GRAYSON CAPPS
''THE LOST CAUSE MINSTRELS''
JUNE 7 2011
44:14
1. Coconut Moonshine /4:17
2. Highway 42 /3:57
3. John The Dagger /3:25
4. Yes You Are /4:23
5. Jane's Alley Blues /4:08
6. Chief Seattle /4:17
7. Annie's Lover /2:41
8. Ol' Slac /4:29
9. Paris France /2:51
10. No Definitions /6:05
11. Rock N Roll /3:42
Grayson Capps/Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Resonator), Harmonica, National Steel Guitar, Slide Guitar, Vocals
Waylon Capps/Vocals (Background)
Sharon Corbitt/Vocals (Background)
Kenny Fradley/Trumpet
Keith Gattis/Banjo
Christian Grizzard/Bass
Beth Hooker/Vocals (Background)
James House/Vocals (Background)
Corky Hughes/Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Lap Steel Guitar
Josh Kerin/Bass
Nissi Lee/Vocals (Background)
Hank Locklin/Vocals (Background)
Tommy MacLuckie/Guitar (Electric)
Jerry Marotta/Drums, Percussion
The McRary Sisters/Vocals (Background)
John Milham/Drums, Percussion, Piano
Blake Mitchell/Vocals (Background)
Denny Mitchell/Vocals (Background)
Trina Shoemaker/Percussion, Vocals (Background)
Chris Spies/Clavinet, Hammond B3, Keyboards, Piano, Wurlitzer Piano
Christopher Spies/Sax (Baritone)
Harry Stinson/Vocals (Background)
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Songwriter Grayson Capps is known to roots rock fans for his often incendiary, guitar-driven visions of ragged, Southern Gothic madness and desire. At their best, his songs reveal burning, age-old truths that lie buried under time-worn myths and misconceptions. Capps' The Lost Cause Minstrels is his fifth studio album and is the name of his new band of Gulf Coast musicians. He began recording the set while living in Nashville -- he relocated there after a long stint in New Orleans that was brought to an end after Hurricane Katrina. Midway through, however, he decided to come home to his native Alabama. The music here reflects history, mystery, change, and a musical diversity whose roots lie in his home state, although given real breadth and depth in NOLA. Trina Shoemaker, his producer and partner, co-helmed the album, while Capps and band assemble the tightest, most focused set of songs in his career. There's the unlikely pairing of a bluegrass chorus, shuffling rock & roll, and country blues in the opener, "Highway 42." Capps is in fine voice, giving his protagonist room to reason, love, and come up fighting for the things he believes in. The mystical Mississippi informs the popping tom-tom barroom jumper "Coconut Moonshine." "John the Dagger" and "No Definitions" are pure, raw, dirty-assed blues-rock, with a razored yet elegant poetry for lyrics. "Yes You Are" is a love song that confesses with balance -- not bravado -- his protagonist's devotion as well as his faults. The stellar reading of Taj Mahal's "Annie's Lover" weaves together traditional country, Delta blues, and regional folk musics into a seamless -- and swinging -- aural tapestry. Richard "Rabbit" Brown's "Jane's Alley Blues" is the other cover here, redone as a shimmering blues with a killer rumba rhythm. "Ol' Slac" is a stomping old-school jazz and second-line R&B tune about the revival of the Mobile Mardi Gras after the Civil War. "Chief Seattle" reflects on the state of the world with a Buddhist's sense of equanimity, while "Rock 'n' Roll" is a moody electric folk song about the tragedies and ironies in living -- and surviving -- day to day, and learning from one's mistakes. The Lost Cause Minstrels takes all of Capps' strengths, hones them to a razored point, and trains them on the listener in a wily collection of songs that reflect the pathos, passion, and earned wisdom of an itinerant music man.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Leggett
A literate and impassioned songwriter whose song characters are often caught barely hanging on at the edges of American life, Grayson Capps is a bit like a New Orleans version of Tom Waits, albeit more of a roots rocker in actual musical execution. Capps was born April 17, 1967, in Opelika, Alabama, the son of a Baptist preacher and an Auburn University student. After his birth, both of his parents ended up being teachers in Brewton, Alabama. They moved to Fairhope, Alabama when Capps was in the seventh grade, and it was there that he developed a lifelong fascination with theater, eventually earning a partial scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans to study acting, graduating with a B.F.A. in 1989. But acting wasn't the only thing Capps studied at Tulane. He also learned to play guitar and joined a band called the House Levellers, who specialized in what the band called "thrash folk." The group signed with Tipitina's Records in 1990 when Capps was barely 21 years old, and following a whirlwind and musically quite successful year, Capps left the band, choosing to remain and make his home in New Orleans.
He started a new band with John Lawrence called Stavin' Chain and they signed with Thomas Ruf's Germany-based Ruf Records in 1998, releasing a single album, simply called Stavin' Chain, in 1999, before disbanding. Capps met Shainee Gabel, a young director who was filming a documentary called Anthem, and she ended up using several of his songs in the finished film. Capps had told Gabel about an unpublished novel his father, Everett Capps, had written, and once Gabel read it she knew she had to film it. She wrote a screenplay and the end result was the 2004 film A Love Song for Bobby Long, which featured Capps in a bit part and also used four of his songs as part of the soundtrack. The regionally released Grayson Capps album appeared in 2005 on Hyena Records followed by a solo debut proper, If You Knew My Mind, later that same year.
During this time Capps continued to make his home in New Orleans, but the Katrina disaster at summer's close in 2005 forced him to leave the city for Nashville. A second solo project, Wail & Ride, also on Hyena, came out in 2006. Ruf Records re-released Stavin' Chain in 2007, and another Hyena release, Rott 'n' Roll, appeared in 2008. After a couple of years in Nashville, Capps formed a new band called the Lost Cause Minstrels, made up of a crack group of Gulf Coast musicians, and began recording an album of the same name. Midway through, he decided to return to his home state of Alabama, where he, the band, and co-producer and partner Trina Shoemaker finished it. The Lost Cause Minstrels was released on Royal Potato Family Records in June of 2011.
DoWnLoAd
''THE LOST CAUSE MINSTRELS''
JUNE 7 2011
44:14
1. Coconut Moonshine /4:17
2. Highway 42 /3:57
3. John The Dagger /3:25
4. Yes You Are /4:23
5. Jane's Alley Blues /4:08
6. Chief Seattle /4:17
7. Annie's Lover /2:41
8. Ol' Slac /4:29
9. Paris France /2:51
10. No Definitions /6:05
11. Rock N Roll /3:42
Grayson Capps/Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar (Resonator), Harmonica, National Steel Guitar, Slide Guitar, Vocals
Waylon Capps/Vocals (Background)
Sharon Corbitt/Vocals (Background)
Kenny Fradley/Trumpet
Keith Gattis/Banjo
Christian Grizzard/Bass
Beth Hooker/Vocals (Background)
James House/Vocals (Background)
Corky Hughes/Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Lap Steel Guitar
Josh Kerin/Bass
Nissi Lee/Vocals (Background)
Hank Locklin/Vocals (Background)
Tommy MacLuckie/Guitar (Electric)
Jerry Marotta/Drums, Percussion
The McRary Sisters/Vocals (Background)
John Milham/Drums, Percussion, Piano
Blake Mitchell/Vocals (Background)
Denny Mitchell/Vocals (Background)
Trina Shoemaker/Percussion, Vocals (Background)
Chris Spies/Clavinet, Hammond B3, Keyboards, Piano, Wurlitzer Piano
Christopher Spies/Sax (Baritone)
Harry Stinson/Vocals (Background)
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Songwriter Grayson Capps is known to roots rock fans for his often incendiary, guitar-driven visions of ragged, Southern Gothic madness and desire. At their best, his songs reveal burning, age-old truths that lie buried under time-worn myths and misconceptions. Capps' The Lost Cause Minstrels is his fifth studio album and is the name of his new band of Gulf Coast musicians. He began recording the set while living in Nashville -- he relocated there after a long stint in New Orleans that was brought to an end after Hurricane Katrina. Midway through, however, he decided to come home to his native Alabama. The music here reflects history, mystery, change, and a musical diversity whose roots lie in his home state, although given real breadth and depth in NOLA. Trina Shoemaker, his producer and partner, co-helmed the album, while Capps and band assemble the tightest, most focused set of songs in his career. There's the unlikely pairing of a bluegrass chorus, shuffling rock & roll, and country blues in the opener, "Highway 42." Capps is in fine voice, giving his protagonist room to reason, love, and come up fighting for the things he believes in. The mystical Mississippi informs the popping tom-tom barroom jumper "Coconut Moonshine." "John the Dagger" and "No Definitions" are pure, raw, dirty-assed blues-rock, with a razored yet elegant poetry for lyrics. "Yes You Are" is a love song that confesses with balance -- not bravado -- his protagonist's devotion as well as his faults. The stellar reading of Taj Mahal's "Annie's Lover" weaves together traditional country, Delta blues, and regional folk musics into a seamless -- and swinging -- aural tapestry. Richard "Rabbit" Brown's "Jane's Alley Blues" is the other cover here, redone as a shimmering blues with a killer rumba rhythm. "Ol' Slac" is a stomping old-school jazz and second-line R&B tune about the revival of the Mobile Mardi Gras after the Civil War. "Chief Seattle" reflects on the state of the world with a Buddhist's sense of equanimity, while "Rock 'n' Roll" is a moody electric folk song about the tragedies and ironies in living -- and surviving -- day to day, and learning from one's mistakes. The Lost Cause Minstrels takes all of Capps' strengths, hones them to a razored point, and trains them on the listener in a wily collection of songs that reflect the pathos, passion, and earned wisdom of an itinerant music man.
BIOGRAPHY
by Steve Leggett
A literate and impassioned songwriter whose song characters are often caught barely hanging on at the edges of American life, Grayson Capps is a bit like a New Orleans version of Tom Waits, albeit more of a roots rocker in actual musical execution. Capps was born April 17, 1967, in Opelika, Alabama, the son of a Baptist preacher and an Auburn University student. After his birth, both of his parents ended up being teachers in Brewton, Alabama. They moved to Fairhope, Alabama when Capps was in the seventh grade, and it was there that he developed a lifelong fascination with theater, eventually earning a partial scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans to study acting, graduating with a B.F.A. in 1989. But acting wasn't the only thing Capps studied at Tulane. He also learned to play guitar and joined a band called the House Levellers, who specialized in what the band called "thrash folk." The group signed with Tipitina's Records in 1990 when Capps was barely 21 years old, and following a whirlwind and musically quite successful year, Capps left the band, choosing to remain and make his home in New Orleans.
He started a new band with John Lawrence called Stavin' Chain and they signed with Thomas Ruf's Germany-based Ruf Records in 1998, releasing a single album, simply called Stavin' Chain, in 1999, before disbanding. Capps met Shainee Gabel, a young director who was filming a documentary called Anthem, and she ended up using several of his songs in the finished film. Capps had told Gabel about an unpublished novel his father, Everett Capps, had written, and once Gabel read it she knew she had to film it. She wrote a screenplay and the end result was the 2004 film A Love Song for Bobby Long, which featured Capps in a bit part and also used four of his songs as part of the soundtrack. The regionally released Grayson Capps album appeared in 2005 on Hyena Records followed by a solo debut proper, If You Knew My Mind, later that same year.
During this time Capps continued to make his home in New Orleans, but the Katrina disaster at summer's close in 2005 forced him to leave the city for Nashville. A second solo project, Wail & Ride, also on Hyena, came out in 2006. Ruf Records re-released Stavin' Chain in 2007, and another Hyena release, Rott 'n' Roll, appeared in 2008. After a couple of years in Nashville, Capps formed a new band called the Lost Cause Minstrels, made up of a crack group of Gulf Coast musicians, and began recording an album of the same name. Midway through, he decided to return to his home state of Alabama, where he, the band, and co-producer and partner Trina Shoemaker finished it. The Lost Cause Minstrels was released on Royal Potato Family Records in June of 2011.
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