Karen Jonas, John Westmoreland, Makru, and More

Karen Jonas, Lucky Revisited

Every now and then you run across a recording that's so audacious that all you can do is applaud its chutzpa. Such a work is the 4^th release from Karen Jonas. This album is sass, poise, and one helluva voice. Jonas gives us stripped down versions of songs from her back pages, some new material, and an unapologetic turn-back-the-calendar approach to country music before it became slick and safe. Her new version of "Lucky" is honed to a dangerous edge. Jonas sings it as if it's part of the soundtrack of a gritty film noir film set in a dusty Texas town filled with desperate people. She positively eviscerates the Golden Fifties myth in "Butter." She frames her video with an old-style TV screen and melts the song in suggestive nastiness whose sugary sprinkles are like a diaphanous dress waiting to be unzipped. Hers is a feminist country music, even when it evokes the past. It doesn't get any more throwback stylistically than "Ophelia" but then again, few past country stars could have gotten away with a lyric such as when a man calls you a whore, go on and the find the closest door…walk out. Want an old-time weepy? "Country Songs" is about a girl who hated country music until she came of age and had her heart broken: So thank you for teaching me to sing country songs/For making me so sad I want to sing along. She completes her stroll through yesteryear with two excellent covers–one of Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," and Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues." ★★★★

John Westmoreland, Cast Fire

Some music grabs you with memorable melody lines, others with lyrical grace or pulsing energy. John Westmoreland–known for his guitar work with Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba–stirs your soul. That's exactly where he's aiming with Cast Fire, an album full of "grief singing," vocal stylizations borrowed from Karelia. Don't think depressing; think honorific and contemplative. "The Sparrow" was inspired by being part of a song/prayer circle attending to a dying man. A small bird glided into the room, perched upon a lampshade, and just as gracefully departed. Westmoreland's guitar is at once suggestive of a slow flamenco and of feathery flight. He allows his bright notes to ring and frame his expressive baritone voice. "Thomas" honors his departed grandfather and is a meditation on life, death, and the soul. If the music sounds Baroque, it's because Westmoreland synchs his nylon-stringed Guild with a torban, a Ukrainian lute/psaltery combination. "Open Your Eyes" also evokes an ancient music feel, this time induced by guitar arpeggios, hand percussion, violin, and bansuri, a wooden flute from India. Everything on this album is designed to induce inner thought. The gorgeous notes and fretwork of "Land of the Living" takes you to one part of the human experience, "All Saints Day" to another. You might notice that Westmoreland's videos feature a lot of free-style interpretive dance. His music encourages personal journeys. He takes one of how own on an innovative cover of "All Along the Watchtower." Maybe you'll do your own dance to the jazzy but moody instrumental "Waltz in A Minor." Don't flee from lamentation; remember that laments come from the living. They express sorrow and regret, but are also cathartic and cleansing. ★★★★

Makrú, Tu Mission

Makrú is a global kitchen sink band from California that plays a mash of ska, regaae, flamenca, cumbia, rumba, and jazz. This befits a group whose members were born in Colombia, El Salvador, Spain, Turkey, and the United States. If you think of the Spanish-speaking world as branching south and west from Spain into Latin America, you get an idea of the multiple influences Makrú put into play. On "Cloud," we hear a soft Caribbean-like melody filtered through a reggae pulse and faintly Middle Eastern undertones. It, as much of the album, is anchored by the vocals and vihuela (Mexican guitar/timple blend) of Colombia's Jenny Rodríquez, and the cájon (box drum) and vocals of El Salvador-born Raúl Vargas. The instrumental "Where You Wanna Be" is a pastiche that moves from jazzy to dance hall and back to jazz in a start/stop arrangement in which Haluk Kecelioglu spins out oud (Turkish lute) notes like a mandolin player. Vargas takes the lead vocals on the titletrack and it too takes twisty turns. It opens with the wistfulness of an island ballad, but evolves into something akin to a Mexican corrido. I have no Spanish so I can't comment on the song lyrics, but I do know that Makrú band members are associated with social activism. I like the eclectic approach of the band, as well as its tendency to blend traditional styles with the urgency of pop music and the contemplativeness of jazz. ★★★★

Short Takes

The NoiseTrade sampler of Nicole Boggs and the Reel, Live at Oceanway serves up soul fused with hard-edged rock. Boggs belts out the self-descriptive “Life of the Party,” and laments looking for love in all the wrong places on “Fool for a Fool” and “Sleeping with the Enemy.” If you think Lake Street Dive’s Rachael Price has a big voice, listen to Boggs.

NoiseTrade recently paired with Paste Magazine and has begun to make past performances available through the latter's Daytrotter Sessions. British folk rockers Mumford and Sons now play large venues. We hear them in a quieter, less glitzy mode on a seven-track August 30, 2013 stopover in Troy, Ohio, where they jammed with a handful of friends in an empty high school auditorium. One of the selections is a cover of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's Alright," but by far the stellar track is a sensitive rendition of "Like a Hurricane."

Garrett Dutton goes by the handle of G. Love and generally fronts a trio called Special Sauce. Check out a solo performance titled G. Love Live at Daytrotter. He's from Philadelphia, but this four-song acoustic country blues set sounds more bayou than Schuylkill Expressway. My favorite track was "Rainbow," in which he gives an acoustic slide a fine workout. I also enjoyed the hard driving, good summer fun "Soulbbq" and "Diggin Roots," which he recently recorded with Keb' Mo'. 

A final blast from the past comes from Daytrotter's sampler of a Bon Iver concert from July 21, 2008. Back then they had just one album, For Emma, Forever Ago. (The band would go on to win a Grammy in 2012.) For those who don't know, Bon Iver is the brainchild of Justin Vernon, and the name a phonetic spelling of the French bon l'hiver, or "good winter." Vernon hails from Wisconsin, where they know about winter. Bon Iver is often billed as an indie rock band, though folk with some rock would be a better description. Listen to "re: Stacks" [sic] to hear the band's soft side, and "Creature Free" for its now-trademark combo of soft, pause, speed up, flirt with havoc, and return to soft. Vernon's falsetto lead is featured on all tracks, the other two being "Flume" and "Lamp Sum."

Rob Weir