ROUTES & BRANCHES      
June 1, 2013
Scott Foley

Such a great show this week, in addition to the Choice City Stomp going on in Fort Collins.  One of my favorite songwriters, Michael Dean Damron, joined us in studio for a good long chat and a couple live cuts.  Other than the music, my favorite moment was talking to Mike about his passion for Thin Lizzy, one of my favorite bands back when I was just a little dj.  I'm kicking myself that I didn't ask him to play a couple bars of "Cowboy Song" ...  Oh well.  Mike hopes to bring the entire I Can Lick Any SOB band into our studios during a tour later this year. 

Also on this Episode, a new release by another Portland songwriter, Ashleigh Flynn.  While I've generally considered Ashleigh more of a contemporary folk artist, her Million Stars takes her in a decidedly americana direction.  And it's been several years since we were able to present anything new from Mesquite, Texas artist Kimberly M'Carver.  Such a good writer, in the great tradition of artists like Nanci Griffith. 

Finally, I have to stop down and say what a surprise and a bold step forward for another of this week's debuting artists.  Last we heard from Nashville's Greta Gaines ('08's Whiskey Thoughts), she played a tough but traditional brand of good natured bar band honky tonk/alt.country.  On Lighthouse & the Impossible Love, her electric guitar is both more confident and more reckless, and her music comes off like Aimee Mann if she were to add a dash more soul and perhaps hang out a bit more in roadside diners.  The songs are smart, but never in a hurry to be clever or easily categorizable.  Her promo material mentions that, by the way, Gaines has also been a professional snowboarder and fly-fisherman (and her father wrote Pumping Iron and invented paintball).  As far as I'm concerned, listening to the maelstrom guitar on "Good Side", she finds her real calling on the six-string.  Gaines calls this 5th album, "the sound that I've been chasing".  Me too.

*  Kill County, "Vodka & Bad TV"  Dust In Wire  (Self, 13)
*  Emily Herring, "Terlingua"  Your Mistake  (Self, 13)
*  I Can Lick Any SOB In the House, "Break All Your Strings"  Mayberry  (Last Chance, 13)
*  Michael Dean Damron, "Mayberry"  live in studio
*  Matt Woods, "Port St Lucie"  Matt Woods Manifesto  (Lonely Ones, 11)
*  Michael Dean Damron, "I Give Up (the Puppy Song)"  live in studio
*  Hooten Hallers, "Welp City Boogie"  Greetings From Welp City!  (Self, 12)
*  Alabama Shakes, "Pocket Change"  True Blood Vol 4  (ATO, 13)   D
*  Ashleigh Flynn, "Dirty Hands and Dirty Feet"  Million Stars  (Home Perm, 13)   D
*  Hiss Golden Messenger, "Red Rose Nantahala"  Haw  (Paradise of Bachelors, 13)
*  Greta Gaines, "Ordeal By Water"  Lighthouse & the Impossible Love  (Self, 13)   D
*  Gretchen Peters, "Sunday Morning (Up & Down My Street)"  Burnt Toast & Offerings  (Scarlet Letter, 07)
*  Ten Foot Polecats, "All Over Again"  Undertow  (Self, 13)
*  Thief River, "Southern Comfort"  Southbound to Nowhere  (Self, 13)  C
*  Pokey LaFarge, "Devil Ain't Lazy"  Pokey LaFarge  (Third Man, 13)
*  Donna the Buffalo, "Tonight Tomorrow & Yesterday"  Tonight Tomorrow & Yesterday  (Sugar Hill, 13)   D
*  Smooth Hound Smith, "California Sway"  Smooth Hound Smith  (Self, 13)
*  William Clark Green, "Dead Or In Jail"  Rose Queen  (Self, 13)
*  Joy Kills Sorrow, "Such Great Heights"  Wide Awake  (Signature Sounds, 13)   D
*  Jason Isbell, "Flying Over Water"  Southeastern  (12th St, 13)
*  Slaid Cleaves, "Hometown USA"  Still Fighting the War  (Music Road, 13) 
*  Jakob Dylan, "Ain't No Fair (In a Rock 'n Roll Love Affair)"  Songs For Slim  (New West, 13)
*  Kimberly M'Carver, "There's Always Sorry"  Hard Waltz  (Kocker, 13)   D
*  Micah Schnabel, "American Static"  When the Stage Lights Go Dim  (Sub.Home, 10)
*  Sturgill Simpson, "Time After All"  High Top Mountain  (30 Tigers, 13)
*  Lewi Longmire, "Baby Would You Take Me Home"  Fire 'Neath the Still  (Lawnmower, 08)