Tag: Peter Cooper

New releases: Peter Cooper, Drive-By Truckers

New and recent releases: 

Peter CooperDepot Light: Songs of Eric Taylor – Red Beet Records – Peter Cooper insists this isn’t a tribute album to the under-recognized anddepot light brilliant songwriter Eric Taylor. Disclaimer aside, you’ll come away with a much better appreciation of Taylor after hearing Cooper’s impressive renditions of songs spanning Taylor’s career. We knew Taylor’s work primarily from recordings by Nanci Griffith and Lyle Lovett, but this collection is a revelation.

Drive-By Truckers – It’s Great to Be Alive – It’s a measure of the full-throttle new live album from the Drive-By Truckers that the review bore a sticker warning radio stations that 17 songs could get you in trouble with the FCC. The band didn’t hold anything back on “It’s Great to Be Alive,” a three-disc collection recorded in late November a year ago at the Fillmore in San Francisco. It’s a raucous retrospective that should please fans and convert others.

Butchers BlindA Place in America – Electric Giant – We admired Butcher Blind’s “Destination Blues” for the same reason we’re enjoying their new EP A Place in America: Thoughtful lyrics matched with hook-laden melodies, from the reflective “Ghosts” to the affirming “Only Love.” There’s some Wilco in their music, but Butchers Blind consistently delivers a fresh sound.

banquetMax StallingBanquet – Blind Nello Records – This new album produced by Lloyd Maines opens with the spirited “Night’s Pay in My Boot” and closes with a country cover of the Beatles’  “Two of Us.”

T.G SheppardLegendary Friends & Country Duets – Goldenlane Records – T.G. Sheppard’s new rlease is disnticntly old school ,but pleasingly so. Singing partners include Merle Haggard, George Jones, Delbert McClinton and Lori Morgan, with the album’s most memorable moments coming from Jerry Lee Lewis on “The Killer” and Willie Nelson on “In Texas.”

 

New releases: Andrea Zonn’s reflective “Rise”

andrea_zonn_rise_coverNew and recent releases:

 Andrea ZonnRise –  Compass Records – This is a truly beautiful album from a fine vocalist and violinist who has played with some of music’s best, including James Taylor, Vince Gill, Linda Ronstadt and Lyle Lovett. The album combines an all-star rhythm section – Willie Weeks and Steve Gadd – with an impressive array of songs co-written with some of Nashville’s most substantive songwriters.

Highlights include “Another Side of Home,” a thoughtful look back written with Bill Lloyd and Thomm Jutz, “Another Swing and a Miss” written with Peter Cooper and Jutz, and the Kim Richey-Zonn-Jutz composition, “Where the Water Meets the Sky,” featuring harmony vocals from Sam Bush.

James Taylor shows his respect by singing harmony on “You Make Me Whole,” an affirming contribution to this reflective and rewarding collection. (Ken Paulson)

luceroLuceroAll A Man Should Do – ATO Records – This album recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis is already at # 20 on the Americana Music Association airplay chart. Lucero is on tour now, with upcoming stops in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Utah, Washington and Oregon.

Jonas CarpingCocktails & Gasoline – Recorded in a cabin in rural Sweden, but the album doesn’t sound like it. Lots of emotional peaks and valleys, propelled by ambitious production.

Andy HackbarthPanorama Hotel – This Colorado artist’s new album was “written and recorded in the wake of a messy breakup,” according to press materials.

Stephen Young and the UnionEagle Fort Rumble – The new album from this Irish Americana band is set for release Nov. 27.

The Dappled GraysLas Night, Tomorrow – The third album from the talented bluegrass group. The band had two songs featured in Trouble with the Curve

Chris LaterzoWest Coast Sound – The fifth studio album from this LA-based artist will remind you of Tom Petty’s solo work.

Leroy Powell The Overlords of the Cosmic Revelation – Cleopatra Records – A space opera from Shooter Jennings’ former guitarist. Powell promises (with tongue in cheek) that “this is the greatest record ever recorded by anyone and of all time.”

Jeff Crosby and the RefugeesWaking Days – Coming Nov. 6, Jeff Crosby’s new album was recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville.

Electric Rag BandMy Side – Horton Records – The sixth album from the Tulsa-based father and son duo.

 

 

Review: Irene Kelley’s “Pennsylvania Coal”

Irene KelleyBy Ken Paulson

This should be a very good week for Nashville singer-songwriter Irene Kelley.

On Tuesday, Feb. 11, she’ll drop by to perform at Grimey’s record store in Nashville, followed by a full show on Friday at the legendary Station Inn.

Best of all, this is also the week the world will get to hear her remarkable new album Pennsylvania Coal, which just entered the Americana Music Association airplay chart.

From the back cover depicting her coal-mining grandfather to “You Are Mine,” the closing track written and performed with her daughters, Pennsylvania Coal is fueled by family.

“Angels Around Her” warmly recalls Kelley’s mother, “Pennsylvania Coal” honors her grandparents, “Sister’s Heart” is about her loving sister and “Garden of Dreams” is for her daughters Justyna and Sara Jean.

Yet the first two tracks – both written with Peter Cooper – may have the most universal appeal. “You Don’t Run Across My Mind,” distributed as a single, is about a relationship that lingers in your mind long after it’s over. “Feels Like Home” delivers the familiar “You can’t go home again” message  in a fresh way.

The album includes co-writes with David Olney, Thomm Jutz, Justyna and other fine writers, plus harmonies from Trisha Yearwood on “Better with Time.

Kelley’s voice and the intimate instrumentation are a perfect fit on this compelling, touching album.

While many will see Pennsylvania Coal as a bluegrass album,  it’s for anyone with a love of strong, evocative songwriting. Highly recommended.

 Follow Sun209 on Twitter at @Sun209com.

 

Tommy Womack: Angst, art and rock ‘n’ roll

We’ve written about Nashville’s Tommy Womack’s inspired, irreverent and deeply personal music on Sun209 in the past, and Tommy has contributed to the site with a piece on his three favorite Kinks songs.
Still, his unique style is tough to capture in words. Our friend Peter Cooper succeeded with a fine article in today’s Tennesseean.

Cooper wrote about the reaction of Womack’s friends to his last album There I Said It!:

“We worried, because we knew he was singing his truth. He’d written who he was, and he was nervous and fragile and in an unrequited love affair with rock ’n’ roll.

And we worried, because we stood with the rest of his audience members in the middle of his performances, to cheer brave songs about being frightened. Isn’t that the kind of reinforcement that makes a guy want to open up another vein?”

Read the full story here.

At the Bluebird: Peter Cooper, Karen Leipziger, Phil Lee, Dave Duncan

By Mary Sack

Tonight I witnessed yet another, one-of-a-kind Nashville Moment. It wasn’t a Grammy moment. Could’ve been, in an alternate universe. Three days after The Grammy Awards were broadcast live from Los Angeles, I saw a bona fide 2012 Grammy Nominee (for “Best Children’s Album”) Peter Cooper, bona fide rapscallion Phil Lee, new-to-me Dave Duncan and the surprisingly soulful Karen Leipziger, accompanied by Andy Ellis, perform in an intimate, early-evening round where they laid songs out one-by-one in a packed-to-the-walls house of rapt listeners and several friends.

There’s lots to say about each of these songwriters, but collectively they shared one of the coolest, bluesiest and fun evenings I’ve ever heard at The Bluebird Café in Nashville’

I really went out in the rain to this show to lend an ear to Karen Leipziger. I’ve known her as a crack publicist and almost forgot that she is also a songwriter with many, very cool cuts with some very well-known blues artists. I was shocked to realize I knew most of her songs but never realized over all of these years that she’d written them. Karen has always been humble, but THESE songs were monsters. Chief Eddy Clearwater recently recorded her cautionary “Do Unto Others”, which I swear could have a run in the Christian Blues market, if one exists.

Peter Cooper played many of my personal favorites, including “715” — a song about Hank Aaron and growing up in the shadow of racism and inequality. He shared his recent Grammy experience with the crowd, as well as his good natured humor about being a “runner-up” but I left the show thinking what a great picker he’s become in addition to his growth as an artist.

Fresh back in Nashville from his latest UK tour, Phil Lee never disappoints, toying with the audience as he does, playing songs like the tragically catchy “Just Some Girl” as well as the brand new “Cry,” while accompanied by the McCrary Sisters from various seats around the room. Simply arresting, those voices.

Layin’ it down with finesse, Dave Duncan definitely has the blues. He, too, could lay down a lick and sang of learning more about the blues in two weeks from his lady than “20 Years of BB King” – a song that also earned its own nomination from the Blues Music Association in 2008.

It was one of those nights when a one great song is followed by another surprisingly, captivating great song, all backed with solid performances. And it was free, no cover. Only in Nashville.

Eric Brace interview: “I Love” is nominated for a Grammy

I Love: Tom T. Hall’ Songs of Fox Hollow is one of those rare kids’ albums that will enchant children and adults in equal measure. We reviewed it enthusiastically in April and it’s great to see this salute to Tom T. and the original Fox Hollow album nominated for a Grammy for best children’s album..
Eric Brace of Last Train Home and Peter Cooper co-produced the album.
Here Brace talks about the Grammy nomination and the people who made it possible: