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May 2017
Features
12 Drake White
Douglas McPherson meets the man bringing rootsy country soul to
mainstream music.
18 Willie Nelson
As Willie Nelson turns 84, Spencer Leigh looks at what Willie might do
next...
DOUGLAS MCPHERSON MEETS A MAINSTREAM SINGER
WITH FOLK ROOTS.
D
rake White likes his music “real and raw.” So much so that for his
alone in a bar drinking song Waitin’ On The Whiskey To Work he
achieved his incredibly engaging and convincingly wrung-out
performance through what can only be described as method
singing.
“I think everybody can relate to being bellied up in a bar and just waiting
for the whiskey to work - just waiting on the buzz to kick in and numb the
pain of whatever you’re going through,” says White.
“We were in the studio and it wasn’t coming across right as far as the
vocal was concerned. We sat down and drank about five shots of Tennessee
water... and I got a good take on it. That’s why that vocal hits you. I’m literally
waitin’ on the whiskey to work while I’m singing it.”
As well as White’s in-the-moment performance, the song is striking for
its haunting arrangement. Lyrically, it’s such a hardcore drinking song that
it could have been cut by any top drawer country singer from the past sixty
years. Earlier generations would have wrapped it in fiddle and steel guitar.
White, by contrast, marries the heartbeat of a drum machine with the
softly wailing harmonica of Willie Nelson’s sideman Mickey Raphael and
some sparse synthesiser notes from Billy Nobel that are as chilling as
droplets of water falling from an icicle or the measured ticking of a clock.
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26 Brandi Carlile
Recruiting artists and activists across generations for an album to benefit
the charity War Child. Brandi Carlile talks to Kelly Gregory.
52 The Mavericks
AS WILLIE NELSON TURNS 84, SPENCER LEIGH
LOOKS AT WHAT WILLIE MIGHT DO NEXT.
The Mavericks’ frontman, Raul Malo tells Duncan Warwick about the new
album and doing it their way on their own label.
60 Little Bandit
Little Bandit’s Alex Caress talks classic country and more with Duncan
Warwick.
I
n Japan there is a new pop sensation, Hatsune Miku, an artist with
pigtails who has a repertoire of 100,000 songs. Remind you of anyone?
Well, not quite, because the big difference is that Hatsune Miku isn’t like
Willie Nelson: she isn’t real while Willie Nelson is a very real human being.
Hatsune Miku is a 16-year-old virtual pop star developed by Crypton
Future Media. The humanoid sells out arenas where “she” is backed by live
musicians. You only have to look at Rolling Girl on YouTube to realise that
real live fans love her, cheering and stomping along to her programmed
moves. It falls in line with Japanese tastes as they invented karaoke.
I am sure an American version of Hatsune Miku will follow and could
become, with multi-million dollar marketing, the biggest pop music
sensation of all-time. As Willie Nelson might sing, it’s crazy.
The other week I was chatting to Kimmie Rhodes when she was playing
Liverpool. She has made a couple of albums with Willie and knows him
well and she said, “A lot of artists make an album a year and they don’t go
into the studio until they’re ready. Willie’s always ready and he doesn’t
mind doing the same songs over and over.”
Over the years, there have been many artists who have recorded a hit
song, then a live version and then a new studio version when they moved
to another label. The most prolific country star prior to Willie Nelson was
Johnny Cash. He left Sun Records in 1958, but he didn’t re-record his Sun
material like I Walk The Line until 1964. In the late-1960s he included
some on his live albums from Folsom Prison and San Quentin. He revived
I Walk The Line as the title song for a Gregory Peck film in 1970 and then,
in 1988, he included it on Classic Cash when he moved to Mercury. He
sang part of it for Rodney Crowell’s I Walk The Line (Revisited) in 2001.
He recorded prolifically for Rick Rubin in his later years but Rubin didn’t
want him doing old songs, so that’s only six versions of I Walk The Line in
45 years with a few more on quasi-legal live recordings. (There appears
to be some loophole in the US copyright law which permits vintage radio
broadcasts to be issued on CDs without the artists’ permission.)
AGAIN
AND
AGAIN
AND AGAIN.. .
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Reviews
BRANDI CARLILE HAS RECRUITED ARTISTS
AND ACTIVISTS ACROSS GENERATIONS FOR
AN ALBUM TO BENEFIT THE CHARITY WAR
CHILD.
SHE TELLS KELLY GREGORY THE STORY.
S
32 Album Reviews
ometimes in life certain albums
come along that evoke vivid
memories and strong emotions
and can transport you back to
the first time you heard them — the
place, the people, the sights, even the
smells. You can feel everything as if
you were actually there all over again.
There aren’t many albums that make
such an impact but Brandi Carlile’s
The Story is one that never fails to have
that effect on me. It has since become
one of my all-time favourites and a
companion to revelry, car journeys,
and nights alone in headphones.
It isn’t just the emotionally powerful
songwriting that had me so absorbed
in the music of the ballsy songstress,
there’s also something about her
incredible, expressive voice that can
get right inside you, an indomitable
and charismatic quality that is hard to
find.
Recently celebrating it’s tenth
anniversary, the acclaimed T Bone
Burnett-produced The Story has
been revisited and reimagined by a
host of guest artists including Kris
Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Secret
Sisters, Margo Price and Shovels &
Rope, with each artist enjoying the
freedom to cover the song of their
choice in their preferred manner. This
has made it a melting pot of styles
with artists as diverse as Pearl Jam and
Adele alongside the predominantly
country lineup.
The Grammy-nominated singer-
songwriter has her own charity - The
Looking Out Foundation - which she
founded in 2008 with bandmates Tim
and Phil Hanseroth. So committed
are they that since its inception $1
from every concert ticket goes directly
Regulars
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4 News
8 Tour Guide
11 The David Allan Page
56 Nice To Meet Y’all - Western Centuries
57 Americana Roundup
58 Nice To Meet Y’all - Sarah Shook
63 Nice To Meet Y’all - Jake Worthington
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towards the foundation’s efforts and
“making music mean more.” However,
the idea behind this project came about
when she was affected by images of
suffering children in war zones and
feeling that The Story was her most
recognised work, Carlile was moved to
take action. The Seattle based singer
tells the story behind Cover Stories.
“My wife, Catherine, and I were
trying to find a way to impact the
refugee crisis in regard to children with
our foundation. We were using The
Story as a kind of projectile, of sorts, so
that we could find a way to give it away
and earn money for this crisis that was
becoming really upsetting to us after
the birth of our child.
“When Catherine lived in London
she was the charity organiser for
Paul McCartney so she had become
acquainted with War Child. And we
got on the internet and we googled
War Child to see what they were up to
and they totally coincidentally had this
campaign called ‘The Story’ campaign.
We couldn’t believe the coincidence
and we took it as a sign and called them
and asked if we could put out a record
to benefit their cause. Specifically The
Story campaign because they were
telling the stories of young refugees
and their plight, and not always just
refugees either, in the Congo they have
child soldiers and so it’s just children
who have been impacted by war. And
so they gave us their blessing and we
got to work and we started finding
artists to cover the songs.”
T
he title track on The Story
is Carlile’s biggest hit and
has appeared on shows like ABC’s
Grey’s Anatomy, in a General Motors
commercial and aired during
the Beijing Olympic Games as well as
during the Super Bowl. It has wormed
its way unsuspectingly into people’s
lives and become part of the public’s
consciousness without the majority
of those people even knowing who
the singer is. To prove this point, just
a couple of months ago I was flicking
through channels on my TV and LeAnn
Rimes was singing The Story on the
Graham Norton show.
“I don’t know what it is about that
song,” laughs Brandi. “I must say I really
don’t. I love it. I’ve always loved The
Story, but people want to sing it.
“It’s like every time a new season of
American Idol or The Voice starts we
get all these requests from contestants
who want to sing that song on the
show, probably because it has a big
vocal moment in it.
“Nobody sung it like Dolly, though,
and that’s the only person I’ve ever
reached out to.”
For the new album, Cover Stories,
philanthropist Dolly Parton puts her
stamp on the song and Brandi explains
how she managed to get the country
icon on board.
“Well, I wrote Dolly a handwritten
letter and I just told her how I was
feeling about what was happening to
the kids coming out of Syria basically. I
told her the biggest thing I’ve ever had,
the biggest thing I’ve done is The Story
and it’s the only thing I can use, you
know, I don’t have the career that other
people have. I don’t have the money or
the platform or the voice that some of
the big artists have that can do amazing
work like Bono and Elton John and
stuff, and all I’ve got is The Story and
I’d like to know if you would sing it and
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The
Mavericks
WITH A NEW ALBUM AND THEIR OWN RECORD LABEL, IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL
FOR THE MAVERICKS. FRONTMAN RAUL MALO TALKS TO DUNCAN WARWICK.
T
he Maverick’s latest album
might be called Brand
New Day but musically it’s
business as usual for Raul
Malo and the rest of the gang. The title
does, however, hint at the fresh start
everybody’s favourite good-time band
has made since finding themselves in
a position to release their own records
and become absolute masters of their
own destiny. This was born as much
out of necessity as desire when Big
Machine records let them go last year,
and now Mono Mundo Recordings is a
self-contained label with distribution
via Thirty Tigers.
Despite always being as cool as
f***, The Mavericks have historically
found it difficult to find a true musical
home. Like a square peg in a very tiny
round hole, they have generally been
considered to be unclassifiable. Sure,
they initially came to the notice of MCA
Records in Nashville following their
independently released Miami-recorded
debut, and they even dented the
Billboard Country Charts on a couple of
occasions, their What A Crying Shame
album might well be one of the greatest
ever country releases, but there’s
never been a group quite like them, or
anywhere near as good as them.
Frequent forays into Latin, lounge,
and the more interesting side of rock
has meant that record companies are
at something of a loss about where to
pitch them, but one thing is for certain,
the public love them, and country fans
have stuck with them.
Having become synonymous with
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their huge UK crossover hit, Dance
The Night Away, they are frequently
labelled a ‘party band’, and indeed,
any Mavericks live show is sure to
have a party atmosphere, that not only
transcends genres, but age ranges
as well. There’s nothing not to like
about the group formed 25 years ago
in Miami (albeit with something of a
hiatus before reuniting a few years
ago), unless you are afflicted with
absolutely no sense of rhythm and you
don’t appreciate a melody that makes
you want to sing along, even if it’s in
a different language, and there’s a
reasonable chance it will be.
One thing sure to delight the longtime
fans is that Brand New Day opens with
arguably the countriest thing they have
done in a while - Rolling Along - which
with nearly a polka rhythm features
banjo and fiddle. Mavericks main man
Raul Malo lets out a hearty laugh as he
says, “For years it’s been, ‘When are
you going to put a banjo on a record?’
It’s like, ‘It’ll never happen. Hell will
freeze over and we’ll never do it.’ There
were countless banjo jokes back and
forth and so finally… all kidding aside I
love and I have a lot of friends that play
bluegrass and stuff but I like to give
them shit. Why not? They’re bluegrass
guys and they play a little banjo so
you’ve got to give them a little shit.
For years just back and forth and then
finally I’m like, ‘Okay, we got this song
and we’ve got to put a banjo on this.’
It just sounded like it needed it and
it was perfect, it was great. We got a
real player to come in and play it. He’s
awesome. He’s one of the top guys in
town.
“That was our fiddle and banjo song
and of course the last soloists are the
accordions and the horns just to make
sure people haven’t forgotten about the
Mexicans.” Malo laughs some more and
adds, “They’re still here.”
Crucial to the sound that The
Mavericks have made their very own
are the other members of the band.
Eddie Perez, the sharp-dressed guitar
maestro, the ever present Paul Deakin
on drums, Jerry Dale McFadden, who
used to be the unofficial extra member
of the band prior to their reforming in
2012, and whose pumping keyboards
help to infuse the sound with a ska
feeling so often, and now Michael
Guerra, with whom Malo worked so
frequently whilst pursuing a solo career
for a while and whose accordion playing
has become critical in the Mavericks’
identity.
“Well the songs definitely lend
themselves to the accordion,” asserts
Malo, “and Michael is one of the best
musicians in the world, and he and
I have really, we’ve been playing
together for so long so he knows how
to not only turn the accordion into a
blazing soloist instrument but really
more of an orchestral sort of arranging
instrument. He uses it that way really
kind of brilliantly and we sit there and
we mess with parts and we mess with
arrangements so it does become part of
the sound but it’s on purpose, you know,
it just fills up so much that we love it.”
Due to the category defying nature
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Charts
“I love pop music but I want
my country music to be
country music.”
LITTLE BANDIT’S MUSIC MAY BE STEEPED IN COUNTRY TRADITION BUT
FRONTMAN ALEX CARESS IS CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES.
HE SPEAKS TO DUNCAN WARWICK.
64 Americana & UK Country Charts
65 Billboard Country Charts
Courtesy of Billboard Inc.
W
atch just about any
country music video by
a male artist and you
can practically see the
testosterone churned up by the tyres
of a Dodge Ram along with the mud,
so to suggest that the video for Little
Bandit’s current single - Bed Of Bad
Luck - is challenging country music
stereotypes is to put it mildly. In it, the
love interest of Little Bandit’s frontman
and driving force, Alex Caress, is his
real-life boyfriend. Yes folks, Alex Caress
is openly gay in a genre not known for
its acceptance of such things, even in
2017.
The record, and indeed Little Bandit’s
album, Breakfast Alone, is a triumph
of country music, well, the kind that is
often to be found emanating from East
Nashville anyway. One that recognises
its roots, drawing on honky tonk and
classic country influences and adding
a touch of the dramatic for a stunning
example of what is probably best
categorised as Americana. Almost
certainly destined to be completely
shunned by the mainstream country
outlets, Breakfast Alone has received
praise from Rolling Stone magazine as
well as in these very pages.
“I was definitely trying to put myself
out there and make sure that it was
heard,” says Caress of the coverage
the album has received, “but I never
would expect anything like that so
it’s always a really nice surprise and a
really humbling thing to get that kind of
attention.”
The keyboard-playing singer and
songwriter accepts that the Bed Of
Bad Luck video might be considered
controversial in certain quarters but has
actually helped publicise the release,
he asserts that, “For some people it
[the video] might initially grab their
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attention, but I hope the music is the
main thing.”
As well as Bed Of Bad Luck, which,
with its Bakersfield inspired Telecaster
licks and dripping steel, would be as
equally at home in the catalogue of
Patsy Cline as it would an edgy East
Nashville-based country singer in
Trumpland 2017, Alex Caress, who
moved to Nashville to study voice and
composition at Belmont University
and adds his Gospel-tinged piano to
many of his songs also impresses with
Scattered And Smothered, a dark tale
of murder that also lends some of its
lyrics to the album title. In the song our
protagonist is nonchalantly enjoying a
solitary breakfast in a diner while the
body of his former love interest is in
the boot of his car. As dark as anything
Eddie Noak ever recorded, the song is
a triumphant return to the death song
in country music, and the dark visions
of Caress’ creative mind rear their head
elsewhere on his superb release.
‘I got really into listening to those
old murder ballads,” Caress confesses,
“and just how gruesome they could be
and at the same time I was watching
a lot of crime television like, there’s a
show over here called Forensic File and
another show called Law And Order
SVU. And just sort like delving into
this sort of gruesome murder ballad
territory. But it was also kind of an
attempt to take that old songwriting
trope and throw it back into the genre’s
face with a new 21st century twist on
it.”
Little Bandit are able to seemingly
flip-flop be tween influences like Gram
Parsons, Buck Owens and George Jones
to something altogether more modern,
from this side of the Atlantic, and on
an indie label, as demonstrated on the
song ironically titled ‘Nashville’.
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