Category: Bands/Comps/Splits
Mark Cutler ‘Dreamland’ review at Bill Copeland Music News
You can read the article here.
Mark Cutler has been a fixture in the New England roots music scene for some time now. The Rhode Island native’s latest album Dreamland continues his tradition of laying down earthy, soulful music with rich acoustic instrumentation around his mellow, flowing vocal, driving beats, and edgy guitar.
Opening his disc with “Doing Things That We Like To Do,” Cutler unfurls his flowing, tender guitar melodies. Within no time, a listener is wrapped up in the dreamy landscape of floating nuances from the acoustic instruments. A sparse amount of notes gather to make a fulsome sound around that assured, easeful vocal glide. Above all else, the tune is quite catchy, and hummable. It feels like a folk-rock number from the early 1970s.
Cutler digs deeper into his roots influences for “Tankful Of Gas,” a mellow piece marked by tender slide guitar. Possessing a real front porch in the summer of 1939 vibe, Cutler takes his sweet time finessing his tragic tale of a racing car driver. It’s a treat to hear all of the old time guitar picking styles offering notes that strut, jump around, and slide with greasy tenderness around its sturdy fretboard.
Cutler rocks things up a bit on “You’re Gonna Need My Help.” Here, an electric guitar gets a bit edgier while the percussion pieces slap things out uptempo. Cutler expresses his admonition to a friend with world weary persistence. It’s a fun number to follow because its pace and vigor make a listener picture all sorts urgent outcomes if his friend doesn’t take his advice. There’s a batch of roots things going on at once that make it a thicket of emotive, soulful Americana.
“Circle To A Square” finds Cutler holding his vocal notes a bit after accenting them with a driving persistence. He makes you feel the urgency of his tale. Surrounding his voice is a carefree layering of gritty banjo, thumping low end, pushy drum beats, and a smoldering electric guitar. The tune makes its steady march into destiny as a lead guitar unfurls its burning passion at its own considered pace.
Title track “Dreamland” moseys on up to the listener with a lilting, moody harmonica line that could be friendly or that could be weary. Cutler sings this one with a world worn resignation. He clearly has feelings about his situation but he also clearly feels that those feelings won’t power his dreams. That handsome vocal makes you feel what the song is about while putting its own indelible stamp on the song. You know its Cutler when you hear him. You also hear him control every direction that every verse and every instrument is taking. Cutler’s easeful control over his songs gives them another layer of that drifty, roots quality you’re looking for in this genre.
“Too Much Fun” feels like an FM classic rock staple even though it’s a new original song. Cutler puts something comfortably familiar in his acoustic guitar chord progression. It invites you in like an old friend waving you into his home,. The melody is alluring and the chorus is hooky as hell. An adept lead guitar line too helps to burn this song into a listener’s consciousness with its simmering buzz, its ability to swagger around the beat.
“Soul Flame” switches gears back into down tempo folksy roots flavoring. Cutler’s voice flows like honey over a thumpy beat and alongside fulsome harmonica and a hefty acoustic guitar melody. This creates a warm thick vibe that invites one in while offering plenty of nuances within a sparse instrumentation. A listener can follow Cutler’s message because he unfurls it at a friendly, respectful pace. His theme is strong enough to explain itself without a lot of verbiage and his rich, fulsome vocal makes it come alive like a fire that’s just burst into full bloom.
“Dead Man’s Song” continues the traditional Americana roots styles. Cutler’s lyrics sound like they were written in an earlier time period in American history. It’s as if Cutler had traveled back in time, worked at a 1930s gas station in a sleepy town for a few years, then came back to the present to write about all the human drama that the town slept on. His handsome vocal slides across the back of the imagery he offers. Meanwhile, a greasy slide guitar projects his message over a brittle thatch of peppy acoustic instrumentation. It’s that buzz of activity that keeps the ears glued to the song.
A wistful feeling permeates “We Don’t Do That Stuff No More.” Cutler looks back at his past with mournful respect. Each verse his voice glides through bring his story to vivid life, infusing each with his plaintive timbre. He doesn’t just sing to you. He invites you into his world with an unforced, unobtrusive vocal approach. It’s like a painting on the wall that draws your attention with all of the details and nuances it offers. The instrumentation around his voice is, as always, plentiful in taste, respect, the right touches in the right places. Each time that greasy slide guitar unleashes another melodic line inside a measure, you feel the personality behind the man playing it and the man who wrote the song.
Closing out his album with “I’ll Play For You,” Cutler offers the listener one last parting glimpse into his world, a landscape of human souls bruised, wounded, enlightened, and rescued by the power of redemption or damaged or destroyed by the indifferent hand of fate. It’s a gritty, realistic world Cutler writes and sings about. The gritty instrumentation around his steadfastly handsome vocal helps deliver that world with soulful, emotive purpose.
Dreamland is certainly another tasty nugget in a line of gems from this Americana roots music singer-songwriter. One can only play his albums over and over until he releases his next offering of timeless roots music and gritty realistic words. This is a songwriter who deeply cares about people from the highways and back roads and dark alleys of American life.
Bob Kendall in the Providence Journal
You can read the article here.
Bob Kendall moved from Middletown to Boston at age 19 and became the founding member of the bands Lifeboat, The Blood Oranges and The Brothers Kendall. He and brother Greg (“Skeg”) collaborated on music in the films “Bandwagon,” “The Unbelievable Truth” and “Drive Me Crazy.”
In 2002, he returned to Rhode Island, played the Newport Folk Festival (it was the year Bob Dylan returned) and released his first solo record, “Enough is Enough.”
Kendall’s new recording, “Midnight Flower,” is a collection of songs written over the past decade. Echoes of Ian Hunter, Tom Petty and even the British Invasion can be heard. His band is also featured on the upcoming release of “The Spindle City Gram Parsons Tribute.”
Bob Kendall performs acoustic rock and blues on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Courthouse Center for the Arts, 3481 Kingstown Rd., West Kingston. Tickets are $15 and there is limited seating. For information or tickets call (401) 782-1018 or go to the courthouse website.
The Noise reviews Mark Cutler, Allysen Callery, Haunt the House, and Dan Baker.
You can read the article here.
MARK CUTLER – Dreamland
Singer/songwriter Mark Cutler is in Rhode Island’s Men of Great Courage and in this side project, he is more coffeehouse then nightclub. This side of Cutler is more folk and more introspective, but the passion still prevails in every song. “Circle to a Square,” a slow Americana ballad, “I’ll Play for You,” “Soul Flame,” and the title tune, “Dreamland” with a nice harp, are all very personal confessions of a very talented artist to his audience; and his gentle voice is well suited for this intimacy. There is even some banjo on this Americana flavored CD. Mark Cutler delivers some nice acoustic ballads. This is a good listen. (A.J. Wachtel)
DAN BAKER – Pistol In My Pocket
Got misery? Dan Baker does, in spades. His latest CD speaks of lost love, mournfulness, and general-type unhappiness. I mean, when an album contains tracks titled “She’s Not Gonna Call” and “Threw Me Down a Well” you’re kind of clued in early this is not going to be a compilation of cheerful, danceable ditties, and this isn’t.
Recorded live in the vast, echoing space of an empty Masonic temple, Baker and band have at it, down, dirty… and good. The arrangements are lean and spare, with sometimes-skeletal acoustic guitar carrying the load alone. For others, his band adds the right shades of angst. Dan’s voice yowls and growls in a manner that echoes early Neil Young, but like Neil’s, it’s a voice that delivers pain perfectly. (Tim O’Brien)
ALLYSEN CALLERY – Mumblin’ Sue
While the hypnotic intertwining of Callery’s fancy finger-picking lulls you into a meditative state, it’s her petal-soft lilt that really does a number on your heart-strings, plucking them with the same fervor as she does her guitar. The music is stoic yet still yearningly bitter-sweet. The lyrics, poetic and steeped in country wisdom, relate stories of heartache seen through sadder-but-wiser eyes. The power isn’t only in the words themselves, but in they way they’re sung—in a melancholy, reverberating sean-nós style. Something tells me she could be singing in Swahili or Cantonese and anyone with ears would still have some idea of what she was singing about. (Will Barry)
HAUNT THE HOUSE – Rural Introspection Study Group
Will Houlihan’s solo foray is a modest collection of guitar ballads and blues. There’s no gainsaying his personal approach to the material, of which the best of show is the bluesy “Vampyre,” along with the heartfelt “Eden.” (Francis DiMenno)
Red Line Roots profiles Haunt the House
You can read the article here.
There are those who try and fake vigor and enthusiasm. The world is full of “douche face” guitar solos, crappy rhyming schemes in songs, and jackasses dressed in late 19th century garb singing about the farmland when they live in a 3 story brownstone in Allston. This is not of those people. Will Houlihan absolutely exudes passion for his music and songs.
Rural Instrospection Study Group
There is a beautiful simplicity to this release. Its so emotionally full, but the sound has this hollow “man alone in an empty room with a guitar” vibe to it. The music is really quite incredible. There’s some hints of Jeff Buckley there. The second track ‘Vamprye’ leads off with a shrill, shocking, but incredibly beautiful vocal falsetto.I just really really want to listen to this over and over again. It’s a short 6 tracks, but still feels like a complete and well presented thought. Something that is loose, but still consciously purposeful. Spooky, powerful, and affecting. With the way Houlihan sings and arranges his work its no surprise he goes by the moniker “Haunt the House”.
While Haunt the House is Will and his performing act, he also has a myriad of folks join him on stage to perform as this act. Always a treat, always more emotion driven and more beautiful than the last time you see them. They are constantly evolving the craft and perfecting how to really get that evocative and stirring sound. Recently I had the pleasure of seeing Will perform at a Brown Bird Tribute show. Quoting my recap ” so f*cking beautiful, I have nothing else I could possibly say to better describe it”. That’s really it. I hate to use this again, but the music is haunting, the name fits. This is music who’s purpose is to make you feel feelings. It simply evokes something inside of you that makes you feel moved.
Eric Baylies Lists His Top 30 Bands for 2013
You can read the article here.
Motif Magazine covers the new Junior Varsity Arson and Mark Cutler albums
You can read the reviews here
Mark Cutler – Dreamland (75orLess Records)
After recently quitting his day job to be a full time musician, Mark Cutler hunkered down to record Dreamland, a decidedly more quiet and intimate album compared to his recent releases Sweet Pain and Red (both on 75orLess Records). Cutler tells me he recorded the album in his house and mostly by himself with cameos from his always formidable Men of Great Courage band. One doesn’t have to wait long to see the new direction: the first tune, “Doing Things That We Like To Do” has a lazy, peaceful strumming guitar around a campfire kind of feel. “Tankful of Gas” has a decidedly acoustic blues meets folk feel, with buzzing slide guitars. “Circle To a Square” reminds me of the 60’s folk of early Donovan, before he started singing about important stuff… you know, like the hurdy-gurdy man and witching season. The title track is my favorite on the record with a great melody that I can hum all day. “Too Much Fun” is a more upbeat rocker, while retaining the stripped down feel of the rest of the rest of Dreamland. “We Don’t Do That Stuff No More” has the feel of Tom Petty blues ballad. The theme of nostalgia runs through much of Dreamland, but probably never more than on the closing, “I’ll Play For You,” where Cutler weaves his tale of days past over a simple beat. It works. Dreamland may not be your typical get ready to rage on a Saturday night record, but it sure sounds great on a Sunday afternoon!
Junior Varsity Arson – Self Titled EP (75orLess Records)
Every now and again I get a new biscuit and look at it and say what the hell is this? Case in point, when something called Junior Varsity Arson came in. So I checked out their one sheet that describes the band as “Lonely Guy Rock.” They go on to describe themselves as a soundtrack for men who are banned from certain establishments, with endless theories and endless amounts of time to explain those theories. Okay, maybe I’ll actually like this.
Truth is, Junior Varsity Arson is a local super group of sorts, composed of Guy Benoit (Thee Hydrogen Terrors), Don Sanders (Medicine Ball, The Masons), Dave Narcizo (Throwing Muses), and Kraig Jordan (The Masons). Junior Varsity Arson is a little twisted in a fun indie rock way. The EP kicks off with “Her Parents Love Me,” chock full of lyrical gems like, “Her parents love me, I’m such a big improvement over the white supremacist.” Indie rock is a genre chock full of people that take themselves too seriously. That’s why it’s refreshing to come across something like Junior Varsity Arson, that’s lighthearted and still rocks. “Brown Jacket and Purple Keds” reminds me a little of the Dead Milkman as it chronicles the lonely man that Junior Varsity Arson proclaims to be the soundtrack for. “Hippy Dippy Milk Man” has an anthem, ‘60s spy feel with the keyboards. “Skull Collection” has an ‘80s alternative rock feel, while the song chronicles getting broken into and having one’s skull collection stolen. “I’m Hooked” is Junior Varsity Arson’s alternative dance number, that has a little bit of a psychedelic feel. What I like about Junior Varsity Arson most is they have personality both lyrically and musically, that makes each song memorable. – See more at: http://motifri.com/mark-cutler-dreams-junior-varsity-arson-burns-it-up/#sthash.dshz02O3.dpuf
Dan Baker ‘Pistol in My Pocket’ review at Musical Pearls Rebirth
You can read the article here.
Dan Baker was living in Chelsea MA, during the recording of his new record. A small city on the outskirts of Boston, Baker describes the city as “A place littered with factories, oil tanks, and pot holes… surrounded by great heaps of salt and scrap metal”. Being influenced by his surroundings Baker wrote many songs about the town, one even making it onto the record, the title track “Pistol in my Pocket”, Baker states, “That song came about from a conversation I had. I was talking to the clerk at the 7-Eleven down the street. He was telling me about all the times his store had been held up… at one point he said pistol in my pocket and I guess that just got stuck in my head”.
The city of Chelsea, luckily for Baker, is also where 1867 Recording Studio is located. A former Masonic Temple, the studio boasts 60 foot vaulted ceilings with walls still equipped with their masonic images and moldings. Baker knew he had found the right place so he called in his band and they got to work. The recording process was fairly straightforward; they all set up in the middle of the temple/live-room and cut everything live.
The result is Dan Baker’s third record, “Pistol in my Pocket”. A record that finds Baker more matured and in command of his craft. With songs of betrayal and revenge as well as songs of love-lost and love-regained. A small record with a big punch: gritty, raw, but heartfelt and nostalgic, and much like Baker’s first two records, you’ll be hanging onto every word. This is a great record, with everything you’ve come to expect and more from this great New England based singer/songwriter.
A record that finds Baker more matured and in command of his craft. Songs of betrayal and revenge, as well as songs of love-lost and love-regained. For fans of dark rural blues, Okkervil River, Magnolia Electric Co., Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen.
Allysen Callery ‘Mumblin’ Sue’ review at With Music In My Mind
You can read the article here.
Cela fait des mois (non deux années en réalité mais la honte aidant je n’ose pas l’écrire autrement que derrière des parenthèses) que j’aurais du vous parler de cette artiste exceptionnelle qu’est Allysen Callery. Je l’ai découverte par l’entremise de Marissa Nadler, elle avait posté une fois sur Facebook qu’Allysen était l’une de ses artistes préférées. J’ai su instantanément après l’avoir écoutée les raisons de cette si belle déclaration : la musique d’Allysen Callery est à tomber à la renverse. Les mots sont trop pauvres, limités pour décrire les papillons dans le ventre, les frissons qui parcourent l’échine dorsale, les larmes qui éclosent au coin de l’œil à l’écoute de plusieurs de ses morceaux. Elle est une enfant du plus petit état des Etats-Unis : le Rhode Island (dont la population équivaut à celle de la Belgique un million et une chic comme on dirait dans mon plat pays) ? Comment imaginer qu’une des meilleures artistes folk de son temps provienne d’un endroit si incongru ? Pourtant telle est la vérité et telle est sa fierté également.
Bref, cette autodidacte est une bénédiction pour la musique à plusieurs titres : sa sublime et incomparable voix qui semble dépourvue d’âge, voire même si on ose aller plus loin de sexe, ensuite son chant est de ceux qui parlent directement à l’âme, j’avais déjà évoqué ce cas de figure avec des tous grands artistes comme Terry Callier, Paula Frazer, etc… Il s’agît d’un don inné, qui ne s’apprend pas, ne se travaille pas, c’est un chant instinctif qui broie le cœur et retourne les tripes. Dans un climax d’une douceur ronde et maternante, elle nous fait partager ses textes poétiques, philosophiques non dénués d’une pointe d’humour par-ci par-là, ceux-ci étant portés par des compositions souvent dépouillées mais toujours éclatantes de justesse et fascinantes. Allysen Callery a été influencée par le folk anglais des années soixante et septante, sa musique folk alternative étant pétrie par la limpidité et l’authenticité de cette époque, les effets de manche très peu pour elle. Avec pour discographie deux albums autoproduits d’une saisissante beauté : Hopey (2007) et Hobgoblin’s Hat (2010), elle a également sortis deux merveilles d’ep’s Winter Island (2011) et The Summer Place (2012) qui se complètent à la perfection comme un Lp sur le label berlinois de qualité Woodland Recordings (d’ailleurs vous pouvez vous procurez gracieusement un concert live de la belle américaine sur ce lien).
Je ne vais pas écrire (de suite ?) sur ses quatre premières œuvres même si tant d’éloges sont à y adosser (sans modération) mais bien de Mumblin’ Sue, son dernier disque en date, sorti peu avant l’été 2013 aux Etats-Unis sur le label 75OrLess Records et quelques mois plus tard en Europe. Oui, nous sommes toujours un peu en retard, en décalage mais au final cela ne rime à rien, la musique d’Allysen Callery ne se périmera jamais, elle ne sera jamais ridicule tel le dernier Lady Gaga (alors que ce dernier vient à peine de sortir, une vraie misère musicale et sans doute humaine à cette échelle), elle ne souffrira jamais des changements de modes musicales, elle ne se tarira jamais en raison de sa profondeur et de son universalité, elle restera à jamais une musique folk à la fois si simple et indispensable, presqu’autant que l’air respiré. Mumblin’ Sue n’est pas une œuvre qu’on est capable de décortiquer pour mettre en valeur sa plume, c’est une expérience à la limite du shamanisme qu’on est en droit de s’offrir. Allysen Callery vous vend du rêve : sa maîtrise du picking qui ensorcèle, son falsetto à faire rougir les sirènes, son écriture inspirée et intelligente, sa douceur et sa sagesse sont transcendantes.
Chef d’œuvre d’humilité, de beauté, de naturel, pas une once d’artifice ne vient écorner ce disque d’acid folk indispensable qui s’impose vraisemblablement comme le meilleur de 2013. Quand je constate l’émergence des premiers top 50 ou autres déclinaisons de 2013 des webzines de bobos (senteurs de pets) et que seuls un ou deux noms féminins émergent, je me dis que les critiques devraient peut être enfin écouter les (vraies) artistes féminine (non Lady Gaga ou Sky Ferreira n’en font pas partie merci). A bon entendeur, salut. Mumblin’ Sue, disque folk de 2013. Absolute Must Have of course.
Mark Cutler ‘Soul Flame’ video
Providence Phoenix Interviews Mark Cutler about new album ‘Dreamland’
You can read the interview here.
Revered veteran musician Mark Cutler has officially escaped the cube farm, and he’s feeling like a billion bucks. He’s been a working musician for nearly 40 years and is an iconic fixture on the Lil Rhody music scene, from his days with the Schemers and the Raindogs to his current outfits, Men of Great Courage and the Tiny String Band. The singer/songwriter/six-string slinger just released another fantastic album, Dreamland (75orLess Records), the follow-up to 2012’s Sweet Pain. Mark will return to his favorite Jewelry District dive, Nick-a-Nee’s, for the official Dreamland release show on Friday.
Cutler’s brand of earnest roots-rock is scaled back this time around. He noted that he wrote “small songs about small things” and recorded in a home studio “the size of a postage stamp.” His exit from the rat race is prevalent on “Doing Things That We Like to Do” and “Too Much Fun.” He revs it up a bit and even plays drums on “Gonna Need My Help,” which he calls a “Yardbirds-type of raveup.” Dusty gems “Tankful of Gas” and “We Don’t Do That Stuff No More” dial up Dylan and Tom Petty, and the title track is a personal fave. Mark revealed a soft spot for the introspective “I’ll Play For You”:
“That one has a special place in my heart because every word is taken from real life — the first verse talks about the legendary Living Room. The second is taken directly from a memory of my second-grade schoolmate Geneva and how my eight-year-old heart yearned back then. The last verse is about one of my best friends, Mark Egan, who passed away a few years ago. We had a short-lived ritual where in the evenings we would walk down Park Avenue in Cranston, play our guitars and sing songs.”
Dreamland is Cutler’s third album for the Warren-based imprint 75orLess Records. Label founder Mark MacDougall says that Cutler helped pave the way for their increasingly eclectic roster.
“Mark Cutler deserves credit for expanding the types of music genres that the label is involved with. The first few years were strictly punk and hard rock albums, but after we released Red I was much more open to working with performers like Haunt the House, Allysen Callery, and others. Even if I stopped the label tomorrow, Mark is one of the best people I have crossed paths with, regardless of our music connection.”
Read our Q&A with Cutler below, and pick up Dreamland right now at the 75orLess Records website.
What was your former day job, and how is it not working for The Man anymore? I was a quality assurance engineer — I tested software. It was a good job for awhile, but leaving was the best thing I’ve done in a long time. I initially took the job in order to be able to provide my son with health insurance and help pay for his education, and now that he is graduating it seemed like a good time to reboot my life. Not working for The Man gives me a wonderful feeling. I’m still working harder than ever, but it’s really nice to not dread Mondays. I’m making less dough but I feel like a billionaire.
Considering the album title, was there a conscious decision going in that this album would have a mellower sound than Sweet Pain? Yes. I wanted to make a small record at home and I wanted to make it sound as spontaneous as possible. I wanted to write small songs about small things. Sometimes small things can be as big as the universe. I was taking cues from Lou Reed and Ray Davies — artists that can make the mundane sound beautiful.
Dreamland is your most stripped-down release. Did you do most of it solo? I did most of the record myself but of course I needed the help of my band, the Men of Great Courage (Jim Berger, bass, Rick Couto, drums, Bob Kirkman, banjo, Richard Reed, keys). Chris Lilley was very generous with her engineering knowledge. And my good friend (and veteran producer) Emerson Torrey did the mastering.
How has your relationship with Mark MacDougall and 75orLess been thus far? My partnership with 75orLess is wonderful. We have a low-key and low-pressure relationship. Mark is easygoing and does a great job getting the word out for me. He’s a music lover and he feels like family.
Tell us about working on the soundtrack for Jim Wolpaw’s Ladd School documentary (facebook.com/laddfilm)? Jim told me about this project, the strange and disturbing story of the Ladd School, and I jumped at the chance. I believe that this is an important story on many levels. People have a ton of misconceptions about folks who are labeled as being developmentally disabled and I hope that this film helps to dispel some of those notions. I’m working with clients from Advocates in Action to create an original soundtrack, including Jimmy Isom, who plays beats on the table and sings. Jimmy was also a client at Ladd School years ago, and has shared some chilling stories with me. I’ve made some friends for life through this project. I feel like getting to work on this soundtrack is a gift from God.
What’s on deck for MC in 2014? Will you continue to play with The Schemers? We’ll probably stick to doing one or two Schemers shows a year. I want to keep that special for the people who remember the band. Hopefully, the Tiny String Band and MOGC will be recording in 2014, and maybe I’ll put out a weird electronica album. I’ve been threatening to do that for a long time. I’m going to be holding food drives throughout the year and teaching guitar. I’ve been working on some short stories and screenplays as well.
Did you ever imagine that almost 40 years later you would still be kicking out the jams? I never thought that I’d be doing anything else. Any day job that I had was solely to support my family and my habit. My decision to leave my job was made easier when I said out loud that I wouldn’t ever be able to afford to retire. So, if I’m going to have to work until the day I die, I may as well be doing something that I love. Wish me luck.