Pickathon 2019

[Ojai Sam]

Music Gourmets returns to the Oregon woods for the 2019 edition of Portland's premiere roots music festival. Background information here:

https://1859oregonmagazine.com/think-oregon/music/into-the-woods-pickathon/

Once again, I will post an album for each act that will appear this summer, with an accompanying Spotify playlist:

Each year the festival organizers manage to come up with a whole new roster of exciting artists from all over the map, musically and geographically, for us to discover. No promises, but I'll try to get them all in before August.

Previous years' playlists are here, perfect for shuffle play:

 

[Ojai Sam]

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - Tearing At The Seams (2018)

Let's start this year with a soupcon of blue eyed soul. Pickathon sez:

”For a long time I always had to go off on my own,” says Nathaniel Rateliff of his creative process. “For the first Night Sweats record, I demo’ed everything up and created most of the parts. But for this new record, I felt like we’d all spent so much time on the road that we should all go off somewhere together. We should have that experience together. I wanted the guys to feel like they were giving something to the project beyond just playing.”

In other words, the Missouri-bred, Denver-based frontman wanted to make the band disappear along with him—out in the middle of the desert at first, and then deep in the woods. The result is the aptly titled Tearing at the Seams, a vivacious and inventive full-band record, with significant contributions from all eight members of The Night Sweats. These songs are grounded in old-school soul and r&b but are far too urgent for the retro or revivalist tag. There are familiar elements of soul and garage rock, but also jazz and folk and even country: the crackling energy on opener “Shoe Boot,” the cathartic sing-along of “Coolin’ Out,” the melancholy folk of the closing title track. “The future of this band is to take everything we’ve ever done in the past and just do it with our own little twist,” says Rateliff. “I hear that in my favorite bands. They just sucked everything up.”

This album definitely has a live-in-the-studio feel, and Rateliff has the vocal chops to pull off a Stax revival.

on the Sam-O-Meter. An auspicious start.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Khurangbin - Con Todo El Mundo (2018)

Pitchfork sez:

On their second album, the Houston-based instrumental trio crafts a unique, psychedelic vibe that hangs between continents and eras. Khruangbin craft atmosphere music that never fades into the background, like some endless curl of smoke that keeps pluming upward. Sprinkled with snippets of spoken word, faint vocal melodies, and ranging and impeccably performed guitar solos, the whole of their second record, Con Todo El Mundo is, in effect, a long and pleasant head nod that seems to hang between continents and eras. The group—whose name is a transliteration of the Thai word for “airplane”—elicits the same eclectic enjoyment of any number of artists that came of age around the turn of the century, from the laid-back trip-hop feel of Kruder & Dorfmeister to dub-jammy Thievery Corporation: Ethereal instrumental music that might be described as “world” as shorthand for its range of melody, rhythm, and overall vibe. But the Houston-based instrumental trio makes music that’s a little more dusty, frayed around the edges, and personal.

Not my cuppa, but some of us may like it. Paging @axolotl .

 

[axolotl]

Khurangbin - Con Todo El Mundo (2018)

Pitchfork sez:

On their second album, the Houston-based instrumental trio crafts a unique, psychedelic vibe that hangs between continents and eras. Khruangbin craft atmosphere music that never fades into the background, like some endless curl of smoke that keeps pluming upward. Sprinkled with snippets of spoken word, faint vocal melodies, and ranging and impeccably performed guitar solos, the whole of their second record, Con Todo El Mundo is, in effect, a long and pleasant head nod that seems to hang between continents and eras. The group—whose name is a transliteration of the Thai word for “airplane”—elicits the same eclectic enjoyment of any number of artists that came of age around the turn of the century, from the laid-back trip-hop feel of Kruder & Dorfmeister to dub-jammy Thievery Corporation: Ethereal instrumental music that might be described as “world” as shorthand for its range of melody, rhythm, and overall vibe. But the Houston-based instrumental trio makes music that’s a little more dusty, frayed around the edges, and personal.

Not my cuppa, but some of us may like it. Paging @axolotl .

I have listened to that. I need to do it, again.

 

[Worm]

I have listened to that. I need to do it, again.

I need to flisten. The few seconds I just heard sound really good.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Mandolin Orange - Tides Of A Teardrop (2019)

Chapel Hill's Mandolin Orange has been around since 2009 but the burnished glow of their acoustic sound makes the group seem a lot older.

Paste Magazine sez:

Mandolin Orange, made up of musicians Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz, have successfully mastered the art of the partnership. Partly because they’re seasoned collaborative instrumentalists, and partly because, after almost a decade of playing together, they’re so open with one another—and, therefore, their listeners.

On Tides of A Teardrop, the North Carolina duo’s fifth studio album, Marlin and Frantz leave it all out to dry—loss, pain, heartbreak and the process of emerging from it all in one piece—in a way that feels more comforting than confessional. Tides of A Teardrop is a cozy cradle of acoustics and anecdotes on grief and love.

[snip]

This is a quiet album. But is there anything wrong with being quiet? Absolutely not, especially when an artist, like Mandolin Orange, makes an emboldened kind of peaceful music, tunes that loosely float along while simultaneously delivering deeply emotive stories. The songs on Tides of A Teardrop are slow-tempoed and even-tempered, but in a way that feels emotionally powerful.

The touches of fiddle and namesake mandolin lend a countryish air to this record, but the somber tone of the songs owes more to folk. RIYL Gillian Welch.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[lpfreak1170]

Mandolin Orange - Tides Of A Teardrop (2019)

Chapel Hill's Mandolin Orange has been around since 2009 but the burnished glow of their acoustic sound makes the group seem a lot older.

Paste Magazine sez:

Mandolin Orange, made up of musicians Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz, have successfully mastered the art of the partnership. Partly because they’re seasoned collaborative instrumentalists, and partly because, after almost a decade of playing together, they’re so open with one another—and, therefore, their listeners.

On Tides of A Teardrop, the North Carolina duo’s fifth studio album, Marlin and Frantz leave it all out to dry—loss, pain, heartbreak and the process of emerging from it all in one piece—in a way that feels more comforting than confessional. Tides of A Teardrop is a cozy cradle of acoustics and anecdotes on grief and love.

[snip]

This is a quiet album. But is there anything wrong with being quiet? Absolutely not, especially when an artist, like Mandolin Orange, makes an emboldened kind of peaceful music, tunes that loosely float along while simultaneously delivering deeply emotive stories. The songs on Tides of A Teardrop are slow-tempoed and even-tempered, but in a way that feels emotionally powerful.

The touches of fiddle and namesake mandolin lend a countryish air to this record, but the somber tone of the songs owes more to folk. RIYL Gillian Welch.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

Gotta give this one a spin.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Tyler Childers - Live On Red Barn Radio I & II (2018)

Tyler Childers came by his hardscrabble musical sensibility honestly, growing up in the coast country of Eastern Kentucky. his eponymous website sez:

Like many great Southern storytellers, singer-songwriter Tyler Childers has fallen in love with a place. The people, landmarks and legendary moments from his childhood home of Lawrence County, Kentucky, populate the 10 songs in his formidable debut, Purgatory, an album that’s simultaneously modern and as ancient as the Appalachian Mountains in which events unfold.

His emotional delivery and well-crafted songs backed by hard-charging fiddle and banjo remind me of a young Steve Earle. This live album shows him to great advantage before an appreciative crowd on Lexington's popular radio series devoted to the music of Kentucky.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Lucius - Nudes (2018)

Lucius was formed by Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig in 2007 when the two Berklee grads moved to Brooklyn to share an old house. Since then they have generated a lot of buzz, per Wiki:

Lucius has been lauded by The New York Times for their "luscious, luminous, lilting lullabies", praised by NPR for their "charisma and charm," and described by Rolling Stone as "the best band you may not have heard yet."

The Guardian featured Lucius as its New Band Of The Day on February 14, 2014 and described them as "the missing link between Arcade Fire and Haim... How can they fail? They won't." Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is a noted fan of the band and has featured their music in his blog.

The two frontwomen are also known for their synchronous style that exudes an "idiosyncratic visual persona" in their choice of dress, stage set up, and performance. The two even shared the same hairdresser, although they have switched to identical wigs.

Their third regular album presents a largely acoustic reworking of songs from their earlier releases. It seems a bit early in their career for a retrospective, but it's fine by me since I've never hard them before. I really like their fervent coffee house/folk vibe. Support from Roger Waters and Nels Cline doesn't hurt at all.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[Nickyboy]

I don't know about the music, but that cover is a beauty of MCM-style photography.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Preservation Hall Jazz Band - So It Is (2017)

This one is a BIG surprise.
And a VERY happy one.

So based on my dim memories of the PHJB, I was expecting moldy fig jazz played by septuagenarians recreating the New Orleans of their youth. Wrong on both counts. This is a vibrant album of contemporary Cuban influenced funky jazz, and one of the driving forces is 84 year old sax man Charlie Gabriel.

Pickathon sez:

At a moment when musical streams are crossing with unprecedented frequency, it’s crucial to remember that throughout its history, New Orleans has been the point at which sounds and cultures from around the world converge, mingle, and resurface, transformed by the Crescent City’s inimitable spirit and joie de vivre. Nowhere is that idea more vividly embodied than in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 50 years, all the while carrying it enthusiastically forward as a reminder that the history they were founded to preserve is a vibrantly living history.

PHJB marches that tradition forward once again on So It Is, the septet’s second release featuring all-new original music. The album redefines what New Orleans music means in 2017 by tapping into a sonic continuum that stretches back to the city’s Afro-Cuban roots, through its common ancestry with the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti and the Fire Music of Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane, and forward to cutting-edge artists with whom the PHJB have shared festival stages from Coachella to Newport, including legends like Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and the Grateful Dead and modern giants like My Morning Jacket, Arcade Fire and the Black Keys.

I suspect @Zeeba Neighba and @JazzyRandy will like this one a lot. RIYL Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

 

[axolotl]

I suspect @Zeeba Neighba and @JazzyRandy will like this one a lot. RIYL Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

on the Sam-O-Meter.

But, not me. Alas and alack, I will wait for another suitable album to come my way.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

But, not me. Alas and alack, I will wait for another suitable album to come my way.

Relax. Sam told me he wouldn't send the ninja after you if you decided to listen to this album.

 

[axolotl]

Relax. Sam told me he wouldn't send the ninja after you if you decided to listen to this album.

Now, I'm not sure if I wanna listen to it.

 

[Ojai Sam]

But, not me. Alas and alack, I will wait for another suitable album to come my way.

A clear example of inclusio unius est exclusio alterius.

 

[axolotl]

A clear example of inclusio unius est exclusio alterius.

My self-determination is not mere willfulness; it is jus cogens.

 

[Ojai Sam]

Phil Lesh - Live At The Warfield Theater (2006)

It's rather surprising to see the long time Grateful Dead bassist featured at the top of this year's lineup for a cutting edge festival like Pickathon. His post-Dead work has focused on recreating the band's signature live jams. The album posted above adds talented "friends" like Joan Osborne, Greg Osby ,John Scofield and Larry Campbell. The sound may be a bit fresher but the repertoire can't help but seem stale. According to the Pickathon website, Phil has assembled a whole new "Terrapin Family Band" but for now, you can color me skeptical.

 

[axolotl]

Color me cynical.

 

[Unsomnambulist]

Color me cynical.

What is the color of cynicism? Mustard yellow?

 

[Unsomnambulist]

What is the color of cynicism? Mustard yellow?

Let me add I did not mean to imply that cynicism is cowardly, it just struck me as that color. No, I do not have synesthesia, I just pretend to.