In review: A last-minute look at worthy albums

By Ken Paulson

—So much music. So little time.

At the close of 2012, we find ourselves staring at a stack of albums we intended to write about. Here’s a quick take on some of the best:

I first saw the duo of Bright Littlefield in 2010 at Nashville’s Family Wash and was amazed by their ukulele covers of Replacements songs.  The  Treatment Bound album which collected those covers was remarkable and much more than a novelty.  I’ve always respected Paul Westerberg’s songwriting, but heard it in a new and very positive light on this album.

Now the album is getting overdue national distribution and recognition. The irony is that the sticker on the album says “bound to make fans fall in love all over again.” That may be true, but I’ve found that friends who were never into the Replacements love this album on its own terms:  stripped-down, tight and often buoyant. Buy it.

Covers loom large in two other impressive new albums. The first is a no-brainer, the collaboration of Americana music godfathers Jim Lauderdale and Buddy Miller. Buddy and Jim supplements first-rate originals with covers of Joe Tex’s “I Want To Do Everything For You, ” Johnnie and Jack’s “Down South in New Orleans,” Jimmy McCracklin’s “The Wobble” and Flatt and Scruggs’ “The Train That Carried My Girl Away.” Terrific from start to finish.

On Bring It on Home, Shannon Whitworth  and Barrett Smith deliver gorgeous covers of a wide range of songs, from the soulful title track to a fresh take on the oft-recorded closer, “You Are My Sunshine.” Favorites: “Duncan” and “I’ll Be Your Lover, Too.”

I’ve admired Chris Stamey’s solo work, his tenure with the dBs and his partnership with Peter Holsapple, but his new Lovesick Blues (to be released in February) is distinctly different. This is the most intimate and acoustic album he’s ever recorded, and it took repeated plays to truly embrace it. Now it’s my favorite Stamey album, poetic pop that brings Paul Simon and Al Stewart to mind.

There’s no better introduction to the music of Carrie Newcomer than Kindred Spirits, a collection of 17 outstanding songs from her 12 albums on Rounder Records, plus two new songs. She’s an accomplished folk performer who records consistently compelling and thoughtful compositions.  These lyrics from her new “Speed of Soul” are representative of her art:

Mr. Gatling made a Gatling gun

He said it would end war

For who could send some mother’s son

Through such a door

But the bullets move at the speed of cold

Drones do as they’re told

And the men go home at night

And kiss the wife

And watch TV

And never see

All those souls untethered

Whew. It’s powerful songwriting, but like Mary Chapin Carpenter’s work in recent years, unrelentingly earnest.  Couldn’t Carrie and Chapin just go grab a beer at the Twist and Shout on occasion?

We met Howlin’ Alan at the American Music Festival and he was kind enough to follow up  with a copy of his Back to Plan A album, which we like a lot. It’s straight-ahead folk and rock, with one song fittingly titled “Tom Petty.”  We also enjoyed Davey Craddock and the Spectacles’ Coming Home. One listen to “Anti-Folk,” and you’ll hear the distressingly cheerful  “Bob Dylan’s dead” refrain for the rest of the day.

Also new and noteworthy: Grassmarket’s You Are the Ocean, The Delta Saints’ Death Letter Jubilee, Mike Cullison’s The Barstool Monologues, the Red Dirt Skinners’  Home Sweet Home, Ronnie Fauss’ I Am the Man You Know I’m Not, Drew Gibson’s The Southern Draw, Bex Marshall’s The House of Mercy, Patrick Fitzsimmons’ Hope Is, Birds of Chicago and Vicky Emerson’s Dust & Echoes.

And on to 2013… Happy new year!

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