MUSIC: FEBRUARY

CDS WE LOVE...in which we cozy up to and share music that has struck our eardrums.
(The streams below will be available until early March, when a new batch will appear.)

Johnny Gimble: CELEBRATING WITH FRIENDS

(CMH Records, 2010)

Fiddling wunderkind Johnny Gimble backed the biggest names in country and Western swing, including Bob Wills, Jimmie Davis, Marty Robbins, Red Foley, Dolly Parton, and Willie Nelson. After seventy years in the business, Gimble proves he’s still a musician’s musician on his latest album, playing with today’s A-list cowboy-crooners. In “Somewhere South of San Antone,” Vince Gill’s silky vocals trade off with Gimble’s husky pipes while fiddle and steel guitar licks bounce around the ballad’s syncopated melody. On “Sweet Georgia Brown,” Merle Haggard recaptures the sound of his TRIBUTE TO THE BEST DAMN FIDDLER IN THE WORLD, but this time salutes Bob Wills’s top pick. In “Lady Be Good,” Willie Nelson inhabits the mellow tones of country-jazz while Gimble gently saws behind his whiskey-cured serenade. Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel gives a lively version of “Under the X in Texas,” in which his rich, booming voice is complemented by Gimble’s playful fiddle runs. Known for his swinging style as much as his technical virtuosity, Johnny Gimble takes the lead on these songs regardless of who is singing.

Hear this! "Somewhere South of San Antone" by Johnny Gimble

For more information, please visit Johnny Gimble’s website

—BS

The Salty Dogs: BRAND NEW REASON

(Max Recordings, 2010)

Being an original country band in a world gone indie-rock is not an easy line to toe—not without making creative compromises with Nashville, anyway—but The Salty Dogs of Little Rock, Arkansas, have somehow managed to own their sound while staying deeply rooted in traditional honky-tonk. As convincing as they can be on the dance-hall numbers, The Salty Dogs have more to offer than a recap of the genre, as proven by their latest release, BRAND NEW REASON, a mixed bag of high-voltage, soulful twang.
 
Singer-songwriter Brad Williams’s crisp, resonant vocals, Stephen Winter’s Hammond B-3, Nick Devlin’s stringed virtuosity, and Brent Labeau and Bart Angel’s rhythm section are the sonic elements that make up the Dogs’ kaleidoscopic country, which changes shape with each turn. The album kicks off with “Rock and Roll Will Never Stay,” a cheeky country-rock tale of Bible-belt Puritanism. The opening riff in “Knock 3X,” a song about revisiting old sexual stomping grounds, tags T. Rex’s jangly guitar-work. “Second Chance” and “Old Folks Home,” two Bakersfield-style songs, call for a fresh layer of sawdust on the dance floor. On “Nadine,” the band gives a Dixie-fried rendering of Chuck Berry’s proto-rock. “Another Day in a Small Town,” with its walking basslines and Dobro flourishes; and “Every Now and Then” with its shuffle beat and insouciant harmonica trills, are down-home folk music from the kind of small towns the songs reference. Though they constantly shift gears throughout the album, The Salty Dogs embody each song with a consistency and ease that come only from seasoned talent.

Hear this! "Every Now and Then" by The Salty Dogs

For more information, please visit The Salty Dogs’ website

—BS

The Scene Is Now: BURN ALL YOUR RECORDS

(Lexicon Devil, 2009)

With the meta-conscious band name The Scene Is Now, you can almost feel the creases on the page of Avant-Rock History where the BURN ALL YOUR RECORDS album should be enshrined. Let this Lexicon Devil reissue of the 1985 album (which inspired noise-pop acts like Yo La Tengo) be the proof. Like Pere Ubu with less ululating disgust, like David Byrne with less disco sensibility, The Scene Is Now uncarefully blend crunchy noise effects, synths, and yelping vocals over a driving no-wave rhythm foundation. The track “Social Practice” fantasizes four generations of pop colliding at once, to toe-tapping amusement. “Yours in Concrete Friendship” hearkens to the best of ARE WE NOT MEN?-era Devo, and “Witness” deals in syncopations more characteristic of Gang of Four peering over the edge of math-rock. This BURN ALL YOUR RECORDS reissue provides an essential skeleton key to the experimental post-rock devotee.

Hear this! "Here Are Your Songs" by The Scene Is Now

For more information, please visit Lexicon Devil’s MySpace page

—NE