Anybody expecting more folk-rooted acoustic bliss as
dished up on last disc with Kenny Roby - Black River Sides - will get
a mighty rawk n’ roll kick instead from new offering Anytime
Tomorrow. With the Casal A-Team of engineer Jim Scott, the genius trio
of Ginty, Heffington and Leisz Casal picks up the tempo, kicks out the
blues and delivers one of the great west-coast records – well that’s
what they probably thought in the smoky studio. Opener Willow Jane
sets the mood with crash and burn chords, Eagles-like guitar. This set
shows his true colours perhaps? Yup he has covered Townes and Parsons
but maybe his real godfathers are more mainstream – the
afore-mentioned Eagles, Allman Brothers, seventies boogie and stomp
and a good helping of Petty, Dylan and southern soul. Horns on Willow
Jane are superb –pure Muscle Shoals. Where does this leave us
folkies – well clinging to the wreckage it seems. There were
harbingers of this new mood throughout the numerous discs on
Glitterhouse especially the wonderful first disc Fade Away Diamond
Time. With this recording he’s staked his claim as the Neil Young to
Beck’s millenium Dylan. There’s the similar melodic rock with an
acoustic heart. There’s even the Young plays Dylan harmonica on
second track Fell On Hard Times. Stadium bound that one – you can
smell the lighter fuel dripping already. What about the actual
songwriting though and here I have to say that I’ve never been that
convinced with too many cliches padding out his slew of albums.
Luckystars sounds great but is lyrically lightweight ..your shoes
are filled with gasoline, ...rattling up and down these highways ...yeah
right. He probably wrote that one in his sleep. I can’t knock the
production though but this team could make a great west-coast record
with Gerri Halliwell if they wanted to. Sweetvine gets all rawky again
– heavy rocky reprocessed Van the Man –nowt wrong with that- but
for some reason the name Peter Frampton comes to mind –now that’s
serious. Guitar solos that’s what did it –bloody big horrible
guitar meets organ solos. I can see the film credits running down the
Sunset Boulevard sunset shots. Yuk. Then there’s a switch of mood
– a gorgeous double-tracked? Harmony vocal and more west-coast
references –lifting the Beach Boys/ Isaak songbooks and stitching
them together. Not bad but somehow still feels like contrived CSN
& Y out-take right down to the camp bass/ piano coda – weird
beards. Not. Ballad No One Above You is soppy. If he carries on like
this my earlier assessment of him as a contender for the new Townes/
Clark crown is gonna collapse. Mind you he’ll end up rich which is
what this disc is all about – can’t blame him for that. How many
would swap a Townes-like career for a place on Sunset Boulevard –not
many I’d guess but just as the seventies stars drifted into
obsolescence so this record could be the artistic death of Neal Casal.
Eddy & Diamonds is more rawk. Terrible song. Faux-Punk guitar too
...per ..leez..and something about burying gold..I couldn’t be
bothered to work it out.
Then hope!!! Just Getting By. Fingerpicking, subdued organ, nice
singing. A lyric that wasn’t knocked out for a rock jam. Almost a
resurrection. Not as good as Black River Sides but giving reason for
hope. Maybe he hasn’t abandoned those folk/rock Band and Byrds
roots. Welcome back Neal. Then Camarillo and heavy bass/ slide and a
decent vocal let down by more b-grade lyricism. Feels half-finished
– maybe there was a rush to produce this record? Time Down The Wind
is very similar to Just Getting By. Gentle in mood and Angie Mckenna
harmony fits well. Hadn’t lost all the Parsons influences
fortunately. Raining Straight Down suffers from sounding like the rest
of the album. Again its rent a lyric ...Last track glides effortlessly
off down the boulevard to no positive effect . Closing credits and
guess what a closer inspection of the sleeve notes reveals that a film
was made of the recording of this album. Too many production ideas
here. Next time Neal take yourself off to Cambridgeshire with just
your guitar like Eric Bibb and give it to us straight. Then we’ll be
able to sort the wheat from the chaff. Meanwhile this is my least
favourite Neal Casal album so far. Funny what the stimulating impact
of cash can do.
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Presently residing in
Hoboken, New Jersey, where she spends a good deal of her time tending
her garden, Kate Jacobs is a
talented singer-songwriter whose terms of reference go way beyond the
usual. On a recent visit she presented a stunning solo acoustic set
despite the burden of a good old fashioned English cold! She brought a
storybook with her full of autobiographical and family inspired songs
that brought to mind Iris Dement in their concision and the purity of
her voice. However trying to pin down Jacobs art is difficult as she
is as likely to sing about Russian poets, wrecked cars, T.B. wards and
the Spanish Civil War as the more usual staples of the american
songwriters craft. So far she has released three discs. The first The
Calm Comes After from 1993 came about after Kate traded in a
background in ballet for an acoustic guitar to " see about the
songs in my head". Those songs came out of a life that started in
Virginia before being transplanted to Europe. Second disc What About
Regret from 1995 seems to be well worth seeking out going by some of
the beautiful country travelogue songs she presented live in her 1999
jaunt round these islands. A song about a field full of old cars, for
instance, really stuck in the memory.
Dave Schramm, Vicky
Peterson and Susan Cowsill as well as former Db-er Peter Holsapple
assisted in the making of 'Hydrangea'. The disc betrays the solid pop
background of these participants. To my mind it is selection of strong
songs that would have been better presented straight as in that live
performance. The backings tend toward the over-produced. Opener
Shallow sets the tone. A hammond organ strumathon with a feel of the
Vulgar Boatmen/ Feelies to it and a lyric that name-checks Tolstoy!
The depth of her family history is explored in next track Never Be
Afraid which tracks an emigrant story from the Brandenberg Gate to New
York. Here the backing seems to be a bit one-dimensional despite the
Schramm factor. For somebody as obviously talented as Kate the
necessity to gild the lily with the minimum of decoration would in my
opinion pay off handsomely. Late suffers from flute and a cloying
lyric whilst the use of a children’s choir on Because.. and Dream On
really doesn’t do it for me ( probably a matter of taste).Having
said that Eddy's Gone To Spain and Honey Bees survive the production
and sentimentality which sometimes swamp her delicate voice and Hope
Is A Weed comes over as positively jaunty . One of my favourite tracks
is A Snowy Street which comes closest to a straightforward production
and the lyrical ‘Russian-ness’ part Pasternak, part Yuna Morits (
post-war Russian poetess) really works. If you're any kind of fan of
interesting country/ pop crossover in the manner of The Mary Janes
then you should check this disc out. I look forward to her next spin
around these islands and hope that the full band will let her voice
flower not wilt when she does return because accompanied only with her
guitar it's one of the best things I've heard in this Oxfordshire
garden all year.
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1998’s sublime debut
Dressed Up Like Nebraska was more than warmly received –ending up on
some people’s end of year ‘best-of’ lists. Indeed it even got
the Hearsay Magazine three stars from intrepid reviewer Richard Bell
who suggested he should get in Freedy Johnston to produce that ‘difficult’
second disc. Well Freedy didn’t get a look in as Rouse persevered
with the same man who worked on that debut. Did it work a second time?
Well sometimes yes but mostly no . The song titles beckon invitingly
– Hey Porcupine, 100m Backstroke – in a leftfield way suggesting
the recent Lambchop collaboration has left its effect. Sound wise we’re
treading water rather than swimming though. Opener Laughter is exactly
the same down to the tambourine trills as tracks on that first record.
There’s something resolutely mid-eighties in the bass/drum patterns
–softer Joy Division or Cure anybody? Then a horns riff that sounds
like it was lifted from a Laughing Clowns record drags the song from
its drowsy state – a recent Loose compilation featured a song from
Rouse titled in Spanish ‘I like to sleep’. Perhaps he’s working
on a new genre –somnambulic rock-? Second track continues the mood
– I know producer David Henry worked with the Cowboy Junkies
but.....zzzzzzz anyway it has a nice Motown-y lilt that befits the
song’s title – Marvin Gaye. I quite liked it’s gentle nature as
a pure Timmy Thomas drum machine pattern and vibraphone ticked over. I
don’t know how much time he’s been spending with Lambchop but this
disc has an almost identical feel to their backing on the Vic Chesnutt
disc Bernadette. Directions kicks into a higher gear and is a
highlight. Imagine a Vic Goddard out-take with better vocals and a
cute Postcard-era middle-eight. Durn it this guy’s the U.S. Roddy
Frame. That’s it review nailed! Early Frame before he started
believing the wunderkind tag. Next song Parts And Accessories does
nothing to dispel this conviction. It’s nice but that’s all –
tambourine left, hammond right – mellow. 100m Backstroke gently
strums into view before more vibraphone schmaltz sinks it. It sounds
like a weaker track off a recent Costello or Sexsmith record. Not bad
but with the latter and people like Jurado exploring this mellow rock
vibe to more effect it doesn’t really cut the ice round here. Groovy
title –Hey Porcupine- is better and almost breaks into the fresh
feel of the debut (tambourine left by the way – is this what
producers get paid for?). Any chance of Rouse cutting loose is laid to
rest ( literally) on next track In Between which is lyrically and
musically a damp rocket. And Around is more of the same and I’m
sorry but I was drifting off myself by now. It’s very fashionable I
know this mix of the lazy jazz and soul vibe as Buddy & The
Huddle, Chesnutt, Calexico and the ever present Lambchop testifies but
it’s getting to be compulsory. This record will go down well with
fans of these acts. For me it sounds like an artist of some promise
making that ‘difficult’ second even more problematic by resting
his heels in a fashionable genre. The debut had a vitality and
freshness this disc lacks. Having
said that Afraid To Fall rocks the joint ( almost) –maybe he should
rediscover some more of those eighties punk roots that I bet are just
under the perfect skin of this lounge crooner disguise. Final track
Little Know It All has a brass part that will remind British listeners
of the Hovis advert thus destroying the mood completely. Josh go and
listen to Television’s Marquee Moon record for a week
...please.....before it’s too late.
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