Musicians You Never Heard Of... But Should

It's been a while since I wrote anything here. I'm not sure even the three people who used to read it have endured my lapse, so this may be for nothing. But I'll give it a try.

Since I can't bear to write another word about how I hate Christmas and since the whole season depresses me too much to write anything funny, I'm going to stick with something I can write about even in the December funk... Music.

So, for your reading pleasure, I give you ten musicians that you really should listen to, but probably haven't. For whatever reason, most of these guys have gone under the radar, and it's a shame. So, if you want to give me a gift for Christmas, go seek one or more of these guys out and expand your horizons.

These bands run the gamut from folk to metal to world beat. There probably isn't anyone in the world but me who would actually like listening to all of them. But if you dig a bit, there's likely something you'll get into.

On to the list...

The Trailer Park Troubadours/Antsy McClain
Genre: Americana/Rockabilly
Recommended Album: Way Cool World/Time Sweetened Lies
The best live act on Earth. These guys put heart, soul, and sweat into every concert. They're the band I've seen more than anyone (I stopped counting at 15 times, and that was four years ago). They're best known for their comedic songs like "Skinny Women Ain't Hip", "I Wish I Had a Clapper for Your Heart", and "Prozac Made Me Stay" but singer/songwriter Antsy McClain's true talent lies in his ability to write quirky and often melancholy love songs from a point of view that no one else has even considered. In "Primer Grey Impala", he muses on a women he sat beside briefly in a Waffle House, piecing together from clues in her demeanor and dress that she just left a bad relationship. He watches, admiring her from afar. "If I were a braver man, I'd sit down by her side. Try to find out what it is, she hides behind those eyes. What it is she's running from, why it is she waits..." In "Inspector 372" he combines his keen sense of humour with a rather sad angle as a traveling salesman who never has time to settle down finds an inspection tag in his jeans and creates a fantasy of the "lonely inspector" who did the job. Go see these guys if they're in your area (and to my California readers, they often are) or at least go to their website and get an album. You won't regret it.

Todd Snider
Genre: Americana/Folk
Recommended Album: Near Truths and Hotel Rooms Live
Todd is probably the "best known" of my unknown artists. His most recent album, "The Devil You Know" made Rolling Stone's top 50 albums of the year. But it hasn't translated into Nickelback-like sales. While the selfish part of me certainly enjoys the intimacy of seeing Todd in little clubs (and I have several times), he just deserves more. He is, quite simply, the best young songwriter in America. He's the heir apparent to John Prine, and no surprise since Prine is his mentor and Todd released three albums on Prine's "Oh Boy" record label. Where Snider excels is in telling compelling stories about ordinary folks. In "Just Like Old Times", from his newest album, he tells a tale of a drifting pool shark who has a chance reunion with his high school sweetheart while looking for "some company in the local Scene, I saw an ad that just had to be you." How do you make the reunion of a bum and a prostitute poignant? Listen to the song and you'll know. As he says in the song, so many of his characters "don't want to throw a fishing line in that old mainstream."

Tommy Womack
Genre: Americana/Southern Rock
Recommended Album: Positively Na Na
Those of you who used to listen to WKDF in Nashville back when it's a rock station might remember Womack's name. Back in those days, he hosted a show called "Nashville Tapes" with his Government Cheese bandmate Joe Elvis. Government Cheese was a straight ahead club rock act. When Womack went solo, he moved more into the Americana direction. Like Snider above, Womack wrings all he can out of ordinary folks, but Womack's humour is more sharp than Snider's and he has a talent for twisting a phrase just the right way to get maximum punch out of it. In "I'll Give You Needles" he tells the story of two "mopwater junkies" who meet on occasion in the emergency room. At one meeting, the woman is pregnant and Womack offers to hook her up with an "under the table abortion" but warns her "you might get accosted by angels intent on giving you hell. They'll push and they'll pull and they'll scream and they'll shout and they'll kneel and they'll pray and they've been known to shoot... but they mean well." Later he tells her that "I've got better things to do with my day than watch you sit in the corner and bleed... but I'll give you needles, how many you need?"

Jason Ringenberg
Genre: Americana/Country
Recommended Album: All Over Creation
Ringenberg may also be a familiar name to those who listened to Nashville Tapes in the 80's. As the singer of Jason and the Scorchers, his band broke genres, blending country, metal, and punk in a way no one ever had. As a solo artist, Ringenberg has moved more toward his country/folk roots, although he can still rock out on tracks like "One Less Heartache in the World Tonight" and "Honky Tonk Maniac From Mars." But Ringenberg's best talent lies in his subtle storytelling. In "Bible and a Gun" he tells the story of an escaped slave who goes west, relying on his bible but also carrying a gun. At one point he says "to turn the other cheek, is the braver thing to do, I wish I had it in me, and they wish they had it too. For tomorrow when we meet, this story will end, and an ancient hollow grief, will be our only friend." Also a student of history, Ringenberg brings small historical moments to life with songs like "Erin's Seed", about the Irish immigrants to America who found themselves facing their brothers in the U.S. Civil War, and "Eddie Rode the Orphan Train" about a young man whose parents put him on a train from "Soho down to Arkansas" where people would gather at each stop and pick out children to take home, often to be used as free farm labor.

Tristania
Genre: Metal
Recommended Album: Beyond the Veil
Tristania hail from Norway, as most of the best dark metal acts do. They follow a fairly common trick, started by Celtic Frost, of employing both a "death metal" vocalist and an operatic female singer. But Tristania goes one step beyond, hiring a third baritone singer to round out the group. The contrast of the three very different vocalists is ear-grabbing. Musically, Tristania displays the technical skill required of this style of music but isn't afraid to experiment with acoustic guitar intros and other things not typically not heard in gothic metal acts. They're not everyone's cup of tea and they certainly don't "fit" with the above acts but with lyrics like "you dance in the halls of insanity, yet madness is, your amnesty... your vanity", they belong on my list.

Femi Kuti
Genre: African Beat
Recommended Album: Africa Shrine Live
I saw Femi Kuti as one of the opening acts at Nashville River Stages. He was stuck in between Blues Traveler and Bob Dylan. I'd never heard of him and had no expectations. I was blown away. He came on stage in full African regalia, complete with a huge band an a whole cadre of dancers. For the next hour, they combined catchy beats, driving percussion, expert dancing, and some very politically charged lyrics to entertain us all. If you're willing to expand your horizons, check him out.

The Jeff Healey Band
Genre: Blues
Recommended Albums: Cover to Cover
Healey had one hit in the 80's with "Angel Eyes" and then faded into obscurity. It's a shame. Healey is, quite frankly, one of the ten best blues guitarists alive today. His downfall, unfortunately, was what makes his sound unique; blind since childhood, Healey self-taught himself guitar by playing it lying in his lap like a steel guitar. The unique style of playing allows Healey to get bends and hit notes that are impossible for "normal" guitar players, but it got him labeled a novelty act and dismissed. While he's not the strongest songwriter in the world, he's in a genre where he doesn't have to be. Healey has made the best of the old blues tradition; taking blues standards and making them his own. From his smoking take on "Hootchie Cootchie Man" to his blues'd up version of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel", Healey satisfies all around.

This was fun. Perhaps I'll do it again sometime if it's well received. I've got tons of obscure music in my collection just waiting to be introduced to a wider audience. Until then...