It’s Springtime. Soon it will be Summer. One of my favorite things to do during this most cozy time of year is to drive with the windows down and a prime CD cranked to 11 blasting from my stock speakers. Thankfully, I have been able to add such a crankable disc to my collection just in time. The latest offering from Counting Crows, Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings (Out this week, March 25, Geffen/Interscope) is a straight ahead rock album that will please and comfort longtime fans and remind the fair-weather “Mister Jones” loving, bandwagon riders that even though the success of the bands breakthrough, August and Everything After, is now a decade past, the bands vitality and ability to rock are still undeniably present. In the halcyon days of the mid-nineties, Adult-Alternative stars The Jayhawks, Grant-Lee Buffalo and The Counting Crows were getting their first taste of stardom and sold-out clubs across the states. The public welcomed a non-grunge version of rock, both with a countrified twang as well as the more straight-ahead version that Adam Duritz and gang offered. Now, near the beginning of the second decade of the new millennium, the public again is seeking out pure rock without the mood swings and girly- jeans of Emo, or the screeching caterwauls of Metal. The commercial success of Springsteen‘s latest, the critical praise of The Hold Steady and the continued canonizing of Wilco (of which I am guilty) display this need for simple and straight-forward Rock.
The title of the disc foreshadows some of the lyrical themes that play a prominent role in the album’s progression. Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings represent the two ends of a distressful, yet hopeful spectrum that Duritz describes as dissolving into “drink and medications and moral lack of self, and finally into a loss of faith and then madness. And it’s about when you wake up Sunday morning and look back at the wreck you’ve made of your life and you think, ‘How can I possibly fix this? How can I ever climb out of this hole’ And then you start to try and climb.” In “Sundays,” Duritz sings in the chorus “I don’t believe in anything at all.” Given the album’s theme I can’t help but feel that the narrator trying to convince himself so that Saturday night’s deeds don’t seem quite as decadent.
The disc opens with the scathing guitar screams of “1492.“ This proved to be a notice that this album would have a different overall vibe than many of the more pop-driven offering from the Crow’s more recent past. A few cuts down the list displays a down-shift in tempo with “Washington Square” and “Any Sunday Morning.” Both tracks showcase Duritz’s trademark vocal yearning that turned “Long December” and “’Round Here” into massive hits. “Cowboys” came the closest to mimicking the hits from the past. With its tempo changes and guitar arrangement I could hear “Rain King” replaying in my brain from the one time I caught Counting Crows in concert back in 1997. There are tons of bands that hit it big, cash it in and milk their once adoring public for all they can as they distribute sub-par, rehashed ditties from their big-marketing-push glory days. Too many times also, the public can confuse Top 40 charts with relevance and artistic productivity. Thankfully, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings reminds us that we shouldn’t be worried about the Counting Crows dragging up old karaoke versions of their hits and will keep us from confusing the successes of their past with a lack of promise for success in the present day.
When Irish Eyes Are Smiling…they are probably listening to The Dropkick Murphys
While I have a passion for Texas-bred Country and Americana, I have also long held a soft spot for various bands that carry the banner for the other prominent region of my heritage, Ireland. Although in Texas, we are flooded with bands that claim to be covered in red dirt and Shiner Bock, we lack in bands that claim to be covered in shamrocks and Guinness. The acts that often come to mind when my Irish eyes need to smile are veterans such as The Pogues, Flogging Molly and of course, The Dropkick Murphys.
The Dropkick Murphys have become even more synonomous with the whole “Boston-Irish vibe” since the release of the 2006 flick The Departed (even though they have had several albums and have been rocking full-houses for years before the movie came out), where the track “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” was applied to sheer perfection, sending tons of folks to I-tunes to find out more about this band from Boston.
With St. Patrick’s day around the corner, DKM’s are releasing a deluxe version of their most recent release, The Meanest of Times. Tons of new stuff, just in time for cranking it up as you toast the contributions of Ol’ St. Pat. The musical blend of Irish Folk, Punk and straight-up Rock is the ideal backdrop for Al Barr’s roaring, gruff vocal screams.
I have babbled a bit recently about Mando Saenz, the folky rocker who has just released the fantastic Bucketon Carnival Records. I offer this CD as proof to all of the ignorant “Nashville-Bashers” ( Definition of Nashville Bashers: people who think that if an album it sucks then the album must’ve come from Music City.), that a Texas guy can leave his home state, find some stellar partners like Kim Richey and Will Kimbrough and put forth an effort that is as distinctive as it is a step forward for the artist. His initial, more folk oriented CD, Watertown showcased the same outstanding writing, but with a more sensitive, folksy vibe. The uptempo, rock vibe wasn’t an accident. I recently chatted with Mr. Saenz and he explained to me that he progressed in that direction by regularly playing with his band and looking for songs that sounded great in a live setting. The first ingredient to any disc that wants to break free from the very crowded pack of today’s current roots-rock releases is for the artist to posses a singular, unforgettable voice. Saenz displays such a breakthrough voice, especially when he reaches his higher register in many of the albums more wistful tunes, such as “Pittsburgh” or “Wrong Guy”. His motivation to rock a little louder is evident in the tunes “Seven Dollars” (my personal fave) and “Pocket of Red,” which is the cut that he co-wrote with Kim Richey. Both of these tracks start in the way that many of Dwight Yoakam’s more rockin’ tunes do, with a single, dominant note that ties the entire song together while Saenz waxes nostalgic about nights at the bar with only a couple of bucks (Seven Dollars). many CD’s come out and only contain either the pseudo southern-rockers or the thoughtful, meandering ballads, Bucket exceeds the quota by registering some satisfying mid-tempo numbers that blend the aforementioned wistfulness of the softer tunes with the urgency and power of the lead single “Pocket of Red”. “Come Out Tonight” and “Candy Red” not only elicit a mood of hope, but of longing, which often times can be one and the same.
This disc is a fine example of an artist directing his art in a new direction. Many artists do so at the expense of leaving his or her audience behind in hopes of gaining a larger number of fans. Thanks to Saenz’ ability to blend rock, folk and soul, he expanded on his sound without abandoning it. With “Bucket,” Mando Saenz should add a couple of extra seats onto his increasingly-more crowded bandwagon.
Every blog and website and magazine in the world is amped up for Tuesday’s release of Drive By Trucker’s new disc, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, and rightfully so. So many writers, bloggers, and pseudo-intellectuals often mimic one another when they put the lazy, restrictive and over-used label of “Southern Rock” on the Truckers. I have and will always feel that such inattention to detail misses the mark on what is an amazing, rocking, literate, and imaginative Southern Band. While you can’t escape the sonic and lyrical qualities that often lead the mislabeling lemmings off the cliched cliff from which they analyze, it shouldn’t take anyone long to see that this Skynyrd loving group comes to the table with more than dueling guitars and a rebel flag in hand. Lead writers, guitarists and singers Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley ooze whiskey and front porch yarn-spinning as they relay tales of family, love, lust, betrayal, crime and punishment all without hyperbole and pandering to irony or what many people think is their core audience. From what I have heard so far, this album makes amazing use of DBT’s other assets. Shonna Tucker’s voice is heard more hear than ever, to great effect. Many feared that the departure of guitar/songwriting hero Jason Isbell would be damaging, however, Isbell’s decision to leave provided the group a chance to flex even more muscle, as this disc is 19 tracks strong.
More exciting than even the release of a new album is the fact that there will actually be an ALBUM for this release. Vinyl editions of Brighter Than Creation’s Dark will be available on Tuesday as well!
Live Performance of “Two Daughters & A Beautiful Wife” from new DBT’s album
I mentioned last week that at the Kathleen Edwards show I sat next to a couple that just happened to be Collin Herring’s parents. That occurrence led me to realize that I wasn’t near as familiar with his work as I should be. I knew that he had been based in Ft. Worth (my birth place and where my fam still is), has been featured in my favorite mag, Paste (among other such as Harp),has worked with Kathleen Edwards of all folks, and is able to Rock a Country tune without being cornered completely into one or the other labeling. After giving his most recent release, 2005’s Other Side of Kindness,a thorough listen whilst attempting to kill myself on a treadmill, I was convinced that this collection of country-tinged punk songs mixed with a reversed collection of punk-tinted country cuts is exactly what the current state of Texas Music really needs. Cindy from The Fine Line posted a great piece about Collin just last week as I was making my notes. This post really delves into what I think sets Collin apart philosophically from many of the folks out there touting themselves as “Texas Music.” The whole “Red Dirt” scene is great and there are still unique and innovative things going down within that general grouping, but it isn’t a secret that many frat-boy, ball-cap wearing, Pat Green wannabes have flooded the market and helped create a weaker product in many ways, than what was the case 5-10 years ago. Herring is vocal about not looking to include himself in a scene that he feels puts false and limiting boundaries on the ideas he looks to share and who he shares those thoughts with. Collin’s new disc is coming out in the spring and advance word has it that the new album will mine the various emotional trenches that Herring himself has crawled through since the last disc was released. Please keep an eye out for this dude, and by the way, his dad plays the Pedal Steel (among other instruments) for him, so if you go see a gig, find him and tell him the annoying guy at the Kathleen Edwards concert who was rambling on says HI!!
Counting Crows Keep Kickin’ Out the Jams
