Dead Man's Town - A Tribute to Born In The USA

Homage albums where artists cover a whole release can be a bit hit and miss.

In fact to be blunt about it there are more misses than hits, but every once in a while one is released that doesn't just hit the barn door, but takes it clean of its hinges.

Dead Man’s Town is one of those.

Similar to the limited release from Clubhouse Records that covered Nebraska this is an exercise in simply ‘getting it’.

In understanding that what is really required to pull it off well is that the artists performing the material have to know how to deconstruct the songs, break them down to subatomic level, and then build them back up until they can be worn like a well tailored suit.

The best example from recent years is the much lauded take on Hurt that Johnny Cash released, and each and every song on this album is quality wise up there standing shoulder to shoulder with it.

Everyone involved appears to fundamentally understand that the essence of the material has to be maintained, but the delivery can be their own.

And when that is taken into consideration, and accepted, then the listener can appreciate that at no point at all is there a weak spot on this compilation.

All we have are examples of greatness, and then some tracks that are taken further down the road to reside in magnificence.

It is on this release that the much misconstrued album opener that is Born in the USA is finally wrestled from the hands of the Reaganites and put in the proper context of it not being a tub thumping anthem, but rather a condemnation of how those who lead can so readily abandon those they are supposed to look after.

There is no room for it to be misconstrued as anything other than what it is.

And then, seemingly effortlessly, each and every song that follows it is valiantly rescued from the eighties production that the original had and delivered stripped bare in a style that would sit comfortably as a companion release to Nebraska. 

This is an album that can make you swoon with appreciation.

Right now it’s dark outside. 

As I am writing this the rain is hammering against the windows hard, and to accompany the sound of it is Nicole Atkins singing Dancing in the Dark.

The emotional delivery of the song feels like a punch to the heart.

With the vinyl spinning and the rain assaulting the windows there is a perfect symbiotic balance to the moment. 

Again it is the ability to look deeper into the song and embrace its essence that is the appeal.

And therein probably lies the magic

From start to finish it has to be said that no one involved in this release has misappropriated the source material in any way at all.

Instead they have enhanced it.

Everyone has managed to portray a true reflection, albeit from a different angle.

In addition one listen to this in its entirety also highlights that the listener isn't required to be a fan of the original album, or even Springsteen, to engage with it.

All they need is an open mind and a pair of ears. 

The latter is common, the former maybe not so much, but there are treasures here.

Very rich treasures and it would be a great shame if they were overlooked due to a misconceived idea of what is on offer. 

Label

Bruce Springsteen - High Hopes (First impressions)

I sat Springsteen to the side until today.

It's not like I was sitting baby in the corner.

I just had these conflicting thoughts.

Would it be good?

Would it be cool to have it as the very first thing that I listened to in 2014?

What if I reserved that place for it and my expectations disallowed it to shine?

Anyway, I went with it.

Set myself the challenge of not listening to it and crossed my fingers that all would work out alright.

And guess what?

It did.

High Hopes bursts from the speakers and greets the new year with a smile.

A big wide everything is seriously alright in the word smile.

Bruce is back.

Okay some people questioned that the album is made up of older tracks, and whisper it, that it was probably substandard material that wasn't fit to see the light of day when written and recorded, but this is Springsteen and the pre-release doomsayers will now be sitting at the table eating huge platefuls of humble pie for failing to keep the faith.

The opening, and title track, High Hopes sounds like a clarion call to arms for all the bosses fans and I very much doubt that any of them will fail to respond.

Harry’s place has Clarence lending his lips from beyond the veil and he dominates as Bruce spins a tale a la Tom Waits.

American Skin that should have been on Wrecking Ball is a stand-alone work of Boss genius that while it wouldn't have sat well in the tracking of Wrecking Ball is wearing High Hopes like a comfortable worn out leather
High five to Tom Morello.
The man is on fire on much of this.

As a foil he is working for his paycheck and every cent is well deserved.

Just like fire would stands out as it is rooted in more traditional boss territory and could have featured on anything in the last few decades, but that’s not to say the baton has been dropped.

It’s just that of all the songs it is the one that most recognizably adheres to the template.

Down in the Hole is striking with its clanging heavy industry intro that has a haunting vocal over it just before the lyrics open the song up. When music fans utter the term blue collar it is Springsteens name that jumps into your mind, and on this song he has created a blue collar anthem for the modern age. One that harks back to employment, even though that work may have been tough, and how it spreads out into everyday life. 

The vocal delivery on this is stunning.

Heaven’s Wall sounds like The Stones getting all spiritual in Harlem up until the point that Bruce kicks in. It’s a live anthem in waiting.

Frankie Fell in Love sounds like Little Steven and the Boss rocking out on the stoop while sharing tales of the past. It’s a rollicking good time of a track and features some nice country fiddle.

This is your Sword has the old time evangelical revival feel to it that manages to avoid sounding holier than thou and instead celebrates love in all its glory.

Hunter of Invisible Game is a game changer in a sense as its initial cinematic strains make way for something far more intimate and reveals a pensive homage to childhood. Or maybe it doesn't and that’s just my initial perception. J

The Ghost of Tom Joad and Morello were made for each other, and I think I actually have him performing it on his own somewhere, but this is the icing on the cake, and I fully expect that Tom Morello was breathless with excitement when he was laying down the guitar for this.

The Wall.  Close your eyes and it hits the spot. Haunting.

Dream Baby Dream is as far removed as the Suicide version as you could imagine, but the slow build up and more humane approach to it has lifted the song and gave it wings. Similar to how Johnny Cash took Hurt from NIN and made it his own the Boss has assumed ownership of Dream Baby Dream.

Initial impressions, personal of course, is that this is even better than wrecking ball.

The vinyl is getting ordered now. 

The Temperance Movement/River 68s - Nice and Sleazy - Glasgow (08/05/13)

Wednesday wasn't a good day.

Early in the morning, and without much fanfare, a malignant misanthropic malaise descended on me.

As each minute slipped by it dug its claws deeper into my psyche and embraced me ever tighter to its bosom.

It would be fair to say that by noon I hated everything and everyone.

Even Travis Bickle.

Fuck the rain coming and just washing the scum away.

Let it come and sweep everyone away.

Bring on some biblical sized disaster and be done with it.

Pain can be the catalyst for feelings like that, and I am in pain.

It radiates from my fractured arm, my chipped wrist and ankle, and it throbs across my cracked rib, and I hold it responsible for much of how I felt.

The dull ache has been with me for weeks.

Although it certainly feels longer.

It's a gnawing pain that rarely subsides unless it is being blanked out by a much sharper one.

The secondary pain is one that snatches my breath away, brings tears to my eyes, and is akin to what I imagine holding a naked flame to a raw and exposed nerve ending would feel like.

I'm sick of it.

So sick of it that I thought twice, and then a third time, about just giving the trip to Glasgow to see The Temperance Movement and the River 68s a miss, but a part of me knew that I would regret it.

As William Congreve said 'Music has charms to soothe a savage beast, to soften rock, or bend a knotted oak' and if you swapped savage beast for my emotional well being, rock for bone and knotted oak for muscle then good music was probably exactly what I needed.

That was my focus.

To just tune everything around me out, and stand alone and let the music wash over me.

Let it smooth away every sharp edged stabbing pain and soothe me.

I knew it would be a gamble though.

Not every show can carry deliver, but I decided that the options where to allow myself to continue to hate everyone, or try and find my way back to some semblance of balance.

The River 68s were a good therapeutic start.

Unfortunately I had short changed myself by turning up just in time to catch the end of their set.

Having seen them before I am well aware of how good they can be, and from the plaudits being voiced around me it was obvious I had missed a great performance.

The sound as I walked into the cave that is Nice and Sleazy's was the best I have ever heard in the venue, and Craig McCabes vocals were coming through not just loudly, but with perfect clarity.

Things have went a bit quiet of late in the River 68 camp, but that is going to change.

Take my word on it.

The next year is going to see them kick some doors in.

The buzz that surrounds The Temperance Movement right now is just waiting to be passed over to The River 68s.

A solid debut album will ensure that they draw attention to themselves that could lead to pretty much anything.

Nothing is quiet in The Temperance Movement camp right now though.

With dates in venues to small to hold them creating a bit of a frenzy for tickets, and a forthcoming appearance on the bill with Bruce Springsteen, The Black Crowes and Alabama Shakes at the Hard Rock Calling festival in London, the band are currently on the cusp of reaping the rewards that they have been working hard towards achieving.

Is it all a case of the Emperors new clothes though?

All talk and no walk?

The answer is not at all.

Everything I wanted was there for me to take.

I stood near the front and felt the hairs rise on my neck.

I closed my eyes and the music held me, and it did in fact incrementally make me feel better and better.

It was as if I had created a small bubble for myself to exist in and my only connection with the world outside was the music of The Temperance Movement, and do you know what?

It's all that was needed.

The savage beast was soothed and the muscles in my neck lost their tension.

My loathing for humanity took a back seat and I felt a nudge of positivity for the first time that day.

As the night progressed the set went from being good, to great, to then reaching, and attaining that magical moment that goes beyond it just being another show.

I've spoken about it before.

That shared communal experience that sits outside what is normally expected.

When they turned off the pa and did an acoustic version of a forthcoming album track called Chinese Lanterns they struck a chord with the audience that will lead to those who witnessed the show to be able to say in years to come that they were there.

Nothing more will be needed to be said.

'I was there' will convey it all.

What they created in that moment can't be repeated on a stadium stage, and it will only rarely be created in small venues.

That's because everything has to fall in place at the right moment.

It's when metaphorically speaking the stars align.

Drop some unknown quantity from the equation and it can't have the electricity of life breathed into it.

For me this was to touch aural nirvana.

A small glimpse at something that is mainly indescribable because it goes beyond being conveyed in a review.

It has to be experienced as anything other than being there in the moment will just be a facsimile that lacks all the shading and passion that the original has.

If the live experience is the original painting then the description of it is just the paint by numbers version being regurgitated in a cack handed manner.

Bottom line is that The Temperance Movement probably stopped me from setting fire to the world and watching you all burn.

And they didn't even know it.

http://www.thetemperancemovement.com/      http://www.theriver68s.com/

The Nebraska Sessions - a tribute

Thirty years ago Bruce Springsteen took a fork in the road that led him to release the the darkly sparse Nebraska.

An album that to this day still manages to split the opinions of fans young and old.

For some it was their introduction to the man and his music.

For others it's the album that cemented their love of 'the boss', and then there were, are, and always will be, those who struggle with how their hero had dispensed with the blue collar bombast of the Born to Run era and embraced a more simplistic and direct style of story telling.

Yet regardless of the myriad of opinion that the album lends itself to, it is without a shadow of a doubt an album that has inspired.

So much so that earlier this year Clubhouse records arranged for the artists that are on their roster to play a one off live show paying tribute to all the songs recorded by Bruce on his little four track.

As part of this live treat the acts all recorded and filmed their chosen songs and a short run of CDs were created to be distributed at the actual live show.

When I initially became aware of the event, and had immersed myself in the youtube footage of the artists performances of the material, my elation at hearing such wonderfully personal interpretations of the songs was tempered with a degree of disappointment as I wouldn't be able to attend the gig, and therefore it was unlikely that I would be able to grab myself a CD.

Thankfully my disappointment was rather short lived when the label announced that there was a very limited over run of the CDs and those that were left could be purchased from them.

Obviously minutes after being made aware of this my finger was hovering over the paypal link and days later I was sliding the CD from its very nicely packaged envelope and letting myself drift off to the strains of a collection of superb musicians paying homage to an iconic star.

It would be unfair of me to try and focus on high points or low points as the songs are all equally superb, and after repeated spins I have yet to hear one singular moment that detracts from the whole.

Springsteen fans will of course be the harshest critics of the material, but I sincerely doubt that even his most staunchest and hyper critical fan will find anything on this to complain about.

As an addition to their record collection filed under miscellaneous material this is a gold star release.

Acts represented - Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou, The Dreaming Spires, Danny George Wilson, The Cedars, Case Hardin, The Redlands Palomino Company (whose album I bought on the strength of their Mansion on the hill cover), The Hi and Lo, Mad Staring Eyes, The Arlenes and Michele Stodart.  

Buy it here (but be quick)  

Nebraska Sessions footage.

Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

When Bruce Springsteen gets angry on 'Wrecking Ball' he sounds like a tightly coiled force of nature.
There's no lashing out in blind rage at the perceived injustices that have been visited upon the people of the US - and the rest of the world - from the businesses, bankers and political parties, just an incisive passionate and laser sharp denouncement of them.
However 'Wrecking Ball' isn't actually all about rage as some broadsheets have claimed.
Instead, writ large throughout, is an appeal for people to think and insist that we take a more humane direction when we reach the looming fork in the road.
It's not even a message that's being pushed down throats, although it is impassioned from start to finish, but instead a finger being pointed at the writing on the wall, and a request to just think about it........and then speak out, but mainly to think about the world around us and how we got to this stage of economic failure, and how the light of hope is being extinguished for so many.
It's a plea for us all to pull back from the brink.
When he sings on the opening track 'we take care of our own' it sounds completely heartfelt and without any sort of artifice.
It sucks you straight in and holds you close to its breast.
There's blood pumping through its veins and you can feel the truth in his words.
You can hear it roaring in your ears.
Not just hear the truth. But feel it.
This is the magic that Springsteen weaves and it's all on display on the very first strong.
His cards are on the table
Straight out of the gate and he has you.
He's the worlds blue collar every-man making a solid connection.
A chronicler of a wide and inclusive journey through life.
Equally at home singing about the bitter-sweet loss of a first love as he his tipping at the windmills and issuing a challenge to corporations to accept responsibility for the welfare of those they employ.
Now in 2012, and who would have thought it, but here he is with 'Wrecking Ball' an album that doesn't stumble once.
This is his album where he delivers everything that his fans have ever wished for.
There's elements of Darkness on the Edge of Town mixed with his Seeger Sessions. Some Born to Run and Nebraska. Even hints of Born in the USA paired with Working on a Dream.
Regardless of what era of 'The Boss' punches your buttons you will find it represented here, and none of it sounds as if it has been shoehorned in to entertain the masses.
It's simply just a hugely sprawling, and organic sounding, work of genius.
The point in his career when the cumulative experiences of a lifetime entertaining people around the world has allowed him to create an album that will strike a chord with people from all walks of life.
Just as others, who some would consider Springsteen's peers, are running out of ideas and falling short of being relevant to modern audiences he has taken it all to yet another level.
Vive le Boss.

There aint no Sanity Clause. Part 1 (Springsteen)

(Or what I got for Chrimbo)

Not so much reviews, but instead rambling comments

Bruce Springsteen - The Promise (CD)
There's an era of Springsteen material that I completely get.
When I listen to it I feel emotionally connected.
I don't have to come from the United States, or even specifically New Jersey, to feel what he is conveying.
Those who bemoan his penchant for chronicling a time and place that is immersed in an America that apparently only exists in his mind, an America of Mom and Pop stores, ice cream sundaes and large cars with fins, don't seem to hear what I do.
For me the geographical location is of secondary importance and the reflective prose is everything.
His words are often those of the white lines disappearing in the rear view mirror.
The places we have been, the people we have met, the experiences that we shared that made us who we are and who we wish to be.
It's all there.
Springsteen appears to effortlessly understand that as we move forward in our lives there is equally as much we want to hang onto as we wish to freely relinquish and he has the ability to put all of this into words and music that touches people.
Deeply touches them.
We want to hang onto our youth, our first loves, our endless summers and the friendships we thought would never fade, and there's very few people who can manage to get that across while at the same time maintaining a sense of hope for the coming dawn, but 'The Boss' can.
I can't really think of anything better right now than sitting in the dark with headphones on and allowing Bruce to fill my head with his words and music.
(The Promise is a double CD of material culled from the sessions that were being laid down prior to 'Darkness at the Edge if Town' being released)