Trax
By Bliss 09/02/2010
THE STEELDRIVERS, Reckless (Rounder): (4 stars out of 5)
Chris Stapleton’s songs and go-for-broke vocals still put the gritty blue in bluegrass on the Grammy-nominated Nashville ensemble’s sophomore album. Tracks like the jovial “Guitars, Whiskey, Guns and Knives,” “Good Corn Liquor” and “Midnight on the Mountain” hew to traditional roots, bolstered by spirited exchanges between banjo player Richard Bailey, bassist Mike Fleming, mandolinist/resonator guitarist Mike Henderson and fiddler Tammy Rogers. Too bad Stapleton’s left the band. steeldrivers.net
LUKE DOUCET, Steel City Trawler (Six Shooter): (4 stars out of 5)
Sarah McLachlan guitarist Doucet unleashes his inner rock ‘n’ roller with his fifth solo disc, saluting the Joy Division’s late frontman with “The Ballad of Ian Curtis,” making like a low-rent Keef on the Stonesy “Dirty Dirty Blonde” and cracking wise about politicos on the rallying cry “Thinking People.” Wife/bandmate Melissa McClelland’s harmonies sweeten “Hey Now” and a rocked-up cover of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown.” Doucet’s focused on blue-collar working-class issues here, sometimes self-consciously so, but his message hits home. At Hotel Café Tuesday. lukedoucet.com
FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS, Pickin’ Up the Pieces (Dangerbird): (3.5 stars out of 5)
Frontman/songwriter Michael Fitzpatrick & Co. nail the sound of vintage soul tracks on this stylish debut. The LA-based sextet nod toward social concerns with “Dear Mr. President” (“It ain’t enough to pray when you got no place to stay/ Daddy just walked out, Mama raisin’ family”), but this is an organ-pounding, harmony-making celebration. Highlights: “Breakin’ the Chains of Love,” “Don’t Gotta Work It Out,” “L.O.V.” At Food and Wine Festival in Los Angeles Saturday. fitzandthetantrums.com
LOCH & KEY, Jupiter’s Guide for Submariners (self-released): (3 stars out of 5)
Subtly glistening strands of bossa nova and jazz enhance the let’s-loll-by-the-pool dreaminess of this soothing pop platter from former American Music Club bassist Sean Hoffman and breathy vocalist Leyla Akdogan. There’s a hint of cowpunk galloping through “Devil’s Backbone,” but as with sunnier tracks like “In the Town of the Queen of the Angels” and “Mt. Washington” (“Take me to the place where the hipsters ride and they paint at a leisurely rate”), its force is more suggestive than overt. At the Redwood Bar downtown Thursday, Sept. 9, 23 and 30. lochandkey.net
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