Unpaved presents #1

Unpaved presents #1

Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three

I have played some songs recently by Pokey LaFarge and the South City Free from their great new album called "Middle Of Everywhere". LaFarge is keeping the traditions of REAL American music alive. He combines country, blues, swing and old time jazz into a heady mix of "old-time" Americana.

Check out the clip for the tune "So Long Honey Bee"

So Long Honeybee, Goodbye - Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three (Official Music Video) from bill streeter on Vimeo.

New Time Slot

5 Feet High and Rising is Moving!

Starting August 2010 5 Feet High and Rising moves to it's new time slot on Saturday mornings from 6-9 A.M (previously Mondays 1-3 P.M.) First show will be on August 7th.

Whilst the sound will generally sound the same you can expect to hear some more acoustic stuff, singer-songwriters plus the usual Americana and Alt-Country.

Not usually awake at 6.00 A.M? You can listen via PBS-FM's radio on demand any time.
Go to www.pbsfm.org.au to register (it's free).
All other changes to the PBS-FM grid for August can also be viewed on the website.

Best Albums of 2009 Week 2

It started as a top twenty, expanded to forty and then to a top fifty albums of 2009. A very scientific approach was adopted. I spread the albums out on the floor and then put them into piles. Some were eliminated, some moved from one pile to the other. With the top twenty-five the order was shuffled many times and my number one changed a few times, until I settled on this line up.

Finally here they are. The order doesn't really matter but it was fun to go through the process.

Week Two (1-25)

todd snider	shock	1	excitement plan
jordie lane	vitamin	2	sleeping patterns
justin townes earle	bloodshot	3	midnight at the movies
phosphorescent	dead oceans	4	to willie
black crowes	silver arrow	5	before the frost
son volt	rounder	6	american central dust
wagons	croxton	7	rise and fall of goodtown
the duke and the king	shock	8	nothing gold can stay
bonnie prince billy	spunk	9	beware
steve earle	new west	10	townes
downhills home	self released	11	the wolves in the woods
corb lund	new west	12	losin lately gambler
wilco	nonesuch	13	wilco (the album)
buddy and julie miller	new west	14	written in chalk
dave rawlings machine	acony	15	a friend of a friend
wrinkle neck mules	lower 40	16	let the lead fly
eilen jewell	signature sounds	17	sea of tears
great lake swimmers	nettwerk	18	lost channels
cave singers	matador	19	welcome joy
mark olson & gary louris	new west	20	ready for the flood
richmond fontaine	non zero	21	we used to think the freeway sounded like a river
jason isbell & the 400 Unit	lightning rod	22	jason isbell & the 400 Unit
m ward	spunk	23	hold time
john doe and the sadies	yep roc	24	country club
monsters of folk	spunk	25	monsters of folk

Best Albums of 2009

Week One 50 - 26

It started as a top twenty, expanded to forty and then to a top fifty albums of 2009. A very scientific approach was adopted. I spread the albums out on the floor and then put them into piles. Some were eliminated, some moved from one pile to the other.

Finally here they are. The order doesn't really matter but it was fun to go through the process. You'll have to wait until next week to see the top twenty-five.

magnolia electric co	secretly canadian	26	josephine
felice brothers	spunk	27	yonder is the clock
neko case	anti	28	middle cyclone
ben kweller	ato	29	changing horses
avett brothers	american	30	I and love and you
bill callahan	drag city	31	sometimes I wish we were an eagle
van walker	croxton	32	the last record store
dave alvin & the guilty women	yep roc	33	dave alvin & the guilty women
slaid cleaves	music road	34	everything you love will be taken away
patterson hood	ruth st	35	murdering oscar (and other love songs)
a.a. bondy	fat possum	36	when the devil's loose
reverend horton heat	bloodshot	37	laughin & cryin
conor oberst & the mystic valley band	merge	38	outer south
jeffrey foucault	signature sounds	39	shoot the moon right between the eyes
andrew bird	spunk	40	nobel beast
drive-by truckers	new west	41	the fine print
the weight	tee pee	42	are men
gourds	yep roc	43	haymaker!
maplewood	tapete	44	yeti boombox
ben nicholls	rebel group	45	the last pale light in the west
wayne hancock	bloodshot	46	viper of melody
low anthem	nonesuch	47	oh my god, charlie darwin
exene cervenka	bloodshot	48	somewhere gone
paul burch	ramseaur	49	still your man
devon sproule	tin angel	50	don't hurry for heaven

Monthly Feature Albums 2009

On this weeks show (December 14th) I will be looking back at the ten albums I featured each month February to November. I'll be playing a couple of tracks from each. The ten albums are featured below.

In the coming weeks on the show will be my annual Christmas Special on December 21st and then two weeks looking back on 2009. I will be counting down my favorite Top Twenty Albums of 2009. Numbers 20-11 on December 28th and 10-1 on January 4th.

Hope you can tune in!

February: Chuckanut Drive - Fidelity Grange


Chuckanut Drive is an alt country band from Bellingham, Washington spearheaded by Texas born singer/songwriter Stephen Ray Leslie. The band has released 3 full-length albums in the past five years and sold copies in over 10 countries.

Over the years, the cast of characters in this raucous alt county collective has changed several times, but anchored by Leslie’s songwriting and raw emotive voice one thing remains the same, great songs that bypass pretension and go straight for the gut.

March: Phosphorescent - To Willie


In 1975 Willie Nelson recorded the album To Lefty From Willie, 10 songs in which Nelson pays homage to Lefty Frizell, reinterpreting his favorites from the Frizzell catalog and stamping them with his own unique voice, reshaping them into his own new classics.

Now Phosphorescent has done the same for Willie Nelson by bringing us To Willie. Here, Matthew Houck has selected 11 of his favorite Willie Nelson songs and does much more than just simply cover them. He has not selected the greatest hits, but rather digs deep, offering renditions of hidden Nelson gems and lost classics. The songs collected here seem cracked from Phosphorescent's proprietary mold with Matthew Houck's unmistakable voice leading the way. They feel lived in, they feel weathered and they feel just like Phosphorescent.

April: Downhills Home - Wolves in the Woods



Downhills Home are a Melbourne based band. The band is made up of Sean McMahon (guitar, vocals), Michael Hubbard (guitar, vocals), Brendan McMahon (keyboard and piano), Josh Duiker (drums) and Tim McCormack (bass).
They deliver a sound that is raw and pure, with a late- 60’s country quality, inspired by The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, The Band and early Wilco. The Wolves in the Woods is there second full length album.

Recorded over a week at Guruland Studios, The Wolves In The Woods was tracked mostly live to tape with additional guitar and keyboard overdubs providing the songs with rich and varied textures. This is highlighted from the very start with the opening track Travelling Light. Building from a basic introduction of guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, the song moves into a long descending chorus line orchestrated with violin, viola and mellotron opening up the vast sonic field in which the rest of the songs on the album are brought to life.


May: Old Californio - Westering Again



Recorded in their old chicken coop garage turned recording studio in Pasadena, CA, Old Californio set out to mix a gritty soup of bucolic rock and roll influenced as much by Moby Grape, Crazy Horse and The Grateful Dead as by the chaparral canyons and ungovernable San Gabriel mountains themselves. Songwriter Rich Dembowski sings with a heartfelt voice that might remind some of the Band's Richard Manuel. His lyrics on the 10 song Westering Again evoke winsome images of riparian vistas and wine stained front porches, of places forgotten and out of the way. The album feeds from bright guitar-driven melodies with complicated and earthy arrangements, mixed in with a little down-home country twang and dovetailing instrumental jams that venture to the psychedelic/ philosophic.

June: Jordie Lane - Sleeping Patterns



Co-produced by Jeff Lang and Tim Hall, Sleeping Patterns had been brewing in the subconscious of Jordie’s mind for nearly four years, and eventually came to fruition in the winter of 2008. Recorded in little more than five days, in the open warehouse space called Adelphia in Melbourne the album is storytelling at its rawest, gutsiest, and most fragile.

Featuring guest performances by prominent roots artists Ashley Davies, Jeff Lang, Laura Jean, Liz Stringer, Garrett Costogan and Stevie Hesketh, Sleeping Patterns moves between finger pickin’ ballads, western tunes, rockin’ blues and even the odd sea shanty.

July - Magnolia Electric Co.



With the 2007 death of long time bassist Evan Farrel, Josephine is no doubt the strongest set of songs Molina has written since the inception of Magnolia Electric Co. Molina has approached the universal loneliness before, but never in such a focused, directed manner as found on Josephine. Molina, Magnolia Electric Co. and legendary recording engineer Steve Albini have put it all to heart and on record. The album is also an experiment in Molina's songcraft, introducing some real lessons in brevity as he whittles a handful of tracks into well-under three minutes. There are cues taken from great songwriters like Willie Nelson and Warren Zevon.

August: Drive-By Truckers - Live From Austin Texas



The Drive By Truckers' performance on Austin City Limits was an instant classic. Recorded during their Brighter Tham Creation's Dark tour, the band line-up featured is Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Shonna Tucker, John Neff, Brad Morgan and Jay Gonzalez. Formed in 1996, these Southern Rockers are known for their three-guitar attack. The 13 songs recorded for Austin City Limits feature a mix of new songs from Brighter Than Creation's Dark alongside DBT classics 'Let There Be Rock', '18 Wheels Of Love' and 'Marry Me'.

September: Richmond Fontaine - We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like a River



“We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River” follows on from the band’s landmark seventh album “Thirteen Cities” (2007), the sparse, stripped down, “The Fitzgerald” (2005) and the alt country classic “Post To Wire” (2004), which was named 4th best album of the year by Uncut (behind Brian Wilson, Wilco, & Loretta Lynn). The new album, seen as the band’s most accessible yet, was produced once again by JD Foster (Calexico, Richard Buckner, Laura Cantrell), who was at the helm for the last three albums. Multi-instrumentalist Paul Brainard steps in with pedal steel, trumpet and piano and the core line up of Willy Vlautin (guitars, vocals), Sean Oldham (drums, vocals), Dave Harding (Bass) and Dan Eccles (guitars) remains.

October: Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk



Fans of the individuals that make up Monsters of Folk will be pleased to hear an equal dose of Yames, Ward, and Oberst throughout, each taking on an even amount of lead singing duties. And there are magical moments for each. Oberst delivers an absolute gem with “Ahead of the Curve” (surprisingly Oz’s early favorite), M. Ward particularly shines on “Sandman, the Brakeman and Me” and Yames delivers his finest on “Losin Yo Head” (and a heckuva spiritual on “His Master’s Voice”). They also tickle the eardrums by passing the microphone around on numbers like “Say Please” and “Baby Boomer.” But Monsters of Folk are at their best when they share the microphone at once. On songs like “The Right Place” and “Magic Marker,” the three voices blend together at times to form a sort of bionic voice with superhuman powers.

November: The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You



I and Love and You is The Avett Brothers' major label debut, produced by Grammy-award winning producer Rick Rubin. The album tracks are diverse and unique, ranging from striking ballads to energetic romps. With over 195k independently released albums scanned, and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Emotionalism, I & Love & You is sure to be embraced as a new favorite by longtime and newfound fans alike. The Avett Brothers have built up an impressive and loyal fan base with constant touring. This prolific band is renowned for their high-energy live shows and incredible mix of eclectic musical styles. The Avett Brothers' fan base continues to grow in markets all around the country, capturing the hearts of all who are lucky enough to experience their music live.

Americana Music Association Award Winners

The Americana Music Association announced it's award winners at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Thursday 16th September.

Buddy Miller almost scooped the pool, winning Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Duo of the Year (with his wife Julie) and Song of the Year (written by Julie and performed by Buddy and Patty Griffin). Gurf Morlix won Instrumentalist of the Year (and prevented a Buddy Miller scoop of all the categories he was nominated in). Justin Townes Earle (son of Steve) won the award for New and Emerging Artist. Justin will be in Melbourne at the start of October.

The awards cap off an amazing and difficult year for Buddy. He suffered a heart attached in February and underwent triple bypass surgery soon after. Now fully recovered he has had one of his best years as a musical career to date.


Nominees and Winners (in bold)

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Real Animal, by Alejandro Escovedo

Written in Chalk, by Buddy & Julie Miller

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, by Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

Midnight At The Movies, by Justin Townes Earle


ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Alejandro Escovedo

Buddy Miller

Justin Townes Earle

Raul Malo


INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR

Buddy Miller

Gurf Morlix

Jerry Douglas

Sam Bush



NEW & EMERGING ARTIST

Band of Heathens

Belleville Outfit

Justin Townes Earle

Sarah Borges


SONG OF THE YEAR

“Chalk,” written by Julie Miller, performed by Buddy Miller & Patty Griffin

“Country Love” by the Gourds

“Homeland Refugee,” by Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock, performed by the Flatlanders

“Rattlin’ Bones” by Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, performed by Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson

“Sex And Gasoline,” by Rodney Crowell, performed by Rodney Crowell


DUO GROUP OF THE YEAR

Buddy & Julie Miller

Flatlanders

Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson

Reckless Kelly

Tune into the show this week to here some songs from the artists listed above.

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Through the Devil Softly

Eight years since her last album (Bavarian Fruit Bread) and thirteen years since Mazzy Star's last album (Among My Swan), Hope Sandoval return with a new album - Through the Devil Softly.

The album was recorded with members of the Dublin band Dirt Blue Gene and will also back Sandoval on tour. Her main partner in the Warm Inventions, however, is drummer Colm Ó CíosÓig, better known as a member with My Bloody Valentine. He was also involved in the previous album.

If you are a fan of the previous work of Sandoval then you will enjoy this new album as it sort of continues on from where she left off. The familiar sultry vocals are back. And if you thought you'd never hear from Mazzy Star again, you will be surprised to hear that Sandoval has been working on material with Mazzy Star guitarist David Roback and new material could emerge some time in 2010.

Pavement to Reform!

Amazing news from Matador. Pavement are set to reform next year for a series of shows in New York and a World Tour (hopefully this includes Australia). As mentioned in the press release below, it may not be a permanent thing and no new material is planned. But who knows?

The band split in 1999 but have remained friends ever since.

"Ever since that fateful night in late 1999 when Pavement left the public eye with a final show at London’s Brixton Academy, we’ve often fantasized about the day when we could finally tell the world “yes, Brooklyn Vegan scooped us, Pavement are back.”

After years of speculation, the most important American band of the 1990’s is returning to the stage, with the lineup of Mark Ibold, Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West reuniting for dates around the world in 2010. Please be advised this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion". Matador Records