what to say . . . at times like these you hope for a midnight train to take you away from pain you don’t want to RECORD feel . . . all I can give is love.” Albert wrote or co-wrote seven of the 11 songs and covered Jackson REVIEWS Browne’s “For a Dancer,” Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” you . . . ache will set in slowly like this project ——“Tonight I’m Play- and Tom Peterson’s “Dakota water cracks a stone . . . come sum- ing Possum,” a song written just after David Frizzell & Friends Lullaby.” She produced Everything’s mer, pain will blossom like a rose … George Jones’ death. Earlier press Buddy Holly Country Beautiful Now with her husband, Chris our long-lost child haunts the au- releases issued when Travis was hos- Tribute Gage, who also added piano, organ, tumn moonlight . . . you will reach pitalized with heart problems stated acoustic and electric guitars, accor- Buddy Holly Educational and not find me.” that George Jones’ widow, Nancy dion, harmonies, and more. Lloyd Foundation The fifth-generation Texan’s Jones, visited Travis in the hospital. second’“solo” album — he’s got two Maines played Dobro, Kym Warner Great songs, originally recorded by The two musicians were more like more with his brother Hollin and mandolin, Kim Deschamps pedal the great rock-n-roll artist Buddy family than friends. one with Leigh — adds guitar and steel, Glenn Fukunaga and David Holly, and now recorded and re- And the fiddle that opens the bass to his vocals; Leigh plays lead Carroll bass, Paul Pearcy drums, leased by great country artists — Bobby Vinton classic, “There I’ve Said and rhythm guitars and mandolin Kira Small harmony vocals, and her what’s not to love about this com- It Again,” is priceless, bringing the plus harmony vocals; Rebecca Patek son Troupe Gammage duets with her missioned Buddy Holly Country Trib- listener directly into the song. adds fiddle, violin, viola, and har- on Shake Russell and Dana Cooper’s ute CD. Who are those great artists And so it goes. All said, as if mony vocals; Ricky Davis and Ethan “Lean My Way.” who worked on this project? David “There, I’ve Said It Again.” But it Shaw Jonathan —TOM GEDDIE Frizzell, Merle Haggard, Jimmy For- add pedal steel; bears repeating — country music Milton Ray tune, Helen Cornelius, Sonny Curtis, adds pennywhistle, and superstar Randy Travis is one born- Bonneville adds harmonica. and T Graham Brown. It’s billed as a again Texan still producing true Micky & the Motorcars —TOM GEDDIE country album, but there’s a lot of country music and proving that Nash- Hearts From Above rockabilly and blues thrown into the ville still knows how to produce true Self-released mix, as well. Randy Travis country music. The CD starts with Haggard’s Luxurious classic country, Influ- HEARTS FROM ABOVE, NEW FROM Influences Vol. 2: The ences Vol. 2: The Man I Am” is avail- Micky & the Motorcars, is a rocking version of “Remember Me,” and ends Man I Am with the same song, but the second able in stores and on Internet pur- Americana album about longing of time sung by Frizzell, Cornelius, and Warner Music chase sites, including ITunes. A must one sort or another. It’s musically for the country music lover in all of full; the sound, which has a certain and the poor rich kid from the board- shadows of the blood moon in the Fortune. Different versions, same LESS THAN A YEAR SINCE Randy us. sameness to it, nevertheless never ing school, neither of whom seemed sky, moving at a pace we couldn’t song, and proof that a good singer Travis’ CD Influences Vol. 1 was re- — MARY JANE FARMER, quite overflows into excess. to have any chance at all; they fall in hold; is this a civil war song, too? can cover a song in his own voice and leased, they’ve gone and done it again. Founding members Micky love and, well, you know the rest of “Tonight We Ride” is described style and yet keep it true to the Infuences Vol. 2: The Man I Am is now (pleasingly raw lead vocals, guitar) the story. as”“an anthem for soldiers and cow- original. available and every bit as strong, in Christine Albert and Gary Braun (guitar, mandolin, The one cover is “Sister Lost Soul,” boys and cowgirls and bikers . . . Frizzell introduces each song, every sense, as the first volume. Everything’s harmonica, and vocals) are joined by written by influential Alejandro anybody that sticks together as a giving the date and place where The 7-time Grammy award-win- Beautiful Now newcomers Escovedo. team:” tomorrow we fight for the Buddy Holly originally recorded it. ner released this, his 22nd album, MoonHouse Records Dustin Schaefer (lead guitar), The first of two “outlier” songs, ones we left behind.” Haggard does a great job on “That’ll just recently, packed with tribute Joe Fladger (bass), and Bobby Paugh both at the end of the album, begin For anyone who doesn’t know it, Be The Day;” Brown puts his soul songs to those who, Travis said in his Christine Albert ONCE AGAIN (drums) on the band’s seventh al- with the excellent “From Where the these two Brauns are the brothers of stamp on “Maybe Baby” and on the liner notes, “…I am reminded that it shares her fine, sometimes aching bum. Sun Now Stands,” which is a tribute two other Brauns — the ones from Ray Charles classic “Drown In My is true that we learn from the ones voice on Everything’s Beautiful Now, The songs tend to be about pick- to Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Reckless Kelly — and all four of Own Tears;” Fortune and Cornelius ahead of us and teach the ones that and a mostly hopeful country, folk, ing up the pieces, being hurt, true Indians of the Pacific Northwest: them sing on the opening, title song; put a smooth croon on “True Love follow.” pop kinda hybrid album that’s al- love and cheating, and the woman “peace turns to anger, my heart is it’s something Gary said “hasn’t hap- Ways;” and Frizzell and Fortune even This 13-song project features ways pretty and is well played and who wants to fall apart just so she can sick and sad, this ragtag band long pened in the studio since we were recorded “Walk Right Back,” written Travis’ rendition of songs made popu- well produced. Many of the 11 songs feel something. Then there’s the poor gone by tomorrow far away where teenagers.” by Sonny Curtis, in memory of Buddy lar by Merle Haggard, Hank Snow, grew out of the deaths of more than little poor girl from the trailer park the sun now stands, hiding in the —TOM GEDDIE Holly’s friend, Phil Everly. Bobby Vinton, and a great version of a dozen close friends and family In all, there’s 20 songs included the late Waylon Jennings’ “Only members including her mother-in- in this project, 21 if you count both Daddy That’ll Walk The Line,” com- law who told her, in her final hours, versions of “Remember Me,” and it plete with that walking riff that “Everything’s beautiful now.” comes with a DVD, with all six su- songwriter Jimmy Bryant wrote into The title song: “Now, I can’t grieve perstars talking about their involve- the beat. And his version of the clas- anymore, I’ve seen so many sail away AMERICANA By Tom ment in Buddy Holly’s life and mu- sic Ray Price “For The Good Times” from my shore never to come through sic, and in the CD project. It also is unparalleled as a cover song. one the door again, I have my regrets, I’m Geddie features clips from the recording, that the late Mr. Price himself would TEXAS ready now to lay them to rest . . . I studios and photos taken over Buddy have been proud to hear. There’s don’t know why or how but IT’S A GOOD-NATURED CHEAP wounded from war and the woman Dove,” “The Last Picture Show,” and Holly’s too-short career. more classic artists also honored here. everything’s beautiful now.” Ishot, I suppose, but I can’t help he loves stays to watch him waste other fine books that turned into fine This keepsake CD, Frizzell & And when Travis sings Kris “For a Dancer:” “keep the fire thinking about the assortment of, away. movies. Friends, Buddy Holly Country Tribute, Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning burning in your eyes, pay attention uh, interesting relatives coming to On “Down to the Wire,” a man Author of such lines as: is available Online through the Buddy Coming Down,” it sounds from the to the open sky; . . . dancing our song the reunion in James McMurtry’s claims, “we fight for what we want, “But just let me tell you some- Holly Educational Foundation heart, and his version of the Jimmie away . . . in the end there’s one dance “Choctaw Bingo.” You know the song, not for what is right,” telling a woman thing, son, a woman’s love is like the tbhef.org Rodgers classic “California Blues” is you’ll do alone.” the one that begins “Strap them kids “the night I gave you that bruise, we morning dew, it’s just as apt to settle — MARY JANE FARMER flawless. “At Times like These:” “when in give ’em a little bit of vodka / In a made love and you asked me to hurt on a horse turd as it is on a rose. So There’s one repeat from Vol. 1 on someone love is gone, I don’t know Cherry Coke, we’re going to Okla- you, I wish I could say I refused.” you better just get over it.” homa / To the family reunion for the “Moriah” is a fresh take on a “For most of the hours of the Noel McKay first time in years.” cliched theme. A man and a woman day“– and most of the months of the Is That So Much to Ask The song comes to mind because are trapped. They have only two year – the sun had the town trapped Self-released of a new album that came in the mail bullets left. deep in dust, far out in the chaparral a week or two ago: Respectable Enemy “We hold onto each other in the flats, a heaven for snakes and horned “ARE YOU STILL TAKING by Curtis McMurtry. James’ son. Larry grit and the mud, my hands covered toads, roadrunners and stinging liz- Them Pills” sings Noel McKay on the McMurtry’s grandson. with blisters your shirt covered in ards, but a hell for pigs and Tennes- opening song of his new album, Is He’s 23 years old. Born and raised blood, you thought the vultures were seans.” That So Much to Ask. Is it still giving in Austin, he grew up listening to his angels come to take us away, off into “The lives of happy people are him thrills? Are the prescription writ- father, Jon Dee Graham, Matt the the sunset at the last of the day and I dense with their own doings: ten on a stack of $20 bills? On the co- Electrician, and many others before know we won’t ever get out of this crowded, active, thick. But the sor- write with Brennen Leigh), the singer studying music composition at, of all hole . . . so pull back the hammer, rowing are nomads, on a plain with is clean now but still thinks about places, Sarah Lawrence College in stare up at the sky, rest your hand on few landmarks and no boundaries; getting high; he’s sad for his friend Bronxville, New York, where he my shoulder, we’ll pretend we can sorrow’s horizons are vague and its who still does, who apparently mostly wrote contemporary cham- fly off into the sunset at the last of the demands are few.” couldn’t — and can’t — handle it. ber music for banjo and strings. In day.” “Self-parody is the first portent It’s a sobering song. 2013, he moved to Nashville to On “Chaplinesque,” he pro- of age.” Is That So Much to Ask is a good, sharpen his songwriting skills by co- claims, “when we had to, we all “If you wait, all that happens is interesting Americana album with a writing with veteran writers includ- learned to bend . . . whatever makes that you get older.” certain light sense of humor in many ing Guy Clark and Fred Koller. a fragile thing seem safe . . . we never “By the time the shade had of the otherwise dark songs. He wrote one of the dozen songs grow up, we only get better behaved.” reached the river, Augustus would On the dozen songs, the former on Respectable Enemies, Producer Will Sexton skillfully have mellowed with the evening and half of the delightful, literate McKay “Chaplinesque,” when he was 17. uses the busy – not cluttered – music be ready for some intelligent conver- Brothers also shares co-writes with I’m not ready to anoint him as to build context for the songs. sation, which usually involved talk- songwriting royalty Guy Clark, Rick anything yet but his writing certainly Good stuff. Part of the family ing to himself.” Brantley, Richard Dobson, and David is a cut above that of so many of the business. Despite his father James’ “It’s like I told you last night, son. Olney. young ones. His songs are some- proclamation, he once told me, that The earth is mostly just a boneyard. There’s an old-style country where between country and folk and he was more interested in the mu- But pretty in the sunlight.” cheatin’ song. There are a couple of maybe even rock with a rare Spanish sic’– in making molecules bounce “Occasionally the very youngness Mexican border songs. There are love sort of accent to some of them; his around the room – than he was in the of the young moved him to charity. and tragedy, praise for true friends voice remains mostly raw, and the lyrics of his own increasingly middle- They had no sense of the swiftness of we can count on, an appeal for peace, sound is honest. America poetic songs. Perhaps that life, nor of its limits. The years would and more. Not everything’s happening on was because he was forging his own pass like weeks, and loves would “Come Winter,” the co-write with the surface in these songs. Which is identity out from under his famous pass too, or else grow sour.” Brantley, comes close to being litera- one of the reasons I like the writing. father, the novelist and bookstore Curtis McMurtry has, perhaps, ture: “you will long for me I know, On the opening “Ghost in My owner Larry McMurtry. Or perhaps the same sort of potential as a writer. need someone to old you . . . to wrap Bed,” he’s found a hole to hid in, a it was nothing so psychological; It’s a burden of sorts, although a his arms around you when the bartender to keep him company un- maybe he just digs the many ways strangely joyful one. It is, perhaps, a norther starts to blow . . . should til the devil comes for him. guitars can sound. family tradition as he, like his father, springtime loose the icy grip upon On “Foxhole,” a man returns Larry McMurtry: “Lonesome forges his own identity. ■ 4BUDDYSEPTEMBER 2014