FRESH BAKED
Sonya Cotton
Red River
2009 | Self-Release
A

So it’s time for the context show.

There are two major elements that complicate my reviewing Sonya Cotton’s Red River. First, I know Sonya. She’s pretty cool, and she’s super nice to dogs. We are friends and we played music together for a long time. I also produced her first two albums. So, there’s that glaring “conflict of interest.” But I’ve no intention of writing a press release for Cotton, and I’d certainly, and without qualms, refuse to review her album if I wasn’t smitten by it. Second, I’m admittedly an overly liberal grader (much to the frustration of JM.com’s editors’ attempts to regulate the grading scale). The Low Anthem sounds really enthusiastic, shows a lot of promise, and has three incredible songs? Alright, “A.”  J. Tillman’s new album is significantly better than his last? Aw, hell. Give the guy an “A.” He’s worked hard for it. Sometimes the editors suggest that I rethink and perhaps alter those generous grades, and I appreciate and actually thank them for that. It’s nice to have somebody to reel you in every once in a while. And it’s not unlikely that they will question the fact that I’m throwing Red River an “A.” This is all to say that the “A” above (and I’m even tempted to give an “A+”) is mine, it’s not the site’s. If you don’t agree with my mark, that’s totally okay. Not everybody can love every album. And I have a feeling that this album in particular a lot of people are going to be lukewarm about. If you don’t like Sonya’s voice, you’re not going to like this album; it’s a lot of Sonya. And if you don’t generally like female singer-songwriters, then you probably won’t like this album either – even though I think it establishes Sonya as one of the premier living female folk songwriters, right alongside Nina Nastasia. (I love Joanna Newsom, but Ys is not nearly as consistent as Red River.)
More on Sonya Cotton | Red River

IN THE TUBE
Sonya Cotton is a songwriter based in San Francisco who writes and sings really amazing songs. In full disclosure, I produced her first two records. That said, it’s her upcoming album that is going to really blow people away. I don’t know exactly how soon it will be released (but pretty soon, I think it’s been fully mastered), or how it will be released, or the title, or if it even has a title yet. But I have heard the songs and they are incredible. Sonya has assembled a deadly band and the orchestration is simply gorgeous. And, of course, Sonya sings throughout, and anybody who’s heard Sonya’s voice knows that that alone is enough to warrant some excitement. The new material seems to me infused with the ghost of prime-era Van Morrison, specifically Veedon Fleece (which is no light comparison, because Veedon Fleece is the best album ever recorded), its songs long and serpentine and dynamic and haunting. “Bear Song,” which is my favorite song on Sonya’s album, illustrates this, with its unorthodox and labyrinthine structure. The audio might be a bit muffled on this recording, but the body of the song – Sonya’s voice and Anna Perlmutter’s gorgeous fiddle break – is alive and brilliantly presented. Although this is my favorite track off the upcoming record, it’s difficult to speak favorites – it really is near perfection, a solid A, a 9/10, etc. It’s disarmingly consistent and interesting and tied together by Sonya’s incredible voice. It’s been said before, but demands repeat: this is one to keep an ear on. It’s not that she’s capable of making some of the best folk music in America, it’s that she’s making it. Now.

by Chris Kiehne

www.myspace.com/sonyacotton

ART OF SONG
Bob Dylan
“Red River Shore”
Tell Tale Signs
2008 | Sony BMG

Now that the Red River has gone down – and, barring any too-strong wind gusts or too-heavy snowfall, will stay down – immediate concerns give way to a tangential thought left in its wake; namely, the role music plays in mapping and conjuring the geography of America.

News of the Red River flooding sparked a vague connection in my mind between the river itself and a song that memorializes a Red River: Bob Dylan’s “Red River Shore,” one of a collection of outtakes and previously unreleased recordings included on 2008’s Tell Tale Signs (double-album version). This connection was vague, mainly for one reason: prior to its most recent bout of flooding, I’d had no knowledge of the Red River – of its existence, let alone its location. This lack of hydro-knowledge left me with a sense of having missed some part of our musical heritage, intimately linked with the American landscape (e.g., “This Land is Your Land,” the Delta Blues, Appalachian folk).
More on Bob Dylan | “Red River Shore”

SEE IT LIVE
JezebelMusic.com @ Public Assembly
August 12, 2009 | Silver Sound Studio Presents: Band Battle

[All images copyright 2009 Jessi Bautista]

Hank and Cupcakes

The Basements

Belikos

No Lindsay

Sami Akbari

Dinosaur Feathers

The Glorious Veins

The Dead River Company

ORIGINALITY CORNER
Summer is all about relaxation: celebrating the good weather with good people. Here in New York City we are lucky to have the handfuls of parks to lay back, relax, and enjoy a concert. Rhythms, melodies and fans come together for the love of music – fortunately, in these recession ridden times, there are plenty of free concerts this summer, so we can keep doing that. One to look out for is Richie Havens at Castle Clinton in Battery Park on July 23.

Almost 70 years old and Havens hasn’t lost any of his chops or charisma. Since his time in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 60s, he has provided a strong voice of unity for both fans and the music world alike. Havens’s career began with him singing doo-wop on Brooklyn street corners, learning to play, and developing himself as a musician by ear. He just listened to atmospheric sounds. But it was Greenwich Village where he found ease, a place where self-expression wasn’t muted and judgment was non-existent.
More on Richie Havens: Freedom

ART OF SONG
Okkervil River
“So Come Back, I Am Waiting”
Black Sheep Boy
2005 | Jagjaguwar

I have always likened Will Sheff’s particular genius to that of Bruce Springsteen and Jeff Mangum. At their best, these artists’ compositions and performances seem so deeply organic and inalterable that its hard to conceive of them having been written. In their songs, there is such an incredible and inextricable confluence of emotion, dynamic, and lyric that they seem like some ancient earthen documents, like discoveries rather than efforts; they seem not artisanal but divined, delivered.

“So Come Back, I Am Waiting” is the thematic and emotional culmination of Okkervil River’s masterful Black Sheep Boy, and it is flawless, in composition and performance. Birthed as a whispered dirge, it naturally and effortlessly develops into an anthemic, cloud-parting, breathtakingly grandiose statement of purpose. Okkervil River’s performance is inimitable – admittedly scrappy, but possessed of a maniacal frenzy that ultimately crescendos into magisterial grace. It is, simply, the sound of musicians, mid-performance, stumbling into greatness.
More on Okkervil River | “So Come Back, I Am Waiting”

DAILY NEWS PICKS

(Yet Another) Phoenix Remix [The Tripwire]

Seattle Considering Tax Breaks for Small Music Venues [Tiny Mix Tapes]

Creed Will Perform With Fire (Literally, That’s Not the Name of a Band) [Billboard]

Green Day’s New Album Won’t Be Sold at Wal-Mart [Idolator]

Win Tickets to See PJ Harvey and John Parish! [Prefix]

Okkervil River Will Open for Wilco [Tiny Mix Tapes]

New Brent Knopf (of Menomena) Side Project [Pitchfork]

Flu (Though Unclear What Kind) Still Cancelling Shows [NME]

Apparently Paste Has Some Magnanimous Readers [Prefix]

Guess Dan Deacon Won’t Be Playing at the Old Folk’s Home [Stereogum]

Sigur Ros’s Jon Þor “Jónsi” Birgisson Set to Record Solo Album [Pitchfork]

compiled by Elana Jacobs

FRESH BAKED
Blitzen Trapper
Furr
2008 | Sub Pop
B+

Nothing about Blizten Trapper’s Furr surprises me. I’m not surprised that it’s tragically uneven, nor am I surprised that its gravest missteps are nearly un-listenable, nor am I surprised that its successes are revelatory and truly breathtaking. I’m not surprised because I’d spent time with Blitzen Trapper’s previous Wild Mountain Nation, which, I admit, I found so off-kilter and unbalanced that I could hardly give it a fair and thorough listen; I’m not surprised because I’ve read frustrating interviews with singer and primary songwriter Eric Earley which so effectively illustrate a unique and isolate songwriting voice, seemingly entirely disinterested in anything other than the expression of his own singular vision.
More on Blitzen Trapper | Furr