ARCHIVES

Sharing the world with any one of the tracks on Kim Richey’s latest release, ‘Wreck Your Wheels’, gives the impression of walking through a dream. The combination of her delivery, part reverie, part whispered secrets and Neilson Hubbard’s comforting production, the album moves along like a weekend river rafting trip. As the bordering banks glide by, Kim watches chronicling the life that lies along the shores. The mood is summer up as an album track describes the movement, “quiet now, softly now, careful how you go” (“Careful How You Go”). The music and voice come together to wrap around you, entering your ears, warming you inside and out.

Some things change, some don't and some things get better. Elvis Costello deserves to own all three choices and he executes his options perfectly on 'National Ransom'. Breaking it down....so, what has stayed the same? The opening sound, and title track, kicks off like an out-take from 80's vengeance arrangements, onslaughts of sound assaulting the rhythm, bending into a driving forward motion. Elvis' voice has always had the spit to carry off this model and the ability to be heard on each word, enabling the listener to hear as well as feel the track.

First albums are real important on many levels. If they work, they can break you big time. The music can be independent and suddenly commercial in a major way. Could hit a bunch of target markets, could touch only one but stick like glue. If done right, you could have a career that lasts for a ling time. All those pieces are mainly in the hands of the end user, however. In order to achieve any of those goals, the music needs to sell; the band needs to be able to tour. What makes success varies, what makes for good music, well, that is up to the band.
From the band’s perspective, the first album is what they, and ideally, their art, have to say. It is the results of putting musicians together, practicing, and bringing in new songs, finding out about what each other are listening to, practicing, playing out a little, rehearsing and finding an audience. A lot of those songs on the first album are able to be fine tuned, polished, worked in front of a crowd....keeping what works, getting rid of what does not. Hitting your mark can put you in line for a sophomore slump, but that is about the second album. This is about a band’s first effort, ‘Outskirts’ from Blue Rodeo.
Blue Rodeo formed in Canada in 1984. Jim Cuddy and Greg Kellor became friends in high school. The Canadian natives formed a few bands after college making a decision to leave Toronto and head down to NYC. The guitarists met Bob Wiseman and moved back to Toronto in 1984. The name Blue Rodeo was in place before the two remaining original members, drummer Cleave Anderson and bassist Bazil Donovan joined up.

When Chip Taylor met Carrie Rodriguez at SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas in 2001, Carrie was performing and Chip, in the audience, was amazed at her playing. He sensed something else as well, something magical. Carrie tells the story: “I met Chip Taylor in 2001. I was just out of music school and playing at SXSW. He came out to the show. I started working with Chip and was shocked throughout the show by what he had written.

Alejandro Escovedo has been a fixture in music since the 1970’s when he helped build the cutting edge San Francisco punk scene in The Nuns. His 1980 band, Rank and File, bridged rock and country and moving back to Austin, formed The True Believers. Rather than the flash of a burst, Alejandro’s star has been consistent, rising and lighting all it touches, an inviting beacon. His dedication is a family tradition, “You just do your good work, and people care. I always believed, when I was a kid, that if you just worked hard, you would find fulfillment. I think I got a lot of that from my father, and my brothers. A working musician is all I ever wanted to be. Hard work, to stay true to what you want to do, and then eventually someone would notice for that very reason.”

These two gentlemen, Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, influenced every subsequent blues or rock guitarist in one way or another. Albert King was idolized by Stevie and his influences on Vaughan are unmistakable. They are both among the legends of the electric guitar both as innovators of tone and technique and players of near mystical skill. Those who are aware of the vast catalogue of Albert King and the much smaller but no less impressive catalogue of Stevie Ray Vaughan have long ago discovered the magic of ‘In Session.’ For those new to the names or the memorable meeting of these two giants it is a historical document of a meeting long planned and almost never realized. The set was recorded for the music television program ‘In Session’ for station CHCH in Ontario.

Lubriphonic are masters at unapologetic funk and soul riffs that were born in the 70’s. Though the sound's driver license sports a date that makes it decades old,  ‘The Gig Is On’, the bands latest effort, is stocked with liquid refreshment bottled at the fountain of youth. Not one note sounds dated. The music is not time stamped, it is more about places; summer nights cruising with windows down and volume up, winter nights with a fire going and a snifter of brandy and late night smoky jams. Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes receive lots of hands up for creating the template for soul and funk respectively. The mixture of the two styles came together in the capable hands of Curtis Mayfield, who added ample doses of rock and blues to the mix before serving.

For the past twenty years, Peter Mulvey has gone from sea to shining sea and beyond. Peter is a musician and a writer, his muse leads him down a path lined with jazz, modern acoustic, poetry, narrative and Americana stylings. Based in Milwaukee, his home is the road, the methods of travel moving him by foot, car, plane, train and bicycle.  The music bug was sparked in Dublin and the fire has never gone out, taking him back to the US, busking in Boston subways as a full time occupation, playing marathon days and fine tuning his art.