We’ve reviewed a couple of singles and an album by James Combs over the last two years and this year’s single was a really interesting one. It was a love song with a difference and you can read all about it at the end of this piece. We were pleased that he agreed to share some of his musical highlights of 2023 with us.
Seeing Sierra Ferrell live at the LA Folk Festival at the Ford Theater
I agree with the music critics who call Sierra a “generational artist.” She is like a mountain-music Amy Winehouse, to my mind – a wild-child pure artist with an otherworldly gift. I have been a fan since the moment I heard her debut album but wasn’t able to hear her live until this October. The Milk Carton Kids introduced her by saying “you are about to get your mind blown.” They weren’t wrong.
Playing the Houdini Mansion in Laurel Canyon
I got to play a concert at the Houdini mansion in Laurel Canyon this summer and it is a wild place. Sculptures of levitating women, vintage magic posters, the grand pool where Harry practiced his escape act, and a great lawn that is perfect for music performance. A fun and crazy night. Here’s are a couple photos of me with my harmony singing partner Erin Hawkins from the evening.
Playing Topanga Days with half of I See Hawks in LA as my band
My birthday afternoon music bash then hearing Pixies at the Hollywood Bowl
It’s just a gift to be able to play music for the people you love most and they were all there on our patio for my birthday house concert in September – here are some excerpts:
And if that wasn’t enough, Pixies, Cat Power and Modest Mouse played the Hollywood Bowl around the corner from us that very night and our friends treated us to box seats. I had almost forgotten how much I love Pixies. They knocked everyone’s socks off – a band who has completely invented their own rock n roll language. A grand and perfect day of music.
Releasing my collaborative single with The Well Pennies, “High Pine Steeples”!
This year was mostly about performing live and recording for me, but I did release my single “High Pine Steeples”, made in collaboration with another of my favorite bands, The Well Pennies. I spent a few days visiting them and recording in their Golden Bear Studios in Des Moines and we released this love song to redwood trees in May to lots of airplay here in the US and in the UK. I loved singing harmony with Bryan and Sarah Vanderpool, who are both incredible arrangers and singers. I really just played them my song and let them have at it. And they, being them, brought the magic and turned it into a cavernous, lush, harmony rich affair, worthy of the trees. Hear it here:
‘High Pine Steeples’ is a love song with a difference. The object of James Combs’ love is California’s redwood groves which and the relationship dates back to the time when he first moved to California. On this song, James is joined by The Well Pennies, Bryan and Sarah Vanderpool, long-time friends from the California scene.
The song portrays the redwood groves as natural places of worship, not just through the lyrical content, but also the way it’s arranged and produced. The arrangement is spare with minimal percussion and lovely harmonies and the production bulks out the sparsity by using a lot of reverb to create a lo-fi and dense texture with instruments and vocals bleeding into each other that evokes both the natural beauty of the trees and the grandeur and claustrophobia of the giant trees; it’s almost a tone poem in triple time. It’s definitely worth investing three minutes of your time on this.
‘High Pine Steeples’ is out now to download and stream.
Here’s the official video for the song:
Why release two singles on the same day? Well, you could equally ask why not. In a week when Taylor Swift holds the top ten positions in the singles chart with album tracks, it’s obvious that the model of releasing a single to trail an album isn’t relevant now. So if you have two cracking tracks ready to go and you’re not creating physical copies, why not just get them out there online and see what happens. And that’s where we are with ‘My Mystery’ and ‘Only Two Ways’.
The core of Great Willow is Erin Hawkins (vocals, and also cello on ‘Only Two Ways’) and James Combs (songwriter, vocal, guitar and piano) joined by Jimi Hawes (bass) and Ed Barguiarena (drums and production), joined by Abby Posner (mandolin and banjo) and Paul Lacques from I See Hawks in LA adding some very evocative lap steel on ‘Only Two Ways’.
The playing on both songs is laid-back and immaculate, evoking the Laurel Canyon artists of the seventies (you can feel the sunshine, which is more than welcome in a British November). Both songs have a country rock feel, but they have other influences shining through as well. ‘My Mystery’, telling the story of a lover’s sudden desertion has overtones of neckerchief rock, with an intro not a million miles away from Ronnie Lane’s ‘How Come’. Erin Hawkins’ vocal emphasises the vulnerability of the deserted lover, particularly when she drops towards the bottom end of her range, while the vocal harmonies add a touch of sweetness.
‘Only Two Ways’ has a very simple message, encapsulated in the first two lines: “Only two ways to go, And one of those ways is back”. James Combs lead vocal hints at Neil Young, enhancing the melancholy and the production then adds a couple of the saddest instruments from the arranger’s palette, cello and lap steel (the latter evoking bird cries towards the end of the song).
‘My Mystery’ and ‘Only Two Ways’ are perfect examples of the songwriter’s art and the arrangements allow the songs to breathe while using subtle fills from the guest players to enhance the mood.
Both singles are out now.
Here’s a video for ‘Only Two Ways’:
It looks like it may be some time before we escape the influence of the pandemic on recorded music, particularly in the areas of Americana and folk where the traditions of storytelling and reflecting the world around us are important. ‘Falling Under Spells’ isn’t crammed with references to COVID, but it’s certainly the basis for the album’s two closing songs, ‘Everybody Inside’ and ‘Nowhere Fast’, while the problems of twenty-first century America, including its forty-fifth President, are also themes that permeate the album, along with a few magical and mystical references.
The album’s opening song ‘Ruleless Games’ attempts to explain the unfairness of the world to a child and features some of the album’s sound signatures, the muted trumpet sound and the plaintive, higher register, Neil Young-like vocal of James Combs that’s echoed by the Crazy Horse feel of some of the arrangements. The horns are gentle and muted, not the strident stabs that are used to punctuate our soul classics; they’re more mariachi than Motown or Stax and contribute to the mellow feel of the album.
There are a few more nods in obvious and less obvious directions to other musical styles on the album. ‘Spells’ hints at The Byrds with some sixties tremolo guitar and maybe even a touch of The Stones’ ‘The Last Time’ (with added trumpet); all elements that you might have heard in referenced in the Americana canon. ‘Cut and Run’ is slightly different in that the reggae-tinged arrangement has more than a hint of the Gorillaz song ‘Clint Eastwood’ with piano and slide guitar. The title repeats like a mantra through the song as it urges us to abandon America’s twisted priorities (and their hype-man).
Despite the ominous and mystical feel of songs like ‘Strange Signs’ and ‘Spells’, ‘Falling Under Spells’, manages to generate a gentle wave of optimism for the future with songs like ‘True Believer’ and ‘Joy is Allowed’, a reminder that even in the most awful times, it’s ok to find joy somewhere. And any album that’s underpinned by the gentler side od Neil Young is fine by me.
‘Falling Under Spells’ is released in the UK on Friday May 27th on High Pine Steeple Recordings (1001).
Here’s a link to the video for ‘Strange Signs’ (featuring April Mann):
