Trainwreck [Import]

1. Introducing

2. Dreaming

3. Waking

4. Sentencing

5. Medicating

6. Purging

7. Relapsing

8. Recovering

9. Composing

10. Disintegrating

11. Healing

12. Dying

Tracks:

Run to the Middle of the Mornin'
I Like Trucks
Take Me Down to the River
Ribbons & Bows
I Certainly Know Why
Gold in the Hills (of Saltery Bay)
In the Middle of a Think About You
Especially For A Girl
I'm a Child All Over Again
Ain't That a Sun
Just What Happened to the Moon
There's No Angel on My Shoulder
Who Wants To Ride This Train

Album Description

Kendel Carson - she's a name, voice and fiddler/violinist who will indeed be remembered from a first listen to Rearview Mirror Tears, her delightful and alluring debut album on Train Wreck Records, produced by Chip Taylor. Already a musical veteran at age 22, she's been capturing ears and wowing audiences across her native Canada and around the globe with her prodigious talent and luminescent aura since she joined her first musical group at nine years old.

So it's no surprise that Rearview Mirror Tears sounds like the assured work of a veteran artist, rich with an uncanny and winning familiarity, seducing listeners to spin it again and again. After all, it's the work of a true artistic natural whose soul is suffused with music, and then on Rearview Mirror Tears is paired with another equally musical soul, master songwriter Chip Taylor, composer of such indelible classics as "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning" and éminence grise of Americana music and the contemporary folk-rock and singer-songwriter scenes.

It's a collaboration that at first glance may seem like a seasoned veteran mentoring a gifted protégé, but the album soon reveals something else at work that's even more vibrant and exciting. The way Carson inhabits the album's songs with a full, rich presence and stamps her identity into the music with her vocals and playing tells a different tale: An artistic union of two friends and kindred musical souls. There's a spirit and life that pervades Rearview Mirror Tears that can only come between two talents in prime form enjoying their creativity in full flow.

Carson was all but destined to make memorable music from birth. Growing up in Victoria, British Columbia, she began playing violin at the tender age of three. Carson ascended to the upper reaches of the Canadian classical music world while still young, appearing as a featured guest soloist with the Victoria Symphony and later joining the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

At the same time as she was achieving mastery as a violinist, Carson also became immersed in the vibrant Canadian folk scene as a fiddler, first with the BC Fiddle Orchestra and then with her brother Tyler as The Carsons, later to become the group Kid Carson. Her collaborative nature also later landed her in the Juno-winning roots music band The Paperboys, with whom she quickly became a notable member on their most recent album, The Road to Ellenside. Her duet with lead singer Tom Landa, "Fall Down With You," was the first video single from the disc and hit #4 on Canada's MuchMoreMusic video channel.

After first meeting her in 2004, Taylor began offering Carson long-distance encouragement and guidance in the months that followed. With Taylor in his most prolific and inspired state within an already prolific and inspired career, their creative alliance bloomed. By the time they hit the studio for a couple of days of recording in 2006, magic wasn't just in the air but in fact captured on the tracks they quickly laid down. On Rearview Mirror Tears, they create an album of music that feels like it was not just meant to be, but ready to emerge and capture the ears of the world at large. With an organic ambience of natural artistry in unfettered flow, the sessions became an album by an artist in first full flowering. Ranging with ease and engaging charm through a variety of roots music modes and emotional and musical moods, Rearview Mirror Tears is one of those exceptional creations that feels memorable and meaningful from its very first notes.

So even though Taylor wears such hats on Rearview Mirror Tears as producer, songwriter, singer and record label, his true role was ultimately encouraging Carson, a fellow talent and peer (despite any age difference), to become who she is and all that she is able to become. And as Taylor sees it, it's ultimately Carson's artistic capacities rather than his own that makes Rearview Mirror Tears all that it is. For Carson, her delectably winning debut album is one of those pivotal artistic and life lessons whose rewards will inform everything to come along her already lengthy and fulfilling musical journey that is sure to continue for some time to come.

Customer Reviews:

Great debut.......2007-06-10

Terrific debut album. Kendel has a nice soulful voice, and the instrumentals on this album don't drown it out. She does some up-tempo stuff as well as some excellent ballads. My favorite cut is Ribbons and Bows. I heard it on XM radio and had to hear more.

Average customer rating:

A Musical Masterpiece for the 21st Century
enjoy with tequila

Blues, Waltzes & Badland Borders
John Platania
Manufacturer: Trainwreck Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Texas Blues | Regional Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music

General | Country | Styles | Music

Western Swing | Country | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Rearview Mirror Tears
Sweet Warrior
Easy Tiger
Diamonds to Dust
West

ASIN: B000NOKBTS
Release Date: 2007-04-03

Tracks:

Runnin' With The Dogs
Child Heroes
East Texas Waltz
Song For The Quiet One
The Highlander's Blues
I Will Be Standing
Texas Sexy Ways
Train Wreck
Tribute
Suite 35
In Memory Of Zapata

Amazon.com

Though John Platania's renown is mainly limited to close readers of liner notes, his long association with Van Morrison has found his guitar gracing classics such as "Moondance," "Into the Mystic," and "Domino." His association with songwriter Chip Taylor began in the early 1970s as well, and has sparked this album celebrating Tex-Mex border culture, co-produced and largely co-written by the two. Lucinda Williams sings lead and Alejandro Escovedo provides narration and harmonies on "In Memory of Zapata," with actor Jon Voight (Taylor's brother) offering a capsule history lesson on "Running with the Dogs." Yet Platania's guitar serves as the dominant musical voice throughout, with a command of tone that rarely resorts to show-off licks. Whether he's exploring the cantina side of the border on "Child Heroes" or powering the roadhouse blues in "Texas Sexy Ways," Platania does what he always has--provide the perfect accompaniment to serve the song. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews:

A Musical Masterpiece for the 21st Century.......2007-05-28

This album is incredible! I cannot remember the last time that after listening to a cd I immediately played it straight through again... and again.

Platania, as some of you may know, has been the right hand man for two of the most well-respected musicians of the last thirty years, Van Morrison and Chip Taylor, and I am sure that some of his talent was derived from his association with these men. However, I think it may also be said that these two legendary songwriters got as much from John as he did from them. In fact, Van Morrison credits Platania as the co-writer of several of his songs.

This album is exeptionally strong all the way through, and can be thought of as a symphonic composition with a series of movements, much like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, a master work of musical genius to which it can easily be compared. The only fault I can find with the album is I think the second and third tracks should be the last two songs on it, and that is exactly how I have arranged it on my IPod.

Platania still has his golden gift to work magic with the guitar. Blues, Waltzes & Badland Borders will stand the test of time as a 21st century classic.

enjoy with tequila.......2007-05-16

This veteran master sets an undeniable groove with every style he plays. I first got hooked on the ballad, I Will Be Standing. Then the rest of the tunes just got absorbed through my pores like west Texas dust. Definitely enjoy with your favorite tequila.

Average customer rating:

Heartbreaking and beautiful
A Masterpiece.
Chip Taylor: The Real Thing returns triumphantly!

Seven Days in May
Chip Taylor
Manufacturer: Trainwreck Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Country Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Hit Man
Unglorious Hallelujah
The Living Room Tapes
Chip Taylor's Last Chance
Red Dog Tracks

ASIN: B00000IGS8
Release Date: 1999-04-13

Tracks:

Seven Days In May
I Will Be Standing Again
Through Their Mother's Eyes
Just Keep Holding On
Florence, The Baby And Me
If I Don't Know Love
One Hell Of A Guy
Florence Is The River
Oh Florence
Alexander
How Can I Get Through This
Walk Away From You
All My Days

Customer Reviews:

Heartbreaking and beautiful.......2006-01-21

Wow. Chip Taylor does it again. I got into his music after hearing about him and Carrie Rodriguez on NPR. This earlier album is at least as good as the stuff he's doing now.

The emotion evident on listening to these songs is so real, so deep, that one almost feels guilty for intruding on the writer's private thoughts. The songs are beautiful, both in lyrics and music. The duets with Lucinda Williams are lovely.

Buy it. You won't regret it. Only problem may be finding it, since it appears to be nearly out of circulation.

A Masterpiece........2000-07-11

Simply a masterpiece. A hauntingly beautiful album, one of the best I've ever heard. I bought this because of Lucinda Williams' (her duet on "Through Their Mother's Eyes" with Chip Taylor, track 3, brings tears to my eyes) and Rick Danko's contributions, but instantly became a Chip Taylor fan -- simply some of the best and most heartfelt songwriting I've ever heard, complemented perfectly by Taylor's vocals (reminiscent of Willie Nelson's, but quite distinctive in their own right) and playing. It's rare to hear a man be this emotional and sincere in writing songs -- a truly adult (in the most positive sense) album. I've loaned this CD & bought it as a gift for friends and family, and everyone I've shared it with has been as moved as I was. If you are a fan of folk, blues, country, rock or any kind of passionate singer/songwriter work, you will love this.

Chip Taylor: The Real Thing returns triumphantly!.......1999-09-16

A young girl leaves her father's farm for the first time and visits the city of the wise, handsome, wealthy and beloved king of the land. When the king beholds the beautiful young visitor, he becomes deeply infatuated with her and sets his heart on winning her love. The young girl, however, is in love with a shepherd boy back home. She withstands the king's amorous overtures and returns home to her heart's true love. Many will recognize this story as the Song of Solomon from the Bible. However, it is also, essentially, the story of Seven Days in May. Chip Taylor, the legendary songwriter and winning gambler of considerable success, is the king's counterpart. Florence, a lovely Parisian beauty visiting Taylor's Manhattan stomping grounds for seven days in the spring of 1996, shares the experience of the fabled young farmer's daughter. Taylor pulls out all the stops, writing a collection of lovely melodies and heartwrenching lyrics in an all out effort to win Florence's love. In short, he fails, and she returns to her true love waiting at home in France. Rather than being a sad ending, this really chronicles the happy prologue to a bigger story- the enduring friendship of Taylor with Florence and her 'shepherd boy', Guillaume. All the songs are wonderful. If I had to pick a few favorites, I'd pick I Will Be Standing Again, a testament to Taylor's eternal optimism; Through Their Mother's Eyes, and, If I Don't Know Love, two lovely duets featuring Lucinda Williams; and, One Hell of a Guy, a duet featuring Guy Clark, paying tribute to Florence's French Romeo. Taylor wrote Seven Days in May as a tribute to Florence; but it also gives the listener a chance to peer into the fine character of Taylor, himself, apparantly, One Hell of a Guy! During Taylor's tour of Texas to promote Seven Days in May, Governor George W. Bush was sufficiently impressed that he commissioned Taylor as an Honorary Texan. Senator Tom Haywood opined, "Not bad for a boy from Yonkers!" Buy this cd and listen to it in the dark with someone you love!

Average customer rating:

if you liked old boysnightout then stay well away from this album
Trainwreck
Great Idea - Wrong Genre
shame!!on u guys
More of a Planecrash.

Trainwreck
Boys Night Out
Manufacturer: Ferret Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Emo | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Punk-Pop | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Post Hardcore | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Discovering the Waterfront
Broken Bones & Bloody Kisses
Commit This to Memory
The City Sleeps in Flames
Hours

ASIN: B0009WPM1G
Release Date: 2005-07-26

Tracks:

Introducing
Dreaming
Waking
Sentencing
Medicating
Purging
Relapsing
Recovering
Composing
Disintegrating
Healing
Dying

Customer Reviews:

if you liked old boysnightout then stay well away from this album.......2006-10-07

First off the lyrics and idea for how this album is portrayed is well thought of but to me it appears that the band has thought too much about the lyrical content and not enough about the music, quite frankly it's boring. The one track I liked and still like off this album is purging because my mind just cannot escape the sound of the female keyboardists voice, it's innocent and sweet. I just cannot understand why the band felt they had to part with the sound they used to have the concept would of worked out exactly the same with the old formula but they took the pop out of the heardcore/pop and threw away the speed. This band used to be a nice different sounding experience now they just sound like thousands of other bands that are churned out of record labels daily. I find the title somewhat of a pun "train wreck" just about as much fun as one.

Trainwreck.......2006-09-09

check this album out, it is amazing, the story is riveting and tne music supports the lyrics by seamlessly going from denial to depression to outrage to acceptance and so much more

Great Idea - Wrong Genre.......2006-05-23

I believe Trainwreck is a really good album, but moreso because of what it tries to accomplish rather than what it actually does accomplish. I gave it a four star rating because the idea to make a concept album based on the mind of a man decending into madness, murder, and insanity is what I've been waiting for ever since I listened deeply to the early Alice Cooper albums. Learning of the content of Trainwreck made me immediatley think of certain Alice Cooper story-songs like "Steven" or "The Ballad of Dwight Frye" which are also about diminishing mindstates and insanity taking over. The problem I have with Trainwreck is that the storytelling didn't work as well with their emo hardcore sound, frankly I would have been much more impressed with a classic rock approach similar to Cooper. Although Boys Night Out aren't in that genre, alot of the songs could have been better with a slower, creepier feel to them and lyrically - maybe singing slower to really drive home those tragic moments of the journey.

Great try Boys', and I will love the album anyways...but if you're gonna make a horror album then make sure it will really give listeners a scare. It was done alrite just could've been better.

shame!!on u guys.......2006-03-25

there first and second album rocked hardcore rocked
and they follow up with this I'm so disappiointed I'm gonna stop write>>

More of a Planecrash........2006-03-17

Sugar, we're goin' down. "Trainwreck" is a concept album that plays more like a plane crash than its title would suggest, which is to say it takes a spectacular nosedive in quality after the first couple high-flying tracks.

An idea for a record like "Trainwreck" sounds promising on paper: the disoriented jumble of events surrounding a mental patient's unintentional murder of the one he loves most, and exploration of the ensuing tragedy leaves a grand canyon sized hole full of pain and anguish for the Boys' guitars (and, these days, singer) to not-so-gently weep about.

Unfortunately, in portraying the obfuscated story of "The Patient," Boys Night Out hit the wrong chord a few too many times for taste, which at some point stops being purposeful and starts sounding spiritless, repetitious and uninspired. The songs undergo a downward spiral of their own and deteriorate from the genuinely anthemic quality of "Dreaming" into considerably more prosaic emo/hardcore chunk ballads.

It's not that Boys Night Out don't possess the ability to shift gears -- this much is apparent from the dichotomy witnessed between the styles of "Dreaming" and "Waking" -- it's that after awhile, they just seem to forget about trying at all. Maybe it's an unfortunate side effect of trying to cram too much story into too small an album, but most of the music on "Trainwreck" is going to sound awful damn familiar to anyone who hasn't been living under a rock since MTV heard about bands like Brand New and Fall Out Boy.

The stilted "Introduction" adds nothing musically, and "lyrically" ("These people were in LOVE! DEEPLY IN LOVE!")? Only a long-winded and heavy-handed prologue to inform and educate lazier listeners; it could easily be cut, and gets the skip every time. If anything, the expository press kit monologue could be replaced with the stripped-down instrumental noodling underneath, and nothing else, for a much nicer lead-in.

Don't even get me started on the forehead-smacking melodrama that is "Dying." Someone call "The Doctor" a script doctor ASAP, because this is some of the sappiest stuff you'll find outside of IHOP's kitchen. The music is a sight better, but the spoken word monologues give it a good punch in the gut to finish the record off.

For anyone with "rings around their wrist proving that they exist" who seeks a rewarding listening experience, I recommend pairing "Trainwreck" with Armor for Sleep's "What To Do When You're Dead," another lackluster record that will never escape the looming shadow of that terrible and misrepresenting label that is "emo."

Average customer rating:

Lonely Road Revival
Trainwreck Riders
Manufacturer: Alive Records/Lumberjack
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music

General | Country | Styles | Music

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Radio Moscow
The Panic Bell
Buffalo Killers
Every Damn Time
The Kiss

ASIN: B000GW8QCG
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Tracks:

Through Unto the End
Your Sisters and Your Sisters Friends
Wine Stains
Christmas Time Blues
In the Wake of It All
Old Timey Feeling
To the Grave
In & Out of Love
Find Your Way Home
Rocks at Your Window
Alemony Wildlife Refuge
Slow Motion Cowboy [CD-ROM Track]

Album Description

This country punk outfit toured with their friends TWO GALLANTS, and sounds like they've spent their whole lives on a front porch with granddaddy's moonshine. Their sound is a headlong, honky-tonk dash through a landscape of dancing guitar work, stumbling emotions, and brawling drums. Trainwreck poetically croons of open roads and ramblin' ways, while keeping a steady rollin' country strum with infectious twangy melodies. Trainwreck Riders sees nothing incompatible about tradition and innovation, about punk and country and blues, providing the perfect recipe of very raw artistic forms. Each song is a rural folk tale right from the heart of their hometown of San Francisco.

Average customer rating:

STUNNING.
An eclectic tour-de-force
Likely best of the year
A sprawling masterpiece

The London Sessions Bootleg
Chip Taylor
Manufacturer: Trainwreck Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music

General | Country | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Country Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Country | Box Sets | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Seven Days in May
The Living Room Tapes
Black and Blue America
Hit Man
Unglorious Hallelujah

ASIN: B00004L89E
Release Date: 2000-01-25

Tracks:

Head First
Same Damn Car
I Know Rain
Healer
Annie on Your Mind
Holy Shit
I Hate You Today
Farmer's Song
Here Come the Animals

Tracks:

Same Old Fools
I Ain't Leaving Without You
Dalton Days
Hard Drive Times
Intro Commentary
Ghost of Phil Sinclair - Chip Taylor, Lucinda Williams
Back in '98
Bigot's Graveyard
Curve Ball
Unstable Man
Lefty Frizzell
Three Alarm Fire
Shang-A-Lang a Rainbow
Joan Lit the Candle
Texas Firend
We Just Roll On

Amazon.com

Few artists have a résumé as eclectic as Chip Taylor's CV. Best known as composer of AM-radio staples "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning," Taylor was a prolific songwriter who penned hits for a variety of rock, country, and R&B musicians. He also recorded a few cult-classic country-folk albums in the early 1970s (such as Chip Taylor's Last Chance) before embarking on a 20-year stint as a professional gambler. Taylor returned to music in the 1990s, started his own label, and slowly rebuilt a core fan following. This double-disc set proves him to be a quirky and perceptive songwriter in the vein of weathered troubadours like Guy Clark or John Prine. Disc 1, subtitled "London-Electric," has a jangle-rock edge and, though inconsistent in terms of material, offers a couple of gems. Disc 2, however, is the true prize, a wonderful pared-down acoustic set that seems to be the best setting for Taylor's lived-in voice and his very personal, fearless, wistful songs. Lucinda Williams adds her vocal charms on a number of cuts while instrumentalists as diverse as fiddler Tammy Rogers and swing trumpeter Warren Vache (on the simmering blues "Three Alarm Fire") make worthy contributions. The haphazard, off-the-cuff vibe of both discs seems somehow befitting. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews:

STUNNING........2000-06-02

This is one phenomenal set of discs -- can't stop listening to it. As with all of Chip's work, the songs are beautifully written and performed, and very heartfelt and haunting. The acoustic duet with Lucinda Williams will break your heart! More people deserve to know about this album. Buy this one...you won't regret it.

An eclectic tour-de-force.......2000-03-06

A friend played the first disc of this album for me a few weeks ago and I had to go out and get it. I wasn't expecting that the second disc would be even better. In some ways, it reminds me of Neil Young using both electric and acoustic music to best serve the individual song. And you can tell that Taylor follows his own path - the songs are intelligent and quirky in the best sense of the word. This deserves better than to become an undiscovered gem.

Likely best of the year.......2000-02-18

Although it's obviously very early, I think The London Sessions will end up being my favorite record of the year. I read about Taylor in People magazine a few weeks ago and took a chance with buying the CD. I'm glad I did. From the first track, Head First - a top-notch rocker to the final quirky hidden track, it is consistently entertaining and surprising. Just when you think you can peg Taylor into some sort of niche, he comes up with something totally different and cool. Now I have to check out his other previous records to see if this was just a fluke.

A sprawling masterpiece.......2000-02-10

Finally, a U.S. release for this remarkable record. Over two discs and 25+ songs, Chip demonstrates the wide range of his writing talent. The first disc is full of pop-rock gems, sounding sort of like John Prine on the harder tunes from The Missing Years. And the second disc, while based mostly in alt-country, is stylistically all over the place. Tying it all together is the quality of the writing. An absolute must have.

Average customer rating:

Sounding to Try Like You
Vanilla Trainwreck
Manufacturer: Mammoth
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000008LYB
Release Date: 1993-01-12

Tracks:

Waint
Yellow
Jangarene
43
Jet
Safer Than Zero
Sawed Off Shotgod
Shitstorm
Suspensia
Murderstar
Emission Control
Merry-Go-Round

Average customer rating:

Mordecai
Vanilla Trainwreck
Manufacturer: Mammoth
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000004AW2
Release Date: 1994-03-22

Tracks:

Alex
Pink Smoke
Sister
Pearl
Forget Me
Quagmire
Lie Detector
Florida
Collide-O-Scope
Kiss Me
Nothing, I Suppose
Telephood
Drownt

Average customer rating:

WELCOME BACK!!
Ewwww...!
This Is Taylor's Best CD Yet, And That's Saying Something!
A Fantastic Album - No Matter Who or Where You Are
Pretty songs in pretentious package.

Black and Blue America
Chip Taylor
Manufacturer: Trainwreck Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Alt-Country & Americana | Country | Styles | Music

General | Country | Styles | Music

General | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Country Rock | Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Seven Days in May
Hit Man
The Living Room Tapes
Unglorious Hallelujah
Chip Taylor's Last Chance

ASIN: B00005NNLK
Release Date: 2001-08-07

Tracks:

Intro
Black & Blue America
Intro
Dance With Jesus
Intro
Could I Live With This (With Lucinda Williams)
Intro
It Don't Get Better Than This (The J-Zoom Song)
Intro
Theme For an American Hero
Intro
Sometimes I Act Just Like A Fool
Intro
I Need Some Horses Around
Intro
Fort Worth Thursday Night
Intro
The Ship (with Lucinda Williams)
Intro
In Your Weakness
Intro
Blind Of The Midnight Hour
Intro
You Left Me Here
Intro
What A Smile You Had
Intro
Stroke City Girls
Intro
The Way Of It (with John Prine)
Intro
Temptation (with P.P. Arnold)

Amazon.com

Since he gave up the ponies and returned to music full time, the author of "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning" has enjoyed a low-profile artistic renaissance of elegant, tender songwriting. But by the lights of his fifth post-racetrack release, penning shrewd, often stunning country-folk lyrics is no longer enough. With the help of Lucinda Williams, John Prine, ex-Van Morrison guitarist John Platania, and gospel singers Audrey Martels and Deena Miller, Chip Taylor aims for the big statement, splicing in spoken samples from Eisenhower, Malcom X, Cassius Clay, and older brother Jon Voight as if his songs of temptation, outlaws, Jesus, baseball, and Marilyn Monroe weren't deliberate enough. Taylor isn't a memorable singer, but his lackadaisical drawl isn't offensive either--and when Lucinda joins him on aching, unpretentious ballads like "Could I Live with This" and "The Ship," his listeners will immediately recognize why Taylor is both a legend and a vital, contemporary voice. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews:

WELCOME BACK!!.......2002-12-19

HOW GREAT TO HEAR CHIP TAYLOR'S VOICE ONCE AGAIN!! I'VE BEEN A FAN FOR YEARS, I STILL HAVE ALL THE OLD ALBUMS ON VYNL!!! THERE ARE SOME GREAT SONGS ON THIS C.D, HOWEVER, I COULD LIVE WITHOUT THE CLIPS IN BETWEEN SONGS!!! I'M SURE 'OL CHIP IS TRYING TO MAKE A POINT HOWEVER, I FIND IT A BIT ANNOYING!! I'VE EVEN WENT SO FAR AS TO BURNING MY OWN COPY AND TAKING ALL THOSE PARTS OUT!!
ANYWAY, I STILL LOVE THE MUSIC!! CHIP IS KEEPING EMOTIONAL SINGING ALIVE!!!

Ewwww...!.......2001-11-28

Just when I thought we could FINALLY forget about "Angel of the Morning" -- tied for Ultimate Ickiest Lyrics Of My Generation only with "Afternoon Delight" -- here's more? Oh please go back to talking with horses, only horses, and spare us poor humans.

This Is Taylor's Best CD Yet, And That's Saying Something!.......2001-11-10

Something that matters: Chip Taylor wrote the following songs - "Wild Thing," "I Can't Let Go" (Hollies, Ronstadt), "Angel of the Morning," "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" (Janis Joplin), "Son of a Rotten Gambler" (Anne Murray, Emmylou Harris).
Something that doesn't matter and which may not even be true, but it's interesting: Chip Taylor is Jon Voight's brother and consequently Angelina Jolie's uncle.
What is really important: Black and Blue America is Chip Taylor's solo masterpiece. Like fellow veteran Billy Joe Shaver, Chip Taylor is finding his best music well into a long, illustrious career by simply relaxing and being as direct as possible in presenting his music. The songwriting skills are sharper than ever, and by taking a laid back approach to the arrangements which fits perfectly with the styles of his two most prominent guests, Lucinda Williams and John Prine, he capitalizes on his own strengths as a vocalist.
Before allowing a sense to develop that Black and Blue America is a nonchalant venture, it must be said that this recording is very well planned. Each of the sixteen original songs is preceded by a brief introductory segment which could be an historical speech clip or a phone message related to the topic of the song being presented, at least indirectly. The songs themselves are a mix of some very serious topics with very un-serious topics. Humor mixes with indignation, the potent phrase mixes with the flippant. Here is a man bothered by those things which make America black and blue but who knows that reality requires humor and that concern not buffered by nonchalance will drive a person crazy.
It's the humor which will first draw a listener into Black and Blue America. As Prine and Taylor exchange verses and quips on "The Way of It," everything cool about John Prine becomes clear in Chip Taylor. As Lucinda Williams duets with Taylor on "Could I Live with This," everything unique about Lucinda Williams becomes clear in Chip Taylor. What surprises about both instances is that Chip Taylor seems so in charge, as if he's the one who taught Prine and Williams to do the things they do, as if he was the original "wild thing" and they are simply walking in his footsteps.
Here again the worlds of Billy Joe Shaver and Chip Taylor collide. Both have been around any number of blocks any number of times (as witnessed by the wit of "Fort Worth Thursday Night" here), and both have finally reached the point where simply letting those experiences come through their natural gifts for songwriting results in music several notches above that of the music around them. When the "New Country" movement began in the late seventies, fans "discovered" the music of country outlaws like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings and realized quickly what experience meant in terms of good music. Billy Joe Shaver and Chip Taylor are the current "outlaws," and the comparisons to Jennings and Nelson can be extended because Shaver resembles Jennings' rough-edged "back to basics" sound while Taylor resembles Nelson's more whispered approach to simple acoustic country. If "black and blue America" wants to "discover" two country artists who deserve having their work recognized, America couldn't do better than to sing the praises of both Billy Joe Shaver and Chip Taylor.
Black and Blue America is every bit as vital as Willie Nelson's Red-Headed Stranger. A complete work in concept and execution, Black and Blue America blends a folk touch with country in a way that differentiates it from Red Headed Stranger but captures no less perfectly that sense of seeing a slice of America with raw honesty. Where Willie went to America's past for his portrayal, Chip Taylor goes closer to the present, and consequently his inclusion of phone messages and VCR repair talk hits more directly on what ties America today with the America in Willie Nelson's saga. Both Taylor and Nelson find their melodies in simplicity, tapping into melodic ideas which will survive because they take the timeless concepts and embellish them only moderately. Little if anything on Black and Blue America is complex, but the use of the ideas is unique, and that's the confidence that Chip Taylor took into this recording, a confidence shared by his guests John Prine and Lucinda Williams in their own individual work.
The pros in the music business ultimately discover that their instincts are right and that, if they follow their instincts, the results will far overshadow any situation where overplanning strips an idea of its real strength. Chip Taylor perhaps never trusted himself as a solo performer as much in the past as he does on Black and Blue America, and the results are palpably evident. Perhaps it is the presence of Williams and Prine which convinced him that he, as a performer, is someone other noted performers admire. But whatever happened, an already solid performer hits his stride perfectly on sixteen new cuts. Cool, casual, and with just a hint of "wild thing" to it, Black and Blue America is a first class piece of work from a first class singer/songwriter whose time to be noticed for his work might just be now.

A Fantastic Album - No Matter Who or Where You Are.......2001-08-31

How sadly ironic that after Taylor has come up with a brilliant song-cycle about life in America in the last half century, it is only the European critics and fans who have immediately adopted it as the minor classic that it is. Oh well, maybe we just need some time to catch up. After all, there really is something here for everyone - folk fans will love the elegiac title track, Lucinda Williams' fans will latch onto to the two wonderful duets, the new "O Brother" crowd will cheer "Dance With Jesus," Texas frat boys can get drunk to "Fort Worth Thursday Night," people who have been waiting for a new John Prine song will eat up "The Way of It," and plain old music fans are guaranteed to find at least 10 gems on this sprawling album.
Chip Taylor is the real thing and here's hoping that his own country finally realizes it.

Pretty songs in pretentious package........2001-08-14

I own Chip Taylors classic album "Last Chance" from the seventies and some of the recent efforts following his comeback in the mid-nineties. If you liked "The London Sessions Bootleg" this is more of the same sprawling stuff but with a much more elaborate and polished sound. Acustic and electric guitars dominate but other instruments like fiddle, steel guitar and keyboards adds color on several tracks. The title track and the spoken intros between every song lead me to expect some kind of concept album about America but this is not the case, in my opinion. Many of the songs are simply love songs or amusing observations of everyday life. The intros are recordings of everyone from Sigmund Freud to Chip's brother Jon Voight and adds nothing but length and confusion to this album. But it's the songs that count and Chip seems to have a never-ending ability to come up with simple and catchy melodies. Lucinda Williams is a regular guest on Chips albums by now and she adds her magic vocals to a couple of beautiful ballads although they are not as great as their previous duets on "Seven Days In May" and "London Sessions". John Prine is another guest. But the best songs feature Chip on his own: "You Left Me Here", "Stroke City Girls", "Sometimes I Act Just Like A Fool" and the fast country-rock of "Forth Worth Thursday Night" are some of my favourites. Among some pretentious stuff, these songs stand out as the real gems.

Average customer rating:

biased

Wrecked
J. D. Whittenburg and Trainwreck
Manufacturer: Bump & Go
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Country | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00005NFW4
Release Date: 2001-07-31

Tracks:

Loretta
Mexico
Remember When
Without You
Sing Me A Song
Save Me
Goodbye Grace
Only Dancing
No Place To Go
Then You Were There
Old Blevins Road
Cafesire
Downtown Is Thumping
Who Needs California
Tragic Hero

Album Description

"Wrecked" is the debut album from Dallas,Texas Americana/alternative country band, Trainwreck. "Wrecked" features 14 original tracks that range from the pop-fused "Save Me" to the fiddle-ridden Texas sounds of "Mexico" and "Who Needs California." Trainwreck is the most recent project of Texas singer/songwriter J.D. Whittenburg.

Customer Reviews:

biased.......2002-06-28

This album rocks because of the guys and gal who played on it. Go ahead, purchase it and give it a listen and know you're supporting independent artists!

Rock Music:

Rock Music