Category: Music

The Marcus King Band: “Goodbye Carolina”

Marcus King Carolina

Marcus King has one of those soulful voices that make you feel the person was born to sing southern music. Add in this young artist’s guitar playing, his songwriting skills, and combine with some additional music talent, and one has the recipe for one of the best bands you may never have heard until today.

In late 2018, The Marcus King Band released its third full-length album, Carolina Confessions. And all songs on the album were written or co-written by the 22-year-old King. The singer, who comes from a line of musicians, was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina.

The music ranges from slow soul, to hard-driving southern rock, to sweet country. I feel a little Black Crowes, Otis Redding, and Allman Brothers running through the music.

One of my favorite tracks from the album is “Goodbye Carolina.” It is a song about leaving something behind. But it also is about searching for something more. King sings, “So, Goodbye Carolina, searched my whole life to find you / I hate to leave you but I hope you’ll know /Where I’m going I’ll be seeing you.”

Below, The Marcus King Band performs the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Check it out.

What do you think of The Marcus King Band? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Marty Brown’s New Single From Upcoming Album: “Umbrella Lovers”

    Marty Brown is releasing his first new official album from a label since 1996 with American Highway. As regular readers know, since we first lamented Brown’s disappearance from recording and then followed his musical resurgence after performances on America’s got Talent, we have been hoping and anticipating a new album. Now our dreams are coming true with a taste from the new Marty Brown album, the catchy song “Umbrella Lovers.”

    Plowboy Records is releasing American Highway, which features ten songs Brown co-wrote with Jon Tiven (including one with Marty Brown Jr.). Tiven also co-produced the album. According to promotional materials, the new album’s sound embraces a range of country music — “Gospel to Blues to traditional Country, Rockabilly and beyond.”

    Beyond his own music, Tiven has worked with a number of great artists, including Wilson Pickett. And he produced and played instruments on Frank Black’s 2006 album, Fast Man, Raider Man. That album featured a wonderful duet between Black and Marty Brown on “Dirty Old Town.”

    The first song release, “Umbrella Lovers,” features Brown with an electric guitar groove in the background. The song grows on you with repeated listenings, and Brown’s voice is in fine form and out front where it should be. Check it out.

    I cannot wait to hear the other songs on the album. They feature titles like
    “I’m On A Roll (Better Than It’s Ever Been),” “Casino Winnebago,”
    “Mona Lisa Smiles,” “Kentucky Blues,” and “Shaking All Over The World.” Perhaps what I am most excited about is that Tiven and the producers seem to understand that Brown is a great country singer who should not be pigeonholed into one narrow genre. American Highway is scheduled to be released on May 17, 2019.

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    When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings

    Buster Scruggs Song

    During repeated viewings of the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), I began to fall in love with the duet at the end of the first segment of the Netflix movie. This first chapter that provides the title for the film ends with a funny duet on the song, “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” which I later discovered was written by two artists I admire.

    Well, it is funny on first viewing, but in subsequent viewings I found the song to be deeper and sadder, even as the tune is presented with humorous visuals. [Spoilers ahead.] In the tale, we meet Buster Scruggs (wonderfully played by Tim Blake Nelson), a quirky, funny, singing, and deadly cowboy. As in old Westerns, the character is the fastest gun until someone else comes along and kills him. Then, The Kid (played by Old Crow Medicine Show‘s Willie Watson) and Buster’s spirit engage in a duet about dying.

    Let me tell you, buddy,
    And it win’t be long,
    Till you find yourself singing
    Your last cowboy song.

    Yippee-ki-yi-yay;
    When the roundup ends;
    Yippee-ki-yi-yay;
    And the campfire dims.

    Yippee-ki-yi-yay;
    He shalt be saved,
    When a cowboy trades
    His spurs for wings.

    The wonderful musicians Gillian Welch and David Rawlings wrote “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings.” Once I found out who wrote the song, it did not surprise me that I would fall in love with the song. It also did not surprise me that the song received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

    Welch and Rawlings recorded their own version of the song. Their version takes a sweeter, more mournful approach than the humorous visuals in the Coen Brothers movie. Without Buster Scruggs, “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” becomes a more realistic dying cowboy’s lament. Check it out.

    What is your favorite cowboy movie song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    New Track from Son Volt: “Devil May Care”

    Son Volt Union

    Son Volt has released a video and new song, “Devil May Care.” The song appears on the band’s upcoming new album Union.

    Reports indicate that Union will largely be a political album. But the song “Devil May Care” seems to be recounting images from a barroom band. So, like the song’s name, it seems to be one of the lighter themed songs on the album.

    Son Volt’s Jay Farrar has explained that “Devil May Care” is a respite from some of the heavier themes on the album, such as another song’s take on income inequality. For “Devil May Care,” Farrar noted,
    “Wait a minute, music is supposed to make you throw your burdens to the wind,’ so I tried to include that approach as well.” Check out the new song from Son Volt.

    Harmonic fidelity boost;
    High pass filter on a balanced line;
    Or a cigarette on a headstock;
    All the same, just make it rhyme.

    Transmit Sound/Thirty Tigers will release Son Volt’s ninth studio album Union on March 29, 2019.

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    Listen to Your Junk Man

    One of the first Bruce Springsteen songs I truly fell in love with was “New York City Serenade,” the closing track from The Wild, the Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle (1973). Long before I ever imagined I would end up living in New York City, the song’s beauty resonated with me.

    springsteen new york city serenade

    From the opening notes on the original recording with David Sancious playing a long piano introduction before Springsteen’s guitar comes in, through the final refrain about the junk man, the music and imagery captures a time and place much like “Jungleland” later did. Unlike the later song, though, the story in “New York City Serenade” is less clear.

    Left of the Dial noted the words amount to “a jumble of lyrics with some nice bits which just don’t add up to much.” But the Christian Science Monitor found some parenting advice in the song. But, as Left of the Dial also notes, the music is the star of this song.

    Perhaps I found something special in the song because it was not something one heard on the radio. So among most of my friends, the song was something that only I knew.

    My lonely connection to the song did not last for long. My college roommates in the early 1980s heard the song over and over again playing on my stereo. The repeated plays annoyed one of my roommates so much that we regularly engaged in a stereo war with me playing “New York City Serenade” against his beloved REO Speedwagon “Heard it from a Friend.”

    Actually, I’m not even sure which REO Speedwagon song he used to play.  But even though today I am not ashamed to admit I have REO Speedwagon songs in my music collection, I still think my choice of song has held up pretty well.

    I have read about early shows where Springsteen closed his concerts with “New York City Serenade.” But I have never been lucky enough to hear him play the rarely performed song live.

    Yet, on July 11, 2013, Springsteen dragged out a symphony to play the song with the E Street Band. Thank God for YouTube.

    Check out Blogness who asks why Europe was getting Springsteen’s rare songs. What is your favorite Springsteen deep track? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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