country

Apple Core

mandy — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 08:00:00 +0000

So much folksy lady rock, so little time. Add Kendl Winter’s Apple Core to the ever-lengthening list of guitar-loving, country-inspired singer-songwriters with a flair for bluegrass. It may not be terribly original, but Winter makes a fine effort on her fourth solo album. At times, her work is hauntingly beautiful; at others, it’s frustratingly cliché.

“Everyone’s so avant garde,” Winter sings on “Made It Through the Yellow,” perhaps referring to the sudden rise in folk hipster chic that makes committed musicians cringe. Should there be more beards and flannel on stage or in the crowd? On “Waiting for the Taker,” a would-be somber track about death with a jaunty guitar riff, she reminisces about apple pies, loyal dogs, and droopy-eyed cowboys.

A tribute to the late abortion provider, “Dr. Tiller” is clearly a lovely sentiment, if not the most enchanting song. Descriptive lyrics about the doctor’s murder feel more appropriate for some sort of spoken word tribute. In a song, phrases like “I’m walking through a mob of pro-lifers just to get a pap smear” feel awkwardly earnest and self-referential without any possibility of reaching people unfamiliar with the story or less than sympathetic about George Tiller’s fate.

Winter is a great talent. It isn’t her fault that so many artists in the last few years have grabbed washboards and banjos and sound oh-so-similar in their nature-themed crooning. While I’m perfectly content listening to Apple Core, if I’m looking for folksy jams, I’ll admittedly seek out albums by Mountain Men, Fleet Foxes, or even some old Wilco first.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, October 16th 2010

Live in Louisville

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

By Carrie Rodriguez

Luz Music

“Well you have it, you love it, now it’s your turn to shove it…I don’t want to play house anymore,” sings Carrie Rodriguez on her newly released live compilation album, Live in Louisville. Her soulful voice, accompanied by rousing fiddles, makes her point with grace and force. The tunes on the album come from Rodriguez’ various other projects, but the most colorful are those she takes the credit for writing.

“I Don’t Want to Play House Anymore,” “Seven Angles on a Bicycle,” (from the album of the same name), and “Never Gonna Be Your Bride” are among the more upbeat sounds on the album, but that doesn’t mean the rest are purely maudlin. The slower tracks on the album are as much soulful as they are haunting.

The eclectic sounds of her band would put her solidly in an Americana, that amalgam of roots music that revisions country, folk, and blues, but the unique twists and turns of her voice bridge the renewed attention to the genre with more traditional bluegrass and even the more sentimental songwriting of Jewel, Indigo Girls, and Julie Roberts (of country fame).

There is an element of the unexpected in each song, whether it’s a musical bridge or a turn of phrase, and the dusky sound of Rodriguez’s voice seems to make her the perfect candidate for a closing credits track on HBO’s True Blood—a new Grey’s Anatomy of sorts for launching the hottest new music.

Rodriguez can please the country in you while reminding you through her pertinent lyrics that you’re alive, you share in disasters and joys like the rest of us. And just as you’re ready to dismiss one track as too country or too slow, the next places you squarely in New Orleans among an impromptu fiddle fest or back into a dark, dank bar with a lonely mic.

Live in Louisville's variety—in voice and vision—is well worth a listen.

Written by: Dr. Julie E. Ferris, April 14th 2010

Downtown Church

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

By Patty Griffin

EMI

It's nothing new for an artist to try different genres of music, but not many can pull off multiple styles in an original way — let alone a way that actually sounds good. Count Patty Griffin among those rare musicians.

I've been a fan of Griffin's since I picked up her 1998 release Flaming Red, a compelling mix of punk, pop, and what was then referred to as 'alternative' music. Griffin's newest release, Downtown Church, is wildly different musically, but no less great a listen.

While some critics—and Griffin herself—have deemed Downtown Church a gospel album, it's much more than that. To my ears, it's an eclectic mingling of soul, blues, gospel, and a couple of songs those of us who have spent some time in the southern part of the United States refer to as spirituals. Griffin's voice is equally enchanting on each of the fourteen songs on the album, whether belting out gospel numbers like “Move Up” and “Wade In The Water,” or crooning the hymn that ends the CD, “All Creatures of our God and King.” Griffin's voice fairly caresses you on the album's lone Spanish language track, “Virgen de Guadalupe.” Though Griffin fluctuates between the somber and the lively, the album's flow and pure woman-positive energy is uninterrupted.

Recorded in the historic Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville—hence the album title—Downtown Church features backup performances from country and gospel heroines like Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Regina and Ann McCrary. Even if this isn't the kind of music you'd normally tune in to, Downtown Church is definitely worth the listen.

Written by: M.L. Madison, April 13th 2010

American Gong

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0000

By Quasi

Kill Rock Stars

Did adding Joanna Bolme on bass somehow ruin the “purity” of the Quasi sound? I would suggest not. Although it would be impossible to argue that their music was thin before, Bolme’s bass adds a perfect oomph without taking away from the chemistry of the duo that already existed. Bolme, like both Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss, is a music veteran, playing with bands like Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, as well as working with Elliot Smith and producing what is probably Quasi’s most critically acclaimed album, Featuring “Birds.”

A big reason Quasi never sounded thin is drummer Janet Weiss, who is absolutely and completely underrated as one of the best drummers in the business. Perhaps her drumming is bit less bombastic and intricate with Quasi than when she was with Sleater-Kinney, but her calculated triplets and chunky bass drum thumps are scaled back just enough to work perfectly with the sweetness of Coomes’ voice, and she still turns on the heat when necessary. She makes me wish that she was in the White Stripes, instead of Meg White, because as much as I love the White Stripes, Meg White’s drumming is on the lean side. I think Weiss’ style would work perfectly with Jack White, and then they could commence to form The Greatest Rock Band That Ever Existed and take over the world.

American Gong basically continues with the Quasi sound of the last two decades, which is part Beatles, part country blues, and even part Flaming Lips. They’ve still got some of that country-blues-rockabilly on songs like “Rockabilly Party,” but are a tad more Sonic Youth and a smidge less Reverend Horton Heat overall on this album than on some of their others.

There can be no question that their music references other bands; I had to smile at the song “Black Dogs and Bubbles,” which has a lick that sounds quite a bit like the Beatles' jam session that is “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” And just to make sure you didn’t miss the suggestion, it cuts off abruptly at the end just like the Beatles’ song does. It’s just reminiscent enough to be a happy homage rather than a cheap rip-off.

Quasi still writes songs that are sneakily catchy. I get “It’s Hard to Turn Me On” stuck in my head every time I listen to Featuring “Birds,” and I’ve had “Bye Bye Black Bird” and “Repulsion” repeating in my ears since the first time I listened to American Gong. Their classic rock and country riffs are perhaps less apparent on this album than on The Going Gets Dark or Hot Shit!, but Quasi is still there, writing happy-sounding songs with sadly psychedelic lyrics that still somehow manage to laissez les bon temps rouller.

Written by: Emily S. Dunster, March 9th 2010

3

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:01:00 +0000

By Nouvelle Vague

Peace Frog Records

If there’s one word to describe the works of Nouvelle Vague, it's génial. Generally, I don’t trust cover versions. Many of them are an abomination that spits all over the originals, but somehow, the cover band Nouvelle Vague makes me forget that. Yes, that French band that rehashed “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in pure bossa nova sweetness—a complete turnaround from the original melancholic version by Joy Division that followed more melancholic versions (the Wild Swans among others)—it became the anthem of the brokenhearted. Granted, Ian Curtis would cringe in his grave while hearing Nouvelle Vague’s version, while I, in turn, was amusing myself.

The masterminds of Nouvelle Vague—Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux—lead the pack of chanteuses, including Melanie Pain, and are armed with sixteen new secondhand tunes in their new release, 3. Instead of copying the songs one to one, the boys from Nouvelle Vague stick to the formula: strip the songs off and rework them, sometimes to the point of being mundane and unrecognizable. Hence, Nouvelle Vague, which means new wave in English and bossa nova in Portuguese, has taken on a different meaning altogether. It is French chansons for the twenty-first century gone alternative.

If imitation is a form of flattery, then don’t wonder why Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore decided to join the fray. On the first single “Master and Servant,” Gore serves as a back-up vocal to Pain. Strangely enough, it feels like listening to a dialogue between a man and a woman engaged in BDSM, only they are singing. For a while the song was on the black list of many radio stations in the U.S. due to its theme. While retaining the guitar parts, Nouvelle Vague added a flavour of bluegrass and country. Voilà! The single is set to conquer radioland without any scandal.

Terry Hall (Funboy Three and The Specials) and Ian McCulloch (Echo and the Bunnymen) make a cameo. Hall sings with Marina Celeste on “Our Lips Are Sealed,” which he co-wrote for the girl pop group The Go-Gos; McCulloch renders his voice on the original EATB tune, “All My Colours,” in another duet with Pain.

Nouvelle Vague’s acoustic version of Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” has lost its teeth. However, laid-back this version is, the message is still depressive and amazingly clearer due to its sinister lyrics. “Such a Shame,” an original by Talk Talk, heavily reminds you of Air’s hit single “Playground Love.” The treatment is moody, yet hauntingly pretty. The torch song “Say Hello Wave Goodbye” could even impress Soft Cell’s Marc Almond. The French accent on “Blister in the Sun” accentuates its cuteness, while Plastic Betrand’s original “Ça Plane Pour Moi” is darn upbeat and cheeky—great songs to perk up your day.

Some might find Nouvelle Vague’s repackaging of old New Wave and punk anthems an act of blasphemy, but in truth, this is the group’s testament of paying a tribute to their favourite songs. So music purists, eat your hearts out. Nouvelle Vague is here to stay and 3 is the proof of that.

Written by: Elen P. Farkas, January 13th 2010

Somewhere Gone

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:00:00 +0000

By Exene Cervenka

Bloodshot Records

More subdued than X, less twang than the Knitters, this album might be what you listen to once glad bags have been replaced by retro shifts as the little black dress of choice—more spirit than spit. Exene Cervenka’s Somewhere Gone demonstrates verse and verve in a dozen new recordings.

Cervenka was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the summer of 2009, but that hasn't slowed her down. In addition to this new release, she continues to tour with X, and encourages support of Sweet Relief, an organization founded by musician Victoria Williams upon her own MS diagnosis in 1992 to assist career musicians in crisis.

Exene Cervenka and John Doe met, legend has it, at a poetry reading. On Somewhere Gone they are joined by Lou Whitney of The Skeletons, who provides bass-stylings and engineering services, and Amy Farris and Cindy Wasserman as the back-up singers. The instrumentation is sturdy, basic, and subdued, and features acoustic guitar, quiet percussion, and strings. “Surface of the Sun” features piano and organ by Dexter Romweber. “The Willow Tree” is a traditional ballad, tear-jerking your heartstrings (if you like it, you'll like “Little Shoes“ by Freakwater). And who among us has not made an “Honest Mistake?" Adding Somewhere Gone to your music collection is far from an error, indeed.

Written by: Erika Mikkalo, December 17th 2009

Emmylou Harris (10/27/2009)

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:34:00 +0000

Overture Hall

Madison, Wisconsin

No matter how many songs Emmylou Harris sings or how many chords she strums, this legendary artist consistently sounds fresh and vibrant. At the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of seeing Emmylou and her Red Dirt Boys, along with special guest and opener Buddy Miller. The outstanding opening set included standbys and original songs written by the artist and his wife, Julie Miller. To the audience’s delight, Emmylou took the stage with Miller to join him on two songs.

Emmylou was every bit her unmistakable self. Cowboy boots, which she told the audience she purchased at Zappo’s; fishnet stockings; and signature swingy white-silver hair rounded out her country glam look. Her show included several songs from the recent release All I Intended to Be, including Merle Haggard’s “Kern River” and Tracy Chapman’s “All That You Have is Your Soul.” The playlist also featured “Red Dirt Girl,” “Michelangelo,” “Blackhawk and the White-Winged Dove,” and “Lost Unto This World.”

Harris’ fans know that, while songs like this are lovely, the lyrics can sometimes become heavy and depressing. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was glad to have a few upbeat tunes in the mix, such as “Born to Run,” “If I Could Only Win Your Love,” and “Two More Bottles of Wine.” Harris and her band are fun to watch; passion for their art and appreciation for one another radiate from the stage. An intimate vocal collaboration on “Calling My Children Home” highlighted the group’s synergy and complementary talents. Bill Monroe’s “Get Up John (the Baptist)” ended the show. A standing ovation brought Emmylou and the band back on stage for a lilting, swingy rendition of “Save the Last Dance for Me.”

Two full hours of Emmylou Harris and her Red Dirt Boys was enough to send the audience home humming happily, hopeful that Emmylou’s next tour will bring her back to Madison.

Written by: Amanda Moss, October 30th 2009

Gina Villalobos

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:00:00 +0000

By Days on Their Side

Face West Records

The fourth studio album from indie folk rocker Gina Villalobos rolls off right away with “Take a Beating to You” and from then on out, Villalobos and her voice go on a journey both swift and slow. With honest and painful lyrics penned mostly by Villalobos herself, the record rises to the top of the alt country/rock genre and may be a breakout hit for this year. There will be comparisons to Lucinda Williams and even Sheryl Crow, but Villalobos deserves to stand on her own merit with this album. Since the debut of Rock 'n Roll Pony, Villalobos has consistently put out records that rock, that roll, and that blend country, rock, and folk into something likable and listenable.

The biography on her website describes her as: “the real thing, an artist, someone who can show you where you are.” It’s a perfectly worded way to describe listening to Days on Their Side. The album keeps up with Villalobos’ other records—with her scratchy voice, a distinct characteristic that slides over the music and unifies the previous albums—but the overall tone here of breakups and bust ups goes on an emotional, but never bitter voyage. Standout tracks include “Falling Away,” which has catchy hooks and is slightly more upbeat than the rest of the songs, as well as the title track “Days on Their Side.” Villalobos also varies the sound; on “Second Chance,” she uses a banjo to bring a different vibe and a different depth to the song.

The first track, “Take a Beating” sets the tone for the rest of the songs, with lyrics like “I wanna take a beating with you/Don’t wanna talk to somebody new.” A common enough emotion for anyone who has gone through heartbreak and is trying to recover, the album is the perfect complement to sitting around with a whiskey and reminiscing over lost love.

Written by: Mónica Teresa Ortiz, October 29th 2009

Letter from New Virginia

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:31:00 +0000

By Donny Hue and the Colors

Kora Records

Did you know that one of iTunes musical categories is “unclassifiable”? Such a description is apt for the music of Donny Hue and the Colors. The group uses many unusual instruments, including autoharp, melodica, glockenspiel, and theremin, as well as guitar and organ on an album that can alternately be described as psychedelic, minimalist, and orchestral.

The instrumental “Into the Woods” plays like the opening of a movie, setting the tone for the album. It is pleasant sounding yet laid back until the music stops abruptly and we hear a very very quiet sound resembling wings. Both the emphasis on melody and the bizarre use of ambient sound carry over as the album progresses.

“You’re On Your Own (We Could Help)” is a bit left of center, but whimsical in a Beatles-esque way. The lyrics make little sense: “Mr. Romo, how do you so elegantly bow?” “I Speak of the Hayseed Cousins” sports a country vibe with jangling guitar and laconic vocal while “Callidope” has a bluegrass feel and is marked by prominent harmonica and a fast-paced rhythm. We then have “Fairlady of the Springboard,” a waltz on which we hear piano and violin, and as with many other songs, the music obscures the vocals. It’s not that you can’t hear them, but that they don’t seem to be saying much, and the music is more the focus. The band gives a Southern rock feel to “Woods,” which has drawling vocals, ambling solos, and piano and horns that add to the crescendo finale.

Musically, Donny Hue and the Colors know their stuff, and while the album is interesting to listen to once, it doesn’t get any less strange or chaotic the second time around. Until the group learns to focus their talents more, I won’t be adding them to my playlist.

Written by: Karen Duda, October 26th 2009

Victoria Day

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0000

By Melissa McClelland

Six Shooter Records

My first taste of Melissa McClelland came about a year ago when a friend had me listen to her beautiful rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s ballad of the working class "Factory." Her version gave a feminine and country-tinged perspective that worked brilliantly with the song. I was immediately impressed.

I got very excited to learn McClelland had a new album out entitled Victoria Day, after her homeland’s holiday that generally marks the beginning of summer—not unlike Memorial Day for most Americans. The album definitely carries an air of summer it its sound, so the title is quite fitting.

McClelland was born in the Unites States, but raised in Canada. Many music fans simply know her as singer-songwriter Luke Doucet’s wife, but she has proven she will not remain in his shadow—and quite possibly may even take some of the spotlight for herself.

McClelland's music reminds me much of some of Canadia's other songstresses. Her blend of powerful vocals and just enough of a country feel to give it character makes for an easy association with the wonderful Sarah Harmer. Unlike Harmer, whom often leans closer to the melancholy folk side, McClelland brings a poppier barroom feel to many of her tracks. On past efforts, McClelland’s lyrics they told stories and felt more intimate, but Victoria Day seems to play it safe on most tracks and worries more about the melody.

McClelland’s sound brings to mind a picture of square dancers twirling skirts, a well-dressed band playing, hay bales on the sidelines, and her in the spotlight. It is a classic sound, meant to entertain and keep people interested. The ballads on the album would as easily fit within a big band ballroom filled with satin dresses and evening gloves since they lack the fiddle and banjo most pure country is wont to include.

The title track, “Victoria Day (May Flowers)”, is a standout on the album, as is “I Blame You,” but I can confidently say there are no tracks that feel like a waste of time. It is a brilliantly put together album from beginning to end.

Written by: Anne Corrigan, September 21st 2009

Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America

admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:49:00 +0000

By Mary Gray

New York University Press

The town I grew up in—Athens, Georgia (pop. 100,266)—is generally known for two things: indie music (a la REM, Elephant 6, and Kindercore) and the University of Georgia, both of which play a major role in maintaining the town's liberal leanings. However, Athens doesn't lean too far. It's still a place where college football dominates from Labor Day to Christmas, and if you're not in church on Sunday morning, you are assumed to be riddled with sin.

Coming up in an environment rife with contradiction, I learned a lot about peaceful co-existence through plausible deniability. (He's not gay; he's just eccentric.) Sure, we had an annual human rights festival where the young and old listened to people like UGA law professor Eugene Wilkes speak about the need for student activism to combat the world's ills, but mostly they were there for the music. One can only ask so much from a small town in the South, and once my identity as a radical queer feminist began to set in, Athens began to feel stifling. So as soon as I was able to, I did as gay rights icon Harvey Milk instructed, and fled to the nearest city.

The city, however, was not the activist paradise I'd imagined it would be. I did find a lot of feminists and socialists and anti-racists and queers with whom I could link arms and "fight the good fight," but I lost that sense of community I'd always known at home. What good was knowing someone would show up at a protest if you couldn't count on them to show up when your car dies and you need to get to work? What good were late night conversations about Spivak when you couldn't tell someone you were late with the rent (again)? I knew I'd lost something in the transition from small to large, and while I was happy with what I'd gained, I still questioned whether it was enough. I wondered if it were possible to reconcile being in a place where no one is a stranger with the benefits one gains when one is able to be anonymous.

Enter Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. I recently interviewed Mary Gray for WireTap Magazine after reading her groundbreaking new book about the myths and mysteries of being queer in small town America. The book resonated with me deeply, as Gray (herself a former queer rural youth) explains how the current gay rights movement excludes rural LGBTQ issues and constructs a queer identity that increases rural queer invisibility. She provides strategies for altering the course to address their needs without requiring re-location (a luxury that is not always attainable or desired) or conformity to a falsely homogeneous queer standard.

Out in the Country was like a breath of fresh country air—just what this Georgia girl needed.

Cross-posted to Bitch Magazine's On the Map blog

Written by: Mandy Van Deven, September 4th 2009

Rotting Slowly

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:08:00 +0000

By The Curious Mystery

K Records

Their name, Curious Mystery says so much. Curious instrumentation crossed with a mysterious sound as they fearlessly cover the gamut—a grab bag of indie noise rock, folk, psychedelia, country, and blues. It all works whether it’s attributed to their experimentation of sounds, or that they are just an experimental bunch, a breath of fresh air in an arguably stale climate. Trying to describe their genre to potential fans is like reciting a Last.fm blogroll; they would certainly reign with the most listings.

The title of their debut album, Rotting Slowly, makes sense too. Upon first listen, you can picture the moldy deterioration of Seattle area homes amidst damp cold oblivion. You feel the frigid night air as it travels to the bone, yet the shock is so invigorating that you’re ultimately left pining for more.

This four piece band includes Shana Cleveland and Nicolas Gonzales on vocals and guitar, along with Bradford Button on bass and Faustine B. Hudson on percussion. It’s the booming percussion and sedate vocals that drive the idiosyncrasies in their overall sound. The band does happen to call Seattle their home and you hear the influence of fuzzy guitar garage rock with languid apathetic vocals. But what makes it all compelling is their intoxicating love of roots music with an added country twang peppered with an array of homemade instruments.

The song structures are chaotic, heavy and rival label-mate Deerhoof with obscure time changes. Shared vocal duties between Cleveland and Gonzales are countered with bluesy instrumentals, all delightfully erratic and somewhat out of tune. “Dragon’s Crotch” and “Nicaragua” both automatically earn kudos for creatively awesome song titles, but also propitiously envelop these complex sonic textures with the help of an autoharp and a bluesy slide guitar. “It’s Tough” begins with a poppy blues riff, then jumps ship and evolves into an alluring almost cinematic chant. Cleveland’s coughing just out of the mic’s reach is an endearing addition to the organic edginess. “Black Sand” displays her inner Cat Power: beautifully brooding, stormy and tempestuous. The jam session between Hudson and Cleveland is a tousled impromptu alliance emulating the Memphis soul/rock grooves effortless honed by Steve Cropper and Al Jackson Jr. The beginning of “Outta California” makes you want to jump in your car and head up the interstate at suicidal speeds; it then shifts gears unexpectedly with slow slide guitars and longing, impervious vocality.

All in all, _Rotting Slowly _leaves you in a haze as you decipher the eccentric song structures with a mishmash of influential genres. Through the dismal landscape, Cleveland and Hudson take command of this outfit as their ingenious styling effortlessly support and drive the other. One can only wonder just how many more genres they can effortlessly weave into their aforementioned grab bag.

Written by: Cat Veit, July 5th 2009

Rise & Shine

admin — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:24:00 +0000

By Fanny Grace

Paul Reeves Entertainment

Rise & Shine, the sophomore album by country duo Fanny Grace, is pleasant, well-produced, up tempo, contemporary country-rock with a postfeminist sensibility. Writer/producer/guitarist Paul Reeves and co-writer/lead singer Carmen Meja have turned out a collection of sassy-yet-vulnerable-women-in-pickups songs in the best Dixie Chicks tradition. John Carter Cash (son of the late country legends June Carter and Johnny Cash) produced the album, giving it an extra helping of country-roots cred. (In a nod to Cash’s heritage, the record includes the Johnny Cash-penned “My Cowboy’s Last Ride” and closes with the Carter family classic “The Storms are on the Ocean”)

Nearly all of the songs on the record are written from a female point of view, and the album is most interesting when it explores the thoughts and lives of modern working class women. “Soon Be Home,” the second track, starts off sounding like a standard post-breakup song, but with the mention of the “yellow ribbon on the trunk of my car” it becomes clear that we’re listening to the thoughts of a woman waiting for her man to return from an overseas deployment. In the rocker “Don’t Want it All,” which is maybe the most interesting song on the record, we enter the life of a cash-strapped woman who has to choose between buying a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk (a situation more and more of us have come to relate to in the past few months). The most interesting part of this song is that the flat broke narrator isn’t dreaming of a Stetson-wearing, truck driving Prince Charming to rescue her from counting change to buy groceries; she’s just doing her best to make it through.

None of the songs on this album are groundbreaking, musically or lyrically, and if Reeves and Meja haven’t been directly influenced by the Dixie Chicks (Meja doesn’t quite have Natalie Maines’s earthy sass or vocal range), they sure seem to be following them down the same dirt road, blasting the radio in their own rusty pickup. Still, it’s a pretty fun ride.

Written by: Rochelle Mabry, June 20th 2008

Catherine Avenue

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:40:00 +0000

By Biirdie

Drive Thru Records

Biirdie came into my life at just the right time. Named for the musical Bye Bye Birdie (but adding an extra “I” because one Birdie band already exists), this southern California folk-rock trio’s sophomore release may not be extraordinarily adventurous or unusual, but they nevertheless make you want to take a long drive into nowhere, windows down. Maybe living in Boston, I hear songs about L.A. and get whimsical for rolling hills that lead to desert. Maybe I crave anything that sounds like perpetual springtime. Or perhaps I just find comfort in sappy, fuzzy rock about confusing love and wishing the weekend would arrive. Whatever it is, this CD hasn’t left my player for weeks as a result.

The one major flaw on this album for me is track three, “Who Were You Thinkin’ Of,” which is what I can only assume is the songwriters’ attempt to be quirky and clever, repeatedly wondering who else their partner was considering while they’d been making love. I know I’m old fashioned about love and romance, but isn’t that wildly insulting? If I don’t understand postmodern hook-ups, it’s because I don’t want to.

Overall, Biirdie won my heart. I looked up concert dates and kept their MySpace page open at work in case I got cranky and needed some dusty indie folk rock. “L.A. is Mars” has been on repeat in my room during the last few weeks, which were particularly sad in my life, and it—along with “Life in a Box”—saved me. I may be prone to repetitive media consumption, but that doesn’t mean any random band can achieve compulsively loved status with me. Recommended if you wish bands like Folk Implosion and Coconut Records would form a supergroup of mellow, country-tinged, roaming blues-rock.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, March 23rd 2008

Balls

admin — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:01:00 +0000

By Elizabeth Cook

31 Tigers Records

As I listened to Elizabeth Cook’s new album Balls, I wanted to open the window and scream, “Why doesn’t country radio play her songs?” I love country music that sounds authentic, the kind that one has to search the internet to find. Cook’s music definitely fits the bill. I really appreciated the blend of different old-time sounds: bluegrass, rockabilly and traditional country. Cooks seamlessly blends the three styles while giving it her own unique twist.

Balls is a stellar album from an undervalued singer. All eleven tracks are fantastic and make for great car-ride play. Not only does Cook possess a sweet soprano voice similar to Alison Krauss, but great songwriting ability as well. On the opening track, “Times are Tough in Rock n’ Roll,” a bluegrass-flavored tune, Cooks makes her disapproval with the current state of pop music known loudly and clearly. “Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman” is a rousing feminist anthem with a rockabilly sound. “He Got No Heart” blasts a lover with the searing line: "I’d shoot him down if I knew where to aim.”

Perhaps one day country radio will wake up and discover Elizabeth Cook is the real deal: a traditional country singer with soul, and a songwriter with much to say.

Written by: Gina-Marie Cheeseman, July 6th 2007