Makeshift Music

Blair Combest wants to tell you something.
Don’t worry, it’s not in the abstract, self-aware, singer-songwriter way. Just walk up and say hello and you’ll know which way I mean. You’ll practically be able to see the gears spinning at hyper-speed as he propels from one subject to the next. Not many people can easily transition from the migration of monarch butterflies to the wonders of the renal system, and that’s just in the first five minutes. The conversational topics may seem dizzyingly disparate, but if you listen closely, you’ll pick up the connections between them – the curious, the mundane, the incredible, the hysterical. Aligned at the core of this musician, they fit together to form a unique perspective on life, love, and other hazards of humanity.
Listening to Blair’s songs also provides clues to his background. Having moved from Mississippi to Memphis as an infant, Blair happily bears the brands of rock and roll’s birthplace. At an early age, Blair’s family introduced him to the musical elements and influences from their own backgrounds. Sitting in the way-back of Mrs. Combest’s Chevy wagon, Blair was exposed to everything from Dylan and the Flying Burrito Brothers to John Prine, the Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash.
Blair’s been writing songs ever since laying his ten-year-old hands on a Gibson Epiphone. His influences, however, don’t end with his musical heroes. A Dickensian spate of childhood illnesses led Blair to a passion for prose, and the presence of literary heroes like Poe and Nabokov is felt throughout his work. The maturity and intelligence of his music put Blair in circles beyond his years, and at the ripe old age of 15, he was playing songwriter showcases and opening for local bands. After spending a few post-high-school years gathering inspiration in the kitchens of Memphis, Blair united with indie-pop outfit Snowglobe and producer Kevin Cubbins to create his debut album. Released in 2003, Prettier Than Ugly combined Blair’s own inherent sensibilities of country, rock and folk with Snowglobe’s precise pop musicianship. The album was met with tremendous enthusiasm, batting .992 with reviewers (the only negative response was from a punk magazine, and that was a mailing error).
Blair spent the last two years promoting Prettier Than Ugly regionally, playing shows in Memphis along with Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta, Oxford, and Athens. With a few well-chosen covers flanking his own body of work, Blair’s live performances demonstrate both his prolific talent and his appreciation for the artists, both infamous and obscure, who came before him. Blair has also been putting the final touches on his next release. The upcoming self-titled album features a dizzying array of Memphis’ finest musicians, including Mark Stuart and Kevin Cubbins (Pawtuckets), Brad Postlewaite (Snowglobe), Andy Ratliffe and Eric Lewis (Tennessee Boltsmokers). Look for the eagerly anticipated album, and for the plenty eager Combest himself, all over the U.S. in 2006.

www.blaircombest.com
www.myspace.com/blaircombest
www.livefrommemphis.com/blaircombest

Blair Combest - Prettier Than Ugly
Buy Me! CD $10.00

Allow me to quickly make note of the fact that Blair Combest's Prettier than Ugly is, essentially, a country album. I'll clarify the fact that Combest himself is actually more of a singer/songwriter type of guy, and that amongst this near-country record floats the most obvious influence of Bob Dylan as well as echoes of The Flying Burrito Brothers and folk singers from days gone past. The most interesting part about this car wreck of musical sensibilities is that on this release, Combest's backing band is none other than Snowglobe ... Yeah, so how exactly does a singer/songwriter team up with a retro-indie-pop backing band to make a rootsy country album? One word: Talent.

Track Listing:

1. Every Once In A While
2.While Walking
3.Diamond
4. Dreams
5. All That's Left
6. Oh Mama
7. Simple
8. What Does It All Mean?
9. Smile
10. I Know You

Blair Combest - Blair Combest
Buy Me! CD $10.00

Singer-songwriter comes through the (studio) fire with a fine sophomore album.
Another casualty of the fire at Easley-McCain Recording Studios, it took singer-songwriter Blair Combest two years to finish his second album, this eponymous follow-up to his fine debut, Prettier Than Ugly. Recorded at Easley with Kevin Cubbins and Makeshift founder Brad Postlethwaite producing, Blair Combest is more of a group affair than the title might indicate, with Combest getting a hand from a host of local musicians, including members of Snowglobe and the Tennessee Boltsmokers and a group of friends on background vocals that Combest dubs the "Easley Tabernacle Choir."
This lends the record a musicality that broadens the palette of your standard rootsy singer-songwriter record, with Boltsmoker Andy Ratliff adding bluegrass accents to "Turn to Rain," Snowglobe's Nahshon Benford punctuating "Disarray" with trumpet, and the Phil Spector-esque finale of sleighbells and vocals on "Silly Girl."
Which isn't to say Combest himself isn't the main show here. Combest's slightly nasal ache and scratchy, older-than-his-years delivery can't help but evoke Bob Dylan, but it isn't just the voice: In its lyrical bent and musical lilt, Combest's music sounds quite like a very precise moment in Dylan's folkie period, post-protest songs, pre-electric. Think Another Side of Bob Dylan. At his best, Combest evokes a more modest, more consistently earnest version of that tone and sound, although there is also a spare, dusty undercurrent to this record (see, especially, "Wait for You") that's reminiscent of Texas alt-country pioneer Townes Van Zandt.

--Chris Herrington

Track Listing:

1. Lovely
2.Turn To Rain
3. Maiden
4. Silly Girl
5. Wait For You
6.Going Back
7.Her Eyes
8. Disarray
9. Changing You
10. Just Like A Landside
11. Tonight