Whisky Richards Debut EP

Chase Christie, braintrust for the Whisky Richards, gets to have it both ways.   He wants the band to sound good and have fun, and their self-titled EP/CD does just that.

Kicking off with a country-rockin’ working man’s anthem, “Steel Drivin’ Man,” the band fires on all of its six cylinders — drums, bass, rhythm, lead guitar, harmonica and fiddle — to remind us that the workin’ man “don’t get no breakfast in bed.”  Things slow down for “Kentucky Don’t You Know,” an idealized snapshot of the Bluegrass State, then they pick right back up with the easy-rollin’, self-explanatory “Hard Drinking without You,” followed by the instrumental “Curley’s Dream,” and closing with the fifth and final song, another drinkin’ tune called “Bottle Gone Dry.”

This is everything a first EP should be.  It showcases the band’s bopping country side while providing space for a ballad, instrumental and opening rocker.  They can be proud of this calling card.

“Hard Drinking without You” video.

The songs are mainly coves like Buck Owens‘ “Cadillac Lane” which jump-starts the CD, and all have been reworked in the band’s style.  They are also songs, with the possible exception of “The Wayward Wind,” that have not been over-covered, so this CD is less of a rehash and more of a “snakeoil confection” to coin a term.  Patsy Cline and others have done “The Wayward Wind” as a ballad; Big Ben and the band do it as a dance tune.

Big Ben Beuttner handles most of the vocals, yet he has made room for the band’s other singer Adrienne Pfeiffer who delivers on “Three Cigarettes and an Ashtray,” one of the CDs two ballads along with “Abilene.”  Jennifer Jolly and David Phillips bring great presence to the tracks on piano and lap steel respectively, as does the Snakeoil horn section.  Ben’s got himself a big band and he’s a-gonna use it.

The packaging is “information impaired” as their site which is somewhat limiting because it would be nice to credit the fine production that went into these songs.  No matter, it’s the music that counts here and count it does.

Vinyl is the only thing missing in the authenticity department of their CD, Behind the Barn with the B Stars, but this is a small point.  The sepia and Sun Records motif of the artwork, the pilgrimage to Wally Sound recording studio in Oakland, and a producer like Lee Jeffriess (Big Sandy, Johnny Dilks) are enough to tell us that something traditional is afoot.  Think Lucky Stars for a contemporary reference or Lefty Frizzell for an older one.

There are minimal present-day references among the original songs by band leader Greg Yanito and bass man Eric Reedy.   One such is “Ink Free Baby of Mine” which celebrates untattooed women, a theme that would have never occurred to Frizzell.  Guest appearances by keyboard maestro Carl Sonny Leyland liven up four tracks, particularly “Pretty Baby” which introduces a tasty power boogie boost into the midsection of the CD.  “Trouble Free State of Mind” is a standout track that celebrates California, and it’s a tune where Yanito wanders dangerously close to a full-blown yodel.  Perhaps there are yodels and more tricks of the voice waiting for the next CD; that’s the promise of things to come from this one.

The playing is the CD’s strongest suit thanks to a bare minimum of studio and production frou-frou which freed the band to be itself.  The arrangements are clean, the presentation is straightforward and the CD’s release was timed to be harvested at the band’s current peak.  It’s a tasty plum well worth the pickin’.
MySpace
Video

The Hustlers pull it off by calling reinforcements into the studio.   Chris Binnings the lead from Stompy Jones adds his voice to “Let’s Rock and Roll” and the piano is supplied by renowned SoCal keyboardist Carl Sony Leyland to rachet up the romp factor even further.  Local keyboardist-at-large Noam Eisen plays on Charlie Rich’s “Right Behind You Baby” and a Hustlers’ original “One More Night.”  Pedal steel, back up singers, tenor sax and an accordion are scattered among the other tracks to provide variation while staying true to their boppin’ roots.

The 14 tracks are split between covers and originals, and interestingly the covers are consistently stronger than the originals, no doubt because tunes like The Searchers “Wow, Wow Baby” from 1958, have had 52 years of seasoning where the Hustlers, who played their first show in December of 2008, have barely had 52 weeks to season their material.   For example, “DeMarco’s 23,” a tribute to the venerable Brisbane honky-tonk, could benefit from something, perhaps more emotion or more mystery, to arouse the listener’s curiosity in a way that,  say, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” does.   Their sexy “Cream Puff,” on the other hand, could never have been sung in the 1950s, but in 2010 Señor Castro, the song’s subject matter expert, can dive into it head first.  If you ears, feet and nostalgia genes are looking for a favor take them for a spin Across the Dial.
HRH site
MySpace
Video – “Wow, Wow Baby”

In Songs from the Stoop,

It’s a contradiction to be sure, but even the downer songs like musing about hard times in “Church Street Blues” or their cover of the Rolling Stones’ maudlin “Dead Flowers” manage to lift themselves above their subject matter thanks in part to Philip Brezina’s fiddle and Alex Morrison’s banjo licks which reinforce that even the worst of things aren’t as bad as they might seem.  “Pine Box” is about a low as the Brothers get, but once again simple banjo chords offset the mournful musical saw of guest musician Tobias Weinberger. Even the drowning suicide of a heartbroken swain in “Down to the River” gives the listener pause to think that the guy’s troubles are beneath the golden waves in the just way that he wanted them to be.

The celebration begins with the lead track “Trippin’ on Down the Mountain” a song about what could have been a simple hike in the woods that is so infused with beatific imagery that the listener becomes part of the experience. And most of these songs are about personal experience: where I was, how I felt, who I met and how I did what I did, but this CD is far from self-absorption.  It’s more like a broadcast where The Brothers Comatose produce the programming and the listener can do with it what he or she likes.

The CD does flag somewhat toward the end, but it remains a fine start from one of the most enjoyable Bay Area bands to have emerged in the last few years.  They’ll be at Amnesia in SF on April 10th and if that show is anything like their CD release  party held at Cafe du Nord a few weeks ago it’s not to be missed.   Site. MySpace.

Freight Train Boogie

This CD had to have been assembled by DJs.  It rolls like a big train over tracks that vary in tempo and style yet hang together as a compilation because it’s programmed like a radio show rather than just a bunch of tracks.

Dave Alvin, formerly of The Blasters; local bluegrass gal Laurie Lewis; former Marin songstress (now in Nashville) Audrey Auld; Texas songwriter Wayne “The Train” Hancock; and former Wayback now on his own Stevie Coyle are among the contributors.  FTB2 is noteworthy for bringing us talent that we might have missed like Hayes Carll’s “She Left Me for Jesus”.

“She says I should find him/and find peace at last
but if I ever find Jesus/I’m kickin’ his ass.”

Dave Alvin’s “It Don’t Make Sense (If You Can’t Make Peace)” adds social consciousness in the mix as does Peter Cooper’s “For Hank Aaron” which chronicles the prejudice Hammerin’ Hank dealt with while breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record (without steroids).

Some songs like Bill Kelly’s “20 Years in the Big City” and Slaid Cleaves‘ “Tumbleweed Stew” are for fun.  Others like Sam Baker’s haunting “Who’s Gonna Be Your Man” and Sharon Allen’s “Do-Si-Do” aim for the heart.  Other’s like Bruce Robinson’s “Born to Roll” just rock out.  It all adds up to a compilation built for Americana fans by Americana fans, and ain’t that a good thing?  Roll on, big freight train, roll on.

Shovelman

A marriage between folk and electronica was destined, so if Shovelman hadn’t come along someone would have had to invent him.

Why “Shovelman?”  Well, because he plays a snow shovel rigged to be a combination fret-less guitar and percussion instrument.  Said shovel feeds its sounds into an array of samplers, compressors and other foot-operated gizmos to put the tronic in folktronica.

Every song is mixed from scratch, starting with a simple beat which Shovelman will sample and build upon while layer after layer becomes less folk and more tronic.  The result is an interesting melange of bluesman Robert Johnson, beatnik poetry, no wavers Pere Ubu, Nick Cave and off-beat rapper MC 900′ Jesus.

Hicks with Sticks saw Shovelman at a recent Amnesia show and it was clear that there would be difficulty translating his playing into a sound file because a good part of the entertainment is watching him craft the songs on the spot.  The Dirty West CD would have been helped by a video track.  Come to think of it, this review will make more sense with a video track like “Excavating the Future.”  Come for the folk, stay for the tronic.

Click to watch a grown man play a snow shovel.

The CD opens with a few mid-tempo chords that power into a pedal down rocker called “Kitten” — a take no prisoners tribute to the long clawed, human variety.   Nettie loves her some cat songs, including “Cougar.”  “She’s older than your mother and all of her friends.”

And, to make sure that she’s not just a one cat lady, there are plenty of mean woman without cat songs to go around: “Rodeo Show”, “I’m the little filly with all the brawn”; “Knockout Punch”,  “You done me wrong got what you deserved”; “Wrecking Ball”, “Your happy home, I’ll take it all” and “Boss Lady”, “I’ll pull your strings/I’ll make you crawl/You can’t say ‘no, please, stop.’”

There are other themes near to the hearts of greasers and betties like love (“Electrified), hypocrisy (“Preacher Man”), lying (“Word to the Wise”), heartbreak (“100 Miles of Heartbreak”), and of course drinking (“Getting Wild”).

The CD’s 12 original songs seem to push against the boundaries of rockabilly whether its with harmonics here, a drum solo there, backup singers elsewhere or Ms. Hammar sounding at times like Rosie Flores, JoAnn Campbell or Marti Brom.  Whatever the production issues, Motels, Gas and Beer was worth the wait.

See a Quarter Mile Combo video at \”Mean Man Blues\” – Quarter Mile Combo.

Porkchop Express - Fault Lines and Good Times

When it comes to sound, Porkchop Express doesn’t seem to catch many breaks at its live shows, and their CD release party for Fault Lines and Good Times was case in point.  It took place at the best dive bar in SF’s Financial District, Beale Street Bar & Grill, where the band, not necessarily well-rehearsed or entirely sober, played without luxuries like sound checks, monitors or a particularly music-friendly room.  As it’s been at shows past, the HWS Music Appreciation Team left wondering how the band, which has ranged from a 5-piece to an 8-piece, would sound with a decent mix.  Fault Lines and Good Times answered that question with two thumbs up.  Cowboy hats off to Giovanni Moro at Zoppa Studios for giving us a fighting chance to hear what their original songs are actually about.

The CD kicks off with “Banjolero,” a ballad where the bride-to-be confesses her outlaw past while the bachelor-soon-not-to-be explains he’s a marshal who’d been sent to bring her in.  Weak Spanish aside (she’s a bandolera), it’s an original look at the rocky road to marital bliss held in tension by confessions that take place at the altar in front of the priest, Jesus and guests.

Irony, tongue-in-cheek and veiled innuendo are mother’s milk to this band.  “Crop Circle Waltz” is a my-baby-done-left-me song where the heartbroken hillbilly at its center sees the UFO that’s just landed on his farm as an ideal escape from his misery.  “Well my space friends have come/Not a moment too soon/So I’ll just go and take/A flyin’ fuck at the moon.”  Now that’s poetry.

“Christicles” is The Bible according to Porkchop Express which has a kinder, gentler approach to our peccadilloes like sex and blasphemy than the God of the Old Testament.  When it comes to forgiveness, Porkchop heels closer to the Laddy-o than the Daddy-o, with a notable exception for cheatin’ women!  Apparently she didn’t learn her lesson the first time in “I Shot My Wife (Again).”

It’s these original twists on familiar themes that bring the listener back to the CD for repeated plays.  Many of the songs do not click on first listen but as we decipher them song by song, the porkchopian gestalt begins to permeate our consciousness like the afterglow of a hayloft tryst.

Pork on down to hear them at the Hotel Utah on October 16th.

Officially an acoustic trio, Yard Sale has added some studio horsepower, including a harp, to give their second CD a full band sound.  All three – Melanie DiGiovanni (guitar), Denise Funari (rhythm guitar), and Jill Olson (bass) – write, sing, and put their own style into the songs and they cover three tunes.  One might expect a mish-mash with all this going on, but fast or slow, light or heavy, the songs play well with one another.

The CD is rich in its variety of inputs, yet remarkably seamless.  They skimmed the cream off their abundant material, invited a few pals into the studio (trusty Wally’s Sound), and developed a country and pop flavor that is special to Yard Sale.  They are as country as they want to be on Tom T. Hall’s classic “That’s How I Got to Memphis” or their own “Talkin’ Whiskey,” but they can also be the envy of the Shirelles on that girl group’s hit “Baby It’s You,” or with their own girl group remix of the Rolling Stones’ “Out of Time.”

Catch them at one of their potluck Sundays at SF’s Rite Spot, or at a CD party near you, or hear them now on YardSpace.