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Very cool construction paper video from Josh Ritter’s new EP “Bringing In the Darlings”

Time for The Vespers Has Come

 

It’s their second album, but for many listeners next week’s release of The Fourth Wall by Nashville’s The Vespers may be their introduction to the group–if so, it’s bound to make a good first impression.

The band is composed of two sisters and two brothers, all Nashville natives, who met randomly and began playing, performing, and recording together soon after. The girls dominate the vocals, but all four play multiple roles on a variety of acoustic instruments, including banjo, dobro, mandolin, guitar, and more. despite their hometown this is neither country or bluegrass music, rather it’s a more elemental, intrinsically American form of traditional-sounding songcraft that draws on historical and biblical inspiration along with more common themes of love and loss.

There are multiple high points, but it’s hard to top the opening track “Better Now”. Sung from the perspective of the blind man Jesus healed, dealing with the disbelief and incredulity of his family and friends, he nonetheless trumpets his healing to all who will listen. Set to a methodically plucked banjo, the tune pushes and pulls at all the right places to create an emotionally gripping piece.

Elsewhere the group is less serious, though no less vivid. “Flower Flower” could be a kid’s song it’s so jaunty and happy-sounding, yet it encapsulates longing and a need for purpose in a simple story of a flower waiting to be picked. “Instrument For You” is a classic musician’s metaphor that sounds like a century-old mountain song, while “Will You Love Me” is a love song that Civil Wars fans will latch on to immediately as close kin to that duo’s sentimental side.

The fourth wall, in theater and performance-speak, is the front of the stage, or in television it’s the screen itself, and it’s rarely broken or the spell of the story will be broken as well. The Vespers’ music is so heartfelt, pure and expressive that the barrier between performer and audience isn’t a wall, but a pathway that both sides will be walking together for some time to come.

Video of the Week: Lana Del Rey, “Blue Jean”

She’s been slammed by critics since her SNL appearance a while back but I kind of like the film noir sound of Lana Del Rey’s music; the new video for the song “Blue Jean” is a stylish black and white stunner…

Blast From SC Music Past: The Stelle Group

Chuck Mims might take issue with me putting him in this ‘nostalgia’ category of posts here, since he’s still out and about playing gigs, but I’m doing it anyway because I just found an old disc of my writing which includes an interview with him circa 2001 regarding his band The Stelle Group, a Rolling Stones-influenced alt-country rock outfit that still stands as the best manifestation of Mims’ singular talents. check out music from them and other Mims projects at www.chuckmims.com.

(From the Columbia Free Times, February 2001)

Hick’ry Hawkins, The Stelle Group

Elbow Room, Feb 15th

Kevin Oliver

 While this show’s headlining act, Hick’ry Hawkins, is undoubtedly Columbia’s finest example of classic honky-tonk country music in the hands of a man determined to live out the clichés in the songs he sings, the openers for the evening are celebrating a long-awaited milestone, the release of their first CD. At Home In Exile caps four years of the band’s hard work at establishing themselves.

“We tried to record for the first time in 1999, with David Barbe in Athens,” Stelle Group singer, guitarist and songwriter Chuck Mims says when questioned about the long wait. While some nice-sounding demos did surface from those sessions, Mims says, “There was no way we could affordably salvage anything out of it to release, so we regrouped and said, ‘Let’s just work on the songs and record in town, save some money.’”

The result is a casually brilliant snapshot of The Stelle Group’s twangy pop sound marked by Mims’ lazy, insouciant drawl, the stinging leads of guitarist Scott Taylor, and the solidly loose drumming of David Daniels. Bassist Jim Taylor left the band soon after recording these tracks–Byron Chitty, of local surf-instrumentalist legends Los Perdidos, is the current bass player.

“The songs on the record are from the beginning of the band up to the point where Jim left,” Mims says, “This is a document of the Stelle Group to that point.”

Of the newer songs on the album, one that has been getting an even more cathartic workout during the band’s live shows is, “Her Disguise.” “When we recorded that song, it was still pretty new,” Mims says as he explains how such a stately tune on the album has become a paint-peeling anthem in concert, “We were doing the ones we could play best, with the least amount of overdubs. It was a very dry, quick, live recording, mostly in an effort to save time and money.” Mims agrees that the band has already grown past even what it represents. “The newer material with Byron is twang oriented but not necessarily country rock.”

The disc’s title rather blatantly brings to mind a classic from the Rolling Stones, a group that knows a thing or two about incorporating country into gritty rock and roll. “Exile On Main Street did come up,” Mims says about the discussion that led to At Home In Exile, “But what the hell, it sums up being a band in Columbia. If you listen to the lyrics, most of the songs on the album are just my take on living here.” Like several other Columbia groups these days, Mims says, “It has been better out of town for us, as far as the crowd response and the number of gigs we are playing. We’re trying to make a point not to get stuck here.”

With an album finally out that they can promote through their expanding touring circuit, it is doubtful that The Stelle Group are going to be sticking around town much anytime soon.