Austin Sound

Graham Wilkinson is used to working fully backed by his band Graham Wilkinson & the Underground Township. This time, however, Wilkinson has decided to strike out on his own and release his debut solo self-titled album that is highly acoustic, simplistic, yet beautiful folk music. It highlights his folk roots in a setting that is raw in performance. The first track, “You and Me” is simply Wilkinson and his guitar singing a folksy tune acoustically with no fancy trappings or back ground vocals. This track probably best highlights the focus of the album and it’s a refreshing look back at where Wilkinson started.

Ricky Stein is a young gun with an old musical soul. With a powerful voice that’s large and fearless Stein is at his best on this album. Self described as Americana music, Stein goes way beyond that to put out a blazing debut album that is more of a blues sound with his heart on his sleeve, than just pure straight-up standard Americana. At home in venues like Hole in the Wall, Momos, Antones, and the Saxon Pub, Stein solo and oftentimes with the full piece four member band behind him (including Phil Morris on bass and vocals, Stuart Burns on guitar and vocals, Nathanial Klugman on keyboard and Josh Weinholt on drums) has been spreading his music amongst crowds that are wowed by this 25-year-old’s performance.

The Lonesome Heroes make a kind of country cut with a little psychedelic dripping, courtesy of fronters Landry McMeans and Rich Russell. When you think McMeans and Russell, think ham and cheese, or better yet, peanut butter and jelly, endlessly complimenting each other throughout the album making it crunchy on the lips and filling for your ears. With rough guitar distortion, McMeans’ Texas trill, and Russell’s drier vocals, the group’s debut full length flourishes in its ability to be a guiltless revelry that extends beyond alt country. Evoking sounds from the Cowboy Junkies to a twangier/funkier version of Alison Krauss the album draws the listener in with ease.

Ambient, instrumental rock floats heavy throughout The Calm Blue Sea. The five member local band manages to kidnap you and take you on a stormy instrumental joyride that sails from atmospheric rock to a tidal wave of instrumentation that washes over you and leaves you breathless. In their debut album, they build on a smooth wave-like effect of peaks and troughs that lets you drift and rumble and tumble throughout the crashing, splashing down of drums with long guitar distortion seemingly aimlessly steering the boat.

Dan Dyer has made his way back to Austin after spending a few years in St. Louis raising a family and producing commercial work, and a welcome return it is. His first incarnation, Breedlove, debuted in the late 1990s as an Austin outfit that soaked the music scene with a soulful R&B sound that was 2/3 pop, 1/3 soul - with Dyer’s voice at the forefront. Dyer’s self-titled third release picks up where Breedlove left off, but includes a gospel-revival driven sound fusing rock, soul, jazz, and latin influences with a little less pop into the R&B sound. Recorded on the East side with producer David Boyle, the album is a refreshing dip in the R&B pool which seems to be in short supply these days in Austin. Dyer’s rich, soulful voice is the splashing standout on every track. It pairs well when backed up by Austin-based Mt. Zion Baptist Church Choir, although with his grunts and moans wetting the tracks, you feel a little more like you are visiting him in between the sheets instead of church pews.

Every Rose has its thorn, but in Matteoli’s case his Rose is his muse. His listeners, however, may find that Matteoli’s Rose may also be a bit of a thorn in his lyrical side as his latest album Golden State pays tribute to the sunny-side of love. It features cuts with his euturpe and girlfriend, Cayce Rose (also known as Cayce March), and obviously hangs out to dry his thoughts on life while in love. Gone are the days from his moodier and more reflective lines and tones found on his first solo debut Hard Luck Hittin’, replaced instead by alt. folk undertones and slightly gushy lyrics about love and its feel-good endorphins. As much as this album might grow on you after a few rounds, it’s hard to get attached if playing it as a one night stand; the listener will only fall in love after digging for pieces that aren’t overtly lyrically sweet. Producing a record about being in love is a difficult endeavor and Matteoli recognizes this: in an interview he explained the complexity of producing an album that focuses on love without sounding sappy and referred to his last album, which was easier to write because depression translated easier to record than happiness.

If Bob Dylan and Mason Jennings had a baby, it’d be a boy, and he’d be named Chris Brecht. Brecht brings alt-folk-country to Austin with scruffiness, Woody Guthrie and beat poet lyrical undertones that make you feel like you are sitting shotgun with Kerouac at the wheel. The Great Ride, Brecht’s first full-length studio album release on Dead Leaf Records, hit the airwaves earlier this year and combines a nasal folkiness with guitar strums and lines of unfeigned poetry while sliding in harmonica, fiddle, Hammond B3 organ, and background harmony. The album has a freedom and restlessness with a folksy, bluesy, rock backbone.

Although Austin has its share of artists revamping “Blonde on Blonde,” Brecht brings something else to the table. He straddles a line gracefully, keeping a foot in the 1960s and another firmly planted in the present - in both appearance and sound - using vintage elements authentically.

Trey Brown stands tall and lanky in front of a lone microphone with his acoustic guitar strapped low around his chest. The speakers are propped unsteadily on the seats of two metal lawn chairs on either side of him. He plays to a crowd of 10 or so at the coffee shop in June - a crowd he has become accustomed to. The Odessa, TX native cut his musical baby teeth playing coffee shops while attending Pepperdine University in California, and eventually settling back in Austin. Long, curly hair tossed haphazardly, dressed in baggy jeans with an untucked shirt, he softly addresses the crowd regarding his first studio release, Smoke A’Risin.

Brown describes his songwriting as “surfer-western” and began recording Smoke A’Risin in Austin at Superpop Records throughout the summer and fall of 2007. He credits his sound to the legendary folk and Americana artists that have been time stamped before him - M. Ward, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, Robert Earl Keen, and Townes Van Zandt.

Walking into the tiny record shop crowded with vinyl, the sound spun around the room and vibrated those that were watching the intensity of the players on the tiny corner stage. My Education was doing an in-store the weekend after their CD release Bad Vibrations debuted. With five players on stage and a diverse collection of instruments the sound was powerful and melodic, free of lyrics, with moments that would ebb and flow and then swell into an intense, climatic wave that left you with your mouth open and your ears ringing.

My Education plays you beautifully. First capturing you with their soft, careful melodic rhythms that blend an array of instruments: guitar, organ, pedal steel, viola, percussion, piano, organ, accordion, drums, bass and vibraphone. The combination allows the listener to settle their head into the tracks, comfortable in a state of floating ambiance, before being swept into the furious tornado of sound that leaves the listener’s head in bits and pieces and ears begging for more.