Reviews

July 21, 2011

Album Review – Larry & His Flask “All That We Know”

Larry & His Flask from the ultra hippie nouveau town of Bend, OR have been making the rounds on the live circuit for years now, leaving legions of disciples and gallons of sweat behind at every stop. Putting out as much energy as any band has in the history of ever, and a lineup that necessitates shoving multiple tables together at every restaurant the tour van stops at, LAHF’s live show is impressionable to say the least.

Larry & His Flask

July 12, 2011

Album Review – Gillian Welch ‘The Harrow & The Harvest’

Trigger Reviews 13 Comments

gillian-welch-the-harrow-and-the-harvest

I firmly believe that one of the problems with modern music is that there’s too much of it. So to see Gillian Welch wait 7 years to put out an album, is refreshing, and wise. But time and patience don’t guarantee a good album. What does is excellent songwriting, and that is exactly what Gillian delivers in The Harrow & The Harvest.

David Rawlings, Gillian Welch

July 6, 2011

Album Review – Cody Canada “This Is Indian Land”

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This is one of the funnest, freshest, well-written, well-produced albums to come out this year. There’s good songs, good performances, and it’s bold. While still sounding relevant and un-obscure, Cody and The Departed were able to stay out of the well-worn grooves that run like tired veins through so much of mainstream music.

Cody Canada, Cross Canadian Ragweed, This Is Indian Land, Tom Petty

July 5, 2011

Willie’s 4th of July Picnic / Country Throwdown Tour 2011

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Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend the most talent-rich event I have ever been to, as the convergence of Willie Nelson’s 38th Annual 4th of July Picnic met up with the finale of this year’s Willie Nelson Country Throwdown tour at the largest honky tonk in the world, Billy Bob’s Texas, in the historic Ft. Worth stockyards.

Amy Nelson, Arlo Guthrie, Austin Lucas, Billy Bob's Texas, Billy Joe Shaver, Brantley Gilbert, Caitlyn Smith, Cathie Guthrie, Folk Uke, George Reiff, Jamey Johnson, Jason Aldean, Lee Brice, Lucas Hubbard, Lukas Nelson, Ray Benson, Ray Price, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Rick Richards, Willie Nelson

July 3, 2011

Album Review – The Imperial Rooster – Decent People

Trigger Reviews 12 Comments

Normally when I go to review an album, whether it takes me the first listen through or weeks of listening, eventually I am able to come to some solid conclusions. With Imperial Rooster, I am stumped. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and imparts points for originality for sure, but it doesn’t make my job of describing this album, or trying to convince you whether you should like it or not very easy.

Decent People, The Carter Family, The Imperial Rooster

June 30, 2011

Album Review – Justin Moore’s “Outlaws Like Me”

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Those previous positive statements I made about Justin? Well it looks like I need to back pedal pretty hard from them, because this album is awful. In my opinion, and I appreciate the gravity and the certitude of what I’m about to say, but in my opinion, Outlaws Like Me is the worst country music album I have ever heard, EVER.

Aaron Lewis, Billy Ray Cyrus, Justin Moore, Outlaws Like Me, Scott Borchetta, Taylor Swift, Trace Adkins

June 27, 2011

DVD Review – I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House

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Take a man’s pluck, his moxy, his raw, unfettered anger at life, then concentrate it, purify it, and personify it into a root’s-based rock n’ roll outfit, and what you get is Portland, Oregon’s I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House. That little part of all of us that is buried deep inside, that just wants to fly off the handle and tell the whole world to fuck off, that’s this band’s muse, and their commodity.

I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House

June 22, 2011

Album Review – Slackeye Slim “El Santo Grial, La Pistola…”

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Slackeye_Slim_-_El_Santo_Grial-La_Pistola_Piadosa

Every once in a while, an album comes along that changes everything. It’s an album that inspires other albums, and dynamic shifts in tastes and approach throughout a sector of music. Slackeye Slim’s El Santo Grial, La Pistola Piadosa is one of those albums. It is a masterpiece, exquisitely produced, arranged, and performed.

Dick Dale, El Santo Grial La Pistola Piadosa, Graham Lindsey, Johnny Cash, Slackeye Slim

June 17, 2011

Top Songs of 2011 So Far

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As hard as I am on albums and artists, I am double hard on songs. An album can have it’s low points, a song can’t. And just like with the Best 2011 Albums So Far, the songs so far in 2011 present a weak field. But there a few good ones worth noting from Jason Isbell, James Hunnicutt, Jimbo Mathus, Amanda Shires, Austin Lucas, and Rachel Brooke.

Amanda Shires, Austin Lucas, James Hunnicutt, Jason Isbell, Jimbo Mathus, Little Lisa Dixie, Rachel Brooke

June 14, 2011

Song Review – Amanda Shires “Ghost Bird”

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Great songs are able to have universal appeal by the message of the song morphing to fit one’s unique life experience. In “Ghost Bird”, this isn’t just an attribute of the song, it is the foundation the song is built from. “Ghost Bird” is a progressive, new-school country roots-based song that starts with an ambient music bed, similar to how the songs on Emmylou Harris’s album Wrecking Ball are constructed.

Amanda Shires, Emmylou Harris, Ghost Bird, Jason Aldean, Jason Isbell, Justin Townes Earle, Tammy Wynette, Thrift Store Cowboys

June 11, 2011

Top Albums of 2011 So Far

Trigger Reviews 63 Comments

austin-lucas-a-new-home-in-the-old-world

Well, we’ve just about reached the half way point of 2011, and let me level with you folks, so far this has been a down year for music. Yes, there’s been a few good projects and some surprises as well, but generally speaking it’s been pretty bleak compared to 2010, which was such a bumper year for music.

Austin Lucas, Caitlin Rose, Gillian Welch, Hellbound Glory, Jimbo Mathus, Left Lane Cruiser, Little Lisa Dixie, Lone Wolf, Pokey LaFarge, Rachel Brooke, Scott H. Biram, Shooter Jennings, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Ted Russell Kamp, Wanda Jackson, William Elliot Whitmore

June 6, 2011

Album Review – Jimbo Mathus “Confederate Buddha”

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Confederate Buddha is yet another exercise in what Jimbo Mathus does best: Delving auspiciously into various styles of classic American music, while blurring the lines between them and injecting his deep-rooted Mississippi blood. It continues and perpetuates the music mythos of Mathus as a genuine student and steward of American roots music, and a Mississippi and National treasure.

Confederate Buddha, Jimbo Mathus, Squirrel Nut Zippers

June 1, 2011

Movie Review – “Bloodworth”

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On paper, this movie had so much promise: an all-star country cast, a critically-acclaimed novel Provinces of Night to cull a screenplay from, and the omnipresent T Bone Burnett presiding over the music presentation. However Bloodworth falls into the classic dilemma of the movie adapted from a novel trying to develop characters and deep, intertwined story lines in the time it takes to munch down a jumbo tub of pop corn.

Bloodworth, Dwight Yoakam, Hank III, Hillary Duff, Kris Kristofferson, Last Rites of Ransom Pride, Ray Wylie Hubbard, T Bone Burnett, Tonya Watts, Val Kilmer

May 29, 2011

Live Review – Revival Festival w/ Hank III & Horton Heat

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2011’s installment of The Revival Festival in Austin, TX by many measurables was a rousing success. Putting together the headliners of Hank Williams III and The Reverend Horton Heat, they created a festival that didn’t appeal to just one demographic, and they were rewarded by the biggest attendance The Revival Fest has seen. Revival Fest also facilitated May 28th being officially deemed “Rockabilly Revival Day” in Austin, TX by the mayor.

BR549, Brian Setzer, Gary Lindsay, Hank III, Johnny Hiland, Lee Rocker, Little Lisa Dixie, Liz Sloan, Matt Hole, The Chop Tops, The Hillbilly Hellcats, The Stray Cats, Two Cow Garage, Wayne Hancock

May 19, 2011

Album Review – Ted Russell Kamp’s ‘Get Back to the Land’

Trigger Reviews 33 Comments

If country music was like old-school wrestling (and now that I think about it, it kind of is in a bad way) then Ted Russell Kamp would be one of the good guys. Possibly best known as “Shooter Jennings’ bass player”, this moniker does little justice to the breath of Ted’s talents as a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and songwriter. The strength of Kamp’s music is his songwriting, and his voice.

Shooter Jennings, Ted Russell Kamp

May 16, 2011

Weber’s Deck Illustrates Community Through Music

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Like I always say, music is just the excuse. Saving Country Music is about people and community. And I can’t think of a better example to illustrate how you can create community through music than Weber’s Deck, the brain child of Casey Weber, who lives in the small town of French Lake, Minnesota, pop. 22. A few years ago Casey started a seasonal, weekly event

Casey Weber, Charlie Parr, Weber's Deck

May 11, 2011

Movie Review – “Crazy Again” Starring Dale Watson

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The best way to describe Crazy Again is an “accidental documentary”. Released in 2006, but only screened at a few film festivals, and to my knowledge never made available until recently through Amazon’s streaming video service, the film follows Dale Watson on a tour to Atlanta and back, and then features an interview with him in New Mexico where he describes in great detail a period of his life where he goes through a mental collapse and a spiritual rebirth.

Andy Gibson, Crazy Again, Dale Watson, Donnie Knutson, Hank III, Joe Buck, Ray Benson, Zalman King

May 11, 2011

Song Review – Eric Church’s “Homeboy”

Trigger Reviews 66 Comments

But as much as Eric Church is a problem, the bigger systemic problem throughout the country is the hip hop culture infecting small towns to the point where you can’t walk into a local IGA without stumbling over a bunch of corn fed boys with their straight brimmed hats on sideways and their pants around their ankles. For years popular culture and even politics has been preaching that people from the country are “backwoods” . . .

Eric Church, Garth Brooks, Homeboy, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson

May 6, 2011

Album Review – Jason Isbell “Here We Rest”

Trigger Reviews 21 Comments

The propensity of the Drive By Truckers to get political on your ass, and just a general “like but not love” feeling I’ve had for their music over the years means I really don’t have a dog in the race when it comes to the whole Jason Isbell vs. Drive by Truckers tilt that’s been going on since he left the band a few years ago. When I saw him perform many of the songs from Here We Rest live at South by Southwest…

Don Was, Drive By Truckers, Here We Rest, Jason Isbell, Justin Townes Earle, NPR, Old Crown Medicine Show, Tom Waits

May 3, 2011

Book Review: Family Tradition: Three Generations of Hank

Trigger Reviews 47 Comments

If you’re looking for a work that for the first time zooms out and looks at how tragedy, women, addiction, fatherhood, and music have played out as recurring themes in these three men’s lives, and how they all intertwine, Family Tradition, Three Generations of Hank Williams should be right in your wheelhouse.

Family Tradition Three Generations of Hank Williams, Hank III, Hank Jr., Hank Williams, Susan Masino

April 29, 2011

Review – Micah Schnabel “When The Stage Lights Go Dim”

Trigger Reviews 24 Comments

Schnabel has the bravery to delve to places in the human soul most folks are way too afraid to go; the shit that we all push down and compartmentalize in ourselves, the ugly parts and the fears that we are unwilling to acknowledge. That stuff is Micah’s commodity. He expels it into a big bucket, and then with wide, careless swaths, paints huge, chaotic landscapes with it…

Justin Townes Earle, Micah Schnabel, Possessed by Paul James, Roger Alan Wade, SXSW, Two Cow Garage, When The Stage Lights Go Dim

April 25, 2011

Album Review – Hellbound Glory’s “Scumbag Country”

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Old Highs and Hellbound came into my music world at the same time, so attention for their first major release from 2008, Scumbag Country, got pushed aside for the more up-to-date project. But having recently seen the band at South by Southwest, it spurned me to go back and really delve into the recorded versions of these songs. And I dare say, as much as I’ve showered Old Highs with praise, Scumbag Country might even be better…

Hellbound Glory, Jerry Reed, Scumbag Country, Waylon Jennings

April 19, 2011

Marty Stuart Is Saving Country Music (live review)

Trigger Reviews 31 Comments

For all the harmonizing and gospel and good old-time vibes, the heart of the Marty Stuart show is still high-octane, Outlaw-era, rock n’ roll-inspired hard driving country music. This is what Marty Stuart is doing. He’s slinging guitars, he’s kicking ass, and he is doing it with class. If anybody, no matter what stripes they wear, walks out of a Marty Stuart show shrugging their shoulder with a “meh” attitude, they don’t deserve the right to have an opinion.

Earl Poole Ball, Hank III, Jamey Johnson, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Marty Stuart, Ralph Mooney, Rascal Flatts, Travis Tritt

April 15, 2011

RSD Preview – Vinyl Review – Joe Buck / Flat Tires Split 7″

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I’m not one to chase every single limited-release 45 rpm put out by my favorite bands–that can get expensive quite quickly–but since we are nearing Record Store Day where the 7″ limited-release reigns supreme, and this little gem was thrown in my lap, I thought I would tell you about it’s virtues, and by proxy, the virtues of the single-sized vinyl format for those still perplexed why technology has regressed to move forward.

Antiseen, Flat Tires, Joe Buck, Record Store Day

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