Local/Singer/Songwriter

“Ragpickers”

Paul Benoit

www.kkpaulbenoitmusic.com

This recording burst out on the first track, “Bloom”, with a driving acoustic guitars out front, then the strong clear vocal wraps around the lyric exclaiming as the blues always does, a nod to the opposite sex.  The comping guitar riffs,  as the lead guitar are strong with shades of the  blues and rock.  As a player you know you’ve had a good listen when you want to pick your axe and join in or find a groove as deep to emulate. Benoit lays back with the second track, continuing the acoustic bed of acoustic guitar, then the rhythm section drives this lament called, “ Don’t Hate Me” but allows Benoit’s lyric and vocal to clearly speak.  The lead guitar once again never over powers the main riff, it is as it should be, the spice to the track.

The production and mix on this work is a consistent portion of  the work, Benoit’s vocals and lyrical content are important to each track, care was given to this aspect of his work.  Benoit & Blake Harkins co-produced the work at Lost & Found Studios, in West Seattle.  Benoit is no novice at his craft and has assembled lengthy relationships with those he records with.

For the past twenty years he has used the same supporting players on his projects, his mates, sidemen, collaborators are tight and a testament to the vested time put into the sound as a unit. Benoit’s rhythm section is Tige Decoster holding it all down on bass, Dan Weber on solid as well as tasty drums while Hugh Sutton is behind the keyboards. Benoit’s guitar work drives or lays the foundations for the production and tunes. Benoit’s lead work is very tasty, mature and compliments never distracts from the rest of the production.

“Ragpickers” the title tune of the disc is Benoit’s break out track from the first two tracks with a great shuffle feel.  Benoit’s vocal work is very strong on this tune, but the lyrical content is so strong it’s difficult to say which is really shines brighter.  The arrangements are all tasty, but this track breaks away, this tune illuminates a master in his element.  Tunes like this just don’t come along every day.

Benoit does not rest on his laurels, each track has a different feel, based in the blues.  Some of it takes me back to the hey day of several artists, but pigeon holing this artist would be a mistake.  Sutton’s work on fourth track sets up the tune, the lead guitar is like butter, it just flows.  These are some tasty players working behind Benoit’s tales and solid vocal work.

Had a brief conversation with the  artist and he said his next project was going to be a bit more Folk/Americana, I can tell from his acoustic work that this would be a natural path for him to take, but this cat wraps around the blues so well, one can only hope that he puts this thinking cap on again.  The acoustic guitar work in “Black Bag Blues” is as smooth and cool as any player I have ever listened to and worth the price of admission alone.

Benoit’s take on the Delta influence leaps out on the following track as does his time spent cultivating lyrical acrobatic work from the likes of Dylan and other contemporary artists.  “But Not You”, would be another argument for Benoit to come back to this well and drink again,  the genre needs writers and players who take two art forms and creates a third. Few do it these day, the formula is found and then it’s variations on a theme.  This work is dripping with authenticity.

Original work is rare these days, Benoit creates vibes that are at least ten miles thick.  He synthesizes blues, rock and pop, coming out the other side with a profound work, that could be as  commercial as the day is long. This artist excels at lyrical content, his vocals are in the pocket, the players support Benoit’s work with reverence, the mix, production and mastering are as accessible as this artists heart and soul are.  Good work!

Review by Christopher Brant Anderson

Country/Folk/Bluegrass
Pharis and Jason Romero:
Long Gone Out West


Produced by: Pharis and Jason Romero
Released: 2013 www.pharisandjason.com

Pharis and Jason Romero first met in 2007 and started playing together. They both had quite a bit of musical background in performing and blended well as is evident in their music. Their first album together was released in 2007 and this is their second release as a duo. Along with making albums and performing they also teach in music camps and bluegrass workshops. For bluegrass lovers this album will be very pleasing. The musicianship and singing are excellent as is the song writing.

Seven of the songs are written or co-written by them. The production is also first class. The music features the traditional bluegrass instruments, guitar, banjo, and fiddle and the lyrics and melodies are also traditional. The lyrics by themselves appear to be on the down side, but the melodies and performing have a bright upbeat feel on most of the songs and the atmosphere of the album is light and upbeat.

It starts out with a song written by Pharis titled Sad Old Song:

 And the whole room dies down when you sing out a sad song

One little voice to carry the room along

But it don’t matter when the room dies down

The playing on the acoustic instruments is well done and has a good feel to it.  The songs are the old story telling type of songs about people traveling through the west, like Long Gone Out West Blues:

 Going out west for the mountain breeze

The high plains are killing me

Where the wild still roam and the trees grow high

It’s a long gone out west blues

Truck Driver Blues continues the traveling atmosphere with its bits of country real life lessons and philosophies:

 Feeling tired and weary from my head down to my shoes

Said I’m feeling tired and weary from my head down to my shoes

Got a low down feeling truck driver’s blues

Ride, ride, ride on into town

There’s a honkytonk gal a-waiting, and I’ve got troubles to drown

Never did have nothing, got nothing left to lose

Said I never did have nothing, got nothing left to lose

Got a low down feeling, truck driver’s blues

There is a break in the vocal numbers with Lost Lula and again with Sally Goodin which are banjo instrumentals and display some nice finger picking as do all of the songs.

If you like bluegrass I really think you will like this album.

[Greg Bennett]

Bluegrass/Folk
The Quiet American (Aaron and Nicole Keim): Wild Bill Jones
No Producer Listed
Released: 2013


http://quietamericanmusic.com/

The Quiet American is the name of a duo made up of a husband and wife by the names of Aaron and Nicole Keim. The instruments they play are too numerous to mention. They include many traditional bluegrass instruments like guitar, banjo, lap steel, and many others, some Aaron built himself. He spent time in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon where he worked as a luthier for Mys-Moe Ukuleles. Prior to that he lived and performed in Colorado with a band called Boulder Acoustic Society, after which he went back to basics and old time folk music. Nicole is a musician and artist and met and teamed up with Aaron in Oregon where they both shared a love of old traditional folk music.

The Album starts out with upbeat bluegrass tunes, Apple in the Fall, Give the Fiddler a Dream, Come Walkin’ with Me. Posey’s Song has the feel of an old Irish folk song from long ago and is sung by Nicole to a mythical character named Wild Bill Jones, whose tale is told in the song Wild Bill Jones.

The duo also includes old fashioned bluegrass style gospel music such as Keys to the Kingdom:

“I’ve got the keys to the kingdom

Please unlock the door

I’ve got the keys to the kingdom

The world can’t do me no harm.”

Some of the songs are written by the Keims and some are traditional songs arranged by them and three are by other authors. One of the more well known traditional songs is Gallows Pole:

“Lover did you bring me silver

Lover did you bring me gold

Lover did you bring me anything

To keep me from the gallows pole

You didn’t bring me silver

You didn’t bring me gold

You just came to watch me hang

Hanging from the gallows pole”

The album is supposedly about the old West character Wild Bill Jones but most of the songs could really be about anything in history and about the old West in general. The musicianship is excellent and the sincerity and feeling is evident in their treatment and performance of the music. They display skill and background with their instruments and include a few others on three of the tracks on bass, fiddle, harmonica, and guitar. The album comes across to me like a very romantic journey through the old West. It is filled with upbeat bluegrass, old time gospel and ballads like What Are They Doing In Heaven Today. The music is entirely acoustic and would appeal to those who like old guitar and banjo folk music.

Country Acoustic
Shanna Underwood:
Fieldnotes From A Caravan
Produced by: Shanna Underwood and Azal KhanReleased: 


2011www.cdbaby.com/cd/shannaunderwoodhttp://reverbnation.com/shannaunderwoodhttp://sonicbids.com/shannaunderwoodhttp://shannaunderwood.bandcamp.com/

Fieldnotes From A Caravan is an album of songs written by Shanna Underwood on her travels through Nepal, Thailand, and the United States. The album was released in January 2011 and includes an assortment of musicians including, upright bass, drums, electric guitar, fiddle, and harmonica. She herself sings and plays acoustic guitar. The style of the music might be called country blues, although many of the songs are more of a country acoustic style. Her vocals are very rich and well blended with the instruments. The musicianship is excellent as well her song writing. The album opens with There Was A Town which is about small town life and how some people stay and some leave and what it is like to leave and try to come back:

“There was a town
It started small
Smelled like saltwater and smoke in the fall
But folks move around
And now its grown
They weren’t lying when they said you can’t go home
You can never go home

You can’t love a town for what you want it to be
You’ve got to love that town for what it is
And find a little happiness

There was a boy
He was kind and strong
In a young girl’s eyes he could do no wrong
But folks move around
And now she’s gone
Left for school, but this is till the only town he’s known
Old mills and stone”

From Appalachia to the Himalayas is about her travels in that part of the world:


“Sebago Lake in the summer time
Come on in, the water is fine
Don’t be shy, take it all off
I’ll tell you a secret after it gets dark

The leaves are on fire, they’re starting to fall
When they blow away, it makes me feel so small
I light the wood left in the stove, the smell of smoke
Makes me feel less alone

From Appalachia to the Himalayas
I never met anyone like you.”

She does a nice job of putting her experiences to music and into her lyrics. The arrangements are blended well with the acoustic feel all the way through the album and a good mix of guitar, fiddle, and harmonica, as well as the other instruments filling out the sound. Shanna sings with a very comfortable style and has a beautiful voice. It takes the listener through a story of her experiences and ends with a song that has a bit of sadness in it titled Willingly:

There’s a shore that’s safe

We call it home

Water looks deep and cold, but there’s a life out there I know

The siren of dreams is calling me

Saying jump on in

Somedays you just got to let it go

But my fingers getting torn baby busted and worn

Scraping at the shell of a dream

I get up in the morning and run

Cause I don’t know how else to be

I may fall on the pavement

I may get rained on

But I’ll walk into that ocean, willingly


The album is very well done, and Shanna Underwood is well worth listening to.

[Greg Bennett]

Local/Singer Songwriter“
Nobody’s Baby
”Leslie Alexander
www.lesliealexander.com

Alexander is almost local, she’s out of British Colombia, which on a good day is close enough to call our own.

The product was recorded by John MacArthur Ellis at Nashcroft Manor in BC.  Alexander is found on vocals, writing, kazoo and piano, Ellis is on acoustic, electric, pedal steel guitars, keys and bass.  Hank Hendrix works on Dobro, mandolin and banjo.  Rob Becker takes up bass on the third track and is also on supporting vocal work.  Mike Schmidt is behind the kit on tracks 1, 2, 5, 7 & 10, while Pat Steward plays drums on tracks, 3, 4, 9.

Alexander pens tunes that are in what I would call an eclectic mood, but she also has a bit of Tom Waits, living somewhere in her conscious or subconscious mind or memory.  I like the way she moves from very alternative tracks to very ‘out there’ tracks that float through effortlessly.  She takes risk, which makes me smile and has no fear about taking a bit of license with the tune, “Nola” with a nod to The Kinks and rock in general.  The production values change effortlessly as does the lyrical content of her tunes.

Alexander is a vocalist and she risks much with her ballads or show tune vibe, but can belt out a straight ahead rock vibe.  She’s her own woman when it comes to the nature of her vocals and writing, I kept listening for this or that influence, I’m sure there are artists that have impressed her, but she gives no quarter or illuminates little beyond her own style or tune.  The production values are complimentary to writing as well as her vocal approach. There are some good players behind each the vocal and tune.

There is a very soft side to Leslie’s work, but there is also a forged edge also.  Some of her tracks seem to be conversations with somebody that did her wrong, but she’s not getting even, she seems to just be telling her truth.  I like the no self-pity approach to the inner and outer workings of life as a woman.  She is very straight ahead with lyrical content, does not pull any punches, which works well for her rock tunes. She uses great imagery to convey her emotional vibe.

“What Did I Do”, the sixth track reveals another side to the lady.  She becomes tender and beckoning with her plea.   This is a very nice track, the production works well and the mix perfectly matches the mood of the piece.  As I have already discovered, Alexander doesn’t rest on her laurels, the next track is more of a rock/bluegrass vibe that is unrelenting in it’s lyric and tale.  Alexander shines on this track vocally and may be one of my top tracks on the project.  Awesome playing going on within this for three minutes and forty-nine seconds.

“Gimme” slows down the train again and another character or side of Alexander is revealed.  Alexander is not afraid to be rough or vulnerable, which to me makes an artist.  She risks on each cut and it pays off in grand dividends for the ear.  The title cut, “Nobody’s Baby” unfolds like an anthem for Alexander, but also for all of her genders side of the road.  Again, the cut is lyrically straight ahead, the production illuminates her emotions well.

This is a very good product from our friend up North; Alexander is hopefully writing and honing the next piece of work to share with us.

[Christopher Brant Anderson]

FolkRock
“No One Will Remember You”
David Newberry
Produced by: Adam Iredale-Gray
Released: March 15, 2012


http://www.davidnewberry.ca/

www.facebook.com/davidnewberrymusic

www.youtube.com/davidnewberrymusic

http://davidnewberry.bandcamp.com/album/no-one-will-remember-you

David Newberry is a folk singer form Canada whose style is very similar to early Dylan. The music has a strong electric side to it and is very well produced and arranged. He has a good feel for music and is a very talented musician, singer, and songwriter.

The other musicians are talented as well and it shows in the performances. The electric arrangements and performances of the music along with his solid vocals make it a strong folk/rock album. His start in music was not what one might expect.

He injured his hand while working as an assistant carpenter and started playing guitar as physical therapy for his recovery and has developed a style that would fit in well with the sixties folk singers. He was also a fan of punk music which is not at all like the music he now performs.

This is his second album, his first, When We Learn The Things We Need To Learn, was released in 2010 and has spent the years making the rounds of festivals and cafes in his performing career.  When I start paying attention to the lyrics there is a down side though. He sings a lot about the negative side of life as in So It Goes:

I have heard of the days when they paved streets with gold

Now we all walk around in Jack Kerouac’s coat

Preaching the dharma from a packet of smokes

Making fools of ourselves on the daytime talk shows

He even makes a comment about in the liner notes for English Bay where he says sometimes people tell me that instead of just critiquing everything, I should offer alternatives.

They promised us a tunnel through a mountain steep

To pass along the treasures from the ocean deep

Just because you wake up here don’t mean you sleep

You’ll be buried by the railway side counting sheep

In the song Mister he is very straight forward and brief in his notes: This song is about a hangover.

So I packed up as quietly as I could

And I took to the night after you

And I left behind all that I’d promised I’d wanted

And all that I’d promised to do

He has a little note about each song in the booklet that comes with the album and for the final song, To Hope, he writes: this song – an unrequited love letter to hopefulness – was recorded entirely live, sitting in a circle in the living room, very late into the night on the final evening of the recording sessions: there will always be a better day.

He has a very nice style that is easy to listen to and is a very talented singer and songwriter. In spite of the negative critiquing of the world and of life in general his performance makes the album nice to listen to. He has a good voice and a good sound and good arrangements. The album has a mix of acoustic/electric folk/rock and bluegrass influence with the last song, To Hope, picking up the atmosphere with an upbeat bluegrass performance.

[Greg Bennett]

Blues/Slide
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
“Between The Ditches
”www.bigdamnband.com

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is comprised of The Reverend Peyton on slide guitars, mandolin,vocals and harmonica.  Washboard Breezy Peyton is on, yep, the washboard, percussion and backing vocals.  Aaron “Cuz” Persinger works on bucket, drums, percussion and just plain hollering.  All the tunes were written by the Reverend and the album was also produced by the Rev and Paul Mahern at Mahern’s, White Arc Studios in Bloomigton, Indiana.

“Between The Ditches” is a roaring product that jumps out fast & furious and never stops driving forward.  Peyton’s lyrical approach is just as rapid as his playing; he gives no quarter to the subject he is writing about.  Peyton’s deliveries with his vocals are as unique as his playing, they are meant to be rough and mesh well with his style of playing.  Peyton makes mention of his luthier on the cover and I can hear where and why that was published, he lays into his instrument on each track with abandon producing a very cool and big damned sound.

Peyton’s vision for this work is clear; he is here to get your attention and your toe tapping.  This isn’t the straight ahead blues work that accompanies many blues players.  There is a quality in the work that reminds me of early rock attempts by Blue Oyster Cult and other late 60’s rock groups to communicate their feeling for the art form.  Peyton cements the feeling down and honed his own vision.

One of the aspects that just jumps off the product is the backing rhythms and beats, they drive as hard as Peyton’s playing.  I also really like how the backing vocals were placed in the mix to augment the feeling of some of the tracks.  The vocals parts are as complex and as important as any of the guitar work or percussion.

There is a propensity in the listener to feel that the cuts could be a continuum of the previous track, but Peyton distinctively finds another vibe on his guitar that leads the listener to another place.  Sometimes his lyrical content can get a bit lost, but he tends to augment what is really important to the tune or what  he is attempting to communicate to his audience.

Peyton has a playfulness to this work that serves it well.  I have a feeling this is a serious artist that takes it all a bit tongue in cheek.  Peyton isn’t selling anything; he’s conveying a message with an intensity rarely found in many blues projects.  What is astounding is his commitment to each track and the energy used to accomplish the final work.   From the down beat this product drives like a teenager set free in the family car for their first drive on the open road.

If you like the blues and monster slide guitar work this is a must listen.   The work is serious blues with a huge helping of playfulness that sometimes diverges into a bluegrass feel or a straight-ahead rock feel.  What impresses me the most in the listen is the clarity found in all that is happening in the production. Peyton certainly approached this work with vision and remained true to it.

Simply a great listen with very cool playing and well crafted tunes.

[Christopher Brant Anderson]