Five Records with… Owen Temple
Posted on | November 20, 2009 | 2 Comments
I recently spoke with Owen Temple after shooting some upcoming video with him at Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas. He released the fantastic (and underrated) Dollars and Dimes this year. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“Jerry Jeff chose some great songs here and introduced me to some great writers. Everything from the album cover on, I thought “This looks fun”. This record is like an anthology of Texas songwriters. Viva Terlingua is the same thing as well.”
“A masterpiece — all stories, set around Lubbock, where he is from. He reminds me that that’s what music is for me — stories about these places and the characters that inhabit these places. As far as his career, he records things that interest him, even when people say ‘you can’t do that!’. He always makes me say ‘Wow‘”.
“Like Terry Allen, they have always been experimental, and only wanting to make music that makes them say ‘wow’. They push the envelope sonically and made the record they wanted to.”
Leon Russell and the Shelter People
“A song I wish I had written — ‘Stranger in a Strange Land‘. I love the simplicity of the chorus – its a song that everyone can identify with. We’ve all felt like we were the only person on the planet feeling that way at that time. The pre-chorus, where the baby looks around and feels just as out of place as the wise man, is profound. Also, he managed to include the word burro in the song.”
“I first met him at a songswap at Cheatham Street, and I admired what he was doing. He has put out a few great EP’s, including 4 of No Kind. I love the song “Sunset”. One of my favorites.”
Owen Temple – Dollars and Dimes
Wilco – Palladium Ballroom – October 9, 2009
Posted on | October 12, 2009 | No Comments
1. I had the opportunity to see Wilco for the fourth time on Friday night at the Palladium Ballroom. Though the band has gone through several iterations since the days when they might be considered “alt-country”, I believe they are putting on their best live shows with their current lineup. Drawing from all sorts of American musical influences, Jeff Tweedy and company took to the stage and promptly launched into “Wilco (The Song)”, a slightly tongue-in-cheek tribute to their fans.
2. An evening that saw Tweedy exchange shirts with a fan, go back and forth on his band’s policy of taking requests (do it through the website, please) and play a ten song encore, Wilco proved that while they might fall into a wealth of genres, their music is entirely their own. Recalling the layered sound of Summerteeth, they blazed through “A Shot In the Arm”, before sprinkling the first set with songs from their last three albums, particularly “Company in my Back”, with its stuttering intro and outro played to perfection and the woozy “You Are My Face”.
3. Though at times they showed influence of the Band (”Hoodoo Voodoo”) and the Stones (”Casino Queen”), Wilco has a sound all their own — due in part to the dueling keyboards of Mikael Jorgensen and Pat Sansone and the otherworldly guitar work of Nels Cline. Tweedy seemed to be in the best mood I have ever seen him in, as he joked with the crowd and thoroughly enjoyed the set. Ending with a scorching encore of rockers that included personal favorite “The Late Greats” as well as the proto-punk “I’m a Wheel” and the lurching “Kingpin”, Wilco showed their ability to bring together a host of distinctly American influences without appearing derivative at all. Capped off by a performance of “Jesus, Etc.” where Tweedy let the crowd sing the first two verses and choruses on their own, the band demonstrated their ability to make music that people can take hold of and make their own. If that isn’t success, I’m not sure what is.
All photos by Patrick Michels for the Dallas Observer. See the full slideshow here.