Top 20 of 2009: #20-11
Posted on | December 30, 2009 | 2 Comments
Here is some of the music that struck me in 2009. In case you missed it, read the manifesto for this site. It might help you understand where I am coming from. If you didn’t see the Bird List, now might be a good time to check it out.
#20: Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women
Dave continues a great late-career run. Come to think of it, his “run” has never stopped, or really even slowed. Read a single review.
Reverent enough to know when to leave the song alone, but restless enough to know when to shake things up.
There is country music that is funny outside of “She Left Me For Jesus”. Most of it is here.
Mining that Canadiana sound, BoH comes up with something fresh. Good songs and great voices. Read a single review.
This should probably be filed under “educational” rather than “country”. Read a single review.
Wry humor and stripped down execution from the Great White North. Read a single review.
A beautiful sounding record, with great songs to back it up. Possibly his most consistent. Read the original review.
This sounds old, worn in, and gorgeous. I don’t think people are used to quality of this level anymore.
#12: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
His departure didn’t kill the Drive-By Truckers, but gave us double the output. DBT also put out a rarities record, and Isbell had the best song (”TVA”) on it. Read the original review.
One thing you can say about Robert Keen is that he always sounds like he is having fun. Read the original review.
Album Review: Robert Earl Keen – The Rose Hotel
Posted on | September 29, 2009 | 1 Comment
1. The more records that Robert Earl Keen makes, the more he shows of his true self. Not that Keen has ever pretended to be anyone else, but on his latest, The Rose Hotel, it all comes together – his observational storytelling and his appreciation of small parts of life, all wrapped in a gorgeous, shimmering sound.
2. The opening title track tells the story of missed love in Keen’s own granular way (read more on this track here). Like his friend Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl understands how to write around the story and reveal an extra layer of insight into the actual events. On “The Man Behind the Drums”, Keen’s band finds themselves at one of Levon Helm’s legendary Midnight Rambles. Keen lauds the drummer by telling how they ended up “hangin from the rafters, singin every song” — emphasizing the effect rather than the source.
3. His outside approach to storytelling occasionally strays into explorations of the absurd. Robert Earl understands that small towns can be incredibly surreal. A story about a drunk who can’t seem to get his jokes right, “10,000 Chinese Walk Into a Bar” follows the psychedelic bent of recent tracks like “Farm Fresh Onions” and “The Great Hank” with Keen bringing in Billy Bob Thornton to help him illuminate a scene like something out of The Last Picture Show. “Village Inn” justifies Keen’s self-anointed genre of “Best Western music”, describing the simple existence of a small motel in Challis, Idaho, with “free wi-fi and HBO” — a fascination that continues on the rollicking “Wireless In Heaven”, a ridiculous yet overwhelmingly enjoyable romp about technology in the afterlife.
4. Lloyd Maines’ production provides a sparkling unifying sound that makes this whole record work together. Keen’s professed enthusiasm for rhythm and harmony vocals led Maines to create a layered sound that proves the perfect setting for his reedy voice — matching him with Drew Womack on he loping “On and On” (which references Keen’s cowboy hero Marty Robbins) and Greg Brown’s quivering baritone on “Laughing City”. Maines gives Keen’s cover of “Flying Shoes” a thumping arrangement that retains the haunting feeling of Townes Van Zandt’s original, and kicks off “Something I Do” with a double-take of a drum loop that blossoms quickly into one of the record’s best songs.
5. Robert Keen has explored a few different sounds in his career. His debut No Kinda Dancer wore his folkier influences (Steve Fromholz, Guy Clark) on his sleeve, while 1997’s slick Picnic has been panned by the artist himself. As he progresses further into his career, the strength of his songwriting only increases, earning Keen the opportunity to explore new sonic ground. The Rose Hotel finds him fearless and in fine form.
Robert Earl Keen – Something I Do
Robert Earl Keen – “The Rose Hotel”
Posted on | September 23, 2009 | No Comments
1. A self described “failed little love story”, the characters of Robert Earl Keen’s latest single (and title track to his new record) “The Rose Hotel” just barely miss each other. If the previous sentence could adequately sum up the song, it wouldn’t be worth a listen. Luckily, Keen knows how to write around a story, telling just enough to insinuate what happened without laying it all out. The details of the song imply the intent of the characters: the “wishing well” across the street, and the “oldies on the radio” at the woman’s house conjure up the feeling of pursuing something nostalgic, whether it was actually good back then or not.
2. Rich Brotherton’s mandolin aids a near-party-rock beat that belies the fact that the song might have any kernel of intimacy. In truth, Keen’s casual musical approach shoes his shoulder-shrugging attitude about missed connections: they might bear incredible potential, but sometimes they just don’t work out. All three verses of the song show a man and a woman at similar levels of romantic pursuit, but always at differing times. At first, the woman waits for the man, breaking a nail on the latch of her door. He wanders outside, unaware, though by the time he enters in the third verse, the intricately described desk clerk lets him know that “she had just checked out”.
3. Keen says that he doesn’t remember writing this song, that it just spilled out. Then again, he also says that sometimes we can’t remember or write very much about close encounters, because “we just don’t know how close we were”.