by Sheldon Birnie
Just when you think you’ve got all the new releases you can handle on your plate, the powers that be load up a bunch for ya.
This is great news if you’re always wanting something new to cruise to, something new to get you through the cold days of winter and into the hot summer festival season. Luckily, after a fall full of great roots releases, this winter aint looking too shabby, neither.
First of all, this Friday local poet laureate Scott Nolan and his longtime travelling companion Joanna Miller are releasing a live record almost two years in the making, now. North/South features songs recorded down the street at the Park Theatre and the Red Clay Theatre in Dultuh, Georgia. Featuring great renditions of classics like “Bad Liver / Broken Heart” and “No Bourbon & Bad Radio” as well as some rip-stompers and reimagined ditties from Montgomery Eldorado, this record captures what Nolan and Miller at their raw finest. If you haven’t seen them do their thing, do yourself a favour and get to the Park on Friday, or, at the very least, pick up this disc at your local independent retailer and crank it up.
Secondly, while we were putting the current issue of Stylus together, ol’ Fred Eaglesmith pulled a fast-one and released his latest record, Tambourine. While his last release, 6 Volts, was undeniable out of the gates, Tambourine feels more like a grower than a shower. There are some solid tracks from the get-go, like the heartbreaking “Tell the Engineer” and “Whip a Dog,” as well as some that will likely work their way further into my soul, like “Small Town” and “Drunk Girl.” Then there’s a few that see Fred and his band of Highway(wo)men taking some risks, like “Nobody Gets Everything,” which may or may not payoff down the line. Whether they do or not, it doesn’t really matter, because Fred’s will pump out another album in a couple years that will change tacts, confounding his purist fans and delighting those of us who dig seeing where Fred will go, and what tricks he’ll pull (successfully or not), next.
The biggest thrill, for me, this past week or so was the official announcement that a new Drive-By Truckers album will be released in March of 2014. As a obsessed devout fan of the band, I’ve followed the recording process of the new disc — titled English Oceans — via founding member Patterson Hood’s Instagram with barely contained excitement. The fact that it is now ready to rumble, with yet-to-be-released artwork by the inimitable Wes Freed coming down the pipe has me all fired up. Not to mention the fact that half the album’s tracks are penned by Mike Cooley, who generally takes backseat on the songwriting duties to Hood. While I love Hood’s tunes, there’s something about Cooley’s voice that speaks to me in particular. Tracks like “One of These Days,” “Uncle Frank,” “When the Pin Hits the Shell,” and “Pulasky”, to name just a few, have always cut to the chase without painting too broad a canvas.
And if that weren’t enough, another local troubadour and down right brilliant songwriter Del Barber announced the official release of his next album, Prairieology, in March, with a release gig at the Park Theatre March 24. I’ll be sitting down with Del over a beer or three in the coming weeks to talk all about it, so keep your eyes on the Highway, and make sure to pick up your copy of the Feb/March Stylus (the first in our 25th volume!) for the full story. Until then, enjoy the tuneage and keep warm, y’all!