Ramsay Midwood :: Manchaca Eyeball (Live From Sam’s Town Point)

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I know I’ve mentioned this before, I but I love year-end album list time. I try to pay attention to as much music as I can throughout the year, but there’s always something I’ve missed. I love browsing other people’s lists and often find things I missed. But sometimes, I just wonder: “I wonder if Ramsay Midwood’s put out any music lately” only to discover that he put out a live album in January 2024.

I first came across Midwood about 25 years ago through the German label Glitterhouse. I ordered it from Germany after winning a silly bet with my wife. Years later, we spent our 10th wedding anniversary in Austin at Sam’s Town Point just to see him play life. We waited for like 2 hours while he ate burgers and drank beer before finally deciding to take the stage at around midnight. It was worth the wait! Even years later, we hosted him in our living room to pretty much no crowd while my friend Shawn sat in on harmonica.

All that to say, I’ve followed his music with great interest for many years. I’m even thanked in the liner notes of his radio performance release Undone, but that’s a different story.

ANYWAYS: Apparently Midwood released a live set of mostly unreleased material all the way back in January and I’m just now finding out about it. Manchaca Eyeball profiles Midwood in his natural habitat with long-time collaborator Jeff Johnston and others.

Watch the video for the lead track “Mystical Man of Sorrow”:

Preview the album here:

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Dogwood Tales :: 13 Summers 13 Falls

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The days get shorter and the nights get longer. And colder. As the darkness settles in we wrap ourselves in Harmonies, heartbreak, and hope. The ashes of loss still contain the embers of hope.

Wilco, Son Volt, and Whiskeytown will be obvious touch-points for many, but Dogwood Tales have crafted their own voice (with killer harmonies).

Album opener circles the refrain:

“It’s hard to be in the right place
for the right thing all the time.
It’s hard to be anywhere when I got you on my mind.”

There’s a sense of being caught in a winter storm here sometimes. Our protagonists sometimes don’t quite sure where’ they’re going or even who they are. But there is a pervasive sense of hope throughout the EP. Pedal steel laces through the often forlorn lyrics ushering us in to moments of hope. Even though the nights are long, morning’s on its way. These songs explore love, loss, and heartbreak with clear-eyed honesty. Sometimes it’s hard and we’re not sure where we’re going or if we’ll make it, but the days will again wash in and the light will eventually return. Sometimes the best we can do is hold out for the hope of a better day to see us through the long winter nights.

“Hold You Again” doesn’t back down from the truth of lost chances and lonely new realities. “I know I may never feel it again,” they sing, but we get the sense that it was still worth it. The bright melody and washes of feedback are a sonic blanket against the cold reality. The push and pull; the give and take of life and love try to find their balance in these 5 songs. “It feels like a matter of time before the dark gets hold of me.”

“25” opens with the lines “I just want to wake up and feel like I’m alive because I’ve got some cousins that didn’t see 25.” There is a stark wrestling with reality. These lyrics don’t shy away from death and loss but they don’t swirl the pity party drain either. There’s a search throughout these songs; here’s the reality; we love, we lose, we die, and we try to make sense of it all. What’s it all about? What’s it’s all for? Is the power of love enough to see us through these long dark nights? Dogwood Tales think so and invite you into their sunbaked cosmic Americana world to see what you think. Whatever your conclusion, this is music for those long dark winter nights when we need to be reminded that the light will eventually return. “we’ve still got miles of road to go” they sing on the title track and there is a sense of surety that we’ll get there eventually.

Highly recommended

The Deets:

WH065
Dogwood Tales - 13 Summers 13 Falls

01. Hard To Be Anywhere
02. Hold You Again
03. 25
04. Since Yesterday
05. 13 Summers

credits

releases November 18, 2023 on WarHen Records

Kyle Grim - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Ben Ryan - Electric Guitar, Vocals
Stephen Kuester - Pedal Steel
Danny Gibney - Bass, Organ, Wurlitzer & Piano
Jake Golibart - Drums & Percussion

Produced by Erik Kase Romero
Recorded by Erik Kase Romero and Danny Gibney
All tracks Mixed by Danny Gibney except Hold You Again by Adrian Olsen
Mastered by Garrett Haines
Photograph by Kyle Grim

Check out a recent live session from earlier this year:

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Ernie Francestine's Character of Light

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Pittsburgh guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Ernie Francestine’s third album Character of Light will be released July 22 by WarHen Records.

Francestine is a music teacher and plays in multiple acts, including the Buckle Downs. But whereas the Buckle Downs mine soulful R&B, Francestine’s newest solo album takes a quieter turn but demands your attention nonetheless.

Ernie says:

“Character Of Light was born in Spring of 2021 when Warren Parker of WarHen Records reached out about recording a solo album. I dove in and immediately began writing and compiling ideas.

I wanted to record an album inspired by the music I listen to most. Character Of Light brings together hints of folk, ambient, traditional acoustic music and Tropicalia.”

Character of Light feels immediate yet nostalgic. Francestine says he wanted the album “to feel like a welcome guest at any time of day in any season” and he has succeeded. This is music for all seasons; on the porch at dusk, or serenading the sunrise. The music is warm, welcoming and intriguing. Guitar lines weave in and out of one another while Moog synthesizers and field recordings add ambient wash. The music feels lived in (in the best possible way) yet reveals new details with each listen.

Character of Light (both the album and the song) arise in a gentle wash of guitar and invokes whatever may come with a wistful hopefulness. This is instrumental music with a voice. In “Two Birds,” that voice is the sparse but not spare piano melody floating above guitar and building into a worldless chorus that is somehow both hopeful and forlorn. “Everything is Transparent”soulfully saunters down a melody lane that you know you’ve never been down before but somehow feels familiar; like home. “Wild Purple” conveys that memory on the tip of your tongue that doesn’t need to be spoken after all. “The Stone & The Evergreen (Pt. 1).” closes the album with a melody you feel like you’ve known your whole life. And maybe you have and Francestine is just reminding us.

Check out "Two Birds:”

I recently had a chance to catch up with Ernie to chat about the project.

Tell us about the title, Character of Light:

I had been kicking around ideas for a title for a long time and a few contenders came and went. I was having trouble getting the last track of the record (Character of Light) written and recorded and I just stumbled upon this phrase in my head and I immediately knew it was going to the title of the record and of the last song I was finishing up. I like the ambiguity of it and I also think it encapsulates what the record is about. It feels like the record.

This music is very different from your other projects. Was it difficult for you to “find a voice” in instrumental music?

Writing for my other band (the Buckle Downs. is very different and I really wanted to do something that I could see the entire project through to the end myself. One principle I use in writing music is eliminating anything that will slow me down. I have my entire recording set up ready to go at any moment and after recording my first instrumental recording during the pandemic (The Quiet Shift) - I knew I wanted to continue in this genre because it felt like the one with the least amount of restrictions to actually completing a chorus…a song….an album. I am able to see tangible progress without second guessing if it needs drums, a different melody or changing lyrics.

Was there a vision beyond “an instrumental album?”

I think he heard my previous release "The Quiet Shift" and was interested in something with a similar vibe. I would say that this one builds on that release. That one was recorded entirely on my iPad with no more than one overdub on each track. This one is definitely more layered and uses a wider variety of instruments.

You note that you wanted to record an album "inspired by the music" you listen to most. Who might be a few artists that were touchstones or inspirations for this project? What music do you listen to most?

I listen to ….instrumental music the most. Whether that’s jazz, Brazilian music, Afro beat, tropicalia, instrumental folk guitar. I like figuring out the emotion the music is trying to convey without the help of lyrics.

What’s next for you?

Whats next: am really feeling inspired to keep this going and try to work more within the sound I've created for myself. I've got conceptual ideas for a few albums in my head and usually the one that wins out is the one I sit down and start working on. I've learned to always try and make the demo a usable take because we used a lot of demo takes on the final tracks of this record. So I feel set up with more knowledge and better processes to compose in a more efficient manner.

All proceeds from the sales of this album will be donated to Everytown, an organization fighting for sensible gun laws across the country.
www.everytown.org

Jake Xerxes Fussell: Live For Tiny Desk's Home Concerts

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It’s only February, but I can already tell you that Jake Xerxes Fussell’s newest album Good and Green Again will be on my year-end favorites list.

Drawing from folk, American and even bits of Appalachian music, Fussell has created a beautiful, challenging and yet hopeful album. His incorporation of strings and horns (sometimes reminding me of Gregory Alan Isakov flourishes) brings a lushness to the music that’s comfortable in all the right ways.

Earlier this year, Fussell recorded his (at home) NPR Tiny Desk Concert. According to NPR: “Fussell recorded at a friend's home in Pittsboro, N.C., with Casey Toll on upright bass and Libby Rodenbough on violin, harmonium and backup vocals. The mantle behind them is adorned with a tiny desk surrounded by various vegetable-shaped candles.”

You’re not going to find much better things to do with 18 minutes. Give it a try:

  1. Setlist:

  2. “The River St. Johns"

  3. "Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing on a Sweet Potato Vine?"

  4. "Breast of Glass"

Players:

  • Jake Xerxes Fussell: guitar, vocals

  • Libby Rodenbough: violin, harmonium, backing vocals

  • Casey Toll: upright bass

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