New Music: Americana Edition

This edition of new music features bands that blend the lines between the musical genres of bluegrass, folk, americana, blues, roots, and a hint on New Orleans style jazz and big band.  It highlights string music as well as songwriting and vocal harmonies.  I will start with one of my favorite albums of the group of artists, and that comes from the hilarious Steve Martin and the talented Steep Canyon Rangers, called Rare Bird Alert.  All of these wonderful musicians are featured on iTunes and have their own MySpace page. And remember, you can also check out all their songs and music videos through MusicTonic.Com, which is a website that I love.


Featured:

Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers: Steve Martin is of course very well known, but not very well known for his musical talents.  This album is well-constructed from start to finish. There’s definitely no shortage of toe-tapping, knee-slapping, spoon-playing, traditional bluegrass excellence on Rare Bird Alert. The title track and “Northern Lights” are gems that even the longest listening bluegrass veteran has to appreciate. Tracks like “The Great Remember (For Nancy)” and “More Bad Weather on the Way” are gentle and intimate at times, quick and affecting at others, and remind one of everything from Bill Monroe to the Flecktones. Alongside such oddities as the mountain gospel goof-off “Atheists Ain’t Got No Songs” and a remake of the 1978 novelty hit “King Tut,” Steve and the Steep Canyon Rangers also offer kick-grass progressive and traditional instrumentals and simple, lovely melodies on “You” (featuring the Dixie Chicks) and the silly but sweet “Best Love,” earnestly sung by Paul McCartney.  The following video is a highlight of the band at Austin City Limits performing my favorite song off the album.

"Atheist Don't Have No Songs"

New Music I Found:
Sarah Jarosz: A bluegrass, multi-instumentalist, singer and songwriter.  Her approach to acoustic music is invigorating; she gives equal attention to playing, singing, and writing, choosing songs that embrace both old timey and modern sounds.  She has the capability of playing 8 different instruments and wrote all but two of her songs on her latest album.   She also included two instrumental songs to showcase her talents as a musician and not just a singer, and one of the songs was nominated for a Grammy. As far back as junior high, she was taken with Gillian Welch’s old-timey compositions and Shawn Colvin’s neo-folk confessions. “I have been so influenced by both of those styles of writing,” The bulk of the recording of the last album was done in Nashville with some of the acoustic world’s finest pickers and singers, including Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas,  Edgar Meyer, Viktor Krauss, Vince Gill and Darrell Scott among others. She is heavily influenced by the music of Radiohead, the writing of Edgar Allan Poe, Bob Dylan, Bill Withers, Tom Waits, Alison Krauss, Gnarles Barkley, and many others. She has also shared the stage with Punch Brothers and Mumford & Sons numerous times and did an amazing live performance on Austin City Limits.
Songs: Run Away, Annabelle Lee, Come On Up to the House, Peace, Tell Me True

Kelleigh McKenzie: Armed with a banjo, guitar and amplified stompbox, Oregonian-turned-New Yorker Kelleigh McKenzie has a way of mixing folk, blues, old-time and rock into a music all her own. With a whimsical voice and soaring melodies, she takes the well-worn roads of Americana to unexpected places, thumping and plucking out original tales that veer effortlessly from a graceful social consciousness to lusty romps and sinister seductions.
Songs: Call It A Day, 2017, The Bus Song, Eleanor Rigby

Adam Hurt: His music is instrumental, and he can be considered a banjo virtuoso.   At age 27, Adam has already placed in or won most of the major old-time banjo competitions including Clifftop, Mount Airy, and Galax, and won the state banjo championships of Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio, as well as the state fiddle championships of Virginia and Maryland. A respected performer and teacher of traditional music, Adam has played at the Kennedy Center and conducted banjo workshops at the Swannanoa Gathering, the Augusta Heritage Center, and Appalshop, among other venues around the country and abroad.
Songs: John Riley The Shepherd, Indian Nation, Fortune, Say Old Man. I Want Your Daughter, Garfield's Blackberry Blossom, Old Dangerfield

Megan Jean & KFB: A duo based out of Charleston,SC is comprised of many sounds including bluegrass, jazz, and new orleans big band with a blend of gypsy, circus, americana, and the avant-garde creating a kind of dark tone to their overall sound. To accompany the music is a sort of Andrew Bird/Regina Spektor esque type singing.With Megan Jean on guitar, washboard, and stompbox, and her husband Byrne Klay on upright bass and banjo, Megan Jean and the KFB play a unique brand of gypsy-tinged Americana with hints of rockabilly and Delta blues on their new 11-song collection. Megan Jean's deep voice and Klay's bass work are the highlights here.  
Songs:  Red Red, Cemetery Man, Pretty With The Lights Off, Demons

The Stairwell Sisters: 5 women, all singers, and each being able to play multiple instruments all including guitar, tiple, harmonica, fiddle, cello, banjo, clogging, dobro, slide, guitar, and bass. Bay Area string band the Stairwell Sisters, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary, mixes old-time and original tunes, although its new single is a more rootsy version of Bruce Springsteen's "Youngstown." San Francisco’s all-gal old-time teardown, play a deep and rowdy repertoire of timeless tunes plus a solid standing of smart, original material that is winning praise on a national level.  They crank out acoustic, old-time string music with a punk-rock intensity.  The Stairwell Sisters make such heartfelt and skillfully played music that boundaries dissolve beneath the chugging force of old-time fiddle and banjo, the whomp of bass and guitar, the grit of the slide guitar, and the tight, closely interwoven harmonies.
Songs: David and Goliath, Sleep When You're Dead, Youngstown Little Moses, Weary Weary World

Red June: Their sound touches on bluegrass, roots rock, and traditional country music with powerful harmonies, innovative songwriting and expert musicianship. A trio composed of two guys and one girl writes songs that seem to tell a story while making them very relateable at the same time.  They have shared the stage with countless bluegrass and Americana greats such as James Taylor, Sam Bush, Joe Craven, Jim Lauderdale, Del McCoury, Alice Gerrard, Jim Shumate and B.B. King.
Songs: San Juan Hill, Phoenix, Run Boy Run, Biscuits & Honey

Carolina Chocolate Drops:  This striking North Carolina trio brings a modern sizzle to the legacy of classic African American stringbands and were the first black string band to play at the Grand Ole Opry.  They blend together the sounds of blues, jazz, and old time roots music with a mix of technical strings to produce a sound that revitalizes one that has been lost. Their repertoire is centered around the traditional music of the early twentieth century but also includes original material  as well as a show-stopping cover of Blu Cantrell’s 2001 single “Hit ‘Em Up Style.”   The Carolina Chocolate Drops honed their skills under the tutelage of octogenarian fiddler Joe Thompson, a North Carolinian said to be the last black traditional string band player.  Thompson, who grew up playing at barn dances, “frolics” and corn shuckings, wound up performing in venues across the country, including Carnegie Hall. If you like Old Crow Medicine Show, Avett Brothers, Langhorne Slim, Abigail Washburne check them out.
Songs: Hit 'Em Up Style, Knockin', City of Refuge, Why Don't You Do Right, Escoutas, Kissin' and Cussin', Snowden's Jig

Red Heart the Ticker: This is a husband and wife duo from Marlboro, Vermont. Their music, often compared to Will Oldham, Gillian Welch, and Iron and Wine, is, in many ways, a reconciliation between their verging musical tastes: Robin’s penchant for tradition influenced sixties folk and twangy, old-fashioned country music, (Dave Van Ronk, Loretta Lynn) and Tyler’s love of jazz fusion and esoteric sixties rock (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Leonard Cohen). This musical terrain, rich with tight vocal harmonies, glockenspiel’s, dreamy guitar licks, banjoes, and hand claps, is both atmospheric and image rich. They definitely fall into the Folk category with their soft vocal harmonies, both female and male vocalists,  accompanied with soft strings. The female vocals sound a little similar to Alison Krauss and Emmylou Harris.
Songs: Ballad of J. Murphy, Snakeskin, Head of a Lion, Racing Stripe Winter, I Lift That Boombox: Parts a and B, 

Jillian Edwards: A young and new up comer that classifies herself in the mixed genre of acoustic/folk/indie. She is a singer songwriter with a voice that has a very light and easy going quality to it that is also filled with a bubbly personality with a slight country twang that goes well with her acoustic guitar. Her six string work is more picking than strumming and does not over power her already soft vocals. For a few songs, she has a simple drum kit backing her up. She is probably the most underground artist of this bunch.
Songs: Nonfiction Love Song, July&June, Go Together


Beta Radio: Beta Radio is the Wilmington, North Carolina Americana/Folk duo of Ben Mabry (Vocals, Guitar, and Glockenspiel) and Brent Holloman (Guitar, Banjo, BG Vocals, Glockenspiel, and Piano). They have been playing music for over ten years but not until April of 2010 were they able to find their sound and therefor release their first album Seven Sisters.When you leave the album, the minimalistic arrangements and the sincerity of the lyrics stay with you and call you back for another listen. The duo list their musical influences to include, Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Avett Brothers, Nick Drake, Bon Iver, and Fleet Foxes.
Songs: Either Way, Highlight On The Hill, Brother.Sister, Darden Road


Bon Iver: Bon Iver is a band founded in 2007 by American indie folk singer-songwriter  Justin Vernon. Three other regulars of the band include Sean Carey (drums, vocals, piano), Michael Noyce (vocals, baritone guitar, guitar), and Matthew McCaughan (bass, drums, vocals). On his newest album being released, he adds others to the band in order to showcase the sounds of his influencers; and thus on the track "Beth/Rest" and throughout the album, we hear the pedal steel of Greg Leisz (Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell), the uniquely layered low end of Colin Stetson's (Tom Waits, Arcade Fire) saxophones, the riffing of Mike Lewis' (Happy Apple, Andrew Bird) altos and tenors, and the lush horns of C.J. Camerieri (Rufus Wainwright, Sufjan Stevens). For this album Vernon promised, “silky electric guitars, beautifully intricate keys, and subtle horn and string sections.”  His first album had a much more novice, poetic, solitudal sound to it but was still well recieved. He is similar to Fleet Foxes, Iron & Wine, and Ray LaMontagne.
Songs: Skinny Love, Come Talk To Me, Calgary


I'm Still Really Diggin'
Rising Appalachia:

New Albums
Xavier Rudd- Koonyum Sun
Fleet Foxes- Helplessness Blues
Emmylou Harris- Hard Bargain
Alison Krauss- Paper Airplane

A Blur of a New Life

I wrote this a couple weeks into spring, when everything was in full bloom.  I was driving back from a doctor's appointment and the day was perfect.  It was hovering just above 70, the sun was shining with just a cloud or two in the sky, and the landscape was full of color. Purples, yellows, whites, pinks, reds, and greens.  I thought what a perfect day it would be to go run through a field, but I couldn't.  It saddened me that I couldn't go for a run, or any activity of the like and fully embrace the day, and that I couldn't truly enjoy what spring had to offer my beautiful city.  No, instead I was stuck in my car, at my house, on my porch.  This was the first time I was not able to enjoy life like I really wanted to.  It's like when your stuck at home with the flu and all your friends are out playing, well this flu has lasted for over 6 months. And my friends, well, they have been from the west coast to the east coast and back to the west coast in just that amount of time. They're livin' the life, not me.  But spring has now passed, and it is now hot has Hell outside, so my temporary depression has faded as the heat is just too much for me to bare.  But man, that spring was down right beautiful this year!  I wrote this literally while driving home from the appointment, but I only wrote down the words at a red light. I would have forgotten them otherwise.  I have added a few words here and there, but for the most part this is a poem that came to me while driving on a perfect spring day. And if it seems sporadic at times, that is because I chose not to overdo the editing.  I feel as if I have captured the feelings and emotions I was having on that perfect spring day and I did not want to lose any of the authenticity of it through the use of editing.  And since I wrote it, I thought I might as well share it with all of you, why not, right.



A Blur of a New Life
in this new life i begin to walk through it with a veil over my head
i sit there wondering
where do i go? what do i do?
there is a blur, a cloud, that not even the strongest rainstorm could wash away
wounded, waiting for a new show
no boundaries to explore, no limits to push
feeling lifeless and washed ashore

i want more out of this life i'm living

i want to get in my car and have my wheels turn me back into a free soul
as spring warms and my body hardens
i feel i will soon be swimming amongst the clouds
to almost die just to be saved by the power of man
if it was up to the natural world, six feet under, i would be
but i'm here, with a blur of a new life