It has been a long time since Mr. Earle has played with The Dukes on record, and this time he has also included The Duchesses. It is sooo nice to hear him with a band again. We’re going to experience them live in a couple of months, things are looking bright!
The new album is fantastic (the songs I’ve heard).
I’ve searched the web for some live previews, they are not many and they’re hard to find. Here are 5 samples, most of them solo performances, but all of them are unbelievably good. This must be his best album in years, even if he has a very high standard.
Alex Chilton, power pop genius died 17. March in 2010 three years ago today.
Paul Westerberg wrote these words in The New York Times three days after Alex Chilton passed away:
It was some years back, the last time I saw Alex Chilton. We miraculously bumped into each other one autumn evening in New York, he in a Memphis Minnie T-shirt, with take-out Thai, en route to his hotel. He invited me along to watch the World Series on TV, and I immediately discarded whatever flimsy obligation I may have had. We watched baseball, talked and laughed, especially about his current residence — he was living in, get this, a tent in Tennessee.
Because we were musicians, our talk inevitably turned toward women, and Al, ever the Southern gentleman, was having a hard time between bites communicating to me the difficulty in … you see, the difficulty in (me taking my last swig that didn’t end up on the wall, as I boldly supplied the punch line) “… in asking a young lady if she’d like to come back to your tent?” We both darn near died there in a fit of laughter.
Yeah, December boys got it bad, as “September Gurls” notes. The great Alex Chilton is gone — folk troubadour, blues shouter, master singer, songwriter and guitarist. Someone should write a tune about him. Then again, nah, that would be impossible. Or just plain stupid.
He is one the all time best pop melody makers, he’s up there with Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Pete Townsend. When you hear his songs for the first time you’ll swear you’ve heard it before, but you have not. It is just so instantly recognizable, so familiar and so right!
The Box Tops – The Letter:
Alex Chilton was involved in great music all his life, he was like the music worlds Coen brothers, they may be making some movies that are not fantastic, but they are always good. And in most cases better and more interesting than anything else out there. Chilton had a very consistent career and deserved so much more recognition than he got.
The Ballad of El Goodo (live, 93):
It is difficult to get across the admiration I have for Alex Chilton, let’s just say that he is one of the all time best and listen to his music.
Oh, and I think we should include that “stupid”song that Mr. Westerberg is talking about above. Alex Chilton, here in a solo Paul Westerberg live clip:
Alex Chilton defined the term cult hero. He was difficult, mercurial, endlessly self-sabotaging and, for a brief time, utterly brilliant. His 70s group Big Star remain almost unknown to the mainstream but are one of the key abiding influences in rock music of any calibre, their short life only fuelling their near-mythical status. “I never travel far without a little Big Star,” sang the Replacements on their strange love song, “Alex Chilton”. Several influential rock groups, from REM to Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub to Wilco, would echo that sentiment. REM’s Peter Buck once described Big Star as “a Rosetta stone for a whole generation”.
My (Hallgeir) list of Alex Chilton’s top 21 songs (actually 22, I had to include The Letter even if he didn’t write that one):
When we saw Justin Townes Earle last year he ripped through a rousing version of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ My starter won’t start (I been burnin bad gasoline). I have looked at a lot of Justin’s performances to find one that is equally good, there isn’t one… That said, there are a lot of very good ones.
Since it’s Lightnin’ Hopkins’ birthday today we give you two of them, quite different but very entertaining and very good. Justin Townes Earle is a formidable player and singer!
Happy birthday to legend, Lightnin’ Hopkins rest in peace in blues heaven!
New Jersey 2011 (..and closest to the Bergen version):
Detroit 2010 (very different and very good):
Here’s Lightning Hopkins’ great original (audio only):
Ok, I know, they released their first album in 2007 so they’re not exactly a new band. Well, they are new to me, and I reckon they should get a lot more attention than they have.
I discovered them through veteran singer/songwriter Mike McClure (I love his album, 50 Billion), I was wondering what he was doing and the name Turnpike Troubadours popped up when I looked around the web.
They have released three albums so far, all excellent. We did not include them on our year-end list for 2012, and I fear it is just as big a mistake as when we failed to include Johnathan Wilson on the 2011 list. Those things are bound to happen but it is really annoying when they do.
Gin, Smoke, Lies , great video/song beautiful shot but with a dark undertone:
They come from Oklahoma and they play a country tinged roots-rock. It sounds effortless and clever at the same time, kind of the same way that Steve Earle or Townes Van Zandt sounds so easy at first and are so intricate and smart when you really listen.
Wikipedia has a short description of them, I guess it will expand in the near future… :
Turnpike Troubadours is an American Red Dirt group from Oklahoma composed of Evan Felker, R.C. Edwards, Kyle Nix, Ryan Engelman and Gabe Pearson. They are signed to Bossier City Records and have released three studio albums since 2007. Their 2012 album Goodbye Normal Street peaked at number 57 on the Billboard 200.
