The Re-emergence of Nick Holmes, Research Turtles Update, Gary Heffern's Beautiful People Video and upcoming albums you should check out.....

 Nick Holmes--- The Soulful Crooner

It's the early seventies and the whole world of music is blowing up.  Musicians are becoming stars (a precursor to stars becoming superstars) and music itself is getting serious.  FM is changing the way we listen, AM is adapting to a changing culture and it means something because music, like they say, is the background for our lives.

In NYC, an obscure group of musicians, jazz and otherwise, are taking part in an experiment which will spawn a number of session men and musicians of no small stature in this new world and out of this will come an album which will go pretty much unnoticed in spite of its excellence.  The band is tagged White Elephant as is the album, a double-disc rule-changer regardless of its obscurity.  The songs, rehearsed and recorded over a period of time, feature no less than The Brecker Brothers (Michael &Randy), Michael Mainieri (who produced and arranged the sessions), Steve Gadd, Tony Levin, Hugh McCracken and a raft of others.  They vary from straight rock to intense fusion, at the time a mere germ of a genre, and they changed the way I listened.

Up to that time, jazz was to me a genre to be avoided.  I wanted loud and I wanted electric and I wanted melody and harmony.  I wanted something other than lounge music or free-form noise (I called it squawking geese music in my lack of experience and ignorance).  I wanted--- well, I didn't really know what I wanted but I knew I'd know it when I heard it.  I heard it on White Elephant.

I heard raucous jazz jams and hippie anthems and the oddest version of Auld Lang Syne I'd ever heard.  I heard drumming to rival the best of the rockers and guitar that stretched the boundaries and horns--- oh, those horns!  But mostly I heard Nick Holmes.

Nick Holmes was an unknown quantity, but for me he brought the music home.  He wrote songs like I'd never heard and sang them like no one I'd ever heard, though there was this strange aura of John Martyn and Nick Drake in his phrasing which captivated me.  His songs were laced throughout the album and, at first, I skipped from one Holmes song to another, avoiding the others.  They were gems--- melodic, poignant, magical--- and Holmes sang them to an imperfect perfection.  I listened to them so many times that they became ingrained in the brain and to this day I can hear the music in my head and get a rush whenever it happens.  Others had their chosen hits of the day, but I preferred Battle Royal and Gunfighter and More To Love and Right Back, all (to myself) Holmes classics.

Without Nick Holmes, I would have missed the rest of the album.  Through the process of dabbling between Holmes tracks, I slowly developed an appreciation for the more jazz compositions--- The Jones, with its manic Bob Mann shredding of the guitar and overamped Tony Levin bass, and the other strange conglomerations that I came to call "hippie jazz" for lack of a better term.  Through repeated listenings, I learned to love the whole album and, from there, opened myself more to jazz.  White Elephant was a landmark album for that reason alone. 

A year or so later, Holmes released a solo album, the outstanding but ill-fated Soulful Crooner.  Again produced by Mainieri, it had that jazz edge but toned down and not unlike the Holmes tracks on the White Elephant album.  Of course, by that time I was sold, but Holmes upped the ante.  He wrote and Mainieri produced a musical treasure.  From the first notes of Only a Human, I knew this was special.  Behind Holmes was a combo version of White Elephant--- Donald MacDonald on drums, Tony Levin on bass, Mainieri on keyboards & vibes, and Hugh McCracken on guitar.  And the guest appearances!  Few, but fitted to the music and the moment. 

By now, you can fathom that I am a Nick Holmes fan.  Indeed, since the epiphanies of the aforementioned albums, I have searched for any and all information I could find about him.  I scoured used record bins, talked about him when I could get people to listen, listened to the albums on a lesser but regular basis to get my fix and never gave up.  A few years ago, I ran across a MySpace page which I was pretty sure was the right Nick Holmes (there are other musicians out there by that name) and tried to contact him through that but nothing came of it.  Sometimes when I would search for that page, it wasn't there--- not in the place I was looking anyway.  Holmes was like a ghost--- this elusive Casper-type entity whose existence I would have begun to doubt but for the physical proof I could pick up and listen to when the need arose.

But if I am nothing else when it comes to my music, I am persistent and a couple of weeks ago I hit the jackpot.  I found him.  I had been putting his name in search engines fairly regularly and to no avail, but this last time, there he was.  Well, not him, but his website.  I learned more about Holmes in one sitting than I'd ever been able to find out--- his attachment to The Serendipity Singers and Gamble Rogers, the release of an album on United Artists Records titled Hunger Is the Best Sauce (in all my years scouring record bins, I don't believe I have ever seen a copy), his involvement with the White Elephant gang.  In the '90s, he played in a band called The Neurosurgeons and worked with Diane Keaton and others.  He had a studio (I assume he still does) and recorded music.  Hell, he has other albums!  What the hell?

I sigh.  How talent like Holmes goes missing for, what, decades?  But I found him.  With luck, I may be able to get him to talk about his story.  It's a sure bet that I will be picking up all the music I can get my hands on.  And there is a little.  He has four songs posted at present on his website (just follow the link and click on "music"), three albums available through cdBaby (Soulful Crooner, The King of 26th Street, and Low Ball) and, if I can talk Holmes and Mainieri into it, we might see a release of another Mainieri-produced album, Freedom Slave.

I know there are a few people looking for Holmes out there.  Hopefully, they will fall upon the info I did and find their way to the music.  Michael Mainieri, by the way, has a ton of great jazz albums available through his NYC Records label, including the White Elephant album (with an additional Nick Holmes track).  There are some true classics by the likes of Steps Ahead and others and, of course, Mainieri's solo albums as well.

Research Turtles Update-----

My boys from Lake Charles are getting ready to unleash Mankiller Pt. 1 on the world, an EP of their latest tracks produced by Justin Tocket at the same studio where they recorded their self-titled album (one of my all-time favorites already).  The plan is to allow free downloads of their "single", Bugs In a Jar, beginning May 3rd and continuing through that month.  Release date for the full EP is May 31st.  Like all good plans that could change, but until it does that's the plan.  In the meantime, for those who don't know, Research Turtles knocked down the song of 2010 honors from the UK's Radio Six International.  Here's the video:

Jill Stevenson-----

We break into what I already had planned for a short announcement regarding the impending release of Jill Stevenson's latest project.  Her last two, The Jill Stevenson Band and Where We're Not (with Adam Widoff), worked their way into my psyche enough to place them on a number of my "best of" lists (here is my take).  If the new one is anywhere near as good as those, it's going to be a killer.  You can check out Jill's music at her website where it is streaming 24-7.

Gary Heffern-----

I knew Gary back in the days which would lead to The Penetrators, the golden days of San Diego.  He was a kid then, exuberant about the music he loved (mostly punk during that phase) and convinced that he would soon be fronting a band.  I left SD for Seattle and the next thing I knew, a Penetrators album crossed my desk and, sonofoabitch, there was Gary.  He made it.  A lot of water has run under the bridge since then.  Gary had some ups and downs, but his music kept him going.  He has just wrapped up an album of music which deserves more than a cursory listen.  Gary's older now.  Life for us both is not the same carefree life we had led in SD.  You can hear it and feel it in his latest work with Gary Heffern's Beautiful People.  Check out this video--- Hand of the Devil.  It makes my point.  Album available soon from Glitterhouse Records.

Mariana Bell-----

I admit to having a bit of a crush on Mariana Bell, but it is a musical crush.  I listen to music all day long and it can be a bit wearisome at times, but I am always in the mood to hear Mariana.  She's a modern pop type singer and songwriter and another one of those dreaded Charlottesvillain's you hear me rave about at odd times.  She has a touch for melody and writes as pure a modern pop song as I've heard and did just that on her upcoming release, Push.  It is a solid album (I stole a CD-R and have been listening since) and will be available April 26th.  Here is a video of "the making of" the album.  You can hear bits of the album as background music but you'll have to take it from me, it's not enough.  Hearing the whole album convinces me that 2011 is another great year in music.  God love the indies!

Wrap Up-----

This is going to be one hell of a year, musically.  Bright Giant is slowly piecing together its next project, Nine N Out just released theirs (their best yet), and holy crap!  I almost forgot!  Ash Ganley recently finished another in a string of fine albums (this one's titled Magic Season).  Dennis Crommett's (The Winterpills, whose Tuxedo of Ashes fries my brain) In the Buffalo Surround just hit the shelves and I am doing my pee-pee dance awaiting Zoe Muth's next offering.  There are too many releases of real import to keep up with, but I will do my best.  If you want to see where I've been, you can log on to my website, Rock & Reprise, for a rundown of music I think worth checking out.  I don't take solicitations, by the way.  I search out and write about only the music I deem worthy.  FYI.

I know it sounds like a Madison Avenue slogan, but let me say, buy indie and support the indies.  These guys aren't getting rich and they're every bit as good as anything the labels will hand you. 
 

Music Dead? Not Even Close! A Preview of 2011 and More.....

They won't be carrying me out of 2010 kicking and screaming but I will be sad to see it go.  It was one hell of a year musically and I'm not referring to the media-hyped novelty tunes (and videos) and the box set and remastering mania which has captured the media's attention.  I'm talking about honest to God music, something which is seemingly being left in the dust by a world so engrossed in electronic gadgets that terms like texting and sexting are included in dictionaries mere weeks after creation and the public (and not just teens) pride themselves on choices in ringtones.  Music?  To many, it is mere background to the many applications their phones and computers can find, their world existing somewhere between landlines and wi-fi.  The media would love for you to believe that that world is the only world available to us--- it does sell advertising--- but as is the case more and more these days they would be wrong.  There are plenty of us who still hold music dear to our hearts and who do not need a multimedia experience to create artistic orgasm.  Of course, there are those who are trapped in the past, feeding off of the morsels handed to us by a music industry living off its fat.  There is so much repackaged music out there that you have to work in the industry to make sense of it all, as if anyone who still works for a major label even knows what sense is.

"There just isn't any good music out there anymore....."

There's a statement which warms the cockles of my heart.  You bet.  (Pssst... I'm being cynical)  What it does is make me want to bash some heads.  If there wasn't any more good music I wouldn't be writing this, and if you're one of the idiots who make such statements while spending your entertainment dollar on music you already have, remastered and remixed or not, please stop reading here.  You are an idiot and you have lost any sense of adventure when it comes to music, if you had any to begin with.  I leave you with your Katy Perry's and Lady Gaga's and Justin Bieber's and your other flavors of the moment.  Right now, I have more important music to discuss.

Important to me, anyway, and hopefully important to other people as well.  There are lots of incredibly talented musicians out there busting their hump to get their music to you and if you don't pay attention, you lose.  The music world of today is chock full of next year's and the next decade's discoveries.  Why settle for more Beatles and Springsteen when you can get music by new and exciting artists or even under the radar musicians who have been pounding away for years to little response?  How cool would it be to listen to music you hear almost nowhere else instead of plugging in to the lame pap being churned out on Sirius/XM's "Radio Margaritaville" or the Dylan Channel?  Damn cool, if you ask me, but then I don't think music is dead.  And I do think those channels are for people who think that way.  Me, I look for music anywhere and everywhere and when I find it do a little jig in my heart.  Tell you what.  I'm feeling generous.  I will give you tips on a few of next year's musicians to watch.  You may not like all of them, but you will amaze friends and family at that next dinner party when someone says, hey, you ever hear of Liz Pappademus and the Level and you can say, yes, I have.  In fact, I was listening to their new CD on the drive over this evening.  In my dreams, that is the way I meet the woman of my dreams who has thus far been attending different dinner parties, evidently.

But I digress.  Here are capsule rundowns on albums I am anxiously awaiting and are already, even though I have yet to hear them, vying for a place on my list of "Best Albums of 2011".  Here we go.....

RESEARCH TURTLES.....

My friends are groaning already.  They have been forced to endure my ranting about these guys for a full year now and though many of them are Research Turtles fans, they probably wish I would wait until their next release is at least available.  Well, it's not, but their last album was so damn good (read my review here) that they are at the top of my list for upcoming releases.  Steeped in sixties and Brit rock, they rely on simple punchy chords and catchy hooks.  Think Shoes with a touch of Big Star.  After much deliberation, they decided to head back to Dockside and Justin Tocket.  Excellent choice. 

BRIGHT GIANT.....

Make all the jokes you want about Des Moines and Iowa (I've heard plenty, most having to do with corn).  If they harbor bands like Bright Giant, they're aces with me.  They lean a bit toward The Black Crowes and early Rolling Stones, but don't hold that against them.  They have the flair to pull it off and quite unpretentiously, thank you.  Not underdone.  Not overdone.  Just right.  Their five song self-titled EP has me anxious for what's next.  If all goes well, it will be coming this Spring.

ZOE MUTH & THE LOST HIGH ROLLERS.....

Zoe Muth is one of those talents who could easily fall through the cracks but whose fans will not allow it.  She is a little bit folk and a little bit country with a dash of rock but it isn't the genre that you notice, it is the package.  She writes like a pro and has a voice which is a knife through soft butter.  The first time I heard You Only Believe Me When I'm Lyin', I was irretrievably hooked, and that isn't even my favorite song on her first (and outstanding) album.  She just recently signed with Signature Sounds and is working on a new one.  It can't get here fast enough for me.

THE RIPTIDE MOVEMENT.....

Ireland wouldn't be having financial difficulties if they had a few more bands like this.  Pack ten bands of this caliber in a state-sponsored international tour and, if marketed correctly, the money would be rolling in.  There is more than a little of the Rory Gallagher aura about these guys but they bring way more than that to their music.  And Tony Colton (Heads Hands & Feet) has their back.  Their latest single Hot Tramp was released a couple of months ago and the album is not far behind.  How about a Riptide Movement/Bright Giant tour?  I'd drive miles to see that one.

SYDNEY WAYSER.....

I painted my house to Sydney Wayser's The Colorful a year ago last summer.  If I heard it once I heard it a hundred times and it never got old.  In fact, the more I listened the better it got.  One of the better constructed albums I've had the pleasure to hear and I say constructed for a reason.  Seems that Wayser and band became fascinated with tools, toy and otherwise, and much of the percussion was provided by such.  But you don't need gimmicks for what she does.  Her songs are just that much better than the norm.  New album soon, but I think you should check out her earlier albums as well.  If you want to hear an amazing production job, check out her studio version of La Di Da.  It is immaculate.  She hasn't been given even a small percentage of the respect she's due.

LIZ PAPPADEMUS & THE LEVEL.....

Sheldon Gomberg mentioned Liz Pappademus & The Level almost in passing in one of his Facebook posts and I'm not one to pass up one of his recommendations.  He had just finished recording them and I stopped by and really liked liked what I heard--- rock with edges, but oh those edges.  The album has been awaiting funds for release and evidently the check has cleared the bank because here comes their album--- a concept album titled Television City.  Late enough in 2010 to be called a 2011 release and one I intend to review in detail when a copy makes its way to Frankville.  Check them out and while you're at it, check out Gomberg's site as well.  He is busy as hell and has some impressive stuff making its way out of his studio.

OLD CALIFORNIO.....

These guys are getting tired of hearing from me, I am sure.  This album was supposed to have been released what seems like a million years ago, but like so many out there (just read the previous entry), lack of funds intervened.  So they have done what so many are doing--- leaving it up to fans and superfans.  Their Kickstarter campaign just kicked in and, well, it's all happening at the zoo, as Simon & Garfunkel used to sing.  The music?  Country rock with a crunch edge (or is it rock with a country edge). Not really alternative but too damn good to be mainstream.  Watch the video (it's a killer live performance) and you might just want to kick in a little yourself.

JILL STEVENSON.....

 

When I first heard Jill Stevenson, I heard something but had no idea she would sweep me away like she has.  At first listen, you can tell she is good.  After many, you know how special she really is.  I have her two 2009 EP's, The Jill Stevenson Band and Where We're Not (recorded with Adam Widoff) and have listened to them constantly but have been salivating for something new.  Word has it that she is in and out of the studio with Widoff (and maybe without) and you can bet that I will stop the presses when the next project comes my way.  At that moment, it will be an unplugged phone, a cold beer, a lounge chair and headphones.  At the very least, she's earned that much respect.  At the very least.....

ARBOREA.....

If Arborea lived in New York City or Los Angeles, they would have filmmakers and fans of acoustic music packing house after house, but they toil in the relative obscurity of Maine--- a bit off the beaten path, shall we say?  Consisting of Buck and Shanti Curran, Arborea has an ethereal and cinematic view toward music.  This video is new, put together to promote their upcoming album Red Planet and allows you to see and hear their commitment to film and music.  Also using Kickstarter for funding and have evidently reached their goal.  New album release imminent.  Life is good.

DALA.....

I am in awe of Dala's ability to turn two voices into clouds of such beauty one moment and joyful glee the next.  They have just signed to Compass Records in the US and that label is readying their Everyone Is Someone for release in January (it has been available in Canada for some time).  When you hear it, you'll know why they grabbed this one instead of awaiting the next.  How much do I love these girls?  Here is an indication....

THE BIG MOTIF.....

Sometimes you have to get back to the basics and Colorado's The Big Motif do it in style.  They've played in varying combinations over the past few years and even under a different name, but they are going back to their roots.  This is bluesy balls out rock and they are damn good at it!  And they're in the studio with Morris Beegle readying another monster release.  Get ready.....  Oh, and yes, I know it ends short.  What is there, though, is what counts.  These guys can rock!

KIRSTI GHOLSON.....

Okay, this isn't a  Kirsti Gholson video, but it's almost as good as one.  Tom Mank & Sera Smolen are two majorly overlooked and talented musicians who use Kirsti whenever she's available and she was available when this was recorded.  Hey, they know talent when they hear it.  Anyway, Kirsti put out an outstanding album she calls her "demo" back in 2000 that caught me quite by surprise around 2006 and I've been awaiting new music from her since.  The good news is that it is on its way.  She is finishing up an album of songs she's been writing and working on for a few years now and it is great.  I say that because Kirsti was kind enough to send me (what she calls) rough cuts close to a year ago and I thought it would be ready back then.  She has a touch, does Kirsti, and you can bet when the music is available, I will be heralding its release.  Two words:  Sing Hallelujah.  You'll understand when you hear it.

CARRIE ELKIN.....

 I had the great fortune to see Carrie Elkin at the Alberta Street Pub in Portland this last summer and was treated to a powerful yet sensitive performance.  She has the sense of the folkie about her and yet transcends the genre.  Small and almost waif-like, her size belies her strength of voice.  On a couple of songs, she was forced to turn her back to the audience for fear of turning us all into the Maxell guy (you know--- the guy sitting in the chair with his hair blowing with the force of music?).  If you understand that reference, you know what I mean.  What I mean to say is that it has been all too long--- this video was recorded two tears ago--- and it's about time.  Danny Schmidt, also in the studio at the time of this recording, is rumored to also have another album in the works.  More on that when it is close to completion.  Elkin's will be available sometime after the first of the year.

INSTANT REPLAY.....

Tons of new music out there, but the mind wanes, buried beneath the mountain.  A couple of bands stick out, though.  One, from Buenos Aires, is called Mothership and have an odd connection to the seventies and eighties which they wear well.  Their music is a combination of mainstream rock a la Journey and REO Speedwagon with a heavy dose of seventies prog rock.  When they crank out the straight rock, it is impressive.  When they prog it up, it's even better.  New album in the works, but they have rough tracks up on their MySpace page worth checking out.....  The other is a new version of Emma Jo & the Poets Down Here.  While the band has not changed personnel, they have changed their name (they now go by the name of 49 Stones) and have a new album ready.  I'll be checking them out soon.  Maybe by next post.

Hopefully also in the next post will be 25 albums which made 2010 one exceptional year in music.  Capsule reviews and links to websites and full reviews on artists like The Georgian Company, Ted Pitney, Aloud, The Beige and more.  Stay tuned.....