A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, the third album from Sturgill Simpson, is a major-label, big-budget outing with sweeping, cinematic strings and driving horns that call to mind both The Memphis Horns and Allen Toussaint’s horn arrangements for The Band. It’s also an ambitious song cycle featuring careful transitions from one song to the next. A record like this just doesn’t get made anymore. And a one-time industry outsider like ol’ Sturgill definitely doesn’t get to make a record like this anymore. But here we are.
Simpson always tells the press he hails from southeast Kentucky, which is only partially true. He was born in the southeast part of the state, but he attended high school in Woodford County, right outside of the big city of Lexington. His early band Sunday Valley was based out of Lexington for close to a decade before ensconcing in the Music City of Nashville, Tennessee and promptly disbanding.
After Sunday Valley parted ways, Simpson recorded and released his solo debut, 2013’s High Top Mountain on his own record label. With the release of Metamodern Sounds in Country Music a year later in 2014, Simpson would find himself garnering praise from such big name publications as The New York Times and Rolling Stone and making no fewer than five late night talk show appearances. The major labels came calling soon after.
In continuing to document the Atlanta-Savannah Americana/Roots circuit, I reached out to Atlanta’s Reverend Hylton about his current tour, and what the latest news is from the road. The following interview is an email response to five questions that I asked. He’ll be performing this July with my band Waits & Co. at Bluffton, South Carolina’s newish venue Roasting Room Lounge & Listening Room. By clicking on this highlighted Stubborn Nail you can preview Justin’s new album.
Reverend Justin Hylton
HL: How’s the tour going, have you met some interesting folks along the way, and is touring a regular part of your ‘doings’?
RH: The tour has been a lot of fun! I left on March 4th and today is April 17th so it’s been a decent one. I think touring is one of the best parts of what I do. I get to travel all over the place and play music. I run into so many great and interesting people along the way from the people I get to play with to the people I get to play for. It’s always an adventure and I love it! This is the fourth tour I have been on in a little over a year and I have no intention of quitting. It is definitely a part of my life now.
HL: Since this tour is in support of your new album, can you tell us a bit about it, the inspiration behind the songs, who else was involved with the recording, and what other ‘work’ do you have out?
RH: This tour in support of my new album, “Stubborn Nail”. It is my first official release as Reverend Hylton. I was in a Jam Band a few years back called Three Down Crew. This album takes me back to my roots. After spending years doing many other projects it was time to get back to where I come from. Learning to play guitar from my Grandfather as a teenager, we would pick on the front porch for hours. I immediately started writing and I have been through all the ups and downs since then. The inspiration for the songs come from my life experiences. The good, but mostly the hard times and finding a way to make it out the other side. This album was recorded at Unity Studio just outside of Atlanta. I brought on Robert Green to engineer and help produce. I wanted to make a simple album and he helped out tremendously. He also plays the base on some of the tracks. On harmonies and fiddle is Jessica Almand, my partner in a project I do called Nine years apart. I love singing songs with her and see brings so much to this album. We also brought in Atlanta’s super player Jenna Mobley to play some strings, including violin, cello, and viola on a couple tracks.
HL: Given that a lot of your music is autobiographical is writing songs a cathartic process for you. If so, what do you hope that the listeners will take away from your songs?
RH: Absolutely! I’ve always said if I didn’t have my music I would be that bad kind of crazy. It’s always helped through the rough times. I definitely feel blessed to have that outlet. I know my music isn’t for everyone. I hope for the people that do relate to it, that they find some hope. We’ve all experienced hard times in our lives and I am no exception. I am lucky to have found a way out of those hard times and I hope people can hear that in my music.
HL: Why does performing live music matter to you, and how long have you been a ‘working’ musician?
RH: Performing live is where I feel most at home. It’s where I feel I do my best stuff. it’s really hard to capture that in the studio. There is nothing like feeling that intimate relationship with the people that are listening to you. I have been performing live for probably 15 years. In my twenties i did a lot of traveling and playing music. Two years ago I quit my day job and went back to playing music full time. There is nothing glamorous about what I do but I am doing what I love and wouldn’t want it any other way.
HL: What is the Americana/Roots Music scene like in Atlanta?
RH: The Americana/Roots scene in Atlanta is awesome! Every time I turn around there is some new songwriter or band doing something great. It just keeps on growing and I really feel like it’s becoming a strong family of people who just want to lift each other up. It’s getting to a point where you can go out almost every night and see one of your friends doing their thing. To me that’s really important; community.
To say that the Savannah music scene is a close knit one is the understatement of a lifetime. In a community where locals instinctively hold close to each other, it’s hard not to notice a new face. And as often as John Bowen went to shows, you probably saw him or met him at a show in the last few months. Unfortunately, being so close also means that losing a part of that community always hits close to home, especially when that loss is unexpected. Last Wednesday’s memorial for John featuring some of his favorite local bands is the kind of sendoff I’d imagine that he’d want. Good people coming together over good music.
I’ll admit, I didn’t get to know John very well in his time here in Savannah. We’d run into each other on occasion, share a few words, usually about bands, and then go our separate ways until we met again. In the interactions that I had with John, I could tell a couple of things though. He had good taste in music, not an accolade I get to throw around too often, which makes me wonder why he liked our band quite as much as he did, but that’s a conversation for a different day.
Secondly, if I was hard pressed to put a definition on punk and what it meant to be a punk, John’s name would definitely come up. It’s hard to boil down what being a punk is, and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that defying definition is part of the punk culture, but whatever the key is, John had it. It’s not about what you wear, or even what you listen to if we’re being really honest. It’s about supporting your scene and each other, two things that John did. Lastly, and most importantly in my head, John was genuine. No airs, no pretenses, just a good guy that liked music — something that our scene, Savannah, and pretty much everywhere could use more of these days. So let’s all strive to remember John in the best way possible: go out and enjoy some music and each other.
Here are a few shots from the tribute show at Sulfur Studios:
We’ll probably have even more Savannah Stopover 2016 photos posted on Facebook in the coming months, but there are a ton there as of this week.
Regular hissing lawns contributor Jon Waits covered the fest for Savannah Magazine, and he put some of his additional photos (first posted here) into this Facebook gallery:
I’ve already posted a smattering of photos documenting day 1, day 2, and day 3 (also you can see separate galleries of Family and Friends and Rainbow Kitten Surprise), but I took a ton more photos than I’ve posted on the blog. So, the question that every photographer answers differently: how many should I post to the hissing lawns Facebook page?
I saw over 40 bands, so I’d have huge galleries even if I just posted a couple of shots of each act. Since so many bands enjoy having more than a couple of photos of themselves, and since Facebook galleries are relatively easy to navigate, I’ve posted most of what turned out ok. Here’s day 1, with more photos and commentary after the jump:
Hey guys,
I guess I will be the first of us hissing lawners to put in an unabashed plea for you guys to remember us when you vote for the Connect Best Of Local Blog this year. I had a great time at my first party last year and I plan on sneaking into the party this year, even if we lose. But they may kick Tom Cartmel out this year if we don’t win, and he wants to go again too. So think about keeping Tom out of jail and voting for us. Thanks guys.
Thursday 14th Jason Bible (Sav’h Americana) – Molly MacPherson’s Steppin Stones (Charleston rock) – Barrelhouse South
Friday 15th Ben Lewis (Sav’h rock), Piano (Stateboro rock) – Barrelhouse South Cash’d Out (San Diego Cash cover band) – Jinx Cory Chambers Jazz Band (Sav’h jazz) – Molly MacPherson’s
Saturday 16th Wave Slaves (Sav’h surf rock), Hypnotics – Sentient Bean (8p, $5 donation, all ages) JJ Grey & Mofro (Jacksonville blues, rock, and R&B) – Southbound Brewery (8p, $50) After Me The Flood (Atlanta metal), Of Virtue (MI hardcore), Hounds (Atlanta hardcore), Dead Planets (Sav’h post rock) – Black Box Theater (9 W. Henry St, $8, all ages) Ese (Houston punk), Fight Amp (Philly noise-sludge), Greta O & The Toxic Shock (Sav’h punk), Forced Entry (Sav’h punk) – Jinx Mallory Jen (Sav’h rock) – Molly MacPherson’s Naughty Professor (NO funk-jazz w/ two saxes) – Congress Street Social Club Saturn Valley (Athens prog-rock), BYOG (Charleston prog-rock) – Barrelhouse South
Sunday 17th American Hologram (Sav’h goth-pop), Jon Lee & The Hextones (Sav’h rock), John Russell (Sav’h rock) – Tybee Post Theater (8p, $15) Voodoo Soup (Sav’h rock covers) – Congress Street Social Club
Monday 18th Main Street Trio (Sav’h jazz-soul) – Cocktail Co (8p) Craig Tanner & Mr. Williams Open Mic – Abe’s On Lincoln
Tuesday 19th City Hotel Solo Sessions – Foxy Loxy Cafe (7p) Ben Keiser Band (Sav’h blues-rock) – Bay Street Blues Eric Culberson Open Jam – Bayou Cafe
Wednesday 20th The Werks (OH dance-rock), Morning Fatty (FL funk-rock-electronic-dub [or FRED] – Barrelhouse South Eric Culberson Band (Sav’h blues) – Boomy’s
Today, MusicFile Productions, parent company of Savannah Stopover Music Festival, announced six shows for April and May — all of them are exciting in one way or another.
The Wreckless Eric show is free (and all-ages!), but tickets for most of the rest are already on sale. Note that tix for Son Little go on sale on 4/15 at 10 a.m. Rather than embed individual ticket links, I’m putting a link HERE that takes you to the MusicFile Productions event listings on Facebook.
Son Little
This is a great selection of additions to Savannah’s spring calendar, and, yes, it’s really Wreckless Eric, whom a number of us saw at the 2015 Bragg Jam in Macon:
Check out a few photos from our archives, plus the bulk of the MusicFile press release after the jump:
We’ve all heard of the concept album, narratives or overall ideas conveyed through a series of song. Alice in Chains did it with Dirt. The Appleseed Cast did it with Low Level Owl I and II, and all but a few of the Pink Floyd albums fell into this category. Many bands have, at one time or another, tried to put together at least one. Some worked, some didn’t. That brings me to Ben Cooper of Radical Face.
For the past eight years, Ben placed himself at the helm of his work inside his family home in Jacksonville, Florida. What did he gain from his efforts inside his private studio? A production of not one but three albums linked together by stories of family — one family to be exact.
So, what is family? What is home? For most, they are a sense of something felt more than explained. We all, at some time or another, long for a return to our childhood and the warmth of a house filled with welcoming smiles and support. Those people and places are our bedrock, our foundation, our dreams, and often our ghosts. They molded us, gave us a base to stand on when the game got out of control. From there, they sent us out into the world so they might haunt us. I don’t know of any other artist that is able to put all these emotions into a four minute song better than Ben Cooper. He has a natural ease of conveying that detached drift of nostalgia over the course of his work.
The albums, spanning over the history of three generations, follow a group of downtrodden, blue-collar people with dark secrets and a history for violence. Ben’s series, collectively entitled The Family Tree, consists of The Roots (2011), The Branches (2013), and The Leaves (2016). In their entirety, the albums conjure up a feeling of the early 20th century, wrapping it inside a drum of mystical witch craft and folk lore. So, tread lightly my people. These songs harbor the bones of ghosts. They play to the truth of those things held closest to us, our inner fears and our inner demons.
Led by an acoustic guitar and accompanied by drums, piano, a creaking floorboard, and the occasional cello, Ben hums and sings his way through the family’s struggles with love, loss, war, murder, death, and longing. It sounds bleak, and maybe the whole damn thing should have been written in D minor. However, a lot of the songs are uplifting in a heartbreaking kind of way.
We love Bragg Jam, the 1-day, late summer festival that takes over downtown Macon, Georgia. A number of hissing lawns contributors have gone up each of the last two years, and I’m sure some of us will be making the trip again, especially since the initial lineup announcement includes acts like Josh Thompson, The Weeks, Frankie Cosmos, Susto, The Lonely Biscuits, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, plus Savannah-based acts Triathalon and Sunglow.
And this is only a fraction of the lineup — more will be announced on May 16.
Click on through for more on the July 30 concert crawl:
Here it is, folks! The initial lineup for Bragg Jam Music, Arts and Kids' Festival 2016! We look forward to you joining…
Click on through for a gallery of bands slated for Bragg Jam 2016 — these are all from the hissing lawns archives (you can see the band names in the filenames):
Hey guys,
It looks like another busy week downtown. There are several shows that should be worth checking out around town.Thursday has a couple of shows of note, a heavy metal show at the Wormhole and the Jinx show with Triathalon, Breakers, and Sunglow. I haven’t figured out where to go on Friday, there are a couple of early shows. I always enjoy catching one of the best bands in town, the Accomplices, at one of their favorite locations, the Rail Pub. The Sentient Bean has one of the more exciting line-ups I have seen there, COEDS, Garden Giant, and the Head. And I haven’t seen Velvet Caravan in a while and the Wyld Dock Bar is a pretty good location to catch a band. Then there are several good shows later that night, I’ll probably end up wandering up and down Congress Street. I don’t even know where to start on the variety of choices on Saturday. I will probably end up deciding where to go on Saturday afternoon. This looks like it should be an excellent weekend to try to catch some good music, be sure to say “hello” if I see you around.
Thursday 7th Carnivora, Pridemeat, Lord Almighty – Wormhole SPORE – Barrelhouse South Triathalon, Breakers, Sunglow – Jinx
Friday 8th Accomplices – Rail Pub (7p) The Head, COEDS, Garden Giant – Sentient Bean (8p, all ages) Velvet Caravan – Wyld Dock Bar Between Symmetries, MTN ISL – Jinx ($5) Corbitt-Clampitt Experience – Barrelhouse South The Norm – Congress Street Social Club General Patton & the Heads of State – Molly MacPherson’s
Saturday 9th Quinn Cicala, Wilt, Beneath Trees – Sentient Bean (8p, all ages) Col Sanders & The Finger Lickers – Doc’s Bar Orange Constant – Wild Wing Cafe Peppino D’Agostino – Wormhole Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ – Coach’s Corner ($25/30) Megan Jean & The KFB – Abe’s on Lincoln (10p) Voodoo Visionary, Fat Cheek Cat – Barrelhouse South Anders Thomsen & Friends – Jinx James Lee Smith – Molly MacPherson’s
Sunday 10th Voodoo Soup – Congress Street Social Club
Monday 11th Stan Ray – Warehouse Craig Tanner & Mr. Williams Open Mic – Abe’s On Lincoln
Tuesday 12th Stefani Reeder – Foxy Loxy Cafe (7p) Ben Keiser Band – Bay Street Blues Eric Culberson Open Jam – Bayou Cafe
From Kayne Lanahan- Founder, Savannah Stopover Music Festival:
When the Savannah Music Festival announced their list of pop/rock shows in February, you might have heard me let out a little gasp when the last band, My Brightest Diamond, was announced. While Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Drive-By Truckers, and Andrew Bird were getting most of the buzz, I started digging back into my memories of an artist who has been at the top of my list for a decade.
I first came to know Shara Worden, aka My Brightest Diamond, from her first two excellent albums under that moniker — 2006’s Bring Me The Workhorse and 2008’s A Thousand Shark’s Teeth — but it wasn’t until I saw her perform live that I truly understood her immense talents. The year was 2009 and I was lucky enough to see The Decemberists debut their rock opera Hazards Of Love at SXSW. It was at the live broadcast of the NPR showcase and I remember the palpable electricity in the air; all of us nestled in the outside music patio at Stubb’s in Austin, curious about how a 17 song rock opera from an indie folk band would play out. Suffice it to say, it remains one of my favorite concert performances of all time and it was Shara Worden who absolutely stole the show in her role as The Queen. Below is a video of “The Queen’s Rebuke” from a performance a few weeks later on the Hazards Of Love tour:
Fast forward six weeks to May of 2009 and the Dark Was The Night benefit concert for the 20th release from the Red Hot Organization at Radio City Music Hall in New York where, once again, Worden owned the stage and stood out among an all-star list of bands and musicians (Dirty Projectors, The National, Sharon Jones, Bon Iver, Feist, etc) for her incredible rendition of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” (recorded with The National for the Dark Was The Night album). A video of the rehearsal for that performance is below:
https://vimeo.com/55312200
Those two stumbled-upon performances from Shara Worden seven years ago, six weeks apart, wildly different and yet equally stirring, cemented My Brightest Diamond in my mind as one of the most dynamic vocal performers of her generation. Worden is classically trained with a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance and effortlessly fuses art and baroque pop with classical aplomb while seamlessly mixing in modern techniques. Equally at home in a vivid costume with a full marching band or a minimal artistic silhouette and stripped bare vocals; her live performances are legendary. In addition to her collaborations with The Decemberists and The National, she’s played an integral part in two of Sufjan Stevens albums (and toured extensively as a member of his band) and has worked with David Byrne and many others.
Somehow, in her spare time, she’s managed to release two more albums and two EP’s under the My Brightest Diamond moniker, including 2014’s excellent This Is My Hand whose title track, reimagined in French, has become one of my favorites.
I sit in wild anticipation as to what we can expect from her performance this weekend at Savannah Music Festival and whether her late night show on Friday will differ from her Saturday afternoon performance. I plan to be at both! I promise she will stir your soul and quite possibly blow your mind. Don’t miss this one!
At press time, tickets for both shows were still available.
Friday April 8th at 10:30pm- Charles Morris Center. Ticket link
Saturday, April 9th at 3:00pm- Charles Morris Center. Ticket link
Cc Witt has fronted the Savannah-based country band Lyn Avenue since 2010, and now the still-young singer songwriter has released a solo EP, Down Memory Lane, which is available for purchase as a download or a signed CD via Bandcamp. (The record’s cover photo is by regular hissing lawns contributor Jon Waits.)
I’m really impressed by the quality construction of Witt’s pop-country songs and by her warm, charismatic stage presence. If you want to catch her next gig, you might want to follow on Facebook.
CC Witt at The Jinx during Savannah Stopover 2016
We sent a few questions Witt’s way. Here’s our quick q+a:
hl: So you’ve got the work with Lyn Avenue and this new release of your own. What’s the relationship between the two projects?
CC Witt: Well I’ve been playing in a band the entirety of my musical career and just performing as a solo artist on the side. I definitely put all my energy into Lyn Avenue. Our lead guitarist, Patrick Ellington and myself write all of Lyn Avenue’s songs. But there were a lot of songs that I had written over the years that were either too personal or just not a good fit for the band that I always wanted to get recorded. So I finally did. This EP has been kind of a self-discovery project in finding myself as a solo artist and defining my sound … standing on my own two feet.
One of my favorite things about a Monday night show? You can see a touring band with your favorite dad band — and be in bed by midnight. I swear, I try and have fun sometimes.
I caught The Plurals (Lansing, MI) near the start of their spring tour when they stopped by The Wormhole with local dad band (plus hissing lawns contributor Petee) Jeff Two-Names and the Born Agains. Jeff Two-Names started out the evening with some new tracks, including a selection from their newest recording, the PeteEP. While The Plurals started out a little choppy, their cohesiveness grew as the set went on. Overall, a fun Monday night in Savannah! Check out my favorite shots, and a full album after the jump.
