What I have been listening to : The Highwaymen

I don't know that I have much to add on the death of Kris Kristofferson. He did write Sunday Morning Coming Down which in my mind may be the greatest Country Music song ever. He was great in Blade (I bring this up because that was the headline on my targeted social media which in many ways might be what he is best known for among Gen Xrs).

But I do think this gives me the opportunity to talk about the Highwaymen- the 80s country supergroup which consisted of Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings So when I was a young teen, I spent a lot of time around my aunt who worked at a factory that published magazines. So I always read every month a number of history magazines and Country Music magazine. Now, I am not a huge country fan, though I would probably have perused it regardless. 

The thing is late 80s Country Music was pretty great. After the Urban Cowboy fad but before Garth Brooks, even the top acts like Randy Travis, Shenandoah, and The Judds were good But I read about the stars of the day - a glimpse of Magazine covers online shows they were writing about Dwight Yoakum, Jo-El Sonnier, John Anderson, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Earle, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Riders in the Sky and many more. These artists were at worst, incredibly interesting and at best, some of my favorite artists to this day Not to mention a list of legends they would also cover like Nelson, Cash, Dolly Parton, Roger Miller, Bill Monroe, Webb Pierce and the Stanley Brothers to name a few. 

Yes, I think those days of Crowell, Earle and Yoakum were the best of country radio, probably until present day when we finally have the airways filled with Zach Bryan, Chris Stapleton and Eric Church. But one band I really loved in those days were the Highwaymen Although they are meme heroes of a time “long gone”, I don't know that people really love their albums. And that's okay. They are definitely of a production of their day. No Rick Rubin- this is 80s AOR with synthesizers. The songs themselves for the most part are not particularly outstanding- outside of the band's singles. 

The band gets Wilbury comparisons but as song performances and writing goes- it's typical 80s Nashville fare. Even by the time the second album came out in 1990, it sounded dated. But I don't care, I really love the Highwaymen albums. I think part of it may be that teenage me might have seen Johnny Cash as the badass that Rick Rubin would later make him out to be. Which is probably true. 

Though the album is slickly produced to 21st Century ears- that outlaw image whether it was from Willie and Merle's 1983 Pancho and Lefty album, Waylon narrating the Dukes of Hazard or Kris and Johnny portraying Jesse and Frank James in the 1986 TV movie was alive. And it was alive to me as a kid who had no concept of 70s classic albums like The Red Headed Stranger or Wanted! the Outlaws and too contemporary to notice artists like Steve Earle, David Allen Coe and Guy Clark were taking those 70s artists (and drawing from classic country artists like Loretta Lynn and George Jones) to really birth that into a completely new genre. Earlier this year, I began revisiting this supergroup a lot. 

I think most people know of the first two records (1985 and 1990) but there is a third 1995s The Road Goes on Forever. It is interesting of course that at this point (though record buyers wouldn’t have known it at the time) Cash is working with Rubin, Waylon and Willie are working with Don Was (and making albums that hold up in retrospect - Waymore's Blues-Part 2 and Across the Borderline); but dropping yourself into 1995, no one is talking about any of this (and Kristofferson is acting full time). It's not a bad album with Steve Earle's “Devil's Right Hand”, Frazier and Owens (and Elvis's) “True Love Travels A Gravel Road” and the Robert Earl Keen title track, but the band is no longer on Columbia, instead on Liberty ( a Capitol Records label). 

Listening in now, there's no obvious single on the third album like the first two, and more importantly, the label folds shortly after. Which leaves a record that if not a must have, is surely a nice hidden gem. There is also a live album from a 1990 tour called “Live- American Outlaws” which was released in 2016 and got a slimmed down re-release this year as “Live from Nassau Coliseum” with a track list focusing on “Silver Stallion” - their single at that time- and the four performing their most famous individual songs as a group.

 

Music doc watch: I Get Knocked Down (Chumbawamba)

Every music forum asks almost every day “what is a one hit wonder that you loved”. 

And if you know me, you know I have a bunch. But one band I love that rarely gets serious attention is Chumbawamba. Now, yes I did know them before the hit. They surely are the most unlikely of bands to have a big pop hit. While I could go into some detail of my fandom, let’s just skip to the part we know about. Tubthumper was one of the decade’s biggest hits but where did the band go. As a fan, I bought all the albums afterwards and think most of them are great until they called it a day in 2012. But that band that rode into the sunset - was a folk tinged five piece.

 In 2004, Chumbawamba released Un- and afterwards, the most recognizable faces from the Tubthumper video (and accompanying media appearances) Danbert Nobacon, Alice Nutter and Dunstan Bruce would all leave the band and none would appear on 2005s A Singsong and A Scrape. So the 2021 documentary I Get Knocked Down was perfect for me. 

Holy crap - where did the last 27 years go? Even among one hit wonders, as a superfan, it’s hard to find any coverage on the band. Even artists like White Town or Right Said Fred seem to occasionally pop up on the “where are they now” radar. Even information on Lou Bega surely isn’t too hard to find. The documentary is a bit of a mortality play. 

It’s subject (Danbert) as close to a frontman as the band had. The band surely torn by the dual pulls of being pop stars and being political anarchists. Were they too much of one and not enough of the other. It’s certainly a very artsy (and very on brand) way of making a documentary. It still covers the band’s start as an ambitious collective influenced by Crass and the Mekons through near pre-Tubthumper break up and then that hit (and after). But it works well in those moments like when Danbert interviews Penny Rimbaud to ask him if Chumbawamba had done the right thing. 

That might not be the documentary you expect but in many ways it works well. Dunstan is 59, hair white, an aged version of the bleached hunk of that ubiquitous music video. Was it a life wasted? An opportunity wasted? Surely many of us blink and go from an idealistic youth to seemingly irrelevant elder. Alice and the other members of the band show up too. It is easy to focus the film on Danbert but it was always a collective and it’s nice that everyone shows up. 

The truth is the post - Chumbawamba projects have not gathered attention. They are fortunately easy to find in the modern internet age but out of sight, sadly. The film ends with Danbert fronting his new band Interrobang! If I was aware of them, I doubt I had heard them and even the film only has snippets so I probably need to seek it out more. Of course, the main event is Tubthumping and the rise to fame which was such a huge event. The signing to EMI. The band selling songs to General Motors and then using the proceeds to anti- GM consumer groups. Alice Nutter appearing on Bill Maher’s show and encouraging theft of their album from Virgin Records. The pouring of water over Deputy Minister John Prescott at an awards show. As silly as the idea may sound to some, it works well. 

I would have preferred a more well rounded look at the band, but it surely would have been unruly. The anarchic chaos the band created still stands up as successful as any act of pop subversion. And older punks may be inspired by the second act. It may not play in the headlines, but it is a fine legacy and the band still lives their ideals. Surely, I don’t know where the time went. I remember going to the Chumba.com website which was as good of a primer for interesting music, books and history of social justice. Though I suspect you could possibly find it through archive services, I am still a bit heartbroken that it doesn’t exist in a more tangible form (the website now has the band’s final statement of breakup). Though this is hardly an overview of the band, it is as good as a postscript to the story that could have been made.

RIP: Roli Mossiman

Roli Mossiman has passed away. His name was one that popped up quite a bit in the music I listened to.

His fame was based as being drummer on the first two Swans albums Filth and Cop. I first heard of Swans in a grouping of listening of bands like Einsturzende Neubaten and Test Dept, but by the 90s, they maintained a kind of cult following that kept them just bubbling under the mainstream (and even more bizarrely, the band seems to have a cult of younger listeners who are discovering them via sites like Reddit and RYM). Mosimann next showed up as producer to Matt Johnson’s The The. He co produced some of my favorite music by them - Infected and Mind Bomb. 

He popped up as a producer in a few interesting places- the debut album of The Hair And Skin Trading Company, Celtic Frosts “Vanity/Nemesis”, a couple of That Petrol Emotion albums and the Young Gods’ most successful records. This run for him some high profile gigs- Faith No More’s Album of the Year for one. He was the producer for Skinny Puppy’s The Process, but dropped by the band in favor of Martin Atkins (who was in turn dropped for Dave Ogilvie).

Similarly, he was the first producer for Marilyn Manson, but by the time the album Portrait of an American Family came out, he had been replaced (and much of the album re-recorded) by Trent Reznor. In retrospect, it’s a solid body of work. Mosimann was also the other member of JG Thirlwell’s duo Wiseblood The short lived band (1986 album and a 1991 EP that was later appended) is like many of Thirlwell’s “Foetus” projects but I find it at once both more accessible and more hard hitting. Mosimann playing the instruments (with some help from the likes of Robert Quine and Hahn Rowe) and writing the music for the project. 

I went on a binge of buying up those Foetus discs when Thirsty Ear reissued the albums in the Nineties. Thirlwell has some great albums and if Dirtdish is not in the upper echelon of his work, then surely it has some essential songs. With Mosimann on Percussion, it seems to anticipate the idea of Nine Inch Nails and latter Ministry.

Music doc watch: Revenge of the Mekons

While recently binging music documentaries, 2013s Revenge of the Mekons seemed like an obvious choice. 

Intimate enough to be more of a story of the bands I rather than a “this happened then this happened” narrative l. It seems a perfect labor of love kind of project to capture the band. Truly, as the band says, success cause bands to break up, which is why they are together 40+ years later. Also they were loved by the critics, but critics get complimentary copies and don’t buy albums. 

 I first heard the punk Mekons on the Mutant Pop 78/79 compilation after I already knew of their 80s albums. In many ways, they have always had those punk ethos (and to my ears “Never Been in a Riot” and “Where Were You” are as good of punk anthems as ever were). The band started as an ambitious (but untalented) punk little brother to Gang of Four. “Never Been in a Riot” a response to the Clash’s “White Riot” from non-Londoners. The band, for the first but not last time, would be not well served by a major record label. Although they stopped performing for a time, they would not die, reuniting to play benefits for the Coal Miners Strike. 

Adding Sally Timms, violinist Susie Honeyman, multi- instrumentalist Rico Bell and a couple of established musicians in Lu Edmonds of The Damned and Steven Goulding of Graham Parker and the Rumour, the modern version of the band was born. The band would find an affinity for old time American country music which brought them their biggest success. 

They learn from the likes of the Chicago Honky Tonk pioneers the Sundowners; and Dick Taylor of the Pretty Things and a pre-Wyman Rolling Stones lineup had joined the band. While not a fully in depth history, it is interesting to see the old press kits and how close Mekons Rock N Roll came to being a hit. (As someone coming to age with 1980s Rock critics, it’s hard to imagine this album and Fear & Whiskey being lost to the collective memory). Next is 1991s The Curse of Mekons which seems like a self fulfilling prophecy. The band is dropped from the label after the staff that were promoting them are fired. 

The next phase shows the Mekons more of as a concept than band. There have always been the acclaimed albums and though they don’t get into specifics (you can pick 2000s Journey to the End of the Night or 2002s OOOH for example) but they do acknowledge every new Mekons album seems posed to be better than the previous. 

For their relative obscurity, they do get a buzz every time there a new release. We see the Mekons branch out in the 90s. They do music for Kathy Acker’s feminist musical Pussy, Queen of the Pirates. They go all in on painting and art in early 00s collaborative mixed media projects. They even form a children’s music band the Wee Hairy Beasties (one of the many Jon Langford bands that only have so much room to be mentioned in the documentary). 

In some ways, I am reminded of the Residents- more an art concept than a band. Meanwhile, album sales top out at 8000 and the band tours - mainly hitting their homes in Chicago and the UK and though they aren’t selling out arenas, seem to maintain the same size crowds. The doc may not be the flashiest but neither are the Mekons and it’s a perfect match for the band itself. A mix of high profile guests (Greill Marcus, Fred Armisen, Will Oldham, Jonathan Franzen) join Mekons past and present. 

If you aren’t inspired, you likely never will be. The band continues to reinvent itself and despite all the years together- they try to maintain the spirit of teenage punks.

RIP: Bluegrass legend David Davis

Bluegrass legend David Davis died from injuries caused by a car accident on September 15, 2024 at the age of 63. He led the Warrior River Boys (a band originally founded in 1960) beginning in 1984 and has been honored for being the closest practitioner of Bill Monroe style Mandolin. (Davis’s uncle Cleo played in the first lineup of Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys). 

The band came to prominence by releasing two albums for Rounder Records in the early 1990s. After their success had subsided and the band self-released a couple of albums, the band with a new lineup had a post- O Brother Where Thou renaissance releasing a self titled album in 2004 for bluegrass label Rebel Records, then two more in 2006 and 2009. Bluegrass has had a jump in popularity recently with artists like Billy Strings, Greensky Bluegrass and Trampled by Turtles. 

But before that, the Warrior River Boys were keeping the genre alive in that prior decade with a traditional sound along with the likes of IIIrd Tyme Out, the Country Gentlemen, and the Seldom Scene. What will be the last studio album of Davis’s lifetime is hands down my favorite and in my mind, the band’s masterpiece. 2018s Didn’t He Ramble is a collection of songs from 1920s country music pioneer Charlie Poole. Praised by Paste magazine as one of the best Bluegrass albums of the year and awarded four out of five stars by Allmusic users, it has a sound that would appeal to modern rock ears- think of Del McCoury’s early 00s albums or any number of throwback indie folk bands who appreciate old time country.

What I am listening to: LYR

There's probably not a more unusual album that I loved this year than An Unnatural History by LYR. 

LYR (Land Yacht Regatta) is British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, producer Patrick Pearson and multi instrumentalist Richard Walters. I really am not familiar with Armitage though he seems like someone who is modern and accessible- a perfect kind of poet for the 21st Century. Raised on Britpop, where I heard of Armitage was the infamous 2010 Guardian interview he did with Morrissey. That particular interview seemed to be the crossing of the Rubicon for which the outlandish Mozzer seemed to pass from controversy to being blatantly racist. 

Album reviews seem to try to counter the idea that it's all that odd. John Betjeman made a “pop” album in 1974 with longtime Gerry Rafferty producer Hugh Murphy. Now, I did give some listens to Neil Gaiman's 2023 Signs of Life album which took his poetry and prose to String Quartet backing. Plus, if we are being honest, rock artists like the Fall, the Smiths, Pulp, British Sea Power and Tindersticks wed literature to modern music. But I also feel like this is the kind of album I wouldn't have picked up. I am not necessarily a fan of spoken word but somehow this works. 

 The music is compelling as is Armitage's words on top. The subject is the Natural History Museum in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England which documented local flora and fauna until it closed in the 1960s. The album imagines the area, plants and animals past and present. The band's Bandcamp lists a series of fantastic (and sometimes Fantastic) animals- elephants, rare moths, urban foxes, whales, pigeons, two headed dogs and Phoenixes.

Album Review: Still Corners- Dream Talk

Dream pop is a genre that is huge in the music circles I run in. It’s a genre that really begins in the late 80s and early 90s when you think of bands like Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Lush and Galaxie 500. The 4AD record label being synonymous with the sound, which surely evolved from post punk bands like the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, but also drew from so many places- the multiple facets of the Velvet Underground of course, but also weirdly the country rock of the Byrds, Gram Parsons and Neil Young. 

 In many ways, Dream Pop is linked with shoegaze, and over time, the importance of both (as well as the nitpicking gatekeepers) seems to have grown in leaps and bounds. While this has benefited those original bands, it also benefits lesser known bands that seem to have accrued diehard audiences. Dream Pop was also a perfect antidote to the Oughts style of indie rock, leading to a next wave of popular and artistic heights with Beach House being the most notable face of the genre this time. While that wave probably hit its peak in 2010, its influence lives on with bands like Japanese Breakfast, No Vacation and Hatchie. But even without discussing these popular bands, the sound of the genre is deep and widespread at this point. Dream Pop is entrenched beyond 90s fans’ wildest expectations. 

Still Corners, the British/American duo is among some of the best known bands in the genre. Beach House formed in 2004, released their first album in 2008 and got signed to Sub Pop in 2010. Still Corners formed in 2007 and Sub Pop signed them for their first album in 2011. Still Corners never got the attention Beach House got. 

After the second album, they left SubPop and some of the big online sites stopped reviewing them. But they’ve remained at it, and album # 6, 2024s Dream Talk is a hidden gem of the genre. Cinematic, psychedelic and even some New Wave-ish pop- all based around “dreams” A lot of the songs sound familiar. I think that it’s an ok thing. I would also say that unlike many of the bands I mentioned above, this album really leans into Dream Pop and online reaction really reflects that with genre fans raving about it, while a lukewarm reception from indie heads. 

Still if you love the genre as much as I do, this is well worth checking out.

 

Album Review- Charlie Risso -Alive

Charlie Risso is an Italian singer who came on to my radar due to a recent duet with Hugo Race, the guitarist for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in the 1980s. 

 Like Cave, Race has had quite a career making dramatic and cinematic music. Risso is very much in the same vein and the Race collaboration is logical. 

The 2024 album Alive is her third full length, I believe, and follows a noteworthy EP The Light which came out in 2022. There is not a wealth of info on Risso online, which is shocking given how good of an album Alive is. Of the reviews online, seemingly every single one mentions David Lynch. 

I am not sure if the reviewers are sharing a press kit or if she mentioned this in an interview or “Lynch” is acceptable shorthand for cinematic, ethereal music. (In which case, I am guilty too, as I throw around Nick Cave’s name. Alive though is a great piece of noir pop. Risso has found like minded contributors like Race and R&B singer/songwriter H.E.R. 

The creation is a bit genre fluid and in a year where you have new albums from artists like Mick Harvey, Barry Adamson and even Nick Cave himself (not to mention adjacent artists like John Cale and Isobel Campbell), this album still stands out. Hopefully, it will get some of the attention it deserves.

 

Album Review- Steve Earle: Alone Again....Live

Steve Earle is probably my favorite musical artist. Now, he wasn’t my favorite artist at the formative ages of 16 or 21 but by 30, he likely had taken the position, and one assumes, that won't change again with age at this point. Art is fluid, so the term “favorite” is subjective, of course, and listening will fluctuate. 

Surprising to me, I was able to meet him in a post concert meet and greet. These in-person events are awkward and seemingly a recipe for disappointment, but I don’t have anything negative to say about the encounter. Like many artists with long careers, it’s hard not to think of his different eras. Earle will still always be most likely known for his 1980s peak chart period where he took a Springsteen singer songwriter approach to country music. 

Many diehard Earle fans surely became that way in the 90s as Earle was one of a group of artists that was creating a new brand of country music. In a four year time frame, he put out four of the finest albums that I have ever heard - the span from Train A Comin’ that lasted to The Mountain. Earle has a new live album. He released a live album in 1991- the lightly regarded Shut Up and Die like an Aviator- the critics aren’t wrong as it serves as a book end to his first act and isn't particularly essential. His next major live album was a two disc album Just An American Boy in 2003 which sort of book ends that phase in his career. That album takes me back to 2004- a particular place and time. 

For me, life seemed amped up. The Bush-Kerry election. The War on Terror. Fahrenheit 9/11. Web 2.0. I constantly played the two discs. While they don’t measure quite up to his 90s work- the three early 00s albums - 2000s Transcendental Blues 2002s Jerusalem and 2004s The Revolution Starts Now come pretty close. Overly political (not that Earle was ever apolitical) buzz formed around brash ideas like “John Walker’s Blues” and “Condi, Condi” After that flurry of activity, Earle returned in 2007 and also had quite an acting career appearing in two HBO series The Wire and Treme. 

There have been 11 albums in those 17 years since 07s Washington Square Serenade. There have been some great moments. Four of those albums have been all cover tributes to Earle influences and friends Guy Clark, Townes Van Zant, Jerry Jeff Walker and his son Justin Townes Earle. 2020s Ghost of West Virginia- his last studio album which featured songs that were written for an Off Broadway play is among his best work. I would also rank 2016s self titled collaboration with Shawn Colvin and 2017s So You Wannabe an Outlaw as right up there with the aforementioned early Oughts records 

Earle has often been backed by his band the Dukes. Longtime bassist Kelly Looney died in 2019. Guitarist Bucky Baxter passed in 2020. Chris and Eleanor Masterson who have their own band went their own way in 2022. But most famously after the 2023 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, the rest of the band emailed their resignations. I am not sure Earle is easy to get along with or what, but regardless he seems to always fight his way through and he landed on his feet by touring alone now and releasing some of the results as an album On top of that, though I know not all fans share the opinion, most critics seem to rank it as a career highlight. Good chunks of dialogue make it feel like one of those “Storyteller” albums. There’s also a good chunk of his whole career. 

In interviews, Earle said he doesn’t understand how artists won’t perform their hits, which is why Copperhead Road and Guitar Town are here among many others. Still hearing, say “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” here reminds you how even the greatest artists- Lou Reed, Springsteen, Dylan, McCartney and so on- had long careers but they also had those indelible early hits. Even at 15 songs, it’s hard to get everything covered. Though the double shot of I Feel Alright is not only some great songs but is a nice acknowledgment of the rough years Earle lived through and equally doesn’t fall for the “romantic self-destructive artist” trope that some may fall for. The recent Ghosts of Virginia only gets one song which is It’s About Blood- but it sounds better live here than in the studio and has an extra benefit to the new listener as Earle explains the project. 

Most critics have raved over this album but a select few have said Earle sounds tired and old. Even then for a country singer, that probably wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me- but I think he sounds great here in this setting. I tend to skip 2007s Washington Square Serenade which mainly is overshadowed by the two previous albums that had such a political bent. “Sparkle and Shine” from that album is a nice inclusion for the flip side of so many of the political songs. There are no surprises which pop up on the longer tour set lists, say covers of the Pogues or Justin Townes Earle. As a huge fan, I would have appreciated those, but this does make things as close to a “Where to start with Steve Earle” primer as it is likely intended to be.

On the Shelf: Swami John Reis

In retrospect, I likely don’t rate Rocket from the Crypt as high as I should. sure 

I played the heck out of Scream Dracula Scream, but come to think of it, I played a lot of the RFTC and All Systems Go records too. Somehow, as Indie Rock evolved into a serious Pitchfork rock critic concern in the 00s, Rocket might not have been the type of group that got mass attention. John Reis is sort of an opposite coast version of Jon Spencer. He does what he wants regardless of prevailing styles or trends, even if it means a different band name or record label. 

It means I lost track of him as he largely focused on Hot Snakes, the Sultans and the Night Marchers instead of Rocket. Up until 2015 when he collaborated with garage punks the Blind Shake for Modern Surf Classics- the kind of album that does what it says on the packaging. It wasn’t quite Rocket and definitely wasn’t the Ventures but somehow an intersection of the two. In 2022, Reis made his first “solo” album Ride the Wild Night and to my ears, about as a good album as any I know- a pretty straight forward take on garage rock with pop hooks. It had the Rocket From the Crypt vibes but with more Nuggets and less post punk edge. All of this Awaits You is some of the same. While it reminds me of the recent work of peers like King Khan, but with radio friendly production. 

Ironically, this blast of fun comes from sadness. Rick Froberg passing away unexpectedly was the catalyst for recording. Froberg had been in bands with Reis like Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes. So Reis who is running at least four bands now, decided he was going to bang out some rock n roll. All of this… is in the mold of his debut solo album. The opener invokes a classic Rocket from the Crypt with a peel my heart like a banana or onion metaphor. Write what you know I guess and if you are prolific as Reis, you don’t have time for the kind of Lauryn Hill, Tom Scholz or Axl Rose style writers block. The notorious reputation of Harbor Freight Tools? That’s a song. What do you put on your Hot Dog? That’s another song. But why overthink it. This is 23 minutes of rock fun and it’s hard to quibble with that. More accessible than the fury of Hot Snakes ( though original drummer Jason Kourikounis and Tommy Kitsos, an occasional Snakes fill- in is on bass). Let’s just rock and have fun. 

2024 - BMG/Swami Records

Album Review- A Country Celebration of Tom Petty

Contemporary Country music has adapted the roots rock of the 1980s as its heroes which always seemed like an obvious relationship. Springsteen and Mellencamp have been canonized, songs like Tom Cochrane’s “Life is A Highway” and Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” have become cover hits, and as Contemporary Country Music has also revered southern rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker Band, its no surprise the country community has come to love Tom Petty.

I had an online conversation recently about most universally loved musicians and Petty was mentioned a lot. As I was growing up, Petty did seem like a big deal. 1985 single “Don’t Come Around Here No More” was one of the handful of most important music videos and the Dave Stewart produced song was no slouch either.

Only a handful of artists like Billy Joel, ZZ Top, Genesis, Springsteen, Van Halen and the Police seemed to bridge the cultural gap from FM Rock to the Video climate. 1986 me thought Petty was a bigger name than Dylan as they toured together (and at the time, maybe he was) and in 1988 when Petty became the youngest Wilbury.

And let’s talk about Full Moon Fever which probably should get more mention as one of the big albums of my lifetime. It was deep with 5 singles- certainly in conversation with Springsteen’s Born in the USA. Free Fallin surely as overplayed as any song I can think of. Following that album - 2 hit singles off 91s Into the Great Wide Open and 1993s Greatest Hits maintained Petty as perhaps the most unlikely and unsung hero of music video television.

1994s Wildflowers is another album we should probably talk about. There were again three killer singles and accompanying videos. Although atypically downbeat, in retrospect it seems like a perfect 90s album on par with any Grunge album of the day.

It surely doesn’t help that Petty went five years without a new album and when he did it was a soundtrack. Still music was under going a change and you can’t expect everyone to hang on. Still, from then on, Petty never seemed to command as much attention again.

I’m probably oversimplifying. 2002’s single “Last DJ” was a big hit with the FM rock crowd. Still as indie music seemed to be rising, artists on non-indie labels were not of interest to indie media.

Which is a shame as during this time, in 2008 and then again in 2016, Petty made some incredible albums with his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch. They are some of my favorite 21st Century albums.

But I never heard people in the cool websites talking about Petty. I am not saying he didn’t get any attention but he sure felt underappreciated. At least not until his passing. That's when a lot of Petty tribute bands seemed to start pop up, too.

The Tom Petty tribute Petty Country features a mix of some of the biggest names in popular country music with some of the most innovative. The album itself was overseen by Petty’s daughter and the estate.

Legends like George Strait, Willie Nelson, Wynonna and Dolly Parton meet some of the biggest radio stars of today like Dierks Bentley, Thomas Rhett, Eli Young Band and Luke Combs with a nice mix of fhosw who push radio country’s boundaries like Ateve Earle, Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, Rhiannon Giddens and Marty Stuart.

The Petty tribute isn’t likely to get a lot of traction in the Americana circles as it is heavy on the pop country names. There’s also not much in the way of deep cuts. It’s understandable. Sirius XM (who gave Petty his own dedicated channel a la U2, Jimmy Buffet, and the Beatles)played a good deal of the singles on release on its pop country Highway channel.

If you drop the needle most anywhere you will get something like Lady A’s “Stop Dragging My Heart Around”. One of the most popular bands in America for a time, their version of pop country isn’t something I would normally listen to. But it’s hard to deny the strength of Petty’s song. So is the album

More adventurous listeners will likely wish there was more songs like “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Rhiannon Giddens backed by the Silk Road Ensemble and Heartbreaker Benmont Tench. It’s a perfect match of ambitious musician and a song that isn’t a cookie cutter pop song. Giddens adds banjo and I can only describe as neo psychedelica among other elements to really bring out the dream world envisioned by Petty’s famous video.

I would remiss to mention a personal favorite of mine. Steve Earle’s cover of “Yer So Bad” is a bit of a revelation in its own way. Of course, most of the album stays pretty close to the originals and so I won’t complain about a Petty cover. But “Yer So Bad” has such great lyrics and is a perfect match for the story telling abilities of Earle. Like he did with Townes Van Zant and Guy Clark, it’s hard to beat the original but he can at least match the original in his own way.

RIP: John Mayall

John Mayall recently passed away at aged 90. 

Through his group the Bluesbreakers, he fostered some of the best musicians of the rock era- Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jack Bruce, John McVie, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor and many others. 

 I saw Mayall in the early 00s after longtime Bluesbreaker guitarist Coco Montoya had gone solo and Buddy Whittington had taken his spot in the band. I saw them play at a now defunct Labor Day Blues Festival in St Louis that I adored. I know I went twice and I think three years in a row in the late 00s. It meant that I got to see legends like Mayall and Booker T Jones of the MGs. 

What’s particularly ironic is that in a post-Jack White/Dan Auerbach musical world, Blues became another strain of Americana and you could probably say these musicians, who often weren’t young, are now more famous than when I saw them because of that new audience. So, no I won’t forget seeing Bettye LaVette, Shemekia Copeland and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. 

Also, sadly Death has taken a couple of musicians who would surely have gone to bigger things given new styles- Michael Burks who played a great rock guitar has been covered by Kingtone “Catfish” Ingram and Nick Curran who played a rockabilly influenced blues kind of similar to what Jesse Dayton does now. This free festival was replaced after a few years but it leaves some of my strongest musical memories. 

 

RIP: Martin Phillips of the Chills

It’s funny that as we talk about music, hidden memories get rediscovered Martin Phillips, lead singer of the Chills recently passed away at 61. 

Like so many artists, his legacy can’t be summed up in one thought or sentence His band seemed to be on the breakthrough of the US mainstream in the early 1990s. There were some quirky pop singles on MTV’s 120 Minutes with bands like XTC, House of Love and the Ocean Blue among many others finally finding large audiences. I went as far as buying Submarine Bells and although I kind of just stuck with Heavenly Pop Hit- a song that describes itself- I didn’t go all that much further. But my friends did, and when the Chills reemerged with 2015s Silver Bullets, they were greatly loved once again. 

All of this doesn’t even cover their 1980s albums for Flying Nun which are a great influence and when I made it to college, submerged myself into finding the New Zealand sound. Along with bands like the Clean, the Bats, the Jean Paul Satre Experience, the 3Ds and Straitjacket Fits among others, the sound of Velvet Underground influenced pop from New Zealand bands has touched everyone who has heard it, and I suspect will be timeless for new listeners to come. 

Recent conversations around the Chills and another band Downy Mildew now immortalized by the recent Strum and Thrum: American Jangle Underground compilation unlocked a surprising forgotten memories. 

Me in 1992 was very interested in discovering music. This was before I found college radio but knew of it. MTV offered a window but I was hungry for more. I remembered some sampler CDs that I had either ordered for free out of the back of a music magazine or maybe bought with the magazine. It was a novel idea then. Of course, in the 1990s and early 2000s, I would buy the CMJ newsstand magazine that excelled at promoting new alternative bands. Then as it disappeared, saw the rise of Uk mags that did the same- Q and the Word back then and Mojo and Uncut carrying the torch. But I did look for free music back in those pre Internet days. Sire Records of course had the Just Say Yes series (for a price). Epic/Columbia promoted free music via soda pop companies. I even bought for a dollar or two the fantastic sampler put out by small indie Alias Records. 

But I couldn’t quite pull that early memory. I remember these discs being weirdly diverse with rock, jazz, world, etc. A few big names, a few names that became big and some who never did. And I thought it seemed it was something to do with Musician magazine. Though I now wondered if that was a real thing or if I made it up. I went to the Wiki and saw it did exist- a place for writers like Lester Bangs and Cameron Crowe- though by the time I started reading it, it was owned by Billboard Magazine and folded in 1999. Sure enough I looked and the discs I remember having I found. 

It was their series A Little on the CD side. I had at least three and possibly more. Looking at what I found online-the series carried on a bit and would have been great to keep up with as I see later discs with people like PJ Harvey, Elliott Smith and others who came later. It’s likely where I first heard Shakespear’s Sister, the Rembrandts, the Spin Doctors, Sophie B Hawkins and Del Amitri before they made their marks on 90s Radio. It was also a good spot to hear new music from Warren Zevon, Ringo Starr, Maceo Parker, Wendy & Lisa and Los Lobos- established artists who had been pushed to the margins. Eno and Cale was a revelation as were the Chills as was E (Mark Everett) who had bigger days ahead as Eels. I heard Me Phi Me whose Wikipedia entry details his success but someone I feel deserved more. But I also remember the bands that sounded like nothing I had ever heard and maybe I could or couldn’t make heads or tails of like Strunz and Farah, Young Gods and Limbo Maniacs. 

Here are the discogs pages for the ones that I know I had 

 https://www.discogs.com/release/6612622-Various-Musician-Magazines-A-Little-On-The-CD-Side-Volume-1 

 https://www.discogs.com/release/6613313-Various-Musician-Magazines-A-Little-On-The-CD-Side-Volume-VI 

 https://www.discogs.com/release/6613277-Various-Musician-Magazines-A-Little-On-The-CD-Side-Volume-5