Live Review - 1/26/2010 Railroad House at The Cantab

Last night I saw the bluegrass band Railroad House at The Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. The Cantab has the most well-known weekly bluegrass show in the Boston area, and each Tuesday night they get two bands to play upstairs. Railroad House was the opener, and very impressive. Sometimes the opening acts are a little raw, but Railroad House was extremely polished. I especially liked their sense of dynamics; they would save their beautiful harmonies for choruses or key emotional points in the songs. Rhythm guitarist Rich Piccaretto and mandolinist Jonathan Campbell traded off lead vocals, and Campbell, and fiddler Larry DeJong especially distinguished themselves on breaks, with DeJong throwing in deft tremolos and Campbell moving easily between blues licks, classic bluegrass breaks, and even their bossa nova-tinged finale. Bass player Mike Foster provided high energy and bass lines. Randy Batson, on lead guitar, and Charlie Downey, switching between banjo and Dobro, round out the sextet.

There were a sprinkling of instrumental numbers in the set, but vocal-driven tunes are where this band shines, whether plucking a couple tunes from Steve Earle's The Mountain (the title track and "Texas Eagle"), serving up a standard like "Blue Ridge Mountain Home," or adapting a country tune like "Rough Around the Edges." All in all, it was entertaining, diverse, and impressive - maybe next time they're at Cantab, they'll be a headline act.

Lightnin' Hopkins - Mojo Hand

I love Blues music. I only have a handful of Blues records, and I don't listen to them terribly often, but whenever I do, or whenever I'm at a bar or restaurant playing the blues, I feel a visceral change come over me. My friends call it my "blues face." There's no other form of music that hits me in quite the same way.

A few of my favorite artists (Townes Van Zandt and Deer Tick, to name two) list Sam "Lightnin' Hopkins" as among their biggest influences, but the boxed set Mojo Hand is my first exposure to his work. I knew of Lightnin' Hopkins as a guitar blues master, but I was unprepared for his range. He employs pre-rock 'n roll riffs ("Coffee Blues"), folks fingerpicking ("Shaggy Dad") and even a couple piano romps ("Los Angeles Boogie"). Vocals range from storytelling (Mr. Charlie Part I) to . Lyrical content spans from thinly-veiled euphemisms ("Play With Your Poodle") to gospel ("Needed Time"). Covers, originals, electric, acoustic, solo, with accompanyment - Po' Lightnin' can do it all. The best, though - the ones that give me the blues face - are the unaccompanied electric tracks where he alternates vocal lines with guitar riffs. "Automobile" is a fine example. These tracks make me feel like I'm in a smoky bar drinking whisky. It's no mistake that many of the images in the liner notes show Lightnin' with a cigarette or a flask - this is largely music from That Place.

This compilation is sadly out of print. You can find used copies on Amazon (below). I got my copy at local used record store Nuggets. There are many other collections of his work, but Mojo Hand's 41 tracks collect a great cross-section of work.

Buy it from Amazon:
Mojo Hand: The Anthology

Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy

Rating: B-

I'm really tempted to write a one-line review here: "it's a Built To Spill album." If you're a fan of the Pacific Northwest-based quintet, you know what that means: spacey, skilled guitar solos that are allowed to breathe over long tracks, complementing late-night-stoned lyrics sung in Doug Martsch's best Neil Young impression. If you're not a fan, you know what that means also: go-nowhere meandering guitar solos bridging sometimes-cryptic-sometimes-asinine lyrics sung in Martsch's nasal whine. They have some of the sound expansions you might expect - there's a little horn part in the strong "Life's a Dream," but it's just background over another tight guitar solo.

I love Built To Spill, but let's be honest: they've been coasting on the same formula for a while. There's a fine line between having "a distinctive sound" and having "all your songs sound the same," and BTS walks it. The amazing thing to me is how many guitar solos they have on each album, but it still doesn't get boring. "Hindsight" and album closer "Tomorrow" both feature short, simple filler riffs that are absolutely gorgeous. Just about every song allows room for Martsch's noodling, but the range from the slide guitar in "Nowhere Lullaby" to distorted bends in "Tomorrow" keeps him from repeating himself. The lyrics, on the other hand, are at times groan-inducing: "I come home to find you covered with ants / 'cause you're so sweet" he sings in opener "Aisle 13."

Built To Spill's magnum opus is still 1997's "Perfect From Now," with its dark motifs, spacey atmospherics, and haunting tone. Like just about every BTS album since, "There Is No Enemy" hits the high points, but without "Perfect From Now On's" consistency, the effect is greatly diminished. BTS is a band with a great ability to create atmosphere; it would be nice if they would create one and let us sit in it for an hour instead of jerking us in and out to show how much range they have. After all, at the end of the day, it just sounds like a Built To Spill album either way.

Buy from Amazon:
There Is No Enemy [Explicit]
Built To Spill Site

Genre Whores - Frequently Banned By Content Filters

Genre Whores describes their sound on their MySpace page as "Authentic New England Motor Folk." I think they sound like what would happen if Rhett Miller or John Joseph McCauley III decided to write songs like Nick Cave or Glenn Danzig but sing like Tom Waits. I'm a fan of all those musicians / acts, so you can imagine that I enjoy what Genre Whores are doing. The Worcester, MA - based trio combines their eclectic influences and styles with a dark folk sensibility - murder ballads updated for the modern age.

"Frequently Banned By Content Filters" is an eight-song EP available on at Genre Whores' live shows. The seven original tracks, from the breakneck stalker anthem "Chasing" to more country-inflected numbers "Light of Day" and "Southern Cross." The world painted by the lyrics of singer / guitarist Dave Leary is one peopled with sex, violence, obsession, crimes, and darkness. The one cover is "Safety in Numbers," a Joan Osborne (yes, she of the "One of Us" hit) song that morphs from girls-sitting-at-home-lamenting-their-broken-hearts to militants-holing-up-in-a-remote-bunker when delivered with Leary's growl. The EP is more fun than disturbing with Tom DuMont (bass) and Jim The Drummer (uh, drums) driving the songs with punk energy.

"Frequently Banned By Content Filters" is a fun debut. It's tough to predict what the Genre Whores might do next, it will surely be interesting, creepy, dark, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Genre Whores Site