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Tim Locke, the guy with the Lennon-McCartney -esque songwriting ingenuity, is currently riding high with Calhoun and he makes the most of every note on his bands recent, outrageously good eponymous full length - fwweekly
Tim locke -2006 songwriter of the year-Fort worth weekly music awards - fort worth weekly
(the calhoun self-titled record) is a must have if you love gorgeous sorta poppy, sorta rootsy, sorta rockin', really splendid music-written and performed by some of the best musicians in the country--Cindy Chaffin-fineline
- fineline
The sad pop sensibility that acknowledges the fact that suffering is necessary to fuel art and it make the suffering endurable even enjoyable. The band has that offhand way with pop structures like Wheat or Creeper Lagoon. Records like this that arrive unheralded make the job worthwhile.-Americana UK
- americana uk
Fort Worth's answer to Elliot Smith and Jeff Buckley is just too damn good to remain a secret-Stash Dauber-K. Shimamoto - stash dauber
Label: (self-released)
Released: 2006
(4 out of 5)
I've heard about Calhoun for the last couple years, and I've even searched Austin record stores for the Fort Worth band's 2004 debut, The Year that Never Was. But despite my best efforts, I'd never caught more than a few snippets of the Calhoun sound until getting the self-titled second album this summer. It was worth the wait. Calhoun is a brilliant indie rock album full of catchy melodies and irresistible hooks.
While there are many talents, Calhoun is really a showcase for the multi-talented Locke. He provides lead vocals, lead guitar, piano and assorted keys — and he wrote each of the 11 songs. To hear why he won best songwriter honors from Fort Worth Weekly, just listen to "Edge of the Earth" (listen) — a deceptively simple rhythmic exhortation for a reluctant lover to give in to passion: This heart that was yours ain't a plan ain't a scam / It's a gift you could have it obeys your commands / We fall off the edge of the earth we learn what's real / I know you feel this.
This album has it all — a near perfect pop song in "Bright Eyes" (listen), an epic love song with "Summer/Winter" (listen), a stuck-in-your-head-for-days number (just ask my wife) in "Kick Drum Mind" (listen). And then there's the gorgeously anthemic "The Rain the Stars" (listen), which just might be my favorite song of the summer.
Now if I can just find a copy of The Year that Never Was and begin from the beginning….
Reviewed by Patrick Nichols (email)
October 10, 2006
- this is texas music
Reviewer: Bill Stella, Highest Common Denominator & GAAMC Challenge newsle
Calhoun Sometimes something brilliant comes to my attention just because a new band puts in an Add Friend Request, as it's called, at my profile at MySpace.com/bearealman . My deadline for a review column was October 20, 2006: And that's the date Calhoun's Add Request arrived. Their self-titled album has completely grabbed me. Somewhere between James Blunt and Conor Oberst's musical identity Bright Eyes in voice and style, Calhoun uncannily understates powerfully romantic notions of love, life and happiness. It's the ballsiest kind of music I can imagine: With relatively few electric guitars and modest use of bass, it doesn't scream at you to bow before its testosterone like headbangers. Instead, its strength is quieter, but incredible for the bravery of its idealism, its use of small gestures of dynamics and instrumental touches, its balanced approach requiring every sound to carry weight and resonance, its literate lyrics. Witness these, sung as if in the moment of their discovery, from "Summer / Winter": "In the summer sun / we walked alone / In the glory of / the sweet unknown // We won't grow old / but we'll never die / I look at you / And sigh // It's gold, It's grass / It's beautiful at last / Your eyes on fire / I want it all [too fast?] // Only one thing here is true / This love will live on / and heaven knew / What we started here today / The world could not subdue // We would always be strong / All Summer, Winter long." The passion grows but never goes over the top as it tumbles out in a long, unhurried, extended two-part refrain. *** And that's just one example. *** I'm loving this album. And I have yet to hear more than the three full songs on myspace and the two-minute samples here. Help bring these guys the recognition they richly deserve: sample the music and, when your heart responds, you're sure to become a fan of Calhoun.
- highest common denominator
Discography
calhoun-the year that never was
calhoun-calhoun
calhoun-falter.waver.cultivate
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Bio
Calhoun
Falter • Waver • Cultivate
Depending upon what part of the country you’re in you may or may not have heard of Calhoun yet, but when you listen you will know. You will know that Calhoun is picking up where many others have left off. Picking up and taking off with breathtaking views and sweeping wide open sounds. A worthy companion to the epic landscapes and big skies of Texas, from where Calhoun hails.
Singer and songwriter for the band, Tim Locke is well known amongst the Fort Worth scene for his work with former bands Dead City Radio and Coma Rally. In Calhoun, Locke soars to a new level of soundscape glory with a band worthy of his grand vision. Blending folk, rock and pop genres effortlessly, Calhoun envelopes the listener within their music and lyrics that in time can seep into the psyche and take hold with its building grip.
Falter.Waver.Cultivate is Calhoun’s third record and really the first as a full-time band. Grammy®-winning producer/engineer Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, Cat Power, Hot Hot Heat) helped recreate in the studio the same crackling kinetic energy that has captivated live audiences throughout the band’s native Texas and on its frequent forays across the country.
Locke credits those audiences for persuading band members to truly dedicate themselves to Calhoun’s ongoing success. We were very encouraged by peoples’ responses on our first couple of trips out across the midwest, he says. We were doing other things on the side, but each of us chose to set those projects aside and give Calhoun our total focus. A focus and commitment that becomes quite evident when one experiences Calhoun live.
Falter.Waver.Cultivate reflects the newfound cohesiveness that developed while touring in support of Calhoun’s 2006 self-titled album. The last record was still basically a singer/songwriter record, Locke says. I went into the studio with a bunch of songs written on the acoustic guitar and just had people I knew come in and play whatever they wanted. There were a lot of overdubs and a lot of drum loops and it was just a stylistic mish-mash.
Now this record-this is the band, he adds. It’s not entirely live; obviously there are some overdubs. But it’s the band and it’s real. It’s raw. Everything is quite dry. And it’s the way we sound on a stage. I’ve never made a record with so few tricks and to be honest, it was a little terrifying.
The we in Calhoun is Locke (lead vocals, guitar), longtime collaborator Byron Gordon (bass), Jordan Roberts (guitar, keys), and Mike Ratliff (drums). Together, their music has been described as full of catchy melodies and irresistible hooks, and even as gorgeous, melodic, sorta poppy, sorta rootsy, sorta rockin’, really splendid music.
You can call it what you will, but Locke says, We’re just a pop band. Then he laughingly concedes a nod to the root-rock and alt-country influences that others hear in the band’s music: Well, let’s say we’re just a pop band with a pedal steel thrown in occasionally.
Calhoun will tour throughout the Midwest this spring, including a prime showcase slot at the SXSW Music Festival. Northeast and West Coast dates will follow in the summer.
Check myspace.com/calhoun for the latest tour dates and band updates. Calhounmusic.com up soon.
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