Looking for some gristle and muscle? Try Rogers,
Arkansas-based Cameron Johnson,
whose Stack Your Stones EP lifts a few boulders. He's a man with a
rich baritone voice, an acoustic guitar, and flair for telling tales about
people who may or may not be making bad decisions. Give him a percussionist, a
bass player with the chops of Brad Berge, soulful backup singers like Angel
Snow and Marcia Ware, and crank up the down-and-dirty. Berge's bass is so heavy
on "Til I Can't Anymore" that it's like a bump-and-grind at a biker
bar. "Crooked Bangs," which generated some online buzz, features Johnson's wry commentary and sense of
country rock blues. It's about a man hell-bent for a woman from whom he knows
he ought to walk away. How about this line: She
drinks like Hemingway on a Tuesday night. It begins with some off-kilter
beats akin to a Suitcase Junket setup, and then evolves into something
reminiscent of a 40s-style string combo. I was amazed by the diversity of the
EP's six tracks. "On My Own" is rootsy, but has muscular kitchen-sink jumps with a
bit of everything thrown in the mix: drums that thump and crash, pulsing
strings, gritty vocal, meaty bass lines…. But then there's "In The Winter
Time," a sensitive love song in which his voice is a cross between John
Gorka and Ari Hest; and "Too Long," with a folk rock groove รก la
Jackson Browne. And Johnson must
get "Mannequin with aMegaphone" out there. It's the perfect song for desultory Election 2016,
with cynicism oozing from every pore. He's like a bluesy, latter-day Rudy Vallee as he
croons lines about mannequin-like mass-produced candidates. I'm totally
stealing his line: You're playing us like
we're the media's fool/Go ahead and talk all you want, but you ain't getting
through. Right on, bro—but your music got through loud and clear.
Some singers make you quake and some make you ache; Brooke Annibale is one of the latter.
This Nashville-based Pittsburgh native has released 4 LPs and 2 EPs since 2005
and NoiseTrade is offering a collection called Retrospective for those
unfamiliar with her. You may have heard her and not realized you have, as some
of her songs have ended up on TV soundtracks, including "Silence WorthBreaking," which was used on ABC's "Pretty Little Liars." Annibale
has a light, classically pretty voice, which is to say she's not a diva who is
going to make you bolt upright. "Silence Worth Breaking" unfolds to
bell-like tones. It, like all her songs, is polished, atmospheric, and well
crafted. The only open question is whether or not you like this sort of
treatment. My tastes run simpler, and I found some of her songs bathed in too
much production. Retrospective
contains two versions of "Remind Me," the first from her latest
studio album The Simple Fear (2015)
in which her voice mostly ornaments a thick mix. Pleasant enough, but I found
the live acoustic version to be more honest and personal. A lot of her songs
are about being in or out of love, so I need to hear the emotion in the voice
if you want me to believe lyrics such as: just
stop/connecting every dot/gave it everything I've got/we were nothing like I
thought. But this is, as stated, my preference. Give a listen and see what
you think.
Does the name Keith
Sykes ring a bell? He's a singer/songwriter, though the emphasis is heavier
on the second. More than a hundred of his offerings have been recorded, from
artists ranging from Rosanne Cash and George Thorogood to Jimmy Buffett. Do you
know Buffett's "Coast of Marseilles?" That's one of Sykes' tunes, an
acoustic version of which you can hear on his EP Songs From a Little Beach Town (KSM Entertainment). It's six good time,
easy-living songs in the country/folk/blues spirit of artists such as Buffett,
of whose Coral Reefer Band Sykes was once a member. The EP opens with
"Come as You Are Beach Bar," a tribute to a dive allegedly somewhere
on the coast of Texas, and ends with the tongue-in-cheek "Drive Myself to Drinking." The latter is a hilarious idea: a jilted man decides to indulge
in self-destructive behavior without actually becoming self-destructive: Gonna build me a bar in the back of my
car/And drive myself to drinkin' but he's not planning on putting the key
into the ignition!
There are legions of Latin dance bands and it's a buyers'
market as most of them are pretty much the same. I had high hopes for Spanglish
(Syncopated Sounds) by The
Baboons. As the title suggests, there are Spanish and English offerings, as
befits a band based in Miami (and not to be confused with the Belgian rock band
of that name, or Baboon, a Texas R & R outfit). Spanglish hits high notes when guitarist Isaac Rodriguez cuts loose
and the brass gets funky behind him. Were there more of this I'd be happier.
Lead vocalist Majica has a strong voice as well, but too much of this release
falls into the same sold/same old dance groove. If you want to dance, by all
means buy this. Beware, though: in the car it seems more of a pedestrian stroll
than a sweaty samba.
Rob Weir
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