they need playing these songs and that makes it easier for me to teach them how to read and write music and make the transition into Classical and Jazz music as well. “

The students will be joined by Fred Lawrence (former pianist for Waylon Jennings and also the father of student Eric Lawrence) and local session drummer Larry Murov. It will be a great opportunity for some of Nashville’s youngest future musicians and songwriters to showcase at one of Nashville’s finest clubs.

Suzahn Fiering will be returning to Britain in March 2010 to teach Songwriting at LIPA’s Paul McCartney Auditorium. This performance coincides with the announcement that the entire Beatles catalog will now be available on I Tunes. The Beatles music continues to inspire future generations by transitioning into new current music delivery formats.

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories Rock, Rock Music, Suzahn Fiering, The Beatles

Rock City Angels CD Party at The Muse

November 9, 2010 //

courtesy Brian Cade Photgraphy

November 19^th, mark it on your calendar, will be a big night for Rock City Angels performing live with a forward march and a look back to the storyteller past, where they will be celebrating the release of Midnight Confessions on FnA Records, a collection of songs recorded from Memphis to England with Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy fame on what would have been their second Geffen Records release.

Bobby Durango talked about Midnight Confessions; a collection of songs spanning three years after the release of their first Geffen album Young Man’s Blues. “We had the same A&R as Guns n Roses at Geffen and that is where they put their money and promotion”.

The label didn’t give them an idea of when they would drop the second record, “The A&R guy just kept saying “This stuff is great but I don’t hear THAT SONG” it was almost like Geffen was saying we are not going to put money into this”.

Rock City Angels went through several lineup changes that even included Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy featured on “Heart and Soul” between 1989 and 1992 before they were sold a bad idea. “Bands are much more savvy now. I just wanted to be a musician, not a businessman. Our lawyer was in collusion with the label. He was the one who sold us on the idea of declaring Bankruptcy.”

Rock City Angels were told at the time by their own Lawyer that when it was done Geffen Records would sign them again, when in actuality it was a way to wash their hands of the band without having to buy them out of their contract. The tracks that make up Midnight Confessions are works in progress that would have eventually made up their second Geffen release.

Bobby isn’t bitter, “If you listen to the record (Young Man’s Blues) it still holds up, a lot of bands can’t say the same thing.” Bobby hates being lumped in with the hair band scene, “We were more like The Stones. It’s time to clear the record. For the most part our fans know the difference”.

Rock City Angels has been busy this last year after the release of their newest material “Use Once and Destroy” a straight ahead rocker, “We were never about going after that elusive hit. We were after an overall theme like Aerosmith Rocks: A great album. Use Once and Destroy is what would be an official follow up to their first album.

They will feature at least two gems from Midnight Confessions, ““Sweet Ambition” sounds killer and we have never done it live. We have an updated arrangement of “Shattered Shake””. Neither song has ever been performed live and will make their debut on November 19^th at The Muse in Nashville.

They will perform songs from all of their releases, making sure to mix crowd favorites with newer material and diamonds from the past. It will be a night that kicks off renewed interest in the band especially in Europe. “We just had a five page article come out in Popular One in Spain. We hope to get over to Europe; we have a lot of fans over there.”

There is still a lot of unreleased music as well as new stuff to the forefront. “Geffen spent a lot of money on the first album. We actually recorded it once with Producer Jim Dickinson (The Replacements, Big Star, Mudhoney, Mojo Nixon) and Geffen decided we had to re-record it and the second recording became Young Man’s Blues. I still have that first recording”. Okay, it’s time for Geffen to consider a re-release with both mixes.

The current lineup of Bobby Durango, Pagan Raygun, Jorge Hernandez, Mark Binko and Adam Keller is primed and ready for a killer show. “We have a great future ahead of us, so… fuck ‘em”. Enough said.

Rock City Angels - Midnight Confessions

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories Aerosmith, FNA Records, Geffen Records, Hair Metal, Rock, Rock City Angels, Rock Music, The Muse Nashville, The Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy

Every Guitar Tells a Story: Phase Two

November 6, 2010 //

Sitting in/Band Practice/Cabimas, Venezuela, 1983

I left for Venezuela for almost two years in April 1982, leaving behind all my sold dream rock guitar gear, The Dean ML, Gibson White Double neck, Marshall MKII 100 Watt stack and the van to carry it all in, a 1972 yellowish Chevy van. I figured if I was meant to get back into music, the right gear would come back into my life.

My Venezuelan Cuatro and Laud

After about a month in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, I went down to the shopping district to buy a Cuatro, kind of a Venezuelan oversized ukulele, A Tenor Uke of sorts, used to play traditional Venezuelan Folk Music. The cassette recorder I had to record my voice and send home began to be my portable studio, developing Caribbean flavored non sensical flavored blues a Van Halen.

I played some stuff for the locals and it left them totally confused. That Cuatro became my free day muse until months later when I found a Spanish Laud, a twelve string short scale in the flea market in Maracaibo for about $100. I was able to do almost Classical Acoustic Guitar pieces on that thing and by the time I was living in Cabimas, Venezuela, I would enlist the closest person in the house to help make up songs like “Junkyard Dog” and “U.S. Girls”. For a period of 16 months, these were the only stringed instruments I had.

Moviescreen, 1983

When I got back to Salt Lake City at the end of 1983, I got a crash course in the current Metal scene going to a band practice with Parrish Hultquist and his band Moviescreen. Parrish handed me one of his Charvel Star guitars and I nearly blead to death riffing some of the old riffs I wrote two years prior. It felt good just to be playing through a Marshall before the band got practicing. It had been nearly two years since my last encounter with an Electric through a Marshall rage.

Wally in doorway,me in yellow/blue,Snow College 1980

I went to College in Provo, Utah in the winter of 1984 and my old band mate, Wally Gerrard from Karma would stop by my place at Raintree Apartments on the weekends and ended up letting me borrow some kind of no name half stack and a Japanese lawsuit Black Les Paul to practice some guitar. I ended up jamming with a group called the True Detectives with that rig in Provo, a bunch of Orange County, California semi punks playing “Breathless” X style and a few other punk gems. It was a little mismatch to my still metal ways but it was fun.

Mosrite 12 String

The summer of 1984 I was off to work in Southern California with the intention of returning to school but it never happened. Parrish had loaned me a guitar he had borrowed from Dana Freebairn, a vintage Mosrite Ventures 12 string with a vibrato bridge. I strung it as a six string, bought a Tom Scholz Rockman and spent the summer jamming in the sand at Newport Beach, California for the summer.

Eventually, I pulled some cash together and purchased a Gallien-Krueger twin 12 similar to the stuff that Alex Lifeson was using at the time. I thought the cool thing was that it had a built in Chorus circuit and had kind of that post punk sound, like Warren Cuccurullo licks. Living in Orange County, I was getting pulled all different ways, I was still listening to Randy Rhoads but got tuned into bands like U2, The Cult, Souxsie and The Banshees, The Fixx, Missing Persons. It was Orange County and even if Leatherwolf was hanging at the house where I was staying in Costa Mesa, Metal was kind of an inland music; the beach had punk and related music going on.

Kramer DMZ1000

Near the end of summer, Parrish sent out some copies of the Moviescreen Cassette and wanted me to come back up to Utah and play second guitar. I was having a good time in Orange County but I heeded the call and went back up with my Duran Duran style hair, Gallien Krueger and ended up picking up an aluminum neck Kramer DMZ 1000 at a pawn shop in Provo to get more of the heavy rhythm sound he needed. The problem was the Gallien Kruger didn’t sound like a Marshall and at that point in 1984 it was all about the Marshall. We were supposed to open for a band called Exciter at The Salt Palace when Brian Sorenson, the drummer, got hit by a drunk driver and his hand was busted. I ended up taking him to physical therapy several times a week and within two months I had moved back down to Orange County, California.

I had the exact same White Kramer/1985

When I moved back to Orange County at one time I pawned the guitar and amp to pay for a ring for a girl I was serious about. That relationship ended and made me re-think, don’t ever sell gear for a girl. I went and bought a cheap white Kramer van halen style guitar at Guitar Center when it was still in Santa Ana with the Floyd Rose vibrato on it. It was the budget model but still did the dive bombs.

I started to settle into the Huntington Beach, California scene where it was almost open warfare between the kids from Downey and Anaheim coming down in black leather listening to KNAC and the surf punks listening to KROQ. In fact, I lived above Jack’s Surf Shop at the corner of Main and PCH Highway and one night when it was still old town with bars, small stores and surf shops there was a full scale riot going on.

I watched from my bedroom window as the KNAC Metalheads numbering about 100 and the surf punks who were into surf clothes, The Ramones, The Toy Dolls and looking the part actually got into a full out fight on Main Street at about midnight in about 1985. I would just rock riffs with the White Kramer/ Floyd Rose/ Van Halen type setup through my friends Fender Deluxe with a distortion pedal. Finally, somebody got thrown through a plate glass window store front and the cops were coming and everybody scrambled. I could crank that guitar any time of day and nobody cared down by the beach.

Halloween 1986,me in smoking jacket, Derrick Lee-Glam Rocker

Derrick and I put together a group and called them The True Detectives after the band that both of us had jammed with at one time or another. We practiced in the apartment above Jack’s Surfboard Shop and in south Orange County. We were doing covers like “Dancin’ With Myself”’867-5309”and other party favorites around 1986. When my Aunt died and I left for a funeral and didn’t make a gig I never got called for band practice anymore. What can you say?

I wasn’t satisfied with the Kramer and wanted a more serious guitar. I was into jazz guitarist John Schofield after catching a video from the album “So Warm” on an L.A. afternoon rock video show. He was playing an Ibanez AS 200 semi-hollow burst guitar and I went in search of one and found one used and traded the Kramer for the Ibanez. I had studied jazz in college but this was the first time I had tried to start incorporating jazz inspirations into my own playing.

Ibanez AS200-my jazz period and beyond

I was kind of on my own, playing my John Schofield-Pat Metheney inspired chord patterns. My friends in Orange County were still into a kind of post punk thing while L.A. strip bands were getting signed left and right and touring the Midwest. I would keep that Ibanez for nearly 20 years and it would survive the rise and fall of a couple of bands, several amps and an upstairs recording studio that is all now part of the past. In an interesting twist, although I had practiced with Moviescreen and The True Detectives, I never did end up playing live; in fact I had not played in front of an audience since Karma back at Snow College. It was like I spent the rest of the 80’s figuring out what I wanted to do with my music while I was busy dating girls and going on with my life.

Snow College -Me,the Tall one next to Professor, Wally dead center on sax

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories Derrick Lee, Eddie Van Halen, Gallien-Krueger, Guitar, Ibanez Guitar, John Schofield, Kramer Guitar, Leatherwolf, Mosrite Guitar, Moviescreen, Music, Rock, Rock Music, Snow College, The True Detectives, Uncategorized, Van Halen, Wally Gerrard

Nashville Loses Bobby Lee Morgan Last Friday

November 1, 2010 //

Bobby Lee Morgan, 45, Musician and Songwriter of the Nashville, Tennessee late 80’s-early 90’s rock band Badd Attitude passed away on Oct. 29^th just weeks after a Rock and Roll showcase that saw the reunion of what was the “Hometown Hero Hair Band” waiting to be signed back in 1990 before the onslaught of the grunge scene.

Bobby Lee wrote well crafted, melodic, catchy rock songs about girls, parties and love that set Badd Attitude apart from the rest of the local Metal scene. The Badd Attitude album never saw the light of day in 1990 and sat collecting dust until being released this past July by FNA Records. After the CD release there was talk of more shows as well as the opening of a nightclub in Printers Alley that Bobby Lee had been working on for some time. Bobby Lee was well loved among the Nashville Rock Scene and was in the middle of one of the most successful periods of his life.

Bobby Lee is preceded in death by his Grandmother and Mother who he had thanked in the CD liner notes for their support and love. On Nov. 7^th a benefit Concert will be held at Nashville Center Stage. FNA Records is donating Five Dollars towards funeral expenses for every Badd Attitude CD purchased before Nov. 30^th. The charitable balance will benefit his niece and nephews.

Badd Attitude, 1990

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories Badd Attitude, Bobby Lee Morgan, FNA Records, Hair Metal, Nashville Center Stage, Obituary, Rock, Rock Music

Black Mountain Vol. 4

October 11, 2010 //

I first got turned onto Black Mountain in 2006 when my drummer, Daniel of “Waiting for Daniel” fame said you got to check this out as we hung out back of the practice space, The HotEL Birmingham in his Volkswagen Jetta with the music cranked.

I was like the “what tha?” It was twin vocals kind of “Grace Slick and Marty Balin- Jefferson Airplane style” over music that veered from the mysterious realms of Jethro Tull to heavy Black Sabbath riffs. Although it was electric it was really organic sounding, like heavy Rock being neither Stoner Rock or Heavy Metal.

The first cover of black on black mountains, like flying over the Rockies in the winter at night was ominous like the sound. I started looking forward to the next release. In the Future was again very heavy and kept this brigade of late 60’s romantics cooking. The cover again with the cubist art was like retro-future with how 1960’s culture viewed itself. We had to look toward the future.

Black Mountain / photo/ Ryan Walter Wagner

This is Black Mountain‘s fourth outing and still no picture of the band on the cover. If you want to see the band, you’ll need to go to YouTube or go see them live. They seem even more focused and the artwork is no less compelling with a reflection of a great white shark in a mirrored office building coming out of the clouds, it’s like nature itself is pissed off.

Wilderness Heart kicks off with almost a Led Zep-Kashmir quality and keeps the retro stew going with “Old Fangs” coming out of the speakers like a Martin Birch engineered track off Deep Purple’s Fireball.

Amber Webber is a key element that keeps things from getting formulaic with her counter vocals, Stephen McBean and Amber still remind me of a modern day Marty Balin-Grace Slick team or if you want to get punk, Exene Cervenka-John Doe team. This type of work could not be auto tuned, there is some room for synthesizers but they will remind you of the synth work in Zeppelin or Sabbath.

The sound still stays organic and sounds as if they are still recording on big Ampex Analog 16 track machines. They are at the forefront of something that bridges the late 60’s haunting post hippie scene with lyrics that will stir the Syd Barrett in everybody. In fact, there is even a reference to Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but I’ll let you find that yourself like discovering the hidden meanings on The Beatles’ White Album .

This groups possible believers may not even be listening yet. Black Mountain bridges the gap between the kids that find the music of the late 60’s and early 70’s had something that music doesn’t have now and the fifty somethings that listened to the music in the first place. Wilderness Heart could sit comfortable between Jethro Tull’s Aqualung and Deep Purple’s Fireball in any relic’s record collection.

The Psychedelic Vancouver, Canada band will roll into Nashville on November 11^th at the The Mercy Lounge/Cannery Balllroom. You can get tickets at Grimeys, this is 9 on a 10 scale kick back in your room music.

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Jefferson Airplane, Music, Rock, Uncategorized

The Peelander-Z Circus Comes to Town

October 4, 2010 //

Future of Saturday Morning TV

In what may be a mindbender on an unsuspecting audience, Peelander-Z from Japan unleashed the craziest show to ever roll into Exit/In if not the Next Big Nashville 2010 Conference. Equal parts Aquabats Super Heroes and Flaming Lips larger than life costume changes, they made their entrance marching like 80’s band Toy Dolls with Peelander Yellow acting as ringmaster for all the kids on the playground.

I was forewarned if not recommended by Kyle Bowen of Modoc when I asked what band to check out this year. He said you got to check out Give Me Smile from Japan. I looked through the scheduled appearances and had no idea what he was talking about. On Friday night while exiting Third Man Records after the Heavy Cream set I ran into these two Japanese Guys in Yellow and Red and asked if they had heard of Give Me Smile. They just smiled exclaiming “oh! Oh!” and handed me a CD with what looked like a band named Peelander-Z?

Peelander-Z at Exit/In

I threw it in the car and was met with a barrage of The Banana Splits meets Motorhead. This was a Japanese band not even trying to fake their way through the English language, they were downright mangling words like “Ugly”. I almost had to pull over from laughing to tears while driving my car.

Finally, the words come on “Welcome to our show, next time bring Mom and Dad…give me smile, give me smile, give me smile”. Oh man, it’s the “Give me Smile” guys. Okay I had to check this one out. Luckily enough it was at Exit/In where I wanted to go check out Cheer up Charlie Daniels and Heypenny already.

Crowd Surfing Bassist

No one could have prepared you for this band live. It was tight Motorhead speed with twists and turns that occasionally stopped for audience participation in bowling games or a bunny hop style line of follow the leader behind bassist Peelander Red. Dressed in primary colors of Red, Yellow and Green on drums, they took as much from The Ramones as the Aquabats. If Peelander Yellow was the ringmaster who was equal parts Lemmy and Pat Morita from Karate Kid, Peelander Red was the instigator jumping into the audience at random, a flying Ninja jumping off a full Ampeg SVT cabinet up at least 10 feet in the air before landing onstage.

We were encouraged to sing along to unforgettable classics like “E-I-O” and “Medium Rare “with the crowd yelling like a frenzied table at Benihanas before taking all of us back to that response to “Rock and Roll High School”, with “Ninja High School”. Nashvillians were in a frenzy beating on what looked like hubcaps passed out by a magical Peelander Pink who would appear out of nowhere sometimes onstage or in the rafters.

MAD TIGER!!!

Peelander Black added a little lead guitar and mysterious vibe to the mix. Peelander-Z would at a moment throw on bigger than life bowling pin outfits or Mad Tiger headgear for very special songs about Mad Tiger and Bowling. One guy jumped on stage and thought he was going to just groove with the band when they all stopped and stared at him. Peelander Yellow kissed him on the cheek and he quietly faked a stage dive off the front sans music. That had everybody laughing.

At the end, they pulled people up and replaced the entire band with audience members on drums, guitar and bass while they were in the audience skipping rope or whatever. They finally worked back up on stage and finished out the last song.

Peelander Pink Cheerleader

If somebody was trying to find something serious about this stuff they came to the wrong set. This was all about a good time and to me was the high point of the Conference. There will be plenty of time for more structured thoughtful music but for now it was “Schoolhouse Rock” singing about steak and watching Superhero Japanese Anime in primary colors run amuck.

Even Lucas who was in town from Denver to see Widespread Panic at the Ryman said “I have to admit that was the first time I ever saw a full on Redneck moshing!” Peelander-Z wore out the audience with full participation! This was a primary color and primary rock and roll extravaganza!

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Peelander-Z at actual Velocity!

Categories Cheer up Charlie Daniels, Heavy Cream, Heypenny, Modoc, Motorhead, Next Big Nashville 2010, Peelander-Z, Punk Rock, Rock, The Toy Dolls, Uncategorized

The Deep Fried 5, Modoc at The 5 Spot/Sept. 30th 2010

October 3, 2010 //

Modoc at The 5 Spot

The easy beat was to just go hang out at The Mercy Lounge and The Cannery Ballroom with its upstairs/downstairs, if you get bored with one band go check out the other choices. I decided to go on DAY 2 of Next Big Nashville 2010 to one of my favorite nightlife scenes, The 5 Spot in East Nashville. Locals via Indiana, Modoc, were raging the stage with ol’ “Skydog”, Duane Allman, I mean Clint Culberson, hey, it was an honest mistake with the haircut, moustache and Gibson SG putting them through the paces of “The Struggler” and other great songs.

With a gritty sound and alternate chords, they are a comfortable fit in the Nashville scene after arriving three years ago. Next Big Nashville is different this year with almost half the bands being from out of state and even Japan. The 5 Spot still featured a lot of Nashville scene makers. Although, it was only a 5 minute drive from the center of town, it may as well have been in Birmingham. There were current fans and only a few conference attendees there to get sucked into the vibe.

The Deep Fried 5 were still celebrating the self released CD, Saturday Night Funk, Sunday Morning Soul, hitting the stage with six guys. The greatest thing about their retro 70’s-80’s funk style is that they are not a sampled artifact but have Dylan Stansberry beating the hell out of three Congas, Justin Martin on a Yamaha DX7, can we say Ready for the World?

The Deep Fried 5 /new material/six guys

Eric Koslosky alternating between Ernie Isley style lead guitar and vocals that would fit as an opener for Santana or Bell Biv Devoe for that matter. Andrew Muller kept the staccato single funk guitar lines letting Eric soar on the breaks and occasional lead roles.

This style of music demands a strong Bass interaction since many of the bands from that era were known for their strong players like Bootsy Collins or Larry Graham. Alex Dilley felt comfortable being in that role which is a lot more demanding than traditional Rock. The Bass player is the lead guitarist.

Taking us through “Soul Food” they even did a “Soul Sacrifice” break with Congas and kit going through a quick jam that could have been a great longer break with some soloing on top. The Deep Fried 5 are doing a great archivist gig that would be comfortable on Brooklyn’s Daptone label.

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories East Nashville, Indie Rock, Modoc, Music, Next Big Nashville 2010, Rock, The 5 Spot, The Deep Fried 5

Junky Star Embraces The California Depression

September 23, 2010 //

Welcome to the Depression, an honest portrait of the “Junky Star” by Ryan Bingham and The Dead Horses, a down and outer that could be any of us or somebody we know. In fact, if I start counting all of the friends I have who are lost to drug addiction, prescription or otherwise or lost a job because their skill set is no longer needed, I could have wrote this story.

While “The Weary Kind” won Ryan Bingham an Academy Award, recognition and new friends, he was preparing to release a bleak and beautiful effort of a wanderer leaving behind the hopeless junkies and lost jobs for the possibilities of California.

During the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days many who lost their land or livelihood left for California’s oil fields and Agriculture. It was a different place then. Merle Haggard’s parents were some of those souls who found happiness and work in the Central Valley in Oildale. If it was not the best paying work, it was steady and provided a way for the next generation to improve upon their simple means.

Oildale CA during theBoom

This time California itself is feeling the pressure of a busted housing boom, tech boom and any other kind of boom they had in the past. As we set out “The Poet” writes “Sweethearts kiss in the dark, Homeless sleep in the park, I myself just move on through town…oh how I love the highway sun, the poet in the dark writes down his song in blood”.

As he travels the lonely road, the character in Ryan’s songs scribbles lyrics on found paper with a guitar on his back. In “The Wandering” he sings in a broken voice that is as distinctive as Bob Dylan “Disregard the time, find your peace of mind, among the wandering”.

The Doors

We are into track number three and he hasn’t yet sung about his goal to make it to California, “Strange Feelin’ in the Air” just shows an uncomfortable drifter “I’m feelin’ strange, in this town, I feel deranged, as I look around” with an echo to Jim Morrison and The Doors’ “People are strange when you’re a stranger, Faces look ugly when you’re alone”.

I’m beginning to realize I haven’t heard any band this empty since The Cowboy Junkies “Femme Fatale”; in fact this is almost like a Country Album made in Berlin (think “Walk on the Wildside, Lou Reed) by the love child of Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain. The hooks are only implied but understood.

Finally in “Junky Star” lies the thesis of somebody taking away his farm so “I shot him dead and hung my head, and drove off in his car, so on the run with a smoking gun, I’m headin’ for the coast” only to find himself “sleepin on the Santa Monica Pier, with the junkies and the stars” and finds himself telling God “that the whole damn world was waiting around to die, but not me this time, I left trouble far behind”.

But the truth is you can’t leave trouble behind and this is the total opposite of Bob Dylan’s “Modern Times” where Bob was asked “why something so hopeful in such troubled times?”, he just shared that when you went back to films and music during the Depression and World War II things were always so bright and sunny as an opposite to what was going on and now Ryan no longer calls it just a Recession.

“Depression” makes it very clear “Would I wake up for a lifetime, lose my job in this Depression, well I don’t care, cause I got your love, in this Depression”. As long as he has the love of his life he can make it and let his strung out friends know “…we’ve gone out to California”.

“Junky Star” lets you know there is a Depression going on. The Depression has been getting deeper every year for musicians where the only hope is to make enough to stay out on the road and have enough to keep your apartment when you get back home. The music business started shrinking long before 2008. Whereas a classic album or a piece of Cotton Candy like NSync could sell six million or more, now we talk about a few mega stars going Platinum in a year.

Jobs have been taken from us by a “monkey puzzle” called a Computer and by companies finding cheaper labor overseas. We don’t even know how we can replace what has been taken away. We are only told to spend our way out of these bad times. There are records of people who spent themselves into comfort only to realize they played the fool and became slaves to their ease.

“Junky Star” gives way to another character mindlessly shot by a stranger, “I said you must be down on your luck, I’m out of money and I’m all out of time, he pulled the trigger and I fell to my knees, my spirit left and then my body went cold” the biggest thing the talking dead man worries about is his honey and let’s her know “I’m everything in between the harmonies singin loud, Hallelujah”.

These are the tough luck stories that happen maybe not to you or me but they happen to somebody. Ryan has decided to be the voice of the most difficult California stories one could imagine.

He shares his own thoughts about what we are becoming and in his own “John Lennon-Imagine” style, “there’s just no time for traditions, tying people down to class when everyone’s a shade of green that suffers in the grass of greed”. Maybe the problem is too many can be bought.

Dust Bowl Days

Dead Horses in the middle of the road

California seems to be the last hope even if only a change of location. In “Lay my Head on the Rail”, he sings”The head lights are blinding and the diesels are on fire, hauling ass down a mountain pass to the California state line”.

If you wonder what it feels like after a lifetime of wandering only to find yourself looking back, it is there in “Self-Righteous Wall” in the lyrics “I guess you just couldn’t keep up with the wild horse that you stole, you set yourself on the back steps and you feel yourself growin old, you feel your gray hairs runnin back to a place you left so cold”.

I guess the path is over when you find yourself only looking back.

“Junky Star” is a thematic piece told in first person that never strays from the concept from start to finish. The Who almost did that with “Tommy” except they threw a curve ball in with “Pinball Wizard” for Rock Music Journalist Nik Cohn in hopes of a great review. The 1960’s were a different time, back then that little difference might be enough to get a radio hit.

Nowadays, recordings might as well be something that means a lot to the writer, in hopes that the listener can find something he can relate to. If there was a “Tommy” written about the down and out “in this Depression”, Ryan has done it.

Village Recorder mural

It’s quite the paradox that this was recorded at The Village Recorder just one block off Santa Monica Boulevard with its mural of California falling into the ocean. There are so many huge albums that were done there such as Steely Dan “Aja” and Joe’s Garage by Frank Zappa. This album will at the very least be the Big Star #1 Record of modern Americana. While this may be a gut wrenching piece of work, I don’t remember anything but great times at The Village Recorder back in late 1989-1990 listening to a mix with Producer Howard Benson or talking about the problems of getting tape for those crazy Akai recorders with Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. In fact I can see myself walking a couple of blocks over to pick up some new guitar strings at West LA Music. While I am at it, let’s go up another block and get one of those real Carne Asada Burritos.

The Liner notes and the accompanying booklet discards anything unimportant such as who wrote the song, who the publisher is or what performing rights organization is involved. The focus is on the music; even T Bone Burnett lists more credits than the band. Instead of letting you know what brand of strings Corby Schaub uses or thanking some local music store or fan club the special thanks goes out to “Our Family of Friends who have helped make this all possible”. I was not even familiar with Mastering Engineer Gavin Lurssen, but I am now. There is no annoying distortion by trying to make the CD “louder”. I perceive undebatable warm clean Mastering.

Last stop California!

T Bone Burnett has yet again produced a project that will no doubt be in my top ten for the year. This isn’t an album you would want to listen to when you are in the middle of the tech boom but the American Dream is on the verge of disappearing in these stories of the down trodden that hope to turn a corner by going to California. If you get to California and find out that the struggle is even harder than the one you left behind, then all there is left to do is go back and face problems head on.

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories Americana Music, Country Music, Gavin Lurssen, Lost Highway Records, Lou Reed, Merle Haggard, Music, Rock, Ryan Bingham, Ryan Bingham and The Dead Horses, T Bone Burnett, The Great Depression, The Village Recorder, Uncategorized

Harlem River Blues; Justin Townes Earle’s New York Story

September 22, 2010 //

Justin Townes Earle mixes up the JTE sound, yet again, remaking his trademark with the help of Jason Isbell on this tribute to New York with “Harlem River Blues” and the metaphoric lines “Lord, I’m goin’ up town to the Harlem River to drown, Dirty water going to cover me over and I’m not going to make a sound,…troubled days are behind me now and I know they are going to let me in.” In a gospel sing a long Justin starts a song cycle about his other hometown.

New York now has its own album full of Country blues flavored Americana. It continues with true JTE style on the second track “One More Night in Brooklyn” similar to the breakdown of slower material from “The Good Life”.

Before continuing the ode to New York, “Move over Mama” with its straight up Rockabilly is my personal favorite. The driving upright Bass of Bryn Davies and “Get Back-Billy Preston” style electric piano, paces at the same rate as the classic “Move it on Over” with the change up of “Mama you been sleepin’ in the middle of the bed too long”, it is a great response to that old Hank Williams classic, “Move it on over, cause this big old dog is moving in”. Clocking in at two minutes, “Move over Mama” would be a great 45 vinyl in the jukebox alongside some classic Sun Records.

“Workin’ for the MTA” is a train song for a “its cold in them tunnels today” Subway Train worker. I don’t know if there ever has been a train song about the subway, but, this is a story of a second generation “son of a railroad man from south Louisiann’”. He is able to make the connection between his Dad and the trains but “this ain’t my Daddy’s train, I ain’t seen the sun for days.” It references the current hard times but he is working and “banking on the MTA”.

It could have been easy to find a muse in Tennessee or Mississippi, but, this is New York City. He is now a full time resident of the Big Apple along with other artists such as Punch Brothers. I haven’t been up there lately, but, maybe there is kind of a folk resurgence going on like in the days of early Bob Dylan that followed through with songwriters like Simon and Garfunkel.

There is enough Blues; Muscle Shoals horns with Jason Isbell’s stand out guitar track “Slippin’ and Slidin’” followed by the next stand out track “Christchurch Woman”. “Christchurch Woman” is a great lead in from the previous album “Midnight at The Movies”, in fact it could be a B-side “when I feel this blue, I just need somebody laughin’ at my jokes”. I guess a Christchurch Woman is easy going. In the end he says he will probably get sick of her.

The Good Life

If you are looking for a mix that sits either like “The Good Life” or “Midnight at The Movies” forget it. While the instrumentation sounds similar with the addition of some distorted licks by Jason Isbell, he even goes to mixing his voice a little thinner on the frequencies with a little delay or echo like early sixties Nashville West-Bakersfield out of Capitol Records ala Buck Owens.

The Yuma Era

It is interesting there are fans who only swear by his self-released “Yuma” waiting for Justin to do that one again. Okay, I admit I am with the ones that stand by “The Good Life” as the best yet, but, there is enough “Good Life” such as “Ain’t Waitin’” in this album to keep me happy, without needing to return to that masterpiece. Justin has developed his own sound, style and presentation that draws just enough on the past masters such as evoking Jackson Browne on “Rogers Park” to show a strong songwriter lineage.

He is a workaholic with a string of four records in four years. It looks like Jack White has met his equal for not only amount of output in a short period but creative ability. In much the same way as Songwriters and Recording Artists worked in the Fifties and Sixties before the advent of Fleetwood Mac “Rumours” and Def Leppard “Hysteria”, it is going back to being about the music and not bombastic production.

In a comparison, The White Stripes as a two piece band were able to keep moving, keep the production overhead low while spreading the show around the country and Justin was able to travel light with just a notebook full of songs and a sideman when he travelled opening up for Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit last year in support of “Midnight at The Movies”. He could have been out with a full band, but it kept him from eating bologna sandwiches every night as an opening act.

Live at The State Room, Salt Lake City, UT, spring 2009

Jason’s music is strong enough that he can do it with a full band or as a Troubadour like when I saw him at The State Room in Salt Lake City in mid 2009. Enough people showed up for his opening slot and crowded the front of the stage to catch the vibe and check out his unique finger style on the guitar.

I don’t think he will be able to go out much more by himself unless it is an in-store appearance at Grimey’s or something similar. Justin has three Bloodshot albums in three years, enough material where some fans are going to be upset because he didn’t play the song they wanted to hear. The closest thing I have seen to a full band was about the time of the release of “The Good Life” at The Basement when he had a couple of others playing fiddle and mandolin.

Ramones

I did get a chance to meet him back in the beginning of 2008. I just thought it was great that something like “The Good Life” was out there and Nashville had gotten behind him. A lot of music has been recorded since then. For some, that would be a careers worth, for others, like The Ramones, he is just getting started.

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories Americana Music, Bloodshot Records, Buck Owens, Jack White, Jackson Browne, Justin Townes Earle, Ramones, Rock, Sun Studio, The State Room, Uncategorized

Blue Giant Illuminates The Basement

September 19, 2010 //

Blue Giant , out on support of their new release on Vanguard Records, opened it up, wide open at about 10Pm Saturday night at The Basement in Nashville. Kevin and Anita Robinson who also are Viva Voce and The full 5 piece band which is an all star band as far as the Portland Scene goes cranked it up quickly.

Anita is a fantastic guitarist who makes full use of her sonic range on a Fender Jazzmaster and Red, White and Blue screened Fender Amp. Her ability at both feedback and lead lines is sublime. They are now on tour in support of Bobby Bare Jr., a little departure from the Viva Voce days playing on dates with The Shins. Viva Voce, Anita and Kevin, have made their home in Portland, Oregon in the alternative market of The Dandy Warhols and The Decemberists.

In an interesting turn of events, Kevin and Anita started the new project back a couple of years ago and self released in true indie fashion a vinyl EP as well as CD last year at the same time Viva Voce’ “Rose City” was released and Blue Giant was picked up by an eclectic label, Vanguard Records that may be considered more Folk and Americana than the Indie Rock past of Kevin and Anita.

They jumped into a set with long time drummer,Evan Railton as well as current members W.C. Beck and Jesse Bates. The interplay was cool between Anita on Guitar and the utility guy with The El Camino College Shirt. She was able to go from lead line to sonic landscape ala Sonic Youth with Pedal Steel, Mountain Dulcimer or Mandolin to round out Country, Southern and the for the most part Cosmic Cowboy music accessible by some of the older folks there to see Bobby Bare Jr. as well as the East Nashville experimenters.

Kevin had a few call outs since he was back in Nashville that were both reflective “It was dark days when I lived here before” to the current mood “it’s great to see family, old friends and new friends out here tonight”.

New Vanguard Records Release

Anita gave a shout out to family who probably travelled up from Alabama. It seemed that the farther they got into the set the more the music became comfortable and strong. It was like I would have liked to hear the first three songs again at the end to see if they could have been even more there.

Before they announced the last three songs they took a lineup that featured Kevin on Banjo, El Camino College guy (from Arkansas) on Mandolin, Bass, Drums and featured Anita on her long time Viva Voce companion, a 3/4 scale Rickenbacker black and white that absolutely sounded killer as she played slide the rest of the evening.

Kevin and Anita, Viva Voce days

I got a chance to talk with Kevin afterwards and he said this was the best time he had in Nashville in a long time. I talked to him about how things had changed in Nashville, things are a little bit more wide open.

He is from Muscle Shoals, Alabama an important chapter for not only Lynyrd Skynyrd, but also Bob Seeger, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and even Cher. He did know one of the Muscle Shoals Rythmn Section, David Hood. They had to be back on as they were hired to be Bobby Bare Jr.’s backing band on this tour.

In talking to Anita I found out she was from Decatur, Alabama. That is a double plus for me since I consider Birmingham, Alabama my other hometown outside of growing up in California. I talked to her about Vanguard, how they had also signed Mindy Smith, one of the greatest current Singer/Songwriters from Nashville.

She said the label picnics were unbelievable when you think of the other Artists currently on Vanguard, especially Merle Haggard, Levon Helm and even Indigenous. They are definitely in good company and their album dropped at a good time. In a way, Blue Giant is full circle, it allows them to not only throw in some of the sonic qualities of Viva Voce but also take from the past, the things they grew up on. In a way it is another band that makes the statement that Graham Parsons was right, Southern and Country Music can be opened up and the possibilities are endless.

- Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN thenashvillebridge@hotmail.com

Categories Americana Music, Americana Music Festival, Blue Giant, Cher, Graham Parsons, Merle Haggard, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Music, Rock, The Rolling Stones, Uncategorized, Vanguard Records, Viva Voce

Follow “The Nashville Bridge”