MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW - REMEDY

The headline-grabber here is Sweet Amarillo, another co-write between OCMS and one Bob Dylan. That's the same team that produced Wagon Wheel, the ubiquitous festival favourite, and a number one country hit for Hootie. Ketch Secor had worked up Wagon Wheel from a sketch on a Dylan bootleg, but this time Bob sent him an unfinished number, no doubt well-pleased with the financial windfall his detritus had generated. I'm so tired of Wagon Wheel I can't possibly tell if this one is as good, because it sounds much better to my overworked and less than objective ears. I do like Sweet Amarillo a lot though, which the group has worked up to feel like a Desire-era number.


The rest of Remedy is typical of the way the Crow flies, with lots of faster-than-possible banjo and fiddle numbers, espousing Dirty 30's values and musicianship. Doc's Day is a tale tail about what has inspired their sound, an old hillbilly advising them "if you wanna rock, listen to Doc." Watson, that is. They hyper tune 8 Dogs 8 Banjos describes their version of happiness. O Cumberland River is a jumble of several Band songs, especially all the ones sung by Levon Helm.


There are a couple of tunes where they slow down long enough to take a breath, but really, speed works well for them on good-time, shit-kickin' old timey songs. One of the best is actually called Shit Creek, as in 'we're up it'. Secor's spitting out the vocals, his fiddle's on fire and the band is cookin'. That's what you want from a medicine show.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG - CSNY 1974

Long-awaited and the stuff of legend, this box from the famous 1974 CSNY reunion tour has gone through what everything to do with "Y" does. That means endless delays for frustrating reasons, to the point of being underwhelmed when the project finally does show up. Think Young's Archives Vol. 1, something so discussed for so long that when it did arrive, many wondered what all the fuss was about. This time, Young wanted the best available audio for Blu-ray, meaning producer Nash had to scrap much of the work a third of the way through and start over. He described the whole process as the most difficult project of his life, and said it took a year of work but four years for approvals.


So, given all that, it is underwhelming? My message is no. It is a giant gift of a box. You can go cheap and get the single, 16-track CD but that's missing way too much. It was a monumental tour, and you'll want the three CD, one DVD version, if only to get all the unreleased Neil Young numbers done that summer.


Ah, Young. This was one of his great periods, and he really does steal the show. The rest of them had done okay after the splintering of the group in 1970, but Young was in the stratosphere. He could fall back on great numbers from After the Gold Rush and Harvest (Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Old Man), helped out by the heavenly harmonies of the others. Or, he could dip into the current album, On The Beach, for bleak brilliance (Revolution Blues, On The Beach). Several of his songs made their debut on this tour, including some meant for CSNY projects that never came to be. That meant one of his best-loved numbers, Long May You Run, sat another two years before coming out, but we hear it here, already in its final state. Then you have the stuff of years of bootlegs: Pushed It Over The End, Love Art Blues, Hawaiian Sunrise. It's perhaps unfair to compare anyone to Young at this point, but it's hard to look at the other guys on the same stage and consider it a fair fight.


What's nice is that this set never seems like the clash of egos that has often marred the CSNY story. There is an overall fairness and cooperation on display, each member helping the other, everybody getting their turn to shine. If anything, it's the solo songs by each that come off better. They really seem to be trying on Stills' Johnny's Garden, Nash's Immigration Man, and Crosby's The Lee Shore. The big CSNY numbers like Deja Vu and Almost Cut My Hair have an air of smugness, like they know they are the big star numbers. Or maybe I'm projecting; anyway, I like the unexpected interplay.


Sadly, CSNY never got better. Young got more erratic, but has continued to show brilliance at times. The rest have really offered us at best a cautionary tale about drugs, money, ego and talent. The good news is that the recording legacy of this group has just grown a significant amount, and it's a very good set.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ASH & BLOOM - LET THE STORM COME

Out of Hamilton comes this new acoustic duo.  Ash & Bloom are Matt McKenna and James Bloemendal, known for their brilliant vocal blend and acoustic songwriting.  The pair spend much of their time singing together, usually breaking into harmonies pretty quickly in each song.  They go for the heart-tugging stuff for the most part, including the apologetic Your Hero, a guy feeling guilty for breaking somebody's heart and not being the Right One.  They have the proper amount of emotion in the voices (i.e., tons) to pull that one off.

Emma-Lee joins on vocals for You Carry Me, which really ups the drama, and harmony fans will love the three-part work.  Someday Soon sees the pair move into lighthearted whimsy, a bit like Simon & Garfunkel doing Feelin' Groovy, that sort of vibe.  You'll have to enjoy the sweeter side, with the duo's pretty pop featuring strings, gentle percussion and keyboards.  The biggest beat they get is from hand claps on Manna For My Soul, an uptempo and fun one, bright and cheerful.  I think this may be the exact opposite of heavy metal.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: BLONDIE - GHOSTS OF DOWNLOAD Special Deluxe Edition

Blondie has not gone quietly into that rock band graveyard that is the casino circuit.  While the band knows full well  it's Heart of Glass and The Tide Is High that are bringing out the crowds on the road, they have gamely been making albums since the group reformation in 1997.  I guess since it did work so well that year, with the hit single Maria and album No Exit, they keep hoping for magic to hit a third time.  But they have a back-up for the probable lack of interest in new songs; this set comes with a second album called Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux, which features newly-recorded versions of all the biggies, including Call Me, Rapture, Dreaming and One Way Or Another.  They are pretty much note-for-note, and show that this version of the band has all the chops of the old one, and Debbie Harry is vocally ageless.  It's still a gimmick though, something to hopefully peddle to new fans at the merch table.  Old ones will have them all.

As for the album proper, the group is now banking on similarities to current dance-n'-diva acts.  Blondie invented the whole merger of new wave and disco, and that sound can be heard in the icy pop of Lady Gaga's and all those wanna-be's.  So the group have brought out the synths again, invited a few names such as Miss Guy and Beth Ditto, and made their sound modern.  It didn't take much really, and it just goes to show how the group was always at the forefront.  Unfortunately, the songs they have written don't really punch through with any success.  Singles Sugar On The Side and A Rose By Any Name are passable dance numbers, well-produced but really not memorable enough to stand out.  And certainly they can't match the excitement of a Call Me, for instance, for the dance floor crowd.

Those who first followed the group in the punk days might be tempted by the Special Deluxe Version of the set, which is expanded to three discs with an extra DVD.  On first glance, this seems like it could be the jewel here.  It's a full set recorded live at CBGB in 1977, back at the start with the X-Offender/In The Flesh version of the band.  This would have been great, except the video is complete crap, seriously deteriorated, and the audio was probably never good.  It could be used if you were looking to describe what the band was like in those days if writing an essay, but as for an enjoyable hour, forget it, it's more frustrating for what could have been.  The use of the words special and deluxe aren't really appropriate here.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DAVE "HURRICANE" HOERL - UN-TWISTED

Harmonica is one of the cornerstone instruments of the blues, but one of the overused ones too.  That's because you don't need to learn it to play it.  All you need to do is put your lips together and blow.  Trouble is, too many suck too.  Tons of singers with nothing else to do have picked up the harp without learning about keys, breathing and microphone technique.  Poor harp solos are a good way to quickly tell a weak blues band from a good one.

I always trust the players who started on harp, rather than went to it as a second instrument.  For three decades, Dave Hoerl has been leading the way in Vancouver, after moving up from San Francisco.  His band The Twisters helped bring jump blues back to the forefront, and has held its own as one of the country's best.  Now, Hoerl takes the solo route for the very first time, giving us some of the usual fun The Twisters deal in, plus a few style surprises to change things up.  He's the songwriter and lead singer, but its the harmonica work that stands out, and it's such a pleasure to hear high-quality playing all the way through, songs made with the instrument in mind rather than it slapped on as an option.  Hoerl doesn't just solo, he fills in places where you'd often find guitar or piano parts.  He knows how to lead into verses with quick lines, or follow along with a couple of notes, stabbing like rhythm guitar players.  When he does blast away, it's all the more better, inventive lines that go to surprising places, not just bluster and sputtering.

As a writer, the good times are on display, whether it's creating party music (Pure & Simple Blues), a tribute to his partner (Soul Mate), and an Arabian-flavoured number, Snake Charmer.  The latter song features Hoerl's dextrous chromatic harmonica playing; that's the bigger one with the slide bar that gives the instrument all the notes of the scale, plus the well-known tone used by such fine players as Stevie Wonder, and heard on the Sesame Street theme.  Now that's a hard harmonica to master, and here Hoerl imitates horn parts and duels with sax lines.  What you have here is a fine blues album on any level, and put up another notch because there's a stand-out player involved as well.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: NAT KING COLE - THE EXTRAORDINARY

Maybe Nat King Cole made it look too easy.  He excelled at everything he did, yet he doesn't gets the kudos of Sinatra or Ella or Bing, let alone Dean Martin or Tony Bennett.  But when you look at everything he did, it's pretty staggering.  He was a grade-A jazz pianist first, then started to push his vocal sounds.  When he made the conscious move to more pop material, such as Unforgettable and Nature Boy, his sales were huge, and for good reason Capitol Records' iconic L.A. tower was called The House That Nat Built.  He did dozens of movies and TV shows, and even became the first African-American to host his own TV variety series.   Plus, it all seemed to be done without breaking a sweat.  He was the ultimate cool guy.

He might be best remembered for the ballads, but he could do it all, from Latin (Papa Loves Mambo) to Rat Pack (Open Up The Doghouse, Two Cats Are Coming In with Dino).  It's the swing I like, the breezy way he sings Route 66 or Walkin' My Baby Back Home.  As for jazz chops, his version of Ellington's Don't Get Around Much Anymore matches any.  This is a nice packed set at 22 cuts, including a previously unreleased take of 1953's You're W
rong All Wrong.  Some of the big hits here are the 1961 re-recorded versions, including Mona Lisa and Unforgettable, but they don't sound flawed and the vocals are perfect.  All you Mad Men fans need at least one Nat collection.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE LEVON HELM BAND - THE MIDNIGHT RAMBLE SESSIONS VOL. 3

Levon Helm's last few years were spent holding court at his home studio/concert space, running the Midnight Rambles. These featured his crack band, and whatever guests would drop by, great players and famous names alike. These proved so popular that Helm got back on the concert and recording circuit near the end of his life, winning Grammy awards and becoming a roots music icon.


Luckily, those Rambles were often recorded, and the series is now up to volume three. This is Americana at its finest, R'n'B and hillbilly sounds, Gospel and folk, the stuff Helm had in his DNA. The caveat is, as always, it's not Levon, it's the music that's on display. Helm would only sing the occasional number, as his throat was an iffy proposition after cancer surgery. So you have to appreciate the rest of the fine folks here. That's a bit of an understatement too; this was a band and a family so tight that Larry Campbell left his long-going gig with Bob Dylan to lead the group with Helm. There's also horn man Jimmy Vivino, straight from Jersey and duty with Springsteen and Conan's groups. Daughter Amy Helms is here, old unheralded blues singer Little Sammy Davis, a real revue on stage.


There are some great and surprising numbers here. Instead of old Band hits and cuts from his solo albums, this is a connoisseur's collection. Helm kicks things off with Chess blues on Willie Dixon's The Same Thing, and closes it with the pure funk of Take Me To The River. Amy offers Sam Cooke's Ain't That Good News, more gutsy than his sleek production. Guest stars on this set are top drawer, including Allen Toussaint playing with fire on his own A Certain Girl, and Chris Robinson dropping by to light up Shake Your Money Maker. Best of all is a unique version of Dylan's Simple Twist Of Fate, sung by Brian Mitchell and turned into a Parisienne torch number, with accordion and mystery. I'm glad these are out there for Helm's sake as well, as he sounds much better here than the last few months of his life, when he could barely croak a couple of tunes a night. Helm was one who did prove F. Scott Fitzgerald wrong in The Last Tycoon, an American with a great second act in his life.