Reviews: New in the Addpool this week (8/8)
DATE:8/8/05ARTIST: Krista Detor
TITLE: Mudshow (Tightrope)
GENRE: LOCAL/FOLK/SS
GRADE: A
REVIEW: "Like a voyeur peeking into our homes, relationships, myths and the dark night of our souls, Detor has left the truth bundled at our doorstep and rung the bell. (She) sings like an angel on 'Mudshow'...the Angel of Death playing Russian Roulette with the Grim Reaper over tea and brandy. Alternating anesthesia and a cold scalpel down the belly, Detor takes names not prisoners...'" Slats Klug
"This CD (Mudshow) is an amazing and rare confluence of three elements that make it a stunning work of art. Heart-breaking poetry, wrapped inside sophisticated, gorgeous melodies, delivered to you by a beautiful voice that beckons with its humanity while destroying you with its truth." Lauren Robert
“There is no difference between Krista Detor’s album 'Mudshow', and a CD that sells a million copies. It is that kind of good—the next car on a gravel road, this time in Indiana: familiar but completely new. I feel very lucky to be among those who can say, “Hey! I heard this first!” Sam Bartlett
DATE:8/8/05
ARTIST: Rodney Crowell
TITLE: The Outsider (Columbia)
GENRE: ROCK/MAINSTREAM
GRADE: A
REVIEW: He used to be a country star, but ever since “The Houston Kid” Rodney Crowell has been stepping further into an adult rock sound. A detailed lyricist who either tells stories of love and everyday life's challenges (1,5,8,9) or social commentary (2, 6, 7, 11), Crowell's better songs hit in a profound way. He also seems like he's having a lot of fun and doesn't miss being a big-hat guy at all. Secret weapon in the studio: guitarist Will Kimbrough. CD #1 is the new release, CD#2 holds some of the best songs from his last two releases.
REVIEWER:Jim Manion/WFHB
DATE: 8/8/05
ARTIST: The Stairwell Sisters
TITLE: Feet All Over the Floor (Yodel-Ay-Hee)
GENRE: FOLK/OLD-TIME
GRADE: A
REVIEW:If you enjoy listening to authentic string band music then look no further. Using their voices as musical instruments they ebb & flow back and forth and come back together to create a beautiful sound. The vocals were excellent, you can really feel the emotion and enthusiasm. I have heard many of these songs before but they take on new life on this project. The instrumental work is superb and dovetails very well with the songs being sung. Hearing this CD once was not enough. It needs to be played several times in order to fully appreciate the combination of their fine voices and the great lyrics of each song. I played the entire CD and received many calls to play it again. I will be playing several cuts each week until the CD has been played in total again." - Al Shusterman, KCBL/Backroads Bluegrass
WFHB NOTES:
The Stairwell Sisters feature former B-town musician (and WFHB mix DJ) Evie Laden. She wrote and sings lead on tracks 10 & 13, sings lead on 17 & 19. No bum tracks on the disc – take your pick!
DATE: 8/8/05
ARTIST: Grayson Capps
TITLE: If You Knew My Mind (Hyena)
GENRE: FOLK/SS
GRADE: A
REVIEW: The centerpiece of his seductive solo debut, “Bobby Long” nails its subject with gritty details like “old orange juice and vodka on a night stand.” It also encapsulates the high brow/white trash clash that makes Capps’ vision so compelling. Picking backporch acoustic guitar and singing in a voice cracked with whiskey and cheap cigarettes, Capps references T.S. Eliot and namechecks Flannery O’Conner. Like Lucinda Williams, who is clearly a guiding light, Capps has a poet’s eye for place; you can almost smell the “rotten paradise” that clings to his dirty clothes in “Get Back Up.” He even makes a pit stop in “Slidell,” a memorable Williams’ destination. But it’s his pitch-perfect ear that makes the vivid images come alive. Framed by swamp-goth electric guitar, and shadowed by the soul-kiss harmonies of Trina Shoemaker (who also produced), “Graveyard” is as beautiful and menacing as a classic murder ballad should be. And the muffled drum of the bullfrog chorus in “I See You” sounds exactly like Capps describes it: “Just like a concert down in Nouvelle Orleans.”
REVIEWER: offbeat.com
DATE: 8/8/05
ARTIST: Delbert McClinton
TITLE: Cost of Living (New West)
GENRE: BLUES/TEXAS R&B
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Delbert McClinton distills the bluesy side of Texas music into an infectious melange that is his alone, and he's been doing it for 30 years or so with few missteps. He's turned into a sort of witty old hound dog, cracking wise about making the most of life or laughing at himself and others. All while delivering these tales over killer grooves that bring in jazzy horns, smoking guitars and a big sense of fun.
REVIEWER: Jim Manion
DATE: 8/8/05
ARTIST: Brother Henry
TITLE: Chasing Happiness (Double Deal)
GENRE: ROCK/MAINSTREAM
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Bringing to mind the early work of The BoDeans, The Silos and especially the Mark Olson-era Jayhawks, Brother Henry, whose members have worked with Ben Folds, Josh Rouse, The Cowboy Junkies and more, make something more akin to Southern pop than what passes for alt-country these days. There's nothing dirty or dangerous about Chasing Happiness, but that was never the intention anyway. "We were definitely going for pop, but mainly we were going for higher energy," says David Henry. David fronts Brother Henry along with his identical twin brother, Ned. Unlike their more even-tempered debut, C'mon People, Chasing Happiness is unapologetically positive, and sometimes downright hokey on songs like Fab Four and Two Old Friends. But beyond purposefully poppy tunes like the Byrds-ish Spaceman, the band, which also includes Henry Brother Jeff and drummer Park Ellis, are still at their best when their sunny songs are given the twilight treatment. It might be that songs like Where Will I Be and Deep in the Dark are standouts because David is an accomplished cellist, so his voice is at its most natural when the melodies are more strung out and mellow. Or maybe it's because underappreciated guitarist brother Ned plays the laidback Mark Knopfler/Richard Thompson style as masterfully and intuitively as anybody in Nashville. And their identical-twin sibling vocals are very special, to say the least.
REVIEWER: Jason Moon Wilkins/Nashville Rage
DATE: 8/8/05
ARTIST: Amadou & Mariam
TITLE:Dimanche A Bamako (Nonesuch)
GENRE: INTERNATIONAL/AFICA/WORLD FUSION
GRADE: A+++
REVIEW: Already a hit in France, where it broke into the pop album charts and notched up sales of more than 100,000, this is the African/pop hybrid curiosity set of the year. Amadou and Mariam are a blind, middle-aged couple from Mali who for years have specialised in a simple, rhythmic style of African R&B and jazz-funk, embellished with Amadou's rousing guitar work, which was inspired by such English heroes as Eric Clapton and Alvin Lee. Their fortunes were dramatically changed when Europop (and world music) hero Manu Chao heard one of their songs, and decided to produce, co-write and even appear on this new set. The result is an intriguing mix in which Amadou's old-style gutsy blues-rock is matched alongside gentle, slinky tracks such as M'Bife. Then there's a sudden switch to Chao's own material, with songs like Senegal Fast Food and Taxi Bamako sounding firmly in the tradition of his own Clandestino, with brass, harmonica and African street noises added in. It remains to be seen whether Amadou and Mariam will ever equal this success without his help, but no matter - this is a great pop record.
REVIEWER:London Guardian
posted by WFHB Music @ 5:09:00 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
looks, sharp, jim! this is going to be nice.
--bjorn
excellent. I enjoy blogging and will probably comment often. Now on to my reviwing...
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