Picking and Grinning at 2022’s End

By ROB PATTERSON

Back in the not-so-dark-as-now ages, I’d end the year with a wrap-up of progressive and political music. Then the amount of such songs and longplayers by significant artists started thinning down. Lately, that cupboard has been rather barren.

It’s not like there isn’t a bumper crop of inspiration in these strange and sometimes even scary times. There’s much to shout about, fierce fuel for invective, cause for smart lyrical moral and ethical jousting and uplift, and absurdity, irony and mania galore to feed the muse. But, alas, it’s like crickets on the topical songs front.

But given how wretched things are politically – though the barely-red midterms trickle gave some hope – we all can use maybe not an escape, but certainly respite that might also be an ameliorative. If I were giving presents this holiday season, here’s some recent cool albums I’d be gifting.

• Pharoah Sanders: “Promises” – My music scribe friend Wayne Robins penned an excellent Substack essay on the jazz saxophonist/composer, who died in September, which led me to explore a massive talent whose work I’d yet to really explore and enjoy. His final album is a beautiful collaboration with electronic music composer Floating Points that features the London Symphony Orchestra. It’s a chill listen that has its subtle thrills, a subdued masterwork that mesmerizes and delights from a brilliant musical artist.

• The Paranoid Style: “For Executive Meeting” – If you like lyrics that are wickedly smart and pop-rock that snaps and crackles, this band, who take their monicker from Richard Hofstadter 1964 poli-sci book, offer brain food and musical manna galore. Not unlike Elvis Costello & The Attractions, but with a way cool and witty female as the front man, and even more nimbly chosen and woven words-per-minute. The rapid-fire wordplay often quotes other songs, and shows singer Elizabeth Nelson to be a keen and clever observer of life and championship linguistic acrobat while the infectious two-car-garage band rock, with dips into country and blues, is equally compelling. Masterful and as fun as rock’n’roll should be.

• Churchwood: “The Boule Oui” – Imagine if Captain Beefheart were not a painter but a published poet and college prof like singer Joe Doerr and the Captain’s Magic Band was driven by two-interwoven and interplaying guitars a la Television, Sonic Youth and The Yardbirds with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. Then steep the songs in the swamp water that nourished the blues feed ‘em some Texas country chili and microdoses of peyote, and that’ll give you an ideal of the vibrant sonic pleasures of this adventurous combo from Austin, Texas, the city where I live.

• Priscilla Block: “Welcome To The Block Party” – I’ve just about given up on Nashville commercial country as a hedge against the clichéd mediocrity of bro country, with the exception of the women. Block does the same for plus-sized lasses in the country realm as Lizzo did in R&B and pop, as witnessed by singing about her “muffin top” and liking “extra fries over exercise” on her song “Thick Thighs.” She breezily flips the lyrical script on party-hearty rocking country with big, brassy and no bullsh*t Southern girl attitude with aplomb, and a knack for snappy, radio-ready songs.

• Tedeschi Trucks Band: “I Am the Moon” – This 12-member roots music juggernaut successively released four discs with a shared title this last year. The short skinny on TTB is that they recall the Allman Brothers Band, which they come by honestly. Guitarist Butch Trucks is the nephew of ABB drummer Butch Trucks, did 15 years as an Allman in the superb final version of the group, and plays slide guitar with a tone and attack that reminds of the legendary Duane Allman, yet takes his playing even further and wider. Wife Susan Tedeschi sings with a voice reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt, and is no slouch on guitar. The band they lead brings new hues to the blues and ranges into jazz, African music and much more, always creating organic grooves that seduce the ear within smartly composed songs. Old school taken new places by the next generation.

• Charley Crockett: “The Man From Waco” – Crockett links many of the finer elements of 1950s/’60s country back with western in a sound that’s authentically retro with contemporary appeal, and carves smart and solid songs out of oak, cottonwood and cedar into a comfy and charming cowboy ride through the high plains of good ol’ American music.

• Tommy McLain: “I Run Down Every Dream” – Louisiana swamp pop is my favorite 1950s/early ‘60s musical style, and McLain is one of the foremost veterans of this sound, as delicious as the food the Cajuns cook up. At age 82, his voice is wizened yet still emotively rich and empathetic. Producer C.C. Adcock, the Pelican State’s somewhat secret musical wizard, fashions imaginative arrangements with the help of his Lil Band O’ Gold compatriots and other Louisiana talents alongside such guests as Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Augie Meyers and Van Dyke Parks. Full of melodic charms and wise and heartfelt lyrics, it’s a treasure chest of an album.

Some of my peers carp about how hard it is to find new music they would enjoy. It’s out there; you just need to pan for the gold.

Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email robpatterson 054@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2022

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