SPRING CREEK
LONESOME WAY TO GO
2008 – SELF RELEASED
Produced By SALLY VAN METER
1. Done This To Yourself
2. Pathway Of Teardrops
3. Fiddler’s Banjo
4. The One I Love Is Gone
5. Sleepin’ Like A Baby
6. Pretty Little Piece Of Mind
7. Big Al’s Blues
8. I Don’t Like This Missin’ You
9. Hello Operator
10. Lonesome Way To Go
11. That Dog’ll Hunt
12. Way Of Life
This is an exceptional bluegrass album by Colorado’s own Spring Creek. My friend Chris Elliott is the banjo player here, and also Todd Moore makes a percussive appearance on track number five. Thank you to Marlo Mortensen for bringing this fine music into my life, and for the opportunities I've had to share stages with these two fine players..
You can find this band at http://springcreekbluegrassband.com.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
THE AVALANCHES
SINCE I LEFT YOU
2000 – MODULAR
Produced By ROBBIE CHATER & DARREN SEITMANN
1. Since I Left You
2. Stay Another Season
3. Radio
4. Two Hearts In ¾ Time
5. Avalanche Rock
6. Flight Tonight
7. Close To You
8. Diners Only
9. A Different Feeling
10. Electricity
11. Tonight
12. Pablo’s Cruise
13. Frontier Psychiatrist
14. Etoh
15. Summer Crane
16. Little Journey
17. Live At Dominoes
18. Extra Kings
The debut album by Australia’s The Avalanches is a triumph. This electronic dance album is not as well known as it should be, and is a sprawling and wonderful experience. The band utilized over 3500 samples, and the sound is lush, dense, and exciting. It’s long, clocking in at an entire hour, but it’s never boring or stagnant. It’s an ambitious project, and it’s a thing of beauty. And you can dance to it. This album is like a party on a disc. It’s got some of everything, and each listen grows on you a little more. Several tracks stand out on Since I Left You…”Electricity”, “A Different Feeling”, “Frontier Psychiatrist”, but it’s the overall experience of the entire album that makes this stand out as a great work. Is 3500 samples overdoing it? Yes…until you hear the way they are used on this album. It’s tough to find fault with anything about this one. It flows, it grooves, it never disappoints, and it never fails to sound amazing.
Following this up proved to be difficult…it took fifteen years for The Avalanches to finally release their second album, and it’s not close to the mastery of their debut. It’s also notable that vocals are not at the forefront of Since I Left You at all. While there is some singing, it’s more of an instrumental album. “Frontier Psychiatrist”, for example, relies more on spoken word samples without the benefit of sung lyrics…but the placement of lines like “the boy needs therapy” is masterful. The flow from track to track is flawless, and overall, Since I Left You plays more like a film than an album of music. Which is the true beauty of this disc. This is not just an album of songs…it can be better explained as wrapping yourself up in a warm blanket on a cold day in a comfy bed. And when an album can make you feel like that, then you’ve definitely found yourself a winner. Highly recommended, and very much worthy of repeated listens.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
ALT-J
AN AWESOME WAVE
2012 – INFECTIOUS
Produced By CHARLIE ANDREW & MARK BISHOP
1. Intro
2. The Ripe & Ruin
3. Tessellate
4. Breezeblocks
5. Guitar
6. Something Good
7. Dissolve Me
8. Matilda
9. Ms
10. Fitzpleasure
11. Piano
12. Bloodflood
13. Taro
Alt-J (often identified by the symbol ∆), is a band that was formed at Leeds University in 2007. Their name suggests something of a more electronic nature, and their sound does as well…but this group is more rock in nature than that. It’s also more everything else. An Awesome Wave is their debut album, released after the members had left school. You’ll find lots of different elements to keep you happy here…plenty of guitar, along with some nice hip hop beats. Great sounding keyboards, and intriguing vocals to go along with a great set of lyrics. Alt-J shows that right out of the gate, they were not afraid to put it all out there on their sleeves and be just who they are. And it works magnificently. An Awesome Wave is a breathtaking work. Sonically, musically, lyrically, this is an album that has something for everyone, and it’s all done extremely well.
“Breezeblocks”, “Matilda”, “Tesselate” and “Handmade” are the best tracks here, but everything else is worthwhile as well. Joe Newman’s vocals seem strange at times, but his voice fits perfectly. An Awesome Wave takes chance after chance, and succeeds time after time with beautiful results. This album grooves, rocks, and moves you with seemingly little effort. It’s a fine and underrated work, and deserves more attention than it receives. Rock is dead? As of 2012 and An Awesome Wave, I don’t think so…it’s just not the rock your parents understood. Their second album, 2014’s This Is All Yours, fared even better, and there have been a pair of records released since then. Expect more good things from Alt-J (they also did release a live album from Red Rocks in 2016). A band worth checking out, and worth looking to the future for.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
STEVE EARLE
EL CORAZON
1997 – WARNER MUSIC
Produced By TWANGTRUST
1. Christmas In Washington
2. Taneytown
3. If You Fall
4. I Still Carry You Around
5. Telephone Road
6. Somewhere Out There
7. You Know The Rest
8. N.Y.C.
9. Poison Lovers
10. The Other Side Of Town
11. Here I Am
12. Fort Worth Blues
Yet another excellent notch in the belt of Steve Earle’s career, his seventh album is another fine effort. El Corazon showcases Earle at his most diverse, and at the top of his songwriting game. And while this doesn’t quite match its predecessor, I Feel Alright, it’s still very worthwhile and satisfying. The best moments on El Corazon are the beginning, the end, and the five collaborations that shine in between. “Christmas In Washington” is Earle as a folk artist, and he nails it. The closer, “Ft. Worth Blues”, is an absolute acoustic gem. In between these two tracks, Earle rocks out in varying degrees. “Taneytown” features Emmylou Harris, and is a great piece of storytelling. The Del McCoury Band joins in for the bluegrass number “I Still Carry You Around”. The Fairfield Four sing along on “Telephone Road”, and you get a dose of the Supersuckers on “N.Y.C”.
The best of the bunch is “Poison Lovers”, a duet with Siobhan Kennedy. The rest of the album is classic Steve Earle, proving over and over again why he’s one of alt-country’s brightest lights. From here, he made his next album with the McCoury band, a full bluegrass album…the man can do whatever he wants, and it rarely disappoints. Earle continues on, cranking out at least an album every couple of years…fortunately for us. El Corazon is just another in a long line of Earle offerings that you just can’t go wrong with. This album is like the rest of his career…sturdy, steady, tuneful as hell, and the best kind of country music, keeping the ghosts of Hank and Townes and the rest of the best alive and kicking. So thanks to Steve Earle, and enjoy albums like El Corazon. Because there’s never too much of the good stuff.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
THE CHURCH
STARFISH
1988 – ARISTA
Produced By GREG LADANYI, WADDY WACHTEL & THE CHURCH
1. Destination
2. Under The Milky Way
3. Blood Money
4. Lost
5. North, South, East And West
6. Spark
7. Antenna
8. Reptile
9. A New Season
10. Hotel Womb
The most amazing thing about Australian band The Church isn’t that they have been together for what is now over 40 years, or that they have released to date 25 studio albums, or that they are able to maintain their audience year after year, decade after decade. What’s truly amazing about this band is that they have been able to accomplish this with minimal commercial success. The Church had their share of minor hits in their homeland through the 80’s, and little else up until Starfish, their fifth album from 1988. Starfish is the band’s peak, commercially and artistically, thanks to their one monster hit, “Under The Milky Way”. It’s a simple and beautiful song, with just the right amount of keyboards to fit the musical landscape of 1988 perfectly. It’s a masterful track, a once in a lifetime hit, good enough to keep The Church on the road to this day.
Starfish is worth having for that song alone, but the rest of the album is pretty terrific as well. Trying to break the American market, the label brought in LA session musicians Wachtel and Ladanyi to produce (Russ Kunkel plays drums on “Milky Way”), and the result is their most listenable album. “Reptile”, “Destination”, and “Antenna” are examples of what the band was capable of, and they shine through most of the disc. Starfish is the band’s crowning achievement, and afterwards, it was a quick return to almost obscurity for The Church. They haven’t had a hint of a hit since 1990, not even in their home country, but that hasn’t stopped them from soldiering on, and that hasn’t stopped their dedicated fans from making The Church one of the most successful cult bands in the world. Starfish is their best work, and it’s well worth having.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
BILLY BRAGG & WILCO
MERMAID AVENUE VOL. II
2000 – ELEKTRA
Produced By WILCO, BILLY BRAGG & GRANT SHOWBIZ
1. Airline To Heaven
2. My Flying Saucer
3. Feed Of Man
4. Hot Rod Hotel
5. I Was Born
6. Secret Of The Sea
7. Stetson Kennedy
8. Remember The Mountain Bed
9. Blood Of The Lamb
10. Aginst Th’ Law
11. All You Fascists
12. Joe DiMaggio Done It Again
13. Meanest Man
14. Black Wind Blowing
15. Someday Some Morning Sometime
The Mermaid Avenue project has been a pretty large undertaking. Billy Bragg was approached by Woody Guthrie’s daughter with scores of finished lyrics that Guthrie had left behind with no music written for them. Bragg brought Wilco into the deal, and these lyrics, written between 1939 and 1967, were given new and contemporary life with modern musical treatments. The first album was a great success, paving the way for Volume II. On this one, the songs are, overall, a bit less upbeat, and it’s a notch below the original. But this is still historic and worth hearing. The music for six of the fifteen tracks are written by Guthrie/Wilco, and played exclusively by the band, with the rest being Guthrie/Bragg compositions with Wilco as the backing band. Also, as on Volume I, Natalie Merchant sits in for a song (“I Was Born”).
Woody Guthrie’s intentions for these lyrics will never be known, so you’ve got to give Bragg and Wilco credit for taking the words of a legend and putting their own spin on them. It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it’s magical. “Airline To Heaven”, “I Was Born”, “Aginst ‘Th Law”, and “Joe DiMaggio’s Done It Again” are highlights, showing that when this formula works, it can be amazing. This and the first volume were also released as part of Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, which also features a third disc of outtakes and a documentary video. Volume 1 is the better disc, but there’s enough to hang your hat on with Volume 2. Everyone involved deserves kudos for bringing Guthrie’s words to life, and for keeping alive the spirit of one of the greatest folk singers of all time. Get both volumes…you’ll be happy you did.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
TIESTO
IN SEARCH OF SUNRISE 6: IBIZA
2007 – BLACK HOLE
Produced By TIESTO
1. La Hacienda - Es Vedrá
2. Contact – Glenn Morrison
3. Don’t Belong – Andy Duguid (Feat. Leah)
4. Vice (Sydenham Dub) – Solaris Heights
5. Madras – Global Experience
6. Summerfish (Scandall Sunset On Ibiza Mix) – Leonid Rudenko
7. Tell Me – Clear View (Feat. Jessica)
8. Searching For Truth – The Veil Kings
9. The Sun’ll Shine (Sunrise Mix) – Ohmna
10. See The Difference Inside (Inside Mix) – Moonbeam
11. Somewhere Inside Of Me – Allure (Feat. Julie Thompson)
12. High Glow – Taxigirl
13. Lonely – Reeves (Feat. Alanah)
14. Hide & Seek (Tiesto’s In Search Of Sunrise Remix) – Imogen Heap
1. A New Dawn – Steve Forte Rio
2. What You Need (NC’s In Love With Prog Mix) – Nic Chagall
3. Trozitos De Navidad (Primavera Remix) – Marc Marzenit
4. Don’t Speak – John Dahlback
5. Arguru – Deadmau5
6. Falling – First State (Feat. Anita Kelsey)
7. Fall To Pieces – Jonas Steur (Feat. Jennifer Rene)
8. Imagination (Tiesto Remix) – JES
9. Mercury Room – Tom Cloud
10. Chase My Rabbit – Marcus Schossow
11. Reflect – Maor Levi
12. Different Day, Different Light – Progression
13. Dancing Water – Jedidja
14. Breathing – D’Alt Vila
So, Dino…you have a lot of stuff. But do you have any trance? Why, yes I do. Here’s a sprawling two disc set of a DJ mix by Dutch producer Tiesto, the sixth of seven in the In Search Of Sunrise series that he began in 1999. Ibiza is an island off the coast of Spain that serves as a sort of capital of electronic music, and is the inspiration for this album. Tiesto doesn’t go with a lot of popular tracks here…he’s picked some mostly obscure music to mix. This is a pretty monstrous undertaking…this volume of the series alone runs over two and a half hours, so if you’re going to give this a listen, better make yourself comfortable. The good thing is that the mixes are exceptionally well done, and the tracks are great to start with, so there’s not a whole lot of empty space. The bad news is that, especially if you’re not a huge fan, there is just so much of it, it can be overwhelming.
Also, if you’re not a big fan of electronic music, you might not catch the differences from one song to another…in other words, these tracks can start running together and sounding the same. If you are not familiar with the concept of a DJ mix, think of it in terms of a high level version of the mixed tape we used to put together for our friends back in the day. In addition to the art of selecting the right music in the right order, the DJ also remixes the track to give it a stamp of his own, along with managing the flow from one track to the next. Trance music is usually played at about the same speed with similar beats and lots of layering and highlighted by dramatic peaks and drops. So, what Tiesto has put together here is a pulsing, dramatic flow of music that finds its challenges in not sounding too much the same. My suggestion is one disc at a time…two and a half hours can be overwhelming. This is music with plenty of reward, if you can be open to it.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
STEVE EARLE
TRAIN A COMIN’
1995 – WARNER BROTHERS
Produced By STEVE EARLE & WILLIAM ALSOBROOK
1. Mystery Train Part II
2. Hometown Blues
3. Sometimes She Forgets
4. Mercenary Song
5. Goodbye
6. Tom Ames’ Prayer
7. Nothin’ Without You
8. Angel Is The Devil
9. I’m Looking Through You
10. Northern Winds
11. Ben McCulloch
12. Rivers Of Babylon
13. Tecumseh Valley
By 1992, Steve Earle had stopped both recording and touring because his drug addiction was completely out of control. His last album had been 1990’s The Hard Way, and in 1994 he was ordered by a court to go into rehab. It looked like we were going to lose Earle to drugs, but he emerged clean and released Train A Comin’ in 1995. One of the most satisfying comeback albums of all time, his voice is back, and his head is on straight. Instead of rocking out with The Dukes, Earle plays it folksy and bluesy and true. This is Americana at its finest. Many of the songs here are older, written by Earle in his teens and twenties. “Goodbye” was his first sober song, written in 1994 as a “ninth step in the key of C”. “Sometimes She Forgets”, “Tom Ames’ Prayer”, and “Ben McCulloch” rank among Earle’s best songs, and the album as a whole is simply a thing of beauty. Earle didn’t just come back…he came back better.
Two powerful covers grace Train A Comin’: “I’m Looking Through You” is a sweet mandolin driven take on the Beatles classic, and he takes on his idol Townes Van Zant again with the gorgeous “Tecumseh Valley”. This is an unplugged gem of an album, underrated and underplayed…you have to hear it. This is Steve Earle emerging from the ashes of his own destruction, rediscovering himself musically, and making a simply great album. Track after track is glorious. Earle playing bluegrass, singing with Emmylou Harris, making beautiful country and bluegrass and folk music. He’s right with the world again, and every note of this record is proof positive that this is a fine, fine thing. This is not just a great album…this is maybe the greatest modern country album of them all. Do I rate this album too highly? I don’t think I do. I think it’s deserving of being enjoyed over and over. To me, the best album of Steve Earle’s career.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
OUTKAST
AQUEMINI
1998 – LAFACE
Produced By BABYFACE, MR. DJ, ORGANIZED NOIZE & OUTKAST
1. Hold On, Be Strong
2. Return Of The “G”
3. Rosa Parks
4. Skew It On The Bar-B (Feat. Raekwon)
5. Aquemini
6. Synthesizer (Feat. George Clinton)
7. Slump
8. West Savannah1
9. Da Art Of Storytellin’ (Pt. 1)
10. Da Art Of Storytellin’ (Pt. 2)
11. Mamacita
12. SpottieOttieDopaliscious
13. Y’all Scared (Feat. T-Mo, Big Gipp & Khujo)
14. Nathaniel
15. Liberation (Feat. Cee-Lo, Erykah Badu & Big Rube)
16. Chonkyfire
Before the massive success in 2003 of Speakerboxxx / The Love Below and the singles “The Way You Move” and “Hey Ya”, OutKast spent an entire decade defining the genre of Southern hip hop and making some really incredible music. A duo featuring two very different personas in Andre 3000 (Andre Benjamin) and Big Boi (Andre Patton), these guys made their first album at the ages of 18, and only got better as they went along. Aquemini (a combination of the pair’s astrological signs) is their third album, and it still stands today as their masterpiece. Extremely adventurous and expansive, the album has some of everything. Funk, 70’s soul, rock, folk, heavy, light, smooth, and important. The instrumental tracks are never dull and always showing you another side, while vocally, both men show their unique talents surrounded by some fine backup vocals. These guys will make you move, make you laugh, and make you think all at the same time, and they will never bore you.
The album spawned three singles: “Rosa Parks”, which would become the subject of a long drawn out lawsuit filed by the songs namesake, “Skew It On The Bar-B”, which features a verse by Raekwon, and “Da Art Of Storytellin’ (Pt. 1)”. None of the singles were major hits, but they garnered enough attention to the album that it became a classic. Raekwon is joined on the album by guests George Clinton, members of Goodie Mob, and Andre 3000’s wife, Erykah Badu. Themes range from album sales to drug abuse to gangster life, relationships, and musically touch on just about every non classical genre there is. OutKast on Aquemini is unafraid. They try anything, and everything works. This is a great hip hop album. It’s always interesting, never boring, intelligent and musically one of the most adventurous discs you’ll ever find. A true classic. If you only have one hip hop album, this would be a fine choice.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
RYAN BINGHAM
MESCALITO
2007 – LOST HIGHWAY
Produced By MARC FORD
1. Southside Of Heaven
2. The Other Side
3. Bread And Water
4. Don’t Wait For Me
5. Boracho Station
6. Sunshine
7. Ghost Of Travelin’ Jones
8. Hard Times
9. Dollar A Day
10. Take It Easy Mama
11. Long Way From Georgia
12. Ever Wonder Why
13. Sunrise
14. For What It’s Worth
In 2007, Ryan Bingham was a young man, but his voice and his songwriting suggested that he’d been down some of the same roads as Tom Waits. After having made a name for himself in Texas for years with his band The Dead Horses, Bingham was signed to Lost Highway records, who surprisingly paired him up with producer Marc Ford, best known as the one time lead guitarist for The Black Crowes. His first major label album, Mescalito, shows Bingham as an already seasoned veteran, and it’s a winner. Although his vocal style may be limiting at times, Bingham makes the most of what he has, and conveys all of the emotion necessary for great Americana / alt-country storytelling. But what Bingham has the most of are songs. Mescalito is filled to the brim with fine tales, given extra drama by Bingham’s own voice and some fine playing, led by none other than Ford himself, who adds a lot to the album.
The opener, “Southside Of Heaven”, is a rolling country slice of perfection about life on the road, and still stands as one of Bingham’s finest moments. Other highlights include “Don’t Wait For Me”, “Bread And Water” (Ford plays a scorching slide riff on this one), and the rollicking “Ghost Of Travelin’ Jones”, but nearly every track is a refreshing slice of Americana. Bingham sometimes brings to mind Steve Earle or Bruce Springsteen, or a combination of both, which is no small feat. Mescalito has moments of country beauty (“the outro of “Southside Of Heaven” is all mandolins and banjo and back porch joy), moments where it rocks just enough (“The Other Side”), and even a bit of mariachi (“Boracho Station”) In all, Mescalito is the perfect place to start a country journey that avoids the pop disasters of current Nashville music. Unfortunately, Bingham's decision to leave his label and put out his own material in 2012 has coincided with his once bright star now fading.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Romanelli
