Music News and Reviews

Joe Carver Radio Show

In another life I could have been a music reviewer (along with producer and even songwriter). I love good music reviews. I also feel passionate about my own favorite pieces of music or acts.

The biggest news is my friend Joe Carver's new radio show, which is available on the internet. It is called Hard Feelings, and will air Mondays 11 AM - 1 PM pacific standard time. The focus in on Roots, Americana, and Alternative Country. The website is here.

Joe promises to play The Jayhawks, Slobberbone, Todd Snider, Will Kimbrough, Son Volt, Wilco, Centromatic, Pedro the Lion, Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Two Cow Garage, Marah, Bill Monroe, Alyson Krauss, Allison Moore, Jay Farrar and much more. Give it a listen and tell us what you think.

New CDs I Like: Rock Against Bush and Dixie Chicks Live

We went to Utah for a vacation last weekend and before we left Ann and I both lamented that we had run out of "new" music to listen to. So we bought two relatively new CDs for the trip:

The Rock Against Bush CD and DVD were only 9 bucks, which is just a ridiculous steal. The CD, produced by Fat Mike of NOFX, not only contains some of the better punk and punk-derivations I've heard for some time, and a whole lot of it: 26 tracks, including gems by Anti-Flag, the Descendents, RX Bandits, Pennywise, Social Distortion (!!!), and Less than Jake, who are joined by Billy Bragg (one of my all-time heroes) for a delightful little ditty called "The Brightest Bulb has Burned Out." To me, this largely acoustic number offers encouragement to emotionally exhausted activist-types like me...

[...]
You said the hole in your head
Has gotten bigger than the hole in your chest
And you’re stuck between the past and present tense
You said you’ve been waging a war against so many years of lies
With stronger drinks and longer lines
It’s not that big a surprise
That you’re feeling more dead than alive
You’re feeling more dead than alive
So I’ll let you know
If you need, somewhere to go
I’ll be listening when you call
And I’ll be there if you fall off
If you need someone to believe in you,
I’ll let you know I will

The DVD includes a David Cross monologue, some good documentary commentary about the war, and some great videos. This is a steal and it's for a good cause (beating Bush), although I doubt all these artists agree on who they'd like to replace Bush with.

A year ago, the Casper Star Tribune published my long op ed on the public criticism of the Dixie Chicks. "In the spirit of political pluralism and good country music", I said

If the current crucifixion of the Dixie Chicks doesn't offend your political sensibilities, it surely must offend the musical sensibilities of any thoughtful listener, anyone for whom music is something more than simply background noise. Regardless of your opinion on the Iraq war, President Bush, or the peacetime commercial viability of Lee Greenwood, you should stand up for the Dixie Chicks because their music is just better than the vast majority of crap on the radio. And if, in the meantime, you're also standing up for the freedom to criticize elected officials and oppose wars, then all the better, plus a bonus if you supported the war and still stand up for free speech and good music. I’ll buy you a drink, my friend.

I wasn't the only progressive so upset at this corporate slamming of the Chicks, the best mainstream or "pop" country act playing today, and one of the better bluegrass bands to boot. Kate Randal and others at the World Socialist Web Site were equally outraged, and as usual, far more eloquent than me.

So I didn't have any problem picking up the Chicks' Live "Top of the World" tour CDs, and it made for some great driving music, as well as nice vindication music. Recorded after the debacle, the Chicks thank their fans, "the best in the world," for coming..."They said you wouldn't come," Natalie says. "But we knew you would." Each track on the 2-CD set is a great version of an already great song, from "Goodbye Earl" to "Sin Wagon." Along the way, a heartrending and critical version of "Travelin' Soldier" (it ends with military drums) and a self-conscious "Truth #2"--where Natalie promises both true freedom of expression and true love, as if to say they belong together:

I might get to the end of my line
Find out everyone was lying
I don't think that I'm afraid anymore
Say that I would rather die trying
Swing me way down south
Sing me something brave from your mouth
And I'll bring you
Pearls of water on my hips
And the love in my lips
All the love from my lips

This is too poetic, too image-laden, for the country music establishment. The Dixie Chicks didn't just speak out politically in 2003...from the beginning they have broken nearly every rule and pushed the boundaries of Nashville and New York in the direction of both social commentary (they have been unambiguously anti-war and pro-gender equity since day one) and youthful sexuality (no more drunken trysts with 40-year old divorced women...instead, these girls wanna do some highly energetic "mattress dancing"). They can play their own instruments...guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, better than most of their male peers. They are just a good, tight, unapologetically outspoken act, and their live shows are to die for. This set captures all of the above, including a solid cover of Bob Dylan's 1995 "Mississippi."

Sometimes I wish the Chicks would just embrace the underground, or take the kind of risks with their music that kd lang did, with such astounding results. But I am also glad their fan base didn't desert them just because Natalie Maines was rightly ashamed to live in the same state as GW Bush. I am ashamed to live on the same planet with him. It's nice to hear so much good music, both punk and country, that makes me feel good politically too.