Nick
A. Zaino,
III:
January,
2002

What to say about 2001? A lot of good times, but I’m damn glad it’s over. It’s not like an arbitrary line on a calendar between December 2001 and January 2002 makes all that much of a difference, but we can all buy into the cheesy talk about starting over with a new year. At least for the next month and a half or so, by which time most of us will be back to eating cheeseburgers and that copy of War and Peace will be buried somewhere under a stack of magazines, bookmarked at the preface. So, with a couple of winks here and there, here’s my year in review/year coming up piece.

A Few Sad Notes from 2001

After it looked like the band had gotten through their worst times, Blue Mountain called it quits. Their parting shot was Roots, an album of covers that caught the band on the verge of the break-up, having a great time playing the music they love. The upshot is, Cary Hudson should be releasing a batch of solo tunes this year, and there may yet be an unreleased album from Blue Mountain in the works.

Chet Atkins died. Whatever you think of the current scene in Nashville, Atkins helped shape it, and helped bring some production quality into country music. For better or for worse, the man was huge, and his influence will be felt for a long, long time. I’m Trying to Break Your Heart, a film about the band, has finally wrapped and will also be out sometime this year. Check back with this column, or check www.wilcofilm.com for news.

Some High Points from 2001

Beaver Nelson (www.beavernelson.com) came into his own as a songwriter this year in a big way. His third album, Undisturbed, was a beauty, and proved that Nelson is capable of cranking out great music in his sleep. He started building his reputation as a songwriter with his previous two albums, Little Brother and Last Hurrah, and just gets better with every release.

Alejandro Escovedo (www.alejandroescovedo.com) released A Man Under the Influence on Bloodshot Records. His tour band took several incarnations, from a stripped-down three piece to the big band, reinterpreting the material, new and old, with each change. The album and tour seemed to generate quite a buzz for Mr. Escovedo. It was a joy to hear some great music and see people paying attention to it.

Phil Lee released You Should Have Known Me Then, the follow-up to The Mighty King of Love. Gritty, rockin’ tunes with a sense of humor. Look for him on tour.

O Brother Where Art Thou led to a feeding frenzy of roots music, setting up the concert film Down from the Mountain and the soundtrack for Songcatcher. Ralph Stanley and zeitgeist are mentioned in the same sentence for the first time in history. Plans for a sequel, I’m Over Here, Ya Idgit, will be delayed until the Coen Brothers can find just the right antique bullhorn for the final square dance sequence.

Johnny Cash didn’t die.

A Few Things to Look Forward to in 2002

Wilco (www.wilcoworld.net) finally reached an agreement to release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The long-anticipated album, delayed when the band left Reprise in a dispute over the record, will finally see the light of day in April on Nonesuch Records.

The Texas Music Group has gotten a hold of several releases from the now defunct Watermelon Records catalogue, and will be rereleasing them in 2002. That includes long lost work from Alejandro Escovedo, Don Walser, the Derailers, and Tish Hinojosa. Fans won’t have to troll E-Bay for copies of Thirteen Years and The End/Losing Touch EP anymore. TMG just made life a lot easier for alt.country fans.

I just got a hold of a couple of great advance releases that should make some noise in 2002. The first is from The Bottle Rockets (www.bottle-rockets.net), who have been, like Robbie Fulks (www.robbiefulks.com), Blue Mountain, and a ton of great bands before them, lost in a void after parting ways with their record label. Seems like the dust hasn’t completely settled on their split with Doolittle Records yet, so, like Robbie Fulks and Blue Mountain, the band has gone back to their roots and released an album of covers. Songs of Sahm, the band’s tribute to Texas legend Doug Sahm, will be released on Bloodshot Records in February. The material, from “Lawd, I’m Just A Country Boy In This Great Big Freaky City” to “You Can’t Hide A Redneck (Under That Hippy Hair)”, is a great fit for the band. The countrified rock with a sixties feel comes across without pretense, and the boys pay attention to the spirit, if not the letter, of the original music.

The other advance release I’ve been listening to is Every Mile from New England’s Say Zuzu (www.sayzuzu.com). The band will release the album on its own Milltown Records in February. If you can’t find this one in stores, pick it up online. It’s the band’s most rocking album yet. And the first track ends with sounds from the arcade version of Defender that haunts the hallway of Ardent Studios, where the band recorded the album. What more can you ask for?

Tom Waits will release two new albums on the same day in April. Word is they are both entirely without electric guitar.

Ryan Adams and The Pinkhearts will release their debut album sometime this year, if Adams doesn’t write twelve new albums he likes better before that can happen. If he does, the Pinkhearts album should come out as a box set after Adams’ next four double concept albums. (In any case, look for updates on www.ryan-adams.com).

Johnny Cash not dying.

The Ultra-Obligatory Top Bunch of Records Released Roughly in the Last Year

Merle Haggard - If I Could Only Fly
Alejandro Escovedo - A Man Under the Influence
Gillian Welch - Time: The Revelator
Jay Farrar - Sebastapol
The Pee Wee Fist - Flying
Blue Mountatin - Roots
Robbie Fulks - Couple in Trouble
Whiskeytown - Pneumonia / Ryan Adams - Gold
Richmond Fontaine - Whiskey, Painkillers, and Speed
Clem Snide - The Ghost of Fashion
Songcatcher Soundtrack
Down from the Mountain Soundtrack
Split Lip Rayfield - Never Make It Home
Tyler Keith and the Preacher’s Kids - Romeo Hood
Tim Easton - The Truth About Us
Phil Lee - You Should Have Known Me Then
Joe Henry - Scar
Johnny Dowd - Temporary Shelter
The Yayhoos - Fear Not the Obvious
Ray Mason - Square Crazy

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