New West

Som titeln antyder är nya plattan en hyllning till läromästaren och vännen Jerry Jeff Walker, som dog hösten 2020, 78 år gammal. <br/><br/>Med "Jerry Jeff" kompletterar Steve Earle den serie hyllningsplattor som inleddes med 2009 års "Townes" (Townes van Zandt), fortsatte med 2029 års "Guy" (Guy Clark) och som nu avslutas med "Jerry Jeff".<br/><br/>2021 gav Steve Earle dessutom ut "J.T.", en fin men smärtsam hyllningen till sonen Justin Townes Earle, som dog 2020, endast 38 år.<br/><br/>"The records were recorded and released in the order in which they left this world. But make no mistake - it was Jerry Jeff Walker who came first," says Earle.<br/> <br/>Earle was 14 when he first heard Walker. His high school drama teacher gave him a copy of "Mr. Bojangles," Walker's classic ballad about an unforgettable character he met in a New Orleans jail. After Earle moved to Nashville in the 1970s, he had the opportunity to get to know Walker, who enlisted him as his designated driver.<br/>"There's a tendency to think of Jerry Jeff around a relationship to one song," Earle says, referring to "Mr. Bojangles," which was covered by everyone from Bob Dylan to Sammy Davis Jr. "He was also such a great interpreter of other people's songs. But my main purpose in recording this album was to remind people that he wrote a lot of fucking great songs."

Samtliga tolv låtar på "Breakdown On 20th Ave South" är skrivna av Julie Miller och producerade av Buddy. Plattan är till stora delar inspelade hemma i paret sovrum, som de döpte till Studio B, med en humoristisk bugning till den lite mer berömda RCA-motsvarigheten. <br/><br/>"Breakdown On 20th Ave South" är paret Millers första gemensamma album sedan 2009 års "Written In Chalk". Anledningen till att det dröjt så länge är dels att Julie haft hälsoproble, dels att Buddy varit extremt eftertraktad som musik och producnet och jobbat med artister som Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Solomon Burke, Richard Thompson, Shawn Colvin & Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, The War & Treaty med flera.

Wallflowers: Exit wounds 2021 [Digipack / CD]

Steve Earle & The Dukes album "Terraplane" är en stark uppföljare till 2013 års album "The Low Highway". Earle backas av sitt trogna band The Dukes (Kelly Looney, Will Rigby, Chris Masterson och Eleanor Whitmore) och plattan producerades av R.S. Field (Buddy Guy, John Mayall). "Terraplane" släpps som enkel CD, deluxe CD/DVD, digitalt och som 180g vinyl. Deluxe- versionen innehåller 24-bit high-res audio plus en lång intervju med Earle gjord av journalisten Mark Jacobson. Dessutom bjuds vi på tre liveinspelade akustiska låtar och en "behind-the-scenes" film om inspelningen av plattan. <br/><br/>"Terraplane" har lånat titeln från en bilmodell från 30-talet som inspirerade Robert Johnson till att skriva "Terraplane Blues". Plattan är Earles 16:e studioalbum sedan utgivningen av den klassiska debuten "Guitar Town" 1986. <br/><br/>Som titeln antyder handklar det denna gången om en kraftiskt bluesinfluerad platta. Earle, som växte upp utanför San Antonio innan han flyttade till Houston, säger om Texas blues: "There was Fort Worth where the model was Freddy King, and there was the Houston scene which was dominated by Lightnin' Hopkins. Two very different styles". Earle såg båda dessa giganter live och lyssnade även flitigt till Johnny Winter, Jimmy och Stevie Ray Vaughn och Billy Gibbons. Samtliga dessa har gjort sina avtryck hos Earle, vilket tydligt kan höras på "Terraplane".<br/><br/>I sina "liner notes" till "Terraplane" skriver Steve Earle: ".the blues are anything but superficial. In fact, they run so deep and dark and close to the bone that folks walk around everyday with the blues as though it were perfectly natural for a human being to go on living with a broken heart. For my part, I've only ever believed two things about the blues: one, that they are very democratic, the commonest of human experience, perhaps the only thing that we all truly share and two, that one day, when it was time, I would make this record".<br/><br/>Trots allt prat om blues ska man inte förledas att tro att detta är ännu en platta med standardblues. Nej, det är ännu en uppvisning av den mästerlige låtskrivaren Steve Earle.

All Them Witches: ATW [CD]

"They are the real deal - psychedelic blues-rock warriors who pray at the altar of Black Sabbath, space out like Pink Floyd and shred away their bummers like Blue Cheer." SPIN<br/><br/>Nashville-baserade psych-rockkvartetten All Them Witches är tillbaka med nya albumet "Sleeping Through The War". Plattan innehåller åtta nya låtar producerade av Grammyvinnaren Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell) och följer upp fjolårets hyllade "Dying Surfer Meets His Maker"<br/><br/>Byggstenarna på "Sleeping Through The War" är de samma som gjort All Them Witches till kultfavoriter - mycket fuzz, tunga grooves och kosmiska visioner - men flera ur på vägarna på hemmaplan och i Europa (tre turnéer 2016!) och gjort bandet extremt tight och dynamiskt och även fördjupat låtskrivandet. <br/><br/>Soundet på "Sleeping Through The War" har inspirerats av vitt skilda favoriter som Dr. Johns "Gris-Gris", Sigur Ros, Kyuss och the East. "We wrote it in about six days", berättar gitarristen Ben McLeod. "Where in the past we would have just gone ahead and written and recorded in the studio, we were like nah we're going to do it with Dave, let's be prepared. It was real minimal, Dave didn't want us to get too crazy." Han tillägger, "We wanted a record you could crank. And we wanted girl backup singers." Alltså gästas plattan av Caitlin Rose, Erin Rae och Tristen.<br/><br/>Sångaren och basisten Charles Michael Parks sammanfattar: "We're trying to get to something better -- not necessarily just as musicians -- but as people. I've always said that as we change as people, our music changes, that's why we can never make the same records. I can't be in one of those bands. I hope you'll never hear 'another predictable album from All Them Witches.' There's no art in that."

Grammy Award winner and Americana legend, Delbert McClinton returns to where he began his recording career over 40 years ago, a duets record with Glen Clark. Delbert & Glen released 2 albums in the early 70s. The two remained friends and now have reunited for Blind, Crippled & Crazy. Produced by Gary Nicholson, the new album delivers all the swampy blues, soul and honky tonk sounds with lyrics and harmonies full of wisdom and wit.<br/><br/>Digipak.