Author: Joe Boone

St. Paul & the Broken Bones at the Shell

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date September 28, 2014

Eddie Hinton has become an archetype: the tortured white boy lost on a quixotic quest to sing like a black man. An Alabama native, Hinton was a producer, guitarist, songwriter, and a singer who spent a short, troubled life in pursuit of the African-American preacher’s tone. Hinton was the house guitarist at Muscle Shoals Sound from 1967-1971 and wrote Dusty Springfield’s “Breakfast in Bed.” Producer Johnny Sandlin (Allman Brothers’ Fillmore East, Eat a Peach) once told of touring with Hinton and how he would stick his head out the window in the cold, shrieking at the top of his lungs to roughen his voice.

Paul Janeway may have done all that and more. St. Paul & The Broken Bones is the soul-revivalist band built around Janeway’s remarkable voice. They play the Levitt Shell on Sunday, September 28th. That morning, Janeway and organist Al Gamble are the guests at Grace-St. Luke’s Rector’s Forum on Religion and Culture.

St. Paul & the Broken Bones

Cultural Appropriation happens when a member of a privileged class uses a cultural practice of a minority class. From Elvis to Miley Cyrus, American popular music doesn’t exist without it. But when a pasty kid who looks like it’s his first day in the Regions Bank trust department opens his mouth and sings like a civil rights-era shouter, the issue is particularly acute. In the South, all this stuff is complicated. It’s likely that Janeway, like fellow Alabamians Sam Phillips and W.C. Handy, was moved by the music he heard growing up in the South and, from a place of love and respect, tried to emulate it. It’s complicated. Maybe it’s best to leave intellectual theory in its tiny, windowless, academic office. The rest of us will be at the Shell to hear the season’s most inspired booking.

Tags Al Gamble, Grace St. Luke's, grace-st. luke's episcopal church, Levitt Shell, Paul Janeway, St. Paul & the Broken Bones

Music Record Reviews

Record Reviews: Three Memphis songwriters wrestle with mortality.

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date September 26, 2014

Rob Jungklas

Nothing to Fade

Self-release

There is a striking contrast between Rob Jungklas’ last two albums. Where 2013’s The Spirit & the Spine was a tortuous exploration of religious dread, his latest, Nothing To Fade, opens with the expansive acoustic universe of “Mary Sees Angels.” Anchored in tuned-down guitars and a five-string bass, a tone of redemption emerges from the depths. This tone continues in “Cop For You,” which has a hint of Cat Stevens amid the whooshy, compressed drums. Jungklas produced with Chad Cromwell and Jack Holder. Cromwell is a Nashville-based Memphian who has drummed for Neil Young and Mark Knopfler. Holder is known for his work with Black Oak Arkansas and Cobra. Jungklas has an affinity for religious language. But he never gets far from the edge. The black hounds gather for “Crawl the Moonlight Mile,” but the dark mood doesn’t dominate this record like it did his last one. The notions of faith and doubt permeate Jungklas’ work, but what sets him apart from “Contemporary Christian” music is his willingness to descend into Hell and the fact that he knows what good acoustic guitars sound like. It’s good to hear his voice emerge from the darkness.

Jesse Winchester

A Reasonable Amount of Trouble

Appleseed

Recordings

Jesse Winchester recorded A Reasonable Amount of Trouble shortly before his death in April. The album sounds much larger and more rambunctious than one might expect from a last effort. But producer and guitarist Mac McAnally lets Winchester’s voice hover in its own space among instruments that do more than support the song. Recorded at the Blue Rock Artist Ranch in Wimberley, Texas, this record is an acoustic marvel. McAnally has written for Jimmy Buffett, Alabama, and Kenny Chesney, among others. His acoustic palette is marvelous and does justice to Winchester’s melodies. Winchester’s voice is a grey line between himself and the air. The instruments don’t sit behind the voice as much as they mix with it. It’s refreshing and no small feat given Winchester’s leaf-on-the-wind vocal approach to delivering a lyric. Winchester had dramatic sense of melody and knew when to whisper and when to start a fire. The liner notes address Winchester’s aversion to writing from a dark place, even though the songs were written during his treatment for cancer. The album closes with “Just So Much.” “There is just so much that the Lord can do.” The last verse is an unflinching final testament to a writer, thinker, and musician.

John Kilzer

Hide Away

Archer Records

The Reverend John Kilzer’s Hide Away comes out on October 14th. It’s his first offering from Archer Records. Like Jungklas, Kilzer wrestled with the music industry in the 1980s, signing and releasing two albums on David Geffen’s DGC in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Kilzer was an All-American forward for the Memphis State Tigers in the late 1970s. That level of Memphianity gets you a backing band composed of Rick Steff, Greg Morrow, Sam Shoup, Steve Selvidge, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Luther Dickinson. Kilzer delivers contemplative songs, which one would expect from an ordained minister. The struggle between the divine calling and our earthly vessels is evident througout the record. But Kilzer took musical bona fides into the pulpit rather than taking the pulpit to the stage. That’s an important distinction and is aurally obvious from how much Kilzer’s voice gets wonderfully seduced by temptation.

“Lay Down” is a call to peace that transcends the stupid platitudes of hippies and casts the dialog for peace in biblical dogma. This record amounts to a nuanced and honest approach to a civic Christianity that sadly goes unnoticed in the culture wars. “Uranium won’t feed the hungry.”

“Until We’re All Free” marches a foot or two behind the Staple Singers, but is on the same path. The band Kilzer has assembled allows him to craft each song into its own sound. Throughout, the record benefits from the assembly of talented guitarists. Steff’s organ parts stand out in particular. “The White Rose and the Dove” is a sonic blend of “Stairway to Heaven” and “Blind Willie McTell” and therefore a bit of divine inspiration. On “Babylon,” Kilzer pulls out his judging finger, but he points it the right way. “You think God can hear your prayers/ You ignore their hungry stares.” The album might be a little long in places. I could live without “Love Is War.” But for the most part, Christianity as practiced in this country and this state in particular could use more leadership like Kilzer. He offers a soulful, compassionate alternative to the louder sort of God squadder. And he did so by making a great sounding record. Here’s to that.

Tags Alvin Youngblood Hart, Archer Records, Jesse Winchester, John Kilzer, Luther Dickinson, Rick Steff, Rob Jungklas, Steve Selvidge

Music Music Features

New Records from Memphis’ Madjack

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date September 21, 2014

CREDIT: John Shaw

Memphis artists are showing up in all sorts of cool places. After a 23-year absence, the Replacements hosted their first hometown show last weekend in Minneapolis. The music press and the Twittersphere were all-ears. Memphis meta-alt favorites Lucero were the opening act. On another front, Memphian Cory Branan has his guns loaded with a new record attracting attention in everything from Rolling Stone to Noisey. Lucero and Branan have in common Madjack Records. While Lucero and Branan have moved to other labels, Madjack continues to foster the careers of several people from Memphis’ ponderous talent pool. This year, Madjack will release albums on the Memphis Dawls, Mark Edgar Stuart, and James and the Ultrasounds.

“It was just a coincidence that it all came together,” Madjack partner Ronny Russell says of the trio of new releases. “We did that a couple of years ago too with three records on Kait Lawson, Mark [Stuart], and John Kilzer. They all came at the same time. Usually, we let the creative side dictate the timing of it. It seems to come in phases. It happened back in the day with the Pawtuckets, Lucero, and Cory Branan. Those happened right in a row.”

Mark McKinney started the label to market his band the Pawtuckets, a regional success that released three albums in the early 2000s. At that time, Russell had been working with engineer Jeff Powell, who produced Memphis Dawls’ Rooted in the Bone, to be released this month.

“Jeff Powell and I hooked up on a band called the River Bluff Clan in the late 1990s. They came to me. I was a friend of theirs from high school. They came to me on the business side, for some advice on how to make a record. The Pawtuckets used to come see the River Bluff Clan when they were really young. I met them in the Poplar Lounge and other places. I got to know Mark McKinney. Mark was putting out the Pawtuckets records through Madjack.”

It didn’t take long for people to notice Lucero. Madjack released their self-titled debut in 2001.

“When it came time to put out Lucero, he wanted a business partner and some of that kind of help. He

came to me, and we wound up striking up a partnership in Madjack. We just heard music that was really good. And we were learning how to get records out in a good way. When we saw Cory at the Hi-Tone, he was in the same boat; didn’t know where to turn. So we all just jumped in it together and went forward. Then we had some luck. First of all, the people were very talented, as you know. Pawtuckets were very good and did well in town. Lucero might be the hardest working bunch of guys I’ve ever met in my life. Then Cory is a unique songwriter.”

Output slowed in the middle 2000s, but Madjack released albums by Rob Jungklas, Susan Marshall, Keith Sykes, and others. But it was Mark Stuart, the bassist for the Pawtuckets’ original act, who got things moving for this latest round.

“Even my partner Mark, who was in the Pawtuckets with him, you could have knocked us over with a feather when he started writing,” Russell says of Stuart. “We’ve known him for years. The quality of it was unbelievably good. Mark can tell you himself, he had some life experiences that made him more contemplative. He played with Cory on Letterman. He was the bass player on that. He’s a dear friend. And with material this good, it’s a no-brainer to put it out.”

That album, last year’s Blues for Lou, dealt movingly with Stuart’s 2011 battles with cancer and grief. Jeff Powell produced that record, and it touched a nerve in anyone who heard it. Stuart, having experimented with songs, began exploring the process of making records. His second solo record is due in early 2015. Stuart played bass for basically everybody and left a lot of folks without their low end when he started playing a guitar and singing. Enter Memphian James Godwin.

“At the time I didn’t really have a band and was picking up bass gigs,” Godwin says. “That’s when I really started tinkering around with my own songs, recording stuff on four-track, and playing it for friends. I just kept building on it over the years. When Mark started doing his solo thing, I started doing a lot more bass gigs with John Paul [Keith]. So there was a group of musicians helping each other out. It’s kinda nice.”

Godwin is another bassist-turned-songwriter who leads James and the Ultrasounds. Their debut full-length Bad To Be Here is due on Madjack in December. Bad To Be Here is Mark Stuart’s first record as a producer. The Ultrasounds come from a different place than the alt-country landscape of Madjack’s earlier catalog. The record veers through references to Abbey Road, punk rhythmic fervor, and some damn fine shouting. Jungklas’ 2013 The Spirit and the Spine also demonstrates an open-mindedness or perhaps adaptability in McKinney and Russell’s approach.

Memphis Dawls’ Rooted to the Bone comes out in Memphis on September 26th and nationally in November. The sound centers on the harmonies, both vocal and instrumental, among members Holly Cole, Jana Misener, and Krista Wroten Combest. The latter two work as string arrangers and performers on cello and violin. Engineer Powell lets Cole’s vocal lead the way and gives it just enough support from well-written parts. The sounds of each song are cherry picked from a range of country-inspired sounds, creating a rich entanglement of voices, strings, and other instruments, notably the Hammond organ.

Russell enjoys seeing the roster diversify and helping artists develop their careers.

“Jeff kept talking about how the blend of their voices is unique,” Russell says of the Dawls. “We got to listening to it, and it evolved over time. They felt like Madjack was a good fit. They knew that we could bring some resources to the table. We’re not Warner Brothers or anything. We can help with press promotions and radio promotions. To me, even though they are a completely different style of music, they are similar to Lucero in the sense that they work. It really helps us on the label side if someone is out traveling and touring.”

Asked if it was difficult watching his early talent shine at other labels, Russell remains passionate about watching his friends succeed.

“I’m actually going to dinner with Cory tonight. You talk about an incubator label. I’ve always described it as AA or AAA baseball. The major labels these days seldom sign someone off the street without any track record at all. If we just like it — and these people are so talented and creative — we try to help them and put it out. If they move on, more power to them. We’re their biggest cheerleaders. That’s what we do.

Tags Cory Branan, James and the Ultrasounds, Lucero, Madjack Records, Memphis Dawls, Pawtuckets

Music Music Features

Earth, Wind & Fire: Horseshoe Tunica, October 4th

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date September 19, 2014

Verdine White doesn’t give a shirt about an Oxford comma, people. White is touring with Earth, Wind & Fire and will basically destroy Horseshoe Tunica on Saturday, October 4th, using his combo powers of bass, fashion, and dance. All at once.

Earth, Wind & Fire: Horseshoe Tunica, October 4th

Tags Earth Wind & Fire, Horseshoe Casino Tunica, Horseshoe Tunica

Music Music Features

Jimi Jamison 1951-2014

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date September 11, 2014

CREDIT: James L. Dickerson

Singer Jimi Jamison died unexpectedly from a heart attack on August 31st. Jamison had a voice that is beyond comprehension by today’s standards. He used his talent to earn success, friendship, and respect at the highest levels of the music industry. To say that a musician became a great success out of Memphis and that everyone liked him speaks of a very special personality.

“He just seemed like an absolutely normal guy,” says Sam Shoup, a close friend who worked with Jamison at jingle specialty house the William B. Tanner Company in the early 1980s. “You see it on Facebook now: He was friends with everyone. Never once had a big head on him. He was always just one of the guys, and I’m sure you’ll hear that from everyone. He was always the same guy. No matter how big he got, he loved living here in Memphis and being around his kids and his wife. That’s why it’s so sad. It’s like the whole town has been punched in the stomach. The whole town is just devastated. He was so loved by everybody.”

His first relase was in 1968 with the single “If I Cry,” a track that was meant to be a Box Tops tune. He sang on D. Beaver’s proggish Combinations in 1973. In the mid- to late-1970s, Jamison recorded two albums with Target, whose second album, Captured, is a beautifully recorded golden mean between Thin Lizzy and Bad Company. A later band Cobra released First Strike in 1983. Jack Holder was a member of Cobra as was Mandy Meyer, who played for ’80s bands Asia and Krokus, for whom Jamison did background vocal work.

Jamison joined Survivor after that band’s success with “Eye of the Tiger,” when singer Dave Bickler developed vocal chord polyps. In 1984, the group released Vital Signs with Jamison singing. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA and had two Top-10 singles with “The Search Is Over” and “High On You.” Jamison’s voice was so strong and dependable — and he was so easy to work with — that he’s heard on other massive successes. But you may not see his name.

“Back in the day, it was kind of kept quiet if there was ever anybody except group members on things,” engineer Terry Manning says. Manning was an engineer at Stax and engineered ZZ Top’s 1983 album, Eliminator, at Ardent Studios in Memphis. That album is certified Diamond for sales over 10 million units. “That album, which was by far [ZZ Top’s] biggest album ever with all those hits: ‘Legs,’ ‘Sharp Dressed Man.’ I brought him in and the two of us sang backing harmonies all over Billy Gibbons.”

Jamison’s voice paved the way for success. His talent was immediately obvious.

“I first met him when I was 25 years old, right out of college,” Shoup says. “I got a job writing jingles for the Tanner Company. The staff vocal group was all people who read music and were trained singers. You had to sing all of these five- and six-part harmonies, and the parts were really weird. Jimi was the first guy they hired who didn’t officially read music. His voice was so incredible and he could learn the parts so quickly. He actually taught himself to read music on the job. He would just nail it every time. It was obvious that he was headed for bigger and better things than a career singing jingles.”

When Shoup found himself in Los Angeles after Survivor had recorded two Top-20 hits, Jamison turned out to be a very gracious host.

“I called him, and it was the day they were shooting the video for ‘The Search Is Over,'” Shoup says. That song stayed in the Top 40 for 14 weeks. “He called me back, and I got to be on the set. It was like, ‘Wow, I know a big star.’ It was my first brush with that kind of thing. But he was always the same guy. He never once got a big head or anything like that.”

By the time he joined Survivor in 1984, Jamison had already sung on Eliminator. After Jamison left Survivor, Manning would continue to work with Jamison both in Memphis and in Nassau, Bahamas, where he ran Compass Point Studios.

“I can confidently say that Jimi had the best ear and voice for accompanying people that I have ever seen, heard of, or worked with in any capacity. He had such an uncanny ability to sound just like what was needed. He could sound just like the person who was doing the lead vocal when he was doing the harmonizing. When it was a woman — I don’t mean that he sounded like a woman — but he fit right in and you didn’t think of it as an outside thing. If it was a deep, gruff male voice like Billy Gibbons, he sounded like he had to. He had an amazing ear.”

Auto-Tune is software that allows engineers to manipulate the pitch of a vocal. It was designed to fix flaws in vocal tracks but became its own source of fascination starting with Cher’s 1998 hit “Believe.” The pitch-fixing technology became a parody of itself. But Auto-Tuning is still rampant and harder than ever to detect.

“We didn’t even consider it on him,” Manning says. “We didn’t even have it back then. He never needed it. He could hold pitch. He could sing vibrato when needed. He could sing straight when needed. He could do whatever you needed. Casey Kasem, the big DJ guy, called him ‘The Voice.’ That’s what he named him. He just was the voice.”

Jamison recorded the theme song for Rocky 4 with Survivor and went on to co-write and sing the soundtrack to Baywatch. At one point, he was considered for the role of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors. At another point, he was approached to replace Ian Gillian in Deep Purple.

Take a minute and go listen to the big hits. Listen to how Jamison sings the first verse of “The Search Is Over.” He controls his dynamics (loud and soft) so that each new part is more exciting. People making records today don’t even bother to hit the note. Jamison sets off an atom bomb of tissue and air that is like something out of the X-Men. It is superhuman.

“He was the nicest guy you could ever meet,” Manning says. “He was cheerful and happy and funny and caring. That means more in life than anything else. But when we talk about the things that made a pro a pro at what he does, I was there for that sort of work, and there’s nobody better.”

Music Music Features

Gonerfest 11

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date September 11, 2014

“It’s a little crazy this year how many are Australians,” Bruce Saltmarsh says of this year’s GOnerfest lineup. But if anyone is to blame, it’s Saltmarsh. “I’ve worked with all of them except for one.”

Saltmarsh runs Easter Bilby, a record distribution company with a niche in Australian garage rock.

The Rebel

“It’s just increased every year since Eddy Current Suppression Ring played [in 2009].” Saltmarsh says. “That year was Eddy Current and the Ooga Boogas. Since then, when I was starting Easter Bilby, there’s been an increase in Australian groups playing. There’s also been an increase in Australian tourists as fans coming to Gonerfest, which is basically as ridiculous as the number of bands coming to the festival.”

Australian music is on a roll. Seven bands are onboard for Gonerfest 11, which runs from September 25th-28th.

“The thing to me is, I’ve been following Australian music for as long as I can remember, going back to Radio Birdman and the Saints. It’s always been great music. I think that my having started this distribution company with only Australian bands, and there’s a little New Zealand mixed in — it’s just opened the doors to a lot of stuff that wouldn’t have normally been heard outside of Australia.”

But Saltmarsh never set out to be an Australian music mogul.

“I wound up starting Easter Bilby about seven or eight years ago,” he says. “I started helping out a friend from Australia. I said, why don’t you just ship however many records to me. When you get orders, I’ll send them out in the U.S. for you. So I kind of started sideways. But that was the beginning of it. It was Aarght, a record label, the first record was probably Eddy Current Supression Ring. From that, it’s just turned into this ridiculous thing. I’m sitting in my office, and I’ve got probably 150 different releases sitting here.”

Ausmuteants

Ausmuteants hail from Geelong, Australia. Their self-titled debut is on Goner in the U.S. and Aarght in Australia. Ausmuteants play Thursday night at the Hi-Tone.

“I’m meeting them in L.A. and doing the first couple of weeks of their tour with them,” Saltmarsh says. “They’re all kids. The oldest guy is 25. They’re coming over to do a month-long tour. I’ve been laughing at myself, wondering how the hell did I get roped into doing this.”

What makes Australian music so compelling?

“It seems like it’s so isolated,” Saltmarsh says. “The isolation is a big part of it. It’s a hard thing to put into words. Australians in general have a hard time believing in themselves.” He laughts and adds, “I think it’s the opposite in Memphis.”

Gonerfest has a few non-Australian tricks up the T-shirt sleeve this year.

Londoner Wreckless Eric leads the Len Bright Combo. Eric Goulden is a Class of ’77 Londoner who bore the country-punk imprint of Nick Lowe in his early years and birthed the somewhat legendary album The Len Bright Combo Present… The Len Bright Combo… By The Len Bright Combo. That title that tells you everything you need to know about an album that set standards for how shimmering guitars should work over lumbering, rudimentary sludge. Len Bright Combo plays on Friday night at the Hi-Tone.

Len Bright Combo

Hertsfordshire, UK-native Benedict Roger Wallers is a master of disguise who has released music and performed under several personas. The Rebel finds Wallers offering a mix of classic rock references and musique concrete, with noise samples and textures that recall Stockhausen and John Cale. The Rebel plays on Saturday with Indiana protopunks Gizmos.

Keep an eye on the Flyer website for more previews of Gonerfest 11 music.

Gonerfest 11, September 25th-28th. See gonerfest.com for full lineup and tickets.

Tags Australia, Gonerfest, Hi Tone

Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Sunday Morning Coming Down at GSL

Post author By Joe Boone
Post date September 5, 2014

Grace St. Lukes is hosting a musical lecture series that starts this Sunday, September 7th. Luther Dickison is the inaugural guest of the series that focuses on religion in Southern music. Luther’s topic is “Up over Yonder: The Sights and Sounds of Heaven.” Robert Gordon, author of Stax history Respect Yourself, talks about “My Baby on Saturday Night, Jesus on Sunday Morning” on Sunday, September 14th. Look out: Sunday, September 28th is a big deal: Al Gamble and Paul Janeway from St. Paul and the Broken Bones discuss ““From Gospel to Soul.” St. Paul and the Broken Bones are on a major roll as second-generation purveryors of Southern soul. Gamble is the go-to Hammond organ wizard of his generation. The lectures run from 9:30 until 10:15 a.m.

Sunday Morning Coming Down at GSL

Tags Al Gamble, Grace St. Luke's, lecture, Luther Dickinson, Respect Yourself, Robert Gordon, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Stax