Sharing a Six Pack with Mark Kirkland

As has been mentioned frequently by me on Twitter and I suppose a bit less frequently here on this blog, I truly enjoy the simple but brilliant concept that is Couch By Couchwest. The week-long, on-line, music festival yields me a year's worth of laughs and solid music.

Another tangible benefit from CXCW is the opportunity to have a conversation with many of the artists - whether they be part-time songwriters or full-time, seasoned road dogs. For me, those conversations have taken place via Twitter, email, texts and - most rewarding - face-to-face.

Mark Kirkland (website | Twitter) from Tuscaloosa, Alabama is one of those artists with whom I've enjoyed trading messages the last couple of years. As a songwriter, Kirkland manages to be creative and maintain a wider view of life ... despite being a Crimson Tide fan!

He has released two albums filled with his own material:

Guided Spirit released in 2013...

...and For Your aMUSEment released in mid-2014.

Mark accepted my invitation to share a six pack of questions, and our conversation went a little somethin' like this.

TMC: What motivated you to begin composing songs and then taking the step to record them?

MK: I've been writing and composing songs since I was 15 years old. I had always had a writing partner until around 2002. At that point my then-writing partner, Denny Hays, was preparing to move to Charlotte. He challenged me to start playing guitar. At the end of the first week I had written & composed my first solo song. I continued to play drums as a fill-in for bands up until about 2010. I didn't really do anything musically again until the summer of 2012. I started writing and playing a little bit around that time. In the spring of 2013, I stumbled upon Couch By Couchwest. I was intrigued by this wonderful venue for artists to submit songs for the world to hear and decided to submit a song. I met some incredible people by doing this, and they encouraged me to share my music. I decided to do a solo EP as a gift to myself for my 50th birthday in June 2013. I wrote, recorded and mixed Guided Spirit in a two-week time frame. I was very surprised by how much people liked its the rawness. It is a very unpolished release, but I am extremely proud of it.

TMC: Your latest album For Your aMUSEment opens with trumpets on the first track "Last Night" and organ on the second cut "Feelin' LIke I Been Here Before". Both were unexpected treats in listening through the songs. Did you play both on the recording? If not, who did you enlist to help?

MK: I wanted to show some growth from Guided Spirit to the full length release For Your aMUSEment. The Trumpets on "Last Night" were a surprise. I had originally envisioned having trumpets on the track "Gone For Good". But as we started preparing songs after the original mix, my producer Mark Skelton suggested that we write a trumpet line for "Last Night". Mark & I worked up the part, and then he and and one of his daughters played the trumpet part. Mark's other daughter played the flute part on "Wings". I should mention that these girls are twins and were first year band students at the time we recorded the parts. I think they did an amazing job. Ben Johnson from Arkansas did the organ & bass work on this project. His interpretations added a lot to the all of the songs. We actually have 2 versions of "Feelin Like I've Been Here Before". The version on the album is lovingly known as the lounge mix. The organ work helps bring out the mood of the original feeling of the song.

TMC: Both of your releases sound remarkably clean and well mixed. Those two descriptors don't always apply to self-produced music with limited funds for production. Your albums are well balanced with well lifted vocals, clear highs from your guitar, a steady but clear bass, etc. What process did you go though to mix all of your elements into a mastered production?

MK: The magic of production. I'm old school and think that when you record a song it should sound like you are playing it live. In other words, we keep it as simple as possible. We record the guitar and vocal work at the same time and typically do it in one take. After reviewing the initial raw mix, I may make some minor changes in lyrics or composition and then record the vocals and guitars again. Once we have all the parts done, my producer sends me the songs. I tell him what I want more of, less of or just gone.

TMC: Like many, you have a diverse musical interest though you are an unabashed Widespread Panic fan. Yet you don't parlay that fandom into a copycat songwriting style. Talk a bit about how you get the inspiration to write songs and any artists who influence your compositions.

MK: Unabashed Widespread Panic fan....I love that. I get a lot of inspiration musically from Widespread Panic. I do write a lot after attending their shows. I'm not sure exactly why. but I think it is the way their music reaches down and grabs your heart & soul. I go to a lot of live shows not just Widespread Panic. I write a good bit after shows, and I think it is from watching artists and their fans enjoy the beauty of music and the joy it elicits from one's soul. There are a lot of artists that inspire me. I am amazed by the songwriting of BloodKin (Danny & Eric), the late Vic Chestnut (everyone should listen to Vic), John Hiatt, John Prine, Neil Young, James McMurtry, Daniel Lanois, Kris Kristofferson, Keith Whitley, Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, John Doe, Billy Joe Shaver, Guy Clark and (the Master) Bob Dylan.

TMC: Do you find yourself keeping a journal of couplets, refrains, riffs and such? Or do you generally have the majority of a song come to you in a single setting?

MK: I've tried many different ways of writing over the years. I used to keep a journal of ideas, phrases & words that interested me, but I explored a different formula on For Your aMUSEment. On aMUSEment I either came up with a melody or riff first and then built the song around it. I didn't write any of the lyrics down until after we recorded the rough mix. Then I went back and made some lyrical changes before we went back to record the songs that would be on the album. I am of the opinion that songs are never finished. I believe they always grow and that it is OK to change the lyrics as I please as I continue to play them. I made them up - if I wish to change them then I will. The only song I wrote in one sitting was "Wings".

TMC: As much as I dig so many forms of music, I'm completely ignorant of most of the gear used by musicians. Gibson, Fender, Martin. Tele, Strat, Les Paul, SG. This pedal, that fader, pick thickness, capos. "Acoustic" vs. dreadnought. Etc. Describe your guitars, how you went about choosing them, and why you are partial to them.

MK: I have three guitars that I work on the most. I have an Ibanez acoustic/ electric better known as Maggie, a Baby Taylor and an Ovation Celebrity. They all have different tones and all have supplied their share of songs. I used "Maggie" for all of the songs on Guided Spirit. I chose the Ovation for all of the songs on For Your aMUSEment except for "Couch Down the Hall"(I played Maggie on it) and "All About You" (played the Ovation & Taylor on this song). I bet you're wondering why the Ibanez has a name. This guitar was named after my wonderful bride Margaret Alice Kirkland. She gave me the guitar for my 40th birthday to replace my 2 pawn shop guitars.

Be sure to follow Mark on Twitter, and check out more of his music at his website. If you live in the greater Birmingham area, perhaps you'll even have the opportunity to hear him play live somewhere. I'm sure he'd enjoy your being there, having a conversation before or afterwards and accepting your tips and a purchased beer - even if you are an Auburn fan!

TMC

Sharing a Six Pack: Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Wray

In March this year, Miss Shevaughn & Yuma Wray (web | MS Twitter | YW Twitter) released their second album, Lean Into The Wind. The duo is a veteran of the oft-mentioned, top-of-the-line,state-of-the-art, annual, on-line music festival of all-time: Couch By Couchwest.

Disclaimer: TMC is entering his second term as Dep'ty Mayor of CXCW, but I don't have veto power. So I can promote CXCW and any of its performers without compromising my objectivity or position...I think...

The couple who began their lives in the east and south - found their way to one another in the midwest - and now call the west coast home. (Somewhere, the Mountain Time Zone is whining "but what about ME?") Their friendship evolved into a relationship. The relationship evolved into music. Music evolved into a business. And all of that stuff with love at the core evolved into a marriage in March.

Many stereotypes exist in our lives - especially about professions. Accountants are prescriptive. Engineers are rigid. IT folks are geeks. Lawyers are pricks. Musicians are free-spirits. There is likely some element of truth in all of them - as well as some variance. Well, except for lawyers - they really are all pricks.

Miss Shevaughan and Yuma Wray are free-spirited in the way they use their creativity to write songs and music, tour the country, start their gigs about the time many working stiffs are ready to hit the rack, etc. But don't understate their business acumen. They are also entrepreneurs, risk-takers, small business owners, etc. It's one thing to listen to an album and think yeah, I can dance to this. It's another thing to enjoy it AND know a bit about the blood, sweat and tears invested to make it happen. To me, that makes for a more compelling reason to purchase that type of product.

Anyway - to the band and their music...


I've had the pleasure of meeting Miss Shevaughn and Yuma Way a couple of times as they passed through Nashville. I intentionally wanted to wait until their most recent tour was completed to give them a chance to decompress from the road. Then I wanted to see if they'd be willing to provide a bit of perspective of where they've been recently - and perhaps where they're going.

I started an email conversation with the two of them and a six-pack of questions. It went a little sumpin like dis...

TMC: Let's start with some stats, some metrics. You headed east from California following your March wedding and toured until earlier this month. Any idea how many miles you put on the van during those two and a half months or so? How about the gallons of gas you needed, beers consumed, van break-ins, or photos snapped by Ben Tufts?

YW/MS: We got married on March 1^st, and the first show of our honeymoon tour was March 6^th. We crossed the country three times and went about 20,000 miles. That averages out to about 1,110 gallons of diesel. The odometer on our Sprinter van rolled over 100,000 miles right as we pulled off of our street in California and currently sits at just under 120,000 miles. There’s no way to know how much beer we drank, but some of our favorites were the Deschutes Brewery Fresh Squeezed IPA and the (only available in Wisconsin) NewGlarus Moon Man. We also played at High Desert Brewing in Las Cruces, New Mexico - which is pretty amazing. The van was only broken into once, but we were also rear ended the day before Miss Shevaughn’s birthday. The doors still shut and locked so we just kept on going! Ben Tufts, who plays drums for Miss Shevaughn & Yuma Wray, is one of the best iPhone photographers we've ever seen. (Ben on Twitter | Instagram).

TMC: With this most recent set of shows in support of the new album (officially released by the way on March 25th, the day of your Nashville date at The Basement), what are some things the band learned about one or more of the songs during the night-after-night shows vs. how the songs were recorded?

YW: The most obvious addition to our live sound would be Derek Evry (Twitter). He didn't record any of the bass parts on the album, but he joined the band as our touring bass player just prior to us releasing Lean Into The Wind. He’s a super-talented guitarist and singer – so having him on bass and backing vocals almost seems like we might be selling him a little short of his abilities. But he’s really made us step up our game on stage. He’s a seriously intense performer, so with each passing night, both Miss Shevaughn & I found ourselves rocking out a little harder than we did the night before! And consequentially, having way more fun! All thanks to Derek.

MS: We actually toured with most of the songs on the album with Ben before recording them. We knew how much songs can change on the road, and we wanted to give them a chance to mature before we committed to recording. It’s something that we most likely won’t get a chance to do again, and it was a fun way to write. It’s not just the playing over and over again that brings new ideas into the songs, it’s the audience too. You can just become inspired suddenly and throw something out there and the response can be the determining factor in whether or not you try it again. I have to agree with Yuma too. Playing as a full band with everyone contributing and bringing new spontaneous ideas into the live show goes a long way to shape the songs. We actually brought a brand new song “Navigator” into the set a few days before tour, and it felt like we were literally writing that song over the course of the tour. 

TMC: At least two of the songs from the album - Drifter's Compass and Bleed Me - reference this life you've charted of leaving home and riding the road with your music. Describe some of the ways that work for you in writing songs as you tour.  Do you find yourselves writing songs collectively as you ride? Or do you tend to process internally a lyric, a chorus, a riff, etc. that you journal or otherwise document at another time?

YW: Here’s the really infuriating thing about being on the road – so much of your time gets spent driving, loading in, sound checking, loading out – that you don’t really get a chance to be as creative as you would like. Sure Led Zeppelin wrote “Stairway” on the tour bus. But most touring musicians get so caught up in the day-to-day logistics of travelling and playing live that we really don’t have the time to write much on the road. Right now, Miss Shevaughn & I are just off three month of hard driving and playing - and the creative ‘back-up’ is finally just beginning to abate. I’ve started at least two or three new songs in my head that are being pieced together from those lingering ideas for riffs that come to you in the early morning hours when you know you have to get out of the van, wander into the Wal-Mart that you have been sleeping in the parking lot of, and find the bathroom – AND hope it isn't closed for cleaning. The ideas that stick with me through that first-light haze are the ones that are going to make up the songs on our next album.

MS: OK, the men’s room at any given Wal-Mart is NEVER closed for cleaning, and the women’s room is closed like AT LEAST 35% of the time. Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest… I think that part of the answer lies in the fact that although we’re leaving home to be on the road, every time we get back on the road it feels like coming home as well. I think that if that hadn’t been there for us the first time, we may not have continued to travel so hard. It is difficult to write on tour, but I think that the observations and the subtle feelings and thoughts that you gather as you travel, the people you meet and the histories that you learn, they become part of what you will write about next. It’s a cycle. Ideas need a chance to breathe and to come into being. And they’re all different. Some come quick, others grow slowly. For me, it seems natural to have a hibernation or a germination creatively. My mind’s not dormant. It’s just in a mode that’s taking in instead of putting out, and touring is perfect for that. Like Yuma was saying, once you get off the road so much comes spilling out that you didn't even necessarily know was in there. 

TMC: Both of you are somewhat midwesterners being from Chicago and Arkansas. The musical and lyrical content of your songs, however, is far broader than genres generally associated with those areas. Who have been your influences over the years from a musical and songwriting perspective that have guided you as you've jumped with both feet into the music biz full time?

YW: Our background/upbringing is actually a little more complex than that – but for simplicity’s sake I’ll say that I grew up travelling. Miss Shevaughn & I started the band in Chicago in 2009. So the inspiration for what we write about comes from a lifetime of rambling & exploring. But in those travels, I’ve met a few people who have influenced my approach to songwriting more than others. In 2005, when I moved to Chicago – I met a singer/songwriter/guitarist from Indiana who now lives in Austin, TX named Simon Flory – he turned me on to some rebellious country songwriters like Steve Earle and Jay Farrar (at least, when Jay was with Uncle Tupelo). At the time, Simon was playing in a shit-kicking outlaw country band called “Merle The Mule” that really expanded my horizons. Up until then, I hadn’t really stepped out of my hardcore/punk-rock comfort zone that I had grown accustomed to while living in Washington DC. I spent the entire year of 2006 hunched over my acoustic guitar, studying classic country and blues, listening, playing and writing.

MS: Don’t forget that we met at a hip-hop club. I grew up in the South. My family lives in southern Arkansas, and I mostly grew up near New Orleans. Yuma and I actually met in D.C. where we both resided for years before we met up again in Chicago. A lot of my family was really musical - bluegrass and southern gospel, Sacred Harp singing on my mom’s side and guitar picking and singing on my dad’s side. My mom played mountain dulcimer, autoharp and guitar when I was a kid. I started performing with her doing folk music mostly when I was about five. I ended up studying opera in college, but I was also really into punk and indie rock at that point. I’d have to say that our friend, Chris Darby, a singer songwriter out of Missouri, influenced our decision to get on the road. He hiked the whole Appalachian Trail and then went on a self-booked tour for 6 months. When Yuma and I started playing together, we realized we were a lot more serious about playing music full time than a lot of other people we’d been playing with. So we did a little two week East Coast tour just to test the waters. As we were driving home to Chicago, I was thinking, “in a year we’ll be on the road full time”. Yuma didn’t know it yet, but my mind was made up. In 2011 we got rid of our apartment and lived out of our car while playing as many live shows as we could.

TMC: You serve as your own management team - recording and producing, booking gigs, taking care of travel logistics, etc. Many bands do some of that but not necessarily all of that - and certainly it would seem rare to do with tour dates sprinkled from coast to coast and north to south. Describe some of the benefits and challenges of being a rock-and-roll band while also being a deliberate business person.

YW: Don’t take this the wrong way, but I would LOVE to not have to do any of the “business” stuff that we are currently embroiled in as “DIY” musicians. Booking sucks. Tour managing sucks. Self-promotion sucks. Most musicians are not wired to be business-oriented – but the sad fact is that we are trying to ‘come up’ in an era where there are lots of other performers travelling the same road that we are. And if we want to keep moving – we better know how to pull over and fix the occasional flat tire on our own instead of relying on someone else to do it for us.

There are some doors that are not open to us yet because we represent ourselves instead of having a large, corporate artist management company promoting us. But hopefully, when we do get that ‘lucky break’ and have the opportunity to work with people who can promote us far beyond our own abilities to do so, we are not going to get ‘taken for a ride’. I’m confident that, even though we may have to work a little harder and longer than some musicians out there, we are never going to be tripped up by some opportunistic crook looking to take advantage of under-experienced naiveté.

MS: You hear a lot about bands that just come out of nowhere and people who became famous overnight and “weren’t even trying”. I really dislike that narrative because there’s always someone who worked hard even if it was behind the scenes. I think the ‘work’ part of artistic work should be acknowledged. I like knowing what goes into all of these aspects of our job because we have a better appreciation for it and a better understanding of how everything comes together. And we do have a support team. It’s grown as we’ve gone along. We started out with us just emailing a few bloggers to send them our music and now Tony at Pavement PR has helped us with publicity for our last two albums. Lean Into The Wind came out on a Chicago label, Seven Dead Arson, that’s run by a friend of ours, as opposed to our first record, We’re From Here, which we put out totally on our own. I totally agree that I’d love to focus solely on writing and playing at some point, but I like that we’re finding people to work with who really believe in what we’re doing and whose efforts we really appreciate.

No rest for the weary. The life for this band is on the road and on the stage - and with a smile and a kind word. Be sure to find a nearby show, and buy their music and the band a drink. Beer for Yuma, tequila for Miss Shevaughn...as long as it's not Patron.


TMC

Nick Dittmeier - Light of Day

Nick Dittmeier, an Indiana songwriter, recently hit my radar with news about his new EP, Light of Day. With a listen or two, I realized I dug what he was a'sangin. His deliberate guitar picking style and use of a slide immediately caught my ear.

And when Dittmeier released a video for the title track, I knew I was on board. After all when you can get Matt Damon to jam on guitar you've got something going, right? Wait. What? Oh.


Another standout track based on insightful lyrics and some good jangly guitar work is My Grey Suit.


My favorite track from the EP is Simple As A Nod. The title alone speaks volume, but there is much more to enjoy. The song has a good dose of twang and a smidgin of a Bakersfield feel to it.

The opening to Die And Go To Shively, the 5th song from the EP, has a Jerry Reed feel and the meter of lyrics reminded me of Alabama's Dixieland Delight.

For a broader intro to Dittmeier's music, enjoy this mini-concert. The video segment opens with an intro by a mayor of some municipality.  It's clear the guy is not the mayor of Couch By Couchwest because its mayoral position is filled ably by Popa2unes.

1:15 - Coming Home Soon (3rd track from the record)
5:50 - Lay Your Trouble Down With Me (from 2013 release Extra Bitter)
9:15 - Paint My Masterpiece (Dylan / The Band cover not on album)
13:30 - I Can Sing (from Extra Bitter)
17:00 - Interview
20:00 - Angel From Montgomery (Prine cover)
24:15 - My Grey Suit
27:55 - You Don't Have To Leave The Light On For Me (from Extra Bitter)
32:10 - Die And Go To Shively
37:15 - Light of Day


Check out Nick Dittmeier on his website, Twitter, and Bandcamp.



TMC

2014 National Train Day

Last year, I learned about National Train Day for the first time. Fortunately, I wasn't too far behind as Amtrak started it in 2008. For 2013 NTD, I blogged a handful of train songs ranging from funny to introspective to downright swampy. So how's about we do so again in 2014?

Credit: Chad Cochran of Chad Cochran Photography

I'll lead with Graveyard Train by Doug and Telisha Williams who now record and tour as Wild Ponies. This one is included on Doug and Telisha's album, Ghost of the Knoxville Girl. Ghosts? Graveyards? Lonesome train whistles? Oh yeah, be afraid - very afraid - but still rock!


Next is Southbound Train by The Newton Gang. I stumbled across this one quite by accident. The song was included on the compilation CD Brooklyn Country Vol. 1 sent to me by Uncle Leon & The Alibis - who were featured in last year's set of train songs.

Songwriters like Guy Clark come along maybe once in a generation - perhaps even every two or three. Texas 1947 ranks among my favorites from Guy's long list of great songs. And it just happens to include a story about a train!

OK, so Boxcars by Eric Brace and Peter Cooper as a train song might be a stretch. But c'mon, it's got boxcars, freight trains, a Nashville Sounds baseball jersey, and a sad love song ballad by two of TMC's favorite songwriters ... and people.

Speaking of favorites, Tommy Womack sings the next one. Willie Perdue continues to stun me each time I hear it. Many of Tommy's songs make me laugh, smirk, tap my foot, laugh some more, nod in approval, cross my arms as I get pissed off, etc. But Willie from Tommy's 2000 album Stubborn makes me sit still ... and intentionally listen. A post-high school jock with a fascination for trains chooses to hop a boxcar one summer evening...and then his life in the small town will never be the same.

I couldn't rustle up a YouTube clip of the song. Nor do I have a boot of it from any of his shows. But he did play it at the Family Wash one night a couple of years ago at my request. The patrons collectively had the same reaction as me when I listen to it. Not silence, quietness. And he honored my request again by allowing me to share the album's song here for you.

Wreck of the Old 97 is based on a true story and has been recorded by many for almost 100 years. I really dig this version by The Osborne Brothers.

Last year I featured six songs. This year I think I'll share seven. And I'll close with Driver 8 by R.E.M.

TMC

Greg Smith and The Broken English

The last couple of years during Couch By Couchwest I was introduced to some great music - and people - from Brooklyn NY. Among them were Matthew and Livia as The End Men and Uncle Leon and The Alibis. Both Brooklyn bands - but distinctly different musical styles and influences.

Recently, another Brooklyn group - with yet another style - hit my radar - Greg Smith and The Broken English (web | Twitter). Ready for spring? If so, many songs from their upcoming release, Ramblin' Roads will put a spring in your step.

Slated for release on April 8, the album is collection of really good songs with a solid diversity of instrumentation. Guitar with a slide. Bass raised to right level in the mix - as are the various elements of the drummer. Acoustic, electric, keys, mandolin, harmonica, ♫ whistling ♫, percussion shaker thing, brushes, etc.

I'm as guilty as anyone about asking "So who do they sound like?" when told about a band with whom I'm not familiar. On the one hand, I'm personally looking for some creativity vs. copying someone else. On the other hand, its more difficult to explain to someone why they should listen and enjoy if you can't label an unfamiliar artist. So while its tough to nail down a specific "sound" by the band, I do hear what seem to many influences such as Ray LaMontagne, Dylan, and The Jayhawks. The 13 songs include a nice mixture of rock, country, and pop sounds as well as fast-paced rocking numbers followed by tender but not trivial ballads. 

After having grown up in western Massachusetts, Smith relo'd to the southern borough of NYC. His compositions reflect a balance of growing up in a rural part of a state and adjusting to life in Bright Lights, Big City.

On most of the songs, Dayna Webber provides wonderful harmony to Smith's lead vocals. In a couple of spots, her harmony along with others in the band almost remind me a Stones prime era when harmonies truly complimented lead vocals vs. competing with them.

I really like that the album sounds like it was recorded as a band - not just a featured front man singing lyrics over a polished yet muted musical track recorded by session stalwarts. The album opens with three strong tracks - musically and lyrically - with Ain't That Bad, Whiskey Breath and Cigarettes, and Living Like A Joker.

Ain't That Bad

Oh heaven help me, I know I ain’t that right

I got a bomb inside my head

And a fire in my heart burning bright

But it don’t shine no light

Its hard to recognize the truth in a world full of lies

~

Take me back in time

Before the good book was written by design

When all a man would do to clear his mind

Was take a walk, say a prayer and goodnight

Whiskey Breath And Cigarettes Playing Pot Head Blues in Converse shoes nuff said    
Living Like A Joker - This song caught me from the jump. I loved the early solid groove and vocals. But when the rest of the song climbed aboard, the full sound had me wanting the song to continue as a 10-minute jam session.

Hey, What's The Use - This one is written as if it may be the most personal song of the album. One can feel the tug of staying near home while tearing away to dig the dream elsewhere.

 Son, I hope you're doing fine down in the city, life must be sublime
I couldn’t take it there, all the cars and people everywhere
I hope to see you soon.
Back on the farm sometime before the next blue moon

~
Mom, I’m tryin' hard to get somewhere, I’d like to help you there
I work my fingers to the bone
I sing my heart out till my blood runs cold
The hope inside my veins don’t stop from bleedin'
Every single time it rains

Losing Hand - OK, so its a video with too much crowd chatter. But that's not the fault of the band or the song!

Nowhere Left To Hide

Sing it again - Like kids at play on an old tire swing

Bring it again - Everything we knew ever since we did

Get lucky again - Let the dice roll down a road of sin

And sing it again - Till there's nothin' left to win.

Way Back Down - I really like this one! Staccato diction to lyrics without being rap. The song's drum and guitar opening reminded me a bit of Robert Earl Keen's Shades of Gray but the pace of singing then reminded me of Todd Snider's Incarcerated. Yet the song has absolutely nothing to do with either. Make sense? Yeah, I was afraid you'd say that.

Oak n' Ashes - Possibly my favorite track from the album. This is the one where I seem to hear an influence of The Jayhawks. A harp openin' almost always kills.

City life and the tricks they deal
Keep me up all night like a spinning wheel
I ain’t fixin’ to hold up here
I might be broken down but I’m still shiftin’ gears
~
Like oak before the ash, strike before the gold

Throw my whiskey in the trash, I won’t need it anymore

When I sing this song about you and hope that I ain’t lost

The place where I came up, before the road that I have crossed

Little Darling - Dayna shares lead vocals on this tender one.

Play Like A Little Girl - One of the 'poppier' tunes from the album and one that contrasts well with other styles of the remaining songs.


Spare Me Eliza - The closer


Top to bottom, Ramblin' Road is going to be fun one to listen to repeatedly. I'm really pleased too that the band performed twice at this year's Couch By Couchwest.

TMC

Couch By Couchwest 2014

The longest running on-line music festival is back! Starting Sunday, March 9th and running through next Saturday, the fourth annual Couch By Couchwest extravaganza will have the interwebs buzzing with excitement ... and well, buzzed at times.

 

CXCW's strengths are its varied simplicity of participating and diversity of music offerings.

• Rather than travel to any hyped festival destination, you get to enjoy the music from wherever you want - your couch, hotel room, local coffee shop, favorite drinking establishment, porcelain throne, airport terminal, front porch, back deck, tree house, tornado shelter, etc.
• No need for an admission wristband, and no worries about trying to be at two or more places at the same time. The venues and stages are open 24/7. Visit CXCW's website, and enjoy videos of performers whenever you want and as often as you want. Even when CXCW ends next Saturday, the site and its videos will continue to live - kinda like a bad rash.
• Oh yeah! The performers. You'll likely find something to like - probably lots of somethings. Funny, serious. Rock, bluegrass. Individuals, bands. Twang, somber. Fast, slow. Well known artists, unsigned treasures. 20-somethings, old farts, and young'uns. LoFi videos, scenic vistas, and umm, err exploding things.  

Credit: @magearwig from Bucket Full of Nails

Over the last three years, CXCW has introduced me to many great new artists and their music. I've long been one to continually dig for new diamonds-in-the-rough, and this forum annually surfaces many great ones.

A PSA if I may though. The admins for CXCW will do an incredible yeoman's job (except probably for their intern) of sharing hundreds of videos the next seven days. In addition, they'll pass along pictures of kids, pets, tacos, waffles, couches, significant others, bars, etc. Believe me, everyone is assured of having fun. But at its core, CXCW is about its performers and their music. If you find someone you like, take it further.

• Buy a download through the performer's or band's website, iTunes, Amazon, etc. 
• Keep tabs on touring schedules and see your new fave when they come through town. Introduce yourself - the CXCW connection is a great cold open. 
• Perhaps buy merch from them.
• Support a new Kickstarter campaign.
• Follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, become a fan on ReverbNation, etc.

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TMC

Eric Brace: There's GOLD in them thar songs

A decade-plus ago, Eric Brace relocated from Washington DC to East Nashville by-cracky Tennessee. Forget the Tennessee Titans or Nashville Predators professional sports teams. Brace's relo is arguably one of the top yet understated free agent acquisitions for the city in the 10-12 years.

On his Nashville-formed label, Red Beet Records, Brace has released a limited number of tremendous albums primarily for himself as a solo artist and duos with songwriter and The Tennessean writer, Peter Cooper.

Recently, Brace and Karl Straub released an interesting collaboration based on the mid-1800s California gold rush titled, Hangtown Dancehall. Many riches were reaped during that brief era, and many stories became legendary - even if many would never pass today's Snopes test.

Those few years also resulted in immense hardships and strife. Folks came from across the continent for a fruitless attempt at hitting it big. The few dollars people brought with him to survive their search disappeared without replenishment. Relationships thought to be rock solid at the beginning of a long journey to California dissolved like a fart in the wind when muddy panning came up empty.

Hangtown Dancehall was crafted from a folk song of the era named Sweet Betsy From Pike. Two youngsters from Missouri, Ike and Betsy, traveled the long, hard road with a golden gleam in their eyes. Yet as a good folk song should do I suppose, the twosome fizzled out in Hangtown when the stress of the search becomes too much.

The backdrop for the album - though this version is not from Eric and Karl.


Brace and Straub picked up where Sweet Betsy left off, and in the words of Kenny Bania...


Brace and Straub created a musical - a folkie drama if you will - with various vocalists playing character roles in the album's songs. Vocals are contributed by a variety of singers including Kelly Willis (married to and performs with Bruce Robison), Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, and Jason Ringenberg (Jason and The Scorchers)


Brace's recording and marketing of the album on his terms from the east side of the Cumberland rather on Music Row gave him many freedoms and opportunities to explore. The album includes 22 tracks. Some are as brief as 30 to 45 seconds. On the high end, a couple flirt with the 4 minute mark. From beginning to end, however, I'm not sure an individual track stands out as one that can easily be separated from the whole - and that's a good thing.

The one exception may be I Know A Bird released previously a few years ago by Brace and Cooper on their album You Don't Have To Like Them Both. Brace wrote the song with the gold rush in mind, but I'm only guessing he wanted the song to eventually be part of a larger storyline.


The album is truly a pleasurable listen. Envision for a moment about the dreams as well as the challenges of traveling cross-country 150 years ago in the search of gold - or in today's era of foolishly chasing can't-miss celebrity stardom. Many of those ideas have likely been captured in one of the songs. Some examples include:

Pretty Girl In Missouri

They left him lying there, they ran away that night

Betsy cried about her daddy blood so red, skin so white

They left for California, across the open plain 

Maybe they'll dig up the gold and bury all the pain

Gone To California

Gonna cross the big wide prairie

Gonna climb that hill

They got gold there bigger than boulders

Gonna get my fill

If You Don't Know Me

I heard you call me "a faithful friend"

Ike, I was talking 'bout the dog

And I heard you say that I smell pretty bad

Ike, I was talking 'bout the dog

Life Story

If there's gold still on his person 

It would be a sin to leave it in the dirt

When our church still needs new windows

And a pile of new Bibles couldn't hurt

They emptied out his pockets

But I doubt they searched the lining of his coat

While I'm checkin', I'll refer to you

The golden words of truth that St. Paul wrote.

Hanging Tree

I didn't have to wonder what I'd done

I'd killed a man and I'd been hung

When I awoke I was so cold 

I'll be hanging soon

I killed a man for gold

Taking in the artwork and absorbing the lyrics are needed in addition to simply listening to the songs. After buying the music, visit Hangtowndancehall.com for the latter. The storytelling by Brace and Straub through their concept and lyrics is a rarity in today's 3-minute singles, iTunes download, music consumption generation.

Red Beet Records: redbeetrecords.com
Twitter: @ericbrace
YouTube: redbeetrecords

TMC