The Musical Box

fleet foxes: "fleet foxes" (2008)

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes - I’m a late convert to the engaging new pop and folk mix this young Seattle band creates. Amid all kinds of earthly and fanciful storylines are spacious echoes of early Fairport Convention and Strawbs along with vocals wrapped in the warm reverb that recalls My Morning Jacket. Toss in psychedelic tweaks in the vocal and instrumental arrangements and you have the one of the coolest debut albums of 2008.

david sanborn: "here & gone" (2008)

David Sanborn: Here & Gone - If you still sandwich sax kingpin Sanborn in with such wallpaper music merchants as Kenny G, then open your ears to the organic and keenly orchestral cool of Here & Gone. The Hank Crawford-era R&B of Ray Charles is the main reference point here, a fact highlighted by a richly swinging version of the former’s Stoney Lonesome. Throughout, Sanborn’s efficient alto wail is as distinctive as ever.

humble pie: "performance: rockin' the fillmore" (1971)

Humble Pie: Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore - There was no greater Jekyll and Hyde guitar/vocal tag team than Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton, even though the latter split for a solo career before Performance was released in 1971. Marriott is simply devilish here, a blues/boogie showman of fearsome intensity. Frampton supplies the guitar muscle, transforming I Don’t Need No Doctor into a savage electric groove anthem.

love tractor: "love tractor" and "til the cows come home" (1981, 1984)

Love Tractor: Love Tractor/’Til the Cows Come Home - A 1991 CD issue of music cut by what was then the predominantly instrumental Athens, Ga. band between 1981 and 1984. The grooves are elemental, even static at times. But the pop sensibilities are broad as the band counters the dying New Wave with a pastiche of surf, pop and twang. The version of Kraftwerk’s Neon Lights typlifies this detached but sleek hullabaloo.

pentangle: "cruel sister" (1970)

Pentangle: Cruel Sister - Fleet Foxes’ take on psychedelic folk inspired a new listen to one of England’s most pioneering bands in that field. Cruel Sister was released in 1970 with guitarists John Renbourn and Bert Jansch adding sitar, concertina and electric strings to the fanciful singing of Jacqui McShee and the jazzier bass work of Danny Thompson. An 18-minite revision of the folk gem Jack Orion presented Pentangle at its creative zenith.

the weekend begins tonight with the return of rod stewart at riverbend.

What better befits the long, hot summer days of August than with a long, hot summer weekend? With top seasonal sounds abounding well into next week, we suggest viewing one of the last summer weekends before school sets in and the week ahead as essentially as one and the same. Here are a few reasons why.

 + In recent years, one had little choice but to view Rod Stewart as a pop revivalist. After all, his last five studio albums have been covers collections (a rock sampler preceded by four Great American Songbook sets). But when he returns to Riverbend Music Center tonight in Cincinnati with Bryan Adams as opening act, the standards will be shelved in favor of Stewart hits from the early ‘70s (You Wear It Well, Maggie May) and ‘80s (Young Turks, Forever Young). But then again, Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? has been popping up an encore. Oh, the past can be a fearsome place. (8 p.m.; $31.75-$246.75). Call TicketMaster at (859) 281-6644.

+ The fact Scott Miller will be playing the Phoenix Hill Tavern, 644 Baxter Ave. in Louisville on Saturday just hurts. The Knoxville songsmith was a frequent flyer at local venues from the mid-90s on. He played Lynagh’s Music Club with his barnstorming power-pop band The V-Roys and then The Dame with the more Americana-inclined Commonwealth. There is now no place for our ol’ pal to play in town. Granted, a trip up to the Phoenix Hill on a Saturday night is a pretty doable deal. Still, it burns to not even have an available Lexington venue for such acts. Americana rockers The Gougers will open Saturday’s performance (8 p.m., $12). Call (502) 589-4957 or go to TicketWeb.

+ Fresh from last weekend’s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago comes the Homemade Jamz Blues Band, a roots music trio that takes its name, and its music, very seriously. Comprised of three siblings from Tupelo, Miss. - Ryan Perry (15), younger brothers Kyle (13) and even younger sister Taya (9) - the band utilizes homemade guitars and bass guitars built out of car mufflers. Chew on that sense of novelty all day long, if you like. It doesn’t subtract one bit from the worldly blues sound the trio comes up with on such songs as Who Your Real Friends Are and Penny Waiting on Change. The Homemade Jamz Blues Band teams with the Canadian Celtic ensemble The Barra MacNeils for Monday’s taping of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour at the Kentucky Theatre (7 p.m., $10). For reservations, call (859) 252-8888.

+ When Filter began rocking the world outside of its Cleveland home base in the mid ‘90s, its music wound up on the big screen as much as it did the radio. During the latter half of the decade, the band’s crunchy, guitar-driven tunes were featured in The Crow: City of Angels, The Crow: Salvation, Spawn and The X Files: Fight the Future. The latter proved to be somewhat fortuitous. Filter frontman Richard Patrick’s brother, actor Robert Patrick, went on to star in the last two seasons of The X Files series. For now, though, Filter favors the road over Hollywood and will perform on Wednesday at A1A, 367 E. Main with Lucid Grey and Clear Conscience opening (8 p.m.; $12 in advance and $15 day of show). Call (859) 231-7263 or go to Ticket Fusion.

peter frampton. photo by david dobson.

Did you know Peter Frampton was a neighbor? For the better part of the past decade, the artist that turned Frampton Comes Alive into one of the top selling concert albums of all time has resided to the north of us in Cincinnati. Now the big question, did you know the pop superstardom Frampton gained and lost in the ‘70s is but a chapter in a rock ‘n’ roll life that stems back 40 years?

Stumped? Then last night’s unexpectedly vast, guitar-rich career overview performance and homecoming at Cincinnati’s National City Pavilion was for you.

Admittedly, much of the crowd came to hear music Frampton penned for his first four albums that re-surfaced on Frampton Comes Alive in 1976. Some of the tunes have aged almost eerily well, like Lines on My Face, whose soft-spoken sentimentality, not to mention an arrangement of Santana-ish cool, revealed a strangely sagely quality. Others like Baby I Love Your Way remained disposable pop confections.

The program’s more arresting moments came almost in spite of Frampton Comes Alive. For Wind of Change, originally the title tune to his 1972 debut album, Frampton strayed little from the acoustic version fashioned for Frampton Comes Alive. But he dedicated the tune to George Harrison, whose guitar tunings inspired the composition in the first place. The Beatle was more roundly acknowledged during an encore update of his signature song, While My Guitar Gently Weeps which Frampton sang and soloed on with solid emotive authority.

Equally intriguing were the often monstrous instrumentals pulled from 2006’s Grammy-winning Fingerprints album (”I had to live in Ohio for five years before I won one,” Frampton remarked to the crowd). Jeff Beck seemed to be the role model here as Boot It Up and a fittingly cranky version of the Soundgarden hit Black Hole Sun bordered on an almost corrosive mix of funk and fusion. The songs were also highlights in a performance that strived to underscore Frampton’s sometimes neglected reputation as a guitarist.

The biggest delight, though, closed the show. It wasn’t a hit, but a wildly electric take on Ashford & Simpson’s I Don’t Need No Doctor that was once a performance staple of Humble Pie, the maverick British band Frampton was a member of prior to his solo career. Frampton favored clarity over the death rattle urgency injected into the tune by the late Steve Marriott on another epic concert album, Humble Pie’s Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore. But there was a wildness still to this reading that illuminated corners of a pop life seldom explored by Frampton fans.

Sure, it was fun to watch the audience light up and smile along with the hits. But hearing Frampton make room for Harrison, Humble Pie and his newer guitar-slinging exploits was what made this homecoming really come alive.

dave matthews band. from left: leroi moore, carter beauford, boyd tinsley, stefan lessard, dave matthews

Initially, this looked to be an arduous summer for the Dave Matthews Band. In late June, a mere month into a tour that was plotted to extend into October, saxophonist LeRoi Moore was seriously injured in an ATV accident. That brought Jeff Coffin on board as a fill-in. But last night at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Coffin was absent, as well. Turns out, this was one of two dates he was previously committed to playing with his regular band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.

So what the Cincinnati audience got was something of a first - a completely sax free DMB show. But if you think the music suffered as a result, then you have underestimated the band’s core resources. When the two-and-a-half hour performance commenced with Don’t Drink the Water, Matthews and company summoned a thick, sweaty groove that turned dark with a mighty vocal wail, a hardened rhythmic drive and a video backdrop of stampeding natives that looked like something out of Apocalypto.

Of course, when the show’s theme actually turned apocalyptic on the following One Sweet World, the musical mood brightened with feisty riffs and broad grins exchanged between Matthews and drummer Carter Beauford.

While Matthews is a Riverbend regular, he hasn’t played Lexington in nearly a decade. So watching the DMB’s slightly rewired roster click into gear was anything but another seasonal rock show. The ensemble shifted deftly from the torrential grind of Halloween (after the majority of the Riverbend pavilion chanted its title, almost in protest) to the lighter pop celebration of Everyday to the anthemic country-funk of Tripping Billies (which finally let loose violinist Boyd Tinsley, the band’s ace-in-the-hole instrumentalist).

Of course, Matthews had some help. Longtime pal and frequent touring partner Tim Reynolds, who also opened the performance, sat in for the entire concert on electric guitar. The breezy bit of psychedelic blues that fueled his solo during Crush was a performance highlight. Trumpet and flugelhorn ace Reshawn Ross, a DMB touring accomplice since 2005, also helped color in the contours vacated by Moore and Coffin. But Ross took full advantage of his allotted time in the spotlight by sharing lead vocals with Matthews on a highly faithful funk cover of the Talking Heads staple Burning Down the House.

This was the moment when all the darkness and tension in Matthews’ music briefly subsided. In its place was a joyous, textured groove that kept the audience on its feet as it, pardon the pun, brought the house down.

townes van zandt: "live at the old quarter, houston, texas"

About a quarter of the way through Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas, the folkish surrealism of Townes Van Zandt’s music begins to take hold. The tune is Fraternity Blues, the mere theme of which seems freakish. Just imaging one of Lone Star country’s most distinctive songsmiths within the conformist confines of a fraternity is pretty outrageous. But within the song’s talking blues narration, Van Zandt displays a disarming sense of cunning and a matter-of-fact storytelling demeanor, traits that have always underscored the very human (albeit, the very darkly human) side of his music.

“I’m no trouble causer,” he admits. “You want good friends? They’re gonna cost you.”

With that Live at the Old Quarter begins a new Americana life. The performances, all solo and beautifully imperfect, were cut at a watering hole located in, according to the liner notes, “the seedy side of downtown Houston.” The album itself was first issued in 1977 and has floated in and out of print ever since. This new double-disc edition appeared this summer on Fat Possum, the primal roots music label that began a massive reissue campaign of Van Zandt’s recordings last year.

Simply put, Live at the Old Quarter, is the one Van Zandt album everyone must own. It’s contain his best songs (from the rollicking Talking Thunderbird Blues to the ultra stark Kathleen) illuminated with unadorned, underplayed performance detail.

Take White Freight Liner Blues, for instance. It’s been covered a ga-zillion times, usually as a smartly paced shuffle with progressive country leanings. Here, Van Zandt makes his creation seem as plaintive as a Hank Williams chestnut. When he sings “going out on the highway, listen to them big trucks whine,” the voice cracks, almost into a yodel. It’s an alarm that sets you up for a song that, despite its easygoing pace, is consumed with escape and death.

The riches are vast here. Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold summons a suitable sense of card table drama while Van Zandt almost shyly remarks before If I Needed You about how Doc Watson’s rendition of the tune “really blew my mind.” But Live at the Old Quarter’s greatest strength is the emotional breadth of its material. Since it is essentially a solo performance anthology of the songwriter’s best work, you witness all of the narrative high wire act without any aid of a safety net.

No Place to Fall proves to be exquisitely vulnerable, To Live is to Fly is pure wondrous fancy, a wiry cover of Cocaine Blues is restlessly wry and the Bo Diddley staple Who Do You Love becomes a mini percussive hoedown. And when it comes to mining the sheer human desperation of his stories, nothing remains more stirring, sad and unsettling than Live at the Old Quarter’s unsentimental reading of Tecumseh Valley. That’s when the album’s miscellaneous barroom ambience - the clinking glasses, the deliriously out-of-time audience clap-a-longs - evaporates. For four and a half minutes, it’s as if there is no one else in the room.

Live at Old Quarter has been regularly likened by fans and critics alike to such groundbreaking country concert albums as Johnny Cash at San Quentin. No argument here. My old cassette recording of the former wore out long ago after years of dashboard listening. Last weekend, during a road trip to see friends in Nashville, this new CD version served as a soundtrack. And as the Bluegrass Parkway gave way to I-65 South, right as those big trucks began to whine, Van Zandt, in all his unadorned drama and glory, was alive again.

king crimson's 40th anniversary celebration kicked off over the weekend in nashville.

Greetings from Nashville - or, as Jason and the Scorchers so ceremoniously dubbed the city two decades ago, “the new L.A.”

There was no country rocking here tonight, folks. Instead, Music City was host to the second of a two evening engagement at the very cozy Belmont Theatre that kicked off the 40^th anniversary rites of King Crimson. For now, that means a modest swing through Chicago, Philadelphia and New York (the Belcourt shows were promoted as warm-up gigs) for the long standing but ever-evolving prog-rock ensemble.

The lineup? We start with two guitarists. Founder Robert Fripp sat in the stage right shadows largely (and purposely?) obscured by gear. But together with Kentucky native Adrian Belew (a member since 1981), he created orchestral touches that were monstrous indeed.

During an encore of Indiscipline, Fripp unleashed an ominously playful deep pocket groove with guitar squalls that bolstered the tune’s already heady tension. Belew had all kinds of delicious moments, from the whammy bar police siren that kicked off a lean and nasty Neurotica to a faithful reading of Walking on Air that was a slice of comfort and grace.

Behind the two guitarists were two drummers: Pat Mastelotto (a member since 1994) and new recruit Gavin Harrison (on loan from new generation prog brigade Porcupine Tree). Their mounting, harmonious and, of course, percussive voices opened the 95 minute show without accompaniment like distant thunder of a storm that soon gathered into the title tune from 2000’s The ConstruKction of Light album. Another duet blast, B’boom, further enforced their rhythmic drive. But on Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 2, each skirted into different but complimentary lands. Harrison played beat-keeper by piloting the tune’s mighty ebbs and flows while Mastelotto served as a percussive adjunct that, through sounds of squeaky toys and electronic mimicry, echoed accents Jamie Muir designed for King Crimson in the early ‘70s.

But if there was an MVP on this very heavy hitting team, it would be bassist/Chapman stick ace Tony Levin, a Crimson alumnus who has rejoined after an absence of over a decade. Levin’s musical highlights were many and generous: fat-bottomed pops that percolated during Red, winding and almost melancholy funk lines during VROOOM and muscular jabs that drove Thela Hun Ginjeet. But more than that, Levin was a presence. Flashing huge, Cheshire grins during ‘80s tunes like Frame by Frame and Three of a Perfect Pair, Levin appeared to be the Crimson-ite having the most fun tonight. His jubilance was almost as infectious as the music itself.

In the end, only 30 of Crimson’s 40 years were covered in the program (from 1973’s The Talking Drum and the aforementioned Larks’ Tongues to 2003’s Level Five). But King Crimson has never been, even in a remote sense, a nostalgia vehicle. The music at this Nashville kickoff celebrated the arrival of a new member, welcomed back an old one and, best of all, gave the veteran hands the chance to paint a brave new face on darkly complex but richly engaging music.

Happy anniversary, guys.

No, it’s not a flashback. But last weekend’s Summerfest production of Hair turned the way-back machine for me to the year the story was set in: 1968.

It was a year of chaos. Escalation in Vietnam, the back-to-back assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy and often oppressive racial tension made up what was a wildly tumultuous year. Luckily, a renewed listen earlier this week to the sublime music that came out of that year casts 1968 in a modestly kinder light,

The Beatles’ “white album,” The Rolling Stones’ Beggars’ Banquet and The Kinks’ The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society led the British charge that year. But for Hair’s sake, I dug back into music made and released in 1968 on the Great American West Coast that indeed let the sunshine in during a very bleak year. 

buffalo springfield: "last time around"

Buffalo Springfield: Last Time Around (July) - A peacemeal album released after the band’s breakup in May, Last Time Around hints at what would come from its members. Kind Woman planted the country rock seeds Richie Furay harvested for Poco, Special Care was a preamble to Stephen Stills’ solo career and I Am a Child opened the door for one of Canada’s most arresting songsmiths: Neil Young.

the doors: "waiting for the sun"

The Doors: Waiting for the Sun (July) - While far from its finest hour, The Doors’ third album in 16 months yielded a monster hit (Hello, I Love You), a flowery psychedelic pop exploit (Love Street) and some truly adventurous and, yes, trippy stuff like the mix of flamenco and outer space frenzy on Spanish Caravan and Jim Morrison’s penultimate war protest saga, The Unknown Soldier.

sly and the family stone: "life"

Sly and the Family Stone: Life (September) - Few West Coast bands broke down racial division on the pop music front the way Sly Stone’s fuzzy psychedelic funk did. While it contained none of the band’s trademark hits (M’Lady and the album’s brassy title tune are the most recognizable singles), Life is undeniably the brightest record Sly and the Family Stone ever made. Leave it to Sly to party on as streets burned.

jefferson airplane: "crown of creation"

Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation (September) - Coming down ever so slightly after the gloriously excessive After Bathing at Baxter’s, the Airplane found scorched earth beneath its feet. Grace Slick’s twisted coming-of-age tale (Lather), Jorma Kaukonen’s weary psychedelic ramble (Star Track) and Paul Kantner’s ‘60s-inspired look at ‘50s apocalyptic paranoia (The House on Pooneil Corners) are Crown’s crowning touches.

spirit: "the family that plays together"

Spirit - The Family That Plays Together (December) - The second of four splendid albums by the most underrated psychedelic band of its time (and, maybe, of all time). The song structure on Family is suitably ‘60-ish when it wants to be (as on Dream Within a Dream). But the album’s orchestral reach is defined, tasteful and mature. And, on the hit I Got a Line on You, the music rocks like mad, too.

pieces of a dream: curtis harmon (standing) and james lloyd. photo from heads up records.

The first time James Lloyd performed in Lexington with Pieces of a Dream he was wearing an unusual fashion accessory: a cast that encased most of his left arm.

The school of elemental thought for any professional musician dictates that an arm cast is often not the most preferred of performance devices. That’s especially true when said cast is in place to heal a broken bone.

“I broke my left wrist three days before a three month tour with Grover (Washington, Jr.),” Lloyd recalled. “So basically I was a left handed keyboard player who was playing piano, Fender Rhodes (electric piano) and synth. It was definitely a memorable time for me.”

For this famed “one handed” local debut, a Memorial Hall concert in the fall of 1983, Lloyd was part of a Pieces of a Dream lineup that was already creating a sturdy national buzz through an ongoing alliance with Washington, the late saxophonist whose music bridged worlds of jazz, pop and vintage soul. Pieces was also forging its own national fanbase through radio hits like Fo Fi Fo and Mount Airy Groove.

But Lloyd and company will be more than well healed when they return to town next weekend as part of the African American Forum’s ongoing series of smooth jazz concerts. In the 25 years since the Memorial Hall performance, Pieces of a Dream have become a cornerstone smooth jazz group with top-selling albums for the Elektra, Blue Note and, most recently, Heads Up labels. Lloyd, the band’s principal composer, has also penned compositions for Najee, Walter Beasley, Wayman Tisdale and others.

“I draw from everyday life for inspiration,” Lloyd said. “Sometimes that is the musical inspiration itself. Personally, I feel I have to experience some of what’s going on from life itself and then draw from that.”

The nucleus for Pieces of a Dream came together in 1976 when Lloyd, drummer Curtis Harmon and bassist Cedric Napoleon joined forces in a thriving Philadelphia music scene.

“We’re definitely a product of our environment,” Lloyd said. “There was a lot of music - funk, jazz and soul - coming out of Philadelphia. You can’t help but be influenced by the music you actually grow up around.”
Enter fellow Philadelphian Washington, who signed Pieces of a Dream to his new production company while Lloyd was still in high school. The two acts toured together frequently up until Washington’s death from a heart attack in 1999.

“Very often in concert, we’ll do a song of his in tribute to Grover. Yeah, he is still a big part of what we do. Even though he’s not physically here with us, his spirit is with us.”

Napoleon exited the band after the release of 1986’s Joyride album, although Pieces of a Dream remains to this day very much a family enterprise. Lloyd and Harmon are still close bandmates while Pieces is managed - just as the band was when it began - by Danny and Bill Harmon, the drummer’s father and uncle.

“Curtis and I have been playing together for so long now that it’s like second nature,” Lloyd said. “The band’s longevity kind of spills over into the music, too. That’s especially true onstage. Curtis and I, when we’re playing together, have a sort of telepathy going on. We don’t even have to look at each other to know where one other is going.”

And then there is the music - a strongly pop-conscious, upbeat sound driven by keyboards. While guitar often rounds out the band’s sound, Lloyd’s keyboards provide the architecture for most of the band’s tunes, especially the ones on 2006’s Pillow Talk album. But the key is in the balance of electronic and acoustic sounds. Synthesizers and Rhodes keyboard may provide the orchestration and propel the groove. But the primary solo instrumental voice is acoustic piano.

“I think acoustic piano, especially the way it mixes with electric instruments, has become a major part of Pieces of a Dream’s signature sound,” Lloyd said. “It all blends well.”

A new studio album is in the works for the band. But for Lloyd, touring and recording with Pieces of a Dream remains very much a dream job.

“I’m living a dream,” he said. “I work here in my home studio, write, roll out of bed, and write some more until I pass out. I mean, who could ask for a better job?

“Every now and then, I get to go out on the road, travel, see the world and meet people. I get to take my wife as often as possible, too, to special places like Africa.”

“It’s like living a vacation and getting paid for it.”

Pieces of a Dream perform at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 2 at Equus Run Vineyards, 1280 Moores Mill Road. Tickets are $45 (single, general admission) and $500 (reserved table for 10). Gates open at 4 p.m. Call: (859) 255-2653.