Just One More: Musical Tribute Larry Brown

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 22, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bloodshot Records
• ASIN: B000OHZJQ4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,098 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If recent years don't amount to a golden age for acoustically inclined, blues-based singer-songwriters, they at least give the impression of fine, burnished copper. Or so this tribute to "grit lit" novelist Larry Brown (who died in 2004) would argue. Brown loved and celebrated these voices, writing liner notes for Blue Mountain and an extended essay on Robert Earl Keen, among others. In his fiction he made the sometimes dire, sometimes comic humanism of real lives sing in vigorous and dusty rhythms. This gathering of admirers and fellow travelers (some of whom, like Cary Hudson and T-Model Ford, hail from Brown's Mississippi) manages the same feat. With a spirit of indolent story telling and homemade rock, the set focuses on alternate and live takes, with a sound as unvarnished as Brown's diction. Scott Miller offers an unreleased, laid-back but still rocking version of "Thirsty," T-Model Ford gets as low and mean as he ever has on the Muddy Waters signature number "Love Me," and legendary Ardent producer Jim Dickinson warbles sweetly through Bob Dylan's "I'll Remember You." The collection only stumbles with novelist Madison Smartt Bell's clichéd and choked tribute to getting drunk with the author. Some of the grittiest and best moments, though, come from the lesser-known voices: Caroline Herring sings a tough, honest ballad of self-reliance, Ben Weaver "sings a pretty song to an ugly world" with a voice caked in mud, Tim Lee and Susan Bauer Lee do a mean John Doe/Exene Cervenka impersonation, and Brent Best (formerly of Slobberbone, now of the Drams) unwinds a riveting, wide-open story of a young boy's coming of age in a small town. Producer Tim Lee hoped the collection would play like the kind of mix tape Brown loved to pop in his truck on long drives through Mississippi. He and the rest of these raw kindred spirits have more than succeeded. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars all the things we love about the South, June 25, 2007

By 

Elevate Difference "Elevate Difference" (worldwide) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just One More: Musical Tribute Larry Brown (Audio CD)

Wow, this musical tribute to Larry Brown keeps your feet tapping and your mind working. These songs, by artists Brown admired, put you in the passenger seat of his little truck as you drive through the small and friendly neighborhood in the South. Spending much of his life as a firefighter, Larry Brown wrote and finally struck gold in 1988 with a collection of stories called Facing the Music. As his writing continued, he became well-known as a Southern writer of literature. His love for music equaled his passion for writing. After Brown suffered a fatal heart attack, producer and pal Tim Lee contacted artists to create this musical tribute to a man considered a friend to most.

Listening to the album, you feel the flowing and engaging wondrous moments of songs that hit the sweet spot - that is what it's all about. With 12 previously unreleased tracks, Just One More contains quality tracks by Brown's friends including Greg Brown, Caroline Herring, North Mississippi Allstars and Robert Earl Keen. The American Roots strand interweaves the genres of blues, folk and salt of the earth lyrics -- seeming much like Brown's characters, who were honest and pained, but eternally real. As a serious music fan, Brown worked with several artists at some point to live out his musical dreams. The final track called "Don't Let the Door" presents both Brown and another southern novelist, Clyde Edgarton combining musical talents.

The underlying feeling of the music offers solace and, after it ended, I listened again. Heartfelt and warm, lyrically pleasing and honest, Larry Brown feels like he could be my buddy too. At the end of the disc, I wanted more music, a beer, a cigarette and a seat on a patio where I could watch people and smile at them.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, June 15, 2007

By 

L. E Johnson (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Just One More: Musical Tribute Larry Brown (Audio CD)

This album is better than we might have had a right to expect. Whoever would have thought Madison Smartt Bell could play the guitar so well. Lots of good stuff here to enjoy whether you like Larry Brown's writing or not.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasant Reminder, January 23, 2008

By 

Marc D. Regan "writer of novel tunes" (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Just One More: Musical Tribute Larry Brown (Audio CD)

Although I particularly enjoyed hearing Larry's own song, every song on this tribute collection was good--and varying. So buy it and imagine ol' Larry Brown beside you on your ol' couch and enjoy your day (never know which day'll be your last).