Author: Warren Hines

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Brandon Taylor’s “Radio Ghost” Record Release Show

Brandon Taylor.

The first time I met Brandon Taylor was down in the Delta at the caretaker’s lodge flanked alongside the Baby Doll House near Benoit. Wiry, curly-haired, and soft-spoken, he was visiting river-man Matthew Burdine, who happened to be watching the property for a few days. The two of them wore cowboy hats and toothy necklaces and discussed Neal Cassidy and Jack Kerouac the way Civil War buffs might trade information about the battle of Shiloh or Gettysburg.

In his debut album, Radio Ghost, Taylor runs the gamut of Americana styles with pedal steel, and Dylan inspired ballads to Deep South crooning and bluegrass. I had a chance to catch up with him to talk about his new album.

Brandon recalls being in fifth grade trying the smorgasbord of musical instruments for a sort of aptitude test for the school band.

“Their recommendation was for clarinet, but I was dead set on playing drums. I never liked to read music or anything like that—I always just wanted to play what I wanted to play.”

As time went by, he realized that most American music was played in 4/4 time and his curiosity drifted towards melody, inspiring him to pick up the guitar.

“The Christmas I got a drum set, my brother got a Sears guitar. He just never learned how to play it, so one summer when I was twelve, I dragged it out from under his bed and started Googling guitar chords.”

On the intro track, “Need a Fix,” Brandon belts out, “Don’t trust the government.” He explained that this was inspired by Edward Snowden. He recalls family members at Thanksgiving talking about how unpatriotic Snowden was to come forward about the extent of NSA surveillance.

“It’s unpatriotic to come forward and say ‘your government is lying to you’?” Taylor asked.

“In that song, it evolved into, well, what else is wrong? We’re always on our phones—we’re more connected than ever, but less connected than ever.”

The album- which was produced by Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell- will be released on Mad Jack Records and features a who’s who of regional musicians. Taylor recorded live duets with Shannon McNally, has Cody Dickinson backing him on drums in “Memphis in the Summer-time,” and Luther Dickinson playing electric guitar on multiple tracks including “Baby Blue” – which sounds like a song straight off of Exile on Main Street.

The album release of Radio Ghost will feature several opening acts including Kelley Anderson and DJ Andrew McCalla, and of course a live performance by Brandon Taylor and friends. The event will run from 9pm to 12am on Friday, December 9th at Studio 688.

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Live Review: Cody Dickinson at the Grammy Museum

Cody Dickinson.

 “This album is really my love letter to the road,” Cody Dickinson said on stage at the Mississippi Grammy Museum. He was seated in a comfortable armchair in the intimate performance theater next to past Grammy nominee, Shannon McNally, who was there to talk to him about his debut solo album, Leeway for the Freeway.

Cody has been the drummer for the North Mississippi All-Stars for about twenty years. His father Jim Dickinson, played keys on the original studio recording of “Wild Horses” when the Rolling Stones took a few days’ break in a Muscle Shoals studio during their 1969 American Tour. His older brother, Luther Dickinson, front man of the All-Stars, has released four solo albums as of this year, having brought his bluesy folk-rock singing and guitar style to collaborations with greats such as the Black Crowes and Shawn Lane.

At forty years old, the Dickinson family has cast a long shadow over Cody, the younger of the two Dickinson brothers. Cody explained that he had to start learning some new instruments and reinvent himself to push his career in a new direction. After a short, five song set, it became obvious that his songwriting ability has what it takes to keep pace with his family’s legacy.

The All-Stars drummer can hold his own weight down, having toured with Robert Plant. He’s just come off of tour playing drums for the Latin band, Los Lobos.

“We were at Red Rocks this summer, and it was the last song… and the band went into playing ‘La Bamba.’ It was just incredible to be playing this song that all these people knew. It was so visceral,” Cody explained to Shannon and the audience.

“It was sort of intimidating to be the drummer,” he continued, “the backbone of this incredible Latin band. I admit I dropped the ball a couple of times during the tour…”

“But you probably learned from those mistakes. The next night’s audience benefited from your mistake. I know that’s how it works for me,” Shannon chimed in.

As he brandished his shiny electric guitar to begin his set, Cody admitted that this was the first time he had ever performed the first track of his album, “Equinox Blues.” On this track and several others, he played percussion with his feet and guitar with his hands all while singing.

“I’m loving this one-man-band scenario. If I slow down or if I want to speed up… it’s alright.”

He went on to play several heartfelt songs on the keyboard, alternating between the one-man-band setup. “Stranger” is one of his originals co-written with C. Neville that starts out with a “Riders of the Storm” sort of rainy-day psychedelic sound. Cody cited the floods of New Orleans and our low-lying part of the South as inspiration.

“You’ve got nowhere to go [in a flood] like Indiana Jones in the tomb.”

The title track, “Leeway for the Freeway,” offers an easy listening, major chord melody on the pop side of blues-rock. It sounds a lot like the All-Stars debut album. He originally wrote it for Greg Allman, but since Greg never recorded it, he decided to put it on the album. It sounds like a highway song. Like something that would bring your American dream to life at some interstate Waffle House at 4:00am. He even got the audience to chime in as back-up vocals for the song.

After the show, the audience meandered out around the gift shop where we had a chance to buy our copy of album with its unmistakable Mississippi photography as artwork. I have been lucky to hear the All-Stars play a handful of times, but this was the first time I had met a member of the band.

A couple of years ago, on Christmas Eve, I had a ring in my pocket as I drove up to the levee to take my dogs for a run. On the way back, the original recording of “Wild Horses” came on the radio. This was the song I listened to before I asked my wife to marry me. I had to tell Cody this story.

“Well, did she say yes?” He laughed.

“She’s right over there. She said ‘no,’ but she still goes around with me,” I joked.

They say that there’s only about two degrees of separation in Mississippi. I may never get a chance to meet Mick Jagger or Keith Richards, but it was pretty special to hear Jim Dickinson’s son Cody play keys on a Saturday night in the Delta. Check out his new album, Leeway for the Freeway. With songs by John Hiatt, T Model Ford, Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson, Chuck Berry and several Cody Dickinson originals, it’s a modern American classic.

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Concert Review: Buckethead at the New Daisy

CREDIT: Haley Mitchell

Haley Mitchell

Shortly after making my way to the front of the crowd at the New Daisy, I asked the sound guy if he could hand me the set list after the show. A bunch of muttering started in the crowd surrounding him.

“I don’t think he has one. If I see one—I’ll bring it to you,” the sound guy replied.

“The last Buckethead show, all he had was a sign up that said, ‘Long Live Shaolin,’” someone else added.

The lights were red and blue in the theater, having an effect similar to the 3D glasses they used to give people in the ’90s to watch television—anytime you blinked, the room was frozen on the back of your eyeballs. The sound of dinosaurs growling and gnawing on dinner to the tune of cicadas permeated the air as the audience waited for the show.

“This is Bucketheadland,” I remember thinking. Brian Patrick Carroll’s performance art character, Buckethead, has claimed in rare interviews that his primary focus in life is building Bucketheadland, although it doesn’t have a physical address.

The sound of water dripping and echoing in a cave was followed by the sound of demonic female voices singing. Every time a guitar peppered into the soundtrack, sporadic clapping and shouting came from the audience.

Haley Mitchell

Haley Mitchell, the photographer who joined me on this assignment, said that Buckethead had gotten in trouble with his KFC bucket with an orange sticker on it that read, “Funeral.”

“He was raised by chickens and believes he can bring the dead chickens back to life through his guitar playing, which is a conflict of interest for Colonel Sander’s livelihood,” Mitchell explained.

On this tour, he’s just wearing a white bucket.

“I am becoming smaller and smaller,” a voice said as the night’s entertainment became eminent. It sounded like a voice from a 1950’s science fiction movie. “Nothing is solid no matter how it appears.”

Haley Mitchell

Buckethead walked out on stage and started playing. He doesn’t talk during the performance, although he does swing nunchucks in between handing out toys.

Fractal spider webs flipped around on the screen with red and blue lights. For his third song, he played “Soothsayer,” a prog rock track dedicated to his Aunt Suzie.

His dreadlocked assistant, P-Sticks, held a green light toward the audience as the people in the front row were allowed to press the red button on Buckethead’s white guitar. The red button is something like a Wah-Wah pedal for the face of his guitar, and as Buckethead held strings on the guitar neck, each member of the front row took a turn pressing it, forcing video game sounds to spit out of the speakers.

Haley Mitchell

As he started to play “Jordan,” one of his signature tunes, the bass attacked the audience like a rogue wave. It’s a song dedicated to Michael Jordan, which is supposed to be one of the hardest songs to play on Guitar Hero or on an actual guitar. On his 2011 release, It’s Alive, there is another song called “Lebrontron.” At 6’-4”, we can only assume that Buckethead is a basketball fan. 

Haley Mitchell

When he sampled “Pure Imagination,” it became evident that Buckethead is the Willie Wonka of guitarists, and we all had a golden ticket. After about an hour and a half of playing, he walked off the stage and giant red jellyfish floated across the screen as deafening drum and bass played on the speakers. We waited until the staff started to mop and decided he wasn’t coming back out.

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Nate Currin Live at the Center for Southern Folklore

Nate Currin.

An RV sat lonely at the far end of the wide-open, Wal-Mart parking lot on a Sunday morning. As the blue-haired ladies drove their sedans past to make their donut run before church, they saw a pleasantly round dog being pushed out the RV’s window. Then a man in his thirties with a beard fell out of the window after the dog.

“My door broke on the RV for a while and the only way out was to climb through the window,” Nate Currin explained, “but I fixed that pretty quick. My dog, Max, tours with me.”

Having spent three years traveling the country in his RV, Nate is a troubadour and pilgrim who is no stranger to the great American road. Blending traditional country styles with modern folk music, Nate’s songs reflect his life’s journey between love lost and a faith re-gained.

Having grown up the son of a Baptist preacher, Nate left his faith at the age of 19. He traveled the world, and by his late twenties, he struggled to overcome some serious issues with drugs and alcohol. The struggle brought him back to his faith which, he says, plays a big part in his songwriting.

“I really attempt to show the dirty—the gritty side—of my faith. I struggle with doubt, and I struggle with unbelief. I attempt to show that through my music.”

Having played with Jars of Clay and Blues Traveler, any fans of serious songwriters such as Owen Temple, Cory Branan or Adam Duritz of Counting Crows should definitely check out Currin’s music. He is currently touring in support of his April 15 release, The Madman and the Poet..

In his twenties, Nate was traveling through the British Isles with a friend. While hiking and camping in Whales, they came across a mountain named Cadair Idris. According to local legend, a traveler who spent the night on its slopes would return either a madman or a poet. Shortly after camping atop the mountain, Nate Currin began to write his first songs.

On the vinyl edition of The Madman and the Poet, there is a “madman” side, which features country infused songs like “Ballad of a Horse Thief” and “Birmingham.” A second side features the mellow, “poet” side of Currin’s songwriting. It begins with the title track and ends with a softly reverent tune, entitled, “Let Grace Fall Down on Me.”

Having already played several sold out shows on this tour, the award-winning Georgia native looks forward to continuing his tour through the Deep South and playing through the summer on a series of West Coast dates.

“The Deep South plays the largest role in my music from a stylistic standpoint,” Currin said. 

Listening to songs off the new album like, “Midnight Train,” which has a Southern gothic sound not unlike the ever popular Chris Stapleton, it isn’t hard to notice that Nate’s Southern roots run strong. The music video on Youtube for “Midnight Train” is wrought with Spanish moss, trains, and alligators —some of the finer things the Deep South has to offer.

On the flip side, the Southern songwriter has been influenced by his travels outside of the South. He spent some time living and working in San Francisco, which is known for its circuit of mellow acoustic songwriters.

“Two years out in San Francisco was really more of a time about rest and rejuvenation. I did some writing out there, but I was primarily working on The Pilgrim album, which I had a vision for already,” Currin explained.

His 2013 release, The Pilgrim, was another concept album based on The Pilgrim’s Progress, which is a religious text written by John Bunyan in 1678 that has been referenced by authors from C.S. Lewis to Mark Twain. The Pilgrim is a mellow album that seems to be the touchstone work of Currin’s return to his faith after spending about a decade experimenting with drugs as the prodigal son. It has a somewhat Lutheran sound, although it is not intended to speak exclusively to a religious audience.

“I’ve always shied away from the Christian music label. You get pigeon-holed so fast with it. There’s so much more to write about than one faith, one point-of-view, or one world view,” Currin said.

The 2013 album is the sort of spirit quest concept album that brings to mind author Joseph Campbell’s book, Hero with a Thousand Faces. The call to adventure occurs on the third track entitled, “Two Friends and a Map” in which the pilgrim must leave behind his friends and ultimately his pack.

“It was really symbolic of all that baggage I was carrying around for all those years. Being able to let all that go was a huge thing for me.”

Nate Currin 8:00 PM on Saturday, June 4 at the Center for Southern Folklore.

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Random Review: A Sailor’s Guide to Earth

Sturgill Simpson

Shooter Jennings has admitted that Sturgill Simpson is the only country singer who comes close to singing anything like Waylon. On the April 15 release, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, there is something for country music fans, however, when they sit down for a listen, they will have their boundaries tested as Simpson takes listeners on a tightly orchestrated tour of American music from Motown to grunge and even jazz.

Backed by the Dap-Kings as his horn section, jam music fans may find that the cover of “In Bloom,” or his original, “Keep It Between the Lines,” conjures memories of brass performers such as Galactic or Moon Hootch.

The album starts out with a creeping pulse and ocean sounds, as he begins the soliloquy to his first born son. The effect is a soundscape similar to “The Thin Ice,” which was the second introductory track for Pink Floyd’s The Wall. By the end of the song, energy is high with the horn section in full force playing Motown style.

In “Breaker’s Roar,” session guitarist Dan Dugmore’s steel guitar gives the song a dream-like quality. This track is probably already being vetted for David Lynch’s next film. Sturgill channels Elvis in the 1950’s sound of “Keep It Between the Lines,” Jimmy Buffett in “Sea Stories,” and Z. Z. Top in “Brace for Impact (Have a Little Fun).” To say this is a straight country album like his 2013 debut, High Top Mountain, is laughably dismissive. He continues with the spirit sense of Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, most notably in “All Around You,” which seems to be a slightly more up-tempo continuation of his concept from “Just Let Go” on his 2014 release.

The closing track, “Call to Arms,” starts off with bagpipes evoking the Scottish revolutionary theme of Braveheart. In his most politically charged track to date, he calls out both the political establishment and the rabid media before the album’s abrupt finish.

Musically, the new Sturgill album covers a lot of ground, and I think there is plenty for the outlaw country fans. There is plenty more for the musical omnivores who like to see any genre pushed to the bounds of its limitations. If you want to hear Sturgill Simpson get funky, you should check out A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.

Random Review: A Sailor’s Guide to Earth