Gov't Mule "By A Thread"

Warren Haynes is one of my favorite artists. We share the same birthday (though I have him by a couple of years) and an obvious love for a guitar. He was playing with David Allan Coe when I first heard of him, then he basically revitalized the Allman Brothers some twenty years ago before starting the GM side project in 1994. An outstanding guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, much like one SRV. "Thread" is not as heavy as 2006 "High & Mighty," and its mix of styles should please new fans more than old. There's plenty of Allman influence and other Southern style (Blackfoot), great fretwork (and not just screamin' gee-tar), keyboards that smack of Reese Wynans in Double Trouble, and one song that could have been lifted from David Gilmour's 1978 solo record and another from an early Bad Co. album. I kept listening to the first track thinking how ZZ Top-like it sounded, then I finally read the credits and it's Billy Gibbons on contributing axe. No wonder...

The Flaming Lips "Embryonic"

I've seen this on several "Best of 2009" lists and I've come to the conclusion that most are composed by a much younger demographic than I'm in, and thereby, the authors consume far more hallucinogenics than most normal humans. The FL have a 25-year history and certainly a following, as evidenced by this album reaching #8 on Billboard's Top 200. It's just too far out there for me, highly distorted and disconnected, but not a total loss. I peeled about five tracks from it, hearing a little My Morning Jacket on one tune and some FrankieGTH on another, and loads of pre-Dark Side... Pink Floyd on the rest. I've just learned that they've covered the entire Dark Side of the Moon, and I must investigate!

Yello "Touch Yello"

This has to be one of the best albums not available in the US. Out for three months in Europe, it's being called "Elektro-Digital-Jazz." That'll work. If you can sit still and not smile during track 1 and first single, "The Expert" (you can find the video on YouTube), then I guess you're just not old enough. Old enough to know who Serge Gainsbourg was? Never mind. Deiter Meier has to be 65, Boris Blank in there somewhere, too. There's plenty of the 80's Yello you know and love, even a Bostich update (reflected). Precision Swiss timekeeping. But there is a beautiful chill-jazz vibe here, too, with trumpet, flugelhorn, flutes, and some female vocals featured over the lush backgrounds of Mr. Blank. This made me think of the two great albums by Double...you remember "Captain of Your Heart". And if the track "Till Tomorrow" doesn't make you want to get sexy on your partner, well, you need Viagra. Granted, not everything here is outstanding (I believe I would have tracked it differently), but it's quite a feat to make a quality record like this some twenty years after their eighties heyday.

Red Fang

Don't ask me where or what I heard about this band. Whatever it was, it made me jot the name down. After a quick preview, I've now been through it. This is the kind of record that gave the "Ol' Mad Rocker" his moniker. Think Cheap Trick's debut album, some Black Sabbath, a large dash of Motorhead, and more of a Rose Tattoo flavor instead of AC/DC. Out of Portland, OR. This album was so heavy that the digital display froze at 1:12 during the first track while the entire CD played on!

The Minus 5 "Killingsworth"

Wow, I've got to start getting better quality photos than this one...

Anyway, this record was just too country for me. Not that this is a "country " record, it's just not what I had expected after the "Gun" album in 2006. Loved that record! Played lots of it on my "PM in the AM" program on WPRK. For "Killingsworth" you have Scott McCaughey & Peter Buck, along with some of the Decemberists, and I still didn't like it enough to keep. Short (less than 4 minutes), quick well-written songs, but it just didn't work for me even while on a country bent. It received some excellent reviews, and even appeared on one respected "Best of 2009" list.

Cross Canadian Ragweed "Happiness & All the Other Things"

I am glad these guys are doing well. I really liked their first record from a few years ago while at Music 4 Less. It's funny, but I'm aware that they are from Oklahoma, or somewhere near there, but I always seem to hear influences of Canadian bands, based on the power of suggestion, I guess. For instance, I hear Canadian Hall of Famers' Tragically Hip. I also think of Blue Rodeo (I have their new record coming up later). A car commercial a couple of years ago featured a track by CCR which was credited as the ad played, ala MTV/VH1 when they used to play music videos. I suppose CCR is considered country, since "Happiness..." hit #10 on Billboard's Country Chart. Maybe "country" like the early Eagles were "country."

How about they're "country" like Lynyrd Skynyrd...

Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson "Rattlin' Bones"

I was completely floored by this girl's debut album in 2000. Mind you, she's as country as you can get, via Australia! She has an unmistakable voice and beautiful songs to sing, many of which she wrote. She's a huge star Down Under and should be here, but I guess she's too complicated for the Country scene in the US. She's country like K D Lang and Lyle Lovett were country back in the day, pigeonholed that way because it's as close as you could get to a category description. Anyway, she's teamed up on "Rattlin'Bones" with her husband, and initially I was jealous, thinking he'd rob me of one of my favorite talents of this decade. When this album came out in 2008, I listened to it briefly in an FYE and could not pull the trigger to buy it, it was just too damn country. Very sparse instrumentation, lots of banjo, some pedal steel, but still that incredible voice of hers. A few months ago I hit another country rock phase (more on that to come) and revisited this album. If you are a fan of the Alison Krause/Robert Plant collaboration, you need to give this record a try. I know it's a couple of years old, but do yourself a favor and listen to this or any of her past records. In my book, she's one of the most underrated artists in music today.