#space capone

The weather almost scuttled John Mark Nelson and his four-piece band as well! But thank the musical gods it didn’t, because I’m putting down this Minnesota marvel as my first monster discovery of 2014. So young and talented and so personable and professional, they impressed at every level. Let’s call the music bright, smart songwriter-driven indie pop with crafty use of textured guitar sounds, courtesy of impressively dreadlocked Matt Patrick. Solos were handled largely by multi-instrumentalist and one-time Compass recording artist Jake Armerding, who was given room to run on both fiddle and mandolin. Acoustic bass and drums were meticulous and earthy. But the songs came from Nelson, whose voice is calm and composed, whose lyrics are fruitful and whose unexpected melodies will not let me alone. “Shorebird” was ethereal and truly evocative of a seascape. “Rain Comes Down” was freakishly catchy with a swift train beat and a soaring chorus. And just to round out the whole package, John told the story on stage of the wreck that totaled the band’s Suburban just a day before and their heroic adventure finding a way to Nashville with ten minutes to spare for sound check, all while Patrick made ambient music behind, as if rehearsed. That’s what we call great radio.

Fred LaBour, the man behind the man who is Too Slim in Rider In The Sky, told me on stage that he’s come to terms with the fact that he’s a compulsive entertainer and that merely being in the most entertaining cowboy band on Earth wasn’t quite completing his inner Henny Youngman. It was but the sixth performance of Say No More, It’s Freddy LaBour, but based on the laughs, there will be many more. On stage with naught but a guitar, a hat and the clothes on his back, he got the audience laughing along, singing along and snapping along. They would have joined him in his musical face-playing if he’d encouraged them. Keep your eyes out for “Prozac Polka” and “My Load Shifted” on the Cowboy Singer Comedy Alter-Ego hit parade.

And what fits nicely between solo folkie comedy and the world’s greatest Western band? Well if you’re Music City Roots, you call on an eight-piece band playing retro soul funk. Space Capone is a wave pool of slinky beats, trippy-blippy keyboard sounds and major seventh chords. Aaron Winters sings falsetto-laced lead vocals, tinged with Prince-ly staccato sex-appeal and supported by a bunch of dudes singing harmonies as smooth as a disco teen queen’s thighs. Yes, after careful consideration, that’s how smooth they were. You’ve already been told about the dance party that ensued, and it truly was one of those MCR moments you don’t see coming that but burns itself into the history of the show. 

Completing our terrifically transgressive troika of talent, we welcomed Riders In The Sky to the stage. Among their many virtues, this band makes it possible for us radio people to completely stop worrying about the broadcast for 25 minutes. It’s polished from 36 years of practice, but it never feels tired or recycled. I had been seized by a rare impulse to get some popcorn a few minutes before, so as the Riders performed I felt like I was at a Saturday matinee in 1949. They gave us a dramatic “Ghost Riders In The Sky” and turned Woody Paul’s stellar fiddle loose on a medley of standards. They swung their way through their Grammy-earning Toy Story songs with fluid key changes and segues. Ranger Doug, playing his drool-making, envy-engorging, sweet-chunking vintage Stromberg arch-top guitar, showcased his yodeling gifts in the song about Jessie the cowgirl. And they wrapped with, what else, “Happy Trails” in glorious harmony. The whole thing was positively Stombergian.

That set up a four-to-the-bar swing on “Take Me Back To Tulsa,” a song so good it’s beloved even by those, like me, who’ve never been to Tulsa in the first place. Soloists stepped forward from the Space Capone mothership, the indie band from Minneapolis and the Cowboy quartet to make it jazzy and bright. To those of you who came, and especially to those who’ve been with us from early on as believers in the Roots vision, thanks for being our first followers and keeping us from looking like lone nuts.

Bogguss maintains that Lucky is not a tribute album, - more like a wave she caught. When you start looking for great songs and your ear falls on the Haggard catalog, there’s no end to the quality and variety. And the fact that Suzy had her first hit with Haggard’s “Somewhere Between” 25 years ago adds a certain homecoming quality to the project as well. Her band included friends of ours like Pat Bergeson on guitar, Charlie Chadwick on bass and Chris Scruggs on steel guitar. They conjure a jazzily spacious feeling. The album opens with Charles Treadway’s cooing Hammond organ, a sound you’d never place in a honky-tonk. But when it becomes the harmonic bed for “Today I Started Loving You Again” you wonder how the song could have been recorded any better. “Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down” swings with a slow rock – as in chair, not ‘and roll’. “Let’s Chase Each Other Round The Room Tonight” is light, danceable and sexy. While “Sing Me Back Home,” with a lonesome dobro line, conjures the story of a doomed prisoner with sensitivity but not sentimentality.

In an interview with American Songwriter, Suzy reports that the great Mr. Haggard himself had a most gratifying and emotional reaction to the project. He said: “I’ve been looking for some new ways to play these songs, and you’ve done such a good job changing them up.”

Suzy will open the show, and if you’re looking for subtlety and sublimity you’d best be in your seats early. Because the latter half of the night is going to be more of a hoot. Space Capone is beloved by Nashville’s club rats seeking a big danceable time. Music City is enjoying a soul revival today, but really it was this frontman-plus-collective that ignited the fire years ago with a sound that balances P-Funk, Prince and disco. Less rootsy than our usual fare, we learned last fall at our sister event in Chattanooga that Space Capone fits well in our idea of authentic and organic music from today’s Nashville.

Riders in the Sky are as close to an act needing no introduction as we’ve ever had visit Roots. They are globe-trotting, range-riding, side-splitting and Grammy-winning entertainers who’ve done American music a wonderful favor by blending a nearly-lost tradition (Western music) with clever humor, a show-biz ethos and stellar musicianship. Let that last fact never be lost on folks. Ranger Doug is a master rhythm guitarist who knows his chord vocabulary inside and out, while fiddler Woody Paul provides more lead than should be possible from one man. The addition of Joey, the CowPolka King some years back as a full-time Rider was a master-stroke, because as I’ve said for years, you can always improve a band with a good accordion player. The deal-sealer of course is their ensemble singing, with pristine arrangements and Doug’s peerless yodeling. Launched in 1977 as a lark, it became a phenomenon that’s delighted kids of all ages around the world. We’re lucky to have them coming over to swing us into the sunset.