Monday, May 07, 2012


ROUTES & BRANCHES
May 5, 2012
Scott Foley

My kids sometimes refer to the music I play as "country" music.  "Dad," asked my youngest last year, "Does all bluegrass music sound like this?"  A coworker recently damned it as "folk".  My reaction that one was not so gentlemanly.  I regard myself as a champion of hybrids, music that crosses genre and earns its hyphens:  roots-rock, indie-folk, country-blues, alt-country, et al.  Fact is, artists like Oklahoma's Turnpike Troubadours likely regard their own music as country.  With their fine pedal steel, fiddle and banjo, the quintet certainly fit the bill for traditional country.  Their new Goodbye Normal Street just seems to fall into that category called Too Country For Mainstream Country, which often lands an album on Routes & Branches.  Another oddity, Turnpike Troubadours write songs whose quality is generally more typical for singer-songwriters, a'la Hayes Carll.  While the group was spawned from Oklahoma's "red dirt" music scene, these songs range much further afield, and deserve a wider listenership. 

Thanks to all who contributed during KRFC's Spring 2012 Membership Drive.  Kudos as well to percussionist and guitarist Josh Vogeler and to Turn 4 and Roadhouse Radio's Andy for helping out.  Next week, on a very busy Episode of R&B, we'll feature interviews with Wood Brothers and with Leftover Salmon. 

*  Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Train Yard"  Grifter's Hymnal  (Bordello, 12)
*  Chelle Rose, "I Need You"  Ghost Of Browder Holler  (Lil' Damsel, 12)
*  Gourds, "Country Love"  Haymaker  (Yep Roc, 09)
*  Eilen Jewell, "I Remember You"  Queen Of the Minor Key  (Signature Sound, 11)
*  Grant Farm, "I Come From the Country"  Grant Farm  (Self, 12)  D
*  New Ben Franklins, "Miserable"  peter gabriel  (Self, 12)  D
*  Holler, "Good People Strange Places"  Gratitude  (Self, 11)
*  Leftover Salmon, "Kentucky Skies"  Aquatic Hitchhiker  (Los Records, 12)
*  Billy Bragg & Wilco, "Chain Of Broken Hearts"  Mermaid Ave Vol 3  (Nonesuch, 12)  D
*  Sarah Borges, "Daniel Lee"  Silver City  (Blue Corn, 05)
*  Marty Stuart, "Tear the Woodpile Down"  Tear the Woodpile Down  (Sugar Hill, 12)
^  Turnpike Troubadours, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"  Goodbye Normal Street  (Bossier City, 12)  D
*  Johnny Hickman, "Measure Of a Man"  Tilting  (Self, 12)  D
*  Wood Brothers, "Make Me Down a Pallett"  Loaded  (Blue Note, 08)
*  Nanci Griffith, "High On a Mountain Top"  Intersection  (Proper, 12)
*  Joe Sampson, "Moon Up Above"  Kill Our Friends  (Fellow Creature, 12)
*  Sons Of Bill, "Radio Can't Rewind"  Sirens  (Thirty Tigers, 12)

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