If you’re the type of person who lives day in day out with an unquenchable thirst for real rock ‘n’ roll, chances are you’ve heard of the Bottle Rockets. If
Watch the new video for Clementine from Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Americana LP.
Lyrics are not Jackie Greene’s strong suit; hooks and harmonics are. How else to explain the way Greene routinely crafts beautiful roots gems, inspired country blues and frayed-edge power pop with smooth, but ultimately featherweight narratives about bad love, weary yearning and wanton soul searching? It’s not meaty stuff, but it’s delivered with grace and gravitas; Greene says “feel it, anyway,” and you do. It’s a formula that’s worked for him and continues to work on Till the Light Comes, his sixth album and, if not a great collection, surely a nourishing one, with buoyant arrangements and the fullness of a well-oiled band fleshing them out.
n rock and roll debates 101, Robert Plant arguablys hold the greatest rock and roll voice. Sure Steven Tyler, Bono, Roger Daltrey, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie and Mick Jagger are up there too, but its not even worth arguing. On even Simon Cowell’s list, Robert Plant is top five and his voice can do things that make 55 year old grown men in attendance jump the stage (which happened this evening in Phoenix) and 30 year old woman pass roses to the voice of rock and roll’s most iconic songs.
With four albums, Jackie Greene, 27, hasn’t really come out of nowhere, but he reached a whole different level of visibility when he joined Phil Lesh and Friends in the summer of 2007. Greene’s diverse skills have allowed him to become this group’s de facto front-man, a role to which he has conveyed a commanding stage presence as he sparks both his band-mates and the audiences who come to see them.
With their latest release Howl, BRMC has made their boldest statement yet. Gone are the walls of reverb, buzzing guitars and Jesus and Mary Chain comparisons, as they’re replaced with a collection of true Americana revealing 60’s counter-culture and Johnny Cash outlaw hymns.
