Jeff McCord on the month’s new releases
Joe Ely
Rack ’Em
There’s a short roster of rock and roll performers (Jagger, Springsteen) who can rivet your attention every time they step onstage. If you grew up in Texas, here’s a name on that list: Joe Ely. Those who have seen Ely give his all, particularly with his early Jesse Taylor/Ponty Bone band or with David Grissom in the mid-eighties—or really in most any other configuration—know what others may not have gleaned from his studio albums: His performances are absolutely electric. Small wonder he has now released Live Cactus! (Rack ’Em), his fourth live album. Joined on accordion by his frequent (and brilliant) collaborator Joel Guzman, he turns what could have been an intimate Austin coffeehouse snooze into a rave-up. There’s nothing here—save a duet with Ryan Bingham on Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freightliner Blues”—that Ely hasn’t recorded before, but Guzman, who always knows just the right thing to play, lends a new flavor to old favorites. Ely, meanwhile, accelerates the excitement with the slightest nuance again and again, making the hundred-plus audience respond as if it were ten times larger.
James McMurtry
Lightning Rod
The title track may lament the fact that even arrested adolescents grow old, but, if anything, James McMurtry sounds more energized than ever. On Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod), he and his longtime rhythm section—Daren Hess, Ronnie Johnson—have solidified their sound into a low, tribal rock growl, with McMurtry’s fierce guitar work leading the way. The Austinite doesn’t couch his tales in metaphor; he tends to come right out and say what’s on his mind. This might seem a ham-fisted approach in the hands of a lesser talent, but McMurtry knows how to tell a story. The music just helps thicken the stew. Buoyed by the success of his 2005 single, “We Can’t Make It Here,” which tapped into a wellspring of societal discontent, Kids’ politically minded tunes (“God Bless America,” “Cheney’s Toy”) follow suit. While they don’t make their point quite as eloquently, they don’t play like forced sequels either. Still better are the all-too-human characters that populate “Hurricane Party,” “Bayou Tortous,” “Ruby and Carlos,” “Freeway View,” and “Fire Line Road”; you’ll not only get to know them, but you’ll find them hard to leave behind.
Jo Carol Pierce
self-released
Like Joe Ely, Jo Carol Pierce grew up in the dusty vacuum of Lubbock, and though she was part of the town’s famed clique of talent, only in her late forties did she begin to take her writing seriously. She penned and performed Bad Girls Upset by the Truth, an off-kilter musical monologue about a girl’s wry (and often hilarious) quest for spiritual enlightenment through a series of boys, and songs like “Loose Diamonds” and “I Blame God” revealed a remarkably perceptive genius. Pierce is among the few artists to have a tribute album released (1992’s Across the Great Divide) before she had ever recorded a single note; in 1996 she finally made a CD of Bad Girls, and Dog of Love (self-released) is her only album since. Pierce’s drawl and off-key singing might be initially jarring, and her loud rock edge is sometimes surprising (“Rock in My Shoe” sounds like a Neil Young song), but her wit shines through. Standouts include the lascivious title track, “Sacrificial Island Tombstone,” and the unabashed love song “I’ve Got Your Eyes”: “Always thought we were/The same one/Or are we just missing the same part?”
Gavin Tabone
He writes their songs, records their music, and gets the fifty-plus kids from Austin’s Palm School Choir onto high-profile stages such as NBC’s Today show and the South by Southwest music festival. Needless to say, this is not your typical school choir. The group has just released its sixth album, the double-disc PSC Gold (cdbaby.com).
You’ve taken a unique approach as a music teacher.
I went to a small Catholic school, and my music teacher wrote all these rocking religious tunes. It had a big impact on me. As a teacher myself, I started off doing the standard choral repertoire, but after a few years, I wrote this fall holiday show, and it was a big success. I recorded it and gave out the CDs. Everything kind of snowballed after that.
How did the school react?
The kids got into it from the beginning. I’d sit with them at lunch and use their stories in my songs. The administrators have been supportive from the get-go.
What do you hope the kids take away?
Years from now, I want them to remember our time together. The cool thing about the choir is that you can continue with it after you graduate, so I keep in touch with Palm alumni. I hope they play the CDs for their kids someday and remember a good, glorious time.
