There really is no one else doing it like Charlie Parr.
Welcome to another edition of Fresh Picks, where the Music Team and other staff of KAXE pick out new albums and tracks that will soon be on repeat at home, in your car and in your headphones.
In this week's standout albums, we're highlighting the incredible compassion of Charlie Parr's Rooming House, the Texas warmth of Jess Williamson's A Mile South of Heaven and the "good old-fashioned dance music" of a Reverend Shawn Amos Dance Party!
For hot new tracks we're talking Valerie June's gospel hope "I'll Fly Away," Joy Oladokun's rock 'n' roll jam "The End of the World," ALA.NI & Adrian Younge's hazy "Dusty Road" and Silvana Estrada's duet with M. Ward, "Todo Baila."
And in our latest Pick From '76, Dziengel deep dives Dylan's Desire.
Check out this week's suggestions from Music Director Kari Hedlund, Asst. Music Director Malachy Koons, Volunteer Coordinator Dan Gannon and award-winning Morning Show Host Andrew Dziengel.
Albums
Album of the Week: Charlie Parr - Rooming House
As I sit and listen to the latest album from Charlie, I'm struck by the thought that it would be so easy to take him for granted.
Rooming House is already his 19th studio album and now his third on the legendary Smithsonian Folkways Records. Not only do I expect a new album every two to three years, but I also expect to see the hard-touring musician at least once per year, sometimes more.
How amazing is it that I have seen him play more than any other musician, and yet I know I will never tire of it or pass up the chance to see him perform?
And how amazing is it that on album after album his sound continues to grow, his storytelling becomes somehow more vivid and his guitar playing even more emotional?
On Rooming House, Parr lays out his most complete artistic vision yet, a "conceptual folk opera" following the inhabitants of an Upper Midwest rooming house with candor and compassion.
The album was inspired by Parr's experience living in one of these communal homes when he first moved to Minneapolis in the '80s, and from his time as an outreach worker with unhoused people in both Minneapolis and Duluth. In the album release, Parr said "These folks here, in this record, have no idea what’s wrong. Or how to help. They are sick with the longing to make everything better. And they can’t. Tiny things are important. This house could be anywhere. These things could happen to anyone.”
"Duluth 1964" introduces the setting, the central character "John" and the album-long collaboration with drummer Dave King (The Bad Plus, Happy Apple), whose deft brushwork and delicate shuffling is a perfect complement to Parr.
It's instantly some of my favorite guitar playing in Parr's deep catalogue, hypnotic cycles that find a sweet spot between his trademark blues, American primitive and psychedelia.
Lead single "Rooming House" is explicit and judgement-free, a seemingly simple tale of food poisoning that tells a much larger story of food insecurity and community.
Prepare to shed some tears when "Mother Sara" arrives, a tender and heartbreaking song about a young mother who, despite her deep love and best efforts, decides to have her parents raise her son in the hope of a better life.
You can hear that hope in Parr's bubbly guitar riff, a surprising and beautiful counterpoint to the sadness of the song. It's a perfect example of why this is an album that Charlie Parr alone could make.
I'd like to leave you with a quote from Lizzie No, who recently interviewed Parr about the new album on her podcast Basic Folk, because she's far more eloquent than I will ever be, and I think it's exactly why we should not take Charlie's music for granted:
"This album feels like a play where the stakes feel so real that you can’t help but walk away more empathetic for having experienced it. The setting is a rooming house, and the characters are the folks from young to old who have been thrown together by circumstance. It’s the type of brilliantly observed story-album that we are lucky enough to get when imaginative artists from working class backgrounds have the courage to tell stories." -MK
Jess Williamson - A Mile South of Heaven
For Williamson's sixth album, it sure does sound like, as she would say, Texas 'heavy-AN.' (Whatever it is that got the Marfa and LA dual resident to pronounce her words that way, I am here for it.) Produced by Shooter Jennings, this album gives Williamson's incredible vocals a warm Texas musicality on songs like "A Mile South of Heaven," "Someone Else's Horses" and "Goodbye to All That." "Tracking the Tropics" has dark undertones and phrasing that sounds like an A+ version of Taylor Swift with 'The weather says he's tracking the tropics / Another storm with a woman's name / She's catastrophic." It's an album that will keep serving the more you listen. -KH
The Reverend Shawn Amos - The Reverend Shawn Amos Dance Party!
Looking for some good old fashioned dance music? The Reverend Shawn Amos was craving it, and knew you would be too, with this album of '60s covers plus one original. His ninth album is straightforward joy with an obvious deep respect for the music that came before on songs like "Little By Little," "C'mon and Swim," and "The Mess Around." The album ends with an incredible previously unreleased 1962 recording of "Little Sally Water," by his late mom, Shirley May, AKA Shirlee May. -KH
Singles
Valerie June - "I'll Fly Away"
Valerie June takes on the old gospel classic as part of her three song covers EP Brighter Blue, and does it with her typical air of joy. June is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist but here she lets John Deley's Hammond B3 organ and Dan Iead's pedal steel shine like the sun on a bird's wing. If you've been listening closely to her work, June has been injecting much needed vials of hope into her tunes and we can hear her smiling broadly as she sings "like a bird from prison bars has flown". There's not enough Valerie June in this world! -DG
Joy Oladokun - "The End of the World"
I don't think I'd be wrong to classify Oladokun as a singer-songwriter primarily traveling in the acoustic realm, but with "The End of the World" we have a real rock 'n' roll jam that exhibits its disgruntled-ness with the current state of affairs. As a child of Nigerian immigrants who grew up in Arizona, Oladokun brings a view that is rural, small town, and worldwide all at once. Make no mistake about it, "The End of the World" is an angry tune as shown in her words "back in the day we threw stones, now we throw judgment from phones" and I am here for it. This track is off her wonderful new LP, Hope Is a Heavy Thing. -DG
ALA.NI & Adrian Younge - "Dusty Road"
Adrian Younge just keeps the collabs coming and coming, the latest a pairing with British singer-songwriter ALA.NI on the album Proud of Me. "Dusty Road" is led by a repeating drum and high hat combo that ends up a throughline in the song. ALA.NI's relaxed vocals come in after about a minute and pair perfectly, bringing the song to a hazy and slightly meandering ending. -KH
Silvana Estrada - "Todo Baila (ft. M. Ward)"
Two voices that could not complement the other any better, singing about the joy and necessity of dancing. What more could you want? -MK
Pick From '76
Bob Dylan - Desire
Stop me if you've heard this one before.
An outcast boy who grew up in Minnesota decides to run away to get away from society. He spends the next six years with a carnival, meeting all sorts of interesting characters. He then changes his name to honor one of his favorite poets and moves to New York City and changes music forever.
We now know a lot of Bob Dylan's story was made up by Dylan to create a more mysterious and "authentic" folk singer origin. Would Dylan have blown up the Greenwich Village folk scene without the made-up past? Probably, but it certainly didn't hurt.
No other artist better exemplifies the idea of "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." It's hard to discern what actually happened in Dylan's life, and in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. Dylan just knew what was better for the overall story.
Now tell me if you've heard of this one.
Dylan is riding around in a limousine in Greenwich Village and spots a mysterious woman with long black hair carrying a violin case. Dylan stops to talk to her and after a while invites her to his rehearsal space to play along with some new songs.
That woman's name was Scarlet Rivera and she would be a huge influence on the Desire album.
Desire was created during an interesting time in Dylan's career. He was trying to form a band called the Rolling Thunder Revue to play with him. He also had been writing songs with Jacques Levy. After a few stop-and-starts, Dylan finally found his band for the album.
With Emmylou Harris on background vocals, Rob Stoner on bass guitar, Howard Wyeth on drums and piano, and the aforementioned Rivera on violin, Dylan had found his core recording group.
As for the songs themselves, Dylan returns to his protest roots with "Hurricane" which protests the conviction of former middle-weight boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter for a triple murder in 1966. There are some long storytelling tracks with "Isis" and in "One More Cup of Coffee" where Harris' backing vocals really shine. Then there's the song "Mozambique," which per-legend started out as a game to see how many words they could rhyme with "-ique."
It's also hard to convey just how much Rivera's violin adds to these songs. Apparently, her playing replaced Eric Clapton's guitar accompaniment. It seems to have been the right choice. The back and forth with Dylan's harmonica is beautiful, and the intensity her playing adds to tracks like "Hurricane" is hard to dispute.
However, it's the final track "Sara" that's the most intriguing. It's arguably the most "peak-behind-the-curtain" in Dylan's discography. It was written in tribute to Dylan's wife Sara, who he had been having marital problems with during the recording. It seems like a last-ditch effort to save whatever feelings they still had for each other. Sara was even present for the recording of the song with Dylan saying "This one's for you" before the recording. That was the take that ended up on the album. They divorced in 1977.
The album was a hit, going to number one on the Billboard charts and was beloved by critics. After the Rolling Thunder Revue tour, he made the more pop rock Street Legal, and then came the religious era.
He never made an album like Desire again, and for some, it marked the end of them keeping up with his latest work. Which is too bad, because Dylan continued to create one of the most interesting discographies in modern music. Desire is an amazing album and I can understand why it's still a favorite for Dylan fans. It's got a little bit of everything that Dylan fans love; strange characters, protesting injustice, and haunting love songs. -AD
