FolkBlog

Every once in awhile, I get a disk in the mail from someone that I’ve never heard of that reminds me why I do this. I received two disks in the mail from Los Angeles-based world/folk/pop singer/songwriter Ashley Maher.

Ashley Maher’s most recent CD, Flying Over Bridges, combines singer/songwriter folk, African folk and pop, western pop, and jazz influences into an eclectic melange greater than the sum of its parts. The groove is insistent, whether it comes from a lone set of sabar drums, as on “Seven”, or from a tight Afropop-influenced rhythm section featuring swirling guitar and walking bass on most of the other pieces. All of it is held together by Maher’s smooth Joni-Mitchell-like voice and remarkable ability to craft and control complicated syncopated melodies. If you like astists that step out on the edge to fuse a variety of styles, such as Baka Beyond or Afro Celt Sound System, then I recommend checking out Ashley Maher.

My personal Top Ten for the first quarter of 2006. These are all albums I have received in the first quarter of 2006, though I don’t think all have reached their general release date.

1) Railroad Earth: Elko – These guys may be the best currently working live band from New Jersey (yes – they may be better than those other guys). Their ability to play bluegrass, rock and country stylings, often within the same song, and their instrumental virtuosity are impressive.

2)Brooks Williams: Blues and Ballads – Brooks Williams has created an impressive collection of covers here, mixing traditional blues, jazz standards, and fiddle tunes, all restyled with Williams’ world class fingerstyle guitar picking and his James Taylor-esque vocals. Brooks Williams is the complete package. Why he’s not a star is beyond me.

3) Chuck Brodsky: Tulips for Lunch – Chuck Brodsky may be the most engaging storyteller working in folk music today. His stories range from the amusing to the poignant, with subject matters as diverse as baseball players on death row, undependable taxi drivers, circus elephants and their stupid handlers, and the general untruthfulness of US President #43. Each Chuck Brodsky albums seems to be better than the last one.

4) KT Tunstall: Eye to the Telescope – I was very impressed with this artist after hearing her interviewed on Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon, and I went out and bought the album. I like the way she’s blending folk, pop and rock stylings.

5) Mark Erelli : Hope and Other Casualties – Another singer/songwriter whose albums are getting progressively better. It’s no accident that the cover of this album is an homage to Dylan, because this album is very Dylanesque – a little personal, a little political. And while several songs do chronicle Erelli’s disappointment with the way things are going (hence the title) he title of the album, he does offer an album of pragmatic hope in “The Only Way”

“So I’m gonna love
And I’m gonna believe
And I’m gonna dream
But I’m gonna roll up my sleeve
And give everything until there’s nothing left to give.
That’s the only way I know how to live.”

6) Diana Jones: My Remembrance of You – The first thing that catches you about Diana Jones is her distinctive voice, in the same way that Iris DeMent and Gillian Welch have distinctive voices. The voice is so overwhelmingly fantastically suited to this music that it took me a couple times through this CD to realize just how well written the songs are. They sound like they came straight out of Appalachia, but Jones wrote them all. If you like Gillian Welch or Iris DeMent, or just great old-timey sounding music, go buy this album.

7) Tom Russell: Love and Fear – It’s always exciting when Tom Russell releases an album completely consisting of originals. This album does not disappoint, full of the storytelling, wit and pathos that is a Tom Russell album.

Austin & Elliott: 13 Songs Plus – Totaling 21 songs, singer/songwriter Chris Elliott and his singing partner Lisa Austin have put together an impressive collection of acoustic folk. It’s just two voices and an acoustic guitar, but the songs are impressive, particularly the mythic folk ballad “Blackwater Dam,” which has a timeless quality difficult to achieve.

9) Laura Cortese: Even the Lost Creek – This album is a nice mix of acoustic-oriented singer/songwriter material and Cortese displaying some impressive fiddling. It also features two previously unreleased tunes by Josh Ritter.

10) The Queensberry Rules: Black Dog and Other Stories – Some of the best folk music is made by artists who write songs that reflect their surroundings, and this English band continues to do this admirably. Tackling subjects like small town decay (“Sinking Town”) , pretenders to the throne (“Perkin Warbeck”) and unrequited love among seasonal migrant workers (“The Herring Girl”), with warm, acoustic arrangements, this band deserves a much wider audience in the folk community. This album has not yet been released (but you can hear it on the Online Folk Festival).

I found out last week that Paul Kelly put out an album in 2005 and somehow I completely missed it. Media Play, a music/DVD/books selling superstore-type chain is closing down and liquidating, and my girlfriend and I visited one of the locations on our way somewhere else, and lo and behold, there was Foggy Highway by Paul Kelly and the Stormwater Boys.

In Australia, Paul Kelly is a household name, often referenced as “the Bruce Springsteen of Australia.” It’s not a bad comparison for several reasons. His music seems to tap into something unique about being Australian. Some of his best songs are about distinctly Australian experiences. On “Forty Miles to Saturday Night” his narrator talks about it being the weekend and driving forty miles to town for the chance to hang out for the night at a bar. In “From Little Things, Big Things Grow,” the story is told of the first Aboriginal land rights case. Like Springsteen, Kelly is a provocative story teller, not afraid to take on a wide variety of tales and narrators, including, unlike most male singer/songwriters, female narrators. Another one of his best tunes, “Sweet Guy,” is from the perspective of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship.

Another way Kelly and Springsteen are similar is their connection to folk music. Springsteen is known for his bombastic anthem rock story songs, but has always had a soft spot for Woody Guthrie. His stripped down acoustic albums (Nebraska, The Ghost of Tom Joad and Devils and Dust) are some of his best. Kelly’s folk roots have always been a little more evident, as his best work with his band the Messengers are best categorized as folk/rock or Americana. Even so, stylistically Kelly has been all over the place since beginning his solo career, as his solo albums are more highly produced and venture further into pop, rock and even blues. Side projects include jazz, bluegrass and soundtrack efforts.

Kelly’s folk influences are clearly evident on the release I stumbled across (for 60% off!) at Media Play last week. Foggy Highway, recorded with an all-star band of Austalia’s best bluegrass pickers, features some of Kelly’s early works in a bluegrass, as well as a few newly written tunes and a Louvin brothers cover (“You’re Learning,” a duet with Kasey Chambers). A bonus disk contains four additional tunes, including a cover of “Rank Stranger.” Kelly’s tenor voice is perfect for bluegrass, and the resettings of his early tunes are all strong, particularly “Rally Round the Drum”, the story of a traveling show boxer, and “Cities of Texas.” However, it is the new songs which steal the show, particularly because one would not expect Kelly to write two killer bluegrass gospel tunes. Both “Passed Over” and “Meet Me in the Middle of the Air” sound like they have been reverberating around the hills of Kentucky for over a century.

If I had found this album earlier, it would have been on my Top 10 of 2005. It’s that good. And if you are not familiar with Paul Kelly, this is a good one to start with, though it’s not truly indicative stylistically of much of what he’s done. For a good introduction to his early stuff, start with his best-of compilation, Songs of the South or Comedy, which is I think his best with the Messengers. If you like a more folk/pop sound, try his solo CD Nothing But a Dream.

It seems to be that time of year when everyone puts together their Top Ten lists, and since I recently saw High Fidelity on cable, I guess I’m ready. All releases 2005.

1) Kate Campbell – Blues and Lamentations
2) Over the Rhine – Drunkard’s Prayer
3) Donal Hinely – Giants
4) James McMurtry – Childish Things
5) Van Morrison – Magic Time
6) John Prine – Fair and Square
7) Greg Trooper – Make it Through this World
Tracy Grammer – Flower of Avalon
9) Jackie Frost – Calliope
10) Al Stewart – A Beach Full of Shells

Honorable Mention (alphabetical order)

• Baka Beyond – Rhythm Tree
• The Clumsy Lovers – Smart Kid
• Mary Gauthier- Mercy Now
• Nanci Griffith – Hearts in Mind
• The Kennedys – Half a Million Miles
• The Levellers – Truth and Lies
• The Love Hall Tryst – Songs of Misfortune
• Bill Mallonee – Friendly Fire
• Kate Rusby – The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly
• Richard Thompson – Front Parlour Ballads
• Dar Williams – My Better Self