The Musical Box

jamey johnson. photo by james minchin.

It’s outlaw time at the Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival. No, the annual Labor Day weekend event, now in its 31^st year, has not skidded over to the wrong side of the proverbial tracks. But the headline act of the festival’s Sunday night finale concert, Jamey Johnson, certainly embraces the spirit of electric outlaw music that ushered Nashville into the ‘70s.

The Alabama born Johnson has been a frequent visitor to the top of the country charts as a writer. He co-penned the Trace Adkins hit Honky Tonk Badonkadonk and George Strait’s 41^st No. 1 single Give It Away. Those recordings, however, bear little resemblance to the music Johnson stirred up on his 2008 album That Lonesome Song - a record that has regularly and respectfully been compared to the early music of Waylon Jennings.

The literary human detail of Johnson’s music is, by contemporary country standards, pretty meaty stuff. Sure, his current My Way to You single is anthemic through and through with a storyline that traces a hapless romantic “going down the wrong road, living by the wrong code” to a sweeping, electric chorus. But like the nostalgic contours of In Color and the blue collar Jennings-style narrative of High Cost of Livin’ - the singles that established Johnson on country radio - the emotive impact of My Way to You never sounds coerced. It is as solid as the deeply studied Southern accented music that stirs underneath its storyline.

My Way To You is the first tune from Johnson’s as-yet-untitled third album, which is due out in November.

James Otto, who has shared the stage at Rupp Arena with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Hank Williams, Jr., will help round out the Sunday bill. A founding member of the renegade Nashville collective MuzikMafia, Otto scored a No. 1 hit in 2007 with Just Got Started Lovin’ You.

The Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival, of course, runs all weekend long. The fun kicks off with the event’s traditional street dance at 6:30 p.m. Friday, continues with art, crafts and food exhibits all day Saturday and Sunday and will be capped off by fireworks following the Sunday concert. But then, Johnson has a reputation for playing three hour shows. It might just be Labor Day itself by the time the skies explode over Winchester this weekend.

Jamey Johnson, James Otto and Uncle Lijah perform at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 6 at Lykins Park in Winchester as part of the Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival. Tickets are $5.  Children 8 and under will be admitted free. Gates open at 4 p.m. Call (800) 298-9105.

very emergency: greg melnyk, jacob bell, ken fletcher, garrett hodges, meghan hodges, danny maupin. photo by nate eckelbarger.

Fans of local rockers Very Emergency should tune in to The Bob and Tom Show on Tuesday morning. The Lexington band will be on the air discussing a current string of concert dates as opening act for veteran pop celebrity Peter Frampton. Tune in around 9 a.m. and you will hear from Mr. Frampton himself who is scheduled to call in and join the chat.

The Very Emergency/Frampton connection began when the localites cut a version of Frampton’s 1977 pop hit I’m in You. Frampton heard it, gave his nod of approval and offered to add guitar and vocals. That planted the seeds for playing a few concerts together, although when Frampton was in Louisville last Thursday to play the Kentucky State Fair, Very Emergency was playing here at home at The Green Lantern.

The final shows featuring both acts will be held this weekend in New York and New Jersey. I’m in You is available locally on a re-released version of Very Emergency’s Chris Kimsey-produced debut album, The Getaway.

The Bob and Tom Show airs in Lexington on WKQQ, 100.1 FM.

update: The TV version of Very Emergency’s Bob and Tom Show appearance airs at midnight tonight (technically, 12 a.m. Wednesday) on WGN America.

billy mason and heather parrish of june july.

Were you lucky enough to land a ticket for Studio Players’ recent production of Always… Patsy Cline? If so, you wound up on a wonderful summertime rocket ride back to the days when country music possessed an unshakeable, soul-stirring charm altogether different from today’s Nashville pop confections.

The actress and singer that so vividly portrayed Cline, along with much of the band that ignited her finest songs, will be showcasing what they do on an entirely different stage tonight at Natasha’s Bistro.

The band is June July with vocalist Heather Parrish (Miss Patsy herself) and guitarist Billy Mason at the helm.

Learning Cline’s repertoire for an extended run of the production last month, of course, encompassed far more than mimicking the singer’s unending appeal. It meant mastering songs by Hank Cochran, Hank Williams, Cole Porter and, of course, Willie Nelson (composer of the landmark Cline hit Crazy) and Bill Monroe (whose Blue Moon of Kentucky was one of the show’s many highlights). Their material kept Cline’s career, more or less, on a roll.

But expect June July to supplement such vintage country charm with material of its own. The band has posted a few songs on its myspace page that shift from the near bossa nova flair of I’ll Meet You in Your Dreams to the torchier twang of Sweeter Dreams.

Put all of that onstage for an evening and it’s a good bet June July will be lighting up August just fine.

On another Natasha’s note: Cincinnati’s ever-popular folk-pop fave Over the Rhine, which usually packs the Kentucky Theatre every year or so, performs at the bistro on Sunday. Needless to say, that performance is sold out.

June July perform at 9 p.m. Friday at Natasha’s Bistro, 112 Esplanade. Cover charge is $6. Call (859) 259-2754.

The Kentucky State Fair prides itself in tradition, right down to the music it presents.

At first glance, the 14 concerts slated for the fair’s 11 day run in Louisville seem no different. The roster is heavy with popular country acts, classic rock staples and a lineup of free performances showcasing guitar rock, contemporary Christian music, ‘60s pop and, yes, still more country.

But something unusual - and, perhaps, unintentionally planned - will highlight the fair’s opening on Thursday. Simultaneously, two pop stars from different generations who obtained chart-topping popularity in very contrasting ways, will play that night on stages separated only by a few thousand feet and stalls filled with prize mules and bovine.

peter frampton

Outside at Cardinal Stadium, the site of the fair’s free concerts, ‘70s pop-rock poster boy Peter Frampton performs. Across the grounds in the indoor Freedom Hall, the very first American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, will hold court.

If nothing else, the single-night billing enforces how differently pop “idols” have ascended to stardom over the decades.

Frampton’s reign at the top of the pops was brief but substantial. His 1976 concert album Frampton Comes Alive! was released at a time when live records were essential to a major label rock act’s commercial life span. It hit No. 1, sold six million copies and scored three Top 20 singles.

But by the time the 1977 studio follow-up I’m in You emerged, the writing for Frampton’s time in the limelight was on the wall. By the end of the decade, he was a spent commercial force despite strong early ‘80s albums like Breaking All the Rules.

kelly clarkson

Upon winning the inaugural American Idol competition in 2002, Clarkson hit the pop charts with a No. 1 hit called A Moment Like This. She would score another eight Top 20 singles by early 2007 and amass worldwide record sales in excess of 20 million.

While there have been misfires in recent years (openly aired managerial shakeups and a substantial slip in record sales until the not-so-demurely titled My Life Would Suck Without You took her back to No. 1 this year), Clarkson remains one of only two Amercian Idol winners (Carrie Underwood being the other) to sustain a career with any kind of lasting commercial stamina.

But a look at the bigger picture evens the score a little. Clarkson entered her 20s when her career took off. When Frampton was 20, he was wrapping up a three year stint with the British post-psychedelic pop and boogie band Humble Pie to embark on a solo career and the recording of the landmark All Things Must Pass with George Harrison. Frampton Comes Alive!, with material pulled from four early ‘70s solo albums, was still six years away.

In short, one attained stardom after years of incessant recording and touring only to lose it in a critical - and, eventually, commercial - backlash. The other was the nearly instant creation of a wildly popular television program with no prior professional performance exposure at all.

Today, Frampton lives just to our north in Cincinnati with his third wife and maintains a still active touring career. The surprise, though, came in 2006 when his often overlooked skills as a guitarist were spotlighted on an instrumental album called Fingerprints. Amazingly, the record won Frampton his first and only Grammy. Perhaps, then, a better name for his next album might be Frampton Stays Alive

Clarkson won a pair of Grammys in 2005 for her single Since U Been Gone and its corresponding album Breakaway. But it’s hard to imagine a late career renaissance for Clarkson 30 years from now that would compare to Frampton’s recent success with Fingerprints. Despite the initial popularity of My Life Would Suck Without You, Clarkson’s current single, I Do Not Hook Up, sits at No 70 this week on the Billboard Hot 100 (it peaked at 20). And while it hit No. l, All I Ever Wanted remains the weakest seller of Clarkson’s four albums.

Suggesting possibly that Clarkson’s strength as a concert act might be suffering as a result is the fact the fair offered half-price tickets last week for two days to her Thursday concert.

It’s a fickle existence this pop star business. Whether you come to life on a TV screen or celebrate the commercial afterlife with a record where you keep your mouth shut, it remains a field where performers are embraced and disposed of as readily as chewing gum.

But on Thursday, the fair will show us which surface two pop giants of the present and past are still sticking to.  

The Kentucky State Fair runs from Aug. 20 through 30 at the Kentucky Exposition Center, 937 Phillips Lane in Louisville. Daily admission is $8 for adults and $4 children and seniors. Call: (502) 367-5001, (502) 367-5002 or visit www.kystatefair.org.

Here is the full State Fair concert lineup. All free performances will require admission to the fair itself. Plan also on a $6-per-vehicle parking fee. Tickets for the Clarkson, Journey and Urban concerts are available through TicketMaster at (800) 745-3000.

Aug. 20: Kelly Clarkson/Gavin DeGraw. Freedom Hall.. (8 p.m., $47, $52).

Aug. 20: Peter Frampton/The Afters. Cardinal Stadium. (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 21: Journey/Heart. Freedom Hall. (8 p.m., $50, $55).

Aug. 21: The Commodores. Cardinal Stadium. (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 22: Keith Urban/Pat Green. Freedom Hall. (8 p.m., $52, $67).

Aug. 22: Shinedown/Rev Theory. Cardinal Stadium. (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 23: The Oak Ridge Boys. Cardinal Stadium. (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 24: Jeremy Camp/Southeast Worship Band. Cardinal Stadium. (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 25: Gary Allan/Candy Coburn. Cardinal Stadium. (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 26: Bobby Vee/Fabian/Shirley Alston Reeves/Johnny Tillotson. Cardinal Stadium, (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 27: Pam Tillis/Mel Tillis. Cardinal Stadium, Louisville. (8 p.m, free).

Aug. 28: The Wallflowers. Cardinal Stadium, Louisville. (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 29: Billy Currington/Heidi Newfield. Cardinal Stadium. (8 p.m., free).

Aug. 30: Taylor Swift/Kellie Pickler/Gloriana. Freedom Hall, Louisville. (7 p.m., sold out).

The feeling this time is a little less maddening. But the finality of it is still sad.

Yesterday, word was confirmed The Dame will close for good on Aug. 23.

The downtown music club had re-opened last October in the old A1A location on East Main. Its former digs down the street on West Main were demolished the previous June to make way for the now-stalled CentrePointe project.

There was, justifiably, much outcry over the initial closing as the demolition also took out Mia’s (which has since successfully relocated to Short and North Limestone) and Buster’s (which will re-open in a larger, reinvented form on Manchester St. in September), thus effectively muting what had been one of downtown’s most active areas of nightlife.

In its new location, The Dame was a loner saddled with a stigma that many of its former patrons couldn’t shake. To some, the ghost of A1A’s frat rock/dance club days was a serious deterrent. Isolated as it was on a block of East Main that generally went to sleep after dark but housed in a complex with other bars with vastly more mainstream appeal, there was still an attractive comfort and spaciousness to the relocated Dame. But maybe one of the reasons it seemed so spacious was because it was so often empty.

The reasons for The Dame’s final closing are likely myriad. Luckily, the big picture isn’t at all as bleak as it when the West Main location shut down in 2008. Since then, older, smaller music venues - specifically Al’s Bar and The Green Lantern - catering more modestly to local music and smaller touring indie acts have emerged. Additionally, newer spots like Lower 48 in Victorian Square are now celebrating one year anniversaries.

There is also the upcoming rebirth of Buster’s. Its new Manchester St. location isn’t even open yet. But the venue already has five substantial shows slated for the fall that are/were right up The Dame’s alley: Young Dubliners on Sept. 16 (a rare regional outing by the Irish-American Celtic rock brigade); Blues Traveler on Sept. 25 (the veteran jam band’s first local club show); Silversun Pickups on Sept. 28 (with Manchester Orchestra and Cage the Elephant); Shooter Jennings and JJ Grey & Mofro on Oct. 1 (two acts that have packed The Dame in the past); and The Black Angels on Oct. 10 (part of WRFL’s Boomslang festival).

While it feels like we all passed out enough goodbyes in 2008 to The Dame to last several lifetimes, we will miss its final passing nonetheless. It was a flagship venue when live music in Lexington was at a premium. But there are no tears this time. Lexington has already moved on.

In his 2005 memoir Searching for the Sound, Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead outlined his observations on the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair not as one of its participants, but as an outsider.

“As I watched TV the next night, the main thrust of the reporting focused on the impact of the festival on the local area: a tremendous influx of people, clogged roads - and garbage,” Lesh wrote. “I’ve rarely seen Walter Cronkite so indignant as when he described the ‘tons and tons’ left behind, while the screen showed the trash filled mud slopes of the main amphitheatre.

“Crosby, Stills and Nash, on the other hand, were ecstatic, celebrating the festival as the most loving, peaceful and significant gathering of a new generation.”

Late last month, just before David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash began a concert at Cincinnati’s PNC Pavilion with one its Woodstock folk anthems Helplessly Hoping, the generational shift was considerable. In a sea of grey hairs, no hairs and the occasional well worn tie-dyed shirt, a pair of 20-somethings took their seats beside me. Both introduced themselves as students of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and admitted being taken with the group harmonies they heard on their parents’ CSN albums.

After a patron behind us jokingly asked the students if they had to be carded upon entry to the venue, I asked my neighbors if they had ever heard of Woodstock.

“You mean the movie with all the hippies?” one replied.

Yeah. That one.

roger daltrey of the who at woodstock.

Ask anyone - an elder, a contemporary, a curious youth, even - and it’s very likely they have at least heard of Woodstock. The passions rise a bit with the age brackets, though.

To some, it was indeed a generational summit, a mammoth chapter in pop and social history during the final months of the ‘60s. To others, maybe the late Walter Cronkite and most certainly my poor father who viewed such massively attended rock ‘n’ roll as a sure sign of the apocalypse, Woodstock was very much a garbage dump.

But with the arrival this weekend of Woodstock’s 40^th anniversary, there is no question that the three-and-a-half day festival, documented as it has been on recordings and films, remains one of the most compelling and complete time capsules of late ‘60s pop culture, the music that gave it life, the drugs that helped bring about its inevitable demise and the social backdrops of war and generational unrest.

“Three days of peace and music.” Being 10 at the time, I wasn’t there. But that advertised billing for the festival certainly seems a simplification in retrospect. This was an age where sound systems were almost prehistoric, where there were no such things as video screens to shoot a least a glimpse of stage activity to those sitting in the furthest recesses of Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York. And when it rained, which it did in torrents, attendees had no choice but to become creatures of the mud. The vibe, though, seemed to prevail.

Pop festivals were commonplace in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. But the Woodstock crowd level - widely thought to be somewhere near 500,000 - was a staggering generational statement unto itself.

“I’ve just got to say that you people have got to be the strongest bunch of people I ever saw,” said Stephen Stills during CSN’s Woodstock set, which was only the group’s second public performance. “Three days, man. Three days.”

jimi hendrix during woodstock's final set

From the acoustic percussive urgency of Richie Havens, who kicked off Woodstock around 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 15 to the final electric strains of Jimi Hendrix just before noon on Monday, Aug. 18, Woodstock made national headlines for the music, the garbage and the staggering numbers that turned out to witness it all.

From the Woodstock film, which became an Oscar winning documentary in 1970, all kinds of highlights remain arresting 40 years on. Among them:

* The split screen images of The Who’s Pete Townshend in mid air pounding out the Tommy finale of We’re Not Gonna Take It.

* Havens making up a chant style variation on Motherless Child called Freedom on the spot.

a young carlos santana with jose chepito areas at woodstock.

* A young Santana band introducing itself to the world with the Latin rock manifesto Soul Sacrifice.

* Stage announcements warning that “the brown acid is not specifically too good.”

* Sly and the Family Stone turning the festival into a psychedelic funk party with Dance to the Music.

* Hendrix retooling The Star Spangled Banner into elegant guitar noise for a new generation. Oh, did my dad ever despise that one.

Now with anniversary CDs and DVDs out this summer that dig further into the 120 hours of Woodstock performances, there are new delights to behold by Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Incredible String Band and, for the first time, the Grateful Dead.

For some, though, the lasting importance of Woodstock clearly went beyond what transpired onstage.

“I sat there onstage and thought, ‘You know what? This is the freedom my generation has been dreaming about since the ‘50s,’” said Havens while in Lexington last year for a performance on the WoodSongs Old -Time Radio Hour.

“All along we were trying to get a voice. And as I started singing during that long intro, that word came out - ‘freedom.’ So I just kept singing it. And all of a sudden that song came out. I just went, ‘Wow.’”

cursive: matt maginn, tim kasher and ted stevens.

Think the heavy road construction on Limestone has shut down CD Central? Not a chance. Our fave indie record store at 377 S. Limestone (which goes without saying, seeing as there really aren’t any others around here anymore) has snagged the Omaha trio Cursive for an in-store performance on Tuesday (7 p.m., free) ahead of its show later that night at The Dame, 367 E. Main (8 p.m., $10 with Very Emergency and The Love Language opening).

On its new Mama, I’m Swollen album, Cursive offers a variety of deceptively sunny pop reveries including Mama, I’m Satan and From the Hips. Both tunes mask lyrics that foam at the mouth a bit before blasts of garage rock frenzy and cowpunk glee take over.

Hear for yourself at www.myspace.com/cursive. And if you’re heading to CD Central for the in-store, it’s best to park behind the store on Jersey St. while Limestone is being ripped apart.

Call (859) 233-3472 for info on the CD Central set and (859) 231-7263 for the Dame show.

the high strung: david berk, chad stocker and josh malerman. photo by doug coombe.

For nearly a decade, the Detroit indie trio The High Strung has been making appealing pop music derived from a number of vintage inspirations.

The big beat, percussive rolls and orchestral sweep of Bad With My Hands recall the royal pop of the once great Phil Spector (although, lyrically, the song is more aloof than anything that has sailed out of Spector-ville). The Lifestyle That Got Away recalls The Kinks on their giddier, late ‘70s recordings. And then there is the wide eyed vocal charm of Standing at the Door of Self Discovery with a cheery ‘60s Brit pop appeal (the Sell Out-era of The Who especially comes to mind) and its tough-knuckled detour into more Americanized psychedelia.

The High Strung - guitarist/vocalist John Malerman, bassist Chad Stocker and drummer Derek Berk - bring those sounds and songs, all of which come from its fine new Ode to the Inverse of the Dude album - to Al’s Bar on Saturday.

This will be one of the trio’s first performances since playing for American troops in Guantanamo Bay last week. “This is no joke,” said an entry on the band’s myspace blog prior to the show. “We’re going to Gitmo.”

The High Strung performs with Oliver’s Offer at 8 p.m. Aug. 8 at Al’s Bar, Sixth and Limestone. $5. (859) 309-2901.

son volt: dave bryson, chris masterson, jay farrar, andrew duplantis and mark spencer. photo by j. wagner and s. waugh.

With a wonderfully dour new album called American Central Dust in stores, Jay Farrar and his newest Son Volt lineup head north to Newport on Friday.

Of course, this brings to mind the question of why the band has continually passed Lexington by over the past few years. We managed to get one Dame concert out of Farrar and company after their comeback Okemah and the Melody of Riot album was released in 2005. But now with a realigned roster that features guitarist Mark Spencer (who accompanied Farrar during an acoustic set at the Christ the King Oktoberfest in 2006) and bassist Andrew Duplantis (last seen here playing behind Alejandro Escovedo on the night of a January snowstorm at The Dame), it seems you’ve got to hit the road to catch Son Volt in action

If you go, go early. Cary Hudson of the recently revitalized Americana rock trio Blue Mountain, will open with a solo set.

Son Volt and Cary Hudson perform at 8:30 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Southgate House, 23 East Third St. in Newport. Tickets are $20. Call (859) 431-2201. For tickets, go to www.ticketweb.com

yim yames (jim james)

The late autumn of 2001 wasn’t exactly a golden age for anyone. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 had reshaped America’s very psyche. Letters full of anthrax spores turned the simple act of retrieving one’s mail into a dark adventure. And at the end of it all, we lost George Harrison.

Jim James of Louisville’s My Morning Jacket was shaken enough by the news of the Beatle’s late November passing that he took refuge at the Shelbyville farm where his band had recorded their initial albums and cut a half dozen Harrison tunes on his own.

The results didn’t surface officially until yesterday in the form of an EP disc James released under the name Yim Yames with the title Tribute To. It’s a stark, ghostly and ultra solitary affair with James recording his reverb dipped voice onto 8 track reel-to-reels with a few sparse acoustic sounds as accompaniment.

george harrison, circa 1987

The way James’ wordless vocal refrain reflects the plaintive orchestration of Harrison’s signature meditation My Sweet Lord is a thing of low-fi beauty. James’ treatment of the title tune from Harrison’s landmark 1970 album All Things Must Pass, while only slightly sunnier, employs atmospheric vocals that seem to bounce about as if trapped in an echo chamber with a lone guitar as support.

Two other All Things Must Pass works - a reverential piano/guitar reading of The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll) and an elegiac Behind That Locked Door - complete the disc along with a whispery, one man choir adaptation of Long, Long, Long (originally from the Beatles’ “white album”) and a spidery, neo-Appalachian lament revision of Love You To (from Revolver).

elvis lives! a steer named elvis is among the many animals rescued by the woodstock farm animal sanctuary.

In yesterday’s New York Times, Fernanda Santos outlines the curious circumstances of how the forgotten Harrison tribute finally surfaced not as a proper James/Yames solo venture but as a partial benefit for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary that received the blessing of the Beatle’s widow, Olivia Harrison.

It’s a touching story that befits equally touching music. All benefits should be so humble and respectful.

All six songs from Tribute To are available for free streaming at www.yimyames.com. Love You To is also being made available on the site as a free legal download.