Ronnie Wood's Gotta Another Album to Do...And I Like It

Music Review: Ronnie Wood - I Feel Like Playing

In between his gig as second guitarist in the Brian Jones/Mick Taylor slot for the Rolling Stones since 1975, Ronnie Wood occupies his time as an accomplished painter, author, reformed alcoholic, and occasional solo artist.

Accent on the "occasional" there...

Though his solo albums like I've Got My Own Album To Do (one of the greatest album titles ever) and Gimmie Some Neck come even more rarely than albums by the Stones themselves, they are nearly always worth at least a listen. Woody's latest, I Feel Like Playing, which comes out next Tuesday, is no exception.

As with his previous solo efforts, I Feel Like Playing comes with the usual disclaimers. Woody's voice still sucks for the most part — although I'll take his booze and cigs rasp over that of his running buddy Keith Richards' anytime.

Besides, on this album, the studio sheen cleans up any vocal inadequacies quite convincingly. Woody's voice actually sounds pretty good here, and his ever-clean guitar licks serve as a reminder of just why the Stones signed him up in the first place.

The other thing about this album though is, because of who he is, Woody is able to attract the cream-of-the-crop when it comes to getting nothing but the very best to play on his records.

For I Feel Like Playing, Ron Wood has attracted an all-star A-list of players ranging from guys like Slash and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, to a supporting cast that includes such studio aces as drummer Jim Keltner and veteran Neil Young bassist Rick Rosas.

Hell, he's even drawn out guys like veteran L.A. session guitarist Waddy Wachtel and former Faces' bandmate Ian McLagan to play keyboards. Ya' gotta like that, right?

So the question remains. Is this is an essential album for a Stones-ologist or otherwise ? Well, no, It really isn't. In fact, this sounds a whole lot like Woody's other solo albums, except that the production has a slightly cleaner and slicker sheen to it.

Not quite pro-tools clean mind you (God, forbid!). Because that would defeat the purpose. Rather, this album maintains the "Mister Clean" sort of sound reminiscent of the highly sanitized recordings of those early seventies records you heard on labels like Asylum Records.

That said, it's still a very decent listen — especially if you've been missing the more laid back, relaxed and bluesy feel of loose, jammy seventies rock records as much as I have. In other words, in this case it's a good thing. Yes, there's a a bit more of a studio sheen to this album than I'd like. But you know what? In this case,

I'll take it. Damn straight, I will.

The highlights here include the opening "Why Ya' Wanna Go And Do A Thing Like That For," a sweet sounding Stones Sticky Fingers era by way of Gram Parsons sounding song aided by Slash's second guitar, and the Dylanesque keyboards of Ivan Neville. Woody still can't sing a lick. But in a smoky, Dylan sort of way, it still sounds really good.

Billy Gibbons also turns in some very funky ZZ Top "La Grange" era sounding guitar on "Thing About You." "Sweetness Is My Weakness" loses me just a little bit, mainly because of the funk sheen provided by studio vets Darryl Jones on bass and Steve Ferrone on drums. But ya' know what? In the end, I have to admit I got sucked in by the inescapable funk. Said, oops upside ya' head, baby!

Ditto for the slightly more uptempo take on the blues standard "Spoonful." Yes, it's been heard a thousand times before. But with Bernard Fowler's second vocal, I have to admit it sounds pretty damn good here.
The thing is, as slick as some of this album sounds (and with guys like this, it shouldn't sound anything less), Woody and his all-star band still manage to capture a sound here that hasn't been heard since...well, you know, way back then.

It's only rock and roll, but I like it.

Ronnie Wood's I Feel Like Playing will be in stores this Tuesday.

This article was first published as Music Review: Ronnie Wood - I Feel Like Playing at Blogcritics Magazine.

Chameleons Vox: Time For The Greatest Band You've Never Heard Of To Make A New Record

Concert Review: Chameleons Vox At The Crocodile, Seattle, WA, 09/21/10

The Chameleons (a.k.a. Chameleons U.K.) were a band based out of Manchester, England who released three wonderful, critically acclaimed, but moderately successful albums during the mid-to-late eighties.

Although the albums Script Of The Bridge, What Does Anything Mean? (Basically), and Strange Times are today regarded by fans and critics alike as influential classics of the period, many believe to this day that the Chameleons never quite got their due. They're right.

Led by singer/songwriter/bassist Mark Burgess, the Chameleons sound was marked by a mix of alternately chiming guitars and densely layered minor chords, which provided a perfect match to Burgess' lyrics exploring the depths of spiritual darkness and the joys of rapturous innocence.

Although often compared with similar sounding, but more commercially successful bands from the same era (Echo & The Bunnymen and U2 are often mentioned), the Chameleons still never made it past the status of a cult band. Still, although they never sold many records, to their hardcore fans the Chameleons were thought of (and still are) as "the greatest band you've never heard of."

Two decades and counting later, enough of those fans memories remained strong this past Tuesday night to pack Seattle's legendary rock club The Crocodile for a show that rocked the joint to its rafters.

Of the trio of Chameleons shows I've seen over the course of some twenty years — once in 1987 during their original run, once again during a reunion of the original lineup about ten years ago, and then finally this week — the Tuesday night show was by far the best of the three, even without the original band. For this tour, Burgess has instead surrounded himself with a group of much younger musicians who are now calling themselves Chameleons Vox.

Even so, there was no mistaking the fact that this was a Chameleons show — and a classic one at that. For the fans who've waited decades to hear nearly every great song from those first three great albums played live — this was truly a dream setlist. For their part, the members of this "new" band (who were probably all still attending grade school during the Chameleons original eighties run) more than rose to the task.

Indeed, Chameleons Vox are in many ways a much more formidable live outfit than the original group ever was — especially guitarists Andru Aesthetik and Justin Lomery. The younger guitarists recreated the dense textures of original members Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding without missing a lick, while raising the energy level of Burgess' often dark and moody songs to an arena-rock level of bone-rattling intensity.



Taking the stage late at about eleven, the Chameleons kicked the two hour set off with the Strange Times opening track "Swamp Thing." Mark Burgess — who has apparently shed his bass guitar to assume the mantle of full-time frontman for this tour — was not only in strong voice here, but was also much more animated and emotional than I can ever remember him being in past shows.

The intensity level continued to rise exponentially through letter perfect versions of "Monkeyland," "Pleasure And Pain," and the first surprise of the night, the rarely played (at least in previous shows I've seen) "In Answer."



By the time the unmistakable drum intro of "Soul In Isolation" sounded though — Burgess had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Interjecting snippets of David Bowie's "Be My Wife" and the Beatles' songs "Get Back" and "Eleanor Rigby" into the mid-section, Burgess and the rest of the band literally tore the roof off the joint at this point. It was the best version of the song I've ever heard. The main set closed out with an equally roof-raising version of "Second Skin."



The Chameleons then returned for a five song encore that began with a version of "Don't Fall," which again displayed the ample power chord muscle of these great young new guitarists. Burgess then sang an impromptu accapella version of "Tears" to a lucky female fan near the stage, before the band closed out with a beautifully layered version of "View From A Hill" that nearly matched the original from Script Of The Bridge.

The last time I saw the Mark Burgess and the Chameleons play Seattle in a 2002 reunion of their original lineup, I correctly figured it was probably a one-time thing. Here's hoping that with this new, younger and more energized Chameleons Vox lineup, Burgess sticks around a little longer this time around.

With this group of young, willing and hungry new players, the newly re-energized "greatest band you've never heard of" really needs to make a new record.

This article was originally published as Concert Review: Chameleons Vox At The Crocodile, Seattle, WA, 09/21/10 at Blogcritics Magazine.

Flying Jefferson Airplane...Again

When I was a kid, I can remember having two favorite bands. The first was the Beatles of course (for obvious reasons).

The second though, was the Jefferson Airplane. Some of the reasons there should be fairly obvious — Grace Slick's dark and druggy sexuality made me cream my very hormonally charged thirteen year old jeans the same way that I'm sure they did many other young boys growing up back then in the sixties as I did.

But where the Airplane really cast their spell on me was in the way guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady wove such intoxicating tapestries of sound. They were more like tunnels which took you deep into the rabbit hole Grace sang about actually.

There was nothing quite like the way Casady's rumbling bass lines sucked you deep down into that tunnel — and there really has never been another like him before or since. Couple that with Kaukonen's sharp, raga-esque blasts of guitar and you had a uniquely different flight into the other worlds of consciousness altogther. Fantasies of Grace's own rabbit hole notwithstanding (sorry, couldn't resist...)

I mean, sure. Grace was every sixties male teenyboppers hippie chick goddess — and undoubtedly the focus of many a pre-pubescent masturbatory fantasy back then (which forty some odd years later, I can now admit included my own). Where Janis was sorta scary, Grace was more like comely, okay?

But while Grace may have made one hell of a psychedelic flight attendant, it was Jorma and Jack who were truly flying this particular Airplane. With these two amazingly gifted musicians as your psychedelic pilots, any additional drugs were completely unnecessary. Fly Jefferson Airplane indeed.

Another thing I used to do back then was mark the songs on my vinyl albums with stars for the songs I really liked. The ones I'd skip over would be unmarked, while others might have one star or two. But the ones which really kicked ass might have four or even five.

When Jefferson Airplane released their first official live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head back in 1969, the song "Plastic Fantastic Lover" was marked with five stars. No question about it. As songs released on live albums go, this one ranked right up there with the fourteen minute version of "My Generation" from The Who Live At Leeds.

To this day, I have never heard a bass riff that rumbled my speakers and my entire being, the same way that this one did, and still does to this day. Kaukonen's leads — razor sharp and concise — likewise cut through Casady's deep as thunder bass runs like a knife to butter, and Marty Balin's vocals here are the icing on the cake.

Not long after this album, as well as the one great studio album they had left in them (1969's Volunteers), the Airplane disintegrated into the embarrassing mess that eventually became those god-awful Starship albums of the eighties. If you'd like to forget those, trust me, you are not alone.

But for that one brief moment in 1969 — forget the Stones, forget the Who — the Jefferson Airplane were the undisputed greatest live band on earth.

Which is why I submit, they need to leave it at that. The Stones have Get Your Yas Yas Out. The Who have Live At Leeds. And Jefferson Airplane have Bless Its Pointed Little Head. But, can they leave well enough alone? Of course not.

In the end, it is history which ultimately decides these things. But in the meantime, it is up to the record executives and the like to do everything in their power to muck the rest of it up. Just ask the Stones and the Who.

Although they got it right the first time, Jefferson Airplane (or at least the record companies with both the rights and the access) have continued to release a number of live albums in the years since, and none have yet to measure up to the standard of Pointed Head.

The latest of these attempts is a series of four live albums that will be released next month by Collectors Choice Music. Although taken as a whole, these four albums — recorded between 1966 and 1968 at the Fillmore and the Matrix — also fall largely short of capturing the magic of the Airplane as a great live band, they do come the closest to date. They also place things in much more of a historical context, and contain some truly spellbinding musical moments along the way.

Take "Plastic Fantastic Lover" for instance. It's no mistake that this song appears no less then four times on these four discs (and three times on the November 1966 We Have Ignition set from the Fillmore alone).

Hearing the live evolution of this song — from the lucid, druggy jam most closely resembling the studio version heard on Surrealistic Pillow, to the statically charged version that is closest to the definitive live perfection from Pointed Head heard on the 1968 Return To The Matrix — is a textbook example of watching a song take on a life all of its own onstage. It's no mistake that "Plastic Fantastic Lover" was the Airplane's signature live tune — much more so than the much bigger hits like "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit."

But not to worry — those songs show up here too. Of the two of them, the version of "White Rabbit" fares the better on the 1966 version from the Fillmore.

Grace Slick — still new to the band at the time — plays things fairly straight here, and as always Casady's bass just kills it dead. By contrast, on a version of "Somebody To Love" from the 1968 Matrix discs, Slick seems to be somewhere else entirely (there is improvisation, and there is also just plain stoned). Here again however, on the intro Casady's bass thunders along like nothing short of the breath of God himself.

In the final analysis, these live recordings will probably be of the most interest to hardcore students of rock history, and particularly of the sixties psychedelic period. They trace the Airplane from original vocalist Signe Anderson's final performance, to Grace Slick's debut (the very next night), all the way through to embryonic pre-release versions of Crown Of Creation songs like "Ice Cream Phoenix" (a standout from the 1968 Matrix set).

As post Pointed Head attempts at bottling the volatile electricity of the original live Jefferson Airplane go, this four disc series is by far the best effort to date.

It is also exactly the official document of the Airplane's live evolution as a band, that rock historical types have long awaited (previously available streams at Wolfgangs Vault and on bootlegs notwithstanding).

But all historical significance aside — and there are some really great performances spread over this series — Bless Its Pointed Little Head remains the definitive live Jefferson Airplane album, and indeed, one of the greatest live albums ever. You just can't top that kind of perfection.

The Collectors Choice series arrives in stores on October 26.

This article was first published as The Rockologist: Flying Jefferson Airplane Again at Blogcritics Magazine.

Paul Is Dead...No, Honest. He Really Is.

DVD Review: Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison

The immediate question with something as outlandish and outrageous as this, is how exactly does one approach it? And the answer, is an equally obvious one.

That would be with a grain of salt and then some. On a purely dark comedic sort of level, this shit (and I do mean shit in the most literal sense of the word) is pure gold.

Whether the Beatles themselves had anything to do with the "Paul Is Dead" rumors which initially began spreading like wildfire in 1969 around the time of the release of Abbey Road or not (and my own suspicion is that they didn't), there is no question that these stories, however briefly, created quite a weird firestorm at the time.

Honestly, you really had to be there.

As a teenager, I can even recall myself buying into the whole "Paul Is Dead" conspiracy theory, fueled by the numerous "clues" placed on Beatles album covers and even within the songs themselves.

Personally, I have no idea who exactly came up with the whole thing (and again, I don't think it was the Beatles themselves).

But at the time it was pure genius. Whether by joke, accident or design, the various "clues" placed on Beatles albums dating back as far as Rubber Soul are actually quite convincing for a minute when they are added up — at least if you were a very impressionable twelve year old boy back then, as I was.

If you play back the very end Of "Strawberry Fields Forever" for example, it really does sound like John Lennon says "I buried Paul." Lennon has since claimed the line was actually the rather innocently nonsensical "Cranberry Sauce".

The thing is, if John was really grieving over Paul, how do you explain a song like "How Do You Sleep" — because if I'm not mistaken, Lennon sounds quite royally pissed at Paul in that one.

But hey, what about the funeral procession on the back cover of Abbey Road? What about that "28If" license plate? Or Paul being barefoot, and George wearing a gravediggers uniform? Or the backwards masking heard on "Revolution #9" from the White Album ("turn me on, dead man").

Or about how Paul "blew his mind out in a car," — a lyric heard on "A Day In The Life" said to be about how Paul McCartney lost his life in a 1966 car accident?

Questions, Questions, Questions...

The thing is, such things as deciphering these various "clues" were a lot of fun back then — especially if you happened by a completely obsessed twelve year old Beatles fan as I was.

But seriously? Get real. The only guy who read this much into Beatles lyrics back then was Charles Manson, and the circumstances of that are a matter of rather tragic, but unfortunately historical record.

Most of us have since long gotten over it. But as unbelievable as it may seem, there are some people who still take this shit quite seriously. For all I know, Charles Manson is probably one of them. But my suspicion is that Joel Gilbert, the guy who made this DVD, isn't.

Gilbert is a guy who has made a number of unauthorized Bob Dylan DVD's, where he mostly goes around dressed as a mid-period Dylan wannabe trying to fill in the blanks on things like Bob's "Jesus years." On this DVD, he even sneaks in some of that Dylan devotion in the extras included.

But beyond that, Gilbert takes the whole "Paul Is Dead" myth to ridiculous and honestly, quite humorous lengths. And it is in that spirit, that Paul McCartney Really Is Dead should be taken.

Because honestly, when put into that context this DVD is actually a lot of fun. Based upon a mysterious, clandestinely delivered tape from someone purporting to be a badly voiced George Harrison on his deathbed, a fairly convincing case for the "Paul Is Dead" conspiracy is actually made during the early parts of this DVD — at least until they get to the badly scripted parts about British intelligence agents named for Beatles songs like "Maxwell."

By the time "Lovely Rita" turns out to be a young Heather Mills who lost her leg in the 1966 car accident which purportedly killed Paul, and she subsequently blackmailed "Fake Paul" (or "Faul") into marrying her — any minuscule credibility this film may have had is tossed completely out the window.

I mean, we all know that Heather was kind of a bitch and all — but was she even alive in 1966? And as an adult to boot?

Things get a little less tasteful when the deaths of both Harrison and John Lennon are attributed to the ongoing "Paul Is Dead" coverup. And in the case of John Lennon, I can almost buy into it — though not for any conspiracy theory involving the supposed death of Paul McCartney. Lennon's assassination enters into more something like the Manchurian Candidate realm — at least if you actually subscribe to that sort of thing.

But for the most part, this is where Joel Gilbert's Paul McCartney Really Is Dead enters into the realm of the truly ridiculous. That said, as long as you don't take it too seriously, the premise here is sort of entertaining, in a darkly humorous sort of way.

I also have to admit that it had me kind of going for a minute there. Just don't tell anybody, okay?

This article was first published as DVD Review: Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison at Blogcritics Magazine.

Interview: Pegi Young Confesses Her Foul Deeds And More

With her second solo album, Foul Deeds, singer-songwriter Pegi Young may be about to break away from the long shadow cast by her more famous husband, rock legend Neil Young. Not literally of course. Despite the many songs expressing themes of heartbreak and loss heard on Foul Deeds, Pegi has assured us that she and Neil are doing just fine, thank you very much.

However, Foul Deeds does represent a bold enough progression from her self-titled 2007 solo debut, that Pegi Young seems to be poised for an artistic breakthrough of her own.

With a mix of strong originals like "Traveling" (which is heard in two versions on the album) and the title track, as well as well-chosen covers like Will Jennings' "Pleasing To Me" (that nicely compliment the overall storytelling arc of Foul Deeds), any bets against it would at the very least be unwise.

The album, released this past June by Vapor Records (the indie imprint started up by her husband and Elliot Roberts — who also manages both acts), has been getting some very positive reviews. A series of small venue concerts by Pegi and her band that took place on the West Coast this past June, were likewise well received by audiences and critics alike.

In October, Pegi Young will once again take the Foul Deeds show out on the road, this time hitting small venues mostly on the East Coast. As was the case with the shows in June, Pegi and her all-star band (which includes such veterans of her husband's recordings as keyboardist Spooner Oldham and bassist Rick Rosas) will be sharing the bill with Scottish folk singer/songwriter/guitarist Bert Jansch. They will however, be minus one key member, the great multi-instrumentalist Ben Keith, who sadly passed away in July at the age of 73.

Earlier this week, Pegi Young phoned Blogcritics music editor Glen Boyd from the Young family's Broken Arrow Ranch in Northern California. She talked about Ben Keith's untimely passing, her new album, being a late bloomer as an artist and a number of other subjects in the rare interview which follows:

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. So, are you back on the road now?

No, I'm here at our place in California. We are scheduled to go back on the road in early October.

I was fortunate to enough to see you here in Seattle back in June at the Triple Door.

Yeah...I read your review, and I read your subsequent album review. I definitely appreciated your show review and the mention of Spooner and Ben, because I thought "okay, this guy really gets it."

Well, thank you for that (laughs). Those were of course the last shows Ben Keith did before his untimely passing. Can you talk about that for a minute?

Well, of course we didn't know at the time that they were his last shows. So you know, everything was just normal. We just pulled into town like we always do, you know and it was like "that was fun" and everybody was just looking forward to the next show. He really is just a brilliant player, and he plays so many instruments. We always worked really closely on the production and he's just really always been my "go-to" guy. It's just really, really (long pause)...sad, that he's gone.

It seemed like it was pretty sudden.

It was very sudden.

So, what's it like playing the smaller places as a headliner or sharing the bill with someone like Bert Jansch, as opposed to playing the bigger arenas with your husband?

Well, the Triple Door is cool...we really like the Triple Door. I remember walking into the WAMU Center (Seattle's WAMU Theater) when we played there with Neil, and thinking "oh, God...do I have to?" I mean it scared me...it was so big compared to some of the theaters we just played. It was pretty daunting. I mean I get stage fright anyway (laughs). But I like the small places myself. I mean, you know you can really feel it, and for me the music just goes really well in the smaller places. Some of the theaters were really great, you know, really intimate and warm.

I don't know if you were aware, but the WAMU Theater is also used for things like home shows. It's like a converted exhibition hall...

No, I had no idea...I just looked at it and went, "oh, boy..." (sighs and laughs). But you know, all in all the people seemed to be really enjoying themselves, even if some of them were just coming in for the opening act. The crowds were pretty cool. But The Triple Door...that's a great club. I like the history of that club too, it's like an old vaudevillian place. So yeah, that was a lot of fun.

So how did you come about to start making your own records, you know, later in life?

Well, it was kind of a process from when I was much younger, just playing small time gigs — fairgrounds and things. And then I had done some tours with Neil, and at one point Elliot Roberts just said "when are you going to think about doing your record?" And I just said, "well, I have been thinking about that" (laughs). Anyway, I knew who I wanted in the band, because they were all my friends, right? (laughs).

I said, "Well, I really like Rick Rosas' bass playing, and Karl's drums (Himmel), and of course Ben and Spooner." And of course, we had all just worked with Anthony on the Prairie Wind tour (with Neil Young), and I hadn't seen Anthony in about twenty years...

He's a great guitar player...

Right, and he's a great all-around musician and songwriter.

Well, they say you have your entire life to make your first record, and then you have to make your second one. So what was the difference between making that first album and this new one?

Well...I mean, probably the terror factor (laughs). Starting at the very beginning with the first time, I was initially thinking this probably isn't a very good idea.

I mean it's personal, you know? These are personal songs. So once I got over the terror, and when we went into the studio, I played maybe six or seven demos. I mean we had years, so for somebody to just sit there with me and listen to mixes...we could just sit there together in the studio and... listen, to everything, you know? Every single note. But this time, we were touring...

So this time around, part of the record was actually made while you were on the road?

It very much was. The whole mixing process was. We recorded, and (Editor's note: This part of the tape was unintelligible, but presumably Pegi is referring to Ben Keith) said look if it's okay with you, I'm gonna' go back and start mixing. So he was sending me files, and we were listening, and as it turned out, it still took several months.

I've heard you mention that your songs don't necessarily have to come from a personal, autobiographical place. So based on the songs on this new album, I hope we can assume you and Neil are still doing well? (laughs) But the lyrical content of the first few songs especially, seems to tell a story about the breakup of a relationship...

Yeah...I read how you wrote that (laughs), and I loved how you took the album that way. And that is my intention...it's just not autobiographical, you know? It's really not (laughs).

You know, when you break it down, "Broken Vows" is, if anything, more about my parents divorce. And "Starting Over" was written after I went to a funeral. A guy we knew had been married to his wife, for like fifty years, and she died.

But yeah, I really liked that. I mean that's what you want as a songwriter, that people can take it into their lives. But that song just came out of a gospel thing, or something in my head. But you know, I really like to present the songs on an album as a story, as something thematic, rather than something you'd put on a random shuffle.

And I really think that's what the best songwriters do. Dylan, Springsteen...certainly Neil does. So what's your favorite song on the record?

Well, let's see, how does the album end? I think it ends on a high note, doesn't it? (laughs)

I think it ends with the second version of "Traveling." So is that song your favorite?

Well, "Traveling," yeah I love "Traveling" (laughs). I really love the spare version of it, but I think the band did a really great version of it too, with Phil (Jones) and Anthony (Crawford). They did a really great job on that.

I like your version of the Devendra Banhart song "Body Breaks" a lot too. It has a very torchy sort of feel to it, like Norah Jones or Sade...

Devendra Banhart played the Bridge School show one year. I love the song, and I like the way we did it. It has a very different tempo. I mean, I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I love the arrangement. Did we do that in Seattle? I think we did...

You know to be honest, I couldn't tell you. I wasn't that familiar with the album yet. Was it even out back then?

No problem. But I think we did do it. I think the album was out, but we might have been still trying to get copies up to Seattle to sell.

So you mentioned that Devendra played the Bridge School benefit one year. How's that going? I hear you have Pearl Jam lined up this year.

It's going great. Yes, we do. We have Pearl Jam, they announced it on their website. So, yes they are playing.

How hands-on is your involvement in the Bridge School at this point?

It's pretty hands-on (laughs). I mean, look, by way of floating ideas and such, Elliot and I talk often about who might be able to play.

Does your involvement at this point extend to anything in the administrative area?

We now have a wonderful executive director who is starting her seventh year. I was the executive director for the first six or seven years, and you know, I have my heart into it as a parent. I sit on the board still.

You guys are definitely doing some great work. Well, once again, thanks for taking the time to talk today Pegi.

I'm happy to talk to you, and I really appreciate your appreciation of my work, and I really do feel your review was one of those ones I read where, this guy really gets it. I feel good about that. So, thank you.

For more information on Pegi Young, be sure to check out her official website, as well as the home page of Vapor Records and Pegi's MySpace Page.

This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine as Interview: Singer/Songwriter Pegi Young Confesses Her Foul Deeds And More

When It Comes To Pegi Young's Foul Deeds, Don't Be Denied

Music Review: Pegi Young - Foul Deeds (Limited Edition CD/DVD)

Pegi Young is somewhat known as Neil Young's occasional backup singer and as co-founder of the Bridge School for children with speech and other learning disabilities. Mainly though, she is known as Mrs. Neil Young.

As the spouse of a rock legend, the temptation to immediately dismiss Mrs. Neil Young as a credible artist in her own right (see Yoko Ono or Linda McCartney for reference) is an understandably strong one. But in Pegi Young's case, such a premature rush to judgment would not only be unfair — it would also be dead wrong.

On Foul Deeds — her second solo album and her first for Vapor Records, the indie label started by Neil Young and manager Elliot Roberts — Pegi Young convincingly casts aside any such doubts. The fact is, Pegi shows herself to be coming into her own as both a singer and songwriter quite nicely here.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to have great musicians like bassist Rick Rosas, guitarist Anthony Crawford, and the late, great multi-instrumentalist Ben Keith in the band. All of these names are familiar to anyone who has ever listened to Neil Young albums like Harvest Moon and Prairie Wind. Guys like keyboardist Spooner Oldham and even Neil himself turn up here as well.

But as the saying goes, you can have the greatest band in the world, and it still won't mean a thing without great songs to match. Fortunately, the songs on Foul Deeds — divided equally between Pegi's originals, and a handful of well chosen covers by people like Will Jennings, Lucinda Williams, and Devendra Banhart — are all pretty damn great.

Taken together, these songs also tell a story that flows like water from the first track to the last. Will Jennings' "Pleasing To Me" sets the table nicely, describing an idyllic relationship with lyrics like "I watch the sunshine tangled up in your hair, and it's pleasing to me." Pegi's smoothly pleasing voice, backed by Ben Keith (on Hammond B3 organ and pedal steel) and Crawford (on electric guitar), is also so convincing, that for a minute you'd be forgiven for thinking she actually wrote the song (she didn't) about Shakey himself.

But then, the lyrics take a darker, more melancholic tone as the next three songs — all Pegi Young originals — take you through the different stages of a relationship on the skids.

Departing somewhat from the laid back country feel heard elsewhere on this album, "Broken Vows" finds Pegi singing the heartbreak blues in lines like "in sickness and in health, it's a sickness and a sin, 'cuz you've taken off yet again" as Keith's pedal steel adds a perfectly understated touch of melancholy.

On the title track, she's still hurting, but begging forgiveness for "all my foul deeds." Talk about the stages of heartbreak!

But by the time of "Starting Over" she's resigned to "starting over anew in a world without you." "Who Knew" finds the once hurting party gathering new found strength and "making my place, might fall on my face." So, how's that for a series of songs that tell a story?

Another Pegi Young original called "Traveling" shows up twice here. Once, as a bare bones jazzy trio piece with Crawford on Fender Rhodes piano and drummer Phil Jones riding the cymbal brushes. It's later reprised as a slow blues in a full band arrangement as a bonus track.

Continuing the tales of heartbreak, Pegi Young turns in a beautifully rendered version of Lucinda Williams' "Side Of The Road," where she is joined by her famous husband on electric guitar and harmonica, as well as the great Spooner Oldham on the Wurlitzer(!).

However, the best cover version on the album — and Pegi's best overall vocal performance — is saved for a gorgeous version of Devendra Banhart's "Body Breaks." Joined once again by Neil Young on guitar and Spooner Oldham on piano, the song falls right in line with the overall theme of romantic heartbreak. But the mood is more dreamy and meditative, and Pegi's torchy vocal serves as the icing on the cake. Think Norah Jones singing Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" and you'd be pretty close to the atmospheric feel here.

The first 5000 copies of Foul Deeds also feature a bonus DVD of a Pegi Young concert filmed by Jonathan Demme at Philadelphia's Tower Theater and produced by  L.A. Johnson and Bernard Shakey himself. Playing in front of the familiar staging of Neil Young's Chrome Dreams II tour, one has to assume this film was made at the same time as Demme's Trunk Show film document of that tour.

Featuring the same great band heard on the album — Keith, Crawford, Rosas and Jones — the film mostly features songs from Pegi Young's solo debut (although there is also a nice version of "Starting Over" from Foul Deeds). Several songs feature split screen effects, which mostly work well (particularly when you get to see Ben Keith's fingers on the dobro and pedal steel up close).



For me though, one of the best performances here is "Trouble In A Bottle," where Pegi Young pulls off the rather impressive feat of making a song about alcoholism sound warmer than it has any right to. Guitar tech Larry Cragg also turns in a spellbinding electric sitar solo on the semi-psychedelic "Love Like Water," that gave me instant flashbacks of the Box Tops' old single "Cry Like A Baby." And just when you think Ben Keith couldn't surprise you anymore, he pulls out a freaking autoharp!

On Foul Deeds, Pegi Young has pulled off the near impossible task of establishing herself as a unique artistic voice able to stand quite tall on her own, and well outside of the long shadow cast by her husband. To those tempted to dismiss her, I've got three words for you:

Don't Be Denied. Any questions?

This article was first published as Music Review: Pegi Young - Foul Deeds (Limited Edition CD/DVD) at Blogcritics Magazine.