Throw Back Thursday: Rough Cutt: Take Her

Rough Cutt looked and dressed the part of the 80's rock scene. I always felt they were way underrated for their music. Chances are, if you're reading this, you have no idea who Rough Cutt is/was.

Here is live version of "Take Her" from their 1985 self-titled debut album:

Album Spotlight: Dorothy: ROCKISDEAD

Dorothy's new album ROCKISDEAD is a sweaty, sultry siren wearing snakeskin cowboy boots emerging from a swamp covered in scraps of metal and pieces of rock, blues oozing from the pores and dripping from the fingertips.

Unpack that image.

Dorothy is a band. But Dorothy is also vocalist and leader Dorothy Martin. She has surrounded herself with a very competent band to create Dorothy.

The sarcastically titled ROCKISDEAD is very much a rock album. But it's so much more than that. It's blues, soul, rock, metal and country (yeah, country, Martin's favorite female vocalist is Dolly and Martin can yodel, though she doesn't on this album). It's messy. It's real. I love albums like that. Genre-bending without pandering to anything.

How this California band got East Texas/Louisiana swamp into their music is a mystery to me, but it works.

I always post a video/song to give the readers a sense of what the band is like. I still will for Dorothy, but you really need to listen to the whole album because one song does not encapsulate what they are all about.

Here is "After Midnight" from the album ROCKISDEAD:

Free For All Friday: Who's The Band On Stage

Sometimes music, sometimes tangentially about music, sometimes off the rails.

I love the cartoon The Animaniacs (yeah, I know, but you're never too old to enjoy a good cartoon) and I love baseball and I love music. So this take on the old Laurel and Hardy sketch "Who's On First" really tickled me.

Hope you enjoy:

Throwback Thursday: Cinderella: Heartbreak Station

Yeah it's cliche. All the kids are doing it. #tbt. Or maybe they've moved on. Whatever. This is a great song and would be considered too country for country radio in 2016. Go figure.

Working Women's Wednesday: Dorothy: Raise Hell

Dorothy has a new album coming out soon. This will be on it.

Album Spotlight: Dolly Shine: Walkabout

If you want to dig through my tweets you can find where I called Dolly Shine a "generic Texas country" band. That was before I heard Walkabout. Can one album change everything? Nope. But it can change a mind going forward.

Walkabout is by far the best thing Dolly Shine has done. There is a lot on Walkabout. A lot of country, some rock, some bluesy stuff, some swamp (and if you read regularly, you know I like swamp).

There were some lineup changes between the last output and Walkabout. Whatever the reasons, the results speak for themselves. And they self-admittedly recorded this album for the first time as band. It shows.

Here is "Rattlesnake" from the album Walkabout:

Video: Robert Jon and the Wreck: Good Lovin'

Good music, left without comment. Robert Jon and the Wreck's "Good Lovin'":

Album Spotlight: Elizabeth Cook: Exodus to Venus

Elizabeth Cook's latest release Exodus to Venus is swampy. Sure, Exodus to Venus is other things as well: bluesy, soulful, country-tinged with Southern Rock accents, a little bit funky. But the best descriptor for me is swampy. And swampy is good. Very good in the case of Exodus to Venus.

It's been a few years since Cook's last album, 2010's Welder. And it was well worth the wait. From Cook's website she says that people were tweeting her asking if she's keeping it country, "No I'm keeping it real. Not to a genre, but to what theses songs are." If this is the real Elizabeth Cook, bring it on in large doses.

The album is real and really raw and exposed.

Exodus to Venus is not going to be make any summer party playlists, but if you just want some fantastic introspective music to listen to while sitting on the porch drinking your favorite beverage late in the evening, put this on.

This is easily my favorite album of 2016 that I have heard so far.

Here is the video for "Slow Pain" from the album:

Whiskey Myers: Concert Review

I went with my sister and daughter to see Whiskey Myers in New Braunfels, TX at the River Road Ice House with Band of Heathens opening.

While not that familiar with Band of Heathens before, they were really good. Hard to explain, but if you like 70's California rock, you'd like them.

I had seen Whiskey Myers a couple of years ago at a small club. They were good then. Now, they are a rock and roll tour de force.

The east Texas band cut their teeth on the Texas/Red Dirt Country circuit, honing their brand of Southern Rock. They are a jam band at heart. At least live. It doesn't come through as much on their recorded material.

Whiskey Myers is going out on the Carnival of Madness tour with Shinedown, Halestorm and Black Stone Cherry. If the other three aren't on their game, they will be out-rocked by some East Texas boys.

Whiskey Myers would be right at home in the '70's. With either the Southern Rock crowd or the hard rock crowd. They would have fit in the '80's with Cinderella, Tesla and the Black Crowes. You could even argue that they would have been at home in the late '60's with Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, and the Rolling Stones. Oh, and they could also hold their own playing with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.

Visually, Whiskey Myers is an amalgam of of many things. Guitarists Cody Tate and John Jeffers could not look more like they belong in different bands. Tate could walk onto a ZZ Top stage and trade licks with Billy Gibbons. Jeffers could step onto a stage with Cinderella and not look out of place. And both shred on guitar. Early and often.

Drummer Jeff Hogg may be Mick Fleetwood reincarnate.

Bassist Gary Brown looks like he belongs on the Texas Country scene, replete with cowboy hat. Then he breaks out the bass line for "7 Nation Army" and you know this ain't your dad's country.

Lead singer Cody Cannon is a combination of Jim Morrison, Billy the Kid, Johnny Depp, Johnny Van Zant and Jon Bon Jovi. Both in looks and sound. I leave that for you to figure out.

Whiskey Myers played a high energy set that rocked more than the last Bon Jovi show I saw. If you go expecting country, you'll be disappointed, it you go wanting some good rock music, you'll leave impressed.

Here is a live version of "Home" recorded in England:

Album Spotlight: Jasmine Cain: White Noise

Ok, I  really try to stay current. It's hard. Jasmine Cain originally released White Noise in July of 2015. Then it got picked up by Entertainment One Music and re-released in May 2016. That's when I found it. So I missed out on almost a year of this good music.

Paraphrasing here, but Jasmine Cain is pretty much the bass-wielding ringmaster of her own rock and roll circus.

I won't compare Jasmine Cain to Lzzy Hale, or Cain's band to Halestorm. That would be unfair to both. But if you like Halestorm, then Jasmine Cain will be right up your alley. There are definite similarities, and definite differences.

I'm still baffled at the "rock is dead" narrative. OK, it might not thrive on radio, but get out and go to shows. Rock is alive and well. Jasmine Cain rocks and rocks hard.

Here is "Hole" from White Noise:




And since I'm just now discovering Jasmine Cain, here is "Highway Prophet" from a few years ago:

New Video: Midnight River Choir: Change

Found the Midnight River Choir by accident last Sunday playing at the famous Gruene Hall for free. Great band.

They're working on new stuff, which you certainly will be able to read about hear. But for now enjoy this bit of new music, "Change":