(Modern Electric Blues) Grayson Capps - Wail & Ride - 2006, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

For those who've been living under a rock, don't go to movies, or don't read books, it suffices to say that Grayson Capps is a songwriter recently departed form New Orleans, just as many of musicians were after Katrina. He was in a film and wrote four songs for the film A Love Song for Bobby Long. The film was made from a screenplay taken from Capps' father's then-unpublished novel about desperate but visionary people who live hard lives, are seized by hard times, and seek redemption. Capps is 39-years-old in 2006, but has the wizened, road-weary face of a wandering troubadour from the Dustbowl or of those who left the Deep South in the 1940s seeking work in Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and other Northern climes. Wail & Ride is his second solo album and it's full of blood and spit and raw, raw, heavy soul. As a songwriter, Capps is steeped in the Southern music tradition. His press kit has all kinds of stuff in about J.J. Cale, Ry Cooder, and Townes Van Zandt. Nah -- don't you believe it. You can hear Tony Joe White in there for sure, you can hear, perhaps, a spirit similar to that of the North Mississippi Allstars, or some of the crazies who've recorded on Fat Possum like R.L. Burnside and David Malone, or the desperation of recently departed ghosts of Chris Whitley and the Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce. You can also hear the raucous blues that comes out of the bars at night and in the little courts and galleries of what used to be New Orleans. Capps has rhythm and time; he's always in the pocket. He can moan and call down thunder or fire, and he can whisper like a man reaching out for the first and last time to someone or something he's only just now understood and hoping it's not too late. He calls himself an actor, but he's really a channeler. He digs into the spirit of things in order to report on the parts of them that people can't readily see, whether that's in the complications of a human heart, the interactions between lovers who can't seem to get it right, or reportage from the gutter on the side of the street where some poor soul is lying face down and can't get up. There are lots of images in these rough and tumble songs. Forget that Americana crap. Capps is not an observer, he's a participant. He's too gritty to really be American Gothic, but he has no idea what year it is, either.

Grayson Capps plays a very strange and particular kind of weird country and blues music. It encompasses many American styles, whether he can name them or not. There are nasty acoustic guitars that delve into country when it was country & western, touch on the old modal blues, and then spit out some honky tonk, funky soul, and rock & roll -- all underneath a singer who keeps going on and on about all these people who are busted up, brokenhearted, lost, abandoned, who refuse to accept the hand that's been dealt them, always holding out for one tiny glimmer -- like he's using his one last dime in the hope that this time, the girl down at the end of the bar will notice him. You already know how the story ends, but that hardly matters. "Daddy's Eyes" has the kind of sorrow that only someone who has lost something can hold close, and his observations about the Mason-Dixon line are curious. Trina Shoemaker's backing vocals underscore the tenderness in the tune "Give It to Me," it's a pumped up, funky and twisted love song to a whore, complete with tinkling upright piano and skittering snares and cymbals -- at least until the electric guitars make it a rocker. "New Orleans Waltz" is a bit clumsy lyrically, too full of images and longing and heartbreak about wanting something that is the living proof that nothing lasts forever. But then, having made his home on S. Front Street (literally) for 20 years and losing it to Katrina, he's got a right to be busted up about it, doesn't he? Take the title track and the story it tells of desperation played out between two people to the accompaniment of a Wurlitzer and a pair of guitars on the chooglin blues tip (Guthrie Trapp is a badass picker), and the slippery drums and percussion that carry that beat all the way home. "Poison" is a song that Commander Cody would kill to have written and Dr. John should cover if he ever gets hungry for his music again. "Broomy" is an off-kilter country blues with some other stuff tossed in. It's got a lyric that turns the heart into an open sore that aches dully and pumps new blood into a cynic's sawdust-filled veins. But the last two tracks, "Cry Me One Tear," and "Waterhole Branch," are worth the price of thew whole album -- the latter could have been used in the film Jesus' Son. Wail & Ride is a winner. Old Joel Dorn and his Hyena label have some new tricks up their sleeve, but this guy is the jewel hidden in the coal.
by Thom Jurek|

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EAC extraction logfile from 16. June 2009, 19:09 for CD
Grayson Capps / Wail & Ride

Used drive : IOMEGA DVDRW4224INQ-D Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : E:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe (User Defined Encoder)
128 kBit/s
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Track 1
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\01 - Wail & Ride.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 6528E784
Copy CRC 6528E784
Copy OK

Track 2
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\02 - Jukebox.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 49EAAAC3
Copy CRC 49EAAAC3
Copy OK

Track 3
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\03 - New Orleans Waltz.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 35A5CBB6
Copy CRC 35A5CBB6
Copy OK

Track 4
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\04 - Daddy's Eyes.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.33

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC D2C9F098
Copy CRC D2C9F098
Copy OK

Track 5
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\05 - Give It To Me.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 5B5757E2
Copy CRC 5B5757E2
Copy OK

Track 6
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\06 - Poison.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC E8880B14
Copy CRC E8880B14
Copy OK

Track 7
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\07 - Mermaid.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A8800FD2
Copy CRC A8800FD2
Copy OK

Track 8
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\08 - Broomy.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1F267233
Copy CRC 1F267233
Copy OK

Track 9
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\09 - Junkman.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6A4E5A10
Copy CRC 6A4E5A10
Copy OK

Track 10
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\10 - Ed Lee.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FA874DAB
Copy CRC FA874DAB
Copy OK

Track 11
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\11 - Cry Me One Tear.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC D75EA9DA
Copy CRC D75EA9DA
Copy OK

Track 12
Filename E:\EAC Rips\Grayson Capps - 2006 - Wail & Ride\12 - Waterhole Branch.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.56

Peak level 98.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C07E46D3
Copy CRC C07E46D3
Copy OK

No errors occured

End of status report

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DON'T MODIFY THIS FILE

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PERFORMER: auCDtect Task Manager, ver. 1.0.3 B1 build 1.0.3.0
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ANALYZER: auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved.

FILE: 01 - Wail & Ride.flac
Size: 26826871 Hash: D39F224FD5996884B19FA94B971DFCC6 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
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FILE: 02 - Jukebox.flac
Size: 16541266 Hash: E5E0C561C15E445A8153C1831C13D672 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
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FILE: 03 - New Orleans Waltz.flac
Size: 20149805 Hash: 1B85B5660F92C29F06B8C35DC4881371 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
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FILE: 04 - Daddy's Eyes.flac
Size: 16446420 Hash: 1032338EF2194426CAB5A82E6CA907DD Accuracy: -m0
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FILE: 05 - Give It To Me.flac
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Conclusion: CDDA 100%
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FILE: 06 - Poison.flac
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FILE: 07 - Mermaid.flac
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FILE: 08 - Broomy.flac
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Conclusion: CDDA 100%
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FILE: 09 - Junkman.flac
Size: 24262475 Hash: 2B4CA2C2C1834C27B5478C0633B708A8 Accuracy: -m0
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FILE: 10 - Ed Lee.flac
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FILE: 11 - Cry Me One Tear.flac
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Conclusion: CDDA 100%
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FILE: 12 - Waterhole Branch.flac
Size: 28421428 Hash: D982738403FAF5552DDC849C75026B74 Accuracy: -m0
Conclusion: CDDA 100%
Signature: A7D8E81342E110C52D2BB89317E6E3A27F5A5247