Viva Video Southwest
Innovative Norteamericano flag-bearers from Jelly Roll Morton to Chuck Berry kept reminding us not to underestimate the “Spanish tinge” in the basic Anglo-Irish meets African-American music mix. With the release this fall of impressive new DVDs from Calexico, Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys and the Mavericks, we could hardly miss their point.
Calexico’s long-awaited World Drifts In: Live At The Barbicon London (Quarterstick) is built around a big-band style performance at that U.K. arts center in November 2002, during the “Beyond Nashville” alt-country festival there. Leaders Joey Burns and John Convertino are joined by the likes of Lambchop pedal steeler Paul Niehaus and European string players Martin Wenk and Volker Zander, as well as their own horn and vibes player Jacob Valenzuela.
From the dramatic kick of the lead-off number, “Wash”, the ensemble offers up a program much more varied, in good ways, than might be expected by those who associate Calexico mainly with ambient southwestern soundscape exercises such as “Sonic Wind”. The international theme is extended with guest vocals by French chanteuse Francoiz Breut, one of which is on “The Ballad Of Cable Hogue”. (Anybody who salutes that under-recalled Sam Peckinpah near-masterpiece feature gets bonus points in my book.)
The 89-minute show kicks up several notches when Calexico is joined by the dazzlingly rhythmic band Mariachi Luz De Luna, headed by Rubene Moreno, for some direct cross-border interplay not so often seen in the world of “Americana.” A documentary on Mariachi music is a real bonus, with videos, engaging band bios and interviews, and even “El Kabong Rides Again”, a cartoon in which Calexico meets the ghost of the QuickDraw McGraw alter ego. This is one of the best thought-out and most generous DVDs of the year.
One of the most admirable and multi-flavored American roots-rock bands of the past generation finally comes to DVD with Los Lobos: Live At The Fillmore (Mammoth/Hollywood), built around two 30th-anniversary shows taped in San Francisco late in July. The band that has avoided so many rock-star pitfalls doesn’t turn the big birthday into an overblown “The Last Merengue” either. The guys do pull out songs from all through their career, and from their range of sounds — from electro-Latino to ballads to jump swing to hard rock. Steel whiz Robert Randolph joins for a final, fiery “Mas Y Mas”. It’s also well-directed by Kurt Keppeler; the camera tends to be where you’d want it to be to capture the show. The bonus documentary takes you backstage at the Fillmore, where you meet the roadies and security guards trained to let in the band members’ families and keep out “the razzmatazz hangers on.”
The Mavericks Live In Austin, Texas (Sanctuary) captures the veteran “country salsa Miami lounge party” band earlier this year at a show in the big courtyard behind Stubbs’ Barbecue. Raul Malo and company are in fine form, reunited and reinvigorated by the addition of Los Angelino Eddie Perez (Jim Lauderdale, Junior Brown) on lead guitar. The Mavs’ hits are performed in exuberant style, as are covers ranging from Elvis to Van Morrison to Merle, and some smiling nods to their Tex-Mex cousins, such as the trusty “Volver Volver”. Malo and Perez are both walking music encyclopedias, and there’s some good-natured “name that tune” ribbing in the bonus material.
On Los Lonely Boys’ Texican Style: Live From Austin (Epic Music Video), this border rock tradition reaches some very able younger hands. The twentysomething Garza brothers, from the anything-but-glamorous San Angelo, Texas, had a lifetime of experience behind them before their emergence with the ballad hit “Heaven”. The influence of everyone from Santana and Los Lobos to Waylon, Willie and Stevie Ray Vaughan can be picked up in their concert music, but they’re already making it their own. An excellent way to see what the fuss is about.
For many years, American roots music fans have been asking when it will be possible to re-experience classic episodes from the venerable PBS show “Austin City Limits”. The answer is finally “right now,” with the start of an ongoing series of Live From Austin, Texas DVDs (and CDs) on the New West label. The discs not only dig into the ACL vaults, but they add unaired numbers, resulting in about seventeen cuts on each disc.
The first DVD release is a Steve Earle show from September 1986, and it’s an astonishing, smile-inducing time machine. This is the young guy, just breaking through big-time, still being marketed as country, throwing himself totally into all of the numbers from Guitar Town and half from the oncoming Exit 0 — with the rocking band from that second LP behind him. Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper” and his own classic “The Devil’s Right Hand” (at that time still unrecorded) are added for good measure. This is simply the best representation of the coming of Steve Earle yet available.
Other initial offerings in the series show the benefits of the uncut mode for performers who emphasize the live aspect. The Flatlanders’ first appearance on ACL as a band (2002) captures the looseness they were only just finding reunited on record, plus typical banter that never would have been seen on TV. With Robert Earl Keen (2001), the show lets loose the rhythmic band that regularly powers his live shows, but you can hear his stories better in ACL format than in any overpacked room. Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams and Leonard Cohen shows are scheduled for next year.
Austin’s own blues hero is captured in two key concerts in Europe — one before he’d been accepted there and one after stardom hit — in Steve Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985 (Epic/Sony Legacy). The second show was particularly strong and healthy; fans who’ve not had either of these will find the pairing convenient.
For unseen blues gone to Europe, check out American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1969, Volume 3 (Hip-o/Reelin’ In The Years), which continues the release of this extraordinary, unique footage of the real blues giants at work — among the best blues performance film there is, period. It will be enough for many to know that the harp player of all harp players, Little Walter, is on here, the only place you can see him — playing with both Koko Taylor and Hound Dog Taylor. Skip James, Dr. Ross and Bukka White add to the top-level proceedings. Mainly from the same tours and shows, and the same label, comes Blues Legends: Memphis Slim & Sonny Boy Williamson Live In Europe, which adds some Otis Spann piano numbers as a bonus.
In pure twang, Merle Haggard’s Ol’ Country Singer: Live At Billy Bob’s Texas (Smith Music/Image Entertainment) offers a charming evening with Hag & the Strangers as they are right now. Material ranges from “Rainbow Stew” and “Get Along Cindy” Bob Wills style, to “Folsom Prison” as a salute to his late friend Johnny Cash, to an informal, lazy take on “When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold”. Haggard has been much inclined towards the jazzier, swinging side of his music in recent years, and that’s amply demonstrated here, but there’s more straight-ahead Bakersfield country and Merle hits than you might expect.
All-Star Bluegrass Celebration (Sugar Hill) was originally one of those PBS pledge-week attention-grabber specials, but this one lives up to its name: Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless, Del McCoury and Alison Krauss are all on hand, mainly delivering hard-driving, no excuses bluegrass. There are also some more laid-back offerings from Krauss, Nickel Creek and, for some reason, Bruce Hornsby.
The many fans of the unpretentious bar-band rock of NRBQ have reason to welcome the release of NRBQ: One In A Million (Music Video Distributors/Creem), which captures the quartet in 1989, very much in their prime, ripping at numbers such as “I Got A Rocket In My Pocket”, “It’s A Wild Weekend” and “Little Floater”. Like the Blasters, these gents never let a solid knowledge of rock-roots stand in the way of plunging ahead with abandon.
Rockabillies will welcome The Collins Kids At Town Hall Party: Volumes 2 & 3 (Bear Family DVD), which follows the frenetic TV appearances of Larry and Lorrie into 1959, when they’re a little older and are being pushed to mix pop with their still heads-on rock. See Larry offer his “Que Sera, Sera/Hound Dog” medley on both volumes, and the Collins’ take on Gene Austin’s “Lonesome Road” on Volume 2.
Finally, anyone with live ears and eyes should appreciate the best soul-shaking moments in Soul To Soul (Rhino), which captures the Staple Singers, Ike & Tina Turner, Santana, and the Voices Of East Harlem on tour in Ghana in 1971 — playing and encountering the locals, who’d never seen any of them before either. And any rocker would need to catch the restored, remixed The Who: Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970 (Eagle Vision) from the great music documentarian Murray Lerner; it’s a full top-form “hits and Tommy” show with a lengthy and very revealing Townshend interview attached.