Did you know there is a strong Country Music and Americana Music scene in Los Angeles, California. No? Well, unfortunately you’re in good company. Most people who like country music don’t know that on any night of the week they could venture out and hear world-class country music in Southern California.
I’ll attempt to give you a run-down of the important artists who are based in LA and appear around town with some regularity. Clearly, the opinions expressed below are my own. Also, my hope is that this would be a fairly comprehensive list…so if you know of someone that is making waves out there, please let me know.
Let’s start with some categorization to make it all easier to digest. Artists can appear in more than one category.
The Traditionalists
David Serby
Grant Langston
Heather Waters
Tony Gilkyson
Rich Shea
Bob Woodruff
Dave Gleason
29 Mules
Merle Jagger
Linda Kay
West of Texas
The Cheatin’ Kind
The Groovy Rednecks
The Running Kind
The Dime Box Band
The Hippies
Old Californio
I See Hawks in LA
Chris Laterzo
Psychedelic Cowboys
Whispering Pines
The Roots Rockers
50 Cent Haircut
Rich McCulley
Bob Woodruff
John Ramey
Dead Rock West
Dean Chamberlain
Gina Villalobos
The Southern Rockers
29 Mules
Austin Hanks
Whispering Pines
The California Country Artists (Non-Bakersfield Category)
I See Hawks in LA
Tony Gilkyson
Rich Shea
Dave Gleason
Dead Rock West
Chris Laterzo
Leslie and The Badgers
Whispering Pines
Old Californio
Gina Villalobos
The Modern Country Artists
Grant Langston
29 Mules
Dead Rock West
Folk/Americana
Claire Holley
Heather Waters
Dan Jansich
Leslie and The Badgers
Vicki Hill
Amilia K. Spicer
Gina Villalobos
The Dime Box Band
Eclectic Americana and Hard to Define
50 Cent Haircut
Linda Kay
Dafni
Welldiggers Banquet
Dean Chamberlain
Eric Corne
Cowpunks - Rough and Rowdy
The Cheatin’ Kind
The Groovy Rednecks
Grant Langston
Amilia K. Spicer
The thing I like most about Amilia is that musically she is downbeat. This is music for driving across a snow-covered Nebraska. There’s something bleak and beautiful about every tune. It’s mostly singer-songwriter in its orientation with her piano providing the canvas. It’s wistful…and brings to mind Ricki Lee Jones.
Austin Hanks
Austin splits his time between Nashville and LA, but years of work in Southern California make him a local in my book. He is Mr. Southern Rock - Lynyrd Skynyrd - esque. Marshall Tucker - esque, with a dash of Keith Richards tossed in for good measure. He’s also got a stroke of blues that anchor him in that rich tradition. It’s easy to imagine his songs as sing-along anthems on Modern Country Radio or classics on Outlaw Country radio.
Bob Woodruff
Bob’s story is the stuff of movies. He was a Nashville “next-big-thing” in the early 90’s, and it just didn’t go as planned. That’s all in the past. The good news is, he’s recording and playing in LA; and picking up where he left off. His classic material is well-written country played with a smile and driving backbeat. His newer material is less…traditional but so good. Great songs from a man who still has the goods.
The Cheatin’ Kind
Bab’s has built a musical institution with TCK. 3 parts honky tonk to 1 part driving punk, they manage to be mean, sexy, sassy and scary all at the same time. It’s rough, rowdy, and if that all sounds like too much for you understand that you’ll be humming their songs for days. It isn’t just bombast…there’s great material underneath it all.
Chris Laterzo
Chris has a perfect take on the 70’s California Alt-Country made famous by Neil Young and Jackson Browne. His songs are intense and thoughtful, with a great voice. He makes a rustic kind of music, you can imagine him on the back of a pick-up truck in wine country playing in the evening heat.
Claire Holley
Mississippian Clare Holley has that voice that takes you right back to the classic female vocalists of country music — Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Rondstadt…it’s all in their. Stylistically, she can do anything from Roadhouse ass-kickers to soft as a pin A Capella ballads.
Dafni
It would not surprise me one bit to stumble into a Parisian cafe and see Dafni and her band serving up her brand of jazzy, Billie Holliday-esque pop. It’s earthy, smart, and rooted in great songs. I’ve seen her bring a small club to a complete stop as everyone, including the help, just stood in awe. I know your asking, “But is it Americana?” It falls into that crack…the instrumentation is certainly in the right ball park - mando’s, accordians, banjo’s, etc. Let’s call is jazz/country - never mind, it’s impossible not to like it.
Dan Janisch
Dan is a very funny man. When you see him in a bar, he’s very likely to give you a hug — and a kiss — on the mouth. But when it comes to his music he doesn’t goof around. It’s very Arlo Guthrie…Bob Dylan…Tom Waits…lyrical storytelling. It’s a melancholy kind of music made all the better by Dan’s fine lead playing. Perfect folk oriented Americana music.
Dave Gleason
Dave is certainly one of the top 4-5 country guitarist in LA. He has the tele, he has the fender amp, and he has the tone. He’s played with everyone and for good reason. When it comes to his own music he is clearly in the Bakersfield camp, he twangs like a pro and does a pretty great Gram Parson’s Cosmic Country-Rock as well.
David Serby
A traditionalist at heart David Serby leads the charge for LA cowboy hat honky tonk. The most obvious first comparison is Dwight Yoakam, but it’s all in there…the heartfelt ballads of Lefty Frizzell. The smoking swing of Muscle Shoals country, think Truck Driving Man or 6 Days on the Road. The easy-dancing rhythms of early 70’s Merle Haggard. And the songs…it’s stuff you’ll be humming on the drive home.
The Dime Box Band
Singer Kristi Callan leads this traditional country quarter in a style that is rootsy and rural. There is a heavy emphasis on mandolin, fiddle and harmonies; and a clear OLD school vibe, and I’m talking about before Hank Williams, to much of their music. Rooted more in 1930s Roy Acuff and The Carter Family. They’ve perfected a mix of modern songs, traditional tones that would be right at home at today’s Grand Ole Opry.
Dead Rock West
Cindy Wasserman and Frank Lee Drennan are the driving forces behind DRW. You can hear lots of rootsy, countryness in their songs but it shakes out to be a kind of X meets Old 97’s meets Son Volt. It can be quite rocking, but never looses its way from the Americana trail. Harmonies are a big part of what makes DRW so special…the kind of interweaving lead lines that evoke John Doe and Exene Cervanka.
Dean Chamberlain
For my money Dean Chamberlain has the best voice in LA roots music. It’s the rasp, that God just gives some people. His music has strong blues, hillbilly, RnB and gospel influences. While he is an LA born and bred guy, his vibe is almost southern tent revival. You can imagine folks speaking in tongues and jumping pews. So soulful. check out, Why’d You Make Me This Way for a strong example.
Eric Corne
Eric Corne has many tricks up his sleeve. As a much acclaimed engineer and producer at Dusty Wakeman’s famous, and now defunct, recording studio Mad Dog, he was at “roots central” for years. When he decided to finally put his vision down on wax it was with the best of the best backing him up. His record, Kid Dynamite and the Common Man, has many things to recommend it but just listening to some of the best players alive is one of them. There’s no way to avoid the tag eclectic for Eric. He can at turns sound like Elvis Costello, Tom Waits and his fellow Canadian Neil Young. I even hear a little Tom Petty in there. The arrangements are smart. The songs are constructed with new listener treats around every corner. Eric has taken all the lessons he’s learned and molded them into a fresh take on roots rock.
50 Cent Haircut
Los Angeles veterans 50 Cent Haircut has morphed through several phases, at one point quite traditional in a Texas/Cali country kind of way. Their last incarnation is the most interesting of all — a kind of gothic country house band. the sort of top hat and vest personae you might see on a Mississippi river boat band at the turn of the last century. Jay Souza has a world-weary voice and guitarist Bosco is his perfect foil. They don’t do silly, or big choruses, or boot slappin. 50 Cent Haircut specializes in sad, serious, almost exotic roots/gothic southern rock — with a touch of Brit Pop and Tom Petty thrown in for good measure.
Gina Villalobos
When I listen to Gina’s blend of country, folk and rock the word that comes to mind is “cool”. Much of her material has a quiet, almost wounded quality. There are tracks where she gets so intimate her voice breaks up like a fender amp, crackling just on the top end a bit. This brings to mind “Nebraska” era Springsteen’s voice, and Mellencamp or Sheryl Crow’s best stuff. Of course, just when you think she’s going to settle for boot-gazing, she gives you a track like, “What I’d Give”…more back-beat, more energy, and a soaring vocal. It’s warm, friendly and moving.
Grant Langston
Just by means of classification…it’s quite traditional - Willie, Merle, George, and Johnny, with occasional detours into some CCR territory. It’s essentially Roadhouse music, usually up-tempo. the kind of stuff that you stomp your foot to and yell along with. The lyrics usually smart and fun, but can’t help falling into an occasional sad country ballad. There’s also an outlaw country element as well - irreverent and crazed.
The Groovy Rednecks
There’s nothing I can say about The Groovy Rednecks that their 3rd record, “Ass Grabbin Country” doesn’t tell you. These guys have played over 500 shows of REAL country. (They number them.) Singer Tex Troester is an icon, having graced the cover of LA Weekly as the representative of LA Country. If you go see these guys, they’ll be having fun, and so will you.
Heather Waters
You like beautifully sung folk/country music with tear-up lyrics and a world-weary voice? Heather is your girl. Sure, she can do loud and sassy. In fact, she has one of the loudest voices, I’ve ever heard. Just a quirk of her physiology, I suppose. But when she gets quiet and sad…you’re in trouble. It’s a little bit Patty Griffin, it’s a little bit Bonnie Raitt (the good stuff). Recently saw her at the Hotel Cafe…and it was big, bold, and moving.
I See Hawks in LA
It’s been 10 years now that I See Hawks in LA has been building a reputation as the preeminent psychedelic, peace&love, social commentary, hippy country-rock band. They do mean 3-part harmonies and with songs like Humboldt and Raise by Hippies you know this is no Merle Haggard tribute. Rob Waller’s voice is deep and dark and helps take the band into a more contemporary leaning. If you like The Flying Burrito Brothers then this is your band.
John Ramey
John Ramey can do anything. any style you want. But his sweet spot is thoughtful, well-crafted roots music that lives in the JJ. Cale, Rolling Stone, Tom Petty zone. With occasional excursions into freak-out hippy country-rock. Perhaps unimportantly his voice has an unmistakable George Harrison tone.
Leslie and the Badgers
Leslie Steven’s voice sits as the anchor in LATB. It’s like Emmylou Harris with a touch of Patsy Cline, but infused with an optimism that makes it fresh and fun. The band is making smart Americana music in the vein of Whiskeytown and Neko Case. So pleasant, so satisfying. A great band for a mild summer night, if you know what I mean.
Linda Kay
Texan Linda Kay is a unique talent. She does a heart stopping take on classic pop country…equal parts Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline. Soaring vocals, lush arrangements…and all of it with the soul of a honky tonk bar singer. She’s dramatic in presentation, innovative in her arrangements (she has played a kick drum made from a suitcase.) and equipped with great songs.
Merle Jagger
Let’s add another to the list of 4-5 best pickers in LA. Mark Christian has a long history as a top LA session player. His instrumental trio Merle Jagger has monopoly on fast and fascinating telecaster pyrotechnics. If you think you don’t like instrumental music, you’re wrong. These guys make it fun and hummable.
Old Californio
Sometimes hard to classify, Old Californio has one foot in the Hippy Jam world of bands like The Grateful Dead and one foot in the more rugged country-rock world of Crazy Horse and Moby Grape. It’s harmony rich California roots music, evoking images of central California pastures and wine-stained party houses.
The Psychedelic Cowboys
So, do these guys need an explanation? It’s the 3 B’s baby - Beatles, Byrds, and (Flying) Burritos. This music is, somewhat, crazy. It’s Cosmic - a blend of folk, country (west coast), and psychedelic. Despite all that, there’s something so listenable about it all. It can be challenging to the uninitiated, but in the end the tunes pull it back together.
Rich McCulley
Rich is an interesting cat. He’s a curious hybrid of old tones, old feels, old rhythms and great songs. Think Exile-Era Rolling Stones, The Replacements, Tom Petty. Rich falls into the “if it is rootsy then it’s probably Americana Music” category. His whiskey-soaked voice is pitch perfect for telling sad tales about life and love.
Rick Shea
There’s Bakersfield Country, and then there’s California Country…forged in the lonely desert towns with hints of traditional country, the Mexican music of East LA, and Tex-Mex. Rick is a master of both. He grew up in San Bernardino on the edge of that Inland Empire and he is perhaps the best proponent of it’s dusty, unadorned California Country music. But he also had access via radio to the Bakersfield sound. He’s an outstanding instrumentalist - mandolin, lap steel, and 6-string and his voice, plainspoken and soulful helps deliver his material with deep impact.
The Running Kind
Matt and Leslie Bosson and their band The Running Kind, have built a reputation delivering heartfelt traditional country music. There’s something old-timey about their presence…Leslie’s vocal delivery would be at home in 1963 or 1943 as well as today. The actual music, certainly touches base with the classic song structure of the past, but they aren’t marooned there, venturing into more modern Americana. Guitarist George Alexander is one of the best pickers around, as well.
Sarah Stanley
Songwriter, Actor, Singer Sarah Stanley’s voice is what first makes you stand up and notice her. It’s rough, airy, gritty, WEARY. Not the kinds of words you generally use to describe a female singer. Even that description really doesn’t do her justice. She can pull off sexy wry humor or profound sadness with equal ease. And if her voice isn’t enough, her songwriter skills are perhaps even more impressive. Unlike most of the female talent around she is clearly not a “singer/Songwriter” type despite doing both. She is an Americana vocalist and most often plays around town with a great band.
Tony Gilkyson
Tony has a tremendous resume playing guitar with Lone Justice, X, Dave Alvin and most other West Coast roots talents. Few are as familiar with his own material, which is almost textbook Americana - hints of folk (Woody Guthrie), Honky Tonk, traditional country and even some rock. It’s rustic, rootsy and classic all at the same time. Oh, and he’s one of the top 3-4 guitarists playing LA on a regular basis, IMO.
29 Mules
I think it’s safe to say that Casey and Xavier run the top Outlaw Country band in LA. With a 5 year residency at the valley’s Ireland’s 32 these guys have honed great songs and a rowdy style. Casey is the closest thing in town to a mad hatter master of ceremonies, and they write songs that bring to mind Hank Williams Jr and David Allan Coe.
Vicki Hill
With her banjo and rich alto Vicki Hill has a great way with a song and the sadder the better. Her recordings have a late 60’s quality to them…Dusty Springfield without all the reverb, and while she isn’t about the past or doing tributes there is a timeless old-school vibe to her music. She writes songs about loss and betrayal like “Austin” as well as backwoods hardship like “Paycheck 2 Paycheck”. It’s stripped down old school country in a sultry style.
Welldiggers Banquet
One of the best things about Americana music is the infinite number of combinations that are possible when you start bringing together various elements of British and American music from the last 50 years. Welldigger’s Banquet has shuffled their influences in an interesting way. Clearly some vibe from The Band, Cat Stevens, CSN, and The Rolling Stones. Oh, and the songs are melodic and sung with soul.
West of Texas
Jerry Zinn and West of Texas honor 1960s and 1970s country like they arrived via time machine just yesterday. Heartbreak, cheating, and drinking are the themes and Jerry’s big howling voice shakes me to the core. It’s great. These guys have it all….the songs, the vibe, the players. grab a cold long neck and settle in.
Whispering Pines
Named after a song by The Band, WP has a great take on 70’s country-rock. Equal parts Allman Brothers, J.J. Cale, Flying Burrito Brothers and back porch jam, these guys can do it slow and soulful or like a furious boogie. Beards, western shirts, long hair and denim - if you like dual guitar leads and rich vocals you’ve found the right band.
We barely got into Britain because of that darn volcano.
Shows were really good.
Tony got an infection in his foot, which rendered him unable to play the kick drum for a show - but it worked out just fine.
Despite minimal drinking and pronounced efforts to remain healthy, i start to feel a little tightness in my throat.
By the time we got out into the west of England, we had all the kinks worked out. The band sounded great, and we had our daily travel vibe set. Up at 11am, lunch, read, walk around, hit the road, check into the hotel, eat dinner, load in, visit, play, drink, hotel about 1am. The rhythm was comforting.
But the day we got to Swindon, my luck ran out.
I had felt bad, and been taking medicine. I had been working the Netti Pot and the hot water bottle, but when I woke up the morning of the Swindon show, I just couldn’t sing. My usual full-voice range is from low G to high E or F. Today it was low G to middle E. That’s about 5 notes. While the boys hit the town, and have fun I’m in the hotel room worrying, gargling, medicating, standing in the bathroom with the hot water creating steam breathing deep, hoping for a miracle.
We could cancel the show, but on these tours the money is already spent. You need to play every night to keep the books balanced. We don’t cancel.
As we drive over to the club I’m still thinking I can make it through. I know that I’ll have to rewrite the melody lines as I go. There’s no way I can sing these songs as written. I’m no Pavarotti, but I like to write melodies that go up and down…tonight the voice ain’t going up and down. Tony tells me that someone he knows is going to be there with a 4 camera rig ready to record the show for posterity, sweet jesus.
We unload, set it up, and I go to the toilet to warm up. Except that i have no voice. No nothing. Not 5 notes…Not 1 note. I can hear these guys tuning up, and I’m in trouble. I go grab Johnny (Hawthorn who is playing guitar on this tour) and tell him the bad news. “Johnny is there anyway we can get up a list of blues numbers that you can sing, so we can entertain these folks tonight?” He nods and we start digging into the songs that we can perform. Much to my surprise, we work up two sets worth of music that Johnny can sing, and we can hack our way through. I know Johnny is a talented guy who has his own band, but it’s 20 minutes til show time and most of these songs are complete unknowns to Josh, Tony and myself.
I take the mic and explain to the club what’s up. The people are very gracious and once we get going things sound pretty damn good. Johnny sounds really good. It KILLS me to see all that video tape burning on the band doing Muddy Waters tunes, but I’m so thankful that we’re getting through it. At the end of the night, the bartendar makes me a hot toddy and we head back to the hotel feeling like we dodged a bullet.
The next night is in Bristol. We played in Bristol 3 years ago…a great club called The Prom and I had a migraine headache. We made it through but I was barely able to stand up. In fact, I remember the pain of that night much more than I remember anything about the club. I’m so worried that tonight is going to be another substandard performance. I feel like I need to make up for the last show here, not limp in with another excuse to be terrible.
Once we get to the hotel, the boys set off for fun and I stay in the hotel room doing my routine. After 3 hours of hot shows, gargling, hot tea and netti pot, I get hungry and go looking for some grub. There’s nothing good nearby, but I do see a KFC. Now, I’m trying to eat a little better these days, but I think that KFC would be a good choice for one reason. I can grab lots of little packets of salt, which I can use for my hot salt water gargle. Once inside I decide that a little fried chicken couldn’t hurt, and I get a two piece meal.
My voice is about the same as yesterday. Rough, phlegm choked, and inflexible. I’m certainly worried about the show tonight. As soon as I eat those two pieces of chicken I remember something I heard Christian singer Amy Grant say once. When she is in the studio singing she has potato chips in the booth. She said that the grease lubed her vocal chords. So, I tried to do a little singing in the KFC. LOW AND BEHOLD…my voice sounded pretty good. At least I had the flexibility to sing the melody. WHOA! of course, in about 20 minutes the benefits were gone, but I was encouraged. Before I left, I went over and grabbed about 50 little packs of salt.
When we left for the show, I grabbed the electric kettle that every European hotel room has. On the way, I stopped and got a huge bag of chips. The stage was my little vocal hospital ward. I put the kettle on my amp and the chips on stage left. As we got ready to go on I wanted to do one last salt water gargle, so I ripped open one of the little KFC packets and poured it into my coffee cup. It was pepper. I had grabbed 50 packs of pepper instead.
Much to my relief, the show was great. The crowd was enthusiastic and as we continued to play my throat got looser and better. We served up some country music that night.
The next day we went to Stockport, which is a part of Manchester. That show was good, but strange. The crowd was…aggressive. After we were done playing some guy started making fun of Josh’s hair, grabbing it and such. Some woman asked me if we would play her wedding, and when I said, “I’d love to, but we live in Los Angeles.” She got pissed off, like I thought I was too good to come and play at her wedding. The people there were so drunk — like drinking-to-forget drunk. We waited for an hour to get some dinner, and when we got up and walked out of the restaurant the owner came out on the side walk screaming at us, “If you waited it quickly why didn’t you tell me!!”
This all made our final show in Chelmsford all the better. The people there are so nice. We have some sweet and loyal peeps in that town. There is a great pub around the corner which we use as a dressing room. Josh beat my playing darts, and we watched 1980’s videos.
That was that. Josh and Johnny flew home. Tony and I flew to Krakow to rest and relax about playing.
Thanks to everyone who turned up, bought a CD, bought us a beer, said hello, or just clapped. The British are VERY good clappers. The first show we did after returning to California was one of those dance hall joints where the people love to dance and have no interest in clapping. Sure made me miss some of those British audiences.
We’ve got quite a few shows under our belt and I wanted to send around a quick update on how things are going…
We were on the LAST plane allowed to land at Heathrow last thursday. The pilot came on and said, “Since many of you are watching this on your television screens, I thought I’d let you all know that there has been a volcano blast in Iceland and European airspace is being shut. The closure starts at noon, and since we’re due to land at 12:03 they are letting us be the last ones in.”
At the time I didn’t really get the significance of it all. But when we were standing in the immigration line, and I looked behind me and the huge hall was empty I thought, hmmmmmm this might mean something.
As you can imagine we’ve been back and forth with the rest of the world exactly on how to deal with it. We started calling around asking for new gigs. We even started looking at Atlantic cruiselines thinking that we could play for our passage to the new world. But as of this writing, it appears that things are open and running. we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
We’ve had 4 great shows so far. Wonderful attendance. Lots of enthusiasm. God bless the English, they are such good clappers. Highlights.
–12 Bar Club in London - the biggest little room in the world. johnny pedals died. the ever prepared boy scout, whippped out a pack of batteries and was back in it. Our friend Max Ellis came down and did his thing, taking some extraordinary photos. to see them, friend me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/grantlangstonmusic.
–The Windmill in Brixton - Sunday night, crazy place. They have a huge rottweiler that lives on the roof and roams back and forth. The crowd was manic and we found a DELICIOUS jerk chicken joint down the road. There’s some video on the FB page.
–The Black Lion in Hammersmith - this was a fill in show, and the beautiful pub treated us just right. We packed the joint despite two serious blows. Drummer Tony Horkins…got an infection in his foot. It turned very red and swelled to mammonth proportions. We took him to the hospital where he got some antibiotics, but without that foot he couldn’t play the kick drum. So at The Black Lion we did a stripped down, quiet set that ended up working just right in the quaint space. and of course, by the end of the evening I was dealing with a very sore throat. DAMMIT. I’ve been taking such good care of myself and I’m still gonna get sick.
–What’s Cookin’ in Leytonstone - This is one of our favorite shows. There is a great thai restaurant down the street, and the room is always beautiful. We played with a great group called, The Snakes. My throat was raw, but we made it through…thanks to a bottle of Jack Daniels I picked up down the high street.
Today we’re off to Swindon, and out into the English countryside…can’t wait. Just to mention the rest of the schedule
On April 1st, the Los Angeles country music community came together and paid tribute to a talented friend, Duane Jarvis who passed away last year. It was an amazing night of music as various musicians got up to perform Duane’s tunes.
The band, led by Carl Byron featured Duane’s brother Kevin, Taras Prodaniuk, Stephen Patt, and Rich McCulley was rock solid and the list of singers featured many of LA’s best.
It was a moving night of joy, saddness and fun. I was honored to be able to participate. Here are some of the performers….
I was asked by LA Record Magazine to do a list of my Best Albums of the 2000s. So, I put together this collection. Then they asked to run the list without my commentary. Then they asked me to trim a couple of choices. Then they haven’t run the series….as it is January 8th and quickly becoming irrelevant I thought I’d put the collection up here.
When it appears on LA Record, I’ll link to the article.
In no particular order…
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
From a songwriting standpoint when I heard Bruce was doing a record about 9/11 I thought, “This is going to be a disaster,” and man was I wrong. He took archetype imagery - a kiss, blood, bonds, honor, loyalty and tied it, in artful ways, to a city in ruin. In terms of difficulty, it is, in my opinion, the greatest songwriting feat ever. When that choirs sings, “Rise Up” I still cry.
Delbert McClinton - The Cost of Living
How many records has Delbert released? 15? 20? It must be so tempting to just phone it in, but the 2006 release “The Cost of Living” has what so many blues albums lack - unbelievable songs. In fact, there’s not ONE bad song on this album. It also won a 2006 blues grammy.
Lee Ann Womack - There’s More Where That Came From
Nashville country done right. The cover hints that it is a throwback record. Simple production. Great songwriting, and Lee Ann Womack returning to real country after 5 years making boring pop records. It won a hemp of awards, but that’s not the reason it’s good. A cross between classic Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette.
Dwight Yoakam - Blame the Vain
Here’s a man who understands his brand. Bakersfield country with enough modern tones to make it still matter. The telecast licks are awesome, and Dwight’s voice — are you KIDDING ME? He sings the harmony parts and his choices are always right on the money. The title track is a killer.
Gretchen Wilson - Here for the Party
The kind of record I want to hate, but cannot. It puts a stake in the ground and says “Tough Shit”. The songs are all arena rock singalongs, but the attitude was sorely needed in Nashvegas. Credit Big and Rich for making this record old country and big rock. Gretchen was a shooting star, it seems, but what a show.
Hank Williams III - Straight to hell
I can only imagine that every record company in the world has throw zillions of dollars at Hank to make him a mainstream artist. With his lineage, he is a music marketers dream. But he does not care. He makes vile, offensive, hardcore honky tonk records about drugs, drink and life on the road. It is a BEAUTIFUL thing to behold and this 2006 release is his best. I hope he can hold out.
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
MMJ is a hard band to define. To me, they stand shoulder to shoulder with Wilco, making the most interesting American pop music on the scene today. It’s complex. It’s emotional. It’s rootsy. And they seem to be doing exactly what they want to do — the hell with the rest of us.
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Before they were the new Fleetwood Mac, Rilo Kiley was a cute little band that made fun albums with catchy songs and a simmer sassy sex appeal. I spent the fall of 2004 singing along.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Boy, do I hate giving this album any more praise. When someone handed it to me, I thought it was a joke, but holy smokes is it good. It could be that Alison Krauss could of made this album with a number of old guys, but it doesn’t take away from the power of the final product.
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
I have a stack of Ryan Adams records that are simply terrible. Clearly for 6 years or so his label said, “Record anything you like! We’ll put it all out!” The boring sound sketches that a good producer would’ve tossed in the trash end up as full blown album tracks. But HEARTBREAKER, wow. This is how he sells all those terrible records. It’s so good, it hurts. Need Proof? YouTube - “Come Pick Me Up” on the Letterman show. It is the SINGLE best live performance in the history of the DLS.
Merle Jagger - Rancho Los Angeles
Guitarist Mark Christian and LA stalwarts, Merle Jagger, have done everything a band can do - without a lead singer. They open for the big acts. The put tunes in movies. They are the best band you’ve never heard. Instrumental acts have a hard time busting out…but this record is the soundtrack to my nights driving around Hollywood.
Every since last Wednesday night’s CMA award show, I’ve been hit with a small avalanche of texts, emails, and other messages about Taylor Swift. Friends, colleagues, curious bystanders kicking my tires and asking, “What do you think of all that?” Some of them know that I saw Taylor do a couple of acoustic songs as an unknown in LA at The Whiskey a few years ago, with a coterie of serious music business types cheering her on. At the time I thought - “This seems like a perfectly nice teenager, but she has no unique talent as a singer, personality, or songwriter.” That isn’t a dig. That’s what you might expect from a young woman who is learning and getting her music chops together. The weird part was the entourage of serious business people that had clearly already invested heavily in this young woman. It was confusing to me and my pals. “What talent have all these people invested in?” - was the question of the evening from a group of pretty serious musicians.
I have waxed at various times since then with amazement at the phenomena that Taylor has become. It’s as if my next door neighbor, who likes to clean his lawn mower with his beer gut hanging out, were to suddenly appear on my TV in a Laker uniform shooting three pointers. Whether he’s doing it well isn’t the point. The fact that he is doing it at all is dumbfounding.
Rather than reply to all these questions individually, I’ll give a broad public response.
My feelings come on several different levels:
LEVEL ONE - Congratulations. You’re making a living in a tough business, and you seem like a nice person. Don’t start smoking. Don’t get married til you’re 30, and save your money.
LEVEL TWO - Wow, country music has discovered the tween and teen market. They’ve always been so jealous of the pop world. “How do we rope in those tweens and teens. They are good business.” But you DID IT! These consumers are too young to have any sense of what is good and bad, and developing acts for them is a pretty easy process. Hit a few basic music themes, market correctly, tour correctly and BAM the money comes in. New Kids on the Block, The Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, The Jonas Brothers, David Muthafucking CASSIDY - teen bands have been around a long time and if some teen artists put more money into the system to develop adult artists then god bless them. But much like heroin and reality TV you have to go easy on this stuff…if you take too much you get addicted to that teen $$$ and it’s hard to want to put out adult music.
LEVEL THREE - Really? We’re going to celebrate teenager pop as if it were some of the most important art our genre has to offer? That’s sad. The movie business handles this quite well. That business LOVES the blockbuster. They love the big dumb popcorn movie. Those films are so cheesy, but they bring in the fun-loving audience and they make lots of money. Those films keep the lights on and the Bentley in the driveway. BUT THEY DONT AWARD THEM BEST PICTURE OSCARS!! They don’t pretend that they are the best art that the industry has to offer. They, generally, save the awards for real artistic achievement, and that makes sense to me. These awards drive the viewers to check out the movies that they normally wouldn’t see, and thereby expose them to a higher level of film making. What if the Oscars were like, “The Best Picture Award of 2008 goes to Bride Wars!”
If it so hard for me to understand why Country Music, and music in general, has chosen to award nominations based on sales figures. The small artist who creates a masterpiece will never get an award. He will never even get nominated. That can’t be good for the level of quality in our business.
LEVEL FOUR - Country Music is a thing. If I called a musicologist and said, “What are the traits that make a piece of music COUNTRY MUSIC?” They would have an answer. They would be able to give me 3 or 4 or 15 traits that make country music a distinct style of music. Clearly, all music isn’t country music. For example, we know that there is a difference between classical music and country music. There are obvious differences that would make an individual piece of music either country or classical or something else. So, if we start with that obvious fact, it is a fair question to ask whether Taylor is even making country music and therefore entitled to be eligible for a country music award.
This perspective has gotten legend George Jones into hot water. (If such a thing is even possible.) He has rightly pointed out that, “They had to use something that was established already, and that’s traditional country music. So what they need to do really, I think, is to find their own title, because they’re definitely not traditional country music.” Now George is 78 years old and for some that means that what he thinks doesn’t matter. There’s always an element of “These kids and their rotten music today!” whenever an older guy criticizes current music. But if country music has a definition, and surely it must, you have to wonder if Taylor’s style really qualifies. Maybe a new name is in order….”Modern Rock-try” or “Poppa Country”. Ug, I’ll work on that.
In conclusion, I’m aware that being called the “Entertainer of the Year” isn’t some title of artistic perfection. It’s about entertaining people and Taylor Swift seems to be doing plenty of that. All things must evolve and change. It would be a boring business if every new artist sounded just like George Jones or George Strait. We need room for innovation, but we also need to have the courage to say, “Sales are great, but sales don’t make it an artistic achievement.” We need to leave room for artists that are doing important, groundbreaking music in the genre that we all know as Country Music.
Maybe it’s just me. It sure seems like it gets harder and harder to write good songs. I’ve done some mulling on the reasons, and it probably isn’t what you think.
It isn’t, for instance, that I have too much to do. I’ve had too much to do for the last 15 years. When I was 15 I had nothing to do. Hours and hours of nothing to do and the songs I wrote then were terrible. I can remember getting home from church on a Sunday, eating some dinner and rolling into my bedroom. I would often play and write until supper. 5-6 hours. Nothing to do but sit in there and hammer away. Wow…those songs were terrible.
When I first moved to LA I had nothing to do. I kept a diary for a time and reading that thing now is hilarious and quite sad. Sunday, May 9, 1992 “Ordered Pizza”. That was my entire days activity, and this was before the Internet. I remember one Labor Day weekend where i left my backbreaking job moving boxes at 6pm on Friday night and did not speak to another live human being until Tuesday morning at 7:30am. Lots of writing going on. Not nearly as bad as the teen years, but not so great either.
It isn’t because I’m happy. Although I am now mostly happy. (As long as I don’t think about how much my cell phone company rips me off.) Most songwriters start writing in order to express feelings of sadness or anger. All that piss and vinegar makes for conflict, drama and good songs. (good art in general.) Once life sorts itself out and they make enough money to live and find someone to love them - they have nothing to write about. These often leads to a sudden and unfortunate loss of quality in the songwriting department.
There are artists that never really get it together. Life is one personal disaster after the next and this helps them avoid the problem entirely. But GEEZ what a life. That would be like agreeing to relive my 28th year over and over in order to write good songs about my personal misery. I’d rather take a bullet. No, like many of the writers I admire - John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, to name a couple, I have gotten a handle on writing songs from a happy life. The songs aren’t happy, but I am. I just keep my ears open and my heart open and there’s enough pain and interesting stuff to fill my notebook. Of course, occasionally I do bump into some personal pain and that gets poured in as well.
It isn’t because I’ve said everything I need to say. I HAVE heard writers say this. “Well, I’ve got nothing more to say.” That strikes me as odd. Sort of like, “I have no more conversations I’d like to have.” or “I’ve met all the people I’d like to meet.” We all get burned out from time to time but I always seem to have something new that I’d like to tackle. Hell, I could write 10 songs that are attempts to do a better job of covering topics that I tried with past songs. If that makes any sense.
No…the reason it gets harder and harder to write good songs is that I seem to discover more and more rules. I see what people say about my records and my songs. It’s hard not to see it, because you’re trying to pass it along to others. I think I have a pretty thick skin in that I don’t take it personally. (After all you can’t criticize a critic for critiquing a record that you sent him to critique.) But when it is time to sit down and CREATE again…that stuff comes creeping back in. You play a riff and you think, “That’s a cool starting place.” and you hear a voice that says, “…retreading Rolling Stone licks isn’t country…” and you think, “Wait. Is that just a Rolling Stone lick? That isn’t really country, is it? That rhythm is too rock, and it takes the song too far away from what most people think of as honky tonk. Damn, maybe that isn’t good. Do we have any beer?”
You come up with a title that sounds interesting and you jot down a first line. Then you think, “That sounds mean. I sure have taken a lot of criticism for being mean. Maybe I shouldn’t write that. Is music supposed to be mean? Buck Owens wasn’t mean. Shit, do we have any beer?”
And sometimes you think…WHO CARES I’LL JUST DO WHAT I WANT. But if you do, and you finish, you still think, “You know my kind of country music can’t be like that. We could play the song…but doesn’t it just confuse the audience?” I suppose some writers are just like a machine that cranks out a clean and pure type of song. No questions. No variation. I can’t do it. I have a desire to wiggle around a little. Twist it. Turn it. And over time it’s easy to take the feedback that you’ve violated some sacred rules of songwriting for a particular genre. There are lots of rules, and as time goes on I seem to find a way to violate them all - “too slick”, “too dumb”, “too mean”, “too funny”, “too traditional”, “not traditional enough”. And of course…all the feedback could be right.
So, we’ll see how it goes. I’m hammering away now. It gets harder and harder. But I get more and more determined. I love this quote from Samuel Beckett.
“Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn’t want them back.”
At this point, I’ve been fronting bands for a long time. There is a certain degree of difficulty in filling the time between the songs. When to talk? When to say nothing? When to explain the song? When to talk about yourself? All this is often done on the spur of the moment. When you throw in the random heckles and happenings that pop up at every show, disaster is always right around the corner.
So a fair amount of the time, I say something extremely stupid. Something that I don’t mean, and regret instantly. I’m usually just trying to be funny…and I come off like a dickweed.
Here they are - based on my personal experience - the 10 things you should never say on stage.
1. Jokes about marriage. (The men will laugh and the women will glare.)
2. Any songwriting explanation that lasts over 3 minutes.
3. Exact details about your hotel. “Before, the show we were over at the Holiday Inn on Route 2 having some drinks and I told Josh…” Congratulations, you just told a room full of strangers where they can find a van with 30 grand worth of musical equipment.
4. “There’s more Mexicans in here than the Alamo.”
5. Any stories regarding mentally handicapped individuals - even if they are true, and not necessarily disparaging.
6. “Our music is best described as Cowboy Homo-Core.” (Even in jest, especially in Texas)
7. Any remarks directed at an audience member that can be construed as cruel and antagonistic, even if the bozo is throwing peanuts at your head. It just makes you seem like a whiner. One of your bandmates should quietly tip off club personnel.
8. “On drums tonight, Tony Horkins. His people killed my Lord.”
9. Politics. You may think you know which way the room leans, but you can never be quite sure, and a misstep is deadly.
10. Dedicating the Banjo and Sullivan classic, “I’m Home Getting Hammered. She’s Out Getting Nailed” to a bachelorette party.
Bonus suggestion:
11. Any stories about 4 guys sharing a hotel room that seem funny when they happen and very homo-erotic from the stage.
Well…i don’t know. I love SF. It isn’t really a country music kind of town, unless you’re Tim McGraw I suppose. But we always have a good time, and usually have a good show.
On June 14th we played at the North Beach Festival. It is a massive Italian-themed block party. We were playing in a club called Grant and Green - going on at 4pm. We rolled into town from further up the 101 and after getting past security we were able to unload, park the truck, and stroll around.
All this is pretty standard band on the road happenings, but then Josh said, “Holy Shit!” and I turned to see two dozen naked bicyclers tearing down Columbus. I took some snaps. Check out the whole collection here.
Did you know there is a strong Country Music and Americana Music scene in Los Angeles, California. No? Well, unfortunately you’re in good company. Most people who like country music don’t know that on any night of the week they could venture out and hear world-class country music in Southern California.
