John Wesley Coleman III on Sophomore Lounge Records

I knew I recognized this vocal and turns out this isn't the first time Sophomore Lounge has put out something by Mr. Coleman III, there was a split between classic Gary Stewart and John not long ago featuring a cover from John of Gary's "Oh Woman"...this time SL is letting John off on his own to take over both sides of this one, starting with A-Side's "Alone by the Door".

This one is a quiet, acoustic... half finger picked and strummed, with less than tuned piano strikes from way off in the practice room. John is recorded real big up front vocals with a booming bowed bass for the chorus. It feels like John is in love with the variances of every side to an acoustic string being plucked or played completely recklessly, this whole thing has a bit of an off edge to it that comes with this kid of freewheeling non-traditional approach that goes for the vocals too with this warbly phaser effect. The backup doubled vocal isn't so much of your typical harmony as just being slightly out of sync, going for the straight emotion with lots of little experiments and surprises along the way. Even a theremin finds a place for a second, there's some bangs on a tom, and scattered crash, lots of one takes, a flurry of composition in the middle of the night, singer songwritery, with lots of twists. High pitch piano key banging. That's what happens when you're trying to play with a dog on your shoulder.

On "I want you to be like everybody else" John has a quieter far off vocal this side going a pure 4 track direction like that old K-recs stuff, a little bit of sloppiness is going to feel alright, but I'm basically already on board with this because he's just talking about New York City. That same out of tune piano is great here in single note doses. Leslie Sisson of the Wooden Birds is a perfect backup vocal sounding like something in the hayday of home recorded Bunnygrunts, and the Yips... or the freaking Spinanes! That's it... Rebecca Gates. This is goofy, not taking it self too seriously, winning over the right hearts and minds. It doesn't have to be so serious, you can have fun with these happy accidents of the quiet distortions, mistaken notes finding a place, an anti-rhythm, a squeak of the vocal, It's that familiarity of making music that hits all the right notes. The thought that you've been there, and it sounded a lot better when you weren't trying so hard and reveled in those imperfections.

(commercial pop suicide) from Sophomore Lounge Records.

Another 45 from our friend John Wesley Coleman III (of Austin psych-country cronies, The Golden Boys) featuring fellow-Texan, Rob Halverson, and the sweet sounds of Leslie Sisson (The Wooden Birds) on guest vocals. This single shows perhaps a softer, more sincere side (than even his Gary Stewart rendition?) of a rock 'n' roll wild child, without sacrificing that boozily soulful, southern wisdom that made us love him in the first place. "Alone By The Door" marks Coleman's third slab of wax already this year (!), following the release of his homemade heartbreaker "Nightmare On Silly Street" (Monofonous) and killer new Greg Ashley-produced full-length, "The Last Donkey Show" (Goner), not to mention another Golden Boys album on the shelves this month. Coleman is a machine, and we're more than happy to keep his gears greased. Limited pressing of 200 copies (numbered) on black vinyl.

Check out some of JWC III's tracks, not from the single.....

Gary Stewart / John Wesley Coleman III split on Sophomore Lounge Records

Ryan at Sophomore Lounge sent in this great split the other day, and it's one of those singles that has such an insane story behind it which lead to the kind of a single that is perfect for this medium, something that has to exist as a 45. Gary Stewart from Kentucky, had a 30 year career in country music and was one of those unappreciated songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, a musicians musician. There's even a story of how Bob Dylan personally drove to a show just to tell him how much he liked his Your Place or Mine record.
Ryan met John in Texas through a mutual friend and they ended up bonding over Gary's work and months later John mentioned he had just recorded a cover of Gary's "Ramona" with Vinnie from JAILL and this single was born.

Before I even knew any of this background story the simple pencil drawings from Mike Poland of both of these guys had me interested, then to find out just a little more about Gary's life and I couldn't wait to put this on and hear the original and cover version from John and Vinnie.

"Ramona", has all the big produced '70s sound in this rock country style, a slow calculated electric strum, heavily gated punchy drums, but the draw to any of his tracks has to be his vocal style which is loud and heavy with just a little room reverb. A slight Roy Orbison waver in that higher register, that seems to verge on that country near crack at times, and it's a sad song of regret you hear when he gets to belting, "Ooohhhhh, Ramona".
Track in a slick slide solo after the last verse over a chorus of sharp organ, their almost echo-ing each others pitch and you'd have a little piece of genius, hidden under the packaging, someone who was able to slip past the usual makings of artists and work damn hard at his craft until the day he shot himself with a shotgun. The recording on this side is crystal clear and it wasn't easy tracking down that licensing and masters to get this actually pressed, but clearly it was worth it. like all great songs we read so much into, Gary called his guitar Ramona, or at least that's what he'd like us to believe. It's just another girl's name.

John Wesley Coleman III has gotten great reviews already from his self released Steal my Mind and has a bunch more on it's way from Daggerman and Goner. Here, he's titled this one "Oh Woman" because he's talking about maybe more than just one named woman out there in his life...or I could see recording a song like this, it might be a little weird taking such a personal lyric over, probably just made sense this way.
John keeps that distinctive guitar and bassline from the original piece, and updates the sound with a huge delayed reverb that comes feedbacking in. John has a similar tortured howl when it comes to the chorus, and throughout he's got that same laid back vibe. It's an homage to Gary's style and coming from someone who obviously appreciates his legacy. There's a drum machine cowbell and a handclap and a backup oooo vocal tastefully bringing this to 2011. It's a great single that can introduce you to a new artist and revealing a underrated classic at the same time.

Get this one from Sophomore Lounge Records.