By Ken Paulson

This just in:

An Unreal Dream – Various Artists

The soundtrack to An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story features not only atmospheric music from the film, but also compelling performances by a number of Americana artists.

The film tells the story of a man unjustly convicted of murdering his wife. Robert Earl Keen performs “Take This Hammer” and Jerry Jeff Walker does “Amazing Grace.” Truly chilling, though, is “In the Pines” performed by Slaid Cleaves and Eliza Gilkyson.

Silent Revelry – Alex Tjoland Band

We just received our first holiday album of the year, a collection from the Alex Tjoland Band called Silent Revelry. It has a copyright date of 2012, but Christmas albums are evergreen. It’s an ambitious effort, largely driven by original songs, plus a robust Silent Night to open the set. It includes a surf guitar instrumental appropriately titled “Surf’s Up, Santa Claus.”

We’re Not Lost – The Show Ponies

Here’s an energetic and sometimes irreverent bluegrass album that won us over with “Baby, I’m in Love with You,” a full-throttle opener that (sort-of) manages to rhyme “hiatus” with “cicadas” and “tomatoes.”

Long Way Down- Glass House

Mark Vickness and David Worm comprise Glass House, an accomplished duo with impressive vocals and ambitious compositions.

Highlights include album opener “Build a Bridge” and a stellar cover of Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow.”

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By Ken Paulson

I have no idea why Greg Trooper’s outstanding new album Incident on Willow Street  features a cover worthy of a tawdry ’50s paperback, but the “Don’t judge a book by its cover” adage applies here.

Behind the cheesy imagery is a rich and rewarding collection from an extraordinarily consistent singer-songwriter . There’s no substandard Trooper album; your only challenge is to decide which one to buy first.

Like every Trooper album, Incident is at once both despairing and hopeful. All the Way to Amsterdam” reflects the latter ,opening the album  with a dream of escape and restoration. Later in the album there’s the regret-steeped  “Amelia,” calling on a woman to come to her senses and come home.

“Living with You” is the closest thing to rock ‘n’ roll on the album, with my favorite line:”I think you have to sleep with me to prove I’m shooting blanks.”

Trooper’s sense of humor is most apparent on “Mary of the Scots in Queens,” bemoaning how Irish Brian stole the woman of his dreams. “I always hated that Irish Brian,” he sings.

There have been almost a dozen Greg Trooper albums to date and Incident on Willow Street is one of his strongest. Highly recommended.

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 by Paul T. Mueller

Singer-songwriter Peter Case did more talking than singing during his November 7 in-store performance at Houston’s Cactus Music. But that was just fine with the several dozen fans in attendance, as much of the talking consisted of funny anecdotes from a career spent on the road. And there were a few songs thrown in as well.

Case was accompanied onstage by author David Ensminger, whose latest book, Left of the Dial: Conversations with Punk Icons, includes an interview with Case. Ensminger acted as an informal moderator, prompting Case to relate stories from his long career, which included membership in The Plimsouls and The Nerves as well as many years of performing solo and with other musicians.

And very entertaining stories they were, albeit delivered in Case’s matter-of-fact style:

Peter Case at Cactus Music

–  Hitchhiking hundreds of miles in a blizzard at age 16 to see Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins perform in the Boston area (and ending up in a women’s dorm in Boston with a couple of newfound friends.)

–  Playing several gigs in Australia as part of a package tour that also included Blue Oyster Cult, the Hoodoo Guru, and Buzzcocks, among other bands

–  Being enlisted by producer T-Bone Burnett to contribute to a Robert Randolph recording session, only to find that he was expected to come up with lyrics to already-written music during the session

-Interspersed with the stories were a few songs: “Icewater,” based on a Lightnin’ Hopkins guitar riff; “Poor Old Tom,” about a homeless veteran, and “A Walk in the Woods,” a chilling tale of missing children that Case said was the first song he wrote for his first solo album.

A question-and-answer session ensued, during which Case revealed, among things, that:

–   He gets tired of the day-to-day grind of life on the road, but never gets tired of seeing the world, writing songs and performing for people

–   His all-time favorite musician is Jimi Hendrix

– The musician he’d most like to record with (but can’t afford to) is jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders

– He thinks Coldplay is “U2 without the edge,” and

– He believes the Internet has pretty much destroyed the old business model of the music industry, but that there will always be a music business in some form

After teasing the room with a promise of a Bob Dylan song, Case closed with an energetic rendition of his own “House Rent Party” before adjourning to the front of the store, where he and Ensminger signed CDs, books and other items and spent some time interacting with fans.

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by Paul T. Mueller

The release of a new Peter Cooper album is an occasion for much joy and a little sadness. Joy because Cooper is an accomplished songwriter and performer who can write and sing about just about anything and make it all sound great. Sadness because, as good as he is, he may not be reaching as wide an audience as he deserves.

For now, let’s focus on the joy. Opening Day, Cooper’s third solo album, is another fine collection, and its 11 tracks, nine of them well-crafted originals, cover a lot of ground, with excellent musicianship throughout. The opener, “Much Better Now,” starts with Cooper reciting, with characteristic humor, a litany of past unhappiness before declaring that he’s “much better now.” In the title track, he uses baseball as a metaphor for life – not exactly a novel idea, but Cooper does it with style. “We’re tied for first with the whole summer left to play,” he sings. “Keep the aftermath and the epitaph, give me opening day.”

There’s more autobiographical material here. “Distraction” is a kind of plea for focus amid the many things competing for his attention – which might be expected from a guy who, in addition to being a songwriter and performer, is also a music journalist, a college professor, a radio DJ and a few other things. In “Part Time,” he takes stock of his music career and concludes, “That’s hard work even for a man in his prime, so I’m thinking about going part time.” It’s a little hard to believe he really means it.

When Cooper sings about other people, they tend to be interesting as well. The title characters of “Jenny Died at 25” and “Grandma’s Tattoo” both start out as young women, but the decisions they make land them in very different places down the line. Without giving away too much, it must be said that Grandma’s story is the more entertaining of the two.

Current events show up in “Quiet Little War,” the story of a military drone operator for whom warfare is an 8-to-5 job and the workplace is half a world from the battlefield. The album closes with a nice cover of Bill Morrissey’s “Birches,” a quiet, bittersweet story about life and love and time and compromise.

Besides accompanying himself on guitar, Cooper did a nice job as producer, assembling a talented supporting cast that includes Lloyd Green on pedal steel, Richard Bennett on guitar, Jen Gunderman on keyboards, and Dave Jacques, David Roe and Mark Fain on bass. Paul Griffith and Pat McInerney handle the drumming, while Kieran Kane contributes mandolin and percussion. Backing vocalists include Julie Lee, Thomm Jutz and Eric Brace (Cooper’s partner on three duo albums and also the head of Red Beet Records, which released Opening Day).

In the crowded musical marketplace, it would be easy to overlook an album like this one. But to paraphrase a line from one of Opening Day’s songs, that would be a shame and a crime.

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by Paul T. Mueller

Bands with banjos have become something of a cliché in the past few years, possibly to the point of fostering a bit of five-string fatigue. Don’t let that keep you from checking out Brooklyn-based Schucks Road, which consists of guitarist/pianist Michael Perrie Jr. and guitarist/banjoist Brandon Pfeltz. On their recent EP One By Land, they wisely use the banjo to add flavor and texture without overwhelming the music. The real stars here are Perrie and Pfeltz’s good writing, excellent harmonies and fine melodies, all contributing to a lively folk-pop sound with some country undertones.

The two share songwriting credits on the EP’s five songs. Lyrical themes include the quest for success, and its high price (“Chasing Stars”) and spiritual struggle (“Flesh & Bone”). “Heart of the Country” is an exuberant anthem to the positive side of love; “The Bar” is similarly up-tempo, but it’s about breakups, barrooms and bitterness. The closing track, “Lantern,” is a gentle, harmony-driven love song that features a nice combination of acoustic guitar and violin, courtesy of George Robson.

Perrie and Pfeltz are from Maryland, but they formed Schucks Road in New York in 2012, writing their first song by candlelight amid Superstorm Sandy’s wind and rain. That’s a tough way to start a band, but One By Land is a promising beginning.

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