Ranking Strangers

Blah, blah, blah. Where the hell have I been? Erm..the dog ate my fingers?

I'll blame it on a month-long St. Patrick's Day celebration, starting with the startling good Pogues show, where Shane was even in good form. Sort of. You know, for him. I used to make fun of folks who would go to "reunion" shows by the Eagles or whatnot. It occurred to me, as I was clutching my pint, hollering with the rest of the ruddy faced louts for the Pogues to come on, that I was suddenly attending one of those reunion shows I had snarkily dismissed in the past. I'm officially old now. I've always been cranky, but now I've got the age to show it. Granted, the Eagles are shit and partly responsible for the death of music, and the Pogues are godhead, so I don't feel too bad. And I'm not a biased, opinionated bastard at all, either.

Where was I?

The Top 100 Drinking Songs list is still underway. Some of y'all got me some good suggestions recently. I know I promised it by last last weekend, but...well, if you've visited here at all, you know how these things go. Within the next month it'll be up. Don't blame the judges/panelists. It's all me. To whet your appetite, and to give a preview of where this will all go, check out this. We've got big plans for that link. More later.

Where was I again?

I don't cover much Bluegrass round these parts. Dunno why, exactly. 'Spect it's just because it's covered more in a more in depth manner elsewhere. But I got a keen little box set, The Stanley Brothers: The Definitive Collection, sent to me recently that reminded me how swell The Stanley Brothers were.

The Stanley Brothers are Ralph and Carter. Ralph Stanley you're probably familiar with, via his continued great work with contemporary Country artists under the moniker of Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys (sorry about that picture). Carter died way too young in the mid-60's at the age of 41. Contemporaries to Flatt and Scruggs and Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers did not achieve quite the renown as those two other groups initially, but time has been kind to the Brothers. The timeless themes and breathtaking, breakneck musicianship of their songs have translated well over the years, enabling a revival of sorts, from Telluride to Chicago.

I've often thought of Bluegrass as music for movement. One envisions the plunking, whirling instruments transporting one through lofty, smokey mountains into deep valleys, moral allusions intact. I can hear Bluegrass through the hum of a motor, gazing from a window as the terrain passes by. What The Stanley Brothers achieve is a stillness within the movement, a tranquility of place in motion. One feels at once earthbound and transported, rooted and moving.

Of course, as in all Bluegrass, you get a little God vs. the Devil.

And, naturally, they weren't above a hoe-down either.

The Stanley Brothers: The Girl Behind The Bar (mp3)

The Stanley Brothers: Blue Moon Of Kentucky (mp3)

The Stanley Brothers: How Mountain Girls Can Love (mp3)

The Stanley Brothers: Rank Stranger (mp3)

Please support your local, independent record stores.

Hey Porter

Big things afoot here at the Mountain. I'm full of unkept promises, but this one is coming to pass, and I think y'all will be right pleased. Really. Keep your eyes peeled over the next month or so. If you're a particularly snoopy individual, you can probably figger out where we're headed.

And, in a, ahem, completely and utterly unrelated note, our panel of special guest judges are busily poring through piles of wax to help me bring you the official Big Rock Candy Mountain Top 100 Drinking Songs of All Time. You're gonna want to get on your knees in humble praise to these folks when all is said and done, and shower them with gifts and hosannas.

Now then.

What to do with Porter Wagoner?

These days Wagoner's probably best known as the funny looking skinny guy that gave Dolly Parton her big break on his long running tv show. Some would suggest he was also responsible for attempting to hog-tie Ms. Parton to his show in lieu of allowing her to find success outside of said show, and the narrow boundaries. I couldn't really speak to that, and I'd say Ms. Parton has done all right for herself over the years.

Wagoner was also a mainstay at the Grand Ole Opry for years and years and years.

Wagoner has also produced some dreadful records. Sappy, unlistenable countrypolitan and a slew of country gospel albums better left to AM radio, where at least the hiss and crackle adds an otherworldly feel to the proceedings.

So why should you give a rat's ass about Porter Wagoner? Well he also made some super swell "hard" county albums in his day. Wagoner had a knack for tales about losers, alcoholics, cheaters, and the insane. No, really, the insane. See below for "Rubber Room", one of the shining testaments in recorded history for the mentally unstable. Performing in his Nudie suit, Wagoner takes these songs to a strange juxtaposed place, where the glitz of appearnce belie the desparation of the subject matter.

This post, believe it or not, is meant to be a recommendation for Wagoner.

Check out some of Porter Wagoner's older sides or collections. Some of which are only on vinyl, but "Rubber Room: The Haunting Poetic Songs of Porter Wagoner 1966-1977" , released last year, is a great place to start. Wagoner has a new album coming out this Spring, on Anti, produced by Marty Stuart. I'm ingrigued.

"The Rubber Room" is completely mad.

"Misery Loves Company" is a great drinking song, one you might see later here at this site.

The Dolly Parton/Porter Wagoner duet below is...well...it's an interesting song that could've been better served with slightly different instrumentation and production, but lyrically it's pretty nifty. And it's Dolly. Who doesn't love Dolly?

Porter Wagoner: The Rubber Room (mp3)

Porter Wagoner: Misery Loves Company (mp3)

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton: Better Move It On Home (mp3)

Please support your local, independent cable access television shows.

Daddy-O

In case you're wondering, The Mountain did indeed manage to score tickets to both nights of the Pogues here in Chicago. Yay me. Tom Waits and the Pogues in less than a year. I can die a happy man. Though why they want to spend yet another St. Patrick's Day in New York is beyond me. Bastards. Hey, if you're gonna be in Chicago for their two night stand, let me know.


Anyway.


If you like your rawk a little trashy, a little rockin' bones, a little punky, a little snotty, and you think Esquerita and Charlie Feathers (or Benny Joy, according to them) are the true kings of rock'n'roll, then the fantabulous A-Bones are the band for you.


The A-Bones were formed by Billy Miller and Miriam Linna, who went on to start the Norton Records label, which if you're familiar with the label, should tell you just about all you need to know about the band.


In the words of Johnny Carson, it's Wild Stuff. Eschewing anything resembling pop production, the A-Bones make a noise in keeping with pre-Elvis rock'n'roll. It's nasty, beer-guzzled slop, raw and raucous, the kind of music for a shag or stag party. Mixing surf, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and straight up trash can aesthetic, the A-Bones pay tribute to all that was good in the vinyl world before Pat Boone came along. Feeding a skronking sax, tribal sexbeat drumming, two distorted chords and a half truth through a funnel of devil doesn't care shared vocals, The A-Bones will, like, move you, man. Dance, girl, dance.



The world needs more bands like this. Unfortunately, the A-Bones are no longer together, in the strictest sense of the word. Alas. Come back, A-Bones, all is forgiven. Instead we're stuck with pretenders like the White Strokes, or sumsuch. Fortunately Miller and Linna are feeding the need at Norton, with some ace reissues of their A-Bones material, and a catalog of other rock'n'trash classics.


Yummy.


The A-Bones: The World's Greatest Sinner (mp3)


The A-Bones: Satellite Dish (mp3)


The A-Bones: A-Bomb Stomp (mp3)


Please support your local, independent sock hop and drag strip.

Swing High, Lonesome

Once again, thanks for all your drinking suggestions. I'm overwhelmed, but in a very good way. I'll be taking submissions until the bitter(s) end, so keep 'em coming if you've got 'em. The panel of judges is selected, including a very special guest, so thanks to all those who volunteered.

Now.

It's the other Tex.


Tex Williams was probably best known for the classic "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette", written with (by?) Merle Travis, and featuring the rather retrospectively interesting lyric "It ain't cuz I don't smoke myself/And I don't reckon that it'll harm your health/Smoked all my life and I ain't dead yet." He can also be spotted in the occasional singing cowboy of the time.

Like his better-known contemporary, Bob Wills, Williams was a pioneer in the Western Swing tradition, melding a traditional and pedestrian style of localized popular music with a more "dance" and "citified" one. Fiddles gone crazy.

Williams' style was more conversational than Wills, and this may have led folks to dismiss him, in retrospect, as more of a novelty act than a serious purveyor of the origins of Western Swing. Which is too bad, because Williams is a hoot. And he's no slouch when it comes to getting bodies on the dance floor.

It's common, of course, to focus on the legends, such as Mr. Wills, and forget about the fringes that circled and helped influence the larger stars.

None of which is to lessen Williams' impact or talent. He's damn good, and worthy of the attention of any lover of Western Swing, or just great party music.

"That's What I Like About The West" is a swell response to "That's What I Like About the South".

Swing your partner.

Tex Williams: That's What I Like About the West (mp3)

Tex Williams: Western Jamboree (mp3)

Tex Williams: I Got Texas In My Soul (mp3)

Please support your local Swingers Club. Erm....

Hardscrabble Lonesome

I spend way too much time bitching about the current state of Country Music. And I spend too much time bitching about the fact that I'm bitching about the current state of Country music. Might be a good idea for me to just sit back and enjoy the good shit that's out there. And there are some mighty tasty platters spinning on the modern hi-fi.

Willie Heath Neal often gets compared to Hank Williams III, having more to do with their relative youthfulness and a tendency towards, ahem, wayward rebelliousness, than in actual style. On earlier albums, Neal did display the tendency towards the sort of self-referential shit-kicker vibe that Williams has perfected, for better or worse, but one always got the sense that Neal traded more in respect for the form than in lineage.

With his latest album, Lonesome, on Chicken Ranch Records, Neal drops any alt/cowpunk leanings and delivers a hell of a set of barroom ballads. Yeah, I said ballads...wait, come back...it's not what you think. We aint talkin' no pansy-ass metal balladry or vile Michael Bolton shite. Great Country has always been about the slow burning examination of where did I go wrong, how did I fuck up so badly, and what can I drink to make it better? It's the bread and butter of the genre. It's also a focus on great songwriting, and Neal steps to the plate, compiling a string of lost love and missed opportunity under the strobe of blinking neon lights. He shows himself as a songwriter, and a damn good one. I'd recommend checking out Neal's other albums. They're teetering, whiskey-fuelled honky stompers, and a hell of a lot of fun. But it's Lonesome that shows Neal growing up, and finding a voice that pushes him toward greatness. 'Least so far as we're concerned. But what the hell do I know?

I've rambled on about James Hand at length, and, frankly, it probably hasn't been enough. Leastways, not 'til I see him on the cover of every damn magazine on the planet. With Willie Heath Neal, we've got a younger version. Neal's not at Hand's level yet, but he's on his way, and I'd give a lung to see the two tour together.

Willie Heath Neal: Broken Hearted Beauty Queen (mp3)

Willie Heath Neal: She's Gone (mp3)

Keep sending those drinking songs!

Support your local House of Imbibing!

All My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers

Good lord a-mighty! I think I've got the best readers in the world! I asked for help and all y'all came through. Keep the suggestions coming, as I'm adding every one to a big-ass old list, from which to whittle down. And it's official, the final list is going to be The 100 Greatest Drinking Songs. 50 was just too small a number. If you don't know what I'm talking about, scroll down to the previous post.

Thank you, each and every inebriated one of you, from the bottom of my pickled liver.

If you've sent me an email, please be patient, as I plan to respond to each one of you. And to those who sent me tunes, I bow in humble appreciation.

And in case you're wondering, it appears as if George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Wynonie Harris are topping the percentage of suggestions. Probably not a big surprise there. I'm also pleased with the folk who threw up (heh) some Rap and Metal/Hard Rock (whatever that is) suggestions. I had egregiously forgotten about Gin and Juice (both the Snoop and dead-on Gourds versions), for example.

One final request, and then I'll leave you alone. I'm looking for a panel of judges. I've got a couple of folks lined up already, but I'd like to have 2-3 more. It won't take too much of your time. I just want to ensure that this list is not simply a reflection of what I like, but a true(ish) consensus of what constitutes a great drinking song. If you're up for a little arguing, discussing, dissing, and a smidge of critical hoo haw, then email me why you should be on the panel. You'll get full credit as a judge, and a special gift from the Mountain for your effort. My email is jukejoint@gmail.com. Let's show those hoity toity magazines with their big important lists what us real folks can do (Sorry, I just watched an episode of My Name Is Earl). To add more fuel to your fire, I've already decided what Number 1 is going to be. Wanna prove me wrong?

Next week I'm gonna return to normal, posting about artists I think are really keen, with a post about a feller who might give my boy James Hand a run for his money.

But for now, here's a couple more tunes to whet your appetite, and help you through the long weekend.

Papa Lightfoot: Wine, Women, and Whiskey (mp3)

Laverne Ray: Drunk, That's All (mp3)

Keep those suggestions coming.

Booze Party!

Ok.


Here's the deal. The Mountain is about to start a project, and we need your help. Yes, you, there in the corner with the half-empty can of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. We're making a list of the Greatest Drinking Songs Of All Time. Not sure yet if it's going to be numbered at 50 or 100, and here's where you come in. I want your suggestions. Any list of drinking songs is going to be heavy on Country and Blues, which I've got a decent grip on, but there's a good chance I'll forget a few if left to my own inebriated devices, and, of course, great drinking songs are not limited the above genres, The Replacements, The Pogues, and Tom Waits.


So help me out here. What are your favorite drinking songs? What tunes help you raise that last glass at the end of the night, or the first crack of dawn? What songs can you sing at the top of your voice, never missing a lyric, while sloshed out of your mother-lovin' brains? What puts a tear in your beer?


Here's some suggestions:


-The songs should be something that more than two people know. Your buddy's garage band demo does not qualify.
-The songs shouldn't be merely songs that make you want to drink, such as anything by Jessica Simpson or her stupid sister. Drinking should be an integral part of the song.
-Give me something that I might not think of, something that may be outside of the Mountain's range. Perfect example is "Margaritaville". Not a big Jimmy Buffet fan, but there's no way "Margaritaville" doesn't finish in the top 20. It's a classic, whether I like it or not, and too many people have stopped a bar dead in it's tracks, glasses raised or head lowered to the bar, by slapping it on the jukebox.


I know you're out there, I've seen the stat counter. So help me out. I'm aiming towards getting the list together by, oh, I dunno, how about the middle of March? Maybe, and I'm just picking a random date, March 17th seems like a good day. I haven't decided if I'll offer up a zip file of the whole thing, or randomly selected songs. Maybe I'll make a special offer to folks who contributed, whether their song made it or not. We'll see. You can give your opinion on that matter also. If you don't contribute, you can't bitch about the final list.


You can leave a comment below, or send me an email at jukejoint@gmail.com.


To get you in the mood, here's a couple of tunes that may or may not be eligible for the list.


Corky Jones is, well, let's be honest here.....Corky Jones is Buck Owens. Playing a little boozey rockabilly under an assumed name.


Corky Jones: Rhythm and Booze (mp3)


Three Aces and a Joker: Booze Party (mp3)


Thanks for stopping by. Support your local Tavern.

Six String Drag And A Wheezing Megaphone

And, finally, the top 3 albums on the Big Rock Candy Mountain Most Essential, You're a Loser If You Don't Own These Albums List Of 2006.

That was a mouthful. Especially with the tongue planted firmly...well you get it, we're self-referentially ironic. Yawn. Let's git er done. Sorry, couldn't resist


Recap:


10. Cast King: Saw Mill Man
9. Gob Iron: Death Songs For the Living
8. Richard Buckner: Meadow
7. Jolie Holland: Springtime Can Kill You
6. Lambchop: Damaged
5. South Filthy: Crackin' Up
4. Cat Power:: The Greatest


On with the show.

3. Tom Waits: Orphans

This should really come as no surprise, except for the expectation that we might have placed old Tom a couple of slots higher at number 1. What that should tell you is how keen I am on the the top finishers.

In my experience, there is little middle ground so far as Tom Waits appreciation goes. Folks either love him or hate him. His is not the persona or Howlin' Wolf fucking Beefheart voice that invites apathy. Which is fair enough. And this three disc set of odds, sods and whatnot, frankly, is probably not the best starting point for the novice.

This set is essentially a love letter to his fans, a group he's been reluctant to admit to, though in a recent interview on the Daily Show Waits came as close as I can remember to acknowledging the beast that is the Tom Waits collective.

I am not unbiased when it comes to Waits, I couldn't pretend to be, so I can't offer a critical remove when including this set. I also had a hell of a time selecting one track as a sampler, so I'm offering up one from each album. If I did this tomorrow, I'd probably select three different songs.

"Bottom of The World", is Waits at his hobo best, containing one of my favorite lines "Well God's green hair is where I slept last/He balanced a diamond on a blade of grass". "Take Care Of All My Children" is a track from the film Streetwise, and on of my favorite missing Waits songs, previously sitting dusty in my rows of Waits bootlegs. It's Waits channelling his inner Salvation Army band. And "Home I'll Never Be" is a Kerouac piece. I'm not a Kerouac fan, but filtered through Wait's grizzled growl and pathos, the song takes life of it's own, borrowing but not indebted to the Beats.

Tom Waits: Bottom Of The World (mp3)

Tom Waits: Take Care Of All My Childrent (mp3)

Tom Waits: Home I'll Never Be (mp3)

2. Halden Wofford and the Hi-Beams: Midnight Rodeo

This is another album I can't lay a claim to having a critical remove from. Halden Wofford and the Hi-Beams are my favorite band. Doesn't matter, though, because they've earned their spot on this list. They're the best band in America you've never heard. Actually, they're better than most bands you have heard. The Hi-Beams are a honky tonk band, pure and simple. No posturing or hip and ironic Western shirts from the Gap. No insurgent stance or loudfast Hank Williams as punk icon nonsense. A band in their element in sweaty, Lone Star beer-soaked venues ripping shit-hot steel guitar lines perfectly twanged to a snap snare, stand up bass and the sweet Texas yodel of Halden himself. To rein in the perfection of their live presence, which I've covered briefly elsewhere, and commit it to aluminum, is a daunting task, one which they achieve brilliantly on their second album, Midnight Rodeo. If the current state of Country and Western, and Western is certainly a part of the Hi-Beams canon, leaves you cold and wistful, this is your salvation. For all those in favor of honky tonk bands out there slogging the spirit of Country in the face of Nashville and commercial packaging indifference, this band's for you. Catch 'em live if you can. The album contains several rave-ups, and runs the gamut of great Country styling, but I'm picking a slightly slower number to feature, one which is a live favorite of mine, and one you can dance with your lady or fella to. I'm going to do a longer post later, featuring, fingers crossed, an interview, so you'll get your swinging bopper later. Stay tuned.

Halden Wofford And The Hi-Beams: Blues Fallin' Down (mp3)

1. James Hand: The Truth Will Set You Free

Shocker. If you've read my posts here or here, you could have easily guessed where this would end up. It's not only the best album I've hear this year, it's the best album I've heard in many years. Chasing his own ghostriders in the Country constellation, Hand forges something that is uniquely his own, yet rooted strongly in a tradition as old as the first plucked string. In a time in which Bob Dylan can record the same album for the third time in a row, and receive rave reviews, it's artists like Hand who should be getting the attention.

A horse trainer and beer joint troubadour, Hand plays a continually rarefied form of hard Country, one passed through mountain water and Texas dust, a twangy and hiccupping yodel traveling the darker roads where lonesome has lost the ability to cry. Hand can sound as old as the hills, filtering a strain of deep Southern Gothic, but the songs he writes are timeless, both in subject and the ability speak across years.

More hyped bands and artists will always sell more records and fill larger venues, but that's the problem with hype, in that it allows for passing fad to overshadow the great artist hiding in corners. James Hand has made a stunning album, one I think folks will be talking about years from now when the dust settles and perspective weighs in. If you have any love for Country, this album is the one for you this year. And next year. And the year after....

James Hand: In The Corner At The Table By The Jukebox (mp3)

Please support you local, independent Honky Tonker, jukejoint, and record store.

Devil's In The House of the Rising Sun

Yep.

It's been an interesting year, this 2006. I want to thank all those who stopped by. We'll try to keep things interesting 'round these parts in the year to come.

Part 3 today of the fantastalistic BRCM Top Ten Albums of the Year. We aint necessarily calling these the best albums, they're just our favorites. We'll have the final installment next Tuesday.


First, here's some fine albums that didn't make the cut, but are worthy of y'all hunting down some mp3's to see what you think. The list is in no particular order:


Califone: Roots and Crowns

The Be Good Tanya's: Hello Love

Handsome Family:Last Days Of Wonder

The Buffets: Saucy Jack

Bob Dylan: Modern Times

The King Kkan and BBQ Show: What's For Dinner

Jack O and the Tennessee Tearjerkers: The Flip Side Kid

Yo La Tengo: I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass (best title for an album ever)

Bonnie Prince Billy: The Letting Go

Scott Biram: Graveyard Shift

Jim Lauderdale: Country Super Hits,Vol. 1


The Legendary Shack Shakers: Pandelirium



Now, on with the exciting part of the show. Ladies and gentlemen, Part 3:


5. South Filthy: Crackin' Up


Bring the boogie. One of the most aptly named groups around, the moniker tells you all you really need to know about this nasty little supergroup featuring Jeffrey Evans, Jack Yarber (Oblivian), Walter Daniels, Eugene Chadbourne, and a host of other trash merchants. I wrote more extensively on this band and this album in an earlier post. Here's part of what I said:

"Oddly enough , it's not quite the scunge-trash fest one might expect, being more akin to your favorite bar band playing a trailer park barbecue fest. And that's a compliment. Sure, it's a shambolic, booze-ridden mess of an album, sloppy and missing anything remotely suggesting production values, with obvious nods to Exile-era Stones, Faces (small and large), Allmans and Van Zandts(both kinds). It's a very Southern affair, sweatily drawled and scrawled from Memphis to Austin, underpinned with a sense of longing and regret, of all things. A little
bit rawk, and a whole lotta country. Pop a top on your favorite beverage, settle into your lawn chair and enjoy the mad dog stylings of South Filthy."

That seems about right.

South Filthy: (So You Think) You Got Trouble (mp3)

4. Cat Power: The Greatest


Chan Marshall has apparently been to hell and back, ripe for a VH1 special. I'm not a subscriber to the pop psychology notion that pain makes for great art. Marshall almost changed my mind. Almost. The problem with crediting pain or personal disorder to the creating process is that it takes for granted, or even negates, a little thing called talent. All the Artist's Way books in the world aren't going to make a piss poor writer, painter, or musician any better. Marshall's got talent in spades, and, outside of humane reasons for me wishing her well, I could really give a rat's ass about her demons. Show me what you got on the finished product, give me a song that lasts. And, whoah nelly, Cat Power dropped a bombshell. I found it hard to believe that Marshall could ever top her album "Moon Pix", and her last album, "You Are Free", sort of confirmed to me that she had long ago reached her peak. "You Are Free" was, frankly, a rather bad album. So it was with trepidation that I approached her latest, "The Greatest". I'm glad I did. Gathering some of the finest legendary Memphis studio musicians, Marshall is transformed. Long known for her lustily lazy, almost sleepy, vocal style, Marshall practically swings and swaggers through a good amount of these tunes, while the crack band honking and fiddling behind her. Even when things slow to normal Cat Power crawl and meditation it's with a sultrier, more confident sexiness than we're used to. It's a very Southern album, the kudzu lit hazily by the mid-afternoon sun. An album where the belle wanders off from the ball, barefoot, dancing with the ghosts of her dreams.

Cat Power: Lived In Bars (mp3)

Have a good New Year's weekend. Stop back Tuesday for numbers 1-3 on the big list. Wonder what they'll be? Bet y'all can make some accurate guesses.

Run Boys, Run

Howdy. Welcome back. Part 2 of the Big Rock Candy Mountain Top 10 Most Favorite Albums All Time of the Year Until I Change My Mind list.

Before reading on, head over to Hickory Wind for my preview of a band that's going to be showing up on this list later on this week. It's the post entitled "In Praise of the Bar Band".

Now that you're back from that, let's get started.

8. Richard Buckner: Meadow

Buckner goes rock. I've discussed elsewhere that I don't believe that the Country tag fits Richard Buckner any longer, if it ever really fit in the first place (maybe "Bloom" qualifies). Maybe nobody considers him Country, even "alt-country". What Buckner makes is burnt desert music, seared and charred meditations on minutiae, rendered inscrutable by dense and imagistic lyrics. A word rarely used when mentioning Buckner albums is fun. And while this album may not push that word up the list of descriptives, it certainly sheds the doom and gloom tag, at least musically. Lyrically, he's still plumbing the depths. But the addition on instrumentation of former Guided By Voicers, and a Superchunker gives Buckner a new sonic palette to ply his obsessions. His voice is still formed by the cracked clay of the earth, but the jagged bursts of guitar skronk and amped tempo provides a different context with which Buckner can play. The album is brief, 10 short songs, but Buckner takes the quick in and out all the way to the pharmacy. It's his best, most cohesive album since "Devotion + Doubt". Just don't expect a rehash of that classic album. It's a different beast entirely, and I can hear the purists moaning. Which should just add to why this album is so swell.

Richard Buckner: Mile (mp3)

7. Jolie Holland: Springtime Can Kill You

On here previous two albums, "Catalpa" and "Escondida", Holland mined the creaky, rocking chair, sepia-tinted tones of old weird America. They were spare affairs, the focus on her vintage Sara Carter-esque voice. With her latest album, Holland picks up stake, loads the mule, and heads east, slightly, picking up a band on the way. Jazz informs this album, particularly the ghost of Billie Holiday, who's slurred and lustily lazy vocal style is suggested, but never imitated, here by Holland. The themes of loss and memory permeate this album, the flourishes of melancholy. Music for attics and speakeasy's after hours, when the dancing is done, and the last dregs drained, the couples stumbled out the door, and only the lonely remain, one for my baby, and one more for the road. That road being a dusty lane from the city to a mythic, Gothic South. In a time of spineless Southern-inspired jazz-lite wallpaper by the likes of Norah Jones and Diana (makes my skin)Krall, this is the real deal. The following is not the one you think it is. It even includes a nice reference to Freakwater.

Jolie Holland: Moonshiner (mp3)

6. Lambchop: Damaged

Lambchop's main man Kurt Wagner has played with us. What began as a quirky take on oddball Country has morphed from Hank to Curtis Mayfield-influenced blue-eyed Nashville soul, to this, his most intimate album yet. It's a record that requires time spent. A dusk album, all crickets and fading lights, the gloaming. In the quick fix, ipod nation, I'm not sure how this album fits. Songs that meander, hushed and murmuring vocals, lyrics of the smallest movements. The slowest thing, the glass of whiskey, the rustle of leaves. Beauty in the heart of sadness.

Lambchop: The Decline Of Country And Western Civilization (mp3)

Part 3 tomorrow, numbers 3-5.

Insert clever comment here.