Summer in Fog City: The 2009 Bay Area Summer Music Roundup
It's June again, here in the Bay Area, and here comes the music. I've got new CDs, and live music, too. Let the games begin!
Mark Karan's solo debut is reviewed separately; this is my Big Pick, along with Green Day. There's Where I Come From, new from the New Riders of the Purple Sage. I have David Gans' most recent, The Ones That Look The Weirdest Taste The Best, and Bill Cutler's Crossing The Line. I have Another Time, Another Being, a CD from outside the Bay Area, but with local influence, from Illinois activist Gregg Brown.
There are shows as well, some just past and some yet to come. I hit the SRO release party for the Moonalice CD - this was produced by T-Bone Burnett, whose collection of statues for Raising Sand probably needs its own shelf. The Sonoma Music Festival on Memorial Day weekend offered Chris Isaak, Lyle Lovett and Joe Cocker. The Sausalito Arts Festival is coming up. There're San Fran's big annual shows in Golden Gate Park: the Outside Lands festival, and three free days of music known as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. I'm hoping for Richard Thompson again this year.
2009 is also the 40th anniversary of Woodstock (oh man, memories of mud and killer piano and CSN and the Who; good way to have spent my 15th summer). Boots Hughston, of 2B1 Productions, is doing a 40th Anniversary show this fall. His Summer of Love 40th Anniversary show drew over 60,000 people to a day of free music in Golden Gate Park. This will likely do the same.
In recorded Bay Area music, we've got a lush bounty to wallow in. Here we go:
Green Day did the unthinkable, matching the brilliance of American Idiot with 21st Century Breakdown. If you haven't heard it, go listen. Do it now. Seriously. Then come back and babble incoherently with me about why Green Day is one of our most important bands.
My review of Mark Karan's Walk Through The Fire appears elsewhere in this issue. This is an astonishing CD, and the review is clear on why I've ranked Walk Through The Fire at the top, sharing that spot with Green Day. Official release date is 30 June 2009. Get it.
As a 40-year fan of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, I'm delighted to see a new release from them. Where I Come From (Woodstock Records) features six collaborations between NRPS leader David Nelson and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Two of those, "Big Six" and "Rockin' With Nona", light up opposite ends of the CD, with driving freight train beats, and marvellous vocals from Nelson.
Some history: Early NRPS had two songwriters, founder John Dawson (aka Marmaduke), and the late Dave Torbert. NRPS tended toward short, crisp songs, largely because both Dawson and Torbert were bardic in their approach to writing lyrics. The songs were small stories, vignettes of lives and situations: "Henry" is a rollicking adventure with a pot importer in Mexico. "Portland Woman" is told by a touring musician falling for a girl he met backstage. "Contract" was a day in the life of a bounty hunter.
Today's lineup - original Rider David Nelson, bassist Ronnie Penque, drummer Johnny Markowski, Hot Tuna guitarist Michael Falzarano, and legendary pedal steel player Buddy Cage - does a nice job walking the path between old-school NRPS and staking out newer ground. While the Nelson/Hunter collaborations comprise half the song total, other band members contributed their own songs to Where I Come From, and they're all excellent. Penque's "Olivia Rose" is a delightful link to the early days. Markowski's "Higher" is an exemplar of present-day NRPS, and a monster song live; it blows the roof off the venue. Falzarano provides my own personal favourite, the absolutely kick-ass "Carl Perkins Wears The Crown". It's available here.
Where I Come From offers a taste of something for everyone, and the taste will linger nicely on your palate. For more info, go here.
Singer-songwriter David Gans offers up the superbly titled The Ones That Look The Weirdest Taste The Best (PERF-07, 2008). Gans has a light, personal touch on guitar, and he knows how to get his points across, both instrumentally and lyrically. The layering of instrumentation is excellent across the entire CD, never missing or overdoing it. My picks: "An American Family" is taut, angry, both sad and funny in a spiked-barb way. "Echolalia" is an exquisite instrumental piece, subtle and deep. "Down to Eugene" took me back to theatre parking lots, heading in to see the Dead forty years ago; nice to know that tradition's still alive. And "Like A Dog", with lyrics by Robert Hunter, is growly and talkative in its "yo, listen UP!" attitude. The CD's title refers to heirloom tomatoes; check out "The Bounty of the County" for a local foodie's delight. It's available from here, here and the iTunes Music Store.Bill Cutler's Crossing The Line (Magnatude/RYKO, 2008) is far and away the most representative of the Bay Area in this batch. Not surprising, since it was put together over years, and nearly every great musician in the Bay Area over the past twenty years played on one or more songs. The result is a marvelous collection, fourteen songs that Cutler, a solid singer, clearly let himself get comfortable with. The production is absolutely stellar, hitting the precise spot to balance a set list on which some songs may have a dozen backing musicians.
It's hard to single out individual picks, since I like all of them, but I'll try: "Sailing Man", with guitar work by Jorma Kaukonen and Mark Karan, soars. The title song, "Crossing The Line", has terse political lyrics I wouldn't have minded writing myself. It's followed by one of the CD's warmest songs, "Ridin' High"; Dave Torbert played bass, with Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir handling guitars. And while I usually back away from tribute songs, Cutler's musical memento mori for Jerry Garcia, the jazz-nuanced "Starlite Jamboree", is lovely and poignant and did what any good song should do: took me someplace that mattered. It's aailable for sale or as a digital download at Amazon, iTunes, dead.net, Rhapsody, and at indie stores. See videos for "The Back Story of Crossing the Line" and "Starlite Jamboree" on this site, and on YouTube.
Finally, Gregg Brown's Another Time, Another Being comes under the heading of "influenced by". In feel, the CD taps into both NorCal 60's psychedelica and sensibilities of traditional American music. Two picks: "Reincarnation Love Song", a wistful story layered with gentle instrumentation, and "Whistlestop Flip Flop", a largely instrumental piece with some good piano at bottom.
And there we have it: music by the Golden Gate, summer 2009. Let it rock!
