The Richard Buckner 90s trilogy

Yea, listening to the first of the trilogy right now, Bloomed, which was probably my most listened to CD over the last year or so. I kind of rediscovered it after picking up his latest Meadow early last year, then digging out the debut from 1995 on DejaDisc (or Glitterhouse in Europe) and being amazed all over again how great it is, music, performance, musicians, recording, mastering, one of my favorites of the 90s (but for sound quality I'm talking about the great sounding original, not the later loud and compressed Ryko remaster with the bonus tracks).

The next one Devotion + Doubt was the first of his short two record trip to the major labels, but still sounds great too, nice recording down at Wavelab with lots of dynamics, mastered quiet so you have to turn it way up, but then you get to hear all of the little details that give the music texture and color, and another set of top notch players with backup by the Calexico / Giant Sand guys. This is a chronicle of romantic disintegration, the divorce record, painful but hard to resist for the thought provoking words and compelling music. And always that voice.

And then to complete the trilogy, Since. More of a rocker, a little louder mastering so not quite up there with the first two for great sound quality, but he might've even made a bit of money off it later from the VW commercial a few years ago during the Olympics that used the sad lullaby "Ariel Ramirez". Caused quite a few music lovin' people to jump on the internet to search for who it was. They changed it a bit for the ad, edited it to make it less about the pain, and the loss, and the escape in drugs, but it's still a beautiful song in any form, even while reverberating around in my head. On a sidenote, the title highlights one of my favorite modern classical composers as well, especially the original Philips LP of Misa Criolla from the early 60s conducted by Ramirez (though I do really enjoy the CD recorded in 1987 with José Carreras as tenor soloist).

I think there are some other big fans around here of these three. What about the ones in-between these and the latest? Best? Any to avoid?

hey there thunderhead, I heard you've seen a little rain
did you let your angel burn out like a pipe load under a flame?
I know we've all had our visions, but we've been moonless too
I guess I shoulda known by now, we'd just slip away somehow

 

Your post reminded me that I need to have more Richard Buckner albums. I only have three or four right now, but they always amaze.

"Born Into Giving It Up" always floors me.

I'm still kicking myself for missing him play in town a few years ago. He played a tiny bar and I found out about it a day late.

 

I was listening to Devotion & Doubt earlier today, as it happens. Lloyd Maines adds a lot to it with his pedal steel. I bought the CD back when it was new from a great Manchester based CD store that has long since closed.

I also dug out the other two when sorting through old CDs a week or two ago. They're in the pending pile (with around another 90 titles) and will be given a spin soon.

 

these three albums are amazing; dents and shells and impasse were really good as well. somehow I never even knew he had another one out so I'll have to pick it up. my favorite is probably devotion and doubt

 

I really like "The Hill". Actually I might think its his best, which is saying a lot.
Cool guy as well. Had a few drinks with him at the Horseshoe Tavern 10 years ago or so. Very grateful man.

 

I think the album Dents and Shells is impressive. I esp. like the track A Chance Counsel. It's almost his doomy relationship inspired "I am the Walrus"--at least in imho. Beautiful moody slide guitar on that track. What a world weary an moving voice on that track. I found a live version on youtube, but it really sucked. The album version is much better.

 

Looks like I will have to get the original of Bloomed in that case. However, I think the remaster is essential for the song 'Emma', which I count as among Buckner's finest.

Other than Devotion and Doubt, the only other one I own is the self-titled album, originally self-issued in 2000 according to AMG, but given a wider release in 2003. It's just Buckner and his guitar; all the tracks were later recorded for Devotion and Doubt and Since. It's a nice item for fans, but far from essential. No version here eclipses the later versions.

I would love to have a good live version of 'Lil Wallet Picture'. While I like the take on D&D, I have seen Buckner do an absolutely jaw-dropping version solo on a couple of occasions.

The man himself seems to have gone under the radar now. When alt-country was at its height he seemed to be everywhere, but I haven't heard much about his latest albums at all.

Tom

 

Picked up The Hill recently and wow, another great one. Haven't yet fully absorbed all the goodness, and lived the times like with those first three, but can see it becoming a big favorite too. Still, I think Devotion + Doubt will always be the one, still ranks as maybe my favorite by anyone for at least the last 15 years. Just about perfect, such a nice recording and mastering job too. And no surprise, but that one is in my headlight again today, the song "Figure" has always knocked me out, and always will.... Well, you can take your friend along, and say you'll be back later tonight, oh, but if I had your lil two-time figure, close just one last time...

Haven't heard any news since Meadow. Anyone know what he's up to? Seen him recently? New stuff on the way?

 

Well, to answer my own question from 2 years ago, yes there is some news. After many hardships and lots of bad luck, turns out there is a new one called "Our Blood" on the way come August 2 .... it's a tough life as a musician!

http://www.mergerecords.com/store/store_detail.php?catalog_id=800
Since 2006’s Meadow, fans of Richard Buckner have been clamoring for new material and wondering what was keeping their hero from releasing the new songs he would perform on the road. Well, it’s a long story!

First, there was the score to a film that never happened. Then there was a brief brush with the law over a headless corpse in a burned-out car that had all eyes in Buckner’s small hometown in upstate New York turned toward him and his long-suffering truck. Shortly after a move to a safer, less popular corpse dumping ground, the death of his tape machine led to yet another reboot. After Richard called in pedal steel and percussion players and put new mixes on his laptop, his new “safer” place was burglarized. Goodbye, laptop.

Buckner says: “Eventually, the recording machine was resuscitated and some of the material was recovered. Cracks were patched. Parts were redundantly re-invented. Commas were moved. Insinuations were re-insinuated until the last percussive breaths of those final OCD utterances were expelled like the final heaves of bile, wept-out long after the climactic drama had faded to a somber, blurry moment of truth and voilà!, the record was done, or, let us be clear, abandoned like the charred shell of a car with a nice stereo.”

 

I have Since and Meadow and prefer the former. I also really liked the album he did with Jon Langford (of the Mekons), Sir Dark Invader vs The Fanglord.

 

Like Damien Jurado, this guy has been completely under my radar. I just read a 3 and a half (out of 5) star review of his new album, OUR BLOOD. Went to Amazon and sampled it along with a couple of his older CDs. On one of the older ones his vocals almost sound a little Dwight Yoakam-ish. That's a good thing to me.

Anyway, I think I might like him.

What release would be a good place to start? The new one?

I'm not afraid of stripped down and bleak. In fact, I prefer it.

 

Devotion + Doubt. Really, for me, one of the best records ever. In this case, you can believe all the 5-star reviews at amazon.

If you pick up the one before it, the excellent Bloomed, look for the Glitterhouse or Deja Disc, not the later Ryko remaster with bonus tracks. Much better sound.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=6780213#post6780213

 

I only have Devotion+Doubt and Meadows. D+D is a great singer songwriter album but very dark and melancholy, which may be why he is not more popular. I thought Meadows was a notch or two down but hope to explore his catalogue more

 

New album now streaming on NPR

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/24/138586259/first-listen-richard-buckner-our-blood

 

New deluxe 2-CD or LP + bonus CD version of Bloomed out next week from Merge. I imagine the original Glitterhouse/Deja Disc will still be the goto version on CD, but be nice to finally get it on vinyl too. The later Ryko CD remaster with bonus tracks from earlier sessions was very loud and compressed, and I can't tell for sure from the soundcloud postings, but this new one sounds pretty loud too. Now if we could get a good vinyl release for Devotion + Doubt ... that would be something, but Bloomed does sound great on the original CD (I have both the Deja Disc and Ryko, and can heartily recommend the former).

http://exclaim.ca/News/richard_buckners_bloomed_gets_expanded_reissue

 

Thanks for the information; I always wanted this on LP (as well as all of the rest....)

 

When The Hill came out, I hated its guts. I thought it very pretentious & disappointing following the terrific Bloomed.

Now I think The Hill is brilliant & his best moment.

 

The Hill is about 6 years down the road from Bloomed, and comes after the other parts of my "trilogy", but I like it a lot too, except for his decision to not have track indexes. As mentioned up above, I didn't pick it up until a few years ago, but definitely a favorite now.

 

Thanks for the heads up, just ordered the vinyl. Love bloomed D &D, and self titled. I have listened to most of the others but found them melodically lacking compared to what had gone before.

 

LP arrived just a little while ago, with bonus CD in plain white sleeve and download card. I am just about to go and give the vinyl a spin. Note that the sound quality on the final 3 tracks on the bonus CD are what I would call Good-VG audience recordings. I have quite a stack of Buckner live recordings, mostly soundboards. Seems an odd decision to be releasing selections from audience tapes.

 

I ended up ripping my own copy with indexes so I could shuffle my favorites into playlists.

For me, Since is my favorite. Maybe not a popular choice, but never got into the rest like I did that one.

 

I kind of slept on this Bloomed vinyl, but I see it is still available at Merge so may have to pull the trigger. Did any of you have opinions on the vinyl issue sound? Like I said above, the original Deja Disc/Glitterhouse CD sounds great so I'm not really missing anything, but still ... would love to get a vinyl copy of Devotion + Doubt too, wouldn't waffle on that one even though the CD does sound great. A nicer mastering of Since would be an automatic purchase too, regardless of format.

 

Another vote for the greatness of The Hill. Brilliant.

 

I think Bloomed sounds fantastic.

Our Blood is really nice on vinyl as well. I continue to hope the fantastic Since is reissued on vinyl as well. That album is one of probably my top 10 favorites from the '90s.

Richard Buckner is criminally underrated!

I don't think I can post links here, but on my dropbox account has a really cool solo show of his I recorded at a small bar in tampa in 2008. He brought about 6 different guitars, and 3 or 4 cool weird cheap vintage amps and set it all up in a circle. He started playing and used looper pedals to keep the sound going and all the songs transitioned into each other, and he was basically in a trance, completely ignoring the small crowd. It was really, really cool. However, this guy who for a period went to a lot of shows locally (haven't seen him in a few years) decided to tell Richard something (?!) in the middle of the performance. To get to the restroom, you had to walk right by the small stage (rug), so the guy just invaded Richard's space, and Richard said "Good night" and quit playing!!

It was still a great show, but I hope to get to see him again someday

PM if you want a link...

A funny story re: Lloyd Maines... There was about a two week period where I was listening to a bunch of cool 90's era alt country cds, I had either recently bought, or had in the stacks and brought out. I kept hearing cool pedal steel (I play the steel and am always listening for stuff to learn) and thinking, "Man, this pedal steel player is great." I would look up the credits, and Lloyd Maines was always the name! It happened at least 8 times in a 14 day period!

 

Great artist.

Glad he made it out the other side of the major label abyss and is still producing great music.