Electric Dirt

I've been listening to Levon Helm's latest recording, Electric Dirt, in the car lately. I just let it play over and over and over and I never seem to tire of it. This is the followup to Mr. Helm's so-called "comeback album", Dirt Farmer, a fantastic, rootsy, passionate collection of music. So this album is called Electric Dirt, and the title indicates that this collection of tunes is more firmly rooted in blues and rock 'n roll than the last group of songs. It occurred to me that it was also a nod to the late great Muddy Waters, and his 1968 album Electric Mud, which mixed up traditional blues and psychodelia.

Electric Dirt features a great selection of songs, with crisp, relaxed production by Larry Campbell. I really enjoy the interplay between Helm's singing and the backup singers. This record may be Electric Dirt but it still features plenty of fiddle and mandolin, and yes, accordion.

Levon Helm, once the drummer for Ronnie Hawkins' band The Hawks, which later became The Band, has re-emerged in his later career as a musical force to be reckoned with. I'd love to see his band play a live show!

Yellowhead to Yellowstone - CD Review

I've been listening to Ian Tyson's latest release, Yellowhead to Yellowstone. It's been a long trail for the 75 year old Mr. Tyson, from the young man who heard Bob Dylan perform Blowin in the Wind and decided he could do better than that - and came up with his first songwriting effort, Four Strong Winds.

I recall driving across the country in the early 80s. When I reached Alberta it seemed I heard selections from Tyson's fantastic Old Corrals and Sagebrush recording on every station. Tyson had reinvented himself as a cowboy songster, and a great one. Somebody told me he had moved back to Alberta and was raising cutting horses. I had no idea.

Fans of Ian Tyson will be surprised, maybe even shocked to hear him sing the first cut on the new album, Yellowhead to Yellowstone. Throughout the album, the rich, deep, resonant confident voice we all know has been replaced by a voice much more vulnerable, horse and raspy. The songs themselves are compelling and well-crafted. They're mature songs, tender and reflective.

On the five fish anchovy rating scale, I give this one a barrel of salties, aged in wine.

CD Review - My Name is Buddy - another record by Ry Cooder

Samples from this CD are available here.

My Name is Buddy is a peculiar CD. It follows the adventures of a talking cat named Buddy Redcat, and his friends and companions on a journey through the America of the 30s, Lefty Mouse and the Reverend Tom Toad. (at this point, some of you will think I'm maybe having a little fun with you, but no, no, no....). It seems that Buddy carries around a suitcase that he sleeps in at night. Lefty is a union organizer, fighting for a better world. "Which side are you on, Buddy, which side are you on?". He also offers practical advise....mousetraps are right-handed; take your cheese from the left.

This CD effortlessly slides from musical style to musical style as the three characters travel through cities and towns, joining striking miners, singing union songs. The narrative holds it together just nicely. The songwriting is superb, and the players include Van Dyke Parks, Mike Seeger, Pete Seeger (yes, I said Pete Seeger), as well as Ry and Joaquim Cooder.

It isn't very often I come across a recording that I can't stop listening to, but this is one of those times. It is at once, goofy, sentimental, tough, hopeful. There is even a delightful tune about Buddy's good friend Hank Williams. It seems the only time Hank was really happy was when he was driving along in his caddilac with Buddy Redcat on the front seat beside him.

Goodbye Guitar Town

The first couple times I listened to Steve Earle's new CD, Washington Square Serenade, it didn't grab me the way The Mountain or Transcendental Blues grabbed me. I moved it to the car, and soon realized just how rich this collection of tunes is.
Here are a few thoughts. Mr. Earle, it seems, has packed in Nashville and moved to New York, and he wants to tell us about it. That's clear from the first tune, Tennessee Blues. Goodbye Guitar Town, Steve's gone. Great song, followed up by Down Here Below, sung from the point of view of an urban hawk, Pale Male - God I love this town. Satellite Radio is a good rocker, but I'm not writing home about it. Then Mr. Earle hits us with City of Immigrants, with Forro in the Dark. Beautiful. He couldn't have written this one in Nashville.

Livin’ in a city of immigrants
I don’t need to go travelin’
Open my door and the world walks in
Livin’ in a city of immigrants
Livin’ in a city that never sleeps
My heart keepin’ time to a thousand beats
Singin’ in languages I don’t speak
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

City of black
City of white
City of light
City of innocents
City of sweat
City of tears
City of prayers
City of immigrants

Livin’ in a city where the dreams of men
Reach up to touch the sky and then
Tumble back down to earth again
Livin’ in a city that never quits
Livin’ in a city where the streets are paved
With good intentions and a people’s faith
In the sacred promise a statue made
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

City of stone
City of steel
City of wheels
Constantly spinnin’
City of bone
City of skin
City of pain
City of immigrants

All of us are immigrants
Every daughter, every son
Everyone is everyone
All of us are immigrants - everyone
Livin’ in a city of immigrants
River flows out and the sea rolls in
Washin’ away nearly all of my sins
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

City of black
City of white
City of light
Livin’ in a city of immigrants
City of sweat
City of tears
City of prayers
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

City of stone
City of steel
City of wheels
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

City of bone
City of skin
City of pain
City of immigrants
All of us are immigrants

Looking at the pictures on Washington Square Serenade, it looks like Mr. Earle has dropped some weight, lost some hair too, and become considerably more scruffy than we've seen him for a while. I'd say he's experiencing a renaissance of sorts, and listening to Sparkle and Shine, the boy's in love.

From the Steve Earle website: Asked how he would like listeners to respond to Washington Square Serenade, Earle, characteristically, is ready with a bold answer. "If you feel like you don't know what America is all about right now, and you want to reorient yourself to what America should be about, it's a really good time to come to New York City," he says. "I needed really badly at this point in my life to see a mixed-race, same-sex couple holding hands in my own neighborhood. It makes me feel safer."

"I've been pretty heartbroken about the way things have gone politically in this country the last few years, and I seriously considered moving someplace else," he concludes. "Then I figured out that I didn't have to leave the country. All I had to do was come to New York."

Damned good. On the 5 fish anchovy rating scale, I give this one a NYC garbage barge teeming with salties.

New Music

As readers of this here blog know, I like to keep my finger on the pulse of the popular music of the day. That's why I decided to review two CDs from 2007 today, both by - let's call them seasoned - performers. The CDs are At my Age by Nick Lowe and I Stand Alone by Ramblin Jack Elliott.

I've enjoyed Nick Lowe's music since the days of I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll, and I've seen him perform twice - once in 1978 at Massey Hall with Rockpile as part of a three act show featuring Rockpile, Mink DeVille and Elvis and the Attractions - and the other time last year at a club here in Toronto with Geraint Watkins. Both were excellent shows.

At My Age continues the stylish laid-back approach earlier cultivated on Impossible Bird, Dig my Mood and The Convincer, and continues to employ the services of Mr. Watkins, a great keyboard player (and accordionist from what I hear). Lowe crafts great songs, and performs covers as if he's just written them himself. I like all 12 tunes, and I think this one will be playing a lot around Anchovy World Headquarters.

Mr. Lowe may have been around for a while, but I think Ramblin Jack Elliott must have been traveling around with Woody Guthrie when Lowe was in knee-pants. And where Nick Lowe is a great songwriter, Elliott is a great interpretor (he's only written a small number of songs over the years, the most famous of which is really more of a story than a song - 912 Greens). I Stand Alone has some great moments: Arthritis Blues (and not just because of the accordion), Driving Nails in My Coffin, Cisco Houston's Old Blue, and the peculiar Mr. Garfield are all terrific performances. Curiously, I've been listening to a couple other versions of Driving Nails in my Coffin as well lately - one by Ernest Tubb and one by Floyd Tillman, and Jack's interpretation holds up well among the older performances. The CD is also punctuated by some short bits, almost song fragments, such as Jean Harlow, and My old Dog & Me. Lucinda Williams guests on Careless Darling, and Flea plays bass on a number of cuts. I like this CD a lot, although it is a little uneven compared to The Long Ride, from a couple years back.

These are two fine new CDs from two of the best.