Brett Dennen Lights Up the Stage

Concert Date: 10/12/24

Venue: Cornerstone, Berkeley, California

Genre: Folk Rock

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On a beautiful October evening in Berkeley, I could feel the friendly warmth of the audience within Cornerstone’s intimate setting consisting of a dance floor with no seats as Coyote Island, a four-man band from Maine, opened for Brett Dennen with fervor. Their woodsy music laid out a forest of sound that Dennen would be able to step into easily, wild child that he is.

Shoulder to shoulder, we cheered as Brett Dennen and his three-piece band (drums, bass, and keyboard) took the stage, launching into the title track of his 2021 See the  World album, which urges its listener to get out and see the world on the heels of the pandemic shutdown and not take freedom for granted. Dennen followed with “Paul Newman Daytona Rolex”, the second track from the same album, where he flashed his stage theatrics, somewhat reminiscent of David Byrne, pointing out the invisible watch on his wrist as he moved and grooved on stage. It is Dennen’s relaxed, playful stage presence that adds to his concerts.

With the crowd quickly into his groove, Dennen stepped into “Chipping Away,” the opening track from his new If It Takes Forever album, which he dedicated to the memory of his father, Brian Dennen, who passed away in 2023. The album was released the day before, making Brett’s “This is a new song” a welcome mantra for the evening. Of course, he also delved into his rich catalog with such favorites as “Darlin’ Do Not Fear” and “Ain’t No Reason” from his superlative sophomore 2006 So Much More and several from his equally stunning Loverboy from 2011: “Must Be Losing My Mind,” “Comeback Kid (That’s My Dog)” and the set closer, “Sydney (I’ll Come Running).” Overall, Dennen shuffled the songs of his repertoire into a satisfying full house. 

“Cassidy” from Pro Favor (2016), was one such card that had the crowd’s feet shuffling. The rest of the set focused on the new songs, “Another Day in Babylon”, “Don’t Go Talking to Yourself”, “Dharma Baby”, and  “In the Garden” a tender love song to his father. The songwriting on If It Takes Forever show a maturity that comes with loss and the profound changes that a parent’s death can bring to one’s life experience. As Dennen states in the album's liner notes, “This album is about life and how I look at it now. There’s a lot of my father in it.” The penultimate song of the evening’s set was “Wild Child” from Smoke And Mirrors (2013), which got the audience howling!

When Brett came back out on stage for the encore wearing his Oakland A’s baseball cap I knew he was going to play one of my favorite songs, “San Francisco” from Hope for the Hopeless” (2008). As I had spent the day leading up to the show soaking up San Francisco, I was very much hoping he’d play this anthem to the foggy city. Dennen ended with “Blessed”, the opening song from his debut album Brett Dennen (2005), where he sings,  “Blessed is this life, and I’m going to celebrate being alive,” bringing the concert full circle to the sentiments of his new album where Dennen writes in the liner notes: “Ultimately it’s about love. It’s meant to be a celebration. Life is joyous, and listening to music should be as well.”

Tour Dates

- Richard Meadows | Guitar & Pen

The Indigo Girls Show Why it's only life after all

Concert Date: 9/28/24

Venue: Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, Woodinville, WA

Genre:  Folk Rock

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Gay pride was on display and palpable in the air as I arrived at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in the Washington rain for an evening with Indigo Girls and Amos Lee, their opener. As I stepped off the shuttle bus, the skies cleared, and arching over the stage was a vivid double rainbow, a sure harbinger for the night ahead. 

Amos Lee set the stage, yes pun intended, with an inspired set in which he channeled the soulful ancestry of Otis Redding and Bill Withers along with being right in step with his contemporary Leon Bridges. When Amos left the stage, I did not know he would be appearing again to bookend the show with a rousing “Closer to Fine” sing-along, including a surprise guest, Brandi Carlile.

Speaking of books, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers took the stage to a backdrop of a giant bookshelf loaded with such titles as Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Heavy by Kiese Laymon, and Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. It gave an air of the intellectuality of their music, especially lyrics that have addressed such issues as LGBTQ, Native American rights, and protecting the environment throughout their career. Perhaps that’s why they set the tone opening with “Shame on You” from their Shaming of the Sun (1997), calling out those who may be opposed to any of the above. Indigo Girls followed with “Get Out the Map” from the same album. It certainly feels like we need a map these days to navigate the constant shifts and changes. Their next song, “Moment of Forgiveness,” is a heartfelt song of relationship. Regardless of sexual orientation, the Indigo Girls do relationship songs very well, which lends itself to a broad audience appeal.

“Shed Your Skin” from Shaming of the Sun was another standout of the evening as it calls for inner transformation and a dropping of old ways that may not be serving one anymore. “Look Long,” the title track from their fifteenth album, released in 2020, was very touching, especially in light of the fact it came out in the early days of the pandemic. The next song, “Faye Tucker” surprised the audience as Amy Ray invited Washington local Brandi Carlile to the stage which added an additional spark to the show. 

A few songs later, though, the crowd went into the biggest uproar of the night when the Indigo Girls called, “on the resting soul of Galileo/ king of night vision/ King of insight” from their 1992 Rites of Passage album with its hit song, “Galileo.” It was certainly a crowd pleaser, and the Indigo Girls kept the momentum going when they called Amos Lee and Brandi Carlile back on stage to finish the evening with an inspired “Closer to Fine,” the song that put them on the map of stardom back in 1989 as it primarily speaks of the search for meaning in life which so many of their songs do. 

The current tour runs through December 15, 2024.  

Tour Dates

- Richard Meadows | Guitar & Pen

Folk Rock and Soul Review: Skyway Man - The World Only Ends When You Die

Score: 87/100 

Release Date: October 23, 2020

Genre: Folk Rock, Soul, Gospel

Similar Artists:  My Morning Jacket, Wilco, M. Ward

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James Wallace, singer, songwriter, and producer behind Skyway Man describes his third studio album, The World Only Ends When You Die, as "a spinning disc flashing the finest examples of cosmological country and sci-fi gospel blues." If that's not enough to give it a listen, I don't know what is. After I did, I found his description quite apt. There's a lot of soul here, a lot of good ole fireside foot-stomping, and enough howls at the moon to make the wolves think you're one of their own.  

Songs such as "Night Walking, Alone," "Sometimes Darkness…," and "Common Void" reveal the sonic easiness of early My Morning Jacket while "Muddy Water" is so early Dylan-esque it feels as if it belongs on one of the New Basement Tapes Dylan cover albums alongside Marcus Mumford's "Going Back to Kansas City."  

The World Only Ends When You Die is construed by the artist as a cinematic psych-folk opera about a person rendered incapable of coping with an uncertain reality following a near-death experience. Under a spell of mixed wisdom by several "trickster guides" hailing from the future, they leap back into the world of the dead only to spend a hero's journey climbing out, finally returning to the strange American existence of 2020. 

After Wallace's lyrics seep into the listener's consciousness, a realization sets in that while the struggles we've all faced within the uncertainty of 2020 have hardened us, that hardening has also left us stronger and better prepared to take on whatever the future brings.  

"Muddy water like a piece of ancient church glass flowing. We're on the darkest stretch, but the bend ahead is glowing."

"Sometimes darkness in the mind, sometimes it leaves us."

"Don't feel bad about being alive. Sometimes the ship rocks you side-to-side. Some hold tightly, some watch the moonrise bobbing up and down in the water."

I've given this album a good ten listens, and the beauty of it doesn't fade after two or three. In fact, the more I listen, it seems the more I discover. A welcome start to the 2021 year in music.  

- Tom Endyke | Guitar & Pen

8.5.7

Rock Review: Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You

Score: 85/100 

Release Date: October 23, 2020

Genre: Rock

Similar Artists: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, My Morning Jacket, John Mellencamp

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Though one may expect the album to open with a rocker, Bruce reaches back to a blend of Nebraska (1982), The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995), and Devils and Dust (2005) in “One Minute You’re Here” calling up the existential dread we all carry, particularly in this time of Covid-19, “One minute you’re here/Next minute you’re not.” 

Bruce takes the distilled spirits of Born to Run (1975),  Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) and The River (1980),  splashing droplets onto his Letter To You where Bruce wails that he, “Dug deep in my soul and signed my name True/And send it in my letter to you.” Once again, “the streets busted open and these two lanes can take us anywhere.” With the title track, a love letter to the members of The Castiles, Bruce's first band formed during his teen-age years, Bruce reaches out to his global fan base and beyond in a time of increased isolation and delivers a strong and potent album.

“Burnin’ Train” continues the existential vein as Springsteen wails, “Take me and shake me from/this mortal cage” harkening back to the strong religious imagery of “Adam Raised A Cain” where he exclaims, “Outside the endless rain/Darlin’ I’m blessed in your blood/And marked by Cain.”
 
“Rainmaker” falls from the sky with the potent remembrance of The Rising, which spoke to the post 9/11 world and much of what that fateful day wrought. Now, in a time of global pandemic, and ravaging wildfires, Springsteen calls out for a healing rain.
 
“Ghost” brings one back to Magic (2008), an album which found Bruce returning to his rocking roots after the acoustic Devils and Dust (2005) and folk covers rendered on We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006) and serves as a fitting sequel to "We Are Alive," the last track on Wrecking Ball (2012).  
 
“Candy”, from Darkness on the Edge of Town,  comes back in “Janey Needs A Shooter” as Bruce sings about a woman who has interactions with other men, from her doctor to priest, though not sexual but is truly understood by that one special man who truly understands her, “A shooter man who knows her style/The way that I know her style/A man who knows her style.”

When George Theis, the next to last surviving member of The Castiles passed away at 68, it caused Springsteen to pause and go into a deep reflection on the significance of those formative years. "Last Man Standing" came out of that reflection in which Bruce stands at the mic as the soul survivor and howls, "Rock of ages lift me somehow/Somewhere high and hard and loud/Somewhere deep into the heart of the crowd/I'm the last man standing now."

This album is a meditation upon Springsteen's entire career, from The Castiles to the E Street Band and what the creative process has been for him as he sings , "If you get it right/It has the power of prayer" in the soul filled,  rock and roll church attending "Power of Prayer."
 
“I’ll See You In My Dreams” could be to Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, members of The Castiles  or anyone else who Bruce has lost along the way and serves as a fitting end to Letter To You, as once again, he writes a letter to those lost souls, “And though my soul feels like it’s been/split at the seams/I’ll see you in my dreams.” 
 
Overall, Letter to You is a little bit of a lot of everything Springsteen’s ever done.

Richard Meadows | Guitar & Pen

8.5.2

Folk-Rock Review: Neil Young - Homegrown

Score: 85/100

Release Date: June 19, 2020

Genre: Country Rock

Similar Artists: Bob Dylan, Graham Parsons, The Byrds, Brett Dennen

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The Fountain of Young

Poet William Stafford said, “There’s a thread you follow” and the release of Homegrown, originally recorded December 1974/January 1975, but not released until June 19, 2020, has Neil Young pulling his countrified thread through the small vinyl holes of Harvest (1972) Homegrown (2020), Comes A Time (1979), Harvest Moon (1992), and Silver and Gold (2000). 

Although Young has a broad range of genres that run through his genes, his latest album is clearly of the country gene, most notably with the work of Ben Keith, who first appeared on Harvest, playing steel and electric guitar. Young and Keith work together like root beer and ice on this set, bringing that country twang to life. As Homegrown was not released for 45 years, several of the songs appeared on other albums along the way as Young continued his prolific spinning of yarns.

For example, the title track is a song that first appeared on American Stars & Bars (1976), and it fits here much better 44 years later. Has it really been that long? Obviously, young never grows old. “Separate Ways” opens the door to Homegrown (2020), and one can easily hear “Old Man” from Harvest, which is fine considering the thread. “Love is a Rose” is a metaphorical gem that made its way onto Young’s greatest hits compilation Decade (1978) but fits much better here.

Spoken-word, “Florida,” brings to mind some of the soliloquies from Tonight’s the Night (1975), minus the pre-grunge rock sound which has been replaced by a tone that sounds like a Tibetan crystal bowl that doesn’t belong. “Kansas” might be the weakest song of the set, leaving me wishing that Neil wasn’t in Kansas anymore. Though recorded in late ‘74/early ’75, it sounds like an outtake from Hawks & Doves (1980) that just doesn’t fit here. Speaking of Hawks & Doves (1980), “Little Wing,” which is the opening track on that album, is next to last on Homegrown and fits there perfectly. Same with “Star of Bethlehem,” which ended up on American Stars & Bars (1976), the same album that gave us the song which gave us the title for Homegrown. Here “Star of Bethlehem” ends the album while “Homegrown” ended American Stars & Bars. How about that?

“Homegrown” on this album sounds truly homegrown, like Crazy Horse snuck into the barn to lay this one down. “We Don’t Smoke It No More” sounds like Dylan’s “Rainy Day Woman #12 & 32” on drugs, making one doubt that someone doesn’t smoke it no more. Enough said. This is the one throwaway on the album. I’d stay in Kansas to hide from this one. Unlike “Kansas,” “White Line,” which eventually made it onto the classic garage rock album Ragged Glory (1990), fits perfectly with the other country songs served up on Homegrown.

The follow-up, “Vacancy,” could have made its way on Ragged Glory as it continues the groove in similar fashion and could have certainly been rocked up on that album. Here, the thread runs through every note, though near the end, I begin to wonder if I wished that there was no vacancy.

All in all, it must be an amazing place to be as an artist to be able to pull an old ball of yarn out of the closet after 45 years and roll it out. Solid songs from the past brought forward into a new light. Overall, the thread works here, though it gets a bit ragged at times. A lot like life.

Richard Meadows | Guitar & Pen

Folk-Rock Review: Ray LaMontagne - MONOVISION

Score: 82/100 

Release Date: June 26, 2020

Genre:  Folk-Rock

Similar Artists:  Iron & Wine, Van Morrison, Steven Stills

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Roll me, Mama, Roll me," the first track on Ray LaMontagne's new release, MONOVISION rolls over the listener like a cold wave on the hot sand. It's an enchanting blend of his old bluesy-folk stylings and his more recent airy and subdued vibe. Fervent vocals ride upon the lush and layered hooks The breathy and soulful intonations deeply enrich the underlying vibe throughout the entire album. 

Let's face it, the most lasting impressions of a musical artist are typically formed based on the first album one hears from that artist. My introduction to Ray Lamontagne was 2016's slow-burning Ouroborus. Traveling back in time from there, I came to appreciate his earlier folk-ified country offerings. In recent releases such as 2018's Part of the Light and the aforementioned Ouroborus, LaMontagne has slowed his music pace. Yet on MONOVISION, he seems to have brought back a bit of the old down-home sound and blended it with his newfound airy vibe. 

"Misty Morning Rain" starts slow and intensifies. Reminiscent of the livelier songs from Van Morrisson Astral Weeks, the staggered rhythm and textured strumming makes it nearly impossible to sit still. As one of the better songs on the album, LaMontagne, as always, reveals the pain in his soul through his profoundly expressive voice. "We'll Make it Through," and "Strong Enough" are two other strong tracks that set the mood as inspiring, if not feathery anthems of the day. 

While the enthusiasm is infectious on most of these songs, the album is not without a few sedatives. "Weeping Willow", "Highway to the Sun," and "Summer Clouds" are as slow as molasses. They, too, serve as a sign of the times as we've all been forced (arguably for the better), to turn the cadences of our own lives down a few notches. 

Overall, MONOVISION is a quintessential Ray LaMontagne record. His subtle and soft guitar tones underscore an organic uprising of his deepest thoughts and feelings. A marriage of the old with the new results is an evolved and original listening experience. 


- Tom Endyke | Guitar & Pen

Folk-Rock Review: Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways

Score: 67/100 

Release Date: June 19, 2020

Genre: Folk-Rock

Similar Artists:  Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen

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On Rough and Rowdy Ways, his first release of original songs since 2012, Bob Dylan dishes on a wide range of topics from mortality, history, and inspiration to pop culture. He speaks more so than sings through a scratchy voice that bristles and pops like a dusty record spouting socio-political ruminations on a world that's not dark yet but getting there.  

The bottom line is that Dylan's lyrics overtake this collection. The crafty chord shifts, wailing harmonica, and rock rhythms, which defined the folk-rock sound in the '60s and '70s, are nowhere to be found. His soliloquies are, at times, poignant and prescient. Other times they are self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing, making the overall listening experience confoundingly hollow.  

If we focus on the more poignant lyrics, there is a lot to like. Dylan's masterfully infuses metaphor and weaves in pop references to create something of a hip hidden history lesson for the uninitiated. "Murder Most Foul" is by far the most potent track lyrically. Dylan skillfully uses the JFK assassination as a baseline from which to ruminate poetically on the thousand historical reverberations rippling from the impact of that fateful day. 

Still, I had a hard time picturing anything but Dylan on stage at a poetry reading with a bass player and a drummer in the corner laying down jazzy syncopations while Bob reads from a notebook of poems. Couplets that struck me most forcefully include: 

I Contain Multitudes: "I'm just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones. And them British bad boys, the Rolling Stones. I go right to the edge, I go right to the end. I go right where all things lost are made good again."

Crossing the Rubicon: "I feel the holy spirit inside, see the light that freedom gives. I believe it's in the reach of every man who lives."

Mother of Muses: "Mother of Muses unleash your wrath. Things I can't see, they're blocking my path."

Murder Most Foul: "The day they killed him, someone said to me, "Son. The age of the Antichrist has just only begun."

Overall, words alone are not enough to hold Rough and Rowdy Ways together, there is no sonic earth for these verses of truth to take root. Guitar & Pen gives out no free passes, as some other magazines do. While we kneel at the feet of the Gods, we won't always kiss the ring. If only old Bob had brought in Mark Knopfler to play some backing guitar, or Jacques Levy on electric violin or Daniel Lanois to produce, this would be a record for the ages. As is, I consider it more of an audiobook than a record album. While the lyrics shine, the band's restraint makes this a largely forgettable release.  

- Tom Endyke | Guitar & Pen

 

 

Folk Rock Review: M. Ward - Migration Stories

Score: 85/100
Release Date: April 10, 2020

Genre: Folk-Rock/Alt-Rock

Similar Artists:  Conner Oberst, Ray Lamontagne,

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On Migration Stories, M. Ward rides the elusive suffusion, which intertwines the conscious and unconscious mind. Someone tried to label it long ago as ‘Mellow Gold,’ but like all labels, it is superficial and, like an abstract of an abstract, fails to capture any depth.  The sonic essence of this record feels like the springtime sun smacking your face after a long, cold winter. It warms you to the point of epiphany and a realization that better times are ahead of us.  

M. Ward’s 10th studio album starts slow and then grows gradually like a flower garden surrounding the listener in a bed of color. Migration Stories’ wavelength is similar to Ray Lamontagne’s super mellow vibe in Oroboros, Beck’s wistful mellowness in Sea Change, and the sun-drenched exaltation of the Beach Boys. Weave all this together with a thread of Nat King Cole, and you have a sonic experience unlike any other.  

Some of the more memorable moments include “Heaven’s Nail and Hammer,” where M. discovers heaven through the holes in the sky.  “Independent Man” rides a slow fuzzy groove in and out of reality toward an uneven proclamation of unrequited obsession. “Real Silence” build on itself orchestrally to produce one of the finest tracks while the infectious “Torch” repeats the line “heartbeats in rhythm to its own, ba, ba, bahhhh” is likely to create an earworm in your brain for days.  Lyrically, whether traveling through the “Unreal City” or “Along the Santa Fe Trail,” they paint a picture throughout of souls lost or in transition. 

There’s a lesson to be learned as we sit on the sand and listen to the tide gently caress the shoreline, and that is, the slower you go, the more you’ll know. Turning down the volume on our lives and moving at a more careful and deliberate pace allows us to take in more of the world around us.  This, in turn, fills us with wonder and hope for a brighter future. When an E chord is introduced after three minutes of a C, G & A progression, that E chord hits your ears like a clapper hitting a church bell.  

So, take a lesson from Migration Stories and let it take you from one place to another.  During these uneasy times, sometimes it’s best to let go and like swallows heading south, ride the wind and surrender yourself to nature, trusting that eventually, we will all arrive at a better place.  

- Tom Endyke | Guitar & Pen

Alt-Country Review: Drive-by Truckers - The Unraveling

Score: 68
Genre: Alt-Country
Release Date: January 31, 2020

It's been said that giving a voice to your sorrows and fears helps to make them go away. Drive-By Truckers 12th studio release, The Unraveling is a confession and a testimony, a somber cry in the night, a prayer for the dawn to set the course for a brighter day.  

If you are turning to Drive-by Truckers to escape the harsh realities of the current political climate, turn elsewhere.  The Unraveling tackles gun violence, immigration, white nationalism, equal pay, and armageddon with a velvet hammer.

The music is a blend of slow-churning alt-county grooves with cry-in-the-night guitar wailing riding on the heavy rails of melancholy keyboard dirges. The slow builds on songs such as "Grievance Merchants" erupt into fury at the end. Like a conversation that turns to confrontation, Drive-By Truckers add an underlying drama to these songs, intensifying the listening experience. "Awaiting Resurrection" puts one in the mind of Neil Young's On the Beach period.

Make no mistake, The Unraveling is a dark and heavy offering. If you're not in that mindset already, these songs will put you there. There are a few rockers such as "Armageddon's Back in Town" and "Slow Ride Argument," which provide the necessary anger for the lyrics. When the tempo slows, and brooding air fills the space between the notes, the anger turns to anguish.

Skillfully crafted lyrics and arrangements move songs like "21st Century USA" and "Thoughts and Prayers," one a step away from cliche. The latter, along with "Awaiting Resurrection," make up the strongest songs on the album. 

In essence, The Unraveling has the vibe of hanging out with a friend in a bar. Each song is a topic of conversation about the state of the community, country, and planet. Not all conversation is comfortable, but that's the way things go after a few beers. In the end, you'll have caught up, commiserated, gained some perspective, and grown closer to your fellow man.

- Tom Endyke | Guitar & Pen