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Great Unknown makes Geoffrey Himes’ Top 100, at 100

Songwriters,

Geoffrey Himes, the noted music critic, recently named Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus’ The Great Unknown CD one of the Top 100 CDs of 2013 in Paste Magazine. AT #100 itself, but we don’t mind, it’s a great list and we’re happy to be on it. His article and Top 100 list follows:

The Curmudgeon: Questioning the Assumptions of Popular Music

Year-End Polls, Lists and the Lazy Critic

By Geoffrey Himes

Tuesday, January 21, 2013 paste.com

By Geoffrey Himes

Last week the Village Voice published its annual Pazz & Jop Poll of more than 400 pop-music critics; the week before Jazz Times published its own poll of jazz critics, and this week the Nashville Scene unveils its annual Country Music Critics Poll. As someone who voted in the first two polls and conducted the third, I look forward to these annual exercises.

And they are exercise. They force critics out of old habits of throwing around fuzzy adjectives and into the hard work of splitting hairs between the year’s eighth best album and ninth best. It forces them to go back and reconsider all the viable alternatives; it pricks their consciences to get out of their narrow-genre comfort zone and consider all the viable contenders. It’s like pulling them off the couch, away from the TV remote and sending them to the Nordic Track at the gym.

At the heart of every record review is a judgment that the music is good, bad or somewhere in between. But reviewers are never asked (or never given room) to explain what they mean by “good” or “bad,” and so those terms become so mushy that they’re almost meaningless. When a reviewer says an album is “good,” does that mean the same thing as when he said an album last month was “good?” It’s as if music critics were postal workers who tossed letters and packages into giant bins labeled “New York,” “Illinois” and “California” and were never expected to further subdivide their sorting to the street level.

The great thing about critics’ polls and year-end best lists is that they force music critics to define “good” and “bad” in terms of “better than” and “worse than.” I can already hear my lazier colleagues whining, “Oh, you can’t say that one album is the eighth best rather than seventh or ninth; each record is a personal, artistic statement that has to be considered on its own terms. You can’t compare them.” Bullshit.

If you can make a distinction between a really good record and a really bad one, between the year’s best album and the year’s 700th best, you can make the same distinction between the eighth and ninth. You just have to work a little harder. And if you’re not willing to make those distinctions, why are you a critic?

Or the lazy critic might complain, “Oh, you can’t compare a rock record to a jazz record, or a country record to a hip-hop record, or Congolese soukous to Celtic balladry. It’s apples and oranges. You can’t even compare ambient techno to ambient house; they’re completely different.”

This excuse makes the mistake of confusing the singular goal of all art with the countless ways of achieving that goal. Whether it’s a Picasso painting, a Kanye West remix, a Faulkner short story or a Disney cartoon, the aim is always the same: to establish an emotional/sensual connection with the audience to allow them to glimpse something new about human nature. The strength of that connection and the illumination of that glimpse—the aesthetic voltage if you will—is the measure of the artwork’s success. Is it easy to gauge that voltage so precisely that you can distinguish the year’s eighth best album from the ninth? No, but that’s why critics get the big bucks.

Wait. Scratch that. Critics may not be paid very well, but at least they get the satisfaction of enjoying music that much more because they’ve been willing to think about it that much harder. Analysis and pleasure are not the opposites that lazy critics claim; in fact, one reinforces the other.

Moreover, the rewards of thinking hard about music are available to any listener who takes the time and makes the effort. Poke around Facebook, Amazon or your own email inbox, and you’ll find year-end lists from people you know. Many of them have been motivated by the same analysis/pleasure nexus and have spent as much time as my colleagues and I have. So what’s the difference between an amateur listener and a published critic? The ability to translate one’s insights into clear, stimulating prose. Or at least that should be the difference.

“Art is not a competition,” the lazy critic will whimper. “Why should we pit one piece of music against another? Shouldn’t every sincere expression be valued for what it is?”

If humans were immortal beings with an eternity to spend listening to records, that might be plausible. But we’re all going to die sooner than we want to, and so we constantly have to make decisions about how to spend our time. A critic’s year-end list can be read as a triage guide for how to prioritize your uncommitted hours.

Moreover, “sincere” artists have committed as many sins as “sincere” politicians—though with less damaging consequences. Are artists who ask money for their shows and recordings to be treated like nine-year-old soccer players who get self-esteem ribbons for just trying? Those artists demand the right to be uncensored in their ruthless honesty. Shouldn’t we listeners have the exact same right?

Some lazy critics will argue that best-of lists should be reserved for little-known recordings by artists untainted by commercial compromise, a purity that can be proven only by the artists’ small, ghettoized followings. Other lazy critics will argue that best-of lists should be reserved for artists who have fulfilled pop music’s raison d’etre by proving themselves popularin the marketplace.

If you actually do the hard work of engaging recordings as work of arts apart from their context, you soon learn that the popularity of a release tells you absolutely nothing about its aesthetic voltage. There is no correlation. Some best-sellers are terrific, and some are terrible. Some obscure cult items are wonderful, and some are awful.

I listened to more than 700 records in 2013—including, yes, the Phosphorescent and Kanye West records. These were my 100 favorites—all genres, new releases and reissues combined:

1. Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park (Mercury)
2. Janelle Monae: The Electric Lady (Wondaland/Atlantic)
3. Jason Isbell: Southeastern (Southeastern/Thirty Tigers)
4. Terence Blanchard: Magnetic (Blue Note)
5. The Bottle Rockets: Bottle Rockets/Brooklyn Side (Bloodshot)
6. The Swimming Pool Q’s: 1984-1986: The A&M Years (Cipher Bureau)
7. Laura Veirs: Warp and Weft (Raven Marching Band)
8. The 3 Cohens: Tightrope (Anzic)
9. Mika: The Origin of Love (Universal)
10. Charles Lloyd/Jason Moran: Hagar’s Song (ECM)
11. Sam Baker: Say Grace (Baker)
12. Kobo Town: Jumbie in the Jukebox (Cumbancha/Stonetree)
13. Elvis Costello & the Roots: Wise Up Ghost (Blue Note)
14. Steve Coleman and the Five Elements: Functional Arrhythmias (Pi)
15. Bob Dylan: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971)
16. Steve Earle: The Low Highway (New West)
17. The Wayne Shorter Quartet: Without a Net (Blue Note)
18. J. Roddy Walston & the Business: Essential Tremors (ATO)
19. Brandy Clark: 12 Stories (Slate Creek)
20. Bill Frisell: Big Sur (Okeh)
21. Frank Turner: Tape Deck Heart (Epitaph)
22. Dave Douglas: Time Travel (Greenleaf)
23. The Beach Boys: Made in California (Capitol)
24. The Miles Davis Quintet: Live in Europe 1969 (Columbia/Legacy)
25. Paul McCartney: NEW (Hear/Concord)
26. Pat Metheny/Tap: John Zorn’s Book of Angels/Vol. 20 (Nonesuch/Tzadik)
27. Woody Guthrie: Radical American Patriot (Rounder)
28. Sly & the Family Stone: Higher! (Epic/Legacy)
29. Illinois Jacquet/Leo Parker: Toronto 1947 (Uptown)
30. Randy Weston/Billy Harper: The Roots of the Blues (Sunnyside)
31. James Booker: Classified: Remixed and Expanded (Rounder)
32. Patty Griffin: American Kid (New West)
33. Carla Bley: Trios (ECM)
34. Drew Gress: The Sky Inside (Pirouet)
35. Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You (Anti-)
36. Walter Namuth’s Quintet with Mickey Fields: Left Bank ‘66 (Baltimore Jazz Alliance)
37. Joe Lovano Us Five: Cross Culture (Blue Note)
38. Rudresh Mahanthappa: Gamak (ACT)
39. David Egan: David Egan (Rhonda Sue)
40. San Fermin: San Fermin (Downtown)
41. North Mississippi Allstars: World Boogie Is Coming (Sons of the South)
42. Mike Stinson: Hell and Half of Georgia (Stag)
43. Dailey & Vincent: Brothers of the Highway (Rounder)
44. Keith Jarrett/Gary Peacock/Jack DeJohnette: Somewhere (ECM)
45. Robbie Fulks: Gone Away Backward (Bloodshot)
46. Maria Schneider, Dawn Upshaw and the Australian Chamber Orchestra: Winter Morning Walks (ArtistShare)
47. Valerie June: Pushin’ Against a Stone (Concord)
48. Jaimeo Brown: Transcendence (Motema)
49. Warren Wolf: Wolfgang (Mack Avenue)
50. Minor Alps: Get There (Barsuk)
51. Lafayette Gilchrist: The View from Here (Creative Differences)
52. Red Baraat: Shruggy Ji (Sinj)
53. The Dropkick Murphys: Signed and Sealed in Blood (Born & Bred)
54. Julie Roberts: Good Wine & Bad Decisions (Sun)
55. Latyrx: The Second Album (Latyramid)
56. Brian Wright: Rattle Their Chains (Sugar Hill)
57. Amanda Shires: Down Fell the Doves (Lightning Rod)
58. Gary Allan: Set You Free (MCA Nashville)
59. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: The Heist (Macklemore & Lewis)
60. William Onyeabor: Who Is William Onyeabor? (Luaka Bop)
61. Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell: Old Yellow Moon (Nonesuch)
62. Beausoleil with Michael Doucet: From Bamako to Carencro (Compass)
63. Less Than Jake: See the Light (Fat Wreck Chords)
64. The Del McCoury Band: The Streets of Baltimore (McCoury)
65. Holly Williams: The Highway (Georgiana)
66. The Slide Brothers: Robert Randolph Presents The Slide Brothers (Concord)
67. Lorde: Pure Heroine (Lava/Republic)
68. The Wood Brothers: The Muse (Southern Ground)
69. The Pistol Annies: Annie Up (Columbia)
70. Richard Thompson: Electric (New West)
71. Linda Oh: Sun Picture (Greenleaf)
72. Rene Marie: I Wanna Be Evil (Motema)
73. Tommy Flanagan/Jaki Byard: The Magic of 2 (Resonance)
74. Goodie Mob: Age Against the Machine (Primary Wave)
75. Ben Allison: The Stars Look Very Different Today (Sonic Camera)
76. Joshua Redman: Walking Shadows (Nonesuch)
77. Carrie Rodriguez: Give Me All You Got (Ninth Street Opus)
78. The Carper Family: Old-Fashioned Gal (Carper Family)
79. Jane Ira Bloom: Sixteen Sunsets (Out-Line)
80. Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya : Madeira (Magenta)
81. Joe Grushecky: Somewhere East of Eden (Schoolhouse)
82. Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience (RCA)
83. Kenny Garrett: Pushing the World Away (Mack Avenue)
84. Gov’t Mule: Shout! (Blue Note)
85. Ashley Monroe: Like a Rose (Warner Bros. Nashville)
86. Jonathan Finlayson & Sicilian Defense: Moment & the Message (Pi)
87. Leyla McCalla: Vari-Colored Songs (Music Maker)
88. Of Montreal: Lousy with Sylvianbriar (Polyvinyl)
89. Michael Franti and Spearhead: All People (Capitol)
90. Lonnie Holley: Keeping a Record of It (Dust-to-Digital)
91. Hilary Hahn: In 27 Pieces (Deutsche Grammophon)
92. Avril Lavigne: Avril Lavigne (Epic)
93. Leo Welch: Sabougla Voice (Big Legal Mess)
94. Horace Trahan: All The Way (Trahan)
95. Mary J. Blige: A Mary Christmas (Verve/Interscope)
96. Si Kahn: Bristol Bay (Strictly Country)
97. Nick Lowe: Quality Street (Yep Roc)
98. Bobby Rush: Down in Louisiana (Deep Rush)
99. Otis Taylor: My World Is Gone (Telarc)
100. Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus: The Great Unknown (Berkalin)

Highlights from The Third Coast Songwriter Showcase room at Folk Alliance in Toronto

Songwriters, , , , ,

Highlights from The Third Coast Songwriter Showcase room in Toronto

Every year, thanks to the sponsorship of the Hemet Valley Recovery Center in California and the patronage of our dear friend Freddie Wilson, we host a Hotel Showcase Room at the International Folk Alliance where we feature some of the best (if lesser known) songwriters in the world. We host 55 min. rounds and we encourage interplay and we encourage outside players, so we have some magic happen. There’s a community that has developed around our room that feels like family and the songs get better and better.

This year’s FA was in Toronto, where it was 17 while back home in Austin it was 77.

Favorite Round(s) with Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus as participants:

Tie: Because the rounds were so totally different there was no way to compare them.

Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus, Michael Fracasso, The Coal Porters

If  Sid Griffin of the Coal Porters has a dozen albums, then we probably own a dozen Sid Griffin albums, from the Long Ryders to his present ‘alt-bluegrass’ band, the Coal Porters. So we’re fans, and to have him and his incredible band on stage with us, much less playing behind us on our songs, was stunning and the room totally rocked.

Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus, Michael Fracasso, Bettysoo & Doug Cox

With Bettysoo and Doug, this was a set of quieter beauty, but just as powerful. The players on the stage feel like family to each other and it resonates through the room. Doug Cox elevates all of our songs with his expressive, intuitive dobro playing.

Notice a common theme to both rounds? Think we’re Michael Fracasso fans? His songwriting and performing is as good as it gets. See this page to see what we think about Michael.

Clockwise from l: Michael Fracasso, Bettysoo, Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus, Doug Cox photo by Tom Weber

Favorite Round We Weren’t In:

R.J. Cowdery, Karyn Oliver, and Melissa Greener w/David Glaser sitting in

Favorite Cover:

“Like a Hurricane” – the Coal Porters

Favorite new (to us) songs:

Bettysoo’s “Dream”

Grant Peeples’ “It’s Too Late To Live In Austin”

Dan Navarro’s new one (played with David Glaser), slow, sad, and powerful, played late at night when apparently the part of my brain that remembers titles had gone to sleep for the night.

Observation:

Any song can be enhanced by a Doug Cox (dobro) or Carly Frey (fiddle, the Coal Porters) solo.

Best First Timer to FA:

Anthony Toner from Belfast, Ireland

Top 32 Most Played Artists on Jim & Sherry’s Jukebox 2012

Songwriters

 

1 The Beatles
2 Bruce Springsteen
3 Bob Dylan
4 Neil Young
5 The Rolling Stones
6 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
7 John Lilly
8 The Byrds
9 Gene Clark
10 Paul Edward Sanchez
11 John Lennon
12 K.C. Clifford
13 Van Morrison
14 David Newbould
15 Graham Parker
16 John Fullbright
17 Chuck Berry
18 James McMurtry
19 Jeff Talmadge
20 Elvis Presley
21 Sam Baker
22 John Wort Hannam
23 Troy Campbell
24 Warren Zevon
25 Ian Hunter
26 Tommy Keene
27 Jon Dee Graham
28 RJ Cowdery
29 Matt Harlan
30 Mary Cutrufello
31 Jaime Michaels
32 Michael Fracasso

 

 

Top 21 Most Played Songs on Jim & Sherry’s Jukebox 2012

Songwriters

Top 21 Most Played Songs on Jim & Sherry’s Jukebox 2012

(includes our computers, Iphones, and IPod)

song artist album
1 Come And Go John Lilly Cold Comfort
2 I’ll Keep Trying RJ Cowdery In This Light
3 SLEEPING DOGS live track Daniel Boling Live from his laptop
4 Little Scar Rod Picott Welding Burns
5 Prettiest Girl In AA Kevin Elliott It’s A Circus Here, Dolores
6 Darker Side of Grey Matt Harlan Bow and Be Simple
7 The Cassette Song Dr. Pants The Trip, Side 2: Breaking The Feel
8 Two Miracles John Lilly Cold Comfort
9 Red Dirt Roads K.C. Clifford The Tag Hollow Sessions
10 After She Broke His Heart Paul Edward Sanchez Yesterday’s Clothes
11 Always Coming Home David Newbould Tennessee
12 Just In Case K.C. Clifford The Tag Hollow Sessions
13 Big Ol’ Moon Paul Edward Sanchez Yesterday’s Clothes
14 Hardlly Ever See ‘Em Bill Poss Hay
15 Daydreamer John Fullbright From The Ground Up
16 Tore Up From The Floor Up John Lilly Cold Comfort
17 Moving John Fullbright From The Ground Up
18 Long Haul Effron White Long Haul
19 Demons Falling Down Brian Kalinec The Fence
20 Across The Universe The Beatles Anthology 2 [Disc 2]
21 One More Day 8-21-10 Jon Patton

Top Played Songs on Jim & Sherry’s Jukebox 2006-2010

Songwriters

 

Top 20 2006
1 Damaged Goods Scrappy Jud Newcomb
2 Crashboombang The Ginn Sisters
3 Waves Sam Baker
4 Waiting Ron Flynt
5 Wrong Foot Michael Fracasso
6 I Don’t Feel That Way Jon Dee Graham
7 By Eleven Caitlin Cary
8 If I Needed Someone Roger McGuinn
9 What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, & Understanding Steve Earle
10 I Ain’t Got Nothin’ The New York Dolls
11 Down to My Soul Paul Kelly
12 Things We Said Today The Beatles
13 Something Wonderful Jon Dee Graham
14 Howlin’ Down the Cumberland John Hiatt
15 Every Day I Have to Cry Some Arthur Alexander
16 Fisherman Leo Kottke
17 Soul of Constant Sorrow Patty Loveless
18 Midnight Moonlight Jerry Garcia Band
19 Lie To Myself David Glaser
20 Still Got My Faith Graham Parker
Top 21 2007
1 Like A Wheel Little Pink/Mary Battiata
2 Star Motel Charlie Roth
3 Wrecking Ball John Wort Hannam
4 1962 Michael Fracasso
5 I Knew It All Bill Wence
6 Rocking Horse Little Pink/Mary Battiata
7 You Tore Me Down Sid Griffin
8 Old Rock And Roller Bill Wence
9 The Rest Is History Graham Parker
10 Read ’em ‘n’ Weep Ian Hunter
11 You Won’t Talk About Love Charlie Roth
12 Stolen Flowers Little Pink/Mary Battiata
13 Cloudy Head Cindy Woolf
14 Need You Now Gurf Morlix
15 Soul of America Ian Hunter
16 White Cross Jeff Talmadge
17 Infantryman John Wort Hannam
18 I Hate Christmas Jon Dee Graham
19 You’re Just Drunk Matt Harlan
20 because Ron Flynt
21 Picasso’s Mom (live a cappella) Paul Sanchez
Top 20 2008
1 Always Tomorrow Elizabeth Cook
2 Gonna Be Elizabeth Cook
3 Goin Down De Ocean David A. Alberding
4 Down Girl Elizabeth Cook
5 Losing It Elliott Murphy
6 Sometimes It Takes Balls to Be a Woman Elizabeth Cook
7 The Mountain Levon Helm
8 Longest Days John Mellencamp
9 Wide River To Cross Levon Helm
10 Let’s Take Some Drugs and Drive Around The Silos
11 All Along the Watchtower Tom Landa & the Paperboys
12 Fingerprints Joe Grushecky
13 Pretty World Sam Baker
14 The Rain Won’t Help You When It’s Over Javier Escovedo
15 Carl Perkins’ Cadillac Drive-By Truckers
16 Heart Breaks Like the Dawn Chuck Prophet
17 Nothing But the Wheel Peter Wolf
18 The Other Side Of The Reservoir Graham Parker
19 The Last Star Of The Night Elliott Murphy
20 I Will Not Let My Spirit Fall Joe Grushecky
Top 20 2009
1 Sunny Day Mary Cutrufello
2 All Good Things Jackson Browne
3 Rock and Roll Jerry Lee Lewis
4 Run Willie Nile
5 Lonesome Whistle BettySoo
6 My Stunning Mystery Companion Jackson Browne
7 American Rain Mary Cutrufello
8 (I’ll Still) Love You Forever Mary Cutrufello
9 God Bless This Mess Sheryl Crow
10 Good Rock From Bad Tim Carroll
11 The Midnight Rose Willie Nile
12 Dreamers Walk Alone Mary Cutrufello
13 Elizabethtown Matt Harlan
14 Things We Said Today The Beatles
15 I Still Believe In Love Jon T Howard
16 House Of A Thousand Guitars Willie Nile
17 Still Small Voice BettySoo
18 Casey, Illinois Bill Morrissey
19 Nothing To Lose Effron White
20 Down To Faith Byrd and Street
Top 21 2010
1 Broken Things K.C. Clifford
2 Broken Dirk Hamilton
3 Songbird K.C. Clifford
4 Another Million Michael Fracasso
5 A Momentary Thing Jaime Michaels
6 Freedom Rex Foster
7 Working Class Hero Michael Fracasso
8 Generous Friends K.C. Clifford
9 Tore Up John Lilly
10 Windmill Hills Dirk Hamilton
11 Driving To Blissville (live) Jeff Talmadge
12 Nothing To Lose Effron White
13 Elizabethtown Matt Harlan
14 One Spectacular Moon Jaime Michaels
15 (I’ll Still) Love You Forever Mary Cutrufello
16 Beautifully Broken Jon Dee Graham & The Fighting Cocks
17 California Beach Boy The Dollyrots
18 Still Small Voice BettySoo
19 For No One The Beatles
20 Aint That Just Like a Woman Chuck Berry
21 A Soldier’s Christmas Jeff Talmadge


TOP 20 Most Played Songs, TOP 10 CDs, TOP 30 Most Played Artists on Jim & Sherry’s Jukebox 2011

Songwriters
Your questions preemptively answered:
1. q. Why 20 songs? a. Fits on one CD.
2. q. I’m an artist on your playlist. Where are my royalties? a. You have our heartfelt thanks.
3. q. How do you know these were last year’s most played songs? a. ITunes does all the work for us. It’s a play count, not an arbitrary favorites list.  We added up my office ITunes (13000 songs and counting), my IPhone, Sherry’s IPhone, our netbook, and our living room Jukebox (with our 3000 favorite songs and another 700 or so worthy of consideration). These are the songs we played the most.
4. q. It’s almost the middle of 2012, why is this so late? a. As you can see, some of us are inconsistent bloggers.
5. q. What’s 2012 look like? a. John Lilly’s Cold Comfort has pretty much dominated the airwaves at Jim & Sherry’s so far but real good albums like Rj Cowdery’s In This Light and Brian Kalinec’s The Fence  have gotten a lot of play too. Not to mention Bill Wence’s Analog Man in a Digital World, which we would have loved even if it didn’t have Fortunate Man on it. And while we always knew Paul Edward Sanchez was a good songwriter, a conversation with Jeff Talmadge in upstate New York convinced us that he was a great one, and we’ve been studying his collected works ever since.
 6. q. Why is there only one song from Michael Fracasso’s great Saint Monday on your list. a. Because we had an advance copy in the Fall of 2010, which meant his play was split over two years.
If you don’t have any of these incredible songs or CDs, we’ll be glad to point you in the right direction. Obviously we can listen them over and over.
song artist album
1 Fireworks The Fabulous Ginn Sisters You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home
2 eyes front Jaime Michaels the man with the time machine
3 haunted Jaime Michaels the man with the time machine
4 Hey Doll The Fabulous Ginn Sisters You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home
5 Dreams The Fabulous Ginn Sisters You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home
6 Driving To Blissville Jeff Talmadge Ein Abend Unter Freunden
7 Bad Connection Jules Shear Dreams Don’t Count
8 (I’ll Still) Love You Forever Mary Cutrufello 35
9 California Eric Hisaw Ghost Stories
10 Used To It Jules Shear Dreams Don’t Count
11 Black Rose Of Texas Dave Alvin Eleven Eleven
12 Ghost Stories Eric Hisaw Ghost Stories
13 Lie To Me BettySoo Across the Borderline: Lie To Me
14 It’ll Sure Be Cold Tonight Jeff Talmadge Kind Of Everything
15 Don’t Live There Anymore Eric Hisaw Ghost Stories
16 Dreams Don’t Count Jules Shear Dreams Don’t Count
17 Gary, Indiana 1959 Dave Alvin Eleven Eleven
18 High Atmosphere Diana Jones High Atmosphere
19 The Time of Your Life Little Steven Nine Months
20 Eloise Michael Fracasso Saint Monday


 Our Top 10 Most Played CDs of 2011:
album artist
1 You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home The Fabulous Ginn Sisters
2 Ein Abend Unter Freunden Jeff Talmadge
3 the man with the time machine Jaime Michaels
4 Dreams Don’t Count Jules Shear
5 Ghost Stories Eric Hisaw
6 Mr. Lucky Chris Isaak
7 Eleven Eleven Dave Alvin
8 Saint Monday Michael Fracasso
9 Live At The Blue Door John Fullbright
10 Gladly Would We Anchor Little Pink;Mary Battiata


Our Top 30 Most Played Artists of 2011:
artist
1 The Beatles
2 Neil Young
3 Bruce Springsteen
4 Bob Dylan
5 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
6 The Fabulous Ginn Sisters
7 Michael Fracasso
8 The Rolling Stones
9 Chris Isaak
10 Jules Shear
11 Eric Hisaw
12 Jon Dee Graham
13 Mary Cutrufello
14 The Who
15 The Byrds
16 Van Morrison
17 Dave Alvin
18 Little Pink;Mary Battiata
19 Ron Flynt
20 Elliott Murphy
21 Matt Harlan
22 Ian Hunter
23 John Hiatt
24 Paul Kelly
25 Chuck Berry
26 John Wort Hannam
27 Warren Zevon
28 James McMurtry
29 K.C. Clifford
30 BettySoo


my current favorite songwriters, pt 2

Songwriters

1. James McMurtry: Stephen King says James is the best songwriter in America, and I wouldn’t argue with him. McMurtry writes about small towns, moving on, drawbridge mentalities, and some characters who are just plain mean. All are a little ‘off plumb’. I grew up in the suburbs, but everything about Levelland is familiar to me, from the marching band playing Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World” to the changes central air and cable tv bring to a town and community, to the drive to get away. Personal favorites for your IPod: Levelland, Where’s Johnny, Childish Things, Just Us Kids, Out Here in the Middle (Live), We Can’t Make It Here Anymore, and No More Buffalo (live), But I could list 20 more songs as easily with no dropoff in quality. He’s never made a bad album, though Where’d You Hide the Body, Childish Things, and Live in ‘Aught Three particularly stand out to me.

2. Dave Alvin: Dave wrote songs for his brother Phil to sing in the Blasters, but on his own has developed his own sound that combines blues, rock, folk, country, and his voice has progressed into a warm, convincing vehicle for his hard luck stories. I probably like King of California best of his CDs, but they’re all good, including his latest, Eleven Eleven, which not only rocks harder, but contains a beautiful song for the late Amy Farris, who was the first person we recorded with in Austin. Personal favorites: California Snow, Ashgrove, From a Kitchen Table, Dry River, Bus Station, Black Rose of Texas.   Also, X’s version of Dave’s 4th of July, as well as anything by the Blasters.

3. Paul Kelly is from Australia, has 20+ albums filled with great radio ready songs, and is so eclectic that a friend (say, Geoffrey Himes) and I might love the same album and have totally different songs as favorites. Listen to the songs Deeper Water, When I First Met Your Ma, and Dumb Things, and if you don’t think they’re three of the best songs ever written, well you’re definitely reading the wrong blog. Deeper Water, Under the Sun, and his bluegrass album Foggy Highway are the CDs I go to the most, but even my least favorites of his have three or four songs that are just great.

4. Elizabeth Cook: Her Rodney Crowell produced Balls (as in “it takes balls to be a woman”) album was Sherry’s and my most played CD of 2008 and sounds like a modern day Loretta or Dolly without the Countrypolitan excess. And she covers the Velvet Underground and makes it fit. Just a gorgeous record. But her next album, Welder, while a less immediately likable album, is an artistic step forward as a songwriter, especially the brilliant Heroin Addict Sister.  Additional songs to download: Always Tomorrow (written by her husband Tim Carroll and our most played song of 2009), Balls, Down Girl, Gonna Be.  

5. Sam Baker:    Sam is a poet and all three of his albums are beautiful. Sam sings in a cracked voice, and plays lefthanded because of injuries suffered in the incident that is the basis for his first record, but every simple note is perfect. When I first played his first CD, Mercy (as in “everyone’s at the mercy of another one’s dream”), it took me an hour to get past the first song and onto song two. He writes about what happens when one half of a couple together for 50 years dies, about what happens when an accident tears your life apart, about a single Mom breaking down at a Wendy’s in Waco, about the inability to forget a loss 15 years later. I like Mercy best of his albums, but Pretty World runs a close second, and if Cotton was the only album I had of his, it would still be one of my favorite records. Except for the incredible Waves, I think of the albums as a piece (beautiful production from Tim Lorsch and Walt Wilkens) and rarely think of the songs individually, but check out Thursday, Pretty World, Sweetly Undone, or Broken Fingers if you want to hear what he sounds like. Not for everyone, but right up Jim & Sherry’s alley.

my current favorite songwriters, pt 1

Songwriters

These are five of my current favorite songwriters. By current, I mean what they’re doing now, which would eliminate Lennon and McCartney, though for completely different reasons. And one great album (usually) isn’t enough to qualify. They are not in any order other than as they occur to me.

1. Jon Dee Graham writes about Big Issues that matter to all of us. Check out Faithless, Wave Goodbye, Laredo (Jim Morrison would have loved to have written a song this good), I Don’t Feel That Way, Beautifully Broken. A great rocker, he and Mike Hardwick play like one amazing four handed guitarist. Lives in Austin, was in the True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo, played and recorded with John Doe and Dan Stuart. Jon Dee’s songs are dark, and he sings them in a weary, gravelly voice, reinforcing that impression, but while his songs are about bad times, they are full of hope. Faithless is about faith; Wave Goodbye about his anger/sadness toward someone who gave up; Laredo, well that one’s just dark (“We shot dope till the money ran out/money ran out”), but Something Wonderful (is Gonna Happen) and Something to Look Forward To express how much a man can endure with just a little faith and hope. 

Jon Dee Graham

2. Michael Fracasso: One horrible rainy day, the kind you can’t see more a car right in front of you if he doesn’t have his lights on, the kind we should have pulled over but we had a show a few hours away, Sherry and I were driving in between trucks when Michael’s high, unearthly voice, came over the IPod: “Outside the Rain is Falling….”  After that we switched to our all Michael Fracasso channel, so we wouldn’t miss any more messages. Michael and his high lonesome voice sing sing songs about the past that are so real you feel as though you were there (1962, Big Sister),  and he can also be a funny and biting  rocker (Wrong Foot, Eloise).  His Back to Oklahoma CD (also released as part of Retrospective) is incredibly beautiful acoustic based music (he’s backed only by the incredibly empathic Charlie Sexton) (Never Enough) recorded live at the Blue Door in Oklahoma City.  His latest CD, Saint Monday, finds him equally adept at rock.  And he does a great cover of Working Class Hero. His songs have a socially conscience thread that runs through them, reflecting his background (if not the attitude) of growing up in the steelworking town of Steubenville OH. Michael first made his name in Greenwich Village before moving to Austin in the early 90s.

Michael Fracasso

3. Jeff Talmadge:  though he currently lives in Atlanta, Jeff Talmadge is one of Texas’ great songwriters, even if he remains a secret to much of the larger world. It’s not that no one’s heard of him: he’s topped the Folk, EuroAmerican, and Roots Music Report charts, but as the Great Tim Henderson said to me: “Driving to Blissville is an obscure song with great lyrics. If Townes (Van Zandt) had written it, it wouldn’t be so obscure, but it wouldn’t have any better lyrics.” In Jeff’s songs, you can feel the dry land, the heat, the lack of rain. His characters are discouraged by the present, hopeful for the future. Most can’t get over a woman lost, and they all travel. Check out:   Driving to Blissville, The Hard Part’s Letting Go, Chasing Grace, 40 Days of Rain, White Cross, Lie to Me. In all of them, Jeff writes about the darker side of human emotions with compassion and dry wit.

photo by Ron Baker

4. John Wort Hannam writes as well about the seafaring towns of his native Canada as Bill Morrissey used to about New England. A way of life is falling apart and usually a love is too.    Wrecking Ball combines both; Infantryman is the best song written in the aftermath of the Iraq War; We’re Getting By, Buy Another Round, and Blue Collar are songs about people who work with their hands, and how they get by the Canadian winters. The specifics in his songs are Canadian, but you’ll recognize the characters. In the Woody Guthrie tradition, John writes as well about Blue Collar struggles as anyone today.

5. John Lilly makes music from the hills of West Virginia that’s timeless, and by that I don’t mean old, just that it seems like it’s always existed, always will, and could come from the past or the future. Think Hank Willliams if he had been rockabilly, with a large dose of high lonesome mountain music thrown in. He’s funny, devastating, heartbreaking. Until his new CD came out, I would have told you to buy the solo live one, that his playing and singing and persona are so out there as to be almost punk (in the old meaning of the word before it became stylized). But his new CD, Cold Comfort,  is brilliant from beginning to end, with a full band that is brilliant but does not get in his way, led by the incomparable Bill Kirchen on guitar   Tore Up From the Floor Up, Last Chance to Dance, Spirit, Broken Moon, Cold Comfort, Two Miracles, the rousing Come on and Go, the beautiful Somewhere in Texas. A terrific cover of Gasoline Alley serves as a reference point for John’s music.