If You Are Not Listening To Sturgill Simpson, What Are You Doing With Your Life?

It took me awhile, but I've finally caught on. I've lauded the work of Shooter Jennings on this blog quite a bit. His brand of music is authentic, catchy, and has staying power. There is another artist that has caught my attention lately and he shares a lot of traits with Shooter that I find appealing in a musician. His name is Sturgill Simpson. He's a Kentuckian and is best defined as a country artist, if you want to lay a genre on him. He's more than that though. From song to song, he can wiggle free of genre and bring a wide spectrum of influence into his work. 

Simpson has become very popular despite not getting radio play or support from the Nashville establishment, which he clearly doesn't want or need. In 2014 he won big at the Americana Music Awards grabbing the top prize for "Emerging Artist", "Artist of the Year" and "Song of the Year". In 2015 he was nominated for a Grammy for his album "Metamodern Sounds In Country Music". He plays to sold out shows all over the country and his latest album "A Sailors Guide To Earth" hit number one on the country charts despite getting very little mainstream radio play.

The guy isn't afraid to ruffle any feathers either. He took ACM to task for bumping Merle Haggard from the magazine just before his (Haggard's) death. 

Rolling Stone: Simpson Blasts ACM Over Haggard Snub

Sturgill Simpson & Merle Haggard

Simpson is a different kind of artist. He draws on the influences of his youth and teenage years, like most artists, but he isn't afraid of his own eclecticism. He openly talks about the influence that Merle Haggard, Keith Whitley, and Willie Nelson have had on his music, but in the same breath, he'll include Pink Floyd, Nirvana or any number of artists that you may not immediately catch in his music. In other words, he doesn't like to be pinned down as a musician that is falling back on his influences from a boxed in genre, but he expands his music by letting the variety shine through in a blatantly unapologetic manner. I've found his music to have such depth that I can listen to it over and over without growing weary of it or doing song skipping. There always seems to be something there that I didn't catch on a previous listen. His music speaks to me in a way that The Beatles, The Replacements, and Shooter Jennings have. I hold his artistry in that high esteem. 

Simpson has a draw for both country and rock fans. He drifts into the area of psychedelia at times, both lyrically and musically, and his interest in Buddhism is weaved in and out of quite a bit of his music. He doesn't preach it, but he just lays it out it there to let you know who he is. He is probably the first country artist to ever sing about ego death and the benefits of taking DMT and mushrooms to get a look at the world that steps outside of our day to day perceptions. 

This guy is the real deal and I wouldn't be taking time out of my Saturday if I didn't want to try to turn a couple more people on to him, in hopes his music has the same impact on them as it has me. 

If you want to get a really good look and listen, I'll start you out right here with his performance at Farm Aid on September 17th. A rousing performance with the Dap Kings backing him up on horns and featuring some passionate guitar work from Sturgill. Just a kick ass performance....

I'd recommend anyone that is interested in finding out more about Sturgill's music to start with songs from the "Metamodern Soungs In Country Music" album and if it strikes you right, move on from there. His first album "High Top Mountain" is solid, but not quite as polished or immediately satisfying as a genre busting piece of music like "Metamodern..." and "Sailors Guide To Earth" are. That's certainly not a knock on it at all. It has its' own charm and merit and is probably the most overtly country of his three albums. On each album he moves effortlessly between country, folk, psychedelia, and pop and does so without taking huge leaps. I hope someone finds out about the greatness of Sturgill Simpson from this blog, but if not, at least I got to spend an hour writing about an artist I believe is very important to modern music and is sure to continue making music that will stand the test of time. 

"Turtles All The Way Down"

This is probably his most accessible song musically, but lyrically it captured the attention of a lot of music lovers that see modern country music as shallow and devoid of any lyrical depth. Simpson defies that in a refreshing manner with the subject matter he speaks to here. 

"Life Of Sin"

This is a fun romp of a song that easily appeals to country sensibilities but has the backbone of a rockabilly tune. 

"Oh Sarah"

This tune kind of plods along on the initial listen. Very pretty and not flashy, but it takes a turn that many of his songs take and the second half just sucks you in. The band starts picking up the tempo and Sturgill gets to show off his amazing voice and passion. 

Joe Rogan and Marc Maron have featured him on their podcasts. You can check those out at the links below! 

The Replacements : Pleased To Meet Me

(At one point, I call this a review, but it's not. It's a "love letter" to the album.)

I've never made it a secret that one of my favorite bands (if not my tip top favorite) is The Replacements. Maybe I should say "was" The Replacements, since they broke up about 20 or or so years back. They were a band that influenced grunge and the emerging "alternative" sound as it came alive in the early 90's. I never understood the concept of a band or a song getting mainstream radio play being called alternative. Alternative to what? The Replacements, Concrete Blonde, REM (for awhile at least), The Smiths, Sonic Youth, and The Cure were real alternative bands. They were making music that college kids and misfit teenagers alike, who were sick of hearing the overproduced and over exposed synth rock of New Wave and the bloated excess of popular rock, wanted to hear. It was real and much of it was raw. The Replacements were a band that started out worshipping punk hero's like Black Flag and the New York Dolls, but wound up moving towards the pop sensibility of say The Box Tops or the Stones at their ragged best. At times, it seems that their fans, record label, and media wanted them to be famous more than they did. The self sabotage is great rock n roll history and diving into "All Over But The Shouting" by Jim Walsh explains some of it quite well. Showing up to gigs drunk and playing horribly when the "suits" were there to see them, and then showing up the next night and tearing the roof off. Pissing off the executives at NBC so bad that they were banned for life from Saturday Night Live. Taunting censors at the AMA awards in the infamous "Talent Show" incident. It was who they were. They never seemed comfortable getting attention. They didn't understand how to deal with it. Perhaps the pressures of fame chasing them hastened their death as a band. Perhaps it was inevitable either way. That's history now though and their body of work is a progression that is interesting when viewed from the distance of time. I could write thousands of words about The Replacements, but I wouldn't be saying anything that hasn't been said before, so I'm going to review my favorite record by The Replacements; Pleased To Meet Me. 

If you are still with me, then you probably either care about The Replacements or want to learn more....or perhaps you are really bored. No matter why you are still reading, thanks for sticking around. Pleased To Meet Me Was released by Sire Records in 1987, so it's been 25 years since it hit the shelves. PTMM, as I will refer to the album from here on out, was the band's second major label record, after having put out four albums on the smaller, Minneapolis based label called Twin Tone Records. Many people consider the 1986 album Tim as their masterpiece, and with the music on that record it's hard to disagree. It was their major label debut and had several songs "Bastards Of Young", "Hold My Life", and "Left Of The Dial", that proved to be anthems for many young music lovers who were coming to grips with moving out of their teenage years at a time when everything from fashion to music seemed hollow or to have a dollar sign on it, including their rock n roll heroes. For me though, PTMM was their grandest, most accessible and dare I say, greatest album. Maybe it was because it was the album that my friend Brian forced upon me unlike anything else he ever asked me to try. I was a card carrying Beatles, Zeppelin, and Floyd guy. Alternative music? Bah. If it's not on the radio, it must be minor league music. Whoops. That still stings. I had the cassette tape that I was loaned for ten years before I gave it back. I listened to it begrudgingly at first. A track here. A track there. Then I decided to just leave it in the car cassette player for awhile. And it started getting through. It started speaking to me. And not just the album, but the band and the way they played. The way Paul Westerberg sang with ragged desperation. The way Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars drove the music through your soul like a hammer slamming a nail into wood. The sensible, sometimes fun, and sometimes sad song writing. This album led me to become a full fledged Replacements addict. I collected everything I could find, from music, to magazines, to VHS tapes of them, and finally into an underground tape trading circuit where (I also met some neat people and still correspond with them today; Rob, C9) I collected tons of great live music, demos and outtakes from my new obsession. 

Well, I can't help it I suppose. I keep going personal when I simply want to review the record. Oh, well, fuck it. It's my blog, right? How can I share anything about this album without telling you what the draw is? I can't. 

PTMM checks in at a frantic 33 minutes in length. The cover is a take on Elvis' GI Blues album cover and the depiction of a "suit" shaking hands with a someone who was obviously ragged plays into the title of the album. Was it showing The Replacements coming to terms with being a major label commodity? PTMM was produced by Jim Dickinson and was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee. The Memphis influence can be felt at times, especially when the famous Memphis Horns, and Alex Chilton lend their work to "Can't Hardly Wait", and Luther Dickinson (Black Crowes lead guitarist) puts his stamp on "Shooting Dirty Pool". To date, it was their most polished and technically savvy recording, but don't mistake that for clean and anti-septic. The songs have life and drive. 

First up on the album is "IOU". It starts the record off on a raucous note. Driving the guitar right down your throat from the get go and letting you know that you are listening to The Replacements. The lyrics, when dug into, seem to reject the fact that simply because the band is being pushed towards the bright lights, they still don't buy it. They do what they do and don't owe anyone a damn thing. The drumming by Chris Mars is not always technically proficient, but he really pushes the song with his relentless beat. 

The next song is an homage to Alex Chilton, a fantastic song writer, who was a member of the Box Tops (The Letter, Cry Like A Baby), and one of music's first "alternative" bands Big Star. Paul Westerberg was a big fan of Chilton's songwriting and was probably hoping to turn a new generation on to one of his heroes. The tempo of this song is infectious, as Mars does great work once again and Westerberg writes one of his best hooks ever; "I'm in love, what's that song? I'm in love, with that song". "Alex Chilton" is featured on the Rock Band video game, just as an FYI. 

"I Don't Know" is the Replacements showing their grit. Tommy Stinson, in my opinion, is the backbone of the music with his relentless bass, along with the subtle saxophone work. The lyrics, once again, seem to be a push back on "hitting it big". The line is "one foot in the door, the other one in the gutter". Westerberg realized they were just one step either way from being nothing or being something. There they were, stuck in the middle, with the door closing. 

Up next is "Nightclub Jitters". It's a nice slow down take on cocktail jazz. I feel guilty for not listening to it in a dark bar with a bourbon sitting in front of me. This is a song where Westerberg was exploring something different. It fits pretty well right in between "I Don't Know" and "The Ledge", acting as a bridge from pissed off rock n roll to a song with a conscious. "The Ledge" is Westerberg's taking on suicide. Because of its lyrical content, which is a stark look inside the mind of a disaffected youth who is ready to leap to his demise, it was banned from MTV and seemed a very strange choice for the albums first single. We are talking about The Replacements here, so why should anyone be shocked. The song doesn't give you a happy ending. The kid doesn't come to his senses. We get a look into his thoughts as people gather below and around him. There is no "movie" ending. "All the love, that they pledge, for the last time will not reach the ledge" I think Stinson does some of his best bass work on this song. 

"Never Mind" is yet another song that uncovers Westerberg's feelings that he doesn't want to be duped by the draw of being a pop star. If you don't invest in it, how can you be hurt? It's evident in later work that Paul Westerberg wanted to be a star, he just didn't possess the ability to jump in the water and throw caution to the wind. "Never Mind" gives way to one of the most underrated Westerberg songs ever. "Valentine" searches for something. There's a longing to the lyrics. I don't know of many songs that open with a better line about romanticism ripped away than "Well you wish upon a star, that turns into a plane". It doesn't get any more hopeless than that. This is such a great song that tears your heart out, I can't believe another band hasn't covered this. It has it all. Great beat. Rousing guitars. Heartfelt lyrics. 

"Shooting Diry Pool" and "Red Red Wine" are the obligatory "throw away rockers" and they fit right into the album. These are songs that in less than capable hands, could have been a drag on the record as a whole. Sometimes a band just mails in the filler material. The Replacements don't, and some credit probably goes to producer Jim Dickinson and his direction for the album as a whole. They treat their second tier songs with just as much fervor and love as their more notable tunes. You get what they want to give you. Most of the time, they give you what you want. "Shooting Dirty Pool" is a straightforward rocker with some really fun, soaring guitar work from Luther Dickinson of the Black Crowes. 

The album winds down with two of the bands greatest songs. "Skyway" is a soft, low key song about a person who has a longing for a woman he has seen, but never met, on the mass transit system. He dreams of meeting her, but can't quite find the nerve. Love is fleeting, especially when it's expressed from afar. A theme that Westerberg has hit more than once in his career. Notably on "Love Untold" from his solo record Eventually.

The only way to end this album was to save the best for last. "Can't Hardly Wait" features the Memphis Horns prominently, but their presence doesn't detract at all from the raw feeling of the album. There is a lot to love about this song. The lyrics are sublime. Westerberg longs for (and dreams of) home as he sits in a shitty hotel room (perhaps in Memphis?) somewhere on the road, far away from his hometown of Minneapolis. Lyrically it's hard to beat "I'll be home when I'm sleeping. I can't hardly wait" and "Hurry up, hurry up, ain't you had enough of this stuff? Ash tray floors, dirty clothes, and filthy jokes." Alex Chilton lends his guitar to this song and he carries it musically. The rest of the band plays in a controlled manner, with Stinson plucking away in unison with Mars' drum pace which is simple and patient. I've probably listened to this one a thousand times in my life. I never grow tired of it.

That's about it. Yeah, I could go on, but I don't really expect very many people to read this honestly. It's lengthy and the subject matter appeals to only a few. This was a labor of love. It's one of my favorite albums and it's hard to believe it's been 25 years since I was a clueless 18 year old, who latched on to something he didn't immediately understand, but knew felt right. The album only charted at 131, yet The Replacements following over the years has expanded enough to the point that Rhino released a remastered version (along with all the other Replacements albums) along with demos and outtakes. Even if the public, or you, didn't care about it, the fans and critics did. Famed critic Robert Christgau gave it an "A-", Pitchfork checks in with a 9.3 out of 10, the Rolling Stone Album Guide ranked it the fifth best album of 1987, and PunkNews.org rated it 4.5 out of 5.

 Perhaps the best review I have read about Pleased To Meet Me comes from David Fricke (Rolling Stone Magazine) who gave it a glowing review, saying "Tracks like "I.O.U." and "Shooting Dirty Pool" practically sound like Exile on Main Street at 78 rpm. It is ironic that Westerberg and the Replacements can make such a joyful noise out of so much anguish and insecurity. But on Pleased to Meet Me, the pleasure is all yours." Fricke got it, way back in 1987. And yes, the pleasure has been all mine! 

Thanks for reading.

.

My Morning Jacket: The Best Band In The World

So I gotta start this out by saying I'm a bit biased in this assessment. The band is from Louisville, I'm from Louisville....ya stick by your family.  That's not all my opinion is based on though. My Morning Jacket is one of those bands that almost begs to be "grown" with. Their sound has evolved over the years and they always seem to keep their audience guessing as to what direction they will head next. There are not many bands, including my all-time favorites, such as The Replacements, The Beatles, and Pink Floyd, in which I have trouble finding a couple of songs that I just don't like. MMJ (as I shall call them for the remainder of this blog) just never seems to mail it in. Every song is unique and they don't seem to fit a specific genre. 

MMJ's first album was released in 1999, called The Tennessee Fire. That album, along with their second record, At Dawn, were given nice reviews by AllMusic.com and Pitchfork as well as others. The sound was odd and certainly different as the band used heavy reverberation and mixed tempos within many of the songs, drawing you in slowly and then punching a hole in your eardrum. One of my favorites is called "The Way That He Sings" from the At Dawn album. 

Here is a great live version performed on David Letterman

The album It Still Moves was their first major label release and it opened them up to a whole new world, as the band won critical acclaim and toured seemingly non-stop to build a rabid following. It Still Moves is a fantastic piece of music that is varied in style and can at times remind the listener of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, as well as Metallica and Pink Floyd. The song "Run Thru" is another personal favorite of mine and is ranked as one of the top 100 Great Guitar Songs by Rolling Stone magazine!

If It Still Moves was their coming out party, then their next album Z would make them darlings of the critics and again show that they are not one trick ponies who just stick with a sound. Z is just a bit more pop-ish than their previous albums, but I wouldn't call it MMJ going soft. They were refining their sound and exploring different instruments and sounds. Metacritic, who uses an aggregate score of album reviews, ranked Z as the second best album of 2005 and Pitchfork Media ranked the record at 146 of the top 200 albums of the 2000's. One of the best songs off of an album full of them (Off The Record), also features a cool video.

Z seemed like a tough act to follow, but somehow, the band just keeps making great record after great record. Evil Urges was released in 2008 and stripped away much of the bands earlier sound and was an attempt to create a record that sounded more like MMJ as a live act, as opposed to the studio touches that highlighted previous records. 2008 was a big year for the band. They appeared on Saturday Night Live, received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Rock Album, and played a legendary 3-hour live set at the Bonnaroo music festival that featured 35 songs, with help from Kirk Hammett of Metallica and comedian Zach Galifianakis. Evil Urges was ranked on no fewer than 5 lists for one of the top 20 albums of 2008, including a ranking of #4 from Rolling Stone Magazine. 

Here is yet another fantastic song. I give you "I'm Amazed", one of a handful of great tunes off of Evil Urges.

Their latest release is called Circuital and once again, the band took it's sound to a different place. Not as easily accessible as previous albums, this one is a "sitter", meaning you need to listen to it a few times and not expect the tunes to just grab you in the way many pop tunes do. This record will get better with each listen, until you have these tunes stuck in your head....."holdin' on to black metal"....Oh, Yeah!! The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200 and once again the band received a Grammy nomination. 

I have to say this about MMJ; they are a great live band. As good as their albums are and as much enjoyment that I can get out of those with the headphones on, there is nothing like experiencing them live. They will flat wear an audience out. They are the type of band that doesn't let the audience get restless. They pour it all out when they are on stage. I've seen them several times and not once can I say that they were anything other than great. Years back, before they started playing to sold out festivals, I saw them open for Joe Henry at Phoenix Hill Tavern on Bardstown Road. I had no idea who they were, but I wouldn't forget them. In addition to all the albums and touring, the band has appeared as themselves on the television show "American Dad", toured with Neil Young,  have been featured on Austin City Limits a couple of times, and were a part of the VH1 Storyteller series in 2011. If you love rock n roll and don't know who this band is, you need to do some You Tube searching and get with it! If I had to recommend an album for a mainstream music fan to introduce themselves to the band with, I think I'd choose Z or Evil Urges. 

Oh, and I can't let this blog end without showing the clip of My Morning Jacket on American Dad. 

And in case you were wondering if stardom has went to lead singer Jim James' head, it hasn't. He puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else!!!

Why're we so loud when we say it wont happen to us? 

Why does my mind blow to bits every time they play that song?

It's just the way that he sings, 

Not the words that he says, or the band. 

I'm in love with this soul, it's a meaning that I understand. 

"The Way That He Sings"---My Morning Jacket