The Coal Men - Pushed To The Side

Dave Coleman and Dave Ray - two of East Nashville's nicest gentlemen - are also two of the most talented. Along with bassist Paul Slivka (another nice and talented guy by the way), the trio as The Coal Men (web | Twitter) will release their new album Pushed To The Side Friday, August 19th.

Though Dave squared have played together for over 15 years, I was introduced to their music only three years ago with the release of their previous album, 2013's Escalator. For Pushed To The Side, Coleman leveraged the talents (and niceness) of other East Nashville songwriters and friends including Stephen Simmons and Bob Delevante.

The title of the album's opener - Depreciate - may catch the eye of many CPAs. If so, they will likely be disappointed as the song has nothing to do with accounting. An aging, tour van serves as the metaphoric, contemplative vehicle. “It’s really about growing older gracefully and trying to find your self worth,” Coleman admits. “That’s part of what this band has tried to do. We’ve always been committed to being who we are and not chasing trends.”

I'm nearly ready for the junkyard

Counting down the miles

I can't remember all my travels

But boy I rode 'em out in style

All the luster and the shine

It's bound to chip and fade

The day you roll it off that line

You depreciate

Coleman co-wrote a trio of songs with West Virginia-to-Nashville transplant Jeff Wickland. The pair wrote three compelling "story" songs. In a pleasantly-paced 3/4 time, Willy Jett seems to be a hard-working coal man who enjoys partying harder. During one of his weekend adventures, the listener is introduced to Lilly, a one-night stand for Willy.

Willy came down from the coal camp

dreaming of a woman on his arm

And he found one down at the corner

Lilly took him with all of her charms

Two songs later, Lilly Hurst gets her own song. After perhaps getting dismissed as a rent-by-the-trick quickie for Willy, the listener learns of Lilly's much tougher ... and violent reality.

Nix came back one night needing his comfort and rest
He walked in on Lilly Hurst doing what she did best

Which man she was with, I guess I never did hear

Nix drew a line, left Lilly bleeding ear to ear

The trio of the Coleman-Wickland songs is completed with Travis. I've not heard The Coal Men play the song live yet - and I suppose it'll be a tough one to include in a set list. C'mon y'all, get up and dance! - nah, that's not gonna work with this one. Travis is one of the saddest, loneliest, searching, songs of loss you'll hear. I can only hope the song represents a truly fictional character rather than a true life experience of Coleman or Strickland. Unfortunately, however, Travis' story is an all too real one for many struggling young folks and those around them.

Travis lived across town by the railroad track

Just him and his dad and four dying walls of a shotgun shack

His mind was restless, it ached and it groaned

He walked this town, head hung down, most days he stayed stoned

~~~

He walked out alone deep into the black

Travis and a .38, the night he never came back

How could it happen to one of our own?
How did Travis live and die alone?

Though the aforementioned three songs are pretty deep, Speeding Like A Demon lightens the mood a lot. A co-write between Coleman and Simmons, Speeding is a fun, upbeat song about criss-crossing the state of Florida trying to make one gig after another. With Luther Perkins-ish guitar picking, I could imagine the song being championed by someone like Jerry Reed back in the day.

Pounding rain, orange cones, engine whines, the engine moans

Speeding like a demon to get to the show

Dotted lines, yellow lines, highway signs, and power lines

Speeding like a demon to get to the show

Coleman's guitar strumming and Ray's continual rim shot back beat give Faithless Eyes a bit of a Tell Tale Heart vibe - albeit with a false relationship commitment rather than a murder at the core. Careful when listening to this one though as to not self-incriminate!

Faithless eyes do not cry tears

Faithless eyes just mark the years

Of all the burdens brought on by lustful desires

Faithless eyes are not blind

They all see things that remind

The man that sees through them his love cast aside

The next-to-last song is Stones River. Co-written with Delevante, the structure of it reminds me a bit of Tennessee from the previous album. For me personally, Stones River hits even closer to home. Tennessee has been my life-long home. I grew up specifically in the suburb of Donelson - east of East Nashville. The Stones River separates Donelson from Hermitage to the east.

• I permanently separated from several friends in junior high who lived on the other side of the river and were zoned to a different high school.
• The Stones feeds Percy Priest Lake - a site of many fun times during my teen years.
• The river is fed by McCrory Creek - a creek that ran behind the small Methodist church I attended as a kid. I spent many summer camp weeks splashing in that creek - waters that carried our sweat and laughter to the Stones.

The Singer (from Louisville) closes the album. Through the previous 11 songs of the album, Coleman's seemingly effortless guitar work, Ray's varied and generally subtle percussion, and Slivka's steady bass lines are ever present. But their consistency allows you to center in on the lyrics - to ponder and contemplate. A couple of seconds after Stones River ends, guitar feedback, Slivka's bass riff, and Ray's snare rim clicks throat punch you to realize it's time to wake up. The song is completely different musically than all others on the album yet tells another story.

The song features a local singer getting regularly heckled by his audience and is based loosely on a Tommy Womack short story. It's also possible this lyric from Womack's incredible Alpha Male and the Canine Mystery Blood may be embodied in Womack's story and Singer:

I'm singing all the songs I've sang for years

And when it's a band gigging, it's rocking

And when it's solo, the people talking while I'm singing

Make me depressed, you think I could take a hint

With Singer being so different from the rest of the album and slotted as the closing song, I'll still state the obvious pun by noting it was ... pushed to the side ... as far as it could go.


From start to finish - the eight songs noted here and another four - are compelling listens and make Pushed To The Side a must-get.

TMC

East Nashville keeps 'em coming: The Coal Men

I grew up in Donelson, Tennessee - a suburb of Nashville. Its east OF Nashville, but its hardly what folks know as East Nashville. Yet with the seemingly endless supply of great musical talent that flows from that side of the river, I sometimes wonder if I should play the poser and brag "Yeah, I'm from East (of) Nashville."

Nah, I won't go that far. But I really enjoy hearing one quality release after another from artists that reside in the area of town that somewhat romantically brags "we'll steal your heart ... and your lawnmower."

Another fine upcoming release (August 27) is Escalator by The Coal Men. The release will be the band's fourth album but their first on Todd Snider's label, Aimless Records. Unless I'm mistaken, I think The Coal Men's new one will be the label's first release by an artist other than Todd. He released Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables and Time As We Know It: The Songs of Jerry Jeff Walker in 2012. And Live: The Storyteller recorded at Nashville's TPAC was released in 2011.

The core of the band is guitarist / vocalist Dave Coleman and drummer Dave Ray. Coleman's vocals even have a Todd sound from time to time during the album though clearly the record is not a Todd Snider sounding one. Coleman has built a solid music network within Music City. Among others who contributed, Will Kimbrough added his guitar gifts to the recording.

You'll get your dollar's worth with this one. The album has 13 full-length and quality songs. One thing that really caught my ear in the first couple of listens was the diversity of song styles, instruments used and vocal inflections.

• Last Goodbye - the lead-off track is a strong one. I'm admittedly not the best on picking up on specific instrument types, chord progressions, lyric composition, etc. But I do know what I like. Goodbye has a bit of what I'd call a Marshall Crenshaw vibe - and you can enable "repeat track" without worry.

• Stuck - The band made a great choice by slotting Stuck behind the upbeat opener. A strong song that's certainly "thicker" than Goodbye. And the chucka-chucka-chucka guitar riff? Ohh yeaahh, berry, berry nice.

• Role Model - This song was initially my favorite track or certainly the one I've found myself cranking the loudest because of Coleman's thrashing guitar work and Ray's solid drumming with a healthy dose of cymbals. Bonus points for the horn accompaniment!

• Tennessee - Sure, I freely admit I'm a homer and that I'm partial to the song title. So sue me. But this song is truly an enjoyable one - though one of the more contemplative songs on the album. Just as Stuck was appropriately slotted behind Last Goodbye, I think another solid decision was made with the Role Model - Tennessee sequencing.

Put my wings to the wind / Leave the rest to the sky
Keep on painting on my pictures / Until the day I die
in Tennessee.

• Sanity - This is one of the tunes where I sense some of Todd's influence in the lyrics and even in the vocals. I have no idea if he contributed to the composition or production - but I could see it.

I drive a car that a bank really owns

 To a job where I work for hours on the phone

No sir, I'm not a very good salesman ya see

I try to smile for a little bit of sanity

• One Thing At A Time - Though Role Model was initially my favorite track, One Thing has quickly closed the gap and ranks among my top 2 or 3 favorites. I really enjoyed the subtle opening sounds of the upright bass, the rim shot echoes of Ray's snare and his tanging the hump before the rocking, distorted guitar arrives.

I wanna take her home / Give her a little piece of my mind

I don't wanna know everything / One thing at a time 

• Old Friends - Over the years, I've met up with different folks over a cold one to chat about music, life, NASCAR racing, politics, families, whatever. Sometimes for happy hour after work - sometimes at a show on a late Thursday night - sometimes after yard work on a Saturday afternoon. More often than, my wife asks "And you know him from where?" I always have to explain my axiom: If I can share a beer with you, I can develop a bit of a friendship with you. Are those numerous friendships shallow and sometimes fleeting? Sure, but they're valid. Yet in the end, the greatest friendships are the core group of folks I've known for years - probably no more than 2 to 3 guys tops.

Old friends, old friends

They'll put up with you / They'll shut up for you

Old friends

They're in the pictures that you own

And all your memories when you're alone

Part of them / piece by piece

They're part of you

• Lonoke, Arkansas - I've heard more than my share of albums where the band seemingly ran out of good material. The producer likely knew it though I've never been sure if the band ever did or not. The weakest tune is shoved to the end of the album. That situation is not the case with Escalator. The closing instrumental Lonoke, Arkansas needs to be heard. Guitar slides and vibratos. Supporting yet subdued percussion - with what sounds a bit like a mallet in one hand and a brush in the other. Understated upright bass. Then fade out.
  
  Lonoke reminds me of those long stretches of highway I've driven with many complex thoughts in my head. They're tumbling up there like a simmering jambalaya - yet with nothing to verbalize. The window is down - elbow rested on the door - eyes visually on the road - but my mind wanders as it works through whatever issues are rattling about up there.

Though The Coal Men are new to me, they are not a new band having formed about 15 years ago. In digging back through some earlier material, I found they were booked about 4 years ago on the fantastic live / webcast Music City Roots (web | Twitter) performed each Wednesday night at The Loveless Cafe west of Nashville.


Also, if you are a fan - as I am - of the show Deadliest Catch, you may have heard a song from The Coal Men without realizing it. Their song, Farther Find Me Now, was played over the the closing scene of the episode titled Bitter Tears. Deckhand Jake Anderson was at sea aboard the Northwestern when he learned of the death of his young sister. A genuinely sad moment - and handled dramatically but respectfully with the use of The Coal Men's song.



TMC