Tag Archives: Sugar Hill

Various Artists: Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein

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Sweet tribute to Shel Silverstein and his songs

A surprising number of people know Shel Silverstein only as an author, cartoonist, poet or the writer of Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue.” But when you start to reel off the songs that were hits for other singers, such as the Irish Rovers’ “The Unicorn,” or Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show’s “Sylvia’s Mother” and “The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” most will see they’re more familiar with Silverstein’s music than they previously realized. Mention Marianne Faithful’s comeback cover of “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” and his work gains a layer of indie cred, and spin them Bobby Bare’s Lullabyes, Legends and Lies, and the books and hit singles start to look like commercial peaks atop a vast catalog of artful and endearing music.

This fifteen-song tribute was produced by Bobby Bare Jr. and Sr., whose shared professional acquaintance with Silverstein dates back to a 1974 father-son duet of the Silverstein-penned “Daddy, What If.” That song transcends to a new generation as Bare Jr. revisit its heart-tugging lyric of parental love with his daughter Isabelle. Unlike tributes to recording artists, tributes to songwriters can mine the part of their canon that hasn’t yet been turned into icons. Better yet, Silverstein’s songs are sufficiently rich to merit additional shades when re-interpreted in new contexts. Dr. Dog’s Beach Boys-styled production and Four Freshman harmonies, for example, provide an interesting, fresh spin to “The Unicorn.”

Bluegrass phenomenon Sarah Jarosz sings “Queen of the Silver Dollar” with a thread-bare sadness that would otherwise seem beyond her eighteen years, and her resigned desolation is deeper than earlier interpretations by Dr. Hook, Emmylou Harris and the Kendalls. Of course, the song’s lyrics are so perfectly crafted as to even stand up to Micky Modelle’s earlier disco remake. Lucinda Williams sings “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” with the heartbreak, disillusion and wear that few vocalists can hold to a melody. John Prine, Ray Price, Bobby Bare Sr. and Kris Kristofferson each use the age in their voices to texture to their selections, with the latter one-upping Bobby Bare’s original take on “The Winner” by adding grizzled old-guy, spit-eyed gumption.

Even “A Boy Named Sue,” a song whose clever ending most listeners already know, and whose Johnny Cash performance is a country music classic, is worth another visit. Todd Snider doesn’t add anything revolutionary, but he hits the song’s tough, sly, wise tone perfectly. Less impressive is Black Francis’ take on “The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” which hasn’t the jug band goofiness of Dr. Hook’s original, and the Boxmasters drop the melodrama (and rush the tempo) of “Sylvie’s Mother.” The album’s title track, originally a poem from A Light in the Attic is brought to song with a wonderful melody, vocal and string arrangement by Andrew Bird. This is a fine collection that thoughtfully pairs singers and songs, and a nice way to hear these lovable (and beloved) Shel Silverstein songs. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

The Infamous Stringdusters: Things That Fly

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Forceful contemporary acoustic and bluegrass sounds

There’s a power to this sextet’s progressive acoustic and bluegrass sounds that leans into the listener like a poke in the chest. The instruments are mostly the standard acoustic assortment, but the verve with which they’re picked, and the group’s punchy vocal harmonies are heavier than one might expect from a contemporary acoustic outfit. As on their previous self-titled album, the band writes many of their own songs, generally avoids the standard bluegrass canon and stretch their genre with an acoustic reworking of U2’s “In God’s Country.” The latter amplifies the song’s force in group harmonies and a propulsive arrangement, but weans it from the original’s anthemic emotion. The group’s originals weave folk and country sounds with progressive arrangements and hot-picked strings. There are bluegrass intervals in their harmonies, but otherwise their melodies are quite progressive. The instrumental “Magic #9” suggests both – a melody with downtown jazz complications picked on acoustic string instruments from the hills.

The group features three lead vocalists, giving their sound more variety than a bluegrass band with a designated singer. They also welcome Dierks Bentley for a duet cover of Jody Stecher’s humorous encounter with a panhandler, “17 Cents.” Their new songs contemplate friends and family who are gone but not missing, previous generations whose impact reverberates through the family tree and friends who remain fresh in one’s memory. The group’s won bluegrass accolades (including several IBMA awards) and releases their CDs on vaunted Sugar Hill label, but there’s more here than a recitation of form. The massed voices at the end of “Masquerade” momentarily bring to mind 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love,” and guitarist Andy Falco pulls things into new directions with the addition of organ and piano. Perhaps most importantly, the group treats studio recording as its own music-making opportunity – rather than a way to document the band’s live sound. The vitality of live performance remains, but augmented by studio touches. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | All the Same
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The Red Stick Ramblers: My Suitcase is Always Packed

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redstickramblers_mysuitcase-copyTasty southern mash of Cajun, country, jazz and swing

The Ramblers fifth album, their second for Sugar Hill, continues to masterfully mix fiddle-led country and blues, Hot Club-styled jazz and galloping western swing. As the band’s evolved from imitation to influence, so too have they moved from albums stocked with covers to nearly all original material. Aside from a pair of Cajun classics, the Touchet Family’s “Old Fashioned Two Step” and Eddie Shuler’s “La Valse De Meche,” the band members have written their own country weepers, bluesy jazz and all manner of dance tunes. Actually, the entire album, as with most of the group’s repertoire, is filled with dance tunes – slow, fast and in between, this is music meant to get listeners moving.

The group’s lead vocalist (and one of its two fiddlers) Linzay Young says cheekily, “Who knew all these years of poverty, heart break, substance abuse, self-exploration and transient life-style would result in something worth-while!” Of those experiences, heartache tops the list, bending an elbow in “Drinkin’ to You,” dampening eyes on the fiddle waltz “Bloodshot,” singing the lonesome blues “Doggone My Time,” and unconvincingly giving bad times a kiss-off with “Goodbye to the Blues.” But the romantic problems aren’t all past-due as the songs find happiness in a less-then-perfect relationship, beg for another chance, navigate parental interference, and in the sly “My Suitcase is Always Packed,” avoid entanglement with an ever-ready escape plan.

The album closes with an original call-and-response jump blues “The Barnyard Bachelor” that provides a microcosm of the band’s nostalgic influences, musical chops, sweet humor and undeniable danceability. This band gets better with each release, more confident in their writing, more thorough in the absorption of their influences, and both tighter and more relaxed in their vocal harmonies and instrumental interplay. With guest helpings of accordion, steel and piano the Ramblers match suit-and-tie style to sleeves-rolled-up workmanship. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Drinkin’ to You
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The Gibson Brothers: Iron & Diamonds

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Country and bluegrass brothers in harmony

Some sounds sound old without becoming nostalgic. Such are the brotherly vocals of Eric and Leigh Gibson whose tight harmonies remain fresh even as they trace back to the Louvins and Everlys. The same is true for their bluegrass quintet, whose instrumentation (banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bass) offers tradition, but whose lyrical approach is more back-porch cozy than by-the-numbers festival playing. Even the original “Picker’s Blues” is an original lament rather than a rehashed demonstration, a song of musicians drawn to their travels no matter the personal price, accompanied by superb rolling banjo and flat-picked guitar. Faith and death thread through several songs, including the fatalistic “One Step Closer to the Grave” and the album-closing farewell of Bill Carlisle’s country-gospel classic, “Gone Home.” A more earthly faith is found on the album’s title track, “Iron & Diamonds,” in which the hard, unchanging life of a company-owned mining town is punctuated by the afternoon sunshine of the local minor league baseball team. The difficulties turn philosophical with the balkanization of “Angry Man,” as the Leighs focus on the social stasis bred of endless political bickering. The album’s most visited topic is hearts sought and broken. On the sunnier side, Tom Petty’s “Cabin Down Below” (from 1994’s Wildflowers) is turned from leering to merely urgent as the original’s hard-rock is transformed to a hill-bred courting song. The sparse guitar-and-bass original “Lonely Me, Lonely You” is filled with Roy Orbison-like stalwart agony, and a cover of Faron Young and Roger Miller’s “A World So Full of Love” drops the overt honky-tonk of the original while still hanging on to the pathos. Steve Earle’s “The Other Side of Town” (from 1997’s El Corazón) is rendered as a forlorn Ray Price shuffle, replacing the original’s more dire Hank Williams style, but the brothers’ vocals — solo on the verses, tightly harmonized on the choruses — will still hammer a nail in your heart. The Gibson’s tread traditional ground with their instruments and harmonies, but without the slavish adherence to convention that saps the currency from a great deal of contemporary acoustic string-band music. This is a great spin for country and bluegrass fans alike. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

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