Bentley’s Bandstand: Favorite Albums of 2023 (Second Half)
By Bill Bentley
Jon Dee Graham, Only Dead for a Little While. Magic tricks are still the most compelling component of what gets heard in the world, and no one has pulled a better one out of his sleeve this year than certified Texan Jon Dee Graham. It doesn’t hurt to die and then come back to dig out some deserved hosannahs, but what really makes this trifecta tick is not just that Graham had passed, but really how he moved his way out of the other side of the ozone and came to life. And then really just how amazingly sharp and soulful the songs he brought with him are. It makes for a breathtaking album that might have created a whole new Grammy category (Best Song Made By Someone Who Died and Came Back). Doubtful they’ll ever actually be a category along those lines, but stranger things have happened. For now, Jon Dee Graham has given us a gift of infinite proportion, and while it’s likely he’s tuned into the grooviness of being alive, this album is a big deal in how he delivers what is one of the best hearts that ever beat in the home of the bluebonnets and bull riders. Remember the Alamo.
Gregg Hill, Bayou St. John. What a concept: find musicians all from New Orleans and head for the humidity to record an album that captures every smell, spoken nuance and slippery sense of reality that has always made the City that Care Forgot a total blessing and lost cause at the very same time. This is not music that can be learned. It has to be lived. And that’s something that Gregg Hill has so obviously done. The southern man is a soul singer who invents his own notes, and a deep believer that is in the midst of finding out what all those beliefs actually are. Which is to say that like the Crescent City itself, anything goes even if no one knows just where that might lead. It’s in the trip itself that all the function at the junction is revved up, even if it’s impossible to actually explain what the all that gris-gris is about way down yonder. Still, it’s a true fact that it’s not to be missed, living deep inside albums like BAYOU ST. JOHN. Yeah you right.
Stacey Kent, Let Yourself Go: Celebrating Fred Astaire. It is not an accident that when once asked who his favorite vocalist was, Rolling Stones kingpin drummer Charlie Watts instantly said Fred Astaire. There is something that defies gravity in Astaire’s voice. Just as it does in his dancing. Jazz singers are always looking for that ability to float vocals through the air, and Stacey Kent has surely found that secret. Songs like “They All Laughed” and “A Fine Romance” take on magical spirits in the hands and voice of Ms. Kent and her superb band. This is really music from another zone, and delivers a feeling of eternity that doesn’t land here every day. The way her singing wraps itself around a song, but also lets it have its own life of mystery and suspense is a glorious thing to hear. Stacey Kent is really like no other jazz vocalist today, and if there is any justice waiting to be given out to a musician this coming year, let it go to this woman. She believes, and most important of all she can make her listeners believe. That’s where the magic resides. Kent’s the Queen to the end.
Nils Lofgren, Mountains. There are some rock & rollers who have it all, and even though they get a shot or two at the very top of the rock world, it might just be that their most valuable place is elsewhere. Like on stages run by Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young. Nils Lofgren first hit the nationwide scene in the 1970s with Young, and made big waves with several outstanding albums. But when he became a member of the Crazy Horse crew and then Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street band, those two places became what sure seem like his real home. Still, an album like MOUNTAINS just might make the case that this man is as great as any rocker alive, and should be heading up his own parade. Play it loud.
Mood Vertigo, Verdango. What is better in modern music than when a complete surprise bursts through the ozone and takes a victory lap for what used to be called Album of the Year. And why not call it that again. Not only does Mood Vertigo allow singer Loey Norquist to often gain the stage front and center, but it also allows the entire group to show how a band can roam freely through every musical style imaginable and offer results that are nothing less than astounding. There’s a whole group of players and singers in this combo’s ranks, and they all shine with such presence and passion that it’s hard to believe such greatness still lurks hidden amongst us. The way Mood Vertigo unlocked the door to originality is nothing short of heroic. 2023’s favorite album.
Lukas Nelson & POTR, Sticks and Stones. It’s not easy being the son of a living icon, but Lukas Nelson doesn’t spend too much time worrying about it. Nelson just keeps going, writing some of the best modern songs alive, keeping a razor-sharp band on the road that can play anything, and never look back to see who’s gaining on him. Father Willie Nelson has already been determined to be a Great American Forever, but there’s still room for a son to find his own significant place in the music firmament. Lukas Nelson’s latest album proves he owns every inch of space he’s claimed in modern music, and even better the songs here feel that this is someone who is breaking through to a whole new level of greatness. On the move.
Our Man in the Field, Gold on the Horizon. Even if singer-songwriter supreme Alex Wilson has come up with a somewhat confusing band name (Our Man in the Field), it goes with the mystery of the music and the way nothing is exactly tied down to the ground. Instruments and voices float in and out of the surrounding ether, and Wilson takes listeners on an untethered excursion into places they have not been. What else can humans ask for on this planet? The songs themselves are the real stars of the show, shimmering in greatness and never really explaining where they are leading listeners. But only that they are impossible to resist, and surely the ride is worth the trust it takes to let go of reality and float. Ellis is in many ways a sonic magician and a person of wonder. There might not be another for a spell, so do not miss out. Gold is surely on this horizon, and there is no doubt that Alex Wilson is the songwriter holding the secrets deep in his heart. The best news of all is that he is more than happy to share it all. Starting right here.
Rolling Stones, Hackney Diamonds. In so many ways, there is only one rock & roll band that really got to the top and stayed there. Some may say it’s because these five Brits built their mountain of soul on the sound of American blues titans they worshipped from their earliest start. There are no cracks allowed when you’re covering Jimmy Reed and Irma Thomas. And while it’ll soon be 60 years since their first appearance on American television (Live at the Hollywood Palace hosted by Dean Martin in 1964), what really counts is the true love they have always shown for the sounds they made, no matter if they were borrowed or birthed by their own hand. And that’s the real reason the Rolling Stones have always led their own movement and have no worries about ever falling behind. They absolutely believe in what they do, even when it sounds a bit shaky, and aren’t chasing anything but themselves. This new album shows what reality is based on, and that the Rolling Stones helped invent it when rock & roll was heading toward a dark star in the early 1960s. Bless them always.
Graham Parker & the Goldtops, Last Chance to Learn the Twist. Never count Graham Parker out of the running. Ever. When Parker hit the new music scene starting in the middle 1970s, it sounded like a hurricane of humanness had been born in Great Britain, and it had all the markings of an ability to take over America. There was a lot of competition then–Elvis Costello, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, all the New Wave bands like Talking Heads Television along with other assorted aggregations. But in so many ways Graham Parker & the Rumour looked like they had a lock on the winner’s circle. It didn’t quite happen that way, but it got real close. Parker has never laid down the microphone, and he and his crack band are once again pushing towards the finish line this year in prime position. It takes faith to stay at full rev, and not get lost in the bushes of this thing called the show. But leave it to this Brit to wail through the weeds with a voice that believes in redemption and a heart that shoots for love. A forever man.
The Third Mind, 2. Someone hot-wired the musical mixmaster when The Third Mind entered the studio to record their album called simply 2. Why confuse anyone with a regular title? What is known about this knocked-out set of American songs is that The Third Mind loved both The Electric Flag and the Butterfield Blues Band equally, and proved their love with those band’s all-time keepers “Groovin’ Is Easy” and “In My Own Dream,” respectively. The musicians here are in a world of their own, and might have grabbed their early chops in bar band-fueled groups but now have set those chickens free and are wild-roaming around the big ol’ US of A. There are singers and guitar players and rhythm section whizzes and all kinds of careening sounds flying through The Third Mind’s grooves, and their inner greatness is shown on every track because nothing ever sounds extraneous, or painted with show-off strokes, even when the bandstand is packed. This is real music made by real people, and it would be a shame to miss a single note. The Groove-a-thon machine has been turned up to stun and nothing is going to slow this crowd down. Flights leave hourly.
Reissue of the Year
Denny Freeman
The Amazing Denny Freeman
True guitar heroes, the ones that truly dedicate their lives to taking their six strings into the stratosphere, aren’t as common as might be guessed. Besides requiring a lifetime dedication to the pursuit, it also takes a soul the size of, well, Texas. Denny Freeman might have accidentally been born in Florida, but his heart and soul remained in the Lone Star state from start to finish. Besides playing several years with Bob Dylan, Freeman called Austin home and not only schooled the city on how music–no matter what its style–should be played, but even more importantly he set a high bar for how people need to live on the planet. There really was no cooler person than Denny Freeman during all his years in Austintown. He played with the best bands, always demonstrated what a guitar in the right hands could do and, most importantly, lived with an understanding inner tone that others should emulate. This double-disc set of the guitarslinger’s first two albums on Amazing Records are as good as guitars get, wrapped around songs and feelings that reverberate with such soul sometimes it seems like the very ground underfoot is doing a boogie all its own. There won’t be another musician or man like this one, and listening to his recordings now puts the world in a whole new feeling of warmth and excitement. Denny Freeman lives.
Book of the Year
Will Hermes, Lou Reed: King of New York
“Some people they like to go out dancin’ / And other peoples they have to work / And there’s even some evil mothers / Well they’re gonna tell you that everything is just dirt / You know that women never really faint / And that villains always blink their eyes / That children are the only ones who blush / And that life is just to die…” Lou Reed wrote that in 1970 on the verge of quitting the Velvet Underground. In his lifetime he invented his own style of rock & roll, and through all kinds of bumps and bruises, beatific revelations and unequaled beauty the man stayed the course until the very end in 2013. This enthralling story of his unrivaled life, written by Will Hermes with an exacting eye, should be required reading in American history classes and taught in Bible studies for all denominations. Lou Reed knew.
FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2023 (First Half)
Jim Brunberg: You.Deserve. More & Other Sequels
John Cale: Mercy.
Julie Christensen: The Price We Pay For Love
Mary Gauthier: Dark Enough to See the Stars
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Weathervanes
Rickie Lee Jones: Pieces of Treasure
Tracy Nelson: Life Don’t Miss Nobody
Margo Price: Strays
Son Volt: Day of the Doug.
Tommy Stinson’s Cowboys in the Campfire
Find the first half of the year’s favorites here: Favorite Albums of 2023 (So Far)
Bentley’s Bandstand: Favorite Albums of 2023 (Second Half)
