John Bohlinger—Nashville Correspondent
Traveller
When Chris Stapleton left the Steel Drivers I thought it was a huge mistake. The band had a Grammy nomination and a bright future. Why jack with that? Then I caught Stapleton at a festival in Canada. He was the opener, playing before five more successful acts. With his Jazzmaster and an old Deluxe, Stapleton and his band—his singing hippie-mama wife, Morgane, a bass player, and a drummer—tore up that stage. No light show, no backing tracks, no smoke machines or big production—just killer songs played by people who felt every note. I immediately bought their latest album. The rest is history. Just goes to show that following your heart—even if it seems crazy—is the right thing to do … if you’re that talented.
1989
It’s a bit embarrassing to admit you like Taylor Swift. What self-respecting guitar dude listens to the breakup songs of a young, rich, white girl? But that shows what a true artist Ryan Adams is—he recognized Swift’s songs for what they are: well-crafted, beautiful, insightful tunes that are catchy as a cold in January. Adams rocks where he should rock and goes dark as he tends to do, but he still taps into the relentless fun of a great album.
Most-anticipated 2016 releases: the Rolling Stones, David Bowie
Ted Drozdowski—Senior Editor
Hey Joe Opus Red Meat
Otis Taylor’s been almost single-handedly keeping blues sonics and songwriting relevant and contemporary for years, and this is his psychedelic masterpiece—with an epic conceptual sweep comparable to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. Taylor paints tales about addiction, sex change, isolation, infidelity, and devotion with his spare poetry, majestic baritone voice, and a swirling tapestry of guitar, banjo, and violin, often drawing on the powerful, one-chord trance music of Africa and Mississippi hill country for inspiration. A former bandmate of the legendary Tommy Bolin, Taylor has a unique, driving, edgy approach to guitar, typically played on his Stratocaster in open G (or related banjo tunings) with a dollop of digital delay on top. Warren Haynes joins in for three numbers, including an imaginative reworking of the Billy Roberts tune in the album’s title that Hendrix cast in stone in 1966. It’s proof that deep roots music needn’t be covered in dust.
Most-anticipated 2016 releases: Ava Mendoza, Tool, Lucinda Williams, Lush, Richie Owens and the Farm Bureau, Tedeschi Trucks Band
Chris Kies—Associate Editor
Dying Surfer Meets His Maker
All Them Witches prove that finding memorable stoner psych-rock east of Rancho De La Luna is possible. The powerful quartet’s third album shows all the members hitting their respective peaks. Bassist/singer Charles Michael Parks Jr.’s slithering-yet-thunderous bass lines rumble like John Paul Jones and Geezer, and his vocals add mystic touches to haunting jams like “Call Me Star” and “Dirt Preachers.” Meanwhile, guitarist Ben McLeod harnesses fuzzed-out fury with restraint and precision, making the impact of his twisted blues-meets-Sleep riffs that much more powerful. But lighter psych-folk passages like those in “Call Me Star” and the opening of “Talisman” also show a musical maturity not seen on the band’s previous work.
Honorable mentions: Jason Isbell's Something More Than Free, Tyranny is Tyranny's The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism, and Courtney Barnett's Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Most-anticipated 2016 releases: Tool, Frank Ocean, Explosions in the Sky, Nikki Lane
Andy Ellis—Senior Editor
Here in the Deep
Best known for playing fuzzed-out electric guitar in Baltimore’s alt-rock Arbouretum, Dave Heumann reveals a more introspective, meditative side with his debut solo album. He hasn’t completely abandoned his psych-rock soloing—great news for those of us who dig his stoner leads—but acoustic guitar and shimmering electric provide the foundation for most of the 10 songs on this album. As always, Heumann reaches back to the late ’60s for inspiration, but this time instead of paying homage to Blue Cheer, Heumann subtly channels Bert Jansch, the Grateful Dead’s Working Man’s Dead, and early Traffic. The songwriting, artfully layered guitar textures, and superb mixing make this an album I return to again and again for satisfying aural immersion. Headphones recommended.
Nashville Obsolete
Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings make acoustic music that’s spare, honest, and starkly beautiful. On this outing, Rawlings’ vintage Epiphone archtop gets plenty of space to release its tinkling, almost resonator-like tones. Of course, were anyone else to play his diminutive instrument, it wouldn’t sound remotely the same: No one flatpicks like Rawlings. It sounds like he chisels his lines from 100-year-old oak using the finest, razor-sharp blades and a master engraver’s touch. And those chromatic approach notes! How does one find a voice so unique, so immediately identifiable?
Slide Guitar Ragas from Dusk Till Dawn
If you’re familiar with Hindustani slide, which is played lap style on a guitar configured with both sympathetically vibrating and plucked drone strings, you’ll be delighted with Bhattacharya’s latest collection of ragas. If this “secret” world of slide is new to you, Slide Guitar Ragas offers an excellent introduction to the hypnotic sounds pioneered by Brij Bhushan Kabra on his 1967 album Call of the Valley. On Slide Guitar Ragas, Bhattacharya plays several instruments of his own design, including the 24-string chaturangui guitar. He also plays Kabra’s modified Gibson Super 400—the instrument that arguably started the entire Indian slide guitar movement—on “Roshni,” a 17-minute early-morning raga. Anyone coming to this music with an open mind and the patience to absorb unfolding overtones and melodies will come away transformed by Bhattacharya’s stunning musicianship.
Most-anticipated 2016 releases: Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Let Me Get By
Shawn Hammond—Chief Content Officer
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Nightsoundtrack
Ana Lily Amirpour’s noir-Western A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night isn’t just the best vampire flick since Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In (tying with Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s hilarious mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows)—it’s also a sheer musical delight. The Iranian-American director of this Persian-language film shot in the desert just outside Bakersfield, California, chose a stunning array of tunes that perfectly suit the stark cinematography and the duality of the protagonist’s dark walk among the living. Highlights include Radio Tehran’s delectably throbbing “Tatilat” and soaring indie-rock slow-build “Gelaye,” Iranian singer-songwriter Dariush Eghbali’s lilting nylon-string lament “Chesme Man,” the breathy vocals and acoustic-and-accordion interplay on Kiosk’s “Charkhesh E Pooch,” and a handful of avant spaghetti-western pieces from Portland-based outfit Federale.
Something in the Water
On his seventh studio LP, St. Louis singer-songwriter Pokey LaFarge pulls off at least two minor miracles with his mélange of American roots music. He and the other six members of his band are virtuosos in the truest sense of the term: Although they’ve got chops up the kazoo (literally), LaFarge’s gang (including fantastic Gypsy-jazz guitarist Adam Hoskins and upright bassist Joey Glynn) always uses these skills to instill their infectious blend of old-time folk, Western swing, country, and ragtime blues with an irresistible groove and a nonstop sense of fun. It’s a concoction that’s simultaneously retro and modern, combining bygone genres in unique ways while updating them with witty, tongue-in-cheek lyrics too risqué to have been mainstream in decades past.
Thunder Lizard's Reprieve
Though not as filling a feast as last year’s Annabel Dream Reader, this EP from U.K. trio the Wytches is chock-full of the sort of reverb-drenched surf-punk mayhem that made that outing such a delight. On the album opener, “DADFAC#,” vocalist/guitarist Kristian Bell pumps out fuzzy, primitively discordant bends, while bassist Daniel Ramsey and drummer Gianni Honey plod between heightened tension and free-flowing release before the three devolve into a snarling, feedback-soaked grunge/speed-doom outro. “Gettin’ Lucky” juxtaposes that mayhem with wistful vocals, crunchy Jazzmaster strumming, and a tortured, swirling solo that’s equal parts Tony Iommi and Kurt Cobain. The third track, “If Not for Money,” gets even mellower, with trippy Mellotron flutes draping a gauzy haze over a backdrop of laidback fingerpicking, loose drums, and strung-out vocals. Album closer “Wasteybois” begins with guitars that sound like a young Pete Townshend blowing up his Vox, but quickly froths into fits of shrieking, psychedelic thrashing before crashing to the floor in a heap and staring at the ceiling spinning above its own glorious mess.
Most-anticipated 2016 releases: Division of Laura Lee, the Raveonettes, Radiohead
Tessa Jeffers—Managing Editor
The Helio Sequence
I was instantly blown away the first time I heard this album’s opening track, “Battle Lines,” wafting through an East Nashville record store. “Who is this?” I asked the guy behind the counter. I took extra time browsing so I could hear more of the record, then I bought the vinyl edition on the spot. This is psychedelic rock with evolved, compositional instrumentation—and oh, how it moves! I’ll go out on a limb and say Helio has the songwriting depth of Radiohead (sue me) and an orchestral groove like the Beta Band. It’s all the more impressive when you realize this band is a duo. On standout tracks “Red Shifting” and “Upward Mobility,” the lush soundscapes are framed with catchy, minimalistic guitar ostinatos that build tastefully into a cloud of feel-good vibes reminiscent of the album’s beautiful cover artwork. Helio keeps it uplifting but goes deep.
1989
Looking back over the year, this was the album I was giddily counting down the days for. Even if you’re not a Taylor Swift fan, it’s difficult to deny the original collection of catchy tunes on 1989 shows real growth for her. It won’t change your life or anything, but I’m in love with the idea of an artist doing something controversial and not caring if everyone dismisses it. Many accused Adams of merely having a crush on a girl. If that’s the case, he is an absolute romantic badass. He took a stripped-down album of big-production pop songs and gave them a different life. They breathe and brood, and it feels like he got inside these songs and experienced his own birth. Father John Misty was so jealous he copied the concept right after. Eat your heart out, Father John!
Run
I was shocked when I learned Aaron Bruno made an entire album with just one other person in the room. I’ve been a fan of Awol since Megalithic Symphony, but I thought it was a traditional band. Regardless, I love what Bruno is doing—making edgy music that gets played on the radio. Maybe “Sail” is all you know, but Awol experiments with raunchy bass lines and guitar sounds never heard before with confrontational abandon. It’s fearless and speaks to your primal instincts, and that’s something I’m constantly searching for in the music of our times. Bruno played piano, drums, guitar, and everything else you hear on Run, but he’s also using digital technology as a legit instrument in itself to make complex songs that he can still recreate live with a full band.
Honorable mention: Wolf Alice's My Love Is Cool
Most-anticipated 2016 releases: Haim, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Kanye West, Gorillaz
Rich Osweiler—Associate Editor
Mind Out Wandering
This record has remained at the very top of my list since I got my hands on it last spring. The 10 soulful jewels that frontman/singer/keyboardist Anthony Ferraro put together with his troupe of jazz players oozes ’70s soft rock, but in a modern and funkified manner. Think Bread meets Ben Folds meets Remy Shand—although you can also feel a bit of a Toro y Moi vibe (which should be no surprise since Ferraro splits his time as keyboardist for the latter). It’s stellar songwriting with some especially gorgeous guitar work from Derek Barber.
DMA’s
Since releasing their debut EP this year, these lads from Down Under have amassed a number of comparisons to Oasis. I get it—a little—but there’s much more to DMA’s than Britpop. Excellent melodies, great hooks, and big choruses fed by glittery guitars are usually a great recipe for something special, and that’s what you get here. But the acoustic-fueled ballads “Delete” and “So We Know” also bring a nice balance. A full-length effort called Hills End is due in February.
Most-anticipated 2016 releases: Lush, Radiohead, Robin Nolan
Charles Saufley—Gear Editor
Hexadic II
What do you do when you get in a guitar rut—buy a new phaser? Ben Chasny decided to invent a whole new freaking system for approaching the instrument. While the esoteric origins of the system run deep, it is fundamentally rooted in letting chance reconfigure the fretboard and guide composition. He field-tested the system first on Hexadic I, an electric, often heavy band piece. Hexadic II, however, represents a more focused, personal, acoustic-based application of the system. Not surprisingly, the results sound unlike any other guitar record out there, and the songs weave like tendrils of vine around a lattice made up of Morton Feldman’s modern minimalism, Japanese koto pieces, and Eastern European folk melodies.
Goes Missing
One of these days Emmett Kelly—long the right-hand man and guitar slinger for Bonnie Prince Billy, and now Ty Segall’s Muggers—will receive his due as one of the most versatile and classy guitar players alive. This LP, performed and sung almost entirely by Kelly, also showcases his protean voice and formidable songwriting chops. This particular batch of songs veers from ecstatic Meet the Beatles! and Beau Brummels-inflected pop jewels peppered with Herb Ellis-meets-George Harrison chord moves, to Guided by Voices-style nuggets that sound conceived by some lonely genius plying his craft in a dim garage at the end of a lost suburban cul-de-sac.
Honorable mentions: Flying Saucer Attack’s Instrumentals 2015, Laura Cannell’s Beneath Swooping Talons, Peacers’ Peacers, Daniel Bachman’s River, Howlin Rain’s Mansion Songs, Kurt Vile’s B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down…, Sir Richard Bishop’s Tangier Sessions, Kelley Stoltz’s In Triangle Time, Moon Duo’s Shadow of the Sun
Jason Shadrick—Associate Editor
Something More Than Free
It’s official—Jason Isbell is no longer “the guy who used to be in the Drive-By Truckers.” With Something More Than Free, he plants his flag as the best Americana songwriter of his generation. The overall tone on these 11 tracks is a bit happier than on his breakthrough album, 2013’s Southeastern. This time around Isbell brought his band, the 400 Unit, into the studio to help shape and craft the album. Producer Dave Cobb returned to help capture amazing guitar tones, such as the ethereal slide solo at the end of “Children of Children.” Isbell’s Muscle Shoals roots come through on “Palmetto Rose,” a swampy, blues-inflected number that moves between a stomp-your-foot jam and a lilting, power-pop chorus with ease. If this ends up being Isbell’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, it will only mean the best is yet to come.
Mixtape of the Open Road
Many of Martin Sexton’s fans come to his shows for the otherworldly vocals—and rightfully so—but it’s his unbelievably percussive, harmonic-fueled, flat-out grooving rhythm playing that brings me in. And on his latest album, Mixtape of the Open Road, you hear this type of amazing fretwork spread amongst a fully realized vision that goes from the bouncy soul of “Pine Away” to the Laurel Canyon-esque folk-rock of “You (My Mind Is Woo)” to the retro stomp-rock of “Dandelion Days.” The cumulative result is a varied collection of soulful, heartfelt songs that—just as the album’s title suggests—will inevitably lead to a lot of repeat listening.
World's Fair
Although Julian Lage gets lumped into jazz circles, his ability to transcend style and expectations is rather stunning. Armed with a 1939 Martin 000-18 and a mic, he sounds as comfortable as ever navigating through this collection of original compositions. The intimacy of the recording is engaging and the pre-war Martin sounds full and dynamic, thanks to co-conspirators Matt Munisteri and Armand Hirsch. The deft picking on “Gardens” has peripheral classical elements and counterpoint, but soon moves to a melody that’s served several different ways—and with striking dynamics. The album closer, “Lullaby,” has moments where you hold your breath while Lage pulls everything he can out of a series of minimalist fragments that ache with melancholy beauty. This isn’t a reinvention of Pass’ Virtuoso series—it’s a snapshot of a virtuoso inventing an entirely new vocabulary.
Most-anticipated 2016 releases: Jimmy Page, Metallica, Lake Street Dive, and anything produced by Dave Cobb.
LaFarge sharpened his tribute to American music—especially the music of the Midwest—on the albums Beat, Move, and Shake (2008), Riverboat Soul (2010), and Middle of Everywhere (2011). His work earned the admiration of Jack White, another artist putting his own spin on Americana. White has championed LaFarge’s work on his own Third Man label, producing the 2011 EP Chittlin’ Cookin’ Time in Cheatham County and 2013’s Pokey LaFarge. This affiliation has been a boon to LaFarge’s career, as did his reading of the standard “Lovesick Blues” on the soundtrack of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.
LaFarge’s latest album, Something in the Water (Rounder), is his most ambitious to date. Produced by Jimmy Sutton (known for his work with JD McPherson),the record augments LaFarge’s core ensemble with boisterous horns and walls of harmonized vocals. It’s all over the place stylistically—in a good way—from the updated ragtime of “Wanna Be Your Man” to the mysterious strains of “Goodbye, Barcelona.”
We caught LaFarge while he was touring Europe and discussed his robust old archtops, his musical identity, his friendship with Jack White, and how the Midwest has shaped his music.
How did you come to be such a purveyor of retro sounds?
I was exposed to much of the same music as my peers when I was growing up—the pop music of the ’90s. Then I wanted something different, so I started with classic rock and went backwards from there. One of my grandfathers played the banjo, and that got me into acoustic stringed instruments pretty early on.
You hitchhiked around the country when you were 17. What did you learn, musically and otherwise?
It benefited me mostly from a songwriting perspective—seeing all the things I saw, experiencing all the things I experienced, and remembering all of these things vividly. It all became good fodder for authentic songs.
Who are some of your most important influences?
In terms of guitarists, the most important ones have been Big Bill Broonzy, Ry Cooder, Leon Redbone, S.E. Rogie, Grady Martin, and Lefty Frizzell. On other instruments, there’s [banjoist] Bahamian Blind Blake, [player of self-made instruments] Danyel Waro, and [singer/yodeler] Jimmie Rodgers. The composers who influence me most are Bob Dylan, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, and Otis Redding.
How did you learn to play so many early American idioms? Are you self-taught?
I’m self-taught, yes. I started out listening to all of the early acoustic blues and jazz recordings I could get my hands on—this was before you could find anything you need on the Internet—and picking out just the chord progressions at first. Then I started writing my own pieces and working on solos.
How have you found your own identity in preserving vintage American music?
I suppose that’s part of who I am, but my identity isn’t necessarily tied to that. Preservation is one thing—I’m all for that—but what I do now is more rooted in creating contemporary things based on the world around me. That said, the influence of early American styles in my compositions is a form of preservation in its own way.
Talk about the influence of the American Midwest.
I was born and raised in the Midwest, and I write from a Midwestern perspective. I understand that perspective so much more after traveling for so long and getting out of the Midwest. I’m also influenced by early players in all styles who were from the Midwest, many of whom made their careers there. And the people playing on the new record are from Wisconsin, Chicago, and St. Louis—you can tell from the attitude in how they approach the music. Plus, I just relate to the strong Midwestern work ethic.
You not only play the music with stylistic rectitude—you dress the part. How do you choose your clothes and where do you find them?
I find them all over the place. I like to shop while I’m traveling and find things I may not be able to at home. Of course, I choose clothes based on how I look in them, but also on quality and ethics—handmade things, nothing made by sweatshop laborers. I buy both vintage clothes and things from quality contemporary outfitters.
How has your music evolved over the last few years?
At heart it’s essentially the same, but it’s been fleshed out to include bigger backing instrumentation. I have a drummer now, and there’s a stronger emphasis on rhythm and getting people grooving. I added a horn section a couple years ago, and we’re doing a lot more vocal harmonies. Overall, my music is bigger, grander, and more rock ’n’ roll.
What was your compositional process like for the new album?
Nothing too fancy: a lot of writing and rewriting at every turn. It was just write, write, write, throw it all away, start over, write, move on to pre-production, throw it away, write, and record.
The album has a collective feel. How much input did the other players have?
The horn arrangements were written by [cornetist] Andy Schumm. Jimmy [Sutton] and I did most of the other arranging, but we always accepted input from anyone involved. That’s probably what you’re responding to.
Your music obviously owes a lot to early jazz. Does improvisation factor into your playing on the record?
It’s very important—it’s all over the place! My motto is, follow the feeling and let it come out. You can’t compose feeling.
Gear
Guitars
1946 Epiphone Spartan with K&K pickup
1950 Gibson L-7 with McCarty pickup
2012 Hamm-tone archtop
1895 Lyon and Healy parlor
1956 Silvertone parlor
Amps
Magnatone Twilighter
Effects
None
Strings and Picks
D’Addario (assorted)
“Any heavy pick I can find”
How’d you get the great electric tones on the title track?
That’s all [co-guitarist] Joel Paterson, I’m afraid. He used a great 1945 Gibson L-7 with a Charlie Christian pickup for a really classic sound.
Why did you tune down a whole step for your interpretation of the pop standard “When Did You Leave Heaven?”
I simply wanted to be able to play a Bb chord—Bb is a horn-friendly key—but with a basic C-major shape for that nice, open sound.
Can you talk about your association with Jack White?
Jack heard one of my older tunes on the radio a few years back and took an interest. He invited me to record a seven-inch for his label, Third Man, and that led to signing a deal for the previous full-length [self-titled] I put out in 2013. He produced that record with me as well. He’s now a friend, too. He and I have bonded not just over music, but also through our love of baseball.
On the road you’ve been playing an Epiphone Spartan and a Gibson L-7. Is it difficult to maintain these old guitars, and do you worry about traveling with them?
Old fine-quality archtops are warhorses. I have yet to have any serious problems with either guitar on the road. I just detune them when I fly, keep them out of extreme temperatures, and take them inside every night from the touring vehicle so they don’t get stolen.
What do you think are the hallmarks of a great guitar?
Good wood and good craftsmanship—and being played, night after night. For at least 20 to 30 years.
YouTube It
Watch Pokey LaFarge and his ensemble play a great short set for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.
