Album Review- Steve Earle- Jerry Jeff

ONE NAUGHTY WORD NEAR THE BEGINNING of the video- Hope the performance makes up for it- otherwise skip to about 45 seconds in Steve Earle is one of my favorite artists. His recent album is the third in a trilogy of tributes to his mentors- Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Jerry Jeff Walker. As a fan, these are generally among my least favorite Earle albums and reviewing almost seems unfair. Because these are homage pieces and jumping on points for new listeners. Are tribute albums ever going to be better than the real thing? No but they serve a purpose and you can’t be too harsh on a artist for putting out heartfelt product, and to be fair I am not all that familiar with the depth of these men’s work. (As an aside, I really do love the JT album and artistically think it is well done. It sounds like a Steve Earle album and is different from the originals in all the right ways. It is the kind of album that one will enjoy and then sit right down and listen to both versions) A couple of things stand out - one is Steve seems to slip into a Jerry Jeff persona. Earle has put himself in the position where he obviously wants to respect the music. Which leads to the second thing, when you listen to JJ it’s clear where Earle got his influence especially when he does some rambling of his own, or sings a particularly pensive song. Oh and I probably should remind that Earle is one of my favorite, if not my favorite artist, so this isn’t criticism. Jerry Jeff is a fine listen. If I am pushed to review, I will say that it’s not quite as good as Guy in what I would expect to return for repeated listening but it sure does it what it advertises, and that was getting me to check out the work of one Jerry Jeff Walker. 2022 - New West

Album Review- The Dream Syndicate- Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions

The Dream Syndicate have a rather fascinating story. Four albums in the 80s that solidify their reputation as one of the great American indie bands, though never quite breaking through like REM (to be honest, few did). Then a 20 year career for Steve Wynn which generally was well received. But nothing really prepared listeners for a second run of Dream Syndicate that has been surprisingly fulfilling. I got into the Dream Syndicate through a pretty obvious spot- the 1992 Rhino comp. That album called Tell Me When It’s Over is just about as close as one can get to perfect. It takes a bunch of the bands classic debut album and cherry picks from later records. The reunited Dream Syndicate is now four albums in and they all seem quite different. 2017’s How Did I Find Myself Here seemed drawn from the late 80s albums- with a focus on lyrics and smart songwriting. 2019’s These Times felt like a continuation but in retrospect, is also a bridge to 2020’s The Universe Inside. The Universe Inside felt like a big moment and a changed band. As with seemingly everything the band it has done, not everyone shared the same opinion- but at least this felt like the consensus that this was something special. This was a band bent on psychedelic jazz-influenced jamming. While “jam band” is a bad word in some circles, the album was pulling in from sources as disaparate as Coltrane, Crazy Horse and Hawkwind. The 21st Century iteration of the Dream Syndicate is so unpredictable from album to album that it is almost predictable that the follow up to The Universe Inside would be completely different. And it does, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions is a throwback to the band’s debut. That album had a heavy Velvet Underground influence - sparse instrumentation, over complicated lyrics, goth overtones and that sneaky subtle great guitar interaction - influential sounds that bubbled up most prominently in bands on the Alias Records and Flying Nun record labels in the late 80s and on a number of various major indie labels in that golden era of the 1990s. Dream Syndicate are now near the front and again at the end of that implied shades-wearing lineage that includes every one from Yo La Tengo to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to Parquet Courts. It should be little shock that review of UBH&TC are once again all over the place, though most are highly complimentary. Personally, for me, I rather enjoy it. Like their debut disc, some songs are better but the whole collection hangs together quite well. I know comparing the two records is quite unfair, so I will simply say my experience of the record is that it is one that I can listen to in its entirety and want to do the same tomorrow. 2022 - Fire Records

Album Review- The Interrupters- In The Wild

One of my favorite bands of recent years are the Interrupters. It seems a requirement to mention the ska craze of the 90s that brought No Doubt and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to the masses. It’s hard to say if the Interrupters will ever have that much fame. Though 2018’s Fight the Good Fight was in all definitions, a smash in terms of the brave, new music world. The new album In The Wild gives some insight on where the band’s heart lies. It’s got some cameos, but rather than some random guests, it seems like a very particular group of bands that pull as much from reggae and soul, as they do from ska. Bands that gravitated to traditional Jamaican sounds instead of pop radio. Those guests are Rhoda Dakar of the original 2 tone band The Bodysnatchers, 90s throwback ska band Hepcat and 201xs London ska punks The Skints. The band goes back a long way with Tim Armstrong (Rancid/Operation Ivy/Transplants). Aimee Interrupter and guitarist Kevin Bivona both appear in backing roles for Jimmy Cliff on his 2012 Rebirth album. Yet in many ways, the band seems to be just now hitting a full realization of themselves. A lot of critics have pointed out the turn the lyrics have taken toward the personal. That my conjure a mental image of some bookish Morrissey or Dylan musings. That’s not really a characteristic that goes well with ska. So I’m not sure lyrical heaviness is always for the best. Singles “In the Mirror” starts leaning closer to No Doubt than the Clash for example. But generally, the band gets the balance right. Also it seems counterintuitive for a band who gave us the scorching “She’s Kerosene” on the last album, the best moments on In The Wild often are when things slow down a bit. For me personally, I think I prefer the previous album, but there’s nothing wrong with In The Wild which has obligations to be radio-friendly, be taken as a serious work of art, and rock enough to keep up with the Operation Ivy/Green Day crowd. It shows a band that is going down a well traveled road, but doing things in a way that remains fresh. 2022 - Hellcat

Book Review- Out of Control: The Last Days of the Clash

I recently read Out Of Control: The Last Days of The Clash by Vince White. You might recall that I had recently watched the doc The Rise and the Fall of the Clash by filmmaker Danny Garcia. Along with Marcus Gray’s fantastic book The Last Gang in Town, these are about the only two places where post Mick Jones Clash history is recorded. Garcia’s film postulates that the Clash mark 2 are probably not deserving of their reputation, and were a great live band who were victims of a weird power struggle and one poorly mixed record. Vince White was the second guitarist for the Mk 2 lineup. Apparently he has become labeled an “unreliable narrator” for some of his activity on Clash message boards over the years, but I don’t doubt his story in the book. It doesn’t help of course, White always seems to be chasing women and drink, even having an affair with the band manager Bernie Rhodes’s girlfriend. But I don’t doubt the Jones-less Clash were a mess with Joe Strummer and Bernie Rhodes chasing past glories that were likely way out of reach. The Clash were dinosaurs in a scene with UK punk bands like the Exploited and American hardcore. Even if the 80s were defined political rock of the arena variety was covered by U2, the Police, the Fixx and others, Strummer had an antagonistic relationship with Bob Geldof, so you will notice the Clash missing from those contemporary big musical events. White is an interesting side to the Clash story. Rhodes and Strummer were interested in advancing the band with the sloganeering that was included on the inside of the sleeve for Cut the Crap. One example of conforming to the ideal, White shares the story of how he played the Stiff Little Fingers debut cassette on the tour bus, and then got in trouble because it wasn’t 50s rock or jazz, which was the only music allowed. White is an interesting observer since he generally does love punk, but doesn’t seem to be beholden to any of the legend. He joins the band because he passes the audition, but I think he would have done the same if the band was the Clash, Status Quo or Pink Floyd. You can’t blame Rhodes and Strummer for acting the way they did, wanting to make a new album that matched the fury of the debut, the ambition of London Calling and the look ahead futurism of Combat Rock. To accomplish this, ironically, they were rigid, even dictatorial. I don’t doubt for a minute that the three new band members were allowed very limited input on the band, nor do I doubt the album was worse for that. White’s story is probably better that he wasn’t beholden to the idol worship of the Clash. We get a side of Strummer that is human, flawed and tired. Same goes for Paul Simonon, Kosmo Vinyl and the rest of the gang. For Clash fans, it’s definitely worth the read. While you might end up not liking him, White can definitely tell a story. That said, if you are expecting a insightful rock memoir, this is definitely on the gossipy, trashy side of things, so be warned in advance. In finding the appropriate song for this story, I found there are an amazing amount of bootleg audio of Clash Mark Two on YouTube. As expected for the time, the quality borders on fair to awful, so I made what I could of the results. What I did find interesting was last year, Gerald Manns, a member of a German punk/metal band called Mutant Proof took to recreating Cut The Crap. I am surprised given the Clash's reputation that this hasn't been done before more offically, but Manns used software to isolate Strummer's vocals and then added a mix of bootleg audio and his own best estimation of the instrumentalism. I would recommend Clash fans to give the album a listen https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6ggjMklzIx0aCGDhE1FIS2HDu2WNLL17

Tribute to a Friend

A couple of weeks ago while on vacation, I received news that a friend had passed. It would seem to be necessary to point out that he had very human failings. I can’t speak to that. I wasn’t all that close to him, but in a very modern way, we talked often through social media and we often talked music. We were both fans of what you would call Outlaw Country but that term encompasses different things. For me it’s country filtered through rock years (Old 97s, Wilco, Hank 3) and the mid-to-late 80s neo traditionalists (Earle, Yoakum, Roseanne, Crowell, Lovett). For him it was more the traditional definition - Texas based singer songwriters like Ray Whylie Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen and Jimmie Dale Gilmore not to mention a strong attachment to those 70s outlaws like Willie, Waylon and David Allen Coe and Southern rock a la Skynyrd, Petty an Marshall Tucker. But, this did mean we had some overlap. He was a big fan of Red Dirt Music. This is a genre that has really become a movement with festivals, radio, Spotify playlists and the like in the last decade and he had his ear to the ground a few years even before mainstream media did. He was into Jason Boland and the Stragglers, Cody Canada (and his bands), Turnpike Troubadours, Corb Lund and Cody Johnson. It is made up of (mostly) Oklahoma based bands that play Country Music with those previously named influences also drawing in from blues, bluegrass and honky tonk. At its core, its those artists I listed above, but given the broader movement now attributed to it, some of my favorite recent artists (Cody Jinks, Hayes Carll) are now lumped in (I would say they’re more tangential than those I mentioned above, but so be it). If you listen to Country radio, the Influence has broken through to airplay - Luke Combs, Eric Church, Chris Janson, Morgan Wallen, Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton and so on- have drawn upon these artists to be proclaimed as a "new Outlaw Country movement". While we had two years of pandemic, 2022 has been the toughest year in my life in terms of loss. While most were acquaintance or coworkers, I have lost at least four people this year whose death really affected me. The pandemic definitely brings mortality to mind. I have gravitated to the idea that as long as someone still talks about a person, they are still really alive. Perhaps appropriately, his favorite artist was Gram Parsons, the renegade country rocker who died young and who is one of the biggest influences on this generation of Outlaws. It was Gram that played at the funeral “A Song For You”. 1973 - Reprise

Album Review - The Ninth Wave - Heavy Like a Headache

There are millions of Joy Division influenced bands. Millions? Probably not. Still maybe? There are of course some who became favorite bands of mine - the obvious (Editors, Interpol) to a variety of others (as varied as Sweden’s synth outfit Holograms to Los Angeles hardcore punks Cemento to dark wave favorites She Wants Revenge). U2 would certainly fall in this category, as would the shoegaze movement. All goth bands surely from and including Xymox, Sisters of Mercy and Christian Death on. Also come to think of it, a full list of industrial bands (Psychic TV wrote “IC Water” after all.) Like the Velvet Underground, it might be easier to list bands not influenced by them. A band as distinct as Arcade Fire or Sea Power may have mixed other influences but inevitably call to mind Ian Curtis and crew. Maybe a band mimics the umm… atmosphere of “Atmosphere” or “New Dawn Fades” or maybe it’s the Punk pulse of Disorder and She’s Lost Control. Glasgow’s The Ninth Wave are one of the latest to be painted by the Joy Division brush. Their second album Heavy Like A Headache could be their last as it was released simultaneously as the band announced a hiatus. The reviews generally have not been kind to this album, which seems a disservice. I can guess at the reason. The band splits vocal duties between its two members - Haydn Park-Patterson and Millie Kidd. Additionally, songs might rotate from inward looking Goth ballads to soaring arena anthems. Particularly on the anthemic songs, they have peaks that stand far above other tracks. It’s the kind of thing that will annoy record critics. That said,if the sound appeals to you, you might want to stay around for the whole thing. If you are not a huge fan of the genre, you still may find a few songs to cherry-pick for playlists. “What Makes You a Man” was in the Umbrella Academy and a couple others sound ripe for soundtracks. 2022 - Distiller Records

Album Review- John Doe- Fables in a Foreign Land

One of the consistent albums in 90s cutoff bins was 1990 Geffen/DGC release Meet John Doe. The solo debut from the X leader featured Richard Lloyd on guitar and writing contributions from Exene Cervenka and John Hiatt. It is a decent album that I’ve played quite a bit over the years. It’s easy to second guess why it wasn’t a bigger success. Maybe it needed to be released a few years sooner (in the prime days of Tracy Chapman, Cowboy Junkies and Roseanne Cash), I’m not sure, and maybe it’s naive to suggest it ever would have been a big seller regardless. It’s nothing flashy, just a country and blues tinged raw roots record. I have followed Doe’s solo career, and have always expected him to do an album that surpassed his debut and is on par with the great X albums. I don’t think he has quite managed to do it. 2016’s The Westerner came close- an album that paired him with Howe Gelb of Giant Sand. So I guess it is a little surprise that the follow up to that album and the acclaimed 2020 X album Alphabetland- that Doe may have his best solo album yet. It could be called the John Doe Trio (which is the way the tour is being marketed) but that’s probably why it’s a consistent listen. Making up the trio is Kevin Smith (Willie Nelson, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks) on upright bass and Conrad Choucron (Patty Griffin, NRBQ) on drums. Occasional accompaniment There’s an impressive list of songwriters too that includes Cervenka, Shirley Manson and Doe co-writes with Terry Allen and Louie West (Los Lobos). I’m reminded of Chuck Mead’s recent work- songs that harken to an older time -not only musically (to the early rock n roll years), but also lyrically (big 19th Century western vibes); are often serious but occasionally punctuated with humor (see “El Romance-O”), and can only fit in some uncategorizable Americana singer-songwriter box like say, David Alvin or Neko Case or James McMurty.

What I am listening to : FJ McMahon

One of the recent trends is “lost albums”. In a musical industry context much different than even a decade or two ago. I have mentioned a few albums that were released to near complete silence and have been embraced by a new generation of indie rockers. I can only picture record scouts traveling across the country hitting garage sales and thrift shops, the way they used to go to small clubs. “Spirit of the Golden Juice” by FJ McMahon was first recorded and released in 1969, but in 2017 was released by Sacred Bones records- a fantastic record label known for bands who usually make a certain amount of noise like The Men, Crystal Stilts, and Moon Duo. I’m my mind, there are similarities to Jim Sullivan’s lost classic UFO. For one, both were championed by Uncut magazine which is where I first discovered them. They both came out in 1969 and show a hint of the songwriting boom of the 70s. Both stay close to the Fred Neil/Tim Hardin school - a rich voice telling personal stories. In McMahon’s case, he was a California musician whose life took him from playing surf rock to returning a Vietnam War veteran. He released a small presssing of his album and toured the coast. So it was a career in computer electronics for him, until he picked up a guitar again in 2017 to relearn his classic album and play backed by the band Quilt. “Golden Juice” is sparse, but couple that with McMahon’s talent as a guitarist really creates something magical. It is for me, some stronger songs that being this album along. It also no doubt benefits from brevity. Surely at some point, McMahon would have had to recorded more pop schmaltz. “Five Year Kansas Blues” is one of those first listen “grabber”s. It is pretty clear that it’s about a conscientious objector but it took me a couple of listens to piece together the references to the Draft and Leavenworth, as it has an old Western feel. I was imagining 1860s and not 1960s on first listen. Opening track “Sister Brother” sounds like the song selected for a single. It’s a little bit more produced but the same elements are there. “One Alone Together” is a juxtaposition of a plaintive ballad over a guitar and drums that seemingly want to break free. Vietnam themes pop up with regularity. Production inevitably helps differentiate the songs, which can feel similar end-to-end which is probably the weakest part of what is otherwise a contemplative and melancholic lost classic.

Documentary Watch - American Masters: Brian Wilson

The most recent PBS installment of American Masters is Brian Wilson. I think it does as good of a job of telling the Wilson story as one can given only 80 minutes. Wilson is of course, anxious and interviewer Jason Fine from Rolling Stone magazine is someone who Wilson has a comfort level with. So we get a good conversation and a few insightful moments like Brian listening to the “Pacific Ocean Blue” album in its entirety for the first time. Wilson is someone we have wrapped with the great Rock n Roll myth. I suspect we tend to take those young and hugely famous as Brian and mentally stereotype them, as he talks about the infamous living room sandbox. We do get a very human side of Brian. He feels like an uncle or an older relative. It’s clear life is not easy for him, but he is not a totally mental casualty as sometimes he gets portrayed either. Wilson improbably has become a very active live performer recently, but you can still tell life outside his home is difficult for him. Through Fine, we get as close as a sit down with the legend as most anyone ever will. It is probably impossible to tell the story of Wilson without mentioning Eugene Landy, the disgraced celebrity psychologist. It’s still a complicated relationship in that it was surely hurtful for Brian, but Brian still sees positive in it. There are a great deal of celebrities and collaborators who chime in - Elton John, Springsteen, Nick Jonas, Linda Perry, Don Was, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Jakob Dylan as well as archival footage of Carl and Dennis and on a sad note, the recently late Taylor Hawkins. I’m not a huge fan of Brian Wilson I’m the expected sense of the word. I love the early Beach Boys hits. I think “Pet Sounds” and “Smile” are just ok. There I said it. There are going to be a lot of opinions around this movie, and certainly about Brian. I think it is a good portrait, done respectfully and I enjoyed it. (I did not realize this but this episode was released last year as the movie “Long Promised Road”)

RIP Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey, former lead singer of Australian punk band The Saints passed away this April. I have to admit my knowledge of the Saints doesn’t go much past the classic single “I’m Stranded” But I was aware of the band. A friend with more knowledge than me encouraged me to pick up some Ed Kuepper discs from the cutouts in the 90s. I saw Bailey open for Nick Cave. Bailey had appeared on Nocturama and I’m sure Cave was paying tribute and homage to Bailey by including him on the song "Bring It On" and the tour which Bailey opened and joined for the song. Nocturama by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds is an unloved record. Released in the Web 2.0 days, the reviews are well documented and most of the regular players hated it. Allmusic gave it 2.5 stars out of 5. I remember being disappointed on first listen. Cave, known for his dramatic lyrics and themes, seems to be trying to be extremely accessible and simple. Over the years, I actually like Nocturama quite a bit. A Cave album I might be more likely to pick up for a listen than more critically acclaimed Cave records. “Bring it On” is a tour de force. Cave always had great duets with women, but I felt his male duets (Blixa Bargeld, Shane MacGowan) sometimes don’t reach those peaks. The video for Bring it On is over the top like a rap video, made for Web2.0 services like Yahoo Music and others that were filling the MTV void. Naively, one can almost imagine the song on radio, but even released in the golden age of White Stripes, Radiohead, the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs et al, Nick was always going to be too weird for that. (One of the paradoxes of the current music businesses is songs break through other ways than radio. Via Peaky Blinders, Cave songs have got tens of millions of views on streaming music services and YouTube. By any definition, that is a hit) But it is still one of my all time favorites. Bailey and Cave have so much swagger between them, that the result is a powerhouse (and on record, as it builds, to (presumably) Blixa’s piercing scream) I also recently read Heylin’s “From the Velvets to the Voidoids” which documents NYC punk but gets the fact (and a quick glance at Wikipedia) that Australia was already head of the game before “Ramones” was released. The Saints formed in 1973 and “I’m Stranded” released in September of 1976 predates any releases by the Damned, Buzzcocks, Clash or Sex Pistols.

Documentary Watch - Reelz Front Man: Axl Rose and Front Man: Alice Cooper

I am a sucker for music documentaries so of course I checked out the Reelz “Front Man” series. Specifically some of my favorite metal men - Axl Rose and Alice Cooper. In certain crowds, it’s not cool to like Guns N Roses, but I am a fan. Even worse, I am actually a big fan of when Axl fully embraced his inner Freddie Mercury and started writing rock epics. Heck, I even like Chinese Democracy at least a little bit. I relate to the small boy who moved to the big city and Axl certainly reminds me of metal head friends I had in high school. I never met a rock doc I didn’t like, but Front Man isn’t making great docs. The focus is on the sensational aspects of its subject. Axl has certainly had a volatile personality. Guests include early friend Vickie Hamilton and people like Tom Zutaut who “found” the band and biographer Mick Wall. But it doesn’t diverge much from talking about how messed up Axl was and the (genuine) reasons he was that way. Music is only the background occupation he has. Im not sure Use Your Illusion was even mentioned at all. Like most of the Reelz docs, it draws largely from one interview ( in this case, 2012 with Jimmy Kimmel). It at least gives a decent coda with Axl finding stability with manager Beta Lebies. I am not sure there are romantic attractions between the two as the doc implies, but I have seen her credited as a “ mother figure” or “work wife” elsewhere. I would mostly recommend this doc for only people interested in the early life of Axl. Front Man Alice Cooper fares a bit better. Once again the music is a background mention to the more flamboyant life of the performer. In this case, that means it is more focused on the breakup of the Alice Cooper Band, with Alice going solo and the cocaine binge years called “Alice’s lost years”. On the plus side, there’s a lot of input from Dee Snyder who knows a thing or two about the kind of rock musician life as Alice. If you are a Cooper fan, there’s probably nothing new here, but it does cover his recent career- with a focus on his Christianity and playing Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. Again, not much about the great albums he recorded but fans of modern day Alice will no doubt enjoy it. Casual fans could do better going elsewhere. Either way, give Dee Snider the mic for an hour and you’re going to be entertained.

Documentary Watch -Classic Albums - Rio

I caught the “Rio” episode of the British documentary series “Classic Albums”. I don’t know that I considered Rio to be the best of best albums though I do consider Duran Duran a great singles band and they are definitely an all time favorite of mine. For me, if asked to name ‘the’ classic Duran album, I might opt for the first one. It’s got some sublime moments and in the case of “Planet Earth” an all time great hit. Wanting to emulate Bowie, Roxy et al- they did in fact reach the peak and defined an era with that song (“like some new romantic looking for the TV sound”. ) The title track is nearly enough in itself to cement Classic status along with the yacht video and the Nagel album cover. Rio is surprisingly deep when you revisit it 40 years later. “My Own Way” is one of the band’s least favorite singles, but it’s a hidden 80s classic- like many of the songs here, as much Chic as Bowie/Ferry. Of Duran songs (and 80s songs in general) Lonely in your Nightmare isn’t particularly a standout track, but has aged better than most songs of the time. Hungry Like The Wolf is on par with Rio as being a decade defining moment, after that, it’s largely album tracks. But in that, not necessarily unremarkable, “Hold Back the Rain” in any other timeline would have been a smash pop hit. “New Religion” sounds awful on paper, going deeper into the funk sounds with LeBon rapping. It works though, with the underappreciated Andy and John Taylor”s guitar and bass work, sort of anticipating the “dark wave” movement. You likely know “Save A Prayer”, a successful single and one of my favorite Duran moments- LeBon sings plaintively while the band backs with an exotic sound that was promised from the album’s title and cover (and infamous video, check out the Wikipedia entry for that story). “The Chauffeur” ends the album - likely best known for the infamous R rated video. While it lacks the arena prowess of Duran’s biggest singles, it is one of the bands finest musical moments. If you only considered the band a pop band, surely this song will change your mind. What this episode did was remind me of course of just how talented this band was, but more surprisingly how instrumental Nick Rhodes was in crafting the end product. Nick creating the infectious Rio opening, the “do”s in Hungry like the Wolf, and finding the distinct sound for “Save a Prayer”. While I don’t think the rest of the band gets enough credit (John Taylor and Andy Taylor did some amazing things, and I haven’t even mentioned LeBon as the perfect front man for a group like this), I was impressed with how much Rhodes contributed and am surprised he never went on to do more outside of Duran. Now, he did coproduce the very Duran-y “Too Shy” by Kajagoogoo, but the only other significant work I know of besides that is the Dandy Warhols 2002 “Welcome to the Monkey House” record. Not surprisingly, I like that album quite a bit. The Warhols aspired to be heirs to the Durans, and they are one of my favorite bands of the last 20 years. If you are a fan, check out the video “You Were the Last High” which is a recreation of the “Planet Earth” video. You got me Classic Albums, “Rio” is really an excellent record.

Concert- Mark Wills

Des Moines has a special relationship with Inside (Arena) Football. Famously, Kurt Warner went from stocking grocery store shelves to Arena Football to being a NFL star. There was recently a movie about it, you might have even heard about. The Arena Football League stands as the most successful Spring football league ever. At various points, Des Moines was in and out of this league. The AFL was often on national tv. I think most sports fans knew Jon Bon Jovi co-owned a team called the Philadelphia Soul. Few others may remember in the peak that Vince Neil and the rock band Kiss (separately) bought into franchises. I was a bit bummed when the Barnstormers jumped to the Indoor Football League in 2015, but in retrospect, the Arena league had seen a high watermark and folded in 2019. The last few years have seen a lot of alternative leagues like the USFL, the XFL and the AAF. It doesn’t leave a ton of talent for the indoor leagues. Noticeably, the Barnstormers don’t draw like they used to, yet I know quite a few diehard fans. For the most part, the IFL is a spot for otherwise under the radar players getting a chance to show themselves. The Barnstormers most dynamic star is from a small university (Carson-Newman) running back/wide receiver Antonio Wimbush. The Quarterback too (U of Idaho) is undersized 5’11” but talented and fast- Darius James Peterson. Before the game, there was a free concert by Mark Wills. I suspect the name might not ring bells, but he was a very successful country artist for a time. He is not my normal cup of tea- one of the many 90s Sonic descendants of George Strait, but hugely popular and my wife is a fan. He charted 16 songs in the Country Top 40 from 1996-2003 - eight went Top 10 with two reaching #1 and three more that reached #2. He took five songs to the Hot 100. Wills biggest song was 2002’s nostalgic “19 Something” which was one of the biggest hits of Y2K era country. I suspect many would know “I Do (Cherish You) which though Wills did it first, was probably even bigger when performed by 98 degrees. Another big hit was his cover of Brian McKnight’s “Back to One”. Although he performed all his big hits, he did not perform “What Hurts the Most” which he recorded originally- three years prior to Rascal Flatts having a huge crossover hit with it. An interesting bit of the Setlist was three songs from the group Alabama, which I thought was interesting. Alabama kind of dominated country in the pre-Garth days and crossed over to the pop charts quite a bit in the 80s. Although we didn’t hear much about Alabama, they seem to be popping up again. There is certainly a line from the rock-influenced country of Alabama to modern country music like Luke Bryan (and a music detective would no doubt find that string through the aforementioned artists like Wills and Rascal Flatts but also a lot of the Y2k era contemporaries like Lonestar and Montgomery Gentry. That Eagles/Poco/Charlie Daniels/Marshall Tucker derived rock sound now dominating the “cowboy hat” market that Wills arrived initially in.