The Musical Box

indigo girls: emily saliers and amy ray.

Over15 years have elapsed since Amy Ray and Emily Saliers – the Indigo Girls, to their fans – have released a concert album. That’s some kind of wait considering the folk-based duo (and sometimes trio and sometimes dutifully rocking band) has long made its reputationw from the inviting, familial intimacy of their performances. What better way to let at least a sliver of that charm loose than with a live album?

Thus we have the new Staring Down the Brilliant Dream, the Indigos’ first concert record since 1995′s 1200 Curfews. Pulled from performances given between 2006 and 2009, the record covers not only music from the duo’s full career (from the 1989 breakthrough hit Closer to Fine through to 2009′s Second Time Around) but offers three distinct artist settings: an unaccompanied duo (which is how the Indigos will perform tonight at the Kentucky Theatre) a trio augmented by keyboardist Julie Wolf and a full band.

“Because it’s been 15 years since 1200 Curfews, we had a buildup of tapes and hard drives,” said Ray. “We had played a significant number of shows with the band, a lot with Julie and a bit by ourselves. That was the ground we wanted to cover.

“We also felt it would be awhile until we did a new record – probably another year. And we knew we wanted to do a holiday record, which we just recorded. So we kind of wanted to document what we had done up to this point that was original in our shows and move from there.”

Indigo Girls perform at 7:30 tonight at the Kentucky Theatre, 214 E. Main. Tickets are $44.50. Call (859) 231-7924.

daniel martin moore. photo by jonathan willis.

When last we checked in, Kentucky song stylists Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore were touring the country behind an exquisite folk-based recording called Dear Companion. Its music came from a heavy Appalachian heart with themes designed to inform audiences outside of the region of the environmental devastation triggered by mountaintop removal coal mining.

This summer, the duo enlists My Morning Jacket chieftain Jim James – or, as he prefers to bill himself on non-MMJ projects, Yim Yames – for the Appalachian Voices Tour, which opens tonight at the Opera House. Yames produced Dear Companion and served as a co-architect for many of its songs.

“It’s kind of like a homecoming having Jim back in the mix,” Moore said. “In addition to being one of the founding fathers of the album, he’s also such a dynamic and generous performer.”

Moore hopes the eight city tour, which will also feature drummer/percussionist Dan Dorff, will help further the awareness Dear Companion helped ignite last winter regarding mountaintop removal mining.

“We’ve had a lot of great conversations with people in kind of far flung places who didn’t even know mountaintop removal existed. One of the reasons we wanted to make a record was that this issue would perhaps find its way into places that it otherwise wouldn’t go. So to have mountaintop removal talked about now in places like indie music blogs means this music has served its purpose.”

Yim Yames, Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore perform at 8 tonight at the Lexington Opera House. Tickets are $25. Call (859) 233-3535.

peter case. photo by ann summa.

Among the many tales Peter Case spun during a wildly comprehensive two hour-plus solo concert last night at Natasha’s was a remembrance of his desire as an academic youth in Buffalo, NY to work as a sharecropper or “an itinerant blues musician.”

“I knew I would have trouble getting into the after school program with that,” he remarked.

Then there was the saga of the music sessions at a church that introduced him to a string musician who claimed to be working for the FBI, prompting fits of paranoia from Case’s hippie pals (“Man, the FBI is training bluegrass musicians to infiltrate the underground!”).

Along with a reading from his 2006 book As Far As You Can Get Without a Passport (a whimsical spiritual journey to the Summer of Love taken a few summers too late), the spoken interludes helped balance a remarkable repertoire of songs than spanned nearly all of Case’s career.

Performing on solo electric guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar and electric piano, Case meshed story songs with engrossing and often bittersweet narratives (the sublime On the Way Downtown), covers that shifted from rugged blues (Leadbelly’s Thirty Days in the Workhouse, Mississippi John Hurt’s Beulah Land) to vintage Dylan (Pledging My Time, To Ramona) to even leaner versions of the roots-driven originals from his new Wig! album (House Rent Jump, House Rent Party and a wonderfully light but still pensive recasting of The Words in Red).

Case shuffled it all in true troubadour fashion with a voice that at times reflected a slight coarseness of age that only added to his music’s literary color. Mostly though, his singing still possessed the animation of an Americanized Robyn Hitchcock in its balance of playfulness and folkish wonder.

The show truly ignited when Case slapped together these disparate influences within the same song. Dig What You’re Putting Down (another Wig! original) channeled bits of Elvis Presley (in segments of the singing), Blind Willie McTell (in the stage banter) and early ZZ Top (in the appropriately Southern drenched guitar fuzz).

Similarly, the wistful First Light jumped out of romantic waters to reel in verses from Bukka White’s Fixin’ to Die Blues while the show-closing Memphis snapshot Walkin’ Home Late incorporated a soulful detour through Eddie Hinton’s You Got Me Singing.

For Case, who was derailed from touring for nearly all of 2009 due to cardiac surgery, such an expansive performance wasn’t merely a healthy return to form. It was a full artistic affirmation from a crafty, learned and powerfully resourceful American music original.

Texas blues warrior Jimmie Vaughan has long made a career out of being an anti-guitar hero. Even during his ‘70s days with the Fabulous Thunderbirds, his playing was marked by a learned musical command that favored groove and mood over outlandlish soloing. Sure, when the spotlight was his, he could burn things up as intensely as his celebrated younger brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan. But the elder Vaughan has also enjoyed rolling with tunes split between Lone Star blues and decades old juke joint R&B.

Placing his own name out in front of his music never seemed terribly important, either. His last two recording projects were collaborative albums of Jimmy Reed covers with Kent “Omar” Dykes (of swamp rockers Omar and the Howlers). Up until this summer, Vaughan hasn’t issued an album of his own in nearly a decade.

That brings us to Plays Blues, Ballads & Favorites, an album title so splendidly generic that it could have been adopted in the ‘60s by Ray Charles or Solomon Burke. But for Vaughan, the record is a romp through the blues, soul and sleek roots-oriented rock that have long been at the heart of his music. And like all of Vaughan’s albums, the music places as much emphasis on ensemble spirit as it does on individual merit.

Take the opening version of Billy “The Kid” Emerson’s The Pleasure’s All Mine, for instance. The guitar lines are clean, efficient and profoundly soulful even though the vintage R&B groove is moved along as much by a two man saxophone team as by Vaughan himself. Add in vocals that eerily recall the singing of his late younger sibling and you have a blast of cheery, boppish soul with a deep Texas accent.

The mood shifts to swing on Comin’ & Goin’, a Vaughan original that stakes out dramatic new jazz-like turf for the guitarist. But the groove and horn-punctuated melody still keep what is probably Blues, Ballads & Favorites‘ most overt guitar showcase in motion. Fans of grandstanding guitar breaks, though, should look elsewhere. Vaughan and company complete this little joyride in under three minutes.

Longtime Texas pal Lou Ann Barton guests on five tunes, including a take on Little Richard’s Send Me Some Lovin’ that reflects shades of Sam Cooke and even Fats Domino in the horn section’s sweaty, playful bounce. Even finer is a glowing vocal turn by longtime Vaughan B3 organist Bill Willis on the Willie Nelson classic Funny How Time Slips Away, which is slowed to lustrously cool crawl.

What you’re left with is an album that, in design, seems to have been transported our way from another musical age. But for all its nostalgic references, Blues, Ballads & Favorites bears an understated immediacy that makes these blues-soul sounds seem refreshingly vital.

peter case. photo by ann summa.

Helping to redefine the phrase “wigging out” this year is the great pop songsmith Peter Case.

Born of a post-punk past as chieftain of The Plimsouls, Case has amassed a library of consistently strong solo recordings that shift from fully realized pop to roots-savvy blues to Americana-based folk. But since his commercial success never quite equaled the heights of his critical reputation, Case remains a working musician who tours constantly between recording projects.

That changed in January 2009. After a medical test revealed 99% blockage in a coronary artery, Case underwent double bypass surgery. He was hospitalized for only five days, but spent much of last year recuperating enough to hit the road again.

“It was a long year of recovery,” Case said. “All of a sudden I went from doing my thing 100 miles an hour to having an operation,” Case said. “It took a while to get back up to speed. I felt washed out. It did something to my whole spirit. I was just really beat. So it just took a bit of time getting up to speed. But I’m feeling a lot better. The doctor says I’m good to go.

“You know, we joke about this all the time – ‘Why do we play rock ‘n’ roll? Because we can. It’s a real joy and a real gift.”

With that, Case quickly recorded a new studio album called Wig!, a collection of quickly recorded, electric roots-savvy songs cut with guitarist Ron Franklin and X drummer DJ Bonebrake. Case doubled on guitar and overdubbed Hofner bass on the mostly live recordings.

“The inspiration for something like this comes from two or three main places. The first is probably Sam Phillips of Sun Records, then maybe Chess Records and also the records that ended up coming on Fat Possum by Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside. Those records capture a lot of atmosphere. They capture a lot of the feeling of the music as it’s going down. I love those kinds of records.

“Every once in awhile you have one of those experiences yourself, an experience you’ve always wanted to have. We just went in and cut this thing from 11 in the morning to midnight. It was a real fun day.”

Peter Case and Will Kimbrough perform at 8 p.m. July 20 at Natasha’s Bistro, 112 Esplanade. Tickets are $15. Call (859) 259-2754.

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joan baez

As one of folk music’s true landmark activist artists, Joan Baez is finding the art of performing to be a more peaceable act as her career runs heartily into its fourth decade.

“I don’t know how long this will last, but as I’ve gotten older, performing has gotten nicer,” said Baez, 69. “It’s easier and less neurotic. I look forward to the tour. I look forward to getting home. Walking out on stage these days, there is no more stage fright. I do what I do best.”

Baez’s career has taken her from the Newport Folk Festival in 1959 (and again in 2009) to Woodstock in 1969 to Live Aid in 1985 to sets at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Glastonbury Festival in 2008. Last winter, she added an especially prestigious date to the roster: a performance at the White House honoring Black History Month.

“Because it was in the middle of a blizzard, the night had an added element of excitement and fun. I’m generally not comfortable in those places. But it was fun meeting Obama and giving a hug to Michelle. It was fun getting my two bits in about Afghanistan. It would have been really uncomfortable if I hadn’t been able to do that. So it was exciting. I don’t know if I would want to do it again – at least not right now.”

While she may feel uncomfortable circulating in White House circles, Baez maintains close ties with a number of folk disciples, whether it is through artists like Steve Earle (who produced her recent Day After Tomorrow album), acts like the Indigo Girls, (which perform at the Kentucky Theatre on Thursday) or songwriters like Richard Shindell (whose music has been recorded by Baez).

“It’s amazing and flattering when something of mine triggers something for somebody, whether it’s in a way that might seem likely or in a way that’s unlikely. I like the unlikely a lot.”

Such associations also help fortify Baez’s faith in the music she creates, music that is ultimately faced with addressing the continually irritated state of the world around her.

“I think music crosses boundaries better than any other form of art – better than anything, really,” Baez said. “But we’re floundering. The world is in such absolute chaos that it’s hard to digest what’s happening. So how do you write a song about that?

“I just go about my business, which is trying to reach the heart, somehow, in an age of diminishing personal, meaningful relationships. We try to remind people of something other than the madness we’re living in.”

Joan Baez performs at 7:30 p.m. July 20 at the Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short. $39, $49. Call (859) 233-3535.

the allman brothers band at fillmore east. (released july 1971)

The March 1971 concerts making up The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East marked the calling of a new blues generation that balanced fresh reflections of Southern soul and jazz-like ambition with the inspirations of the blues elders. With brother Duane, the band possessed a visionary that generously mined the possibilities of the slide guitar. But he was also blessed with the taste and maturity to never overplay. With brother Gregg, the Allmans had a voice that found, especially on Fillmore East, profound simpatico with the songs of T Bone Walker, Elmore James and Muddy Waters. But it also roared on such righteously original rampages as Whipping Post. Fillmore East proved an early, but sadly, final crest for the band. Three months after its release, Duane Allman died in a motorcycle crash. Bassist Berry Oakley met the same fate a mere year later. Fillmore East, then, remains a brilliant moment in time – a display of young blues might in full, fearless motion.

robert randolph

It has been nearly a decade since Robert Randolph took the pedal steel guitar out of the House of God Church, where he received most of his spiritual as well as musical education, and onto concert stages with such luminaries as Eric Clapton, The Dave Matthews Band, The North Mississippi Allstars and other decidedly secular acts.

With that transformation came immediate crossover stardom, a contract with Warner Bros. Records and placement on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

But one has to wonder if perhaps the connection to the “sacred steel” music of Randolph’s youth – an electrifying spiritual sound pioneered on the pedal steel – was lost in the transformation to the pop, rock and jam band worlds. Sure, Randolph’s recordings – and, especially, the live shows he took to the road with alongside his Family Band – were galvanizing, intensely energetic affairs. But their proudly rockish sound seemed to often overwhelm the roots of a young artist (who was still in his teens when the pop universe discovered him) so extensively versed in spiritual music.

Anyone hoping that Randolph would shift the balance of power in his music back to his churchy heritage need only listen to We Walk This Road, a new recording that efficiently balances gospel and spiritual music tradition with grooves that truly span the ages.

“The record kind of brings me full circle,” said Randolph, one of the featured acts at this weekend’s Master Musicians Festival in Somerset. “The music we set out to do, the whole vibe surrounding it, involves people. So many audiences want to be uplifted on a sort of mainstream level without a record that purposely tries to be mainstream. We’re making music that simply connects on a spiritual level with the larger walks of life.”

The first step in connecting the cultural, stylistic and historical dots within the music on We Walk This Road was to understand the spiritualism existing in ages-old music created by artists who weren’t exclusively, as they say, church folk.

That meant examining early folk and blues music and the links that connected it to spiritual inspirations of secular artists from today. In doing so, We Walk This Road examines songs of everyone from bluesman Blind Willie Johnson to such comparatively modern songsmiths as Bob Dylan, Prince and Peter Case.

Probably the most inventive retooling of the album’s contemporary fare is found on Randolph’s version of John Lennon’s I Don’t Want to be a Solider Mama, a terse anti-war meditation first cut for the landmark Imagine album in 1971. Spiritualism, in this instance, becomes an earthy, survivalist quest.

To help pilot the journey, Randolph recruited a producer that has made a career out of bringing roots music inspirations to a contemporary spotlight: T Bone Burnett.

“I hadn’t really been connected to a lot of the early stuff out there by artists like Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James and Willie Dixon. T Bone really helped light a fire under a lot of that stuff for me. Going back to this whole library of original American roots music was really a treat.

“This is what guys like Dylan listened to long ago. This is the stuff (Led) Zeppelin and (Jimi) Hendrix listened to when they were coming up. They allowed this music to become their own.”

Two direct instances on We Walk This Road that illustrate such roots music excavation place brief snippets of the blueprint songs (segues, as they are termed in the album notes) alongside the reworked versions Burnett and Randolph fashioned.

For example, roughly 30 wiry seconds of Johnson’s of If I Had My Way I’d Tear This Building Down prefaces the easy country blues whine and merry percussive strut of a reading that matches Randolph’s pedal steel with the vocals and slide guitar of Ben Harper.

Later, verses of Them Bones recorded nearly 80 years ago by the gospel ensemble Mitchell’s Christian Singers lead into a modern variation titled Dry Bones that employs an ultra funky groove along with guitar colors by Randolph and Burnett.

“The deeper we got into this record, the more I talked with the engineers that always work with T Bone. They would say, ‘Man, you don’t even know. T Bone has been wanting to record these kinds of songs with a young artist for so long. But most of the young artists have been like, ‘No, I don’t think this music is too cool.’ So I think T Bone really felt in his heart that people needed to hear these songs.

“There’s no trend going on with this music. The only trend is that people should be uplifting one another.”

The Master Musicians Festival begins at 5 p.m. today and 11 a.m. Saturday at Festival Field of Somerset Community College, 808 Monticello St. in Somerset. Robert Randolph and the Family Band will close the festival at 10:15 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $20-$45 (adults) and $15-35 (teens and seniors). Call (606) 677-6000. For a full schedule, visit  www.mastermusiciansfestival.com.

donald sutherland, center, as mr. bennet with the rest of the brood in the 2005 film of jane austen's "pride and prejudice."

The Musical Box will be closed just for a few days as we head to Longbourne, or more exactly the Arboretum, for Summerfest’s production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. You’ve heard of Shakespeare in the Park? Well, get set for Austen in the Arboretum. We would be delighted to receive you there.

We’ll be back by the weekend with our latest Summer Album of the Week pick along with interviews with Robert Randolph, Joan Baez, Peter Case, Indigo Girls and more. Summer’s burning. Stay tuned.

sharon jones

This just in…

Buster’s Billiards and Backroom, 899 Manchester St., has just added two major shows to its fall calendar. Pop soul stylists Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings will perform on Sept. 17. Celebrated pop-rockers The Hold Steady will play there on Sept. 29. This will mark the first Lexington appearances by both bands.

We’ll detail the acts and their performances closer to the concert dates. What you need to know now, however, is that tickets for both concerts go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. Tickets for Jones are $22 in advance, $25 day of show. For The Hold Steady, tickets are $20 in advance and $22 day of show.

And as a bonus, the expert power pop, rock and soul of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals will open for Jones. Showtime for each concert will be 9 p.m.

For more ticket info, check www.ticketfly.com (the online service Buster’s uses for its shows), www.productionsimple.com (the Louisville organization that will be presenting both shows) and, of course, ye olde Buster’s website.

UPDATE (3:58 p.m.): Well, we’re partially deflated. Word just reached us from Production Simple in Louisville that Grace Potter is now off the Sharon Jones bill. Opening acts for Jones and The Hold Steady will be announced soon.

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