The Tejas Brothers bill themselves as Country/Rock/Blues, but they’ve got an accordion that speaks to my polka soul. Going for adds this week is “Boogie Woogie Mamacita.” Let this and a couple cervesas be the backdrop to your summer!

If you’re interested in listening to a guaranteed hit, try Gretchen Wilson’s new single, “The Earrings Song”. Unfortunately, she hasn’t found a new melody since her debut album, but this will please the fans to no end anyway.

Charla Corn is putting together an album by democracy: on her website, fans can “buy into” the album, rate demos, and help choose which songs make the cut. Here’s a video of the making of her single “Break My Heart Tonight”.

I drove to Atlantic City this past weekend to see David Cook perform from his self-titled album at The Music Box at The Borgata. As an avid American Idol viewer, I already consider myself a fan of the Season 7 winner. I arrived a few minutes late and quickly went over to his merchandise table to grab a t-shirt. When I went inside the Box, I heard his opener, indie rock singer and songwriter Ryan Star, already a few minutes into his set list. I’m not too familiar with Ryan having never watched Rock Star: Supernova. My first impression of him was that he was surprisingly pretty good. I enjoyed the rest of his set especially “Breathe” and “11:59”. I decided to purchase his album Songs from the Eye of an Elephant on the way out and met him in the lobby after the show, where a long line had formed because he was signing his CD.

After a twenty minute break so David’s band could set up, the lights went out and the sold-out crowd rose to their feet waiting for a glimpse of the main event. David was on stage with his guitar and he opened with “Heroes”. David was wearing a black and white patterned short sleeve button up shirt with black pants and boots. He had on an orange bracelet, and it doesn’t seem like he is traveling with a hairstylist as his hair looked like he just got out of bed. Next he sang a song he co-wrote called “We’re Only Honest When We’re Sleeping”, with these lyrics:

You’re a broken thing
Your cracks are showing through
Your best attempts
At making nice with the world
So keep on dreaming
Cause someday soon the things that keep you up late
Will fade away
Or so I’ve heard

I really like the lyrics for this song and as he co-wrote 10 out of the 12 tracks on his latest album, I am very impressed with his song-writing ability. Now is clearly his time, but it is a little hard to fathom why we hadn’t heard his name before this reality show. He went on to sing four songs not on his new album, including the Collective Soul cover “The World I Know.” He paused to let the crowd know that the next song was very close to his heart, and he started to sing “Permanent”, which he co-wrote about his brother Adam who is currently battling brain cancer. It was now incredibly quiet as the crowd focused on him and the words seemed to pour right from his soul.

He picked up the mood a little and sang “Declaration,” his newly released single “Come Back to Me” and his first single off the album called, “Light On”. He asked the crowd to help him with the words to “Light On” because sometimes he forgets. He got a few sympathy laughs and everyone seemed happy to oblige. He asked if anyone in the audience had been at the Friday night show and it seemed by the cheers that at least half of them had been. There were glow sticks galore in the crowd and he had a brief conversation with a nine year old girl in the front row who was smiling from ear to ear after he signed her CD. Someone threw a dog collar onto the stage and he went over and picked it up. He explained to people that were seeing him live for the first time that he now has a collection of collars and he really has no explanation for why this started happening. He thanked everyone and said Goodbye and threw out some guitar picks, but everyone seemed to know he wouldn’t be gone for long.

He came out again after a very brief absence and sang “Barbasol.” His band was just incredible and they seem to have great chemistry. Before the next song, “Hot for Teacher” a Van Halen cover song, he introduced them all and they waved to the crowd. He finished for real this time with “Daily Anthem”, which he mentioned was written before his Idol experience. If I had to sum up the whole night in one word it would probably be “effortless.” He came on that stage and just did was seems so natural to him. His album has gone platinum already and if you decide to go and pick it up, you will be glad you did. I plan on going to see him again this summer when he takes part in Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA in August.

The EP includes “In The Valley Of The Dying Sun”, which has a delightful bass line. The middle is heavy in a way not often heard in modern music, then goes into church choir harmonies and a lighter melodic section, reminding me of the Beatles “She’s So Heavy/Golden Slumbers” for a moment.

“If”, another EP track, has a bouncy feel and prominent organ. It’s the first non-whiny love song I’ve heard in a long time, a catalog of all the things the protagonist would do or be or be capable of if she were his.

If – House of Heroes

If you like what you’ve heard here, download the EP or full album (free EP only available at Amazon).

While this review is about The Mystix, I would be remiss not to talk a bit about Tupelo.  Housed in unassuming old white farmhouse, it would be easy to just drive by.  I had heard from friends that it was an intimate setting and a great place to get up close and personal with the music. What they didn’t tell me was that there is an absolute musical gem right in my backyard. Once inside, the atmosphere is warm and inviting. The night I visited, the venue was set up with about 30 tables for four lit with candles. They sell non-alcoholic beverages and food items and you can BYOB, paying $3 for each person who will be drinking. The one big surprise about the venue was the quality of the sound, which was amazingly crisp and clear. It did not overwhelm the small room but still allowed you to really feel the music. Owner Scott Hayward should be complimented on the full package he has put together here. It was recently announced that Hayward would build a new Tupelo in the neighboring town of Derry. After experiencing Tupelo, I hope he works to maintain this amazing quality in a new, larger venue.

Jo Lily, front man for The Mystix, said he visited Tupelo three years ago to see Jonathan Edwards and has been itching to play the room ever since. His itch was finally scratched on a cool New England summer night, when Lily and his band brought some hot, sultry, juke joint sounds to that small New Hampshire room.

The Mystix are an all-star band of sorts, comprised of journeymen musicians from the Boston/New York music scene. With roots in blues, rock, and country, their most recent CD, Blue Morning, has become a fixture on roots and country playlists around the country.

The evening’s entertainment started with a four song instrumental set, which included a playful, driving version of Duke Ellington’s Caravan, by three members of The Mystix – guitarist Bobby Keyes, drummer Marty Richards, and bassist Marty Ballou.  Keyes is clearly the standout here. A longtime studio player at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Keyes has played with everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis and Ben E. King, to New Kids on the Block and most recently, Lil Wayne and Robin Thicke. Keyes is also an accomplished songwriter, writing four songs for Thicke’s recent CD and co-writing with Lily for The Mystix. But it’s his guitar playing that’s on display here – he is a six string virtuoso. His play is inspired, passionate, and clean. His guitar comes alive under his gentle touch. This description, from a CD Baby review, hits the nail on the head. 

He can switch from “Surf-style-spaghetti-western” to Django Reinhardt-style hot jazz to kiss-ass rock riffs in the blink of an eye and never break a sweat.

The trio was later joined on stage by keyboard player Tom West, and lead singer and guitarist Lily. Lily’s gravely, passionate vocals grabbed hold of the audience with Let’s Get Started and didn’t let go throughout their 14 song set. Some highlights included: the jumpin’ juke joint inspired Keyes/Lily original, Yolanda; the rocking Bourbon Street rhythms of New Orleans; and the Traveling Wilbury’s tune Rattled.

A taste of Yolanda at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2007.

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I’ve read that they are a much tighter band since this performance – changing their drummer and adding a keyboard player.

Their country side was on display with their George Jones inspired original What Side of Heartache, which has risen to the top of the playlist on XM Country, and a cover of Porter Wagoner’s Nothing Between. They gave a couple of interesting nods to their interest in roots music. The first, Almost Down to the Shore was written by Jimmy Struthers, a blind axe murderer whose music was recorded at a penitentiary in VA by the Dust-to-Digital project. And the second, the encore, a song that they had never before performed live, Stephen Foster’s Hard Times Come Again No More. Yes, Stephen Foster – the “father of American music,” composer of Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, and Beautiful Dreamer. Lily mentioned being asked to record this song by Keyes for a movie project, and how he was intimidated because it had been performed so perfectly by Bob Dylan. Having experienced Lily’s performance and watching Dylan’s performance, I’d take Lily’s version, hands down.

The Mystix are currently in studio working on their third CD which, according to Lily, will be more focused on roots music. If you get a chance to see the Mystix, I would highly recommend that you do, and you too will believe that the south has indeed moved to New England.

You can find The Mystix CD’s on CDBaby and iTunes online, and at Newbury Comics and Dyno Records in Newburyport, MA.

My personal experience is that there are two “usual” types of hits: the uptempo dance number, and the midtempo ballad (a/k/a makeout song). In this blog, I’m going to examine uptempo songs. Later, we’ll cover ballads, and the third, rogue category, the novelty song (which can occasionally fit into one or the other of the first two categories). Now, on to the hits!

The backbone of a danceable song is the backbeat. (It even has “back” in it!) This usually consists of drums (or some kind of percussion, drum machine, etc.) and some kind of bass line, either from bass guitar, “stand up” double bass, or maybe the left hand of the piano or organ player. This is what you tap your feet or fingers to, it’s what you move and groove and shake your booty to. It’s what made people on American Bandstand say, “It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it, I give it an 8.5″ for many, many years. If you haven’t got a beat, you haven’t got a hit dance song.

If you’re reading a score, the backbeat is on the bottom. Building upward, you find the instruments that play (or create) chords: keyboards, guitars, and string and horn sections. Chords are nice; they move around and create a mood, and then they resolve and finish the song (or section). Without getting into the technical details, I’ll just say that there are ways of doing this that are “usual” and ways that are “unusual”. The usual suspects are simple triads (made of 3 notes) and that’s your basic rock ‘n roll or punk song. When you get a songwriter who really knows what s/he’s doing, and s/he does something unusual, then you get a song that’s not only mass-market enjoyable, but stimulating. People actually like that. However, they don’t like “weird”, so if you’re using this post as a songwriting guide (I hope not!), be careful of weirdness.

Up at the top of our hypothetical score are the lead “instruments”, which can be just about anything that plays a melody: lead guitar, vocals, piano, sax, and if you’re Jethro Tull, flute. Here’s where the “catchiness” factor of a hit song comes into play. Like Blues Traveler said, “The hook brings you back.” So what’s the hook? Hum or sing your favorite song. The part you know best and sing loudest is probably the hook! Oftentimes, the hook is the title of the song or the fun part of the chorus. It gets repeated a lot. And in a hit song, it should be easy for the majority of people to sing. Most people who listen to the radio and enjoy songs are not trained singers, and they don’t have the range of, say, Mariah Carey. (I do, but this isn’t about me.) So take pity on your shower singers and car karaoke stars, and watch the range.

Finally, and this is optional: the lyrics. I say this is optional because there are plenty of songs out there that people sing that do not have lyrics. One of my personal favorites is… um… well, I can’t remember the name of it, because it doesn’t have any words! Oh well. Maybe I’ll remember it for the next installation of this mini-series. Anyway, if I could hum it through the blog, you’d probably know it too. And I hum or la-la-la along with tons of classical music that doesn’t have words. So lyrics are optional. And if you do have lyrics, frankly, they don’t have to make sense. In fact, it probably helps if they don’t. And if, like “Louie Louie”, the words are slurred? That’s pretty much an instant hit.

I’ll be back in a week or so with Midtempo Ballads, or Seduction In 12/8 time. Your homework assignment is to listen to the popular dance music of your generation with an ear to what I’ve discussed here, and report back as to whether I’m right. Class dismissed!