A to Z Album and Gig Reviews
A Bristolian four piece providing a vehicle for singer-songwriter Chris Pritchett, they've been not undeservedly compared to Crowded House while they also cite the likes of James Taylor, David Gray, the Eagles, CS&N and Tom McRae among influences. I'd also suggest Ezio and Gerry Rafferty's in there too. Suffice to say if any of the above tickle your aural senses, then you'll find equal listening pleasures amid the jazz coloured folk rock here, Pritchett's warm vocal style enhanced by arrangements that enfold mandolin, cello, piano, bongos and sax.
Lyrically, his songs variously address broken relationships ( Waiting Up), lost opportunities (Wheels, Treading Water), death (Outside To In), war (Roundabout, written about events in Darfur) and, just to bring some light to the melancholy, hints of hope (One Day), defiance (Woven) and a determination to rise above the disappointments and hurt (Ghost Of A Smile), and while there's nothing radio friendly enough to make them overnight discoveries, they'll never be short of a welcome around the songwriter circuit.
www.jacandamusic.com
www.chrispritchett.com
www.myspace.com/jacanda
Mike Davies March 2007
David Kidman
Jackpot - F+ (Surfdog)
Let's be honest, with shades of the Velvets (Black Road, Upside Down), psychedelic chugging funky blues rock (Adventures Galore), and the sonic distortions of If We Could Go Backwards not everything here is going to appeal to those who like to keep their Americana realtively pure. But, fronted by Rusty Miller, there's a wonderful narcotic weariness and sense of strung out ennui and failure to the Sacramento crew's fourth album that would make Wilco's most mournful moments seem positively happy clappy. Vaccine conjures vague thoughts of Buffalo Springfield with even more of a stoned drone vibe, Headlights is a backporch bluegrass tribal stomp, When We Get Together a voodoo Tom Waits fever, Dizzy marrying Exile On Main Street narcoticism with Giant Sand's desert night noirish guitar moans, Airplanes and Secrets a cracked throat acoustic drunken lurch around a godforsaken 3am motel room.
Gloriously worn down on the ironically titled Euphoria where Miller sounds like he's barely raising his head from the bar to sing and then hitting the evening highway for the irresistible electronica tinged melodic rolling rhythms of Windshield Wipers, it all closes with the frankly brilliant Charlie Watts Is God, a seven minute crescendo hymn to the saving grace of rock n roll that is probably what Travis would sound like if they were the Dream Syndicate playing Crazy Horse. Make that an A-
Mike Davies
Alan Jackson is the undisputed leader of the 'big hat country' pack. It is rumoured that wherever he goes, his Stetson arrives an hour before him. But the 'biggest beast in the country jungle', has looked to pastures new for his latest album Like Red On A Rose. Teaming up with Alison Krauss was not only surprising it was inspired. The earthier more natural Krauss has motivated Jackson to look inside himself and the results are more intimate and more personal. This isn't a great country album, it's a great album full stop.
In fact on a few of the tracks, it's Jackson's instantly recognisable mahogany voice that is the only real clue as to its genre.
But it's not only the wide range of Like A Red Rose that is a joy. With Alison Krauss as producer, it would be reasonable to expect a more bluegrass, natural sound but she has guided Jackson with a light touch, a steady hand and an objective eye. Instead of 'Alan Jackson sings Alison Krauss', the pair have both ventured out of their respective comfort zones.
On Like Red On A Rose Jackson is a superb 'owner' of the tracks. As the lush ballads unfurl you begin to believe that you're in the presence of the definitive versions, the richness of the title track, the closeness of Wait A Minute will be the yardsticks by which all other versions are judged and found wanting. These are now Alan Jackson's songs, almost as if he'd written them all.
For a man who has sold 44 million albums, scored 31 no 1s and is the most nominated artists in CMA history, there's also a charming self consciousness about The Firefly's Song, Jackson is never quite comfortable with. It's as if he's not been in the position of revealing so much, for a long time. Instead of the trappings of superstardom acting as a barrier, the soul of the man beneath is revealed.
There's a classic timelessness to Like Red On A Rose. It will not suffer the vagaries of fad or fashion, the sound of a man singing what is in his heart will live forever.
Michael Mee, Editor Hawick News, November 2006
I started off thinking that the great, sturdy real-country playing and fine sound of this release couldn't in any way redeem this new effort from country superstar Alan - it's his tenth! Probably best described as mainstream country of a reasonably predictable kind, for which there's no doubt a huge market, I thought. After all, credibility is bound to go out of the window with the opening track - well, what do you expect with a title like Meat And Potato Man?! I honestly thought this was a p***-take, it's so stuffed full of chauvinist redneck stereotype….. I'll admit things improved somewhat thereafter for three cuts, but then we get back to the parody (or do we?!) with www-dot-memory (can you resist the chorus "If you feel like love just click on me, at www-dot-memory" or lines like "No you won't have to touch me or even take my hand, Just slide your little mouse around until you see it land"?!!). And It's Alright To Be A Redneck could almost have been written by Frank Zappa - I just lurve li'l ol' throwaway lines like "the kids are gonna cry and the chicken's gonna fry"… Hell, this guy can't be serious! So in the right mood, you'll no doubt find some of this album pretty hilarious, but then Alan can turn in the tearjerkers like I Still Love You and Maybe I Should Stay Here with complete authenticity and not a trace of self-parody. And as I said, he's got some excellent musos in tow - Bruce Watkins and Brent Mason (guitars), Glenn Worf (bass), Paul Franklin (pedal steel, dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), etc etc…. and the balance and production values are superb. Is the finale (Three-Minute Positive Not-too-Country Up-tempo Love Song) positively Alan's last word on the subject? - I doubt it somehow….. Darned confused or what? - I sure am, 'cos this album is a whole lot of fun!
David Kidman
David Kidman August 2007
Jenifer Jackson - So High (Bar/None)
Out of New York, Jackson's a wisp of velvet voiced guitar playing songstress who to judge by this, her third album, clearly spent many months of her formative years dreaming in her bedroom to a mixed album collection of Carole King, Laura Nyro, Marvin Gaye, Astrid Gilberto and Burt Bacharach. Thus there's the folksy pop of Down So Low and the sunshine 60s We Will Be Together, a country-folk Through Leaves, 70s soul rippling through Got To Have You and The Power of Love (which manages to fuse She's Not There and You're So Vain in the opening bars) and laid back bossa nova sways for Since You've Been Away and Got To Have You.
As cool as fragrant deodorant in a sultry cityscape, ably assisted by multi-instrumentalist producer Patrick Sansone, Jackson brings a delicate sexy perspiration to the title track and the wind chiming summery float down the stream acoustic delicacy of Blue Forever Mine, while The Invitation opens on a chugging train rhythm before skipping its heels down some jazzman's boulevard, chiffon scarf fluttering in the breeze behind her.
She may flit through an assortment of easy on the ear sophisticated musical genres, but what remains consistent is the fluidity of her vocals, forming themselves to whatever shapes the music demands and the urban romance concerns of her lyrics, whether she's talking about the power of love to provide meaning, the thrill of that first encounter or the melancholy of hearts healing. She's currently without a European deal, so perhaps someone could just start whispering things like 'the next Norah Jones' and then stand back to avoid the rush.
Mike Davies
I'm no big fan of mainstream Nashville and professional stetson wearers, but despite some good ol' boy twanging rock n country roll (Work In Progress is saved by its ordinary unreconstructed guy trying to be a New Man lyrics) I'm willing to make an exception in Jackson's case. Firmly in the mould of Haggard and Jones, his baritone twang is one good reason, his ability to pin his songs with wit and emotional heart is a better one, rising above the usual maudlin sentimentality of the genre to make something like Drive, a song about learning to drive a boat as a kid, resonate with a universal truth about fathers and their kids. Ditto First Love, a song not about a girl but a 1955 car that he bought, sold and then had her returned to him years later as a Christmas gift. Like that, other songs too sound autobiographical notes as in the love letters to his family, Once In A Lifetime Love and The Sounds, while his choice of covers have that same honest 'meat and potatoes man' feel, as with the Appalachia hued A Little Bluer Than That. The centrepiece of course is the song around which the album swiftly formed. Included in both its studio form and the live version that debuted at the 35th annual CMA Awards, written the week before, Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) is a moving summation of a nation's feelings about the tragedy of Sept 11, the reactions to events, the lingering aftershock of sorrow, survivor guilt, fear, the desperate need to reach out to family and strangers. "I'm just a singer of simple songs, I'm not a real political man/I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran," he sings. Maybe so, but he's got as keen an insight into the everyman heart as anyone in country.
Mike Davies
Joe Jackson, remember him? He's back, well he's not really been away but this time he's back with his original band from the late 70's/early 80's. This album is the result of four nights recording at California venues on his 104-show tour and the thirteen tracks portray a man and his band totally at ease with themselves. The songs are gleaned from his back catalogue along with a smattering of new songs from his latest studio album, Volume 4.
The familiar strains of Steppin' Out open the album but they are in an unfamiliar but excellent slower setting. This is just Joe on piano and vocal and it is just as effective as the single that came from the Night and Day album. There is massive energy coming from the stage and Awkward Age (from Volume 4), Sunday Papers (Look Sharp), Don't Wanna Be Like That (I'm The Man) and Got The Time (Look Sharp) are testament to that and it shows that the old vibe is still there along with the more sophisticated current sound. Machine gun, staccato guitars and almost punk-like energy are the trademarks of these songs.
Joe's first album, Look Sharp, is well represented and the band give fine performances of One More Time, Look Sharp and Fools In Love in addition to the already mentioned Sunday Papers and Got The Time. These older songs are given a sympathetic treatment are well received by the audience, especially on Fools In Love which has a segway into the Yardbirds' For Your Love. His voice shows no sign of decay through the years and, in fact, he considers himself to be a better singer and songwriter nowadays - no argument here. Down To London, from the Blaze Of Glory album and Love At First Light from Volume 4, are good examples of Jackson's belief in his singing voice and Sunday Papers shows his vocal dexterity.
The band get a little funky and throw in some reggae beats on Fairy Dust and Beat Crazy from Volume 4 and Beat Crazy albums respectively, Jackson turning on the angry old man routine on the former. This is a stunning live album and has a band that sounds that they have been playing together for 25 years rather than one who recorded three albums in two years and then split up for the next 23.
www.rykodisc.co.uk
www.joejackson.com
David Blue
It's six years since Kate's last album, the stunningly good Hydrangea (see the Fish Records Essentials list on their website, link below), and in the intervening years she's married and had children as well as putting together the 13 songs here. Like its predecessor, You Call That Dark is a mainly collection of short stories that reflect real life - it's a highly narrative disc that details the trials and tribulations of ordinary people, their lives and their families.
There's a recurring theme of farms and farmers throughout the disc, and these songs provide some of the more memorable highlights, from the farmer having to sell his farm as his children don't want to take over (Pete's Gonna Sell), the troubles of an old Gaelic farmer in a modern hospital (What A World, What A God), and the story of an fragile lady living in an old farm (Helen Has A House).
While the disc may have a candidly sad air to it, this is balanced out by Kate's tender and delicate vocals that bring a lighter feel to many of the songs. All the tracks are thoughtfully arranged and performed, there are few, if any, contemporary singer/songwriters who construct songs as intelligently as Kate - they're full of pretty and often simple melodies, but the arrangements are varied and complex. This is a musically sophisticated disc that draws its influences from many sources, some obvious, others a little less so, and like the very best music of any style it reveals more detail with each listen.
While the disc is acoustic guitar led, the list of instruments is varied and includes Hammond, harmonium, xylophone and piano (notably the piano accompaniment on Helen Has a House is beautiful), and while most of the backing vocals are provided by Kate and the musicians, Mary Lee Kortes lends her vocal support to three tracks.
On first listen You Call That Dark may appear simple and unassuming, but after a few listens the disc really stands out - it has a character, honesty and intelligence that make it irresistible and hugely rewarding. Highly recommended.
Neil Pearson
This album is available from Fish Records, champions and mail order suppliers of the best albums from singer/songwriters. MP3 tracks can be listened to on their website
www.fishrecords.co.uk
Kate Jacobs - You Call That Dark (Bar None)
Somewhere between getting married, having two children, and growing flowers, the Hoboken based singer-songwriter's managed to put together a long awaited follow up to 1998's Hydrangea. While a childlike quality remains in her voice, where she once echoed Victoria Williams there's much more of Dolly Parton about her tone and phrasing these days, particularly evident on Lavender Line, though in terms of her short story songs another reference point would be Nanci Griffith.
Produced by guitarist Dave Schramm, it's a dusty rural album's worth of warm rootsy pop suffused with a gentle melancholia and wistfulness in its tales of ordinary lives inevitably informed by her own emotional experiences as wife and mother.
As with Hydrangea, family concerns loom large; the opening Your Big Sister a tribute to the inspiration and sacrifices of the first born, God Bless Ione a rowdily ramshackle jangling and tumbling pop song about her dad and the shrink who brought calm to his storms. But she's even more anchored to her farming heritage and the lives of those who've followed the calling and found the world leaving them behind.
Farmers and farms populate the album with stories of loss and love. Pete's Gonna Sell pretty much sums up the state of affairs as she talks of a neighbour reluctantly selling his hundred year old apple farm because his kids don't want to take it on while, again noting how many farms go down each spring, in Helen Has a House she wonders how long the frail old dear who owns it can continue to keep it going. Hardly surprising then to find Tall Buildings and its lament at the cost of development "as beauty's laid to waste.'
Elsewhere in the deceptive lullaby sounding What A World, What A God an aged Gaelic speaking farmer winds up in hospital, refusing the morphine that would ease his suffering because he thinks the nurses are asking for money and he's afraid the medical costs would be too much for his family to bear. But, on a more bittersweet upbeat note, there's the rocking If It's an Elm Tree which uses an elderly mechanic's lifetime accumulation of a junked cars in his huge field as an image of the things we hang on to that give us comfort and security, of a 'whole life lived on just one farm'.
She may 'walk in fear of certain pain' caused by the passing of time and of words left unsaid, as she sings on I Walk In Fear (which surely borrows its melodic refrain from On Top Of The World) but even though a sad note of mortality squeezes into the lyric, on the shuffling jazzily brushed Life Can Be Sweet she's equally aware of the simple joys to be found in knowing the names of the flowers and hearing the birds sing. Likewise The Silent Hills, which borrows its melody from Plaisir D'Amour, affirms the healing power of the landscape.
Topped off with a 5-piece jazz ensemble klezmer arrangement of Shakespeare's sonnet That Time of Year (itself a lament for passing years), for all the themes of loss there remains a welcomingly sense of comfort in listening to her sing, a sense of timeless wisdom mingled with the smell of woodsmoke and the sound of chidlren running through fields to dangle their toes in the creek. Even if it's only in memories.
Mike Davies
Kate Jacobs - Hydrangea (Small Pond/East Central One)
Some albums haunt you, stirring as they do memories of times past whilst giving you glimpses of something you can't quite touch. Kate Jacob's Hydrangea is one such. My glimpse was of long ago; a school choir singing All Things Bright And Beautiful with all the echoes of lost childhood that evokes . Gentle innocence and unpolished simplicity are constants throughout this collection of very personal story-songs from New Jersey Kate. Her voice is something between angel and child and it's entirely in keeping that two children's choruses are included.
Kate records with David Schramm on electric and acoustic guitars, piano, accordion, recorder, lap steel, tambourine and vocals; James MacMillan on bass guitar and vocals; Alan Bezozi on drums, percussion, birds. Other vocal contributions are made by Vicki Peterson, Susan Cowsill and children from two Hoboken schools: Mustard Seed School and Hudson School sing the two choruses These are inspired by the great Russian Anna Akhmatova's poetry, a choice which is not random synchronicity. Kate's Russian ancestry, with its passionate intensity, are all in the mix.
The Calm Comes After and What About Regret, Kate's two previous albums, will be released on East Central One early September 2000 and available on her current Tour (see our Listings).
Kate Jacobs is now on tour. Her songs, performance and the lady herself are quite beautiful in a non-traditional way. She's raven-haired, petite, seemingly fragile, and yet alone on stage accompanying herself on guitar, she has a captivating strength which means you can't look away or not listen! Kate's songs are stories/glimpses of her family's past, Eddy who went to fight in the Spanish civil way, a farmer who grew 'weed' in his hedgerow, "Never Be Afraid" (Russian immigrants arriving in America), "Honeybees" (a sweet lullaby which contains a family history of this century's wars and revolution) and more. These songs are always insightful and sung with a meet-your-eyes honesty, a rare thing, and her radiance illuminates the stage. She's very, very good. Go and see her if she's in your area in the next couple of weeks.
members.aol.com/JacobsKate
www.eastcentralone.com
Sue Cavendish
Although they share a love of the blues, unlike his brother, the younger Jagger sibling (he's 59 to Mick's 63) is steeped in country flavoured r&b, New Orleans funk and the zydeco and cajun of Louisiana. All of which are present and very correct on the band's third outing, a decidedly good time collection of feet itching tunes that hits the Clifton Chenier/Johnny Allen swing on Strangelove and She's A Jewel, splashes around in the boogie swamp with Cream In My Coffee and the gris gris bones of Everybody, dances around the country rhythm n blues and accordion squeezing floor of Got Me Where You Want Me in the company of Sam Brown, and slides into the snake-eyed blues for On The Road, 15% Extra, and a slow burning moody Junkman, the latter featuring blistering laid back bluesy guitar courtesy of Dave Gilmour.
The band, made up of Slim Chance keyboard/violin veteran. Charlie Hart, brothers Malcolm and Jim Mortimore on drums and guitar, and bassist, Paul Emile are as tight as you'd expect from seasoned musos, while you might recognise the family connection duetting on DJ Blues, a tribute to such practitioners of good time blues as Elmore James, Buddy Guy and Roosevelt Sykes.
It's never going to find them playing any Super Bowls anytime soon, but if you happen to see them billed down some smoky barroom you can guarantee they'll provide a lot more satisfaction.
Mike Davies, February 2006
Chris Jagger - Channel Fever (Hypertension Music)
David Blue
Jah Wobble - Could Have Been A Contender (Trojan)
This is a really handsome super-bargain-price anthology that presents a pretty exhaustive (three discs, not far short of four hours' playing-time!) career-so-far overview of the often hard-to-pin-down renegade bass guitarist and songwriter. Compiled by the man himself, and most persuasively too, it reaches far beyond the public image into less frequently charted territory, probing the deepest recesses of his many and fruitful collaborative ventures and covering a truly dazzling array of ideas, sounds and idioms, each with JW's typical energy and boundless integrity. Proving, in fact, that whatever you yourself might think of the end product (and I make no apology for any of it - it's all first-rate), the guy's hertz has been in the right place all along! Audibly, that very beating heart is his immediately identifiable pulsating, lithe bass playing - hey, this man virtually reinvented the sound of the bass guitar after all! This anthology is the first-ever major retrospective set to chart the amazing 25+-year career of Jah Wobble (aka John Wardle), right from the pioneering experimental nihilistic punkery of PIL in the late 70s through his adventurous and groundbreaking forays into fusion with world-music (before the term was even invented, you might say) then his increasingly eclectic work with The Invaders Of The Heart. It also takes in a number of JW's celebrated collaborations with all manner of musical personalities from every conceivable corner of the musical globe - from Sinead O'Connor (Visions Of You) to jazz saxer Evan Parker (Passage To Hades), Natacha Atlas (Shout At The Devil) to Dubliner Ronnie Drew (narrating the work of sundry Celtic poets), Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim (Requiem III) to Chinese Ku-Cheng player Zi-Lan Liao (River Suite). In his time, JW has embraced all manner of cultural influences, from contemporary classical composers like Arvo Pärt to the poetry of William Blake, and engaged in deconstruction exercises on folksong (Blacksmith) whereby he forged his own continually evolving brand of English roots music, while also espousing DIY-ambient (with Brian Eno) and even funk-techno (with Can's Holger Czukay). Musics that make ostensibly strange bedfellows will with JW much of the time seem perfectly natural drinking companions, the outcome being music that's genuinely cutting-edge, exciting and gripping, invariably unpredictable but imaginative and worthwhile almost to a fault. Yes, JW's always been a contender in my book, and this exceptional-value three-disc set has introduced me to some wonderful and yes, inspiring and intriguing music that I'd missed first time round. There's even some stuff which never got released properly, like the ultra-commercial Josey Walsh (again featuring Sinead O'Connor). Perhaps more than any other anthology, this one's made me want to hear every one of JW's previous releases in its entirety - I'm almost scared of missing out on anything more! The anthology is very creatively segued in places, but - and this is its one mildly frustrating feature - its determinedly non-chronological format prevents the novice and the more experienced listener alike from getting much of a handle on the development of JW's multi-faceted musical personality. Having said which, it all emphasises the man's frightening consistency, which is almost as dominant as that telltale underpinning bass playing. An essential and ear-opening set.
David Kidman
The latest addition to the hushed alt-folk singer-songwriter list, Jain's an ex-pat Londonder now based in New York, her debut album likely to be on the shopping list of those who've previously bought Vashti Bunyan, Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom while the spare multi-tracked vocal and mournful violin of Sailor bears the stamp of Sandy Denny.
It's all very minimalist and intimate, a melancholy piano here, meditative guitar there, muted brass putting in the occasional appearance (French horn lifting the aptly titled Haze above the clouds to take flight) and strings soothing the sometimes furrowed confessional brow as she addresses relationships wounded, splintered or healing.
Her voice is husky and dark, bending the notes around the simple rustic melodies and stripped back arrangements to reveal more colours than might be immediately apparent. The nursery waltzing Disgrace with its bluebottle harmonica, the musing piano doodles of Loaded, the quite in/out breathing rhythms to the fragile romanticism of No Mistake and her quiet, cool edge of a breakdown slow build on the back of a stabbing piano note, accordion and brushed drum through the trad styled ballad Talking all offer scintillating highlights, but there's much here to send you giddy with shivers.
Mike Davies March 2008
Chris James - Trick Of The Light (Self Produced )
Ask Chris James what he thinks of this, his first CD, and he'll tell you 'it 's not very good really'. So, ask yourself why would John Wood producer of many classic 60's records from Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, etc be willing to lend his technical skills to this release? Why would Rick Kemp of Steeleye Span add bass and Gavin Sutherland of The Sutherland Brothers blow some harmonica over the record? The answer is simple. Chris James is one of the most modest guys that you'll meet.
Sure, his debut includes plenty of blues material that you've heard elsewhere with Blind Willie McTell's 'Statesboro Blues, Robert Johnson's 'Come On in My Kitchen' and the closing track 'Irene Goodnight'. Yet, the latter lasts eight minutes and manages to keep you concentrated over the full length of its melancholic distraction. Not an easy task given the number of versions that you've probably heard of this song. His delivery is delightful with both great guitar work and a stylish vocal and, let's be honest, there isn't that much great acoustic blues about these days. In amongst the tracks written by Skip James (the marvellously titled 'If You Haven't Any Hay Get On Down The Road) and Steve James ('Will And Testament '), there is a solitary track by Chris called 'Life's Too Short'. It's more than a half-decent song and if he expanded on this, there is certainly room amongst Eric Bibb, Kelly Joe Phelps et al for another bluesy acoustic guitarist of note. Step up Mr Modesty. The time is right.
You can get hold of this CD (including P & P) by sending a cheque for £13, payable to 'Chris James' at 57 Scotby Road, Carlisle CA4 8BD.
Steve Henderson
Salisbury-born and now residing in Kent, singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer Keith, who was very active on the early-80s singer-songwriter scene, is now probably better known (at least in recent years) for his project The Songs Of Nick Drake, which both succeeded in giving that artist a higher profile and enhanced Keith's own reputation as a sensitive interpreter of others' work. For this new project, Keith has teamed up with a fine double bass player, Rick Foot, to give us his take, both through a live show and this companion CD, on some of the works of Frederico Garcia Lorca, one of the 20th century's most strikingly individual and influential poets, who was murdered during the Spanish Civil War. The poems are rendered in welcomely sympathetic English translations which have been undertaken by a number of different "literary enthusiasts", so there's no problem there; and the standard of musicianship (guitar, double bass) is second to none - ditto the ancillary musical contributions from Richard Causon, Tim Edey and Martin Ditcham. But, although Keith's gently sultry singing and the style of his musical settings both fit reasonably with the more hauntingly evocative "romantic-impressionist-hangover" aspect of Lorca's writings (a mood that was quite prevalent in the 20s and 30s while Lorca was active), it can't in all honesty capture the intrinsically fiery, hothouse aura, the rough passions which are so much a feature of Lorca's world: instead of bold primary colours, Keith offers us pastel shades, only colouring part of the total picture. For instance, on Preciosa And The Wind there's no sense of that "furious wind", and none of the animal intensity of the gypsy: the overpowering sensory impact of some of the imagery is missing, and it's all curiously tame and languid. Similarly on Dawn In New York: although this is better, in that Keith varies his delivery to embrace a kind of Sprechstimme, where's the visceral impact of the "hurricane of black pigeons splashing in putrid waters"? Earlier, and despite the use of a more urgent rhythmic backdrop, The Unfaithful Wife may capture some of the eroticism but not the central fire of the forbidden flamenco, and The Feud is almost detached in its portrayal of Lorca's frightening vision. Keith's most successful in capturing the metaphysical conundrum of Floating Bridges. The final track is a version of Leonard Cohen's adaptation Take This Waltz, seductive in its own way but altogether too smoothly textured and almost matter-of-fact rather than conveying the swooning and heady atmospherics of the poem. So - whilst not denying Keith's good intentions, or the depth of his personal response to Lorca (and he's evidently soaked up the Andalusian ambience during his stay there two years ago), this particular project can only ever be considered a partial success since Keith's own personal palette just isn't able to contain all of the requisite colours that would bring Lorca's vision fully alive.
www.poemsofgarcialorca.com
www.keith-james.com
David Kidman December 2007
Keith James - The Songs of Nick Drake (Hurdy Gurdy)
A singer-songwriter in his own right as well as running the Dream of Oswald recording studios, James is a big Drake admirer. So much so that he's been touring a live tribute show performing Drake's best loved material in a band format they were never heard when the man himself was alive. To which end he's also recorded this 12 track collection of songs from Drake's three albums, which, although James's voice is less fragile than Nick's, offers fairly faithful interpretations and some fine guitar work. But while the likes of Rider On The Wheel, Fruit Tree and Black Eyed Dog sound somewhat more robust and James' performance is sensitive and faultless, one has to wonder what's the point. As a live concert I'm sure this works with a magical spell, intoxicating Drake devotees and newcomers alike, but while it serves as an admirable tribute and introduction to one of English contemporary folk's greatest names surely you'd be better off buying the originals and appreciating the genius at first hand?
Mike Davies
Bert's latest offering comes after a fairly long interval since 2002's Edge Of A Dream, and to my mind it's a similarly (oh so slightly) inconsistent effort, despite the still-breathtaking, seemingly effortless fluency (and overall consistency) of Bert's playing, over which there will surely be no cause for critical dissent. The release of The Black Swan coincides with the republication, this time in a new (and slightly updated) paperback edition, of Colin Harper's brilliant critical biography of Jansch (Dazzling Stranger), which had originally appeared at the time of the Crimson Moon album in 2000.
The Black Swan is also set to capitalise on the high profile that Bert's currently enjoying from being "discovered" by the "new-folk" generation represented by Devendra Banhart. It's no coincidence that Bert's engaged Noah Georgeson (a member of Devendra's band, who'd produced his Cripple Crow album) to produce The Black Swan, and guesting here we also find Otto Hauser (of Espers and Vetiver) and David Roback (of Mazzy Star). Importantly, the album also features - on three tracks - vocals from Beth Orton, another of the new generation to claim Bert as a principal inspiration. (Indeed, Beth had already appeared onstage with Bert quite a bit of late after taking guitar lessons from him a couple of years back.) Beth's distinctive cracked, smoky singing brings an appealing air of fragile beauty to Bert's own composition When The Sun Comes Up, and her pained contribution to the traditional Katie Cruel (a kindof duet with Devendra Banhart, as it turns out) is somewhat otherworldly (though some listeners may find this new wyrd-folk interpretation of the song a tad disconcerting at first). Beth's third contribution, a duet with Bert on Watch The Stars, is arguably less successful, I feel. But here, as throughout, Bert's unmistakable musical identity survives intact; this couldn't be anyone else's work.
Bert performs solo on just three tracks, one of which is an idiosyncratic reading of Brendan Behan's The Old Triangle (which for some reason is erroneously credited here as trad, as is Clive Palmer's My Pocket's Empty); High Days is an impressive new composition, as is the opening six-minute title track (some nice cello from Helena Espvall here too). Elsewhere, there's a neatly languid and sensual new reworking of Bert's celebrated Pentangle-era song A Woman Like You, with some fine slide guitar counterpoint from Paul Wassif, and an equally sensuous slow strut through the gospelly Bring Your Religion (with son Adam on keyboard). And the glories of Bert's Ornament Tree album are recalled with the presence of Maggie Boyle's golden flute joining the banjos of Bert and Paul on the album's lone instrumental cut, Magdalina's Dance. But Bert, his spellbinding guitar work and distinctive vocal are the album's binding thread as you'd expect, and it all holds together - just - even though the consistency of the material is sometimes mildly in question.
David Kidman Sept 2006
It's two years since Doug Jay's last album, his debut for Crosscut, Jackpot and in the intervening period he has continued to hone the Blue Jays, his European touring band since 2000. The Washington DC singer and harmonica player has an impressive CV that includes gigging with Muddy Waters, BB King, Sunnyland Slim and Bruce Springsteen. The Blue Jays draw their music from many different sources and the eponymous opener is an R&B with Jay's craggy vocal and accentuated guitar from Jimmy Reiter, touted as one of the finest young blues guitarist around these days. It's Love is an upbeat rocker with the Reiter's obligatory snappy guitar and great harp from Jay. Temptation harks back to the hey day of 60s Rock n Roll and has excellent harmony from Reiter. Show Me The Way To Love You stays in the R&R field albeit on the blues fringes. Without Love is slow and uninspiring and Don't Want Your Love No More seems entrenched in the past. Losing Hand is a down and dirty blues and Lowell Fulson's Love Grows Cold is an R&R/ blues crossover with the horn section adding welcome depth. Good guitar solo from Reiter and it really sways along.
Poor Me is a slow Chicago blues with top class playing, harp from Jay & piano from Christian Rannenburg and a good vocal too - he can turn his hand to this if he wants to. Up-tempo R&B Poor Me has good harmonies and the band seems to be warming to their task. It's Easy When You Know How stays with R&B, the highlight of which is Jay's screeching harp. What A Man Can Do is firmly in the style of Robert Cray - no bad thing, of course and Call Me Back To You is a barrelhouse piano and country blues, played at walking pace. There's a little whistling from Reiter at the end but thankfully no yodelling. They round things off with Boom-A-Rang, an R&B instrumental guitar thingy. It's well played but a bit dated methinks.
David Blue February 2008
Doug Jay & The Blue Jays - Jackpot (Crosscut Records)
Doug Jay has been recording since the mid-1970's and his latest album for Crosscut shows no sign of him throwing in the towel just yet. He, and the Blue Jays open with In The Darkest Hour, a Chicago blues par excellence. There's a little bit of John Mayall in Doug's voice and he gives an excellent performance on harmonica. Christoph 'Jimmy' Reiter provides the powerful guitar backing. I'll Do Anything For You is classic R&B and the band move it along in great style with mesmerising guitar from Reiter. The title track is Rock & Roll with the emphasis on the Roll. It's pleasant enough but not a lot to get excited about.
The harmonica-led instrumental Giddy-Up is a well played Western blues and Real Bad Girl has a sleazy feel to it. The distorted harmonica helps the song just ooze over you and Doug turns in one of his better vocals. Ya Hoodoo Me is R&B with an authentic 50s feel with guitar and harmonica working well together. I Jump is a jump blues to rival the best and it is here that Jay comes into his own – try and stay still! When I Get Back is another that harks back to the Rock & Roll era and the introduction of saxophone from 'Sax' Gordon Beadle and Thomas Feldman compliments Jay's howling harmonica perfectly on this Floyd Dixon song.
Another cover is the classic Otis Spann song It Must Have Been The Devil and the band play it with panache. Rock & Roll is revisited on Just Say So before Otis Spann gets another airing on the mean and moody Half Ain't Been Told. Reiter has been quiet in the middle part of the album but he returns with a vengence on I Know What's Goin' On. His guitar screams on this funky blues which is underpinned with organ from Roel Spanjers. The album finishes with the 60s style instrumental Tumbleweed and the happy country blues of Each & Every Day. Doug Jay & The Blue Jays can certainly rock and roll with the best and their sorties into R&B and blues do not disgrace them either.
www.dougjay.com
www.crosscut.de
David Blue
The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music (Lost Highway)
Seven albums in and, joined by former Long Ryder Stephen McCarthy on guitar alongside guest Bernie Leadon, Jakob Dylan and Matthew Sweet, the Jayhawks have just made their masterpiece by realising that less is more. Harking back to their early Americana days rather than building on the expanded, deeper textures and instrumentation of Sound of Lies, Ethan Johns has overseen a predominantly acoustic album that puts the spotlight fully on Gary Louris's vocals, a gently aching, world weary shimmering twang that fits perfectly with the album's reflective mood and its very 60s influences. The result is stunning.
Opening track Stumbling Through The Dark is (like Tampa To Tulsa) pure Everlys circa Stories We Could Tell, yet you'll also detect hints of Simon and Garfunkel in there too, echoes all the more evident in the wholly acoustic version that brings the album to a full circle close.
Elsewhere you'll hear the sound of the Byrds singing Dylan on Tailspin, the spirit of the Burritos coursing through Save It For A Rainy Day, Crosby Stills and Nash informing Eyes of Sarah Jane and Madman, and, one of the things that has hung around from the last album, the strong Beatles flavours of Don't Let The World Get In Your Way (which also conjures thoughts of early Bee Gees) and You Look So Young.
It's an album where every track is a highlight, but pushed to nominate the constant repeat play favourites it'd have to be the arc of love songs that begin with the affirmation of All The Right Reasons, proceeds through the perfect tumbling Mavericks-like pop of Angeline's can't commit break-up and ends in the lost buddy wistfulness of the gorgeously strings drenched Will I See You In Heaven. "We've always been a little early or a little late," says bassist Marc Perlman. "With this record, I think we're right on time." Like Rolex.
PS. Initial copies come with a bonus CD of six tracks featuring alternate mixes of All The Right Reasons and Tampa To Tulsa, demos of Caught With A Smile On My Face and Say Your Prayers, Fools On Parade hitherto only released in Spain and a live acoustic recording of Waiting For The Sun.
Mike Davies
No doubt about it, you're going to hear about these guys sooner or later. "Loaded" was released in 2004 and is an irresistible, full-on blast of all that's ever been good in country music. Twelve self-penned songs that manage to touch most country bases, with familiar lyrical themes of love and relationships in good times and bad, and wondrously skilled musicianship that takes you from where country meets jazz ("I Cried") to full speed bluegrass with a fast banjo on lead and old-timey fiddle backing up ("I Remember Wrong") . In between there's nods in most of the directions that country has veered over the years- a bit of Texas swing here, a bit of rockabilly there. The panache and confidence with which the whole is delivered reflects the amount of time they've spent on the road but what gets me most is the sense of joy and fun in their music. Recently relocated from New Orleans to Nashville and with their first appearance at the Ryman Auditorium just last summer, I'll be amazed if they don't shortly become hugely successful. Fans of "real country" (whatever your take on that may be) should be delighted. Dates in April in the UK should be worth checking out this dynamic Duo.
John Davy
The floppy-haired Swedish four piece's debut is a big fjord of an album, fully of epic cinematic melodies, windswept emotions heading off into the ether and bruised whispers of voices in search of some epiphany. Being Swedish, it's also naturally fond of Americana touches, a vocal twang here, a chord sequence there. But mostly this is post-rock territory with layers of slow, pulsating atmospheric soundscapes and lo-fi folk blues that enfold themselves into songs that rarely last under six minutes and go by titles like From Across The Sea, Swimming Eyes, Winter Nights and The Sound of Beating Wings that somehow actually manage to conjure how the songs sound. If you're fond of Sigur Ros and the less drone heavy moments of Mogwai, then Opposites Attract and A Ghost In The Corner Of Your Eye will have you reaching for the oxygen tank.
Mike Davies, February 2006
Jenna Witts is a talented young songwriter hailing from North Devon, who's fortunate to have caught the ears of Messrs Knightley and Beer and secured their services to produce and record her debut album, which even appears on their Hands On label imprint. Just a couple of years ago, she toured and recorded with Steve Knightley and Seth Lakeman on the Western Approaches project, after having co-written a song for Show Of Hands' Country Life album (Seven Days). And she's still only 18 years of age... ! Barefoot And Eager contains seven of Jenna's own compositions; these are attractive songs, almost exclusively inspired in some way by her native seascape and the influence it can exert on personal moods, feelings and life-choices (either her own, as in the title track, or those of other characters, as in Katie). Jenna has a grasp of emotions that you might not expect to find in one so young: I Was A Dreamer, for instance, reminded me a little of Sandy Denny in its maturity of expression of simple thoughts. Even so, there's still a feeling of things left unsaid, a potential untapped, which the album's frustrating total brevity (33 minutes) only accentuates. The three tracks not composed by Jenna herself don't jar, but on the other hand don't quite measure up in terms of distinctiveness of statement: although her cover of Steve's celebrated You're Mine (a song which would seem to have had a clear influence on her own songwriting) is persuasively handled and her rendition of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here shows understanding, her version of the traditional Flora (in Steve's arrangement) doesn't really seem to have anything fresh or radical to say. Jenna's singing voice is appealing, if not yet one of strong individuality, and her own instrumental accompaniments (guitar or piano for the most part) reasonably coordinated within the context of the lyrics, even if in the final analysis some songs seem a tad less melodically interesting. Both Steve and Phil contribute their instrumental skills towards the end product too, so quality is assured, and you can hear why they have faith in Jenna, but this album, however confident, is definitely just a first step on the road. But just one thing puzzles me: given the record's title, why in the cover and booklet photos are Jenna's feet so determinedly shod and not bare?!
www.myspace.com/jennadwitts
www.showofhands.co.uk
David Kidman June 2007
The most inconsequential fact about all this is that Shooter's full name is Waylon Albright Jennings, the son of Waylon Jennings and Jessie Colter. It's irrelevant because he may be the son of a great man but he's entirely his own musician. He's followed dad's advice: 'Don't try to be like anyone else' to the letter and that includes Waylon senior.
As he began his musical career, Shooter left Nashville to escape 'expectations' and headed for Los Angeles. There he formed a rock 'n' roll band Stargunn, a band which undoubtedly still has an influence because the title track and Steady At The Wheel blast a gaping hole through the good ol' boy thing. This is the sound of a musician who has played the Viper Room and won, and substituted on stage for Axl Rose a couple of times and lived to tell the tale. Subject of a decent country song there I think.
But the pull of country music was irresistible and when Stargunn folded, a new band, the 357's were locked in a studio for six weeks and the result, Put the O Back In Country, has also injected some fun and new life back into the music business.
Where Jennings parts company, once and for all, from the aforementioned Guns 'n' Roses front man is that Shooter's having a real good time being a musician. If he's part of any 'nu-country' wave at all, it's the tidal one that the likes of Big 'n' Rich are riding, in his hands country music's got a smile a mile wide on its face. On Busted in Baylor County, Jennings and Co are playing it for all it's worth, big voice, big guitar, huge fun.
But maybe where he does draw on his heritage, is on Sweet Savannah and The Letter, as the ballads unfold they reveal a bottomless soul, this is the sound of honest longing and a breaking heart.
Put The O Back In Country, recorded in the west, born in the south and created by a young musician with a proud past and the world in front of him.
Michael Mee
I first came across Michael's work back in the late 90s, on a Waterbug label sampler: a track from his release In Another Life, which quickly became a favourite tho' I never managed to get a copy of the album itself. Crooked Path would appear to be Illinois-born, now Saratoga-based Michael's first album of original material since 2002's Little Movies, and it shows him still to be master of an easygoing, supple, craftsmanlike and wholly accessible style of songwriting that has refused to go out of fashion during his 30+ years in the business. The same could be said for Michael's singing style: strong-voiced, committed and accommodating, one that will never disappoint a listener. This latest offering brings forth thirteen attractive, melodic and gently incisive new songs that tend to straddle the folk and acoustic-rock divides, with little touches of oldtimey country along the way. Mostly they major on keen observation of the subtler kind, with often mundane imagery used creatively at the service of the narratives. Musically too, the songs I find most interesting are Cold River (with its shuffling mandolin-and-percussion accompaniment) and the understated folky jangle of Will Love Arise, but there's an unassuming craft to all the songs that grows on subsequent listens, and several (like Chief Waukenon Motel) also have surprisingly catchy choruses. I also liked the canny and economic "walking the line" setting that Michael gives his own gentle and affectionate tribute Johnny Cash Is Gone, while the title track, a lovely yet clever solo guitar instrumental, shows Michael's a masterly musician too. Michael's regular backing band (which includes bassist Tony Markellis, Bob Warren and Michael's wife Teresina Huxtable) do sterling service as always, and one or two extra musicians add further spice to the proceedings on this appealing set.
David Kidman March 2008
Having reached the grand old age of 31, Ms Kilcher seems to have been struck by a mid-life crisis. Hence an album that, as she openly admits in the sleevenotes, is a deeply autobiographical journey through her life so far, from being raised a farm girl to eventually buying her own ranch. And selling some 25 million records along the way. But has fame bought her contentment? Not to judge by the songs here, almost all of which are soul searching numbers about relationships ending and the aftershocks, about being alone, longing, insecurity and the loneliness of fame. She even includes a new version of Fragile Heart from 0304 which fits right in with them theme.
There's more than a touch of self-pitying going down here, but at least she does it with musical taste and attractive soft rock melodies; and just a touch of cynicism as she talks about 'babies on beach blankets' trying to fix themselves with valium, power bars, facials and carrot juice on the decidedly Sheryl-like speak-sing Satellite. Though that too goes on about how rock n roll can't fix her broken heart.
After a while, the egoistic triteness of the 'I'm rich and famous but am I really happy without someone to love me' lyrics gets a bit wearing, but fans who lost faith with her when she ventured into electro pop will be more than happy to embrace her pain since it's couched in the sort of guitar based folk-pop that first set her on the road to stardom. Indeed, the rather fine Stephenville, TX (where she has her farm) shows that you can take the girl out of the country but not only can't you take the country out of the girl but she'll eventually find her way back home anyhow.
If you need entry points then the bitter veins of Last Dance Rodeo, Good Day (Jewel wakes up, goes to the fridge, watches TV and decides there are others more messed up than she is) and Long Slow Slide will help the album slip down nicely, but hopefully, now she's finished staring into the looking glass the next album will see her taking a sharper look at the world around her rather than the one within.
Mike Davies, June 2006
Well now here's a turn up for the books. Devotees of Ms Kilcher's winsome folk pop are advised to approach this only of they have medication to hand. Some of the songs still address the same sort of lyrical concerns that have characterised her past work - you know, social issues, the messed up state of America ("Marvin Gaye there's no brother, brother Woody Guthrie's land can't feed mother" she sings in Stand), dysfunctional relationships, image fascism - but musically it's like aliens beamed down took away the original and left a clone they misprogrammed with 80s dance beats and Madonna aspirations. Yes, while Fragile Heart may still bear echoes of her previous albums, basically Jewel's gone dance pop. That and some Duran glam just to add a bit of extra spice. There's even a Todd Terry remix. Now hang on before you start building bonfires and effigies. It's actually not bad. Lightweight an overly sweet in its shiny new skinny ribs and beatbox perhaps and really do we need more text messaging shorthand for titles and lyrics.
And yes, she has dumbed herself down to extent that she can now write lines like 'all the fishes in the sea could not be happier than me' and keep a straight face. But she still has a way with a tune (albeit co-written here with the likes of Guy Chambers and Lester Mendez) and, as Intuition with its barbed reference to Jo Lo's big butt and the vitriol in America's namechecking of the Osbournes and Anna Nicole shows, her pointed wit's not been blunted either. And come on, anyone who's seen the Intuition video with its parody of those MTV sex for sales promos by the likes of Minogue, Spears and Aguilera (at one point she's even gets hosed down in a wet t-shirt by a fire crew) will know her tongue's firmly in cheek. My God, the girl's discovered irony. It's unlikely that this is the way she'll proceed in the future (though with sales taking a career resuscitation upswing, who knows), but for the moment she's having fun with the fake and plastic and with a little forbearance, who knows, maybe you will too.
Mike Davies
It's been three years and one film (Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil) since Ms Kilcher's last album of new material, and in the interim she's taken her folksy pop out to visit its big pop-rock sisters and come home dreaming FM dreams. There's a definite touch of Springsteen melodies to the opening Standing still and, recorded in Nashville, the rootsy elements still loom large, but you can't help but notice the influence of such usual suspects as Alanis (Jesus Loves You) and Sheryl (Everybody Needs Somebody Sometime).
Fortunately, it's not overwhelming (and the songs aren't bad either) and elsewhere you'll also find southern twangy country, jazz blues phrasings and, on Break me and the title track, returns to her old self. Lyrically, the poetic - and sometimes pretentious - style of old has given way to a more direct approach, as for example Till We Run Out of Road. although she claims to have a hidden Anais Nin reference on Do You Want To Play Today. Straightforward though doesn't mean it's dumb though and even her relationship songs have an intelligent spin to things while The New Wild West offers a pointed comment on settling human untamed frontiers.
As melodic as ever, her voice still a thing of delicate but determined beauty and, while Dan Huff's co-production could have done with a little rough edges around the smooth, repeated plays ensure it settles as comfortably into the consciousness as her previous outings. As a bonus you also get two live recordings, Grey Matter and the excellent Sometimes It Be That Way while timeliners might like to know that Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone was actually written back in her distant days as a 21 yr old.
Mike Davies
A native of Boise (Idaho), Eilen (that rhymes with feelin', by the way!) writes accessible, easily memorable songs that sound like they've been around for years, and sings them with assurance and an idiomatic sway that's already reminded some critics of a cross between Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams. I'd not quite go that far, but Eilen's is certainly an attractive, lazily hushed style of delivery that's bound to win her plenty of admirers. Her writing's more couched in the hinterland between country and western-swing than anything else, with a lightness of touch that doesn't always signify, or allow for, hidden depths I find. Not that there aren't any depths to her lyrics, but they're just not quite soul-baring in the way that the above GW and LW comparisons might imply; it's rather that any emotion within is relatively subdued, sublimated at times, you feel, to the classy musical settings. These are straight-down-the-line, no-tricks, twang-dominated but lively and soulful rather than merely retro, and (like Eilen's singing) often gently sensuous at the same time; featured alongside Eilen herself are Jerry Miller (electric guitar), Johnny Sciascia (upright bass), Daniel Kellar (violin) and Jason Beek (drums). There's a touch of the weary-blues, too, about songs like How Long (her setting of a Martin Luther King speech) and Dusty Boxcar Wall (a cover of the Eric Andersen number from the 60s). My favourite tracks tend to be those where Eilen feels most passionately involved in the lyric, notably the yearning Thanks A Lot and the hypnotic In The End; having said that, these tracks also demonstrate her mastery of the telling pause in her phrasing. The more uptempo tracks are really well turned too, though (If You Catch Me Stealing inhabits a playful, juicy rockabilly groove, for instance, while Too Hot To Sleep is a sultry twang-tango and High Shelf Booze is persuasive and seductively jazzy, with some neat guest clarinet from Alec Spiegelman). This is Eilen's second album release: I've not heard her first, but if it's anything like as assured as this it'll be worth catching up with. Me, I'm interested to hear what she does next as well.
www.eilenjewell.comDavid Kidman August 2007
David Kidman January 2007
One of Scotland's longest-established traditional bands, the Bairns have been quiet on the recording front since releasing their award-winning comeback album May Ye Never Lack A Scone around four years ago. And even that release filled an over-long gap of nearly 20 years between previous releases (which incorporated a lengthy spell of "temporary retirement")! So Rare is aptly named! But Rare also makes you feel they've never been away, for it's like a continuation of that 2001record in ever so many ways - great tunes and exciting arrangements of traditional songs, laced with superlative musicianship. It deserves to sell as heavily as Scone, for it again showcases the Bairns' enticing way with blending songs and tunes into a relaxed yet rewarding listening programme that's suitably varied in tone, pace and mood. They've no need to tinker with their winning lineup either – Derek Hoy, Ian Hardie and Norman Chalmers both complement and supplement with their considerable instrumental skills those of singers Rod Paterson and John Croall. Rod and John once again prove themselves fine interpreters of song, ranging from the otherwise well-travelled Fause Knicht On The Road (which, typically for the Bairns, is done in an enterprising arrangement) and a simple yet atmospheric Aye Waulkin' O to the racy tale of The Soor Milk Cairt (a composition by the Calton Barber Poet, Tom Johnston). The CD's half-dozen instrumental selections combine intelligence with fieriness and finesse in roughly equal measure; I specially liked the Da Grocer set of reels (track 7) and the unusual, gently sprightly treatment of the strathspey-reel and march combination The Mull Waltz/Castle Stalker, while the various transitions through the slightly extended track 9 set are delightfully conjoined, bringing a smile to the face afresh each time you play the track. I also loved the way the instrumental textures open out during the course of each track; it's all managed in such an appealing and easygoing way, with art concealing art amid high production values. There's nary a weak moment, and the CD's 52 minutes flies by before you know it. Whichever way you take it, Michael Marra's observation on the cover note, that "Rare is the new Cool", is canny indeed.
David Kidman
David Johansen & The Harry Smiths - Shaker (Chesky)
This is the second album from the former New York Dolls front man and his superb band following the critically acclaimed eponymous debut. It is much in the same vein as the first and is full of great old blues songs. Don't expect the same old standards here though. Johansen has trawled the archives studiously and come up with a collection that would be hard to match.
The album begins with Furry's Blues, which, as the title alludes, is a Furry Lewis song. Johansen's voice is gritty and well suited to this type of song. The guitar work of Brian Koonin and Larry Saltzman is excellent, though understated, as it is throughout the album along with Kermit Driscoll's bass. I'll Go With Her follows and is a good example of how a delta blues should be played – this is certainly not 21st century blues played with clinical precision.
Tommy McClennan's Deep Blue Sea is the next to get the Harry Smiths treatment. The drums are more to the fore here than on the opening tracks and Johansen's blues shouting showcases his powerful vocals. On an album that is not exactly upbeat My Morphine is about as slow a song that you could get. Johansen's drawl is perfect as he states that his morphine will be the death of him. You can really feel the pain.
Ham Hound Crave is strangely familiar. I found myself singing Motherless Child at parts. It may be that Eric Clapton has covered this as well but I don't remember having come across that. Again, Johansen's voice is stupendous – this is blues the way it should be. John Hurt's Let The Mermaids Play With Me is a strange song about death and where we might go afterwards. A happy-go-lucky tune with deep lyrics (no pun intended).
The next track, I Can't Be Satisfied is a Muddy Waters classic. The band makes a fine attempt but I feel that Johansen's voice just lets him down for the one and only occasion on the album. A return to the slow, pain-riddled style brings us to Memphis Minnie's In Love Again and introduces Johansen's harmonica for the first time.
Death Letter is about the one true standard that has been chosen. I've heard a number of versions of this song and I have to say that this is as good a version as I've ever heard. This is a highlight and worth buying the album for alone. One of the more upbeat tracks is Lightnin' Hopkins' My Grandpa Is Old Too, a slightly humorous, cautionary tale that tells the listener all about his grandpa although some grandpa's may not want to be reminded of growing old as the song constantly reminds.
The country blues Jailbird Love Song has unknown origins but that just adds to the mystique. That voice again!! This is another triumph and you even get to join in at the chorus. Charlie Patton's standard jailhouse blues High Sheriff is sung with a pain that is beyond belief and beggars the question – why hasn't Johansen been singing the blues more often?
The album finishes with a second Furry Lewis song, Kassie Jones and The Last Kind Words by Geeshie Wiley. The former rolls along with the Keith Carlock's drums sounding like a train and is another of my favourites. It mentions a natural born shaker and that is exactly what Johansen is. The latter will have you reaching for the Kleenex, as it's a real weepy. This is a fantastic end to a fantastic album. There must be more to come, maybe some original material although perhaps the appeal comes in his treatment of the old songs.
David Blue
Do you remember when rock was young? Well, not young perhaps but still wet behind the ears back in 1975 when Elton John was at the peak of his powers. The previous two years had yielded Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Caribou, and now came Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, an album forged from the experiences he and lyricist Bernie Taupin shared in their efforts to carve success out of failure. Last year, he celebrated its 30th anniversary by taking it on tour, and now he picks up the story with its official sequel. We're back in the 70s, both thematically and musically, as Elton and Bernie crack America, welcomed with open arms on the album's lead off track, the witty Postcards From Richard Nixon, song that recalls the mutual admiration society between wide-eyed Brits and a jaded USA.
Hitting the Crocodile Rock piano boogie meets Stones swagger stride, Just Like Noah's Ark parties in the flush of their success, hitting the Manhattan streets and New York's Studio 54 scene on the love letter ballad Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (NYC). And from hereon, the album continues to chart them wrestling with having the world at their feet just as its predecessor saw them struggling with trying to get a foot in the door.
Years pass and excesses pile up, recalled in the mid-tempo Tinderbox where 'the price of fame leads to overkill' and the bluesy lollopping cabaret styled And The House Fell Down with its memories of 'three days on a diet of cocaine and wine'. Then there's the counting of the cost and losses, the arrival of Aids and the loss of friends and lovers that haunt the muscular ballad Blues Never Fade Away which also notes the death of Lennon and Elton's wonder that he managed to come out of the era relatively unscathed.
Unscathed, but not unaffected. The Bridge addresses the need to risk everything you have in order to hold on to what you've got, a simple piano and vocal ballad (well, along with an angelic choir cooing) that may or may not be an apology for some of the rubbish he turned out in the 80s. Indeed, personal loss - lovers and perhaps artistic integrity - is the subject of I Must Have Lost It On The Wind ('you couldn't tell me I was wrong, you couldn't tell me anything' he sings, ego in the corner), while the country bluesy Old 67 looks back to harder but more innocent days, although contrasting memories of freezing on Oxford Street then and sitting in the South of France now does unfortunately call to mind Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen sketch.
The country rolling title track closes up the scrapbook, an affectionate nostalgic snapshot of his relationship with Taupin,'an urban soul in a fine silk suit, and a heart out west in a Wrangler shirt', the Rocket Man and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, that references Tumbleweed Connection and Yellow Brick Road. It's hard to avoid the deliberate irony when Elton sings 'you can't go back and if you try it fails'; having taken a journey through the past with this album, he and Bernie return to the present, not battered by failure but with a sense of survival, optimism and a reaffirmation of having done it their way.
Note: A web link offers a download bonus track, Across The River Thames, a sort of companion piece to I'm Still Standing where Elton owns up to looking a bit of a prat dressing as Donald Duck, admits to having made some 'questionable friends', and smarts over critics and tabloid inventions but notes that he's still here, still doing the only job he knows.
Mike Davies, Sept 2006
It's been four years since Elton's last studio album, decades longer since he released anything consistently worth listening to. Instead we've been subjected to occasional decent tracks amid a pile of anonymity and, much worse, the El Dorado soundtrack and, spare us the pain, Aida. However he seems to have made the Tumbleweed reconnection and, hooked up once more with his veteran drummer and guitarist Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone, with Paul Buckmaster in the arranger's seat, this is arguably his best work since Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The opening Emperor's New Clothes defines the musical arena. Elton and a resonating piano doing what they do best together. The song's intro immediately makes you think of a Stephen Foster melody and while the swaggering The Wasteland may lean heavily on gospel blues there's no doubt the credit for Ryan Adams - "who inspired me to do better" - explains the album's predominantly alt-country colourings.
Elton's not sounded this passionate at his piano in a long time, the emotion pouring from the fingers into the ivory keys, swelling into the same introspective moods that characterised Your Song and Tiny Dancer. Although Dark Diamond's rhythm section chunters along at a slow lope, The Birds, which almost evokes thoughts of Little Feet in its funky boogie, is the only other real uptempo cut, leaving an air of reflection and melancholy to settle over the remaining numbers.
The melodies would, of course, be nothing without Bernie Taupin's lyrics. And he's clearly hit a purple patch. Resignation and sadness are the key notes, a sense of times and innocences lost, of self-delusions running through the likes of Dark Diamond, Look Ma, No Hands, Mansfield (a town not the actress) and, most pointedly, This Train Don't Stop There Anymore (which features one Gary Barlow on background vocals), a song at once both full of regrets and triumphant at having rediscovered the ability to feel. Without question though the album's finest moments are American Triangle and Ballad of the Boy In The Red Shoes. The former, with Rufus Wainwright harmonising, is a heartfelt and harrowing account of the homophobic murder of gay Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, while the latter chokingly unfolds the story of a man dying of AIDS and holds the Reagan adminstration's wilful blindness to the problem accountable. Who'd have thought that, at 54, Elton John could still bring tears to your eyes that weren't simply those of derision.
Mike Davies
John Called Mark - The Money/Songs From The Basement (Eversong)
Christian music has changed out of recognition in recent years and these two albums, spanning 5 years, from John Called Mark aka John Everson, are testament to that. The Money, from 2002, opens with Ride On Me and this is very much like Chris Rea. John Called Mark is a fine vocalist, there's some superior guitar work and this is a good middle of the road rock song. Latter Rain is not overtly Christian and could be compared to Marc Cohn if you were so inclined. This is very catchy. Holy Men is the first outright religious reference, is very powerful, especially in the chorus and makes a great power ballad. Whether you believe or not, this guy will get you going on the title track. Another great song and, added to the grand production by Jim Gaines, you won't believe that you are listening to Christian music. Unfortunately, not all tracks are up to the standard and the weak ballad Liftin' My Eyes is one of those. John Called Mark is much better when he is rocking and on Preacher Man he does just that. The rock vocals are back and the gritty delivery makes this track. There's a Springsteen quality to the vocal and song writing on The Holy One. Great guitar solo too. Shadows On The Road is an acoustic-based rocker and could easily be mistaken for bands such as Nickelback if you close your eyes. This one is a personal favourite. John Called Mark can turn his hands to a few different genres and the blues influenced rock of Back To Memphis is a showcase for guitarist Jack Holder who certainly knows his way around a fret board. Gift Of Lauren is, I assume, a song about a loved one but, no matter how heartfelt, this type of song always manages to sound sickly sweet. The penultimate track, Muddy Highway, has John Called Mark on his continuing path of rock and he pays homage to the blues although the song itself is not a blues. Finishing on He's Coming Home is a masterstroke. Verging on new country, this is John Called Mark summed up in one song.
Songs From The Basement was released in 1997 and sounds as if it could have been from last year. Opening with Run To Me, Everson's gruff vocal is the stuff of great rock music and this song would pass for non-Christian rock easily. Start Livin' is bouncy and blues based and his voice would have won me over by now on this album even if I hadn't heard The Money before -- great piano from Ernest Williamson on this one. It doesn't matter if you are into Christian music or not, LOTW is just great acoustic rock with a sing-along chorus. Just enjoy yourself.
Prodigal One has guitar from none other than the great Larry McCray and the track is sheer class. Light Your World is another of the sugary sweet songs that will appeal to song, but not me. But fear not, Larry's back on Floatin' Boogie. This is blues based, as you would expect, and has one of the best lines that I have heard for some time – "To walk on the water, you gotta get out of the boat". Carry My Load is a slow one and could have become trite but is carried by John Called Mark's voice. There's a slide guitar festival on Master Of The Sea where Billy Earl McClelland adds his not inconsiderable slide talents to the power of Larry McCray. Glory Land is a Bo Diddley style chugger up to the choral chorus and the last original track is All I Know, a rock ballad that would not be out of place on a film soundtrack. The last six tracks are slightly different edits of Run To Me, LOTW, Prodigal One, Carry My Load, Light Your World and All I Know.
These albums are a good introduction to John Called Mark and Christian rock in general.
David Blue
The John Doe Thing - Freedom Is (Wah!)
Along with Exene Cervenka, Doe used to front 80s LA punk outfit X. In fact he still does, although since they tend to limit their activities these days to just the occasional gig, he's taken to doing the solo thing, both as a character actor (getting solid reviews for Boogie Nights) and as a singer. Released in the States back in 2000 (since which he's recorded Dim Stars, Bright Sky), this was his third album, a largely acoustic collection of alt country singer-songwriter numbers with guest appearance from Cervenka on the X sounding rocking Ever After. As evident on X's More Fun In The New Worldand his and Exene's spin-off outfit The Knitters, Doe's always had a penchant for roots country, and while it may feature the occasional fuzzy amped up guitar or clattering drum, that's the general direction in which the likes of Ultimately Yrs, Catch Me, Sueltame and When No One Cares head, albeit, as he says, signposted more by Elliott Smith's alt-pop than Gram Parsons country-rock. There's a pleasingly autumnal mood (to go with the inner sleeve photos of snow-covered roads) and while Too Many Goddamn Bands might erupt in anger, Doe's mood is mostly one of thoughtful reflection. There's not a whole bunch of classic songs, but Doe's writing rarely falls shot of absorbing and that muscle in his voice is still well flexed.
Mike Davies
This is the fifth CD to be released by this (slightly infuriatingly quizzically-named) Wisconsin songwriter (is it his last name or a combined first-and-last?), but it's the first of his records I've heard and I sure hope it ain't the last! It exudes a tasty, relaxed vibe right from the word go, with typically open-hearted writing that draws you straight in. And it's like a top-notch Sugar Hill album that just happens not to be on Sugar Hill, for Johnsmith's backed by a stellar array of sidemen containing the cream of Nashville sessioners (Darrell Scott, Byron House, Stuart Duncan, Kenny Malone, Andrea Zonn, Tim O'Brien... need I go on?!). The quality of the songwriting is equally top-drawer, and, although it doesn't all immediately hit you right between the ears, moments like the stunning opener Back To The Mystery (a pulsating ode to spirituality complete with Native American sounding chanting) do more than hint at the multifarious wonders to come. The gentle, charming Celtic-folkiness of Barefoot In The Dew (with sublime harmony vocals from Sally Barris) and the intensely-felt Cold Cold Ground (written in memory of the writer's brother Davey) also provide immediate first-time highlights, but subsequent listens reveal an innate soulfulness in Johnsmith's attractive and deceptively light tenor tones that gives his songs an extra dimension (check out the bluesy title track for starters) and depth. For even the simple landscape-poetry of Silver Creek manages to convince you it's more than just a childhood reminiscence (this delightfully catchy song was but one that reminded me of James Keelaghan, in fact).The disc's three non-originals come from the pens of Darrell Scott (the tender, passionate Love's Not Through With Me), I.J. Booth (Box Elder) and Lancashire folk legend Alan Bell (the beautiful So Here's To You, a well-loved singing-session closer here on these shores). It'll be good to hear more of Johnsmith.
David Kidman Sept 2006
Formed seven years ago following Connecticut's famous Mystic Seaport festival, The Johnson Girls, a female a-cappella quintet, perform a hell of a repertoire of traditional and contemporary folk music embracing songs from the African-American and Irish traditions and incorporating work songs, sea chanteys, riverboat and minstrel songs and songs of fishermen and their wives. Phew!
This CD is their second, and like the first it concentrates - albeit probably less exclusively so - on chanteys and maritime songs. Material which many diehard maritime enthusiasts claim to be the exclusive preserve of the male singer - but the Johnson Girls triumphantly show this to be a fallacy and lend considerable weight to the argument that women's voices can (and increasingly do) contribute importantly to performing this repertoire. Some British crews employ just one or two female voices to good effect (and not just for harmonies), but the Johnson Girls are the only all-female crew I've come across so far, and their rivetingly forthright performances are the best possible advertisement for such a disposition. Back to repertoire, then, and for this CD, alongside selections that ought to be the bread-and-butter of shanty crews (Fire Maringo and Roll Boys Roll) – as opposed to endless renditions of The Leaving Of Liverpool, I mean! - amongst the strictly or loosely traditional pieces we get a suitably randy pumping chantey (The Priest And The Nuns), a fun broadside (Tailor In The Tea Chest), an Italian fisherman's ballad, a French-Canadian paddling song, a railroad worksong and a prisoners' treadmill song which (as the notes point out) might have been ideal aboard ship as a capstan chantey. The CD closes with an enchanting quasi-round adaptation of Mariner's Hymn, a dialogue song from the 1843 Millennial Harp collection.
Very few of the above pieces have been recorded on CD elsewhere at all, even by the specialist shanty ensembles, and this CD would recommend itself on that count alone. But the Girls' choice of contemporary compositions is enterprising too, with self-evidently maritime pieces like Jan Harman's magical Song For A Seafarer, Geordie McIntyre's White Wings and our own John Conolly's Married A Trawlerman rubbing shoulders with some decidedly non-maritime fare like Dave Webber's Working At The Coalface and Sue West's vibrant and slightly tongue-in-cheek toast Drink To The Laddies. Excellent songs all, and definitely deserving of wider currency. So, named as they are after the celebrated Menhaden net-hauling shanty, crucial to the effective performance of which is the accurate timing of interpolated bars of silence (honestly!), the Johnson Girls are indeed "mighty fine girls". Each "girl" is blessed with a commanding voice that can do either gritty or soft, forceful or gentle as required, and each can take either lead or harmony line with equal facility, though if pushed to single out I'll admit to enjoying the gutsy and full-throated lead contributions of Alison and Bonnie in particular. No sir, there's not a hint of tameness or incongruous prettification anywhere on this CD, you'll be pleased to hear, and the Girls' performances are consistently believable, displaying a musicality and a real empathy for their chosen material and a great feel for communicating it to an audience (even in the cold light of home listening, which in this repertoire is quite an achievement in itself). The booklet notes are consistently full and accurately informative. The only (and extremely minor) inconsistency is one of recording source, ie that two of the nineteen tracks were recorded live and give rise to a burst of applause; myself, I applauded many of the tracks spontaneously! A mighty, and mighty fine, CD!
David Kidman
A new name on the block, maybe, but on the strength of this high-quality offering we'll be hearing a lot more of Carolyn. She's a Canadian-born singer-songwriter now based in Nashville and thus firmly in the New Country mould, who made her name over a year ago as the writer of Chely Wright's country hit Single White Female, having previously toured as backup singer and guitarist for her idol Martina McBride (who appears on this album, along with Kim Carnes, Matraca Berg, Marty Stuart et al… nuff said!). Carolyn's own début album is a very assured affair, showing her aptitude for placing her direct, often acutely personal lyrics in a powerful, melodic yet assertive musical setting.
While keeping well within the conventions of New Country (great production values, well-defined backbeats etc), Carolyn obviously has a good ear too, for she's not afraid of a big production, though within all that she can allow for plenty of interesting instrumental touches, as on the thrusting, pounding I Don't Want You To Go. Her chosen musicians support well and provide some great solos, but know when to pull back from the spotlight so that we can focus on Carolyn's not inconsiderable vocal talents. But you can't fail to notice her songwriting skills, for the album consists entirely of her own songs, and contains some very durable material indeed - as evident straightway on the first four tracks (the outstanding opening vignette Georgia, then the commercial catchiness of Just Another Girl, the frothy I'll Think Of You That Way and the strong riffs of Love Is Always Worth The Ache).
Even though there are several potential hit singles, there's a fair amount of sensitivity too. This is one of those few modern-day country albums that's decently accessible but also of more lasting interest, and has sustained a fair few repeated plays so far in spite of some fierce competition. This superb, gutsy and impressive release surely bodes well for Carolyn.
David Kidman
Pour yourself a cool beer, turn down the lights and slip Two Gun Green into the CD-player and you'll find yourself transported to a small club in the back streets of Georgia as the raunchy, down-home blues wash over you. And that's exactly the atmosphere Larry Johnson was trying to evoke when he went into the studio to record this slice of authentic southern states blues.
The wonder of it all, though, is that his backing band for this project is Stockholm-based Brian Kramer & The Couch Lizards and the whole was recorded live in the studio in six hours straight at The Grange in Norfolk - rapidly making a name for itself as one of this country's best small independents. It's the live feeling of this record that strikes you first, with the drums of Jim O'Leary in particular benefiting - you really do feel as if you 're in the room.
Born in Atlanta in 1938, Johnson can certainly be said to have served his blues dues, gigging for more than 40 years and having recorded his first album in 1965. The continuity in his writing, singing and playing dates back to that first album as it featured the song that gives this collection its title. Introduced with a rich, deep-brown chuckle from Johnson, the story - all Johnson's songs are his "stories" - tells of a New Orleans bar called The Bucket of Blood and a confrontation between Two Gun Green himself and Bad Man Dan. The narrative is related over a grinding rhythm, driven by the guitars of Johnson and Kramer and the harmonica of Mats Qwarfordt.
But, if the title track's neat little groove seems insistent, it pales beside the most appropriately monickered "Back to the groove", five minutes-plus of magic in which the title, or slight variations, comprise the only lyric as the band members explore the possibilities of the song's, somewhat minimal, chord progression. There's humour there, too, as Johnson, announcing that he has a plane to catch, asks Kramer, Qwarfordt and O'Leary how they'll be spending the evening, to be told by each that a woman will figure somehow. Bassist Pa Ulander, however, tells Johnson there's a great TV show on tonight - about frogs. Without missing a beat, Johnson replies: "Yeah, well, I guess frogs gotta have somebody, too!" Johnson's gospel roots show with a swift run-through of "Old time religion", and Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" is given a reverential reading. Elsewhere, Johnson's sandpaper vocals are applied to a selection of 12-bars, including his own "Midnight train", "Can't last very long" and "I used to be down" in which, despite the optimistic title, he does, indeed, sound very down. Throughout the album, and lending it a warming informality, spoken studio asides are included in the mix and that's truer than most in the album's last track, "Charlie Stone" in which Johnson tells his band how he came to write what was his first song before playing it solo, accompanied only by his own guitar.
If you like your blues as the blues was intended, shorn of unnecessary flash and phoney sophistication, but bristling with a gritty realism, I'd suggest you get that beer, reach for that dimmer switch and settle back with "Two Gun Green".
Fred Hall
David Kidman August 2007
D'you remember the Saturday Gigs? sez Uncle Robb in his typically chummy liner note. Well for those of us that do, here's a Today equivalent. It's a live recording of virtually all of the second (electric) half of Robb's 50th birthday gig last December at Windsor Arts Centre. A grand hour-and-a-bit of "three-chord trickery", highly enjoyable for performers and punters alike in spite of the inevitable ramshackle venue, wobbly stage and all that jazz. So it's warts'n'all, natch - including a bit where the PA packed in for half a verse so a vocal bit had to get retook, otherwise it's all there, exactly as it happened. Whaddya call it? - post-punk folk-punk-rock? Who cares - it's cool (tho' very much "on fire" too!). As for the lineup - well, for starters we got the fabled fiftysome fella 'isself on storming leccie guitar (no slouch that Mr J!), worth the price of admission alone! Then there's his two "current regular Irregulars", drummer Andi Tuck (Thatcher On Acid/Schwarzenegger) and bassist John Forrester (now with Nozzle, ex-Pressgang/The Colour Mary), joined by the spiky Saskia Tomkins on punk leccie-violin, while other "old chums" (Maggie Holland, Roger Watson, Graham Larkbey and Simon Storey) got co-opted onto the stage for guest backup on some numbers - as did Johnsons-Junior Arvin and Hari (aged 7 and 8!), duettin' an' doowoppin' in fine fashion along with dad and making it all a real matey family gig. The 14 songs take in current faves and old faves: loads of gutsy, strident RJ anthems and thought-provoking, edgy commentary that's perennially relevant and never dates. Oh, and three hitherto unreleased songs too. All in gloriously ballsy, at times roughshod (but hey, so wot?!) Saturday-nite garb. And just before the end, the pace lets up for Maggie to duet with Robb on Overnight - the voice-almost-shot-but-to-hell-with-it passion and grainy power of which is one of Those moments of pure live magic. This disc brings you in surprisingly good sound one of those seriously-wish-you'd-been-there gigs - and like with all good bootlegs the tracklisting on the box is ballsed up (work it out y'self or else get the pukka gen straight from Robb's website). But as a record of a splendidly noisy Saturday Nite Out it can't be beat - so crank it up loud, get out that real cool purple shirt and rock on, dude!
David Kidman December 2006
Robb Johnson - Metro (Irregular)
Metro might seem to herald a new phase of the career of this quintessential and highly-regarded songwriter, yet one which anyone who knows his oeuvre will find an entirely logical development. It's a collection of 15 songs - a tour-de-force of an "English chanson album", in fact - on which Robb's voice is backed by the finely-wrought piano playing of Russel Churney (who's well-known for his work with cabaret artists Barb Jungr and Fascinating Aïda and his appearances on Julian Clary's TV show Sticky Moments). A whole album on which Robb leaves his guitar untouched, resolutely packed away in its case, is a rare beast indeed! But the unique flavour of Robb's writing - and his increasingly responsive singing - is here communicated every bit as expertly to the accompaniment of fingers caressing a keyboard as opposed to fingers strumming strings (though the perhaps unintentional irony of the line "take this guitar, recycle my songs with the bottles and the jars" in the opener Don't Close The Bar is not lost!). Some of the songs have featured in Robb's live gigs for some time, of course - Stand Clear! and The London Eye have both been favourites of mine for a while now. Chansons, contemporary lieder, call 'em what you will, Robb's the modern master of the genre, no doubt about it. All human life is indeed here in these literate and beautifully-constructed songs, from the double-edged chummy bonhomie of Name, Rank And Number (war and sport don't make such strange bedfellows, do they?) to the supremely bitter, deeply felt drama of Picking Up The Pieces (one of two songs written in response to the July bombings) and the intense cinematic evocation of Greeneland. And Robb himself has never sounded better, I'm sure - his passionate delivery on Metro is indisputably that of "his master's voice", no mistake, the voice of the very creator of these fine songs. But I wouldn't for a moment wish to underestimate the contribution made to the successful portrayal of this set of songs by Russel's stylish and intelligent playing, which demonstrates his mastery of a panoply of musical idioms - from post-Impressionist boogie (Boulevard Des Hommes) to suburban mock-genteel (Stand Clear! - "Ascot" to be a standout track, I say!), rippling Beethovenian andante (A Desperate Man) and Haydnesque formality ($45 & Lunch Thrown In) to replicating florid cascades of accordion (Gypsy Music On The Underground) - all without ever descending into pastichery. There's also a potent little spoken-word piece, The Fairest City. As for the songs - now if you're one who, like me, usually prefers guitars to keyboards in song accompaniment (in what might be best termed non-classical music, that is), then prepare for an instant conversion! For in spite of - or maybe in equal measure at least partly because of - its different accompanimental palette, Metro just has to be one of Robb's best albums yet. If the very idea of "Jacques Brel meets Bertholt Brecht down at the Old Bull & Bush" intrigues you, then do investigate this CD. Oh, and I love the artwork too (cheers, Fred Boehme!).
David Kidman
Robb Johnson - A Beginner's Guide (Irregular)
"This is a collection of new renditions of old songs, with a leavening of songs that have so far only appeared in live orbit", quoth the liner note – and that ought to be that, admirably succinct and to-the-point. As Robb says, "most of the gigs I do are just me and the acoustic guitar. Afterwards people often ask 'Which CD sounds most like what you did tonight?' It's this one". It's a great cross-section of Robb's songs actually, and the title is less tongue-in-cheek than it sounds. "Beginners" will be sucked in to the fold, while aficionados will revel in the chance to hear in the comfort (?) of your own home choice compos like The Beautiful Dark, The London Eye, Christmas Day In Heaven and A Dorset Moon that you've enjoyed at Robb's live gigs (or maybe not, actually – for some are very new indeed!). Trainspotters will appreciate the "alternative versions" of other old favourites, and Robb's own tender rendition of When Harry Took Me To See Ypres (performed on the Gentle Men set by Vera and Philip, you'll remember). And bringing it all up to date, there's the newly-composed "post-Bush re-election irony" waltz of Everything's All Right to set the "tone" by "blairing" out from your speakers (sorry!). By the way, Robb's theoretical criteria for songs' inclusion in this collection included the requirement for each of the "revisitings" to add some new perspective or insight – and he certainly succeeds in this regard. He's also captured the feel (if not the rabble-rousing atmosphere) of a typical RJ gig by recording live in the studio, all but two of the 18 tracks being set down on first take. Oh, and there's a really sensible little booklet essay by Ken Hunt, appraising Robb's talent in just the right context. Robb's skill is indeed to find "poetry in the commonplace", and everyone needs at least one Robb Johnson album in their collection, I say, so why not this one?…
David Kidman
www.robbjohnson.co.uk
www.irregularrecords.co.uk
David Kidman
