Music
Press
McRiprock’s Lonestar sixpack project
November 6th, 2008 by hux
Nepotism is alive and well in this town, as the passing of the obligatory torch (read: column) represents. Although my cousin, Miss Riprock is a city slicker type that sips on exotic martinis, calls me and everyone else she knows “darling,” demands weekly manicures, wears heels that she terms “sky high” and dons tunes that are pressed and painted all fancy, I tend to be the exact opposite. Born and raised here in Texas I like my Lone Star, steer away from restaurants who’s names I cannot pronounce, and wear boots for most of the day and often times even while asleep. On a typical Saturday night, I slip on music that’s new to me and blare it from my porch consulting my pup, Dud.
I’m a no nonsense, laid-back type that will give your album a spin and give you my honest opinion (after consulting Dud) rated by how many beers I put back if I like your tracks enough to keep them playing loud enough to annoy my neighbors. My dad calls me boy, my cousin calls me darling , strangers call me Mr. McRiprock and my friends call me Hux or something derogatory that rhymes with it.
Let’s crack one open and see where we go from here. I’ll press play.
(1-6 scale)
Tyler Fortier—Pale Moon Rise—Out of Oregon comes Fortier with an Americana/Folk sound that includes a dominant horn section on some tracks and a finished sound on others. His refreshingly snappy sound finds you humming along quite quickly. The first track “On His Way” harkens a Dave Matthews pop quality, but finds its inner twang and softer lyrical spirit immediately. “Where the Sky Turns Gray” slows things down and is more indicative of the Americana voice with a polished quality and a lyrical head spin that works well. The rest of the album follows suit more like the second track than the first, with a quality that melts the listener a little bit deeper. Fortier is able to throw around different sounds from folk to blues to popish rock yet still keep you listening. 4.5 McRiprock’s.
Dubb Sicks—Mind in the Gutter– From Backyard Recordings Austin’s Dubb Sicks brings his second LP with lyrical humor amongst hard-hitting beats mingling together. It’s slick in its ability to make the lyrics move smoothly within a tough beat and an angry montage. Rapping about everything from politics to rhymes that are pure fun, a mix of dub sounds with poetic flows works well. 4.0 McRiprock’s.
Crosby Loggins and the Light—We All Go Home—If you watched the show, you might recognize the name. Straight from Rock the Cradle, Crosby Loggins breaks into the independent music scene with a pop quality that showcases a soulful stream backing every track. His voice is stunning, but seems to fall flat in the format of the polished pop genre. He’d do better with a Dan Dyer approach. Not to say he doesn’t produce an album that works in elements beyond the pop basics, it’s just been done and heard many times before. 3.0 McRiprock’s.
Gregg Merritt—Dream Through a Leaf— With Merritt’s roots firmly planted in the jam band/psychedelic background he manages to move away from that genre a bit to produce an album with more of a mix of flavors. Merritt started Dream Through a Leaf with an acoustic guitar, wrote all of the songs and then set it to a full rock arrangement. It produced an eclectic mix from earthy/folksy jam band rock to heavy rock to psychedelic funk. 5.0 McRiprock’s
Mitch Jacobs—Jukebox Music—Rural roots country sounds strong in Jacobs’ Jukebox Music. Seemingly channeling Elvis and Johnny Cash, Jacobs’ voice is the strong standout throughout. It’s honky tonk, Texas country rolled neatly into an album that you’ll want to listen to a few times over. Out of Houston, Jacobs was introduced to Freddie Steady an Austin Music hall-of-famer and the album took off from there. 5.0 McRiprock’s
- Austin Daze
Noise's Handy Holiday Local-Music Gift Guide
Continued from page 1
Published on November 25, 2008 at 11:21am
Katie Armiger, Believe: Winner of 93Q's "Best Country Singer in Houston" a couple years back, Sugar Land native Armiger, 17, immediately stands out from Nashville's current ingenue crop of Carrie, Taylor, Kellie, etc.: She's brunette. Believe doesn't quite do the same, particularly on its Martina McBride-like ballads, but Armiger shows real sass on "Jealousy" and "Break Yours First."
Subject(s):
holiday music gifts, Houston local musicMitch Jacobs, Jukebox Music: Mitch Jacobs's hard-bitten Americana contains none of the British trappings of his producer and label boss Freddy "Steady" Krc (see above). However, Dwight Yoakam, Joe Ely (the Spanish-tinged "Pretty Is") and Roy Orbison (a cover of "Sweet Dream Baby") are all present as Jacobs sometimes struggles to transcend his pedestrian beer-joint surroundings. However, he does strike country-jukebox gold with "For a While" and "Lady on the Barstool."
Runaway Sun, Runaway Sun EP: Fronted by singer-songwriter Andrew Carnavas, Runaway Sun answers the question "What if Pearl Jam unplugged and doubled the amount of blues in its music?" True, the world may not have been waiting with bated breath for that answer, but Carnavas's knack for female characterization ("Lily") makes this four-song EP a promising, if workmanlike, debut.
- Chris Gray - Houston Press
Mitch Jacobs
JUKEBOX
MUSIC
Steady60y S6'002S
*** The sound of country with a
quaff and big collars
Country music like it should be.
Somewhere between western swing
and rock'n'roll. And from Texas. Jacobs sounds like Johnny Cash,dark and
dangerous, fronting what could be a slimmed down version of the Texas Playboys, with the ghost of Vegas-era Elvis watching over things,
Jacobs is no new kid on the block,having fronted Houston's Romeo Dogs for the best part of a decade, but this is his first solo album. And given that he's
teamed up with Texan legend Freddie Steady Krc, you know it's going to be good. Jacobs croons, growls and yelps
though a string of his own rat songs
Jukebox Fool, Outside Dog, Pettin' Party
which conjure up the flavour of the 19S0s and early 1960s,There are also a few well chosen covers, not least the
Orbison hit Dream Baby (and there's more than a small similarity in vocal style) and Krc's For A While.
Jacobs plays guitar but Krc has also
drafted in his own sidekick, Cam King,
for the lead guitar work, as well as a
Texan all-star line-up.,. steel master
Lloyd Maines, pianist Floyd Domino,
Asleep At The Wheel fiddler Howard
Kalish and Ted Roddy on harmonica.
Krc himself plays drums. The result is
a record that's not a world away from
the Blasters, dirty and divine in equal measure. ND
www.steadyboyrecords.com - Maverick Magazine UK
What legendary country performer Wes McGhee says about Mitch Jacobs:
"I got my first chance to check out new Steadyboy Records signing Mitch Jacobs and his band. Now there are singers who can put over a song and there are those blessed with incredible voices, very few have both. Mitch has both AND then some... As he and his band were on all but a handful of dates with us, I got to hear a lot of Mitch Jacobs’ music. Check out his CD on Steadyboy Records “Jukebox Music” produced by Freddie Krc - a fine record."
- Wes McGhee
SXSWEvery March, Austin hosts one of the nation's most noteworthy musical festivals.
Mitch Jacobs: Houston Honky-Tonk
By Jim Beal Jr. on Mar 20, 2009 4:22 PM
(Jim Beal Jr.,jbeal@express-news.net)
Houston-based Mitch Jacobs Band offers Bayou City honky-tonk to the Opal Divine's Penn Field crowd. And where that ghost orb in the big middle of the band came from is anyone's guess.
Houston has long been home for a variety of music. On Friday afternoon, during the SteadyBoy Records showcase portion of the 3rd Coast Music gathering at Opal Divine's Penn Field, The Mitch Jacobs Band cranked out the honky-tonk sound of the Bayou City.
Jacobs, who turned in lots of miles with the band Romeo Dogs, has a deep and resonant voice, the kind of voice that, in the halcyon days ot honky-tonk, would have boomed from jukeboxes from the Gulf Coast to Bakersfield to the Carolinas and back.
It's fitting, then, that Jacobs' SteadyBoy CD is "Jukebox Music." For the showcase, the Jacobs Band, a smoking, twanging quartet, got people up and dancing, in broad daylight, to songs such as "Pretty Is," "Lady on the Barstool" and "Dream Baby."
Unless there's a musical miracle, the kind of country music Jacobs and the band do will never get back on the top of the country charts, or on jukeboxes from coast to coast, but, as long as there's a honky-tonk left on Earth, it'll never go out of style.
(Jim Beal Jr.)
Mitch Jacobs his own self - no ghost orb.
- By Jim Beal Jr. on Mar 20, 2009
Back at Martell's, Mitch Jacobs and band are tonkin' and twangin' hard. Jacobs goes into his Johnny Cash voice and does a restrained opening to Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" before unleashing his band. The crowd is suddenly his, and ready for him to work his way through his signature song, "Jukebox Music." - Houston Press
Perhaps because country filler is all too obvious, totally satisfactory country albums are hard to come by. Bearing in mind that the ‘Golden Age’ songwriters couldn’t come up with more than a couple three albums’ worth of keepers in any given year, mostly I just hope for a couple three really good songs and nothing really embarrassing—getting four pretty solid albums at one time is highly unusual.
The multi-purpose country/rock & roll/blues Romeo Dogs spent 18 years establishing a reputation around Houston, but when SteadyBoy came calling, one of the co-leaders peeled out, depriving the label of the band’s blues side, which isn’t exactly a heartbreaker. Produced by Freddy Krc, who also plays drums, singer/lead guitarist Mitch Jacobs’ solo country/rockabilly album features Lloyd Maines mandolin and dobro, Floyd Domino piano, Cam King guitar and organ, Howard Kalish fiddle, Layton DePenning or ex-Romeo Dog Rex Wherry (now of the Mitch Jacobs Band) bass and Ted Roddy harp—no wonder it sounds like crap. Just my little joke there, all part of being in showbusiness. Jacobs is quite a package, he can really tear it up on his hollowbody Gibson, writes a great tearjerker, my favorite of his seven originals being Pretty Is, and as for his voice, I said recently, of Deanna Carter, that Do Not Cover Roy Orbison is Recording 101, but Jacobs does a great version of Cindy Walker’s Dream Baby.
And now my lovely assistant will pass me the envelopes. The Consistency Award for Best Songs Overall goes to Roy Heinrich, who also sweeps the Barstool Angst Award for Emotional Depth. The Triple Threat Award for multi-talent clearly goes to Mitch Jacobs, who also narrowly edges out the other guys to win the Golden Throat Award for Best Vocals. The Green Room Award for Best Ensemble Sound goes to The Dixons. The Salesman of the Month Award for Best Song Delivery goes to Jason Arnold, even though he’s oddly unengaged and unconvincing on the covers. The most encouraging thing about these four albums is the quality of the songwriting. While some better known figures are beginning to sound like caricatures, Heinrich, Mowrer, Jacobs and Arnold are keeping it real and honest, and country. JC - 3rd Coast Music
Discography
Mitch Jacobs "Jukebox Music"
In Stores October 25 on SteadyBoy Records
Distributed by Burnside Distribution.
Photos
Bio
From somewhere between Elvis’s flashy Vegas and Johnny Cash’s earthy Arkansas comes a country boy in a little old Texas town called Houston. That’s where rural folk music, showbiz pop, and American rock and roll reached Mitch Jacobs.
Like any other kid growing up in the sixties and seventies, he listened to all kinds of music, and he played all kinds too, because Mitch spent some years in eighties cover bands. But he had a spiritual kinship with one particular artist, and he didn’t even realize that time, experience, and personal history would result in a respectfully similar singing style. “I’ve got a natural baritone and I had relatives from that same area of Arkansas where Johnny Cash was from, and I spent a lot of formative years around them. Their mannerisms and their way of talking was very similar. It just rubs off on ya. And of course we were listening to Johnny Cash and all the music of the era.”
While that baritone would evolve and percolate over time, Jacobs went from cover bands to Houston party band the Romeo Dogs, a tight little outfit that rocked with a southern touch and a cheesy sense of humor. “I took on this stage persona with the Dogs, Mitch Vegas. It kinda stuck. I’d do three songs in a row, and I was making my voice morph into different things within three songs. Sort of a Vegas styled variety entertainer.”
Mitch’s voice started morphing in another direction, too, taking the band and himself by surprise. “I started singing ‘Six Days on the Road,’ and everybody just kind of jumped back a couple of feet and went, ‘Hey, you’ve really got a natural baritone and you’ve never used it.’”
It was time to use it. The Dogs could deliver fiery instrumentals like “Wipeout” and “Tequila,” then Jacobs would croon out an Orbison or a Cash tune into the mix, and it quickly became apparent that Mitch Jacobs was even more fun than Mitch Vegas.
For the past five years as a Romeo Dog (whose full life spans a dozen years), Jacobs has worked on developing that voice, along with a songwriting style that walks the line between country and rock.
When Austin Music Hall of Famer Freddie Steady Krc crossed paths with Jacobs, he heard something special in the Houston artist, one with an obvious musical kinship to Cash while creating a sound that was uniquely his own. Krc knew it was time for Jacobs to do his own thing, which led to this, the first solo Mitch Jacobs album, with Freddie Krc as producer. Krc’s production has captured a rock and roll rhythm with a western swing sensibility. One way you’ll hear that Bob Wills swing influence is in the piano work of Floyd Domino, one-time Asleep at the Wheel keyboardist. That’s a lofty job title to a fan like Jacobs.
“I’m a fan first of all,” says Jacobs of the Wheel. “How cool is this that guys like this are gonna be on my record? I’m freakin.’”
Jukebox Music boasts eight Jacobs originals, three from his friend Tony Murphy, plus a cool take on Cindy Walker’s “Dream Baby,” a huge hit for Roy Orbison. The other cover is an unrecorded gem by Houston’s own Dr. Rockit, a beautiful western country ballad that Jacobs has been playing for years. His own comments on the song pretty well sum up what Mitch is all about. “It’s soft, but it’s clipping along at a nice little gallop. And it’s got a lot of room for people to wail on, with mandolins and accordions.”
So here’s a little slice of Wills, a little slice of Elvis, a dose of rock and roll, and a respectful country tip of the hat to Johnny, all in the tremolo baritone of one Mitch Jacobs from Houston, Texas—but make no mistake, he’s his own man, not an imitator.
“I could really Cash it up if I wanted to. All I really have to do is put a little more quiver in my voice. If I try not to sound like Johnny, all I do is not quiver. And it’s me. Does that make sense?” Jacobs asks with a laugh. “But if somebody wants to request ‘Ring of Fire’ and write it on the back of a fifty and send it to the stage, I’ll quiver for ‘em all night!”
Links
