I am in the middle of a perfect
storm of professional and personal demands on my time. I call such times the
Wormhole Effect. It is like being in the gravitational well of a wormhole. The
pressure feels overwhelming but the only way out is through the centre of it. A
stolen interlude with a bit of music will help make sure I get to the other
side intact.
Disc 944 is….Man From Another Time
Artist: Seasick
Steve
Year of Release: 2010
What’s up with the Cover? Seasick Steve himself aka Steve
Wold (or Leach, depending on who you believe), looking rather contented with
himself here at the tender age of 70 (or 60, depending on who you believe).
How I Came To Know It: A few years ago the HIFI channel
gave a free preview to try to convince viewers to sign up. This was back when
the HIFI channel was actually about music – nowadays they just air a bunch of
random crap – and I taped a whole slew of episodes of “Late Night…with Jools
Holland.” Jools brought on all kinds of cool musical acts and one of them was
Seasick Steve. I bought this album because two of the songs were featured on
the Jools Holland episode I watched. I never signed up for HIFI though, nor
have I ever regretted it.
How It Stacks Up: Seasick Steve has eight studio albums, but I only
have two of them. Of those two, “Man From Another Time” is my favourite so…#1!
Ratings: 3 stars
Music
has many currencies, but authenticity is the most precious of all. Seasick
Steve’s career has always traded on authenticity, and he displays his deep and
abiding love of boogie woogie and blues on “Man From Another Time” that feels
natural and carefree. Is it really natural, though? There is an alternative
narrative about Seasick Steve – which reveals him as a career session musician
who reinvented himself with a created backstory as a traveling bluesman.
Fortunately,
here on Creative Maelstrom I could care less. If the music sounds authentic,
that is authentic enough for me. Just sing it like you mean it, and be true to
the moment when you’re performing. By this test, “Man From Another Time”
delivers.
The
album opens with “Diddley Bo” which
was the first song I saw Steve play live on Jools Holland. It isn’t that this
song is particularly amazing, it is just a basic rock-blues riff with a bit of
drums in the background and the vocals are forgettable and a bit kitschy. But you
forgive all of this, because the entire song is played on a board with a single
guitar string nailed to it, played (without frets) by Steve with a slide. He
throws that slide down with what can best be described as precise abandon,
never missing a note. It should be just about the music but I’m sorry, that’s
just too damned cool.
Many of
Seasick Steve’s other songs are played on guitars (or guitar like objects) with
only three or four strings that he’s tuned to overcome the shortcoming. Proof that
once you can bar chord you can slide up and down most anything and play some
version of the blues. Sure it’s a bit of excess showmanship, but it’s also a
lot of fun, and it doesn’t take away from the fact that Seasick Steve is an
accomplished guitar player. He’s doing the musical equivalent of tying one hand
behind his back and still sounds great.
The
themes of the music are about workin’ hard and travelin’ free. Seasick Steve
sings about his John Deere tractor, being grateful for having a job (which he
notes, is performing for us), and how to pick a good direction when travelling.
My favourite
song on the album is on this latter topic. “Never
Go West” is a gritty southern rock blues number, with an infectious riff
and a cautionary tale of life on the road for the down and out. Seasick Steve’s
voice is at its gravelly best, drawing you in as he reminds you to “never whisper when you know it’s time to
shout.”
“Never Go West” is book ended on the
record by two quieter numbers that showcase Seasick Steve’s slowhand. On both “Just Because I Can” and “Dark” Seasick Steve still sounds good
even though he smooths out his vocal delivery into something mid-way between
Merle Haggard and Eddie Vedder.
For the
most part, the record features basic vocals that do a good job of serving their
working class themes. The title track is a song about realizing you’ve become
the old guy in the room and Steve does it in a way that pokes a little fun at
himself without invoking any false pity that usually comes when a middle aged guy
complains about getting old.
Other
times the lyrics feel a bit forced. On “That’s
All” he sings “now freedom for
most/is just a word…like toast.” It is a painfully forced rhyme made worse
by the delay before he goes there.
But this
record is not about lyrics anyway, it is a record about feel. The guitar riffs
are steeped in the blues and gorgeously played and the songs have a simple
timeless feel despite being new creations.
The
record ends with a ten minute track which is a combination of a rambling and
forgettable track called “Seasick Boogie”
I could’ve lived without, married to a cover of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” The latter
is a duet with Amy La Vere. It is a solid enough cover (it’s hard to go wrong
with that song), but there is no value in putting it on the same track as the
other song.
On
balance, “Man From Another Time” is a laid back easy listen that displays the
right combination of musicianship, grit and humour. The record doesn’t forge a
lot of new ground, but it walks well-worn roads with an easy gait that’s hard
not to like.
Best
tracks: The
Banjo Song, Man From Another Time, Just Because I Can, Never Go West, Dark
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