Land Surveying

By Jim Ridley and Michael McCall

Two years ago, the first annual music issue of the glossy Southern literary mag The Oxford American set off a firestorm that still has bluegrass fans hot. At issue was a rollicking, scorchingly uncensored portrait of bluegrass great Jimmy Martin by Boston music writer Tom Piazza, who came away from the encounter with a veritable Fear and Loathing in Opryland. Purists and Martin fans accused Piazza of harping on the man’s excesses instead of focusing on his music. Most folks, though, were grateful not to read another fawning country-music puff piece dictated from a publicist’s lips.

Love it or hate it, the piece made the issue a must-read, and this month the The Oxford American returns with its third annual double issue on “Southern Music.” Interestingly, as the caliber of contributors rises—this year’s roster includes John Morthland, Dave Marsh, Greil Marcus, Willie Morris, Robert Gordon, Stanley Crouch, and even Steve Martin (writing on the joys of banjo music)—the subjects grow increasingly obscure. Thus you’ll find pieces on gospel vocalist Dorothy Love Coates, Cajun legend D.L. Menard, and rock singer Jason Morphew, in addition to a colorful profile of Ike Turner (singing Alice Cooper’s “Only Women Bleed”) and an eye-opening remembrance of Dusty Springfield by producer Jerry Wexler, who’s candid about the singer’s crippling insecurity during the recording of her masterpiece Dusty in Memphis.

You’ll also find Nashville writers Jay Orr, Grant Alden, Craig Havighurst, and Bill Friskics-Warren (nice photo!) well represented on subjects ranging from Billy Joe Shaver to Alex Chilton. But the main attraction, as always, is the accompanying 25-track CD compiled by Nashvillian Rick Clark. From Isaac Hayes to Jerry Lee Lewis, from Lou Ann Barton’s lewd “Shake Your Hips” to vintage Mississippi party band the Red Tops’ swinging “Swanee River Rock,” the selections range from cool to revelatory. So, at its best, does the magazine. Look for The Oxford American at local bookstores and newsstands.

—Jim Ridley

Local activity

Mike “Grimey” Grimes, whose six-string roar was an integral part of Bare Jr.’s sonic punch, has left the band to pursue other projects. Among these is Luther Blue and the Ballistics, a goofy blues band featuring Fenner Castner and Grimes’ former Bis-quits mates Tommy Womack and Will Kimbrough.

The Bare Jr. guitar slot has apparently gone to roots-rocker Tim Carroll, whose solo record is still floating around somewhere in Sire Records limbo. However, Carroll does have a cut on the soundtrack of one of the year’s coolest movies, Election, and his tune “A Girl That’s Hip” (cowritten with Duane Jarvis) will appear in the Kirsten Dunst-Denise Richards comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Speaking of Drop Dead Gorgeous, the Sire soundtrack album, due this week in stores, features songs by local artists Mandy Barnett (“Beautiful Dreamer”) and Lifeboy (“Number One”), the latter of whom plays a Tower Records in-store 7 p.m. Friday to support the record. The Nevers also reportedly have a cut in the movie, which opens here Friday.

—Jim Ridley

American steel

Joe Goldmark, a San Francisco-based steel guitarist, is a well-versed musical historian and an exceptional musician. To that end, he’s currently compiling an exhaustive discography of every steel guitar performance in the history of recorded music—which should give some insight into the man’s obsessive love for his chosen instrument.

He’s also on a mission to prove that the steel guitar can be adopted to a vast array of musical settings, as can be heard on his recent instrumental album, All Hat, No Cattle, which came out in late May on Hightone Records’ HMG imprint. Because Goldmark knows his stuff, he’d probably be the first to say that his album is a throwback to the instrumental recordings of a generation ago, when albums by musicians like Chet Atkins, Pete Drake, Buddy Emmons, and Joe Maphis would cover anything and everything, regardless of genre or origin. As long as they found something intriguing in a tune—usually a clever chord progression or a pretty, hummable melody—these pros would tackle it and put their mark on it.

Goldmark—who has played with everyone from David Byrne to Mike Bloomfield to Taj Mahal—takes a similar approach. On All Hat, No Cattle, he interprets tunes from West Africa, Mexico, and the Caribbean, as well as equally unexpected, but more familiar, fare by the Grateful Dead (“China Cat Sunflower”), Bob Seger (“Her Strut”), The Band (“Whispering Pines”), The Byrds (“Eight Miles High”), and even Fastball (“The Way”).

Not everything works. Turning the country classic “Sweet Dreams” into a tech-head tribute to the late guitarist Roy Buchanan is the kind of thing only other mutant stringbenders would care to hear. But the 13-song collection features more surprises than gaffes. As with many old-school players, Goldmark emphasizes accessibility as much as he does flashy chops. His new album is the kind of delight that serves perfectly as unusual, animated background music for a summer party or as worthwhile fodder for quirky music fans and advanced pickers.