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I hope the man who wrote the following post (James Gabehart) doesn’t mind me simply pasting it below- just trying to spread the word about an event this coming weekend. Uncle Phil is one of the good guys, and it is wonderful to see the bluegrass community coming together to support him and his family even as they mourn the passing of a founding father, Earl Scruggs:

It is often said that you don’t really know how many friends you have until you need them. If that is true, Phil Leadbetter is a man who has learned he has many, many friends through his ongoing battle with cancer. On Sunday, April 1, at the Paramount Theatre in Bristol, TN, a star-studded lineup will gather to benefit their friend.

Affectionately known as “Uncle Phil,” Leadbetter has enjoyed a long career as one of the premier resophonic guitar players in bluegrass music, having performed as part of J. D. Crowe’s New South, as a founding member of both Wildfire and Grasstowne, and more recently with the Whites. However, like most professional musicians, the Leadbetters are not equipped to weather an extended time without income, not to mention astronomical medical bills.

A reflection of the esteem in which Phil is held, an amazing array of artists are traveling from far and wide to donate their time to help him in his time of need. Presently confirmed to appear are Blue Highway, Dale Ann Bradley, Steve Gulley, Larry Cordle, Jim Hurst, Donna Ulisse & Rick Stanley, Mike Bubb, Missy Raines, Don Rigsby, Michael Cleveland, Kenny & Amanda Smith, Justin Moses, Kim Fox, Gena Britt, Jim & Valerie Gabehart, Julie & John Pennell, James Alan Shelton, and Jerry Butler, with additional artists being added daily.

Two shows will be presented, at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m., with tickets available for only $20.00. Tickets can be purchased online at www.etix.com or by calling 423-274-8920. For anyone unable to make the show who would like to help, donations can be made online.

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My review of the latest from the venerable Special C has been posted to Fervor Coulee Bluegrass: http://www.countrystandardtime.com/blog/FervorCouleeBluegrass/entry.asp?xid=863

As always, thanks for visiting Fervor Coulee. Donald

 

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Over at Country Standard Time you can find my (much delayed) review of the Carter Brothers recent release; I say ‘much delayed’ because the music was sent to me in mid-February and it took some time for me to get around to writing about it. That is no reflection on the album as it caught my ear immediately.

Tim and Danny Carter have been working professionally together and individually for the best part of three decades. The Carter Brothers are another of the many under-known enterprises making a living in the roots world, outfits that should and could be more familiar if only they would compromise to make music more palatable to mainstream listeners. http://www.countrystandardtime.com/d/cdreview.asp?xid=4842 will get you to the review. It doesn’t hurt that they name-check both Guy Clark and “Ring of Fire” in the title track.

As always, thanks for visiting Fervor Coulee. Donald

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Chris Jones & the Night Drivers Lost Souls & Free Spirits: The Rebel Collection Old & New Rebel Records

Beyond setting a new standard for the use of the ampersand, this set from Chris Jones and Co., is both a fabulous little introduction to one of bluegrass music’s most familiar personalities and a neat summation of where he has been.

With a daily six-hour block on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction, Chris Jones has become a very well-known personality within bluegrass media; that he is actually a darn talented and insightful radio host is certainly a freakin’ bonus. This is the second compilation of Rebel recordings from Jones in a decade, and this will seem a bit mystifying to some readers especially as Jones has recorded only a single bluegrass album in the ten years since A Few Words.

Nitpicking aside, I’m sure there are very good reasons for the lack of output. If I were guessing- and I am- I would suggest that the daily grind of producing the radio show may hold back a bit the ‘full-time’ aspect of Jones’ bluegrass performing career. Then there was the ‘Americana’ excursion of Too Far Down the Road, Jones’ very strong album of the mid-aughts. The fact that Jones is a dedicated family man who has chosen to follow his wife Sally to her family’s northern Alberta home would also likely factor in to his small number of recordings since around 2000.

What I do know is that I wish Chris Jones & the Night Drivers were more prolific, because the 14 songs contained on Lost Souls & Free Spirits: The Rebel Collection Old & New simply sharpens the appetite for their solid bluegrass approach. Settling somewhere between tradition and innovation, Jones and his Night Drivers have created a country-pure approach to bluegrass music.

In addition to previously released tracks, Jones has elected to include three recent recordings with the current Night Drivers line-up. “Final Farewell” was released well ahead of the album and, after spending several weeks bouncing around on the Bluegrass Today chart, settled into the #1 spot for the March chart. “Waltz of Regret” originally appeared- with slightly fewer ‘grass touches than here- on Too Far Down the Road as did “A Hero in Harlan,” one of the strongest Tom T. and Dixie Hall songs.

The remaining songs are culled from Just a Drifter (two tunes), No One But You (also two), and the currently unavailable Follow Your Heart (four songs). Including three selections from the fairly recent Cloud of Dust album is a mite perplexing; I would have preferred additional songs from the past, perhaps “Fork in the Road,” a rarity such as “Diesel Smoke on Danger Road,” or another new track.

Still, many of Jones’ most enduring songs are included, some of which he wrote, more from outside sources, among them “Bridge to Portsmouth,” “Nashville Blues,” “Uphill Climb,” and “The Man on the Side of the Road.” As Jon Weisberger mentions in the notes, most of these songs remain in the Night Drivers’ live set, making the set ideal for the festival table.

Lost Souls & Free Spirits: The Rebel Collection Old & New is hardly essential. With most of the songs available on other Jones albums, it is most likely best purchased by those who do not already own Jones’ impressive back catalogue. Realizing I’m in the minority, I would have better enjoyed a reissue of Follow Your Heart (the one Jones album I can’t locate on my shelves) fattened by the three new recordings.

Still, there is nothing wrong with the set, and plenty right with it. In fact, these forty minutes of Chris Jones & the Night Drivers are mighty satisfying, much like their live performance.

As always, thanks for visiting Fervor Coulee. Donald

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Me and Cassity Appearances Tapete Records

“Darmstaedter is one of Germany’s underground pop heroes and the cofounder of the influential indie label Tapete Records” New York Times

Well, now I know at least that much. Prior to receiving Appearances in the mail last month, I had never heard of Dirk Darmstaedter, the German songwriter who is Me and Cassity.

Guess what? I quite like this album.

Like everyone else in the free world, I’ve had enough of songwriters coming up with cute monikers for their (mostly) solo projects. Iron & Wine. Bon Iver. Lake Forest. Folk Thief. Enough, already. Just call yourself what your mother named you.

So, Me and Cassity. Through the wonders of Google, I’ve learned that a) Darnstaedter was long ago in a pop group I missed called The Jeremy Days, b) Darnstaedter has been using the Me and Cassity name since 1998 which puts him in Jason Molina territory, c) there is more to Me and Cassity than Darnstaedter including a bassist, keyboard player, and a drummer, each with more consonants in their surname than the last, d) the album was recorded in both Hamburg and in Gothenburg, Sweden, and e) Darnstaedter says, “It’s a band album, so it’s a Me and Cassity album; Me and Cassity is just me when I’m in a band.” Now that that is clear.

Appearances is a glorious album. It sounds a bit like what a Clive Gregson album might sound like if he rediscovered power-pop. At 43 minutes and ten songs, the album is an ideal length- not so much that the brew is diluted, not so little that one is left wanting. The first time through, the album just washed over me, its mix of pop sensibilities and folk-songwriter effects and intimacy immediately embracing me.

“The Last Troubadour” struts along with all the confidence that empty pockets and a well-traveled guitar case can bring; harmonica serves as percussion and sweeping vocals from two Swedish lasses bring everything together. “Fred Astaire” is next up- another beautifully crafted number that owes as much to Ray Davies as it does Paul Weller and Edwyn Collins. “Time to Put the Hammer Down” is an angry song; although the target of its wrath is not entirely clear, one suspects it may be the singer’s own demons.

Over the past six or seven weeks, I’ve listened to Appearances a dozen or more times. Each listen has been enjoyable, and I’m continually discovering something new to appreciate within its fresh approach to pop-based, singer-songwriter sounds.

If I discovered this album unlabeled in a stack, I would be hard pressed to suggest the year of its recording: without sounding the least bit dated, it could have as easily been produced in 1987 as in 2012.

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In this week’s Red Deer Advocate, I review the upcoming Cowboy Junkies release Wilderness. Latst time out, it was Steve Coffey’s turn, and that review is posted below. Steve has additional shows upcoming- check out his website for details.

Steve Coffey & the Lokels Bovine World Rail Self-released http://www.steve-coffey.com/

Steve Coffey- painter, songwriter, singer- is a complex man, one who has placed the stability of home and family ahead of the vagrancies of the road, perhaps to the detriment of his standing within the Canadian roots marketplace.

With five albums of excellence recorded over little more than a decade, Steve Coffey should be a more familiar name. He has chosen to remain close to his Vulcan home, painting and writing, only touring with his stable line-up of Lokels sporadically.

Always gifted, Coffey’s skills as both singer and songwriter have demonstrably developed over the years. His vivid descriptions, selectively within narratives, but more frequently casually poetic, are full of life and inspiration. It is impossible to hear his words and voice and not begin visualizing the descriptions as light-infused, impressionistic paintings. The album’s third track “Closure,” featuring beautiful vocals from Tobi Malloy, opens with this verse- just try not to see the brush strokes:

I look out my early winter window

to the pale hue of the sneaking morning sun

dancing on the frost a glinting glow

such is your memory of which I am not done

I can vaguely trace the moon through my breath

on this kitchen’s rippling window pane

like the borders of the city that buried you

back in the summer’s ground soaked with rain.

The album’s deepest song, certainly the most personal-sounding is “Fighting Days.” With both his father and grandfather having military backgrounds, Coffey bridges the challenges of love in times of war- the fear and sacrifice- and the horror that remains in mind.

And that voice. God, it is something special without a hint of prettiness about it. Steve Coffey has an identifiable voice; in places it aches (“Times, When”) and in other places it playfully flirts (“Ten Pin”), but most times it just flows- with honesty, truth, and tempered realism (“Logging Towns,” “Once From an Island”). Coffey has never delivered anything less than a masterpiece, and Bovine World Rail continues where Twirlin’ Girl Boogie left off: well-written, clever, and original country- and folk-based music.

Recommended if you like Jim Ford, Nick Lowe, and Warren Zevon.

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If you know me, you know I love the music of James Reams and the Barnstormers. James recently called me and brought me up-to-date. I’ve posted a piece over at Fervor Coulee Bluegrass that attempts to summarize what has been occurring with James over the past year. He’s a good man- and I appreciate his friendship. http://www.countrystandardtime.com/blog/FervorCouleeBluegrass/entry.asp?xid=860 More info about James’ upcoming gigs is available at http://www.facebook.com/jamesreams.barnstormers

As always, thanks for visiting Fervor Coulee. Donald

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This is a brilliant piece of writing- it captures everything I was thinking about the album last night as I listened to it while walking on the treadmill. And much more, things I could never say as a non-American, things I may never have considered. Over at No Depression, they’ve posted Ryan Mifflin’s deep and insightful analysis of Wrecking Ball and its vision of America. It is a wonderful essay. Read it. He ‘gets’ Wrecking Ball in the way I understand it; this is not E Street Radio’s fawning phone-in thoughts. The best piece of music writing I’ve read in quite a while. http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/bruce-springsteen-s-wrecking-ball-is-the-soundtrack-to-the 

As always, thanks for visiting Fervor Coulee. Donald

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Drew Nelson Tilt-a-Whirl Red House Records

The world is full of singers we’ve never heard. One of the most recent to come my way is Michigan’s Drew Nelson.

Like hundreds of other under-heard songwriters, Drew Nelson has been playing the clubs and festivals for years. Signed now to influential independent Red House, Nelson’s blend of John Mellencamp-roots rock and Kevin Welch-country balladry is a winning combination.

Without pretension, Nelson has created eleven blue collar songs that tell his truth through characters and situations that are universal. “Promised Land” explores the hand-to-mouth existence of under-employed and itinerant workers while “Danny and Maria” is his “Jack and Diane” drawn from the experiences of the same population.

The album reaches its pinnacle mid-set with the five-minute epic “5th of September”. Quietly sung over minimal accompaniment in the voice of a combatant- is it 1862 or 2007?- Nelson reveals but a little of the thoughts and emotions within one man’s mind and soul as he faces death in battle.

Like those who have traveled similar paths, Nelson well knows the value that a tight, talented band can bring to a recording. Notable amongst those present are the contributions of producer and multi-instrumentalist Michael Crittenden and drummer Brian Morrill.

Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen are inevitable, if flawed. Still, with the album’s final three tracks and especially “Copper” and “My Girl (Shooting Star Wishes),” Nelson approaches the inventive qualities of Springsteen’s stream-of-consciousness workingman’s poetry.

If Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball is a bit too esoteric for your tastes, Tilt-a-Whirl might do- it has a tighter aural focus than Springsteen’s latest, but is no less engaging and enjoyable.

As always, thanks for visiting Fervor Coulee. Donald

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A beautiful Sunday in Red Deer- fresh snow melting, the air warm and clean. I’ve spent most of today absorbed in school work, window open, and listening to Ron Hynes. I’m now four albums in- started with the newly purchased Ron Hynes album from 2006, then  Face to the Gale, Get Back Change, and now Stealing Genius from a couple years back has started.

A few minutes ago, as Ron sang “You could shoot off a cannon down the middle of Bond, And attract no attention in downtown St. John’s” within ”No Change in Me,” a song he co-wrote with Murray McLauchlan a decade or so ago, I thought- sometimes- like today- I don’t need another bleeding folksinger when I’ve got Ron Hynes on the stereo.

And I don’t. Not today.

Ron Hynes is the real deal.

Put one of his albums on today and see if you don’t agree. That’s all I have.

Thanks, as always, for visiting Fervor Coulee.