By Don Jacobson

Roky Erickson turned 60 this month, and, really, that’s something of a miracle right there. Not only did he manage to survive the acid-drenched late ’60s San Francisco psychedelic rock scene, where he was considered something of a magic child in a culture where such prodigies were frequently worshipped to death, but also the long, lonely years that followed in which he coped as best he could with the ravages of mental illness under the misinformed and smothering guardianship of his wacky mother back home in Austin, Texas. That he is now seemingly fully recovered from his “schizophrenia” (a disputed diagnosis) – free even of anti-psychotic drugs – and has made a triumphant return to the rock ‘n’ roll stage is a story that has few equals even in the excess-stained annals of music lore.

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Posted on July 23, 2007

By Don Jacobson

Anybody who knows me can tell you I’m nothing if not an obsessive-compulsive radio freak. I love the radio and I love the rock ‘n’ roll, always have. I suffered mightily in my younger days when the suits took over the airwaves and shrunk the playlists to the point where you could inscribe them on the head of a pin. It hurt me so much, well, you’d have wept if you would have seen it. It was that bad. Now they’re going to do it me (and you) again: The suits are getting ready to do to Internet radio what they did to regular radio decades ago – kill it dead. If you like the wonderfully diverse playlists of the kind of Internet radio shows listed on our handy (and somewhat dandy) Beachwood 24/7 Alt Country Internet Radio Guide, you’ll keep reading and perhaps you can help me stop them.

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Posted on June 27, 2007

By Don Jacobson

1. Rock reunions suck, generally, let’s be honest – especially the huge, overblown ones like the Police. Outrageous ticket prices, quarreling band members, dubious musicianship (after all, doing old songs live again after so many years and getting it right is like asking the 1997 Bulls to “just get back together” tomorrow and win the NBA title again) . . . there are just so many ways it can go horribly wrong. I’m not saying these reunions can’t be done, but I think you’ve got to pick and choose your spots with them. My reunion tour money is on one of the best alternative country acts of the 1990s, Blue Mountain, who are coming to Chicago for a June 24 show at Schubas.

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Posted on June 9, 2007

By Don Jacobson

Rock has had seven “ages,” according to BBC Television, which has launched what seems like a pretty darn comprehensive seven-week, seven-part documentary called, appropriately, The Seven Ages of Rock, which works out to one age per week. That’s a lot to cover. Here’s how they break down the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

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Posted on May 21, 2007

By Don Jacobson

Much as I loooove to hate them, I have to admit that I could be detecting a tiny glimmer of mercy in the steely eyes of Clear Channel Radio. Could they finally be thinking of, gulp, music fans? Are they wising up in the face of stupendous competition from satellite radio and the Internet and devising an alt-slash-southern-slash-outlaw country format that might, just might, be worth listening to? I know, it’s crazy, right?

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Posted on May 1, 2007

By Don Jacobson

This time in Don’s Root Cellar, does anybody really know what “alternative country” is? And does it matter? Also, Nick Lowe croons again and we finally find a pro athlete whose musical taste doesn’t suck.
1. What is “alternative country?”
The thing about it is, even though it’s what I listen to most nowadays, I really can’t answer that question. I just kind of know it when I hear it. The term encompasses so much diversity – much more than what would be reasonably included in, say, the terms “grunge” or “brit pop” or “garage rock” – that fans and music writers have been spilling blood over the question for quite some time now. I mean, when a “genre” can encompass everything from the austere, traditional acoustic laments of Freakwater to the Skynyrd-esque rawk of Drive-By Truckers, is “alt country” really a definable genre at all?
The “no” side has a lot of takers, and I’m one of them. They rightly say that rather than being a “something,” alt country is really more about not being something – that something being corporate Nashville dreck. So, ultimately, I think, “alt-country” isn’t a particular style of music so much as it is an attitude. I’d say that attitude predominantly consists of a rejection of the right-wing politics and phony TV preacher kind of sheen that Nashville has been reveling in ever since Reagan was king – along with a simultaneous embrace of real American values that have been all but lost, such as honesty, social justice and, yeah, even religion – but the old-fashioned kind that preaches love thy neighbor.

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Posted on March 29, 2007

By Don Jacobson

It’s always a shock to lose part of your foundation because it makes your whole house tremble, and that’s what happened to the structure of contemporary roots music on Feb. 22 when Kirk Rundstrom died of cancer at a tragically young 38 years of age.
The man who in recent years achieved his greatest success as part of the Kansas-based “hillbilly hardcore” punk/metal/bluegrass band Split Lip Rayfield was a cornerstone upon which the alt country edifice was built. In the mid-1990s when alt country was just emerging – with Chicago as one of its crucial hotbeds – Rundstrom was a regular on the city’s bar stages, then playing mostly with his former band Scroat Belly and as a solo act. I can fairly say that he, along with Wilco, Son Volt, the Old 97s and a very few others, were the folks who most firmly convinced me then that “country” music wasn’t necessarily an evil thing, and that, done in the kind of truly alternative way they personified, actually represented the purest modern-day representation of the spirit of 1960s rock ‘n’ roll.

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Posted on February 27, 2007

By Don Jacobson

On a seemingly literate rock music website in the U.K., there’s a poll question that asks with a straight face, “Is Bob Dylan a God?” Sweetening the bait was that five lucky poll respondents would win the ultimate prize: a free LP copy of the newest – and apparently bestest – Dylan release, Modern Times. I’m guessing the U.K. vote in favor of elevating our once-and-future favorite Minnesota son to godhood is running about 999,999-to-1, with the lone holdout claiming mere godhood isn’t good enough for Bob: “Nope. He’s, like, God’s god, man.”
Dylan made a new record and so it is written he must win the first Grammy for a best “Americana” album because all the worshipping is seriously getting out of control. In evidence I offer that the track “Someday Baby” was nominated for best rock song and best rock vocal as well, for God’s sake! Apparently, Modern Times is not only the best Americana out there, it’s also the best rock ‘n’ roll . . . I guess I hadn’t realized that. Beck, you watch yer ass!

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Posted on February 12, 2007

By Don Jacobson

They call themselves “Illinois’ premier rock trio.” Untoward hype from Backyard Tire Fire? Or a bit of tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation from the Bloomington-based alt country group? I’m leaning towards the latter because, although I have no idea how many rock trios there are in Illinois, I’d have to guess there are at least as many of them as there are three-car garages in Normal.
At least.

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Posted on January 21, 2007

By Don Jacobson

There is a strain of Nashville country music that to me, as a dyed-in-the-wool rock ‘n’ roller, was always one of the least objectionable of its forms. That was truckin’ country. And Del Reeves, who died on New Year’s Day, was its Beatles.

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Posted on January 9, 2007