Is rock and roll making a comeback? West of Rome gets labeled an “indie-rock/alt-country band,” but other than being from Texas, the “alt-country” side isn’t much in evidence on Keep It Fly in the Negative Zone. (The band’s name comes from a record from the late Vic Chestnut.) “Movement in Your Picture” is filled with gritty and grungy swagger. On “Keep it Fly,” vocalist Kevin Higginbotham channels a touch of Robert Plant as lead guitarist Charlie Roadman lets his solos fuzz and burn. The monster in “Face the Beast” is American violence and Old Nick himself is in the front seat of the nightmare hallucination “Take a Ride with the Evil One.” You don’t hear much music like this in Nashville.
Yahtzee Brown has a different vibe. He’s just 20 and Take it Back is his debut album. His father was a rock drummer and young Noah Siegel, his non-stage name, grew up hearing 60s and 70s rock and later took in a lot of indie rock. The title track lies in a in-between groove. His vocals and production are smooth, but Michael Lockwood’s bass is so solid it’s like a lead guitar. Echo effects push this song about relationships and troublemakers into a spacey psychedelia space. “I Guess I’m Sorry” shows he also picked up some outlaw country from his Waylon-Willie-Townes-loving parents. He brings buzz and noise to “Watching Over You” and some high-note electric and cacophony to counter his light tenor on “Halloween.” Brown’s split between classic and indie rock will challenge marketers to label him.
---If you want a break from electric guitar, here are some radical changes of pace.
Bluegrass has gotten slick, but Chris Walz turns back the clock on All I Got and Gone, a throwback more in line with the bluegrass and old time songs of the early Folk Revival. Walz teaches at the Old School of Folk Music where is considered folk music royalty. Listen to his clawhammer banjo on “Going Across the Sea,” playing resonator blues, doing his take on the traditional “Delia,” and grabbing a National steel guitar for a Mississippi John Hurt picking treatment to “See See Rider.” (It starts at 4:44.)
Much of the music of Trendafilka comes from Georgia, the one whose capital is Tbilisi not Atlanta. Their new album For the Olives also features songs from the Balkans, Greece, Macedonia, and the Russian Steppes. That said, you’re not too far off if you thought Atlanta; the polyphonic singing of this 11-woman a cappella assemblage is based in New Orleans! The polyphonic vocals are Balkans style, meaning they feature 3, 4, and 5-part discrete melodies that blend into something as unfettered as the wild rose that is their namesake. Listen for strategic uses of dissonance, yips, yodels, complexity, and (were in Latin) songs that would be at home in a Romanesque cathedral. It’s a spectacular recording. Try any track from For the Olives and you’ll be hooked on Trendafilka. Start with “Mome Stojie Ju Livadi,” “Oi Na Dubori,” and a live clip of “Mori Aida.”
Jason Carter once preferred classical music and nylon strings. On In and Out of Time Carter plays a Space Age-looking harp guitar and experimented with live looping techniques that might have made Bach barf. Carter has been something of a nomad who has visited over 100 countries and has recently lived in Finland, Singapore, and France. Not that he’s home all that often, what with his touring schedule and video projects. In and Out of Time has an international flair. “Finlandia” pays homage to living there, “One” was recorded in Singapore, “I Believe” In Kuwait, others with the Novosibirsk orchestra in Siberia, and so on. The harp guitar on the CD cover has 12 strings and he has apparently just gotten one with 23. That’s at least 17 more than I need!
American-Canadian Deborah Holland once fronted Animal Logic (which included Stewart Copeland of The Police) and has penned soundtracks for TV and movies. She also has an active solo career; I Made it This Far is her 7th release. It has styling vaguely reminiscent of Carole King. This intriguing release includes “Wildfires,” a reference to ecological lowlights of 2023-24. They scorched over 13 million acres across Canada and turned skies yellow and sooty in the 48 provinces south of the border. (Sorry–couldn’t resist a poke at the wantwit in Washington DC.) In a serious vein, Holland’s dramatic piano, strong voice, accompanying video, and lyrics drive home the pathos of the “long black scars” left behind. The flip side of tragedy is her folky “Thankful,” which she wrote for Thanksgiving 2023, an enumeration of things she and sign-holding others count as blessings. These are the only two songs for which there are videos thus far as the LP drops on March 7. The rest of the album is mix of moving material (“A Long Time Ago”) the country-like (“Circling the Drain”), a celebration of beautiful days (“East Porpoise Bay”), nostalgia in a cheeky-yet-melancholy way (“50 Year Reunions”), and more. As Holland has aged, she has moved through several musical personae. I Made it This Far has more piano, a lush and dramatic counterpart to guitar-centric adult alternative music. She has also transitioned from American to Canadian, courtesy of a job at Langara College in Vancouver. Google her song “I Wanna Be a Canadian.”
My bad! At a very busy time I was sent A New Day from the MahaMaya Band that got lost in the clutter. I’m really happy I found it. There is such much talk about “fusion” music, even if the final product has only a small burst of electric guitar or a hint of bluegrass. That’s not the case with the MahaMaya Band. At heart it’s a New Delhi-based duo of Mahalakshmi (keys, voice) and Emam (hand drums, guitar) but the “band” expands to wherever modern technology can connect musicians. A New Day spotlights help from other parts of India, Hungary, Poland, California, and New York to add bass, sitar, oud, sarod, and mandocello. The resultant music is ancient and modern, mystical and meditative. Try the title track and “Great Spirit.”
I’m afraid a joint project between the New York City string quartet Ethel and Taiwan’s A Moving Sound seems like a forced marriage because the vocals of Mia Hsieh in the later are too harsh for me. However, whether or not you’ll like it might depend on how much you like the wild lamentations, screams, and atonality of Yoko Ono’s sonic explorations. I realize that Ono is Japanese, not Taiwanese, so listen to “Dynasty Falls” and decide on your own. I love the instrumentals and admire Hsieu’s vocal dexterity and dramatic presentation skills, but I can’t relate to them.
Coming in March: Mary Bue, Muriel Mwamba, Ron Pope, Michael Rudd, and ???
Rob Weir
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