| SoundStage! Music Online Editor's Pick
Archives May/June 1999 Tom Waits - Mule Variations SnapShot! Rating:
Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys - Radio
Favorites SnapShot! Rating:
Bill Kirchen - Raise a Ruckus SnapShot! Rating:
Clarence Brewer - King Clarentz SnapShot! Rating:
Tony Bennett with Count Basie and his Orchestra - In
Person! SnapShot! Rating:
Nancy Sinatra - How Does it Feel? SnapShot! Rating:
Copyright © 1999 SoundStage! |
Tom Waits’ first collection
in six years, Mule Variations channels some of the dense imagery of his finest
album, Rain Dogs, but is ultimately more of an interesting listen than a
well-rounded creative statement -- in any old or new direction. What’s most
surprising is how banal a few of the songs are -- "House Where Nobody Lives" and
"Cold Water" come quickly to mind. These clunkers are offset by the
Springsteenesque "Hold On" and especially "Take It With Me" -- and
other tunes populated with the assorted drinkers, malcontents and drifters whose hard
existence is fodder for Waits’ muse. Mule Variations is for Waits fans and
curious onlookers, but the better buy, if you don’t have it already, is Rain Dogs....Marc
Mickelson
A six-song EP, Radio
Favorites, by revivalists Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys, shows the flexibility and
musicianship of a band made up of Brits and Yanks who love the sounds of ‘50s rock
and roll. It’s a temptation to say that these tunes would be at home on your local
station during that era, but this would cheapen the high level of craftsmanship on
display. The songs on Radio Favorites draw inspiration from the likes of Gene
Vincent and Merle Travis, but there’s more lyrical cleverness and sheer jubilance
here. All six songs are memorable, but the guitar-driven "I Can’t Believe
I’m Saying This to You" takes the prize for toe-tapping. It’s hard to make
music that sounds this authentic and new, bouncy and loose, but Big Sandy and the Boys do
it. We can only hope that those in Nashville, which has lost all feeling in its roots, are
listening -- and they’re open to learning something....Marc Mickelson
Thirty years in the
business and gigs with the likes of Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris and
Commander Cody certainly don’t hurt Bill Kirchen’s reputation as an act, and Raise
a Ruckus, Kirchen’s third solo effort, shows some distillation of styles from
those with whom he has played. The songs are countrified and rife with rhythmic guitar
playing and good humor -- if not terribly profound. "Big Hat/No Cattle" wins the
award for best title, with "She’s A Yum Yum" a close second. Both are
danceable -- for the big-hat crowd, that is. "Interstate" offers a fun
juxtaposition, the guitars having a distinct surfer/beach twang. Kirchen’s axe work
is tastefully restrained and even campy in spots. So many of the songs could be straight
C&W, but Kirchen’s guitar grounds them in honky-tonk, Texas swing, and rockabilly
instead, and Raise a Ruckus is all the better for it....Marc Mickelson
King Clarentz is the name
bluesman and artist Clarence Brewer is known by in his home town of Springfield, Missouri.
And this disc, his recording debut, proves why, as King Clarentz mixes blues, boogie and
swamp twang into a an infectious gumbo. Highlights include the hopping "Bed Spring
Boogie," which opens the collection, and "Halloween Blues" with its
slow-grooving organ work by Joe Terry, keyboardist for the roots/rock band The Skeletons,
who back Brewer on this disc. Brewer’s guitar work positively rings with life and
inventiveness, and his singing is restrained. The sound is spacious and resolved,
excellent overall. King Clarentz is a distinguished recording, the first of many to
come...Marc Mickelson
I know Tony Bennett has
experienced an MTV-induced career renaissance, but I don’t know why MoFi would decide
to remaster this album. I’m sure they are getting the most out of the master
tapes, but there’s just not much there to begin with. Perhaps the gold treatment is
due to the fact that Bennett fronts the Count Basie Orchestra, so there are two big names
together, but the performances, which are a little over the top even by the standards of
their own time, suffer from sound that makes it all seem impressionistic at best and a
mile away at worst. And there’s too much crowd noise -- which also sounds
distant and splashy...Marc Mickelson
The insert to this disc makes
Nancy Sinatra out to be the godmother of Lilith Fair, a fact that escaped me and just
about everyone else. Luckily this posturing doesn’t obscure some serviceable pop.
Nothing here was a hit of the "Boots" magnitude, and shouldn’t have been,
but it all has a detached, a go-go tinge that works on "Sweet Talkin’ Candy
Man" more than "One Jump Ahead of the Storm." And I like the cover
of "Like a Rolling Stone" for its horn-driven lightness that the song is no
worse for having, at least this version. It’s not a great, faithful cover, but
it’s not William Shatner’s "Mr. Tambourine Man" either...Marc
Mickelson