320 kbps | 76 MB | LINKS
Parker Millsap is usually a good writer and a great musician. His writing, between jangly rockabilly style guitar and earnest ballads, between songs about desire for sex and for desire for political or religious change, move seamlessly towards each other. He also knows his way around a hook. All of that fails on Other Arrangements, in ways that are not quite discernible.
The guitars are as tight as ever and his voice is ragged where it needs to be, but is also smooth when the music calls for it. He is a master at concision; songs never last more than four minutes, and often fall between two-and-a-half minutes and three. He packs a lot of sound in such a short amount of time, with clever lyrics and fluid guitar. It should be a perfect formula for a good-to-great Millsap record.
But, there is nothing as engaging (or as heartbreaking) as his paean to being queer and isolated from mainstream religion (like his song “Old Time Religion”). There is nothing as fun to sing along to as “You Gotta Move” or “Tribulation Day,” from 2016’s The Very Last Day. While Other Arrangements is playing I am quite engaged; when it stops, I don’t remember themes or lyrics.
By Anthony Easton
320 kbps | 179 MB | LINKS
Transparent Days: West Coasts Nuggets was compiled by Alec Palao and features thirty songs that celebrate the Summer of Love. There’s contributions from The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The West Coast Branch, Gerry Pond, The Tikis, Art Guy, The Mojo Men, The Association, The Truth, The Bonniwell Music Machine, The Electric Prunes and Love.
CD 1:
01. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – Transparent Day
02. Peanut Butter Conspiracy – Time is After You
03. The West Coast Branch – Linda’s Gone
04. The Dovers – I Could Be Happy
05. The Motleys – My Race Is Run
06. Gerry Pond – The Happiness Song
07. The Rose Garden – Here’s Today
08. The Tikis – Bye Bye Bye
CD 2:
01. The Collectors – Make It Easy
02. The Allies – I’ll Sell My Soul
03. The Waphphle – Goin’ Down
04. Limey & The Yanks – Out Of Sight Out Of Mind
05. Art Guy – Where You Wanna Go
06. The Front Line – Got Love (2007 Remastered Version)
07. The Mojo Men – She’s My Baby (2007 Remastered Version)
08. Butch Engle & The Styx – Going Home
CD 3:
01. The Association – Pandora’s Golden Heebie Jeebies (Mono Single Version)
02. Wayne Stewart – If You Could Be Him Instead
03. Ron Elliott – Candlestick Maker (Demo)
04. M.C. 2 – Smilin’
05. The Truth – Momentarily Gone
06. Tandyn Almer – Degeneration Gap
07. The Ballroom – Baby, Please Don’t Go
CD 4:
01. Things To Come – Come Alive
02. The Glass Family – House Of Glass
03. The Bonniwell Music Machine – The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly
04. Clear Light – Dawn Lights The Way
05. The Electric Prunes – Shadows (Mono Single Version)
06. The Ceyleib People – Changes (Tygstl)
07. Love – Your Mind And We Belong Together (Single Version) [Remastered]
320 kbps | 87 MB | LINKS
When it comes to plumbing in Hoboken, you could say Gene Turonis is a longtime fixture. But that isn’t his only claim to fame. As Richard Barone of the legendary Bongos wrote in Spin magazine about our city’s 1970s pre-Maxwell’s days, “Other than jukeboxes, an occasional combo, or ‘Gene the Singing Plumber,’ the town had not been a swingin’ pop Mecca since Ol’ Blue Eyes had skipped town.”
I moved to Hoboken in 1994, and though our landlord was a different plumber (Gary), my roommate Joe and I soon became big fans of Mr. Turonis. We’d see him perform at the Arts & Music Festival and in the back room of the pre-renovated Elysian Cafe. We loved the album Royal Flush with his band D. Plumbers. I’ve continued to see Gene play around town regularly since then, including his organizational work with the Wednesday Evening Concert Series at the gazebo in Church Square Park. But in terms of new recordings, I began to wonder if the tank had run dry. Until now, that is, with the release of Gene Turonis’s new album, All the Pretty Girls, on Hoboken’s own Bar/None record label. He joins an impressive roster that has included Yo La Tengo, They Might Be Giants, the Feelies, and the Front Bottoms.
Thankfully, the move to a prominent record label hasn’t altered Turonis’s instantly recognizable sound. All the Pretty Girls is a collection of sweet, simple, down-home songs — 8 originals, 5 covers — flavored with tasteful and joyous instrumentation. On the title-track opener, an accordion played by Charlie Giordano (who has performed with the E Street Band over the past decade) immediately puts us in a Doug Sahm/conjunto mood. Turonis’s co-producer Marc Johnson keeps the mix clean, as you can distinctly hear Tim Tindall’s bass and Gene’s own acoustic guitar. The Turonis wit, delivered in his worn but welcoming vocals, is present right from the get-go, in lines such as “All the pretty girls… feed me a sandwich.”
“Round and Round We Go” was co-written by Turonis and his daughter Emily. (She leads her own band, Emily & the Ideals, and yes, the plumber’s daughter has great pipes.) This song adds a guitar solo from Gene, and the first of his trademark whistling solos. Next, the band ups the party quotient on “I Like It Like That,” a 1961 hit for Chris Kenner.
A mournful fiddle from Adam Krass matches the she-left-me lyrics of “Things Have Gone to Pieces,” originally recorded by George Jones in 1965. The mood improves on the Turonis original “Let’s Make a Deal/Marriage Proposal,” a rollicking number featuring piano by Giordano. “Going Back to Louisiana,” a cover dating back to 1964, has a laid-back jazzy feel.
A definite highlight is the amusing “Been a Fool All My Life,” which Turonis co-wrote with Luke Faust. The multi-instrumentalist Faust was a key member of the Insect Trust, who put out the album Hoboken Saturday Night in 1970. Faust and that band were major influences on young Turonis when he arrived in town. So decades later, it’s heartwarming to hear Gene perform a Faustian arrangement.
Next, Turonis tackles a song associated with another kindred spirit, Willie Nelson, who recorded “I’d Have To Be Crazy” in 1976. “She Belongs to Someone,” a jaunty Turonis original, contains the couplet “She’s wearing her headphones, she’s probably listening to Thriller/And her boyfriend, I’ll bet you he’s a gorilla.” The very pretty “A Breeze Blows Through the Palm Tree” is made all the better by soft organ playing from Marc Johnson.
Another high point is the witty waltz “Diamonds as Big as Potatoes” (which is all Gene’s rival suitor will give you, my dear). Then the album officially ends with “Always Get Lucky,” a No. 1 country hit for George Jones in 1983, co-written by Merle Haggard. The fiddle returns, and the whistling, as Turonis gently leads us into the sunset. But wait, don’t turn off the faucet just yet — Gene D. Plumber has a bonus track for you: “George Jones, George Jones,” just Turonis’s voice and guitar on a charming salute to one of his heroes. I truly hope I don’t have to wait another 20-plus years for the next Gene Turonis album, but if I do, All the Pretty Girls will certainly hold me.
by Jack Silbert
160 kbps | 60 MB | LINKS
This is a different gig than the solo Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack projects. Together as Daddy on Let’s Do This, their third album as a duo, they stay in the Daddy groove, meaning cranking it up and letting loose. Their witty songwriting is still very evident but is commentary on serious social issues, while present, mostly takes a back seat. This one’s mostly about guitars.
The album was recorded in January of 2017, but it was put on the back burner while each, especially Kimbrough, tended to a myriad of other projects as sideman or producer, not to mention, per the group name, their roles as fathers. However, Womack learned in September last year that the cancer he had been fighting, returned and given his history with health issues, he decided he really wanted to get this project done. Thus, the urgency of the album title.
Originally recorded in Nashville’s Blackbird Studio, finishing touches were made at Kimbrough’s Super Service Studio, with the main adds being Lisa Oliver Gray’s soulful harmonies and, on the track “Half Drunk,” Danny Mitchell’s muted trumpet. These additions just embellish what is, at its core, a glorious rock n’ roll romp, especially in the mid-section of the album. True to their, Kimbrough-dubbed “holy trinity of our band’s rock n roll – Dylan, Stones, and Muddy,” Kimbrough is often Mick Taylor to Womack’s riffing Keith Richards. Kimbrough is a widely sought out session player and producer, acknowledged as one of the most versatile and skilled musicians in Nashville. He did win the Americana Music Association’s 2004 Instrumentalist of the Year and his stature has only grown since.
The first three tracks – Kimbrough’s low-down “Start All Over,” Womack’s sarcastic “Pissed Off at the World,” and Kimbrough’s churning “Don’t Kick Me When I’m Down” pack plenty of punch but serve as appetizers to the main course found in tracks four – seven. Womack’s “Friday Night at the Villager Tavern” is a showcase for Kimbrough’s dexterous picking. “Cadillac Problems,” the single, is Kimbrough’s hilarious take and nod to Chuck Berry. Womack’s “State of Blue” slows it down but features heavy Stones-like chords and another wild Kimbrough solo. “Rock n Roll, Part 3,” as you would expect, just blazes.
From this point, the tone and energy ratchets down several notches for some acoustic tunes with Kimbrough often on mandolin. The best of these is “Two Birds Blues,” an old-timey/ragtime tune, as is the case with many, full of witty lyrics. Womack, a two-time Nashville Scene Best Song winner, maybe the wittiest writer in Americana and all of that is on display in “When Disney Takes Jerusalem,” curiously omitted from the liner booklet which has the lyrics to all other tunes.
Together with Nashville studio stalwarts Paul Griffith on drums, Dave Jacques on bass, and John Deaderick on keys, Womack and Kimbrough have fashioned a deceptively simple rock n roll record that will have lasting power due to Kimbrough’s brilliant axe work and witty lyrics that may not emerge until you stop stomping your feet and listen a bit more closely. glide magazine
320 kbps | 102 MB | LINKS
From forensic police investigator to singer-songwriter, husband and father, Kevin Sullivan brings listeners an insight to his life and travels through the songs on his new album, Belonging.
The Gerringong artist released Belonging on May 18 after a few years of work, life travel and inspiration.
“The album is about how I found myself, my family and my belonging,” he said.
“I travelled through the outback for about 18 years playing music all over and the album is the culmination of stories from those days. There are also a couple of tracks from my time as a forensic crime scene investigator.”
The title track, Belonging, stems from a period of separation and adjustment in Kevin’s life.
“It’s about singing songs of love with my two eldest daughters, which is how we got through each day,” he said.
“I’ve always done that, using music with my older children and now my younger children. The song tells about my journey through life.”
Kevin wrote all of the songs on the album, with each track having its own distinct feel, but with a strong country music foundation.
There are tracks with saxophone, a mariachi trumpet, and a fiddle, making for a dynamic, but cohesive sound throughout the album.
Two of the most moving songs on the album are Play Shameless For Me, written about Jess Fullerton who met an untimely death in 2013 in outback South Australia, and Unknown People, written about Kevin’s experience as a forensic crime scene examiner performing disaster victim identification after the Waterfall train disaster.
There are also fun songs such as The Wedding at the Mulga Pub, written about Australian artist Pro Hart’s painting, The Wedding At The Mulga (1978) featuring the Mulga Hill Tavern in Broken Hill, NSW where Kevin has performed.
The singer-songwriter said his main focus was to be true to himself and his voice in recording the songs.
“I try to be true to my music, my voice and my love for storytelling. I’m very proud of this album,” he said.
With, Belonging, his second album, Kevin said he wanted to spread the word about his music even further, with a goal to get to the US and play Nashville to get more exposure for his songs.
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| Victoria Spivey και Bob Dylan / από το βιβλίο "Bob Dylan, an intimate biography" του Anthony Scaduto |
