Archive Review: Delta Moon’s Clear Blue Flame (2007)

Many music fans may remember Tom Gray’s name from his early ‘80s band the Brains. Down South, ‘round the Nashville-Atlanta-Birmingham triangle, the band was a hot commodity back in the day. The Brains’ self-titled debut album for Mercury Records yielded a minor college radio hit in the bittersweet “Money Changes Everything,” which would later become a huge mainstream hit for Cyndi Lauper. After the monster success of “Money Changes Everything,” Gray moved to Nashville with an eye towards becoming a country songwriter. The talented scribe soon found that a songwriter’s life in the Music City is more about politics and relationships than about talent and, well, songs … so Gray hightailed it back to Atlanta. 

Gray’s Nashville tenure produced one positive, however, in that it interested the artist in traditional styles of music. Meeting up with fellow guitarist Mark Johnson, the two formed Delta Moon, a blues-rock band. A number of bass players and drummers have passed through the band in the decade since, as have a pair of fine female singers. With Clear Blue Flame, Delta Moon’s fourth studio album, though, Gray takes over as the band’s vocalist in a move that changes the texture, but not the overall direction of Delta Moon’s unique sound. 

Delta Moon’s Clear Blue Flame

Gray’s swampadelic guitar licks kick off the eerie “Clear Blue Flame.” A laid-back yet rockin’ tale of love and betrayal, “Clear Blue Flame” speaks to the heart-numbing qualities of well-made ‘shine. Gray’s gruff vocals and the song’s overall dark vibe reminds of kudzu dropping off the cypress trees in some deep, lost corner of the South. “Stranger In My Hometown” tells of the alienation caused by “progress,” a gentle rhythm supporting Gray’s soulful vocals, the tune offering some delicious six-string sounds. A wicked bad guitar lick hits your ears at the beginning of “Lap Dog,” a classically-styled blues song with Maxwell Street lyrics and a Bourbon Street soundtrack. “I’m A Witness” sways and stutters back and forth, a wonky rhythm supporting Gray’s testimony and some fierce slidework. 

The juke-joint holler “You Done Told Everybody” comes straight from the heart of the Delta, Gray and Johnson offering some tasty syncopated fretwork and Charley Patton-styled percussive rhythms beneath Gray’s best Son House vocals. “Jessie Mae” is a wonderful, heartfelt tribute to the late Mississippi Hill Country blueswoman Jessie Mae Hemphill. Gray and Johnson do this one up right, down tuning their guitars, pulling a nasty circular riff out of the Burnside songbook, and bringing it home with a steady, driving rhythm. The song tells of the triumphs and tragedies of Hemphill’s life, but it could also serve as the life story of many blues musicians. The duo’s playing on “Jessie Mae” is magnificent, twin guitars reaching across a smoke-filled juke-joint to grab you by the ears.

Money Changes Everything

With “Money Changes Everything,” Gray covers his own song and lays waste to his past. Whereas the original 1980 Brains version displayed a power-pop edge, and Cyndi Lauper’s 1984 chart-topping reading of the song carried with it a greater sense of yearning, this roosty remake of the song seems to hit the nail right on the head. Starting with a nice acoustic, almost Appalachian-sounding intro, Gray’s voice kicks in, more strained and hoarse than on any other song here, incorporating the emotion of Lauper’s version with a sorrowful acceptance. 

Although the song originally spoke of the factors that influence relationships and romance, better than two decades down the road, it could also serve as Gray’s life story, that of the creative wunderkind shooting his way to the top only to be dumped on when the gold rush didn’t pan out as planned. By slowing down the song’s pace, providing it with a sparse acoustic framework, and imbuing it with a worldly weariness, Gray has actually improved upon his already impressive original version of the song with this powerful backwoods doppelganger. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Anybody casually picking up Clear Blue Flame on the basis of Gray’s long-past work, expecting to hear the power-pop of the Brains, will be sorely disappointed. The savvy music consumer, however, grabbing a copy of this – or any other Delta Moon album – just to hear the band’s wonderful fusion of swamp-blues, roots-rock, and acoustic mountain music will certainly be entertained.
 
Tom Gray and Mark Johnson are skilled musicians, well-schooled in the nuances of the styles they’re working in, and both are fine slide-guitarists. Gray has aged well as a songwriter; his tales of ordinary folks, failed romances, and hopeful losers comprise a new Southern Gothic literature worthy of the bluesmen (and women) of the 1920s and ‘30s. Although firmly rooted in the Delta blues and hillbilly music of the past, Delta Moon delivers with a ferocity and passion that can only be expressed in the present. (Jumping Jack Records, released 2007)

Archive Review: Delta Moon’s Black Cat Oil (2012)

Over the past decade and half a dozen albums, Atlanta-based roots ‘n’ blues outfit Delta Moon has quietly made a name for itself as a sturdy, Delta blues-inspired outfit. Driven by the creative vision of singer, songwriter, and guitarist Tom Gray (who, in another life, wrote the Cyndi Lauper hit “Money Changes Everything” while fronting 1980s-era new wave band the Brains) and his musical partner, guitarist Mark Johnson have built upon a hallowed Mississippi blues tradition by heaping on roots-rock, folk, and gospel flavors.

With the band’s 7th album, the refreshingly-erudite Black Cat Oil, Gray and Johnson continue to expand the band’s trademark sound by imbuing their already heady musical brew with a little bit o’ soul and some old-school rhythm & blues. The scrappy acoustic Delta blues influences from which the band takes its name are still obvious and ever-present, as are Gray and Johnson’s well-written and whip-smart lyrics, but in expanding their musical palette, if only a little, they open new doors of possibility for the band in the future.   

Delta Moon’s Black Cat Oil

A big drumbeat and locomotive rhythm opens “Down and Dirty,” a working-class tale of romantic woe featuring Gray’s slinky guitar lines and gruff vocals. The backing accompaniment is sparse, but the guitars are layered in thickly and offer a bit of swampy malevolence not unlike John Campbell’s trademark haunted blues sound. “Blues In A Bottle” is equally Mississippi muddy and kudzu-clad, with a smoky buzz ‘n’ rattle emanating from Gray’s six-string drone. Lyrically, the song is a clever but deceptively simple construct, but the emotion swells as violently as the song’s jarring fretwork, the instrumental break three-minutes in shattering the trancelike quality of the performance as Gray and Mark Johnson swap fiery guitar licks.

The album’s title track veers off only slightly from the first four, mixing up the previous swamp-blues ambiance with a little Memphis soul and a minimalist funk groove courtesy drummer Darren Stanley and bassist Franher Joseph. Gray’s solos here shine brightly, taut and wiry like a rockabilly king from the 1950s, reminding more of Jimmie Vaughan’s hot licks than Stevie Ray’s incendiary riffs. The song is low-slung and greasy, spiced up a bit by Gray’s Booker T-styled keyboard notes. The romantic turmoil continues with the story-song “Wishbone,” a gripping narrative where Gray’s gravel-throated vocals hypnotize, riding high above his barbed-wire guitarplay. The following “Black Coffee” picks up on the previous song’s late-night vibe, Gray’s fretwork resonating with bluesy echo on a semi-biographical diary of life on the road. Drummer Marlon Patton lays down a slight rhythmic shuffle as Gray picks out the lonely tune.    

Write Me A Few of Your Lines

“Neon Jesus” is the album’s roots-rock heartbeat, the song evincing more of a high lonesome Bakersfield vibe than a Nashville/Music Row commercial ambience. Gray sets his considerable songwriting skills to work on a salvation-seeking, soul-searching hymnal, his yearning vocals backed by jangly guitar and a brassy drumbeat. It’s an introspective number, something you’d expect from, say, a Guy Clark type of scribe, but Gray pulls it off admirably. The lively “Jukin’,” by contrast, is a jaunty lil’ houserocker with an undeniable spirit and spry fretwork that blends the best of both juke-joint and honky-tonk traditions with a sly groove and a barely-subdued performance.

“Applejack” sounds a lot like Memphis to me, or a James Dickinson sort of bluesy, blue-eyed soul to be more specific, a fluid groove rolling out beneath Gray’s deep-fried vocals and Southern rock guitar that draws upon Duane Allman (reckless R&B) and Marshall Tucker Band’s Toy Caldwell (Dixie jazz-rock) but with plenty of Gray’s own unique vocabulary thrown in to mark him as a vastly-underrated stylist in his own right. The album’s lone cover, of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “Write Me A Few Of Your Lines,” bolsters this guitar argument, Gray’s fretwork crackling and popping like a downed electric line above Patton’s steady drumbeats, the singer capturing, and building upon the hypnotic North Mississippi Hill Country riffing style that McDowell passed on to R.L. Burnside and, by association, Luther Dickinson, Jack White, the Black Keys, and a generation of contemporary blues-rock players.        

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Tom Gray’s songwriting skills have never been at question, and he excels at the sort of lyrical and melodic stories told by the songs on Black Cat Oil. Small-town life and romances, the rigors of the road, the old South slipping beneath the steamroller of modern life – these are all grist for Gray (and Johnson’s) wandering pen. Musically, the album builds upon past triumphs, cautiously fusing the band’s trademark swamp-blues sound with other significant influences, creating an entertaining and engaging work that honors blues traditions while nodding vigorously towards new musical horizons. (Red Parlor Records, released May 22, 2012)

CD Review: Landslide Records 40th Anniversary (2021)

It’s a tough road for any independent record label these days, which makes it all the more impressive when one beats the odds and makes a go of it in spite of the obstacles and trials inherent in recording and releasing music for a dwindling audience of record buyers. Landslide Records was founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1981 by Matthew Rothschild at the urging of his friend Col. Bruce Hampton, who told him that “we would all be riding around in limousines.” Rothschild launched the label and released as his first title Outside Looking Out by Hampton and his band the Late Bronze Age. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, positive early reviews raised expectations for the album which, Rothschild later confessed, “probably sold two copies in every state.”

Considering that Hampton was the evil genius behind the Hampton Grease Band, whose surreal 1971 experimental jazz-rock album Music To Eat was reportedly one of the worst-selling releases in the history of Columbia Records, Rothschild should have thought twice before taking his musician friend’s advice. Luckily, he forged right ahead with Landslide Records and, undaunted by the lack of success with Outside Looking Out, would move forward with a singular vision and great taste in music to make Landslide Records into the champion of American music. Four decades after their first album release, the label is celebrating its 40th anniversary with the release of a two-disc compilation featuring some of the best artists and music from across its storied history.  

Landslide Records 40th Anniversary

The first disc of Landslide Records 40th Anniversary opens with bluesman Tinsley Ellis’s incendiary “Drivin’ Woman,” a swingin’ little sucker from 1986 that fuses Southern grit and Chicago-styled urban sophistication into a rompin’, stompin’ musical thrill ride. Ellis’s flamethrower guitar licks and gruff, whiskey-soaked vocals are matched by the gleeful sound of Dave Cotton’s bleating sax and a rock solid rhythmic foundation. It’s a great way to pull the listener in, followed by the equally charming “Phone Don’t Ring” by the Bluesbusters. A veritable roots ‘n’ blues supergroup, the band features the talents of Little Feat’s Paul Barrere, Catfish Hodge (a longtime fave of mine), and Terry ‘T’ Lavitz of the Dixie Dregs. A bluesy, soulful tune featuring Barrere’s underrated vocals and Hodge’s distinctive fretwork, it’s another treasure from the mid-‘80s.

Both of the aforementioned outfits feature on another pair of songs dating earlier, from 1983, with Ellis and his band the Heartfixers kicking out the jams with a little help from singer/harmonica player ‘Chicago Bob’ Nelson. Covering the Chicago blues classic “Walking Thru the Park,” Ellis and the Heartfixers rock ‘n’ roll like a trailer park in a typhoon. The Bluesbusters’ romp through Hodge’s “Elmo’s Blues” features the Detroit bluesman on the microphone while Barrere tears up the strings. Much of the rest of the first disc follows a similar vein, offering choice cuts by folks like legendary juke-joint pianist Piano Red; guitarist Damon Fowler and his blues-infused Southern rock sound; and Mike Mattison’s sorely overlooked roots-rock outfit Scrapomatic, which combines Delta blues with Southern-fried soul, and even a bit of funky New Orleans in creating a unique and exhilarating sound.

Hard Luck Blues

The late Tom Gray’s beloved band Delta Moon is represented by “Coolest Fools,” a languid rocker with deep blues roots and a pop-rock heart fueled by Gray’s and Mark Johnson’s stellar guitar playing. Late blues guitarist Sean Costello is remembered with a live take of “Motor Head Baby,” the on-stage setting a perfect showcase for the underrated fretburner’s immense talents. Nashville’s own Webb Wilder has recorded several albums for Landslide over 40 years, and his “Dance For Daddy” offers up the sort of livewire roots-rock and twang that had built the great man’s legend. Nappy Brown is an underrated R&B vocalist in a field dominated by great singers, and his performance of “Hard Luck Blues,” backed by Ellis and the Heartfixers, is a thing of pure joy.

Disc two of Landslide Records 40th Anniversary offers a more eclectic mix of styles, ranging from the improvised jazz vibes of David Earle Johnson and the jazzy fretwork of a young Derek Trucks to Widespread Panic’s modernized Southern rock sound and Col. Bruce Hampton’s eclectic, and electrifying avant-garde noisemaking with his band the Late Stone Age. One of the earliest tracks on the set is from Tom Gray’s band the Brains, their rare 1982 track “Dancing Under Streetlights” the perfect fusion of synth-pop and guitar rock. Scrapomatic frontman Mike Mattison’s solo effort “Midnight In Harlem” is a wonderful old-school soul ballad with gorgeous instrumentation while his band’s “Night Trains” is a greasy slab o’ funk with plenty of Paul Olsen’s imaginative guitarplay.

Webb Wilder checks back in with the spry “The Nail Right On the Head,” featuring his infectious vocals, a strong melody, and the talented George Bradfute’s six string skills while Jan Smith’s upbeat “Woman Your Guitar” is a charming blend of country and rock, Smith’s lofty vocals and nimble fretwork backed by an all-star band that includes guitarist Johnny Hiland and bassist Byron House. Curlew’s “Panther Burn” is a slice of avant-garde jazz by a little-known band that nevertheless can boast of a roster that includes saxophonist George Cartright, bassist Bill Laswell, and guitarist Nicky Scopelitis. Americana artist Gary Bennett delivers an upbeat honky-tonk rave-up with “Human Condition,” featuring guitarist Kenny Vaughan, pedal steel maestro Lloyd Green, and Marty Stuart on mandolin. There’s plenty of other fine music to be heard across the two discs, including tracks from talented folks like Jim Quick, the Cigar Store Indians, Geoff Achison, the Lost Continentals, Paul McCandless, and probably a few that I’ve forgotten.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

If you know nothing about the Landslide Records label, this budget-priced anniversary set offers plenty of reasons to discover why the plucky lil’ indie imprint has successfully carried the torch for authentic American music for four decades now. There are plenty of gems to be found among the 33 songs on the two discs, which provide over two hours of consistently enjoyable listening and, if you’re intrigued by an artist or three, you can dig into their individual catalogs with reckless abandon. Yes, it’s a celebration of 40 years of great music – a milestone by any standard, but Landslide Records 40th Anniversary set is also a great introduction to a label (and artists) worth your time to hear. Grade: A (Landslide Records, released October 29th, 2021)

Buy the CD from Amazon: Landslide Records 40th Anniversary 

Archive Review: Delta Moon's Goin' Down South (2004)

If only for the classic song “Money Changes Everything” – covered so completely by Cyndi Lauper – former Brains keyboardist and songwriter Tom Gray deserves induction in somebody’s hall of fame. Unfortunately, by the time of that song’s enormous success, the underrated band had disbanded and Gray moved from Atlanta to Nashville to pursue a full-time songwriting career. He must have discovered that Nashville isn’t the sort of creative mistress to nurture a gifted wordsmith, as Gray returned to Atlanta and ended up forming the acoustic roots band Delta Moon with neighbors Gina Leigh on vocals and guitarist Mark Johnson in the early ‘90s. Gray’s infatuation with traditional blues and roots-rock began to gain the band a following, the threesome subsequently adding noted blues bassist Jon Schwenke and drummer Scott Callison.

Goin’ Down South is Delta Moon’s third album and second studio effort, the record illustrating the impressive musical chemistry between the players as well as the band’s firm creative grasp on a wide range of material. An entertaining mix of rootsy originals and inspired covers, including Mississippi bluesman J.B. Lenoir’s “I Want To Go” and hill country legend R.L. Burnside’s “Goin’ Down South,” the album is an intricate mix of Delta blues, Southern-fried country funk, and roots-rock. Gina Leigh is a gifted vocalist, belting out the bluesier numbers with passion and finesse while Gray’s gruffer vocals are better suited for the more subdued and countryish material.

It’s the songs that make or break an album, though, and Delta Moon’s carefully considered material stands tall. “Poplar Grove” is a disturbing tale of rural vengeance, Gray’s mournful vocals complimented by his pedal steel playing and Mark Johnson’s nimble fretwork. “Stone Cold Man” is a swamp-flavored blues track featuring Leigh’s amazing pipes, the band delivering a funky groove behind the vocals. The unusual choice of the David Bowie/Iggy Pop tune “Nightclubbing” to cover is a risky move pulled off with skill by Delta Moon, the band interpreting the Teutonic cabaret of the original as a smoky blues shuffle. “Shake Something Loose,” written by Gray with fellow traveler Randall Bramblett, is a rocking number that bubbles over just short of rowdy.    

Delta Moon has attracted a lot of attention from the blues/roots music segment of the industry, but based on the strength of Goin’ Down South, I’d say that they could just as easily appeal to the jam band audience as well. The band has two skilled multi-instrumentalists in Gray and Johnson; Schwenke and Callison are a solid and flexible rhythm section; and between Leigh and Gray, Delta Moon’s vocalists can pull off a diverse range of material. Delta Moon may not meander off into twenty-minute extended jams (tho’ I believe that they could), but they evince the sort of rural southern “down-home” innocence and instrumental skills that have made bands as disparate as moe, Phish, and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones favorites on the festival circuit. Don’t believe me? Check out Goin’ Down South…it’s all in the grooves. (Deep Rush Records, released June 15, 2004)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Delta Moon’s Goin’ Down South

New Music Monthly: March 2017 Releases

March, they say, comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb but any month that begins with Dan Baird & Homemade Sin and goes out with Mastodon is roaring loudly for 30 days. Throw in reissues and anthologies of the Creation, Artful Dodger, and Southside Johnny and new releases by Colin Hay, R. Stevie Moore & Jason Falkner, Wire, and Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band and there's a lot of great music to spend your coin on this month!

MARCH 3
Artful Dodger - The Complete Columbia Recordings   BUY!
Dan Baird & Homemade Sin - Rollercoaster   BUY!
Guy Clark - Best of the Dualtone Years   BUY!
Colin Hay - Fierce Mercy   BUY!
The Rascals - The Complete Singles A's & B's   BUY!
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes - The Fever   BUY!
Temples - Volcano   BUY!

MARCH 10
Cindy Lee Berryhill - The Adventurist   BUY!
Greg Graffin - Millport   BUY!
R. Stevie Moore & Jason Falkner - Make It Be   BUY!
Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - The Front Porch Sessions   BUY!
The Shins - Heartworms   BUY!

MARCH 17
Blackfield - Blackfield V   BUY!
The Creation - Action Painting   BUY!
Delta Moon - Cabbagetown   BUY!
Depeche Mode - Spirit   BUY!
Spoon - Hot Thoughts   BUY!

MARCH 24
Craig Finn - We All Want The Same Things   BUY!
Ruthie Foster - Joy Comes Back   BUY!
Girlschool - Hit & Run   BUY!
Jesus & Mary Chain - Damage and Joy   BUY!
Jethro Tull - The String Quartets   BUY!
Coco Montoya - Hard Truth   BUY!

MARCH 31
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand   BUY!
Wire - Silver/Lead   BUY!

(Album release dates are subject to change without notice and they don't always let me know, so there...)

Album of the Month: Dan Baird & Homemade Sin's Rollercoaster, the latest blast of poop-puntin' Southern rock from former Georgia Satellites' frontman Dan Baird and his motley collection of rock 'n' roll lifers (including talented Jason & the Scorchers' guitarist Warner Hodges). A Homemade Sin album is always a treat, the grooves laden with red-hot git licks, foot-shufflin' rhythms, and strong songwriting from the underrated Baird. Rollercoaster marks the second album from the Baird camp this year; the singer/songwriter's SoLow solo disc was released in February and is equally worth of your time and money.