Tag Archives: Saguaro Road

Waylon Jennings: Goin’ Down Rockin’ – The Last Recordings

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A country legend’s farewell studio session

Three years before his untimely passing in 2002, Waylon Jennings spent a few days laying down what would be his last studio performances. Recorded in his friend (and steel guitarist) Robbie Turner’s home studio, the tapes featured Jennings and his guitar working out new music and revisiting older tunes. Jennings no longer had the full vocal power of his earlier years, but his phrasing, tone and low baritone notes were intact; he sounds physically weakened in spots, but still mentally charged. Shortly after the sessions, Jennings moved back to Phoenix, and the tapes sat unfinished until last year, when Turner gathered select players to add instrumental backings to the performances. The result closely captures the flavor of Jennings’ earlier recordings, skillfully weaving the players around Jennings and his guitar into a final mix that feels whole.

By utilizing players who’d worked with Jennings before, Turner was able to craft backings that are sympathetic to the singer and his sound. As with Johnny Cash’s American Recordings, there’s an unmistakable specter of mortality coloring the songs and performances. The title track is unapologetic, summing up Jennings’ last stand with the hook line “if I can’t go down rockin’, ain’t gonna go down at all.” There’s also a fired-up early run-through of “Never Say Die,” which would become the title of Jennings last live set in 2000. Earlier songs take on added poignancy, such as a version of “I Do Believe” that’s sung wearily, as if struggling to balance the hear-and-now with a here-after that was closing in. Similarly, “Belle of the Ball” is rendered more wistful and nostalgic here than as originally heard on 1977’s Ol’ Waylon.

Hearing these songs as life-end reflections is partly a product of hindsight. Jennings then-new “Friends in California” would have been the story of a wounded spirit in 1970, but looking back at 1999 from 2012, the protagonist’s troubles read more prophetic and terminal. Similarly, the romantic resignation of “The Ways of the World” is layered with additional meaning as Jennings contemplates “the ways of this whole world are not always fair / most things are never what we want to find,” and Turner dresses this latter song in steel guitar and atmospheric interludes that underscore the song’s pondering. Arriving ten years after Jennings passing, this set is like a letter delayed in the mail; it’s unexpected, enjoyable and bittersweet. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

CONTEST! Win a promotional version of this release, including a short DVD documentary. Tell us your favorite Waylon song in a comment on this entry. We’ll select a winner at random from all those who respond in the next week.

Mark Chesnutt: Outlaw

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Heartfelt covers of ‘70s outlaw classics

Like many fine artists discarded by the mainstream Country music machine, Mark Chesnutt’s artistry has grown even as his commercial fame has waned. Having parted with his last major label (Columbia) after an eponymous release in 2002, Chesnutt released a series of indie albums that returned to his hard-country roots. Starting with 2004’s Savin’ the Honky Tonk, Chesnutt developed a sound that favored the twang of the roadhouse over the processed sound of the studio. On this latest, Chesnutt returns to the inspiring songs of his youth, covering titles written or made famous by friends and heroes that include Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, and Hank Williams Jr.

Producer Pete Anderson’s reigned in the production touches with which he pushed Dwight Yoakam, delivering Chesnutt classic arrangements of guitar, fiddle and steel that focus on the songs and singing. The album is a tribute, but settles even more easily into the sort of dancehall Saturday night that leaves you smiling on Sunday morning… once the hangover’s gone. The vocals generally follow the originals’ templates, but the productions shed the studio sounds of the 1970s and 80s. Anderson’s guitar is meatier than the original on “Are You Ready for the Country,” the string arrangement of Kristofferson’s “Lovin’ Her Was Easier” is changed into a mournful fiddle, and “Sunday Morning Coming Down” is played without the dramatic climbs of the original. The song list is a combination of tunes Chesnutt’s been singing live for years, including “Black Rose,” “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” and “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound,” treasured album cuts like Waylon Jennings’ “Freedom to Stay,” and tunes suggested by his label, including “Desperados Waiting for a Train.”

Many of these are songs that Chesnutt’s long loved, but for various reasons (often, the difficulty of learning the wordy lyrics) he’d never sung. In a couple of cases, such as with “Black Rose,” he dug back past the version he knew, by Waylon Jennings, to the original approach of the song’s writer, Billy Joe Shaver. In other cases, such as with “A Couple More Years,” he stuck with his memories of the hit, by Dr. Hook. The album was cut in Los Angeles, and Chesnutt and Anderson took only two nights to get masters for all thirteen vocals – a mark of their preparation and the synergy the pair found in the vocal booth. Anderson adds plenty of hard guitar twang throughout the album, and the backing band includes Gary Morse (pedal steel), Donny Reed (fiddle) and Mickey Raphael (harmonica). While this doesn’t push Chesnutt forward, it’s a great opportunity to hear a terrific country vocalist sing some great country songs. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Patty Loveless: Mountain Soul II

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PattyLoveless_MountainSoul2Second helping of acoustic mountain music

Patty Loveless is one of Nashville’s few contemporary stars who hsds always managed to infuse her hits with a helping of mountain soul. Her run through the top-40 mixed twangy steel-lined modern country production with the sounds of rockabilly, gospel, blues, and a voice that’s country to the bone. All of that adds up to great recordings, but what made great records was a selection of material that drew from the best of Nashville’s pros and a deep helping of outsider gems. In the former category are Kostas’ “Timber I’m Falling in Love” and Matraca Berg’s “You Can Feel Bad,” and in the latter category is Lucinda Williams’ “The Night’s Too Long,” Rodney Crowell’s “Loving All Night,” and Jim Lauderdale’s “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me.”

Beyond the singles charts, Loveless released albums full of quality tracks, particularly those produced by her husband Emory Gordy Jr. Midway through her tenure with the Epic label Loveless took a break from contemporary country to record Mountain Soul, an acoustic album of bluegrass and mountain music. The arrangements and material (which included a few covers amongst contemporary works) grew from an acoustic section of Loveless’ live show and highlighted the mountain roots that undergirded her more highly produced recordings. A second set of bluegrass-flavored productions was recorded for 2002’s Bluegrass and White Snow: A Mountain Christmas, and her return to more typical Nashville production on 2003’s On Your Way Home kept the roots pushed up front.

Eight years after coming out with Mountain Soul Loveless has returned again to mostly acoustic arrangements. The high, lonesome vocals and tight harmonies also return, but the material stretches further into country and gospel, and the guest list expands to include Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Stuart Duncan, and Del and Ronnie McCoury. Loveless sings with her typical brilliance, and the accompaniment provides support without covering up any of the emotional colors of her voice. Her held notes, bent sour and brought back to key, communicate more than the typical modern Nashville vocalist says in an entire song.

Loveless is as strong harmonizing as she is singing lead, her tenor is the perfect leavening for Del McCoury on the traditional “Working on a Building,” and she’s warmed by the Primitive Baptist Congregation gospel choir on the original “(We Are All) Childeren of Abraham.” Gordy is equally adept at crafting sympathetic backings as he is in picking spots to let Loveless sing unadorned. The traditional “Friends in Gloryland” is sung a cappella with Vince Gill and Rebecca Lynn Howard, blending their voices into thick chords that need no additional instruments.

There’s some fine picking from Rob Ickes, Bryon Sutton, and Stuart Duncan but the lasting impression of this album is its mountain vocal soul. Amid the talents of Del and Ronnie McCoury, Carl Jackson, Vince Gill, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Tim Hensley, Jon Randall and Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless’ voice stands tall, ringing down from the mountains of her native Kentucky. Perhaps the greatest thing that’s come from Loveless’ commercial country success is the freedom it’s bought her to pursue the old-timey sounds that are near to her heart. “Country” radio may ignore this, but Loveless’ fans, and all fans of hill-bred folk and country music will enjoy this second helping. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Blind Boys of Alabama: Duets

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BlindBoysOfAlabama_DuetsGospel soul harmonies matched to pop, rock, blues and more

The Blind Boys of Alabama formed as a quartet in 1939 at what was then called the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf & Blind. All four members – three primary vocalists and a drummer – were blind. Of the four founders, two have passed, one has retired, and Clarence Fountain continues to tour with the group as his health allows. Like the Staple Singers, the Blind Boys of Alabama sing traditional material and bring their gospel harmonies to pop music. This collection pulls together fourteen collaborations in which the group backs up or sings alongside folk, rock, pop, country, blues, soul and reggae artists.

All but four of these tracks were previously released, but anthologizing them in a single place provides an amplified view of how the group’s gospel meshes into a variety of musical contexts, and how effortlessly the group pulls other artists into their embrace. Ben Harper’s soulful singing is a natural fit, as are Toots Hibbert’s and Solomon Burke’s. Randy Travis’ old-timey religion gives the group a jaunty rhythm, and the twangy guitar, solid backbeat and spoken blues of Charlie Musselwhite’s “I Had Trouble” is backed with Jordanaires-styled harmonies.

The acoustic “Welcome Table” provides Dan Zanes and the group a terrific arena for vocal interplay, even dropping in an a cappella verse. The spare blues of John Hammond’s “One Kind of Favor” finds the group harmonizing in a low hum, and the swing stylings of Asleep at the Wheel’s “The Devil Ain’t Lazy” offer a playful way to put across the song’s message. Perhaps most surprising is the pairing with Lou Reed on the Velvet Underground’s “Jesus.” Here the group’s harmonies shed the light of salvation upon Reed’s spent and broken monotone.

Timothy B. Schmit’s “Secular Praise” is the album’s newest track, and the cuts by Toots Hibbert, Lou Reed and John Hammond are each previously unreleased. All four are fine additions to the material that was drawn from ten different original artist’s albums. The group’s live and recorded work has received numerous accolades over the years, including film and TV placements and five Grammy awards, but their greatest compliments may just be these invitations to make music with their peers. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Patty Loveless: Sleepless Nights

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pattyloveless_sleeplessnightsPatty Loveless unleashes on the classics

As terrific as this project looks on paper, the results aren’t as satisfying as the elements might suggest. Loveless is in good voice, the songs are classics, and the arrangements suitably stripped of modern Nashville conventions, but the results are lacking in dynamic range and one-dimensional. Loveless has the tone and twang to effortlessly cast herself back (unlike, for example, Martina McBride on 2005’s Timeless), the problem is that she also has an incredibly powerful voice that’s unleashed in full-throat on every track. The Linda Ronstadt-styled emoting is impressive, even stop-you-in-your-tracks chilling, for a track or two, but the lack of any softness is wearying at album length. Emory Gordy Jr.’s production and arrangements provide typically sympathetic settings for his wife, and Loveless obviously respects and deeply understands her material, but compacting fourteen emotionally-charged singles onto one album leaves the listener feeling battered. Perhaps it was Loveless’ artistic goal to hammer home the sorrow of these songs, but it would make a better listening experience as a series of singles stretched out over a year or two. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Hear “There Stands the Glass”

Dion: Heroes – Giants of Early Guitar Rock

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dion_giantsofearlyguitarrockAn original rock ‘n’ roll idol salutes his roots

Who would have thought that at the age of 69 that Dion would have this album in him? If his voice doesn’t have the full swagger of earlier years, it’s still incredibly solid and filled with the spirit that lifted him onto the first wave of rock ‘n’ roll. Even more surprising is that Dion’s an accomplished guitarist, and together with Bob Richardson, he salutes the real giants of early guitar rock: Cliff Gallup, James Burton, Scotty Moore and other players whose six-strings provided the sting of many early rock ‘n’ roll classics. Dion’s picked 15 well-known hits from the catalogs of Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent, Del Shannon, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Bill Haley and his own “The Wanderer,” and on each he and Richardson highlight their core guitar sounds.

Given Dion’s first-hand experience with these songs and their original artists, these aren’t so much covers as personal renditions of the folk music of his adolescence. Most of us can hazily remember our teenage years, but few expressed it so fully at the time, night-after-night in song. Dion’s recitations of youthful pique, broken hearts, freewheeling joy, feverous love and adolescent braggadocio are obviously much more than distant memories. He cooks with the passion of a hormonal teenager on “Believe What You Say,” aches with longing on “Runaway” and rekindles his own young swagger on “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Who Do You Love.” This is both a stroll down a nostalgic street and a vital new work by an artist forever infused with the emotional fire of rock ‘n’ roll. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Hear “Believe What You Say”