ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION
LIVE
2002 – ROUNDER
Produced By ALISON KRAUSS & UNION STATION
1. Let Me Touch You For Awhile
2. Choctaw Hayride
3. The Lucky One
4. Baby, Now That I’ve Found You
5. Bright Sunny South
6. Every Time You Say Goodbye
7. Tiny Broken Heart
8. Cluck Old Hen
9. Stay
10. Broadway
11. Ghost In This House
12. Forget About It
13. Faraway Land
1. A Tribute To Peador O’Donnell / Monkey Let The Hogs Out
2. The Boy Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn
3. Take Me For Longing
4. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
5. Maybe
6. We Hide & Seek
7. But You Know I Love You
8. When You Say Nothing At All
9. New Favorite
10. Oh, Atlanta
11. Down To The River To Pray
12. There Is A Reason
If you don’t love country and bluegrass…you will by the end of this live album by the understated queen of all things good and twangy. Alison Krauss was introduced to rock audiences by way of her collaboration with Robert Plant on their album Raising Sand, but there is so much more to her than that. This monster live set of 25 tracks alternates between the dazzling brilliance of her band’s bluegrass offerings and her beautiful voice. Recorded over two shows in Louisville, Kentucky in 2002, Live is the perfect showcase for why we should all love Alison Krauss. In fact, after the breathtaking rendition of “The Lucky One”, an audience member shouts out “I love you, Alison”. Followed by another fan shouting “I love you more”. This is the kind of intimate live show we all dream of attending (except for those of us who need to bang our heads). Krauss is not known for songwriting…she’s more of an interpreter, and her choices in the material she covers is exceptional. (She’s also the fiddle player in the band.)
Guitarist Dan Tyminski is featured on his most recognizable song…he sang the vocal on “I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow” in the film O Brother Where Art Thou. The band covers several other traditional songs, as well as music by The Foundations (“Baby, Now That I’ve Found You”), The First Edition (“But You Know I Love You”), and even Bad Company (“Oh, Atlanta”). Krauss is low key, yet she is also the most decorated female in the history of the Grammy’s (she’s won a staggering 27). She holds that distinction for good reason. She possesses the voice of an angel: when she takes the mic, it stops you in your tracks. Her band is as good as can be, and her choice in material is excellent. This album is the showcase for everything that is great about Alison Krauss & Union Station. She’s beautiful, she can sing and she can play, and she does it with class and style. Her studio albums are great, as is her album with Plant. But to hear her at her very best, this is the place to go.
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DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
LIVE FROM AUSTIN, TX
2009 – NEW WEST
Produced By TERRY LICKONA
1. Perfect Timing
2. Heathens
3. A Ghost To Most
4. The Righteous Path
5. I’m Sorry Huston
6. 3 Dimes Down
7. Puttin’ People On The Moon
8. Space City
9. The Living Bubba
10. Zip City
11. 18 Wheels Of Love
12. Let There Be Rock
13. Marry Me
Aside from Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, Drive-By Truckers has always been a fluid band with ever changing personnel. Their longest continuous lineup was the one that played on this, their second live album, Live From Austin, TX. This album does not feature Jason Isbell (who left in 2007), but it does do a magnificent job of capturing what the Truckers are like in a live setting. The package includes a CD and a DVD of the show, which relies heavily on tracks from the band’s most recent at the time studio album, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. The three guitar interplay between Hood, Cooley and John Neff (who also provides some fine moments on pedal steel) is great, as is the bass playing of Shonna Tucker. Hood shows his fine stage presence and storytelling ability, while Cooley is just that...tall, cool, and a guy who over the years has turned into a hell of a songwriter.
While many of the songs here are newer, the centerpiece of the album is an almost 12 minute version of Hood’s “18 Wheels Of Love” from their debut album, Gangstabilly. Hood also shines on “Puttin’ People On The Moon” and “The Living Bubba”. Cooley’s highlights are the excellent “A Ghost To Most”, “Zip City”, and the acoustic opener “Perfect Timing”. Tucker sings one, the fine and underrated “I’m Sorry Huston”. The energy is all here, along with the songs that make this band such a concert favorite. But you have to get this with the DVD, which makes the CD almost redundant. The Truckers are still at it, even though Tucker and Neff are gone, bringing the band down to two guitars, but they still do not disappoint. This live album stands alongside the rest of their output very well, and should be a must have for fans…and a good introduction for those who haven’t caught on to DBT just yet.
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THE CURE
KISS ME, KISS ME, KISS ME
1987 – ELEKTRA
Produced By DAVID M. ALLEN & ROBERT SMITH
1. The Kiss
2. Catch
3. Torture
4. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
5. Why Can’t I Be You?
6. How Beautiful You Are
7. The Snakepit
8. Hey You!!!
9. Just Like Heaven
10. All I Want
11. Hot Hot Hot!!!
12. One More Time
13. Like Cockatoos
14. Icing Sugar
15. The Perfect Girl
16. A Thousand Hours
17. Shiver And Shake
18. Fight
“Just Like Heaven”. The song that cemented The Cure as a great band in America comes from this, their seventh album. But that’s not all that this double album from 1987 has to offer. This album shows that The Cure wasn’t just a new wave band, but that they could rock as well as just about anyone. And that they certainly knew their way around a hook. The Cure had begun their conquest of America the year before, with the release of the Staring At The Sea compilation, which gave the US audience their first real listens to classics like “Killing An Arab” and “Boys Don’t Cry”. And after Kiss Me, they followed it up with the excellent Disintegration. But it was ”Just Like Heaven” that won the US audience for them. And for good reason…it’s a perfect song. The rest borders on 80’s psychedelia, with songs that alternate between gloomy and heavy and dreamy and dark and bright. What’s not to love?
“Why Can’t I Be You?” was the lead single, and it’s as upbeat as The Cure ever was. Catchy and synth driven, with an almost playful vocal from Robert Smith. “Catch” and “Hot Hot Hot!!!” are also excellent tracks. They show their diversity on the guitar drenched “The Kiss”, the almost Indian sounding “If Only Tonight We Could Sleep”, and “Icing Sugar”. The Cure always comes back to “Just Like Heaven”, and fortunately, it’s here. The sheer length of Kiss Me can be a bit exhausting, but in the end, it’s worth it. The band has not forgotten how important this album was to their career…they play many tracks from it to this day at each live show. Kiss Me still stands as one of The Cure’s best…not a perfect disc, and a long listen, but hugely important in their history and their development as one of the world’s finest bands. And a fine reminder of how good 1987 actually was for music.
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SIMON & GARFUNKEL
BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER
1970 – COLUMBIA
Produced By PAUL SIMON, ART GARFUNKEL & ROY HALEE
1. Bridge Over Troubled Water
2. El Condor Pasa (If I Could)
3. Cecilia
4. Keep The Customer Satisfied
5. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright
6. The Boxer
7. Baby Driver
8. The Only Living Boy In New York
9. Why Don’t You Write Me
10. By Bye Love
11. Song For The Asking
The final album by Simon & Garfunkel has long been considered their best, and why not? The title track is simply majestic, and Artie’s finest moment. “El Condor Pasa” shows the growing desire of Paul towards world music, and “Cecilia” is like nothing else they ever came close to. Not to mention what may be their finest song, “The Boxer”. But as fine as these tracks are, (and they warrant a high rating all on their own), there are some issues with this album. Not issues that effect the performances, which are perfect. But over the years, some things have not aged as well, and some of the unmentioned tracks have fallen into the category of filler as the years have passed. More than anything else, the album contains the somewhat embarrassing piece of pure yuppie snobbery in “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright”, which was written by Simon because Artie loved…architecture and wanted to sing about it? Okay. But these days, it just doesn’t work.
On the plus side, the four hit songs are more than worthwhile, and should be in everyone’s music collection. The pair is more adventurous than ever, and at times, they actually rock. Their voices are, as always, the ticket that brings you back for more. And even though Garfunkel was moving towards being a movie actor and Simon a solo artist, there’s enough in this farewell album to keep it a classic…although it is a slightly flawed one. And Simon’s writing is starting to move in the Graceland direction, and the chances they take are worth hearing. The two have been mostly unable to work together since, with only small and short reunions over the years. What they were able to accomplish between their days as Tom & Jerry in 1957 through this album is pretty remarkable, and their performing chemistry is as good as it gets. So, in the end, warts and all, this is a true classic. They are a true classic. Which is why everyone always wanted them back together.
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JOHN CALE
PARIS 1919
1973 – REPRISE
Produced By CHRIS THOMAS
1. Child’s Christmas In Wales
2. Hanky Panky Nohow
3. The Endless Plain Of Fortune
4. Andalucia
5. Macbeth
6. Paris 1919
7. Graham Greene
8. Half Past France
9. Antarctica Starts Here
While a member of The Velvet Underground, John Cale was the out there, avant garde element of the group. Kicked out by Lou Reed in 1968 for wanting to take their music completely over the deep end, Cale embarked on a long and winding solo career that has had its rewards and its major missteps. But his third album, Paris 1919, marked the beginning of his most fruitful and excellent period. Procol Harum producer Chris Thomas brings the strings (The UCLA Symphony), and Little Feat’s Lowell George brings some nice melodic guitar to Cale’s most accessible and beautiful album. Named after the 1919 Paris Peace Conference that many believe was where the seeds of Germany’s Third Reich were planted, this album of surprisingly lovely tracks carries a theme of life in early 20th century Europe. Cale does turn it up a notch for “Macbeth”, but the rest is more peaceful and pop than Cale has ever been, before or since.
The most tuneful songs are the best here. “Hanky Panky Nohow”, “Andalucia”, and especially the title track could have been hits for Cale, and they stand up very well so many years later. The period for Cale between this album in 1973 through his next three albums, Fear, Slow Dazzle and Helen Of Troy, are his strongest, but it’s on Paris 1919 where you get to hear him at his best as a writer. The man known as rock’s strange viola player got it mostly right here, and while many of his other works can be somewhet alienating, this album stays strong and coherent. John Cale may have been a secondary player in the Velvet’s to Reed, but after he was gone, his absence was not a minor thing. This is as good as you’ll hear John Cale, and it’s a great place to start (outside of the Velvet’s early albums, of course) with one of rock’s greatest eccentrics and creative forces.
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HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH
CRACKED REAR VIEW
1994 – ATLANTIC
Produced By DON GEHMAN
1. Hannah Jane
2. Hold My Hand
3. Let Her Cry
4. Only Wanna Be With You
5. Running From An Angel
6. I’m Goin’ Home
7. Drowning
8. Time
9. Look Away
10. Not Even The Trees
11. Goodbye
In 1994, the popular music landscape was littered with grunge, the death of hair metal, hip hop and a whole lot of indie somethings. And then there was this Hootie & The Blowfish thing. A group of students from the University Of South Carolina, the music they played was neither down or indie or in any way Seattle…funny that a band that ten years before would have been just like everyone else was passed on in the 90’s by numerous labels because they were too different. And when they hit, they hit huge. That band with the stupid name became the biggest thing of ’94, loved by a legion of people who nobody expected to embrace them. Cracked Rear View is their major label debut, and it sold something like eight gazillion copies. Even though they were plain and poppy, with a lead singer in Darius Rucker, who’s baritone bordered on monotone at times. But this band had an abundance of the most important ingredient…songs.
Between mid-1994 and late 1995, singles from Cracked Rear View dominated radio. The Blowfish were inescapable. It was cool to bash them then, and it’s cool to forget them now, but you can’t deny the power their hits had in the day. “Hold My Hand” is an anthem. “Only Wanna Be With You”, despite famously ripping off Dylan, is a great song. “Let Her Cry” and “Time” are both fantastic radio pieces. The band sounds huge all the time, and looking back, you can certainly hear what the big deal was. In all, this album disproves the myth that the Blowfish sucked. It has its flaws to be sure, but it also has some great moments, and is an important part of what 1994 was all about. Theytook a decade off in 2008 while the chameleon Rucker, after a failed R&B album, worked out his mojo as a country artist singing “Hold My Hand” and “Wagon Wheel” for the cowboy hatted masses. This, though, is really not bad stuff. Hardly great, but good enough.
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OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW
BIG IRON WORLD
2006 – NETTWERK
Produced By DAVID RAWLINGS
1. Down Home Girl
2. Cocaine Habit
3. Minglewood Blues
4. My Good Gal
5. James River Blues
6. New Virginia Creeper
7. Union Maid
8. Let It Alone
9. God’s Got It
10. I Hear Them All
11. Don’t Ride That Horse
12. Bobcat Tracks
Old Crow Medicine Show is the band that brought the world “Wagon Wheel”…but you should never hold that against these guys. A string band with a rich heritage, they were discovered by Doc Watson while busking on a street in North Carolina. They play a mixture of older songs, originals, traditionals and covers. Big Iron World is their second major label release, and it’s a fine collection. This is an acoustic band, but their sound is quite full, with guitars and mandolins and bass and harmonicas and all kinds of fun bluegrassy stuff. Produced by David Rawlings (the musical partner of Gillian Welch, who plays drums on the record), this album show off their many talents quite nicely, and it’s a fine set of songs as well. It doesn’t have a massive hit like “Wagon Wheel” (from their self-titled debut), But this will satisfy quite nicely. It’s no wonder these guys are so highly thought of in country circles…this is good stuff.
Opening with the Lieber & Stoller classic “Down Home Girl”, the album hits traditional tunes like “Cocaine Habit” and “Let It Alone”. “Union Maid” is a Woody Guthrie song from 1940. Of the original songs, “James River Blues”, “My Good Gal”, and “Don’t Ride That Horse” are the standouts. These guys can really sing…each track contains rich and full harmonies. Plenty of fine bluegrass solos abound, and the album is ultimately a lot of fun. The band has remained prolific and has had a lot of success. They were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2013, and have outlived the overplay of their most famous song quite well. Any of their six studio albums are well worth having, but this one may be a hair better than the rest. Old Crow Medicine Show is a band that is always a good listen, a lot of fun, and with a dependable ear for a great song. They’re easy to get hooked on.
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KING CRIMSON
RED
1974 – ATLANTIC
Produced By KING CRIMSON
1. Red
2. Fallen Angel
3. One More Red Nightmare
4. Providence
5. Starless
King Crimson’s 1969 debut, In The Court Of The Crimson King, is often viewed as their best work. But while “21st Century Schizoid Man” is their best known song, the album as a whole is easily overshadowed by 1974’s Red. Their seventh album, Red finds the band down to the trio of Robert Fripp, John Wetton and Bill Bruford, and has been named as one of the heaviest albums of all time. And it’s true. King Crimson, which had always had a very acoustic and light side to them, gets deep and heavy here…as heavy as progressive rock ever got. Fripp pulls out all of the stops, driven by the powerhouse rhythm section of Wetton and Bruford. It’s Zeppelin-esque in its heaviness, yet as smart and complex as anything in the world of prog. The title song lets you know right away that this is going to rock heavily, as the instrumental track rips for a solid six minutes of dizzying scales and monster guitar riffs.
The lightest moments come early on “Fallen Angel”. “One More Red Nightmare” is right back to powerful heavy goodness. “Providence” is a live improv recording featuring former keyboardist and violinist David Cross. King Crimson saves the best for last, though. “Starless”, a song that was originally discarded from the pool of tracks for their previous album, Starless & Bible Black, is, with all apologies to the Schizoid Man, the best King Crimson song of all time. Clocking in at over twelve minutes, “Starless” is simply stunning, and everything that has ever been great about this band rolled up in one fine song. You must have this album for this track alone…the rest is just bonus. “Starless” is also the last King Crimson track of the seventies. After the recording of Red was finished, the band went on hiatus for seven years, returning in 1981 with Discipline. Red is their masterpiece…one of the best progressive rock albums ever, and the best work by an underappreciated and excellent band.
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THE JAYHAWKS
TOMORROW THE GREEN GRASS
1995 – AMERICAN
Produced By GEORGE DRAKOULIAS
1. Blue
2. I’d Run Away
3. Miss Williams’ Guitar
4. Two Hearts
5. Real Light
6. Over My Shoulder
7. Bad Time
8. See Him On The Street
9. Nothing Left To Borrow
10. Ann Jane
11. Pray For Me
12. Red’s Song
13. Ten Little Kids
In the first half of the nineties, the focus of popular music was on the death of hair metal, the rise of grunge and hip hop, and not so much on what alternate country bands from Minnesota were up to. That started to change when The Jayhawks released their classic, Hollywood Town Hall, in 1992. These guys had it all…songs, taste, great playing, and top notch vocals. Tomorrow The Green Grass is the follow up, their fourth album, and the one that was hoped to break them in big ways. That never happened, but the album is almost as good as Hollywood Town Hall. This one adds a different element to their brand of alt country…power pop. You know you’re in for a treat right away with the first moments of “Blue”, one of the sweetest and prettiest songs of the decade. Gary Louris and Mark Olson sing perfectly together, and song by song, this album enchants and wins you over.
Along with “Blue”, the highlights here are excellent. “Miss Williams’ Guitar” is an ode to Olson’s future wife, Victoria Williams. “I’d Run Away” and “Real Light” rock, and their take on Grand Funk Railroad’s “Bad Time” is pop rock perfection. “Ann Jane” and “Ten Little Kids” keep the album rolling to the end. The album was met, unfortunately, with slow sales, and Olson left afterwards to spend time with Williams, putting a damper on the band’s future. This one should have been a big hit, and had it been released a few years later, It might have been. But 1995 rock audiences were just not ready for a band of country rockers from Minnesota, which is too bad…because The Jayhawks from this period were exceptionally good. There are three Jayhawks albums you should definitely have: Hollywood Town Hall is the best, followed closely by this one and the later surprise comeback, Rainy Day Music. This is almost perfect.
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MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Hey, great stuff lately. Jayhawks' "Blue" is one of my all time favorite songs and in the discussion in my head of most beautiful harmony work ever. Adore it. Whole album is solid and at times great. But yeah the opening track is such a stunner.
Also love the write up and love given Krauss and Union Station and that absolutely incredible live album. Your post reminded me that I had a short-lioved love affair with it last year before moving on and now plan on listening again today.
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Romanelli
Mercury
