Dana Countryman

Moog-Tastic!

Oglio

After two collaborations with electropop legend Jean-Jacques Perrey, retro-synthesizer whiz Countryman finally finishes the debut album he started eight years ago.

As he states in his liners, the all-instrumental “Moog-Tastic!” is not an album made up of “mere sequences, disco rhythms, self-running patches, New Age-ish chord washes and rambling transitions,” but rather real melodies composed for electronic music.

And a few choice covers like “Day Tripper,” a throwback to the ’60s when Moog albums typically featured a Beatles tune or two or three. Toward the end of the track, Countryman deftly interweaves references to several Fab Four songs. Real drums are played by Rick Bowen, and there’s a banjo harmonium solo by latter-day Mott the Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher.

Also covered are Ennio Morricone’s theme to the 1971 film “La Califfa,” which Countryman rearranged for synthesizer with an ear toward solos for the Ondioline and three-time world champion Dutch whistler Geert Chatrou; and “Storm Over Beethoven,” a bombastic rock duet for synthesizer and drums based on the third movement of “Moonlight Sonata.”

Other highlights include the originals “Have Mersey on My Moog” (with a tasty harmonica break); “Vinnie’s Theme” (featuring stellar turns by session guitar great Vinnie Bell on electric sitar and electric “Water” guitar, both of which Bell invented); “Cocktails in Space” (sporting a jazz guitar solo by eclectic L.A. musician/producer Skip Heller); and “Farewell Mr. Rota” (a nod to another Italian film composer, Nino Rota, that makes extensive use of a controller allowing Countryman’s modular synthesizer to be played like a Theremin).

Lending support elsewhere are Dutch singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Fay Lovsky, who plays a real Theremin on the hybrid 18th-century classical/1950s sci-fi “Deserted Planet”; and Jean-Jacques Perrey, who contributes some of his famous “crazy tape loops” to “Jean-Jacques’ Theme,” a song that could accompany a Mack Sennett one-reeler — if they had synthesizers in 1937!

Tracks
1. Lovesick Martian Boy
2. Have Mersey On My Moog
3. Day Tripper
4. Vinnie’s Theme
5. Deserted Planet
6. Ragtime For Robots
7. Memories Of Paris
8. Cocktails In Space
9. Farewell Mr. Rota
10. Halloween At Moog Manor
11. Jean-Jacques’ Theme
12. La Califfa
13. Storm Over Beethoven
14. hidden track

Total time: 49:24

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store

Tags: electronic, instrumental, synthesizer

The Stone Foxes

Bears & Bulls

self-released

San Francisco-based blues rock quartet The Stone Foxes aren’t out to please the masses — thankfully. They’re doing their own thing, taking pointers from groups like Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Faces, Black Crowes and North Mississippi Allstars, mixing it all together, kneading it, rolling it out and throwing it in the oven to see what happens.

And boy can they cook, down-home style, with lots of country subtleties that sneak up and surprise. The democratic lineup has Spence Koehler as lead guitarist; Avi Vinocur as second axeman, unless he and bassist Aaron Mort swap; and brother Shannon Koehler holding it together on drums. When vocal chores aren’t rotated among the four, they’re shared, and all sing background at one point or another.

Coming out swinging is “Stomp”: The nearly a cappella group-vocal number begins with bass drum and clapping, then adds lap steel, harmonica and twin lap steel — all making for an early 20th-century revivalist tent atmosphere.

“Patience” is a breakup song whose arrangement evolves from standard lead and rhythm guitar into fiery double-lead that makes its point well. “Passenger Train” features Ron Wood-style pedal steel. “Easy” has mandolin, “Reno” showcases more double lead guitar and “Through the Fire” is a power ballad to do Keith Richards proud.

Two standouts: the electric-slide-drenched cover of Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster,” sounding like Zep circa “Physical Graffiti” meets “Tied to the Tracks”-era Treat Her Right; and the cleverly imagined “I Killed Robert Johnson.”

Tracks
1. Stomp
2. Patience
3. I Killed Robert Johnson
4. Passenger Train
5. Young Man
6. Easy
7. Reno
8. Through the Fire
9. Little Red Rooster
10. Hyde & Pine
11. Mr. Hangman
12. Come Again

Total time: 48:21

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store

Tags: blues, country, rock

Derek Trucks Band

Roadsongs

Masterworks

The Derek Trucks Band is on hiatus for 2010, but they’re releasing this double-disc 2009 concert recording to tide fans over. Heavy on material from the last album, “Already Free,” it improves on 2004’s “Live at Georgia Theatre” not only in terms of sonic quality but also with the addition of a horn section, lending it a more soulful feel à la The Band’s classic live “Rock of Ages.”

Clocking in at an hour and 45 minutes, there’s plenty here to chew on. Trucks’ slide guitar work just keeps blowing minds, Mike Mattison’s vocals glide effortlessly from whisper to growl, and the rest of the gang play with near perfect precision and from-the-gut emotion.

The title track from their last one merges the Delta blues found on the studio version with that sitar sound Trucks likes to dabble in. The 14-minute “Afro Blue,” written by Mongo Santamaria and popularized by John Coltrane, gives keyboardist Kofi Burbridge a chance to work out on his flute and likewise hired gun Mace Hibbard on his tenor sax.

Other highlights include the tandem percussion of drummer Yonrico Scott and unofficial member Count Mbutu on “Rastaman Chant” and “Key to the Highway”; a 13-minute medley of “Get Out of My Life Woman” and “Who Knows”; and a nine-minute cover of Derek and the Dominos’  ”Anyday” that was only hinted at when Trucks played with Eric Clapton at 2007’s Crossroads Guitar Festival.

Tracks

DISC ONE
1. I’ll Find My Way
2. Down In The Flood
3. Sailing On
4. Get What You Deserve
5. Days Is Almost Gone
6. Already Free
7. Afro Blue

DISC TWO
1. I Know
2. Down Don’t Bother Me
3. Don’t Miss Me
4. Rastaman Chant
5. Key To The Highway
6. Get Out Of My Life Woman / Who Knows
7. Anyday

Total time: 1:46:19

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store

Tags: blues, rock, soul

Dave Tanner

America Is You and Me

Seduction

Just in time for the Fourth of July comes “America Is You and Me,” an EP by Dallas-based Tanner, a regional bandleader known for his keyboard prowess and easy-listening vocals.

Adept at any musical style, Tanner got together with 37-year friend and three-Grammy engineer/producer Phil York of Yorktown Digital Works (who twisted the dials for Willie Nelson’s blockbuster concept album, “Red Headed Stranger”) and created this six-song album of original patriotic tunes, two of which were co-written by the pair.

The title song is a call to arms for all U.S. citizens to unite in self-pride, stating what the country isn’t as well as what it is. “America is more than left and right, and more than red states or blue,” it asserts. “When we split into us and them, the American Dream can’t stay true.”

“I Love You and America” tells the story of an emigrant who becomes a U.S. citizen and falls in love, professing to the woman he wants to marry, “I Love You and America.” “Angels in the Dust” is a 9/11 ballad invoking melodic bits of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the American abolitionist hymn “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Fighting for truth, justice and the American way is what “Forever the Beat” is all about, while “A New Star-Spangled Banner” humbly offers a simplified reworking of the national anthem of the United States.

When he’s not fronting a dance band, Tanner presents a variety of musical programs incorporating the stories behind the songs, hence the album’s spoken-word conclusion, “Story of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ “

Tracks
1. America Is You And Me
2. I Love You And America
3. Angels In The Dust
4. Forever The Beat
5. A New Star-Spangled Banner
6. Story Of “The Star-Spangled Banner”

Total time: 20:49

External links
artist’s website
CD Baby

Tags: easy listening, patriotic

Elvin Bishop

Red Dog Speaks

Delta Groove

Bishop has excelled at his craft through many phases, from Bay Area blues rock to southern rock to just plain blues.

But his post-Capricorn Records efforts with Alligator and Blind Pig were spotty, as if he were searching for a new identity. With “Red Dog Speaks,” Delta Groove has helped him find one after just two CDs, delivering on the promise of 2008’s “The Blues Rolls On.”

“Red” rightly returns to emphasizing his main strength: slide guitar. It expands on the previous release’s enlistment of heavyweights, with Tommy Castro, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Roy Gaines, Buckwheat Zydeco, John Nemeth and Kid Anderson in featured sidemen roles.

The best pure-slide cuts are aren’t always instrumental, as “Many Rivers to Cross,” with Nemeth on lead vocals, proves. But “Doo-Wop Medley” (consisting of “In the Still of the Night” and “Maybe”) and “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” join a long line of slide-showcasing instrumentals by Bishop, including “Last Mile,” “Stomp,” “Devil’s Slide,” “Mellow D,” “Sweet Dreams” and “Honest I Do.”

Nemeth also supplies vocals on “Neighbor Neighbor” (written by the Crazy Cajun, Huey P. Meaux) and Otis Spann’s “Get Your Hand Out of My Pocket.” Bishop, often shortchanged when it comes to recognition as an above-average singer, provides slightly hoarse yet heartfelt performances on such numbers as Leroy Carr’s “Midnight Hour Blues” and originals “Fat & Sassy” and the live “Blues Cruise.”

“Clean Livin’ ” and the title song continue his specialty in talking blues, offering advice from a senior party animal’s perspective and relating the history of the 1959 Gibson ES-345 he calls Red Dog.

Tracks
1. Red Dog Speaks
2. Neighbor Neighbor
3. Fat & Sassy
4. Barbecue Boogie
5. Many Rivers To Cross
6. Blues Cruise
7. Doo-Wop Medley
8. Get Your Hand Out Of My Pocket
9. His Eye Is On The Sparrow
10. Clean Livin’
11. Midnight Hour Blues

Total time: 39:49

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store

Tags: blues rock