How freakin' cool is this?

http://stores.musictoday.com/store/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=7643&band%5Fid=926&sfid=2

The Black Crowes are back, sporting their best lineup since the heydays. Not a clunker in that 85 song-plus setlist.

The only thing we take seriously is... Toby Keith?

Well, he's kind of a doofus, but it sounds like Toby has his shit together with his new label. It also sounds like Dreamworks Records is swirling down the toilet. Now as for those movies? Oh crap.

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001022150

Let the accolades begin...

As the end of the long, dry summer draws nigh, critics are dripping ink from their pens to pour sweet, loving praise upon the latest offering from The New Pornographers, to be released tomorrow. Many reviewers are hailing the Canadian collective as the second coming of whatever. I've always loved their previous two records, but there's always been something missing for me that has been hard to identify. Might Twin Cinema have that special something? We'll find out tomorrow...

Over The Rhine - 'Ohio'

Naturally, I ran out and bought Over The Rhine's 2003 release Ohio, an album that garnered a fair amount of attention at the time. Ohio is as different from their new record as you can imagine. Drunkard's Prayer is a quiet, intimate (and stunning) affair; Ohio is a sprawling double album that finds Over The Rhine referencing all kinds of influences: rock, country, folk, R&B, gospel. The production is still warm and Karin Bergquist's stellar vocals are still the glue that hold everything together, but Ohio shows a willingness to push the envelope that very few artists in this genre dare to attempt.

Take the opening track "B.P.D", for instance. Yeah, it's a freakin' power ballad, and it brings the house down. And it's the FIRST TRACK!! (conventional wisdom would drop this song at the back of the second disc). Everything else should be anticlimactic after that, but OTR settles into a groove that defines the record, an attitude of "yeah, we can do that, too." Dylan, The Band, Carole King, Gram Parsons, Southern Soul, jazz - you can hear it all mixed in there somewhere.

I'm sure to many fans who picked up Ohio in 2003, this year's Drunkard's Prayer might seem like a step back. But truthfully, an already stunning record seems just that much more stunning for the fact that they were able to pull everything back and re-simplify their approach with such wonderful results. Both records stand on their own, and both are equally impressive in vastly different ways (for my money, Drunkard's Prayer has a bit more just flat-out, unadorned beauty than its predecessor). If you're looking for an introduction to Over The Rhine, Ohio should probably be the starting point. But don't let that stop you from getting both records, which showcase two distinct sides of the best band I've stumbled on in quite some time.

Over The Rhine - 'Drunkard's Prayer'

So here's a remarkable surprise. Over The Rhine is one of those bands I've been hearing about for a few years but just found no compelling reason to check them out. However, some coverage over at one of my favorite websites (Looking Closer), convinced me to check out their new record Drunkard's Prayer.

Composed of husband/wife team Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, OTR at first seem like your typical folk rock combo (think Cowboy Junkies' American cousins). Detweiler's remarkably nimble piano playing anchors the arrangements, which on this album are almost entirely acoustic. Bergquist's voice is conventionally beautiful, but she is also capable of jazz-like phrasing and consistently surprises with her impressive range. Unlike a great breakup album, Drunkard's Prayer looks down the same abyss but opts instead to examine the decision to hang in there (apparently based on the near-end of their own marriage). The result is lovely, simple and affecting, a portrait of love that we rarely hear in pop music without devolving into complete saccharine.

The emotional and musical centerpiece of the record is "Little Did I Know" which begins simply with Detweiler accompanying Bergquist on piano. But Bergquist's voice soon gives way to an instrumental coda that contains probably the most heartfelt saxophone solo I've ever heard on a pop record. It's stunning, and the album is filled with such moments.

I guess I've made no secret about my disappointment with the slate of new music releases this year. But the fact that I've ignored Over The Rhine this long just shows that I've got no one to blame but myself.

That's Hot - Week ending 8/13

The dog days of summer are upon us -- here's some stuff to occupy yourself indoors:

1. A Boot and a Shoe by Sam Phillips
   Though I placed it at No. 2 of my 2004 list, this album has slowly and steadily risen in my estimation, and I recently made the leap of placing it in my NO. 1 OF ALL TIME (oh yeah, you read that correctly!). That might make me sound fickle, but it's the first time that I've changed that ranking since I began my Top 100 list about six years ago (Allison Moorer's The Hardest Part was the previous #1, in case you're wondering). A Boot and a Shoe is quite simply the clearest realization of what I wish all pop music was - every line somehow rings with perfect emotional truth, and it says all it needs to in a span of 35 minutes. Not entirely unlike her previous effort Fan Dance (#6 of all time, and sort of a companion piece) but somehow more hopeful and more grounded.
   
   
2. Deadwood Season 1 DVD Set
   I'm not sure why I never checked this out on HBO, but the DVD set is awesome. Great show, but if you're a fan of westerns, it's a must-see. Warning: if you have some aversion to the word "cocksucker", you should probably skip it altogether.
   
   
3. "Jealous of the Moon" by Nickel Creek
   From their brand-new record Why Should The Fire Die?, this song sort of embodies their full transition from newgrass proteges to pop stars (in the best possible sense). I've been unable to get the chorus out of my head - co-written with Gary Louris of The Jayhawks, by the way.
   
   
4. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
   I've actually finished a few books lately, but Gilead is the one that has stuck with me. Almost a philosophy book, though a narrative thread does somewhat exist. This Pulitzer Prize winner is a deep breath of decency and compassion (think of it as the anti-Deadwood).
   
   
5. Rolling Stones Catalog on iTunes
   The Stones' ABKCO catalog is now available exclusively on iTunes. I've never been able to successfully burn my SACD versions of Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, etc., so now I can pay for them twice! I'm not sure if these are the remastered versions, but they're still worth having on the iPod in any case.

Shannon McNally - The Mucky Duck, Aug. 2

So I actually left the house this week to check out Shannon McNally at The Mucky Duck. I've been digging her new record Geronimo, and the show was in no way disappointing. A pretty good crowd was in attendance (for a Tuesday night), and they were unusually enthusiastic (the gals at the next table were clearly big fans of her first record Jukebox Sparrows). I think a lot of performers show up to The Duck and think, "Is this it?" The stage is tiny, the atmosphere is intimate and there's a good chance that some aging hippie will be scarfing down his seafood pasta during the show. Nevertheless, McNally seemed happy to be there and particularly happy to be on her way back to her adopted hometown of New Orleans.

Her band on this leg of the tour consists of a bunch of geezers from New Orleans, including the great Dave Easley on pedal steel and guitar. The rhythm section was tight and nicely captured the vibe of the new record, which I'd desribe as a sort of bluesier version of The Band. McNally herself alternated between her Martin acoustic and her strat (fucking cool-ass strat, by the way), even taking a few leads herself. But McNally's primary asset is her voice, a beautifully rich cross between Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Nicks, but with more range than both of those singers. The setlist was split between songs from her two label records, plus a couple of new songs and a cover of "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" (preceded by a ringing endorsement of Kinky Friedman for Texas governor -- too bad she can't vote here). It's pretty safe to say that McNally won over the entire room, judging by the post-show merchandise line (hey, trucker caps!).

Geronimo is one of my favorite records this year, but I have high hopes that McNally's best is yet to come. In the meantime, if you have a chance to catch her live show, I'd highly recommend it:
http://www.shannonmcnally.com/index.php?page=gigs

(Also wanted to give a shout-out to my good friend Jody for bein' my date for the show. She recently celebrated a certain milestone birthday, but she still is not even close to fitting in with the aging hippies at The Mucky Duck.)

Dubya luvs ya, Raffy!

If you believe, so shall it be:

"Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush said in an interview with the Knight Ridder news service. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

That quote clears up just about everything vexing about President Bush. You see, if you're George's good buddy, he'll believe you -- no matter how damning or overwhelming the evidence to the contrary might be. No need, of course, to explain the disconnect between the policies of MLB and the word of Rafael Palmeiro. No qualification required to defend any "accidental" drug-taking. No, Rafael is as good as his word. And that's good enough for the Prez, by golly.

You and George used to be close pals, you say? Not to worry - he'll have your back 'cause Dubya is loyal to his friends, and that's just plain and simple enough for even a professional athlete to grasp, I'm sure.

Just thinkin' about Sam...

I've got two Sams in my life. One of 'em I'm married to, and of course, she occupies most of my waking thoughts. The other is Sam Phillips (pictured left), and she comes and goes with some frequency. Last year, I had the great privilege of seeing her perform in Los Angeles at Largo, probably the most intimate club of its kind anywhere. The music that Phillips makes nowadays is spooky and weird and beautiful and heartbreaking (in contrast to the Beatle-esque pop of her 90's catalog, also wonderful in its own right). It was really something to see her perform tracks from her last two records, Fan Dance and A Boot and a Shoe (released just last year). I rarely listen to one of those records without the other, and driving back out to the desert from LA, I listened to both yet again, pondering every guitar strum and lyric and wondering what on earth any of us did to deserve such perfect music.

It's also pretty smoky, romantic stuff (to my ears anyway), which naturally reminds me of that other Sam in my life.