Music
We could have spent our retrospective of 2006 taking fond stock of musical events around the country, or even the world—after all, there was some pretty sweet stuff coming out of Denmark. But did you really need one more person to tell you that Gnarls Barkley made a great record this year? Frankly, we think our own local action has been far more exciting to watch than the antics on the national stage. And surprise is no longer a plausible response to the news that Nashville’s music scene hosts a prolific, talented bunch in a wide range of genres. So, like good isolationists, we’ve happily buried our heads in the sand, focusing on local highlights in bluegrass, urban, rock, country, classical and singer-songwriter fare—there’s even a list of books that will appeal to any music lover with an eye for the Nashville connection.
NASHVILLE SOUNDS
Six great local rock releases
Glossary, For What I Don’t Become (Undertow)
A decade into existence as a band, Glossary released a marvelous commentary on that journey—on the passage of time, the vice of regret, the snowball inertia of aging—and it still managed to be a badass rock ’n’ roll record. Perhaps the most refreshing thing about For What I Don’t Become it its lack of pretension, irony and self-important cleverness. Instead, this band take up the cause of beauty—crafting a sound that is rich, warm and delicately melancholy.
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Be Your Own Pet, Be Your Own Pet (Ecstatic Peace)/JEFF, Castle Storm (Infinity Cat)
Be Your Own Pet’s self-titled debut was everything it was supposed to be—rambunctious, raw and surprisingly catchy. Contrary to convention, these teen punks don’t get by on enthusiasm alone—it’s the clever riffs that stick with you, the idiosyncratic explosions of melody and rhythm. Drummer Jamin Orrall left BYOP in the fall to concentrate on JEFF, a two-piece with brother Jake. They released Castle Storm, an equally impressive debut, on their boutique label Infinity Cat in July. JEFF are heavier—and more dynamic in their influences—but they share a level of musical prowess, and precociousness, with their higher-profile friends.
The Privates, Barricades (Mean Buzz)
So maybe you can’t call The Privates a supergroup, but you can call them a damn fine arrangement of players who are all (but singer Dave Paulson) on loan from other top-shelf acts. Their full-length may have come slower than we wanted, but it went straight for the payoff with a batch of thrilling angular pop that left more experimental goals behind in favor of laser-like focus on getting to “the good part.” Proof is the standout track “Heart’s Got a Hole,” which blends a shuffling beat, spiky guitar swipes and a pulsing bassline and masters the art of edging toward climax with just the right tension.
How I Became the Bomb, Let’s Go! (Self-released)
Finally, a local band you can really dance to! If you’re a fan of ’80s synth-infused pop magic, and find military themes, espionage, robots and the occasional irreverent joke amusing, then the Bomb were just the fix you needed on the local rock scene this year. They seemed to come out of nowhere (or rather, Murfreesboro) with the industrial gallop of “Secret Identity” and the dramatic, space-like reverie of “Killing Machine”—songs so unabashedly catchy that they were irresistible.
The Features, Contrast (Self-released)
For most Features fans, the band can do no wrong, enjoying a rare loyalty among locals. And yet they keep upping the ante, moving from the stunning, endless hooks on Exhibit A, through the major-label blues and a lineup shake-up, to the EP Contrast. This little gem proves the band are indeed charmed, and that none of the drama affected their ability to produce another stunning release of dynamic pop. The crucial title track has an ache, fluidity and shimmer that, like most of the band’s work, is deceptively simple and highly addictive. —Lee Stabert & Tracy Moore
GOING STEADY
Five of 2006’s stand-out singles
Whether the album is dead or has been resurrected by the Cover Flow feature on iTunes is immaterial—here are the five best local arguments for staying single.
Apollo Up!, “Walking the Plank” (Chariots of Fire)
It seemed every time you turned on WRVU this year, a different DJ was spinning this track. The song’s jagged opening riff is instantly recognizable and sets a manic, confrontational tone for one of the year’s best local releases.
Count Bass D, “Junkies” (Act Your Waist Size)
Spin.com went so far as to say “you need to download” this song, an ambling, low-key set of observational rhymes. Referring to a Walkman offered up for sale by a local junkie, the Count delivers one of the year’s best lines: “Please—you could fry a pork chop on the earpiece.”
Be Your Own Pet, “Bicycle Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle” (Be Your Own Pet)
Was that Nashville cream on their faces when they thoroughly ripped through this song on Late Night With Conan O’Brien? No matter. So good, it made Conan say “dude.”
How I Became the Bomb, “Secret Identity” (Let’s Go!)
Poised to take its place beside the Buzzcocks’ “Ever Fallen In Love?” on mix CDs assembled for significant hipster others, this track helped us learn to stop worrying and, you know.
All We Seabees, “Bruin Hunt” (Anne the Snake)
Not many songs came out of Murfreesboro in 2006 with hooks this big. Probably known best for the line, “Catholic girls always want to score,” “Bruin Hunt” is pure foot-stomping poetry.—Steve Haruch
WHITE DUDES & CHICKS WITH FEELINGS
This year’s best releases by local singer-songwriters
Nashville is obviously filled with songwriters, but it’s also filled with singer-songwriters—that wonderful species of weak-kneed, self-indulgent, pale-skinned white folk with guitars and a whole bunch of feelings. But the human race needs them—they provide the soundtrack to all the feelings we, as emotionally stilted products of modern society, refuse to share with the world. And, I’ll go ahead and retract my use of the word “self-indulgent,” because the good ones, the ones that write the tunes that get put on repeat—that get married to the terrible or terrific moments in life—manage to look beyond themselves and tell us something about life, catharsis, beauty and, most importantly, empathy. (That dude’s ex was a selfish loser too! I feel so much better.) Here are some of the year’s best from around town:
Kyle Andrews, Amos in Ohio (BADMAN)
From the bright, opening acoustic melody of the title track “Amos in Ohio,” to the wistful, melancholy strum of the closer “Shower With the Sun Shining In”—and all the catchy, complex bedroom pop in between—Kyle Andrews’ little masterpiece tackles both sadness and recovery. By believing in the power of prettiness, this record becomes a lesson on how to write yourself a passageway out of a breakup’s dark woods.
David Mead, Tangerine (TALLULAH)
Accomplished is a perfect word for David Mead’s tight, ironic power pop. Everything on Tangerine feels smart, pristine and expert. His voice has a deliciously mischievous edge—like a precocious teenager too smart for his own good.
Courtney Tidwell, Don’t Let the Stars Keep Us Tangled Up (EVER)
Of course there are plenty of white chicks with feelings—Lilith Fair anyone? —so onto the list enters Courtney Tidwell with her idiosyncratic breed of lush electro-pop. Don’t Let the Stars is filled with dreamy, atmospheric soundscapes, offset by Tidwell’s delicate, quirky vocal stylings.
Cory Branan, 12 Songs (mADJACK)
This record would make the list on the strength of its third track alone—“Tall Green Grass,” an angular, nostalgic summertime romp, is just that gosh-darn good. Branan, who loves toying with instrumentation to push his pretty, detail-drenched love songs beyond convention, is a master wit—how can you not love a guy who casually rhymes “enamored” with “hammered?”
Eef Barzelay, Bitter Honey (SPIN ART)
You know those songs that seem really clever at first, but then just keep getting sadder and sadder until the ironies feel like a boot heel on the back of your neck? On Bitter Honey, a solo acoustic project, Clem Snide frontman Eef Barzelay remains master of the clever conceit that crumbles slowly, revealing self-doubt, sorrow and occasionally love. —Lee Stabert
HOT TRACKS
Best urban releases with local flavor
Despite much hand-wringing over why Young Buck and Cowboy Troy stand alone as the only Nashville urban acts with major-label deals, many of our stalwart MCs and crooners prefer the DIY route, either as a way to stack major paper or exercise major creative freedom. For some, the independent release is a way of life, for others it’s a way to get noticed. Here are five that got our attention this year and deserve yours.
Count Bass D, Act Your Waist Size (Fat Beats)
Count’s latest is his most assured, diverse and mature record yet, a marvel showcasing his innovation and tight beats, and you’d be loathe to call it simply “rap.” Though Count spits in his ever mutating flow, at times he sings and at times he simply converses with the listener about subjects ranging from fake gangstas to the folly of self-indulgence. Count’s rep is built on his hypnotizing beats, and Act Your Waist Size is stuffed with extraordinary soundscapes, like the chugging horn riffs on “IMEANROC&RON” or his turning a 19th century baroque into a head-nodder on “No Comp.” The record’s masterpiece is the sensuous ballad “Half the Fun,” featuring Van Hunt.
Cadence, Songs of Vice and Virtue (Paperweight)
At one time, locals wrote Cadence off as an Eminem wannabe. Cadence went back to the lab and reemerged with an urban pop formula that blends Jay-Z’s glossy bluster, Em’s cynicism and mainstream R&B. The mishmash doesn’t always yield good results, but when Cadence is on point, like with the banging punditry of “Comin’ Back,” he shows great potential.
Quanie Cash, Loyalty and Respect (Bottom Boyz)
Cash is perhaps the city’s second-hardest working MC. Patterning his career trajectory on that of Master P, he’s got his hands in filmmaking as well as music. The soundtrack to his movie, Loyalty and Respect, yielded the crunk-as-hell gutter anthem “I’m Bad,” featuring a fire-breathing Young Buck.
Darnell Levine, We Gon’ Use What We Got (Mama Modestine Music)
Levine’s established himself as a fixture on the Nashville neo-soul circuit and the rest of the country is beginning to take notice of his skill—his song “Try Him” will be featured on the upcoming Red Star Sounds compilation. Yet, the song that truly showcases Levine’s songwriting skill is “Use What We Got,” an updated doo-wop sizzled in greasy funk.Coolout, Midnight (coolout music)
DJ coolout drops some hot mixes during the sets he performs around Nashville, and Midnight seems at times the sum of the many genres of music he spins. Most noteworthy on the record is the single “Celebrate,” a slow-burning groove that’s an ode to hanging out.—Mark Mays
NASHVILLE CONNECTIONS
Best 2006 Books for Music Lovers
Dunstan Prial, The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music
Few major figures in 20th century music have a stronger connection with our city than John Hammond, whose grandfather was Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the era’s richest man. It’s anyone’s guess how the family genes were mixed to produce not another robber baron but a scion with ears of gold and a passion for American vernacular music, a passion symbiotic with his passion for social justice. As a young man who lived for his solo ventures into Harlem, Hammond developed an unusually keen awarenesss of social inequities. As an older one heading Columbia’s A&R, he believed that the music business could set a standard for integration and fair recompense for African American artists and could help create an audience for those who shared progressive views, in addition to spawning new artists such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
Jonathan Cott, Dylan: The Complete Interviews
The title pretty much preempts any attempt at description except to say that, as usual, Mikal Gilmore’s are stellar. The passage in Gilmore’s most recent, in which Dylan seems honestly not to know the identity of Jack Nicholson, is, like the best of the best of Dylan’s songs, excoriating in its truthfulness, hilarious in its tragedy: “The Old Weird America” and “Nashville Skyline”—need one say more?
Greil Marcus, The Rose and the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad (with Sean Wilentz); The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice
Marcus has published two books in very quick succession. Laura Palmer and Bill Pullman’s face, two of his subjects in the latter book, tease from him some of his best and strangest prose ever.
Michael Streissguth, Johnny Cash
This new biography, from the author of last year’s Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, is workmanlike but unafraid of its iconic subject. Cash emerges not as the bad man gone good with the help of June Carter but as someone caught between resistance and acquiescence to the seductions of speed, barbiturates and alcohol, which not only didn’t debilitate Cash’s creativity but seem, at least at times, to have encouraged it.
Robert Greenfield, A Season in Hell: The Making of Exile on Main Street
Greenfield focuses on the highwater mark of another musical legend’s creativity, Keith Richards’, and finds it to have been inextricable from his heroin use—and, in this case, his deep friendship and connection with Gram Parsons, who taught him George Jones songs and much more during the certainly hellish summer at Nellcote during which the classic record was made.
Four books appeared sufficiently late in 2006 that many people won’t have actually read them until early ’07, meaning you may see reviews of Courtney Love’s scrapbook, which includes photos of her Nashville concert, a new biography of Elvis Costello, who seems to come to Nashville every chance he can get to become awestruck by The Ryman, then to tear down its jambs, and also to buy guitars; Nick Drake, whose influence is increasingly wide-ranging around town, even if most people’s immediate recollection of him derives from a Volkswagen commercial; and Elliott Smith, whose songs have traveled far from his basement. —Diann Blakely
HIDDEN TREASURES
Five overlooked Nashville bluegrass gems
You make an album, send it out into the marketplace, and then…who knows? It’s one big crap shoot, especially for bluegrass artists whose work, where it’s not self-released, typically appears on cash-starved indie labels. It can be hard for them to get anyone—including critics—to take notice of their music, even when they’re able to muster up some promotional resources. Here are five outstanding bluegrass releases, ranging from the edgy to the ultra-traditional, by Nashville residents who, while they may have gotten some attention, haven’t gotten nearly as much as they deserve.
Charlie Cushman, Five String Time (CMC)
A banjo player who makes his living mostly in the studio and at special events, Cushman’s one of those rare birds who’s not only got a death grip on the near-mandatory Scruggs style, but also on that of Earl’s more idiosyncratic colleague, Don Reno. The disc finds Cush charging through a bunch of favorite instrumentals in what amounts to an energetic, enjoyable textbook for five-string devotees.
Barbara Lamb, Bootsy Met a Bank Robber (Lots of Coffee)
Irrepressible fiddler Babs is eclectic enough to fly under a lot of bluegrass-leaning folks’ radar and busy enough on the road to have little time for self-promotion at home. Too bad, because her latest album’s a ’grass-leaning dandy, with appearances by a stylish selection of friends with familiar names. There are nods to Bill Monroe and Richard Thompson on the set list, but plenty of cool originals, too.
Mark Newton Band, Hillbilly Hemingway (Rebel)
Glistening, muscular production by Carl Jackson, a stellar and road-tested band, and a boatload of great songs should be enough to get widespread attention for one of the best albums of the year—and certainly the best the veteran Newton’s yet made—shouldn’t they? Not so far.
John Cowan Band, New Tattoo (Pinecastle)
Full of newgrass for the new century, the bluegrass blue-eyed soul singer and electric bass player’s first release for straight-arrow Pinecastle Records bristles with feeling. Cowan’s in top-notch vocal form, and he’s backed by his regular band—musicians who can play it straight when they want to, but here choose otherwise.
David Peterson & 1946, In The MountainTops to Roam
A phenomenal singer—one of the few to capture not just the energy and bluesiness of the pioneers, but their sweetness, too—Peterson wrestles a well-chosen collection of trad songs (and a pair of trad-sounding originals) into tip-top shape.—Jon Weisberger
ALBUMS TOO COUNTRY FOR COUNTRY RADIO
Five records passed over by the FM dial
Country traditionalists may bellyache about the lack of “real” country music on the radio, but with George Strait, Brad Paisley, Josh Turner and Gretchen Wilson all holding top positions on the charts, there’s as much reason to celebrate as to complain. The picture gets even brighter when moving beyond radio’s limited choices. Here’s a few outstanding, deeply rooted albums that won’t crack any “power country” playlists, but which strengthen and extend traditional music and its branches.
Michael Cleveland, Let ’Er Go, Boys (Rounder)
The 26-year-old Cleveland plays fiddle like his sleeve is on fire, but even with his aggressive speed, his playing carries a rich tone and inventive ideas, even on age-old tunes like “Cacklin’ Hen” and “Durham’s Reel.” He’s been named the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Fiddler of the Year four times in five years, and Let ’Er Go, Boys is the third of his three solo works to win Instrumental Album of the Year. In truth, it features more than great ensemble picking: the vocal numbers by Vince Gill, Del McCoury, Larry Sparks and Dan Tyminski turn great songs like “Dark as the Night, Blue as the Day” into some of the best country music heard this year.
Diana Jones, My Remembrance of You (NewSong)
Her stripped-bare style focuses all the attention on her words, melodies and voice, which means each must be sturdy and evocative enough to bear such weight. They do. The 41-year-old Jones draws comparisons to Iris DeMent and Gillian Welch, and rightfully so—not because she sounds like them, but because she’s as singular and as striking as they are. Her songs are as threadbare and timeless as a Carter Family classic, yet as personal and carefully crafted as a John Prine or Guy Clark tune.
Willie Nelson, You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker (Lost Highway)
At 73, Nelson remains an ever-present American cultural figure, but when’s the last time you heard anything about his new music? This year we heard more about the fuels he prefers, be it bio-diesel for his buses or weed for his body, than the fact that he released two of his best albums in years. The more traditional of them pairs him with producer Fred Foster and a gently swinging band of old Nashville cats on one of the most down-the-line, classic-country albums Nelson’s ever cut.
Guy Clark, Workbench Songs (Dualtone)
Even in his youth, Clark’s weathered Texas baritone and gruff cowboy presence made him sound wise beyond his years. At 65, he still conveys an imposing masculinity, but there’s a frailty in his tone that lends his words even more authority. His latest collection is less personal, focusing on the lightly swinging fiddle tunes and humorous story songs that have always been a part of his repertoire. But the sly rhymes of “Tornado Time in Texas” and the tender truths of “Magdalene”—not to mention hearing him pay tribute to the joys of being stoned in “Worry B Gone”—suggest the master still knows how to use his tools.
The Wilders, Throw Down (Rural Grit)
These shit-kickers shake the dust off old-time string music by playing it with a moonshine kick. Skilled enough to maintain a tight rhythm and clear tones, yet not too concerned with precision to keep them from stomping on convention, they only slow down when mourning the fact that levees, like hearts, don’t always hold the line. —Michael McCall