Author: Bill Friskics-Warren
Column from web archive November 17, 2008
Rediscovering Bob Martin, for the first time
I’m not sure what prompted me to play Bob Martin’s Midwest Farm Disaster when I came across it while cleaning my office this fall. I knew that I’d never heard of Martin and that I couldn’t remember the promo advance arriving in the mail. It was more than likely, in any case, that I would [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #75 May-June 2008
Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal
I still remember the dreary January afternoon, ten years ago, when Grant showed me the mock-up of the cover of ND #14. It was the day before the magazine was due at the printer and I was helping with some last-minute proofreading. When I saw the words “Alejandro Escovedo: Artist of the decade” splayed to [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #73 Jan-Feb 2008
Shelby Lynne – Songs in the key of Springfield
Other than a hiccup of piano and guitar, all that we hear during the opening bars of Shelby Lynne’s sublimely parched remake of Dusty Springfield’s “Just A Little Lovin’” is the 1-2-3 of the cymbal, set off, every other measure, by a rim shot on the snare. Guitarist Dean Parks and piano player Rob Mathes [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #72 Nov-Dec 2007
Marie Knight – The last mile of the way
In the summer of 1935, the Reverend Gary Davis and two of his Piedmont blues protégés, Blind Boy Fuller and Bull City Red, ventured north from the Carolinas to record for the now-defunct Perfect label in New York City. The session would prove auspicious, yielding sides that are widely regarded as the best of Davis’ [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #72 Nov-Dec 2007
Devendra Banhart – Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
This is more like it. While 2005′s Cripple Crow was cluttered with cameos and was unabashedly indulgent, even by freak-folk standards, Devendra Banhart’s new disc not only coheres, it comes across as a thoroughly envisioned and executed work, maybe even a classic. The cohesion is due in part to the fact that Banhart made the [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #70 July-August 2007
Dynamites Featuring Charles Walker – Kaboom!
“You got to get your own thing, your own thing goin’ on,” exhorts Charles “Wigg” Walker on the outgoing vamp of the second track of the Dynamites’ churning, gutbucket debut. His is worthy advice for any new band, but especially for a deep funk and soul combo whose sonic touchstones are Dyke & the Blazers [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #68 Mar-Apr 2007
Ry Cooder – Working man blues
Ry Cooder has widened our apertures before. Back in the 1970s he introduced many of us to the wondrous likes of Fitz MacLean, Joseph Spence, Washington Phillips, Gabby Pahinui, and Dickey Doo. Later he brought us Indian multi-instrumentalist V.M. Bhatt, Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure, and Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club. As might be expected [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #67 Jan-Feb 2007
Lucinda Williams – Chimes of freedom
Freedom is a look in the eyes, a tone of voice…and it is that flash of freedom that you want to capture.… Freedom is not conferred, nor can it be bought, it is your awareness of life.…It can only be won by transcending the restrictions that are imposed on you by others.… Freedom can be [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #66 Nov-Dec 2006
Mindy Smith – On the inside
A couple of years ago, Jesus crossed over and went pop. It was an unlikely development to say the least. At a time when contemporary Christian music and southern and black gospel were as far outside the cultural mainstream as ever, four very different, theologically fraught singles went to #1 on the popular charts. Both [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #66 Nov-Dec 2006
Libby Johnson – Annabella
This is a wondrous debut, perfect in its modest way. The hooks are unassailable, the singing and playing are felt, the arrangements an autumnal cross between Lucinda-bred Americana and kudzu-style indie rock. Traces of everyone from Liz Phair to Chrissie Hynde, Susan Cowsill to Sheryl Crow, can be heard. But ultimately, Johnson — who previously [...]
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