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Beyond | By Zach Phillips
Americana’s
Deep Roots
The tight-knit Americana music
community bonded together for
several noteworthy projects issued
during the first half of this year.
“I’m like James Brown, only
white and taller, and all I wanna do is
stomp and holler,” sings Hayes Carll
to kick off KMAG YOYO (& Other
American Stories) (Lost Highway
15136-02; 42:00 HHHH½), a contender
for this year’s best roots-rock
release. Carll’s a talented craftsman
of well-built, familiar melodies, but
his true gift is for conveying smartaleck
barroom wisdom. (“Everybody’s
talking ’bout the shape I’m
in/They say, ‘Boy, you ain’t a poet,
just a drunk with a pen.’”) Still, he
can write a heartbreaker with the best of them.
On “Bye Bye Baby,” he remembers the one
who got away “out there somewhere, between
the highway and the moon.” He could
just as well be singing about the soul of every
troubadour, an overcrowded group among
which he stands out.
Ordering info: losthighwayrecords.com
For The Majestic Silver Strings (New
West NW6188; 56:46 HHH), producer and
songwriter Buddy Miller joins forces with guitarists
Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz
along with a handful of roots-rock elite. The
result is a pleasant but underwhelming collection
where, ironically, the original songs often
trump the high-profile covers. Casual listeners
may want to download “Meds” and “God’s
Wing’ed Horse”—a collaboration between
Frisell and singer Julie Miller, Buddy’s wife—instead
of springing for the whole package.
Ordering info: newwestrecords.com
Leisz also lends his talents to Blessed
(Lost Highway 15240-02; 59:05 HHH½),
the latest release from country-rock goddess
Lucinda Williams. Over the past decade, Williams’
songwriting has taken a turn toward the
minimalist, and Blessed pushes that to new
levels. There’s no “Essence,” “Over Time” or
“Real Love” here. Instead, she delivers an inspired
but unpolished song cycle on the back
of her most formidable band to date.
Ordering info: losthighwayrecords.com
On I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs Of Fox
Hollow (Red Beet Records RBRCD 0014;
29:46 HHH½), a group of Americana notables,
including Buddy Miller, cover Hall’s
1974 children’s album, Songs Of Fox Hollow
(For Children Of All Ages). Several tracks are
stunners, particularly the vocals by Patty Griffin
on “I Love” and Elizabeth Cook on “I Wish I
Had A Million Friends.” Hall himself even lends
his voice to the closer, “I Made A Friend Of A
Hayes Carll
Flower Today,” a new song that fits right into
this surprisingly moving tribute.
Ordering info: redbeetrecords.com
On its sophomore release, Helplessness
Blues (Sub Pop SPCD 888; 49:53 HHHH½),
Fleet Foxes seek identity, enlightenment and
relief from the quarter-life crisis. The album’s
a reverb symphony of late-’60s, early ’70s
folk-rock, awash in multipart harmonies and
random instruments. Supposedly, there’s even
a Tibetan singing bowl in the mix. Bandleader
Robin Pecknold displays welcome growth as a
songsmith, writing more personally and, at the
same time, more universally than on the Foxes’
self-titled debut. Helplessness Blues is a shot
of sunshine—a marked improvement from the
band’s first album—and well-deserving of its
considerable hype.
Ordering info: subpop.com
Steve Earle’s I’ll Never Get Out Of This
World Alive (New West NWA3052; 37:43
HHH½) makes an argument that the songwriter’s
strongest suit may be for the slow-burning
heart-tuggers. Such down-tempo numbers as
“Every Part Of Me,” “This City” and “God Is
God” rank among the most memorable moments
in Earle’s quarter-decade-long catalog.
Ordering info: newwestrecords.com
Instead of relying on others’ songs, country-rock
interpreter Emmylou Harris wrote
or co-wrote all but two tracks on Hard Bargain
(Nonesuch 525966-2; 56:06 HHH).
It’s among her more directly emotive statements
and often pays tribute to the departed.
Sometimes, this works to great effect, as on
the driving “New Orleans” and “Darling Kate”
for the late Kate McGarrigle; other times, not
so much (“My Name Is Emmett Till”). But like
many Harris albums, Hard Bargain is an aesthetic
feast, making its uneven moments all
the more listenable. DB
Ordering info: nonesuch.com
Courtesy Universal Music
Anne Mette Iversen Quartet
Milo Songs
Brooklyn Jazz Underground 025
HHH1/2
New parents inevitably dote over their children,
seeing genius in every utterance and
invention that springs from their young minds.
Bassist Anne Mette Iversen takes that tendency
to the extreme on Milo Songs, creating an
entire CD’s worth of new pieces out of a single
melody devised by her then-2-year-old son.
Fortunately, the resulting album isn’t the
equivalent of a refrigerator door cluttered with
crayon “masterpieces.” Iversen plays hide and
seek with the original tune throughout, at times
bringing it to the forefront, at others burying it
deep within a song’s construction. She manages
to generate a diverse suite of music from such a
simple source, maintaining a youthful sensibility
even inside her most cerebral compositions.
Iversen is joined on this outing by her second
family, her long-running quartet with saxophonist
John Ellis, pianist Danny Grissett and
drummer Otis Brown III. Ellis, no stranger to
the more whimsical side of jazz—he cavorts
with puppets on the cover of his most recent
album, Puppet Mischief—engages in a playful
back-and-forth with Grissett to open “The
Storm,” a musical game of catch leading into
an insistently whirling melody.
The disc opens and closes with two of
Iversen’s most lyrical pieces, her ever-present
classical influences enlivened by a wistful
glance back at childhood. “The Terrace”
spotlights Ellis’ willowy tenor, while “Cortot’s
Wheel” finds the leader insinuating herself into
the tight corners of Grissett’s stabbing solo.
Iversen’s playing is constantly subtle and suggestive,
dropping hints that seem to linger in
the air while Brown supplies a more muscular
swing. She takes her finest solo on “Child’s
Worlds,” a contemplative piece that recognizes
the melancholy side of youth. It’s another
example of how the music can be childlike
without ever feeling childish. —Shaun Brady
Milo Songs: The Terrace; The Storm; Drum Dreams; Trains &
Chocolate; Milo’s Brother; Child’s Worlds; Cortot’s Wheel. (47:33)
Personnel: Anne Mette Iversen, bass; John Ellis, tenor saxophone
and clarinet; Otis Brown III, drums; Danny Grissett, piano.
Ordering info: bjurecords.com
54 DOWNBEAT SEPTEMBER 2011