It’s been a strange summer of 2010 in the US. You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows what with 35 days over 90 degrees in NYC, and a collapse of will in Wash, DC by virtually all parties in WASH, DC who handed the keys to the kingdom over to the moneyed elite of the Financial Industry gambling interests.
What’s a poor boy to do to make throughall the malaise you might well ask. The answer for me most certainly was listening to a dose of new music that stirred the soul and foretified the spirit inside. Here follows a rundown of the main musical medicine that kept me from succumbing to the summertime blues these past few months.
Roky Erickson
TRUE LOVE CAST OUT ALL EVIL
In 1966-I saw Roky & the Elevators in the CA Central Valley on their journey up to Haight Ashbury. They were a psychedelic shroud of sound with Tommy’s weird Jug and Roky’s shriek front and center. After too many LSD trips, shock treatments and a chemical lobotomy, 45 years later Roky is musically resurrected on this new studio album backed up by Austin, TX band Okkervil River. It’s comprised of simple songs on guitar and voice, recorded while Roky was incarcerated enhanced by new instruments and sampled sounds and sequenced between new & old songs like “Goodbye Sweet Dreams” and “John Lawman” powerfully reinterpreted by the band. Will Sheff’s amazing arrangements serve to illuminate Roky’s gift of music, which saved his soul. Miraculously, now all this time later he’s still playing and offering everyone a chance to hear in simple, at times raw and emotional performances the living testimony of a rock and roll survivor.
Matthew Ryan
DEAR LOVER
Matthew Ryan is perhaps Nashville’s greatest unsung songwriter & indie recording artist. Over the span of 10 albums, he has explored the mysteries of life, politics of passion, love, loss, death, anger and the state of things. His newest, DEAR LOVER is one of his most powerful and sonically diverse. A recent visit to the ER seems to have brought everything into sharper focus. The delicate beauty of “Some Streets Lead Nowhere”, Your Museum”, The World Is…” and “The End of a Ghost Story” are in stunning contrast to the rest of the albums rhythmic energy as evidenced by “City Life’, “We Are Snowmen”, “PS” and the sonic guitar assault of “The Wilderness”. These days’ master storytellers live in the margins while stars produce pre-fab product ad infinitum our cultural bankrupt as a result. Matthew’s music is the real deal and may move you in ways you haven’t felt in a long time.
Gil Scott-Heron
I’M NEW HERE
From 1970′s incendiary musical debut “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, to I’M NEW HERE Gil Scott-Heron has blazed a path of emotionally charged music and racial commentary no one else dared to travel. He’s been addicted to drugs, in and out of prison, walking the talk and paying the price. This new album is a shockingly intimate personal detailing of his life and bearing of his soul for all to hear. From the poignant acoustic title track, the searing indictment of “Me & The Devil” and the pulsing enhanced poetry of “Your Soul & Mine”, “The Crutch” and “Where Did the Night Go”, to the soulful jazz influenced beauty of “I’ll Take Care of You” it’s a haunted and haunting listening experience. Masterfully Produced by Richard Russell, the record is both a personal condemnation and testimonial confession by one of the great black artists and poets of the past 40 years.
Buffy Sainte-Marie
RUNNING FOR THE DRUM
In the late 1960′s Canada contributed some great artists to the US music scene – Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen & Buffy Sainte Marie to name a few. The new Buffy Sainte Marie CD/ DVD release is a far cry from her early Folk records. Its Native American electronica mixed with exotic folk tinged ballads and topical songs ranging the spectrum of sound. The pulsing synthetics, percussion and chants on the first three tracks leave your body throbbing, while “Too Much is Never Enough” & “Easy Like the Snow Falls” with the catchy chorus of their majestic melodies will have you singing along. Her version of “America the Beautiful” enhanced by new lyrics she wrote will give you the chills. A DVD documentary on her incredible life, musical career & the work she’s done founding the Nihewan Foundation is a wonderful accompaniment to this great album.
Glen Delpit & the Subterraneans
LEAN TIMES IN THE LAND OF PLENTY
Glen Delpit ended up in the Central California San Joaquin Valley by way of New Orleans and he may well be one of the West Coasts best kept musical secrets. He’s played music rooted in the Blues and Folk all his life. He formed The Subterraneans in the 1990s and their three albums to date stand up tall alongside some of the rich and more famous Alt-Americana bands of today. The new one LEAN TIMES… features a veritable history of his musical influences from Appalachian, to Bluegrass, Bayou and Deep South with at times an early R&B vocal inclination a la Van Morrison. In this land of plenty & too much of everything the music of this heartfelt handcrafted album stands out.
