JD McPherson – Nite Owls. Has anybody made more out of a career from reverb since Duane Eddy? McPherson’s signature sound is built around rock solid rhythm guitar and elastic percussion in a way that evokes memories of early 60s rock’n’roll without sounding exactly like anybody in particular. He writes catchy, aggressively humorous songs and sings them with a hearty and vigorous approach. After several albums of this sort of thing, he’s branching out a little bit here and there on this one, ending with a limpid harmonized ballad that does remind me of somebody from the early 60s, but I can’t remember who. Still, for the most part, this is exhilarating rock’n’roll music from a man who knows his roots but makes his own kind of music.
Landless – Lúireach. It’s been a lot of years since I used to listen to a whole lot of traditional folk music, but even reaching back into those memories I think this group of four Irish women would stand out as unique. The songs are the standard tales of men and women in unusual circumstances – well, I say that, but I have to confess I tend to get lost in the sound of this record, and only get a few lyrics in my head before I’m suddenly overwhelmed by a swirling harmony or an unusual melodic leap. And yes, it’s the sound of the record that makes it so exceptional. These women are serious, somber, and relentlessly beautiful sounding. Accompaniment is generally only a droning organ (or harpsichord on one track). This is probably not for everybody, but if you find interesting any of the things I’ve mentioned so far, you’re gonna like this album a lot.
Dingonek – Arwe. I can’t figure out where these guys are from. Their full name is the Dingonek Street Band, and they definitely sound like one of those brass bands that roam around New Orleans. Except they don’t play music that sounds like that. The tunes are drawn from Ethiopian jazz, which makes for a cool and unusual fit with the sousaphone ruminations and the second line rhythms. Except the rhythms are played here on a trap drum set, not just marching band drums. It’s all exhilarating and intoxicating and lively as you can imagine. The Ethiopian music I’ve heard – which is admittedly only a small part of the Ethiopiques reissue series back in the 90s – doesn’t sound so upbeat. But those harmonies and melodies work perfectly in a danceable format like this one.
Danielia Cotton – Charley’s Pride: A Tribute to Black Country Music. There are many major country singers I barely know, and Charley Pride is a big blind spot for me. Of the five terrific songs Cotton chooses for this EP, I was only familiar with “Kiss an Angel Good Morning,” and I think pretty much everybody over 50 remembers that one. I love the rock crunch brought to the arrangement here, and Cotton captures the enthusiastic delight the song requires. As for the other numbers, well I’m learning that I really should go back and hear the originals. Cotton is a fabulous singer, and she sells the yearning for home, the fear of losing a lover, and even the determination to commit murder after being dumped. Cotton stands beautifully at the intersection of soul, rock, and country.
Amy Helm – Silver City When she sings “My father’s voice sings the city of gold to remind me,” Amy Helm is not just conjuring a general image of nostalgia for any old father’s voice. Her father was Levon Helm, one of the most recognizable voices in the history of popular music. Amy will never be as iconic as her dad, but she’s a remarkable singer herself. This is her fourth solo album after she left the group Ollabelle, and she’s getting better and more confident with each release. The songs here are melancholic, introspective, wandering across the landscape and through the past. This is a record that draws you in slowly, that over time reveals simple truths and pleasures in the hum of her voice, in the way she elongates a syllable, in the call back to other worlds with lyrics about a “Love Suprem” or a reference to “God bless the child.” Each time I hear it, I’m more entranced by the way she sings, by the elegant decay of her imagery and simple melodies.
Color Green – Fool’s Parade. In a lot of ways, this record doesn’t quite succeed. It’s rock music with a paucity of hooks, and it doesn’t hit you over the head with personality. But there’s something about this four piece band that keeps calling me back. They’re all good players, and they arrange the songs so that you concentrate much more on the group sound than on individual contributions. Basically two guitars, bass, and drums, with four singers providing harmonies even if there’s one guy who handles most of the lead vocals. And every time I finish with this album, the last song, “Hazel Eyes” keeps resonating in my head. It’s got the strongest, if simplest hook on the record, and they sing it over and over again in counterpoint. I’m gonna keep my ears open to this band, I think.
Luke Winslow King – Flash-A-Magic. I’ve been following along with most of King’s albums for something like 15 years now but I don’t remember him revving up the engines as much as he does on this one. It’s roots rock with a little bit of folk and a whole lot of attitude. His guitar chuggs and churls nicely as he sings of love and loss, sometimes directly, sometimes through long-tenured metaphors, and sometimes in his own unique manner. This record appeals to the side of me that never gets tired of classic rock’n’roll tropes, especially when the guitar has such a delicious tone and the band makes my feet want to move. And the ballads are nice, too!
La Lom – The Los Angeles League of Musicians. This instrumental trio is, you guessed it, from Los Angeles. The music on this debut LP is heavy on guitar reverb, sultry bass, and a wide variety of rhythmic attacks on drums and other percussion. They draw heavily from Mexican and other Latin American styles, but they prefer the slower, close-dancing versions of the past. Sometimes they remind me of Manuel Galbán, that Cuban guitar player who did some work with Ry Cooder a couple decades back. But these guys have their own distinctive approach, and the melodies are strong enough even if they can’t entice you to get out on the dance floor.
Shawna Thompson – Lean on Neon. I haven’t seen this much purple on an album cover since before Prince passed away. But this purple isn’t paisley, it’s hardcore honky tonk neon. Thompson has apparently been around Nashville for a while, but this solo record might as well be her introduction to the rest of the world, same as it is for me. She can sing with the best of them, and she both writes and collates beautifully. I’m not even sure which songs are covers – well, except for “Together Again” by Buck Owens - since I don’t have access to the credits, but it doesn’t matter. They all work together as one powerful collection of cheatin’, drinkin’, cryin’ in your beer, and occasional moments of hope songs. She also brings in a lot of big name guest stars – well, big name if you listen to as much Outlaw Country on Sirius XM as I do. Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Pam Tillis, Jim Lauderdale, Rhonda Vincent, and Sunny Sweeny all lend their voices in harmony, as do a few singers I don’t know yet. This really should be a much bigger deal among fans of classic country than it seems to have been so far.
Fabio Rojas – Perseverance. One great thing about the jazz world is the way musicians play with so many different people. This allows us to be introduced to different players because they happen to interact with somebody we already know. I checked this one out because the very talented Greg Osby was lending his alto sax to the recording, and I discovered four other intriguing musicians in the process – Rojas on drums, Gustavo D’amico on saxophones and flute, Kevin Harris on piano and Fender Rhoes, and Osmar Okuma on bass. Rojas wrote the tunes (as near as I can tell), and he displays a talent for mixing catchiness with room to improvise. All five players come off as equals here in my mind. This isn’t breaking any new ground, but it isn’t just coasting on old sounds, either – it’s a powerful record for modern ears.
Billy Tibbals – Night Life Stories. Billy Tibbals is ridiculously young – his bio says he graduated high school in the midst of a pandemic – to know early 70s glam rock so well. I’m thinking he time traveled kind of like that guy on the short-lived BBC series Life on Mars a few years back. At any rate, these six songs all sound as though they could have fit on Top of the Pops back in 1974. He doesn’t necessarily have the personality of a Bowie, and he doesn’t capture the swagger of the Sweet, but these songs remind me of these sources anyway. Guitar-centric, heavily melodic, catchy, stomping glam rock is always gonna make me happy.
The The – Ensoulment. Stuck with a legal name as prosaic as Matt Johnson, this guy came up with the best band name of all time to put on his records. The The – it says it all, really. I don’t know if The The was the first “band” to only have one member, but “they” put the idea in the heads of a lot of people who came along later and decided to pretend their solo projects were really a group. All this said, I never paid attention to Johnson’s actual records, but somehow wound up giving this new one – his first non-soundtrack record in 24 years – a chance to get under my skin. Since Johnson was so smart at creating his moniker, it’s no surprise the song titles are intriguing – “Cognitive Dissident,” “Some Days I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake,” and “Linoleum Smooth to the Stockinged Foot” being the best examples. The music is compelling, and Johnson, who mostly sing speaks with occasional hookish choruses given melodic shape by backing vocalists, is mesmerizing. Sometimes Johnson is funny, as in “Zen and the Art of Dating” when he takes a jaundiced look at modern hook up culture from the point of view of a newly single older man. Sometimes he’s deadly serious, as in “Kissing the Ring of POTUS” which considers the possibility of the end of the world order we’ve known for so long (and yes, he uses “Trump” as a verb). Always, at least on this record, he’s got me paying closer and closer attention.
Alex Harris – Back to Us. If you go to his webpage – www.alexharrisofficial.com – you’ll see he labels himself “Singer, Producer + Philanthropist.” Find me any other musician bold enough to do that. But never mind his work with teens and the arts – I’m here to tell you this guy is probably the very finest soul singer in the old-school style working today. He was raised in a Georgia church environment as part of a singing group with six of his brothers. Clearly, his parents exposed him to all the same gospel music that influenced 60s giants such as Otis Redding and Solomon Burke (each of whom are covered here with a confidence and invention that has to be heard to be believed.) And, of course, he’s studied the music of all those great singers. Several songs here are written or co-written by Harris; aside from “Dreams to Remember” and “Cry to Me,” I couldn’t tell from listening which songs were his originals and which came from somebody else. That’s how high the bar is for songwriting. The arrangements are tasteful, too, capturing the spirit of 60s soul and maybe Al Green’s work without ever sounding fussy or overly impressed with the study of the past. Most of all, there’s his singing – he will send all the shivers down your spine that any of his forebears did, but in a way that sounds like nobody but himself. (Thanks to Tom “Papa” Ray for telling me about this guy.)
Basic – This Is Basic. When last we heard from guitar genius Chris Forsyth, he was recreating Carlos Santana & John McGlaughlin’s Love, Devotion Surrender album. This time, he’s co-leader of a trio that also features Nick Millevol on baritone guitar and drum machine, and Mikel Patric Avery on percussion and electronics. Inspired by an obscure duo album from the late 80s by Robert Quine and Fred Maher, the idea here is not to play guitar solos, but to create insistently beautiful, shimmering and explosive guitar and percussion music that hits you right in the gut. The three players push each other to higher and higher levels of expression through riffs, repetitive chords, and throbbing big beats. It’s kind of a high stakes workout record for the mind and body, and not quite like anything else I know. (To be fair, I don’t think I ever heard the Quine / Maher album which inspired this.)
Manu Chao – Viva Tu. Here we have thirteen songs sung in four different languages – Spanish, French, English, and Portugese. Chao was once the leader of the band Mano Negra which I liked a lot more than 30 years back. That band had much more of a rock influence to its multiculturalism. Nowadays, things are quieter, with acoustic guitar and I don’t know, maybe a ukulele at times. But Chao still has a willingness to dip into any style of music, most of which I’m not knowledgeable enough to name – there is a reggae song, and a kind of country number which even brings Willie Nelson in to sing a faint vocal that is entirely in the left channel underneath a louder vocal by Chao. I can name, however, the delight which oozes from every track on this record. Chao embraces whatever style he’s adapting to his own personality, and sounds overjoyed to be experiencing what comes out. You could be, too.
Lux Quartet – Tommorow Land. They had me when I found out Myra Melford was on piano. Everybody else is as talented as she is – co-leader Allison Miller on drums, Dayna Stephens on sax, and Scott Coley on bass. I’m not sure who was responsible for these strong compositions, though I suspect Melford on most of them. The four musicians involved here have forged an intricate connection, enabling any two to double up at the appropriate moments, and providing lots of space for even the four of them playing as an ensemble. Tunes are catchy, occasionally breathtaking in their profound beauty. Every time I listen, I wind up noticing new features – a sax and bass interaction here, a winding piano discourse there, a dynamic rising and falling action in the sound overall. This is wonderful new jazz.
Billy Strings – Highway Prayers. Well, yeah, it’s too long of a record, but the more I listen to it, the less I could imagine taking away from the experience. Billy Strings is a bluegrass master, we all know that, and he throws in some traditional bluegrass type of material in between a mix of songs that could be tweaked into country, pop/rock, folk, and just plain weird. He’s a wonderful guitar player, and a damn fine singer, and an inventive songwriter. So if he has twenty ideas he wants to share with us at once, the least we can do is take 75 minutes and experience them. I love that he’s become so successful while refusing to narrow his musical interests down to any easy niche. Everything is acoustic, and there are no drums, but with those parameters and a lot of talent you can create a lot of exciting music.
Jerry Phillips – For the Universe. The son of Sun Records legend Sam Phillips, Jerry has been around the music biz for decades. That’s not to say I’ve ever encountered him before, and you probably haven’t either. This new record, though, is worth seeking out. Phillips writes clever rockabilly and soul pastiches, and also has a way with the kind of ballads Nick Lowe has been known to churn out in the years before he hooked up with Los Straitjackets. The five upbeat songs here are all keepers from the first listen, especially “Number One Girl” which kicks off the album with the illusion that Rockpile had recorded at Stax or something. On the ballad front, “Good Side, Bad Side, Side of Crazy Too” is pretty easy to love, and makes you wish someone like Ray Price could have gotten ahold of it fifty-five years ago.
Ivo Perelman and gabby fluke-mogul – Duologues 2 – Joy. Ivo Perelman seems to release another record every few weeks, and always with different musical partners. This time the veteran tenor saxophonist is paired with a much younger violinist. The musical dialogues between the two of them do bring to mind the subtitle here; they are joyful explorations of what can be done with their two instruments. Perelman, even when he’s using overtones, always seems to play notes in relation to each other, making not exactly melodies so much as examinations of musical connection. His partner fluke-mogul has a lot more tricks with her violin – she can generate sheets of noise, long held vibrating sonics which give Perelman a base to play against. But then again, she likes to push and pull with him, as the two dance lines around each other, then merge sometimes into spine-tingling high notes that sound like the heavens are opening up. This music isn’t for everyone, but anybody who likes to hear two strong musical minds play with possibilities outside familiar forms just might find something to embrace here.
Kris Davis Trio – Run the Gauntlet. The combination of my previous laziness with the movement of jazz reviews to niche media outlets has meant I’ve spent a lot of time discovering artists who have been around for a while now. Kris Davis is an incredible piano player, but this is my first encounter with her. She brings bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake to the table here, both of whom I have heard a few times before. The trio handles intensive powerful numbers as well as intimate, meditative pieces. Sometimes, Davis is either playing partially prepared piano or hitting the strings directly on the piano – these tend to be on the quieter numbers. When things get churning, as they do especially on the opening 14-minute title track, the three players hold nothing back – there are a lot of repetitive passages played with teensy variations in this one, but it just gets more and more intense as they go along.
Coco & Clair Clair – Girl. There’s not much catchier than “Kate Spade,” this pop/rap duo’s single of recent vintage. I mean, how can you resist the opening? “Fuck all the bitches who wanna fuck on my boyfriend / I make him lose his mind every day and every weekend.” But then one of these two vocalists – I haven’t been able to learn which is which – compares herself to bell hooks! Why wasn’t this the song of the summer? There’s more where that came from, too. These young women work their wispy but effective vocals over some pretty heavy indie rock style tracks, and some cool r&b and funk, too. And they throw in a cover of “Our House” by Graham Nash, sung with absolute conviction, no irony whatsoever. As they say in “Aggy,” another terrific single, “This ain’t gonna be another diss track though / Gotta have competition to make a diss track hoe.”
El Khat – Mute. I’ve only been head-spinning drunk a couple times in my life (and one of those was on a warm bottle of Nyquil), but listening to this dynamic Yemenite group from Jaffa in Israel but now living in Berlin gives me that same giddy feeling that made me walk out of a bar one night and shout, “wheee.” I’m not familiar with the music of Yemen, but my western ears are telling me there are horn-like instruments and/or organs with vocals swirling melodies around like a wine taster while the percussion clatters in a staggering fashion that defies any of my attempts to count time signatures. It’s goddam beautiful, I tell you. A lot of the instruments are handmade by the three – and yes, it’s only three – guys in the band. This is DIY music of the best sort.
Dingonek are Brooklynites who appear to be white people
As usual, the gamut has been thoroughly, enthusiastically run!