Wednesday evening was exactly what I wanted, a rock and roll show. Isbell and his band did not hold back throughout the evening, and without an opener there was no time to blink. Touching on four records with The 400 Unit and all four solo LP’s, this was a career spanning performance for the group. Through Isbell’s first solo hits like “Dress Blues” from 2007’s Sirens of the Ditch through his latest record Foxes in the Snow with the tune “Bury Me,” it all felt as though these musicians had all been playing these tunes for decades.  

This concert was an approachable and engaging performance as someone who has never seen Isbell before, showing me a mix of the entry points I knew, and the deeper cuts that kept fans coming back. The show felt close, as though you were in the same rehearsal space as the band as they discussed the ever-changing setlist on this tour. Iowa City was treated to a heavy dose of Weathervanes with five tracks making an appearance compared to a few nights before in Pittsburgh where they received only 3 in exchange for some more Drive-By Truckers tracks. Isbell recently reunited with the Truckers for a performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after his departure in 2007, and showing even more love as every night on his recent leg covering “Decoration Day.”  Near the end of the set, the icing on this very sweet cake was a cover of Paul McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It'” which fit The 400 Unit’s voices nicely, echoing the same force The Wings had when it released in 1973. This was the first time Isbell and The 400 Unit have ever played this live, but it sounded like a classic from the cabinets of their discography.

The casual and laid back approach Isbell and company had is what I loved so much about this gig, as they dabbled in more jam band tendencies than most. Songs with solos lasting upwards of 3 minutes as the musicians on stage traded bars back and forth. Jason Isbell taking plenty of solos for himself, sauntering around the stage with a rotation of a red Fender Telecaster, gold Gibson Les Paul, and a sunburst Gibson ES-335. While these beautiful instruments made the soundtrack to the evening, an circular gold plate caught the attention of most. Multi-instrumentalist WIll Johnson, Isbell’s latest edition to the band, was shadowed by a gong for the show. While jumping between drums, guitar, and whatever else the band needed, the gong remained untouched. That was until the back half of the setlist, when Johnson graced bronze ring to the satisfaction of the crowd and band alike. Isbell went on to calm and hopes that this would be a recurring instrument stating “if you hit the gong more than once, you’re not hitting the gong, you’re playing the gong.” I can’t fight that logic. 

Headlining the 1,800 seat palace was not the only feather in Isbell’s cap during his time in Iowa City as he spoke of his placing third in Tuesday Night Trivia at Joe’s Place. He let out some frustration that bronze was all they got, claiming a few folks may have been googling answerers on competing teams. These are serious allegations leveled to the patrons of Tuesday Night Trivia, but I can confirm there were far too many phones out for a fair competition. Nevertheless, trivia and a headlining gig sounds like a good 48 hours to me. Isbell and his band were electric in Iowa City once again, and I hope its much less than 30 months before we see his return. Jason Isbell is touring throughout the rest of the year, you can find tickets here.  

The post Jason Isbell’s Loud Return to Hancher, and His Bronze Medal in Trivia appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Logan Melia: What are you drinking there?  

Jano Rix: I’ve got a black tea, a Fiji tips out-of-the-box from out there. 

Logan: Only the highest quality. 

Jano: Only the highest quality with nothing in it. Half a cup of water because that’s what it was like. 

Logan: You got to stay hydrated. Are you a coffee guy usually? Or are you tea?  

Jano: I have coffee in the morning. In fact, my whole life until I don’t know, two years ago, I never drank caffeine. 

Logan: Really? What changed? 

Jano: I don’t know. I started to like getting an espresso, like something sweet, like that one. And then I was like, I literally said, maybe I’ll see what getting a habit is all about with caffeine. And it’s on. So yeah. 

Logan: I just started like three months ago drinking coffee. 

Jano: Really. 

Logan: Yeah, like in college, I was like, I’m not going to do it because I can do it without it. I got this. And then over the summer, I worked at a golf course, and it was earlier mornings than I’ve ever had here at school. And that’s what made me fold. I’m a little disappointed in myself. 

Jano: Yeah, you know, it worked. Getting the habit worked. I got it. The thing about it, though, is that, I don’t know, it doesn’t really work that great if you didn’t get enough sleep. It makes you feel awesome if you got enough sleep, it’s even better. And if you didn’t get enough sleep, then you still feel like crap but jittery. 

Logan: Are you a full 8 hours guy or?  

Jano: I’m in a stage where, yeah, that’s good. Seven and a half. Seven and a half. 

Logan: You need it?  

Jano: I need it. Yeah.  

Logan: Do you feel like sluggish if you oversleep? Like if you are wiped, you sleep 10 hours, one day you wake up at, you know, 1130 A.M. 

Jano: If I, well on the road, 11:30 is reasonable. But I, it’s like all about timing. If it’s, I do believe in sleep cycles, at least for myself. So nine hours is awesome. 10 hours would suck. 

Logan: On the road, do you like the on the road thing? Does it mess with that schedule? 

Jano: Oh, I mean, yeah. It messes with my schedule. Yeah, last night wasn’t so great. You know, it depends on how the roads are, if the bus is going to stop in the middle of the night to fuel up. it depends on a lot of things.  

Logan: How long have you been touring for?  

Jano: 25 years, maybe? 

Logan: A little home on the road there, you know? You’re getting used to it. After the 25 years, maybe. 

Jano: Yes, I’m definitely used to it. I’ll tell you what, when I went away in COVID, I did miss it after a while. I loved it at first, actually. That particular thing of not touring, it was so awesome. I was home for months. And then after a while, it was just a huge part of my life, my expression, and also just being used to just seeing new places and waking up in a new place. And just, I don’t know, we have a tour family. I really missed it. 

Logan: When COVID first hit, were you like, I’m not going to do anything musical, I’m going to cleanse myself of this, or were the creative juices still kind of running for you? 

Jano: Oh, I mean, that was not a point in my life where I was like, no, I don’t want to do something musical. I had a point in my life, a few years before that, where I decided to quit music as a profession and that didn’t last. All that did was let me know that it was what I needed to do. It was good in that way. I tried to be a carpenter and I started working and doing like construction stuff. Working for a company and I quickly realized this is cool, but no, I need to put everything into music so that I can figure out a way to make a living doing this. I forget what year that was. I mean, 2009, something like that. But what was your question? Oh, COVID. COVID. Yeah. No, but it was just, I was, you know, I could do without the travel. So like stopping travel. I mean, I also spend the other, part of my artistic life is mostly spent in the studio. And that was mostly gone, but then we started doing sessions with masks and stuff, but touring was dead for a while. And I do remember vividly the first tour date, this live show date. 

Logan: What do you remember about it? 

Jano: Oh man, I cried. Like it was really awesome. I think it was outside, indoor/outdoor, like trying to do the COVID thing. At City Winery in Nashville and I think, what was it? Gosh, I’m trying to remember. Was it an Oliver Wood? I think we did an Oliver Wood Trio solo gig. And Seth Walker also played that night, like a bunch of people I’ve worked with and our friends and musicians I love. And I just, we played our set and then I just remember that felt amazing. And then I remember sitting in the audience, standing by the soundboard and watching Seth play. And I was just like, I was just so struck and moved by like how lucky I am to know these people and that we get to do this and I get to hear this, like after not hearing anyone play live music for so long. 

Logan: In those moments like that, is there like a song that kind of sticks with you from that exact time, or like maybe any other moments where you have a specific song that you remember hearing in a place during a time and you’re like, this is sticking with me? 

Jano: Oh, for sure. I don’t know if I remember a specific song from that night, but speaking of, it might’ve been, because I remember this from Seth Walker, hearing him, “Grab Ahold” which we’ve also done with the Oliver Wood solo stuff that I worked on. And I guess I worked on the original Seth Walker recording of that too. And he wrote that with Oliver and Oliver produced that first album and then I produced the subsequent ones. So I don’t know, that song goes way back and I’ve just, what really struck me, what I’m thinking about is hearing him from across festival grounds. Playing a daytime set, which can be tough in a festival early on, and telling a bunch of people there who didn’t know Seth, I was like, you have to go see Seth. And walking over to the stage and he was on the main stage and it was just like, you know giant fields, sun beating down, and he had everyone transfixed. Like you could hear a pin drop. When he gets into it, it’s remarkable. So I don’t know, there’s one. There’s one, yeah.  

Logan: You mentioned kind of coming out of your little, I’ll say, hiatus/retirement and realizing that you needed to do it more and more. When did you first realize that you needed to do it? Do you remember like how old you were or, you know, what’s really solidified that? 

Jano: I guess I wasn’t like a lot of people who were like, maybe, you know, they got a guitar in high school or something and they’re like in love with it. And I’m like, I think I want to do this because it was around me since I was a kid. My dad’s a professional drummer. And so I grew up, you know, from the time I was tiny, watching him play gigs. And like, there was a, I heard a cassette years ago of me playing when I was 4, playing and singing, and I was like that’s pretty good. I don’t really think I’ve gotten that much better from a four year old, I was just improvising a blues. My parents, they were outside and I went in the basement and just pressed record on a tape deck. And I played and made-up a blues about being all alone in the house, where they were and what they were doing. My dad’s in the shed, my mom’s out working in the garden and like. 

Logan: And here you are, all alone. 

Jano: Yeah. So I kind of, I wouldn’t say I knew I was going to do it because I was also, my mom’s a painter and I drew and painted growing up like equal time to music. So it was like, if I wasn’t skateboarding or something like that, because I also like to do athletic things, but I was drawing, painting, or working on music, piano or drums, mostly drums. So I don’t know, it was kind of bred into me. 

Logan: Who were your favorite artists or painters? 

Jano: My favorite artists or painters, here’s an inside one, Frank Frazetta. He did a lot of illustration, like he did a lot of book covers. My mom was really into illustrators and he was very much in a kind of fantastical fantasy sci-fi style, but fantastic craftsman and fantastic painter. Anyway, that’s kind of a random one to pick out because a lot of the greats I love too. I remember becoming obsessed with Picasso for a while. But yeah, I just saw someone wearing a Frank Frazetta t-shirt and I was like, where’d you get that? And she’s like, there’s this museum. I was like, you went? You know, it’s very inside, but in Pennsylvania, there’s just this Frank Frazetta museum. Yeah, so I don’t know. I was very, you know, that was another thing like my parents, my mom passed down that kind of stuff to me. So just, yeah, a bunch of illustrators I was into. That was a great one. 

Logan: Were you in the comic books at all? 

Jano: I wasn’t. I wasn’t, but I had a friend who really was, so I gained an appreciation of that. Actually, his name is Ben Mara, Benjamin Mara, and I was just seeing, he does amazing comic book stuff now. Really? He’s in it. He followed it all the way through. So I got an appreciation for what that was at the time, but no, I guess just more kind of like fine art stuff and painting. I don’t do too much of that. The most is like, people are like, Who painted that on your ‘shituar’? It’s like, Oh, I just did that. Randomly every few years, I’ll get the bug and I’ll like paint an owl on my ‘shituar’ or something. 

Logan: There you go, an owl on your ‘shituar’. Yeah. You mentioned skateboarding a minute ago. Now, when I think of a kid skateboarding, this music isn’t exactly, The Wood Brother’s isn’t exactly the music that comes to mind. So were you skating, listening to Rancid, or were you skating, like listening to John Prine? 

Jano: We were totally listening to The Misfits. You know, I think musically I had my own thing, but I was on the edge of that skate culture. So I did listen to that stuff. But musically, I was always kind of like, not with necessarily what my friends were listening to, because I had a very focused musical life and stuff I was into. I went through some phases with friends around, but I was really into Pink Floyd at that time. Like really, really into Pink Floyd. 

Logan: I was never a Pink Floyd guy. Me and some buddies put on The Wall for the first time I ever heard it. And it was a life-changing experience. You feel it over your whole body. It just washes over you. 

Jano: That’s cool to hear how someone else felt. I’ve never talked to anyone about what they thought of The Wall the first time. But yeah, I used to, I mean, I was young and I used to watch that movie. I didn’t know what the hell was going on in that movie. But it was like a feeling and they just were able to conjure certain feelings. And when I look back at it, they’re very patient. That music often moves very slow and there’s 16 measures, 32 measures in the middle of a song of just the groove vamp with maybe like 3 guitar licks. It’s like so patient and there’s so much space. And I think I’ve always gravitated to stuff like that. whether it was that or more funky music. Yeah. 

Logan: Do you feel like you incorporate some of that patience into your own music? 

Jano: I do. I don’t think about it consciously much. But if anything, like in the confines of making a record maybe, sometimes I listen back and I’m like, oh, I need to like, hit it a little harder sooner because there’s not enough time to be just patient. But I don’t think about it. It’s something that’s kind of automatic for me, I think. 

Logan: We talked about your mom’s influence a little bit. You were putting together an album with your father. Legacy. Not a whole lot of musicians are able to do that, you know? So I mean, obviously, I’m sure it feels incredibly special. But is there anything in that album that you just haven’t felt before while making music? 

Jano: Oh, good question. Yes. You know, and I don’t know if it’s purely a musical thing as far as like the aesthetics of the music, like the musical choices. But it felt very difficult. different to make that record. I make records all the time. I’m very lucky to have been doing that for a long time. Either as a musician or a producer and we have our studio, you know, me and The Wood Brothers in Nashville. But making a record with my dad was, I think I put more pressure on myself. Not that it had to be, it’s not going to be, I didn’t care if it was a commercial product, but it was just, it just felt more like, I don’t know, I wanted it to be good. I wanted him to like it. I don’t know. It was just, it was harder for me to finish it. I found myself dragging my feet, which is part of, I blame myself partially. We’re equally to blame why it took us 12 years from our first notes put down and recording to the end.

Logan: During those 12 years, were there any songs that you were able to get down in a day or get a good chunk of it down? Or were they all really laborious? 

Jano: Oh, I mean, in the end, I mean, we only had maybe five times we ever got together and recorded. I’d say probably 5 days. Total. 

Logan: To make an album, that’s a pretty good time to make album. 

Jano: There was a lot, okay, but there was a lot of… I spent other days myself, but I erased a lot of it because what we would do is we’d get together, the first time we got together at Southern Ground Studios in Nashville, and we spent an entire day, maybe it was two days, I think it might have just one day, and we tracked basics, just the two of us for, I mean, it’s only the two of us playing everything on the record. Yeah. And we got like half the record done that day. And then another day in the town where my parents live in New York, I went up there and we tracked again. We got basically the other half of the basic the tracks done. And then overdubs, I would work on them like in Nashville and I would add a lot. And in the end, it was just like, a lot of times I just stripped it back to mostly just me playing like a Fender Rhodes, my dad playing drums, our vocals. No, it can’t have been five days. I’m going to give us seven days, but totally working together. But I worked I worked a lot of other days on it myself, just adding little things, taking things away.

(Part 2)

Logan: Do you think you work best with simplicity?

Jano: Yeah.

Logan: In your dream scenario, what are the only things on a record or on a song? What’s the core that can’t be stripped away for you? 

Jano: Well, it could be anything. It could be anything, but I find myself often, like my favorite record by an artist is one with usually with like very little production. Sometimes there’s no crumbs on it, sometimes there’s, you know, not like the instrument I play like I necessarily care about hearing, you know. Like a Dylan record, like a really old one. That is just mostly just him. Yeah. Like, I’m like, oh, it’s not. No offense to my dad who played on Dylan Records. 

Logan: Your father played on Dylan Records? Which ones? 

Jano: The most known recording would probably be “Hurricane” or “Desire”. And he played on “Desire”, he’s playing with congas on that.  

Logan: That’s wild. You ever get to meet Bob? 

Jano: Unless I did when I was really tiny, no, but I heard plenty of stories. 

Logan: Any ones you can share? 

Jano: Oh man, my dad was on the Rolling Thunder Revue. Yeah, if you know that one, it’s like, that’s just a wild tour. Dylan was, I think the cool parts about it, some of the cool parts are he was tired of, he was such a big star at that point. He felt like his fans didn’t necessarily get tickets to the shows because everything was becoming expensive and would sell out right away. So he decided to do a tour, but not book it ahead of time. And he just got some buses, put the band together, because him and Rob Stoner put the band together. And they would just, as I know the story, show up in a town like the night before and just say, hey, we want to play your venue here like your veteran’s hall or something like that. And they would just put posters up, said Bob Dylan playing tomorrow night. And so it was very, to use the term freewheeling, and like, you know by the seat of their pants. And on that tour he kept adding artists and buses, just like pick up people. And then suddenly Joni Mitchell’s on the tour and Alan Ginsberg’s on the tour and like everybody’s on the tour. And it was, you know, so it was like this crazy social hang and wild tour, you know. 

Logan: That’s crazy. Is that something like, is there any off the wall ideas that you would ever want to do as an artist? Anything like a tour where you got, you got no direction in mind? 

Jano: I have, yeah, I have fairly ambiguous ideas that I haven’t really locked down of because I dance a lot. I don’t know if a lot of people know that, but like I teach dance. My wife and I teach Casino and Salsa. Casino is often called Cuban Salsa. But just through that world and interacting with music that way, I would love to incorporate that heavily for the audience into a set, as well as participating in rhythms in the music more than just clapping along every once in a while. Which goes to your question of, which I think this started out with a while ago, of what are the elements that you can’t get away from in music? And there’s a style of music that I really like, Cuban Rumba. And I love Huapango. And in Huapango, it’s just percussion and vocals. And man, music does not need any more than that. When anything’s grooving that hard, you do not need anything else, and all the space is wonderful. That said, I love guitars and keyboards and bass, but I love the simplicity of it too. I think that’s, and the rhythmic grooving nature of it. So I would just, and there’s something, our culture doesn’t have a lot of participation either. in dance socially, at least not white people. So social dances, that’s like, hardly anyone knows how to do those anymore, like partner dancing. But even just dance as a celebration and a ritual. And dance classes are for kids, you know, and then adults, unless they like to go to concerts and dance, they don’t really dance. So I would love to incorporate that, as well as, I think, everyone can play and sing and do music. It’s just like we’re not raised with that as part of our culture. And man, it’s very healing for people to do that. So I’d like to incorporate that. 

Logan: I remember hearing one time, one of my, I took choir in high school and a teacher said, singing and dancing is like running. Everybody can do it. doesn’t matter how good you are at it. And do you find that there’s a level that people need to cross them to be more comfortable dancing and doing that stuff? Do you find that there’s a switch that needs to be flipped because like, I think the average person isn’t maybe comfortable or think they’re capable of dancing. So is there some threshold that they need to cross, do you think? 

Jano: It depends on the person. Because in a way, no, because a little kid can do it. And a little kid can play and sing music and it’s perfect. It’s just what it should be. But I was that person who, I grew up on the bandstand on stage, I did not step foot, I did not dance until I was an adult. I was deathly afraid of dancing, which is probably why I got so into it once I conquered that fear of it, why it made such a difference to me. But yeah, so I was one of those people. It was not in my culture. And I was really afraid of dancing. And then my wife, we went to the Dominican Republic and we took some little dance lessons on the beach. We did some bachata lessons. And then we got back home and she’s like, I really want to take salsa lessons. And I was like, okay, I’ll go with you. And so we went week after week, I was kicking and screaming every week. I did not want to go and be bad at, because I was used to being good at art from the time I was little. I was like, I was like the one who was really good at the art, you know? And here I was terrible. I was terrible at dancing. And salsa requires, you know, a vocabulary, it’s a language. But once I finally got over myself and went to a social, which everyone told me to do, and just dance with people, which I was afraid. I was like, no, I’m going to get good first. They’re like, no, you’re not. You have to go and that’s going to make you get good. You just have to go and suck and dance with a lot of people. When I finally did that, I was so hooked. 

Logan: Really? 

Jano: Yeah, because you are basically dancing duets with different people all night. You’re improvising. It’s like a full body improvisation with music and another person. It’s just like a beautiful connection. It breaks the boundaries of physical connection. We don’t really touch much in our culture, except like with your lover. That’s it. Like otherwise you don’t really touch, you know, you pat your bro on the back. That’s that, yeah, that’s that. So yeah, it was like really opened my world and it was whole, opened my world to new cultures, new language, and the language of dance. So I don’t know, yeah. 

Logan: You mentioned it being like a full body, like experiencing that thing. Do you feel the same way when you’re on stage doing music? And is that, if it is, is it the same use of your full body or is it a different feeling? 

Jano: It’s a different feeling, but it can be very much the same and it should be. And dancing has informed me with my music because my music, has been a professional thing for so long. And in a lot of ways, I put pressure on myself since I was pretty young to perform at that. But dancing started as an adult, and I got to watch myself as it was like a third space. It was not, for a long time, it wasn’t professional and I became professional. And I also saw what that did to my experience of it, you know. And, but it made me aware that I was missing out on some of the joy I originally had in music. Because dancing, and I was like, I couldn’t believe I’d become this person who would just be like, no one on the dance floor, that’s me. You want to dance? Let’s go. I had no problem asking, going to an unfamiliar city somewhere in Europe and meeting everyone, asking them to dance. And it was just with so much joy, like that connection, just the joy of connecting in the moment to just that life between the two of you, between the music moving in the air. And so, yeah, you should have that with music too. And it is a full body experience. Even if you’re playing an instrument that mostly just your fingers touch some keys or something, your whole body’s involved, your breathing’s involved, you can dance with it. 

Logan: Do you feel like that kind of the love, that you’re describing, do you feel it growing every time you do it? Or do you find it to be maybe a little repetitive at times? 

Jano: Well, yeah, it goes through phases and it’s night to night and it’s moment to moment. And I think once you’ve done it long enough, at least for some of us, the only thing to really think about is to notice where you’re at. The music’s happening, like you’re playing the music, thinking about what you’re going to play next is a complete waste of time. Your conscious brain is really way too slow to do all the cool things that you can actually do. But you just kind of realize where you’re at, like, oh everything’s feeling hard. I’m feeling like I can’t hear, I’m annoyed with my in-ear mix, okay where am I at? Like, how am I feeling? Where is this in my body? Can I breathe? Can I just get curious about the sounds and where I’m at? And kind of sometimes I look at the lights in the room and that’ll like bring me back. I think you go through stages too, where it’s like all joy and you’re just excited about it. And then I noticed myself with dance and then I got a level of expertise with it, and I started teaching as people start looking up to you. And then you feel like you’ve got to be somebody. Like when you dance, people are watching you. And you’ve got to represent and you’ve got to, then the joy is gone. And you still might do some hot dance moves, but you’re not really connecting with your partner, you’re not really letting loose in the moment, and you’re not even modeling what you should be modeling. You’ll look back and you’ll, if people videoed you, see you’re not smiling.

Logan: How do you kind of disperse those expectations? When you feel them setting it, is there anything you do to make them go away? 

Jano: You schedule therapy.  

Logan: Not bad advice.  

Jano: Yeah, you know, and I don’t think there’s one solution, but over time, you get different home mantras to tell yourself. If you can remember to remember, then you, like this week I’ll tell you what it is this week on stage, it’s someone talked about curiosity. And so I just like try to get really curious. I mentioned that a few minutes ago, just get really curious about the moment. That’s what I’ve been doing this week, that word comes to mind. In fact, I wanted to paint it on one of my instruments, so I just see it. But I remember last week, I put a little, preparing for the tour, I put a little sign, put it on my rig, and it said, I think, smile, like smile with your body. And when I think of that, my posture gets better. My posture tends to smile and my chest comes up and I tend to breathe in. I smile with my face. And I realize, like, what are you practicing? Are you practicing being stressed out and worried about screwing something up and not being able to, not having your chops up for this tour? Because that’s how you’re going to feel on the tour. No matter, if you practice that for 1000 hours before the tour, you will still not feel ready for the tour, no matter how good your chops are because that’s what you practiced. So try to practice letting it flow and being curious and interested in the sounds as they happen, rather than trying to turn yourself into a machine, being constantly looking for your own faults. Because I can do that. I’m good at that. I spent years doing that. I can play like a machine, I know how to. 

Logan: But it’s better if you let it flow. 

Jano: Yeah. And you can. There’s machines, I mean, you can just have it tell AI to do it now. I think it can make you machine music. 

Logan: It’s not good music. 

Jano: It’s not good music, but it sounds, honestly, it sounds like lackluster music and a lot of people make lackluster music because they’re trying to treat themselves like machines. We’re lucky that’s not what our fans want. At least not with the Wood Brothers. Like they want to hear, like have a human, you know, they always say, God you guys sound so honest. I think it’s, we just let ourselves be what we are, you know, warts and all. 

With support from Irish duo DUG, The Englert was lively for The Wood Brothers. For over two hours, fans were showered with songs old and new with an encore of their hit “Luckiest Man”. It was a busy year for Rix as The Wood Brothers dropped their new album “Puff of Smoke” in August and “Legacy, Vol 1” from Jano and his father released in November. The Wood Brothers will continue their tour this winter, you can find dates here.

The post Interview: Jano Rix of The Wood Brothers appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Logan Melia: How are you doing? 

Molly Tuttle: I’m doing great. Thanks for having me. 

Logan: Thank you so much for taking time for me. You’ve had an incredibly busy week. Congratulations on the two Grammy nominations. 

Molly: Oh, thank you. So exciting. 

Logan: Best Americana Performance, “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark”, Best Americana Album, “So Long Lone with Sunshine”, and you’re touring that record. It’s a phenomenal, phenomenal piece of work there. How long was that process for you, writing the songs, putting it together, staying in the studio? 

Molly: I started writing some of the songs like four or five years ago. That’s where the seeds of this album started. And then I just kind of kept working on it. And then in the last year, I kind of felt like I had this burst of writing a bunch of songs that ended up on the record and then going back to some older ones and kind of, you know, rewriting sections, editing them a little bit to get them all to where I was really happy with them. And then we went into the studio last fall. spent about a month from the pre-production process to actually tracking all the songs. Went in with Jay Joyce who produced the record and we got together whenever I was off the road and then we had about a week of tracking and then mixed it. I think we got everything finished in last January. So it’s been a long time coming and it was really an exciting and fun process, I worked a lot on this record. I probably spent more time on it than any other record I’ve ever made, so that was just a fun process. I just love being in the studio. I’m just excited for what’s next and certainly excited to be going to the Grammys. 

Logan: Oh, absolutely. Now, when you’re writing these songs, are there any that just fall out of the sky? Is it a really laborious process for you? 

Molly: It really varies song by song, some you kind of have to work more to get them to a good place and then some of them just kind of happen all in one sitting. One of the songs on the record, “Old Me New Wig”, which is where we got the title for the album from, a line in that song. That one just kind of happened in one sitting, but some of the others spent, I like came back to them years later and just kind of kept working at it. 

Logan: You’re touring this new album and You’re still playing some songs from The Golden Highway. How do you create these set lists where you balance the old with the new? 

Molly: Yeah, we’re kind of playing about half the new record and mixing in different ones. There are certain songs off the new record that we still haven’t played live and we’re kind of workshopping them. At soundcheck, we’ll be working on a new song and getting it ready for the stage and so that leaves a lot of room in the set to work in stuff from all my other albums, last two Golden Highway records. Those had kind of become staples of my live shows the last few years so it was fun kind of reworking a bunch of those songs with the new band. And we always do like an acoustic portion of the set as well. So a lot of the set will be with drums and sometimes Ellen Angelico, who’s playing multiple different instruments. She’s playing Dobro, electric guitar, and pedal steel. Mary Meyer is another multi-instrumentalist, she plays mandolin, fiddle, and keys. And then we have Vanessa McGowan who plays upright and electric bass and Megan Jane will be on a full drum kit. And then for the acoustic portion, well, it’s all kind of acoustic because I’m always playing acoustic guitar and Mary’s off and on mandolin or you’ll have the Dobro, but we strip down to do a little one mic portion of the set. And that’s when Megan might go to a washboard or maybe we’ll just do like an acoustic trio portion of the set some nights. And so it’s really fun, it’s like a varied set list each night. I feel like it just allows for so many dynamics within the show to kind of, have some of the bluegrass tunes and then some of them we’ve reworked. And then there’s the new album stuff as well. 

Logan: You mentioned your band, a phenomenal, phenomenal collection of musicians. I’m sure there’s so many incredible ones in your circles, but these are all the best of the best. How did you pick these specific artists? 

Molly: Yeah, I reached out first to Vanessa, who’s the bassist. I reached out to her first, I’ve known her for years. And she’s had experiences being a band leader, which is often times in bands, they’ll be like the front person. And then there might be one of the other musicians who is kind of helping orchestrate all the music and putting it all together. And so she’s just knows everyone in Nashville and has all these connections. So I kind of worked with her to figure out the rest of the band, but I told her like that I would need people who are very versatile because I want to still be able to go from playing a bluegrass tune to playing like a more rockin arrangement of one of the newer songs on the record that might have a need like pedal steel or like keys and drums and this and that. So I really wanted to be able to kind of slide between different genres throughout the night when we’re playing the show. We talked about who would really work with that kind of format, and I think the next person we reached out to was Megan Jane, who’s the drummer, and I’ve actually toured with her before I toured with her in 2022 a little bit. Actually, maybe 2021. I can’t remember now. It was whenever we were coming out of the pandemic, we toured together. And so I knew I would love playing with her because I’d already played with her a bunch. And Ellen is someone I’ve known, Ellen Angelico, plays Dobro and guitar and steel. I’ve known her for many years here in Nashville, she’s worked at all these different guitar shops around town and she’s just a great multi-instrumentalist as well. And then Mary Meyer, who strangely enough, like I actually didn’t really know her before we ended up playing together, but she grew up in a bluegrass family band just like me, but she also kind of has like me branched out into all these different genres. So I feel like it’s just a perfect fit musically for her and I to play together since we both love bluegrass, but we do other stuff too. And it just makes for a really fun show because I feel like we’re all kind of on the same wavelength. 

Logan: You are kind of leading the charge for this new generation of bluegrass. I mean, my 17 year old little sister is like listening to Merle Haggard now because of you and Sierra Hull and Billy Strings and all this new wave of it. Can you kind of feel the excitement about your scene coming up? 

Molly: Yeah, it’s really exciting. I think bluegrass music and roots music in general or Americana or whatever you want to call it, it goes through these waves and different generations that push it into new territories. People I looked up to like Alison Krauss and Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, people who are really pioneering new ways of playing this music. It just feels like a huge honor to maybe be part of that next wave coming along, that someone might look to kind of figure out where it could go next in the next generation after this. So yeah, it just feels kind of like it’s so important to keep this music alive and keep letting it evolve. 

Logan: Your artistry mixed with your phenomenal guitar playing has always put me in mind of Glen Campbell. Do you remember your first time ever hearing Glen Campbell? 

Molly: Yeah, I learned about Glen Campbell when I was a kid because I loved the song “Gentle on My Mind”, but I knew it as a John Hartford song. And then of course, Glen Campbell kind of made it famous. So I listened to his version and that was the first song I ever heard Glen Campbell do. So big fan. And that was kind of how I discovered him through being a big John Hartford fan. 

Logan: You just played that with Sierra Farrell, I think, right, “Gentle On My Mind”? That was a phenomenal video. You had a busy week last week. In addition to the Grammys, you released a cover of a personal favorite of mine, “Fairytale of New York”. 

Molly: Yes, yeah, that was a cover I’ve been doing for a couple years now. Ketch and I, Ketch Secore is the one who I recorded it with, and we’ve sung it together for a few years. I’ve been doing these holiday shows in Menlo Park near where I grew up, and we worked it up for those shows after Shane McGowan passed, who sang the song originally with Kirstie McColl and The Pogues. We’re both big fans of the song and of Shane and The Pogues and everything, so we worked that one up after he passed away. And then it just became kind of my favorite, one of my favorites to bring back around the holidays. And we ended up recording it last year after performing it a couple times. And I’m just happy it’s out in the world to get people in the holiday spirit, even though it is kind of like a depressing holiday song. It’s not your typical cheery Christmas song, but I think that’s what I kind of liked about it. 

Logan: Do you start listening to Christmas music after Halloween? After Thanksgiving? What’s your threshold? 

Molly: I don’t usually listen to it very early. I feel like I wait until after Thanksgiving is probably when I can pivot on to Christmas. I don’t have that many Christmas decorations, I feel like we put up a tree and stuff, but I’m, my house isn’t like the place where you walk in and it’s like, Christmas vomit of the ornaments and everything everywhere. Ketch and I live together and he is kind of the opposite. He has a million Christmas ornaments, so we find our balance of maybe we just put it in certain rooms. I feel like it makes me feel crazy when everywhere I look there’s Christmas stuff. I think he kind of brings out the Christmas spirit in me, but we listen and put on a lot of Christmas music in the weeks leading up to it. So far we haven’t really been playing it around the house, but we did release the cover. So that’s my first contribution. 

Logan: It’s quite the good contribution. It’s all a balancing act, you know? 

Molly: Yes, totally. 

Logan: Are you a big physical media collector? Are you a big like vinyls person or CDs person? 

Molly: I have a fair amount of vinyl that I’ve just kind of acquired through the years. Most of it is people will give me vinyl or I get it from my friends. I have a lot of vinyl from friends of mine who put out records and then some of my favorites I have on vinyl. So I don’t have a massive collection, but I do love spinning records when I’m just around the house, you know, kind of puttering around. It’s just so fun to have a record on. I feel like I miss the days when we all would just sit and  listen to one full record back-to-back. So that’s what it kind of brings me back to, is just appreciating a full album that someone put out. Whereas when I’m kind of like out and about, I might just be listening to music still, but kind of picking my favorite songs here and there, maybe not listening to a full record. So that’s what I like to do around the house is just pull out a record, maybe a classic one that I haven’t listened to in a while. I have Joni Mitchell‘s “Blue” is one of my favorites that I have on vinyl and Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” is another one I have, and a bunch of older ones like that, just kind of classics. I like just rifling through and picking out one that I haven’t listened to in a while. 

Logan: Yeah, I mean, those are some great picks right there. What is on your playlist nowadays? 

Molly: I’ve been kind of listening to… A couple different things like my playlist is always all over the place. I just found out about this band that I’ve been listening to recently called Geese, they’re like an indie rock band. 

Logan: So good.  

Molly: Yeah, they’re awesome. I only figured out who they were because I kept seeing their name on festival lineups and I thought it was Goose because we’ve been playing a bunch of festivals this year that Goose is on the bill. And then I kept seeing Geese and I was like, ‘What’s Geese?’. Like I’ve heard of Goose, but I haven’t heard of Geese. So I started listening to their music and I became obsessed. So I was listening to them a bunch this last week. 

Logan: Oh, they are great. This is going back to kind of your beginnings a little bit here. You’re a phenomenal clawhammer player. Do you remember like the first song you really got down on clawhammer? 

Molly: Yeah, the first song I ever learned on clawhammer was one called “Little Sadie”, and it’s like this old murder ballad. It’s a really creepy song so sometimes I don’t even like to sing it anymore because it’s like in the first line, he’s shooting someone. And I’m just like, it’s a creepy song. But there’s so many songs like that, the old kind of traditional songs, you don’t know who wrote them, but they tell these kind of disturbing stories a lot of the time. And some of them are really more inappropriate than others in our current day and age but that one is that one is fairly mild by comparison to some others. But that was the first song I learned on clawhammer guitar. That’s one that you can hear it. Like the Grateful Dead did it, Jerry Garcia would sing it and so many people have done it through the years. Doc Watson is another version I really like. So yeah, that was my first clawhammer guitar piece and I learned it from a guy out in the Bay Area, Michael Stadler. I had been playing clawhammer banjo but I’d never heard of clawhammer guitar and he kind of showed me that song and the tuning that I use for it. 

Logan: You mentioned these storytelling songs. The storytelling songs, and you write a lot of songs about the road, it’s kind of Springsteen-y in a way. Are you a Springsteen fan at all? 

Molly: A little bit. He’s actually someone I need to listen to more. I’ve been thinking about that recently. I’m like, dang, especially with like the Springsteen movie coming out. I’m like, I actually don’t know his music as well as I should. I know a few of the hits, obviously, but I’ve never really taken the time to dive in. But I’m sure once I did, it would be like a rabbit hole that I would love going down. Maybe that’s next on my agenda. There’s certain artists like that where they’re like, such iconic artists and I feel like I’ve missed them. Maybe that’s due to growing up just listening to bluegrass and then slowly figuring out like popular music when I was a little older. 

Logan: Are there any other artists on that list that you can think of off the top of your head that you’re like, I need to get into these guys? 

Molly: Yeah, other kind of classic artists that I feel like I haven’t fully, maybe I’ve just listened to like one or two of their records. Like Paul Simon, I feel is someone that, of course, I’ve listened to “Graceland”, but I don’t know that much of his other solo stuff. I’ve been thinking recently that I need to dig into his stuff as well. 

Logan: Thank you so much for taking time with me. You can see Molly at the Englert on the 16^th, later this week. I’m looking forward to a great show. 

Molly: Thank you so much. It’s going to be great. 

Molly Tuttle will play The Englert Theatre on Sunday, November 16th at 7:30. Tuttle will be supported by Joshua Ray Walker and Cecilia Castleman for her Iowa City debut. You can listen to “So Long Little Miss Sunshine” now, and can find tickets for her performance here.

The post Interview & Concert Preview: Molly Tuttle at the Englert, Nov. 16 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

This album grew on me—it wasn’t impressive the first time I popped in my earbuds.  That changed when I put on my headphones and listened through it again (and again).  There are intricacies living explored in the relatable moments which people live through every day.  Lyrics echo within songs, each having a distinct sound while examining all the different feelings accompanying loss. 

Nate starts calmly with “White Hills,” laying out the tensions that the entire album works through, those feelings of belonging, of longing while moving on, and of memories.  You’ll groove a little to “Bleed,” where the build into the chorus goes on just long enough for you to feel that release when he sings, “and I BLEEEEEED MY HEART OUT,” keeping you there for the last minute of the song.  You’ll start tapping your foot on “The Crying Wolf;” you know something interesting is going to happen when the tambourine shows up. Some tracks, like “5^th Avenue,” have long outros that hang on–perhaps too long–while tracks like “Ghost Town” and “I Don’t Belong Here Anymore” have short outros that finish just as intensely.  You’ll tap your foot again on “Let’s Stay In & Put a Dylan Record On.”  You meditate while listening to the calm “Wild Heart” before diving into the folksy “The Tamiami Trail.”  “Farewell, Savannah” and “The Highway” have lighter layers that form a space for Currin’s heartfelt lyrics.

For a post-breakup album, there’s a lot of movement.  On the cover, Currin stares back at where he came from, leaning against a parked Pontiac with the top down. He takes listeners on a physical journey in addition to an emotional one, making stops in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee, ultimately ending the album with the command to “Get Back North.” Time doesn’t exist in Ghost Town.  The album lives in the moment straddling memory and feeling. Outros linger, intros build slowly, other voices chime in at the right times, and the last track primes you to start it all over again. 

While this album does not stray too far from his other work, Ghost Town does have a wide range of influences.  “Lover, Don’t Let Me Go” is, at times, slightly reminiscent of 80s pop.  We get Currin’s harmonica stylings on “Let’s Stay In & Put a Dylan Record On.”  There is more than a pinch of honkytonk sprinkled into “The Crying Wolf” (as well as a Lynyrd Skynyrd reference).

It’s a fast-paced world that we live in nowadays, which means there is even more of a place for the winding tunes of Nate Currin, for his thoughtful meditations on what it means to feel and emote, to remember and move on.  Like he says, “There’s so much I wanna say.  No, I’ll never be okay.”  But everything will be okay. And every time you dream about escaping, every time you go through a bad breakup, every time you think about your ex, you can listen to Ghost Town.

Nate Currin’s Ghost Town releases August 1^st on Archaic Cannon Records.

The post Album Review: Nate Currin’s Ghost Town appeared first on KRUI Radio.

With this their sixth album, their previous being 2023’s playfully lo-fi Grog, Frog set out to lean into that repetition, to see how far that original bit of inspiration could carry them. The album’s 11 tracks are unified by one common factor: they all carry the same chords. Although different tracks hit different emotional tones, and lyrical content is a scattershot variety of topics ranging from reflections of fatherhood to drunken doomscrolling, front man Daniel Bateman states that the album, in essence, all consists of the same song. “1000 Variations on the Same Song is a theme and variations. There are times in your life as a songwriter where you’ll start a bunch of stuff that all sounds alike, which can be a problem, something that you want to excise from yourself. This time, I decided to embrace it and take it as far as it could go,” Bateman had said about the record. 

With this ethos in mind, the album encapsulates the intentional and idiosyncratic alt-country that the band has become known for while also adding a level of improvisation and creative curiosity to their work. The most exemplary section of songs that emphasize this, after the bittersweet opener of “STILLWATER THEME”, are the first four variations, “TOP OF THE POP’S VAR.1” through “HOUSEBROKEN VAR. IV”, all of which were recorded in one continuous 15 minute sequence. Although Frog’s discography would typically never be characterized as disciplined, this embrace of freeform musicality and spontaneous inspiration allow for a unique conceptual arc to carry across the entire album. 

Their alt-rock aspirations collide with intimations of rap, Daniel Bateman was apparently listening to a lot of Kodak Black while conceiving the album, in “HOUSEBROKEN VAR. IV”, with lyrics like, “My niece was seven when she felt chinchilla / Fucking up the track like my name J Dilla / Topped Michael Jackson I outsold Thriller / No cap, just facts man, a stone-cold killеr,” being set against steady guitars. This melancholic mumble rap transforms into something more sensual on the jittery album highlight “JUST USE YR HIPS VAR. VI” with the lines, “Southside outside is the place we rest at / House full of down to rides / Yes they do keep a strap / If no dollar sign is implied or attached / Then baby doll of mine you can miss me with that.”

This willingness to transform rudimentary means into an array of dexterous songs is the album’s ultimate strength, finding inventiveness in the uninventive. With their distinctly Americana instrumentation of banjos, pianos, and guitars, all married together with Daniel’s warbling falsetto, 1000 Variations on the Same Song finds a broad spectrum of emotionality within its set sonic template. It’s an album that proves that there are a multitude of sounds and experiences to be discovered in artistic redundancy and in building upon what is already known.  

The post Over and Over Again on Frog’s “1000 Variations on the Same Song” appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Each act of the night drew in more people, the first floor eventually reaching capacity. Nadalands started out with some indie rock, followed by Elizabeth Moen, an Iowa City staple. Then Hurray for the Riff Raff took the stage. The crowd was supportive yet calm, ready to enjoy one of the last few acts of the this year’s Mission Creek Festival.

Spearheaded by lead singer Alynda Segarra, the band is an extraordinary sample of Americana, mixing together various styles to achieve an inventive rock sound. The blended style gave way to intricacies within each piece, backing beats steered by various music genres, from doo-wop to salsa.

Segarra is a Bronx native who tirelessly looks to use music to celebrate her Puerto Rican heritage. After the band’s first song finished, Segarra discussed that music keeps her feeling alive during these tense times for our country, and Hurray for the Riff Raff’s body of work holds a similarly political voice.

The group has four albums under its belt, their most recent being The Navigator, released in 2017. Segarra created this album around the imagined character of The Navigator, who represents her experience growing up amidst the streets of New York City longing to celebrate the history of her people. Pride for oneself and one’s culture drives much of Hurray for the Riff Raff’s songs, lyrics the powerful engine of their music.

“The Kids Who Die,” a new song not yet released, provided a strong commentary on the increased amount of school shootings around the United States in recent years. Segarra said the piece was inspired by a Langston Hughes poem, palpable in the style of its lyrics. Repeating “die” an overwhelming amount throughout formed a resounding impact, this song used music to remind the audience of the ongoing issues in our country.

Spanish for “onward” or “forward,” Segarra announced the standout next song: “Pa’lante.” The intensity of the lyrics within this song’s simple melody is unmatchable. Segarra commanded the stage during the performance, punctuating each line with emotion. The lyrics comments forcefully on the lifestyles immigrants have been forced to adopt in the United States due to racial prejudices. It is a song of strength for Puerto Ricans, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s destruction.

A recording of Pedro Pietri’s seminal 1969 poem, “Puerto Rican Obituary,” is woven into the song, further illustrating Segarra’s lyrical influences from poetry. Pietri’s words emphasize the violence that Puerto Ricans have and still have to face: “Dead Puerto Ricans who never knew they were Puerto Ricans / Who never took a coffee break from the 10th commandment / To kill, kill, kill / The landlords of their cracked skulls.” Hearing these lines of poetry spoken from the stage made it impossible to ignore Hurray for the Riff Raff’s powerful central message of never giving up on the fight for equality between all peoples.

The post Hurray for the Riff Raff @ The Englert Theatre 4/6/2019 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Nothing makes me happier than discovering new artists on Spotify. The Daily Mix and Release Radar playlists are true blessings to anyone who likes discovering new music. That is where I discovered how great Shakey Graves actually is.

I had heard the song “Dearly Departed” featuring Esme Patterson from their first album “And the War Came”, which is easily the most popular. However, as a fan of folksy alternative, Spotify led me to look more into them to find that they had a brand new album released in June of 2017.

Then I googled them to see what they looked like and found out it’s just a one-man band. Alejandro Rose-Garcia from Austin, Texas got his famous stage name from joking around with friends, and the nickname stuck. Although he isn’t well known and rarely appears on TV shows, he’s made appearances at many music festivals in Texas and even appeared at Hinterland in 2017.

What I like most about his new album is the number of instrumentals there are. There are a couple songs like “Wolfman Agenda” and “If Not For You (Demo)” that have long acoustic guitar filled intros, that create this nostalgic feeling. I should mention that “If Not For You” is actually a song from his first album and is probably my favorite version of the song, but it was cool to hear the demo or acoustic version.

His old-fashioned sound could keep me listening for hours, an easy thing to do considering there are 18 songs on this one album. This is great music to just put on in the background of whatever I’m doing since it’s not sing along type music (and he has a pretty impressive voice).

His voice isn’t really deep and not quite country sounding, making him the definition of a folk singer. For a great live performance of his music (if you have a little bit of time on your hands) and a preview of his new and old tunes check out this Youtube video.

Even though he is the perfect folk singer, some of his music borders on rock and roll, in my opinion. Songs like “A dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” appeal to more fans of the Americana genre.

It would be really interesting to see Shakey Graves live, just because I’m curious if his great instrumentals and vocals match up at in a live performance.

I’ve been kicking myself for not making it to Hinterland and now that I found Shakey Graves there’s another reason I should have gone.

Overall, I highly recommend this album. I think that Shakey Graves is definitely an underrated artist that deserves a listen.

The post Album Review: And the Horse He Rode in On by Shakey Graves appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Liv Carrow was the first out of three performers that would be playing that evening. When she sat on stage and started to tune her guitar, I could tell how eager she was to begin her set, and also that she was so calm about it. She strummed to herself for a few moments, as though to get a personal kind of joy out of her music before she shareed it with everybody else.

When she introduced herself and started to play, her voice was a little shaky, like she was nervous to be performing with us, but by the end of the first song it was easy to tell that she was becoming more confident. She has a beautiful singing voice like someone I know but cannot place. The lyrics she crooned to us are impactful. “What a man will do to fill his pocketbook and take a piece of you” is a lyric that stuck out to me more than any other, not necessarily because it was relatable but because of how much soul she gave to her audience as she sang to us.

There was something about a beautiful voice and an acoustic guitar that can be so special when it comes from the right artist and by the end of her set, I know that I would have sat there and listened to her for hours. Her soft, folk music is going to be my next obsession for at least a few months.

The second performer, Sarah Louise, takes the stage after a very short intermission. She starts with barely any words, just a simple introduction and telling us her name. She then starts in with her guitar and performs a long, instrumental song. It makes me wonder if her entire set will be instrumental, since I didn’t look her music up before going to see her in concert. She does eventually sing, and her lilting voice is something like I haven’t heard before.

As she talks to us between her songs, she seems much timider than her music would ever have me believe. She kindly shouts out Liv by saying, in the sweetest voice, “it was a very beautiful set.”

Her music sounds very based in nature; I remember feeling like I was flying or a part of the sky in one of her last songs. I can’t always tell if she sticks to her songs as they’ve always been played. She put so much of herself into her performance and at times it felt as though she was improvising. The music is almost meditative, but I can definitely sense some harder, rockish influence in her sound.

While I loved Sarah Louise’s set, I don’t think I could listen to her music all of the time. I could listen to her instrumental work forever, but when she sings I fell like I have to put everything else down to listen. It is almost too powerful for me to listen to.

Finally, it’s time for headliner Marisa Anderson. I’ve listened to a few of her songs before, but only after I saw her on the Mission Creek lineup. Her work is purely her guitar; her voice isn’t a part of the act.

As she starts playing, I realize that her sound and style as she plays live is completely different from the sound and style that I heard when I looked her up on Spotify. In her recordings, the guitar seems more muted which I admired because it had a smooth and flowing feel to it. In concert, her guitar is grittier and makes her sound much more rock influenced than I initially would have thought. She moves to her music and every movement seems new, like each and every note has a meaning that is completely unique.

Something I loved most about her set was her explanations of what her music was all about. She describes her inspiration for her last album: she was thinking about how the word “alien” could mean either a being from outer space or a human that isn’t from the United States. She commented that this was such a flaw in our society’s language, and she kept thinking about it. Eventually it inspired a kind of Western movie in her mind, and her latest album was the soundtrack to her imaginary movie.

She also tell us the meanings to her individual songs from earlier albums. “This song is about taking too many drugs at a bluegrass festival in the parking lot for two hours. I didn’t even make it into the festival. I was having the best f*cking time of my life.”

Another song was inspired by the tale of a woman who accidentally fell in love with the devil, who drowned her as he revealed himself. “I don’t blame her for falling in love with the devil. We all do. If you haven’t yet, you will. It’s just human nature” She continuously struck me, and I left the venue wanting to know more about her mind.

There was something about this concert last night that changed the way I’m now looking at music. I haven’t stopped listening to folk music since I left the venue, and I don’t think I will for at least a few weeks. There’s something there that I didn’t see before. There’s also a huge empowerment in seeing three different women rock a stage with nothing but their voices, their guitars, and their minds. They’ve inspired me.

Listen to Liv Carrow’s music here, and both Sarah Louise and Marisa Anderson’s most recent albums below!

The post Mission Creek: Marisa Anderson @ Trumpet Blossom Café 4/6/17 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I was milling around the building before the show started, and headed up to the second floor where a beer tasting was happening, put on by Oskar Blues Brewery, a sponsor of the show. I didn’t even know there was an art gallery in the Englert, and the space was tight with people. The lines were much too long for me so I passed up on that, but I was glad to see a full house for one of my favorite bands.

Dawes’ latest and fifth record, “We’re All Gonna Die” is their biggest departure in sound, but it feels natural. After four albums of Americana hits, from large anthems to quaint, reassuring acoustic numbers, Dawes has finally mixed it all together to make a sound so unique and fresh that is at the same time close to their roots.

I saw Dawes a few years back in Omaha, where they were the opening act and back up band for Conor Oberst on one of his solo tours. I was already a fan at that point, but was still impressed by the show they put on. All of the expectations I had for this show were completely blown out of the water before the show had started. With two risers of drums, keys, and amps, all laid out in front of a large white screen which would become host to a show of wild and rhythmic colors, the stage set-up alone showed their growth.

Dawes did not bring an opening act for this show, and for good reason: they were here to show us that they could hold their own, and rock out on their five albums full of hits without needing anyone else. In a way it called out to the marathon concerts of greats like Bruce Springsteen, but it would be a crime to really compare this band to anyone else.

Dawes played two sets tonight, and opened the first one with the first song on their new album. “One Of Us” is a perfect example of the evolution of Dawes: it has Taylor’s classic voice, as always, and that prophetic yet humble tone that the band brings to every piece. This time around, though, the songs expand into longer jam sessions with electronic drums, keyboards, and other sounds not previously heard on Dawes records.

The crowd was very receptive from the start, even if it did take them till “When My Time Comes” to actually get out of their seats and dance. Whatever we gave them, Dawes gave it right back. The energy was tremendous and only got better throughout.

Taylor’s voice is probably the most distinctive part of the band. Even live, his voice alone sounds like a choir. He’s matched with harmonies from different members of the band at different points in the set, but he’s always on top of the chord leading the notes. His lyrics, which rival the breadth and insight of folk music’s greatest songwriters, still feel urgent when performed live. Songs new and old both feel like they’re coming from a part of the band that is anything but mundane and indifferent.

At this point in their career, Dawes are masters of their set. They easily weave in and out of moods like they’re skating on ice, bringing the crowd along through all the theatrics. The way they order the songs was perfectly tempered, allowing space to breathe and laugh after some of the deeper cuts. At one point, Taylor sang through half of their song “: Time Spent in Los Angeles” before moving immediately into “Most People”. That transition proved their professionalism and consciousness of sound.

Check out their music video for “Time Spent in Los Angeles”.

After a short intermission, the band came back out in a different form. They performed semi-acoustic renditions of songs that are normally full band, aided by building harmonies as each member got back on stage and back into their spot.

This showed their talent and diversity within their own canon. Not only are their albums wonderful, cohesive pieces, but their live shows are complex and flat out entertaining.

There was an endless supply of sing along sections that the band seemed very proud of. Sometimes they’d step away from the mic and let the crowd take over, like they did at the very end of the show with “All Your Favorite Bands”, in which the last line is “…and may all your favorite bands stay together.” It was fitting as they held up their instruments, waved goodbye, and left the stage.

The post Concert Review: Dawes @ The Englert 2/4/2017 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

After one short album and a single, Caroline Rose finally released her sophomore album, I Will Not Be Afraid, in August.

The album is a well-balanced blend of americana, blues, folk, rock, and even gospel that seems to belong to another era. Boot-stompers like “Blood on Your Bootheels” and “I Will Not Be Afraid” are a soundtrack to the Wild West, to 2-minute shootouts over lost poker matches, boots with spurs, and bolo ties.

Most striking about the album is Caroline Rose’s versatile voice.  Not only is it capable of breathy, haunting riffs akin to Brandi Carlile or Laura Marling, but can belt out verses in a hard, Western manner similar to the Tallest Man on Earth. The artist also incorporates vocals that are more spoken poetry than singing, effectively creating the ambience of a storytelling session, guitar, and eager listeners around a fire.

Several tracks, such as “Tightrope Walker,” “Shepherd,” and “Back East” slow down to a nostalgic pace, with a few accordion riffs and soft drum beats.  Caroline’s lilting voice and gentle guitar chords make each track sound almost like a lullaby, or a prayer to return to another time.

Many of the tracks on I Will Not Be Afraid paint a picture of a countryside ruined by human settlement. “Red Bikini” mocks the inhabitants who turn fertile land into mansions and swimming pools, and pave the soil into driveways for their lamborghinis.

Caroline Rose ends the album with its title track, “I Will Not Be Afraid,” a proud anthem in the style of a gospel hymn. But the light and cheery melody does not ask a higher power for support, but vows to find confidence and willpower in one’s own heart, and to always, always carry on.

You can buy I Will Not Be Afraid here.

Like her on facebook here.

Listen to my favorite song on the album, “America Religious” below:

http://youtu.be/Y9AblSQqz1A

The post Album Review: I Will Not Be Afraid by Caroline Rose appeared first on KRUI Radio.