Royal Southern Brotherhood

Royal Southern Brotherhood

Ruf

This blues-rock supergroup formed in response to the question, “Why haven’t the Allmans and Nevilles ever collaborated?” Technically, no one from the Allman Brothers Band is here — but Gregg Allman’s guitar-playing son Devon is, along with the youngest Neville Brother, 64-year-old percussionist Cyrille.

Rounding out the lineup are up-and-coming guitarist Mike Zito; Derek Trucks Band drummer Yonrico Scott; and Louisiana-bred bassist Charlie Wooton (Zydefunk).

Recorded in five days at Dockside Studio, Maurice, La., with producer Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Thorogood, Walter Trout), RSB’s debut is impressive on several levels: songwriting (Zito, Allman and Neville co-write in various combinations), singing (lead vocals are alternated from song to song or shared within a particular track) and musicianship (the two guitars never overpower  the rhythm section).

Highly recommended cuts include:

• “Moonlight Over the Mississippi,” with its wah-wah action — a guitar effect featured prominently throughout the album.

• The Grateful Dead’s “Fire on the Mountain,” given the Royal treatment via slide guitar and more of that beloved wah-wah pedal, this time à la “Theme From Shaft.”

• ”Nowhere to Hide,” a double delight with the spotlight on not just electric slide, but acoustic slide as well.

• The genre-blending ”Hurts My Heart,”  in which country-rock harmonies mesh with southern-rock guitars.

• “Sweet Jelly Donut,” where the slide guitar does a bump-and-grind that’s guaranteed to thrill the most staid listener.

• The title track, “Brotherhood,” a short but stunning instrumental with a West African rhythm beneath call-and-response guitars that tip the hat to Dickey-and-Duane jams of yore.

Tracks
1. New Horizon
2. Fired Up!
3. Left My Heart In Memphis
4. Moonlight Over The Mississippi
5. Fire On The Mountain
6. Ways About You
7. Gotta Keep Rockin’
8. Nowhere To Hide
9. Hurts My Heart
10. Sweet Jelly Donut
11. All Around The World
12. Brotherhood

Total time: 51:54

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
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Tags: blues, rock

World Party

Arkeology

Seaview

World Party is, most of the time, a one-man party: Welsh singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Karl Wallinger, previously of the Waterboys for two albums in the mid-1980s. From 1987 to 2000, he put out five full-length studio albums under the WP moniker, creating such memorable songs as “Private Revolution,” “Ship of Fools,” “Way Down Now” and “Put the Message in the Box.”

After being waylaid from 2001 through 2005 by a brain aneurysm, Wallinger returned to touring and now has taken his own advice and put the message in the box — ”Arkeology,” a five-disc box set of 70 previously unreleased tunes spanning 25 years.

Fans of World Party’s exquisitely off-center, environmentally conscious pop rock will be falling all over themselves as they digest this bounty of studio cuts, demos, EP and single rarities, tribute contributions, and radio and concert performances.

Virtually all the studio recordings have never been released in any form, and there are enough of them to build four albums’ worth. Especially notable are the country workouts “Where Are You Going When You Go?” and “In Another World”; the funky “Everybody Dance Now”; the vaudevillian “The Good Old Human Race”; the doo-woppish “Nature Girl”; the “Woolly Bully”-like “World Groove/Mind Guerrilla”; and the Beach Boys-like “Kuwait City.”

Included are covers of Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Sly Stone, the Oscar-nominated “When Did You Leave Heaven” (from the 1936 musical “Sing, Baby, Sing”) and five Beatles songs (including the solo Paul McCartney “Man We Was Lonely”).

Among the live tracks are two versions each of “Ship of Fools” (one of which is horn-enriched) and “Put the Message in the Box” (including an electro-acoustic, twin-lead rendition in which a fiddle takes the place of the second electric guitar); and “She’s the One,” a Wallinger tune that Robbie Williams rode to No. 1 in the U.K.

The studio version of “Mystery Girl” arguably is the best rarity of the bunch, having been previously available only on “Rare On Air: Vol. 2,” a various artists compilation of live sessions from KCRW-FM’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” show.

Tracks

Disc 1
1. Waiting Such A Long Time
2. Nothing Lasts Forever
3. Everybody’s Falling In Love
4. Where Are You Going When You Go?
5. Photograph
6. Everybody Dance Now
7. Closer Still
8. I Want To Be Free
9. I’m Only Dozing
10. No More Crying
11. Interview/Sweet Soul Dream (radio)

Disc 2
1. Lucille
2. The Good Old Human Race
3. Put The Message In The Box (live)
4. Trouble Down Here
5. Basically
6. Silly Song
7. Man We Was Lonely
8. She’s The One (live)
9. Ship Of Fools (live)
10. Mystery Girl (radio)
11. This Is Your World Speaking (live)
12. All The Love That’s Wasted
13. Lost In Infinity
14. New Light (demo)

Disc 3
1. Words
2. Dear Prudence
3. Call Me Up (radio)
4. Like A Rolling Stone (live)
5. Sooner Or Later (live)
6. Love Street (live)
7. Time On My Hands
8. Who Are You (live)
9. Sweetheart Like You
10. Another World
11. You’re Beautiful, But Get Out Of My Life
12. Living Like The Animals
13. Stand! (live)
14. Thank You World (pre-edit)

Disc 4
1. Break Me Again
2. Baby (demo)
3. Ship Of Fools (live)
4. Put The Message In The Box (live)
5. When Did You Leave Heaven?
6. Nature Girl
7. It’s A Pity You Don’t Let Go
8. My Pretty One
9. De Ho De Hay
10. We Are The Ones
11. World Groove/Mind Guerilla
12. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
13. Kuwait City
14. Do What I Want
15. All We Need Is Everything (demo)
16. Outro

Disc 5
1. Mystery Girl (studio version)
2. What Is Love All About? (alternate drums)
3. I Hope It All Works Out For You (demo)
4. And God Said (long version)
5. It Ain’t Gonna Work
6. Another One
7. I Am Me
8. It’s Gonna Be Alright
9. In Another World
10. Thank You World (live)
11. Cry Baby Cry
12. Temple Of Love
13. Fixing A Hole
14. Way Down Now (live)
15. Change The World (demo)

Total time: 5:01:19

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
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Tags: rock

Shawn Starski

Shawn Starski

Cookitup

Guitarist extraordinaire Starski’s roots go back to his early teens, playing bass in a Detroit church band. He evolved as a guitarist in Florida through blues-rock and jump/swing outfits, before serving a seven-year tour of duty with Memphis-based prog blues combo Jason Ricci and New Blood. For the last couple of years, he’s toured and/or recorded with kindred blues performers including pianist-singer Kelley Hunt, former Little Feat singer Shaun Murphy and banjoist-guitarist-singer Otis Taylor.

Now settled in Nashville with his wife, Elle (who has her own group, Elle and the Fine Lines), Starski has established a solo career with this impressive self-titled release.

Among many standout tracks is “Means Nothing Now,” a blues shuffle about a company man laid off by his employer after years of dedicated service. Insult is added to injury when the protagonist tries to drown his sorrow at the local tavern and the barkeep tells him to pay up or get out. It’s one of three songs featuring an alternate rhythm section of drummer Jimi Goglesong and bassist Geoff Newhall. For the rest of the album, Todd Edmunds and Steve Johnson supply bass and drums, respectively.

Wife Elle takes over vocals on “Cry Baby” and “The Truth” — and with a sultry voice like that, it’s easy to see why Starski was attracted to her.

Many albums include an instrumental or two, but Starski literally jazzes things up with a pair of tunes that are like syncopated islands in a sea of blues rock: On “Hallows Eve” he sounds like a sinister Wes Montgomery, supported by Edmunds’ sublime walking bass, producer/engineer Phil Wolfe’s subtle organ and vibelike keyboards, and the whisper-to-scream honking of guest saxophonist Cole Bergus.

The other instro, “For Us,” smolders in the vein of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s cover of Robert Geddins’ “Tin Pan Alley.”

Starski covers himself on “How It Come To Be,” originally on Jason Ricci and New Blood’s 2009 disc, “Done With the Devil,” on which Starski and New Blood drummer Ed Michaels were given one song apiece to sing lead on. Here it’s transformed from an unplugged dobro showcase to an electric slide extravaganza.

Spanning many subgenres of blues, rock and jazz guitar, this eponymous debut is sure to get Starski noticed. As the saying goes: The future is wide open.

Tracks
1. Sea Of Faces
2. Was It You
3. Dirty Deal
4. For Us
5. Cry Baby
6. How It Come To Be
7. The Truth
8. Means Nothing Now
9. Hallows Eve
10. Sweet Cherry Rose

Total time: 39:00

External links
artist’s website
CD Baby
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Tags: blues, jazz, rock

Darrell Scott

Long Ride Home

Full Light

Scott’s impressive resumé incorporates songwriting, studio musicianship and solo artistry.

His songs have been recorded by more than 70 artists, from Garth Brooks to Guy Clark to Keb’ Mo’. He’s recorded with Steve Earle, Joan Baez, Jim Lauderdale, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Randy Travis and Robert Plant, to name a few. His solo discography, spanning 15 years, comprises five albums of newly written material (six counting his rejected 1992 first effort, which surfaced in 2003 as “Theatre of the Unheard”), a live album (2004′s “Live in NC”) and a collection of folk covers (2008′s “Modern Hymns”).

“Long Ride Home” differs from Scott’s previous releases: It’s closer to traditional country and contains nary a trace of folk, bluegrass or jazz. But subtle shades of outlaw country reflect aspects of earlier offerings.

The tracking band for the sessions, recorded at his Nashville home studio, is Scott (guitars and vocals), Hargus “Pig” Robbins (piano), Kenny Malone (drums) and Dennis Crouch (upright bass).  Hired hands include Lloyd Green (pedal steel), and Charlie McCoy and Mickey Raphael (harmonicas).

Among the guest singers are Rodney Crowell (“Hopkinsville”), Patty Griffin (“You’ll Be With Me All the Way”), Tim O’Brien and John Cowan (“No Love in Arkansas” and “Too Close to Comfort”), and Guy Clark (who shares lead vocals on his co-write, “Out in the Parking Lot”).

Scott wrote two songs, “The Country Boy” and “You’re Everything I Wanted Love to Be,” 36 years ago — when he was just 16 — at a cabin in Big Bear, Calif., with his late father, Wayne. Scott had made it possible for his dad to finally release an album of his own in 2005, and last year just before he passed away, the two cut “The Country Boy” together in the studio.

“Long Ride Home” is Scott’s tribute to the background music of his childhood, “country music how I remember it.” It’s also his best album yet.

Tracks
1. It Must Be Sunday
2. Hopkinsville
3. Out In The Parking Lot
4. Someday
5. No Use Living For Today
6. You’re Everything I Wanted Love To Be
7. Dance In The Darkness
8. No Love In Arkansas (The Ring)
9. The Country Boy
10. Trying Not To Love You
11. Pay Lake
12. Candle For A Cowboy
13. Every Road Leads Back To You
14. Too Close To Comfort
15. You’ll Be With Me All The Way
16. Still Got A Ways To Go

Total time: 1:02:49

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store

Tags: country, folk, rock

Marc Berger

Ride

Real

New York-based Berger, a law school graduate turned real estate agent who also happens to be a singer/songwriter, began working on his recently released full-length debut album, “Ride,” a couple of decades ago.

He started his songwriting career while still at Rutgers, and later was encouraged by Richie Havens, who performed Berger’s song “The Last One” at anti-nuclear rallies in the ’80s.

“(Havens and I) had been getting together periodically for me to play him my songs,” Berger told Good New Music via e-mail, “and at some point well into that process I wrote ‘The Last One.’  His encouragement of my work after I graduated from law school meaningfully contributed to me taking myself seriously as a songwriter.”

In the ’90s, he enlisted the production talents of friend/guru Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (founding member of the Del-Lords, Joan Jett’s Blackhearts and the Yayhoos) and recorded four songs that ultimately wound up on the American West-inspired “Ride.”

“I produced tracks for Marc Berger almost 20 years ago, before I had my own studio,” Ambel said in response to an e-mail from GNM. “He played with the tracks himself for a long time and added to them. There were a few of those songs I really loved, (including) ‘A Bottle of Wine, A Suitcase, an Umbrella.’ It was a very interesting project.  It was challenging to record a band playing so quietly.”

Berger explained Ambel’s involvement in the other songs: “As we recorded the rest of the songs, Eric was brought in to play acoustic and electric guitar and sing backing vocals.”

Ambel’s “quiet music” comment is accurate: The songs on “Ride” are mostly slow Americana (for lack of a better term), similar to that of the Cowboy Junkies (for lack of a better comparison). Electric and acoustic guitars commingle, often accompanied by acoustic bass, mandolin and occasionally accordion and piano.

Berger pointed out that ” ‘Ride’ is a joint effort representing my contributions and Mike Ricciardi’s, my co-producer and music partner, and a mega-talented drummer and photographer.”

“I’ve been working with Marc since the late 1980′s,” said Ricciardi when GNM e-mailed him to ask about his involvement. “When we started working on those first four tracks with Eric, I was on those sessions, and on all subsequent tracks playing drums and percussion. On a backpacking trip to Idaho with Marc, I committed to co-producing this collection of songs. I mixed the tracks (along with everything else that’s involved) with Marc, was there for the mastering of the record, and created the imagery on the CD.

“… The artwork and photography grew out of this project,” Ricciardi added. “It was toward the end of the mixing process that I took up photography as a creative outlet and, if I hadn’t been in so deep with ‘Ride,’ I don’t think I would have been able to capture the images I did. The artwork is really just an extension of the songs.”

The album was released in a small run last summer. In January, benefiting from some excellent remastering, it was given a wider release.

Tracks

1. Nobody Gonna Ride On The Railroad
2. Take It On The Chin
3. Ride
4. Time Waits For No Man
5. Montana
6. Twister
7. Heavenly Ancients
8. Object Of My Affection
9. Long Way From Vixenburg
10. A Bottle of Wine, A Suitcase, An Umbrella
11. hidden track

Total time: 53:53

External links
artist’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store

Tags: country, folk, rock