The Next Round - Episode 41: Rayland Baxter

Rayland Baxter's Feathers & Fishhooks was one of my favorite albums of 2012.  So when it was announced that he'd be playing a show at Rockwood Music Hall to promote his follow-up LP, Imaginary Man, I knew I had to interview him.  Listen in awe as he writes lyrics on the fly based on the stuff on our sidewalk table at Epstein's.

My brother has been anxiously awaiting this interview since I recorded it in July, and today is actually his birthday.  So happy birthday, Greg!  Here's a present for you.

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Rayland Baxter Packs Out Rockwood Music Hall

I'd never seen Rockwood Stage 2 so crowded.  Yet I squeezed into the sweaty room, my back pressed against the metal railing at the entrance and my backpack containing my podcasting equipment (along with the fresh interview I'd just conducted with Rayland Baxter) wedged between my legs.  If it were a lesser artist, I would've foregone the claustrophobic conditions and hopped an F train home.  But this was Rayland Baxter, an amazing songwriter that I hadn't seen since he opened for Scott Tournet at Brooklyn Bowl in 2013.  And this time, he came armed with a slew of new tunes from his about-to-drop second LP, Imaginary Man, and a full band, including Cage the Elephant's Nick Bockrath on guitar.

Rayland took the stage solo, informing the packed house, "Okay, I've gotta kill ten minutes."  He drifted gently into the beautiful love song "Olivia," one of my favorites from his first record.  His bandmates joined him by song two, "Bad Things," which was followed promptly by "Marjoria."  The old tunes out of the way, they took a stroll with "Mr. Rodriguez," opening up its finale to incorporate a Dead-inspired jam session.  "As many of you know, my wife is pregnant with our first child," Rayland remarked to supportive applause just prior to "Your Love."  Ever the joker, he clarified, "I'm just kidding. I don't have a wife."  While Baxter tuned his electric guitar for "Freakin Me Out," keyboardist Jimmy Rowland tapped out a few rounds of "Charge" until Rayland chimed in with a perfectly pitched strum.  They chased that with another type of freakout, "Temporary Queen of a Bad Time," a number reminiscent of early Santana, and based on a true story of Baxter meeting a woman in the early morning at a music festival.  The hippie chick had handed him an orange juice, which he gulped down for the vitamin C.  Unbeknownst to him, the O.J. was spiked with LSD, and the day took an unexpected turn.  They wrapped things up with the loudest rocker in the bunch, "Young Man."  I squirmed my way slowly through the masses and bought the t-shirt.

RAYLAND BAXTER - 07.27.15 - ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL (1 hour, 2 minutes)

SET -
Olivia / Bad Things / Marjoria / Mr. Rodriguez / Mother Mother / Interlude / Yellow Eyes / Oh My Captain / Your Love / Charge / Freakin Me Out / Temporary Queen of a Bad Time / Young Man

Rayland Baxter Talks Turkey & Nocturnal Scott Tournet Steps Into the Light

I became an instant fan of Rayland Baxter when I saw him open for Donavon Frankenreiter at Brooklyn Bowl last July.  Fast-forward almost a year (after he's put out one of the best records of 2012 and dropped one of my favorite Daytrotter sessions) to when I noticed his face on a poster on the wall during the Spin Doctors' album release party. I immediately went to the box office to buy a ticket.

"I can see the weird juxtaposition of the next hour.  There's gonna be a lot of shit going on over there," Baxter said, motioning to the rowdy bowlers, "compared this calm bit of music we've got over here.  I'll try to concentrate."  Accompanied by Scott Tournet's guitarist, Lowell Thompson, Rayland made it through folk-country ditties "Birdy Blue" and "Willy's Song" without interruption.  One gratified yelp from the lanes during "Dreamin," however, was too much for him to dismiss, and he laughed into the mic as he continued with the tune. "Either they got a strike or they sure liked the middle of that song," he said afterwards.  "Or a turkey," offered Lowell.  "What's a turkey?  Two in a row?" Rayland asked the crowd.  "Three!" I yelled.  "What's four?"  A shout from the audience.  "Snowman?" Rayland said in disbelief.  "Four-bagger!" enunciated the crowdmember.  "I thought you said snow tiger." This unassuming nature is key to Rayland's persona.  While he may look like a mustachioed hipster in his Good Year cap and sea green and ruby socks that match his guitar, it's not an ironic statement.  It's his life.  He lives in a small house in Nashville that he shares with five people and a menagerie that includes four chickens.  It may be crowded inside, but that's okay because Rayland sleeps on the porch.  He played his entire set seated in a metal folding chair.  Halfway through "Take Me to the Tower," he stopped to adjust a piece of paper at his feet.  "This is a new song. I don't know all the words by heart yet," he admitted.  If a hipster said that, you'd hate him, but it just made Rayland more enduring.  He whistled the end of the tune, which would suggest it was unfinished, but he's so astonishingly precise with his whistling, that if you heard it again without it, you'd be disappointed.  My favorite performance came next on "Olivia."  "If I was a wealthy man, don't you know I would spend all my dimes on you?" he sang genuinely.  The fact that if he was rich, he'd still count his money in tenths of a dollar says something.  With lyrics so well-crafted, it'd be easy to sing them the same way every time and coast along on their worth, but it was obvious he was reliving the failed relationship with every phrase, lingering on certain words.  He closed out the set with two extended takes on "Brown Water" and "Bad Thing," backed by Tournet's band.  It's amazing how much drums can cover the sound of a bowling alley.

Scott Tournet is one of the guitarists in Grace Potter's band, the Nocturnals.  He just released his third solo album, Ver La Luz, this week, so his set leaned heavily on the new material.  The record is a subdued effort, full of gentle love songs that focus mainly on the lyrics instead of guitar virtuosity.  Which is a real shame because Scott's a great axeman and not an especially great singer.  He stayed in tune alright, but there was nothing really unique or impressive about his voice.  At least he was enthusiastic, singing every song with a huge grin on his face, happy to be performing.  And that's not to say he completely repressed his six-string chops either.  The band laid down a thick groove on "Stand by You," which he flirted on top of, and "Take You Down" featured some jammed-out rocking that had an extremely inebriated woman going nuts on the dancefloor.  "Who's bowling over 100?" he asked.  "Woo!" shrieked the drunk girl.  "You're not even bowling! You're dancing over 100; that's for sure," Scott laughed.  He finished the set with "I Ain't Changin'," a song he admitted didn't sound like the others.  It was a rip-roaring blues number that made me wish the others were more like it.  But it's almost unfair to compare his solo work to his day job with the Nocturnals because he's competing with my favorite frontperson ever.  In his licks, you can hear how indispensable he is to Grace Potter's sound.  Is it really his fault he doesn't have the same pipes or sex appeal?

RAYLAND BAXTER - 05.18.13 - BROOKLYN BOWL (1 hour, 2 minutes)

SET -
Birdy Blue / Willy's Song / Dreamin / Take Me to the Tower / Olivia / The Mtn Song / Brown Water / Bad Thing

SCOTT TOURNET - 05.18.13 - BROOKLYN BOWL (1 hour, 14 minutes)

SET -
Treasure / Song for You / Lights Go Down / Demons / Stand by You / Not Too Late > Ex-Lover / Here in the Morning / Crawl Back > Judgment Day > Take You Down / I Ain't Changin'

Top 10 Daytrotter Sessions

Daytrotter is one of the few music subscription services I pay for, and I'll tell you why.  It's awesome.  I was downloading from Daytrotter for years before they began charging, so I was initially irritated that I'd have to start coughing up the dough, but I only complained for as long as it took me to fill in my credit card information.  For just $24, you get a year's worth of access to their exclusive sessions, which you can download or stream, as well as thousands of streaming videos from Wolfgang's Vault.  

Artists who record for Daytrotter range from unknowns to indie darlings to even a few legends, and genres run the gamut from electronic to rap to country.  Each session is recorded live to tape with no overdubs, and will occasionally feature cover songs or rarities.  I've discovered many bands this way, and I've also heard songs by my favorite artists before they were released on albums.  So give it a try.  It's only $2 a month, and you get to keep anything you download if you decide you don't like it/are a crazy person.  As an added bonus, if you buy a year membership today, you'll get a free 180g vinyl record.  I'll wait while you sign up.

Still waiting.

Okay, now that you're signed up, you'll want to start listening right away.  As Daytrotter has been recording since 2006, there are now literally thousands of sessions, so the artist page can be daunting at first.  I'm here to help navigate.  It was tough, but I've narrowed down the list to my ten favorite sessions.  These are by no means the only ten you should get.  I have DT sessions by over 200 artists in my iTunes.  But think of these as a springboard to get you started.  Before you know it, you'll have made your own top ten.

(Also, if anyone at Daytrotter reads this, these would all make wonderful additions to your vinyl series.)

The Top Ten Daytrotter Sessions

10. Blitzen Trapper (Encore)
Before Blitzen Trapper made the critics swoon with Furr, they were a much weirder band.  Consequently sticking to the folksy formula that got them attention, they've never been as wild since.  This session does contain two great folk numbers, but it ends with "Woof & Warp of the Quiet Giant's Hem," three minutes of cacophony just as wacky as its title.  It's also the only place you'll hear "Big Adventure," the rocker BT were closing shows with in 2008.






9. The Belle Brigade
Barbara and Ethan Gruska are the grandchildren of composer John Williams, so a lot's expected from a band with that musical lineage.  Fortunately, the Belle Brigade's sunny folk-pop continues the tradition nicely.  As the siblings harmonize sweetly, the band makes generous use of Daytrotter's piano, tinkling ethereally during "Losers" and transporting "Sweet Louise" into the can-can show at a Wild West saloon.






8. Local Natives

I discovered Local Natives through this session, which actually ruined me for their album release.  When Gorilla Manor dropped, the tracks seemed sterile, concentrating too much on perfecting the vocals, and missing some of the spark of this session.  The one-take aesthetic of Daytrotter really worked in their favor here.  "Airplanes" holds the title of my most-listened-to Daytrotter track.

7. Deer Tick (Encore 2)

Most sessions begin with a track called "Welcome to Daytrotter" that is essentially the artist saying, "This is ____, and you're listening to Daytrotter."  I usually delete them for this reason.  Deer Tick had some fun with it this go 'round though, so this was one of the rare ones I salvaged.  Deer Tick concerts are drunken parties that frequently go late, and this session sounds like it was recorded the morning after such a show... and it doesn't sound like they slept.  It's as authentic and raw as John McCauley's raggedly beautiful voice.  Bonus points for the cover of Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown."

6. Mayer Hawthorne
Mayer Hawthorne's soulful How Do You Do was my favorite album of 2011, so I was delighted when this one came out.  Backed by his band, the County, Hawthorne takes four HDYD tracks and imbues them with that live energy found at his shows.  "A Long Time" truly cooks by its end, but if I had to spotlight a singular moment from the session, it would be in "The Walk" when MH punctuates the line "From the moment that I met you, I thought you were fine, so fine / But your shitty fucking attitude has got me changing my mind" with a quick "That's right, bitch."  Classic.



5. Whitley
There are hundreds of Daytrotter sessions that consist solely of an artist accompanied by his/her acoustic guitar.  My favorite is by Australian musician, Whitley.  Featuring a pair of tunes from The Submarine and early versions of two from his sophomore album, these four performances are filled with so much emotion that it hurts to listen to them.  And sometimes you need that.







4. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (Encore 2)

This beast was actually released today.  After two three-song sessions, Grace and company returned for this marathon of eight originals and two covers.  The excellent Neil Young-inspired guitar solo in "The Divide" gives way to a solid rendition of Young's "Cinnamon Girl," but the show-stopper is the mid-session medley of "Stars," "The Lion the Beast the Beat," and "Paris," with a bit of Pink Floyd thrown in for good measure.  Honestly, if it were its own session, it still would've made my top ten.  "The Lion" transitions perfectly into a "Paris" that has never sounded more layered.  Die-hards will also appreciate the appearance of rarity "Belladonna."

3. Rayland Baxter
When I first saw Rayland open for Donavon Frankenreiter at Brooklyn Bowl, I knew he was a special talent.  The Nashville native creates beautiful folk melodies with lyrics that recall Dylan in their poetry, except that Baxter can actually sing.  A heaping helping of steel guitar adds a nice country twang to the session, which I sequence with "Olivia" first because that's when Rayland gives his greeting.  Remember how I said you get a free vinyl when you sign up?  Well, it's a split with Rayland and Grace Potter.




2. Reggie Watts
A master of improvisation, Watts creates four new songs from scratch, the shortest of which is still over 6 and a half minutes long.  While Watts' tunes are normally bent in a humorous direction, without an audience to procure laughs from, here he focuses more on the musicality to dazzling results.  Don't fret if you came for the laughs though 'cause you'll get them in the songs' introductions.  Watts crafts gems in every genre, ranging from the upbeat R&B of "Retaliation Under Duress" to the piano ballad "Fictional Entities."  My favorite cut is "Panther Quest," which is quintessential Reggie.


1. Hurricane Bells
It was almost two years ago when I saw a session pop up on Daytrotter by a band called Hurricane Bells.  Intrigued, I clicked through to hear some insanely catchy, fuzzy, indie rock.  Steve Schiltz loves his whammy bar, a guitar accessory not many bands use anymore or at least with such proficiency.  Listen to him rock out on "Monsters," get introspective on "The Cold Has Killed Us," and combine the two on "Tonight I'm Going to Be Like a Shooting Star."  Schiltz and band churned out eight songs for the session, a gracious amount of music to tide me over until my CD arrived in the mail.


Did I mention you should sign up?

STOP FUCKING GOING TO CONCERTS TO FUCKING TALK!!! Also, Donavon Frankenreiter Starts Livin'

I saw Donavon Frankenreiter for the third time last night. It's always been a good show, from watching his original amazingly talented percussionist stageside at Bowery Ballroom, to being genuinely shocked at seeing him perform "Lovely Day" last year at the Bowl. And these moments will be the memories that remain with me for as long as I will see Mr. Frankenreiter perform. Sadly, last night's show was so obfuscated by crowd noise that it will likely be the noise itself that I remember.

Rayland Baxter was the first to compete with the disrespectful audience. The complete lack of enthusiasm from the concertgoers (even though they still filled the front of the room) meant I was the lone person clapping when he asked how we were. He thanked me into the microphone. Buzzing from the amp on the first song did not help the matter, but Rayland had the sound tech fix the issue before he continued. Awkward stage banter ensued: "My middle name's Alan. I'm a fuckin' Libra." He reminded me of early Matt Costa with more of a country bent, germinated from his lifelong residency in Nashville. Despite the din of the majority, there were some of us paying attention to Baxter's folksy ditties, so he continued to push on, playing a 53-minute opening set. His debut album drops in late August on ATO, so be sure to click through to his website, provide your email address, and get a free download of the instantly likable "Driveway Melody." Or watch a heart-wrenching rendition of his song "Olivia" below:

Donavon and crew took their places a little before 10pm. I immediately noticed a difference in his appearance/attitude than past times. Sporting a shorter haircut (though still shaggy), a red button-down, and white pants, he seemed a little more mature than a professional surfer; more like a surfer dad. The set started with "Free," this version taking its cues from Hawaii à la Revisited, with Matt Grundy supplying the ukulele. After "Glow," he premiered "You" off of his new album, Start Livin', free to anyone in attendance. As is lamentably the case with new songs at concerts, the audience took the chance to start talkin'. So Donavon roped everyone back in with "What'cha Know About." It was at this time that I looked around and identified this as the most populated show I've seen at Brooklyn Bowl. And that almost everyone was talking.

Donavon makes wonderful "barbecue music." You can put it on at a cookout, and no one will stop eating or speaking to perk up their ears, but they will enjoy it when they catch themselves listening when whoever they're talking to goes to the bathroom, or during a lengthy chew on an overcooked piece of steak. Unfortunately, if you go to a Donavon concert, expect a lot of people to have never left the backyard. I can't even tell you how many reunions I overheard instead of lyrics to new Donavon songs. Even old Donavon songs. One gaggle of cunts was especially annoying until they thankfully migrated closer to the stage. And why do people ever take pictures together in the crowd at a show? Not even with the stage in the background! "And here's us in a group of strangers." When Donavon asked for requests, he was met with "American Girl!" He obliged, and improved it since last year, but why not shout one of his songs? I wish there was some sort of required concert-going etiquette course that everyone has to pass before they can fill out the captcha on Ticketmaster.

In spite of all this bullshit, the show was still good. Most of the set drew from his first album, which is no surprise from Donavon, but he sprinkled some newbies in, including "Shine" and "Start Livin'," with its chirpy organ. Donavon said the show was surreal because he was watching his family bowl the whole time, and was unsuccessful in his attempts to get his son Hendrix to drum on "Call Me Papa." The band had some fun with "Lovely Day," but the real highlight was the final three-song funkfest of "The Way It Is," "Move by Yourself," and a chunky "Byron Jam." Donavon came out solo for the encore, saying, "I'll play anything you wanna hear." I don't know if anyone actually requested it, but he chose "On My Mind." The band rejoined him for "It Don't Matter," which devolved into a karaoke contest, with crowd members literally taking turns coming onstage to sing the chorus into the mic. I would've preferred another song or two instead of that nonsense, but it was the perfect conclusion for the crowd full of assholes.

RAYLAND BAXTER – 07.07.12 – BROOKLYN BOWL (53 minutes)

SET –

Keep Your Head Up* / The Man / Willy’s Song / White Buffalo* / Mountain Song / Olivia / The Cold & Easy Life of a Loner* / Birdy Blue / Bad Things* / Dreamin’*

DONAVON FRANKENREITER – 07.07.12 – BROOKLYN BOWL (1 hour, 30 minutes)

SET –

Free / Glow / You / What’cha Know About / Heading Home / American Girl / West Coast Fool / Shine / Life, Love, & Laughter / Your Heart / Call Me Papa / Bend in the Road / Lovely Day / Start Livin’ / The Way It Is / Move by Yourself / That’s Too Bad (Byron Jam)

ENCORE –

On My Mind / It Don’t Matter