The Avett Brothers’ Second Gleam

Scott and Seth Avett

The Avett Brothers
Second Gleam
Ramseur Records

The Avett Brothers’ star has been rising for several years now. Though they play a sometimes-raucous blend of rock, bluegrass, and more, the Merlefest crowd took a liking to them early on, and news came this summer of their impending move to Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label for their next full-band CD.

Before they ramp up for that next step toward world domination and corporate rock, however, Seth and Scott Avett have taken it down several notches for their second short collection of mellow acoustic tunes, The Second Gleam. The title is a follow-up to the 2005 Gleam EP, which also featured a short set of quiet acoustic songs that stand among some of the brothers’ best compositions—until now, at least.

The usual pell-mell punk-grass effect that gets the band such rabid fans at live shows is entirely absent from the Gleam series (can I call it a series if there are only two so far?), with the focus on quiet yet powerful melodies, delicate finger-picked guitars, and gently descending vocals that tread the notes and scales like water trickling down a brick terrace on a hillside.

“Tear Down The House,” is a tale of maturity, moving on, and forging new beginnings while leaving old ways behind. “I remember crying over you, and I don’t mean a couple of tears and I’m through,” goes one line, as the song moves from giving up a favorite car to getting over a lost love.

“Murder in the City,” is an unexpectedly sweet love note that posits the possibility of what would happen if one side of a relationship suddenly passed away, or ceased to exist in some way. The lyrics read almost like a eulogy:
“Make sure my sister knows I loved her, make sure my mother knows the same; always remember there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name.”

“Not even the hands of God could hold me back from you,” goes one of the opening lines in “The Greatest Sum,” a dark-tinged declaration of dedication and love. It is counterbalanced by “Bella Donna,” which sounds like a lost hit from the early 1970s, one sung by John Denver, or Simon and Garfunkel, all atmosphere and an airy melody.

“St. Joseph’s,” is a cryptic story that apparently details events surrounding an unexpected pregnancy and the birth of a child, from sitting in a hospital waiting room to wedding decisions. The end result is one of commitment through struggles, and ultimately being blessed by the experience. It’s heavy stuff for popular song, but these are not really designed to be “pop songs,” at least not in the sense that they are written expecting radio airplay. These are the kind of songs that songwriters write because they are driven to. The final song seems to address this need, and the release that comes with the writing.

“One little song, give me strength to leave the sad and the wrong
Buried safely in the past where I’ve been living, alive but unforgiving.”

Here’s hoping that there are more Gleam EPs where the first two came from, giving the Avetts a unique songwriting outlet even as they go on to bigger, more produced full length albums.

Live Version of “Murder in the City”

Pearl Jam’s Who Tribute

Besides Bruce Springsteen, my favorite band growing up was The Who, and Quadrophenia was my favorite album. I still have the original gatefold vinyl with the photo booklet that tells the story of the concept album with no words. I would put the album on, put my headphones on, and flip through the booklet while I listened.

You may have seen the VH1 Honors show clip below already, but i’m posting it here just in case you missed it. Pearl Jam were probably Who fans like I was back in those days, the only difference is that they formed a killer rock ‘n’ roll band as a result of that early inspiration. Me, I just learned how to write about killer rock ‘n’ roll bands, among other things.

This performance is one of the best Pearl Jam moments I’ve ever seen–they’re obviously inspired and totally into the songs, but they’re playful enough with them to copy a few moves like Pete Townshend’s windmill guitar. “Love Reign O’er Me,” is good, but wait on “The Real Me,” it’s even better. Like any great tribute, this makes me want to dig out my own copy of Quadrophenia and put the headphones on one more time.

Secondhand Smoke PSA, “Her Life” music video

Over the course of twenty-five years of going to bars to see live music, I’m sure that I have soaked up more than my fair share of secondhand smoke. With all of the research out there indicating the dangers of such indirect contact with the cancer-causing carcinogens in cigarette smoke, there are many municipalities putting smoking bans in place which cover all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.
The 2007 death of Chris Conner from lung cancer, several years after he quit smoking himself but continued to play in smoke-filled venues, awakened many in the local Columbia, South Carolina music community to the level of exposure they were subjecting themselves to on a nightly basis. With the recent passage of a smoking ban in the city of Columbia that goes into effect in October, the first step has been taken locally to address the problem.
I have been in other cities which have passed similar bans, and gone to the clubs there for shows. The difference is striking–no smoky clothes to wash when you get home, no haze hovering just over or around your head during the show. Those who chose to continue smoking after the bans were put in place simply ducked outside for a smoke on the sidewalk, then re-entered the club to continue enjoying the live music inside.
July 10th, the Musicians and Songwriters Guild of South Carolina, in conjunction with the Christopher Conner foundation and the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative, debuted a new music video at the Nickelodeon that addresses the secondhand smoke issue in song. “Her Life,” was written by Chip Mosteller and performed by Lucas War Hero in the video. All of the actors and extras in the clip are local, and some are local musicians themselves. Check the credits at the end and see if you recognize anybody.

{update: the day after I wrote this, the local daily paper reported that another local municipality, Lexington, is seriously considering a smoking ban as well–since that’s where I live, I’m hoping it passes this year, too.}

The Hold Steady Stays Positive

The new Hold Steady album, Stay Positive, is out now on Vagrant, and it backs up what I’ve been saying now for two albums–this is the best rock band in America. On the new disc, there are additional polished elements in the production but it’s still the same recognizably punk-infused rough-edged rock ‘n’ roll. The clip below is, “Constructive Summer,” which reminds me a great deal of late-period Husker Du, who had a song called “Celebrated Summer”–not that this is a ripoff of that song, it just has a similar sound. If you remember Candy Apple Grey and Warehouse fondly, as I do, you need this album.

Patrick Davis Comes Home

Patrick Davis

The Jammin’ In July Festival was held in Camden, South Carolina today, and since I covered the event for the Free Times in neighboring Columbia (Interviewing Webb Wilder, the headliner), I made the trek over with the family to take in the show. Despite the heat, the bugs, and the usual drunk chicks in front of us, it was a pretty good night.

Webb’s set was tasty and cooking in all the right places, but the special moment of the day actually happened a few sets earlier during local guitarist Rusty Davis’ set. You see, his son Patrick was in town and showed up to play a couple songs with Dad.
Patrick’s a pretty fine musician in his own right, and having spent the last six or seven years in Nashville, he’s becoming a pretty fine songwriter, too. Pat Green, in particular, has recorded some of Patrick’s songs, including “Dixie Lullaby,” one of the songs Patrick pulled out to play for the hometown crowd.
Before playing another song, Patrick reminisced with the audience about having not played this particular festival since the first two over a decade ago, when he was still in high school. Then he told them all about how when he was on the road after moving to Nashville, he would tell people he was from Nashville–unless, he said, his younger brother was at the show, which he was pretty regularly, at least in the southeast. Roger would keep him honest, and remark that he wasn’t from Nashville, but little old Camden, South Carolina.
Two weeks prior to this evening’s concert, Roger, Patrick’s younger brother, was involved in a fatal single-car accident, a tragedy that Patrick talks at length about on his Myspace blog. He thanked the community for the show of support they had given the Davis family in the past two weeks, and then he played, “Where I’m From,” a song written about Camden which could apply to a thousand small towns, that will be one of the first two singles from Jason Michael Carroll’s upcoming album. There’s a version of it on Patrick’s Myspace right now, if you haven’t heard it.
After the song, the crowd not only applauded, but gave the town’s favorite son a standing ovation, heartfelt and sincere as only a small town crowd full of people you know can do it. Davis writes the kind of songs that will probably get cut by a lot more singers in the future, but something tells me that no matter where his musical roads take him, they’ll always lead right back home to Camden.

New Live Pine video

Pine is an addictive little indie band from New Zealand that reminds me of all those great NZ bands from my college radio days–The Clean, the Chills, etc….Kiwi pop, I think they called it back then. So I was pleased to find a new live video from a show in Christchurch, NZ on July 4th just posted on Youtube today. Check it out below; if you’re unfamiliar with the band try the tracks on their Myspace page, too. Pine Myspace Profile

Madam Marie’s Final Fortune

The actual Madam Marie's fortune telling booth

I took the picture above on a trip a number of years ago to attend my grandmother’s funeral. She lived in Freehold, New Jersey, hometown of that Bruce Springsteen guy, and due to a couple of music-crazy cousins who grew up there, too, I have been very familiar with the Jersey Shore environs that Bruce sang about so vividly, especially in his earliest work. This particular day it was an out-of-season November afternoon, so the boardwalk was deserted and Madam Marie’s was shuttered for the winter, I assume. Nonetheless, I was excited about seeing it, as I hadn’t been in Asbury Park in years; this was the first trip I could actually set foot in the Stone Pony legally, as a matter of fact. One of those cousins who had initially turned me on to Springsteen back in the Born To Run days accompanied me to the legendary Asbury Park club the night before this picture was taken–somewhere I have more pictures, of the walls of the Pony, me outside the doors, etc., and we saw a performance by a local Bruce-inspired outfit, Highway 9 (Though I was impressed more that night by the young lady opening the show solo acoustic, Nicole Atkins–who has since gone on to much bigger and better things.).

Somehow it seems fitting that Madam Marie, who was 83, passed away on a 4th of July weekend. It was Springsteen’s song, “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” which introduced her to the outside world, after all.

“And the cops finally busted Madam Marie
For tellin’ fortunes better than they do”

Read Bruce’s thoughts on his old friend at http://www.brucespringsteen.net