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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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....
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.
When the storm of life is raging Lord