Dave's Music #158 Grayson Capps - South Front Street
You know it can be dangerous for me to look back at my old "The Zemmy Show" blog because it rekindles a passion for a song, an artist, or an idea. Recently a digital friend & musician Hope Waits (who rarely posts) posted an old picture in Facebook in a #20YearChallenge, and of course you know me (Mr. Algorithm Feeder) I commented that it was fun to see a post from her and that she was always a favorite of mine in the old blog. (Officially 12 posts) Of course, I am not committed to going back and fixing old broken links and will keep my focus on DBT, but I did watch a few videos I had forgotten including this great live song: (Now she'll have 4 references in the new blog)
Hope only had one FANTASTIC release in 2007 and somehow never finished releasing some of the next four demo songs she produced in the studio. I was a supporter of the effort so naturally I have them. This "Drink a Little Poison" song was so good I moved on to find some New Orleans style jazz band Alligator Gumbo had recorded it, and it's a real dancing in the kitchen version.
I kept pursuing who wrote it and found the name Grayson Capps. which lead to this video, and of course this is my kind of blues music too:
Which lead me to his Bandcamp page, and while I couldn't find the song anywhere, but listening to his opening song I knew I wanted his music in my library, BUT
before I bought the album digitally I did search him in Discogs, and found "Poison" on the "Stavin Chain" so I put it on my Wantlist. Since my goal is to talk about music I own I went back to Bandcamp and bought "South Front Street" but this time in vinyl with an automatic digital download. I'm truly looking forward to the liner notes!! This blog post maybe should have waited until I read them, but instead went on my way googling about the album.
American Songwriter told the story about Grayson's wife Tina Shoemaker who really was the driving force behind the compilation, the sound, and the playlist. Plus she's damn good in the studio.
Shoemaker was already an influential producer/engineer/mixer when she and Capps began dating, and Capps is amused as he recalls the early days of their relationship. “Right when we met, she was saying, ‘Look, whatever you’re expecting, I’m not ever going to produce your records, so don’t get that in your head.’ I was like, ‘This is fine, I like you for you. I’m not going out with you to get a record.’”
Of course, that’s exactly what Shoemaker has ended up doing for Capps several times during their nearly 20 years together – with this retrospective album as something of a capstone project. It is, she says, “the most important record I will ever make, and have ever made. I won’t ever do anything cooler than this.” (That’s certainly saying something, as Shoemaker has worked with Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow, The Indigo Girls, and Tanya Tucker, to name just a few.)
Blues Blast did bring back home the music styles and where some of the songs came from:
Think of his style as Dave Matthews meets Neil Young meets a dash of Bruce Springsteen. Most of the sixteen original songs are meditative, bordering on melancholy (“New Again,” “Washboard Lisa,” “Daddy’s Eyes”). Still, a few will get your toes tapping and your hands clapping (“Train Song,” “Hold Me Darlin’,” “Psychic Channel Blues”). As a group, they present a timeline of Capps’ greatest work from 1997-2019. Is it blues? Yes, in the mellow acoustic/electric sense a la Neil Young and Eric Clapton. Fans will love it. Newcomers will gain lots of food for thought.
And I have a movie to watch:
One might recognize material from Capps’ critically-acclaimed band Stavin’ Chain and his role in the cult film A Love Song for Bobby Long, starring Scarlett Johansson and John Travolta.
Finally Lyric Magazine seemed to paint the best journey of his music.
Capps began his musical career with the group Stavin’ Chain (some songs from which are included here) while studying theater at New Orleans’s Tulane University, and, following that group’s dissolution, has consistently made highly respected albums.
I decided to share this 2020 release for a Thursday because I loved the story of how I found it and that it hit's home to my hash tag #MusicHasNoExpirationDate Gracious not only is this from 2020, it's a greatest hit compilation! I really thought I'd never be sharing a release like that. Now I did go back to a few of the songs on bandcamp and their previous release and truly understand Tina really is the master of these songs; so they are truly fresh.
A touch of laziness is kicking in though because 16 songs is a lot to go in depth on, so hear are some of my "Hearted" favorites.
2) May We Love
The lonely mandolin gives way to a gentle chorus asking to hear his plea. You know if you can't speak of Peace, why don't you just shut up.
5) Junior and the African Queen
Grayson with a companion fiddler and harmonica takes you down to the bayou and you step on to the mud boat that is like the old African Queen. Junior was truly a backwater guy who never drove an automobile who now haunts the bayou.
8) A Love Song for Bobby Long
The movie theme song.
Here he is singing it in a song swap at Eddie Owen Presents: (very interesting new follow too)
9) Psychic Channel Blues
How could a song with that title not be one of my favorites. Now it's a great hammond organ and tasteful lead blues in this one too.
10) Washboard Lisa
Lisa is a barefoot beautiful part of the band who can wash away your sin.
And amazing I think I just found the coolest house concert setting at the Frog Pond:
13) Daddy's Eyes
Things just don't get done much because Daddy's drunk, a great perspective to the classic Daddy's hands.
Nice video but it reinforces why I love house concerts, could the people just shut up and listen?
14) If You Knew My Mind
Love the dobro on this song, and yes they still got naked in the dark; and please put down that kitchen knife.
Fitting this is the 14th song and as I'm posting this the video is 14 years old. It's a little shaky but the sound quality and the story about Middle Earth are worth sharing.
Let's take this playlist out with one more video from why this post happened. Yes ... Love it can't wait to get the vinyl someday. The videos shared here are in a ONE Click playlist on YouTube.
All my Reviews are both for you and me as I learn more about the artists when you slow down and listen. Click here to see the past releases. You can find and follow us on Facebook and as always Good Music has NO Expiration Date, so if you are listening to this ten years from now, it still will be awesome music. If this is a first time visit, check out the index of themes for past Reviews and Playlist editions and for the Reviews alone, click here. Find out why I do this here, who I am here, and why I hate Spotify here.
#MusicHasNOExpirationDate #MusicDiscoveryDate #LPDualRate #musicblog #Mixtheme #musicblogger #playlist #musicislife #musiclife #musicvideo #blog #musiclover #musicindustry #songlist #notonspotify #newmusicalert #musiclovers #instamusic #explorepage #musicreview #singer #artist #musicians #musicnews #blogger #Americana #bandcamp
