Tracey keeps country real

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK) - May 9, 2008

Author: David A. James

Despite Nashville's best efforts at eviscerating country music of its heart and soul, real country can still be found.

You won't hear them on commercial radio, but for years now Honky-tonkers and twang-bangers across the country have been digging into the music's roots and turning out authentic, hard-country albums full of attitude, rebellious humor, and down-home licks that are being gobbled up by a small but loyal audience that knows good country from bad.

Sean Tracey, a Juneau-based guitarist and harmonica player, has joined the ranks of country singers you should be listening to with his first solo release, "Trouble." Tracey, a longtime member of Southeast Alaska's Panhandle Crabgrass Revival Band, has gathered up a bunch of his pals and delivered a baker's dozen worth of foot-stomping, hell-raising, pure country tunes about all the important things ("Smokin' Drinkin' Cheatin' Dyin'," as the title of one track aptly puts it) that will restore your faith in the idea of country music as the sound of white folks laughing as their lives go down the tubes.
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Tracey is playing a rootsy style of country here. Most of the instrumentation is acoustic, but the arrangements aren't really bluegrass. And while there's enough pedal steel and electric guitar here to keep you tipping your schooner, there's never a slick moment. This is akin to the sound that Hank Williams III has been exploring; 1950s-style stripped-down country infused with a punk rocker's attitude. Tracey writes very funny lyrics, particularly on "Trouble, Too," and the standout track, "Everything Was Cool" ("everything was cool until I bought her a gun").

The band plays well throughout. A couple of instrumentals (including a harmonica solo from Tracey) are just long enough to impress listeners, but they're over before the danger of self-indulgence sets in. It's short but not sweet and there isn't a hint of studio polish. This is the way country was made before Nashville wrecked it, and you owe it to yourself to give it a listen.

Sean Tracey will be playing at the Boatel, backed by several friends, including members of the Foghorn String Band. It's appropriate. This music should never be heard in a smoke-free yuppie bar.

David A. James lives in Fairbanks.

    Hay Folks, thanks for checkin'.  After almost a year of the Dog and Pony show, I just got 1000 Sean Tracey CD's deposited on my porch by a disgruntled UPS guy.  No wonder they wear brown, it's the same color as poop.  I heard the UPS guy dropping a box on my porch yesterday mornin'.  Knowing that there were probably 10 more 30 pound boxes coming up my flight of 40 steps, I ventured out into the sub-zero to give ol' Brown a hand.  When I got down to the bottom of the steps, he was lugging a hand truck backward up the steps muttering an impressive string of obscenities under said breath.  I heard the "F" word, a couple of "C" words, and the classic "M" word among others.  (M'er F'er).  Just before I tapped him on the shoulder, he let out with "I'm too fuckin' old for this SHIT!"  Pretty funny if you ask me.
It was a funny end to a long project that I'm excited to get some feedback on.  Over the next few days, you will start to see links on MySpace and my website on how you can purchase one of these fine circular pieces of plastic either digitally or as a snail mail hard copy.  Don't worry, I have PLENTY of them.  If you can't wait that long, send me a message here and I will get you set up.  Thanks to everybody who threw a shoulder into pushing this project along, keep your ears open for a release concert in about three weeks.  Media blitz coming soon.  Thanks again for checkin in friends, lookin forward to seein y'all around.  Ciao
Sean T

Wowdy, friends. It's been a long weekend (it's Tuesday now...get it?) down here at the Portland Old Time Gathering, which has been over for 24 hours, lasted 5 days, and nearly killed me and I'm not out of the woods yet. I'm not even hung like the dog that bit me today, merely weathering some kind of a crud that was going around. Princess M will chalk that up to the fact that I introduced water into my system on Sunday like a fool. Here's thanking the Linds for letting me convalesce at there spacious pad. So many great tunes went down over the long weekend (Wed thru Sun.) that picking highlights is difficult at best, but two for me were playing LOTS and lots with Mr. Tim Foss from 'Sconsin. He is a kick-ass fiddle player and stand-up guy. Find him here on Myspace. Another big session for me was on stage at the NOrse Hall with your Foghorn Stringband. Playing huge dances is soo fun, and getting to sling it with my favorite Old-Time band was a real treat. Thanks again, guys. I even got my own mike, dudes. Serious. Tomorrow sends me off to Tracy, California (they need to learn how to spell my name obviously) where piles of Alaskans will converge for the weekend and Rhona's ranch for VB's birthday party. Alaskans and ex-pats alike will horse around the campfire pickin for a few days which will be awesome at the very least. Stay tuned, my CD "Trouble" hits the stands in about 2 weeks. I'll keep you posted about the upcoming concert and release party. Stay in touch....B cool....ciao
Sean T

Oh Howdy,   Now that I'm thoroughly sick of listening to the same 13 songs over and over,  "TROUBLE" my first solo CD is finally down getting pressed in New Jersey.  In about two weeks, I'm gonna have a thousand Christmas ornaments in boxes in my porch.  If you're on Myspace right now, check a couple of the tunes out on the home page.  If you're on Crabgrassmusic, then get on over there and check em out.  The Crabgrassmusic website will get a revamp in about two weeks and will have information about where to get CD's, but you'll still be able to check archives for the old Crabgrass stuff. 

 

Old broke dick me gets to go down to Portland later today for the Portland Old Time Gathering.  An unruly mob of Alaskans are converging down there too.  Jack Fontanella, Tom Paul, Sergei (vigo) mortensen, Erik Chadwell, Nicole Lantz,  Scotty Meyers, Forrest Gibson and I'm sure Im forgettin somebody.  Andy Freakin Ferguson might even be there too!  Should be awesome.  I'll have fiddle tunes in my head for a week.  Kinda like string tinnitus.  Check out www.bubbaguitar.com for schedule info.  Festival starts tonight (1-15-08) at the Alberta Street Pub and ends Sunday night at the Moon & Sixpence.  You'll have to consult bubbaguitar for all the in between.     

 

Keep in touch, lots of good live music on the horizon and this is where you'll find out about it.  Keep in touch, and don't do anything I wouldn't do, which shouldn't be hard.  What'd that mean? 

 

Ciao

Sean T

Sean Tracey here, thanks for checkin' in.  Feeling good this fine Sunday morning after a killer weekend at the Rendezvous (formerly known as the "Rondavomit" as per C. Scott Fry.) playin the blues with Sammy Burrous.  If you came out hollerin and dancing well thanks a lot.  Playing acoustic style as a duo with Sammy might be more fun than with the whole Vaporizer band, but that's a tough call.  Sammy and I are playing again at the Rendezvous as an opener for Wisconsin Slim on New Year's eve '07-'08 (that's tomorrow for you regulars).  See you there?  Has anybody noticed we're in a band slump in Juneau this winter?  It happens around here.  Comes and goes. Musicians are a fickle lot it appears, or maybe they're all just stoned.  A lot of musicians tend to leave town during the fall also, some will be back soon for the winter.  Maybe somethin will spark off.  Mastered music for my album is on the way back from Louisiana as we speak and then it's a matter of a little artwork implementation and we're done!  More news on that as it comes.  All set to hit the Portland Old-Time Gathering in a couple weeks…that's January 16-20.  5 days of all the fiddle music you can handle, that's why Dog made beer.  It's a great crew down there in P-Town, they always roll out the red carpet.  Also this coming Saturday, January 5^th,  my lovely bride Maridon Boario and I will  perform for the Gold Street Concert Series.  I'm not sure of the order, but I know Buddy Tabor and Riley Woodford are playin it too that night.  Gold Streets in the past have started up around 730pm and are held at Resurrection Lutheran Church on 10^th.  This is temporary until they rebuild the Church of the Holy Trinity which burned down about a year and a half ago.  Oh what a room that was.  I hope they rebuild with class.  Thanks for checkin in once again…'ve always got somethin on the fire around here, and I'll be keeping you posted.  Ciaoder

~silvertongue

 

Howdy Folks & thanks for checkin' in.  You may have noticed a lull in the gig schedule and I'm here to tell you why.  I've been spendin' my spare time in the dungeon at Skatebottom Studios finishing up my first solo record, and it is damn close to bein' done, finally.  I'm gonna lay down my song assignment from Caleb Klauder ("Thinkin' bout Drinkin') later today with Maridon and Junior Kane to make a total of 14 tracks.  All the other ones are laid down and mixed, ready to send off to the masterer.  Should be sending the final mixes off to Dirk Powell in Louisiana by Wednesday!  STOKED!  Young Mitch Watley from here in Juneau is about done with the cover art that I hope you'll like when you see it, and I'll list the killer line up of super pickers that I am lucky enough to have on the album.

 

Bob Banghart: Fiddle

Maridon Boario: All Bass, Vocals

Andrew Heist: Mandolin

Kris Eli Jones: Electric Guitar

Jeremy Kane: Banjo

Caleb Klauder: Mandolin, Guitar

John Knight: Pedal Steel

Sammy Lind: Fiddle, Guitar

Dale MacFarland:  Snare

Albert McDonnell: Bass, Snare

Ari Rome: Dobro

Sean Tracey: Vocals, harmonica, guitar

 

Beer Chorus:

Maridon, Sammy, Caleb, Marin, Albert, Hazel, Collette Costa

 

Better times a comin', friends.  You'll be hearing about it when I get my big ol' box of Christmas ornaments from Dismakers, I guarantee it!  We're gonna party and dance all night, which can make for a long bender during winter up here in Alaska.  Thanks for stopping by, catch you on the rebound, clowns

ST

 

 

Ohhhh what a November, and it's not over yet.  It all started way back on the 5th of November when I flew up to Anchorage to meet Visa Quest elders and surrogate uncles Mr. Eric Graves and Bob-O Bell.  (No mister for Bob-O).  Juneau's first (and hopefully not last) big dump of the winter delayed my flight by 5 hours and therefore our planned drive to Homer until the next day.  This allowed for some pickin' at Danny C.'s house with the likes of us 3, Danny, Meg and Kim.  The beery penthouse suite at the Captain Cook (gratis thanks to an anonymous donor) coddled our weary bones that night, and we power charged it on down to Homer where we had "breakfast" at Uncle Knut Micheal Tonga's house every morning for the next three days.  Breakfast included; Breakfast, Beer, Herbal Meds, and plenty of tunes.  Unparalelled hospitality from Stever and Karen at HBC (Homer Brewing Company) left us feeling pretty damn spoiled, and happy to be mere steps from the birth spring of my favorite beer.  Needless to say, we were elbow deep in it by the time the bus arrived, and they showed no mercy on us.  Picking til 4 am became the norm for the next 3 nights, on one of which I sprained a party muscle and spent a lot of the next day asleep on the bus.  Missing my red-eye to Portland was my next trick, which almost screwed me out leg two of this epic journey.  Sometimes, a good old-fashioned fuck up can produce good results, and my new flight ended up routing me through Juneau where I was able to kiss the wife, exchange stinky duds for freshies, and have a home-made lunch before continuing on down to Portland.  I'd been looking forward to these trips for so long that I can't beleive I am now merely reminiscing about them.  The Portland section of the trip kicked of big and just got bigger the whole time I was there.  One Sammy Lind picked me up at the airport where we were whisked swiftly away to the residence of the MAN, Caleb Klauder, whose CD release party you may remember here in Juneau last Summer.  I've been spinnin this record for months, and was treated to the whole studio band ripping CAN I GO HOME WITH YOU? live in the livingroom.  Out came the harps and we're off to the races.  The very next day was spent with recently arrived guests of the Foghorn Stringband; Dirk Powell, Riley Baugus, and Tim Ericson who were there to play a show with the boys that very night at Mississippi Studios in North Portland.  This was a killer venue with a sound man that we all dubbed "The Weiner", becuase he was one.  Thanks to the crew for guest listing us.  The show was spectacular and we all headed to the Moon & Sixpence afterward for some drinkin' and pickin'. I'll just say right now that that session, and the follow-up jam on Sunday were definite highlights of my music playin' life.  I'll tell ya that sitting between Betse Ellis, Dirk and Riley, and Foghorn, this harmonica player was fighting wood the whole time.  Johnny "Box" Connoly pulled out the accordion for a few and we were flyin'.  And then there was Friday Night, just when I though it couldn't get better.  The mission theater in Downtown Portland is an old movie house, equipped with table seating, a restaurant and bar.  They used to have live music there way back when but shut er down for a while.  They're back up and running, and Friday night's marquis read
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY &
CALEB KLAUDER
What a place!  This cool old building was enough to induce stagefright in this blogger but it went away about two bars into my first song.  Caleb, fueled by a kickass love machine in the form of a huge underground country music scene in the Northwest and beyond, rose up and put in almost 3 hours non-stop with a whole slew of local guest musicians and the solid-ass band that recorded his album.  I got to spend a good hour up there betwixt Sammy and Betse, (see new photos) and was just in heaven and stoked for Caleb.  Give him a visit and if you don't already have it, get that record (Dangerous Me s & Poisonous You s)  With a day off on Saturday, Sammy and Malin hosted a big ol cookout and pickin' party, which of course culminated with me being the last one standing 'cause I just don't want to miss anything.  Sunday was rough, but we toughed 'er on through with a lot of help from young Miss Kitty who took it upon herself to feed our lame-asses, breakfast and dinner, which made the aforementioned Sunday Jam at the Moon pretty much unforgettable.  Once again, I looked up from my harps and noticed that there were only a handful of us left in the pub and that I should probly go home which I did.  I slept my ass of Monday and flew (that's right, First Class) back home on Tuesday, happier than a fat cat at the seafood store, although fairly wrecked.  Not gettin' any younger I guess.  Thanks for checkin' in, I've got lots of gigs and projects lined up for the winter so stay tuned.  Ciaoder, ST

Howdoo friends, just had a great weekend of live country music at the Alaskan.  Thanks for comin' down if you did.  Kris and Lindy Jones came down so we enlisted Bob Banghart to play fiddle and named the band Honky-Tonk Habit after the Wilders hit song by Nate Gowran.  Lindy had to go home to Haines on Sunday mornin', but I got to keep Bob and Kris around long enough to team up with Maridon & I in the studion Monday night and layed down some of the last tracks on my CD project.  You can bank on a release date in January for this project because I am indeed working under a deadline, meaning if I don't finish by New Years, a couple of people might want to kill me.  Don't worry, though, it's cool.  Dare I say..."Git 'er done."  Can't beleive I just did say that.  Sorry.  Thanks to the wife and the Rasmuson Foundation for allowing me to have so much fun gittin' my songs recorded with my favorite musicians on board.  Be cool, keep in touch, Sean T.

Whelp, here we are settling in for what promises to be a long harsh winter. Fucking nature did not cooperate with our efforts at capturing the wily salmon, but we're home alive and well and itching to play some tunes.  Young Rainbow Heist, mandolin picker for Juneau's Bluegrass 101 will be travelling the sunny latitudes of Latin America for a couple months, opening up an harmonica hole for the likes of your Silvertongue.  Working under the gun once again, I'm scrambling to finish my Rasmuson project, which is getting close to complete and dare I say sounds pretty good.  Look for a CD release a little after New Year's here in Juneau.  The world-renown travelling music extravaganza known as Visa Quest will take place this November in Homer, Alaska.  After attending that, I will be heading on down to Portland for Caleb Klauder's release of his new album, Dangerous Mes and Poisonous Yous.  It's a great record and I beleive Betse Ellis of Wilders fiddle notoriety will be in  attendance as well.  Should make for some hot tunas.  Support live music and keep in touch, yours.....S.T.