Head for the Hills

The self-titled album by Head for the Hills opens with "One Foot in the Grave," and its instrumentation and twangy harmonies are classic bluegrass. The next track is "Solar Bowling Shoes," and the title alone is a clue that the Colorado-based band has interests beyond tradition.

But the band really establishes its newgrass credentials on the instrumental "Nooks & Crannies," which -- aside from its eloquent melodies and nimble digressions -- brings in an electric mandolin at the four-minute mark. Its introduction offers a hint of rock-and-roll distortion, and it later adds some feedback, and finally it breaks away from any sense of tradition with a soaring solo. The instrument's use is transcendent, creating a bridge between bluegrass and rock.

The blending of those two genres is of course a hallmark of newgrass, and Head for the Hills -- performing March 19 at RIBCO -- is particularly adept at farming that expansive middle ground. There's nothing else on the album as quintessentially bluegrass as "One Foot in the Grave," and there's nothing as nontraditional as "Nooks & Crannies," but the remainder of the album is a testament to the band's alchemic skills.

Laura Veirs

The leanness of singer/songwriter Laura Veirs' new album, July Flame, was born of considerations both practical and artistic.

On the logistical side, her band "fell apart" since she moved to Portland, Oregon, she said in a phone interview this week. So one goal with this set of songs was "getting back to the root of just a guitar and a voice and seeing what I could do with that again."

Her last album -- 2007's Saltbreakers -- was "really heavily dependent on everybody else being there for the songs to work," she said. Crafting tunes that could be performed in a solo setting meant she could tour the album on the cheap, and with a band if she had the money. (When she plays her Daytrotter.com show on Monday at Huckleberry's in Rock Island, she'll be bringing her band.)

But on an artistic level, "I really like sparse music that still hits you in the gut and does a lot with a little."

Images by photographer Chris Jones from Saturday's Rascal Flatts/Darius Rucker concert at the i wireless Center. Click on any photo for a larger version.

Rascal Flatts:

Mondo Drag

When Mondo Drag drummer/singer Johnnie Cluney says that "we're kind of bringing in more of a pop element" to the band's new songs, take that with a giant rock of salt.

The Quad Cities-based band released its full-length debut, New Rituals, on the Alive Naturalsounds Records label last month, and it's a hazy, sludgy affair - bluesy psychedelia borrowing heavily from the 1960s and recalling the contemporary sounds of Dead Meadow.

Yet there are indeed hints of accessible melody in the massive riffs and thick keyboards. "Love Me" hides on its downslope a compelling ascending chorus with heavy vocal emphasis on the downbeat. Calling it poppy is a stretch, but it opens the door to the remainder of the song. "True Visions" has a similar late revelation, with moaning layers of keyboards and guitars as its extended coda.

The quintet - celebrating the release of New Rituals on Saturday at the River Music Experience's Performance Hall - has begun to build a national profile. The band had its Daytrotter.com session released last week, and even though that Web site is based in the Quad Cities, it certainly doesn't play favorites with hometown bands.

The Ellis Kell BandConsidering that the ensemble's front man is the director of programming and education for Davenport's River Music Experience, the decision to instead perform the Ellis Kell Band's forthcoming 20th-anniversary concert at the Moline live-music venue Rascals might seem like an odd one. As Kell himself explains, however, it's not.

"We hadn't played there for a long time, but that's kind of where we owned it," says the blues vocalist/guitarist, who will jam with present and former bandmates on Saturday, February 20.

Dr. Dog

To understand some of what makes Dr. Dog sound like it was preserved in amber in the mid-1960s, listen to singer/guitarist/songwriter Scott McMicken talk about drums.

The quintet -- performing a Daytrotter.com show at RIBCO on February 9 -- has a new record (Shame, Shame) due out April 6, and for its sixth studio album it finally enlisted a producer, holing up in a New York studio for nearly a month.

"The real crux of the problem in New York was the drums," McMicken said last month. On previous Dr. Dog albums, which regularly sound 40-plus years old, "the drums aren't really dominant ... very muted."

But on the New York recordings, the drums had a modern microphone configuration -- overkill, in McMicken's view. "The real problem was that you were hearing all 16 microphones at once. I knew if I could put my hands on that console and turn off 75 percent of the mics, we'd probably be getting to hear a really cool drum sound."

Gov't MuleWarren Haynes joined the Allman Brothers Band in 1989, and was a member of the Dead for its 2004 and 2009 tours.

But Haynes, who was 23rd on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, suggested in a phone interview this week that Gov't Mule is dearest to his heart, despite the legendary status of his other bands. He co-founded Gov't Mule in 1994 as an Allman offshoot, and he said it offers an unparalleled freedom.

"Gov't Mule is our laboratory to create anything musically that we want to create," he said. "We're still establishing the parameters. In in a band like the Allman Brothers or the Grateful Dead, they're pretty open-minded about what the music can be, but there are parameters that were established a long time ago ... ."

Gov't Mule will perform at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Davenport on Tuesday, February 9, and Haynes said the quartet has a newfound energy. It's evident on the band's album from last year -- By a Thread -- and in its live shows, and he credited that change to bassist Jorgen Carlsson, who joined a year and a half ago.

Leon RedboneLeon Redbone sounds like a relic.

It's not just his repertoire -- mostly songs from the 1910s to the '30s -- but his attitude. Asked in a phone interview last week about the appeal of music that preceded his birth, he gave a curmudgeonly answer. As one moves back in time with music, "you realize that it's not getting any better," said Redbone, who will co-headline a show with guitar whiz Leo Kottke on Saturday at the Capitol Theatre. So he plays songs from the dawn of recorded popular music.

Freedy JohnstonIf you followed the career of Freedy Johnston, you might wonder what happened to him after 2001, when Elektra released his Right Between the Promises album.

Until Rain on the City (out today), Johnston released a live record and a CD of covers, but the man behind the 1994 single "Bad Reputation" -- who was Rolling Stone's songwriter of year that year, and whose major-label discography included albums produced by Butch Vig and T-Bone Burnett -- doesn't want to talk about the more than eight years between albums of original material.

"That's why we put it in the bio," he said last week. "I didn't want it to be talking about it every time, rehashing the same story."

In that official record-label bio, Johnston -- who will perform a Daytrotter.com show at RIBCO on January 23 -- is vague: "It takes a while to re-adjust one's priorities and get back on track after working with the big budget that the majors give you. I went through issues with the IRS, had a relationship go south and a touring vehicle grind to a halt, but through it all I never gave up writing and gigging whenever possible."

In our interview, Johnston didn't elaborate much on the specifics of his personal life. (In addition to living in Austin, Texas, in Nashville, and in New York, he did live in downtown Rock Island in 2002 and 2003 and married a woman from the Quad Cities.) But he did discuss his difficulty completing songs.

"I used to have no problem writing songs before I had a major-label deal," he said. "All of a sudden it was really hard to finish the damn things. ... Now I'm on the other side of it. ... Maybe I just needed to reset my clock. I'm working better now than I ever was."

Winners of the RME's 'What Music Means to Me' ContestMore than 90 students entered this contest with essays on what music means to them, and six winners were drawn in Mojo's at the River Music Experience on December 17. Winners received a musical-instrument package courtesy of Milan Surplus.

The winners and their essays follow.

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