Of Note: CD Reviews

Allied Gardens is an acoustic trio comprised of San Diego musical mainstays Peter Bolland, Sven-Erik Seaholm, and Michael Tiernan. This mix of talent works very well here because the three members achieve a nice mix of individuality and complementary teamwork. Listening to their new self-titled CD, you can sense the musical chemistry and camaraderie, and it sure sounds like these guys had a great time laying down these tracks.

Bolland takes on the role of country storyteller and balladeer, Seaholm is the hippie rocker getting in touch with is acoustic mojo, and Tiernan brings his trademark folky, feel-good, spiritual pop to the party. Peter Bolland's lovely "Home in These Hills" is first up, and my only warning is that this tune might make you think that this disc will lead you into some seriously countrified territory. This track has so much backwoods country flava' that after I listened, I looked in the mirror to find that my beard had grown out and my business casual attire had been replaced by denim overalls (a tractor also appeared in my driveway and my dog was transfigured into Old Yeller). While the Bolland tracks certainly do dish out the country twang (very effectively, I might add), don't think that the whole album will follow the template of the opener. The clear single of the disc is track two, Tiernan's breezy and awesomely infectious surf folk joint, "Easy." It sounds to me like the recording technique employed here (and on the rest of the record) was to simply sit around a mic or two and do the thing live. "Easy" suits that laid-back, no frills recording style just right, and this feel-good tune might just find itself quite a large audience if given the chance.

Next up is my personal favorite track, "Red Shoulders" by Sven-Erik Seaholm. I was a bit annoyed at myself when my first reaction to hearing this song was to get a bit weepy. Then I went back and listened again and again and this song positively hypnotizes me every time. Seaholm's haunting lyrics, melody, and vocal delivery, paired with Bolland's gut-wrenchingly passionate guitar solos (the way he slides up to those notes…!), make for a powerful cocktail of heartache and longing. I absolutely love this track and how effectively it conveys the idea of coming to grips with the fact that while past glories can never be fully recaptured, you have to push on and look for new passions. "Carry Me On" is my favorite Bolland track and is reminiscent of vintage Eagles and/or Jackson Browne. Nobody does this stuff better than Peter Bolland. On the entire disc, the harmony vocals are tight and the voices blend very well. I loved the guitar solos (handled mostly by the ever tasteful and robustly gritty Bolland with Tiernan chipping in a bit too) and the rhythm guitar playing is also excellent.

A beautifully confident rendition of Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" is the perfect choice for the closer and features all three on lead vocals, plus a stereo panned right/left solo guitar trade-off. I expected this disc to be stellar, considering the collective talent of this band, and I was anything but disappointed. The musical mosaic created by these three artists is sure to appeal to a wide variety of listeners. This is one of those discs that you will keep coming back to.  

It is readily apparent from the get-go that anyone listening to this CD will have a really good time. The funky opener "It's a Beautiful Day" is a blast of James Brown-style R&B that sets the tone for the rest of the album. Full of confident bravura and attitude, it lays down an irresistible groove complemented by horns and harmonica. And it never lets up from here. The title track that follows is a boisterous exercise in rhythm punctuated by Lance Dieckmann's aggressive vocals and Paul Alvarado's soulful guitars. All throughout, Dieckmann throws down some mean harmonica lines that go down well with Alvarado's articulate and muscular axemanship.

On a technical level, I'd have to say that these guys are top-notch musicians. The entire band displays a tight looseness that can only have been achieved through relentless gigging. The rhythm section is right on the money, creating a seamless backdrop that makes the soloists sound even better. Everything is tastefully arranged and performed, from the guitar and harmonica solos to the horn blasts. Yet while Lucky Dog is a professionally produced recording, there is a rawness to the music that lends it weight and credibility. There's a live feel to this effort that's hard to capture in the studio. These guys really nailed it.

The album never gets stale; the energy level is consistently up and the songs are refreshingly varied. These guys really know their way around the blues and it shows. They'll take a turn doing rockabilly on a tune like "Bring It On," then switch gears to walking blues on "Mrs. Sunshine." "Empty Lives" is a classic example of slow blues in a minor key. For me, the most memorable songs are the falling-down funny "Hohner for You Baby" with its bawdy double entendres, and the swaggering "Single Life," a tune that lets you know "that's just the way it is" in downtown San Diego's bachelor scene. They have really gone to great lengths to write interesting lyrics. There are no throw-away cliches.

On occasion, flashes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Leslie West, or Government Mule might surface in their sound, and that's definitely a good thing. With the blues, one's influences are expected to show, and they have obviously been listening to some real masters of the form. This is as fine an example of electric blues-rock as you could ever hope to find. It's got energy, variety, tons of attitude, and it's even a little scary at times. When D.A. and the Hit Men roll into town to party, either join them or get out of their way.

As a lad growing up in Europe and having never visited California, all I had was an ideal: eternal sunshine glistening golden drops over a mysterious blue ocean, palm trees swaying to a silent melody in the breeze, long sandy beaches, and perfectly tanned individuals who appeared to float freely a few inches from the ground when they weren't laughing in their convertibles. The endless re-runs of "Baywatch" every Saturday afternoon that had London hooked during my youth probably didn't help in deterring this fantasy.

After a decade on the West Coast, I've discovered the day-to-day reality but still get a glimpse every now and again. Canadian born singer-songwriter Justin James, on the other hand, appears to have done a sterling job in keeping the dream alive. Sun, sand, palm trees; it's all here and it's all so utterly American. When I slipped Sun Drenched into the CD player in my vintage red Corvette, adjusted my Aviators, and cruised down the Coast Highway (hey, I have my own ways of keeping the dream alive), all that imagery came flooding back like a perfect curl on Venice Beach.

If you're searching for deeper meaning in James' transplanted soul through his lyrics, you'll likely be disappointed; the visions he invokes are highly visceral, however this carefree consciousness needs little extra depth when placed in front of this disc's clean and orchestrated grooves, expertly produced, engineered and mixed by Tim Feehan who also appears to deserve considerable songwriting credit on the disc.

Stylistically, the CD's ten tracks draw strong comparisons to those of America's misplaced Golden Boy, John Mayer. James' compositions such as "Right Here, Right Now" and "We Can Do Anything" could be Mayer originals from the days of his smash-debut Room for Squares. There are, however, flourishes of West Coast funk on "Dance Alone" and Fleetwood Mac vibes of 1970s' Los Angeles on "Summertime," which do well to divert James' intentions from "wannabe" status. "Seven Days" is prime time-ready for the scene when boy looks wistfully into the horizon, while girl sheds a tear over the one picture captured during their week-long love story in the OC. "California" is similarly suited to the end of the episode when they both forget about their faux heartbreak and jump into the convertible with their laughing friends as the credits roll.

Now I'm staring wistfully at the lowering sun and thinking about what it means to be a pasty-white Englishman surrounded by Southern Californian contradictions. Sun Drenched does move me a little closer to an innocent ideal which, although unattainable for many, can certainly manifest a nostalgic, static-free moment and an easy smile, which, lord knows, we could all use. Many have built entire careers on a lot less than this CD has to offer and if this is all Justin James brings to the table, he can have his California as long as he doesn't mind me dropping in on his wave once in a while.

Phish left a huge void in the musical continuum when they disbanded in August of 2004. They had after all been the only jam band to truly step up and fill the vacuum left by the Grateful Dead after Jerry Garcia died in 1995. No acts before or since — including superlative, genre-blending, clandestinely drug-touting, improvisation-oriented groups such as Leftover Salmon, Widespread Panic, Little Feat, or even Blues Traveler — have been able to duplicate the same kind of sustained commercial success that the aforementioned bands enjoyed. As with any widely embraced group, it takes more than a galvanizing live show and the usual pervading instrumental virtuosity for a jam band to break through: you have to have good songwriting and lots of charismatic synergy. If Dirt Road Rendezvous is any indication, San Diego's Tapwater could easily pick up where Phish left off and carry that torch into the new millennium.

Two albums in and a drummer short, Tapwater have gone back to basics on their third disc. They managed to cut their own version of Workingman's Dead, only completely live and on the fly between tours at Sven-Erik Seaholm's Kitsch & Sync Production. It's astounding to think these songs were recorded live by four men on acoustic instruments in one room, but Tapwater knows how to fill their space; everyone is singing, with lead vocals passed between Tim Jones (accordion and electric piano), Steve Moore (banjo and percussion), and Ravi Laird (guitar), with Wes Elliott on upright bass and vocal harmonies. After a while you won't miss the dearth of percussion, especially not with the versatile Moore transforming his banjo into a drum with hands and wire brushes.

Intensely catchy positive energy emanates from every track, whether they're pining for spurned love over a gypsy groove on "Backburner," "Come Undone." and "Love Please Come Home," or surreptitiously rejoicing in the Beatles-esque "Naughty Girlfriend," or cracking up with the Didley zydeco of "Nonsense Song." This CD magically manages to bottle the distilled communal energy of a summer Saturday into ten smile-inducing gems with a wide appeal.

It is refreshing to hear a talented ensemble taking a risk and recording live; Dirt Road Rendezvous makes Tapwater the jam band to watch, reacquainting the listener with how music was — and should be — enjoyed before technology took over.

www.tapwater.net

www.myspace.com/tapwatermusic

Back when you could ride the range through your radio, in the days when there were old, scratchy black and white movies, and a new invention called television, all kinds of cowboys were galloping and singing all over the dial. Tex Ritter, Rex Allen, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers rode into your hearts while shooting it up, picking a guitar, and singing, "I'm back in the saddle again." They shot bad guys in black hats, saved cowgirls, and, at the end of the trail, gathered their saddle buddies together around a campfire to sing together as coyotes howled down in some dusty draw.

Ghosts of Tombstone is a terrific CD that reminds us of those wonderful times. It sounds like the new, old western music that's been around as long as cowboys rode the range, rustled cattle, homesteaded, drank strong, bad chuck wagon coffee, and longed for the cowgirl back home. This is a musical genre that used to be called cowboy, but has taken on a new life now as western music. Trails and Rails are Walt Richards, Paula Strong, Bruce Huntington, and Ken Wilcox. The CD was recorded in analog format and sounds real, live, and at the moment. No overdubs, no tricks, no compressed layered sounds, just four fine musicians singing in harmony and playing their collective hearts out.

Richard's ability to play guitar and banjo in many different musical styles creates the musical heart of a really talented band. The use of a banjo on a western CD is an inventive addition to the musical genre. Richards sings in a vocal style that fits the group's music well without sounding artificially "cowboy." Strong's lead vocals are heartfelt and enriching. She also plays rhythm guitar and contributes to the band's vocal harmonies. Ken Wilcox is a vocalist with hints of cowboy style and one heck of a cowboy autoharp player. He also an excellent guitarist.

Six of the CD's songs were written by Bruce Huntington, the group's bass player and an inventive songwriter whose songs sound like he could have written them ducking the sage brush during a lonely night riding down the canyon many years ago. Les Buffham, a noted cowboy poet and sly guy, joins Richards in a song they co-wrote called "Thinkin' about Montana," a tune that hits you right in the heart of what this music is all about. It's a musical gem that should be a standard some day. Marvin O'Dell's "This God Forsaken Town" is a song about a cowboy fantasy, complete with a longhorn herd of steers, which rings especially true. Ken Graydon, who used to break horses back in his younger days, is a noted folksinger, cowboy poet, and songwriter. He joins the band on his song "Windmill," a gift of music that puts some fine musical icing on this CD.

The songs on Ghosts of Tombstone may be classified as western music, but they're actually much more than that. Trails and Rail's warm, rich harmonies and lively singing are a joy to hear. As you listen to this disc, you'll experience life's journey sung through western landscape. Tex, Rex, Hopalong, Gene, and Roy would be proud!