15 minute read
MUSIC
Jeremy Pinnell (center) and band
PHOTO: PROVIDED BY IVPR
Local countri ed Roots musician Jeremy Pinnell ditches the melancholic songwriting in exchange for some upbeat Honky Tonk on his latest album
BY JASON GARGANO
“Big Ol’ Good,” the rst track on singer/songwriter Jeremy Pinnell’s latest record, Goodbye L.A., opens with Honky Tonk shine — a jaunty backbeat and tasty slide guitar set the scene before Pinnell’s signature soulful voice kicks in, cresting with the refrain, “I get by ’cause my baby found a good shin’ hole/I get high on that Rock & Roll.” Pinnell elongates the notes on “hole” and “roll” with uncommon air, the sound of a seemingly satis ed man eager to shake o whatever demons might have plagued him in the past.
And then there’s “Night Time Eagle,” an even jauntier tune that features a soaring solo from guitarist Junior Tutwiler and lyrics about the bittersweet joys of touring: “I hit the road with a four-piece band/Missing lines like I don’t give a damn/I don’t even know what day it is/But, honey, I just miss your kiss.”
You can almost picture the smile on Pinnell’s face as he sings. It’s a somewhat surprising shift in tone for those familiar with the Northern Kentucky native’s brand of countri ed Roots music, almost all of which burns with brooding, melancholic intensity on 2015’s OH/KY and its follow-up, 2017’s Ties of Blood and A ection.
“It was kind of like I was so tired of hearing all these songwriters that were just so miserable,” says Pinnell — including himself on the list — by phone from his home on a recent Saturday morning. “People are just so fucking sad, and I was like, ‘I am over it, dude.’ Like, ‘Quit crying about the fucking girl who ran away.’ Who gives a shit? I just got tired of it.”
Of course, Goodbye L.A. wouldn’t be the same without one of Pinnell’s darkhued journeys into self-re ection — the atmospheric, slow-burning “Red Roses” cracks with emotion as he sings, “ e roses aren’t as red as they used to be/ But they are in my memory.”
Yet most of the record is infused with an earnest playfulness, as the title track attests, a likely nod to Pinnell’s current homelife as a husband and father: “A man once said, I wish they were all were California girls/But he ain’t seen my woman with long hair and curls.” e chorus seals the deal: “Hello,
Jeremy Pinnell (center) and band
PHOTO: PROVIDED BY IVPR
L.A., you’ve got some pretty ladies/ But they don’t want babies, and I do/ Goodbye L.A., I’m going home to see my baby/She’s the one I belong to.”
“I just wanted to make a record that made people happy,” Pinnell says of Goodbye L.A.’s more upbeat nature. “Everybody’s been so miserable for so long. I just wanted people to be OK with themselves, have a good time, enjoy each other’s company, enjoy being with another human being. I really just wanted to make that record where people could just enjoy life.”
Everyday life and its trials and tribulations have long been Pinnell’s bread and butter as a songwriter.
“You got to talk about real stu ,” he says. “ at’s the only way you’re going to connect with people. Some people are surface level, and that’s ne, because we need all types of people, but some people need to go deeper, you know? You can just be honest about what’s going on with your life and people identify with that.” at was certainly the case with Pinnell’s breakthrough record, OH/ KY. After more than a decade on the Cincinnati scene fronting stellar out ts like e Light Wires — whose 2004 self-titled album remains one of the best local e orts in recent memory — Pinnell’s solo debut, released via Northern Kentucky-based SofaBurn Records, drew praise far beyond the Tri-State area. Extensive touring across the U.S. followed, as did a previously unthinkable trip to Europe. e attention came as a surprise to a guy who just wanted to write and play songs with his revolving backing band, which has solidi ed in recent years with the addition of Tutwiler, a multiinstrumentalist who Pinnell calls his “musical director.”
“I guess I just didn’t expect anything from the record,” Pinnell says. “ at’s kind of like the way this whole (music) thing has gone; I never expect anything. We did OH/KY, we released it the best we could, and people wrote about it and liked it. We were super-green, we were just learning how to play Country music, so it was a very new experience for us. So, to get some praise was good, but I feel like the real work didn’t really start until Tides of Blood and A ection.”
Pinnell recorded Goodbye L.A. at producer Jonathan Tyler’s Austin, Texas studio just before the pandemic hit. e down time was tough on him and his band, as the momentum they built from the previous two albums and their resultant tours ground to a halt. But it also put things in perspective. Pinnell had to get a day job again, which just reminded him how much he loved being a touring musician.
“We did like 130-something days on the road in 2019,” Pinnell says. “By the end of that year, I was whupped, just cooked mentally, spiritually and physically. But then the pandemic hit. I remember telling my wife before the pandemic that I didn’t want to be 45-years-old riding around in a van, and that’s all I want to do now.”
Pinnell is quick to point out how the local scene has impacted his evolution as a songwriter and artist, name-checking various venues and supporters like Shake It Records and former Light Wires’ bandmate Mike Montgomery.
Pinnell mentions the original Southgate House as an especially important in uence back in the day.
“I remember being a kid and Ross (Raleigh, the late owner and operator of the Southgate House) would let us have Punk shows and Hardcore shows there during the day,” Pinnell says. “I remember us hanging out, playing baseball in the parking lot. Growing up in Cincinnati, I don’t know, it was just a good group of people to grow up with. I was always around musicians and artists. Just a di erent kind of people, you know? I think people from here are a little bit rougher, too, so that always helps.”
While he and his band are currently on their rst tour in nearly two years, Pinnell is already thinking about the next record, which he says will likely be a more lo- e ort following the relatively sleek accessibility of Goodbye L.A.
“I like pushing buttons,” Pinnell says about his approach as an artist. “I try to be slick about it, but I think that’s what makes good art — people who push buttons. at’s the way I was brought up. You grew up listening to artists who really messed with people. I think when you get people out of their comfort zone, even yourself out of your comfort zone, that’s when you create good music.”
Jeremy Pinnell plays the Campbell County Public Library Newport Branch on Nov. 19 and MOTR Pub on Nov. 20. For more info and show details, visit jeremypinnell.com.
SOUND ADVICE
Ben Folds
ursday, Nov. 18 • Taft eatre
If you want to see one of Gen-X’s most creative minds at work, go to a Ben Folds show.
Folds has slowly, teasingly peeled back the layers of his brilliance in the decades since we rst got to know him with the Ben Folds Five in the late ’90s. e same man who shouted about wanting to be “Kate” on alternative radio back then has mined his life and observations to develop his songwriting and grow his career in unexpected ways.
Sure, Folds has collaborated with notable musicians such as Sara Bareilles, Regina Spektor and Weird Al Yankovic. As a producer, he’s even teased an album out of William Shatner that you can fully and unironically enjoy.
But Folds’ real skill is his writing, popping out not only lyrics that tell colorful, complete stories, but also arrangements of dozens of instruments, most of which he can play himself. Folds has an ear for hearing something inconsequential — a goofy word, chair legs scraping across a wooden oor — and spontaneously building rich songs of all genres around it. He frequently demonstrates this during his live shows, when he asks an audience member for a topic or takes over an instrument from a fellow musician. at’s why over the past decade or so, Folds’ marriage to major symphony orchestras around the globe has been such a joy to experience. What began as an interesting concept blossomed into something wondrous that had audiophiles listening to Classical musicians in new ways, no matter if Folds and the symphony were performing his old ’90s Slacker-Punk stu or his newer, moving concertos.
Folds possesses a Jedi-like ability to write parts for 25 instruments, intuitively blend them into perfect melodies and harmonies, and have 100 high-caliber musicians perform them with incredible texture, all within about two minutes on stage. e process appears (and is) instantaneous, but that’s only because Folds has developed the serious skills required to pull it o awlessly. It’s a sonic magic trick that leaves you wondering what in the hell you just witnessed while giving you a “I was there when he did that” moment to point to later.
When Folds takes the stage at the Taft eatre on Nov. 18, he’ll do so just days after performing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where he has served since 2017 as the National Symphony Orchestra’s rst artistic advisor. e show in Cincinnati will be solo — his rst in town since 2019, those pre-pandemic times — but Folds surely will bring with him all of the cultural in uences he’s amassed over nearly 30 years.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the show beginning at 7. All attendees must be fully vaccinated from COVID-19 (at least two weeks after the nal immunization) and must wear a mask inside the venue at all times. (Allison Babka)
Ben Folds
PHOTO: BENFOLDS.COM
Shovels & Rope
Friday, Nov. 19 • Ludlow Garage
South Carolina-based husband-andwife duo Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent initially had no intention of making Shovels & Rope a permanent music-making union. Yet here we are 13 years and multiple albums later, each e ort a slight creative shift following a self-titled debut that announced the presence of two voices with grit and grace, delivering Roots-forti ed tunes that simultaneously nod toward tradition and go their own way.
Shovels & Rope’s most recent album of original material, 2019’s By Blood, is perhaps the band’s most sonically expansive set to date, mixing raucous foot-stompers like “I’m Coming Out” and “Mississippi Nuthin’” with mid-tempo soul-stirrers like “Good Old Days” and “C’Mon Utah!,” which at one point nds the duo’s intermingling vocals bursting forth with enough yearning and emotion to make Joe Cocker blush. “Twisted Sisters” is equally stirring, adding horns and strings to the equation with seamless yet blissfully ramshackle results.
“Once we sit down with the music, we usually get a vibe of what the overall tone is, but the way the records come out, sonically, is really more directed by Michael,” Hearst said in a 2019 interview with PopMatters. “We think about records that we like or a vibe that we’re going for.”
“We talked about making it a big, cinematic-sounding record,” Trent responded in the same interview. “We’re always trying to do something a little bit di erent and the last one (2016’s Little Seeds), I feel like, came
Shovels & Rope
PHOTO: LESLIE RYAN MCKELLAR
PHOTO: PROVIDED BY VIRGIN MUSIC
across more as guitar rock. We used a lot more sweeping sounds (this time), there’s a lot more drama.”
Sure enough, the rst single (“Domino”) from the band’s recently announced next record (Manticore, which is set for a Feb. 18 release) is another variation on duo’s Americana roots, employing piano, hand-claps and a sleek double-vocal delivery that brings to mind a Roots-fueled version of LCD Soundsystem.
Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8:30. Shovels & Rope is requiring concertgoers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from the past 72 hours. Masks are encouraged. (Jason Gargano)
Migos with Trippie Redd
Sunday, Nov. 28 • Heritage Bank Center
Cincinnatians will have a chance to dance o all the pumpkin pie they ate during anksgiving when Migos visits the Queen City. e multi-awardwinning Hip Hop trio from Georgia will perform at Heritage Bank Center just days after the holiday.
Migos became a hit machine in 2013 with the single "Versace," which received noteworthy remix action from Drake. In the ensuing years, critics have lauded Migos' albums, and many of the group's singles became top-10 hits on the Billboard charts, including "Bad and Boujee," "MotorSport," "Stir Fry" and "Walk It Talk It." Migos has collaborated with Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Steve Aoki and Pharrell Williams and is responsible for the dabbing dance craze, thanks to the single "Look at My Dab."
Canton, Ohio, native Trippie Redd will join Migos on the Cincinnati bill. A Mumble Rap leader, Trippie Redd has been on an upward swing since 2016, when he drew signi cant notice on SoundCloud. His 2020 album Pegasus hit No. 2 on Billboard. His latest album, Trip at Knight, dropped in August, with the lead single "Miss the Rage" making it to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
New York City rapper CJ will support Migos and Trippie Redd at the show.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7. No proof of vaccination or negative COVID test is required. (Allison Babka)
BONUS: Jim Gaffigan
Sunday, Nov. 20 • Heritage Bank Center
Six-time Grammy-nominated comedian Jim Ga gan is coming to Cincinnati as a part of his 2021 “ e Fun Tour.” Ga gan is best known for his wide range of humor, as he has guest-starred in everything from Law & Order to Disney/Pixar’s Luca. Praised for his observational comedy, Ga gan has won two Emmy Awards, and he will share his humor with the Queen City at 7 p.m. Nov. 20. (William Reisenberg)
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