THURSDAY MORNING MIX

August 26, 2010

Scott Foley

Eagerly-anticipated debuts from a couple albums on this week's Episode. While I haven't had the chance to hear Jeff Finlin's Tao of Motor Oil in its entirety, I'm expecting to be impressed. Likewise Dale Watson, who has made a nice recovery from his brief lounge period.

Second listenings bear up well this week, too. Bobby Bare Jr's A Storm is a deeper album than he has ever issued. And Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams has already earned a likely space not just on my Colorado Best, but on my Best of the Year, Period.

This week's Best Thing Ever comes from Caleb Klauder, whose Western Country sounds refreshing and new, despite the fact that much of it also sounds like it was recorded 40 years ago.

* Dale Watson, "Carryin' On This Way" Carryin' On (E1, 10)
* Avett Brothers, "Spanish Pipedream" Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows (Oh Boy, 10)
* Laura Cantrell, "Way It Is" Not the Tremblin' Kind (Diesel Only, 00)
* Great American Taxi, "One Of These Days" Reckless Habits (Thirty Tigers, 10)
* Railroad Earth, "Long Walk Home" Railroad Earth (One Haven, 10)
^ Caleb Klauder, "My Baby Came Back" Western Country (Quicksilver, 10)
* Richmond Fontaine, "Winner's Casino" Winnemucca (El Cortez, 02)
* Frazey Ford, "Bird of Paradise" Obadiah (Nettwerk, 10)
* Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams, "The Ring" Sinners & Saints (Self, 10)j
* Bobby Bare Jr, "Sad Smile" A Storm A Tree My Mother's Head (Naked Albino, 10)
* David Wax Museum, "Jalopy Heart" Carpenter Bird (Self, 10)j
* Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, "So Good" Legacy (Compass, 10)
* Chatham County Line, "Ghost of Woody Guthrie" Wildwood (YepRoc, 10)
* Truth & Salvage Co, "Heart Like a Wheel" Truth & Salvage Co (Silver Arrow, 10)
* Jeff Finlin, "Hands Off the Wheel" Tao of Motor Oil (Bent Wheel, 10)
* Cotton Jones, "Sail of the Silver Morning" Tall Hours in the Glowstream (Suicide Squeeze, 10)
* Whiskeytown, "Angels Are Messengers From God" Rural Free Delivery (Mood Food, 97)
* Steve Earle, "Dixieland" Dear New Orleans (ATC Benefits, 10)
* Mollie O'Brien & Rich Moore, "Lonely For Awhile" Saints & Sinners (Remington Rd, 10)
* Rev Peyton's Big Damn Band, "Everything's Raising" The Wages (Side One Dummy, 10)j
* Defibulators, "Ol' Winchester" Corn Money (City Salvage, 10)
* Gregory Alan Isakov, "Virginia May" This Empty Northern Hemisphere (Self, 09)
* Ray Lamontagne, "Old Before Your Time" God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise (RCA, 10)
* Starlings, "Flotsam & Jetsam" Bright Light (Self, 10)
* Brent Amaker & the Rodeo, "Break My Broken Heart" Please Stand By (Spark & Shine, 10)
* Bottle Rockets, "Blue Sky" Blue Sky (Sanctuary, 03)
* Eilen Jewell, "You're Lookin' At Country" Butcher Holler (Signature Sounds, 10)
* Blitzen Trapper, "Man Who Would Speak True" Destroyer of the Void (Sub Pop, 10)
* Son Volt, "Picture" The Search (Legacy, 07)
* Deer Tick, "Art Isn't Real" War Elephant (TBC, 07)

THURSDAY MORNING MIX

August 19, 2010

Scott Foley

* Sam Baker, "Mennonite" Cotton (Music Road, 09)
* Darrell Scott, "This Time 'Round" Crooked Road (Full Light, 10)
* Cindy Bullens, "Misty Hills of Tennesses" Howling Trains & Barking Dogs (MC, 10)
* Guthrie Kennard, "My Mind Rolls Like a Wheel" Matchbox (Rango, 09)
* Paper Bird, "Wind and Blood" When the River Took Flight (Self, 10)
* Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams, "Mauvais Sang" Sinners & Saints (Self, 10)
* Chris Knight, "Rural Route" Enough Rope (Drifter's Church, 06)
* Steeldrivers, "Jesus Come for Me" Get Low (Rounder, 10)
* Mountain Man, "Buffalo" Made the Harbor (Parisan, 10)
* The Beauties, "Heart of Stone" The Beauties (Six Shooter, 10)
* Jerry Lee Lewis, "Mean Old Man" Mean Old Man (Vanguard, 10)
* Neko Case, "Guided By Wire" Furnace Room Lullaby (Bloodshot, 00)
* Mike Farris, "Down On Me" Night the Cumberland Came Alive (Self, 10)
* J Roddy Walston & the Business, "Pigs 'n Pearls" J Roddy Walston & the Business (Vagrant, 10)
* Kane Welch & Kaplan, "Postcard From Mexico" Lost John Dean (Compass, 06)
* Defibulators, "Dum-Dum" Corn Money (City Salvage, 10)
* Amelia Curran, "The Dozens" Hunter Hunter (Six Shooter, 10)
* The Wrights, "We'll All Drink Money" Red and Yellow Blue and Green (TOUR, 10)
* Drag the River, "Tired & Fired" It's Crazy (Suburban Home, 06)
* Jon Langford, "1234 Ever" Old Devils (Bloodshot, 10)
* Delta Spirit, "Ransom Man" History From Below (Rounder, 10)
* Blue Shadows, "Coming On Strong" On the Floor of Heaven (Bumstead, 10)
* Marty Stuart, "Ghost Train Four-Oh-Ten" Ghost Train (Sugar Hill, 10)
* Handsome Family, "Lost Highway" Scattered (Self, 10)
* Lyle Lovett, "Private Conversation" Road To Ensenada (MCA, 96)
^ Truth & Salvage Co, "Heart Like a Wheel" Truth & Salvage Co (Silver Arrow, 10)
* Grayson Capps, "Arrowhead" Rott 'n Roll (Hyena, 08)
* Mic Harrison, "Glass Bones" Great Commotion (Real Much, 10)
* Romano Paoletti, "Ragtime Blues" Story of a Lifetime (Self, 09)

THURSDAY MORNING MIX

August 12, 2010

Scott Foley

Too many bands attempt to parrot the hybrid of honky-tonk played so well by Colorado's Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams, but end up sounding like a stereotype. Instead of the nuance and shade on Wofford & Co's new Sinners & Saints, other bands might come across as hayseed punks or tongue-in-cheek Hee Haw cartoons. Sinners & Saints shows smart aggression on the title track, but can pull back for something requiring a more subtle approach like the album-opener, "Invocation." The more straightforward honky-tonkers (including the handful of instrumentals like "Hey Bub") toe the traditionalist line while managing to sound fresh. It won't be easy to pry my vote for Best Colorado Album of 2010 from Nathaniel Rateliff's In Memory of Loss, but Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams have at least entered the proverbial arena.

I didn't want to let this Episode pass without giving some space to Sons of Bill's new EP, Take a Shower Call Your Mother Your Life Is In Shambles. The Sons' previous release, the full-length One Town Away, showed glimpses of songwriting greatness ("Broken Bottles" most notably). The strong new cut, "Lost Love and Indie Rockers," cries out for TMM play, but also features enough prominent profanity to get me off the radio and back home on Thursdays.

* Ana Egge, "Farmer's Daughter" Road To My Love (Parkinsong, 09)
* Otis Gibbs, "Kansas City" Joe Hill's Ashes (Wanamaker, 10)
* Stone River Boys, "Think I'm Gonna Make It" Love On the Dial (Cow Island, 10)
* Max Stalling, "6x9 Speakers" Home To You (Self, 10)
^ Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams, "Sinners & Saints" Sinners & Saints (Self, 10)
* Mike Stinson, "Jukebox in Your Heart" Jukebox in Your Heart (Stag, 10)
* Gillian Welch, "Caleb Meyer" Hell Among the Yearlings (Acony, 98)
* Chase Fifty Six, "Mary Jane" Allatoona Rising (Dirt Leg, 10)
* Sons of Bill, "Life in Shambles" Take a Shower Call Your Mother ... (Self, 10)
* Bobby Bare Jr, "Your Goat Is On Fire" A Storm A Tree My Mother's Head (Naked Albino, 10)
* Elizabeth Cook, "El Camino" Welder (31 Tigers, 10)
* Jimmy Lafave, "Desperate Men Do Desperate Things" Favorites 1992-2001 (Music Rd, 10)
* Jon Langford & Skull Orchard, "Getting Used to Uselessness" Old Devils (Bloodshot, 10)
* Sahara Smith, "Thousand Secrets" Myth of the Heart (Playing in Traffic, 10)
* Mark Olson, "Little Bird of Freedom" Many Colored Kite (Ryko, 10)
* Legendary Shack Shakers, "Hellwater" Swampblood (Yep Roc, 07)
* Mike Farris, "Night the Cumberland Came Alive" Night the Cumberland ... (Self, 10)
* Shinyribs, "Shores of Galilee" Well After Awhile (Nine Mile, 10)
* Robert Plant & Band of Joy, "Angel Dance" Band of Joy (Rounder, 10)
* Black Prairie, "Turn it Into Gold" internet single (Sugar Hill, 10)
* Robert Earl Keen, "My Home Aint in the Hall of Fame" Gravitational Forces (Lost Hwy, 01)
* Bruce Robison, "Heartaches to Houston" From the Top (Self, 10)
* Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, "Low Road" Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (Hollywood, 10)
* Marty Stuart, "Branded" Ghost Train (Sugar Hill, 10)
* Acorn, "Restoration" No Ghost (Bella Union, 10)
* Larkin Poe, "Sea Song" Summer an EP (Self, 10)
* Susan Cowsill, "Sweet Bitter End" Lighthouse (Threadhead, 10)