Flanfire

Okay, so (a) I have had a long vacation from writing because (b) I was working on my house a lot and (c) I was winning a cooking contest and such things.  Now I am backed up, CD’s stacked high on my desk (and more coming all the time), and LOTS of great shows to comment on.  I will warn that I will be posting SOME comments on my Facebook page (Duggan Flanakin) because that can be quick and easy (I will not say “dirty”).  OK, my other camera broke, too, and I have not yet mastered taking prime time photos on my new one.  But let’s get started.

THE TEXAS SAPPHIRES – As He Wanders

Billy Brent Malkus is a true Southern gentleman, and I fondly recall the startup of a “side project” (that is, away from Nathan Hamilton and No Deal) with old friend Rebecca Lucille Cannon of the punk rocker band Sincola.  The Sapphires (Texas was added because of an old soul band with the same name) went through a bunch of players until one day Brent and Lucy realized they had a headlining act.  The band’s debut CD, “Valley So Steep,” was just killer, and the studio followup, “As He Wanders,” picks up where the debut left off.  The band today is Brent, Rebecca and Slim Bawb Pearce, generally Scotty Matthews, and whoever else shows up. 

The new CD is chock full of “whoever shows up,” including Billy Dee (Donahue) playing bass, Nathan Fleming on pedal steel (often found with Jesse Dayton), Tommy Detamore on dobro, Justin Kolb on upright bass, and the incomparable Dennis Ludiker on fiddle (well, he IS the 2008 and 2009 Texas State Champion).  Fleming shines just about every time he is on a track, starting off with “Nashville Moon,” written by Brent’s Baltimore buddy Arty Hill.  Ludiker’s fiddling is always “ludicrous-ly” good.  Brent, who grew up on a Maryland hog farm, does not have to fake it to be a kicker icon — it’s in his blood!

“190,” the first of many Malkus cuts, features Rebecca on vocals, is another old-time country “standard” (notably because of the style of pedal steel Fleming uses here, and you have to realize the kid is still on the short side of thirty!).  “Riddled Days” is a Malkus standard that features Detamore’s dobro and Slim Bawb on mandolin — this waltz is just good songwriting.  “Stunt Double” gets back to honkytonking — and a great idea for a two-timing man who wants to avoid his woman’s wrath.  Rebecca ( aka Lucy) wrote “Teardrops or Rain,” an old style country ballad light years better than the “songs” Taylor Swift primps through on CMT.  I just LOVE THIS SONG!

It’s back to honkytonking with Brent’s fun song, ”How Did I Get So Sloppy Drunk (When I Was Drinking Neat)?” and back to Rebecca on Brent’s ballad “Make Him Make Me” (yup, she’s singing the harmony parts too).  Another great song with some great instrumental breaks … CLASSIC!  Just play this on every radio station that ever called itself country and the Texas Sapphires will suddenly be on the bigtime rodeo circuit and the Opry on the side. 

Next up is “Baltimore Cage,” which opens with Slim Bawb on mandolin and Dennis on fiddle — this is a song about being in jail.  Another great one to hear live (as I did at the band’s Continental Club CD release party a few weeks back).  Then it’s Slim Bawb’s “Farmers Tan,” a song that also appears on Pearce’s own CD (reviewed here earlier) — one that tests the ability of the human ear to keep up with (super?)human fingers.  Back to Rebecca on vocals on “Spirits,” and then “Freiheit Rag,” with Brent and Slim Bawb picking and Justin Kolb thumping away, before you get to “Pure Land,” the destination of choice.  This song cries out against littering, potholes, and other evidences of human debris that show our failure to appreciate the gifts we have been given by the Great Spirit.  This is a gospel song much moreso than “Bring Out the Bible (We Ain’t Got a Prayer)” from “Valley So Steep.”

The Sapphires are on tour in Colorado and New Mexico until March 18th, when they play a SXSW party at the Whip In (and play again at Roadhouse Rags on the 21st of March).  These guys (and gal) are the real deal!

HANK & SHAIDRI ALRICH with DOUG HARMAN — Carry Me Home

Hank Alrich is an Austin legend if for nothing less than his service managing the original Armadillo (taking over from longtime buddy Eddie Wilson), even though he left town decades ago and moved to California where he raised a passel of daughters and son.  The Austin American-Statesman quotes Wilson as saying that, “Hank is a hero.  If not for Hank, the Armadillo would have been closed in two years instead of open for 10.”

Just one of Hank’s many daughters is the quiet Shaidri, whose talent is just off the chart.   Doug Harman makes it a trio on cello.  I will defer all of the GOOD details about Hank and Shaidri to my pal John Conquest — you should really read HIS review of this delightful recording at Third Coast Music.  This is old timey music … I can only say I am grateful to get to hear Shaidri when her dad comes to town and that I am still hopeful that she will get out more (or that Hank will just start playing a LOT more shows here), because her voice (and her fiddle and guitar playing) takes you back to a simpler, sweeter time — even when she is singing the sad ballad, “The Death of Ellenton,” about a town “that’s gone forevermore.”  Conquest reminds us that Shaidri was winning fiddle contests at age 6 and that “she glows in the dark.”  I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE!  The trio cover songs from Utah Phillips, Peter Rowan, and others but include four Hank Alrich originals, including “Austin City Limits,” which opens the CD.  You get a taste of Shaidri’s Celtic music prowess on “Blarney’s Ghost Medley,” six minutes of pure joy.  Hank’s vocals shine on ”If I Don’t Get You” and Shaidri’s glisten on “Carry Me Home,” just two of the many songs Hank has written over the years.  This stuff is Carter Family good — and Shaidri joyously is beginning to get out more into the Austin music community, a light destined to shine VERY brightly over our city.

Now Hank is promoting a second valuable release — In this, the 40th Birthday year of Armadillo World Headquarters, Armadillo Records will release Taking Turns, a song swap from Austin artists, musicians, engineers and studios. It has always been Armadillo’s mission to present a wide range of quality talents, musicians and styles to satisfy and provoke the adventurous and discriminating tastes of our audiences.  Leading off this new CD is (who else?) Shaidri Alrich, but the CD also includes songs from Beto y los Fairlanes, Denim, Michael Durbin, Tommy Elskes, Greezy Wheels, Lindsay Haisley, Mady Kaye, Maryann Price, Shake Russell, Craig Toungate, and Elizabeth Wills.  Fans of old-time Austin music will line up to get this jewel.