Watkins out on his own in ‘Fear’ – Sellers debuts gritty, raw garage country sound

This news has been read 5381 times!

Sean Watkins, “What to Fear” (Thirty Tigers)

“What to Fear” will seem comfortably familiar to fans of Nickel Creek, the Grammy-winning band in which singer-songwriter Sean Watkins joined with sister Sara and Chris Thile to put a gorgeous bluegrass imprint on well-crafted, sweetly sentimental melodies.

In his second solo album, Watkins merges a new batch of catchy hooks with engaging but not particularly heavy lyrics. It’s a natural next step in his musical journey, with stellar acoustic playing by world-class musicians, including his sister and Benmont Tench, Tom Petty’s keyboard player. The sound is clear and precise, a continuation of the finger-picking, fiddle-backed approach Watkins started with his band and continued to refine through various collaborations.

Watkins ranges around in subject matter, evoking gospel in a song called “Tribulations,” and a Friday night firehouse jam session in the fast-paced instrumental “Local Honey,” with Sara Watkins pitching in on fiddle. Several others are vaguely confessional love songs more noteworthy for their melodies and musicianship than any lasting message.

Best

The exceptions — and the best cuts on the album — are an extended apology called “Too Little Too Late,” which is good enough to qualify for anyone’s mix of wistful breakup songs, and the title cut, an ambiguous but incisive satire in a voice that could be a politician, an evangelical preacher or a TV newscaster.

In a time when presidential contenders seek votes based on things we should be afraid of, the notion that someone else is defining our fears for us strikes a timely chord.

Mike Posner is standing on the precipice of a career comeback with his new hit, “I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix),” and this time he’s not taking anything for granted.

Posner leapt onto 2010’s music scene with the catchy pop track “Cooler Than Me,” which reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot 100. But the Detroit native struggled to be more than a one-hit-wonder.

“I was like 21 or 22 years old and I was parading around in the world, fornicating, making more money than I probably deserved and taking it for granted,” recalled Posner in an interview last week. “I thought, ‘Oh that’s what happens. You put a song out and everyone likes it.’ Well then a funny thing happened, I started putting more songs out and none of them did the same thing.”

Over the next six years Posner found success as a songwriter. He co-wrote the hits “Boyfriend” and “Sugar” for Justin Bieber and Maroon 5 as well songs for Nick Jonas and Austin Mahone. But his music career floundered as his next two albums were shelved by his then-label, Sony.

“Basically I was ice cold at the time. So my record label, they couldn’t justify spending the marketing dollars to put (my songs) out because they didn’t forecast any real sales coming from them,” he said. “If you don’t think this house is going to sell, you’re not really going to put $1 million into putting in a new kitchen, new bathrooms. …That was very frustrating at the time.”

Under new management Posner penned “Ibiza”, a mellow, acoustic guitar-driven track that was a departure from the electro-pop tunes on his debut, “31 Minutes to Takeoff.” “Ibiza” appears on his EP, “The Truth”, released last summer on Universal’s Island Records.

He said he came up with “Ibiza” after tagging along with Avicii to the see the international DJ-producer perform at a show. He said some of the concertgoers recognized him in the crowd.

“And they said, ‘Do you want one of these?’ They held up a plastic bag with the mystery pills in it and inebriated Mike foolishly said, ‘Yeah,’ and I put it in my mouth, swallowed and felt like heaven for about five hours and then felt like hell for about 48 after that,” he said.

Introduces

Aubrie Sellers’ debut album, “New City Blues”, introduces her as a musician that seamlessly links the indie rock enclave of East Nashville to her country roots in Texas. It’s a sound she’s branded “garage country,” a blend of fuzzed-out electric guitars, high-energy rock ‘n’ roll and Sellers’ country vocals and songwriting.

“I was born in Nashville, but my whole family is from East Texas, so I consider myself a dual citizen,” said the 24-year-old Sellers, who will be playing South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, on March 18.

It took years for Sellers, a third-generation musician whose grandparents were gospel singers, to find her place between her musical heritage and her own tastes, which range from bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley to Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant. The album title, a line from her song “People Talking”, is about finding her place among those varying influences.

“It sort of embodied the feeling of never quite fitting in, or never knowing exactly where to belong or where to place myself,” she said.

Onstage, her strong and steady voice, with just the slightest twang, goes toe-to-toe with layers of reverb and thumping drums. But offstage, Sellers says she was shy and didn’t start singing in front of others until she was well into her teens.

“There’s a lot to live up to when three of your parents are successful in the music business,” she said.

Her mother is Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter Lee Ann Womack. Her father, Jason Sellers, is a country songwriter who has co-written singles for Jason Aldean, Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts and Thompson Square. Her stepfather, Frank Liddell, is an award-winning producer who helped Miranda Lambert become a star.

Womack said her daughter learned to sing from jam sessions at home and watching her parents in the recording studio.

“Unlike me, who had to get in the business as an adult, Aubrie was born into it,” said Womack. “So she knows exactly what she’s doing and why she’s doing it. There’s no explaining to her like you have to do with a lot of new artists.”

Sellers wrote “Like the Rain” with her dad, and both he and Womack sing it with their daughter on the record. And she decided that she wanted Liddell to produce the album, which was released in January on Carnival Records via Thirty Tigers.

“I’ve always loved what Frank does,” Sellers said, “because he lets the artists be themselves.” (AP)

By Scott Stroud

This news has been read 5381 times!