Wistful Thinking
“When you’re absolute beginners, it’s a
panoramic view.” M. Ward embarks on his
fi fth studio journey with this line, a seemingly
nostalgic ode to his salad days. It’s a reminder
that the Portland-based singer/songwriter isn’t
the underground indie-folk scene’s best-kept
secret anymore. His reluctant, understated star
has gradually risen with each album, and most
recently he shambled into the limelight with
She & Him, his 2008 collaboration with actress/
singer Zooey Deschanel. Maybe he misses the
low-key innocence and unmapped musical
vistas of his tenderfootin’ years. Even his
album’s title, Hold Time, seems to connote his
desire to pull back on the reins a bit and head
back to the halcyon. But Ward has a knack for
looking back, even when he’s moving forward,
and time has always been more of a suggestion
than an absolute in his music. The songs on
Hold Time are as carefree and unconcerned
about what era they should fall into as anything
Ward has recorded. There are no hang-ups or
baggage — just a wide-open embrace of all the
best aspects of Americana music. From the
laid-back cover of Buddy Holly’s “Rave On” to
the down-home, Hank Williams-inspired spirit
of “One Hundred Million Years” to the light toe-
tapping shuffl e of “Fisher of Men,” this record
possesses a languid, worn-in charm and early
morning intimacy that sounds like the singer/
songwriter just sauntered into the studio with
the dewy-eyed dawn and recorded all the songs
in one take. Dusty, familiar, wistful — call it what
you want. More than anything else, Ward’s
music just sounds timeless. M. Ward plays at
9 pm Friday, May 22, at the McDonald Theatre.
$18 adv., $20 door. — Jeremy Ohmes
Revival
Imagine a lost early-’60s Brit band whose
lineup boasted Lennon, Jagger and Davies.
That’s how Texas music fans felt about the
recent reunion of The Flatlanders, the early-
1970s Lubbock group — “more a legend than a
band,” to quote the title of their reissued fi rst
album — whose three leading members went
on to forge considerable solo success after
scattering from their West Texas hometown
in the wake of bad luck and country music
establishment resistance. Eventually, 40-year
friends Joe Ely (one of rock’s great live acts,
whose dynamic country rock has recently
been enriched by Mexican music infl uences),
Jimmie Dale Gilmore (whose evocative Hank
Williams-style croon and offbeat, spiritually
The Flatlanders
searching “country and eastern” sound won
critics’ hearts in the 1990s) and Butch Hancock
(the brilliant Dylanesque folky songwriting
legend who scored hits for Emmylou Harris
and others) all resettled around Austin. They’ve
often contributed songs and guest appearances
on each others’ albums and performances over
the years, but only recently revived the original
band, including joint songwriting, playing and
singing on three albums’ worth of new material,
including their wise and wondrous new CD,
Hills and Valleys. The new music is fresh and
compelling, but I hope this certifi ed supergroup
will also mine their considerable respective
back catalogs for classics from the last three
decades. The Flatlanders perform at 7:30 pm
Friday, May 22, at the Shedd’s Jaqua Concert
Hall. $26-$34. — Brett Campbell
Break on Through
Break As We Fall are about to, um, break.
Celebrating the release of their second CD and
fi rst full-length, If You’re Lonely, the Portland-
and Corvallis-based band’s music evokes any
number of funky, danceable ancestors: Red
Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Wonder, Rubberneck,
even Dave Matthews. And like those groups,
there’s an underlying independent streak and
improvisational sensibility.
“So Long” fi nds its legs from the fi rst note,
with an oversexed urgency that manifests not
only in the hip-swerving rhythm but in the fi rst
line of lyrics: “I want to kiss you in the places
where it really counts / Do the things that I
know will make you scream out loud.” Singer
Evan Churchill matches the rhythm with a
smooth voice that turns slightly gritty where
appropriate, but at no point does he max out
his power. Bassist Tim Karplus gives buoyancy
to the whole album, lending character to songs
like “Come Down Hard” that in another band’s
hands would likely be boring alterna-rock. “On
Our Way Home,” like most of the album’s songs,
takes its energy from Karplus’ throbbing bass
lines that slither throughout, maintaining a
groove that makes it hard to leave the dance
fl oor to replenish your drink.
Break As We Fall is deftly able to defy
being stuffed into a dance/funk mold, even as
their songs beg for funky dancing. It’s a style
that’s deeply rooted but also totally their own.
Break As We Fall, Volifonix and Starboard
Morning play at 10 pm Saturday, May 23, at
Luckey’s. 21+. $5. — Vanessa Salvia
Soul Center
Samantha Crain isn’t old enough to
sound like this. The 22-year-old Oklahoma
singer-songwriter has a wise-beyond-her-
years voice, rounded and rich but youthful
and spry when she wants it to be. Though
the solid grace of her songwriting adds to the
impression that Crain must be a worldlier soul
than she appears, it’s her voice that takes
center stage on the 11 tracks of Songs in the
Night, Crain’s fi rst full-length with her band
The Midnight Shivers (it follows last year’s
”musical novella” The Confi scation). It’s a
confi dent, elegantly unpretentious album
that’s earned Crain comparisons to everyone
from Joanna Newsom to Neil Young.
Songs offers nearly as many warily
cheerful, nearly upbeat tracks as it does
those that set a darker, sadder feel; the title
might suggest a lonesome night with only
heartbroken ballads for company, but Crain
turns the phrase into a promise: “’Cause my
baby’s gonna be all right / I got songs in the
night for you.” On “Get the Fever Out,” she
sings more brightly than usual, an impatient
bit of percussion motivating a song that
sounds unexpectedly like the now-defunct
Wisconsin band Rainer Maria. (As The
Washington Post put it, “Fever” is a song that
“could have been made only in the frenetic
wake of ’90s girl-punk.”) But on the following
track, the slinky, dark, Salinger-referencing
“Bananafi sh Revolution,” Crain turns surly
and throaty, turning up the tremor in her
voice as she sings “It’s a perfect day for dying
/ It’s a perfect day for them to start crying.”
Samantha Crain
SAM LAMB
M. Ward
ANNIE MUSSELMAN
music
Crain’s band is a steady presence behind
her throughout, easily shifting gears from the
uptempo “Bullfi ght (Change Your Mind)” to
the spare, atmospheric “Calm Down.” Songs
ends with “The Dam Song,” which begins with
Crain sounding downright fragile; before long,
though, she’s bleakly wishing the dam would
break just so there’d be “a famine, a coffi n, a
tear / More than I’ve felt this year.” And we’re
back in the Night’s darkness, tenderly wrapped
up in her voice. Samantha Crain and the
Midnight Shivers play with Langhorne Slim and
Slim Lowry at 9 pm Thursday, May 28, at Sam
Bond’s Garage. 21+. $8. — Molly Templeton
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