Turnpike Troubadours. Goodbye Normal Streets. (Thirty Tigers.2012)
An axe is made for chopin’
“All I smell is cheap perfume, and gin and smoke and lies”, are the kind of love lyrics that meet the on-the-run stories delivered by Oklahoma Roots & Rock Turnpike Troubadours. With their brand new album Goodbye Normal Streets you’re in for 11 tracks of old school die hard americana that’s got “liquor on [its] breath, trouble on [its] mind“. This 3rd release sounds as classic as you’d expect countryesque rock to be; the violins embrace the strumming guitars and the sliding while the voice whines and moans without ever going too far. But the real surprise is just how good it gets.
There is natural balance between foot stomping tracks, ballads and what comes in between and the smoky atmosphere really just supports an amazing talent for storytelling. The stories are nothing new, nothing we haven’t heard before. But every word comes with an image, every image is colorful and every shade is vintage, just like the album cover.
Some very good news for the fans just got in from Anti Records announcing a super summer team made of Joe Henry and Lisa Hannigan. The temporary duo will perform across the US and Canada.
Heralded Irish songstress Lisa Hannigan will be teaming up with revered musician and producer Joe Henry for a series of very special live performances this summer. Henry recently produced Hannigan’s acclaimed full length record Passenger as well as his own thirteenth album release Reverie. The artists will perform side by side, with backing by musicians John Smith and Ross Turner in an evening of re-imagination and collaboration, interpreting old songs and rearranging new ones. Tickets for these special performances will go on sale to the public this Saturday May 5th.
Lisa Hannigan continues to receive praise for her second full-length Passenger, which charted #1 in Ireland, and has garnered attention from NPR Music who hails Hannigan’s voice as “gorgeous,” and Rolling Stone who explains “her folksy songs move with deceptive power.” The new album follows her 2008 Mercury Prize nominated debut album Sea Sew that The Los Angeles Times described as “charmingly idiosyncratic,” and which People Magazine called “dreamy.” In addition to her solo work, Hannigan contributed significantly to Damien Rice’s platinum-selling debut O and critically lauded follow-up 9. She also sang with the legendary Herbie Hancock on a rendition of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” for his Imagine Project alongside the Chieftains and Toumani Diabaté. More recently, she contributed vocals on a track for the T-Bone Burnett produced Chieftains album, Voice of Ages.
Joe Henry is a multi Grammy winning producer with credits that include Solomon Burke, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Ani DiFranco, Bettye LaVette, Mose Allison, The Carolina Chocolate Drops and many more. His latest album Reverie is a raw and beautifully evocative album created when Henry and his fellow musicians convened in Henry’s hallowed basement studio for days of joyous sonic exploration.
An Evening with Lisa Hannigan and Joe Henry
June 8 Chicago, IL Park West
June 10 Toronto, ON The Phoenix
June 11 Montreal, QC Corona
June 13 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
June 14-15 New York, NY Highline Ballroom
June 16 Philadelphia, PA Theater of Living Arts
June 17 Washington, DC Sixth & I
June 19 Los Angeles, CA El Rey
June 21 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
June 23 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
June 24 Seattle, WA Tractor
Belle & Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister (Jeepster Recordings. 1996)
“…Time to take a break, when your legs are black and blue, time to take a holiday…”
There are quite a few comments and reviews around the Internet calling this album one of the most boring ever. Well first of all, this is not accurate. Second, there was a clue in the title and on the cover about this not being a summer party release. So why bringing it on the Fox Favorites shelf? Mainly for two songs that supports the whole work like a back bone. It’s not Roots. Nope. But it’s quality folk. In its quietness, If You’re Feeling Sinister is bursting with clever, elegant arrangements and supported by sharp, bitter-sweet lyrics.
The album is actually what it claims to be, a companion for a sombre day that will understand your mood but still gently lift you up with upbeat melodies Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying, distract you with a little storytelling Like Dylan In The Movies, the title track and make your sad mind travel with the gorgeously simple Fox In The Snow.
Stuart Murdoch’s is what it always is, pretty weak, but pretty nice. At least, if you are feeling sinister indeed, the man will not scare you, nor wake you if you finally find inner peace.
Oh so, some call it the most boring album ever. Some call it cult. We’re on that side.
An axe is made for chopin’
![BelleAndSebastian IfYoureFeelingSin 300x300 Belle & Sebastian If Youre Feeling Sinister [Fox Favorites]](http://www.goodmusicfox.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/BelleAndSebastian-IfYoureFeelingSin-300x300.jpg "Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister")