Spare Me Over
SBR 046
songs - Miss Me, My Devil, Don't Come Cryin,' Letters, Love Come Around, Salt, Radar, Juanita, Astor Place, Spent Everything
Spare Me Over; a collection of songs by singer/songwriter/guitarist John Axtell.
What started out as casual late night recording sessions, Spare Me Over quickly developed into
a potent body of work featuring instrumental and vocal work from Black Sun Ensemble’s Eric Johnson, drumming and more from former Dharma Bum Sam Donaldson, as well as a host of Tucson musicians and special guests.
Effectively infusing rock, country, folk and psychedelia into a unique hybrid of styles, Bread and Circus creates a refreshing update to the touted “Desert Rock” genre.
Spare Me Over’s material is eclectic, ranging from the train-time rock and blues stomps of Don’t Come Crying and Miss Me, to the dark and stormy Juanita and Letters, to the
bittersweet alt-country of My Devil and Spent Everything. Songwriter John Axtell crafts story-driven narratives, edgy, philosophical, and humorous that are surprisingly mature
for a debut offering.
Juanita offers a dark twist on the immaculate conception detailing the haunted life of anillegitimate child:
“Nine months later she had herself a son, when asked who the father was she whispered
no one. The town folk shunned her, they thought she lied, they didn’t even bury her on
the day she died”
On Astor Place the band delivers a New Orleans-style romp both clever and absurd:
“She got kicked in the Astor Place, she fell down with the powder on her face, woke up in
flames on Avenue A, took up a collection and cleaned the whole plate off”
My Devil explores the classic theme of temptation with a humorous Faust:
“. . . falling up the stairs again, backsliding since I don’t know when, but things are just
the way they is, not the way they’re supposed to be, He promised that he’d dance withme, then he stole them shoes right off of my feet, have mercy”
Spare Me Over ends with Buy Something. Included here as a “hidden” track, the song is
a lo-fi tongue-in-cheek look at the human condition in our consumer-oriented society.
Spare Me Over was recorded and mixed at the Signalhouse, Tucson Arizona.
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Singing guitarist, John Axtell formed Bread and Circus with ex-Dharma Bum drummer, Sam Donaldson. Soon, Black Sun Ensemble guitarist, Eric Johnson and ex-Los Federales bassist, Joe Yearego were enlisted to add some flesh to Axtell’s musical skeleton and B&C were off to Axtell’s Signalhouse Recording Studio to complete their debut release. Right from the hee-hawing, toe-tapping, countrified Stonesy swagger of opener, ‘Miss Me,’ this is a loose, laidback collection of fun, sloppy rockers in the well-worn tradition of other super groups like Golden Smog and Danny & Dusty. In fact, fans of Wilco, Dream Syndicate, and fellow Arizona desert dwellers, Green On Red should certainly jump right in to this cool oasis of goodtime groovers. ‘My Devil’ honey drips out of your speakers like a caramel sundae melting in the blazing Arizona sun, with Johnson’s dirtyass, fuzzy solo adding a snarling, garagey vibe to the proceedings. ‘Letters’ adds a stroke of ‘Cortez The Killer’-styled minor key blues to the quartet’s bag of trips, with the extra added bonus of delicious backing vocals from the delectable hot babe trio of Monika Damron, Sara Gascho, and Kristan Islas. Toss in Johnson’s warbling wah-wah’s and a pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you ending, and you’ve got a night on the town you won’t soon forget! ‘Love Come Around’ is a moody, tears-in-your-beers weeper, and Donaldson’s crisp drum patterns propels the fried-eyed ‘Salt’ into the wounds of broken-hearted lovers. Thankfully, the band aren’t averse to tossing in an acoustic ballad to mix up the heady brew, and the sleepy, whiskey-soaked ‘Radar’ fits the bill just fine, thank you. The band also lighten things up considerably with the hootin’-and-a-hollerin’, ‘Astor Place,’ an epic cowboy roundup with the Infernal Racket horns and Aldy Montufar’s trumpet stutter-stepping through the drunken carolers, whilst Dylan’s kid, Jakob and his flowers on the wall smile bleary-eyed from the sidelines. The song seems born from listening to ‘One Headlight’ on repeat for hours on end, but is a corny-yet-catchy fun time in the old town, nevertheless. This is definitely a major entry in the always fun ‘Saloon Rock’ style of good time rock and roll. (Jeff Penczak)
