DECEMBER 2012 Newsletter ------Yesterday & Today Records P.O
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DECEMBER 2012 Newsletter ----------------------------------------- Yesterday & Today Records P.O. Box 54 Miranda NSW 2228 Ph: (02) 95311710 Email: [email protected] Web: www.yesterdayandtoday.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------- Postage: 1cd/ 2cd $3/ 3-5 $8 Australia post has bucked the trend and increases prices at least 3-4 times a year. Don’t worry about inflation. They will create inflation. It is a little late but there was a lot to include and you will find that the BOX SETS listings are much more user friendly in their setting out. We are here between Christmas and New Year. Have no hesitation in calling over the holiday period. If you get the recorded message please leave a message. There are a lot of fine new albums and I dare say the album of the year may come from one of these. Any questions? Please do not hesitate to ask. We look forward to hearing from you. Wesley Dennis “Country Enough” $28 Some artists don’t make it easy for themselves do they? Wesley lives somewhere like Indiana and yet sells his cds ...or rather doesn’t sell his cds...out of Canada. A great artist with a fine voice and more than a passing nod to the wonderful Mel Street. This is as good if not better than his two previous albums, “Wesley Dennis” and “Country to the Core”. The first was on Mercury and the second was an independent with the same brilliant marketing stategy he employs on his latest. But who is he to be told. Wesley has written 7 of the album’s 14 tracks and all are fine. I really like the witty “The Dog Won’t Hunt”. One of the non-Wes songs is “Brotherly Love” and he does an excellent version with Brian Mallery, another fine singer. His own “A Month of Sundays” is a classic and his voice owes more than a touch to Mel Street. It is hard to say but I didn’t really like his version of Mel’s big hit “Lovin’ on Back Streets” as Wesley is joined by his mother on this track and whilst it may seem harsh to say it is about as good as the track Iris Dement had her mother sing on 1 her “Infamous Angel” album...in other words it isn’t. But we should feel grateful we have this album. Nornally I don’t like songs that preach “how country” the singer or the song is but the title of the track is great as Wes does a career summary in song. Excellent stuff. And please, don’t dally...a Wes in the hand is worth two in Canada....or something like that, in other words don’t chance it is going to be around long. Tim Culpepper “Pouring Whiskey on Pain” $28 Some artists don’t make it easy for themselves Part II. This may be album of the year but no thanks to the clowns promoting it. They essentially promoted it as if out...sending out bits to radio stations in the first half of the year yet it was only pressed October Again...take my word...this may be album of the year. He has a voice which is reminiscent of the likes of Mark Chesnutt and I would go as far as to say “One More For the Road” will remind a lot of Chesnutt’s classic “Too Cold at Home”. Many of the songs are by Elbert West, a fine artist in his own right BUT Tim is the vastly superior vocalist. In fact all 11 songs are originals and all have a very late 80s sound bout them...they compare more than favourably with the best Ricky Van Shelton, Alan Jackson or Randy Travis had to offer. “Pouring Whiskey On Pain” is a song I thought I have heard before...maybe it is just that good. What a classic opening 4 lines that sets the scene perfectly: I got a box-set of Hag, a 3-finger glass And a bottle of dark 90 proof To help chase away misery, by drowning her memories But still I can't out-drink the truth The honky tonk aspects couldn’t be better. The album is a gem. Tim Culpepper is a star. 13 tracks of delightful and pure country. Sweethearts of the Rodeo “Restless” Cold Trade Records Sisters Janis and Kristine Oliver (Janis of course was married to Vince Gill but has reverted to the maiden “Oliver”) had great success in the early 90s when on Columbia with a jaunty style that approached rockabilly on many occasions. They then made a couple of bluegrass flavoured albums on Sugar Hill which were also well received. They have limited themselves to a single concert per year at the Bluebird cafe since then. They also had a clothing store in Hendersonville, Tennessee...not sure if they still do. Anyway the new album mixes elements of both BUT the title track is an all out cracker and could have easily been on their first album. Nashville guitar wiz Kenny Vaughan is featured throughout as is Al Perkins. Producer, Dave Pomeroy is also a much in demand bass player. Richard Bennett, one of the best guitarists going makes some fine contributions such as the almost Duane Eddy like intro on the opener “You Can’t Hold Me Back”. Great harmonies, in fact excellent throughout. Interesting the track “Maybe Tonight” is shown as a co-write between Janis Oliver and Vince Gill and can’t help wondering when it was written. “Too Little Too Late” is a smacking little rockabilly number. For a change of pace “Hopeless Rose” is a ballad about a person of tehe same name. Co-writer is Jon Randall (now adding his real surname “Stewart” back on to his name). “Going to Kentucky” reverts to the uptempo style with some nice flourishes on dobro (Al Perkins). Nice album, a great album in fact and I would almost play a track from John Anderson’s “Wild & Blue” for Vince Gill....”You Never Looked That Good When You Were Mine”...as Janis looks very hot!! Sorry, had to put that in!! Time Jumpers “The Time Jumpers” $28 I have always offered Vince Gill's "The Key" as an example of how good major label country music can be,even in the rank pop driven times of today. It does goes back a bit now (1998) but Vince has on the 3-4 tracks he is featured as lead vocalist actually made this a mini-Key if you like. Stunning Nashville sound recreated. I'd even go as far as saying "Three Sides to Every Story" is (hard to believe) better than anything on "The Key". BUT..there is more. Vince is one of 4 vocalists. The delightful Dawn Sears, her husband Kenny Sears and Ranger Doug Green (of Riders in the Sky) provide wonderful variety in the vocal department and the instrumentation from the likes of Kenny Sears and Joe Spivey on fiddle and Paul Franklin on steel is faultless and thrilling....they actually do solos...and not the 3 second variety 2 that major label artists throw in to suggest they are performing country music. Their previous "Live at Station Inn" had slightly different personnel (I do miss wonderful vocalist Carolyn Martin) and was more a western swing album, whereas this is a country album with just a little swing thrown in. If you are serious about REAL country music this cd is for you. Leona Williams “By George”$28 Old George is the song that leads off Leona’s George Jones tribute cd, a great Leona original which leads to 13 classic George Jones covers. Leona has been referred to by no less a person than George himself as the best female vocalist going and her interpretations are just grand. Janis Martin “Banco Sessions” $28 $20 Janis was one of the rockabilly greats, a contemporary of Wanda Jackson & in every way as good. This is her last project completed before her sudden death in 2007 and the session was produced by Rosie Flores, who states her biggest influences as Janis & Wanda. Top notch performances all the way with a great band including the fabulous T Jarrod Bonta on piano and Dave Biller on guitar. There are some quite bluesy tracks but she also does some classic rockabilly including “Wild One (Real Wild Child)”..the Johnny O’Keefe track and gets its origins 100% correct. There is some pure country as well. Nice album all the way with fine notes. James Hand “Mighty Lonesome Man” $28 First in a while and lo and behold his best yet. So good and with every track bar one written by our hero. If Norman Wade, Vernon Oxford and co are your favourites you can guarantee James Hand will be too. Most of the songs are of medium tempo but it is the wonderful story song “Old Man Henry” that many will turn to and why wouldn’t you. It is somewhat unusual. Over 5 minutes long but you become riveted from the outset. It is very much like the opening bit of “He Stopped Loving Her Today’ in the sense that song had a very long intro before reaching the chorus...except that James doesn’t have a chorus. It is brilliantly carried off and whilst with the Jones comparison even sounds a bit like George. Is it a true story?? The album has great instrumentation with some of the best Texas has to offer...Bobby Flores/ Alvin Crow/ Cindy Cashdollar/ Earle Poole Ball. I think James will be lining up for album of the year.