Music Notes (OT): Rootsy Gumbo

Small Town Heroes album cover

Okay, normally it's easy to get overfed on irony, but a little of it here and there can be a treat. How ironic is it that the best review of the new Hurray for the Riff Raff album is in the Wall Street Journal?

Written by Steve Dougherty. I don't know if the link will work for you. I think the WSJ is normally behind a firewall which only Republicans, financiers, heirs, and people with investment portfolios are allowed past*. Something like that. If you have trouble, just type "Alynda Lee Segarra Hurray Riff Raff site:wsj.com" (without the quotation marks) in Google.

Anyway. Hurray for the Riff Raff's new album, Small Town Heroes, was released a few days ago. On February 11th. As far as I can tell it's that rarest of productions: plain old music. That is, people playing plain old instruments and one of 'em singing, recorded well. How crazy is that? What kind of radical exotica are they going to think up next?

It's a folk record, with touches of bluegrass, country, blues, cowboy plaints, even a hint of pop. A "rootsy gumbo," Steve Dougherty calls it. In the Wall Street Journal.

Alynda Lee Segarra was on the radio the other night talking about the song "The Body Electric." She wrote it as a curative for the traditional murder ballad (there are hundreds of 'em, from "Stagger Lee" to Jimi's "Hey Joe"). Her idea was that most—not all—of the victims in such songs are female, and she wanted to indicate the perspective of the victims. Along with a dark little threat there at the end.

I think it's my favorite country song since "Look at Miss Ohio" (well, not counting Hugo's country-blues rendition of Jay-Z's "99 Problems": see the first sentence of this post, above.)

And for now anyway, thanks to NPR, you can listen to the whole record for free.

Mike

*Calm down, I'm kidding.

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Comments

[Arg]

Country Music Lovers of the world, unite! Or at least get married, you two. :)

[Jeffrey Behr]

Hot damn--I qualify twice! Maybe I'll read the review and listen to the music.

Thx Mike.

[John Camp]

Not too bad for amateur cross-over listeners, but if you're hardcore, try Snoop-Dogg's "Gin and Juice" as done by the Gourds...your basic hillbilly/bluegrass/banjo pickin' gangsta rap, here, for free on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur1N3UyT1lE

[Bob Smith]

"As far as I can tell it's that rarest of productions: plain old music. That is, people playing plain old instruments and one of 'em singing, recorded well. How crazy is that?"

That kind of music is alive and well. Read Relix magazine (originally a Grateful Dead fan mag but now much more), play the free cd that come with every issue containing songs from the artists they feature in that issue and make new discoveries. There is a world full of artists making actual music, not the garbage/crap that passes for music in the mainstream today.

[BigHank53]

People who are fans of Americana music may enjoy streaming WDVX out of Knoxville. Live musicians in the studio for a lot of lunchtime concerts. Community supported so very few commercials...and no commitment to the modern radio 'format'. Jason Isbell, Sarah Jaroz, Jill Andrews, The Infamous Stringdusters, Chatham County Line, Joe Pug, Richard Buckner...

[james wilson]

Real music done well and there is not enough of it around. I did however have trouble hearing her when all the band was playing. sometimes it sounded like they were all gathered around one mic. I think they should have brought the vocal up a bit more in post.

[Jim]

Another "real music" source is the Oxford American magazine music issue each year. This year it is Tennessee music-pretty eclectic!
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2013/dec/04/issue-83-music-tennessee/

[Speed]

Paywalled WSJ articles can be viewed for free by searching on Google (and only Google) for the headline (sometimes better with "WSJ" appended) and clicking on the Google result.

I believe that Google has an arrangement with WSJ (and Barron's) to do this with benefits to both parties.

[psu]

Youtube leads you from John Camp's link to this... which... I just don't know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-glMLXWHPU

[jerry grasso]

Hey Mike, if you like this band , you'll LOVE Poor OLD Shine. Check them out if you get a chance!

---jerry

[Dave Sailer]

I don't know "Hurray for the Riff Raff", but it sounds like "Little Miss Higgins" might add another layer to the same cake. Samples at http://www.littlemisshiggins.com/music-2/

[Kalli]

Great tip, Mike. Too bad her latest album isn't on Spotify yet, but I'm listening through her first one now.

[Matthew]

…making this the second album that I've purchased on your recommendation. Mike, there's a good reason why this is my favourite photography blog.

[Johan Grahn]

I have found many groups/artists that do play, mostly, acoustic instruments.
And do it very well.
Some examples:
Carolina Chocolate Drops, Sarah Jarosz, Sierra Hull, Sometymes Why, Crooked Still, The Wailin' Jennies, etc.

It is all in the bluegrass tradition typ of music.
Long Hard Times To Come, the theme from the series Justified, got me to start to listen to gangstagrass. A truly new experience.

[Erik Ahrend]

There's a good reason why this is my favourite non-photography blog. :-)

[David]

IMHO your line "I think the WSJ is normally behind a firewall which only Republicans, financiers, heirs, and people with investment portfolios are allowed past*." is a great one because of the inclusion of the word "heirs". Without that it's just a sentence. For me it has a Mark Twain sensibility about it.

[David]

Ah, the female murder ballad victim ... I'd recently heard a song where the guy was the victim and was sort of a counterpoint to "Delia's Gone." Can't recall the singer or song title, sorry.