Red Molly - The Red Album: Review

This article was first published at Blogcritics

If, like me, The Red Album released back in May is your first acquaintance with Red Molly, a vocal trio that has been around for a decade, we have missed a lot, but at least there is one consolation. We have ten years’ worth of what promises to be excellent music, a half dozen albums, waiting for us.

Red Molly—Laurie MacAllister, Abbie Gardner, and Molly Venter—is an acoustic band that lives on the border of country and western and folk music. The ladies, often praised for their supple vocal harmonies, play a variety of instruments and write more than their share of impressive music. While five of the songs on The Red Album are covers, the rest of the 13 track set are originals by one of the Mollies. They clearly, each and every one of them, have a fine tuned sense of the kind of musical soundscape best suited to their aesthetic.

A tune like “Willow Tree,” written by Venter and Eben Pariser, could well have been a traditional piece handed down from generation to generation, it has both a musical and poetic authenticity. Venter takes the lead vocal and the others the harmony; Gardner plays dobro. On the other hand, a tune like Mark Erelli’s “Pretend” gives the trio an opportunity to show off their feel for the swinging Dixie vibe. MacAllister takes the lead on this one and trombonist Herb Gardner—Pops—makes a cameo. Gardner takes the lead on her gospel rocker “Lay Down Your Burden.” The ladies make sure to share the lead vocals.

They do an interesting arrangement of the Simon and Garfunkel hit, “Homeward Bound,” but it is their treatment of Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” that is the highlight of album’s covers. And I guess that should be expected, after all as the liner notes point out, it is from this song which Gardner first heard  in Del McCoury’s version at a Berkshire bluegrass festival as a child that the trio  takes its name. Fittingly, each of the ladies takes the lead on one of the tune’s three verses.

Whether the dark “Clinch River Blues” which opens the album, the  lullaby “Sing to Me” Molly sings with a tear in her voice, or the jumping “My Baby Loves Me,” The Red Album shows off the band’s variety. And for effect, they close with a beautifully harmonized a cappella version of “Copper Ponies.”

Music Review: Willie Nelson - Heroes

This article was first published at Blogcritics

At the very end of an absolutely swinging version of the 1943 roots gem "Home in San Antone" on Willie Nelson's new album, Heroes, you can hear the singer add, "that's a great track." He's right, it is a great track, and if he had said it about the album as a whole, he would have been right as well.  In Heroes Willie, his sons and a friend or two have put together a compilation of some things old and some things new and produced themselves one great album.  But then it's Willie Nelson, what else would you expect. 

The album opens with a new take on the Wayne Carson composition "A Horse Called Music," the title song of 1989 Nelson album.  It's a great song, and here he is joined by Merle Haggard for one hell of a duet. It is an auspicious beginning.  This is followed by a new swinger "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die" written by Nelson himself along with a gaggle of his cohorts.  Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson join Nelson on the vocal. There are three songs written by Lukas Nelson who chimes in on the vocals —"No Place to Fly," "Every Time He Drinks He Thinks of Her" and "The Sound of Your Memory."  

Producer Buddy Cannon's catchy little three quarter time tune, "That's All There is to This Song" is one of two solo pieces for Nelson. The other is his cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist" which closes the album.  Cannon also collaborated with Nelson and son Micah on "Come on Back Jesus," which looks to Jesus and John Wayne to set the crazy modern world straight.  "Hero," the down home title song, is another Nelson composition.  Jamey Johnson and Billy Joe Shaver are along for the ride.  Lukas joins his father for a cover of Pearl Jam's "Just Breathe."

 Complimenting these new pieces, along with "My Home in San Antone," other roots classics included on the album are "My Window Faces the South" and "Cold War With You," a metaphoric stretch worthy of the Metaphysical poets.  Ray Price guests on the track.  Speaking of guests Sheryl Crow steps in with Lukas and his dad for a bluesy version of the Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan tune "Come on Up to the House."   I'm not sure but it's my favorite track on an album filled with favorite tracks.

Musical backing on the album is provided by the "Roll Me Up" Band: Kevin "Swine" Grantt (bass). Bobby Terry (electric, acoustic guitars), Jim "Moose" Brown (piano, Wurlitzer, B­-3 organ), Mike Johnson (steel guitar), Tony Creasman (drums), Mickey Raphael (harmonica), and Lukas Nelson (electric guitar)—not to mention Willie and Trigger.  Listen to them on "My Home in San Antone" and "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me."  These guys can swing with the best of them. 

Approaching his eighties, Nelson's voice sounds as good as it ever did, rich and honest.  Whether he's singing something from the roots pantheon or some new pop/rock hit, whether some brand new composition or a song from the forties, he delivers the goods.  This is the first album released under Nelson's renewed collaboration with Legacy Recordings.   With a little luck, Heroes will only be the first of many new albums to come.

Music Review: Levon Helm, Ramble at the Ryman

Article first published as Music Review: Levon Helm - Ramble at the Ryman on Blogcritics.

Often there is an excitement about live concert recordings, an electricity that studio gigs for all their perfection can never quite equal. Just listen to the audience reaction to the first few bars of "Rag Mama Rag” on Levon Helm's new album Ramble at the Ryman and you can feel the thrill of expectation. It is the kind of response that has to affect a performance. It is the kind of audience reaction that brings out the best in a performer. Helm's ramble on the fabled Ryman stage builds on that energy to revisit and reinvigorate some of the best of his classic work. This ramble is a joyful romp.

Ramble at the Ryman collects fifteen songs that range over the different stages of Helm's career. There are songs from his days with The Band; there are songs from 2007's Dirt Farmer. Variety is key to the set. From the opening number, Robbie Robertson's "Ophelia" which ends with a solid Dixieland jam to the final rousing chorus of "The Weight" with its horns and harmonica, Helms and an impressive line up of his friends who seem to have just casually dropped by to help out run a gamut of musical genres. There are low down blues like "Baby Scratch My Back" and twanging country blues like Teresa Williams' vocal on "Time Out For the Blues." "Anna Lee" and "A Train Robbery" are modern takes on the traditional narrative folk ballad. Sheryl Crow joins Helm for a Cajun inspired "Evangeline" and then does a Carter Family country hymn, "No Depression in Heaven." The traditional "Deep Elem Blues" has a real jazz feel and Chuck Berry's "Back to Memphis" is an old time rocker. With guests like Crow and Buddy Miller, Sam Bush, Billy Bob Thornton and John Hiatt adding their voices to the mix, whether it is repertoire or performer, this is an album that doesn't want for diversity.

While for those of us of a certain age, the homage to the days of The Band with tunes like "The Weight," "Rag Mama Rag," "Chest Fever" and "The Shape I'm In" may well be the highlights of the concert, this is not a golden oldies show. If Helm isn't going the way of his erstwhile band mate Robertson on his recent album, How to Become a Clairvoyant and recording brand new music, it is nice to see him putting his own stamp on these classics.

The band for the concert, which is also available on DVD, includes Larry Cambell on electric guitar and an assortment of other instruments, daughter Amy Helm on drums and mandolin, Teresa Williams on acoustic guitar, and Brian Mitchell on piano, organ and accordion. All join in on vocals. There is a swinging horn section made of Erik Lawrence and Jay Collins on saxophone, Stephen Bernstein on trumpet, and Clark Gayton on trombone and tuba. Tony Leone joins Helm on drums and Paul Ossola plays bass. Little Sammy Davis is featured on harmonica and does a bang up job rocking the blues on "Fannie Mae."

After a bout with throat cancer and problems with his voice, it is truly exciting to see how well he has recovered. Helm may not be quite the singer he was back in the day, but who is? The signature Southern grit that marked his vocals in the past with true intensity and emotional honesty still comes through loud and clear. And that is plenty good enough to make Ramble at the Ryman an album that should be on your iPod.





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