Kim Carson was standing on the sidewalk outside the Neutral Ground coffeehouse when a small army of middle-aged men bounded from a mini-van taxi. “Kim Carson! We love you! We came all the way from Columbus, Ohio to see you!” they raved, buzzing around her.
The volunteer who was supposed to open the Neutral Ground had evidently changed his or her mind, so the headliner, her adoring Ohioan throng and a handful of others were left waiting out in the almost-cold night. After another ten or so slightly confused people showed up and peered into the dark coffeehouse, Carson finally pulled out her guitar and sang “Outside” outside in the middle of Danneel Street.
This is an exciting spring for Carson, who eventually got in to her own gig. She is playing at the French Quarter Festival and Jazz Fest, reissuing her first album, Dirty Halo, and putting out her third album, which remains untitled at press time. “It’s kind of weird to compete with myself,” she explains, “but last year during Jazz Fest Virgin [Megastore] called and wanted 50 copies of my CDs. I didn’t realize until I went to the basement that we were down to the last ten of Dirty Halo. I didn’t even have one anymore.” As might be expected, her days are spent dealing with the army of details that have to be ironed out before a CD is released, and April 1 she is playing the patio outside Southport Hall in the late afternoon as part of the Not Quite White Trash Trio. “That’s me, Slim Nelson on harmonica and Ryan Donohue on dobro,” she says, “but that isn’t my show. I’m just part of the trio there.”
Not surprisingly, most of her attention is on the new album. She has a cover photo of herself in the French Quarter on Orleans, but the title isn’t carved in stone yet: “We want to call it ‘Calle de Orleans,’ but we’re afraid deejays will pronounce it ‘cal-lee dee Orleans,’ so we’re not sure.” Similarly, the song sequence hasn’t yet crystallized, though she’s clearly proud of the choices. Carson wrote most of the songs, but two of the more interesting covers are Stevie Nicks’ “After the Glitter Fades” and the Continental Drifters’ “Heart/Home.” “After we did it at their record release party, people started to request it,” she explains. The Stevie Nicks song she discovered “when the label briefly tried to break it as a single with country radio.”
The new album differs from 1997’s Tonkabilly. “At that time, we were on the college/frat circuit and recorded the songs as if we were playing them live,” she explains, but this time, she set out to record the album more deliberately. “I told my producer I wanted someone on this album who can play guitar better than I can,” she recalls, so Blue Rodeo’s Lee Warren was brought in. The album was recorded in Nashville with a band that “wants to come down here – they really do,” Carson says, “but I like the Casualties too.” While recording “Heart/Home,” the producer wanted things to be perfect, so he complained that Carson was flat on a note and wanted to try additional takes. But, she recalls, “John Crook [from Jolene] told him, ‘Leave it. Leave some ugly on it,’ and that became our motto for the record: “Leave some ugly on it.”
Mardi Gras Reflections
I once loved the way AM radio juxtaposed the oddest songs, but the days of being pleasantly surprised by radio are long gone. Now the only place I get that buzz is from Japanese electronica artists like Cornelius and Fantastic Plastic Machine. FPM recently deejayed live in the studio of LuxuriaMusic.com, and the hour-long set crossed time, geography and genres in a way that suggested as many questions as possibilities. The set took me aback when a cocktail piano piece faded behind Brazilian talking drums, only to be replaced by the opening bars of Professor Longhair’s “Big Chief.” The two minute Fess manipulation blended with the Brazilian drums takes place a little over a half-hour through the set and fades away like a marching band drifting on down the block, but the moment remains memorable first because I heard it during the Mardi Gras season, and because it pulls together the two largest carnivals in perhaps the most modern of settings—online and in a deejay’s mix. The set can still be found at the Luxuria Music website.
In 1979, the Slits recorded Cut, an album that is punk not in its energy or power but in its attitude. The all-woman band worked from the assumption that if guys could play punk and reggae, so could they, even if musical subtleties were plowed through in the process. During Muses’ parade, Susan Ford’s Pink Slip adapted the Slits’ approach to Dr. John’s “Walk on Guilded Splinters” and the results were perfect, if not entirely accurate. Since virtuosity isn’t a part of any rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic I subscribe to, those who carped about off-key vocals or that the rhythm wasn’t “right” completely missed the point. Rock in parades is usually limited to tired guys playing classic rock covers, so Pink Slip’s performance made complete punk sense and gave Muses—whose first ride was an excellent one—additional buzz.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Moment of the Month
Wrapping up a set at the House of Blues’ Parish, the Newbury Makers finished with the Move/ELO’s “Do Ya,” which by itself is enough to qualify for a mention in this column. To make the moment finer though, a guy lined up two girls he was with in front of the singer and took a picture. After they posed and he took the picture, he hooted and celebrated the length of the bar, leaving me—and by extension, you—to ponder the significance of this event.
Upcoming Events
The Melvins at the House of Blues April 19: the Melvins first show at the HOB was an exercise in sustained perversity and perhaps a metaphor for their career. They played three sets; one sounded like Tangerine Dream, then the next two focused on songs with less obvious hooks and sluggish tempos, keeping the audience waiting for the fastball that never came. The next time I saw them, of course, they rocked, rocked and rocked with enough weight to command their own gravitational field.
Tav Falco and Panther Burns at the Mermaid Lounge April 19: It’s so unfair to have to choose between Panther Burns and the Melvins because in both cases anything can happen. Falco has mined our musical past and excavated rockabilly, R&B, pop and tangos madder than anyone would think to write today, and his performances are always right if not exactly precise.
The Potomac Accord and the Golden Arm Trio at the Mermaid Lounge April 20: A night of serious music. St. Louis’ Potomac Accord’s album doesn’t have a song shorter than seven minutes long, all of them driven by a stately piano. Austin’s Golden Arm Trio isn’t necessarily a trio, but I doubt we’ll see the forty-piece chamber orchestra they have been at points. At times, they’re a jazz band, but these days classical elements are more prominent.
Bone Fest at the Mermaid Lounge April 30: The revamped MuleBone is back with new material. The new line-up features Mark Mullins on vocals and trombone, Jimmy Robinson on guitar, Mike Mayeux on guitar, Benji on bass and Mike Barras on drums. They plan to play a number of gigs during April, but on this night they’ll be joined by Mullins’ Bonerama and Woodenhead with Trombones from Hell.
