Tag: Pawtuckets

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Music Record Reviews

Andy Grooms, The Glass, and Other Essential Records Enjoy Reissues

Every once in a while, a perfect storm gathers over a band’s rehearsals and recording sessions, and an album emerges that transcends any one person’s vision. Certain elements click, and a minor masterpiece is born, which, in its cohesiveness and consistency of mood and craftsmanship, hangs together as only the best novels or films do.

A good number of these albums slip through the cracks of history. But recently, a handful of them are getting a second look, thanks to the efforts of Small Batch Records. Seattle-based Aaron Rehling started the label on a strong Memphis note in December 2018 with the release of Jeff Hulett’s  LP Around These Parts. The next year, Rehling partnered with Memphis/Austin music stalwart Tim Regan to make Small Batch a subsidiary of Regan’s Austin-based label, Nine Mile Records.

Today, Small Batch releases The Essential Records Collection Volume 1 on Spotify. This collects albums that are, in the label’s words, “truly essential listens. Albums that are absolutely ‘Classic’ in our minds,” all of which, they note, “through some great cosmic mix up, are not in print and/or not available for streaming.”

Two of these, Andy Grooms’ Grateful To Burn (2004) and The Glass’ Concorde (2003), were made in Memphis by Memphians. The other two, Dixie Dirt’s Springtime Is For The Hopeless And Other Ideas (2002) and Dave Quanbury’s In The Meantime Let’s Attend To Our Pleasures (2014), have their provenance in Knoxville and Austin, respectively.

Most Memphians who were around in the early aughts will agree that Grooms’ album is a stone classic. Produced by Kevin Cubbins, Grooms’ former bandmate in the Pawtuckets, the record manages to have a clear sonic identity even as it remains wholly unpredictable.

Part of that is due to the band, starting with the drumming of John Argroves, who somehow manages to be both rock-solid and fluid. Like magma? Most importantly, Argroves leaves space for the other players (Grooms on keys, Jonathan Wires on bass and Clint Wagner on guitar, plus assorted guest players) to create their harmonic textures.

And for the most part, the sound boils down to these players on traditional instruments. While most of the world was going nuts for the bells and whistles of sampled sounds in their mixes of the era, Cubbins wisely lets the players shine, unplugged. Having said that, there are some delectable sonic touches throughout. Spacey guitar graces the blend of acoustic guitar, piano, bass, glockenspiel and thundering drums on the opener, “One Billion Anonymous Poets,” which also ends with subtle, churning synth growl. In a less ethereal way, the warble of tremolo guitar gives the acoustic stomp of “Mary Or Mephisto” some teeth.

Many more sonic flourishes follow, with touches of strings and horns grounding the sound in the traditional territory once mapped out by the Band, yet taking it even further — as with a weird free jazz breakdown in “Constant Reminder” that yields to a poignant jazz trumpet solo. The common factor in nearly all the tunes is Wagner’s sensitive nylon-string guitar, which always seems perched on the listener’s ear.

All in all, this minor masterpiece is a bit of bummer, chronicling the dissolution of Grooms’ marriage, but remains cathartic for all that. And while Grooms is now based in Missouri, turning up in Memphis only occasionally, this record remains as a testament to the brilliant musicianship that has always graced this city.

Also on deck from the Memphis league is The Glass. Argroves’ magic is on display here as well, joined this time by Tommy Pappas on bass, Justin Minus on guitar, and the band’s visionary, Brad Bailey, on vocals and guitar. The overall effect is a more conventional two-guitars/bass/drums sound, but no less finely wrought than Grooms’ album. Here, the greater electric heft is put in the service of even slower jams swirling with chiming ostinatos. A tasteful heaviness-that-swings is brought by Argroves, giving the introspective vibe some forward momentum.

In all, two albums from a bygone era entirely worth celebrating. Revisit them and marvel once again to the power and sensitivity of Memphis players whenever they gather together in a room and make the air move. 

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Music Music Blog

Madjack Records: 20 Years of Homespun Magic

Pawtuckets

In the early ’90s Mark Edgar Stuart, then a college student on an orchestra scholarship, picked up a copy of the Flyer, read an ad, and joined a band. “I was reading the Memphis Flyer one day, and there was an ad in the classifieds, ‘bass player wanted,’” Stuart says. “I never in a million years would I have answered a bass player wanted ad, except it said ‘influences — the Band and Blue Mountain.’” Stuart, who had expected to see a list of cheesy metal bands, says his interest was piqued. The ’90s alt-country movement hadn’t really gotten off the ground yet, but Blue Mountain was making some waves in Oxford — and of course Stuart knew the Band. “I called the number” Stuart says. “I wasn’t even interested in being in a band. It’s just one of those serendipitous things.” Thus began the career of the Pawtuckets, who will reunite after 18 years this Saturday to headline the Madjack Records 20th anniversary concert at Railgarten.

The beginnings of the Pawtuckets are relevant (beyond providing proof of the merits of regularly checking out the Flyer) because the Pawtuckets, and Stuart, are inextricably tied to the history of Madjack Records.

“Around 1998, with our second record, [Rest of Our Days], we decided to start a record label,” Stuart says. “It didn’t really mean much at the time. … It was just a vehicle to put out the Pawtuckets record.” With Stuart on bass and Kevin Cubbins handling guitar and pedal steel duties, the Pawtuckets were helmed by the dual songwriting talents of guitarist Mark McKinney and pianist/guitarist Andy Grooms. Percussion was handled by a rotating cast of drummers. “McKinney had a dog named Madison, and Andy Grooms had a dog named Jackpot,” Stuart remembers. “So we said let’s just name the label Madjack after the two dogs.”

Jamie Harmon

Mark Edgar Stuart

Though Stuart confesses to being more interested, at the time, in playing bass and drinking beer than in business, he says McKinney had bigger ideas and took a more serious interest in Madjack. Before too long, Madjack had signed Cory Branan and Lucero, a band the Pawtuckets often shared bills with. Co-owner Ronny Russell joined the Madjack scene to help McKinney with the business side of things. Says Stuart, “It just sprouted wings after that.”
Joshua Black-Wilkins

Cory Branan

Eventually the Pawtuckets disbanded, but Madjack soldiered on. The label continued to grow and to represent Memphis talent, through the CD boom, after the advent of the downloadable mp3, into the age of online streaming. “We definitely had to evolve,” Russell says. And still Madjack has signed Memphis artists like James and the Ultrasounds, Susan Marshall, and Jana Misener, up to and including Stuart’s recently released third album, Mad at Love, recorded in part at Scott Bomar’s Electraphonic Recording studio in Memphis and in part with Bruce Watson of Fat Possum in Mississippi.

Susan Marshall

 Stuart, who began his Memphis music career playing upright bass in an orchestra pit, has transformed again in the past few years with the growth of an unexpected singer/songwriter career. “I just started the singer/songwriter thing about six years ago,” Stuart says. “Up until that point I was just a bass player. I played for the Pawtuckets and Cory [Branan], Alvin Youngblood Hart, and just whoever needed a bass player,” Stuart says, listing an impressive curriculum vitae. He adds two more Memphis heavy hitters: Jack Oblivian and John Paul Keith.

“If you’d told me 10 years ago I’d be doing what I’m doing now, I would have told you you were crazy,” Stuart says. “Then in about 2011, I got cancer and lost my dad and it just inspired me to try to do something different.” Stuart says he felt like he had something to write about and a more mature viewpoint to bring to his craft. Around this time, with his 2013 debut solo LP, Blues for Lou, Stuart first pinged my radar. I remember hearing “Remote Control” on the radio, and pulling over to the side of the road to listen. I imagine I’m not the only one who’s been so affected by Stuart’s powerful songwriting. Stuart will perform his solo material at the anniversary show in two sets — a full band set and a stripped-down songwriter set — as well as joining Jana Misener and Krista Wroten-Combest and the Pawtuckets on bass. 

James & the Ultrasounds

“I never thought [the Pawtuckets] would get back together, but this seemed like the perfect moment,” Stuart says of the Pawtuckets reunion show set to close out the festivities at the Madjack anniversary shindig Saturday. “We haven’t played together since 2000, and we haven’t played with the original drummer since 1998, so it has been 20 years since we played with the original lineup.” With the Pawtuckets reunion concert and brand-new and soon-to-be-released albums from several of the artists in the Madjack arsenal, the anniversary show should present a mix of old and new sounds from the Memphis label.

Madjack Records celebrates 20 years at Railgarten Saturday, October 20th, at 1 p.m. Free.

Lineup:
Wampus Cats – Outdoor Stage – 1:00 – 2:00p
Jed Zimmerman – Outdoor Stage – 2:00 – 2:45p
Corduroy & the Cottonwoods – Pong Bar – 2:45 – 3:30p
Keith Sykes – Outdoor Stage – 3:00 – 3:45p
Delta Joe Sanders – Pong Bar – 3:45 – 4:30p
Mark Edgar Stuart (solo) – Outdoor Stage – 4:00 – 4:45p
Rob Jungklas – Pong Bar – 4:45 – 5:30p
James & the Ultrasounds – Outdoor Stage – 5:00 – 5:45p
Eric & Andy – Pong Bar – 5:45 – 6:30p
Susan Marshall – Outdoor Stage – 6:00 – 6:45p
TN Boltsmokers – Pong Bar – 6:30 – 7:15p
McKenna Bray – Outdoor Stage – 6:45 – 7:30p
Mark Edgar Stuart (band) – Pong Bar – 7:45 – 8:45p
Jana & Krista of Memphis Dawls – Outdoor Stage – 8:00 – 8:45p
Cory Branan – Outdoor Stage – 9:00 – 10:00p
Pawtuckets – Pong Bar – 10:00 – 11:00p

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Music Music Features

New Records from Memphis’ Madjack

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.