PODCAST – Americana For The Pop Heart

Posted on 24 June 2013

New Podcast

 

“AMERICANA FOR THE POP HEART or…’Americana – What the !@#% is THAT?!'”

Your Host: BRUCE BROWN

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Americana music – What the !@#% is THAT?!

That is a very good question. Did this rock-inflected cousin of country originate with Gram Parsons and the “Cosmic American Music”of the Flying Burrito Brothers? Or perhaps The ByrdsSweetheart of the Rodeo was the first “Americana” album. Did Creedence Clearwater Revival borrow as much from country and bluegrass as blues in its approach, making it the first Americana band? Or was it not until the Eagles‘ debut that the template was locked in?

As the Internet has spread all styles of music into all corners of the globe, it’s almost a fool’s errand to continue to pigeon-hole music strictly into any one genre or format. One could even argue that the “Americana” descriptor today remains more of a marketing tool than representative of a musical genre. Indeed, the term was basically coined by radio broadcasters in the 1990s, trying to describe a format that would embrace rootsy, acoustic-oriented, country & bluegrass based music that was too country for modern rock radio and too rock-influenced for country radio. Artists such as Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo and Lucinda Williams were linked to Americana early on, though these days, you’re also likely to hear names such as Alison Krauss, Dwight Yoakam and even Bonnie Raitt lumped into that category.

Although it ceased print publishing five years ago, No Depression magazine (est. 1995), the journalistic loadstone of Americana music, remains active on the web, while the Americana Music Association (formed in 1999) has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 14 years, as the champion of American Roots music around the world.

Since it remains a close relative of my beloved Power Pop, I’ve decided I ought to, from time to time, offer some mixes featuring what I would describe as “Americana.” As usual, not intended to be comprehensive.  Just one guys’ opinion on where it came from and where it might be going.

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PGH PODCAST – “Americana For The Pop Heart”

DOWNLOAD – “Americana For The Pop Heart” –  HERE

(right click and ‘save as’)

 

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THE PLAYLIST:

1. Uncle Tupelo – No Depression (No Depression)
[The grand-daddy of ’em all, some say; at least, one of the forerunners of the last 20+ years of “alt-country.” Worthy of owning the Carter family classic and bestowing the name on a great magazine.]
2. Augie March – Farmer’s Son (Watch Me Disappear)
[There are, it seems, lots of wide open spaces in Australia. And Augie March is a band whose music evokes the grandeur and loneliness of the Outback, with a poetic heart that sets it apart from the crowd. It seems the band has been dormant for the past three years, while leader Glenn Richards has been doing solo and band dates. But its albums remain available as used CDs and downloads.]
3. Bob Evans – Come to This (Stolen Songbook EP]
[Although Evans is one of my favorite Aussie writers, on this EP he “steals” the tunes of some of his contemporaries and focuses on his gifts as an interpreter.]
5. Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos – Rich Rich Country (Love Your Crooked Neighbour With Your Crooked Heart)
[The ex-leader of Australia’s lauded power poppers Icecream Hands seems, like many rockers of “a certain age,” to have eased comfortably into a more rustic, alt-country groove. And that musical suit is a fine fit with Jenkins’ poignant song-stories.]
4. Bonnie Raitt – Give It Up or Let Me Go (Give It Up)
[After conquering the Grammys and Billboard charts with her career high-water mark, the polished rock of 1989’s Nick of Time, Raitt has lately eased back toward the rootsier sound of her early discs, like this gem that opens her second album.]
6. Dave Birk – It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This (Speed Queen Mystery Date)
[Dave calls his music “top-down, summer fun, delicious pop.” And, we might add, with the occasional twangy twist.]
7. Et Tu Brucé – Stars Fall (Suburban Sunshine)
[This West London outfit sounds more SoCal than South Bank, with sunny harmonies highlighting its folk-rock hooks.]
8. Honeychurch – Tennessee Valley (Will You Be There With Me)
[Gorgeous, pastoral chamber folk, from a Bucks Co, Pennsylvania group described as “honky-tonk shoegazers.” Would that be “boot-gazers?”]
9. Jeremy Porter & The Tucos – Castaways (Partner In Crime)
[From way up thar in MEESH-i-gan comes Porter and his compadres, with just the right blend of power pop and Telecaster twang.]
10. Lewis Wilson & The Beat Makers – Image It (On Sunshine Avenue)
[They DO love their Byrds over in the UK. Not quite as sunny as the album title might suggest, Scotsman Wilson and his boys nonetheless make melancholy quite memorable.]
11. Maplewood – Moonboot Canyon (Yeti Boombox)
[More Laurel Canyon than Nashville, and possessed of the gorgeous harmonies one associates with vintage Byrds and Poco, as well as contemporaries such as Dawes.]
12. Martin Zellar & The Hardways – It Works for Me (Roosters Crow)
Another upper Midwesterner, Zellar has been fronting regionally and nationally known bands for more than 30 years, most notably including the Gear Daddies. No frills roots-rock with simple, heartfelt stories.]
13. Old 97’s – Timebomb (Hit By A Train – The Best of Old 97’s)
[What’s all this rowdydow? Music for sawdust-laden barrooms and punk rock clubs, with the appropriate twang and superior songwriting.]
14. Open Country – I Can See (Out of the Wilderness: A Series of Beginnings)
[One man band Sterling Reed likens his music to that of Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens. This single mic and a Macbook Pro bedroom album is worthy of both comparisons.]
15. Owen Thomas – Houdini (Languages)
[Owen formerly fronted the vastly underrated heartland rockers The Elms. You cannot, it appears, take the roots out of the boy.]
16. Ruby Free – Slow Parade (Introducing Ruby Free)
[Rick Hromadka (Double Naught Spies, Maple Mars) and Lisa Cavaliere are the husband/wife duo behind Ruby Free. Those of you who like the Matthew Sweet/Susanna Hoffs projects would do well to investigate!]
17. The Honeymoon Stallions – A Little Love Tonight (Moonlighting)
[Power popper Andy Goldberg (The Goldbergs, The Sun Kings) lets a little twang bleed over into the crisp harmonies and jangly drive of this sweet number.]
18. The Lone Bellow – Button (The Lone Bellow)
[More accessible songwriters than the Civil Wars, and better dressers than Mumford & Sons, but right in the same musical vicinity.]
19. The Trashed Romeos – Leaning On to You (Where Dreamers Never Go)
[The bulk of the band’s output is much more in a psych/garage vein. But they dial down the amps a notch for this one.]
20. This Old Ghost – Lasso The Moon (Family Room)
[Often more alt. than alt-country, these New Yorkers mix urban urgency with a chiming pop sensibility.]
21. Gram Parsons – Ooh Las Vegas (The Complete Reprise Sessions)
[If all he’d done was contribute to the musical course correction of The Byrds, that would have been enough. But he helped usher Emmylou Harris into the public consciousness, so he’s a hero for that as well. Parsons had such a complete grasp of country music’s traditions, it’s a damn shame he didn’t live long enough to become the next Porter Wagoner or George Jones. If Parsons was still living, he’d be coming up on 67-years-old this Fall, and no doubt packing them into the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night.]

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