Phantasmagoric

Grace & Tony

Out there in the wasteland that is popular music, there are tons of talented and untalented people dreaming of musical compositions that don't repeat the old familiar patterns, but rather are daring, fresh, and somehow still commercial. Husband-and-wife duo Grace & Tony no doubt fall into this category, but to their credit they seem to have the vision and the courage to do that elusive, different thing.

The duo is about to release their next album, Phantasmagoric (a favorite word of Edgar Allen Poe’s meaning “out of this world”), which is one of the more outrageously inspired works heard in a good long while. The pair seems to have a loopy attachment to theatricality, which they use to present some wonderfully musical ideas. Both sing well enough to clearly convey what is most certainly a vision for what they wanted this work to be, but not so well as to make it feel contrived. It is as if your talented community theater group decided to put on a gothic musical: it is accessible in a way that is hypnotic, intoxicating in its raw sensuality.

The Loretto, Tennessee-based pair recorded Phantasmagoric at Jimmy Nutt’s Nutthouse studio in Sheffield, Alabama (aka Muscle Shoals). Nutt, who co-produced the album with Tony, was recommended by Tony’s brother, John Paul White (of Civil Wars fame). “Jimmy really pushed our limits and got the most out of us,” says Tony; that included putting the whole band together in the studio to give the album its very-much-live feel.

Embracing literary influences from Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft to Stephen King, the duo blend history and fiction into songs that share equally vivid plot and musical twists. They call their current style “Southern gothic,” and it’s the next logical musical step for a duo known for mixing punk and bluegrass on past releases, most recently on the band’s 2013 album, November. Their friend Andy Baxter, of Penny and Sparrow, quipped, “It’s like if Tim Burton had a folk band.” 

Next up? A book, “Grace & Tony’s Phantasmagoric Stories,” which will feature tales from each song illustrated by U.K. tattoo artist Nick Devine. The duo plans to tour in support of the forthcoming album as well; most of the time these days they perform as a quartet (rounded out by Pete Teselsky on drums and percussion and Chris Wilson on cello). (See tour dates below; more dates to be added soon.)

FIRST GLANCE: CCJ staff listened to tracks from Phantasmagoric and found them to be excellent in every way, minus possibly commercial potential. Our first impression is that Phantasmagoric merits four stars **** out of four. There is real compositional talent demonstrated here, and an impressive ability to portray a cohesive artistic, conceptual vision.

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The Warden

Solo LP The Warden Due in October

Ward Richmond (aka "The Warden") has had so much success with his Dallas-based country band Boys Named Sue (voted "Best Country Band" in Dallas, Texas - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010) that transitioning to become a solo artist was probably the logical thing to do. And so The Warden has a debut, self-titled solo album racked up and ready to go for October release.

While still an active member of Dallas' country outfit Boys Named Sue (voted "Best Country Band" in Dallas, Texas - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010), he ended up writing a handful of songs on his own, inspired by the birth of his daughter, Betty Sue, and recorded them with just his acoustic guitar on his iPhone. Eventually, he handed his tunes over to his longtime friend, and musical cohort, Robert Jason Vandygriff (from notable Dallas bands The Von Ehrics and RJV & Hell County Revival), and Jason talked him in to making a solo record.

"These songs are all pretty personal so I didn't really want to create an opportunity for three other dudes to modify songs that I was already perfectly content with," he says of his decision to make a solo record. "Boys Named Sue is a very collaborative effort and these weren't the right tunes for that project." After about a week and a half of recording, at the legendary Echo Lab in Argyle, Texas (where Old 97's, Centromatic, Polyphonic Spree, and Slobberbone have worked), magic happened. "It turned out better than I expected," he says with joy. "Jason had the vision and executed above all expectations."

Self-described as "East Dallas honky tonk," the record mixes foot-stompin' honky tonk and authentic, Texas-style storytelling with a slight dash of Southern punk rock, resulting in a countrified memoir looking back over the past fifteen years of The Warden's life, presenting tales of lifelong friendships, falling in and out of love, and the wild-ass adventure that happened along the way.

Detroit's Undesirable People

"All We Want Is a Proper Burial"

Read about Undesirable People on the Detroit Links

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Compromised

Steve Forbert Soon to Release His 16th Studio Album

Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is still around, and still working with producer John Simon, who helped Forbert produce his 1979 breakthrough record, Jackrabbit Slim. Forbert was a hip dude in that period, respected for his sharp and streetwise wordplay, and he had a sort of pluckish star quality. His big hit was "Romeo's Tune", which was radio friendly and carried a sound and style that became Forbert's signature. His sound wasn't quite cutting edge enough to pierce the Modern Rock era that dawned about the time he scored with his singer-songwriter thing, but he has thrived in his own way ever since. His new album, Compromised, Rock Ridge Music (with distribution through ADA), was recorded in Woodstock and Cape Cod, so the Mississippi-born Forbert is pretty East Coast these days.

Players on Forberts new album include bassist Joey Spampinato (NRBQ), drummer Lou Cataldo (The Freeze), pianist/trumpeter Kami Lyle, and keyboardist Robbie Kondor, the latter of whom played on Forbert’s classic 1978 debut, Alive on Arrival. “I recorded with the band that did the Arrival and Jackrabbit anniversary tours with me in 2013 and 2014,” Forbert says, “where we played those albums in their entireties. It just seemed natural to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to rehearse for this tour — but let’s record an album together, too.’ And it was great reconnecting with John Simon again after all this time.”

Highway 62

Peter Case Readies First LP in Five Years

While Steve Forbert, referenced above, was cultivating his fast-talker style, Peter Case was out in L.A. working with his band The Nerves, and creating songs such as "Hanging on the Telephone" line, which was a huge hit for Blondie. Case would go onto to a measure of fame with The Plimsouls, who had a hit with his “A Million Miles Away”, before becoming what some call the first of the Post-Punk troubadours. His debut solo album, produced by T-Bone Burnett, earned him his first Grammy nomination and spearheaded a songwriter movement, now dubbed "Americana". Twelve solo albums and two more Grammy nominations followed, including one for his 2007 album Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John. All along, Case had continued to tour consistently.

HWY 62, due out October 30, 2015 on Omnivore Recordings, collects tales from his journey, and brilliantly encompasses every facet of his diverse and critically acclaimed career. Guests joining Peter on the trip include Ben Harper, Jebin Bruni (PIL), Cindy Wasserman and David Carpenter (Dead Rock West), D.J. Bonebrake (X), Don Heffington (Lone Justice), and others. The album was co-produced by Case and Grammy® winner Sheldon Gomberg (Rickie Lee Jones, Mark Eitzel, Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite).

Via Tania Readies Spring Release LP

Tania Bowers, better known as Via Tania, has always been energized by the talent of other artists on her records. For her new album, Via Tania and the Tomorrow Music Orchestra, out on Narooma Records in spring 2015, Tania recorded in both Chicago and Sydney with a collection of orchestral musicians known as the Tomorrow Music Orchestra. The album mixes pop songs with chamber orchestra, allowing for many aural colors and soundscapes, exhilarating and unique. From the smoky slowburn of “I See You Tiger,” to the delicate pop mischief of “In the Air,” to the almost retro-Disney confection of “Where Would We Be,” the album is marked by a sophisticated yet vulnerable approach, led by the disarming and beautiful vocal stylizations of the lead singer.

Tania began her career in her native Australia. Tania originally
started performing in Sydney during the 1990s with her sister Kim Bowers in noise outfit named Spdfgh. After relocating to Chicago at the end of the 1990s, Tania set about piecing together an album as Via Tania, with producer Casey Rice and various Chicago musical luminaries. In 2003, Tania released her critically acclaimed full-length album Under A Different Sky. The album featured artists like Prefuse 73, Casey Rice, Tortoise, Howe Gelb and Tim Kinsella. Pitchfork gave the album a glowing review and decreed “Via Tania will be a major contender”.

When returning to Australia, Tania met Texan producer Craig Ross, who has worked with many artists including Emmylou Harris, Daniel Johnston, Patty Griffin and Spoon and followed Craig to Austin to work on her new album Moon Sweet Moon. While she was there she also performed at the SXSW Music Festival in 2007. Moon Sweet Moon was released through the New York/Paris based label The Hours in 2009. She is now signed to Narooma Records, a new label for offbeat, established female artists.

Haley Bonar

Dance Punk with Gramma's Boyfriend

According to her bio, South Dakota native Haley Bonar, who currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota, was born in Manitoba, Canada. If that gives one the impression that the talented Ms. Bonar has settlement issues, perhaps that also explains her wandering musical persona, which over the last decade has taken her from folk-pop to psychedelic punk. It took her through Portland, Oregon, too, on her way back "home", wherever that may be for this musical transient. Bonar has some of those qualities associated with Canadian predecessors Joni Mitchell and Neil Young - a kind of full-hearted embrace of acoustic honesty - but at the same time one hears a bit of Gwen Stefani lurking somewhere within her. Perhaps that should have foreshadowed her current incarnation as front person for the larky band Gramma's Boyfriend, a self-described "no-wave, new wave, punkish kind of thing that sounds like the Twin Peaks High School prom band". Bonar does go a bit extreme on the band's video "I Have this Feeling & Sugar Crash!" - probably not helpful to her brand, as weird is never enough - but much of what Gramma's Boyfriend does is quite appealing.

Bonar has been a significant figure on the Minnesota music scene, where she has been honored with Best American Roots recording, and Best American Roots artist Minnesota Music Awards for her 2006  Lure the Fox album. She followed up with Big Star, released in 2008, which produced soundtrack singles for Showtime's The United States of Tara and MTV's "Teen Moms". Bonar toured with Andrew Bird for much of the last five years, and she did a featured soundtrack tune ("Quiet Breathing") for the indie film Sweet Land, directed by Minnesotan Ali Selim.

Bonar released an album in 2010, Golder, and then took that left turn to front Gramma's Boyfriend. Her new band released their first LP, self titled, which includes tracks that range from dance-punk to the sort of dream pop associated with Blondie. It is a very good band, led by Bonar and featuring a cast of St. Paul stalwarts Jeremy Ylvisaker (Cloak Ox, Alpha Consumer, Andrew Bird), Mark Erickson, (Cloak Ox), Luke Anderson (Rogue Valley), and Jacob Hanson (Actual Wolf, Haley Bonar, All Tomorrow’s Petty). Visit the band's Website.

Andrew Bird

Chicago native Andrew Bird was raised as one of those violin-playing children mentored using the Suzuki method, which eventually led to his receiving a B.A. from Northwestern University in violin performance. He played with Chicagoans The Squirrel Nut Zippers for three years before going out on his own to form a string of highly eclectic bands featuring his talents as a multi-instrumentalist.

Caustic Cassanova

Wow, I would hire Caustic Cassanova on the strength of their album artwork. Is that a Resplendent Quetzal going down in flames, or doing aerial acrobats...in flames? And why is this poor bird in flames to begin with? What is going on there? The band is a loud, heavy rock trio from Washington, DC, who will remind some listeners of The Doors, mostly because of the way bassist/lead vocalist Francis Beringer approaches his singing. Beringer and drummer/vocalist Stefanie Zaenker met at The College of William & Mary in 2005. In 2008, CC released their first ever full-length studio album, a seventy-two minute tour-de-force entitled Imminent Eminence. Four years later, they unleashed 2012’s critically acclaimed Someday You Will Be Proven Correct, produced by J. Robbins.

Franciscans Present:

Katie Trotta

How is this for an outlet for your music? The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity have a website that features a "Song of the Month". The Sisters like discernment stories and seem particularly focused on young people in their 20s who are struggling to find solid ground on which to build their lives.

As it turns out, singer/songwriter Katie Trotta has a whole album of songs for those folks, which is titled Twenty Something. Trotta was 27 years old and looking back, when she wrote these songs. "If someone had told me when I was a teenager that at 27 years old, I would still be single, struggling with my career, and still wondering how everything was going to work out… I would have laughed in your face. At 27 you are supposed to have it down! You are supposed to be living the life you dreamt about! You are supposed to have a handle on things! I mean, just look at the 27 years old on Facebook! They know what they’re doing! Enter the question: Is it just me? Am I the only one who feels this lost?"

Wow, that is exactly the type of soul searching the Franciscan Sisters are all about, and so Trotta submitted a tune that the Sisters recognized as "a true 20 something song honest about feelings of loneliness and need for prayer". One suspects that is there answer to everything. That song, "20 Something", is streaming through the month of September from the Sisters' music page.

After eight years, three states, and four independent releases, Katie Trotta (photo above my Jordan Rowe) found a new home in Nashville, TN at the beginning of 2012. Hailing from Indianapolis, IN, Trotta graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, spent a few years in the 'live music capitol' of Austin, TX and eventually made her way to 'music city USA'... all the while honing her craft of piano-driven, heartfelt pop songs.

Trotta's first year in Nashville was marked by several new songs, countless writer’s rounds, and a new record titled ‘Twenty Something’. Teaming with producers, Eli Chastain and Jason Miller, ‘Twenty Something’ is Trotta’s fifth independent release and her first full length, fully produced album made possible by a Kickstarter campaign. Featuring songs about stumbling through relationships, growing up, and figuring out what you want out of life, ‘Twenty Something’ was written through the perspective of Trotta’s experiences going through her twenties but is relatable for anyone at any age. Sticking with the honest approach of writing, Trotta’s team wanted to take the same approach for recording. ‘Twenty Something’ was recorded to two inch tape with a strict “no auto-tune” rule and the desire to have an organic recording process. The talents of Nir Z (drums), Steve Mackey (bass), and Anthony LaMarchina (cello) of the Nashville Symphony joined Trotta to record at Bryan White’s Shmowland Studios in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Writes Trotta - "Your twenties are such a beautiful, chaotic, wonderful time in your life. If you don’t have it all figure out by the end of it… don’t worry. You are not alone."

Michal Menert To Release New Live Band EP

Is it just me, or does that photograph of Michael Menert's Pretty Fantastics band seem "Photoshopped" in that suspicious way that so-incriminated the patsy Lee Harvey Oswald?

Menert is a Colorado musician who is putting out his first LP, Michael Menert & the Pretty Fantastics, and not too long ago sat down with Colorado's version of Wayne and Garth, apparently smoked some pot, because this is Colorado, and began talking. What he is talking about is like a game of where's Waldo and it is sort of entertaining just try to follow along.

If any of that leaves you wondering, Who is Michael Menert?, he has a Wikipedia page with this information: "On December 7, 2006, twenty-four-year-old Michal Menert was robbed at gunpoint and severely injured by three Loveland, Colorado gang members during a drug deal. Menert fled the scene and was found by police on a sidewalk in downtown Loveland... Michal collaborated with friend Benjamin O'Neill on a never released project called The Years in 2007 and 2008 and worked with Paul Brandt on their collaboration Half Color in 2008. A few years later (c.a. 2009) on his way to his first show after his injury, Menert was pulled over for swerving and arrested for distributing narcotics to an undercover officer two years prior. Pleading guilty to a lesser charge, Menert was sentenced to three years of probation, six months in prison, and 200 hours of community service..."

Yikes! It would all seem like a dark and confusing put-on, accept that Michael Menert is a very good producer of hip-hop/electronica. Search him out on YouTube and watch for his upcoming release.- RAR

Anne McCue Swings on Blue Sky Thinkin'

Her sixth solo outing hits the sweet spot where Blues meets Jazz. Features collaborations with David Olney and Dave Alvin; Set for Release on February 10, 2015 via Flying Machine Records.

Blue Sky Thinkin’ is the album Anne McCue has been waiting her whole life to make, even though she didn’t realize it. She initially planned to make a bluesy, swampy album as the follow-up to 2010’s guitar-focused CD Broken Promise Land. However, after she wrote the jaunty, jazzy tune “Blue Sky Thinkin’,” it reawakened her love for swing era music. So, as she explains it, instead of doing another album with Neil Young or the early Rolling Stones as musical guideposts, McCue did one where Hoagy Carmichael, Billy Holliday, and George Gershwin served as her hallmarks.

McCue’s affection for this pre-rock music is evident in the disc’s gorgeously crafted songs; they sound so authentically vintage that you’ll be checking the credits to see what Tin Pan Alley tunesmith wrote them. “Things You Left Out in the Rain,” with its woozy horns punctuating McCue’s chanteuse-like purr, and “It Wasn’t Even Fun While It Lasted,” a lighthearted romp about heartbreak, suggest long lost gems that might have appeared in a ’30s musical. “Save a Life” evokes Peggy Lee’s smoky aura, while McCue professes that the acoustic blues “Cowgirl Blues” offers a nod to another of her favorite singers, Memphis Minnie.

Jim White vs. the Packway Handle Band

Southern-Gothic apostle reveals bluegrass side on his new Yep Roc Records release Take It Like A Man.

When Athens outfit the Packway Handle Band sought out Jim White to produce their new album, the quintet learned that White had a massive stash of bluegrass songs just waiting to be sprung on the world, and that they would make the perfect slingshot. “When I’d heard ’em play a couple of years earlier,” White says, “I muttered under my breath, ‘I wish I could have that much fun playing music.’ When they offered me the chance to produce, I thought, ‘How can I undermine this?’” The answer is Take It Like A Man, the new Yep Roc Records release by Jim White vs. the Packway Handle Band, due out January 27, 2015. Describing it as “a synthesis between their zany bluegrass sound and my long-suffering, implosive-depressive novelist view of the south,” White says it fulfills his “conniving goal to become a happy bluegrass man.”  The video below offers some insight into what these wild bluegrass rangers have in mind.

The Damnwells Sign with Rock Ridge Music

New album featuring original band line-up due out in April 2015

Indie rock band The Damnwells have inked a deal with Rock Ridge Music and will be releasing a new, self-titled album featuring the original four band members in April 2015. This is the first album since 2006 to include the original band lineup. (The original members of The Damnwells are Alex Dezen [lead vocals, guitar, piano], David Chernis [lead guitar], Ted Hudson [bass], and Steven Terry [drums/percussion].)

Follow Us Overboard

The Quick & Easy Boys Deliver an Excellent New LP

Portland, Oregon-based psychedelic rock/melodic-pop outfit The Quick & Easy Boys are gearing up to release their fourth full-length, Follow Us Overboard, which sounds like “The Beach Boys meets The BeeGees meets The Flaming Lips," according to the band.

The Quick & Easy Boys' Follow Us Overboard gets you shaking your hips and moving your feet, all courtesy of Los Lobos keyboardist/horn player and producer Steve Berlin.  Berlin recorded Follow Us Overboard at Modest Mouse mastermind Isaac Brock’s private studio, where Modest Mouse has been recording their next record for the past two years; The Quick & Easy Boys the first outside band to record there.

Comprised of vocalist/bassist Sean Badders, guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Russell, and newcomer Casey Anthony on drums, The Quick & Easy Boys set out to make a record that sounds like “The Beach Boys meets The BeeGees meets The Flaming Lips” and feel they nailed it on Follow Us Overboard’s fifteen songs.

“For this album we really went back to our roots and just said f**k it, lets just make the best album we can regardless of what the songs are or how it might be perceived,” he says. “I joke that its like the first album we did, only fifty times better due to increased musicianship, songwriting, and the help of Steve Berlin producing. Along with the songs we did with Steve, we have five or six songs I composed by myself on a multitrack program on my iPad that we ended up using on the album, kind of like in an interlude sense like on great hip-hop albums we grew up listening to in the 90s, minus the comedic skits.”

Christian Lopez Band Premieres "I Will See You Again" Video

Americana-rock group Christian Lopez Band is world premiering their video for “Will I See You Again” exclusively on CMT platforms. Starting on Tuesday, October 21st, fans can view the video on air on CMT Pure, as well as on CMT.com and via the CMT Artists mobile app. Having one foot planted in the folksy, fiery twang of modern-day Americana and the other inching toward the rootsy rock & roll of early Sun Records, the West Virginia-based band just released their debut EP, Pilot, on October 14th via Blaster Records. The EP was produced by Dave Cobb (the man behind critically-acclaimed Americana albums like Jason Isbell's Southeastern and Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music)

Jack Hadley Releases His St. Louis Blues LP

Cool Coloradoan Taps the St. Louis Vibe

In some future life, I hope to be as cool as Colorado-based blues man Jack Hadley. Until that future time, I must be satisfied by some of what we do have in common, even in this life. He, for instance, is a great guitarist, and I have some guitars. He is a great singer, and I am able to make sounds come out of my throat. He is a San Francisco native, which is a town I lived in for years and can still hit with a rock from my current location. And he recorded his new album, The St. Louis Sessions, just a stone's throw from where I was born, just outside of East St. Louis, at Scott Air Base.   Jack wasn't playing the air base, but rather was playing at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, and recording at Casa Del Torretta, where his performance was produced by Bob Lohr, recorded by Dave Torretta, and mastered by Matt Murman Mastering. The musicians were Jack Hadley/guitar, vocals, and The St. Louis Blues All-Stars: Bob Lohr/keyboards, Keith Robinson/drums, Terry Coleman/bass. All of the songs on the album were written by Jack Hadley except "That Dress" by Jack Hadley and Bob Lohr.

My point, with all those tenuous associations, is that as a music fan I relate to Jack Hadley in all kinds of positive ways. He represents a convergence of powerful energies, having to do with vocal and instrumental talent, a calm and soothing presence, personal charisma and style, great looks, and intellect. That last attribute is in evidence in all kinds of ways, including his contributions as a writer and leading figure in the Colorado Blues Society, which promotes the legacy of the Blues form with a bi-monthly publication. Jack writes many of those articles, interviewing blues musicians and providing the kinds of insights that only a touring pro of his caliber can. He spent years on the road with that very strange Blues dude Otis Taylor, so has a rich pool of experiences from which to draw inspiration.

Watch for Jack's new album on CD Baby and other outlets. Learn more about Jack Hadley at http://www.jackhadleymusic.net/index.html  - RAR

Jesse Winchester

Final Album of a Great Songwriter

Occasionally we get these final albums by highly respected songwriters (e.g., Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon) whose days are numbered, to everyone's knowledge, and so there is this sense that these final works represent a completion of whatever statement has been made by their careers. That's the thing about the great songwriters, who stay in our consciousness throughout all of the stages of their own personal lives, is that their bodies of work tend to add up to some set of basic musical messages. To me, Jesse Winchester was always writing meditations and beautiful observations on his experience of living, so any one of his albums could have been his last, and have been a beautiful tribute to his own soulful nature. A Reasonable Amount of Trouble does not come across as the work of a dying man - he was actually in remission from cancer when he recorded it - but it is the work of a wistful guy, whose heart was always somewhere back in his youth, in the 1950s, when guys sang acapella in doo-wop fashion and the world seemed filled with everyday wonder. Winchester's observations seemed to be those of a man in a dream. "Down around Biloxi, pretty girls are swimming in the sea..." "I don't even know where we are, they tell me we're circling a star..."

Performers of Jesse Winchester's generation have gone through an extraordinary re-emergence via YouTube videos. As the fortunes of working entertainers ebb and flow many of the favorites of our youth dropped off the radar screen until they began to catch up with new forms of media. The new videos many of these people have done are extraordinary before-and-after documents, and for me the rediscovery of Jesse Winchester as the artist he came to be in his mature form was inspiring. His voice and his extraordinary management of his emotions as a singer and musician became truly exceptional. He almost came across as an elevated spirit, in touch with something really deep and sustained. - RAR