You might call this the Blue edition of Music Matters, due to the predominance of blues reviews. This is also the final “edition” of MMReview. FAME (Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange) and MMReview have decided to pool resources to better serve musicians and readers alike. All new album reviews will be found on the FAME website. We will still publish concert reviews and features here, but if you want to keep up with the perceptive and cogent music critiques by your favorite Music Matters reviewers, please set your bookmarks to FAME. I thank all the musicians for their music, the publicists for their efforts in getting the word out, the writers who somehow translate music into prose and the music lovers who read, listen and make this all something we can’t not do!—Michael Devlin, Editor
Reviews: (Click titles to jump to reviews)
Jenn Adams—In The Pool
Bernard Allison—Kentucky Fried Blues Live
The Big Doo Wopper—Feel The Spirit–A Tribute to Mahalia Jackson
Kenny Brown—Stingray
Kenny Butterill—Just a Songwriter
James Durst—Element of Surprise
The Iguanas—Plastic Silver 9 Volt Heart
Location One—Key
Los Niños de Sara—Gipsyolè
Harry Manx and Kevin Breit— Jubilee
Hunter Moore—Conversations
Delbert McClinton—Room To Breathe
The Rockin’ Highliners—Sputnik Café
Children's
Ralph’s World—Peggy’s Pie Parlor
Reviews:
Jenn Adams—In The Pool
2000, White Boxer Music
One wonders how someone of this talent could be so under the radar on the national folk scene. This woman is a singer with a wide stylistic range, an engaging voice and a knack for writing songs that stick with you. The production on this album couldn’t be better. A complete and mature work with intriguing songs start to finish. —Michael Devlin
Bernard Allison—Kentucky Fried Blues Live
2003, Ruf
Like father, like son or, so the old maxim goes and it holds true with Luther and Bernard Allison. Recorded live at the W.C. Handy Festival ’99 in Henderson, KY, Bernard is no holds barred wailing. His version of Don Nix’s “Going Down” is pounding. Allison sounds like his Dad but adding the spice of soul and funk to the 100 beats per minute Hendrixian exertions that are the family guitar trademark. Bernard never lets the intensity drop and his guitar is a fiery torch dripping molten metal that flings hot shards of sound. His vocals are growling howls of soulful blues. His “Bad Love” version is as soulful as a fist to the solar plexus. Luther would have approved. The band which consists of Bernard on guitar and vocals, Mike Vlahakis’ keys, Jeff Hayes’ bass, Craig Panosh’s drumming (we saw him pound behind Bryan Lee least February at Stingers) along with Trevor Newman’s hot trumpet and Rich Martinez’s slide ‘bone combine to yield a spiritual experience as blues pours out like the tears of a lost lover. Bernard, whose voice is eerily like his Dad’s also settles down soulful and smooth on cuts like “Midnight Creeper.” This is as hot as blues gets. The river flows on from Magic Sam to Luther Allison and on to Bernard, who is carrying the heat and majesty into the 21st century intact. —Mark Gresser
The Big DooWopper—Feel The Spirit–A Tribute to Mahalia Jackson
2002, Delmark
Ever since hearing the Big DooWopper on his All in the Joy release two years ago, I knew this was a man with a calling. His tortured rasp of a voice is an emotional funnel and his piano work is expressive and soulful. When applied to the deep soul of Mahalia Jackson’s spirituals and gospel mastery, a particular magic is the result. This CD is BIG. It is a tribute to the Queen of Gospel and a more heartfelt, moving and swinging result would be hard to imagine. His vocals capture nuance and deliver the power with his formative influences of Clara Ward, Brother Joe May and Prof. Alex Bradford. Backed by a heavenly multi-tracked self-choir that is equally at home providing satiny harmony or punchy doo wop a cappella accents, Cornell Williams has done a hopping, powerful and spiritual job. From his regular spot in the Chicago Transit Authority tunnel by Washington and State, you can hear it live. If the Windy City isn’t in your itinerary but real spiritual fervor is, the Big DooWopper will do it for you.—Mark Gresser
Kenny Brown—Stingray
2003, Fat Possum
Stingray is a potpourri of the best sounds coming out of today’s blues. Kenny has mixed the best of the North Mississippi Hill Country drone groove with acoustic blues in a bouncy Jonathan Edwards vocal style. He was a protégé of the best. R.L. Burnside calls him his adopted son but he really learned his way around a guitar under the tutelage of Joe Callicot. His harp came from Mississippi Fred McDowell and Johnny Woods, giving him a 1-2 punch that was the key to 25 years in Burnside’s band. His slide has been a big part of the foundation of the relentless rhythmic drive and mesmerizing effect of the Hill Country sound. Finally recording his own album, Kenny has a winner on tap. This disk is fattened by Cedric Burnside’s skin pounding, Takeeshi Imura and Terrance Bishop’s bass and lots of organ, sax, etc. on fill. The groove is cold, hot, hard and driving with solid riffs repeated until they take your wandering mind to deep Southern forests, open plantations and far, far African roots. The guitar work boogies and cries and moans with Brown’s staccato vocal delivery are well in time with the feel. His gentle acoustic and country flavored softness are a distinct counterpoint to the electric side. Even weirder is “Cocaine Bill” with a tuba bassline. His version of “Goin’ Down South” is a bit less hostile than the one North Mississippi Allstars released while “Shake Em On Down” has a warped echoplex rockabilly vibe. The disk closes on a deep down “Fare Thee Well Blues” after a brief 39 minutes and we are delivered back to our lives, having been in a rare and mystical place. —Mark Gresser
Kenny Butterill—Just a Songwriter
2003, Hayden’s Ferry Records
The coyote howls lonely and long, sagebrush rolls, dust devils twist, the evening air is perfumed with white sage and an old Indian on horseback is silhouetted against a new risen moon. Butterill is a songwriter set for these vistas. He has a soft Mark Knopfler-esque voice with an evocative and expressive delivery. The songs of Just A Songwriter are bluesy, drifting on currents of air like dust motes and throwing out sparks of inspiration. Softly country with restraint and introspection, each song is a visuality. Kenny lets us in as he dips “paintbrushes into my soul, just me and my guitar.” Visitations from Norton Buffalo’s high lonesome harmonica and Ken’s friends like Joe Weed and Ray Bonneville fill in smoothness like a satin sheet, rumpled with the night’s exertions. There are loving nights and empty days, road trips and trying to move on. Visions of being “on the right track, ain’t no looking back, partners in the game, riding destiny’s train” smoothly flow from lover’s games and hard stares into a cold mirror. Butterill takes the heart on a journey, his band is a partner in a Dire Straits kind of way and the world is just outside. Fine like warm candle light reflected through crystal and the crimson of Cabernet suffusing excellently moving alt country folk poetry. —Mark Gresser
James Durst—Element of Surprise
2002, World Wind
Durst is a communicator. His songs flow with the cheerful burble of a sparkling spring. They may weep with bitter tears or revel in silliness, but he really is attempting to point out better ways. Durst is a Raffi for adults. His melodious tenor and soft folk timbre express love and hope and sociopolitical opinions. Accompanied by outstanding sidemen including Bob Malone’s piano, Durst couches deep messages in witty word plays. He generates intensity and immediacy with consummate skill. Irony competes with informativeness. A song about Union Oil’s fiefdom in Burma follows a wishful solution to strife in “What If…? (It’s a Jumble Out There).” Anyone who has tried to present a concert with a terminally late artist knows the “Pre-Minstrel Syndrome.” On tour since 1965, Durst has graced stages in 44 countries and his repertoire includes material in 18 languages. His interconnectedness is our interconnectedness although, thankfully, this disc is in English. Finely tuned, emotionally clear and politically astute, James Durst is someone you should hear. —Mark Gresser
The Iguanas—Plastic Silver 9 Volt Heart
Yep Roc Records
This has to be one of the smoothest and most sensual albums to come along in ages, yet all the while it bubbles along with an intensity that makes you want to get up and dance. This New Orleans based group packs 14 songs onto this disc filled with their familiar blending of Tex-Mex, R & B, and Rock. This line up, which has been together 10 years, consists of Rod Hodges (vocals, guitars and accordion), Joe Cabral (vocals, saxophone and bajo quinto), Rene Coman (bass), Doug Garrison (drums) and Derek Huston (saxophone). They infuse their music with the dusky evocative feel of a New Orleans spring evening, with the scent of magnolias heavy in the air, that lures the sounds that waft in on Gulf winds from Latin America and all over the Caribbean into their home port. This melding gives the music that intrinsic, intoxicating groove that brings the sensuality writhing to the surface. This is at first listen a low key disc, but stop and feel the ethereal “Mexican Candy,” or the emotion of the Rod Hodges/Dave Alvin “9 Volt Heart,” and then feel the sexuality of “Sugar Cane,” and see if you still feel it is low key. This is my pick so far for record of the year. —Bob Gottlieb
Location One—Key
2001, Inferno Productions
The lead vocals by Meghan Morris are powerful and pure, standing up to the guitar-hero antics of Dan Leeds without coming close to straining her voice. The band plays with a high level of sophistication, exploring a unique minimalist hard rock sound that edges towards jazz fusion when drummer Ed Zavarella gets some space to show his stuff. Production is razor sharp.—Michael Devlin
Los Niños de Sara—Gipsyolè
2002, Intentcity
With a vibrancy and power that is phenomenal, they recreated the remains of Alabina and make a seamless blend of Gypsy Kings type flamenco and Basque music driven by the salsa/son of today's Cuba. The intricate guitar and hot horn rhythms blend in a way that reflects their common ethno-musicological origins and demonstrates the additive strength of the phenomenon of hybrid vigor. The songs are sensual and fiery and they move your soul as much as your soles. The rhythms seduce you, the horns entice and melodies arouse a heat that can only be likened to that of the Andalusian sun. The insistence of the salsa beat takes flight as if a flock of egrets from a sparkling sea, dropping shining motes of brilliance. This is soul moving, heart thrilling and dance floor filling while being exotic and tropical. Mucho caliente! —Mark Gresser
Harry Manx and Kevin Breit— Jubilee
2002, Northern Blues
“Jubilee” is smooth, mellow trad blues and more, almost in a folk crossover vein. It is a joining of the virtuosity and chemistry of like souls. Manx is known widely for his blues compositions on the Mahan Veena (an Indian stringed instrument) and Breit is one of Canada’s reigning guitar magicians. They join together in a magical explosion of string wizardry. It truly is “a great example of the musical synergy that can happen when artists leap into the unknown.” (A quote from Manx in the liner notes.) The result is a seamless web of eclecticism and down home soul moving. Played on a plethora of stringed tools and restrained percussion, this is a hugely satisfying voyage in smooth. Most cuts are by Manx or Breit but a hopping version of the Doobies “Taking It to the Streets” and a nice reading of Sleepy John Estes’ “Diving Duck Blues” are highlights as is a country-esque “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”. Harry is folk sweet while Breit tends to be chuggachug bright and jumpy. The combination is a sweet honey balm for ears yearning for something new. Think Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitarists in Tennessee and you’ll see, I guarantee. —Mark Gresser
Hunter Moore—Conversations
2001, www.huntermoore.com Records
Hunter Moore sounds a bit like Louden Wainwright, but without the intensity in the vocals or lyrics. His songs are well-told stories with a writer’s eye for detail and a songwriter’s ear for a hook. The production is acoustic based with some scorching electric guitar and a first rate rhythm section. —Michael Devlin
Delbert McClinton—Room To Breathe
2002, New West
You can take the boy out of Texas but, you sure as shootin’ can’t take the Lone Star out of the man. Delbert is so Texas, he’s blowing sagebrush hard core. Stomping and boogieing songs fill this platter of hot and spicy. This bite of honky tonking is filled with witty lyrics and word plays set on a backdrop of propulsive, pointy toed cowboy boot, moving, shuffling and two-stepping like it’s no one’s business. Roadhouse Shakespeare it is! The years have only succeeded in making Delbert’s rasp deeper and rougher, filling his oration with sincere grind. His songs are thick slices of real life and they are impacted with a Ray Charles kind of swing. From slow blues to chugging boogies, this is one hot chicken of a disc. Most of the album is the product of Delbert’s band but check the lineup on “Lone Star Blues.” It features a chorus with Marcia Ball, Ray Benson, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Emmy Lou Harris, Butch Hancock and Billy Joe Shaver among others. The song is a hoot and, a s-kicker at that. The platter is just that kind of player, with a good blend of hot and cool, fast and slow and excellent songs about real life, from celebration to loss. Sure as heck, this is a keeper. —Mark Gresser
The Rockin’ Highliners—Sputnik Café
2003, Severn
The Highliners crank out good rocking. They obviously have studied the lessons of the Fab T-birds as they deliver cooking boogies, smooth shuffles and warm blues. Hailing from Edmonton and a hot commodity North of the 49th parallel, Bob Tycholis (vocals), Greg Demchuk and Clayton Sample (guitar), Chris Byrne (bass) and Ken McMahon (drums) speed cross country like a vistacruiser in the Canadian Rockies. The walking bass, chunky guitar and pounding drums fill each cut with depth. “Roll Over Rover” moves on in a thumping, dark tale of doggie love (?) amid Sample’s cooking guitar solo. They swing low and deep as Benjie Porecki fills “Quiet Man” with B-3 wonderment and soul. Their preferred meter is slow and hard with deep down and solid, being better than frenetic and out of breath and I agree. “Down In the Bottom” brings us another refreshing Northern exposure that has something new to say as they get down and “Shake It.” —Mark Gresser
Children’s
Ralph’s World—Peggy’s Pie Parlor
2003, Mini Fresh
This is upbeat danceable children’s music with well-intentioned lyrics. The singing is often in that annoying slightly out of tune style that somehow makes kids know that it’s for them. There a couple of songs that stand out for the adult listener. One is a Squeeze-like rocker and another makes good use of banjos and other acoustic instruments. The album was a big hit with my six year-old tester, bearable for me. —Michael Devlin