After Indianapolis singer/songwriter Cara Jean Wahlers saw cellist Grover Parido perform with Blueprint Music a few years ago, she talked to him about working together. It led to the duo’s collaboration on Goodnight Charlotte, Wahler’s new 12-song collection, featuring her vocals and guitar, and Parido’s cello, piano and bass.
A stunningly beautiful set of quiet-yet-engaging songs, it is anchored by Wahler’s in-you-ear vocals, and Parido’s achingly gorgeous sound. Whether his contribution is part of the atmosphere, or is a solo that creeps from the background and engulfs the listener, his playing is pointed and pretty, soulful and satisfying.
The album is music for your head and your heart. Think “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” for the 2010’s
The opening song, “Chinatown” reveals the gifts both players bring. Wahlers is a cinematic writer, building scenes in songs that a listener’s mind can see. Rain on a face. Trinkets in a pocket. Throughout, Parido adds weight to chord changes, and slides forward when warranted.
Wahlers best moments come when she drops details on the listener.
On “Orange Blossom”, she sings how “pine needles sting my bare feet.”
In “California”, she compares a love to AM radio, both “barely able to stay in tune”.
With “Mark’s On The Earth”, she sings: “I am tired of trying to prove that I am beautiful, burning for you. I am tired of trying to prove that I am good enough – broken hearts can burn too”
Wahlers works inside a pleasing Joni Mitchell/Ricki Lee Jones/Emmylou Harris template – more West coast than rural – and a hint of Indiana in her voice helps anchor a sound more organic than shiny. Parido’s piano visits regularly and then backs off. There’s space in the album’s soundscape for instruments to appear and then recede – a sympathetic mix providing room for voice, piano, cello and Wahler’s anchoring guitar work.
“Black Dog” may be the best song on the album, about falling in love with Steven and his dog. And yes, Wahlers references the Led Zeppelin song near the end of her tune, supported by Parido’s Zep-like lines.
Not sure if anyone will make a smarter, lovelier record in 2010. Wahlers and Parido have created an intelligent and gentle album, hearfelt and soulful in it’s quiet beauty.
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Trio of Americana albums this week from Plant, Earle, Johnson
There’s three impressive album releases of Americana music this week. Jamey Johnson has the most ambitious offering – a double-disc CD garnering triumphant reviews – and it is primed to make him a reluctant country music (and more) superstar. Robert Plant follows his Raising Sand masterpiece with a solo record, aided by Americana guitarist/singer/songwriter Buddy Miller. Justin Townes Earle continues to build a career worthy of the Earle name, and may have the most accessible, joyous record of the three. It’s a warm, retro sound for his third album of literate country, folk and rock music.
Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song
Review: “It’s a stunning, varied and far-reaching set of 25 hardcore country songs, sonically and thematically integrated into a musical journey designed to be experienced, optimally, in sequence, from the first, generally darker “Black” disc on through the more upbeat sounds of hard-won redemption in the second “White” disc. It’s a country album, and one as ambitious in its intentions and successful in its execution as country music has seen in decades, able to hold its own with albums conceived as such by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash.” – Wall Street Journal
Read full review at WSJ.com
Great in-depth piece with Johnson from Peter Copper from tennessean.com
Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues
Review: “The album offers an impressive variety of styles. While the title track sounds like gospel music that’s been kicked in the backside by Elvis, Earle follows it with what might initially seem like the standard “I’ve lost my love and I’m sad” kind of ballad. But it’s really a metaphoric slap in the face — a call to stop wasting time with those who aren’t willing to give us what we want or need.” – NPR
Read full review at NPR
Hear the album via NPR
Lengthy, revealing interview from Michigan’s mlive.com
Robert Plant – Band Of Joy
Review: “Three years after Raising Sand, his collaboration with country diva Alison Krauss, Robert Plant shuffles a little more in the direction of his beloved gospel-soul-blues with this album, named after his first band. Read what you like into that fact, but the 62-year-old is carving out a future rather than recalling the past with this intense, challenging and frequently brilliant collection. If Krauss’s crystalline voice and T-Bone Burnett’s production were key last time, then guitarist and co-producer Buddy Miller is the main man here. But the band has many strengths, including the remarkable Patty Griffin on vocals.” – Irish Times
Read full review at IT
Former Rolling Stone writer Alan Light’s interview with Plant in NYTimes
New Springsteen "Darkness" Reissue Contains Intriguing Additions
Though grounded in a rock and roll, with a healthy R&B/60’s Soul tradition chromosome, Bruce Springsteen was signed as a folk guy (at least that’s what Columbia Records thought they were getting). As successfully as any artist in modern music, has been able go from folk to rock to soul to pop without losing his ability to write insightful lyrics and embrace rock music.
But the record that has proven to be the strongest, most timeless work is 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town album. It gets a newly remastered treatment (The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story, a 6 CD/DVD set, due out November 14) with a package that includes two CD’s of unreleased, new/old songs from the original recording sessions; a live concert video from 1978; and a making-of documentary – one that debuts at the Toronto Film Festival September 14, and on HBO in August.
I have the orginal CD in my car. It’s a favorite on my iPod. I can still remember the day in 1984 , going to the used record store in Hillsdale, Michigan, and coming out with a used vinyl version. I still have it.
It a record that has some of Bruce’s meanest guitar playing, down-but still-hopeful lyrics and a core set of songs (“Badlands”, “Prove It All Night”, The Promised Land”) that form the heart of most of the band’s live shows.
He had to wait two years following the release of Born to Run before he could even get into the studio to record the album, because of the lawsuit with his management, and a judge’s injunction against recording with his new manager Jon Landau while the court case dragged on.
New Prince Album: Hear the 80's throwback
OK. Here’s the deal. Last weekend, Prince (the Purple one, from Minneapolis – we really want to like his music, but he makes it so damn difficult) released his new album, 20Ten , in the U.K. – given away for free by newspapers (!) The Daily Mirror and The Daily Record.
I had read two blog posts about the new record, and how it really was a throwback to his 80’s sound.
Again.
So I went on a search for tracks that we could listen to. And I found them. The whole album – on demand, online. Not sure how long it will be available, so take a listen while you can. There are no current plans for a US release.
Here’s what Prince has done: He has taken the drum sample/hand clap that was the hallmark of his early and mid-career songs, from “Controversy” all the way through “Raspberry Beret”, and used them on the new record. Sneaky simple. Follow the link and listen; could have been recorded 25 years ago. It is pop Prince all over again, with an 80’s flashback-inducing sound.
→ Listen to Prince – 20Ten
Album Review : Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – "Mojo"
Here’s a prediction: Tom Petty’s new Mojo album will eventually by hailed as one of his brilliant moments; it’s the album where Petty let the band loose to play modern blues – filtered through, and kept familiar, by the Florida nasal twang of the frontman.
Fuck radio. That’s what Petty must have said. Are classic rock radio stations abuzz with anticipation of playing a new Tom Petty song? Maybe a couple. Maybe some AAA and Americana stations. And probably all the cool guys with the hour-long weekly radio shows on non-commercial stations will dig it. But Petty is almost 60 years old. Hit singles are in the past, even for a guy who kept MTV playing videos for about five years longer than they might have without his great pop songs and endless string of compelling (or at least entertaining) videos.
What Tom Petty has done has said “Screw all of ya. Me and the boys feels like making this kind of album”. And what “this” kind of album became was a logical followup to the Mudcrutch record that Petty, guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench made two years ago with the two original members of a band that would become the Heartbreakers after moving to LA.
That album was a swampy, bluesy, stretched-out rock record. So is Mojo, if you replace the sound of the Everglades with the sound of Chess Records.
The title of album opener “Jefferson Jericho Blues” provides the obvious style clue. The record’s sound leans on Campbell’s guitar lines and Tench’s piano and organ. The vibe is Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited with better production.
There are nuggets that shine. “Candy” is a fun piece of CCR confection; “US 41″ a Muddy Waters homage; and ‘Let Yourself Go” has a sound that reminds of the Doors, of all things.
Hear new Mellencamp song from upcoming album
The title track from John Mellencamp’s forthcoming album No Better Than This was sent to AAA, Americana and Non-Commercial radio stations June 28th and is currently in rotation on AOL.com’s Adult Rock channel.
According to mellencamp.com, a video for the song, using footage from filmmaker Kurt Markus’ It’s About You documentarychronicling the making of the album will be released in the next couple weeks.
→ Hear the track at mellencamp.com
The cover photo of the No Better Than This album was shot by Elaine Mellencamp and shows Hud Mellencamp, their oldest son, in a photo with two young women. A photo of younger Hud, also by Elaine, was used on the cover of 2003’s Trouble No More.
Review from AOL:
The song ‘No Better Than This’ features a prominent rockabilly beat and lively, uncomplicated production. The lyrics portray a pretty happy guy reveling in the simple pleasures of romance and music: “Give me good loving / And seal it with a kiss / Drop me off where the music sounds / It can get no better than this.”