by Rob Nichols
NUVO contributing writer (read all blog posts) Shooter Jennings (Waylon’s hard-living, outlaw badass boy) released his new CD Tuesday, called “Black Ribbons” and recorded with his new band Hierophant. It is a concept record that had Shooter collaborating with writer Stephen King. King voiced multiple cuts on the 20-track release, featured as freewheeling a late-night DJ called Will O’ the Wisp.
I listened to the album. It ain’t today’s country music. Sounds like someone smoked a couple bowls, put on Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”, and said “Hey man, we could do that”. The album is a little weird – both jarring and interesting. And a bit self-indulgent and pompous. Possibly brilliant.
Made while he was without a record label or management, Jennings told the LA Times he “felt like I was at rock bottom. I was feeling pretty voiceless, and depressed.” So he did what all depressed rockers do: he drove cross-country in an RV with his family.
“We were in the middle of nowhere, and every night about midnight I’d hear these programs on the AM dial. It was all this really scary talk about the ballooning police state, the globalization agendas and whatnot.”
Could be the leader to win the Oddball Album of 2010. And that’s OK. Listen Here – “The Illuminated” from Black Ribbons
*** Nearby Show Rob Recommends: Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun comes to the Lafayette Brewing Company in April 17th (it’s a Saturday night). The rockabilly guitarist from Ann Arbor, MI is best known as a member of the original Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. He’s also a crunchy Fender telecaster guitar player, and his music is tagged as “Dieselbilly”: part rockabilly, part truck-drivin’ music. He’s being brought to town by the terrific Friends of Bob live music co-op. An 8:00pm show, with doors at 7:00pm. Tickets on sale March 12th for $10, or $12 day of show. Kirchen released “Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods” in 2007; the title cut a greasy ode to Tele guitar slingers.
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Gotta like that the new Johnny Cash release was #3 on the Billboard Album chart this week. “American VI: Ain’t No Grave,” sold 54,000 units. Sade (huh?) was the top album from last week (and for he third week in a row – what the hell is that about?) , selling 127,000 units of “Soldier of Love.” Country music’s Fleetwood Mac-ish Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now,” was second. Lady A sold 118,000 units, down 18 percent from the previous week. Overall CD sales CD sales were down 13 percent compared to the comparable sales week of 2009 with 5.99 million units sold.
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One of those stories that we knew was probably already happening, and just couldn’t prove it: Four California men behind a ticket broker company have been charged with hacking into Ticketmaster’s website, buying up over 1.5 million tickets and re-selling them. As Wiseguy Tickets, they reportedly made $25 million between 2006 and 2009. The New York Daily News reports that for a Bruce Springsteen show at Giants Stadium in 2008, Wiseguy scooped up half of the floor tickets. They also hacked in to get concerts tickets for AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Hannah Montana, Coldplay and Phish. Among the companies they hit were Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Tickets.com, and Major League Baseball.
The new album from Indianapolis band Finest Grain, “In the Story – The Adventures of Kid B”, plays as part song-cycle about growing up and, taken individually, the best tracks resonate as pop-rock gems, sharing sweetness and crunch and lyrics that stick.
Finest Grain – an Indianapolis duo of Sean Jackson and Kent Vernon (Jackson was a member of the Housemary’s, the two teamed up to release one album as Dooga La Brown in 2000, and this record is a follow-up to Finest Grain’s 2005 debut “One More Shot”) – use an acoustic guitar base that drops in strident but tasteful rock drums and cutting rock and roll guitar. Let the album play, because the early idea that the sound will be lightweight and atmospheric goes away. It never falls into that trap, instead driving hard enough to hit your gut as much as your head.
The record opens with tough acoustic guitar strumming and welcomes those drums. There’s some echo of Neil Young and U2 guitars in “Oceans Between (The Wayside)”, and the album takes flight with the fourth and fifth cuts, the melancholy “Thanks Anyway” and churning, anthemic “Better?”. While the sounds are familiar (think vocals reminiscent of a band like The Church or even one-hit wonders The Dream Academy), the album unfolds nicely, revealing a sound akin to an Midwest American version of Coldplay or a listener-friendly and accessible Radiohead. Every song loads up at least one little pop hook to keep a listener involved musically, and Jackson and Vernon craft many a chorus that earworms its way into your head.
They work to make the lyrics smart and music that lands below the waist consistantly enough to balance the cerebral and visceral. It’s a record that ends up feeling hopeful, helped along by redemption-seeking album closer “Coming Home”.
You can listen to the album online, as they are streaming it at finestgrain.com, and see them play at Locals only on May 21.
SOUTHSIDE FROM THE ARCHIVES
Need some bar rock and R&B from one of the best ever? Take a listen to Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes – 1978: Live in Boston, just out for our beer-soaked listening pleasure. Recorded December 23, 1978 and recently unearthed, the set features seminal Southside tracks like “This Time It’s For Real” and “I Don’t Want to Go Home”, both written by Springsteen guitarist and sidekick Steve VanZandt.
In fact, every track except for to Santa tunes at the end and Sam Cooke’s “Havin’ A Party”, every song was either written by VanZandt, Springsteen or both. Bluesy, rowdy and great horns.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXB_0wvLUm8]
MADISON FOLK FESTIVAL GETS SUBDUDES, ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS
A tremendous lineup has been announced for 4th Annual Ohio River Valley Folk Festival, as it returns to Madison, Indiana May 21-22 On Friday, The Asylum Street Spankers are the final band of four, with Americana darling Eilen Jewel (her album “Sea of Tears was #1 in the TOP 100 of 2009 at WFHB in Bloomington) playing a full set preceding the Spankers. Then Saturday, it’s the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the sublime Loudon Wainwright III, and legendary Subdudes. They play from 6-10pm, each with 90-minute sets. Damn good lineup for the still growing festival. Best yet, and not many festivals in Indiana could do better.
I used to live in Madison – First job after college and ended up doing mornings at WORK radio in town. Had a blast. Fun town, and easy to get to from Indy South on 65, and turn left at the Austin exit. Head to the river…
DRUMMER DRUMMERS DRUMMERS
Between Dave Grohl on Saturday Night Live and Zak Starkey filling in for the Who’s Keith Moon during the Super Bowl, Rolling Stone asked online for readers to tell them who is the greatest drummer of all time. Apparantly a grass-roots effort to get The Muppet Show’s Animal on the list, we kept the results to drummers with a human pulse.
Can’t argue with the top 7, though the order could be wrong. Jimmy Chamberlin? Huh? Charlie Watts should be top three. Get rid of Danny Carrey. Kenny Aronoff should be on there somewhere, as should Max Weinberg
1. John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
2. Neil Peart (Rush)
3. Keith Moon (The Who)
4. Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Them Crooked Vultures)
5. Stewart Copeland (The Police, Oysterhead)
6. Ringo Starr (The Beatles)
7. Ginger Baker (Cream, Blind Faith)
8. Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins)
9. Charlie Watts (The Rolling Stones)
10. Carter Beauford (Dave Matthews Band)
11. Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience)
12. Danny Carey (Tool)
13. Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
14. Buddy Rich
15. Alex Van Halen (Van Halen) Read more of Rob’s writing at NUVO.net – NUVO NEWSWEEKLY – Celebrating 20 Years in Indianapolis
Roots Rock and Twang News: All kinds of news ‘n’ notes. I must pass them along before something bad happens, like a new Winger album appears to punish my selfishness. So I share….
While the Grammy’s pounded away at honoring (mostly) commercial success over everything else, there were a few winners of note to us:
Steve Earle won the Grammy Award for best contemporary folk album for 2009’s “Townes.” Loudon Wainwright III (from “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” to this…) won for best traditional folk album with “High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project”. Best americana album went to Levon Helm, for “Electric Dirt.” and Springsteen won for best solo rock performance for “Working on a Dream”. Alejandro Escovedo retreated to Mexico with long-time friend, co-writer and fellow artist Chuck Prophet, for the follow-up to his most recent studio album “Real Animal”. The new record is slated to be released in late June. Escovedo’s next album will come out on Fantasy Records, the former home Creedence Clearwater Revival, and again home to John Fogerty. Escovedo’s in Kentucky making the record with producer Tony Visconti, who also produced “Real Animal.” One of the best americana shows in the Indy area last year was Escovedo’s appearance at the Royal Theatre in Danville.
Eddie Vedder’s cool cover of “My City Of Ruins” by Bruce Springsteen, recorded at the recent Kennedy Center Honors show in DC, is available as a charity digital single through iTunes. Proceeds benefit Artists for Peace and Justice Haiti Relief.
Barbara Higbie begins a run of six consecutive excellent female singer/songwriters as part of the Indy Acoustic Cafe series. She appears February 13 for a 7:30 show at the Wheeler Community Arts Theater (1035 Sanders St.). Catie Curtis is slated for Feburary 27. more info at indyacousticcafeseries.com Tim Grimm (photo from KDHX Community Media)
Tim Grimm plays February 20 for the Indy Folk Series at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis (615 West 43rd Street). The Indiana singer/songwriter/actor/farmer is the mastermind behind the Hoosier Dylan, Hoosier Holiday and Hoosier Springsteen shows, and this is a nice chance to hear him play his own music. A great voice, filled with relaxed strength, and iy’s sneakily captivating.
more info at indyfolkseries.org
Dixie Chicks and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison will record an album together without their Dixie Chick partner Natalie Maines. Maines father, legendary Texas pedal steel player Lloyd Maines reports that the split is “temporary.
Nielsen rolled out the 2009 year-end music sales and radio airplay, showing album sales were down 8.5 percent. Digital track sales went up 8.3 percent over 2008, and digital album sales up 16.1 percent. Vinyl also grew, with music fans buying 2.5 million vinyl LPs, a 33 percent jump over 2008. Still, music industry revenues in 2009 were $6.3 billion, less than half what they were in 1999, and people spent 32% less in 2009 on music than they spent in 2008.
In 1979, Doug Fieger played rhythm guitar in a band called the Knack and sang a song called “My Sharona” that stayed at No. 1 for six weeks. More recently he’s been a cancer patient, lung and brain and beyond. Here’s the article
Though Charlie Daniels suffered a mild stroke while snowmobiling in Colorado on Jan. 15th, he says he plans on keepting upcoming shows, on Feb. 27th in Ft. Pierce, FL and Feb. 28th in Brooksville, FL. Daniels was released from Swedish Medical Center on Sunday, Jan. 17th and returned to his home in Colorado. I saw Daniels play a mighty fine pre-race Brickyard 400 show a couple years ago, in the infield at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He still had the energy (he’s 73), some damn good country-rock fiddle and guitar songs, and looked at home on the big stage. ALBUM NEWS The Drive-By Truckers have a new album set for release this March, and the first song has been released on Stereogum’s website. Patterson Hood told the website that “The Big To-Do” is “very much a rock album,” You can listen to “This Fucking Job” from the Drive-By Truckers at Stereogum. The new album is due March 16.
Rick Rubin produced the new Johnny Cash album “American VI: Ain’t No Grave”, and that record is out later this month, slated for February 23. The set includes one Cash original (“First Corinthians”) and a version of Sheryl Crow’s “Redemption Day”, among the tracks.
Merle Haggard has a new deal with independent label Vanguard Records (where Levon Helm is signed) – and will release “I Am What I Am” on April 20. He’s currently touring with Kris Kristofferson, whose latest album (“Closer to the Bone”) is magnificent – he has finally grown into that idiosyncratic voice of his, and the words and music match up to produce of the best albums from late last year. PERFORMANCE NEWS
Elvis Costello will tour the U.S. this spring in a variety of configurations. Costello will be playing solo on some shows, plus some with his band The Imposters, and others with The Sugarcanes, the musicians who joined him on his 2009 album “Secret, Profane & Sugarcane”. Costello will also perform solo with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the end of May.
Here’s one of those Texas festivals that sound like a whole lotta fun: The line-up for Cross Canadian Ragweed’s 4th Annual Red Dirt Roundup has been announced. The festival will be held on two stages at the Historic Stockyards in Fort Worth, Texas on Sunday, Sept. 6. The bands include Ragweed, Charlie Robison, Robert Earl Keen, Johnny Cooper and The Wallflowers. THE WILLIE WATCH
Willie Nelson will turn to T Bone Burnett, for Nelson’s new album called “Country Music”. It features old-time banjo master Riley Baugus, double bassist Dennis Crouch, and T Bone himself, all musicians featured on “Raising Sand” the 2009 Grammy award-winning Album of the Year by Plant and Krauss. The album will be released on April 13th. And in what has seemingly become an annual tradition, members of Willie Nelson’s band and crew were cited recently for misdemeanor possession offenses after of marijuana somehow came blowing out of the tour bus. Six members were busted in Duplin County, NC for possession of marijuana and three-fourths of a quart of moonshine. FINALLY…
If you don’t know anything else about my quirky ideas on music, understand that I think Cheap Trick, over the past 30 years, has somehow influenced every rock and roll band worth a shit. So I’ll end by passing along word that Cheap Trick will be performing dates with Squeeze during summer 2010 and taped a PBS Soundstage that will air some time in June or July 2010.
Here’s a bit of the Tricksters…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWv7qS5UjeA]
To prove that not all kids of famous people are riding the coattails of their parents, Justin Townes Earle (Dad=Steve) proves his understated brilliance again, with this live studio performance recorded at Paste Magazine earlier this month. He just came through Indy again and is on tour. Great voice, with hints of Dad, but….well, just watch and listen.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQTc3v0vshE] Tour Schedule/Website
One of the musical highlights of the night. Gorgeous version of the classsic song “We Shall Overcome”, with great solos in the middle from Charlie Giordano (E Street keyboardist who sits where Danny Federici used to) and Curt Ramm (trumpet player who toured with Bruce on the back end of 2009, adding another layer of excellence to the band). The song was part of the repertoire of the Seeger Sessions Band a few years ago for Bruce.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSoNzGWJrGs]
Shooter Jennings (Waylon’s hard-living, outlaw badass boy) released his new CD Tuesday, called “Black Ribbons” and recorded with his new band Hierophant. It is a concept record that had Shooter collaborating with writer Stephen King. King voiced multiple cuts on the 20-track release, featured as freewheeling a late-night DJ called Will O’ the Wisp.
Nearby Show Rob Recommends: Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun comes to the Lafayette Brewing Company in April 17th (it’s a Saturday night). The rockabilly guitarist from Ann Arbor, MI is best known as a member of the original Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. He’s also a crunchy Fender telecaster guitar player, and his music is tagged as “Dieselbilly”: part rockabilly, part truck-drivin’ music. He’s being brought to town by the terrific Friends of Bob live music co-op. An 8:00pm show, with doors at 7:00pm. Tickets on sale March 12th for $10, or $12 day of show. Kirchen released “Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods” in 2007; the title cut a greasy ode to Tele guitar slingers.
Rob Nichols 
The new album from Indianapolis band Finest Grain, “In the Story – The Adventures of Kid B”, plays as part song-cycle about growing up and, taken individually, the best tracks resonate as pop-rock gems, sharing sweetness and crunch and lyrics that stick.
SOUTHSIDE FROM THE ARCHIVES
Then Saturday, it’s the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the sublime Loudon Wainwright III, and legendary Subdudes. They play from 6-10pm, each with 90-minute sets. Damn good lineup for the still growing festival. Best yet, and not many festivals in Indiana could do better. 
Alejandro Escovedo retreated to Mexico with long-time friend, co-writer and fellow artist Chuck Prophet, for the follow-up to his most recent studio album “Real Animal”. The new record is slated to be released in late June. Escovedo’s next album will come out on Fantasy Records, the former home Creedence Clearwater Revival, and again home to John Fogerty. Escovedo’s in Kentucky making the record with producer Tony Visconti, who also produced “Real Animal.” One of the best americana shows in the Indy area last year was Escovedo’s appearance at the Royal Theatre in Danville.
ALBUM NEWS
Alejandro Escovedo retreated to Mexico with long-time friend, co-writer and fellow artist Chuck Prophet, for the follow-up to his most recent studio album “Real Animal”. The new record is slated to be released in late June. Escovedo’s next album will come out on Fantasy Records, the former home Creedence Clearwater Revival, and again home to John Fogerty. Escovedo’s in Kentucky making the record with producer Tony Visconti, who also produced “Real Animal.” One of the best americana shows in the Indy area last year was Escovedo’s appearance at the Royal Theatre in Danville.
ALBUM NEWS