Boney Earnest's Suburban Hilltop Tent Revue

Friday, September 22, 2006 ... 1:07 PM

Old Crow and the new Machine

David Rawlings is touring Nebraska right now, backed by Gillian Welch. They bill themselves as The ~~David~~ Dave Rawlings Machine, playing unlikely covers at small venues on short notice. As far as I can tell, the act premiered last month at the Newport Folk Festival, and picked up steam when, driving home from Rhode Island, the duo made an impromptu stop in Charlottesville, VA.

By descriptions at Whiskey Girl, it sounds not dissimilar to the loose rocknroll shows Dave & Gil give from time to time as the Esquires, joined apparently by whatever friends are game that night -- including at times Buddy Miller and Ryan Adams. I've got a boot of one of the Esquires shows, and it sounds ... well, very drunk, frankly. But I've also heard these two back Buddy Miller on early rocknroll tunes -- Gillian on electric bass and Dave strangling a Strat -- and it burned like kerosene. They ought to bust out the electricity more often. Their talents so transcend the brother-act-steeped acoustic sets that we all love, I'm never disappointed to hear the way the leaves quake when they branch out.

There's a ~~David~~ Dave Rawlings Machine page at myspace, but you're on your own there. That place creeps me out. Not only because of the meat market vibe, but because it disenchants to see that my folk country rock n blues music heroes spend as much time plopped on their asses in front of a Dell LCD as cubicle slaves like you and I do. It's like the Vatican II; myspace demystifies the religion.

Meanwhile, I've been listening to the new Rawlings-produced CD by Old Crow Medicine Show, Big Iron World. It plays to me as a somehow unironic po-mo tour of country musics past. I hear jug band stomp in "Cocaine Habit," a dose of hokum on the trainride/sexride romp "New Virginia Creeper", and the talkie honky-tonk of "Let It Alone" reminds me of the Foley-Tubb duets of the 50s.

Rawlings unfolds his flat-picking beneath the melancholy "My Good Gal" and, predictably, his preternatural conversance with rhythm and harmony lights fathoms beneath what otherwise might come across as "Oh, Another Murder Ballad." As a producer on the slower tunes, he draws what feels like old bruises to the skin of this party band. Hot fiddle tunes, which drive the Crows' live act, figure sparsely here. Which suits me fine; I like when these guys get moody. Gillian Welch brushes a snare here and there, and even taps on a trap kit for the very Harvest-esque "Don't Ride That Horse". Undertoes stir throughout, even on the upbeat tunes, suggesting without flaunting the kind of spiritual desolation that leads folks to religion or social revolution.

It's not the best CD I've heard this year, but as a followup to the rowdyish (and pretty terrific) O.C.M.S., it shows maturity and startling diversity.

Brendan

1 comments | 7"

Monday, September 18, 2006 ... 3:15 PM

Add to tomorrow's grocery list: (Update)

Neko Case Live From Austin TX DVD

The Live From Austin TX series of DVDs comes from New West Records, label of some Tent Revue favorites such as The Flatlanders, Buddy Miller, and Tim Easton. The concert videos are full length sets by seminal Americana artists taped for the Austin City Limits PBS show. I own the Lucinda Williams DVD, a gift from my sweet blue-eyed Betsy, and it's fantastic. The set list and performance are showcase-grade. The DTS surround mix with its front-back phantom imagery puts Kenny Vaughan and John Jackson in the living room vividly enough to offer them a Coke. If the Neko DVD is mastered to the same standards, we fans will be pleased. Look for my review in the next several days at Hickory Wind.

(Update morning 9/19: Well, while some retailers are listing today as the release date for the Neko Case DVD, others list October 3, while Amazon.com releases the DVD on October 9. My local indie retailer tells me October 3. Which is right? I e-mailed someone over at New West. Maybe they'll get back to me.)

(Update afternoon 9/19: New West Records got right back to me. Because of production delays, they weren't sure they could meet an Oct 3 delivery date, so the official release date is Oct 9. But some retailers may stock the DVD as early as Oct 3. Check with your local indie record shop!)

Also landing tomorrow, Nina Nastasia's fourth record, On Leaving. My discovery last year of her CD The Blackened Air put the smell of burning leaves back into my suburban autumn. That was good. But later I found its predecessor Dogs too cutesy-schoolgirly to hold my attention, even hearing it as I sort of do as early Edie Brickell in a glass gothly. The Blackened Air's followup Run to Ruin is a honed, lush and gently crafted skinny dip into despair, but its unrelenting near-torpor feels so God damn bleak, particularly in those dark winter months, I wasn't sure I could survive extended listening. On Leaving could go in any direction. By its title and pedigree I won't predict a party record. Look for a review somewhere around here, eventually.

To tide you over, here's a Clarence Ashley video:
Clarence Ashley playing "The Cuckoo"

Brendan

0 comments | 7"

Friday, September 15, 2006 ... 1:19 PM

Still Here, and Now There

If you live in or around Nashville, you're pretty much morally obligated to attend this show, on behalf of those of us living in more culturally remote corners of the South.

Monday, September 25, 2006
A very special evening one night only!
Solomon Burke with Buddy Miller
Special guests include Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin and Gillian Welch
Belcourt Theatre

Read more here.

I'm happy to mention that I've started writing for HickoryWind.org, an ensemble Americana music weblog. That's exciting to me, and should also be good for this dusty creaky cobwebbed old Tent Revue, once I get the gears cranking again.

I'm sort of enlisted at Hickory Wind as an anachronist, which pleases me fine, only right now there is a lot of exciting new music hitting the shelves. Or the web servers, if you prefer. For starters, Solomon Burke's country record Nashville becomes available on Sept 26, and Nina Nastasia's On Leaving is encoded as binary numbers and uploaded for your lossless commercial replication next Tuesday. Myself, I'm going to the record store.

Brendan

4 comments | 7"

Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas
(Novello Festival Press, April 2008)
includes my essay, "Link Wray"

SITES WHICH THE TENT REVUE RECOMMENDS

MUSIC
Flop Eared Mule
The Celestial Monochord
HickoryWind.org
Dig and Be Dug in Return
Modern Acoustic Magazine / Blog
The Old, Weird America
Honey, Where You Been So Long?

LITERATURE
The Greensboro Review
Mixed Animal
Night Train
Fried Chicken and Coffee
Mungo (This was the blog of my friend, the late Cami Park. Miss you, Cami.)
Staccato Fiction
Wigleaf
PANK Magazine

OTHER
Cat and Girl
Film Freak Central

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