Your mother knows best...

Girls Guns & Glory - Pretty Little Wrecking Ball

Of all the little details that make up the band Girls Guns & Glory, the one I like best is that drummer Johnny Surprises’ mom made him take percussion lessons from Tito Puente.

It’s like I’ve always told my boys, “Listen to your mother. Sometimes she knows what she’s talking about.”

So listen up.

While a band from Boston evokes images of a certain blue-state philosophy, these guys seem more like they should be jumping around a stage in some red-state backwater where the politics are insane, but the music is terrific.

GGG offers no oh-so-earnest Shawn Colvin-inspired acoustic strumming or tediously crunchy metaphors of flowers and sunshine. The sound is straight-up traditional country and early rock-and-roll with honky-tonk piano and tight Tex-Mex rhythms. And yet, their music, particularly their latest CD Pretty Little Wrecking Ball, remains easily accessible. There is nothing here that is offensive or even particularly thought-provoking. They have the spirit of a bar band, in only the best sense. And you gotta wonder: Why isn’t this considered to be mainstream commercial country? And then, you remember. Mainstream country must suck. In a fair world, Kenny Chesney and Brooks & Dunn wouldn’t be able to score a gig at a used-car lot grand opening. There is no justice.

Pretty Little Wrecking Ball is filled with catchy songs, but sometimes slightly twisted lyrics. I can’t tell if Soft Raccoon is a tender but playful ballad about a child’s lost stuffed animal, or the threatening and obsessive rant of a stalker.

And Tennessee Rose is something of an ironic reverse on the typical wayward country boy. Songwriter and lead singer Ward Hayden plays off the tale of a boy overcome by the spirit to wander and now sits alone, most likely in a cold northern city, pining for the bluegrass of his southern home. But instead of that story, Tennessee Rose is about a momma’s boy whose feet are firmly planted in a northern town and is too fearful to jump that train with the beckoning whistle. So he stays where he’s supposed to be, most likely with the reliable job, good health benefits and profitable 401k.

To Hell that train is bound
Hear that whistle blowin' as it rides this town into the ground
A train is not enough for me to turn my back and walk away,
You know I love my momma very much

Awww, see? The boy can’t leave because he loves his momma. I’m so definitely buying my sons this CD.

Anyway, I saw Girls Guns & Glory last fall at Dewey Beach’s annual Americana Festival. I just checked their tour schedule and these boys play pretty much close to home. So it gets me a little misty to know that they drove all the way down to the southern tip of Delaware and played such a terrific show for nothing more than beer money – and the mutual glowing appreciation that you get any time you get a bunch of drunken musicians together in a bar for three days.

Admittedly, I’m a little fuzzy on some of the details from the weekend – I remember something involving shots and banana crème - but here are my recollections on GGG: They were great. And while they played with lots of energy and polished enthusiasm, one never got the feeling that they took themselves too seriously – unlike the guy that took the stage after them and who, in my opinion, has been receiving far more attention than he deserves. Lead singer Hayden looks like Buddy Holly, trills like Dwight Yoakam, and owes inspiration to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and a great number of other country music singers who came along before country music sucked. I also remember thinking Hayden wore great shoes…and had nice lean hips.

The performance was mixed with their catchy originals and some great old standards. Near the end of the show, they played Folsom Prison. Now, there are a few songs that a band can play to make me love ‘em forever. Especially after a few drinks. Folsom Prison is one of those songs. So, admittedly, I’m biased here.

In addition to Hayden, and drummer Johnny Surprise, the band’s other members are: Bruce IV, on bass; Brendan Murphy, percussion; and Colt Thompson, lead guitar.

In December, Girls Guns & Glory signed a management deal with Perriello Productions. And in the Dec. 28th issue of The Boston Globe, Pretty Little Wrecking Ball was listed as one of the top 15 local releases of the year. So hopefully, they’ll be getting more attention in this year.

You can listen and buy 'Pretty little Wrecking Ball' here.

Madalyn's BonesGURF MORLIX - DiamondsTo Dust(Blue Corn Music)

So, I'm listening to Gurf Morlix's terrific song about Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the Austin atheist famous for ending - through a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision - the subjection of this nation's children to forced Bible readings and prayer in public school.

Morlix sings, "The last thing she wanted was for them to roll back the stone, and be praying over Madalyn's bones."

The ding of my e-mail inbox alerts me to a "Prayer Alert" from the Institute for Creation Research. (Tracking evangelical attacks on public education is kind of a hobby of mine.) The alert asks supporters to pray that it's proposed graduate program on creation science - which teaches us that science proves dinosaurs bobbed up and down on Noah's Ark and the Earth is 6,000 years old - is approved in Texas.

Sigh. Some things never change.

Morlix's latest CD, Diamonds to Dust, is filled with subtle references to this acknowledgement ... of time marching on, but of nothing changing ... not really. The last time he sings the chorus, Morlix changes the phrase slightly: "The last thing she wanted was for them to roll back the stone. Now they're praying over Madalyn's bones."

In his typically understated way - He has made a career out of being the sideman to some of the greatest talents in the business - Morlix weaves quiet tales of living and dying that are no doubt too subversive for the cheery confines of corporate radio.

Which is a sin ... If you believe in that sort of thing. If you're not much into religious dogma - as Morlix hints in his lyrics that he might not be - you could believe that the lack of mainstream airplay is just simply and terribly wrong.

For in his spare lyrics and production are some beautiful and provocative observations.

Morlix is best known as Lucinda Williams' long-time collaborator until a parting of the ways over the recording of her Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. But the rest of Morlix's discography reads like a must-have list of the best of Americana music. Over the years, he has played guitar and other instruments and produced for such artists as Eliza Gilkyson, Mary Gauthier, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Blaze Foley, Slaid Cleaves, Julie Miller, Robert Earl Keen, Buddy Miller...The full list can be found here.

Diamonds to Dust, is Morlix's fourth solo CD and was released in 2007 by Blue Corn Music. It spent six months in the top 40 of the AMA Americana charts and has been a consistent favorite of music critics. A professional musician for other folks since 1966, Morlix has clearly found his voice.

One of the CD's most moving songs is Blankets, which was inspired by the passing of Morlix's friends Warren Zevon and former roadie Chris Slemmer. A tribute to the grace with which Zevon left this world, the song features Patty Griffin's soaring harmonies that contrast well with the gritty realism of Morlix's voice:

...there's something you can't never know, is how you feel when the anchor let's go.

I've never wondered 'bout how it would be. I've wandered the world like I was holding the key.

I'm beginning to shiver. I'm beginning to see. If you got a blanket, won't you put it on me.

Morlix also includes a haunting cover of Bob Dylan's anti-war song With God on Our Side. But as I was listening to this song, I was startled by one particular reference that I swore had to be taken from Gen. Tommy Franks response to the press when asked about dead Iraqi civilians, "We don't do body counts."

I actually checked the lyrics to see if Morlix might have updated them for relevancy. He didn't. He didn't need to. Time doesn't change.

The reason for fighting I never did get

But I learned to accept it, accept it with pride

For you don't count your dead when God's on your side.

You can listen / buy Gurf Morlix's Diamonds to Dust here.

BRIANNA LANE - Let You In(Pay My Rent Music)

Down-to-Earth Americana Goodness

On her MySpace page, Brianna Lane lists a number of female singers that she sounds like: Shawn Colvin, Jonatha Brooke, Suzanne Vega, Aimee Mann. The list goes on.

But she misses the one singer who immediately jumps to mind - at least my mind. On her third self-released CD, "let you in," Lane croons with the same sweet I'm-just-taking-my-time-here-so-grab-that-bottle-of-whiskey-and-join-me style of Rickie Lee Jones.

Her intimate just-this-side-of-breathless voice plays well off the confessional narrative of her lyrics. In True North, Lane uses lovely lyrical imagery as she sings of wandering through the desert. "We were angels caught in the windstorm. We lost our halos. We lost our true north...We were shouting, Jesus saves you. No one listenin' to the preacher."

Lane describes herself as belonging to the "alterna-folkie" genre - and her songs do indeed remind one of the above referenced Shawn Colvin and Jonatha Brooke. She grew up in Minnesota, but for the past three years she has been touring non-stop.

Evan Brubaker produced the all-acoustic "Let you in," as well as Lane's second CD, "Radiator." But "Let you in" differs markedly from the electric-guitar-and-drum instrumentation of Lane's previous effort. Her latest CD features upright bassist Keith Lowe who has worked closely with Bill Frisell, Laura Veirs, Fiona Apple and Dave Mathews. Seattle's Zak Borden plays some very pretty mandolin and singer/songwriter Jonathan Kingham adds dobro and banjo to a few tracks.

To listen to sample tracks, visit Lane's MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/briannalane

You can listen / buy Brainna Lane's Let You In here.