Meanwhile, here are seven CD reviews that have been culled from the herd.  There’ll be more in the next post.

The number one single on the Hicks with Sticks hit parade is ”Talk, Talk, Talkin’ on the Phone,” from Big Lou’s CD, Big Lou’s Back, not that she ever went away.  An accordion muscle pose of Big Lou’s actual, physical back is what the gag’s about.  It’s no gag that the band had outgrown its beginnings as Big Lou’s Polka Casserole. After all, how many polka bands have a steel guitar (David Phillips), an electric bass (David Golea), and no tuba. The CD is delightful mix of styles starting with the sultry “Forbidden Love,” followed by an instrumental mash-up of the Israeli folk chestnut “Hava Nagila” and the Who’s “Pinball Wizard.”  They call it “Who-va Nagila.”  There is even a jaunty little “Blitzkrieg Bop.”  This one of those rare CDs where the unlikeliest songs can find their way into one’s head three days after they’ve been played.

Big Lou’s Back‘s two C/W songs are among its many strong tracks.  One, “Were Not the Jet Set,” is a duet that John Prine and Iris Dement put on the map.  The other is “Talk, Talk, Talkin’ on the Phone,” a 21st century take on Merle Travis’ and Tex Williams’ “Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette” which was first written, mainly, by Travis, and a hit for Williams in 1947.  It was heresy to criticize smokers back then when people could, and did, smoke anywhere and everywhere, and 9 out of 10 doctors preferred Chesterfields.  Big Lou’s update tackles on the ultimate 21st century intrusion: the cell phone.  “There’s a special place in Hell/If you don’t put down that cell/If you keep on yack, yack, yacking on the phone.”  Here’s the video!

Christina “Kit” Lopez willed Kit and the Branded Men into existence and hasn’t looked back.  It’s easy to forget how young she and her first band are.  Now, four years down the line, they’ve put out an EP, played stages all over California, and have their first full length CD.  They’ve also made a lot of friends along the way and managed to find room for quite a lot of them on the CD.  Guitar hero Jinx Jones joins keyboard master Carl Sonny Leyland on “Hey Baby.”  Michael Montalto (Red Meat), Mitch Polzak (Royal Deuces), Dave Zirbel (Jessie Harris Band), trumpeter Rob Dehlinger, keyboardist about town Eric Metzger, the versatile Billy “Long Head” Wilson, and songwriter Danny Santos (Sweet ‘n’ Lo’s) all gave it up for one track or another.  Kit wrote most of the songs, with her musical partner Glen Earl Brown Jr. contributing lyrics to a few of them.  The instrumentation is strong, as it naturally would be from hese players, and the songs themselves echo the bars of Bakersfield in days of yore.

It’s good to see KBM live, particularly at their monthly shows at Speisekammer in Alameda where one never knows who might stop by to play.  The essence of their live show can be see in this video montage where they were joined by with Dave Gonzales (Paladins, Stone River Boys) at this year’s Ink & Iron.

The Noe Valley Farmers Market CD is a 16-track mixture of folk, old-time, bluegrass, country and pop compiled by Lucky from the band They Call Me “Lucky”.  Established bands like the Shut-Ins, Bell Monroe and her Brewglass Boys, and Grizzly Peak have played the NVFM, but they are the exception.  Typical are bands that are works in progress.  There are bands that will do daytime, tip jar gigs without PA and where children make chalk drawings on the tarmac next to the band.  Lucky wasn’t exactly shopping uptown for these tracks, which tend to be home-grown.

“Nerd Love,” where Renee de la Prade sings about being turned on by guys clued into scientific naturalism, is the best of the bunch.  Topics like the Big Bang, nano-technology, molecular biology and particle accelerators are what float her boat, ”Clever conversation can conclude in copulation.  Nerd love! Nerd love! Nerd love!”  Tom Huber (Burning Embers, Earl Brothers) turns in a remarkable instrumental version of the country standard “Home on the Range.”  His understated, yet intricate arrangement makes this “Home on the Range” one you really want to listen to.  Mick Schaffer‘s down and dirty blues track (produced by Danny Allen of the High Flying Horses) is another highlight.  The Tumbleweed Wanderers‘ “Take It Back” provides a nice taste of them performing as an acoustic quartet.  The real Tumbleweed Wanderers are an electric 5-piece, with a dead-on three-man front line in Zak Mandel-Romanni, Jeremy Lyon and Robert Fidel.  There is a welcoming variety in their California-rooted indie-rock sound, they have great stage chemistry, strong songs, and plenty of well-placed youthful energy.   Mandell-Romanni and keyboardist Patrick Monaco both celebrated their 21st birthdays at the band’s Bottom of the Hill EP release party on November 25th, and Lyon, ahem, is past high school.  The other twelve songs are there, they don’t cost any extra, and can even be hiding bands like The SHE’S (yep, the capitals are theirs) who could, in fact, come climbing up a musical ladder near you.

Home Fires, the newest from Loretta Lynch, draws on the band’s talents for songs about despair (“Someone You Used to Know”, “What Can I Say”), tongue-in-cheek (“Baby Made 1,2,3″, “I Need You”), and tongue-in-cheek songs about despair (“Indicator”, Farewell Party”).  They also cover the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and The Ramrods’ hit “Ghost Riders in the Sky” for good measure.  There’s no shortage of three-part harmony from Heather Davison, Val Esway and Ari Fellows-Mannion who front this alt-country quintet.  In fact, they probably should have varied their arrangements so there’s less three-part harmony throughout Home Fires, but that’s a minor point.  The fact is they all write and sing like the three perfect angels they’re not.  The Bay Area now has the makings for an entire night of grievous angels in triplicate if a Bootcuts/Loretta Lynch/Yard Sale show ever came together.

Eight years in the making, The Real Sippin’ Whiskeys Golden Burley was released just as the band ended its thirteen-year run.  They really did play their CD release party and farewell show at Thee Parkside on November 6th.  The CD stays true to the band’s peaceful, easy California sound that’s as much wistful folk as country.  This is a band that played rarely and never did much to promote itself.  There’s no drama to their breakup; it’s just that the members now live too far apart to carry on.  Band leader Robbie Thayer, who lives in the Sacramento Valley, plans to join another SacVal band, the Bottom Dwellers.  The more lively Bottom Dwellers can give Thayer the punch he needs while he provides them the front-man they’ve needed since their former leader Adam Hancock moved out of state.

HWS doesn’t usually review bluegrass or out of towners’ CDs, but there are two that deserve an honorable mention.  One is Long Lonesome Day from local bluegrassers Bell Monroe and her Brewglass Boys.  This band has never been content with traditional bluegrass, and their willingness to push the bluegrass envelope is their most endearing trait.  For example, half a century of overplayed Beatles songs has left most people sick of them.  But BMBB pushed right ahead with a bluegrass version of “One after 909″ which is one of the few Beatles tunes that hasn’t been done to death.  This video of it manifests the band’s unique, higher level of bluegrass consciousness.

Texan Lucky Tubb is the nephew of Ernest who had hits like “Walking the Floor over You,” “Waltz across Texas” and “Thanks a Lot.”  It’s a nice pedigree to have, but Lucky is his own man, and one with a more up-tempo approach to country than his famous, western swing-minded uncle.  He toured through SF on November 19th, playing a very early Saturday night show at the unlikely Brick and Mortar which is better known for Saturday night hip-hop shows.  His honky-tonkin’ CD Del Gaucho with The Modern Day Troubadores has been getting too much air time around HWS Central not to tell you about it.

The instrumentals represent a wide range of styles, the first of which, “How High the Moon”, is a lively, jazzy tune in the style of the jazz trio that the versatile Mr. Jones also leads. Next, the title track is a rocker in the spirit of Duane Eddy or Link Wray, and it simultaneously rips, runs, embraces and soars. “Vibro Erotica” is a luscious lounge track, while “Prairie Dog Daddy” is a western swing track; both of which are accented with Jinx Jones’ own “touches”. “Roma’s Song” is a soft, almost dream-like guitar study. These five tracks cover considerable ground, ranging as they do between jazz, rock, lounge, western swing and romance. Taken together, they are their own CD; one that’s titled All the Different Kinds of Fun in My Guitar. But nobody will buy that CD, and there was no place else to put them, so they’ve been scattered, something like big league pitcher’s change-ups, throughout Rip and Run.

The songs with the words and stuff constitute a fine honky-tonk mix all written by Jones who usually depends on the lyrics of others in songs he covers. Sin prevails throughout. “On Parole and Out of Control” is about a gal who, barely out of her orange jumpsuit, is already looking for trouble. “Never Live It Down” mentions local watering holes like the Saddle Rack, the 23 Club, the El Rio and the Shamrock, as starting points for drinking to excess then running afoul of bouncers and police officers from Fremont to ‘Frisco. And what would a honky-tonk record be without a song like “Doghouse”, where our hero brings on a storm of girlfriend trouble after sidetracking himself into a house of ill repute? Coming home reeking of liquor and cheap perfume hath never the fair heart of a lady won, not by a long shot.

The subject of sin in honky-tonk has been so thoroughly explored that it should not come as a surprise to find that some tracks are derivative. “No Beer in Heaven” doesn’t add much to “In Heaven there Is No Beer”, and “What Makes You Think I’m Lonesome” has been cloned from the “She Thinks I Still Care” extended family of songs. Yet even when the lyrics drift into the tried and true, there’s always something happening on the guitar to recapture the listener’s interest.

Jinx Jones’ CDs are about the guitar as the instrumentals on this one have done their best to explain. The best advice is to approach Rip and Run with a mind open to exploration rather than closed by preconceived expectations. Jones has set his own bar and leaves it to the listener to discover where he’s placed it.

Lost Weekend, the band, built its name by covering songs by Bob Wills, Cindy Walker, the Light Crust Doughboys and like-minded western swing pioneers. Don Burnham, the band’s leader, has turned his attention to writing his own material, often updating the topical content while keeping the music true to its roots. “Apple and Google and Gold,” the release that launched the Don Burnham era, is a case in point. It’s a cowboy’s lament about sinking one’s life savings into Enron, dot-coms and sub-prime mortgages instead of investments that soared rather than sunk. Bob Wills never even wrote about the Great Depression, where Don Burnham is ready to face 21st century economics lock, stock and 401K.  Video: Apple and Google and Gold.  “Ex Factor,” a heartbreaking tale of woe about having your date walk off with her ex-whatever, is also better suited to our times than times gone by.

Write what you know is the CD’s credo, and this leads to tunes like “I Dreamed Count Basie was a Cowboy” and “Go, Man, Go,” which are a virtual lessons in how to arrange a western swing band; “Emmett” (Miller, 1900-1962) is a history about the man who, as Don Burnham and Wikipedia tell it, was the first to make a country jazz band swing; “A Dog’s Life” is an operator’s manual for living like a dog in the positive, rather than the pejorative, sense; and “Driving Lesson,” is exactly what its title claims. (The mystery question about this song is, “Did cars really have seat-belts to fasten when young Donald learned to drive?”)

Taken as a whole the musicianship is top shelf as decades in the business have brought Don some highly talented friends. The songs move easily between swing, bop, boogie, and ballads combined with wink of humor, a dash of life, a touch of romance and a lot of fun.

Watch the HWS calendar for CD release parties coming soon.

First, the dude packs the riffs to freshen up any cover tune.   “Snake Man,” one of the strongest cuts on a CD full of them, could have been a straight-up, four-chord chucka-chucka rocker, but Zaentz opts to pick rather than strum, laying in high, clean notes that swarm around each other like speedy little bees.

And who arranged these songs?   Who managed the song selection so well by favoring under-covered oldies and even freshening up “This Magic Moment,” a hit for The Drifters and (sort of) Lou Reed?  Who did the artwork?  Who produced the CD?  Who produced the BDF’s “Drive Like Lightening, Crash Like Thunder” video featuring old modifieds peeling down long-forgotten pavement?  We’ve probably missed a few other talents, but whatever they are, they’re all in a day’s work for Go-to-Guy Jonnie Z.

Vocalist Flash Rickets has never sounded better thanks in part to modern recording.  Lead singers are at the mercy of the elements in live performance: wonky PAs, stoned sound guys, loud drunks, and urban traffic can do more than make a few notes quiver; but all is clear inside the studio and if you don’t like it, you can always re-do it.  Flash gets his Elvis on during “Friend of the Devil,” he gets his Johnny Cochran on while covering Johnny Cash‘s “(Move on) Down the Line,” and he croons like Frankie on “Going Down to Big Mary’s.”

Neither “Drive Like Lightening, Crash Like Thunder” or “Big Red Rocket of Love,” two songs they do very well live, made it to the CD.  Perhaps they’re being saved for the BDF’s Greatest Hits comp?  Otherwise, with re-invention being the step-mother of necessity and all, the boys in the band have every reason to feel good about their debut CD.

Video: “Drive Like Lightening, Crash Like Thunder”
BDF on MySpace and Facebook.

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.