Stories from...
On the Road
eventually I'd like to get BOTH BILL BENTLEY REVIEWS of both my records on the page (see below)
on the road collecting the stories of Americana music
Americana Highways
BENTLEY’ BANDSTAND By Bill Bentley NOV. ‘23
Joe Medwick, All My Friends. Mister Medwick is a Southern-bound soul man by way of northern New York state. Which might as well be in the South considering the number of barrooms there. Medwick has blown around the country–from coast to coast–with enough smarts to have picked up all kinds of musical nsights and mojo savvy. He sings like he’s seen the light and dark sides of the street, and plays like it’s a capital offense to muck up the beat with more than necessary whacks on his thick tuned-down snare. This is a no foolin’ soul man who might be a few decades late to have been in the first brigade that kicked down America’s musical doors in the 1960s, but Medwick does not let that stop him for one minute when it comes to laying it out on the line. He’ll usually throw in a Dan Penn co-write that he can’t resist from recording, and give a musical nod to John Hiatt and NRBQ’s Terry Adams because Medwick knows where the good stuff grows. ALL MY FRIENDS is literally that: musicians that hang with their bandleader and are more than happy to return the favor when he calls them in to cut records. A decidedly low-down hi-fi sound keeps everything on the natch, and aren’t the kind of sonics that can be faked. Any man who calls his song publishing company Monkey Butt Music clearly has his heart in the right place: in the middle of his big-ass soul. There’s a real chance there might not be many more Joe Medwicks to cruise this world, so if hearing is believing and it feels like time for some boogaloo and shingaling to fill the dance floor, ALL MY FRIENDS is the perfect place to go. Monkey nerve music.
BENTLEY’S BANDSTAND
July 11, 2017
By Bill Bentley, Columnist TMR
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Bill Bentley, The Morton Report
Bill Bentley got his first drum set in 1965 and still has it. He's been a deejay, record store clerk, publicist,...
Joe Medwick, Memphis to Montreal. In what has to be the album surprise of the summer, all-around soul man Joe Medwick put a call out to some of the funkiest musicians on the planet, wrote seven new keeper songs, then bumped them up next to six classics and proceeded to set it all on fire. Really. Who knew a man who had been a record retail whiz, valued writer, and overall scene stealer had so much musical beauty bottled up inside him? Musicians Mike Finnigan, Johnny Lee Schell, Hutch Hutchinson, Joe Sublett, Albert Lee, Gary Mallaber, Garth Hudson, John Inmon, David Jackson, Tony Braunagel, Jennifer Condos, Carmine Sardo, Joel Savoy, Gia Ciambotti, and Lynne Coulter don't show up for just any session. Most of the tracks were recorded at Studio City, California's Ultratone Studios, but they just as easily could have been done at Stax, Muscle Shoals or, hell, Levon Helm's Woodstock digs. Medwick's vocals are a timeless meditation on how music is meant to enter the body and mind, then spread warmth and fullness throughout through the sharing of a joyous glow. It's stunning just how strong this album is. Which, of course, begs the questions why the man from Watertown, New York and all points America took so long to share such strengths? Like most other things he's done, Joe Medwick knows when the right time of the night time is, and never makes his move too soon. Bless his heart.
Bill Bentley got his first drum set in 1965 and still has it. He's been a deejay, record store clerk, publicist, writer, concert promoter, record producer and a&r director, sometimes all at once. He's worked at KUT-FM, Austin City Limits, L.A. Weekly, Slash Records, Warner Bros. Records and Vanguard Records. He still plays drums, and his most recent writing position was at aarp.org. Yikes. He also has a fondness for producing tribute albums, and has done them for Roky Erickson, Skip Spence, Sir Doug Sahm, and Lou Reed. More to come.
Musical Credits
Interviews / Press Features
Credits:
Land of Snow
Joe Medwick “Memphis to Montreal”
(Current – TBA)
Land of Snow
Albert Lee “Heartbreak Hill: Songs of Emmylou Harris”
Sugar Hill
Land of Snow
Mark Insley “Good Country Junk”
Country Town
Writer/Interviewer
“Let the Good Times Roll”
Island
Writer/Interviewer
“Rhythm, Country & Blues”
MCA
Writer/Interviewer
“An Evening With Ray Charles”
Atlantic
Writer/Interviewer
“Cream-Strange Brew”
Atlantic
Writer/Producer
“Old World Lullabies”
BMG
Plus many more
Interviews
Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Alison Krauss, Joe Ely, Emmylou Harris, Ron Sexsmith, Dan Zanes, Loreena McKennitt, Blue Rodeo, Laura Nyro, The Chieftains, The Neville Brothers, The Black Crowes, Los Lobos, Bruce Cockburn, Celine Dion, Daniel Lanois, Dan Penn, Jules Shear, John Hiatt, Herb Alpert, Ringo Starr, Carly Simon, The Everly Brothers, David Lindley, Albert Lee, Dwight Yoakam, T-Bone Burnett, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Lee Hooker, Roy Buchanan, Lonnie Mack, J.J. Cale, plus many more.
Corporate Clients
• Warner Bros. Records, MCA Records, Virgin Records, A & M Records, plus many more.
• Concerts Promoted: Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Jim Lauderdale (Santa Barbara), Kate & Anna McGarrigle and family..including Rufus & Martha Wainwright, Albert Lee, Ron Sexsmith, Joe Medwick, others: (“Save The River” – Sackets Harbor, N.Y.)
Levon Helm & The Barn Burners, The Jim Weider Band, Albert Lee, Dave Edmunds, Joe Medwick – (“Sounds & Lights from the Harbor” – Sackets Harbor, N.Y. 2002)
Press Features
Joe has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, Billboard Magazine, Time Magazine, Der Spiegel among others and on MTV, ABC “Good Morning America”, ABC “Nightline”, CBS “Evening News”, NBC “Today Show”, The BBC, CNN, FNN, WOR, WPIX, PBS, “Entertainment Tonight”, “Showbiz Today”, plus many more.