#james mastro

[tfc2211]

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Nuts And Bolts (2026) Reissue of 1983 LP

[americanahighways]

SHOW REVIEW: Marshall Crenshaw w/James Mastro at The Iron Horse in Northampton, MA @marshall.crenshaw @james_mastro1 @americanahighways @jimreymus #showreviews #americanamusic #americanahighways @ironhorsenoho

SHOW REVIEW: Marshall Crenshaw w/James Mastro at The Iron Horse in Northampton, MA

[psitrend]

Greg Amici returns with I’ll Be Back ahead of Tragicomic

Greg Amici releases single ‘I’ll Be Back’ and announces upcoming album ‘Tragicomic’; Replaced by Robots debuts with ‘The Experiment’ Greg Amici, operating out of New Jersey, has issued ‘I’ll Be Back’, the opening track made public from his upcoming album ‘Tragicomic’. The release spans twelve pieces, threading together elements of absurdist-rock, ska, Americana, folk-punk, and straight rock…

Greg Amici returns with I’ll Be Back ahead of Tragicomic

[idroveatank]

more 80s hero worship for me as marshall crenshaw came to town last night. a night to be transported away from the current bullshit. thanks marshall. with james mastro nov 14 2024 stone church brattleboro vt

[sinceileftyoublog]

Alejandro Escovedo's Songs, Living and Breathing

From left to right: Mark Henne, Alejandro Escovedo, James Mastro, Scott Danbom

BY JORDAN MAINZER

He's a true master of reinvention. Don't get me wrong: It's the same Alejandro Escovedo. But he's continuing to find out that there are many right ways to tell his stories, especially when it comes to their musical accompaniment. Escovedo hasn't released a new album of original material since 2018's The Crossing, and that's okay. In 2021, he shared a Spanish-language version of the aforementioned album, La Cruzada, an act whose sociopolitical ramifications speak for themselves, in an era of increasing anti-immigration rhetoric and xenophobia that the very album explores. And earlier this year, inspired by his forebears, Escovedo decided to revisit all eras of his discography.

Including tunes from pre-solo career bands Buick MacKane and The True Believers, Echo Dancing (Yep Roc) is 14 re-recordings of older songs. When Escovedo boarded a plane to Italy to record with Don Antonio (with whom he recorded The Crossing) and Nicola Peruch, he thought he was going to improvise a new record from his lyrical and melodic sketches. Upon hearing other bands' interpretations of his songs--namely Calexico's version of "Wave", originally from 2001's A Man Under the Influence--Escovedo thought, "I, too, can do that." The man who sings on Echo Dancing is, yes, older and wiser, having seen friends and family members come and go, continuing to find truth in stories both personal and fictional. But instead of focusing on his own voice, Escovedo obscures himself behind clouds of haze, electronic effects, sparse drum machines, and distorted guitars, the pain in his voice all the more affecting due to how isolated it sounds. On "Thought I'd Let You Know", a clattering song originally from 2016's Burn Something Beautiful, Escovedo stretches the running time a full three minutes, as if to give himself even more time to reflect alongside buzzing stabs of noise. He repeats, "We're not alone / We are all alone," the effective musings of someone struggling to make sense of the world around them.

At the same time, if songs with more traditional instrumentation sound futuristic on their Echo Dancing version, Escovedo pulls familiar sounds out of those that might have sounded dystopian in the past. The Crossing's "MC Overload", for instance, trades the original's chugging, metallic instrumentation and vocoders for bluesy picking, Gianni Perinelli's soprano saxophone, and Escovedo's deadpan baritone. And Antonio adds gospel-inflected organ to "Swallows of San Juan" and "Last to Know", which somehow sounds at home next to drum machines and dulled bass drums.

Escovedo's gear

When I saw that Escovedo was touring Echo Dancing, I thought, "Which versions of these songs would he play live?" Would we get the new version of "John Conquest" with syncopated synthesizers, or the Buick Mackane punk burner (technically and hilariously titled "John Conquest You've Got Enough Dandruff on Your Collar to Bread a Veal Cutlet")? Would he play fan favorite "Castanets", a self-described Mott the Hoople-style rock and roll song, or "Casta​ñ​uelas", the slow, drippy, half-Spanish language dub version with slightly different lyrics? According to his show last Thursday at FitzGerald's, the answer was, "Sometimes, both, other times, something in between the two, and occasionally, neither." During "Sacramento & Polk", Escovedo's venerable backing band--guitarist James Mastro, keyboardist Scott Danbom, drummer Mark Henne--adopted the upbeat punk drive of the original version from 2006's The Boxing Mirror, behind Escovedo's obscured vocals, which were inspired by Echo Dancing's version. On "Bury Me", a prescient tune when it appeared on Escovedo's 1992 debut Gravity, Mastro played the original's twangy slide guitar, while Danbom extracted the pure funk from the new version. Their performance of "Too Many Tears" combined the built-up dirge of Big Station's original with Escovedo's miles-away delivery of Echo Dancing's. And "Everybody Loves Me" retreated to a soulful, back-to-basics ethos, its blues-funk towering above the original's CCR-indebted strut and new version's wonderfully puzzling industrial country.

If the true testament to a song's lasting impact is how it can emotionally resonate over time, ballad "Sensitive Boys" was the highlight of the set. Introducing it, Escovedo paid tribute to his brother Manuel, who passed away weeks ago at 94 years old. Hearing Escovedo repeat, "The world needs you now," despite what we all knew to be true was heartbreaking, yes, but the band filled the room with an undeniable warmth, from Escovedo's deep belting to Mastro's plucky guitars and Danbom's keyboards, out of which he concocted a whole orchestra worth of sounds. It's sometimes hard to remember just how long Escovedo's been around when I think to myself that he hasn't put out anything "original" in a while. Hearing Echo Dancing and seeing him live reminds me that the sort of newness I look out for, even crave, is still limited by the construct of time. With the right shift in perspective and a couple tweaks, a song can be just as living and breathing as I am.

[spilladabalia]

The Bongos - The Bulrushes

[kinlochhold]

all kinds of amazing, this

[kenpiercemedia]

Mott The Hoople Announces First Tour In 45 Years

The Press Release: This April, Mott The Hoople ’74 will tour the U.S. for the first time in 45 years. The tour, featuring core ‘74 members Ian Hunter, Ariel Bender and Morgan Fisher, celebrates the 45th anniversary of their famous 1974 U.S. tour, as well as the original release of The Hoople and Live, the final albums of the classic Mott The Hoople era. The eight-date run of theatre performances…

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