Tag: Kevin Gordon

LISTEN: Jon Byrd, “I’ll Be Her Only One” (Feat. Paul Niehaus)

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Artist: Jon Byrd (Feat. Paul Niehaus)
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “I’ll Be Her Only One”
Album: Me and Paul
Release Date: July 16, 2021

In Their Words: “Me and Paul is dedicated to and a reflection of the people that came to see me and Paul over the years in little watering holes and honky-tonks here in Music City. They are small but mighty, as Billy Block used to say. It’s also dedicated to venues that let us take over their ‘happy hour’ to play the saddest, darkest, most pitiful and tragic songs ever penned. This co-write with Kevin Gordon put me in mind of his longtime music collaborator Joe McMahan. While known mostly as a guitarist/sideman, he’s had a studio for years and produced great work with Kevin and many others. He and Kevin are more on the rockin’ side of things but I was very keen to know what he’d bring to a project like this, so stripped down. And so country. But the Kevin connection is what sent me down this road.” — Jon Byrd

Photo credit: Susan English

‘Long Gone Time’

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Of his last album, 2012’s Gloryland, singer/songwriter Kevin Gordon said he likes “the unfinished ending — the story that just continues when the song’s over.” With his newest piece, a 12-song set called Long Gone Time, Gordon continues to construct his characters with an air of mystery, leaving the listener to imagine how, exactly, one came to “selling honey off the hood of your LTD.”

That’s the story of “All in the Mystery,” the blues-laden, honky tonk shuffle that kicks off the proceedings. There’s more dirty blues on the “Memphis in the Meantime” meets commander Cody gallop of “GTO” and the slow groove of “Letter to Shreveport,” wherein Gordon paints pictures of “coffee in a tin percolator,” “dry biscuits on the stove,” and “Johnny Horton on the radio.” With the fourth cut of the festivities, Gordon goes folkie with the waltzy “Walking on the Levee,” a beautiful sketch where “water's moving fast (and) streets are slow.” It’s not often one hears Gethsemane and Lawrence Welk name-dropped in the same song, but Gordon gets them both down on paper on the unnerving “Shotgun Behind the Door.” The simple openness of “Crowville” and “Goodnight Brownie Ford” embody the lyrical essence of the Deep South, narratives that speak to the textures of rural America, both nature made and human born. “Immigrant,” with its sparse bass drum thump and guitar chime, and the similarly slender “Cajun with a K” close the record covered in muddy Mississippi silt.

Gordon’s gift for portraying the poetic imagery of the American South is well-documented on his previous records. This one expands his repertoire with equal, if not greater, mastery.

Hey Nashville, Get Off Your Ass and Go See Some Live Music in September

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Summer's winding down. Kids are back in school. And AmericanaFest is coming right up. Get Off Your Ass, America.

September 2, 3, 24 // Rosanne Cash // Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Rosanne Cash is doing a residency at the Hall of Fame. Three nights, three completely different performances. See you there!

September 4 // Los Colognes // The Basement East
Want to know where the cool kids will be tonight? At the BEast with Los Colognes.

September 10 // Farewell Drifters // Station Inn
The Farewell Drifters have a few shows on the books, including one last month with Julie Lee. Catch them while you can.

September 12 // Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys // Centennial Park
We'll just leave this right here. 

September 12 // Jimmy Webb, Bobby Whitlock // City Winery
How do you celebrate seeing Ralph Stanley? By seeing Jimmy Webb, for Pete's sake. Oh, and Bobby Whitlock, too. 

September 14 // Kevin Gordon // City Winery
If you like tales of Southern living done up with the just-right balance of grit and grace, check out Kevin Gordon.

September 15-20 // Americana Fest // All Over Town
Sam Outlaw, Nathaniel Rateliff, Ryan Culwell, Lee Ann Womack, Lera Lynn, HoneyHoney, Whitey Morgan, Patty Griffin, JD McPherson, and a whole bunch of other great artists will be playing shows all over town. Get you some.

September 22 // Indigo Girls // Ryman Auditorium
It's the Indigo Girls. How can you not go see the Indigo Girls?!

September 22 // BB King Birthday Tribute // City Winery
It must be nice to have your birthday celebrated by Claudette King, Gary Nicholson, Mike Farris, T. Graham Brown, Stacy Mitchhart, Derek St. Holmes, Crystal Shawanda, and more, right BB?

September 30 // George Ezra // Ryman Auditorium
This George Ezra kid … he's got something. His record and his live show are both thoroughly charming. You should maybe go.

September 30 // Cory Chisel Celebrates City Winery's One-Year Anniversary // City Winery
And yet another birthday party happening at City Winery … their own!

LISTEN: Kevin Gordon, ‘Walking on the Levee’

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Not every singer/songwriter lets geography infiltrate their psyches in the way that Kevin Gordon does. He grew up in the town of Monroe, in the northeast corner of Louisiana, and everything about the place, both past and present, informs his songwriting … even though he made a move to Nashville 20 years ago. With a university as its anchor and bayous running through its heart, Monroe is the kind of town that, maybe, wanted to be more than it was or will ever be. 

Gordon still goes back, from time to time, and finds himself reflecting on the land, the people, and the school band that made him who he is. The songs that emerge from those contemplations fill his discography, including his upcoming release, Long Gone Time. 

“'Walking on the Levee' is a song I started after a visit to my hometown of Monroe, LA, in August of 2012,” Gordon says. “It's a meditation of sorts — triggered by images/stories of a certain place — in this case, a levee that runs along the Ouachita River where I was walking/running that particular morning. I was feeling at once a stranger and a native, feeling both the weight of my previous memories of that place and a kind of stark loneliness of the experience of being there that day. And along the way, the existential graffiti that's quoted in the bridge section added some relevant questions.”