| The Devil You Know | | Posted Saturday, August 26, 2006 4:11:38 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Keith Richards said humor was rock and roll's greatest weapon, Bob Dylan proved it and Snider takes it to heart. For twelve years, Snider has been a satirist, class cutup and the rare artist who understands and celebrates the connections between the Stones, Dylan, Bill Hicks, John Prine, Mitch Hedberg, Kris Kristofferson, Hunter S. Thompson and Randy Newman. Snider's records are fun even when they aren't being funny, funny even when they're sad, and no less truthful for the laughs. Which brings us to The Devil You Know, a sparkling, smiling, snarling portrait of the doomed.Eric McConnell's as-yet-unnamed studio -- the same place where Loretta Lynn recorded her Grammy-winning Van Lear Rose -- was the setting for Snider's new album. It's the same structure where Snider made his critically acclaimed 2004 album East Nashville Skyline, and the musicians used the whole place.With The Devil You Know, Snider has assembled a bag of songs that speak to the politics of the day without ever speaking politics, that talk to the wars being fought away from cameras or reporters and that balance truth, beauty and humor.... | |
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| | | You're Only Lonely | | Posted Thursday, August 03, 2006 10:11:43 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | As the frontman for the Mavericks and a member of Los Super Seven, Raul Malo has applied his Orbison-like delivery to an eclectic array of material. On this, his latest solo effort, the warbler enlists veteran producer Peter Asher to focus on romantic balladry, as string-laden arrangements surround Malo's tremulous voice on the opening title track (a '70s hit for songwriter J.D. Souther) and the soaring "Feels Like Home" (reprised as the closer in a duet with Martina McBride). The song selection highlights Malo's vocal range, as he finds the bittersweet essence in a slowed-down rendition of the Everly Brothers' "So Sad," a dramatic reading of the Bee Gees' "Run to Me," and a lilting take on Ron Sexsmith's "Secret Heart." He even tackles Etta James's signature tune, "At Last," its jazzy, smoky sophistication punctuated by a trumpet solo. The cover of Willie Nelson's "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" provides the album's main link to country, but even here the bedrock organ and soul choir sound closer to the church than the roadhouse. The stellar selection provides a superb showcase for Malo's shimmering voice. --Don McLeese... | |
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| | | At San Quentin (The Complete 1969 Concert) | | Posted Saturday, July 29, 2006 10:11:44 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | While Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, the 1968 album that made Cash a household word, spent only two weeks at No. 1, this 1969 follow-up topped the charts for 20 weeks. As with Folsom, the San Quentin LP had to be edited due to space limitations. Now, 31 years after the fact, the show can at last be heard in true perspective. All the original performances hold up, including the album's hit single: Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue," presented unbleeped for the first time. Equally impressive are the eight restored tracks and unexpurgated between-song patter. Cash's opening renditions of "Big River" and "I Still Miss Someone" are bracing. So are four closing songs teaming Cash with his complete performing troupe (the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers). Their gospel performances ("He Turned the Water into Wine," "The Old Account," and an early version of "Daddy Sang Bass") are electrifying, as is a concluding medley featuring everyone. Cash is presented here at his roaring, primal best. --Rich Kienzle... | |
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| | | Another Fine Day | | Posted Monday, July 24, 2006 10:11:48 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Jeff Tweedy might carry the name recognition, but the rest of his band-on-the-side carries the mail on the fourth release from this Midwest all-star group. Though the Wilco leader teams with the Jayhawks' Gary Louris on a pair of nimble pop songs--the elegantly strummed "Listen Joe" and Kinks cover "Strangers"--it's Louris who's clearly at the head of the class with self-assured vocals ("Another Fine Day," "Think About Yourself"), lush harmonies ("Long Time Ago") and those unmistakable guitar leads ("Frying Pan Eyes"). Soul Asylum guitarist Dan Murphy's obligatory rocker "Hurricane" is a high point, as is the album's lead track "You Make It Easy," which has Kraig Johnson warbling over a thumping piano lead and chunky fuzz guitar. But most welcome among the 15 songs are two contributions from Louris's fellow Jayhawk Marc Perlman: the refreshing "Corvette" and "Cure for This," a '60s-speckled pop song sung by Muni Loco, the wife of producer Paco Loco and the first female to grace a recording by Golden Smog. --Scott Holter... | |
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| | | Men & Mascara | | Posted Friday, July 21, 2006 10:11:40 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | There's no sophomore slump here for Julie Roberts, whose second release is, if anything, richer and more powerful than her well-received debut. Credit the uniformly strong material, with not a throwaway among the eleven tracks, and four of the songs cowritten by Roberts. There's not a happy song among them, either, except for the nostalgic "Too Damn Young," about when love was fresh in a teenage way that it will never be again on the rest of the older-and-wiser material. The opening "Paint and Pillows" tells of a wife wronged by a cheating husband, and a hurt that can't be masked by window dressing. "First to Never Know" and "Lonely Alone" find a woman on the run from a relationship gone cold, while "A Bridge That's Burning" sings of the refusal to become the other woman. Best of all is the title track, through which the bittersweet voice of experience warns that "men and mascara always run." Though Roberts has the glamour-girl look of a Faith Hill, the Southern bluesiness of her vocal phrasing is closer to Lucinda Williams, and the fiddle and steel guitar that dominate Byron Gallimore's production show country music making few concessions to pop. --Don McLeese... | |
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