REVIEW this
Tim Brick, Free to Run (SELF-RELEASED, CD)
carefully, to the song’s chorus, where Hahn’s pure-toned, confident harmony bolsters his partner’s hushed delivery, seeming to both comfort and embolden her. It is elegant and subtle, and the first beautiful moment on a record full of them. To wit … “Some Kind of Dream,” a pleading, love-struck gem, features Mae’s most gripping poetic imagery. The title track is atmospheric alt-country perfection. “I’ll Hear You Calling” sounds as if it were made to fall in love to. “A Sinner’s Prayer” is a hopelessly hopeful lament set to a strolling waltz. The Hahnfronted “My Heart is in Texas” is tender and exquisitely sad. And the delicate, guitar-voice ballad “Falling Overnight” closes the record in a wash of dreamy, heartsick longing. A few years ago, Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell released a duet album,
SAT 8/27 • 8PM
KEVIN EUBANKS
OF THE TONIGHT SHOW • LIVE!
SUN 9/24 • 2PM FRI-SAT 9/30-10/1 • 8PM
I TANGO
ARGENTINE TANGO PERFORMANCE
FRI 10/7 8PM
ORLA FALLON IN CONCERT
DAN BOLLES
Lila Mae and Jeff Hahn, One More Yesterday
(FORMERLY OF CELTIC WOMEN)
(SELF-RELEASED, CD)
CLASSIC ALBUMS LIVE!
MICHAEL JACKSON’S
DAN BOLLES
FRI 10/21 • 8PM
“MUSIC OF THE SUN” ETHEL & ROBERT MIRABAL SAT 10/22 • 8PM
THE SECOND CITY FRI-SAT 10/28-29 • 7PM
MAD SCIENCE THEATER: CSI LIVE! The Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization dedicated and committed to entertaining, educating, and engaging our diverse communities in Stowe and beyond.
GRAND OPENING SEASON SPONSOR:
4v-sspac092111.indd 1
MUSIC 65
AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST OR BAND MAKING MUSIC IN VT, SEND YOUR CD TO US! GET YOUR MUSIC REVIEWED: IFDANYOU’RE BOLLES C/O SEVEN DAYS, 255 SO. CHAMPLAIN ST. STE 5, BURLINGTON, VT 05401
THRILLER
SEVEN DAYS
Begonias, that barely registered a blip on most music fans’ radars — save for the most rabid alt-country aficionados. It’s a shame, since the record was a stunner, a throwback to the golden age of male-female country duets — think George Jones and Tammy Wynette, or, more stylistically accurate, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. Yesterday bears striking similarities to Cary and Cockrell’s record in that both reveal a rare synchronicity between musical partners. Individually, Mae and Hahn are impressive and compelling. When they join forces, they are transcendent, as if their voices were made for each other.
09.21.11-09.28.11
Before we begin, I’d like to apologize to Lila Mae and Jeff Hahn. You released your debut album, One More Yesterday, at the beginning of the summer, and since then, my copy has sat buried under an ever-growing pile of local CDs, patiently awaiting review. I am so sorry that it’s taken me this long to write about your record. Because it’s a stunning album that local folk audiences should be devouring, especially now as the final exhalations of summer yield to the steely melancholy of fall. Album opener “Broken Bell” sets the record’s heavyhearted yet wistful tone. A brooding piano ripples alongside a gentle acoustic guitar as Mae gorgeously intones lyrics, her voice barely rising above a melodic whisper. The intensity builds, ever so
FRI 10/14 • 8PM
SEVENDAYSVT.COM
On his 2009 debut, Borderline, central Vermont songwriter Tim Brick introduced himself to local audiences as a genuine blue-collar bard. The record portrayed Brick as a classic countryrock enigma: a roadhouse roughneck with a heart of gold. His recently released sophomore follow-up, Free to Run, furthers that dichotomy with 13 tracks that bristle with bar-band twang yet are tempered by a surprising vulnerability. The record opens on “Kickin Back,” an efficient little country-rock nugget that ably captures the small pleasures of, well, kicking back after a long day — ideally with a cold beer in hand on the front porch. “Nothin’ to do on this hot afternoon, but to sit down and have me a drink. / I’ve been workin’ real hard and feelin’ tired, I need a little space to think.” Those looking for lyrical profundity would do well to look elsewhere. But the simple honesty in Brick’s drawling delivery is appealing and relatable. Throughout the record, Brick straddles, and often blurs, the line between country sentimentality and badass rock swagger. As in his debut album, however, he is at his best in his twangier moments. “Hard Times On Easy Street,” for example, lopes along with a breezy back-road lilt, highlighted by Jim Pitman’s subtle pedal-steel lines. The following cut, “Spinning My Wheels,” cruises with mid-tempo alt-country sweetness and is notable for
some truly impressive Flying Burrito Brothers-esque harmonies. “300 Miles” is an album highlight, a classic wandering-lonesome-cowboy tune with still more excellent pedal work — this time courtesy of Rich Lester. A few of Brick’s rock-styled cuts are clear album lows, including “Cold Hard Truth,” in which his direct wordplay devolves into middling cliché. But Brick doesn’t always struggle when he switches gears into more straightforward rock. Several tunes, including the title track, the snarling fist-pumper “It’s A Good Thing” and the steamy blues-rocker “Two Hands On the Wheel,” suggest Brick is just as comfortable in his black T-shirt as he is his cowboy boots. Tim Brick won’t bowl you over with poetic or artful lyrics. And he’s not breaking any molds, musically. But he doesn’t have to. What he does, he does exceedingly well, and Free to Run is as solid a take on blue-collar rock and country as you’ll find in Vermont. Tim Brick plays the Vermont SoberFest 2011 at the Capital City Grange in Berlin, Vermont, on Saturday, September 24.
Box Office: 802.760.4634 SprucePeakArts.org
9/19/11 1:56 PM