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‘Formula One’ is served up exactly the way I like my americana. Karly Hartzman’s introspective vocals laid over some slide guitar. I really love this when I’m in the right mood. It features on Wednesday’s fifth studio album, Rat Saw God. One of my favourite tracks this year.
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‘Almost Automatic’ is the opening track of the amusingly entitled Bummer Year, the debut LP from the amusingly entitled Good Looks. The Austin-based quartet can make a big sound for a “bar band“.
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Good morning. Firstly, a quick shout out to WK for this recommendation. Last year, Philly-based band Another Michael released their well-received debut LP New Music and Big Pop. The first single to follow that work has been ‘Water Pressure’ released by Run for Cover Records. The acoustic guitar and americana sound is like a big plaid wool blanket for a Monday morning. Have a great week.
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Guy Clark’s death in 2016 marked the end of an era. Like his pal Townes Van Zandt, Clark played a major role in divining alt. country before the term existed. By 2016, my love affair with the genre had also lost its edge. But what a ride… Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Wilco, Calexico, Whiskeytown, Sparklehorse, Sun Kil Moon, Lambchop, The Handsome Family, Midlake, Richmond Fontaine and Jonathan Wilson, to name but a few. ‘L.A. Freeway’ had already been a 1973 hit for fellow Texan Jerry Jeff Walker, but its songwriter released his own version in 1975. Clark had written the song after falling out with his L.A. landlord, prompting a move to Nashville. The rest is americana history.
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In 2006, Midlake released their brilliant sophomore album, The Trials Of Van Occupanther. Two years before, they had already trailed their pastoral yearnings about the olden days. Less of the 1970s soft rock than Van Occupanther, but with more than a spoonful of 1960s psychedelia, ‘Kingfish Pies’ tells a story of a smalltown common man. The band hail from Denton, Texas, but got their break when associate and former Lift to Experience drummer Andy Young sent it to Simon Raymonde (ex Cocteau Twin). He offered to master the album at Abbey Road Studios, to which the band agreed. Have a great week.
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Portland’s beloved Richmond Fontaine disbanded in 2017 before frontman Willy Vlautin wrote a fifth novel (Don’t Skip Out On Me) and convinced his pals to reunite to write an instrumental soundtrack for it. So the band’s last real album was 2006’s You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back. The band may have reached their peak with 2003’s americana masterpiece Post to Wire, but a slow-burner track like ‘I Can’t Black It Out If I Wake up And Remember’ was a reminder of the wistful and widescreen landscape they are able to create in sound.
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This morning, it’s another track off Tip Of The Sphere, Cass McCombs’ ninth studio album from last year. The Californian troubadour knows how to create an intro.
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I am a fan of Brooklyn-based, Swedish-born Petter Ericson Stakee. The singer-guitarist has announced a tour this week after a run of recent single releases: ‘We Lose Each Other’, ‘Keep The Damage To Myself’, ‘What Are We Frightened Of?’ and the most recent ‘Something Real To Defend’. The flurry all started with last year’s all started last year’s ‘Find A Home Out There’ that got a feature on the ABC drama A Million Little Things. I think that we can expect a new LP from Alberta Cross soon, the first since 2015’s self-titled album. Lest we forget this is an americana band that was Born in London. Stakee has travelled a long way.
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Looking through yesterday’s post on the sounds of the 1990s, I notice my affection for americana doesn’t reveal itself until Wilco’s release of Summerteeth in 1999. To these ears, the fine balance between alt rock and country is best heard through the output of Jeff Tweedy. In 1987, Tweedy and Jay Farrar founded alt-country trailblazers Uncle Tupelo. Their catalogue is thin, influential and no better than on the title track of 1993’s Anodyne, their major-label debut. The LP was a parting gift, but Tweedy and Farrar’s competitive relationship would yield Wilco and Son Volt, respectively.
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For those of you that like a spoonful of country with your rock, look no further than Cass McCombs’ latest recording Tip of the Sphere. The second track is the rollicking ‘The Great Pixley Train Robbery’ with its thick lick of southern rock and video that features one of the classic sequences from Once Upon A Time In The West. Tick. Tick.
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Husband-and-wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks explore some dark, wistful americana on their 2003 album Singing Bones. With its mandolin and trumpet, ‘Far From Any Road’ evokes dusty backcountry, far removed from The Handsome Family’s Chicago.
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Has it really been a decade since Midlake released their sublime second album The Trials of Van Occupanther? To my ears, they have never again reached those high sounds. That said, in 2013, the troubadour in them had a momentary return. From their fourth album Antiphon sprung ‘The Old & The Young’ with its echoes of the psychedelic side of Laurel Canyon.
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Last Friday, I went to a Richmond Fontaine gig in London. Love songs, art songs, folk songs, smart songs, Willy Vlautin’s narration always sounds like a man ruminating about modern life. The flannel shirt helps that impression. It is what alt-country should sound like before Jeff Tweedy turned it on its head. ‘The Warehouse Life’ was the opening track on 2005 album The Fitzgerald.
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Jumping a decade, the new millennium had hit and The Flaming Lips had released their brilliant LP Soft Bulletin to top off the 1990s. And so, it was no coincidence that I was lapping up all things americana and psychedelic. Released in May 2000, The Sophtware Slump is the second studio pressing from Grandaddy. The opening track ‘He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot’ is lush, conceptual and multi-layered. Have a great week.
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In 2014, The Delines created a sound that was undoubtedly the work of Richmond Fontaine’s Willy Vlautin. But this time, his songwriting prowess was complemented by the vocals of The Damnations’ Amy Boone. Soulful americana followed.
Samuelsounds 