Well, Valentine’s Day is once again upon us, and we here at HCT headquarters had a few days there where we were undecided as to whether we would take the opportunity to be bitter single girls, sitting around the house watching Lifetime and listening to Jagged Little Pill over and over again [This is surely hyperbole, it’s never been so bad that we have to listen to Alanis for salvation.—Cric][Nor will it ever be that bad.—Daisy]. But then we remembered that we’re awesome. Also, we hate to be so stereotypically lame. Anyway, everyone knows that the suckiest holiday for a single girl is Arbor Day. Nobody wants to celebrate trees alone. [Except tree perverts. Yikes.—Cricket]
So, instead of eating our weight in peppermint nougats, we thought we’d share some songs about love and relationships that we dig. It’s what we do. [In the grand tradition of Valentine’s Day, we give you this present which is something you neither need nor want, is completely last minute and yet, it’s the thought that counts, right? We love y’all.—Cricket]
Lucero, “Nights Like These” — You’re surprised the first song is Lucero? This is what I like to call an “Oh, Ben” song, because after the lyrics:
I have to admit I’m ambivalent about this. I mean, overall he deserves recognition for being such an amazing songwriter, old rocker and political guy. Maybe he deserves one just for being married so many times. Steve definitely deserved the 2005 Grammy he got for The Revolution Starts Now. It was his first Grammy, despite other nominations and I’m pretty sure it was the Best Contemporary Folk album in 2005. He’s an incredible guy, hell, we named the site after his brilliance. We owe the man and we don’t even have anything like a Grammy to offer him. How ever, I’m still not in love with Washington Square Serenade. It is growing on me and you might, someday in the future see me slavishly rambling on about the brilliance of it, but today is not that day. It isn’t bad. It just doesn’t do much for me. It sounds to me too much like a watered down, love-sick version of The Revolution Starts Now. When I listen I don’t hear the heart that Jerusalem has, or the rough emotion of I Feel Alright. I’m just not 100% convinced that Washington Square Serenadeis the Best Contemporary Folk/Americana album in 2007.
For this first bit I blame folks who send me such hilarious things first thing in the morning thus forcing me to share with anyone who will pay attention:
You know, rabid fans that you are, that before there was Lucero, there was Red 40, Ben Nichol’s punk band. You can read a bit about them here. But the important part is the yearbook photos. It is clear that Ben always had deep thoughts, wore over sized army jackets and once expressed his art by drawing the tortured unicorns of his soul. The D&D stories suddenly seem so much more true. Thankfully for us he finally channeled that into song, which it’s much less dorky. I’m sorry, Ben, for sharing this. I still think you are hot. Indeed, it’s vaguely gratifying to see that you appear to be kindred to the guys I smoked pot with in high school.
—
Drag the River is playing in Boston tonight, and then several shows with Mr. Branan in California. Sadly I will miss all of these, so I expect all you guys to go and report back to us in great detail. In the meantime, Daisy and I are going to the TV rodeo this weekend to drown our sorrows of missing shows we want to see. We will report back to you on that.
Say, you know what’s good news? Chris Milam has a free download, every Monday, of a brand new track, available on his MySpace page. Go check it. I’ll personally vouch for the goodness of the tracks.
—
Lucero tour dates:
2-21-08 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree Cafe (All Ages)
2-22-08 Orlando, FL - The Social (18+)
2-23-08 St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre (All Ages)
2-24-08 Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds (18+)
2-25-08 Tallahassee, FL - Beta Bar (18+)
2-27-08 New Orleans, LA - The Parish at House of Blues (18+)
2-28-08 Jackson, MS - Hal & Mals (Ages TBA)
2-29-08 Cleveland, MS - The Armory (Ages TBA)
3-01-08 Little Rock, AR - The Village (All Ages)
3-12-08 Baton Rouge, LA - Chelseas Cafe (18+)
—
Cory Branan Tour dates:
1-24-08 Little Rock, AR - Juanita’s (All Ages)
2-09-08 Pasadena, CA - Old Towne Pub
2-13-08 Los Angeles, CA - Hotel Cafe (8pm Slot)
2-14-08 Lake Forest, CA - Gypsy Lounge (w/ Drag the River)
2-15-08 San Diego, CA - Casbah (w/ Drag the River)
2-16-08 Glendale, CA - The Scene Bar (w/ Drag the River)
2-20-08 Memphis, TN - Folk Alliance
2-21-08 Memphis, TN - Folk Alliance Showcase
2-22-08 Memphis, TN - Otherlands (w/ Guests)
5-01-08 Palmer, AK - TBA
5-02-08 S. Anchorage, AK - TBA
5-03-08 Anchorage, AK - TBA
Once upon a time I was much younger Cricket and I listened to punk rock and the alternative music of the day (which was more alternative than the stuff these kids today are making). Eventually I expanded out into alt-country and, by extension of that old country, Americana and roots music. One day my pal, Ethel Cannes, dropped Lucero in my lap and it was like everything came together. Punk rock and country music written like someone was reading my own heart. There must be more, I thought, and went a-searchin’.
I don’t know how I found it, though it feels like maybe I tripped over it in a dark alley as I was leaving a bar after too much whiskey, but there it was: Drag the River. If someone was making music just specifically, exactly, only for me it would be Drag the River. And there was much rejoicing when I finally came to hear them. And lo, there were past albums to revel in. And so I did. And then they broke up. And I cried. And cried. And cried. But wait, there is another album, coming soon to save all our souls. It’s You Can’t Live This Way, and I have it in my hot little hands, for my own salvation and yours too (assuming your salvation hinges on my actually starting to post here on HCT again, the album has granted it, eh?).
It’s the very end of October and I’m sitting outside on the porch in just jeans and a tank top. I love Tennessee.
I’ve been thinking a lot about country music lately. Given time, money and opportunity I’d think about little else, but as it stands I take the chance to dwell on it whenever I can. I’d like this site to be all country music, all the time. It’s not hard I think, as the genre is so very broad now with all the unnamable, indescribable subgenres under Americana, honky-tonk, bluegrass, old time, folk-country etc. but still we are lacking in real country. The modern music that inherits all the older genres. The music I wish pop country had become instead of slightly twangy easy-listening music or the joke it is.
Hi guys! I’m fresh back from Philadelphia which I loved so much I think y’all should move it to the top of your lists of places to visit. In line with our jet setting lifestyles, Mimi is now in LA, leaving Daisy and I to prove we can have fun without her. Left to our own devices we did the only thing we could do that would 100% guarantee fun, we went to a Cory Branan show. [Cory Branan: A guaranteed Good Time—Daisy]
I’ll admit, we just went to see Cory. I knew there were other bands on the bill, I’d read their names in the show listings, thought about looking them up, just never quite got to it. Yes, I’m copping to not doing my homework before a show. Some days I’m just lazy. So anyway, Daisy and I put on cute shoes, grabbed our handbags and our gentlemanly chaperone, Chris Milam, and headed on down to Ye Olde 3 Crow Bar to see some music. We ran into Cory B. as soon as we came in, he assured us that he loved both the bands and that we’d have a great time. Since we love Cory, we took his word for it, but maybe with a grain of salt. Imagine my surprise when I fell in love with the first band during the first song.
Music comes to us in a myriad of ways. Some people send us their CDs in the mail. Sometimes we stumble across MySpaces that blow us away. Our friends shove CDs into our hands and mp3s into our inboxes.
What she meant was “I know a band that you don’t!” People love to gloat over that, as you can well imagine. But I didn’t take it to heart since she immediately hooked me up and gave me detailed play-by-play about how totes awes he was and so on. (That’s me being funny, she’s actually quite articulate.)
The actual story she related to me that made me listen to his music involved him, during a show, complimenting an audience member for requesting a song with the addendum please and him ordering shots of Maker’s from the stage. A man who prizes politeness and drinks our drink of choice? Saddle it up, I’ll give it a listen!
Posted in podcast - October 1st, 2007 at 7:56 pm by Cricket
Once again it’s podcasting time! This go ’round Tommy Womack came to spend part of his afternoon talking to us and singing for us. He’s been in bands you might have heard of, Government Cheese and the bis-quits. He plays amazing solo shows, recently bringing spoken word into his sets to great effect. He’s written a couple books, The Cheese Chronicles and The Lavender Boys and Elsie (which isn’t yet available, so after you listen to this call your favorite publisher and beg them to make this book available to you, though you can read parts of it here, on Tommy’s site).
His new album, There I Said It! is available now and full of songs he might describe as being full of middle-aged anxiety, politics and not a little joy. They are surprisingly universally applicable, given the subject matter.
We sat down with him on one of the first lovely crisp days of fall, talked about growing up, touring, his books and songs and his life. During the set he played:
Alpha Male & the Canine Mystery Blood
Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)
A Nice Day
I Couldn’t Care Less
Cockroach After the Bomb
I Miss Ronald Reagan
Say, how about that Mucklewain, eh? I must say that, while there are certainly drawbacks, I’m a fan of the outdoor, multi-stage shows. It’s an opportunity to spend a lazy weekend hanging out with friends, listening to good music and discovering new bands. [Your upbeat Pollyanna attitude is going to make me look even more like a bitch than I already do, I see it now.—Mimi] The great part being, if the set you’re listening to sucks, you can always go seek out another stage.
When I started looking through the Mucklewain schedule, I discovered that all of the bands that I know and want to see have been covered here already. So instead of re-reviewing guys like Todd Snider, and Matthew Ryan, I thought I’d go over a few of the acts that I’m looking forward to seeing based solely on their MySpace pages. My laziness prevents me from being properly embarrassed about this. [Embrace the darkside, MySpace is music love, even if everything else about it sucks.—Cricket]
Mucklewain somehow managed to creep up on me way faster than I expected. Seriously, September, where did you go? Didn’t you just start? Though, well played, September, for bringing me Lucero and Cory Branan shows both at the beginning and the end of the month.
I hear people talking about Mucklewain ’round these parts, and the usual refrain is, “OH! You were there?!?” Yeah, buddy, and why weren’t you? I mean, sure it’s hard for some people to get to Tennessee, but those of you already here or nearby have no excuse! Tons of great bands, good times laying in the grass, a chance to stand with Daisy while she watches Mimi and I make asses out of ourselves.
Mucklewain! She is upon us again. This year, the show isn’t, um, in Belize… it was in Belize last year, right? It seems like we were in the car for seven days. No? Well, all the same this year, the show’s in Pinewood, TN which is 45 miles from Nashville, according to the Official Mucklewain website. Since I drive as little as possible, to me that reads like “Mucklewain is a couple comic books and one stop to pee away from home.” [Indeed. Pinewood is about halfway to Bucksnort, TN, everyone’s favorite vacation destination. If we drive fast enough and no one drinks in the car, we not even have to make the pee stop.—Cricket][I make no such promises.—Daisy]
Unlike last year, the festival is two days–September 28 & 29. Shows start about 5pm on Friday and again at 11am on Saturday. It’s a rock show, so these times are approximate.
Hold up! I was just consulting the schedule: Cory Branan and Scott Miller are playing at the same time? Why is it that if I go to anything with multiple stages this happens to me? I am starting to think it’s an evil fairy’s curse from my birth.
We’re about to do a major revamp around these parts. In the meantime, we have a whole new posting strategy…in that we’re going to actually post. [It’s amazing our plan to take over the world hasn’t worked yet with that kind of crafty planning…—Daisy]
In order to facilitate that, we’re all going to write random posts about whatever we feel like that day. [Or, you know, like, review music and shows and stuff.—Cricket]
I present: Songs on my iPod that, when it’s on shuffle on the dock, people go “Um, WTF is that?”
This is pop/indie-rock heavy because people always seem shocked that I/we like it. Yes, I say all the time I hate rock music, but what I mean is cock rock–maybe that will help clarify.
11. “Hey There Delilah” – The Plain White T’s
Let’s just start out with the truth: I love heartfelt pop music. Sometimes I think that people who can’t appreciate this music must lead sad little lives. He loves his girlfriend who is far away! Get over yourself, people. The rhyme scheme alone could fell small nations. You just hate because you wish some emo boy would write a song like this about you (and make millions so you could buy expensive matching eyeliner).
Let’s face it. We’ve been on summer vacation. An unannounced and unplanned hiatus. August was too insanely hot in Tennessee for anyone to think let alone get work done. I’m surprised the whole state didn’t just shut down. And then Daisy joined us in Nashville. You’ll recognize her, surely, from her blog comments and editorial comments, as she’s been help us out around here for a while. Now the bright lights of Nashvegas have drawn her like a moth to a flame. [Sigh, clichés are so cliché.—Mimi][I’m still waiting for the houseboy I was promised as part of my relocation—Daisy] Now she’s a full-fledged HCT Girl and resident of HCT HQ. She’ll be writing with us and hopefully keeping us a little more on track than we have been.
After Daisy arrived, a bunch of our friends that also hang around the site came to visit: Sarita, Lulu, Weston, Ethel Cannes, Texas Jen, and Esse. We took them to Arkansas. Not because we hate them, but for the Lucero Family Picnic featuring Cory Branan, Glossary, Southern Bitch, Two Cow Garage and, of course, Lucero. There were gallons of bourbon drank (literally), long hours in the car, much jackassery and not a single chigger bite. All in all, it was a successful venture [Hrmph.—Mimi]. The show was great; the White River in Arkansas and the weather treated us as well as the music. Admittedly, none of us wish to visit Arkansas again. Once was enough. [I have nothing against Arkansas, that is all y’all.—Mimi][If we had been able to teleport to Batesville, our feelings might be different.—Daisy]
I know you hear an awful lot around these parts about Lucero and Cory Branan, but I swear, they don’t pay us for this. Hell, they’d have to be an awful lot more famous before they could even afford our bar tab. No, we talk endlessly about them because they are made of one hundred percent natural, homegrown awesomeness. What’s more awesome that going to see their shows? Having them come to HCT HQ to record a podcast.
That’s right, my babies, Ben Nichols of Lucero and Cory Branan, together, not only for one of their Brew City Tours, but right here in our living room mocking each other, us and everything else in the world. What we have here in the end is a podcast (to download, right click and ’save as’) that goes from soft and subdued to a little raucous. You’ll want to tune in for the songs and the stories. You’ll enjoy the second listening to suss out the funny bits happening in the background. Besides the banter, we have:
I should be working elsewhere, but I had to drop in and tell y’all that the Mucklewain line-up is finally up. Check it out. Um, let’s see, Amy Lavere, Cory Branan, Dixie Dirt, Jason Isbell, Laws Rushing, Lucero, Malcolm Holcombe, Scott Miller, The Carter Administration, Todd Snider, and like a bajillion other awesome folks? Yeah, I’m there. I mean, you knew we would be anyway, but aw hells yeah this is going to be good. It’s like they made a festival just for me. Like last year, we’ll bring coverage of the bands playing in the weeks leading up to it and we will mock you all mercilessly if you don’t come down to Tennessee to drink beer and watch the bands with us.
Some surrealist country music, Polly Darton sings “Wavin’ Good-bye with my Heart”:
Really is there anything better than Sesame Street?
Now back to my real procrastination of the day, thanks to Timmy Mac, for this link: Astronaut. It’s a little video thingy that randomly pulls Flickr images tagged with words from the song lyrics and it’s different every time you play it. The song is by Dan Frick, who I don’t think I’ve heard before but I am really digging right now.
It’s not just laziness that’s making me cut these down, but a desire to cover as much as possible when there so much music and so little time. [Well, to be fair, there’s time, but we’re killing it on the porch smoking and drinking.—Mimi] Some things to add to your list to pick up the next time you’re at your local record shop or killing time in iTunes when you should be working: The Avett Brothers, Amy LaVere, The Robber Barons and the Hackensaw Boys.
***
Avett Bros. – Emotionalism
Honestly, I’m sparing you with this short review. Or sparing Mimi anyway. We already know that I can completely spaz over this band. The new album, Emotionalism, is no exception.
Overall it’s less frenetic than Four Thieves Gone or any of their previous albums. Not mellowed exactly but a change for the good. If nothing else, please get “Die Die Die” off iTunes, but the whole album is well worth the investment of your time and money.
Lucero Family Picnic. C’mon, you know you want to go. You can buy me a beer and we’ll hang, okay? Cory Branan’s going to be there. William Elliott Whitmore. Glossary. Two Cow Garage. Southern Bitch. Yeah, you know you don’t want to miss it now, huh?
And hey, Mucklewain is happening again this year. We’ll be there too, although you all need to head over to their site and harass them to post the line-up, ’cause July is almost over and I’m dying to know who gonna be there this time. As with last year, we’ll do our best to bring you reviews of the bands playing and coverage of the show.
It doesn’t have much to do with music, but have y’all gone over and checked out Shorpy? It’s a blog of predominately old photos, plenty that look like old country songs sound. Take a sec a browse through it. It’s just…neat.
In other rockin’ news, Jon Snodgrass (formerly of Drag the River) has got some songs up on his MySpace page, and a few dates he’ll be touring solo or with his band Armchair Martian. Jon’s voice makes me swoon. There’s a Lucero cover there, not to be missed. New songs, even though not my beloved Drag the River, are made entirely of 100% whole grain awesomeness.
I have this massive stack of CDs sitting next to me, and I keep shuffling through them trying to decide what to review next. A more organized person would’ve made some system: alphabetical or chronological (in the order they arrived). But it’s more fun to shuffle them around like cards. Plus, mood plays a huge part. [And laziness.–Mimi] I can’t do justice to something sad when I’m gleeful and vice versa.
What we really need is to hire a Houseboy around here so someone else can do the house stuff and make decisions for us and generally be responsible when we are not. [And who also looks hot while doing all of the above?–Daisy] Someone call Matt Damon and tell him we’ve got a job open. [I’m telling you, Craigslist. I’ll write the ad tomorrow.–Mimi]
Since I’m feckless and without direction, I was gonna just blindly grab a CD and review whatever I picked up, but then my eyes lit on the Girls, Guns & Glory CD, Pretty Little Wrecking Ball and I knew it was time for this one. [Way overdue, honestly. We suck…*insert middle school joke here*–Mimi]
As I write this, it’s overcast and about 87 degrees out, so humid I almost feel like I’m swimming. It’s also only 9 am. Oh, summer! How I longed for you, and now you do me like this? I can complain endlessly about the Southern summer, but the truth is, I love it when it’s like this in the mornings. [This is hardly even the South. Srly.–Mimi] If I could, I would sit on the porch, drinking iced coffee and watching the world go by for hours until the sun burned away the clouds, and it finally got too hot to sit outside. The swampy heat slows me down in a way that’s oddly pleasurable. Sure it sucks to stand up and realize you’re sweaty, even behind your knees, but if you’re lucky a breeze will kick up and make it all worth it. Plus, I’m not exactly cold-blooded, but I do want to wallow in the wet heat a little, as it makes me feel warm through to my bones, which is always excellent (expect perhaps when I’m trying to sleep–but who needs sleep, I’ll sleep when I’m old).
Posted in random - July 4th, 2007 at 1:05 am by Mimi
Because it’s the 4th of July, we thought we’d do a totally cheesy patriotic post. Not what you expected? Well, that’s because you only know us on the internet.
We’re not going to talk about Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith (god, the first Gulf War was pretty wretched with that Lee Greenwood song, wuddinit? Jeez. When they busted that one back out after 9/11, I thought about moving to…oh right, I had already moved to Canada).
So, what we have for you instead is the recommended playlist of a real life American solider in Iraq. How do we know these people, you ask? In this case, he contacted us to pat us on the back about HCT and then I imposed on him and asked him to do my job for me.
Cpt. Matt’s playlist (with his original commentary!):
Posted in podcast - June 17th, 2007 at 9:23 pm by Cricket
Hola, mis amigos!! Long time no talk. We’ve moved! We’ve been to some shows we should be telling you about. We’ve got so much new music to pimp to you that we’re practically drowning in it! We will overcome our current sullenness (from lack of beer on hot Tennessee day, chigger bites and too much other work) and bring you all that. But first there’s a podcast (right click and ’save as’ to download).
We sat down here in the new HCT HQ with Moriah Harris and talked about Nashville, Old Time music, bluegrass, women in music and our usual nonsense. She plays some of her own songs for us with her guitar and some toe-tapping fiddle tunes. Tracks in the ‘cast include:
1. Before We Come Undone
2. Ghost Town
3. California Wildflower (fiddle tune)
4. Bluebell Waltz (fiddle tune)
5. Whiskey Before Breakfast (fiddle tune)
6. Five Cent Piece (fiddle tune)
7. The Devil’s Game
8. Hell
I’m telling you we like playing around in the boy’s club as much as anyone, but it was awesome to get a girl in here, so expect a few more of those on the future. In the meantime, stay tuned we’ve got things to tell you, so keep listening and reading.
Posted in random - May 12th, 2007 at 2:59 pm by Cricket & Mimi
Last night, we caught part of a show where both of us were enjoying the music: good lyrics, polished sound, stripped down and not over-blown. The kind of thing you’d think we HCT girls would go for.
But wait!
As it turns out, the musician was someone we’ve seen around town and talked to and he’d made such a negative impression that we couldn’t even give him a break for good music. Instead of a review, I’ve tried assuage my bitterness at him not being a talentless hack by writing a high-handed, sanctimonious list of tips for jerks like him to adhere to in their future forays out into public:
HCT presents: What Not to Do: A guide to behaving in Nashville, including everything you’d think basic common sense would dictate, but apparently doesn’t.
(Subtitled: Because being a good musician isn’t enough. Being good looking isn’t enough. Maybe when you’re famous you can pay an army of PR people to make you look good, make you look like you have a winning personality, but until then, you’re just going to have to act right in public. Here are some hints on how to do that.)
Posted in hot live action - May 8th, 2007 at 4:21 pm by Mimi
My best friend from childhood also lives here in Nashville, and she just sent me all these dumbass MySpace links to the pages of people we knew when we were kids. I spent like forty minutes over there doing NOTHING. I am considering defacing our MySpace page in a frenzy of self-inflicted retribution.
I just thought I lost the notes I took at the show I’m fixin’ to write about. This would not be the first time this has happened, but I’ve been having temper tantrums lately and I feel that losing my notes would have set off a Mount Vesuvius level eruption. Cricket’s life barely spared!
Before I write up the Drew Holcomb show from the other night, I want to make a passing mention of this piece of glory: Geoff Berner’s “Cards with Corby.” The other day I was listening to the CBC, as is my tendency, and Geoff Berner (a Canadian klezmer musician) was on jawin’ away with Sook-Yin Lee (pretentious Canadian “artist,” former MuchMusic host and current CBC radio host) about his new record when the conversation turned to this song and Corb Lund’s abilities as a card sharp. If you didn’t love Corb already, what more reason could you need than that he could take a man for the shirt off his back? [As if his cowboyness is not enough? –Daisy]
I was just watching Walk the Line two days ago and wondering to myself if it would be too stalkery to go drive by Johnny Cash’s house in Hendersonville. And then I woke up yesterday morning to find that it had burned down. I feel ridiculously saddened by this! I mean Mr. Cash was such an icon and an amazing man and I’ve always had the sense that that house meant a lot to him and his family. I know many other people have recorded and stayed there. It really is a piece of history lost. Then again, the property had been sold, so perhaps the universe just didn’t want Barry Gibbs living in Johnny Cash’s home? [That would be a good guess.–Mimi]
In happier news we have an exclusive Cory Branan video for you, thanks to CaseyMagic over at Last Chance Diner. It’s live at the Evening Muse in Charlotte, NC, filmed on March 15th, 2007. The song is “Sour Mash” which hopefully you will enjoy as much as we have.
I keep having this weird conversation with people, it goes like this:
Drunk Fool: What’s this we’re listening to?
Me: Joe Purdy
Drunk Fool: That a friend of yours?
Me: I WISH. *frowns*
Drunk Fool: This is good.
Me: *rolls eyes*
He’s had three records come out since I last talked about him here (yeah, wow, I know), You Can Tell Georgia, Paris in the Morning, and Canyon Joe. I think I’ll pick my favorite tracks from those records and just talk about them.
I first heard Joe Purdy a couple years ago because of a friend of mine in LA who has a very good ear for music I like (as friends tend to when they’ve had to hear you complain and rave for years). Right now, I’m eating dried figs and reading the CD Baby reviews of these records to amuse myself. Skip over there and check it out, because if you’re skeptical of what I have to say, you’ll see a page full of superlative reviews there written by the cynical, embittered indie-music, scenester crowd, and if I agree with them, then you know you’re dealing with someone special. [That, or the Apocalypse is nigh.—Daisy]
This weekend began with Mimi off gallivanting in Florida, probably laying on the beach or ogling Navy boys somewhere. And me laying on the couch watching High Plains Drifter and wondering if there’s anyone in the world who loves me enough to bring me Krystals with cheese so I don’t have to get dressed to go get food. These are things you’d think we could both manage without incident, but then if you think that, you clearly haven’t been avidly reading these pages. Because Mimi’s hotel caught fire and the landscape guys cut the cable line from the street to the house leaving me with no internet or Clint Eastwood. And Mimi, well, I haven’t heard from her since the call telling me about the fire, so I’m hoping for the best that she’s not dead or decided to run off to Texas.
I did, despite no technological connection with the outside world, have a pretty darn good weekend. But let me cover a few little things before I tell you about the music.
Cric’s back home at a wedding and hitting on ROTC boys, and I missed Drag the River on Thursday because I’m a lamer. However, I beat the bushes to drag people to see Cory Branan on Saturday. New converts. It’s amusing to attend a Cory show with people who only know his studio stuff because I get to watch the cartoon hearts pop out of their eyes as he radiates that sort of folksy élan that overwhelms anyone who sees him live.
(I’m screwing something up as I post this, but I have no idea what. I am really dim, people. Cric will have to fix it when she gets near a computer.) [Fixed.–Cric]
I had cocktails before the show with Wes Charlton and Charlotte (who does him the favor of dating him) who live ‘round the way from Cric and me. I was a little worried when we got to the 3 Crow because the place was nearly deserted and I got further scared when I thought the opening-closing acts had been reversed. Having to sit through a full rock-set by a local band…oh noes! Not nearly drunk enough for that torture! But, whatever, you don’t care about my psychological issues.
Here at HCT HQ strange things happen. Locust-like clouds of drunken bluegrass pickers descend on the house at odd hours, play for a while, eat, drink and then whisk us off to bonfires in the middle of the night. I warned Mimi when she put up that weird wreath on the door that she was inviting the fairies in. Who knew fairies looked like drunk musicians? [Weeeeeeeeellll…I forgot to tell you about my childhood in the Unseelie Court, Cric.–Mimi]
Among other strangeness, one day Mohammed just appeared in our yard. Mohammed is a cement lion. He sits in a fairy-ring of stones, surrounded by tulips. Yeah, really. And we didn’t even put him there. Well, you know lions come from the same place as hippos and if there’s one thing we love unreasonably (even more than music) at HCT HQ it’s hippos. We have many. Mohammed couldn’t come to them, so like the mountain, we brought them to Mohammed. [Look out for more pictures of Mohammed and his crazy antics…when we get bored again.–Mimi]
Hippos bathe placidly in the spring sunshine
unaware of the lion king lurking above them.
Among my favorite albums is Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger. I love a good concept album. Story songs are awesome, but when the whole album tells a story from beginning to end? Even better. Chuckanut Drive delivers completely with their recent re-release of The Crooked Mile Home.
These boys are from Bellingham, Washington, a stone’s throw from my own hometown. Oddly, it isn’t attention to local bands back home that led me to them. A friend in Boston helped me develop a nifty obsession with them and turned me on to their rockin’ alt-country. They twist together, with a heavy dose of twang, Johnny Cash, Hank Sr., Gram Parsons, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, and more traditional rock.
The songs on The Crooked Mile Home range from upbeat and punchy, bordering on rockabilly, like “Reno to Vegas,” “Any Way I Can,” and “Little Did I Know,” to slow, pain-filled songs, like “Juanita,” and “You Cross My Mind,” that carry the torch of the high lonesome sound. Though the “high” here is more like high desert than the top of the Appalachians.
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