New Year, Live Music

January's Best Bet for Concerts... From Arenas to Pubs

Mark Williams
The Bulletin Music Editor

2008 promises to be an exciting year: we elect a new knucklehead to sit in the Oval Office and music abounds throughout the area. The next twelve months is off to a good start, with three exciting yet diverse shows coming our way. First up is the Foo Fighters, who play the Toyota Center in Houston on Tuesday, January 22 with Jimmy Eat World.

While he was drumming with Nirvana, Dave Grohl was recording original songs at home that never received public release. Those tapes would become the foundation of the Foo Fighters, the band he formed in 1995, after the death of Kurt Cobain. Like Nirvana, the Foo Fighters melded loud, heavy guitars with pretty melodies and mixed punk sensibilities with a sharp sense of pop songwriting.

Dave Grohl began playing guitar and writing songs in his early teens, as well as performing with a variety of hardcore punk bands. In the late '80s, when he was still in his teens, he joined the Washington, D.C. hardcore band Scream as their drummer. During the final days of Scream, Grohl began recording his own material in the basement studio of his friend, Barrett Jones. Some of Grohl's songs appeared on Scream's final album, ‘Fumble.’ After Scream's 1990 summer tour, Grohl joined Nirvana and moved to Seattle.

After Nirvana recorded ‘Nevermind,’ Grohl went back to the D.C. area and recorded a handful of tracks that would appear on ‘Pocketwatch,’ a cassette released by Simple Machines. For most of 1992, he was busy with Nirvana, but when the band stayed off of the road, he recorded solo material with Jones, who had moved to Seattle. The pair kept recording throughout early 1993, when Grohl returned to Nirvana to record ‘In Utero.’

Grohl had toyed with the idea of releasing another independent cassette in the summer of 1993, but the plans never reached fruition. Following Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994, the drummer kept quiet for several months. In the fall of 1994, booking time in a professional studio, Grohl and Jones recorded the album that became the Foo Fighters' debut album in a week. Boiling down his backlog of songs to about 15 tracks, Grohl played all of the instruments on the album. He made 100 copies of the tape, passing it out to friends and associates. In no time, Dave Grohl's solo project became the object of a fierce record-company bidding war.

Instead of embarking on a full-fledged solo career, Grohl decided to form a band. Through his wife he met Nate Mendel, the bassist for Sunny Day Real Estate. Not only did Mendel join Grohl's band, but so did Sunny Day's drummer, William Goldsmith; former Germs and Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear rounded out the lineup. The band, named the Foo Fighters after a World War II secret force that allegedly researched UFOs, signed a contract with Capitol Records. The band's self-titled debut, consisting solely of Dave Grohl's solo recordings, was released on July 4, 1995. It was an instant success in America, as "This Is a Call" garnered heavy alternative and album rock airplay. By early 1996, the album was certified platinum in the U.S.

Throughout 1996, the Foo Fighters supported the album with an extensive tour, enjoying a crossover hit with "Big Me" that spring. Late in the year, the group began recording their second album with producer Gil Norton. During the sessions, William Goldsmith left the band due to creative tensions, leaving Grohl to drum on the majority of the album. Before the record's release in the spring of 1997, Goldsmith was replaced by Taylor Hawkins, who had previously drummed with Alanis Morissette. ‘The Colour and the Shape,’ the Foo Fighters' second album and the first they recorded as a band, was issued in May of 1997.

Smear left the group in the wake of the album's completion, and was replaced by guitarist Franz Stahl, whose stay proved short-lived; 1999's ‘There Is Nothing Left to Lose’ was recorded as a three-piece, with guitarist Chris Shiflett signing on soon after. In the Summer of 2002, the Foo Fighters released ‘One By One’ -- receiving massive airplay for the singles ‘All My Life’ and ‘Times Like These.’ During the recording of the album, Dave Grohl decided to scrap the tracks they had already laid down and left to drum for Queens Of The Stone Age's ‘Songs For The Deaf.’ He performed several live shows with them before returning to Foo Fighters and re-recording the whole album in a few days. Dave described it as the rawest album yet -- and the best in his opinion.

Having commemorated their tenth anniversary with a year-plus run commencing with a double studio album, a sold out arena tour built on that first disc's rock foundation followed by a toned down and intimate theater trek that highlighted the softer side showcased on that record's second half and capped off by a headlining gig at London's Hyde Park for a crowd of 85,000, the question looms larger than any in the Foo Fighters' career to date: What do they do for an encore?

The answer comes in the form of the band's sixth studio album, ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.’ Produced by Gil Norton, who last worked with the band on 1997's double-platinum The Colour and The Shape -- recently reissued in deluxe 10th anniversary form -- the Foo Fighters have crafted a 12-track milestone that showcases and reconciles the band's every strength and sensibility in the most complex and confident Foo Fighters album to date.

The road to ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’ has been anything but easy: over a decade in and going stronger than ever, the band and its catalogue of platinum-plus, multiple-Grammy-winning albums and classic tracks -- "Big Me", "My Hero," "Walking After You," "Everlong", "Learn To Fly," Next Year," "Best of You," "Virginia Moon," -- the Foo Fighters have established themselves as the epitome of the American rock band for generations to come.

On Saturday, January 26, the Corner Pub in Downtown Conroe plays host to Malcolm Holcombe: born and raised in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, Holcombe is being recognized by the contemporary folk and Americana community as a performer of national stature and an uncommonly unique guitarist and vocalist. Holcombe, who recently signed with new independent label Echo Mountain Records, went into Echo Mountain Studios to record his first CD release for the label with a wealth of new material. With Grammy award winning producer Ray Kennedy at the helm, the two resulting albums, 2007’s ‘Wager’ and ‘Gamblin' House’ -- which is being released this week -- resound with a fresh take on Holcombe's highly distinctive music and lyricism.

Try as you might to use other adjectives, when you write about Malcolm Holcombe and his work, you always come back to rugged and rustic. His visage appears to be carved of granite, and his voice is a sculpture crafted of tree bark and discarded railroad iron. His words and images cling to you for hours, even days, like wood smoke. His is a sound that combines harmonica-blessed folk, acoustic blues, string band country and small town soul. His uncle played guitar, as did his neighbor. "He'd sit on the porch and play electric guitar," Holcombe recalls. "And he had a couple of cute daughters." Perhaps with that added incentive, Holcombe started playing guitar. "I was just another kid with the Mel Bay chord book, and I only got through the first page," he says.

With those two thoughts, Holcombe opens a window on scenes from some 35 or 40 years past -- but talking in terms of decades is nothing to him. There are people who are described as having old souls -- but the one he's carrying around sometimes feels ancient and scarred. On "Blue Flame," he ponders a force equally ancient, and on "You Don't Come See Me Anymore," he makes loneliness palpable. He sounds troubled and searching on "I'd Rather Have a Home," singing "I chain smoke and complain, feeling broke inside."

However, to get the full effect of that primordial soul, you need to see Malcolm Holcombe onstage; his legendary performances are intense and all out. "If you're gonna do something, do it," is his explanation. "If you're gonna dig a ditch, dig a ditch. If you're gonna shine a shoe, shine a shoe." In other words, if you're gonna stand in front of a crowd of strangers with just your guitar and your songs, make it worth their time. He does it by presenting those songs with a gospel fervor and with a penetrating stare, aimed at nothing and no one, that becomes almost as deeply ingrained as his songs. It's sinewy and unfussy, the man, the music, and the delivery.

"I don't remember all the words to that 'Old Rugged Cross,’’’ he sings on "You Don't Come See Me Anymore" -- but that’s okay, for with each recording, including this triumphant new one, Malcolm Holcombe continues to build his own world-wary but determined state of grace.

Also on Saturday, January 26, McGonigel's Mucky Duck in Houston plays host to Jesse Dayton and Brennen Leigh -- Austin neo-traditionalists who resurrect the classic sounds of George & Tammy, Johnny & June, Conway & Loretta and Porter & Dolly on ‘Holdin’ Our Own’ -- a collection of traditionalist country duets could very well have been released in the 1960s, with its mix of covers and originals steeped in the classic country sound. Dayton and Leigh play off each other fabulously, and their easygoing sound is a welcome throwback to a livelier, simpler time in country music; an entertaining throwback that puts a modern spin on the golden age of AM country radio.

"There's a whole new generation of kids who have never listened to George and Tammy or John and June or Conway and Loretta," says Dayton. "We're appealing to all these kids who used to be into punk rock and now have mortgages, who now know that Johnny Cash is cool and have never heard a country duets record in their life. They're gonna love this."

While ‘Holdin' Our Own’ pays due tribute to country's archetypal pairings with remakes ranging from Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty's "Back Street Affair" to Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons' "Brand New Heartache," seven originals and the chemistry between Dayton and Leigh welcome the album accordingly. "I think everyone in the crowd thinks we got a thing going on, and then when they listen to us, they definitely think we got a thing going on," Dayton says. "We don't have that kind of relationship, you know what I mean? But onstage, we try to go for the same thing. If we know we can get a rise out of somebody by doing something, we'll do it, just shamelessly. I've gotten to play with Johnny Bush, Willie Nelson, Ray Price; I did a TV thing with Cash, but Waylon was like my runnin' buddy, and I'm most like him out of all the other guys. He wasn't like an old grandfather guy at all. Waylon would steal your girlfriend, man, up to the end of it. He was a player."

Dayton and Leigh's teaming was the product of error. Traveling with a host of Austin artists to the Mirande Country Music Festival in southwestern France during the summer of 2006, the two were separated from the rest of the group by a mistake with their airline tickets. Forced to take another flight across the Atlantic, they sparked an instant affinity over country classics, and Dayton invited Leigh to join him onstage at the festival. "I was backstage singing this George and Tammy song, and she came in and started singin' with me, and I said, 'Hey, why don't we do this up onstage tonight,'" Dayton relates. "We did it, and the people just went nuts. So, of course, we had to keep her up there."

The next night, Dayton and Leigh took over the back corner patio of a bar with their guitars. "I asked, 'What do you know?' and she knew as much as I knew and more," he says. "If I knew a Porter and Dolly song, she'd know the rest of the words to it. We sat there and sang for like six hours. We were probably driving the staff crazy." Though they come from drastically different backgrounds, the two find common ground in their determination to work outside of, and disgust for, Nashville's contemporary mainstream machine. Leigh, 14 years younger than the 40-year-old Dayton, was raised in Minnesota just across the border from Fargo, N.D., and the distinct accent still rounds her inflections. She began playing music with her brother, Seth Hulbert, at the age of 12. "Even at a young age, I realized that the stuff on the radio mostly wasn't any good," she says. "I had an advantage because my family was into good music. My dad played guitar; my mom played piano; they could sing harmony together. There was not much else to do up there. My dad had me in the cradle singing 'Wreck of the Old '97' and 'Wildwood Flower.'"

At 19, Leigh and her brother left Minnesota in pursuit of a more promising musical environment, landing in Austin in 2002 and releasing her debut album, ‘Lonesome, Wild & Blue’ that same year. Two more albums, 2004's ‘Too Thin to Plow’ and last year's ‘Devil's on My Trail,’ showcase Leigh's versatility and her bluegrass and gospel roots. Dayton has notoriously followed his own path and diverse influences, as well, avoiding Nashville's draw and even asking for release from his major label deal with Hollywood Records to start his own label, Stag Records. "I will never be the boy next door, Nashville music guy," he declares. "I like the antihero; I like the outlaws. I don't like those guys that look like they work at a bank.’

‘Holdin' Our Own’ continues Dayton and Leigh's dogged attempts to circumvent the corporate stranglehold on contemporary country music while mining a classic sound that should remind Nashville of its heritage abandoned in the wake of polished, pop-country superstars. As they discuss the current state of the industry, there's a sense that the album represents something more important to the two Austin artists than simple success. "People want something that's honest; that's all they want," says Dayton. "To me, country radio sounds like bad rock & roll with a fiddle player. There's a huge contingent of people out there that don't listen to Clear Channel radio who love what we're doing."

"You look at Nashville, and do you really want to be compared to those people?" asks Leigh. "Is that the pool you want to be thrown into? It's pretty much a lost cause. That whole Nashville empire -– the CMA Awards, the radio- – it's all bought and paid for, premeditated murder. I don't think they necessarily want something edgy or artistically charged."

"It's helping us, because all we have to do is get up onstage and be ourselves and be honest, and people are blown away," adds Dayton. "We're not really interested in appealing to people who watch Fox News and listen to Toby Keith and are at Wal-Mart every day. If you make good music, your audience will find you. I firmly believe that. The secret is to do it yourself, and do it inexpensively, and then go work your ass off…”

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