Wilco - The Whole Love

There are two tracks that immediately stand out on Wilco's eighth and latest studio album, The Whole Love, and they stand out both for being terrific songs and also for being different from the rest of the album.  It seems a shame to write just one review and have my thoughts on those two songs jumbled up with my thoughts on the rest of the album, but what can you do?

Wilco has been called "The American Radiohead," a designation that lost any meaning a long time ago, but is strangely apt on album opener "The Art of Almost," which starts with feedback and skittering electronic percussion that could easily have been cribbed from any of Radiohead's recent effort.  Like "Ashes of American Flags," the opener to Wilco's magnum opus Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, "The Art of Almost" features cryptic lyrics sung understatedly in a catchy melody over a backdrop of disintegrating chaos.  Drums drop in and out, strings rise and fall, organ chords set a spare mood.  It's a great track ... but it's not really what The Whole Love is all about.

Album closer "One Sunday Morning" (enigmatically subtitled "Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend") is another great track.  It's a quiet tune, backed by an acoustic guitar riff with a mirrored piano line and delicate brushed percussion.  The song features one of singer / songwriter Jeff Tweedy's best vocal performances; it's understated but you can feel the emotion underlying it.  The lyrics are cryptic, evoking images of loss but not of grief, of skepticism but not of judgment, of nostalgia but not regret.  The song goes on for twelve minutes ("This is how I'll tell it / Oh, but it's long," Tweedy sings) and it has no chorus or bridge, but somehow it never gets old.  Again, it's a terrific track ... but it's not really what The Whole Love is about.

So what is The Whole Love about?  Simply put, it's the group's poppiest statement since Summerteeth. "Sunloathe" is the band's most Beatles-esque track, featuring harmonies on the chorus and some George-Harrison-style guitar.  The title track is a bouncy jaunt keyed by John Stirratt's groovy bass line.  (Stirratt is just a monster on this album; the bass sets the mood on each track, from the snaking groove of "Standing O" to the gentle country bump of "Black Moon" to the slides of "Born Alone.")  "Born Alone" features depressing existential lyrics set against an upbeat verse and an anthemic wordless chorus.  "Standing O" is rocking power pop in the traditional of some of Big Star's finest moments.  "Dawned On Me" features a bop-along chorus that rivals "Kamera" and "Heavy Metal Drummer" as one of Wilco's catchiest moments.  "The Whole Love" is a treat for anyone who enjoys pop, and it's nice to see they can still bring it when they go this route.

I'm a Wilco fan and have bought each of their albums.  This is their best effort since at least A Ghost Is Born, maybe since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and one of the best records of 2011.

Wilco official site

Still Lost Bird Music - August

The greatest songwriters in pop / rock history invariably are compared to poets.  Still Lost Bird Music (the pop project of composer Simon Fink) decided to take things one step further, drawing on centuries of public-domain poetry for the lyrics to his latest album, August.  While the album continues in the rich pop vein of Still Lost Bird Music's debut, Sargent Egyptian Girl, it also includes a number of folk elements: banjos, fiddles, and acoustic guitars people the album throughout, giving it a pastoral foundation that melds with the poetic lyrics.

August, like SLBM's debut, is full of gorgeous pop backdrops for Fink's voice.  In the brief opener, "Storm," the echo-y vocals come out of a gauzy haze of acoustic guitar and organ.  "Nightfall" is a slow, spare pop gem, with jangly guitar over chimes and the gentle beat of a bass and snare drum.  "Luke Havergal" is set against a twangy backdrop of banjo and mouth harp.  "A Garden By the Sea," maybe the album's best track, is a dark tune accentuated by a snaking electric guitar riff and an explosive harmonica solo.  At its worst moments, the music and words conspire to indulgence; "The Stolen Child" sounds like it was pulled from a musical, and the melodrama of "Intrigue" is a bit overwrought.  But at its best, August is like nothing else.  "Lament For the Makers" is a super-catchy pop tune with a chorus in Latin; who does that?

August is unique and challenging, but it's still a beautiful and engaging listen.  Not every track is a home run, but it's amazing that a project like this worked, and produced one of the best albums of 2011.

Still Lost Bird Music official site

Packway Handle Band - What Are We Gonna Do Now?

The Packway Handle Band totally won me over with their live show, so I picked up their most recent album, What Are We Gonna Do Now?  The group shows off some of the humor and energy that characterizes their live shows, but ultimately the album lacks something; the PHB is more suited to the live format.

The strongest track are those which feature the band's sense of humor.  "I'm Glad You've Got My Priorities So Straight" is a vitriolic masterpiece delivered in a completely deadpan manner.  "The Packway Handle Song," instead of revealing the secret of the band's name, takes glee in obscuring it further.  It also gets some digs in at Tennessee folks (the band is based in Athens, Georgia, home of UGA).  These songs are both written by fiddler Andrew Heaton, who also pens the title track, which closes the album and serves as kind of a roster for the band.  By this time, the schtick wore a little thin, and I was left wondering, "another novelty song?"

The band shares songwriting duties, and the other band members tend to play things a little more straight.  Mandolin player Michael Paynter contributes many of the tracks.  Opener "Walking Disaster" is almost emo in its self-deprecation, but some of the imagery couldn't help but make me chuckle: "I'm what the rubber-neckers are gawking at."  Classic.  Paynter's ballad "Tired" isn't as strong, dialing back the album's energy three-fourths of the way through.  The third songwriter is guitarist Josh Erwin, who contributes unremarkable instrumental "Horse vs. Technology" and the deliciously dark "Lord Baltimore," a kind of bluegrass heir to Nick Cave's creepy "Red Right Hand."  It's one of the album's best moments and shows a nice contrast to some of the group's lighter moments.

All in all, What Are We Gonna Do Now? is a decent album, with some standout tracks (Priorities, "Walking Disaster," "Lord Baltimore") alongside some more forgettable ones.  Definitely check those tracks out, and be sure to catch the Packway Handle Band if they come to your town.  The live show is killer.

Packway Handle Band official site

Del McCoury - Deeper Shade of Blue

Del goes emo.  Actually, Del is often kinda emo, but in this case he's making a whole album out of it.  This isn't a recent release - A Deeper Shade of Blue was released back in 1993 - but it's new to me, as they say.  Nobody epitomizes the high, lonesome sound better than Del McCoury, so this album largely choc-full of sad tunes is right in his wheelhouse.  There are fully five songs with the word "blue" in the title, so the album name is appropriate (though, oddly enough, son Ronnie takes the lead vocal on the title track).

Despite blue theme the band does get to show off its versatility, both in terms of the presentation of the songs and the sources of inspiration.  There's the requisite blazing Ronnie McCoury mandolin instrumental ("Quicksburg Rendezvous"), the weepy waltz ("More Often Than Once In a While"), and the propulsive opener "Cheek To Cheek With the Blues."  The band draws from rock (a terrific version of Jerry Lee Lewis' "What Made Milwaukee Famous"), country (Lefty Frizzell's "If You've Got the Money Honey"), and gospel ("I Know His Voice").  In a lot of ways, this is a paint-by-numbers Del McCoury album, but his is a group known more for delivery and passion than originality anyway.  Delivery and passion aren't a problem here; a great example is the tragic "Cold Cheater's Heart," where Del's mournful delivery is bolstered by atmospheric dobro.

Sure, the album does get blue at times, but there's always a bright moment around the corner, even when the lyrics are sad.  "I'm Lonely For My Only" is no cryin' in your beer tune; it's almost rock n' roll with bluegrass instruments, including a bluesy Ronnie McCoury mandolin solo that would make Keith Richards proud.  This is the great tension of bluegrass music; the high lonesome sound with the rhythm and blues backbeat.  Nobody hits that balance better than The Del McCoury Band.  This isn't their most perfect album, but it's plenty good.

Del McCoury Band official site

Della Mae - I Built This Heart

It's appropriate that this reviews follows my review of Greg Kot's Ripped, a book focused on how the Internet has changed the music business and giving examples of paths bands might take to get their music to fans in the Internet/MP3 era (and hopefully, make a bit of money in the process).  As I noted previously in this blog, Boston-based Della Mae used Kickstarter, a startup company that allows artists and entrepreneurs to raise funds directly from patrons or their potential audience, to fund the production and release of new album I Built This Heart.  Della Mae was able to self-release their album, raising almost $12000 from 240 backers (for rewards at various price points) and without giving up any artistic control to a record company or investor.  It will be interesting to see how many bands, especially in niche genres like bluegrass, opt for this sort of approach rather than the traditional route.

I would like to be post-feminist enough to make it through this review without mentioning that Della Mae is entirely composed of female musicians, but it really is core to their identity.  The cover songs on the album were both written by prominent female musicians - "Bowling Green" by Cousin Emmy, and "My Heart's Own Love" by Hazel Dickens, to whom the album was partially dedicated.  The guest stars - Laurie Lewis and Emma Beaton on harmony vocals, Alison Brown on banjo, and Brittany Haas on fiddle - are women as well.  But this ain't no knittin' circle - the characters peopling this album are strong, from the determined walker of "Down To You" to the burned out drunkard of "From the Bottle" to the late wanderer of "Sweet Verona."  There's also a sensuality to the lyrics, but it's more womanly than feminine - the besotted narrator of "The Most" wants to "make love with the windows open / So everyone will know."  No wilting violets, here.

The lyrics wouldn't have such weight if they weren't backed up by songwriter / guitarist Celia Woodsmith's powerhouse singing.  She's a dynamo, with range and passion, capable of cutting loose with a rock n' roll sensibility but also capable of subtlety.  A great example is "Aged Pine," the chorus of which gives the album its title.  The song is a slow waltz that demands both a real vulnerability - it was written during the terminal illness of Woodsmith's father - but a core of emotional strength; if the narrator's heart breaks, she'll "build it back again."  The rest of the band is up to the task of matching Woodsmith's intensity.  Kimber Ludiker is one of the feistiest fiddlers around.  Mandolin player Jenni Lyn Gardner and sometime flatpicker Courtney Hartman also display serious chops, and bass player Amanda Kowalski keeps the whole thing moving.

I Built This Heart is a terrific album, one of the best of the year, and you should pick it up if you like bluegrass, if you like rock, if you like strong female artists, or hell, if you just like music.

Della Mae official site
This review is based on a preview copy of I Built This Heart; the album is not yet available for general release.  Follow this blog or the band's official site for updates on its release.

Dolly Parton - The Grass Is Blue

Ten facts you probably don't know about Dolly Parton (but would learn if your lazy ass would just read her Wikipedia page):

1. The fourth of twelve children, she helped raise some of her younger siblings as well as adopted the child of a deceased friend.
2. She has been married to the same man for 45 years.
3. She's done bluegrass covers of Collective Soul and Led Zeppelin songs.
4. She wrote "I Will Always Love You," featured in the Whitney Houston / Kevin Costner movie The Bodyguard.
5. The first cloned sheep was named after her.
6. She's nicknamed "The Iron Butterfly" for her steely business mind.
7. She's written 3,000 songs (not all recorded, obviously), starting at the age of 7.
8. She plays at least 10 different instruments, including the piano, guitar, fiddle, and banjo.
9. Dollywood, her theme park, attracts three million visitors to Parton's home town of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
10. She has 25 number one singles and 41 top-10 country albums.

Why do I do this?  Because maybe, like me, you used to see Dolly Parton as a bubble-headed  blonde with big boobs.  She has been known to play up this misconception when convenient, or maybe just because it's fun.  But you underestimate Dolly at your peril: as a singer, songwriter, musician, woman, and human being, she is a force to be reckoned with.

So it's not too much of a surprise that in 1999, when she wanted to make a bluegrass album, she assembled an impeccable lineup: dobro legend Jerry Douglas, mandolin master Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs' banjo man Jimmy Mills, esteemed fiddler Stuart Duncan, amazing flatpicker Bryan Sutton, guest vocals from Alison Krauss, Claire Lynch, Rhonda Vincent, Patty Loveless ... it's an incredible group of talent.  The song choices are similarly super-powered; in addition to Parton's own compositions, there are tunes by Johnny Cash, Lester Flatt, Hazel Dickens, The Louvin Brothers, and (of all people) Billy Joel.

For all that talent, I put The Grass Is Blue in the "solid but not spectacular" category.  There aren't any real dud tracks here, but nothing standout either.  The musicianship on the album is predictably excellent, and Parton's powerful voice works well with the powerhouse band she's assembled, but there's nothing here I'm going to return to again and again.  It's just a tad over-produced, lacking some of the rough edges that appeal to me in roots music.

If you're a bluegrass fan, The Grass Is Blue is a solid album, full of top-notch performances.  If you're not a bluegrass fan, it might be a nice initiation into the genre; the boldness of the orchestration and the power of Parton's voice could appeal to those more familiar with rock music.  Whatever your bent, don't sell Dolly short - she's quite the lady.

Dolly Parton's official site

Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe

Rating: A-

Kenny Baker died a couple weeks ago.  His loss was fresh in the mind of those at Grey Fox Bluegrass festival, and one album that was mentioned repeatedly was Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe. I try not to read or comment on other reviews of albums, but the Allmusic description of the album started deliciously: "Is this the best bluegrass album ever made?" I will say this: it is the best instrumental bluegrass album ever made.


Much is made of Bill Monroe's presence on the album, and hey - he's a legend, and any time you can get Big Mon to play on an record, it's a win.  But let's face it - this is Kenny Baker's show.  What's amazing is how tasteful he is.  In a whole album of fiddling, there isn't a single self-indulgent note.  Even a blistered-fingers romp like "Monroe's Hornpipe" or "Wheel Hoss" feels like Baker playing the tune rather than showing off mile-a-minute virtuosity.  Gentler tunes, like "Lonesome Midnight Waltz," are almost elegant.  And "Jerusalem Ridge," which features both some mile-a-minute sections and some haunting minor key passages, has for good reason come to be associated with Baker even more than Monroe.


Baker is a masterful player of tunes, not an interpreter.  There are no seven-minute jams here that lose the melody only to find it again; the longest track is just over four minutes and most are in the two-and-a-half range.  It's professional; each song is fiddle - banjo or mandolin - fiddle again.  That could be read as a criticism, but it's refreshing here; the tunes feel almost perfect the way they are, and any frills would just unnecessary.  The final tune, "Ashland Breakdown," is a microcosm of the album; Baker takes a melodious break, full of long bow strokes and double-stops, then Monroe takes a typically excellent break, followed by a final Baker solo, which ends suddenly on a double stop, as the rhythm backing falls out.  It feels like it ends too soon.

Still Lost Bird Music - Sargent Egyptian Girl

Rating: B+

Still Lost Bird Music is the solo pop vehicle for Simon Fink, a classically trained composer.  One would think the music would reflect that classical training, but Sargent Egyptian Girl, his debut album, is more steeped in American rock and pop than Italian arias and German symphonies: the opening finger-picked guitar riff evokes The Replacements' "Unsatisfied"; the guitar solo in "The Dream of Falling" suggests Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues"; the various "la"s and "bop"s pay homage to pop music from Phil Spector to the Counting Crows.  But the album that this ultimately makes me think of is Wilco's Summerteeth.  Summerteeth is almost a lost gem, a pop masterpiece nestled between the alt-country of Being There and A.M. and the experimental genius of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and subsequent albums.  Like Summerteeth, Sargent Egyptian Girl carries both of those influences - "Chocolate Heart" is permeated by fiddle riffs, while "French Lessons" is drenched in effects and synths.  And like Summerteeth, Sargent Egyptian Girl is peopled with perfectly-crafted tunes, with the lyrics, melody, production and deliverable working together.

"Take This Town" is my favorite track on the album, a gorgeous stark tune keyed by gentle acoustic guitar and lyrics that paint a portrait of loneliness and disenchantment.  Another strong track is bubblegum closer "Wet Paint," which features triple entendre lyrics.  "It's about painting a room."  "Wait, it's a metaphor!"  "Wait ... I think it's about painting a room after all."  It's clever and catchy.  The album shows diversity, stretching from the fuzzed out post-relationship recriminations of the title track to the quirky funk of "Coin Star" to the psychedelic melancholy of "Water Border."  It's a strong collection of tunes, and Fink is skilled at several instruments and capturing the essence of the songs in the studio.

Still Lost Bird Music's second album, August, is coming out in about a month.  If Sargent Egyptian Girl is any indication, it will be one to look forward to.

Still Lost Bird Music official site

The Gibson Brothers - Help My Brother

Rating: B

The Gibson Brothers have been one of the most successful acts of recent years in bluegrass circles; their last five albums have all hit #1 on the Bluegrass Unlimited charts.  Somehow I've missed them through the years, both live and on recording, but with my newfound affection for their mandolin player, Joe Walsh, I thought I should check them out.  Their newest offering Help My Brother seemed like a good place to start.

They've got a great sound.  The album is all songs, no instrumentals, and it really showcases the brother harmonies.  They use harmony as a weapon in many different ways - it's a sledgehammer in "I'll Love Nobody But You" and "Singing As We Rise," bringing out the power and joy in those tunes, but it's a scalpel in "Want Vs. Need" and closer "Safe Passage," just adding a little emotional punch when the song needs it.  The brothers have different voices that complement each other; Leigh has the cleaner voice and Eric has a bluegrassier high twang.  The band is built around the vocals.  Leigh's banjo, Walsh's mandolin, and Clayton Campbell's fiddle fill in the holes, bassist Mike Barber adds percussive slaps on "Walking West To Memphis," but ultimately the players accentuate the tune.  The album is not about instrumental showmanship; it's about the songs. 

Well, how about the songs?  It's about half covers and half originals.  They do a good job mixing up the pace; opener "Help My Brother" and "I'll Love Nobody But You" are barn-burners, while "Talk To Me" and "Frozen In Time" are slower.  The songwriting is a bit of a mixed bag - the first few times I heard "Help My Brother" and "Dixie" I cringed at some of the lyrics ("I've been more selfish than I dog with a bone").  But after a few listens the melodies stuck in my head anyway, and the earnestness the Gibson Brothers show really sells their tunes.  "Want Vs. Need" is a great example; in lesser hands the simple moral might be considered melodramatic and saccharine, but the band really sells it with their earnestness.

The end of the album is really strong, with "One-Car Funeral" and "Safe Passage."  Both are originals; "One-Car Funeral" is a stomping lament of a wasted life that has a Carter Family honesty, while "Safe Passage" is a modal journey through the generations that is both epic and personal.  Leigh Gibson describes his family's journey from Scotland through generations of farmers to the present day, and he cleverly highlights what's the same and what's different between the generation.  It's simultaneously epic and subtle; it's really like almost nothing else.  I wish they had captured that brilliance more consistently on Help My Brother, but it's still a good album and a fun listen.

Gibson Brothers official site

Muleskinner - Live Original Television Soundtrack

I'm kind of a sucker for "lost bands," like The Flatlanders, and this is a doozy.  Legendary flatpicker Clarence White (of The Byrds fame), singer / songwriter Peter Rowan, mandolin virtuoso David Grisman, accomplished fiddler Richard Greene, and banjo man Bill Keith.  Even at the time, Muleskinner was something of a supergroup; White had been with the Byrds, Rowan, Greene, and Keith were former Bluegrass Boys, and Grisman had played with Red Allen, Del McCoury, and Jerry Garcia. 

The band is frankly inspiring.  White has a reputation as the godfather of acoustic flatpicking, and he shows it off on several of the tracks here, such as "I Am a Pilgrim."  Grisman is the most respected mandolinist alive, and while this is more conventional than some of his "Dawg music," he has no problem with "New Camptown Races" or "Opus in G Minor."  With so many talented pickers, Keith's banjo gets a bit of short shrift, but he still shows off some tasty melodic licks on tunes such as "The Dead March."  Rowan is really impressive here - he's maybe the greatest minor key singer in the bluegrass idiom, and he just nails it on folk tune "Red Rocking Chair" and his own epic, "Land Of the Navajo."  But Richard Greene is the revelation for me here.  Despite his extensive career I'd never heard of him before this project, and now that makes me feel like an idiot.  He's all over this album, and whether playing it straight in a old-time melody line in "The Eighth of January" or really creative, organic use of rhythms and slurs in "Blackberry Blossom" or some of both in blistering closer "Orange Blossom Special," he's incredible.

This album is more of a tease than anything else, showing what might have been if not for Clarence White's tragic death in a car accident.  The Live Original Television Soundtrack shows the skill of each of its members, but just scratches the surface of the inventiveness each would show through long careers.  Could they have been New Grass Revival, ten years earlier?  Could they have been Punch Brothers or The Infamous Stringdusters twenty-five years earlier?  Who knows.  Even if it doesn't show everything the group was capable of, this is still a fine album and a heck of a listen.

Del McCoury Band and Preservation Hall Jazz Band - American Legacies

Rating: A-

What's weird about American Legacies, the new collaboration between bluegrass stalwarts Del McCoury Band and dixieland jazz legends Preservation Hall Jazz Band, is how not weird it is.  "Is it jazz plus some strings, or bluegrass plus some brass?" you might ask, and the answer is "both" and "neither."  What it certainly is is joyful; I get the constant impression that both bands must have had a hell of a lot of fun figuring out what tunes to play, figuring out how to arrange them, and just playing the hell out of them.

That's really the trick: some of this album must have been really finely arranged - fiddler Jason Carter trades licks with clarinetist (is that a word?) Charlie Gabriel on opener "The Band's In Town," the bluegrass instruments drop out for an explosive big band finish on "I'll Fly Away," mandolinist Ronnie McCoury throws bluegrass-style chops on the bluesy "Sugar Blues" - but throughout, it feels organic rather than orchestrated.  The song selection is clever, largely upbeat mid-tempo tunes with enough space to play around in both the bluegrass and jazz idioms.

Both bands have made careers through the contradiction of simultaneously being very loyal to the traditional forms of their respective musical styles while being progressive and open-minded.  It seems they've found kindred spirits.  Even when they're playing tunes with sad lyrics, like "A Good Gal," "One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)," or "50/50 Chance," the joy is positively bursting out of the seams.

I'm sure there are fans of music who won't like this album.  But I feel bad for those people.  American Legacies is a triumph.

Del McCoury Band official site
Preservation Hall Jazz Band official site

Birds Make Birds EP

It's been a while since I last checked out Birds Make Birds, so I didn't realize they had an EP out.  Many of the songs that impressed me most in their live performances made the cut, so this brief (5 song) EP is a solid effort throughout.  "Closer," "Waiting For Tomorrow," and "Jack" are memorable tunes with melodies that stick in one's head.  Birds Make Birds has a great sound - emo without being mopey, heavy but still melodic - and it really comes through on these tunes.

The production is very clear and polished.  This is great for accentuating the subtleties of lead singer / guitarist Sandrine Mehry's voice and words, Greg Lyon's guitar riffs, and Chris Mascara's bass lines, but Jen Chouinard's drumming, so impressive live, is dulled a little bit by the production.  The mix is almost too clean, making every note heard but losing some of the punk attack of their live act.

Still, the songs are great, and the band sounds very good, and the price is right (free)!  Check it out!

Download the album for free from Reverb Nation

Joe Walsh - Sweet Loam

Rating: B+

"Joe Walsh?  Like the dude from the Eagles?"  That's what I thought, too, until last summer when I saw him killing it at the mandolin master's tent at Grey Fox.  Playing with Ronnie McCoury, Sarah Jarosz, David Grisman, and Buddy Merriam, he still impressed with his exceptional playing.  His day job is as the mandolinist for the Gibson Brothers, a bluegrass group very popular among the traditionalists.  I haven't gotten a chance to check out the Gibson Brothers, either live or on disc, but when I learned that Joe Walsh was coming out with a solo album, I thought I'd check it out.

Bluegrass solo albums, particularly from a gifted instrumentalist like Walsh, can  be indulgent affairs, showing off the skill and virtuosity of the artist without necessarily much regard for anything else.  The album is about half instrumentals, but they're not mile-a-minute notefests.  A representative tune is "Sunday Morning Reel," which sets the tone for the whole album in a lot of ways; it's an ideal Sunday morning listen, bright and melodic, Walsh trading licks and playing harmonies with fiddler Darol Anger.

Most of the album follows suit.  Much of Sweet Loam features typical bluegrass instruments, but only the waltz "Early" and the energetic "Hold Whatcha Got," two tunes where the Gibson Brothers guest, are really bluegrass in the traditional sense.  Or at least the Bill Monroe sense.  Where Big Mon would pound, drive, and wail, Walsh is going for something more subtle.  Walsh may provide a bluegrass chop on his cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," but it's more of a groovy feel than Monroe's relentlessness.  The songs are often sparse and arranged interestingly; a cello riff backs opener "Ain't No One Like You," and Scott Law's guitar rings out like an autoharp at times.  You can hear every note on the album; everything seems arranged and purposeful.  There's a ton of talent here, but there's no compulsion to cram them into every song

If there's a critique, it's that it doesn't challenge the listener, but sometimes I don't want to be challenged; I just want an album to listen to on a Sunday morning, drinking a cup of coffee and watching the sun rise as the smell of bacon and eggs wafts from the kitchen.  Sweet Loam is the perfect album for that.

Download the album from Bandcamp

Radiohead - The King of Limbs

Rating: B

The King of Limbs is almost a paint-by-numbers Radiohead album.  That's a weird thing to say about the most inventive band of its generation, but they're not treading any new ground here.  There's beauty, and some groovy tunes, but none of the earth-shattering weirdness that's marked their going-on-twenty-years career.

Take "Codex."  It a gorgeous melodic tune arranged starkly, mostly just singer Thom Yorke's voice over piano chords.  Kinda like "Pyramid Song" from Amnesiac.  Or "Sail To the Moon" from Hail To the Thief  That's not to say it isn't a good tune.  It's one of the stronger tracks on the album.  But essentially it's a beautiful re-hash.

It's like that up and down the album.  Opener "Bloom" could slot easily on Hail To the Thief alongside "2 + 2 = 5."  "Little By Little," with its drum track and melodic bassline, would fit on Amnesiac right next to "Packd Like Sardines In a Crushed Tin Box."  The incoherent atmospheric vocals over the fast dance beat of "Feral" bring to mind "Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors" from that same album.

That said, there is no bad Radiohead.  Every moment in the album is drenched in luscious sound, and there are some brilliant moments: the backing sound dropping out in "Morning Mr. Magpie," leaving just Yorke's haunting voice before building back up; the opening creepy bass drones and background noises that open "Lotus Flower"; the gentle acoustic guitar in "Give Up the Ghost."  It's a Radiohead album, and even if it's not the most inventive of their efforts, it's still better than 99% of what's out there.

Radiohead official site

Punch Brothers - Punch

Rating: B

Just before the Infamous Stringdusters last came to Boston, banjo player Chris Pandolfi blogged some controversial thoughts on the future of Bluegrass.  Or maybe it was just on the marketing of bluegrass.  Or the word "bluegrass."  Ted Lehmann, one of the best bloggers in the bluegrass community, followed up with his thoughts shortly thereafter.  Lehmann sums it up as the "big tent vs small tent" argument, and it basically boils down to the question, "what do we want to define bluegrass music as."  To traditionalists, it isn't bluegrass unless it's done in exactly the same vein laid out by Bill Monroe or Flatt & Scruggs; to Pandolfi and others, that definition limits artists in their creative expression and closes off the genre as a narrow niche doomed to only appeal to those living in the 1940's.

I don't propose to resolve that question here.  Suffice it to say, the Punch Brothers are "big-tenters"; bluegrass purists would not consider them "real bluegrass."  Did they plug in electronically?  Did they bring in non-traditional bluegrass instruments, like *gasp* drums?  No, nothing that crazy ... if anything, the problem is that some of their influences are too old - pre-dating the Carter Family and Bill Monroe and hearkening back to classical music.  Because the bulk of the album is taken up by a four-part classical-inspired suite, "The Blind Leading the Blind."

"The Blind Leading the Blind" is beautiful, melodic, and dense, the kind of piece that undoubtedly will reward repeated listenings but makes an immediately impression with the musical lines and riffs thrown out by frontman Chris Thile's mandolin, Gabe Witcher's fiddle, and Noam Pikelny's banjo.  All five members of the band (including guitarist Chris Eldrige and bass player Greg Garrison) are impeccable instrumentalists, but it's the obvious feeling behind the tracks that makes it hang together; there's a theme and a feeling, not just mindless noodling.  Learning that Thile wrote the suite to chronicle his failed marriage just gives it additional emotional oomph.

The rest of the album shows off the Punch Brothers' range; opener "Punch Bowl" is a romping fiddle tune; "Sometimes" is an elegant instrumental; "Nothing, Then" is a bass-driven number that borders on the emo; closer "It'll Happen" is a gentle psychedelic waltz.  Each track seems both polished and skilled and also intuitive and improvisational; the album seems both organic and orchestrated at once.  It's really an advertisement for what "big-tent" bluegrass can be, taking elements from traditional music and also from pop, jazz, and classical.  If the "small-tent" folks want to say it's "not real bluegrass," it's their loss.

Related posts:
Punch Brothers - Antifogmatic

Punch Brothers official site

Okkervil River - I Am Very Far

Rating: B

I Am Very Far is the sixth and latest offering from Okkervil River, an Austin-based sextet that has carved out something of a niche partway between the pagan folk of Fleet Foxes and the earnest, literate punk of Neutral Milk Hotel.  So it's a bit surprising that I Am Very Far is most notable for its grooves.

It hits you right off the bat with "Valley" and its relentless snaredrum pounding through the track over frontman Will Sheff's typical nearly-off-the-rails vocals.  "Piratess" is danceable, backed by a bass groove and keyboard lines.  "White Shadow Waltz" is anchored by repeated piano chords.  And it's not just the music that indulges in hypnotic repetition - "Valley," "We Need a Myth," and "Show Yourself" conclude in almost chanting.  Most of the time, this works, but some of the faux-African percussion in "Your Past Life As a Blast" almost sounds like a CD skipping, and "The Rise" has similar arrhythmic percussive touches that distract.  Still, the grooviness is an interesting twist on Okkervil River's music and something to watch going forward.

What gets crowded out are some of the ballads that marked some of their stronger tracks in the past - "Yellow," "Maine Island Lovers," "A Stone," "A Girl In Port" - there's nothing like that here.  Even "Lay of the Last Survivor," "We Need a Myth," and "Hanging From a Hit," which start soft, build to a dense, loud climaxes.  There's nothing wrong with that, and few bands use dynamics better than Okkervil River (witness the cacophonic endings on "Show Yourself" and album closer "The Rise"), but I miss the intimacy of some of the gentler tunes in the band's catalogue.

The final result is that I Am Very Far is a very listenable album, solid throughout with some fine moments, but it doesn't match the transcendent heights of some of Okkervil River's earlier work.  If you're already an Okkervil River fan, pick up this album; if you're just getting into them, there are better places to start.

Okkervil River official site

The Flatlanders - More a Legend Than a Band

More a Legend Than a Band is at least a bit of an ironic title for this compilation of 1972 Flatlanders recordings; certainly to most people, the Texas group is most known for singer / guitarist Jimmie Dale Gilmore's turn as the pacifist Smokey in The Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski. In outlaw country-rock circles, The Flatlanders have taken on near-mythical status, both for the tracks that have leaked out over the years and for the success of Gilmore's solo work and that of bandmates Joe Ely and Butch Hancock.

More a Legend isn't a proper album but a series of unreleased songs that were intended for release as album called All American Music, until demo track "Dallas" flopped commercially and the record company pulled the plug.  That tune, which kicks off the record, features both the band's strengths and the likely reasons they never took off in the mainstream.  The song is catchy as hell, and features Gilmore's twang backed by acoustic guitar, harmonica, and a musical saw.  But Gilmore's twang isn't for everybody, and while the musical saw sounds terrific on "Dallas," it's not used as effectively elsewhere on the album.  An example is "One Day At a Time," where it adds a discordant comic tinge to a pretty dirge-y tune.

The Flatlanders straddle the fine line between having a distinctive sound and having each song sound the same.  Part of that is the composition of the group; Ely and Hancock later become formidable singer-songwriters in their rights, but More a Legend is Gilmore's show.  The sound is very polished but not over-produced; each song is a tight country tune, ranging from "Rose From the Mountain," the shortest track at 2:03, to the the bouncy Jole Blon, the longest track at a still-not-very-long 3:30.  Any instrumental breaks are brief and just serve to augment the songs.  This isn't the most diverse set of songs ever, but at 35 minutes it doesn't wear out its welcome.  If you're not into country, skip this album, but if you enjoy some twang, More a Legend Than a Band is a good listen.

The Flatlanders official site