THURSDAY MORNING MIX

May 20, 2010

Scott Foley

I loved the Hacienda Brothers. Loved their unexpectedly soulful take on dusty southwestern americana. On Arizona Motel, "A Lot of Days Are Gone" never ceases to give me a dose of the melancholy chills. Nothing will ever be as good as Hacienda Brothers, but it's great to see Dave Gonzalez move on after the passing of Chris Gaffney. With Stone River Boys, Gonzalez and new musical partner Mike Barfield don't mess much with the equation that made Hacienda Brothers so fun. Barfield is a soulful singer, but the new band is quick to admit that they had no intention to replace Gaffney.

Also on today's Episode, is there another singer-songwriter that can walk the line between grit and grace as eloquently as Jon Dee Graham? From 2004, JDG's "World So Full" is one of my favorites, a perfect acknowledgment of the beauty to be found in the world's brokenness:

"I know it's hard / But I know it's sweet / Complicated / and incomplete / But I am in love / Still in love / With the world so full / Don't turn away / Don't turn away / From the world so full"

* Shannon McNally, "Tennessee Blues" Geronimo (Back Porch, 05)
* Mystiqueros, "Finding My Way To You" Agave (Blue Boot, 10)
* Bill Kirchen, "Open Range" Word To the Wise (Proper, 10)
* Pieta Brown, "El Guero" One and All (Red House, 10)
* Kevin Welch, "Marysville" patch of blue sky (Music Road, 10)
* Crooked Jades, "Kingdom Calling" Shining Darkness (Self, 08)
* Sadies, "Idle Tomorrows" Darker Circles (Yep Roc, 10)
* Stone River Boys, "Love on the Dial" Love on the Dial (Cow Island, 10)
* Carrie Rodriguez, "I Made a Lover's Prayer" Love & Circumstance (9th St Opus, 10)
* Jayhawks, "Let the Critics Wonder" Jayhawks (Bunkhouse Album) (Lost Hwy, 10)
* Claire Small, "Angels Over Texas" How Do You Like Love (Freedom, 10)
* Old 97s, "I'd Be Lonesome" For a Decade of Sin (Bloodshot, 05)
* Ken Will Morton, "Gamblin' Man's Blues" True Grit (Sojourn, 10)
* Darrell Scott, "Crooked Road" Crooked Road (Full Light, 10)
* Court Yard Hounds, "It Didn't Make a Sound" Court Yard Hounds (Sony, 10)
* Alejandro Escovedo, "Anchor" Street Songs of Love (Fantasy, 10)
* Chuck Prophet, "Sonny Liston's Blues" Let Freedom Ring (Yep Roc, 09)
* Terri Hendrix, "Slow Down" Cry Till You Laugh (Wilory, 10)
* Alela Diane, "Dry Grass & Shadows" To Be Still (Rough Trade, 09)
* Yarn, "Yodelay" Come On In (UFO, 10)
* 30Db, "Susannah" One Man Show (SCI Fi, 10)
* Rosanne Cash, "What We Really Want" Interiors (Columbia, 90)
* Samantha Crain, "Religious Wind" You (Understood) (Ramseur, 10)
* Preservation Hall Jazz Band w/Jim James, "Louisiana Fairytale" Preservation (PH, 10)
* Adam Carroll & Michael O'Connor, "Billy Gibbons' Beard" Hard Times (Self, 09)
* Shelby Lynne, "Old Dog" Tears Lies & Alibis (Everso, 10)
* Over Mountainmen, "All I Ever Knew" Glorious Day (Ramseur, 09)
* Steve Dawson, "Worry Worry Worry" I Will Miss the Trumpets and the Drums (Undertow, 10)
* Jon Dee Graham, "World So Full" Great Battle (New West, 04)

THURSDAY MORNING MIX

May 13, 2010

Scott Foley

* Randall Bramblett, "You Can Be the Rain" Thin Places (New West, 04)
* Dave Rawlings Machine, "Ruby" Friend of a Friend (Acony, 08)
* Natalie Merchant, "Janitor's Boy" Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch, 10)
* Eleven Hundred Springs, "Honky Tonk Angels" This Crazy Life (Smith, 10)
* Crooked Still, "You Got the Silver" Some Strange Country (Signature Sounds, 10)
* Phosphorescent, "It's Hard To Be Humble (When You're From Alabama)" Here's To Taking It Easy (Dead Oceans, 10)
* Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Drunken Poet's Dream" A Enlightenment (Bordello, 10)
* 30Db, "Lick #6" One Man Show (Sci Fidelity, 10)
* Sarah Borges, "Daniel Lee" Silver City (Blue Corn, 05)
* Rev Peyton's Big Damn Band, "Clap Your Hands" The Wages (Side One Dummy, 10)
* Nathaniel Rateliff, "Brakeman" In Memory of Loss (Rounder, 10)
^ Samantha Crain, "Santa Fe" You (Understood) (Ramseur, 10)
* Son Volt, "Joe Citizen Blues" Okemah and the Melody of Riot (Transmit, 05)
* Will Kimbrough, "Day of the Troubador" Wings (Daphne, 10)
* Cowboy Junkies, "Stranger Here" Renmin Park (Latent, 10)
* The Sadies, "Postcards" Darker Circles (Yep Roc, 10)
* Yarn, "New York City Found" Come On In (UFO, 10)
* Doc Marshalls, "Woman Knows No Heartache" No Kind of Life (Self, 05)
* Peter Wolf w/Neko Case, "Green Fields of Summer" Midnight Souvenirs (Verve, 10)
* Hank Williams III, "Lookin' For a Mountain" Rebel Within (Sidewalk, 10)
* Crosby Tyler, "Lectric Prayer" Lectric Prayer (Bohemia, 10)
* The Jayhawks, "Let the Last Night Be the Longest" Jayhawks (Bunkhouse Album) (Lost Hwy, 10)
* Tift Merritt, "Live Till You Die" See You On the Moon (Fantasy, 10)
* Sam Quinn, "Late the Other Night" Fake That Sunk a Thousand Ships (Ramseur, 10)
* Roky Erickson, "Forever" True Love Cast Out All Evil (Anti, 10)
* Reckless Kelly, "Wicked Twisted Road" Wicked Twisted Road (Sugar Hill, 05)
* Mars Arizona, "Must Have Been the Roses" High Desert (Big Barn, 10)

THURSDAY MORNING MIX

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Scott Foley

In the annals of music history, several rooms might be dedicated to the guitar. Shreddable, strummable, pickable, there's hardly a genre left untouched by the influence of the axe. While not as iconic, there ought to be at least a closet or two in tribute to the bass guitar. At the heart of most of the world' musics, percussion should be the recipient of its own wing.

The washboard, on the other hand ... ? Nevertheless, "Washboard" Breezy Peyton makes up a full third of her husband, the good Reverend's Big Damn Band. If you track down a video performance or two, you'll see Mrs Peyton raking away, hands dressed in what look like a variation on batting gloves. She also contributes a good deal of backing vocals to the Rev's forthcoming CD, The Wages. While the trio has been on my radar since their full length debut, Big Damn Nation, The Wages marks their jump from novelty outfit to full-fledged band.

This Episode also features our first peek into Alejandro Escovedo's forthcomer, as well as a rare look back at The Jayhawks' reissued Bunkhouse Album.

* Felice Brothers, "Frankie's Gun" Felice Brothers (Team Love, 08)
* Court Yard Hounds, "Then Again" Court Yard Hounds (Sony, 10)
* Lucero, "Mom" 1372 Overton Park (Universal, 09)
* Jim Lauderdale, "Good Together" Patchwork River (30 Tigers, 10)
* The Sadies, "Another Year Again" Darker Circles (Yep Roc, 10)
* Drunk On Crutches, "Tupelo" People Places Things (Self, 10)
* Mars Arizona, "Jesus Ain't Coming Back (That Way)" High Desert (Big Barn, 10)
* Mary Chapin Carpenter, "What You Look For" Age of Miracles (Zoe, 10)
* Trampled By Turtles, "Feet & Bones" Palomino (Banjodad, 10)
* Mark Olson, "Salvation Blues" Salvation Blues (Hacktone, 07)
* The Jayhawks, "Falling Star" The Jayhawks (aka Bunkhouse Album) (Lost Hwy, 10)
* Mystiqueros, "Would Not Make It Through" Agave (Blue Boot, 10)
* Or the Whale, "Call and Response" Light Poles and Pines (Self, 08)
* Fox Hunt, "Screw Me Up" Long Way To Go (Self, 10)
* Deer Tick, "20 Miles" Black Dirt Sessions (Partisan, 10)
* Rev Peyton's Big Damn Band, "Redbuds" The Wages (Side One Dummy, 10)
* Chris Pureka, "Wrecking Ball" How I Learned To See In the Dark (Bad Rabbit, 10)
* Yarn, "These Bars Don't Look Too Friendly" Come On In (UFO, 10)
* Otis Gibbs, "Where Only the Graves Are Real" Joe Hill's Ashes (Wanamaker, 10)
* Alejandro Escovedo, "Anchor" Street Songs of Love (Fantasy, 10)
* Slim Cessna's Auto Club, "Angel" Buried Behind the Barn (Alternative Tentacles, 10)
* Mary Gauther, "Another Day Borrowed" The Foundling (Razor & Tie, 10)
* Blue Mountain, "Soul Sister" Dog Days (All Blacks, 95)
* Amanda Shires, "Unwanted Things" West Cross Timbers (Self, 09)
* Bill Kirchen, "Shelly's Winter Love" Word To the Wise (Proper, 10)
* Sam Quinn, "Suite Motown" Fake That Sunk a Thousand Ships (Ramseur, 10)
* Cadillac Sky, "Break My Heart Again" Letters In the Deep (Dualtone, 10)
* Legendary Shack Shakers, "Lost Cause" Agri-Dustrial (30 Tigers, 10)
* Horse Feathers, "Vernonia Blues" Thistled Spring (Kill Rock Stars, 10)