MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE EVERLY BROTHERS - HARMONIES FROM HEAVEN (DVD)

A new bio on the 20th century's favourite harmony act. You can't say pop, or rock and roll, or country, because they got claimed by all the formats, big hits on all the charts. This doc does a great job explaining why, and what made the duo so special, from the brotherly harmonies to Bo Diddley guitar mixed in to the great songs written for them by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and the ones they came up with as well. There are new interview bits with Don, archive ones from the late Phil, and lots of famous fans as well: Keith Richards, Graham Nash, Art Garfunkel and Dave Edmunds all have strong insights and personal connections and stories, which is a bonus, especially hearing Richards and Nash talk about meeting them in England in the 60s at the start of their careers. Their influence, especially on the Beatles, Hollies and Simon and Garfunkel, was key to all their careers.


Even better are explaining sections from guitar greats and former sidemen to the brothers, Albert Lee and Waddy Wachtel, who give us musician's secrets to the duo's excellence, plus dish a tiny bit of dirt and background tales of the famously feuding siblings. Nicely though, they also talk about the good times, when both would end up in the late-night hotel jams singing old country favourites. Because this was made by the always-excellent Reelin' In The Years company, there's a ton of great clips from early TV shows, and even an aircheck of the boys as part of the family act on radio in 1950.


It flies past, and sadly, it's just an hour long, meaning important moments are skipped over, entire segments of their career missing, and nothing but a mention of their 80s reunion and subsequent tours and albums. To make up for that, there are some bonus extended interviews with several of the stars, including some really good stories, so they are worth a watch. But even better is a second disc, another example of Reelin' digging deep and finding gems. It's a concert from 1968, originally broadcast on Australian TV, from a spot in Sydney called Chequers Nightclub. As explained in the documentary, the mighty had fallen by this time, one of the many American acts in decline after the British Invasion. They were still making great music, as their recent single, Bowling Green, played here shows, but they were by then a club act. A great one mind you, but it really is odd to see Don being a comedian before and sometimes during songs, with Phil as the straight man, sort of like the Smothers Brothers, only with weaker material but a lot better music. To hear the closing encore of the show, the beautiful 1940s number Kentucky, is all the proof you'll ever need they were the very best harmony singers.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DAWN TYLER WATSON - JAWBREAKER!

Oh what to do when you can do too much? That's always the issue facing Montreal's Dawn Tyler Watson. Fluent in jazz, soul, gospel and all variants of blues (acoustic, electric, rhythm and..., etc.), she moves from project to project, gig to gig, basically just killing them all. This time out, it's a new one for sure, one that incorporates several of her styles, with a big, gutsy backing.


For Jawbreaker, she's enlisted Ben Racine and his band, fellow respected Montrealers. The sextet is known for its heavy 50s/60s R'n'B stylings, and here they let Watson go all out on some of that gospel-flavoured, high-energy material. Shine On has all the power of a revival meeting, with Watson joined by vocalist Patrick Lehman, playing off each other at full throttle. Racine himself joins in for a duet next, this time on the far more soulful and smooth Just A Little Bit More, doing a little Dinah Washington/Brook Benton action.


The Racine group sits out for Tootsie Roll Blues, an acoustic number with upright bass from Morgan Moore, which brings in an equal portion of jazz. In the ultimate Montreal tribute, Watson, and Racine band groove through Smoked Meat, an organ-and-horn workout, on rye with a pickle on the side. That, my friends, is funky.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SAM ROBERTS BAND - TERRAFORM

Roberts and Co. back off the synth of 2014's Lo-Fantasy a bit and get back to more urgent rock and roll sounds on this latest set, the group's sixth full-length. There's occasionally some bubbliness to tracks such as Lake Effect, but the set is dominating more by ringing rock, a wall of guitars, drums, keys all mashed up and coming fast and tough. On top of it all is Roberts' winning voice, meaning business yet still highly melodic.


There's still just enough of a synth bed to give the album a glossy sheen as well, every once in while reaching the surface to add an 80s air. But the Roberts Band is always more about the songs than style, and while they move back and forth a bit from album to album, you can always count on high-quality, driving numbers with just a big of mystery, such as closer Spring Fever or first single If You Want It.


The group kicks off an East Coast tour over the next week, before heading off to U.S. dates. On Tuesday, Nov. 16 they are at Casino New Brunswick in Moncton, on Wednesday it's the Convention Centre in St. John's, Thursday the Halifax Forum, and Friday Murphy's Community Centre in Charlottetown. Adam Baldwin will be opening all those shows.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS - STRONG LIKE THAT

The Thunderbirds are go, finding a funky place between soul and blues, and I'd argue leaning harder towards the soul side. Deep soul too, not the smoother kind, but the pulse of Memphis. You can tell from the covers, as the band goes into the lesser-known areas of the Stax canon, including Johnny Taylor's Somebody's Getting It, Albert King's Drowning On Dry Land, and Eddie Floyd's I've Never Found A Girl. When the group does go Motown, it's the grittiest example, The Temptations (I Know I'm) Losing You.



Kim Wilson's sounding even more like those deep-voiced 60's Stax singers such as William Bell, or even King. A little B.B. in there as well. His always nasty harmonica playing leads the way, there's a good amount of added horns, and the rest is tight, in the pocket playing, focused on the groove. There's not much guitar heroics, this is clearly Wilson's band, and the songs are the key. For that, it has a confident, and professional feel, in the very best sense of that word.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE BAND - THE LAST WALTZ 40th Anniversary Edition

Such a night, as Dr. John sang. The influence of this all-star concert is certainly just as strong today as it was 40 years ago, and I'm always happy to meet another 20-something who knows the film and has a good appreciation of some classic artists because of it. For many, it's been their introduction to Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, and the good Doctor, plus the wonderful Band music. They ask about why Joni Mitchell sang harmonies from backstage for Helpless, and if Neil Young really did have a blob of cocaine in his nose that was doctored out in the film. And they can't figure out why Neil Diamond was there either. There's even this phenomena of tribute shows to the concert, anywhere with a decent local roots music community.


The Last Waltz has been reissued a few times, both on video and audio, most significantly in 2002, when a boxed set made available a raft of performances edited out of the familiar movie and soundtrack album, full songs on stage, as well as some rehearsals and demos for Robbie Roberton's studio tracks for the movie. Some were interesting, such as Neil Young doing Four Strong Winds, some superfluous, like the dull closing jams from the show, and some exciting, such as the full, unedited set by Bob Dylan, with Hazel restored to its place as the second song.


There's nothing else in the bag apparently, so to mark the 40th, they've come up with two marketing strategies. For the first time, you can buy the movie and the music in one package, as four CDs and one Blu-Ray. If you don't have the full set of songs, or the movie, I'd recommend it, as it is a film you'll watch a few times over your time on this planet. The other package, which is the way I got it, is a treat for vinyl collectors. For the first time, all the music now appears on LP, six of them in fact, twice the original length. I found the sound absolutely wonderful on this new pressing, so much so that I went back to find my original 3-LP set, and wouldn't you know, it's disappeared. Anyway, I sure can't remember it being this rich and clear. Man, that Dylan set rocks, too. Pretty great show all around, but really, Neil Diamond?

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE ROLLING STONES - HAVANA MOON

At first I thought, "What, another live Stones set? Why in the world do we need this?" That 50th anniversary show from Hyde Park wasn't exactly inspiring, and they are even older now. Well, I should know by now that the Stones don't give up, and just when you (or me) are ready to write them off, they come back with a surprise punch.


This set (one DVD, two CDs) comes from the free show in Cuba on March 25, 2016. The crowd was of course massive, but also impossible to count, so estimates ranged from 200,000 to over a million. For that rock-starved country, it must have been a mind-blowing event, what with all the lights and screen shows and giant stage. But for the rest of us, the revelation comes in how basic the Stones have made their show. It's become focused on the principals, Jagger in control, Wood and Richards flashing guitars like switchblades, and Watts pounding the engine. That diamond shape of the four is supplemented by a leaner backing group, all to the side and often in the dark, with really only bass player Darryl Jones and keyboard players Chuck Leavell and Matt Clifford always in play. Two horns and two singers add parts when needed, but this means hard work for the four seniors. Somehow, it still seems effortless, and indeed if you watch this back-to-back with, say, the 1981 shows, they are just as strong, and I'd take this show for its vigor.


The band are clearly loving this show, with smiles and laughs coming constantly. They keep looking into the crowd, reacting to the antics there, giving back the energy from the unjaded audience. The bulk of these people had never been to a rock show, and didn't even know The Rolling Stones music. Well, it's only rock and roll, but they liked it. Umm, they didn't play that one, but the rest was pretty much the usual hits. And they all sounded great.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: LORI CULLEN - SEXSMITH SWINGHAMMER SONGS

It must have been a no-brainer for Cullen to take up her friend Ron Sexsmith's suggestion that he and Kurt Swinghammer write all-new songs for her to record. Not only were they all friends, they're all on the A-list of Toronto talent. So we have the beautiful jazz-folk vocalist performing 12 songs featuring Sexsmith's words and Swinghammer's compositions



The writers weren't holding back on their A-list material or ideas at all. Sexsmith comes through with some of his killer images and lines. Miracle Home offers up "We turned a house of cards into a miracle home," while "Some Part Of Me" includes "I'm tired of eyes that give it all away/Kill the surprise of living each day." Opening track The Face Of Emily is a classic bit of Sexsmith writing, the lines on a stranger's face meaning another sad story as a woman grows older, unknown to most. Heck, he even says it in the words, "It's a lonely world." But several songs here are about the celebration of love and family, including Miracle Home, New Love and Then There Were Three. More proof he's not the gloomy Gus he gets labelled far too often.


Swinghammer responded to the project by placing the songs in a 60s pop world, with lots of Bacharach and bits of Jobim. There are lots of electric keyboards and moody horns and woodwinds, clarinet and fluegelhorn parts, plus vibes and marimba to add ringing percussion. It's far away from the rock combo; instead it's the pop orchestra. Cullen's voice is a wonder, never showy or dominate but simply lovely, the sound of love and joy and warmth. This week especially, what the world needs now...