Archive Review: Mick Jagger’s She’s The Boss (1985)

The self-proclaimed “Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band In the World” produced what could arguably be one of the genre’s best vocalists (certainly one of the most flamboyantly well-known) in Mick Jagger. Regardless of the twenty-something odd years of ups and downs with the Stones, Jagger’s first solo work was not only greatly anticipated, it also held great expectations that the man, freed of the self-fulfilling indulgence of his band’s image, would produce an album both exciting and timely. She’s the Boss, sad to say, is neither...

Jagger’s vocals on She’s the Boss suffer greatly when matched against the squeaky-clean production work of Nile Rodgers and Bill Laswell. The too-cool, never-miss-a-note musical support provided by superstars Jeff Beck, Herbie Hancock, and others rob Jagger’s songs of the “get down an’ get dirty, I’ve busted a button on me trousers” feel of even the worst of the Stones’ material. 

What the Brit boychick hath wrought here is a soulless urban dancefloor relic. Save for an occasional bright spot (“Just Another Night” comes to mind), She’s the Boss is shallow, non-offensive, and uninteresting. Strictly for the pitiful middle class white kid, who can indulge their latent “I wish I were black” fantasies. If you’ve got eight bucks to spend on a dance-oriented LP, go for something like last year’s P Funk All Stars. (Columbia Records, released February 19th, 1985) 

Review originally published by Anthem: The Journal of (un)Popular Culture zine...

Archive Review: Leisure McCorkle’s Jet Set Baby (2002)

The missing ingredient in much of today’s “modern rock”(aside from talent) is humility, the ability of the artist to reveal their emotional wounds to the world and share the pain with an appreciative audience. The best rap music has humility aplenty, though it’s hard to tell, hidden underneath all the sexual braggadocio, while folk rockers have always worn their wimpy hearts on their sleeves. Not since the early efforts of Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and Joe Jackson – the “angry young men” of the ‘80s – has rock ‘n’ roll enjoyed such freedom. In this aspect, Leisure McCorkle is a welcome throwback to an earlier era, an anomaly in an age that champions marketability and profit over sincerity and talent. Jet Set Baby shows both in abundance, McCorkle’s finely-tuned, guitar-driven, three-minute pop/rock treasures drenched in sincerity and delivered with no small amount of talent.
 
On Jet Set Baby, McCorkle throws away memorable lines that lesser songwriters could build entire careers around, verses like the defiant “I don’t wanna spend anymore time making records for the popular crowd/I don’t want to be the sound that’s underground” from “In Touch With My Own Sound.” The precocious “jam the radio satans cause we don’t like their stations/we don’t dig their sounds” from “New York Eyes” has the antagonist chasing a girl, “she’s got Chicago style/but New York Eyes.” Unlucky in love, yet a hopeless romantic, McCorkle bleeds for us on Jet Set Baby, but don’t you know that rock ‘n’ roll cures all, so let’s fall in love for a night and the morning will bring another heartbreak. It’s okay, though, ‘cause “there’s a spirit who’s soared through the universe/some say he’s a master of the lyrical cha-cha-cha/you can’t erase his lyrical masterpiece” sings the great McCorkle and I, for one, believe him. 

Leisure McCorkle is the MAN, a new wave fury with a heart of glass and a bag full o’ manic musical hooks. The Reverend has heard the gospel according to McCorkle and now I’m going to “LA-La-La-La-La my way through life!” In a perfect world, Leisure McCorkle would rule the airwaves; as it is, Jet Set Baby will have to remain our dirty little secret. The Rev sez “check it out!” (MoRisen Records, released November 5th, 2002)

Review originally published by Jersey Beat music zine... 

Archive Review: R.L. Burnside’s Burnside On Burnside (2001)

Burnside On Burnside, recorded live at the Crystal Ballroom on, well, Burnside Street in Portland, Oregon, showcases a return to an earthier sound for Mississippi Hill Country bluesman R.L. Burnside. With a backing band that includes his twenty-two year old grandson Cedric and his longtime sidekick (and stepson), guitarist Kenny Brown, the 74-year old musician delivers a red-hot set of classic raw blues. 

Burnside’s bent-note style of guitar playing, inspired by mentor Mississippi Fred McDowell, is a classic example of traditional Mississippi Hill Country blues. When matched with Brown’s looping bottleneck slidework, and the younger Burnside’s steady rhythms, the guitar creates an almost hypnotic tapestry upon which the bluesman embroiders his powerful vocals. At home while on any stage, Burnside tells jokes, wanders across various musical pathways, and generally plays what he wants to play.

This is no slick Chicago-styled blues, or the work of some studio-bred Texas guitarslinger, nosirree - this is primal, no-frills, rockin-the-Casbah, honest-to-god jukejoint BLOOZE, delivered straight up, with no chaser. A gem among blues albums, Burnside On Burnside captures the music’s threatening ambiance and fiery essence like no other live album these ears have ever heard. (Fat Possum Records, released 2001)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine...

Also on That Devil Music: R.L. Burnside’s I Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down CD review

Archive Review: Ian Siegal & the Mississippi Mudbloods’ Candy Store Kid (2012)

British blues-rock veteran Ian Siegal has spent better than two decades pursuing his own unique vision of the blues, leaning heavily towards the rootsier side of the Mississippi-bred sounds of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters. Equally enamored of the raucous North Mississippi Hill Country style of bluesmen Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside, Siegal mixed up all these disparate influences over the course of five albums to create a heady blues-brew that earned him induction into the British Blues Hall of Fame. 

In 2011, Ian Siegal traveled to Coldwater, Mississippi to record with Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars at his Zebra Ranch studio. The resulting album, the Dickinson-produced The Skinny, was credited to Siegal and the Youngest Sons and included contributions from talents like guitarists Robert Kimbrough and Alvin Youngblood Hart and bassist Garry Burnside, among other familiar names. The album gained Siegal a newfound U.S. audience that had long-eluded him, as well as his first Blues Music Award nomination. Figuring that they could capture lightning in the bottle for a second time, Siegal returned to Mississippi to record Candy Store Kid, Dickinson again behind the board and Siegal’s backing band, the “Mississippi Mudbloods,” including Burnside and Hart as well as guitarist Luther Dickinson and other friends.  

Ian Siegal & the Mississippi Mudbloods’ Candy Store Kid

Although the bulk of Candy Store Kid is made up of Siegal originals, he opens the album with the delightful “Bayou Country,” an obscure but often-covered tune by former Elvis Presley bassist Duke Bardwell. A blue-eyed soul number with swamp-rock undertones, the song’s 1970s-era influence is dizzying, offering up delicious backing harmonies, Luther Dickinson’s hot git licks, Siegal’s period-perfect vocals, and an overall Southern rock vibe that reminds of Don Nix or Travis Wammack. Siegal travels a bit further south for the ramshackle blues-rock of “Loose Cannon,” the song’s greasy construct fueled by Hart’s knowing slingshot slide-guitar and Cody Dickinson’s muddy rhythms, the band creating a down ‘n’ dirty juke-joint blues with an infectious chorus and big-beat sound.

Siegal and the Mudbloods go with a country-funk sound for “I Am the Train,” a driving rhythm pounded out by Garry Burnside’s nimble bass lines and Dickinson’s lively drumbeats rumbling furiously as Hart’s electrifying fretwork slithers beneath Siegal’s lively but nuanced vocals. Lyrically, Siegal applies a metaphysical bent to a metaphorical tale as the slightly-twangy, blues-inflected music click-clacks in the background like the steel wheels of a runaway locomotive. A cover of friend Steve “Lightnin” Malcolm’s “So Much Trouble” is delivered with the subtlety of a drunken rhino bum-rushing a china shop but, to be honest, the song was pretty much written that way by the Two Man Wrecking Crew member. Luther Dickinson’s razor-edged fretting of the sitar (an unusual blues instrument, to be sure) helps create the song’s malevolent atmosphere. Siegal’s vocals are often lost beneath the claustrophobic instrumental soundtrack, with only the three-voice female gospel-styled backing harmonies bringing any sort of sunlight to the performance.   

Strong Woman

The Ian Siegal and Luther Dickinson-penned “Kingfish” is an inspired cross between Howlin’ Wolf and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Although Siegal adds a few spirited verses, the emphasis here is on spotlighting his ongoing mastery of the Hill Country six-string drone, resulting in an electric and entirely satisfying performance. The crew gets stone cold funky for a cover of the Little Richard obscurity “Green Power,” Hart adding his vocals alongside Siegal’s to great effect as Luther’s guitar shades some of the corners with candy-flake texture, but it’s definitely the rhythm section here of Hart (on the fat strings) and Cody Dickinson that fuels this funk-fest, the two providing a deep, wide groove that you could get lost in for years.    

Garry Burnside steps up with his hard-rocking original “Strong Woman,” his soulful vocals melding with Siegal’s gruffer voice for a simply explosive performance. The song displays a nimble rhythmic groove, peppered as it is by Burnside’s Hendrix-influenced guitar licks, supported by Luther Dickinson’s heavy bass lines. The gentler “Rodeo” offers a sharp contrast, the lyrically-introspective romantic ode offering up some of the most brilliant imagery Siegal has penned to date, his melancholy vocals providing a bittersweet emotional edge to the performance as a lush miasma of swirling instrumentation – led by Hart’s shimmering fretwork – blooms like a wildfire behind his voice. The deep-fried funk of “Hard Pressed (what da fuzz?)” closes out Candy Store Kid, Luther Dickinson’s buzzing fretwork slipping ‘n’ sliding beneath Siegal’s vocal gymnastics on a spry lil’ sucker that falls hard on the Southern rock side of the blues-rock equation.   

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Ian Siegal has always been an above-average talent with a unique eye for the blues, but with Candy Store Kid and his previous album The Skinny, he seems to have discovered a new muse. By traveling to Mississippi and recording with members of the storied Dickinson and Burnside families (as well as the equally-talented Alvin Youngblood Hart), Siegal has created some of the most vital and entertaining music of his lengthy career. Going for more of a Memphis soul heartbeat than its Delta-dirty predecessor, Candy Store Kid is a career milestone and a heck of a lot of fun. (Nugene Records, released October 15, 2012)

Archive Review: The Nighthawks’ 444 (2013)

Veteran roots ‘n’ blues legends the Nighthawks follow up their 2012 release Damn Good Time with another strong entry in a catalog that’s been 40 years in the making and littered with dozens of great albums. As shown by opening track “Walk That Walk,” the recipe the band used in baking up 444 doesn’t vary much from previous albums – a dash of rockabilly, a teaspoon of twang, and ounces and ounces of pure blues flavoring. The song swings lively, with plenty o’ founding frontman Mark Wenner’s playful harp notes, a dancing groove courtesy of rhythm section Johnny Castle (bass) and Mark Stutso (drums) and scraps of Paul Bell’s electric fretwork.

There’s more to like on 444 than the infectious opening track, though. “Livin’ the Blues,” for instance, displays a brash Chicago style, the arrangement held down by a bold walking rhythm and Wenner’s icy, Little Walter influenced harpwork. The ostensible title track, “444 A.M.,” offers up a cool cats 1950s greaser vibe with Bell’s James Burton-styled chicken-pickin’ and Wenner’s sizzling harp. “Honky Tonk Queen” is the sort of engaging twangfest one used to hear in Nashville’s Printer’s Alley back in the 1960s while “Nothin’ But the Blues” is a smoldering juke-joint romp with Wenner’s gritty vocals, blasts of mournful harp, and subtle guitarplay. 

The band goes deep into the Delta with its cover of Muddy Waters’ “Louisiana Blues,” Wenner growling out the vocals above a lusty harp line, the band’s low-key accompaniment covering the song like kudzu. Like much of the Nighthawks’ underrated back catalog, 444 is authentic American music writ large, delivered the real goods with plenty of heart and soul. Grade: B+ (EllerSoul Records, released June 17th, 2014)

Archive Review: Pendragon’s The History: 1984-2000 (2006)

For over twenty years, British neo-prog stalwarts Pendragon have bucked commercial trends in favor of exploring the classically-minded, folk-influenced style originally forged by bands like Genesis, Strawbs, and Renaissance. Unlike contemporaries Marillion, Pendragon has never achieved a great amount of chart success in the U.K. but rather are revered by loyal audiences in countries like France and Poland. 

Neither band ever made much of a splash with American prog-rock aficionados, but in Pendragon’s defense, there hasn’t been a lot of their music made available to audiences on this side of the pond. Originally released exclusively in Poland and enjoying a brief U.S. release back in 2001, The History: 1984-2000 has been compiled from a half-dozen Pendragon albums and should whet the appetite of stateside proggers to seek out the band’s other excellent work as import discs.

Pendragon’s The History: 1984-2000

The History: 1984-2000 is a fine showcase of Pendragon’s chosen milieu. Although guitarist/frontman Nick Barrett and keyboard wizard Clive Nolan, along with bassist Peter Gee and drummer Fudge Smith, are all superb musicians, it is the band’s enormous musical chemistry that drives these songs. Although some jaded U.S. prog fans may find Pendragon’s unique sound to be less aggressive than they like, with less emphasis on technical virtuosity and more importance placed on the song, these four gifted artists are incredible musicians nonetheless. 

Pendragon reminds me a lot of early ‘70s Pink Floyd, with each song’s lyrics, structure and underlying soundtrack considered above mere instrumental interplay. As such, mesmerizing tunes like “Total Recall” or the eerie medieval “The Black Knight” represent a finely crafted combination of intelligent, imaginative lyrics and unpredictable musical composition.

Pendragon’s The History: 1984-2000 includes two haunting acoustic performances of songs from early albums, “The King of the Castle” and “Paintbox,” that were recorded exclusively for this volume. Stripped of electricity, the songs are redefined as soaring folk ballads with a pastoral edge. The album also includes an ultra-cool performance video of “The Last Waltz” culled from the band’s 1997 album and DVD Live At Last! that you can watch on the old computer. The History: 1984-2000 is an excellent introduction to the many charms of Pendragon, and hopefully the band will receive its overdue welcome from American audiences so that we can see more of their work reissued stateside. (Metal Mind/MVD Audio, released 2006) 

Archive Review: Well-Matched – The Best of Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia (2006)

Lost amidst the mythos that continues to build around the Grateful Dead is a simple, undeniable fact – Jerry Garcia was a hell of a guitarist. Prone towards leading the Dead into extended onstage instrumental free-for-alls that would often redefine the sound of the song being played, Garcia is best remembered as the grandfather of the mid-‘90s “jam band” movement. However, Garcia was also a curious and intelligent guitarist, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and the ability to assimilate and master any musical style thrown his way, from rock and blues to bluegrass and jazz.

Well-Matched – The Best of Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia

Nowhere are Garcia’s talents as a musician and his drive to play on greater display than with Well-Matched - The Best of Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia. When not on the road with his day job – pushing the Grateful Dead towards rock mythology with constant touring and live performances so damn enchanting that fans still talk about them today – for several years, Garcia would climb onstage with a smoking club band led by jazz pianist Merl Saunders. Saunders was a veteran of the West Coast jazz and blues circuit, playing with cats like Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis and Taj Mahal. Now you would think that after playing for months at a time on the road with the Dead that Jerry would want to kick back at home and forget the guitar for a while. But Garcia seemed to cherish working in a live environment with challenging musicians, and thus a friendship was forged with the equally talented Saunders.

Well-Matched draws its performances from the lone live album the unnamed Saunders/Garcia band released along with a number of Saunders’ studio albums where he and Garcia and a hand-picked coterie of musicians would recreate the chemistry of those live jams. Constant throughout these sessions were little-known but talented bassist John Kahn and drummer Bill Vitt, along with folks like David Grisman, Vassar Clements, Tom Fogerty, and even the Tower of Power horns. Make no mistake, though, ‘cause this is definitely the Merl and Jerry show, the two powerful musicians riffing off one another, creating an exciting fusion of jazz, blues, rock, and R&B that is breath-taking in its ambition and amazing in its execution.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Saunders, Garcia and pals were playing for the fun of it, and it shows in the loose, energetic performances provided tunes like the Doc Pomus chestnut “Lonely Avenue” or on their imaginative reading of Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street.” The Saunders’ original, “Merl’s Tune,” is an impressive instrumental work-out that showcases the player’s abilities while the Motown classic “I Second That Emotion” enjoys a loping groove and Garcia’s lofty vocals. A fine rendition of J.J. Cale’s “After Midnight” with guitarist Tom Fogerty of CCR is matched by an inspired, soulful cover of Jimmy Cliff’s reggae classic “The Harder They Come.” Well-Matched - The Best of Merl Saunders & Jerry Garcia shows the skills of both of these wonderful musicians in a different light, and should be a “must have” disc for any Grateful Dead fan, if only so they can fully appreciate Jerry Garcia’s range and incredible diversity. (Fantasy Records, released May 23rd, 2006)

Archive Review: Dave Cousins’ The Boy In The Sailor Suit (2007)

It’s been 35 years since Dave Cousins, singer and primary songwriter for British folk-rock legends the Strawbs, recorded a solo album. It’s not that he lacked anything to say – his band has released a dozen albums during that time. No, The Boy In the Sailor Suit is the father Cousins never knew, smiling down at him from a photograph, the album itself a reflection on the past and the fleeting nature of relationships. 

“The Smile You Left Behind” is a memoir of his parent’s courtship, a gentle musical background framing Cousins’ creaky vocals. “Skip To My Lou,” based on the familiar childhood song, is a tale of love lost, haunted by Ian Cutler’s enchanted fiddling and guitarist Miller Anderson’s imaginative leads. Cousins’ intricate wordplay is on display throughout, the album offering a balance of acoustic folk and electric rock, an appropriate soundtrack for this lyrical celebration of life and love. (Witchwood Records UK, released 2007)

Review originally published by Harp magazine...

Archive Review: Billy Joe Shaver’s Greatest Hits (2007)

Many of country music’s greatest talents have considered him their favorite tunesmith, and his songs have been recorded by everybody from Bobby Bare and Kris Kristofferson to Elvis Presley. Chance are that you’re probably familiar with Billy Joe Shaver’s songs, even if you have no idea of who the man is himself. Suffice it to say that what makes Shaver a great songwriter is that, for good or for bad, he puts a large part of himself into each of his autobiographical songs. As such, listening to Billy Joe Shaver’s Greatest Hits is like opening a book and looking at a cracked and faded old portrait of the artist.

Shaver is a Texas storyteller in the vein of Guy Clark or Townes Van Zandt. He’s grizzled and gruff, humbled by too many miles and sobered by too much alcohol, and he pours his life into every song. Greatest Hits includes some of Shaver’s best known material, like “Georgia On A Fast Train” and “Old Chunk of Coal,” as well as some of his best songs in “Old Five and Dimers” and “I Couldn’t Be Me Without You.” 

The album also offers up two previously-unreleased songs, but it’s the recent remake of the high-flying “Live Forever,” recorded with Big & Rich, that best showcases Shaver’s warm voice above his songwriting skills. Billy Joe Shaver’s Greatest Hits offers up old-school honky-tonk country with a bit of Lone Star spirit for both new and old listeners alike. (Compadre Records, released April 3rd, 2007)

Review originally published by Country Standard Time...