Hans Theessink : Jedermann Remixed

Come tutti sapranno il festival di Salisburgo è uno dei piu' imporanti festival per gli amanti della musica operistica e lirica. Si tiene ogni anni nella citta' che diede i natali ad uno dei piu' grandi geni della musica europea ossia Mozart ed è seguito da tantissime persone, un vero e proprio evento nazionale, con i giovani nella piazze a farla da padrona. Ed è proprio in questo contesto, che nel 1920, quando forse nessuno ancora capiva cosa sarebbe successo, venne presentato sul palco princiapale di quel festival lo Jedermann, divenuto da allora uno dei momenti piu' importanti e piu' seguiti dell'intero festival ( clicca qui x maggiori info Jedermann ). Si tratta della rappresentazione di una novella dove l'uomo , ( rappresentato dal ricco Jedermann ), Dio e la Morte si impersonificano e ci accompagnano durante il nostro ultimo giorno per farci prendere consapevolezza di quanto e come abbiamo vissuto. Da questa rappresentazione è stato tratto un film e la colonna sonora scelta per rappresentare questo viaggio esistenziale è la musica che piu' di ogni altra si adatta con l'anima : l'essenzialita' del Blues. E chi in Austria avrebbero potuto chiamare per un simile progetto se non il nostro Hans Theessink ? Per l'occasione Theessink ripercorre la storia del blues "moderno", quello post bellico per intenderci, affiancando a sue composizione originali brani di Bo Diddley, Tom Waits, Hank Williams, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash fino agli Stones della coppia Jagger/Richards. Classici e composizini originali vengono rielaborate e presentate in una versione essernziale dove a farla da padrona sono la voce e la chitarra semiacustica del nostro.

Dutch morality play Elckerlyc was written in the late 15th-century and may well have been the original source for the English play Everyman. In 1911 Hugo von Hofmannsthal adapted Everyman as Jedermann, and since 1920 Jedermann has been performed every year on the steps of the Cathedral in Salzburg as part of the Salzburger Festspiele. The open-air performances have been one of the highlights of the Festival season ever since. Throughout the years many famous German language actors/actresses have been part of Jedermann in Salz burg. Actors playing Jedermann include Attila Hörbiger, Will Quadflieg, Curd Jürgens, Maximilian Schell, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Helmut Lohner, Gert Voss, Peter Simonischek and Nicholas Ofczarek. His famous “mistresses” (Buhlschaft) include Christiane Hörbiger, Senta Berger, Sunnyi Melles, Veronica Ferres and Birgit Minichmayr ...

Based on Everyman and enhanced with dramatic modern adaptations, Jedermann presents God, Death, the Devil and other abstract beings as personifications. The rich Jedermann is faced by unexpected Death, calling him to his judgment. Allowed company on his final journey, he is deserted by his loyal servant, his friends and his money; the figures of Good Works and Faith help him repent and save his soul before he is lowered into his grave.

In 2011 the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF commissioned film director Hannes Rossacher to produce the film “Jedermann Remixed” to commemorate the success-story of 90 years Jedermann phenomenon in Salzburg. Rossacher used archive footage from 9 decades to put together a cultural historic puzzle and create a unique performance of Jedermann that has not been seen in this form before. ORF and Hannes Rossacher asked me to produce the soundtrack for the film and we selected the songs that would fit the themes and scenes.

Besides several Theessink originals we recorded songs by many legendary songwriters: from Bo Diddley to Tom Waits, Hank Williams to Ray Charles, Johnny Cash to Rolling Stones Jagger/Richards. We also struck gold with some tradi tional songs that have been handed down through time.

For me it was a wonderful challenge to create this soundtrack to support the images of the film.

I‘ve tried to reduce the arrangements to the basic essentials; sometimes just one guitar-one voice.

It‘s the nature of film music that only certain passages of the songs are used where the film needs it. Still we recorded the songs in their full length; resulting in “Jedermann remixed” the soundtrack.

James Maddock : Sunrise On Avenue C

Inarrivabile. E' questo il pensiero che continuava a battermi in testa mentre ascoltavo estasiato il concerto di James Maddock all'una e trentacicinque, circa di Cantu'. Dieci anni, sono occorsi dieci anni, prima che il nostro, smaltita la sbornia del successo al debutto, capisse come mettere a disposizione la sua grande vena poetica e musicale, la sua voce emozionante il suo spirito alla causa della Grande Musica. James è tornato, ha girato l'Italia e noi ci siamo imbattuti in lui. Vi posso assicurare che erano anni che non ci capitava nulla del genere. Folk, Rock, Pop raffinatissimo, tutto questo e altro ancora in questa seconda vita di questo cantautore inglese ormai trasferitosi in pianta stabile nella grande mela dove ha trovato la dimensione giusta, e i compagni di viaggio adeguati, per il suo progetto musicale. Un nuovo Boss, un novello Rod Steward, un nuovo James Taylor ? No , semplicemente un nuovo grande cantautore che per pace dei molti altri bravissimi presenti in questo momento sulla scena mondiale, rimane inarrivabile, un gradino sopra tutti gli altri. Cinque Stelle qui non bastano, quella sera a Cantu' ci è andata proprio di lusso......

James Maddock is quietly becoming one of the breakout musical stories of 2010. With the release of the exquisite song cycle, Sunrise on Avenue C, Maddock has re-established himself as one of the most respected singer/songwriters on the scene.

When Columbia Records released Songs from Stamford Hill in 2000 it looked like James Maddock was destined for stardom. All the benchmarks of burgeoning success were there; a top 5 Triple A radio song, prominent placements in TV/Film, inclusion on the first Dawson’s Creek compilation, and extensive touring with the likes of Paula Cole and Train. Although James created a small base of rabid fans, he didn’t achieve the wide recognition he deserved. With his grass roots touring presence around the country and airplay on some of the most influential stations in the country (WXPN, WFUV, Sirius/XM), what seemed meant to be in 2001 is taking shape in the new decade.

Vin Scelsa of WFUV and Sirius/XM puts it this way; “I fell head over heels in love with James Maddock's music around the turn of the century when his band Wood released Songs From Stamford Hill. My heart broke when James seemed to disappear completely from the music scene without a follow-up. From time to time I would search for him on the Internet, to no avail, and play the songs from Wood's only album with a bittersweet ache that matched the mood of the music. Imagine then how thrilled I was to discover at the end of the decade James was living and working right under my nose in New York City, far below the radar, honing his skills, biding his time. Then understand how exhilarated and thoroughly gladdened I became upon hearing his new songs, heartbreakingly beautiful, exquisitely crafted, which pick right up where Stamford Hill left off. James Maddock's talent has a timeless quality he shares with the great songwriters. His music touches the soul. How happy I am to have him back on the radar screen ... the world at large needs artists like this.”

Buddy Miller's The Majestic Silver String

Ricercato guitar-project tra canzone country e tradizione da parte di un grande personaggio accompagnato da Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot e Greg Leisz, Julie Miller, Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Anne McCrary e Marc Anthony Thompson (Chocolate Genius). CD + DVD contenente un documentario di ventuno minuti e l’esecuzione dal vivo di “Why Baby Why”.

Oltre ad essere una sorta di “padrino” della canzone d’autore di matrice roots tra country e rock, Buddy Miller, è un grande autore e chitarrista di vaglia. In “Majestic Silver Strings”, per non smentire il titolo di tanto progetto, unisce le proprie forze a quelle di alcuni maestri della chitarra quali Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot e Greg Leisz. I quattro ripercorrono e rivedono, come certifica l’autorevole Buscadero, alcune delle più famose canzoni country, in modo decisamente originale ed innovativo. Un guitar sound ricercatissimo in tutto degno degli strumentisti presenti che amano esprimersi nei più diversi ambiti musicali. La parte vocale non è certo da meno grazie alla presenza di Julie Miller, Emmylou Harris, Lee Ann Womack, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Anne McCrary e Chocolate Genius tra i protagonisti, oltre allo stesso Buddy Miller.

The Majestic Silver Strings album is Buddy’s re-imagination of classic country songs loaded with guitars, atmosphere and attitude. Buddy and the 3 acclaimed guitarists - Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot & Greg Leisz (together they are the Majestic Silver Strings) - push each song into a new cosmos. Guest vocalists include Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Lee Ann Womack, Chocolate Genius and Julie Miller.

Tracklist

Cattle Call (Buddy Miller sings) - No Good Lover (Buddy Miller & Ann McCrary sing) - I Want To Be With You Always (Buddy Miller & Patty Griffin sing) - Barres De La Prison (Marc Ribot sings) - Meds (Lee Ann Womack sings) - Dang Me (Chocolate Genius sings) - Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie (Marc Ribot sings) - That’s The Way Love Goes (Shawn Colvin sings) - Freight Train (Instrumental) - Why I’m Walkin’ (Emmylou Harris sings) - Why Baby Why (Buddy Miller & Marc Ribot sing) - Return To Me (Lee Ann Womack sings) - God’s Wing’ed Horse (Buddy & Julie Miller sing)

The Majestic Silver Strings: Members

Buddy Miller

Buddy, who has spent much of this year on the road leading Robert Plant’s Band of Joy, recently collaborated with both Plant and Patty Griffin to produce two of the current Grammy® nominated albums. (Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy is nominated in the Best Americana Album category while Patty Griffin’s Downtown Church is nominated in the Best Traditional Gospel Album category.) Buddy currently holds the Americana Music Association honor as Instrumentalist of the Year, while two years ago he swept the awards taking home trophies in almost every category including Album of the Year for Written in Chalk, a collaboration with his wife Julie. Written In Chalk, only the second collaboration from the couple, quickly received high marks among the industry's elite critics including 4 stars in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Maverick and Mojo.

Bill Frisell

Bill Frisell is one of the most sought-after guitar voices in contemporary music. His prominence as a composer and bandleader has grown steadily over the past 25 years. He has also contributed to the work of such collaborators as Elvis Costello, Paul Motian, Jim Hall, Ginger Baker, Jack Dejohnette, Ron Carter, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt, Buddy Miller, Rickie, Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, and numerous others, including Bono, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and Daniel Lanois on the soundtrack for Wim Wenders’ film Million DollarHotel.

Greg Leisz

Greg Leisz is an American guitarist and multi instrumentalist known particularly for his work on lap and pedal steel guitars. A native of Southern California, he began playing guitar in the fertile garage band scene of the early to mid 60's and was soon drawn into the west coast's emerging synthesis of folk, rock, blues, and country music. In the late 80’s/early 90s Greg played on a number of seminal albums by emerging roots artists and singer / songwriters including Jim Lauderdale, Dave Alvin and kd lang. Since then he has had an extremely prolific career as a studio and touring musician playing on hundreds of albums by a wide variety of artists including Willie Nelson, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Beck, Allison Krauss and Robert Plant, John Fogerty, Miranda Lambert, Lucinda Williams and Ray Lamontagne. Greg has also collaborated on a number of projects with fellow Majestic Silver Strings member Bill Frisell. In 2010, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement for Instrumentalist Award by the Americana Music Association.

Marc Ribot

Marc Ribot, who the New York Times describes as “a deceptively articulate artist who uses inarticulateness as an expressive device,” has released 19 albums under his own name over a 30-year career, exploring everything from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban son of Arsenio Rodríguez. Rolling Stone points out that “Guitarist Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985's Rain Dogs, and since then he's become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp.” Additional recording credits include Elton John/Leon Russell’s latest The Union, Solomon Burke, John Lurie, Marianne Faithful, Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Marisa Monte, Allen Ginsburg, Trey Anastasio, Madeline Peyroux, Patti Scialfa, Sam Phillips, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys, and many others. Marc works regularly with Grammy® award winning producer T Bone Burnett and NY composer John Zorn. He has also performed on scores such as "Walk The Line (Mangold)," "The Kids Are All Right," and "The Departed" (Scorcese)."

North Mississippi Allstars - Keys To The Kingdom

Abbiamo più volte celebrato la band dei fratelli Cody e Luther Dickinson e questo loro nuovo cd “Keys To The Kingdom” ci fa capira ancora una volta di piu' la grandezza di questa band. . Il disco arriva dopo la scomparsa del grande padre, maestro ed ispiratore, Jim Dickinson e possiamo affermare tranquillamente che è la prima volta che ci capita di assistere ad un album prodotto per e non prodotto da. Celebrazione della vita dopo la morte, di un personaggio di grande carisma che era un autorità del Memphis blues e della musica nera in generale e delle sue radici. Un’esaltazione del passato attraverso il presente dei fratelli Dickinson e del bassista Chris Chew che in ambito blues e dintorni non ha uguali. Che ci troviamo di fronte a qualcosa di speciale è testimonianoto anche dalla caratura degli ospiti ossia Ry Cooder, Mavis Staples, Spooner Oldham, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Gordie Johnson, Jim Spake, Jack Ashford.

In the beginning, a father passed away and a child was born. Luther and Cody Dickinson lost their father, Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson, only months before Luther became one. Jim had always told them, "You need to be playing music together. You are better together than you will ever be apart." Coincidentally, the Dickinson brothers were not together when Jim passed. At that moment, they were both off on their own, Luther with The Black Crowes and Cody with the Hill Country Revue. So in the spring of 2010, the North Mississippi Allstars reformed and went into the Zebra Ranch, the family’s recording studio where they had spent countless hours together with their dad, to create a record that could help them cope with the loss, and, at the same time, rejoice in his honor. The first line of Jim’s self-written eulogy was, “I refuse to celebrate death." Luther, Cody and Chris Chew took heed and aimed to celebrate life instead; and the songs for the new record, Keys To The Kingdom (Songs of the South), came pouring out of their souls.

"As is our family's tradition, we gathered in our homemade studio and recorded," Luther says. "We carried on as we've been taught and dealt the only way we know, by making music. Our dad used to say that production-in-absentia is the highest form of production. The credits read: ‘Produced for Jim Dickinson.’ Keys To The Kingdom is definitely our finest collaboration."

Very close friends of the family joined the band in fellowship to see NMA through this deepest of moments, among them Mavis Staples, Ry Cooder, Spooner Oldham, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Gordie Johnson and Jack Ashford (Motown Funk Brother tambourine player). All had collaborated with Jim and the boys over the years at one point or another and feel a deep kinship with the Dickinson family to this day.

Keys To The Kingdom is a song cycle, a celebratory declaration of life in the face of death as well as a musical interpretation of the Dickinson family's recent experience with the cycle of life, written and recorded honestly, fast and raw. There are moments of rock 'n roll rebellion and sexified blues, but the heart of the record reflects the journey that traverses through the mirrored gates of life and death.

"It's said that anger is the first stage of grief and that's how the album begins - angry," says Luther. As such, the first song, "This A'Way," kicks in with a boogied-up guitar line and quickly introduces the rallying cry of "I hate to be treated this a'way," soon to be followed by the clattering country punk of "Jumpercable Blues," with the screams of "Hey, hey, well, well, well, all y'all can go straight to hell!" It's them against the world, gathering their gumption and keeping one another strong. The family will stay together and it will grow and carry on with its traditions in tact. This is the battle.

From there, the boys explore varying meditations on mortality, often from the perspective of their father as he is preparing to die. The songs grasp the subject matter with fierce honesty yet never become maudlin. From the Mavis Staples ghost-dance gospel soul of "The Meeting," in which one struts and swaggers confidently through the pearly gates with head held high, to the Replacements meets Big Star-inspired rock of "How I Wish My Train Would Come," which speaks of actually desiring to move beyond life's struggles, to "Hear the Hills," which depicts the acceptance and letting go experience of the final moments of a life well lived and loved, we find the boys looking for meaning and answers as they work through their pain. Spooner Oldham, Jim's favorite piano player, lends a hand on these last two songs. Luther chose Oldham to play the "piano from heaven," and blends it beautifully with a recording of Mississippi bugs conversing on a desolate hot summer night. As the song fades, it sounds like a distant country church house somewhere off in the woods.

Luther explains the inspiration: "When we were little children, we lived in a house on a dirt road in between a juke joint and a lake where local churches held baptismal services. I remember hearing the music come through the woods at night and on Sunday mornings."

The one cover on the record is Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again."

"One night, while in the hospital, dad had the great idea that 'Stuck Inside' could be done as a one-chord hill country blues song," Luther shares. "He couldn't talk so he wrote it down on a piece of paper and handed the idea to me. I promised him then that we would do it."

"'Let It Roll,' 'Ol' Cannonball' and 'Ain't None O' Mine' are some of the most hardcore traditional blues originals NMA have ever laid down on tape," says Luther. The former is a new take on a song he wrote and recorded three days after Jim passed away and originally released on a record called Luther Dickinson & The Sons of Mudboy. "Ol' Cannonball is played in the acoustic string band tradition with Alvin Youngblood Hart on vocals and harmonica. "Ain't None O' Mine," drunk on juke-joint, Peavey-amp distortion and reverb, is inspired by Otha Turner's lusty tales of old-time, late-night country courtship and provides a necessary aspect of the cycle of life - sex.

In between these three songs, sits the emotional centerpiece of the record, the ultimate love letter from a son to his lost father, "Ain't No Grave." The song features Jim's old partner in crime Ry Cooder on guitar and is simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting, gut wrenching and empowering. Says Luther, "I woke up one morning on NMA's bus, and the lyrics to 'Ain't No Grave' came to me as fast I could write them. That night, after the show, I picked up a guitar, opened my lyric book and the melody came to me just as easily. The song is brutally honest and heartfelt."

NMA ends the cycle with two somewhat lighter takes on death. "New Orleans Walkin' Dead" is a humorous zombie-rock take on the notion of resurrection, while "Jellyrollin' All Over Heaven" is in the spirit of a New Orleans funeral procession during which the marching band plays uplifting and joyful music on the return parade from the burying ground. Once again, Oldham plays his angelic piano, and the bugs carry the spirit of the Mississippi night as they have for thousands of years and the record fades to black.

Jim always advised in a very no-nonsense way, "Play every note as if it's your last because one of them will be," and that's just what NMA set out to do on Keys to the Kingdom. The results are powerfully played and deeply visceral as the best blues music is - spiritual without being god fearing, heavy without being depressing.

"In the end," Luther says, "We recorded our best country blues and Mississippi rock 'n roll record yet -- as if our lives depended on it." Ten years after the release of their debut album, Shake Hands with Shorty, Chew sums it up: "This is grown folks music."

On Keys to the Kingdom, some children are born and others become adults; naïve idealism gets squashed by stark realism, yet there is no choice but to move on, and so they do -- the quest for joy, celebration and truth palpable in every note of the mighty NMA sound.



THE BAND

The North Mississippi Allstars were founded in 1996; a product of a special time for modern Mississippi country blues. RL Burnside, Jr. Kimbrough, Otha Turner and their musical families were at their peak; making classic records and touring the world. Brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson soaked up the music of their father, Jim Dickinson, and absorbed the North Mississippi Blues legacy while playing and shaking it down at the juke joints with their blues ancestors. Luther (guitar and vocals) and Cody (drums and vocals) joined up with bassist Chris Chew to form the core of their own band, The North Mississippi Allstars. Through the filter of generations of Mississippi Blues men, the Allstars pioneered their own blues-infused rock and roll.

After touring as an opening act for a variety of artists and honing their chops as a unit, the North Mississippi Allstars issued their debut album, Shake Hands With Shorty in the spring of 2000. Their debut proved to be a success and earned them a Grammy nomination for “Best Contemporary Blues Album”. Bringing their hill country blues-infused rock & roll to stages all over the country and the world (including multiple tours in Europe and Asia), the Allstars quickly gained a loyal fan base. The band gained additional popularity for their work in the Gospel-Blues band The Word, which also featured John Medeski and Pedal Steel player Robert Randolph. By 2005 the North Mississippi Allstars’ had released 4 studio records, 3 of which were Grammy nominated and earned the reputation as one of the most intriguing acts to emerge from the loam of Southern blues and roots rock.

The band released Hernando in early 2008, which represented a return to the blues-rock roots the band started with more than a decade ago. It was also the first release on the trio’s own label, Songs of the South Records. In January 2009, the band finished their retrospective record entitled ‘Do It Like We Used To Do’. The 2 CD/1 DVD package features two discs of music that chronologically highlight the band’s live performances over their first twelve years together, and also includes a full-length documentary DVD on the history of the band. The documentary captures rare live footage, interviews with the guys, and tells the story of a classic American band.

Bruce Cockburn - Small Source Of Comfort

“Small Source Of Comfort” è il primo disco in studio degli ultimi sei anni per questo leggendario songwriter canadese la cui carriera è arrivata alla quarta decade di attività. 14 nuovi brani che riflettono i vari interessi di questo impegnato songwriter. Dei ritorno da un viaggio in Afghanistan, Bruce ha trovato nuove fonti d’ispirazione ed un rinnovato impegno politico-sociale. Oltre che un songwriter di indiscusso valore, come provano 40 anni alla True North, label canadese di musica d’autore per eccellenza, Cockburn è un chitarrista molto considerato dagli addetti ai lavori tanto che è stato paragonato dal New York Times a figure leggendarie quali Andrès Segovia, Django Reinhardt e Bill Frisell.

Tracks :

Iris Of The World /Call Me Rose / Bohemian 3-Step / Radiance / Five Fifty-One /Driving Away / Lois On The Autobahn / Boundless / Called Me Back / Comets Of Kandahar / Each One Lost / Parnassus And Fog / Ancestors / Gifts



With a career that has spanned four decades producing an acclaimed body of work that has sold over 2 million copies worldwide, Bruce Cockburn continues to be revered by fans and fellow musicians alike as one of the most important songwriters of his generation.

Small Source of Comfort is Cockburn's first studio album in six years - a rhythmic
and highly evocative collection of 14 new tracks inspired by his renowned unusual and diverse muse - recent trips to Afghanistan and ponderings on the re-incarnation of Richard Nixon, to road trips and unreturned phone calls. The album boasts some of the best musicians recording today, including violinist
Jenny Scheinman, former Wailin’ Jenny Annabelle Chvostek, and long time collaborators Gary Craig, Jon Dymond and producer Colin Linden.

As both a songwriter and a guitarist, Bruce Cockburn is considered among the world’s best. The New York Times called him a “virtuoso on guitar,” while Acoustic Guitar magazine placed him in the esteemed company of Andrés Segovia, Bill Frisell and Django Reinhardt.

Cockburn’s songs have been covered by such diverse and talented artists as Elbow, Jimmy Buffett, Judy Collins, Anne Murray, Chet Atkins, K.D. Lang, Barenaked Ladies, and the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia

Bocephus King - Willie Dixon God Damn !

Ritorna Jamie Perry, in arte Bocephus King. Un nome che poco o nulla dira' se non agli addetti ai lavori, ma un nome che può essere tranquillamente accostato per poetica e intensita' dei testi ai grandi profeti del rock irrequieto e in cerca di senso : Kurt Cobain e Jim Morrison su tutti. Musica e poesia oscurate dalla pensatezza di una vita non facile, che richiede senso. E su questa ricerca con sonorita' che potremmo accostare ai grandi songwriter oscillando ora tra un novello Van Morrison, ora tra un navigato Cohen, che bisogna ascoltare il nuovo album che testimonia lo stato di grazia di questo eclettico rocker canadese di Vancouver : un album maturo, intenso ed ispirato. Il viaggio è ancora lungo ma ha trovato molti compagni anche nella nostra Italia. Il ragazzo ne ha di esperienza da raccontare, e il talento è immenso. Questo cd non è solo un lavoro discografico, questo cd è un urlo di riscatto, una richesta di senso che vuole essere ascoltata e perchè no corrisposta.

- Bocephus King – Willie Dixon God Damn! Non un tributo al grande del blues, ma un disco rock, bello e variegato, come non speravamo di (ri)scoprire da questo personaggio che alla fine del millennio aveva lasciato tanto sperare. Un talento ritrovato!

Come Bocephus King si descrive :

...........Just As Long As You Arrive....B.King/J.L.Perry......... I've been waiting forever. I can wait forevermore. I'll just sit here and feel it, till my feelings get sore.~~~ The crow tried to tell me, but I didn't understand.. said if I ever felt TRUE love, It could kill me where I stand.~~~ There is no running water. No works of fiction or fact. They tried the Quarter-Back-Sneak.. it got the Quarter-back sacked.~~~ They arrived quite early this morning, without a single, muttered word. No news of my Mother, I hope her wayward mind is cured.~~~ She's been hearing all of them voices. Eating all of them pills. Marrying strong men, who hit her hard but pay the bills.~~~ This station's gloom is familiar. Didn't we meet here before? Singing "Jesus loved the leper, just as Jesus loved the whore."~~~ St. Francis wants to meet you. He's seen you in all of my prayers. His laugh makes me so nervous, but I know how desperately he cares.~~~ It puts Hell in my heart, mama.. to know that I've made you cry.. and now I don't care if you arrive late, love, just as long as you arrive.~~~ There's no advice to be taken. No worn path you can walk. But wait too long for your wishes.... and they'll be outlined in chalk.~~~ There is no promise I can make you. There are no guarantees. But I won't just fight the inevitable, until one of us flees.~~~ I took your warning too lightly. I got the old Monk high. Now there's death on the highway and I forgot how to cry.~~~ The thought of you starts me shaking, but at least I know I'm alive. I don't care if it kills me. Some part of me will survive.~~~ I can't take all that you show me. Don't like some things that I see. But your love is my light, babe. The only light there for me.~~~ I got troubles a plenty. You've got your troubles too. But it's only for your touch, that I could ever be true.~~~ The lying mind: I murdered. His mistresses, I bribed. Now I don't care if you arrive late, love.. just as long as you arrive.~~~ I've been coming through slaughter.... with the reins clenched in my teeth. The horses died in the canyon. My guides, they died in their sleep.~~~ Maybe I died when I met you.. and now I'm only your ghost. Haunting every last raindrop.. on the gold, miraculous Coast.~~~ The seige is relentless. The enemy: un-bowed. Our promise, not broken, is all that we have allowed.~~~ We're not always so wretched... but this place brings it right out. Right out in the open. Out there for all things to doubt.~~~ This ain't the first time I've fallen. But it's the first time it's stuck. Maybe my Sun has stopped setting. Maybe I'm pushing my luck.~~~ I see your eyes everywhere, dear.. gazing from some distant time. Maybe that time we were lovers. Maybe that time you were mine.~~~ They're building on grim speculation. The empty prisons just wait. Tell your boozy-breath-Priest, to keep his hands off your plate.~~~ Ask no more of the doubter. She wants now only to sleep. If it's at all worth going, it's worth going that deep.~~~ Too many nails in the coffin. The lid is on now for good. She only said she could love him, she never said that she would.~~~ You want to be upright and singing, If we're going to do this thing. Stronger than the hollow vows, stronger than the ring.~~~ We've got to be Geronimo-brave, love. Be packed and ready to go. Lest we see only the shadows, of love's holy glow.~~~ If the truth is worth anything, anything more than a dare. then the truth is, I love you and I will always be there.~~~ Be there scars on your soul mama. Be there stars in your eyes. There are always exceptions, Not every sleeping heart lies.~~~ You've always been so strong. You just hide it so well. But I deciphered the message, from the walls of your cell.~~~ You may not like my methods. Their madness steals all your breath. You think this plot may still kill me, but I don't care about death.~~~ I know there are pastures of plenty. Your soul is suspecting it too.. and now it's hard to make your heart keep doing, something it don't want to do.~~~ The truth will tear you wide open. But the trip is surely worth the fall... if any of this whole mad trip.. is worth anything at all.~~~ I've know joy, pain and pleasure. Measured many maidens charms.. but it all lost it's meaning, once I'd danced in your arms.~~~ I know that I wasn't dreaming. At least, I'm not anymore. I'm lost in the truth, baby. I've never been here before.~~~ I saw the whole messy story. It seemed a little contrived. Now I don't care if you arrive late, love.. just as long as you arrive.~~~ Baby, everybody loses. Baby, everybody grieves. There's a place without doubt... it's just so hard to believe.~~~ I've won, lost and wondered, what the whole, ugly game meant. They all live hard in dellusion. For fun they sin and repent.~~~ Their words all are empty. Their lessons rob you of years. They've got apologies for everything When that fails, they have tears.~~~ The world is much bigger, than a few broken hearts. There's a train at the station, and soon my love, it departs.~~~ I got a ticket this morning. O.K., I got two... guess I don't mind being foolish, If I am foolish for you.~~~ The Sun's been up for hours but everyone's still asleep. Except for my wounded neighbor, through the walls I hear her weep.~~~ The night left precious reminders, of how lucky I was to survive. Now I don't care if you arrive late, love, just as long as you arrive.~~~

Blue Rose Novita' : The Statesboro Revue - Paul Thorn

Grazie alla tedesca BlueRose, possiamo apprezzare una delle più belle realtà della scena southern-rock Usa, gli Statesboro Revue, ed il nuovo album della rivelazione cantautorale di Tupelo, Mississippi, Paul Thorn con il suo ultimo album arricchito da un DVD con materiale live ed acustico inedito.

The Statesboro Revue – Different Kind Of Light

- The Statesboro Revue – Different Kind Of Light Band rivelazione di Stewart Mann che sembra in grado di ridefinire il rock and roll, con robuste iniezioni di blues e country, le vere e più autentiche sonorità roots del southern-rock contemporaneo! Per capire l'importanza e l'ambizione del progetto basti pensare che il nome della band è stato ispirato da un brano reso celebre da Willie McTell ripreso in molte esibizioni live dagli Allman Brothers. Quindi racidi blues e sudiste di prima qualita' tanto che del gruppo si è accorto uno dei piu' importanti talent scout d'oltreoceano, quel David Z's (Prince, Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Govt Mule, Billy Idol, Fine Young Cannibals) che può essere considerato il Guru della Southern Music in ogni sua sfacettatura.



The Statesboro Revue was formed in March of 2007 after lead singer/primary songwriter Stewart Mann returned from a stint in Los Angeles. Too long so say he. After 7 years of trying his hand in Atlanta, Nashville, Austin, and Los Angeles, the native south Texan decided it was time to come back home and return to his roots. So he filled up a uhaul and hit the road never to look back, the kind of guy he is. "The past is what brings us to the present and the future, so treat it as if it's taken you somewhere, not as if it were still here." I would venture to guess that little line has multiple meanings behind it.

On to the band name, which comes from a Blind Willie McTell tune that was covered by The Allman Brothers, who just so happen to be Mann's all-time favorite band. The Revue, as opposed to the commonly misused review, derived from a night when Mann found each of his band members entertaining folks as if each were a member of a circus...we'll just leave that up to the imagination.

After recording a debut album as Stewart Mann and the Statesboro Revue, with the help of Jacob Sciba (Govt Mule, Taj Mahal, etc) at none other than Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studios, the band quickly hit the road, and hit it hard. Playing over 250 shows in 2007 alone (well 9 months anyway), they started turning heads everywhere they played. Playing anywhere and for anyone, they quickly earned the reputation as the hardest working, hardest playing band out there.

After selling over 15,000 records with little to no distribution, Mann was bound and determined to make more waves in 2008. After rotating a few band members, Stewart came across lead/rhythm guitar player Todd Laningham, who Mann calls the "most tasteful tunesmith I know." Already intact was drummer Beau Wadley, who lived on Mann's couch for 6 months after "taking an extended break" from Texas A&M, where Mann spent 2 years prior to his Nashville move. Bass player Rob Alton shortly followed, by way of Boston's esteemed Berklee School of Music. Lead guitar/rhythm guitar player Will Knaak is the latest addition to The Statesboro Revue, and it's with open arms. "Will Knaak commands an audience that's for sure, and between the two of us we feel like we can take down the world, in the most modest way possible." No need to clarify, after seeing them I believe it wholeheartedly.

After playing 300 shows in 2008, show 301 led them to what could be their ticket to a successful future. The Chuggin Monkey on 6th street on a Monday night was the setting, and little did the guys know their playing would bring an important someone in from off the streets. Rose Melillo, whose name has been relatively obscure aside from with industry people up until this point, happened to be in town and out and about on a random night. Lucky for Stewart and the guys, she was listening as a hobo ran off with her pizza. Distraught and needing a drink to settle her nerves she says she heard Stewart's voice from across the street. After stopping in for a listen, she left not expecting to see Stewart again. Shortly thereafter, however, she heard the same voice again inside another bar. Stewart had taken a break and jumped up on stage with friend Sam Sliva across the street from where he was playing. Fate one might ask? Stewart began talking to Rose and the rest is history so they say.

After a few amazing showcases Stewart and the boys are in the midst of signing with Rose and good friends, A&R guru Patrick Clifford (RCA, etc), and Grammy-winning mega producer David Z's (Prince, Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Govt Mule, Billy Idol, Fine Young Cannibals, etc) new label venture (yet to be named as of press time).

With their interweaving of rock, blues, and country, Stewart's innate ability to write songs that touch and move the soul, and musicians that can hang with the best of them, The Statesboro Revue are bound and determined to make 2009 their year. With a live show that reminds of a cross between the Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers, Black Crowes, Al Green and Van Morrison; equal parts dynamic and soulful vocals, energetic showmanship, delightful musicianship, moving lyricism and melody for days, mixed in with jam band like grooves, this band is the best of everything that existed in the late 60s early 70s. Not since the Black Crowes in the early 90s has a band come out of the woodworks with such piss and fire and the arsenal to back it up. This is one hell of a band."

Paul Thorn – Pimps And Preachers

Il pubblico internazionale si è accorto di questo nuovo cantore - cantautore nell'anno appena trascorso per le sue innumerevoli apparizioni live che lo hanno portato ad aprire i tours di Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, e John Prine tra gli altri. Ma per Paul è finalmente arrivato il momento di brillare di luce propria e, che dire, la luce che emana è quasi accecante. Nella sua voce c'è rabbia e smarrimento ma anche una ricerca di redenzione, nel suo stile la chitarra grida e supplica creando emozioni contrastanti. Insomma un poeta dei nostri giorni pronto a regalare al nostro spirito tutta la sua genialita'. Non è il suo album di esordio ma penso possa essere considerato quello della maturita'. Imperdibile.



Among those who value originality, inspiration, eccentricity, and character - as well as talent that hovers somewhere on the outskirts of genius, the story of PAUL THORN is already familiar. Now, Thorn reveals another layer of his fascinating history on the album Pimps & Preachers, addressing that subject on the title cut and in the intriguing "family portrait" he painted for the cover, which highlights his daddy the preacher and his uncle the pimp.

The cover depicts a teeming street scene at the unlikely intersection of Redemption Lane and Turn Out Boulevard. Two figures dominate: a pimp and a preacher, both dressed to the nines beneath broad-brimmed hats, surrounded by hookers, holy rollers and hangers-on, and all on their paths to salvation or perdition. Nearly lost in this tumult is a small boy banging a tambourine branded with the name of Jesus, but backed up against a streetwalker holding a fistful of greenbacks. “That little boy represents me,” says Thorn. “I'm in the church group, but my eyes are looking back to the street where all the sin is going on. It shows me being intrigued by the broad world. That's why I made this my album cover. It describes who I am.”

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi and raised among the same spirits (and some of the actual people) who nurtured a young Elvis generations before, Thorn has rambled down back roads and jumped out of airplanes, worked for years in a furniture factory, battled four-time world champion boxer Roberto Durán on national television, signed with and been dropped by a major label, opened for Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, and John Prine among many other headliners, and made some of the most emotionally restless yet fully accessible music of our time.

Still, Thorn's story has never been complete. If you follow it back through his songs, at some point near the beginning the mysteries gather like a mist, obscuring the picture and leaving unanswered the question of how he acquired his ability to find brilliance buried in shadows, darkness in daylight, poetry in the mundane, and truth in the brutal beauties of life.

Pimps & Preachers addresses this lingering riddle. On Thorn's ninth album, the answer begins in the title and the cover image, painted by Thorn with the same power, paradoxes, rough edges and passions that animate his writing and performance. Specifically, it takes us to a central theme of Thorn's youth: the pull of polar opposites - one representing the severe ecstasies of fundamental faith and the other, the pleasures stigmatized and yet glamorized by the church.
Similar ambiguities fuel the work of other artists to whom Thorn can be compared, from Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams all the way back to Robert Johnson and Hank Williams. What stands Thorn apart from this august company is how personally this dichotomy guided his formative years. In his seminal albums, particularly his landmark Mission Temple Fireworks Stand, his upbringing as the son of a Church of God pentecostal minister became a matter of record. What hasn't been clear, though, is the parallel impact of his father's brother, who showed up suddenly from California when Thorn was 12 years old. “He was a pimp back in the day,” Thorn says. “I had never met him before, so when he came back to Mississippi he had all this street wisdom and I started hanging around him as well as my father. My father was my mentor, but I learned a lot from my uncle too. Everything I've accomplished has been influenced by the time I spent around these two men.”
Thorn remains close to his father and his uncle today, closer than ever since his uncle has long abandoned his former livelihood. Yet the qualities that so strongly affected Thorn endure in the lyric to the title track, which honors them both; one for teaching him to love, and the other for teaching him to fight. For all the moral questions raised by the choices each man made, Thorn came to accept what they represented as essential and complementary. His embrace of opposites leads to a unity of spirit in Thorn's music, which is brought fully to life by his gift as a narrative writer.


This message rings throughout much of Pimps & Preachers, perhaps most intimately on “I Hope I'm Doing This Right.” The confession implicit in its title is tempered by Thorn's conviction that life is a full-color proposition. “The song says 'Hank Williams was in the darkness when he sang I Saw the Light. I believe there's good in everyone, I hope I'm doing this right',” Thorn reflects. “I was talking to somebody the other day about this and they said, 'As big an alcoholic and a screw-up as Hank Williams was, how did he ever write a song that beautiful?' And I said, 'He was able to write it because he was an alcoholic and a screw-up. Otherwise, he wouldn't have even recognized where the darkness and light were.”
Elsewhere on Pimps & Preachers, Thorn conveys this theme through brief but epic vignettes - parables, almost - in the tradition of his father's Biblical exegeses. “Love Scar” grew from a conversation Thorn had with a woman backstage at London's Royal Albert Hall shortly before he would open for Sting. He noticed that her shoulder bore a tattoo of an eye shedding a tear. When he asked what it meant, her answer was sadder and deeper than he had expected. “She told me about how she met a handsome guy and they had some drinks together,” Thorn recalls. “She had a one-night stand with him and got so distracted by his charm that she went out and got this tattoo because of his opening line when he had started to hit on her: 'If I could be a tear rolling down your cheek and die on your lips, my life would be complete.' Unfortunately, that tattoo is with her forever, even though he was gone the next day.”

Each track recounts its own story while clarifying and reinforcing Thorn's broader vision. The comic yet unsettlingly candid account of romantic opportunity lost too soon on “Nona Lisa,” the immeasurable intensity of love captured in the artfully offhand lyrics of “That's Life” (taken entirely from words spoken to Thorn by his mother), the assurances extended to all who suffer through uncertain times in “Better Days Ahead” - every moment on Pimps & Preachers speaks universally but with a fluency that stems from the earthy blues, haunted old-school country, and stripped-down urgency of the gospel music that surrounded Thorn throughout his Mississippi upbringing.

But Thorn's knack for using snapshots from everyday routine as the elements of this exquisite writing owes entirely to his distinctive abilities and commitment to linking these elements into a profession of mercy and forgiveness - ultimately, the real message of Pimps & Preachers. “Look, there's nothing wrong with songs about holding hands or sitting by the phone and waiting for a girl to call,” he says. “But I wrote songs like that when I was 15. I'm trying now to sing about things that mean something to me, for people who want something real, who not only want forgiveness but are willing to give it. Besides,” he concludes, bringing Pimps & Preachers back home. “If I came back to my dad or my uncle with songs like that now, they'd both kick my ass! So I'm still just trying to follow their lead.”

Greg Trooper - Upside-Down Town

Siamo orgogliosi di presentare il nuovo album di questo songwriter di Little Silver, New Jersey, che, a dispetto della visione musicale a 360° gradi sulla musica americana, è stato costretto ad autoprodursi (dopo aver conosciuto le produzioni di Dan Penn, Eric Ambel e Buddy Miller). Arrivato alla terza decade di attività e con una nutrita discografia alle spalle, Greg, che come pochi sintetizza la trinità della musica “Americana” (Memphis soul, Greenwich Village folk and Nashville twang.) ed ha scritto canzoni riprese da Steve Earle, Vince Gill, Billy Bragg, Robert Earl Keen, si ripresenta con “Upside-down Town” dove esprime tutto il suo talento in chiave di un attualissimo folk-rock. Per chi ha nel cuore le sonorita' alla Otis Redding, Bob Dylan e Hank William non potra' fare a meno di scoprire questo cd e soprattutto questo geniale cantautore.

- Greg Trooper - Upside-down Town Uno degli album più attesi di un grande songwriter Usa!



Rarely has there been a more aptly named singer/songwriter than Greg Trooper. Over three decades, the New Jersey native has soldiered on through the victories and setbacks unique to a career dedicated to music, proving through gestures large and small that he's one of our best. It's evident in the company he keeps, the critics who praise his recordings, the fans who invest in his shows and the artists who learn his songs, wishing they'd written them.

Raised in the shore town of Little Silver, NJ Trooper became enthralled by the greater New York area's rich music scene. He discovered a sort of holy musical trinity in the work of Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams, with their guiding lights of passion, literary dexterity and plainspoken honesty. It's one reason Trooper's music feels equally informed by Memphis soul, Greenwich Village folk and Nashville twang.

Trooper has made an impact on the music scenes in all the places he's lived since leaving home after high school: Austin, Texas, Lawrence, Kansas, New York and Nashville. His albums have demonstrated creative vision as well as a collaborator's heart. Americana star Buddy Miller produced 1998's 'Popular Demons' album, while soul legend Dan Penn steered 2005's extraordinary 'Make It Through This World'. In the studio and on the road, Trooper's colleagues have come from roots music's most rarified circles: Larry Campbell (Dylan), Garry Tallent (Bruce Springsteen), Kenneth Blevins (John Hiatt), as well as headliners like Maura O'Connell and Bill Lloyd. His songs have been recorded by Vince Gill, Steve Earle, Billy Bragg and Robert Earl Keen, among others.

In a review of his live album 'Between A House And A Hard Place', music critic Barry Mazor said that Trooper "sings with a clarity of purpose and a variety of effect that few in the acoustic world match." Billboard magazine has called him "an artist of considerable insight and passion." Nashville music critic Robert K. Oermann has said Trooper's "songs and delivery grab you by the throat." Fans know a voice of grit and experience signing songs in which they recognize themselves. They also know that come the proverbial hell or high water, Greg will still be forging forward, trooper that he is.

Los Lobos - Tin Can Trust

Dopo una lunga attesa, resa spasmodica dal bene che si è scritto sulla stampa specializzata, ecco finalmente disponibile “Tin Can Trust”, il nuovo album dei Lupi di Los Angeles. Un paio di canzoni latine molto belle circondate da grande rock in the finest Lobos tradition. Un album di grande sostanza, corposo e ben suonato, che lascia trasparire la forza della più popolare band di East L.A. L’incontro di due mondi, due culture, che cercano di amalgamarsi attraverso uno dei più affascinanti progetti di sintesi musicale lungo ormai un quarto di secolo.

- Los Lobos - Tin Can Trust Con una cover dei Grateful Dead (West LA Fadeaway), e canzoni come “Burn It Down” con Susan Tedeschi, “Yo Canto”, “27 Spanishes”, “Mujer Ingrata”,”Do The Murray”, “On Main Street”. La coppia Hidalgo-Perez in gran spolvero!



More than three decades have passed since Los Lobos released their debut album, Just Another Band from East L.A. Since then they’ve repeatedly disproven that title—Los Lobos isn’t “just another” anything, but rather a band that has consistently evolved artistically while never losing sight of their humble roots.

For Tin Can Trust—Los Lobos’ first release for Shout! Factory (due August 3) and first collection of new original material in four years—the venerable quintet reconnected directly with those roots by returning to East L.A. and recording at Manny’s Estudio, “in a rundown neighborhood,” says Los Lobos songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Louie Pérez. “That took us out of our comfort zone and allowed us to do what we hadn’t done in quite some time: to play together in the same room, as one. This was not about putting your feet up; this was about working.”

This was a no-frills studio,” adds David Hidalgo (guitar, violin, accordion, percussion, vocals). “We didn’t even have a couch to sit on; we had to bring one in.” We went into that studio and the first day everyone was asking, ‘Does anyone have any material?’” recalls guitarist/vocalist Cesar Rosas. “So I said, ‘Well, I have a couple of songs.’ Then Dave started hitting the keys and he came up with something, and then Louie followed. That’s the way everything worked out; that’s the way we made this record.”

What I liked about making this album,” says Hidalgo, “was the spirit of it: nobody said no to anything. If you had an idea, OK, try it. Just go for it and see where we end up.” It felt more like a group effort,” agrees bassist/vocalist Conrad Lozano. “We went into the studio with no ideas and worked some out. Before, everybody would come in with a finished product.” That unified vision and strong work ethic are evident in each of the 11 tracks comprising the self-produced Tin Can Trust, but so is something even greater, “an intuitiveness,” says Pérez, “that happens only from being in a band for so long.”

A rare example of longevity in a volatile music world that stresses style over substance, Los Lobos’ lineup has remained uninterrupted since 1984, when saxophonist/keyboardist Steve Berlin joined original members Pérez, Hidalgo, Rosas and Lozano, each of whom had been there since the beginning in 1973.

“This is what happens when five guys create a magical sound, then stick together for 30 years to see how far it can take them,” wrote Rolling Stone, and indeed, Los Lobos is a band that continually redefines itself and expands its scope with each passing year, while never losing sight of where they came from. Through sheer camaraderie and respect for one another’s musicality, they’ve continued to explore who Los Lobos is and what they have to offer, without succumbing to the burnout that plagues so many other bands that stick it out for any considerable length of time. Their influence is vast, yet they remain humble, centered and dedicated to their craft. Each new recording they make moves Los Lobos into another new dimension while simultaneously sounding like no one else in the world but Los Lobos. As All About Jazz raved, “The genius of Los Lobos resides in their innate ability to find the redemptive power of music, no matter the style they choose to play.”

“We’re long haul guys,” says Berlin. “If you’re in it for the long haul it makes staying together a lot easier. It’s a challenge, but the thing I’m most proud of is that we’ve never rested on our laurels. We keep trying to make every record feel like the first one and try to do the best we can and not tread on territory we have already trod on. What you hear is exactly what we wanted to do.”

Tin Can Trust, like so much of Los Lobos’ previous work, is an album that speaks to the time and place in which it was conceived. But it wasn’t until the songwriting and recording process was well under way that it occurred to the band that an underlying theme was trying to make itself heard. The phrase that ultimately became the album’s title can be traced back more than a century, but for the band it’s apt for the rickety state in whichso many of us find ourselves—and our world—today.

The characters that populate Tin Can Trust are often anxious and hurting yet they remain resilient and proud. The scenarios in which they find themselves and the emotions they are experiencing are all familiar. It wasn’t until Pérez and his songwriting partner Hidalgo had crafted the title track and another highlight of the album, “On Main Street,” that the album’s focus started to come into view. Says Pérez, “I usually have to find the direction everything wants to go. I try not to resist because as soon as you start fighting and move it in another direction, it just doesn’t work.”

A number of tracks on Tin Can Trust are Hidalgo-Pérez collaborations, including the album’s opener “I’ll Burn It Down,” with blues-rocker Susan Tedeschi offering a guest vocal harmony, and “Jupiter Or the Moon” – both of which feature Lozano on the upright acoustic bass. Hidalgo and Pérez are also behind “Lady and the Rose,” which Berlin calls “incredible, one of my favorite songs on the record, with great lyrics”; the dance instrumental “Do the Murray,” whose curious title is a tribute to Hidalgo’s recently deceased dog; and the album-closing “Twenty Seven Spanishes,” which attempts to encapsulate in one song nothing less than the entire tale of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, “blow by blow,” as Pérez says.

Of the remaining four tracks, three were written in whole or in part by Rosas, and the other is a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “West L.A. Fadeaway.” Lobos and the Dead have a shared history that extends back into the 1980s when the Angelenos befriended and opened shows for their northern peers. Los Lobos previously covered the Dead’s “Bertha” for a tribute album, and as Tin Can Trust took shape it occurred to the band to tuck “West L.A. Fadeaway,” which originally appeared on the Dead’s most successful album, 1987’s In the Dark, into their own new project.

We were fooling around with it live for awhile,” says Pérez, “and then when we got into the studio I think it was Cesar who said, ‘We’ve been messing with “West L.A. Fadeaway” for a while in our live shows. Why don’t we try learning it?’

We said, ‘That would certainly light up a lot of lives,’ because the Dead fans and Lobo-heads have always asked, ‘Why don’t you do another Grateful Dead song?’” Astute Dead Heads will also notice the co-authorship credited to Robert Hunter, the Grateful Dead’s chief lyricist, on “All My Bridges Burning,” which he wrote with Rosas. Amidst soaring, fuzzed-out guitars, spiritual organ from guest Rev. Charles Williams, rock-solid drumming and Lozano’s dependably in-the-pocket bass grooves, Rosas delivers Hunter’s words with heart and soul.

Rosas supplied the two Spanish-language numbers on Tin Can Trust, the cumbia “Yo Canto” and the norteño “Mujer Ingrata,” both of which forge a connection to the Mexican folk songs played by Los Lobos in their formative years and on their classic 1988 album La Pistola y El Corazón. “‘Mujer Ingrata,’” says Rosas has to do with a relationship gone bad. The title means ungrateful woman. And ‘Yo Canto’ is about seeing different people and looking at some nice chicks! These aren’t social comments about anything,” he adds with a laugh. “I write the plain songs and the traditional songs.”

It was during their earliest years that the particular hybrid of traditional regional Mexican folk music, rock and roll, blues, R&B, country and other genres began finding a sweet spot in the music of Los Lobos. “In 1973, when we first formed,” says Pérez, “we were four guys from East L.A. who were friends from high school who played in local rock bands. Then once we got out of high school you still had four guys who were just hanging out together. So the natural progression of things is to just start playing music again. You’d think that we’d form a rock band but then out of nowhere somebody got this idea of ‘Let’s learn a Mexican song to play for somebody’s mom for their birthday’ or something. Mexican music was largely just wallpaper for us—it was always in the background, and we never paid much attention to it. We were modern kids who listened to rock and roll. Then when we finally dug up some old records to learn a couple of songs, that was a real revelation to us that this music is actually very complicated and challenging. So at that point we were off and running.”

To sit around in the afternoons and play these old songs we had heard when we were kids, it felt good,” adds Hidalgo. “We’d get some Budweiser and some flatbread and string cheese and hang around. It was cool. Then it grew. The old folks were blessing us and thanking us for playing this music. That’s why we’re still here, because of moments like that.”

Their first several years, says Pérez, were a “chapter,” as Lobos began discovering who they were as a creative unit. The band’s 1978 Spanish-language debut found only a small audience, and quality gigs were few. “We ended up doing happy hours strolling in a Mexican restaurant. That wasn’t what we had in mind,” says Hidalgo.

By 1980, though, they began to turn up the volume, returning to rock music. At first, acceptance was evasive—at one notorious gig, Los Lobos was rejected by a hostile hometown crowd while opening for John Lydon’s post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd. Before long though, Los Lobos had begun to build an audience within L.A.’s punk and roots-rock world. An opening slot for hometown rock heroes the Blasters at the Sunset Strip’s legendary Whisky A-Go-Go in 1982 was a breakthrough, and that band’s saxophonist Steve Berlin took a special interest in Lobos, joining the group full-time for 1984’s critically acclaimed Slash Records debut, How Will the Wolf Survive?

As the ’80s kicked in for real, Los Lobos’ fortunes quickly turned in a positive direction, and they became one of the most highly regarded bands to emerge from the fertile L.A. scene. “It was one of those places and times, like ’67 in San Francisco or Paris in the ’20s,” says Berlin. “A lot of really superlative creative energy was focused in that place at that time. It was a very collegial atmosphere because everybody was experimenting with everything: with their identities, with their music. It was a very exciting time to be in a place where everybody around you was doing really interesting stuff. To this day I think that ethos informs a lot of what we do.”

One of the most momentous events in Los Lobos’ history arrived in 1987, when the band was tapped to cover “La Bamba,” the Mexican folk standard that had been transformed into a rock and roll classic in 1958 when it was recorded by the ill-fated 17-year-old Ritchie Valens. Valens, the first Chicano rock star, was catapulted to legendary status the following year when he died in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper and it was a natural choice that Los Lobos be asked to remake his signature hit for the forthcoming biopic of the same name. Little did anyone suspect that the remake would spring to number one on the charts!

We had met Ritchie’s family and they had asked for us,” says Pérez. “Of course, our emphasis at that time was on making our next album, By the Light of the Moon. Then ‘La Bamba’ came out and when the other record came out a few months later it was, By the Light of the Moon, what’s that? It was completely pre-empted by this massive hit. We had no idea what was going to happen.”

What happened was that Los Lobos was now reaching a vastly larger audience. “We were opening up for bands like U2 and the Clash and traveling around the world,” says Lozano. “You’d walk into an airplane and some little kid would be singing ‘La Bamba.’ It was a great time.”

Rather than capitalize on the elevated commercial profile that “La Bamba” had given them, Los Lobos instead chose to record as a followup La Pistola y El Corazón, paying tribute to their acoustic Mexican acoustic music roots. The next breakthrough came in 1992 with the release of Kiko, an album cited by many—including all of Los Lobos—as one of the best of their career. Bringing together all of the elements on which they had previously drawn and taking more liberties than in the past, Kiko “demonstrated the breadth of their sonic ambitions,” as the All Music Guide website put it. Comments Rosas, “With that album we didn’t want to be tied down to all the conventional ways of recording, so we started experimenting and making up sounds.”

Since then, on equally stunning albums such as 1996’s Colossal Head, 2002’s Good Morning Aztlán and 2006’s The Town and the City, Los Lobos has continued to deliver dependably solid and diverse recordings, a live show that never fails to disappoint, and just enough side trips—a Disney tribute album and a couple of live ones, solo and duet recordings (among them Hidalgo and Pérez’s ’90s diversion Latin Playboys), Berlin’s many production and sideman gigs—to keep their creative juices flowing. Tin Can Trust pushes Los Lobos ahead a few more notches while retaining everything the band’s loyal fans have come to expect.

There’s this thing that still happens, this musical thing,” says Pérez. “But if you took everything away, even the music, you’d still end up with four guys who were friends and hung out and grew up in the same neighborhood. And you can’t take that friendship away from us.”

We’re brothers and we all equally recognize that,” says Rosas. “That’s what keeps us going, knowing that we need to help each other and we need to get through this and we work well together. And we keep it real.”

We’re incredibly lucky,” adds Berlin. So are we—lucky to have Los Lobos.

Browken Hearts & Dirty Windows - Tributo a John Prine

Quale maggior tributo si poteva dare ad uno dei più grandi autori della nostra musica? Che la musica di John Prine sia realmente "senza tempo" lo dimostra il fatto che a rivisitare le sue canzoni non i soliti noti ma i più grandi interpreti del nuovo rock USA dai My Morning Jacket ( ospiti con lo stesso Prine al Letterman show )a Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band da Josh Ritter a Justin Townes Earle da Avett Brothers ai Old Crow Medicine Show da Sara Watkins ai grandissimi Drive-By Truckers da Deer Tick a Those Darlins da Justin Vernon e Lambchop a Justin Vernon dei Bon Iver. Se tutta una nuova generazione di rocker Usa hanno sentito l'esigenza di dar omaggio a questo misconosciuto nonnetto del meglio del songwriter americano qualcosa dovra' pur significare....

- Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows – The Songs Of John Prine



Tracklist

1) Justin Vernon of Bon Iver – “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)"
2) Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band – “Wedding Day In Funeralville"
3) My Morning Jacket – “All The Best"
4) Josh Ritter – “Mexican Home"
5) Lambchop – “Six O'Clock News"
6) Justin Townes Earle – “Far From Me"
7) The Avett Brothers – “Spanish Pipedream"
8) Old Crow Medicine Show – “Angel From Montgomery"
9) Sara Watkins – “The Late John Garfield Blues"
10) Drive-By Truckers – “Daddy's Little Pumpkin"
11) Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg – “Unwed Fathers"
12) Those Darlins – “Let's Talk Dirty In Hawaiian"

In the songs of John Prine, there exists a near-perfect intersection of understatement and insight. Prine does not trumpet his truths: they just emerge, crawling out of sparse, carefully arrayed and encapsulated moments, presented with unflinching, unsentimental clarity. Assumptions are neatly overturned with a disarming, almost casual turn of phrase, while long-accepted aspects of human nature are brought to light in unexpected contexts that only reinforce their universal nature. It's devastating stuff, yet strangely uplifting. The contrasts and paradoxes Prine uncovers – combined with his unquestionable abilities as a craftsman – have insured that his music continually influences generation after generation of maverick artists.

Among Prine's earliest supporters were controversial, innovative figures such as Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash. Today's avant-roots renaissance owes a great debt to Prine's laconic, ever-questioning poetic quality – a debt that is warmly repaid by Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, available June 22nd on Oh Boy Records. Featuring twelve newly-recorded versions of classic Prine songs, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows boasts an enviable roll call of lauded, inventive musicians and songwriters, including My Morning Jacket, The Avett Brothers, Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lambchop, Josh Ritter, Drive-By Truckers, Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins, Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg, Justin Townes Earle, Those Darlins, and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. That Prine's perspective flourishes so vividly in these modern recastings is testament to not only the sheer power of his songs, but to the subtly defiant undercurrent that runs throughout Prine's oeuvre.

Since his first, self-titled album was released in 1971, former Illinois letter carrier Prine has been slowly distancing himself from musical movements and institutions: simultaneously defining and defying the post-Dylan singer-songwriter movement from which he sprang. Bolder and stranger than the rest, yet beguilingly old-fashioned, Prine functions on his own timetable and by his own rules, going so far as to found his own label with longtime manager Al Bunetta, Oh Boy Records, and thus liberating himself from the cat-and-mouse pressures of major label recording. Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows was born in the Oh Boy offices, as a group of staffers at the five-person company were discussing their favorite artists and wondering how some of these newer acts would go about interpreting John Prine's music. From there, inquiries began to be made...

“We took a fair amount of time putting this thing together," said Oh Boy staff member and compilation producer Josh Talley. “We left the album in the hands of the artists. Each artist picked the song they wanted to do, and we made no suggestions or demands as to how they should make it sound. We also didn't give many of them a due-date – we felt like if we put a deadline on it, the artists wouldn't have a chance to really get inside the songs. Consequently, this took over two years to all come together."

Astonishingly, despite the various perspectives, studios, personnel, and voices, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows holds together as a compelling unified statement. More of a heartfelt thank-you note than a tribute (after all, Prine is still creating some of the best music of his career), Prine's irreverent spirit permeates every note here, while the range of textures and styles reflects Prine's own wide-ranging influences, which encompass everything from vintage country and stringband music to stinging, snarling R&B.

Justin Vernon of the underground sensation Bon Iver opens the set with an expansive version of the title track to Prine's 1978 classic “Bruised Orange" that preserves the original's gentle sway, yet embroiders it with rich harmonies, swelling organ, and thick, cavernous reverb. The song's bittersweet core persists, shimmering through the undulating waltz rhythm and glassy electric guitars. From there, Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band's take on “Wedding Day in Funeralville" (from 1975's Common Sense) arrives like a headlong rush: a compact country-rock joy ride clocking in at barely over two minutes yet resoundingly complete. Those first two cuts immediately set up the range of possibilities – from hauntingly sparse to rollickingly thick and ragged.

Steel guitar and glimmering synthesizer make for unlikely bedfellows on My Morning Jacket's winsome, wining stroll through “All the Best," which hails from Prine's 1991 Grammy-winning disc The Missing Years. Similar in its respectful revisionism, Nashville country-soul iconoclasts Lambchop reconstruct 1971's haunting “Six O'Clock News" with a gently propulsive backbeat laced with gurgling synth loops, topped by Kurt Wagner's chillingly distressed vocal. Tennessee punk/pop/country alchemists Those Darlins provide a dose of humor and sly insouciance with their swaggering, throbbing turn on “Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian." Equally rousing is the Avett Brothers' “Spanish Pipedream," resurrected from Prine's seismic 1971 self-titled debut.

Even Prine's most familiar material is reborn with visceral, aching intensity. The gritty, punk-inflected stringband Old Crow Medicine Show approach “Angel from Montgomery" with clearheaded resolution and deliver a stunning performance that captures the song's inherent weariness and wistful destitution with immediacy and soul. “Far From Me," cited by Prine as one of his own personal favorites of the songs he's written, is rendered equally plain and pure by Justin Townes Earle, with just thumping finger-picked guitar, upright bass, mandolin, and wheezing reed organ for accompaniment.

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows echoes with both appreciation and adventure, implying that – above all – the confidence and freedom to play by your own rules is Prine's most precious lesson. “After all the years gone, you wonder if John Prine feels a distance between the songs and the listeners. If these old songs seem folded over by now," writes Justin Vernon and author Michael Perry in a perceptive sleeve-note. “But then it's back to another element of Prine songs – humility. A delicate humility, not to be confused with weakness. And that is how we offer these songs, Mister Prine: humbly, with gratitude, our tuppence to honor you and your life's works. Your songs are still here, John, beautifully breathing and beating us up."

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

Ad essere onesti la prima cosa che abbiamo pensato alla notizia di un disco del figlio di Steve Earle è stata : Eccone un altro. Grazie al cielo il nostro scetticismo è stato tradito e proprio come gia' accaduto per il figlio di Dylan prima e per la figlia di Greg Brown poi ora possiamo tranquillamente goderci questo nuovo songwriter risplendere di luce propria. Il cognome che questo ragazzo porta non è da poco, ma ad aumentare l'attesa è lo stesso nome Justin Townes, un omaggio al grande idolo di Steve, quel Townes Van Zandt che tanto ne ha influenzato l'arte. Ecco allora che con orcoglio che da casa Bloodshot, alternative country label di Chicago, presentiamo questo figlio d’arte con il suo album più completo e maturo dopo il promettente esordio di “The Good Life” ed il più recente “Midnight At The Movies”. “Harlem River Blues” in effetti è la miglior produzione di questo country folk singer Nashvilliano che si ispira a Woody Guthrie. Album autoprodotto con Skylar Wilson, e il supporto di Brian Owings on drums, Paul Niehaus (Calexico) on pedal steel guitar, and Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show) on harmonica.e Jason Isbell.



That hard working earnestness has paid off, to say the least. Justin won the Best New and Emerging Artist at the 2009 Americana Music Awards. His record, Midnight at the Movies, was named one of the best records of last year by Amazon, received four stars in Rolling Stone and found a sweet spot in the blackened hearts of fans and critics alike. GQ Magazine named him one of the 25 best dressed men in the world in 2010. He also appeared on HBO’s Treme with his dad, troubadour Steve Earle, on whose Grammy Award-winning Townes record Justin also guests.

The aforementioned Woody Guthrie once said, “Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.” On Harlem River Blues, Justin chose the simple route. The record’s not a wall of sound produced to the rafters. It’s rockin’ and reelin’ at times, sweet and slow at others—and it’s great. Like good fried chicken, a well-cut suit and a handmade guitar, there’s heaven to be found in the beautifully crafted simpler things.

Compared to the much-lauded Midnight at the Movies, Harlem River Blues is more mature and increasingly nuanced, while still embracing the raw voice and clean sound of previous standout tracks like “Mama’s Eyes.” Harlem River Blues kicks off hot with the title track’s choir of backing singers and electric guitar, slow dances through a decrepit tenement on “One More Night in Brooklyn,” and swings à la Jerry Lee Lewis on “Move Over Mama.” “Working for the MTA” is a modern day railway ballad, embracing the labor movement in classic folk singer style over some heartbreaking pedal steel from Calexico’s Paul Niehaus. With percussive guitar, killer standup bass lines by Bryn Davies and a guest appearance from Jason Isbell, this record hums along like a 6 train jumpin’ the tracks and heading straight for the Tennessee state line.

Harlem River Blues straddles not only the Mason-Dixon, but time itself. As versed in Mance Lipscomb as he is in M. Ward and sporting Marc Jacobs suspenders, Justin Townes Earle is a man beyond eras. With Harlem River Blues, a record that’s perfect for late Indian summer nights on either the front porch or fire escape, Justin’s found yet another way to be a timeless original.

Aaron Neville - I Know I've Been Changed

When the storm of life is raging Lord

Stand by me

When this old world is tossing me like a ship on a raging sea

Will thou, Mary’s baby…Shelter in the time of storm…

Stand by me.

—–Charles A. Tindley




In his opening notes on I Know I’ve Been Changed, the artist known to millions of devoted fans worldwide as Aaron Neville stands before the microphone not as a musical legend, but as an ordinary man appealing to an eternal God. His signature vibrato rises and dips in a musical prayer full of passion, utterly sincere.

It is perhaps the most powerful moment on a uniquely moving album—his first gospel recording since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the city he cherished, destroying his personal home, and forever altering so much of the life he knew.

Despite that tragic backdrop, the project plays not as a mournful reflection, but rather as a hopeful celebration of the three things that have shaped Aaron Neville most of all—his hometown, his music and his faith.

In grand New Orleans style, I Know I’ve Been Changed celebrates Aaron Neville’s 50th year in recorded music. The album brings the artist’s career full circle, returning him to the music he loved first—gospel music—and reuniting him with Allen Toussaint, the legendary songwriter, musician and producer who produced Aaron’s first recording session in 1960.

Toussaint, who grew up in a nearby New Orleans neighborhood and attended the same school as the Neville brothers, has been a frequent collaborator with Aaron over the years. “Aaron gives the song, the arts, the fullness of his heart and soul every time,” Toussaint says. “He has always been that way. It’s good to know that when something is that good, it’s good forever—the velvet voice of Aaron Neville.”

Producer Joe Henry and Neville recorded I Know I’ve Been Changed over a period of five days, using a stripped-down production approach to showcase the strength of the twelve handpicked songs, as well as the beauty of Neville’s unmistakable vocals.

In true old-school fashion, the musicians played along with Neville’s vocals in-studio to capture the feel of a live set. Arranging and recording such a large amount of material over such a short period, required masterful focus and teamwork. “When I go to the gym, I go to work out. When I go to church, I go to pray.When I go to the studio, I go to sing,” Neville explains.

To handle the challenge of that level of performance, the producer assembled some of the top players. “I call them hard hitters at the bat,” Neville says. “With them playing, there weren’t too many mistakes.”

After four days of working on the instrumentation and lead vocals, Neville pulled together a group of singers who had worked with him on tour and in-studio for many years. They followed Aaron’s vibe, creating classic background arrangements to match the era in which most of the songs were originally recorded.

“It was like a labor of love for everybody. They loved all the songs and they put their all into it,” Neville explains. “It was a fun album, working with those guys.”

Over the past five decades, the indelible spirit of New Orleans has been synonymous with the musical dynasty known as the Neville Brothers. For Aaron Neville the solo artist, there is an equally intimate connection between his music and the faith that has sustained him for his entire life. Through challenge and tragedy, he’s managed to thrive, protecting both his heart and his voice. Ask him how and he says simply this: “He who sings once, prays twice.”

“My Momma, Amelia Landry Neville, always taught the golden rule to us—to treat others as we would like to be treated,” he shares. “One of her favorite sayings was this: ‘I’ll only pass this way once.Therefore any goodness or kindness I can show let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.’”

That perspective served him well in the months after Hurricane Katrina. “Right after the storm we’d go places to perform and run into displaced people from New Orleans everywhere,” Neville reflects. “So when we go sing we’re singing for them and letting them know they’re not by themselves. There’s hope.”

The spirit of New Orleans is marked by an undying hope. On this project Aaron Neville captures that spirit—reflecting the hope of his hometown, drawing hope from his faith, spreading hope through his music.