Five Records With… Allison Moorer
Posted on | January 29, 2010 | 1 Comment
I had the chance to ask Allison Moorer a few questions about her favorite records. Her new record Crows comes out February 9th. I covered the first single, “The Broken Girl”, here. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“There are so many great records that have influenced me. Tammy Wynette’s Greatest Hits, but also Willie, Waylon, Jessie Colter and Tompall Glaser’s Outlaws and The Jayhawks’ Tomorrow The Green Grass.
“Neil is just an all-around great artist — great songwriter, singer, player, and does the work to remain vital even after doing it for so long.”
“I listened to this record a ton while I was making Crows.”
“There are many songs I wish I had written! Can we start with the Beatles Help!? It has “Yesterday” on it. I’d take that one…“
“As far as new releases, I’ve been digging this.”
Allison Moorer – Like The Rain
Five Records With… Adam Carroll
Posted on | January 8, 2010 | 1 Comment
I recently spoke with Adam Carroll, a singer/songwriter from Lockhart, TX. He and Michael O’Connor are about to release Hard Times, which I covered here. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“ When I was 19, I listened to this thing forever, before I started playing guitar. If there was anyone that made me want to get into music, it was Neil.“
“Doug Sahm — He makes San Antonio really cool, which it is. He plays blues, Tejano, just that old style. I really admire that he did what he wanted to. A lot of musicians talk about him, but I dont think he gets enough credit.”
“Michael and I were trying to write honky tonk songs while making Hard Times. If you want to call yourself a honky tonk singer, you had better listen to Ernest. He’s not the best singer in the world, but he’s the best at what he does, which is good news for me.”
“Theres a song called “One For the Money” that he wrote for Sam Peckinpah, that I wish I had written. Also, from the same record, “The Lights of Magdala” is about as good as it gets.“
Canadian Amplifier – Bootleg Series Vol. 1
“He does stuff with sound, and this little bitty guitar, that is cooler than anyone I’m hearing. He can do more interesting things with beat up old equipment that new gear can’t recreate. Also a great writer.”
Band of Heathens – “L.A. County Blues”
Posted on | October 7, 2009 | 2 Comments
1. The impressive thing about the Band of Heathens is the way they are able to assimilate influences and turn it into something else. When “L.A. County Blues”, the first track from their new record One Foot in the Ether first ripped out of my speakers, I did a double-take to make sure I hadn’t slipped in Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The stomping rhythm and twangy guitar riff sounded familiar, but when I got to Ed Jurdi’s soulful rasp, it felt different — and comfortably new. I must admit that I am somewhat of a purist — I tend to get skeptical when I hear genres like “country-blues-soul-gospel-rock”. I would much rather a band be excellent at one of these than just decent at a mixture of all of them. However, on this track the Heathens reach beyond the sum of their influences and create something that stands on its own.
2. The lyrics, which pay tribute to “gonzo by the 7th grade” legend Hunter S. Thompson, speak of an outcast, struggling to find his fit in the world — from his arrest in Louisville as an accessory to robbery and his fictional alter ego Raoul Duke, “blinded by a quart of rum and a dose of mescaline”. Jurdi manages to sum up Thompson’s blissfully irreverent life with a sound just as freewheeling and distinctly American. I hear a lot of different voices in this track — Richard Manuel, Patterson Hood, Gram Parsons — but none of these outshine the Heathens themselves.
3. The Heathens are first and foremost a live band, and the production on this song actually showcases their chops better than their two previous live albums. Formed as the Good Time Supper Club from the simultaneous sets of the three singers and writers, things congeal for them on “L.A. County Blues” to the point where they create something better than the sum of three good singer-songwriters — a loose, organic feel with a great mix that shows off all the best things about them: Colin Brooks’ nasal, Lowell George-breathed slide, Gordy Quist’s ace high harmony, and Jurdi’s husky tenor. Genres can be analyzed and categorized, and hidden meaning can be found everywhere, but when something works, it works. The simple, well-told story of an American iconoclast,”L.A. County Blues” feels good, and that is sufficient for me.
Band of Heathens – L.A. County Blues