New Releases: Lucinda Williams, We Banjo 3, Jeffrey Foucault, Kinky Friedman, and More

Before setting off for some festivals, workshops, a profile, and some work time on the farm, I want to share some new music coming your way in the next few weeks. I have been listening to these new releases a lot. Some are by well-known names and others are from folks who deserve more attention than they seem to be getting. All of them have one thing in common: They are outstanding.

Charles Lloyd & the Marvels, featuring Lucinda Williams – Vanished Gardens (June 29)

Williams never got to play with her hero John Coltrane, but, after all these years, she’s done the next best thing: She’s recorded with one of his contemporaries, Charles Lloyd. This is the second outing for this Lloyd grouping (and 47th for him as a bandleader) that also features Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz, and it is clear from the outset that they are of one mind. One sublime mind. 

Williams has been making the most of this part of her journey, continually putting herself out there. Some would call it risk taking, but those folks do not know Williams very well, do they? Her vocals are tight as ever on her five tracks — four originals (that she’s recorded before) and a Hendrix cover — as Lloyd and Frisell swirl like soft undercurrents caressing her, rising up every so often to let you know this is a jazz record. Williams sounds like she’s in heaven. I know I am. Her songs take on a new ambiance, especially “Unsuffer Me.” After the LSD (Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam) tour, I hope they do a few dates. I am so there. 

We Banjo 3 – Haven (July 27)

Ireland has many exports that make life richer in the US, but none more so that this quartet of two sets of brothers. They have a loyal, and large, following wherever they perform. I caught three of their sets at MerleFest this year, and their crowds were the largest and most enthusiastic of the weekend, and their autograph line was over an hour deep. How can a band that has a stage presence so infectious that their audiences cannot sit still also make an outstanding album? 

In the case of Haven, and following the chart-topping String Theory, they continue to do it quite nicely indeed. It certainly helps that all four musicians are “All Ireland” award winners and have considerable writing talents. In a note, guitarist/banjoist Martin Howley said that this collection of original songs and instrumentals was conceived as a musical haven where “music provides a safe place in an increasingly maddening world.” But that does not mean they ignore the troubles around us. My favorite here is “Light in the Sky,” which provides a simple truth: “Open up your weary eyes/Follow the voice, hear the sound/Find your truth, you’re homeward bound.” As they are touring the US throughout the summer, catch them. Then spend some time in the merch tent. I will, again, in a couple of days at ROMP in Kentucky.

Jeffrey Foucault – Blood Brothers (June 22)

Every so often a record arrives on my doorstep by someone I don’t know, something that doesn’t just knock my socks off, but keeps getting better. Such is the case with this album, which I have listening to for two months. Lucky me, just after I got the album, I caught Foucault’s two outstanding sets at MerleFest. I was hooked with the opening track, “Dishes,” as he contemplates the sacred vagaries of life while doing the dishes: “Pour out a double, put a record on the table/The light is always perfect before it fails … There is nothing that cannot be taken from you/In this life we just hold onto the love we have.” It begins with a lone strumming of a guitar, with early Lyle Lovett intonations, and by the end you know you have heard an original voice staking out a rightful place in a pretty crowded Americana field. Certainly one of the year’s best. 

Despite some more well known names out there, this is my most played album of the year. By the way, Bo Ramsey and Morphine’s Billy Conway are in his band. Two significant stamps of approval. Read a full review by ND’s John Amen here.

Kinky Friedman – Circus of Life (July 3)

One of the unexpected treats of Mike Judge’s Cinemax show Tales from the Tour Bus was the Kinkster’s stories, in his understated yet mischievous manner that no one else can duplicate. Now, we have him back with his first album of originals in some 40 years, and they too are done like no one else. He’s no longer the ripping, sardonic Texas Jewboy we knew back in the day, but his wit and wisdom are still intact, just channeled a bit differently into this fulfilling set of tender love songs and other illusions. In a deliberate, half-sung, half-recited manner, “Jesus in Pajamas” recounts meeting Jesus in a Dallas Denny’s “Where the only whole heart is a broken one/The only true love is an unspoken one/Help him if you can, help him if you’re able/When Jesus in pajamas is standing at your table.” 

I See Hawks in L.A. – Live and Never Learn (June 29)

While it has been a mere 17 years since their first release, Hawks have been one of my private pleasures during those years. While I have tried to expose as many folks as possible to them, it seems we remain a cult. A cult that hearkens you back to that wonderful acoustic amalgam that was the 1970s. In terms of themes and style, they embody the West Coast version of that decade. With McGuinn and Hillman about to venture forth on their Sweetheart tour, this’ll get you in the mood.

What other band could do a memorable song about a borrowed snow parka? “My Parka Saved Me,” begins with Rob Waller and drummer Victoria Jacobs trading vocals — “I got stoned after breaking up with my boyfriend/And he became a born-again Christian” — before going into the car crash that follows. It’s not played for chuckles, but rather as emblematic of those random events of that decade that were on first glance just an ordinary occurrence, but upon refection, something ethereal. Like this band, and especially this record.

Rory Block – A Woman’s Soul: A Tribute to Bessie Smith (July 6)

I first heard Block and the Bessie Smith 1920s recordings around the same time, some 40+ years ago, and I am so happy that in her series of tribute albums Block has also done one on Smith. Block and Smith have more than the blues in common. Both did it when women blues players were a rarity, not to mention how hard it must have been to follow a life in the blues pretty much alone. Block is still doing it, after all these years and 30-some albums later, including three Acoustic Blues Albums of the Year awards. Mostly on her own, but with a few more sisters to share the load, and swap songs and stories with, Block has steadfastly held the course. With her touring, books, stories, and recordings, Block is the embodiment of the phrase, “Blue is not the way you feel, it’s the way you live each day.”

On this album, she plays everything, beginning with her Martin in a distinctive style, and adding bass lines, congas, spoons, boxes, and other percussives. While her previous tributes have been for well-deserving men, this is the first in a series called Power Women of the Blues. In a note Block said, “It’s important to mention Bessie’s outrageously sexy material, her fearless, jaw-dropping delivery, her unapologetic presentation of women as the powerfully sensual, sexual beings we know we are — but that society just didn’t know how to admit in the early 1900s. Bessie’s material was never dirty, it was just plain sexy.” I cannot wait for the future installments. See her live if you can; blues stories are the best stories. 

Love Canon – Cover Story (July 13)

I have been able to catch Love Canon, what I thought was Asheville’s favorite local band, several times, only to learn later that they’re from Virginia. The first time I saw them was at Warren Haynes’ Xmas Jam, where they were the filler band that played between the big-name acts (Dawes, Haynes, Doobies, Hot Tuna) and they more than held their own playing a variety of acoustic music to a sold-out house. That versatility does them well on this their fourth album that has them covering Paul Simon, R.E.M., Peter Gabriel, and the Bee Gees — with a banjo and mandolin. 

With a slew of special guests such as Aoife O’Donovan, Jerry Douglas, Keller Williams, and Mark Erelli, along with some electric flourishes, they adeptly flesh out the roots of some fabled songs from the ’80s and ’90s. Think the Punch Brothers mixed with the Seldom Scene and you’ll get what I am talking about.

John Wesley Harding – Greatest Other People’s Hits (May 18)

Here’s a leftover from last month, but it’s not too late to highlight a small treasure from Wesley Stace, when he was recording as JWH during the late ’80s. Even though he was relatively new on the scene, he recorded songs with Lou Reed and Bruce Springsteen, and a couple relative unknowns at the time, Kelly Hogan and the Minus Five. Plus songs by Madonna, Rorky Erikson, Pete Seeger, George Harrison, and French cult figure, Serge Gainsbourg. First released on LP for Record Store Day, it’s not only out on CD and digital, it’s been expanded to 17 tracks. It’s a good month for cover albums.

Now, onto a bunch of photos of these fine folks.