by Julian Spivey
Lou Reed, in my opinion, wrote the greatest song about transvestites ever recorded and for some reason I’ve always thought that to be incredibly cool. Probably because Lou Reed was the epitome of cool. Now, Lou Reed has died at age 71 succumbing to liver disease. There shouldn’t be anything cool about that, but seeing as how it’s something Lou Reed has done I think we may have to make an exception.
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Lou Reed — you can’t really just say ‘Lou’ or ‘Reed’ because it just doesn’t sound right as the name flows off of your tongue effortlessly with its two perfectly sounding syllables — was quite likely the most unknown of the great rock icons, but perhaps iconoclast is a better word. Many people today probably couldn’t tell you who Lou Reed was, even though they’ve certainly at some point heard the name. If they did know him it was likely because of that transvestite song that most people would misidentify him as a one-hit wonder for, without actually knowing that the song was indeed about transvestites, drug addicts, male prostitutes and actresses blowing whoever they came across in backrooms of clubs — you know typical Andy Warhol crowd stuff. They would skip all of that — all that truly makes it cool, all that makes it truly on the wild side – and remember the titular phrase and the ‘doo do doos.’      

They may not know him as a leading member of the incredibly influential ‘60s art or psychedelic rock band The Velvet Underground, even though they certainly should seeing how the group has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, been named the nineteenth greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine and released one of the most influential, popular and greatest albums of all-time in their 1967 debut “The Velvet Underground and Nico” (thirteenth greatest ever made according to Rolling Stone).

Those who don’t know Lou Reed are missing out — not just missing out on the greatest transvestite song of all-time (which is something nobody should ever deprive themselves of), but missing out on one of the coolest motherfuckers to ever make their mark on pop culture. A man who made some of the coolest sounding music that has ever been made.

Take a listen to the track “Heroin,” off of the Velvet Underground’s debut, and tell me it’s not the epitome of rock cool. It starts off as low droning, picks up its pace rapidly, goes back to that drone, picks up again and repeats until all hell breaks loose at the end. The rapidity of the track is supposedly to mimic the high that somebody feels while on the drug. It also represents the high you feel as a listener marveling at such a hauntingly beautiful record.

Then take a listen to “I’m Waiting for the Man,” also off of the debut. It’s a more gleeful-sounding take on the same topic as “Heroin,” this time the narrator is waiting to score $26 worth from his dealer. It’s a song that is essentially a precursor to the NYC punk scene that would take the stage a decade later and proves that gritty, dark themes can sound just as happy as they can mournful — something you would see from a lot of punk groups.

I probably shouldn’t really be the one to talk about Lou Reed, though. Yes, I loved his transvestite song that was his biggest hit as a solo artist. And, I deeply respect “The Velvet Underground and Nico” and think it has some of the coolest sounding stuff ever recorded. But, I don’t know as much about Lou Reed and his body of work as I should know or as The Word contributor Kellan Miller, who wrote this classic album review of “The Velvet Underground and Nico,” would know. I just think he’s one cool sonuvabitch. I like how he wrote about darker themes and subjects that most songwriters wouldn’t or couldn’t write about. He brought a different kind of scene to popular music. That’s what truly makes him cool. What truly makes him a rebel.

Lou Reed makes me want to walk on the wild side alongside the transvestites, the man whores, the junkies, the pusher men and the sadomasochists if only for four to seven minutes at a time. That may sound strange to a good many people, but Lou Reed was a poet and the great poets have this quality of making the strange incredibly sexy; incredibly cool. About as cool as Lou Reed, a man who walked the wild side for 71 years and will continue to walk it for all of eternity. It doesn’t get any cooler than that. Doo do doo do doo do do doo ... 

by Julian Spivey
The Revolution Room in Little Rock was jam-packed on Wednesday night (Oct. 23) to see Jason Isbell and Dawes rock the roof off the joint.
 
Now, I feel as if I must explain that I attended the concert Wednesday night solely to see Isbell, who has become one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters over the last two years and who I believe has released the best album of 2013 in “Southeastern.” I knew he would simply be the opening act to Dawes, who I had previously heard of but never actually heard, but it was an opening act I could not miss. I feel that this explanation is needed because most concert reviews mostly review the headlining act and leave a little space somewhere in the review for the opener. My review is the exact opposite, with no offense intended toward Dawes, who would greatly endear themselves to me by the end of the night.
 
Isbell’s opening 45-minute set was short and sweet and certainly left the crowd, many who seemed to be like me and were there simply to see him, wanting more. Hopefully Isbell will be able to return to The Rev Room sometime soon for a full show.
 
Backed by his terrific band The 400 Unit and his wife/violinist Amanda Shires, Isbell sounded crisp and clear as if you were listening to his record with a few hundred fellow fans, a testament to the fine sound system at The Rev Room. 
 
He kicked things off with a rip-roaring performance of “Flying Over Water,” one of six songs he’d play during the evening from “Southeastern.” Following the opener Isbell performed his only song of the set from his days in the Southern Rock group Drive-By Truckers “Goddamn Lonely Love,” a song that he tweeted earlier in the day he had written 10 years ago right there in Little Rock. The performance proved to be one of the crowd’s favorites, as many sang along and swayed to the beat.
 
Following the somber tale of broken love, Isbell turned things up a few notches with the rocker “Super 8,” the hardest song off of “Southeastern,” as well as one of the most fun tracks from the record. The next two performances proved to be my favorites of the night: “Different Days,” a contemplative folky that is one of Isbell’s finest compositions on “Southeastern” and “Codeine,” the only performance during his set from his fine 2011 album “Here We Rest.” “Codeine” specifically seemed to be another favorite of the packed crowd who intently sang along.
 
Things got a little somber again with the devastating “Live Oak,” which plays like a Western short story, but also includes incredibly personal and emotional lyrics like: “There’s a man who walks beside me, he is who I used to be/and I wonder if she sees him and confuses him with me/And I wonder who she’s pining for on nights I’m not around/Could it be the man who did the things I’m living down” — lyrics that certainly were inspired by Isbell’s new found sobriety and new marriage to Shires, who is cute as a button and an immensely talented violinist who showed off her terrific playing at many points during Isbell’s set.
 
“Live Oak” was followed by the much-happier “Stockholm,” maybe the catchiest tune off of “Southeastern” about the feeling of unexpectedly falling in love — something that was almost certainly prompted by Isbell’s relationship with Shires. It proved to be one of the best performances of his set.
 
After the happiest tune of the set, came the most hauntingly beautiful and mournful tune, even more so than “Live Oak” in which the narrator murders his love. “Elephant” is a searing elegy of a man in a relationship with a woman dying of cancer and the ups-and-downs associated with someone dying long before their time. If there was a dry eye in the house during this performance somebody obviously wasn’t paying enough attention — which was extremely unlikely given the unbelievable talent onstage.
 
Isbell finished his opening set up with an incredibly badass cover of the Rolling Stones’ rocker “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” which absolutely brought the house down and he desperately needs to capture (preferably as a live performance) on a record at some point.
 
As a huge Isbell fan I was left, like almost everybody in the joint, feeling that the opening act set was simply too short and could’ve gone on for much longer. The shortness of the performance left me disappointed in that I wasn’t able to hear my absolute favorite Isbell tune “Alabama Pines” or some of his other Drive-By Truckers classics like “Outfit” or “Decoration Day.” There were also plenty of other great tracks from “Southeastern” that I would’ve been thrilled to have heard like “Songs That She Sang in the Shower” or “Relatively Easy.” Like I previously said, hopefully Isbell will return to The Rev Room sometime soon to give fans an entire set.
 
As I said previously, I had little to no knowledge of California roots rock group Dawes coming into the show, but I left feeling that I had been introduced to one of the better rock groups around today. The band is incredibly talented and frontman Taylor Goldsmith has an indelible charm about him and a penchant for writing good lyrics, which I’m thrilled I could make out, thanks to The Rev Room’s system, despite never previously hearing the band. He’s also a seriously good guitarist with a unique and warm voice. Maybe the only small criticism about Dawes’ set is that after a while many of the songs, though good, start to sound the same.
 
Dawes ripped through a strong set that included some new found gems (to me) like “Most People,” their set opener from their most recent album “Stories Don’t End,” “A Little Bit of Everything,” “Something in Common” and “Someone Will.”
 
Their performance of “When My Time Comes,” off of their debut 2009 album “North Hills,” was a truly special moment of the night as the entire crowd felt energized as they danced and sang along in unison. It was a moment that seemed to almost take Goldsmith by surprise and he reiterated multiple times throughout the show how well The Rev Room crowd had treated their music and performance. I only wish that I had known the words to “When My Time Comes” so I could have sung along, but it was a marveling moment to just stand there and watch these people totally immerse themselves in an utterly fantastic live performance.
 
Ultimately that’s what the entire night was “utterly fantastic live music” from an artist that I knew would deliver the goods in Isbell, a truly underrated artist and one who is criminally unknown by too many people, and a fun, mellow rock group in Dawes, which I’m glad to have introduced myself too, as they performed an incredibly effortless and enjoyable headlining set.         

by Julian Spivey
Oftentimes playing “Austin City Limits” means you’ve made it as a group or artist. The long-running PBS musical show features some of the best and brightest musicians that the world of roots music has to offer. On Saturday, Oct. 19, two of the brightest new acts in the genre of Americana made their ‘ACL’ debuts with glorious performances. Those groups are The Lumineers and Shovels & Rope.
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The Lumineers, a Grammy-nominated act out of Denver, took the world by storm with their massive crossover hit “Ho Hey” in 2012 off of their debut self-titled album. The group is massively talented led by guitarist and lead vocalist Wesley Schultz, whose raucous performance style is highly infectious and seems to always have the crowd singing along to highly catchy, in a good way, tunes that are beautifully melodic. The rest of the group: drummer/mandolin player Jeremiah Fraites, cellist Neyla Pekarek, pianist Stelth Ulvang and bassist Ben Wahamaki all seem to share Schultz’s infectious style of play and are all equally as talented.

The group’s set was probably the more exciting of the two acts on the episode of “Austin City Limits,” mostly because the entire set was known by this viewer and probably most viewers. The group kicked things off with their most recent single “Submarines,” followed by a rip-roaring performance of “Ho Hey,” the cutesy “Classy Girls,” which features fantastic guitar playing from Schultz, a nice cover of Bob Dylan’s folk classic “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Charlie Boy.” The Lumineers finished their fantastic set with a performance of “Stubborn Love,” which didn’t become quite as big of a hit as “Ho Hey,” which in itself doesn’t really make much sense, because it’s definitely as infectious and well-written.

Despite jumping on the scene at the very same time as The Lumineers, Shovels & Rope was certainly the lesser known of the twosome of performers on the ‘ACL’ episode. While both being in the all-encompassing genre of Americana music, Shovels & Rope tends to lean more on the rock/alternative country side of things, whereas The Lumineers are more of a folk group. Interestingly enough Shovels & Rope’s hit “Birmingham” actually beat out “Ho Hey” for 2013’s Americana Song of the Year at the recent Americana Honors. Strangely enough, the group didn’t include this award-winning song in their ‘ACL’ set, which is where the only real disappointment from the episode comes in. Shovels & Rope seem very in the moment (and basically say so in their brief post set interview) and seem to play whatever they feel like on any given night, but if you’re playing to a national audience on your “Austin City Limits” debut it would be nice to play your most-known and best work.

Despite the snubbed “Birmingham,” Shovels & Rope thrilled the audience with a bunch of songs that I unfortunately wasn’t previously attuned too: “Tell the Truth,” “Shank Hill Street,” “Boxcar,” “Gasoline”, “Hollowpoint Blues” and “Hail Hail.” The group, consisting of married couple Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, however, was incredibly energetic and fun to watch as they slyly played off of each other. The duo is also supremely talented as they often play multiple instruments at a time and at one point in the show I was bewildered by Hearst tripling duties on vocals, drums and harpsichord.

Sometimes it’s just a whole lotta fun to sit back and watch musicians perform who themselves are having a whole lotta fun. Saturday night’s episode of “Austin City Limits” featured two groups that seem to mix their incredible talents together in a way that just oozes fun.