Honey And Salt by Dead Rock West

Flying just under the radar, this quintet featuring Cindy Wasserman (vocals, starbourine,) Frank Lee Drennen (vocals, guitar, harmonica,) Phil Parlapiano (mandolin, octave mandolin, Hammond organ, Vox Continental,) Bryan Head (drums) and David J. Carpenter (Bass) has honed their sound in California clubs, building a rep and an audience while road testing the material found on their debut disc Honey & Salt. Now with word of mouth building and an armful of new recordings the group is ready to hit the next plateau.

With a name like Dead Rock West, youd be correct in assuming there are occasional country and folk influences, but really thats just touching on the bands capabilities. Dashes of garage, power pop jangle, and rock n roll populate the set list, played with passion to match the songcraft. The secret weapon here? Its the vocal harmonies. Dont misunderstand. This is one tight band all around. But Wasserman and Drennens voices are a seamless blend that add melody to already impressive hooks. Icing on an already pretty tasty cake.

While Dead Rock West has been together since 2002, the group is really a culmination of years of work in Southern California nightspots. Drennen spent time playing the acoustic clubs in San Diego, teaming up in the early 90's with former Alarm guitarist Dave Sharp and forming pop group Loam shortly thereafter. They would go on to release two albums in the U.S. and Spain, and win a San Diego Music Award in the process, with their song Telephone later recast by Dead Rock West as an amphetamine fueled Byrds flavored rocker. Drennen also spent time with The Hatchet Brothers, teaming up with troubadour Gregory Page for two albums and a barroom sing-a-long that kept San Diego clubs packed for years. He also joined Page and Carpenter in The Troubled Sleepers. In fact it was with the latter that the seeds of Dead Rock West were sown.

I met Cindy through Gregory, remembers Drennen. She and I recorded two songs at Dave's house just for fun with the Troubled Sleepers as the backing band. It was then that we realized we had something special in the sound of our two voices together. Describing the inspired vocal interplay, Drennen is effusive. He notes the soulfulness of Wassermans voice, but also points out their varied vocal approach. Cindy thinks of the mic stand as an antenna to the spirits and that they use the stand to speak through her. I'm more visceral, prowling. Looking to hunt that connection down and kill it.

For her part, Wasserman is no stranger to either stage or studio. Most recently she has toured and recorded with Grant Lee Phillips. In fact all the members have extensive touring backgrounds. Carpenter has toured and recorded with Toni Childs as well as Doe and Phillips. Head does double duty with his band Abandoned Pools, and has toured with Shelby Lynne. Most impressively, Parlapiano was previously in Geffen Records act The Brothers Figaro and has performed with Grant Lee Buffalo, Tracy Chapman, Lucinda Williams, Rod Stewart, Social Distortion, amongst many others

All that experience is used to great effect on Honey & Salt. Recorded at Grandmas Warehouse in Echo Park, the disc was recorded the way they used to; 2" tape, 24 tracks, no click tracks or pitch correction machines. In addition to the members of Dead Rock West, the genesis of the album involves a few other key players. The Section Quartet (Sam Phillips, etc.) provide strings and pedal steel player Greg Leisz also contributes, with the album mixed by Grammy winner Richard Dodd (Tom Petty, George Harrison, Steve Earle, Traveling Wilburys etc.)

Basically I contacted him via his web site, Drennen recalls. I told him about ourselves, that we were recording to tape and I asked if he ever mixed any one who was not rich or famous. To his surprise Dodd replied. He responded saying he was interested in hearing the works in progress. Nervously, I sent him the songs. We were'nt even finished overdubbing at this point. After a couple of long phone converstions I was convinced this man loves music and wants to be a part of projects he can be proud to put his name on. Needless to say we ended up in Nashville and spent six wonderful days hearing our songs come alive and listening to his stories.

The trips end result are the Honey & Salt tracks, as catchy and varied a collection of songs as youre likely to come across. Whether Wasserman or Drennen take the lead, the groups way with a melody cant be denied. Our premise from the beginning was two great voices singing great songs, simple as that, states Drennen. And it's still our goal. Despite those impressive credentials, Dead Rock West is more than the sum of its parts, and its easy to hear why. Its just good songs, he continues good naturedly. Those tunes will pull you in;, their live performances will cement the deal. There is no doubt Dead Rock West is just getting started. We want songs that are wrapped in real human emotion, god and sex, says Drennen. Songs that will still be useful to the ear in 20/30 years.

- Bart Mendoza

******************************************************************************

ALL LYRICS FOR HONEY AND SALT

ALL I KNOW [5:26] | [ clip ]

The desert skies are filled with stars

As far as you can dream

A parachute of lights that bloom

Across the sky's tree

Down here on the ground

How free am I?

Like a crow, I wish my soul

To rise and fly

(Chorus) Here's a promise/ There's a lie

God knows heaven's in disguise

The desert wind is blowing strong

Over hills and far beyond

All I know is all that's gone

With poisoned toungues the demons come

To live inside your brain

Like neon lights/ The stars shine bright

To make me feel again

Down here on the ground

How free am I?

Like a crow I wish my soul

To rise and fly

(Chorus)

I make a wish

I count to three

I don't believe in what I can't see

So Jesus come back and die again

For me

Here's a promise/ There's a lie

God knows heaven's in disguise

Because it ain't on the ground

And it ain't in the sky

The desert wind is blowing strong

Over hills and far beyond

All I know is all that's gone

All I know

All I know .....

- - - - - - -

I REALLY WANTED YOU [3:46] | [ clip ]

You say you don't like me

Well, I don't like you too

I don't like what you stand for

I don't like what you do

You stand out like a weapon

Pistols on your heels

You don't get what I care for

You don't care how I feel

But I really wanted it

I really wanted you

You don't like me

I don't like you

You don't want me

But I wanted you

You say you don't like me

So what can I say?

I gave you what I had to give

You pushed it all away

You act like you're better than me

You talk like you're smarter than me

I wish that you'd let me be

but you don't even think of me

And I really wanted it

I really wanted you

I really wanted you

I really wanted you

TELEPHONE [2:22] | [ clip ]

It's getting clearer as we speak

Bits and pieces on the telephone

I knew you in another time

There was nothing you were afraid of

And I'm so far away from that now

I'm so far away from you now

Thirty minutes away

But the drive would take days

Find a marker on the road

Look behind

See how far I've come

And I'm so far away from you now

You were less my love

And more my lesson

And I'm so far away from you now

You were less my love

And more my lesson

- - - - - - -

GOING HOME [4:16] | [ clip ]

Thirty thousand feet below

The people move around

And so they go

To the places where they belong

The holidays have come and gone

Flying back to where I live and work

Above the clouds

I swear I still feel under earth

So much has to do with not quite "being there"

I would gladly go;

I can't afford the fare

(Chorus)

It's a long way to being known

It's a long way to the unknown

It's a long way

But I swear I'm going home

Landed on the ground at 7:01

Played the mandolin

Waited for my ride to come

Thought of Akron, a girl I used to love

And how the clouds are fields

When You're flying so high above

(Chorus)

- - - - - - -

BOREDOM (HOW DID I GET HERE?) [3:39] | [ clip ]

Boredom is driving me to drink

The bottle gets emptied

faster than I can sink

Ignore the phone/ lock the door

Move at speeds/ I have never known

Boredom is driving me to drink

Boredom is driving me to drink

My body's getting numb

While my heart aches

I say I'm gonna get out

Move to another place

boredom don't you follow me

How did I get here?

When can I leave?

Did I choose this life?

Did it choose me?

Boredom is driving me to drink

The bottle gets empty

Faster than I can sink

They say you pick your poisons

Well, I agree

This life I have chosen

is killing me

- - - - - - -

DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME [3:08] | [ clip ]

There was a time

When you would heal my wounds

You were the Queen

Over the sun and moon

(Chorus)

Yeah, baby

Don't you worry about me

Yeah, baby

I'm standing on my own two feet

You came along

I was the luckiest one

Now you're gone

I'm standing in the sun

(Chorus)

Yeah, baby

don't you worry about me

Yeah, baby

'cause you're not looking out for me

I'm not hear at all

I'm not waiting for your call

I waiting for something new

(Chorus)

- - - - - - -

DESERT ROSE [3:26] | [ clip ]

Desert Rose ()

God bless all my promises

that have been said not done

God bless all the things I lack

And what I have become

At 4:15 my mind is clean

A flowing stream of twighlight dreams

Through the cold narcotic steam

I realize what's gone wrong

(Chorus)

My desert rose/ living where nothing grows

My dried up soul/ is just enough

to let your colors show

God bless who you are for me

He knows I fail for you

God bless how you let me be

Just when I need you to

I know that you're so good to me

Still I am too blind to see

I'm afraid I'll never be

Much more than just a fool

(Chorus)

- - - - - - -

PRETTY DISASTER [3:39] | [ clip ]

Throw me a lifeline, baby

before I drown

I need a rescue, baby

before I go down

Sober as a cop on sunday

Thinking like a drunk

Shooting rounds at a battle ship

Until it's sunk

(Chorus)

Pretty disaster

Going all the way

Pretty disaster

is only one step away

Every silver lining, baby

Has a cloud

There's a whisper inside my head

Screaming loud

I scare myself,

Stepping over the line

Afraid I'm gonna let you down

I tell you everything's fine

(Chorus)

You're the one who loves me, baby

You're the one I want

You're the one who keeps me

hanging on

Throw me a lifeline, baby

Before I drown

I need a rescue, baby

Before I go down

You gotta know your weakness

If you wanna be strong

You never know what you have

'Till it's almost gone

(Chorus)

- - - - - - -

ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT [2:29] | [ clip ]

(Chorus)

Is there a place we can stay

For a while

Is there a place away from it all

Where we can go

For a while

Is this a hunger or a plea

Or just a call to up and leave

As our tempers race to ask

What is real

And while the opositon stands

With thier feet stuck in the sand

We are planning out our flight

Cutting down the homeward path

Is there a place we can stay

For a while

Rocket from the crypt

Living with the dead

Our heads are burning fire

And our feet are made of lead

Liken to scar

And bent all out of shape

The sky is burning down

Onto a frozen landscape

(Chorus)

I've been down so long

I don't even know my name

I been looking for a way

to get out of this place

Contradiction and lies

Burn the best of tries

We're going NOWHERE

(Chorus)

- - - - - - -

HIGHWAY ONE [3:15] | [ clip ]

It's been a little while

Since you flashed that California smile

It's been some time

Since you touched that telephone dial

I got your letter

It would've been better to call

But I know it's not your style

Do you still drive up Highway One

Going way too fast / Racing with the sun

Do you still sing that same old song

Forget the past/ just move on

It's been too much time/ to be without

You're still on my mind

Last night I dreamed/ that you came back

I couldn't speak

I sent your letter

It might've been better to call

But you know I just a child

Do you still drive up Highway One

Going way too fast/ Racing with the sun

Do you still sing that same old song

Forget the past/ just move on

just move on

just move on

Do you still drive up Highway One

Going way too fast/ Racing with the sun

ON THE OUTSIDE [2:59] | [ clip ]

Talking and trying

Except when you're crying

I'm weak when it comes to you

You're open and honest

I know there's no contest

I'm one of the chosen few

On the outside

Some people are laughing

My head's sorta half in

You're pouring out things you think

I'm pulling my hair out

To figure it all out

Come on be with me

On the outside

Out of our minds

Stabbing with rubber knives

I don't like how it feels

On the outside

I want what I want

Right when I want it

I grab it and say "good luck"

I don't wanna hurt you

I consider your virtues

I don't want to find you stuck

On the outside

On the outside

I'm stuck on the outside

On the outside

Stuck on the outside

On the outside

- - - - - - - -

Cindy Wasserman - vocal

Frank Lee Drennen - vocal, guitar, electric mandolin

David J. Carpenter - bass

Bryan Head - drums

with: Duane Jarvis - lead guitar

Kevin Jarvis - tambourines

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Burning House of Love Lyrics

Artist(Band):X

(Cervenka, Doe)

Drive by my house late at night,

you can see it from the freeway above,

No silhouette, but a light left on,

burnin' there for love, burnin' there for love.

Smoke is risin' from the black,

comin' out my back door.

I'm inside, sound asleep, a cigarette on the floor,

burnin' there for love, burnin' there for love.

Well, I can still remember a couple of years ago,

when the smoke and flame from our name,

was a burnin' house of love, burnin' house of love.

a burnin' house of love...

Burnin' house of love, burnin' house of love.

The rusty nail over our front door,

is where I hung our tears in the rain.

I threw that horseshoe into the weeds,

I seen what love can bring, I seen what love can

bring.

Now you're in your bed and I'm in mine,

on either side of town;

I think I might take a little ride,

and burn your love house down,

like a burnin' house of love, a burnin' house of love.

Burnin' house of love.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Beautiful review on All Music Guide of Mark Olson's new album SALVATIONS BLUES which Cindy Wasserman from Dead Rock West sings on...

WOW.

All Music Guide reviewer Thom Jurek nailed this one on the head. Enjoy.

--HackTone

**********

"It seems odd that Salvation Blues is Mark Olson's first true solo recording. After his tenure with the Jayhawks, Olson left the band to spend more time in Joshua Tree with his then-wife, fellow singer/songwriter Victoria Williams. Olson released a quartet of recordings with the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers (aka the Creekdippers), always with Williams either sharing the billing or in the band. Olson and Williams divorced in February of 2006, and he lost the home he built in Joshua Tree as a result. He took off on a solo tour of Europe where the sketches for a number of the songs on Salvation Blues were written. Produced by Ben Vaughn and released on the aesthetically brilliant HackTone label, the CD contains 11 songs; the first edition of the CD comes in a small, book-shaped digipack with slipcover and notes, lyrics, and photographs by Ingunn Ringvold and Krissie Gregory. Former bandmate Gary Louris co-wrote "Poor Michael's Boat" and "National Express," and Williams co-wrote "Winter Song." Sonically, Salvation Blues is pristine if simple. Vaughn keeps things uncluttered and clean, allowing just enough of a mix for Olson's beautifully impure voice to rise to the top unfettered. Musically, while Olson's been following his muse -- that weds country-rock, folk, and other American roots forms -- since the very beginning of his long career, there are few surprises in composition. His sidemen on this session include the great, undercelebrated guitarist Tony Gilkyson, pedal steel and dobro boss Greg Leisz, bassist David J. Carpenter, Michele Gazich on violin, Zac Rae on keyboards, drummer Kevin Jarvis, with Ringvold playing acoustic guitar and Louris and Cindy Wasserman contributing backing vocals.

Ultimately, it comes down to the songs, though. And Mark Olson has them here in spades. with the presentation being so utterly simple, a lot of weight rests not only on the singer, but on the lyrics and melody. And Olson delivers, though the often shining optimism of his offerings has been tempered in places by grief, loss, and the workaday living of everyday life that blends dream and reality as time rushes forward; still he champions humble human nobility in choosing life over death each and every morning. It's a choice for Olson's protagonists, and it needs to be made each and every day without forgetting -- to forget is to choose one of them anyway. "My Carol" opens the set brightly enough. It's a country waltz that could have been written by the Bob Dylan who gave us the words to "Love Minus Zero/No Limit": "I have come to fetch my Carol/I have wandered in the muck/Dirty sheets outside the windows/Lies that poor folks never tell rich ones/Louder still is the sound of love....I know the beauty of her song/The blood of priests runs in her veins...My love for her is a speckled bird/An animal bleeding in the snow/Slink back under the fallen step/Of black rites and crooked sticks/Unforeseen victims of modern sin/I walk the dark rain and then no more/Daylight rings the bells of joy." The guitars entwine and ring gentle together, the beat slips and shimmers, and Olson delivers his words so easily, as if his observations were plainly seen by everyone -- yet held in secret.

On the very next cut, "Clinton Bridge," that optimism gets pushed further, though it takes into account the weight of the decision. A lone acoustic guitar acts as the spine for his vocal before the band enters. While they shore up the body of the tune: "I woke before the sun/Which is the way between the heart and the soul/You spoke with my words/Tangled up here inside/Some people came here to die/We came here to live..." Gazich's violin takes the instrumental break and brings the tune to near soaring levels, but the singer is repeating that refrain for a reason, it's conviction tested by tragedy. The gorgeous harmonies of the Jayhawks are brought to mind on "Poor Michael's Boat," as Olson and Gary Louris sound together on the refrains. Their voices seem earthy and timeless, and the track shuffles with fine B-3 playing and Greg Leisz on mandolin. It's a bittersweet tune that chooses trust in very doubtful circumstances. There are deep overtones to both "National Express" and "Winter Song," written with Williams. Both are love songs, but the latter, a dobro-fueled country two-stepper is heartbreaking: with the sliding six string and Olson's acoustic keeping time with the snare, he sings: "I remember our winter song/Slipping on a frozen lake/There I miss you when you're gone/Oh this winter song/Another cup of brutal wine/Dreams that once seemed so sweet/Are silent empty streets....." The title track is a killer country rocker, done mid-tempo with edgy Telecasters a Hammond B-3, acoustic six-strings, mandolin, and popping snare, whispering hi hat and kick drum. Olson sings of a truth so profound and glittering in the ashes, we almost dare not think of it: "There's such joy and sweet moments/To be found in this world/We know they'll come to an end/Just how makes our hearts hurt/Salvation blues and these blues will help us all/No light like your light/until we do something good..." The guitar solo bites down with clipped, short phrases, reminding the listener of the lyric and sending her back into a reverie of the very moments Olson sings of. The set closes with "My One Book Philosophy," another song steeped in the kind of simple man's Either/Or that Soren Kierkegaard had to nearly sweat blood to write. Olson doesn't need the rhetoric; he has the life experience that proves the mettle. Accompanying himself on the Wurlitzer, he takes it out in a nearly mournful whisper that acknowledges the previous; it's sweet memory disguised as a judge and jury; a ballad that covers a life sentence, but there's no bitterness, only regret, as much by the coming apart of dreams as by remembering them. It's a melancholy ending to an utterly moving, and deeply poetic recording that finally brings Olson out from the comfortable shadows, first as a member of the Jayhawks, and then as part of the husband-and-wife team that were at the heart of the Creekdippers. Salvation Blues is the kind of contemporary singer/songwriter record that we need more of: poetry as part and parcel of life itself, captured in a music so utterly simple and convincing, it is almost impossible to separate it from the artist who made it -- except that it recalls our own experiences so closely in places we have no choice but to give thanks to the man who exposed our inner selves even as he exposes his own. Salvation Blues is stripped down, modern desert country music at its very best."

Average Customer Review: