Comparisons are always dangerous and reductive, but when I tried to take some notes during Chuck Ragan’s in-store performance at Amoeba on Tuesday night, Bruce Springsteen was all over those notes. I am certain I am not the only one to make the parallel, when you hear his raucous, rough voice often ascending into these ooo-ooos, this tense vocal chords giving all they have in a song, yes you inevitably think about the boss. May be there was a bit of Eddie Vedder in this, but when he took his harmonica on certain songs, it was once again a Springsteen-state-of-mind.
Chuck Ragan came on stage visibly very happy to be there and performed some rootsy-country-ish songs just accompanied with his acoustic guitar and an old-fashioned upright bass played by Joe Ginsberg. He was there for the release of his new album ‘Till Midnight’, out the same day via SideOneDummy Records, and said at one point that the songs usually sound quite different, because played with his long-time backing band The Camaraderie, composed of far more people – I just remember him saying that a pedal steel player and Social Distortion’s drummer David Hidalgo Jr. were involved. ‘It takes a village to do these things’, he humbly said talking about his record. It was an acoustic show and his voice was front row the whole time, a very muscular voice with great country accents, the manly type that makes the veins of the neck suddenly all swollen, ready to blow up in a moment of real passion. Passion, earnestness and conviction, those are the right words to describe this type of singing, now ‘Till Midnight’ is his fifth album, so where was this guy all this time? I had never heard of him! But Ragan is actually the guitarist/vocalist of Florida punk band, Hot Water Music, which has been active since 1997, so I guess he is another punk rocker taking a more rootsy road… X’s John Doe suddenly comes to mind, which is not a bad thing at all.
Obviously, I was alone being so ignorant, since all the people around me knew Chuck and his career, judging by their pre-show conversations, and the girls front row who knew all the lyrics of the songs. Voice apart, he had an interesting stature, a great presence and assuredly a natural charisma which were giving strength and validity to his punchy songs. He did advertise his upcoming show at the Fonda (May 9th) with the White Buffalo, another strong stature in a similar brand of expressive tunes grounded in Americana.
Regarding this new album, Ragan declared in a press release: ‘There’s a lot of love songs on this one. I love to write love songs because it’s the most powerful emotion. It’s what grounds us to this Earth and makes us want to fight to make the world a better place.’… ‘I always just try to write from the heart and make the music as genuine as I possibly can. By doing that, I’m usually writing about whatever’s going on in my life. And when you’re living your life by wearing your heart on your sleeve, there’s not a lot to hide behind.’ It could sum up everything about this guy who, after a few songs, announced a tune written for his grandfather… It certainly could have been something that Springsteen had said, but I should stop there with that comparison. His voice struck me as a voice I may have heard before, but a honest one, sincere and direct, that goes right in your heart/soul without any artifice, something rarer and rarer these days. People asked him for songs and he ended up his set by a more country bluegrass one, sung with his gravelly voice and punctuated by the crowd’s applause, and by a quieter one, that he played alone, showcasing his guitar picking style. Honestly, he sounded like the kind of nice guy who warmly thanks each person to have picked up his album, and he looks like the kind of guy whom you would like to have around in the great outdoors.
When I got home I listened to a few tracks of Hot Water Music, a sort of melodic hardcore, and this new solo stuff is obviously quite a departure from that, but it has close to the same intensity. It is the work of someone who puts all his energy and honesty into his music while enjoying a double ride with heart.
For more pictures of the show, go here.
