New and recent releases:
Peter Cooper – Depot Light: Songs of Eric Taylor – Red Beet Records – Peter Cooper insists this isn’t a tribute album to the under-recognized and
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 Blind – A 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.
Max Stalling – Banquet – 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 Sheppard – Legendary 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.”