Hal Cannon
Hal Cannon: Hal Cannon (2011)
Hal Cannon is best known as the founding director of the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. He has been collecting songs and stories from the people of the American West for the past three decades. This self-titled CD is his debut recording as a solo artist, and it was one of my favorite recordings of 2011. Read my full review of Hal Cannon and listen to the album streaming on RootsWorld magazine.
John McCutcheon
John McCutcheon – This Land: Woody Guthrie’s America (2011)
July 14th, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s birth. While there will undoubtedly be a number of musical tributes leading up to that day, This Land: Woody Guthrie’s America from John McCutcheon will stand out. Read my full review of This Land, watch a video of “Pretty Boy Floyd,” and listen to more music on RootsWorld.
Nikki Matheson
Nikki Matheson: Invisible Angel (2011)
Nikki Matheson was born in Canada, and worked as a professional musician in New York City and France before returning recently to Vermont. By drawing on those experiences to write her own songs and adding traditional songs from Ireland, France, and the US, Matheson has created an appealing collection of songs. Read my full review of Invisible Angel in RootsWorld.
Here’s a video featuring the song “Patchwork.”
Eilen Jewell
Eilen Jewell: Butcher Holler – A Tribute to Loretta Lynn (2010)
Eilen Jewell has put out four records of her own songs, and this time around she switched to covering songs by Loretta Lynn, a shift that works quite well for Jewell and her band.
Much has been written about Loretta Lynn and the influence she had on music on the 1960s. Part of what I really like about this collection is that Jewell doesn’t try to reinterpret Lynn. Jewell, having been born and raised in my home state of Idaho, doesn’t have the drawl that Loretta Lynn has. But Jewell’s approach to these songs is straightforward. Almost all of these songs were written by Lynn, mostly stories of relationships, of love and heartbreak and breaking up and fighting and more loving. Jewell doesn’t turn them into historical kitsch and she also doesn’t try to make them mean more than they really mean.
The backing band is great. A supportive trio of electric guitar, upright bass, and drums is all that is needed to put energy and drive behind Jewell’s fine vocals.
Nothing on this record is especially new, but every song here is well done, and I keep coming back to them again and again.
Jim Lauderdale
Jim Lauderdale: Patchwork River (2010)
I’d overlooked Jim Lauderdale. I knew of him, even heard a few songs and shrugged. When I first heard a track from this new record, I really enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was Lauderdale. The lights went on when I discovered this collection was filled with songs co-written with Robert Hunter.
Now Robert Hunter I knew. Songwriter for the Grateful Dead. Author, often with Jerry Garcia, of some of my favorite Dead songs like “Ripple,” “Uncle John’s Band,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Friend of the Devil.” I gave the whole album a try, and I’m glad I did.
I’m not normally a lyrics guy. I listen to the melodies, the orchestration, the rhythms, the textures, and if all that works for me then I start listening for the words. On this record, the lyrics grabbed me before I knew what was happening. Take, for example, these lines from “Alligator Alley:”
She said, “You look like Elvis Presley.”
I said, “I know. It tends to stress me.
Gives rise to undue expectations.
And other suchlike aggravations.”
The arrangements are good too, especially when the horns come out on “Louisville Roll.” The opening guitar riff on “Turn to Stone” is also memorable, aided by some tasty fiddle work. And I don’t ever remember Lauderdale’s voice appealing to me like it has on this record.
“Patchwork River” is a solid, highly enjoyable record. For anyone like me who hasn’t been enamored with Jim Lauderdale in the past, this might be the record that turns things around for you like it did for me.
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