Trax
By Bliss 05/15/2008
THE STAIRWELL SISTERS, Get Off Your Money (Yodel-Ay-Hee):
With an able assist from co-producer Lloyd Maines, the Bay Area-based female old-time quintet deliver a smooth, banjo- and fiddle-happy follow-up to 2005's "Feet All Over the Floor." Songs like "Who's to Blame" and the day laborer-dedicated "Shuffle and Shine" place their underdog sympathies front and center, but they're best on the upbeat tunes; the whooping traditional "Stay All Night," "Swing Low" (a quick-tempoed variation on the spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot") and especially "Sleep When You're Dead" serve as insistent reminders that old-time is meant to be dance music. Performing at the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest and festival Sunday.
www.stairwellsisters.com
THE WHIPSAWS, 60 Watt Avenue (Shut Eye):
Currently barnstorming the lower 48, this Anchorage, Alaska-based quartet forthrightly acknowledge their influences with a liner-note dedication to Neil Young and Crazy Horse and a faithful cover of Young's "Mr. Soul" (not to mention a fuzz-toned instrumental, "Ode to Shakey"). Luckily, said influences are a springboard, not a choke collar. Fans of Tim Easton (who makes a raspy-voiced appearance on "Seven Long Years"), Drive-By Truckers and Ryan Adams should find much to relish in the Whipsaws' chunky rhythms, twin-guitar fury and unpretentious worldview. Standout tracks include "High Tide," the high-spirited "Jessi Jane" and "The War" ("You can settle the score of who's killing who and who's taking lives/ For democracy for the president's pride"). At Spaceland Saturday.
www.thewhipsaws.com
VARIOUS ARTISTS, The Rough Guide to Australian Aboriginal Music
(World Music Network):
The expected didgeridoos are amply represented here, but so are harmonicas, guitars, keyboards, sundry electronic effects and some moving singing (notably on Tiddas' sweetly harmonized "Inanay" and Archie Roach's haunting "Jamu Dreaming"). Tjupurru's "Stompin' Ground" sounds like a Tom Waits outtake, Saltwater Band's piano-backed crooning isn't far removed from Aaron Neville's balladry, and Kev Carmody resembles no one so much as mid-'60s Dylan on his protest anthem "From Little Things Big Things Grow." Aboriginal music has long since moved beyond the desert into the urban world, as this intriguing compilation demonstrates, but pop hasn't yet drained its potency.
www.worldmusic.net
With an able assist from co-producer Lloyd Maines, the Bay Area-based female old-time quintet deliver a smooth, banjo- and fiddle-happy follow-up to 2005's "Feet All Over the Floor." Songs like "Who's to Blame" and the day laborer-dedicated "Shuffle and Shine" place their underdog sympathies front and center, but they're best on the upbeat tunes; the whooping traditional "Stay All Night," "Swing Low" (a quick-tempoed variation on the spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot") and especially "Sleep When You're Dead" serve as insistent reminders that old-time is meant to be dance music. Performing at the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest and festival Sunday.
www.stairwellsisters.com
THE WHIPSAWS, 60 Watt Avenue (Shut Eye):
Currently barnstorming the lower 48, this Anchorage, Alaska-based quartet forthrightly acknowledge their influences with a liner-note dedication to Neil Young and Crazy Horse and a faithful cover of Young's "Mr. Soul" (not to mention a fuzz-toned instrumental, "Ode to Shakey"). Luckily, said influences are a springboard, not a choke collar. Fans of Tim Easton (who makes a raspy-voiced appearance on "Seven Long Years"), Drive-By Truckers and Ryan Adams should find much to relish in the Whipsaws' chunky rhythms, twin-guitar fury and unpretentious worldview. Standout tracks include "High Tide," the high-spirited "Jessi Jane" and "The War" ("You can settle the score of who's killing who and who's taking lives/ For democracy for the president's pride"). At Spaceland Saturday.
www.thewhipsaws.com
VARIOUS ARTISTS, The Rough Guide to Australian Aboriginal Music
(World Music Network):
The expected didgeridoos are amply represented here, but so are harmonicas, guitars, keyboards, sundry electronic effects and some moving singing (notably on Tiddas' sweetly harmonized "Inanay" and Archie Roach's haunting "Jamu Dreaming"). Tjupurru's "Stompin' Ground" sounds like a Tom Waits outtake, Saltwater Band's piano-backed crooning isn't far removed from Aaron Neville's balladry, and Kev Carmody resembles no one so much as mid-'60s Dylan on his protest anthem "From Little Things Big Things Grow." Aboriginal music has long since moved beyond the desert into the urban world, as this intriguing compilation demonstrates, but pop hasn't yet drained its potency.
www.worldmusic.net
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