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USE THIS BLOG TO POST: Music Reviews |
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ARTIST: Boozoo Chavis SONG/ALBUM: Hey Do Right! GENRE: Blues RATING: 6
The accordion is just about the least fashionable instrument in the world. Unless you play zydeco, like Boozoo Chavis. Hey Do Right! by Wilson Anthony "Boozoo'' Chavis spans the generations with an exuberance that belies his age (he was 70 when this recording was made). The Louisiana singer/accordionist's 1955 hit, "Paper in My Shoe," is generally considered the first zydeco single, but Chavis left the music business soon after that. He spent decades as a jockey and a horse trainer before returning to the music of his youth in 1984. By the mid-1990s, Chavis had quickly re-established himself as the style's undisputed authority. As the singer put it in "Message from the Master": "In 1996, I'm still in the mix." That mix is a complex one, incorporating traditional songs and Chavis originals in a variety of upbeat Cajun and downbeat blues modes. "You got to know what to put with that Zydeco,'' he explained. "And what not to put.''Despite the mournful "Mother's Blues," this is fundamentally dance music. It's no accident that these songs enjoin their listeners to jump, stomp and boogie. "Whatcha gonna do when I do my song?/You get on the floor and you love to dance/You get on the floor and you take a chance," Chavis announces in "What You Gonna Do," and his percolating rhythms leave no room on the dance floor for argument. "I want you to stand up! You lazy down there," commands the singer before starting up the jaunty beat of "I Got a Camel." Chavis's lyrics taunt his listeners with a similar playfulness. "You gonna look like a monkey/When you get old," one song mocks. Such jibes are all in the spirit of fun, though. Boozoo Chavis doesn't want to make you mad. He just wants to make you dance. Posted November 8, 2006 3:21 PM | | |
ARTIST: Stir SONG/ALBUM: Stir GENRE: Rock RATING: 5
A trio of longtime friends from Missouri, Stir fits easily with the generation of hard rock bands that includes The Verve Pipe, Tonic, and Better Than Ezra. Yet the group’s sound also recalls “alternative” rockers like R.E.M. and Live, as well as neo-classic rock outfits such as Counting Crows. Add some jazz and country influences, and it becomes clear that Stir is not following any trend. All this comes naturally for singer/guitarist Andrew Schmidt, drummer Brad Booker, and bassist Kevin Gagnepain, who’ve been playing together for years. Schmidt and Booker are childhood friends who performed in their high-school jazz band while rocking at night. Gagnepain met the duo when the three attended the University of Missouri. They experimented with various formats, but always came back to the core trio. On thundering rockers like "Don’t Understand" and "Stale," Stir demonstrates that it has all the firepower it needs. Yet the trio also has a delicate side, showcased on dramatic ballads like "One Angel" and "Lady Bug." The band members add dulcimer, dobro, keyboards and pots and pans to the mix, giving the sound a homespun quality. "I was into heavy bands," recalls Schmidt, the band’s principal songwriter. "But I was also into jazz and took classical guitar. I can’t attribute my style to any one person’s influence."
Stir, the band’s major-label debut, was produced by Justin Niebank, whose credits include Eric Clapton and Blues Traveler. The trio doesn’t sound very much like the latter, but both bands share an interest in taking the best elements of late ‘60s rock and updating them. Stir certainly doesn’t lack confidence. "I don’t want to be like Elvis, I don’t want to be like Jim," sings Schmidt in "Lady Bug." "I just want to be myself right now / I’ll be better off than them.”
Posted November 8, 2006 3:12 PM | | |
ARTIST: Kathy Mattea SONG/ALBUM: The Innocent Years GENRE: Country RATING: 5
A number of different styles can be heard on Kathy Mattea's, The Innocent Years: country, of course, but also folk, gospel, soul and even some reggae. Yet the singer has no difficulty pinpointing the crucial ingredient. "I think there's more of me on this album than on any other album I've made," she said shortly after its release. Country music used to prize the mature performer with a hard-won perspective, but these days younger singers with pre-fab sounds dominate the charts. As a mature performer, Mattea may not be as marketable as she once was, but The Innocent Years is among her strongest efforts. The album was made during a difficult time for the singer. She interrupted the recording several times because both of her parents were seriously ill. When she finally went back to work, the experience changed her idea of what her music should be about. "I spent a lot of time thinking about what's important to me," Mattea explains. "I think this is an album about those things. It's an album of 'if not now, when?'" Although Mattea had a hand in writing only two of its songs, the album is notably personal. The singer chose the material to create an overall mood, ultimately rejecting half a dozen tunes that were originally set for the album. "If I felt like I was doing it from my head and not my heart, I dropped it," she said. The only mood-breaker is a playful honky-tonk tune, "B.F.D.," which Mattea placed at the end of the album.
The sound of the disc, which Mattea co-produced, is not as stark as its spirit. The lilting "Trouble With Angels" includes a reggae bass line and a soulful backup chorus. Yet the most important influence probably comes from confessional singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. Mattea may not write many of her songs, but The Innocent Years still speaks from her heart. Posted November 8, 2006 3:05 PM | | |
ARTIST: The Robert Cray Band SONG/ALBUM: Live from Across the Pond GENRE: Blues RATING: 5
The blues are certainly at the root of Robert Cray’s music. But calling him a bluesman is like calling Pavorotti an opera singer. It doesn’t begin to describe the complexity of Cray’s music the extent of his talent. Like Stevie Ray Vaughn and longtime pal Eric Clapton, Cray has pushed the blues to the top of modern pop charts and won an armful of Grammy Awards by making music that bristles with intoxicating relevance, sophistication and soul. It certainly doesn’t hurt that he’s one of the best guitar players of the past 50 years or that he sings like a classic Stax-Volt superstar. But the real secret to his influence and success is songwriting. Since arriving on the scene in 1974, he’s pumped out some of the most memorable blues-jazz-rock-soul tunes of the rock era – “Right Next Door (Because of Me),” “Phone Booth,” “Bad Influence,” “I Was Warned,” and more.
Amazingly, Cray never showcased his talent in a full-length live album. But the new The Robert Cray Band: Live from Across the Pond certainly fills that void in his long resume. The first release on Cray's own Nozzle Records, it features best moments from a week-long run at London's Royal Albert Hall in May 2006, opening for Clapton. The 14-track double CD features Cray and his band (keyboardist Jim Pugh, drummer Kevin Hayes and bassist Karl Sevareid) in a 90-minute tour de force, swinging from fiery, urbane renditions of Cray classics to taut new jams like “Twenty,” an anti-war tune told from the perspective of a young American soldier in Iraq.
Many live albums lack the spark of the real concert experience. But Cray has taken the best moments from his 7-night London run, piecing together an album that sounds fresh and spontaneous, whether Cray & Co. are exploring dark, doomed romances (“I Was Warned”), dangerous love triangles (“Right Next Door,” “The One in the Middle”) or classic blues heartache (“Time Takes Two”). Posted November 3, 2006 9:22 AM | | |
ARTIST: Meat Puppets SONG/ALBUM: Up On The Sun GENRE: Alternative RATING: 6
During the creation of indie rock -- the direct evolution of post-punk and post-hardcore styles that were popping up left and right in the mid-1980s -- one of the most unexpected sub-genres to appear was psychedelic "country punk." In fact, hindsight indicates it may not have been a sub-genre at all, just a name for the musical territory pursued by Arizona’s Meat Puppets. With their first two punk-country records, the Puppets began a transformation that reached its apex with 1985’s Up On The Sun, where their full-blown desert hallucinations meshed seamlessly with their natural punk-rock iconoclasm. The original plan formulated by guitarist Curt Kirkwood, his brother and bassist Cris Kirkwood, and drummer Derrick Bostrom was to rent an 8-track tape recorder to create a straightforward, homemade masterpiece. That scheme fell apart when the recordings became more complicated (and the music store wanted its tape machine back). Fortunately, thanks to this excellent reissue, the early conceptions of the album are now available. The band eventually tightened the arrangements and re-recorded them in a proper studio, and the results might be their finest work -- a kind of common ground between Moby Grape, The Minutemen and Willie Nelson.
The title track, along with "Swimming Ground," "Away," "Hot Pink," "Buckethead," "Two Rivers" and "Creator," are all MP classics. Curt Kirkwood's lyrics reach a crescendo on this album, with lines like "coal camper’s candles all lost in the snow" from "Up On The Sun," to "hot pink volcano in the heart of the tornado" from "Hot Pink." It would be hard to mistake these songs for anyone else's. Among the five newly released tracks, there is a beautiful, pin wheeling take on the title song, two versions of "Hot Pink" and "Maiden’s Milk," and a kind of re-christened "Mother American Marshmallow." A nice bonus is also a live performance video of "Swimming Ground." Posted October 28, 2006 2:41 PM | | |
USER: jules USER TYPE: Reviewer ARTIST: Storyville SONG/ALBUM: A Piece Of Your Soul GENRE: R&B RATING: 7
Our heroes say a lot about us. They establish our standards, define what we value, and provide a window to what we aspire to. Storyville’s heroes are legendary soul and blues artists -- the kind of performers whose raw energy, unfortunately, is rarely heard in today’s music. "We definitely wanted an old-school type of Otis Redding/Sam Cooke vocal on this album," said lead singer Malford Milligan. "To me, that stuff is like coming home." For those who yearn for the classic R&B sounds of the '60s and '70s, A Piece Of Your Soul will indeed feel like coming home. Loose and self-assured, its eleven tracks percolate with an infectious blend of soul, gospel and Texas guitar rock. Some of that seasoned sound can of course be credited to the band members' impressive resumes. Drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon are both veterans of the Arc Angels and Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Double Trouble. Guitarist David Grissom played with Joe Ely and John Mellencamp, while Dave Holt, Storyville’s other guitarist, performed with the Mavericks and Carlene Carter. The band’s only relative newcomer is Milligan, described by the Austin Chronicle as "the most amazing male singer in Austin, bar none."
"Nowadays, a lot of black music is really melodic,” explained Milligan. "But Otis and Sam and Stevie Wonder and the Isley Brothers, who were all real big influences on me, were almost staccato singers. They’d leave these gaping holes where nothing was said, just the music, and then they’d come back in, so whenever they said something, you’d hear it, and you’d feel it, and it felt good." Whether coaxing the heartbreak out of a blues ballad like "Cynical," or propelling listeners onto their feet with the funk-based title track, Storyville does its heroes proud and claims a rightful place among them.
Posted October 28, 2006 2:23 PM | | |
USER: jules USER TYPE: Reviewer ARTIST: Todd Rundgren SONG/ALBUM: The Very Best of Todd Rundgren GENRE: Pop RATING: 7
Years before Todd Rundgren fell in love with his computer and became a full-fledged techno-geek, he was busy supplying '70s pop radio with some of its most buoyant hits. Like so many commercially successful artists, most notably Joni Mitchell, Rundgren would eventually move on to more sophisticated styles, and in the process dismiss his earlier work as "simplistic fare." Decades later, maybe it really does feel that way to him. But for fans of unabashed pop, Rundgren need not apologize. As a solo artist, and with his band Utopia, he lit up the '70s with hit after tuneful hit, starting with the impossibly catchy and often misunderstood "We Gotta Get You A Woman" (Rundgren swears the line, "They may be stupid but they sure are fun" does not refer to women, as most people think it does). A multi-instrumental genius, Rundgren proceeded to write and perform nearly all of the tracks on a succession of irresistible singles, including "Be Nice To Me," "I Saw The Light," and perhaps his most enduring pop single, "Hello It's Me." In the subsequent era of sampling, tape loops and often tuneless hip hop, Todd Rundgren's uncanny gift for melody has come dangerously close to becoming a lost art. Posted October 28, 2006 2:12 PM | | |
ARTIST: Ron Sexsmith SONG/ALBUM: Other Songs GENRE: Pop RATING: 7
On Other Songs, Canadian songwriter Ron Sexsmith’s impeccable sense of melody makes it impossible to stop humming these tunes, despite their unassuming presentation. But this collection, a follow-up to his equally impressive debut, also confirms his standing as an insightful lyricist who, like the best painters, can depict emotionally complicated scenarios with a few simple brush strokes. An unabashed fan of '60s and '70s radio, his knack for buoyant pop can be heard on "Nothing Good" and other upbeat tracks. But much of the album is rendered in a subdued palette of muted horns and mournful steel guitar, a contrast that makes the optimistic tone of songs such as "Thinly Veiled Disguise" and "It Never Fails" even more affecting. And on his most delicate tunes, such as "April After All," a hushed lullaby, or "Pretty Little Cemetery," a meditation on life’s transience, Sexsmith’s winsome, vulnerable vocals challenge us to lean in and listen closely to observations that quietly unfold like an epiphany. Also recommended: Nick Drake - Way To Blue: An Introduction To Nick Drake; Chet Baker - The Best Of Chet Baker; Elvis Costello - The Very Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions.
Posted October 28, 2006 2:04 PM | | |
USER: jules USER TYPE: Reviewer ARTIST: Patty Larkin SONG/ALBUM: A Gogo: Live On Tour GENRE: Folk RATING: 7
Patty Larkin loves her job. But calling what she does a "job" hardly captures the depth and scope of her vocation. A singer/songwriter of the finest order, Larkin is a gifted poet, a fiery guitarist, and an artist who can engage a stranger in an unexpectedly intimate conversation. Here is how she describes what she does for a living: "On certain nights when the stars are aligned or the room sounds just right or maybe your hair happened to turn out incredibly well, the job includes an extended state of grace. It is something that you experience with the audience. You are all in the same moment. And that is amazing. It is all about air and sound and feeling. It is about not thinking. About playing to your heart's content. This is why I do what I do." The best of those one-of-a-kind evenings are captured on A Gogo: Live On Tour, Larkin's first in-concert recording. Culled from a 25-city national tour, these 14 tracks offer a portrait of the artist at the peak of her powers, with all of her intelligence, wit and bristling insights intact.
Larkin fans already know just how affecting her tunes can be from her previous releases, including Perishable Fruit, Strangers World, and Angels Running. The Chicago Tribune has called her "one of the most gifted performers in music today," while The New York Times compares her work to "the best of Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams." For this unplugged live release, the Boston-based troubadour set out to document her live performances as naturally as she could. "We recorded every show on tour," she says. "I wanted to get to the point where I forgot we had tape rolling." And that's how this collection comes across: as if we're right there in a quiet coffeehouse, watching from the front row as Larkin dazzles us with her inventive wordplay and nimble-fingered fretwork. It's an odd job," she admits. "Nights. Long commutes. Telephone booths. Foraging for food. Find the gig and play. But if things go well and you show up on time, in reasonably undamaged shape, the job includes applause."
Posted October 28, 2006 1:56 PM | | |
ARTIST: Alison Krauss SONG/ALBUM: Forget About It GENRE: Country RATING: 8
Alison Krauss knows how to turn up the energy. As fans of the country/ bluegrass sensation will testify, Krauss' fiery fiddling and Appalachian-tinged vocals can electrify an audience and transform even the stuffiest concert hall into a hoe-down. But there's another side to this Grammy-winning performer, one she finally allowed herself to explore more fully on Forget About It, her eighth album. A seasoned music veteran at 26, Krauss turned her formidable talent inward here and delved into complex emotional terrain on this, perhaps her most mature release. With only a handful of hushed, acoustic instruments behind her, she uses her exquisite vocal skills to create a quietly moving collection of tunes. Each track resonates with longing and regret, until the cumulative effect is a tour de force of subtlety and grace. "When you possess a great pop voice, it's inevitable that you'll someday make a pop album," wrote music journalist Geoffrey Himes of Forget About It, "and Alison Krauss has finally made hers."
Whether on "Stray," the gently pleading opening track, or "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference," a gorgeous rendition of Todd Rundgren's poignant ballad, Krauss draws us in and allows us to share her most reflective moments. The album closes with the lovely country waltz, "Dreaming Of You," with dobro specialist Jerry Douglas adding a mournful twang to the tight harmonies of Lyle Lovett and Dolly Parton. Soulful, sad and broodingly beautiful, this is one album you're not likely to forget about.
Posted October 28, 2006 1:48 PM | | |
USER: jules USER TYPE: Reviewer ARTIST: David Gray SONG/ALBUM: White Ladder GENRE: Pop RATING: 7
Welsh singer/songwriter David Gray had been dazzling critics for years with his lush songs of introspective longing and his gentle, melancholy vocals. But he'd never had the kind of breakthrough recognition that would have made him a household name. All that changed with White Ladder, Gray's fourth album. The album spent six weeks in the #1 slot on the Irish Top 30 charts, and was certified platinum six times over. The British music press also raved, comparing Gray to Van Morrison, and calling the release a "hymn to wonderment." So when Dave Matthews was ready to launch his own record label, he turned to Gray as the first artist he wanted to sign, having been a fan since stumbling across Gray's first recording, A Century Ends, in 1993.
Listen closely and you'll hear what attracted Matthews. From his epic, emotional cover of Soft Cell's "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye," to his own "Babylon II," which closes out this gorgeous collection of songs, Gray envelops his acoustic-based music with electronic beats, gauzy strings and melodic guitar playing. And throughout White Ladders, Gray sings his passionate, personal tunes in what Billboard described as "one of the most hypnotic and underrated voices in music today."
Posted October 28, 2006 1:34 PM | | |
ARTIST: Bela Fleck SONG/ALBUM: Live Art GENRE: Folk RATING: 8
Some things have to be experienced live. The music of Bela Fleck, whose imagination leads him on incredible flights of fancy, definitely falls into that category. A banjo player who’s completely redefined our concept of the instrument, Fleck and his band the Flecktones have astounded thousands of concert audiences with their wildly improvisational performances. Five years’ worth of those concerts have been condensed onto Live Art, a double album that captures the best moments from many of the band's most unforgettable shows. Along with Victor Wooten on bass and Future Man on synth-axe drumitar (an electronic hybrid of his own invention), Fleck is joined on these 20 tracks by fellow travelers Chick Corea, Branford Marsalis and Bruce Hornsby. Also along for the ride are two of his former bandmates from New Grass Revival -- Sam Bush on mandolin, and vocalist John Cowan, who performs a killer version of The Beatles’ "Oh Darling." Despite the sophistication of his music, Fleck never forgets that every performance is a dialogue between artist and audience, and that the give-and-take between musician and listener can trigger the unexpected. "Since our music is very complex, we need to make it fun for people," Fleck has said. "The humor also reflects the personalities of the musicians, whose joyfulness comes out in performance. Music can be a very emotionally deep experience, and it can also be a playful game. It’s nice to find all of that in one group."
For the uninitiated, here’s a chance to experience some of the most impeccable musicianship you’ve ever heard. And for those fortuante enough to have been to these shows, here’s proof, once and for all, that the music really was as good as you thought it was.
Posted October 28, 2006 1:23 PM | | |
ARTIST: Marlene Dietrich SONG/ALBUM: The Cosmopolitan Marlene Dietrich GENRE: Pop RATING: 6
Ernest Hemingway probably never set out to write a record review, but he inadvertently penned the perfect sound bite to describe Marlene Dietrich. "She also has that beautiful body and the timeless loveliness of her face," he wrote of the German femme fatale. "But if she had nothing but her voice, she could still break your heart with it." And break our hearts, she does, on The Cosmopolitan Marlene Dietrich, part of Columbia / Legacy's fascinating Art Deco CD series. Immortalized in such screen classics as The Blue Angel, Dietrich was a thinking person's sex symbol whose husky Teutonic tones were thick with innuendo. In his insightful liner notes, writer Will Friedwald describes the screen legend as "perhaps the first performance artist," and then concedes that "psychology and seduction are far more important tools to her than the ability to hit notes." It's true: she's not a musical virtuoso. But her imperfections merely add shading to her complex character. One minute, she sounds like an exhausted but still defiant Berlin cabaret singer on "Lili Marlene." Then, on "Falling In Love Again," she appears adrift on a sea of her own emotions, too weak to stem her heart's tide. Redolent of cigarette smoke and dark German beer, this CD evokes the heady thrill of sexual tension, the gloom of existential angst, and the unbearable pain of unrequited love.
Posted October 28, 2006 1:16 PM | | |
ARTIST: Bjork SONG/ALBUM: Selmasongs GENRE: Alternative RATING: 7
Of course, Bob Dylan deserves a shelf’s worth of accolades. He is, after all, one of the supreme songwriters of our age. But at the 2000 Oscar ceremonies, Dylan didn’t deserve the Academy Award for best movie song. Instead, members of the Academy should have honored Bjork for her brilliant, breathtaking work on Dancer In The Dark. The Icelandic pop star had already picked up the Best Actress award at Cannes for her acting debut as an impoverished immigrant factory worker who gradually loses her sight, and whose son has inherited the same degenerative condition. Bjork’s Selma turns to the escapism of musicals to brighten her workaday world. And it’s there -- in her song-and-dance filled daydreams -- where her dreary existence suddenly springs to life.
Selmasongs, the movie’s soundtrack, is short -- a seven-song EP that’s over in about half an hour. But during that brief span, Bjork creates a musical suite of glorious, gutsy genius. From the instrumental "Overture" -- whose hushed opening strains build into an explosion of timpani and brass -- through the quiet fadeout of its closing track, "New World," Bjork layers texture over unexpected sonic texture. In "Cvalda," in which she duets with co-star Catherine Deneuve, she welds the clang and clatter of industrial machinery to a cheery Broadway backdrop. And in the lullaby-like "Scatterheart," symphonic strings swirl and dive over trippy techno beats. But the album's real tour de force is "I’ve Seen It All," which she performs with Radiohead’s Thom York. An innocent, Zen-like optimism pours forth as she sings about accepting the limitations her blindness imposes ("What about China? Have you seen the Great Wall? / All walls are great if the roof doesn’t fall."). With Selmasongs, Bjork accomplished a rare feat: she produced a musical score that stands on its own, and maintains its ability to move us, beyond its film context. Selmasongs harks back to grand-scale, classic soundtracks, when composers focused more on art and less on commerce. When Paul McCartney writes a classical piece, we can admire his willingness to stretch himself and to tackle a difficult new genre. Still, there’s always an understanding that pop music is where his musical genius resides. With Selmasongs, Bjork seems to have found her true voice as a post-modern avant-garde composer. Years from now, it’s not hard to imagine these compositions being performed by serious symphonies -- liberated, over time, from the trappings of Bjork’s quirky pop diva persona.
Posted October 28, 2006 1:09 PM | | |
ARTIST: Joan Baez SONG/ALBUM: Gone From Danger GENRE: Folk RATING: 8
Anyone calling Joan Baez a "legend" to her face is likely to see Baez recoil uncomfortably in response. The truth is, her remarkable four-decade career may have earned her that tag. But Baez would rather be recognized for what she continues to do, not just be put on a pedestal like some sentimental object. While she may sing with the voice of experience, there's nothing dated about 1997's Gone From Danger, easily among her most memorable releases. Baez is likely to impress both longtime listeners and new ones with how totally contemporary her performances sound. Her first collection of new material since her 1992 Grammy-nominated 1992 release, Play Me Backwards, this album pairs Baez' untarnished voice with an outstanding selection of songs. Pouring over hundreds of tapes from dozens of writers, her finely tuned ear pointed her in the direction of Dar Williams, Betty Elders, Sinead Lohan, Richard Shindell and Mark Addison, all singer/songwriters whose lyrics sound as if they might have been custom-written for Baez.
The album includes two strong selections by Williams ("February" and "If I Wrote You"), a unsettling rumination on child abuse by Elders ("Crack in the Mirror"), and two Celtic-inflected tunes by Irish newcomer Lohan ("Who Do You Think I Am?" and "No Mermaid"). Addison (a singer-guitarist with The Borrowers) also supplies his moving tune, "Mercy Bound." And Shindell sensitively writes from various personas ("Reunion Hill," "Fishing" and "Money for Floods"), giving Baez plenty of room to exercise her masterful interpretive skills. Just as importantly, the album also includes a new song by Baez herself. Co-written with the album's producers, "Lily" reflects on forgotten dreams and diminished expectations, with lyrics that confess "I loved us just the way we were." Baez followers know that throughout her career she's been an outspoken supporter of rising young musicians, often extending herself to promote their material and help boost their emerging careers. No wonder, then, that Gone from Danger displays her uncanny ability to spot the best new talent around.
Posted October 27, 2006 4:42 PM | | |
ARTIST: Dwight Yoakam SONG/ALBUM: Dwightyoakamacoustic.net GENRE: Country RATING: 8
Dwight Yoakam has become both a successful film actor and country star. Take South Of Heaven, West Of Hell, the film the L.A.- based singer-songwriter not only co-wrote and starred in, but directed. And who could forget his chilling portrayal of an abusive husband in Sling Blade? Yoakam's first musical nod to the world wide web, however, was anything but a big Hollywood production. Recorded with only vocals and acoustic guitar, dwightyoakamacoustic.net is simple and direct, and almost entirely without artifice. The 25-song album carries the singer back to his Kentucky and Ohio roots. "The idea for this album came as a result of the audience's gracious response to the acoustic performances I did on the Last Chance tour," explained Yoakam. The collection includes "Little Sister," a hit for Elvis Presley in 1961 and for Yoakam 26 years later. The other 24 tunes are Yoakam originals, including favorites "Guitars, Cadillacs," "Little Ways," "Please, Please Baby," "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere" and "Buenas Noches From A Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses)."
These songs evoke the days when honky-tonk country inhabited the same roadhouses as rock 'n' roll. Although the album's simple sound is ideal for evoking the melancholy of "Lonesome Roads," Yoakam and his guitar can just as persuasively conjure a juke-joint atmosphere for strutting rockabilly numbers like "Fast As You." Such energetic arrangements recall Yoakam's early days in L.A., when many of his most fervent fans were members of that city's thriving "cow punk scene." Yet ironically, this old-fashioned album was designed for distribution through the Internet. Yoakam’s longtime colleague, Pete Anderson, produced the album and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dwight Yoakam don't need no band.
Posted October 27, 2006 3:42 PM | | |
USER: jules USER TYPE: Reviewer ARTIST: Ina May Wool SONG/ALBUM: Moon Over 97th Street GENRE: Folk RATING: 7
It's not unusual for an up-and-coming female singer-songwriter to be compared to Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, Beth Nielsen Chapman, or Sarah McLachlan. But Jane Austen is another matter. Ina May Wool, perhaps alone among her peers, has been compared to Austen, mostly because the contemporary American troubadour -- like the 19th-century English novelist -- knows how to spin a yarn. "Sometimes the songs just pop out," says Wool. "The words are mostly true, a combination of observation and personal experiences, either my own or friends. I like to tell the audience a story." Wool hails from Massachusetts, but she eventually moved New York, as the title of her debut album reveals. Moon Over 97th Street contains a dozen small vignettes from the big city. In the characteristically lyrical title song, a woman asks the uptown moon to “shine down on this dirty world/And show me how to get to him.”
Such evocative images are typical of Wool's tunes. She initially honed her craft as a member of the Fast Folk group, a songwriter’s workshop that has helped develop the work of Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin and others. Like those performers, Wool writes songs that are rooted in the folk tradition but not limited by it. She and her closest collaborator, producer and husband Daniel A. Weiss, supplement the album's folk-rock arrangements with horns and backup-vocal chorales. The album's jauntiest song is "J'ai Gagne (I Won)," a tale of a happy marriage and happier divorce that gets the full-on Cajun treatment. Wool developed her eclectic style by working with, and for, other artists. After moving to New York, she studied music formally while doing session work. She also lent her soprano to jingles, backing vocals and other music that expressed someone else's vision. "I kind of rediscovered my voice as a solo performer, and I feel it's much stronger for the process I've gone through," she says of her style. On Moon Over 97th Street, the unusual contours of Wool's expressive music are on full display. Also recommended: Lori Carson - Where It Goes; Ani DiFranco - Out of Range; Suzanne Vega - Solitude Standing.
Posted October 27, 2006 3:27 PM | | |
ARTIST: Third Eye Blind SONG/ALBUM: Blue GENRE: Rock RATING: 6
On Third Eye Blind's second album, Blue, the guitars rage and singer Stephan Jenkins howls. The Golden Gate Boys Choir harmonizes. And fans of the San Francisco quartet's quadruple-platinum debut were pleased. On Blue, Third Eye Blind was still a rock band, but a decidedly different one. The album tempers the band's natually aggressive sound with more tempered vocal arrangements, as well as horns, strings and sonic accents derived from a wide range of influences, including hip-hop and Indian music. Ironically, this musical shift happened on an album that was supposed to have a stripped-down style. Lead singer Jenkins, who co-produced Blue, was intent on capturing the band's live sound in the studio. The results can be heard with the band in top form on "Wounded" and "The Red Summer Sun," stark but surging in a style not unlike U2's epic rockers. "I think a lot of bands tend to re-do their first album," explained bassist-keyboardist Arion Salazar. "I don't think that we've done that at all." Added Jenkins: "It's about finding something of our own." That something is a hard-driving and dramatic yet consistently tuneful style. Even at its most vehement, Third Eye Blind provides a full complement of pop hooks. Such songs as "Never Let You Go" and "An Ode to Maybe" have a certain swagger, though melodically they're still pretty sweet. Also recommended: Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left to Lose; Stereophonics - Performance and Cocktails; Therapy – Troublegum. Posted October 27, 2006 3:13 PM | | |
ARTIST: Lorenza Ponce SONG/ALBUM: Imago GENRE: Pop RATING: 7
There's a whole world in the songs of Lorenza Ponce or, more accurately, in their arrangements. A veteran of Japanese new age star Kitaro's traveling band, Ponce (pronounced "ponce-say'') is a classically trained violinist. Her debut album, Imago, features both her playing and singing. Only four of the 11 tracks are instrumentals. Ponce's melodies are rooted in folk music, while her arrangements enlist electric guitar and programmed keyboards. They also use both Western and Eastern instruments to evoke -- subtly, yet pungently -- a universe beyond the violinist's classical background. Ponce's lyrics (co-written with her sister Rachel, Giovanni Fusco and others) visit such far-flung sites as Japan ("The Road to Hasadera") and Scotland ("Isle of Arran"). But her music doesn't conjure those places too literally.
The Celtic, Asian, and Middle Eastern elements in this singer/songwriter's music are blended imaginatively, creating something fresh and unexpected. "The Road to Hasadera" is characteristic of Ponce's approach. This song was inspired by Ponce's visit to a Japanese temple, but its opening vocal drone elicits India, while its distinctive percussion and sinuous violin counterpoint suggest the Middle East. The song captures Ponce's vivid memory of the rows of brightly colored statues that she witnessed at the temple. "I asked one of the resident monks what they were," she recalls, "and he told me this was the temple of unborn children, each statue represented a child. I was stunned. It was such a beautiful remembrance." Such exotic locations are summoned by the Golden Palominos' Nicky Skopelitis, who plays oud, baglama and electric sitar. But these foreign timbres are only a small part of the lush sound devised by Ponce and producer Mike Pela, perhaps best known for his work with Sade. For all its worldliness, Imago has a richly melodic style that's entirely Western. The multi-layered vocals of "This Town" as well as the title track are anything but austere.
Posted October 27, 2006 2:59 PM | | |
USER: jules USER TYPE: Reviewer ARTIST: The Mavericks SONG/ALBUM: Super Colossal Smash Hits GENRE: Country RATING: 6
Beginning in the late 1980s, country music underwent dramatic changes, and in the '90s, nobody was more comfortable with that development than the Mavericks. This independent-minded quartet moved from Miami to Nashville and, musically at least, back again during its career. Super Colossal Smash Hits of the 90's: The Best of the Mavericks collects eight of the band's best-loved songs, but opens with four additional tracks that live La Vida Loca. These newer songs demonstrate that, after selling four million albums during the decade of country's greatest era of commercial success, the Mavericks still prefer to make music on their own terms. Longtime Mavericks fans will remember the energy of such songs as "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down," the band's biggest U. S. hit. But they may be surprised by such tracks as "Pizziricco" and the Latinized remakes of the Tremelos' 1967 pop-rock hit, "Here Comes My Baby," and the Buck Owens' classic, "Think of Me (When You're Lonely)." These tunes are definitely more South Beach than Opry. "I've always said 'self-indulgence in a positive way,' explains drummer Paul Deakin of the band's long-time refusal to follow accepted formulas.
At one point, the band's creative self-indulgence yielded Trampoline, an uneven album that failed to establish much of a connection with the band's American audience. But just when the Mavericks (and the industry) were wondering whether they'd lost their touch, the album's "Dance The Night Away" brought Mavericks-mania to Britain and ignited sales there. That song is included on this compilation, giving stateside listeners a chance to rediscover the music that made the band a perennial European favorite. "They're not so worried about what kind of music it is," notes Cuban-American singer/songwriter Raul Malo of European listeners. "They're just worried about whether they like it or not."
Posted October 27, 2006 2:48 PM | | |
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