​The Nighthawks, Washington, DC's ambassadors of the blues prove once again that there is at least one group in the capitol city that knows how to get the job done.  

Armed with a dirty dozen tracks that display their stylistic versatility while emphasizing their blues roots, Mark Wenner and company are clearly having a ball on All You Gotta Do.

The band starts off in fifth gear covering Jerry Reed on "That's All You Gotta Do." Wenner's wailing harp drives the song rolling on top of the rumbling drum work of Mark Stutso. The tune is guaranteed to get an audience on their feet and shaking their tail feathers. 

This is followed by the roots/blues/gospel tune "When I Go Away." penned by Levon Helm collaborator Larry Campbell. Recorded by The Dixie Hummingbirds on Diamond Jubilation, and by Helm on Electric Dirt, the song stares death in the face and finds a faith that overcomes the graveyard.

The band's Chicago blues roots are on display with a fine cover of Willie Dixon's "Baby, I Want to Be Loved." The performance is down and dirty, the ribald harp work emphasizing the depths of desire. Bassist Johnny Castle turns in a fine vocal on "Another Day." Written by Castle, the song is an indictment of a government that has turned its back on the people it was meant to serve. Mark Stutso provides a tale of bad love turned revenge with "VooDoo Doll." 

The playing, as expected, is first rate and the album is a blast from start to finish. As the liner notes say, "EVERYBODY SINGS," and it is evident that The Nighthawks could teach Congress a thing or two about collaboration and cooperation.

​The Steel Wheels just dropped the best album of their career. Trent Wagler, Eric Brubaker, Brian Dickel and Jay Lapp have a lot of reasons to be proud. Their new release, Wild as We Came Here, has the boys from the Blue Ridge out on the road, giving some of the most stirring performances of their career. The Wheels deliver ten singularly brilliant songs that form a cohesive document of life in western Virginia. Subjects as diverse as environmental activism and religious oppression are all firmly rooted in a mural of rural life. At their core these stories are connected to the natural, tangible world, and as such, their struggles take on an epic, spiritual dimension, one that we immediately identify with.
That epic spiritual dilemma is rooted in the distance that stretches between what we hope for and what we settle for in this life. The vehicle that moves us along that terrain, and grounds us in the physical world, is the clean sound of acoustic strings set against a backdrop of gorgeous vocal harmonies. This is music made by people, not machines; hands of flesh and bone coaxing magic from instruments made of wood.

Eric Bibb is back with a boatload of new blues. Though he was never really gone, as John Cephas once said of him, Bibb is right on time. He has an uncanny knack for being both timely and timeless, not by following the headlines, but by keeping his eye on the ball. When the culture is often obsessed with left vs. right firebombs, and with the straw men of one-sided stacked-deck debates that treat people as bowling pins to be knocked down, Bibb stays the course. He does so by refusing to be moved from the civil rights values of his upbringing. His co-conspirators on this new outing are string wizard Michael Jerome Browne, and harp master JJ Milteau.

Which brings us to Migration Blues, Bibb’s new album. Fifteen tracks steeped in the traditions of the pre-war blues elders that Bibb honors, even as he brings their legacy to bear on our current times. Today’s struggle may appear different on the surface, but at its core it is still the story of people yearning to be respected and allowed to live in peace.  

Natalie Hemby paints a loving tribute to her grandfather, and in the process, creates ​Puxico, the first great record of 2017.

Puxico, the debut album of much-lauded songwriter Natalie Hemby, is love letter to a man and a place.  George Hemby is the man, and Puxico, Missouri is the place. On her first solo album, Hemby spotlights her considerable talent for storytelling, spinning tales of remarkable people and places of the heart.

​If you haven’t heard Cary Morin, you need to. Morin will release his fourth solo cd, Cradle to the Grave on January 13th. The eleven track album features some of the finest acoustic guitar picking you’ll hear anywhere. Boasting eight solid original tunes, Morin shows off his songwriting chops as well as his guitar wizardry. And it doesn’t hurt that he has a fine singing voice as well.
Morin sometimes gets classified as acoustic blues, but he is so much more than that. A superb fingerstyle guitarist, Morin is a troubadour of the first order. In addition to the originals on this album, there are three fine covers, including an excellent acoustic take on Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Morin, with his earthy, world-weary voice, is able to express a full range of emotion, anchoring his concerns with a steady bass line and fluid jazzy fretwork. If you are a fan of acoustic guitar picking, this album is a must-have.
The second track on the record, “Laid Back” features some nimble finger work and manages to be quite lively, no matter what the title might suggest. The song is about the joy of fishing and laying in the shade. The toe tapping melody appreciates the simple enjoyments of a life lived close to nature. This theme recurs on the next cut, “Dawn’s Early Light.”
The ballad, “Dawn’s Early Light” is a show of support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Although Morin does not see himself as a protest singer, his native Crow heritage lends depth to a heartfelt vocal delivery. In the song, Morin appeals to the listener with simple human common sense, as opposed to vitriol and rhetoric. “I have always felt that the honoring of a treaty, no matter when it was made, is not a complex idea. History has proved this not to be the case, but I hope this time it is.”
“Mishawaka” is a lovely song about leaving.  Morin draws the listener in as he wraps his warm voice around the nuanced, emotive guitar playing. The sense of impending change, and the finality of the decision, are carried on the tenderness in the melody. And yet, Morin avoids treacly sentiment as he says goodbye to his friends. Lyrically it is focused on the farewell, little is said about his destination. For my part, I want to take the journey with him.
Cary Morin has performed and recorded for over twenty years and co-authored Turtle Island, a production that ran for a couple of years in Colorado. This latest album is the third in a trilogy meant to spotlight his growth as a songwriter and guitarist. He is also a member of the Young Ancients, a trio with Steve Amedee and John Magnie of the Subdudes.The guitar playing on this album is elegant, and simple in it's beauty. And while what he is doing might be complex, he seems to toss it off effortlessly, as if anyone could play this well.
Cradle to the Grave has found its way into near constant rotation in my cd player, it’s just that good. It seems only right that Americana music should take note of this Native Americana artist. I predict that by the end of 2017, when everyone is mentioning the top releases of the year, Morin’s name will be in there with the best of them.

Big Dave McLean is back and sounding as cranky as ever, and that’s a good thing. McLean’s new release Better the Devil You Know is produced by fellow Canadian and string wizard, Steve Dawson. This album is McLean’s second for Black Hen Music, Dawson’s label, and reunites him with the same players who made the last album, Faded but Not Gone, such a treat for the ears.
McLean never sounds better than when he’s grousing about something, and there is plenty to like here. The thirteen tracks consist of five new McLean originals, as well as covers of Muddy Waters, and Jonathan Parker Millsap.
Big Dave starts the album off with “Life on the Road,” an ode to making a living playing gigs. As the song rumbles along on the rhythm section of Gary Craig and Jon Dymond, McLean tells the listener “I’m living out the dream, or so it would seem.” The hint of sarcasm in the lyric is born out in McLean’s gruff delivery. You get the distinct impression McLean sings with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Kevin McKendree lights up the second track, the Muddy Water’s chestnut, “You Can’t Lose What You Never Had.” McKendree’s piano solo is playful and bawdy all at once, and offsets the tale of loss with a measure of subtlety. McLean’s vocal is convincing and appropriately dour, as if the sting was still fresh.
Steve Dawson’s production is deft and a perfect fit for McLean. Dawson’s fretwork on eight different instruments fleshes out the material. He has just the right touch for each song, and varies the arrangements so as to showcase each performance in its own light. McLean returns the favor, covering two Dawson compositions, the best of which is the tragic blues, “Angeline.”
One of the best songs on the album features the strong backing of the McCrary Sisters, on the traditional number “You’ll Need Somebody on Your Bond.” Riding on a shuffle beat, McLean and the McCrarys toss caution to the wind and dive into the song headfirst, with a zeal that results in simple, giddy fun. Fats Kaplan’s delirious Arkansas fiddle pushes the whole thing over the top. This is the kind of track that the repeat button was made for.
The sin and salvation theme resurfaces several times on the record and McLean is our favorite sinner turned struggling saint. You can imagine him playing these songs with a wink in his eye and a sly grin on his face. His vocal performance is full tilt boogie. The man sounds like an ice truck with a busted axle; his voice is glorious to behold. Grab a beer, and settle in with Better The Devil You Know; you’re in for a great time.

Not many groups get this far. Fewer make it and still sound as good, or as vital, as they did in the early days. But the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band aren’t crossing the finish line, they are just passing a mile marker, and the road ahead of them is still wide open. Case in point, their latest release, Circlin’ Back. This cd/dvd combo commemorates a special night in the fall of 2015 when the Dirt Band gathered some close friends and musical heroes together to celebrate. The party was held, fittingly, at the Ryman Auditorium, and paid tribute to the band and highlighted each phase of their half century career. Judging from the evidence provided on Circlin’ Back, it was a damn good time.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band started in 1966, a bunch of young bucks with a love for jug band music. Their first album contained a bona fide hit, “Buy for Me the Rain.” But it wasn’t until Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy, and “Mr. Bojangles,” that the band was catapulted into the catbird seat. The eclectic mix of folk, rock, country and stone bluegrass seemed prophetic, as all the future iterations of their career were there in seed form. On Uncle Charlie, it was as if the band imprinted their DNA on vinyl. And just as “Mr. Bojangles” was riding the airwaves the band took a sharp left turn, leaving LA for Nashville to make a hillbilly record.

Looking back, it was the right choice at the right moment. By phone from his Nashville home, Jeff Hanna said he wondered if it was the smart thing to do. “Our manager was Bill McEuen, John’s brother. Bill said, ‘Trust me. You’ll thank me later.’ So, I said I was willing to follow his lead. It wasn’t hard to get us to sign on. I mean, come on, getting to hang out with Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Merle Travis?”

The rest is, as they say, musical history, and produced a record that crossed genres and generations at a time when America was, as it is now, divided. Now celebrating fifty years as a recording and touring unit, the Dirt Band has a history that connects the varied streams of Americana into a unified river of song. Except back then Americana was known simply as “country rock.”

The group has moved so easily between genre labels that it seems effortless, and unique in one perspective. Most bands would have been called sell outs at some point along the way, but at each bend in that river of song, the turn was so gentle and genuine that it couldn’t be seen as anything but natural. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band showed us all how the threads tied together to make a whole cloth of the great American song book.

Jeff Hanna, Jimmie Fadden, John McEuen, and Bob Carpenter have been together so long that they function as a well-oiled unit, without ever sounding as if they are dated or mailing it in. Hanna and Fadden were there in the beginning when Jackson Browne was briefly a member. When Browne left after a few months McEuen joined. Carpenter has been in the band since the late 70s. When they take to the stage, they hum like a finely tuned engine. Fast forward to the Ryman and 2015.

The evening’s guest list was long and appropriately star-studded, featuring John Prine, Jackson Browne, Rodney Crowell, Alison Krauss, Jerry Jeff Walker, Vince Gill, Sam Bush, Byron House and Jerry Douglas. A special appearance by former member Jimmy Ibbotson was greeted with a standing ovation. Jackson Browne features on two tracks, “These Days,” written around the brief time he was in the band, and “Truthful Parson Brown,” a jug band tune they used to play in the early days.

The whole event kicks off with a rollicking cover of Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Going Nowhere.” The joyful rendition sets the tone for the evening. From there the night spirals upward, as each guest honors their connection to, and their place in the history of, the NGDB.

John Prine is up first, for two tracks, “Grandpa Was a Carpenter,” and “Paradise.” His presence, now as an elder statesman of sorts, was enthusiastically received by the Ryman audience. It sets high expectations for the night’s other guests, which they each in turn meet. On two tracks Alison Krauss once again reminds us that her other worldly voice might just foreshadow the sound of an angelic host.

And what of Jerry Jeff Walker? The author of the Dirt Band’s signature tune seemed right at home, leading off “Mr. Bojangles” solo, until midway through when the rest of the band joins in. “The hand-off was Jerry Jeff’s idea,” said Hanna. Before the song is done Hanna has handed the chorus off to the crowd, which is all too happy to take up the vocal duties. One wonders how gratifying it must be to hear an audience sing your own words back to you

When it seemed as if things could get no better, Hanna took to the mic to introduce the next guest, a member who had been in the group for decades. The audience already knew who he was referring to, and when Jimmy Ibbotson walked out on stage they rose to their feet in appreciation. Ibby responded with a spirited performance of one of their biggest hits,  “Fishin’ in the Dark.” But the best of all was a gorgeous arrangement of “Ripplin’ Waters.” Originally appearing on the 1975 release Symphonium Dream, the song has long been a fan favorite. “Ripplin’ Waters” is not on the cd version of Circlin’ Back, but is on the dvd.
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By the time the night comes to an end everyone knows what the final song will be. “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” is the perfect coda to a night of rich roots music, and the rafters of the Ryman resounded with the praises of performers and ticket holders alike, raising their voices in the hope promised in the lyrics. It was as sweet a choir as one could ask for.
 
This special cd/dvd release is an Amazon exclusive, and priced under $15.00 is an absolute steal. It is also a perfect gift for the Christmas season.