CD Odyssey Disc 976: Dwight Yoakam

This next album is a whole lot better than seeing this artist live.

Yes, I’m still bitter about the sound quality at the Dwight Yoakam show earlier this year.

Disc 976 is…If There Was a Way

Artist: Dwight Yoakam

Year of Release: 1990

What’s up with the Cover? A giant head cover – very traditional! Here Dwight Yoakam looks back, no doubt wondering if there is a way to light his entire face instead of just half of it. There is, Dwight! Just adjust the light source or move your head – either one will work!

How I Came To Know It: Back at Disc 796 I reviewed a Greatest Hits package of Dwight Yoakam. This got me thinking I might enjoy hearing his studio albums, so I bought “Buenos Noches From a Lonely Room.” I was really enjoying that when I saw a deal for Yoakam’s first five CDs repackaged together for a great price, so I gave away “Buenos Noches..” and the Greatest Hits package and replaced it with the package deal. “If There Was a Way” was one of those albums.

How It Stacks Up:  I now have 7 Dwight Yoakam albums. I like them all, but “If There Was a Way” is not my favourite and I must reluctantly place it…last. Hey, someone’s gotta be last.

Ratings: 3 stars

For an album that ranks last in my Dwight Yoakam collection, “If There Was a Way” is a pretty solid effort. Its biggest sin is sounding a lot like any other of Dwight’s first five records, but just not quite as good.

All the stuff that makes early Dwight Yoakam enjoyable is here. Yoakam’s signature urban cowboy sound is solidly represented, as is his hurt-infused warble. Yoakam has one of those immediately recognizable voices that makes every one of his own songs timeless and every one of his covers seem like an original. It is a high, twangy voice that nevertheless sounds intrinsically macho. Yoakam’s voice is like his jeans; a bit stretched and strained, but in all the right places and sexy as hell.

“If There Was A Way” is a record that focuses on original content, which is nice, given what an undue amount of Yoakam’s hype surrounds some well-known covers. Yoakam is a gifted songwriter and like Emmylou Harris when he picks songs written by someone else, he has a sixth sense in knowing what works best for him.

After three straight #1 country records on the U.S. charts, the record took a minor step back (climbing only to #7) but still spawned six five top twenty singles. At least according to Wikipedia (which is never wrong). Or is it? Because one of the singles I remember was “It Takes a Lot to Rock You” and it isn’t even listed. I don’t love that song but I remember the video vividly, because it features a lot of scantily clad women dancing about. That sort of video makes an impression on a man. But I digress…

Back to the music! This record also features guitar master Pete Anderson, who is a huge part of Yoakam’s early sound. I didn’t notice Anderson as much on “If There Was a Way” as I do on some other records (Scott Joss’ fiddle filled some of that void), but whenever I listened for guitar, there was Pete, faithfully grounding the song in a mix of honky tonk and class.

While the record isn’t my favourite, it is solid throughout and has a couple of my favourite Yoakam songs (“Sad Sad Music” and “You’re the One”). “You’re the One” in particular is a clever mix of heartbreak and revenge. As I wrote about it on my review of the Greatest Hits record, it is “a nasty break-up song filled with bruised hearts and nasty rejections that are all the more pathetic because they are clearly coming after the other party’s already done the damage.” Well said, former me!

“If There Was a Way” is only 48 minutes long, but at 14 tracks still feels a bit too long, and the final two songs, “Dangerous Man” and “Let’s Work Together” feel tagged on after “You’re The One” had provided the perfect exit. “Dangerous Man” is just a bad song and “Let’s Work Together” has a workin’ man solidarity that is a positive message, but seems out of place amidst all the preceding broken hearts and emptied bottles.

These are minor quibbles, however on what is overall a solid record whose biggest crime is not being quite as good as some of Yoakam’s other records.

Best tracks: Sad Sad Music, Turn It on Turn it Up Turn Me Loose, You’re the One

CD Odyssey Disc 975: Sera Cahoone

I felt out of sorts today, without being able to put my finger on why. Fortunately this next album’s somber thoughtful songs were just the right balm for my restless energy.

Disc 975 is…Deer Creek Canyon

Artist: Sera Cahoone

Year of Release: 2012

What’s up with the Cover? Sera sits in the woods. This scene reminds me of the kind of coniferous forests I grew up near. I’m a city boy now, but every now and then I miss a long walk in the woods.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review of this album in a music magazine (I forget which). When I checked out the music I liked it even more and ordered both this record and 2008’s “Only As the Day is Long” (reviewed back at Disc 943) through my local record store. Support your local record store!

How It Stacks Up:  Cahoone has made three albums so far (a fourth is being released in March). Her self-titled debut is hard to find, so I only have two: “Only As the Day Is Long” and “Deer Creek Canyon.” Of the two, I put “Deer Creek Canyon” first. I’m looking forward to seeing if the soon to be released “From Where I Started” can challenge it.

Ratings: 5 stars

“Deer Creek Canyon” is an album that puts you in a state of contemplative grace. It isn’t like your troubles are gone though. They are very much still there, summoned like ghosts by Cahoone’s high ethereal voice. Rather, it is like being in the enchanted forest on the cover where it isn’t exactly safe to wander in there, but the discoveries are worth the risk.

This is a record that sounds like an evening confessional, full of the doubts and fears and hopes you only have the bravery to speak aloud when the light is low. When most of us express ourselves in those moments it is halting and uncertain, in a voice so quiet that our companions might ask us to repeat it, but we don’t dare.

Cahoone does dare, and while her voice is soft it is equal parts certain. She knows exactly what makes her shiver, and she’s not afraid to share it with the world. For all this, the album never feels gloomy or self-absorbed. “Nervous Wreck” is a good example, When Cahoone sings “I’ll be alright but I’m a nervous wreck” she makes it clear she’s feeling awkward and troubled, but she knows deep down things are going to be OK. Musically, the song is the perfect match for the words, tripping forward with a skittering energy on front of the beat. Cahoone sings “I’m a nervous wreck” as the melody resolves almost perfectly – but not quite.

My favourite example of this is on the title track, a rolling piece of perfection that feels like a trip out to sea at night. Cahoone sings:

“All the love I have here sometimes it’s just not enough.

Forget you in the summer by fall I always want you back

Oh the mountains are red and the rock fallin’ down”

With the melody falling down with regret at the end of each line, before a frail line of hope lifts the tune and she sings:

“and I know you’re right

I should just take a little time

Deer Creek Canyon’s where I’m from.”

And the way the tune walks down as she names the titular location you realize everything is going to be OK. It is that deep relaxation you get when you sink into your favourite chair, or sip your favourite whiskey, or just come home from a little restless wandering. I can feel the tension flow out of me just hearing her sing that line. I don’t know if Deer Creek Canyon is real or just an artistic construction, but in that moment it isn’t just real, its home.

Cahoone’s vulnerability is like a tangible thing on this record, a hunger that feeds her. On “Anyway You Like” when she sings: “’Cause I’m already in your life so take me anyway you like/I’m right in front of you” it is the sexiest thing you’ll ever hear, but it’ll just make you want to give her a hug.

This is a quiet record, and often with those kinds of records I find it takes a few listens and a lot of alone time for them to sink in. Not here, though – from the first bars of the record’s opening track, “Worry All Your Life,” I felt like I was listening to a longtime friend. The record is filled with wisdom, wrapped around purposeful but unforced melodies that catch your attention without ever shouting.

The opening song challenges you with:

“How you gonna grow if you don’t know you’re dragging you down

You’ll waste the rest of your days if you worry all your life.”

It sounds like an admonishment standing stark on the page, but actually it’s just the record gently shaking you awake. “Deer Creek Canyon” invites you to look around, see both the forest and the trees, and stop worrying about which one you’re supposed to be looking at.

Best tracks: All tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 974: Hayes Carll

I’m mid-way through a very enjoyable weekend. I’m getting a good mix of art appreciation, socializing with friends and relaxation time. I spent the entire morning getting into a couple of recent album purchases (and by recent I mean, within the last six months). One was Marlon Williams’ Self-Titled debut, and the other was Billy Bragg’s “Mr. Love and Justice”. Both are great, but neither is the subject of this next review.

Instead, here’s an album I’ve owned for a while and played many times, most recently while walking around town yesterday.

Disc 974 is…Trouble in Mind

Artist: Hayes Carll

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover? Hayes Carll packs his guitar along some anonymous alley.

How I Came To Know It: I first heard Hayes Carll as the opening act for Steve Earle when Earle was touring for his 2009 album “Townes” (reviewed way back at Disc 28). I liked Carll's performance a lot, but not enough to buy his CD from the merch table. My friend Casey did buy it. I borrowed it off him later and quickly realized my mistake. I bought it for myself a few weeks later.

How It Stacks Up:  Carll has made five studio albums, but I only have two: this one and 2016’s “Lovers and Leavers.” Both are excellent but “Trouble in Mind” is #1.

Ratings: 4 stars

Some albums just make you shake your head and wonder why some country artists make it big and others don’t. “Trouble in Mind” is catchy, thoughtful and beautifully performed but went virtually ignored on the charts.

One reason for this might the album’s genre-defying sound. Carll combines elements of folk, country and rock and even kitschy humour on a couple of the tracks. The songs all go well together but when the whole album is over you might find yourself confused about exactly what kind of music you just heard. Don’t sweat it though; what matters is it was good.

The album has a lot of ‘mosey’ in it. The kind of music that makes you imagine a troubadour in his cups, meandering down the middle of the street and rambling on about his hopes and dreams. Nowhere is this more evident than on the opening track, the appropriately titled “Drunken Poet’s Dream.” The song is about a woman “wild as Rome.” It’s clear this woman is a bad influence, and equally clear it is exactly the kind of bad that suits Hayes Carll just fine. Writers are often drawn to women on the wrong side of the line. Even though they’re bad for us, they make for good stories later. In this case, it makes for a good song.

The song has country sensibilities throughout, and songs like “It’s a Shame” and “Beaumont” and “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart” are full of the usual subjects: heartache, regret and open bottles of whiskey. Carll tackles these well-worn topics with a zest that makes it feel like it’s the first time you’ve heard them told or, failing that, the first time you’ve heard them told this well.

All the songs are tight, logically cohesive stories laden with snapshot images delivered with a turn of phrase that makes them stick in your head. Some favourites include these lines from “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart”:

“I got a girl out in Henrietta

And her love’s like tornado weather”

And this nugget from “Beaumont”:

“I saw you leanin’ on a memory

With your back turned to the crowd

In that little bar on Murphy

Where they play guitar too loud.”

Great stuff, highly specific but evoking your own personal memories of all those bars – and girls – that damaged your hearing over the years.

Carll’s sense of humour is everpresent. He pokes gentle fun at a couple of small town oddballs on “Girl Downtown” and then pokes fun at his own struggling career on “I Got a Gig.” “She Left Me For Jesus” is irreverent and self-deprecating in exactly the right measure. Like a lot of humour songs, they lose their impact after you hear the punchlines a few times (except “Girl Downtown” – that one still gets me), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still fun to hear.

Late on the record Carll does a cover of Tom Waits’ “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” which I think I like as much or more than the original. Waits’ version sounds like it is sung by a demented man-child, but Carll’s sounds like a world weary adult, tired of the struggle.

In terms of missteps, the record has few. “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart” has a guitar solo that sounds too much like the hook from Luke Doucet’s “Broken One” which makes it impossible for me to hear one without thinking of the other. However, that’s more a function of the limitations of the three chord song and my excessive music collection. The tunes are similar, but not the same.

The one song that does irk me is “A Lover Like You” which sounds too much like “Blonde on Blonde” era Bob Dylan. Even Carll’s voice feels like he is trying to imitate Dylan, and it comes off as derivative.

Other than those two minor quibbles, though, this is a solid record that I have played a lot over the years, and still never regret putting on.

Best tracks: Drunken Poet’s Dream, It’s a Shame, Girl Downtown, Bad Liver and a Broken Heart, Beaumont, Don’t Let Me Fall, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up

CD Odyssey Disc 973: Emmylou Harris

I’ve been sick all week and on Tuesday I even took the first sick day off work I can remember in years. Today is the first day I woke up and felt like I’ve almost got this thing beat. Good thing, too, because the weekend is arriving early for me and I don’t want to waste a single moment of it.

Let’s get it started with a music review!

Disc 973 is…Bluebird

Artist: Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover? Emmylou, making an ordinary eighties country dress look elegant.

How I Came To Know It: About a year ago I undertook to listen to all the Emmylou albums I didn’t have. I then started purchasing all the ones I liked. “Bluebird” was one of my most recent finds.

How It Stacks Up:  My journey through Emmylou’s discography has been fruitful. When I last reviewed an Emmylou album back in May 2016 I had 11 of her solo albums. I now have 14 and I’m only on the search for one more (1990’s “Brand New Dance”). Of the 14 I have, “Bluebird” is just out of top tier, but not by much. I’ll put it 7^th.

Ratings: 4 stars

The eighties weren’t the greatest decade for Emmylou Harris. Of the eight records I’ve listened to from that era only three hold any interest for me: 1980’s “Roses in the Snow”, 1985’s “The Ballad of Sally Rose” and “Bluebird.” Coming out in 1989, “Bluebird” left the decade on a high note.

Emmylou’s early career is strongly bluegrass, and through the eighties you can feel her exploring other aspects of country music. Her creativity is fearless, with mixed results, but on “Bluebird” you can start to see the emergence of a new sound.

The bluegrass chord progressions are still notable here and there, but there is a contemporary folk feel creeping into the music, and a willingness to go a little more electric and orchestral.

Emmylou’s incredible ear for a good song is on full display. She only writes two songs (one is co-written with then-husband Paul Kennerley). Both are solid break up songs. “Heartbreak Hill” delivers a jaunty slice of break-up pie and “A River For Him” is a slow processional which feels like a church hymn, until you realize it is a parting song of an earthly love, made transcendent through Harris’ voice.

Most of the record is occupied with other great songwriters, from which Harris has curated similar songs of loss. All of them are sung in a quiet reverent tone, and that ever-present and instantly recognizable Emmylou quaver that has broken a thousand hearts, including mine.

The best and bluest of the bunch is “Icy Blue Heart,” a John Hiatt cover about broken people trying to find a spark after years of disappointment and solitude. When Harris sings it she takes it a whole new level, making you feel the vast emotional devastation of all the years these two sad people are trying to overcome just to reach each other:

“She came on to him like a slow moving cold front

His beer was warmer that the look in her eye

She sat on the stool, and she said ‘What do you want

She said ‘Give me a love that don't freeze up inside’

"He said, 'I have melted some hearts in my time dear

But to sit next to you, Lord I shiver and shake

And if I knew love, well I don't think I'd be here

Askin' myself if I had what it takes

To melt your icy blue heart'”

It sounds like a cheesy seventies movie, but when Emmylou sings that final line her voice climbs up into the top of her range like a bird set free from gravity and damn it if you don't believe the scene.

Later on the record Emmylou will similarly remake the McGarrigle Sisters’ “Love Is” and Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” in her own image; frail and proud and powerful.

The arrangements on the record are a little busy, but they work. Some of the solos sound very eighties but they are muted and laid back enough that they don’t detract from the strong bones of these great songs.

The only thing preventing “Bluebird” from soaring higher is the production, which sounds tinny and distant throughout. There are sections where the shake of a tambourine sounds so thin I thought at first it was static or water in my headphones.

Fortunately even bad production can’t hold back the emotional honesty with which Emmylou Harris approaches a song. She doesn’t attack it so much as lets it take her over and then speaks its truth. With all those hints of a big sound that isn’t quite big enough, it is no surprise that Daniel Lanois would connect with her three albums later to make the classic “Wrecking Ball.” That is a slightly better album with much better production, but the seeds of Emmylou’s modern sound can be found on “Bluebird”.

Best tracks: Heaven Only Knows, You’ve Been On My Mind, Icy Blue Heart, Love Is, No Regrets, I Still Miss Someone, A River for Him

CD Odyssey Disc 972: Pearl Jam

After thinking this season’s round of the plague missed me, last night I came down with something hard. It ain’t good, so let’s get this review out of my system while I can still (sort of) function.

For the second straight review, the Odyssey has landed on an album from 2013. For those who like statistics, this is my fourteenth review of an album released in 2013. So far they have averaged 3.3 stars.

Apologies – I’ve been working with numbers a lot at work lately.

Disc 972 is…Lightning Bolt

Artist: Pearl Jam

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? Some sort of infographic? Maybe a riddle embedded in pictograms? I’m going to interpret this one as “Playing music at night is like a lightning bolt to the eye!” I love music at night, but I don’t think I would enjoy a lightning bolt to the eye. This leaves me in quite a quandary.

How I Came To Know It: I have been a Pearl Jam fan for a long time, and this was just me buying their latest album when it came out.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 Pearl Jam albums. “Lightning Bolt” is pretty solid, but I like those other records a lot as well. I’ll put it 7^th, displacing their 2006 self-titled album from that spot in the process. Still bottom half, but respectable. In many ways it is consistently better than “Vitalogy” but because that album has a few absolute classics, I’m going to give it the slight edge for 6^th.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

After 2009’s “Back Spacer” (reviewed back at Disc 45) was such a big disappointment, I was pretty nervous about buying their next release. I’d only heard two singles off of it, and only liked one of them. Still, Pearl Jam had given me so much happiness over the years that I decided to give them a chance. They did not disappoint.

“Lightning Bolt” is a return to form in a big way and a reminder on why Pearl Jam is one of rock and roll’s great enduring bands.

The production is layered, but never interferes with the song nor sounds busy. Both McCready and Gossard sound powerful and rejuvenated on guitar and if Eddie Vedder’s signature voice has lost anything over the years, it hasn’t been much. The album consistently rocks out and has an energy that is – dare I say it? – electric.

The record opens guns-blazing, with “Getaway” a song that feels like a throwback to nineties Pearl Jam: full of restless energy, soaring melodies and more than a little groove around the edges. This should have been the single for the album but band went with “Mind Your Manners” instead, maybe because it is a bit more punk?

“My Father’s Son” is a song about blaming your less-than-ideal father whenever you screw up. The song walks the fine line of recognizing you gotta own your decisions in this world, and claim your own shadow even as you try to step out of someone else's. The frustration and self-loathing of the song is real and powerful, and while daddy issues have been so done, Vedder manages to add a fine entry to the canon.

“Sirens” is a slow love song with an ambient energy that slowly builds as it progresses. The song is half apology and half plea to stick with it one more time and work to make it better. Vedder’s vocal here is the rock equivalent of soulful crooner, and his deep sense of romanticism shines through even in a song where he is essentially admitting to being an over-analyzing jerk.

The record ends with “Future Days,” another love song, this one the perfect book end to the unsteady ground of “Sirens.” If “Sirens” is power and majesty wrapped around frailty, then “Future Days” is stark production wrapped around strength and certainty. First piano, then guitar take their turn playing solemnly under Vedder’s trademark croon. Listening to Vedder sing:

“I believe

And I believe ‘cause I can see

Our future days

Days of you and me.”

You will be convinced there is no hurricane, cyclone or demon - and the song references all three - that is powerful enough to cleave a man from the girl he’s meant to be with. The sirens can’t call you to the rocks if you hold each other back.

Listening to this song I found myself thinking fondly of all those lovers out there for whom this is “their’ song. It won’t be many people – that kind of romantic song commitment made when you're young, and “Lightning Bolt” is an album that is likely getting listened to by a lot of folks who selected “their” song long ago. It’s a nice thought though, and as romantic a song as you’ll hear, young or old.

Back at Disc 651 I marveled that Soundgarden was able to come back so strong so late in their career with the amazing “King Animal.” To see grunge’s other surviving elder statesman match that effort with “Lightning Bolt” is a reminder of just how lucky we’ve been to have these bands in our lives for the past quarter century.

Best tracks: Getaway, My Father’s Son, Sirens, Swallowed Whole Future Days

CD Odyssey Disc 971: Bleached

For the second straight review, the CD Odyssey features a rock band featuring two sisters.

Disc 971 is…Ride Your Heart

Artist: Bleached

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? A young woman looks back wistfully, artfully, maybe even poignantly – it’s hard to tell. What does she see? I’d say nothing given all the hair in her face.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review for the band’s new album “Welcome the Worms” and in the process discovered this earlier record. I ordered them both through a local record store. See – despite my online purchases, I support my local record store.

How It Stacks Up:  Bleached only have two full length albums and I have them both. It is pretty much a dead heat between them, but if I had to choose I’d put “Ride Your Heart” second, but only by a narrow margin

Ratings: 3 stars

“Ride Your Heart” is a modern record but with both feet planted firmly in the past. It isn’t steeped in innovation, but it did make me tap my toe and enjoy myself, and sometimes that’s all you want from music.

“Bleached” consist principally of sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin, who play a form of music I call Fuzz Rock. Fuzz Rock is like rock and roll that has more buzz than gravel and the vocals feel like they’re being sung just a little too far away from the microphone. The guitars have lots of distortion and the whole thing is just a little…fuzzy. But it works.

“Ride Your Heart” has an ambient, back-of-the-room feel that takes the edges off of everything, while still staying firmly and aggressively rock and roll. The songs have simple structures, and melodies that are predictable but enjoyable, played in a lively upbeat way that reminded me of sixties pop acts with names like the Ronettes or the Shirelles. Like them, “Ride Your Heart” is a combination of Pollyanna optimism and disappointing heartbreaks. Those heartbreaks feel more unbearable because they’re happening for the first time, but you know everyone’s young enough that they’ll eventually recover.

“Guy Like You” is particularly schmaltzy and sixties high school sock-hop, but it so infectious it is irresistible. This is music so cute you want to pinch it on the cheek and tousle its hair. Of course, you don’t. These girls are rock musicians and would be liable to punch you in your mouth for it.

The influences cross through multiple decades, with the infectious punk-tinged pop of the Go-Gos evident on “Next Stop” and multiple songs that reminded me of Blondie (including “Waiting by the Telephone” that had me thinking heavily of  Blondie’s “Hanging on the Telephone”). The Blondie influences are so strong that at times they stray dangerously close to making the record feel derivative, but for the most part I just welcomed the reinterpretation of some great rock concepts.

 And besides, a lot of this stuff is incredibly catchy. “Dead In Your Head” is four minutes of glorious bass line and well placed neo-New Wave guitar flourishes. If you can’t find it in your heart to groove along to this song you are probably dead in your head yourself.

The record is a comparatively short 36 minutes and over two days I got four full listens in. While there are no terrible songs, by the third listen I was ready to move on to something else. All the songs are good, but apart from “Dead In Your Head” few stood out. This is an album that establishes a mood well, but needs more peaks and valleys, and a willingness to explore the nooks and crannies of their stylistic influences.

Also, while the production is deliberately fuzzy, it also lacks oomph. On their follow up album, they solved this problem, getting a bit more crunch. Here I found I was perpetually tempted to turn it up louder, but knew that would just anger the people on the bus beside me and still not deliver the sound separation I craved.

Also, there isn’t a lot to say about this musically. It is fun and upbeat, and likely great for a summer drive in a rented convertible, but I didn’t feel emotionally invested. Sometimes music is just about having a good time. If that’s the mood you’re in then there is enough edge on “Ride Your Heart” that you can get your fix here and not feel guilty.

Best tracks: Looking for a Fight, Outta My Mind, Dead In Your Head, Guy Like You

CD Odyssey Disc 970: Heart

The CD Odyssey is random, but sometimes the Gods of Chaos have a killer sense of timing. Today is Valentine’s Day, and the next album is by…Heart.

Disc 970 is…Little Queen

Artist: Heart

Year of Release: 1977

What’s up with the Cover? There are so many Ren-fair jokes I could make here, but I’m not going to make a single one. Why not? Because for a couple of years I belonged to the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and dressed up like a 15^th century pirate named Roger Bloedlaeter once a month. I had a great time and regret nothing, so if Ann and Nancy want to hang out in medieval costumes, comb each other’s hair and speak forsoothly, all the power to them.

How I Came To Know It: Everyone knows the hit single “Barracuda” but I was introduced to the album by my friend Chris. He brought a vinyl copy to a music listening night and I liked what I heard.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Heart albums, this one and their self-titled eighties comeback record that I reviewed back at Disc 960. I used to also own “Bad Animals” but it was…bad. Anyway, of the three albums, I put “Little Queen” first. I meant to stick by my teenage crush album, 1985’s self-titled comeback, but critically I can’t deny that “Little Queen” is the better record.

Ratings: 4 stars

On “Little Queen” hard rock ‘n’ roll meets swords ‘n’ sorcery and the result is magical, powerful and just the right amount of weird.

“Little Queen” is only Heart’s second record, which makes the brave and crazy decisions on it all the more impressive. For every sophomore record where a band successfully expands their sound, there are five that lose their way in directionless excess. This record is excessive, to be sure, and sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson definitely push the boundaries, but it is all mounted on a solid foundation of rock.

Once again, it is the vocals of Ann Wilson that first hold your attention, with that effortless rock power, and an innate sense of just when to throw in a well-timed ‘ooh’ or ‘aah’. Juxtaposed to this is sister Nancy’s solid guitar, dependable and always down in the groove; a home port for her sister’s stormy vocals to return to whenever she needs it.

The album opens with “Barracuda,” and with it one of rock’s most instantly recognizable guitar riffs. The furious and insistent chugging of electric guitar played low and reverbing into your lower spine would send you to the chiropractor if it weren’t so evenly balanced.

That is immediately followed by an almost folksy “Love Alive” a gentle pastoral number, punctuated with whimsy and plucked guitar strings, with Ann’s vocal trilling along effortlessly above it. Then halfway through, the song finds electricity and takes you down an anthemic journey that would make Led Zeppelin proud.

The album owes a lot to Led Zeppelin, and they are clearly an influence on the song structures, but it avoids being derivative. This is new music, taking some of Zeppelin’s ideas and shifting them one step away from the blues (but only a small step) and one step closer to fantasy theme park.

“Sylvan Song” sounds like it is being played by elves (I think that’s the point) and fades directly into “Dream of the Archer” which I’m pretty sure is just the ladies telling us about their last Dungeons and Dragons session. If I had known this album as a kid I would have eaten this stuff up. Now I prefer the songs that rock out, but I won’t lie; the fantasy elements are still appealing (both to me and that alter ego pirate guy I mentioned earlier).

The title track launches Side Two with jaunty flair, that side-skips its way across the stage in a way that had me thinking of Steven Tyler and his scarf-swathed microphone. For all its party atmosphere, the song is about a girl who deep down is struggling. As Ann Wilson sings “no one knows your melancholy mind” while simultaneously giving us all a backstage pass to it. Later on the album, “Cry To Me” serves as the perfect book-end to the moment. Gone are the up-tempo grooves, replaced with a slow confessional as Ann sings:

“You better not hide it

Let it come, let it bleed

I ain't laughing, reach in and get it

And set it free

Cry to me, cry to me”

Despite the sadness in the lyrics, the song’s structure is full of a fierce resoluteness. You get the feeling this album was the soundtrack for a thousand small town girls who wanted to be tough and vulnerable. “Little Queen” is an album that lets them be both.

The record isn’t perfect, and “Cry to Me” is followed by the pointless meandering of “Go On Cry” which is more like a cry that goes on a little too long, leaving you feeling a bit dried out and suffering from a pressure headache. The musicianship is good, but the song doesn’t really go anywhere and it is a bummer of a way for the original album to end.

Fortunately, my CD copy has two bonus tracks that follow it. The first is an early demo version of “Love Alive” called “Too Long a Time” which is pretty sweet (if a bit heavy on the noodling). The second is a cover of “Stairway to Heaven” that is so good it has become an underground classic in its own right. Both tracks are not only solid, they make the album better, and that’s a rarity.

Best tracks: Barracuda, Love Alive, Little Queen, Treat Me Well, Cry to Me, Stairway to Heaven

CD Odyssey Disc 969: Ice-T

I’m in the middle of a glorious four day weekend, where I’m mixing in liberal amounts of hanging with friends, chilling at home, and enjoying some of my favourite hobbies (including listening to a lot of music).

I’ve also been doing a lot of music purchasing, and yesterday I may have overdone it. First, I bought three albums at local record stores (new releases by P.O.S. and Mother Mother, plus an album from 1999 called Western Wall by Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris).

Then, still not sated and emboldened by some Christmas money sent from my mom, I ordered another 11 albums online. These are now winging their way to me through the magic of the internet. They are:

• Courtney Marie Andrews “Honest Life”
• Birds of Chicago’s self-titled debut and also their latest, “Real Midnight”
• The Handsome Family’s “Singing Bones” and “Unseen”
• Conor Oberst’s “Ruminations”
• The Stray Birds self-titled debut and their latest, “Magic Fire”
• Three Warren Zevon albums: “The Envoy”, “Mr. Bad Example” and “Mutineer”

If you don’t know these albums, do yourself a favour and check them out. Alternatively, you can wait however many years it will be until I’ve randomly rolled and reviewed each one.

Disc 969 is…Rhyme Pays

Artist: Ice-T

Year of Release: 1987

What’s up with the Cover? Ice-T and his buddy appear to be taking that nice girl to the beach.

This convertible looks a lot like the one from the cover of the Thompson Twins album I reviewed back at Disc 963. I like to think it was an eighties car share and each time the other group picked it up they were horrified to discover what had been left in the tape deck.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve known Ice-T for a while, originally through my friend Chris. “Rhyme Pays” was hard to find, and very expensive to buy online. For that reason I was pretty happy when it showed up used at my local record store at a more reasonable price a few months ago.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Ice-T albums and I like them all, but I must reluctantly put “Rhyme Pays” as my least favourite so…fourth.

Ratings: 3 stars

Some albums are just better because of their place in music history, and “Rhyme Pays” is one of those.

While this is the weakest of the four Ice-T albums I have, it is the beginning of a sound that was a major inspiration for whole new directions in rap music. Songs like “6 ‘N the Morning” tell stories of actual people committing actual crimes, making it one of the earliest occurrences of Gangsta Rap. There is a lot of bad music in that genre, but you can’t blame Ice-T for that; his work here has stood the test of time.

Yes, the beats are basic on this record (it was 1987, after all) but that stark approach is the perfect fit for Ice’s on-the-beat, machine gun staccato rap style. Ice-T is a natural storyteller and he injects large doses of fury into his delivery style, restraining himself just enough to show while his style is aggressive, it is equally thoughtful.

The samples are inspired, “Make It Funky” samples from the James Brown song of the same name, but my favourite is the use of the classic doom-filled guitar riff from Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” on the title track. Later Ice-T would fully commit to blending rap and metal on his side project Body Count (reviewed back at Disc 665). Here the concept is still in its infancy, but Ice instinctively knows how to use it to increase the danger and ominous undertones to his rap.

Ice-T is at his best on this record when he is singing about the gangster life style like on the now classic “6 ‘N the Morning”, or just talking about the most traditional early rap topic; rapping better than his challengers. When he tries to be a bit ‘romantic’ (and I use this term loosely) on “I Love Ladies” and “Sex” I found myself wishing for some LL Cool J instead.

The CD version of the album has two problems. First, the bonus tracks take the record from 9 to 13 tracks, and add about 20 minutes of music. For the most part these bonus tracks are just remixes of songs you’ve already heard. While they might be welcome on a party mix, I didn’t think they added much and make the album feel too long.

The second problem is that late eighties CD production, where no matter how loud you turn the volume you can’t seem to get any depth of sound. It is like the songs are being playing in another room; out walking around with headphones I would miss lyrics if the wind blew a little too hard.

If you want a better appreciation of classic Ice-T rap albums like “Power” or “O.G. Original Gangster” then “Rhyme Pays” is an album that will open your eyes to how Ice-T found his sound. Even if you aren’t a music historian, this is a record with enough strong and memorable tracks that it is worth checking out purely for its own merits.

Best tracks: Rhyme Pays, 6 ‘N the Morning, Squeeze the Trigger

CD Odyssey Disc 968: Annabelle Chvostek

It’s a blizzard out there! At least what counts for a blizzard here on southern Vancouver Island. I enjoyed the walk home in the snow with coworkers, but it took away listening time, so I sat quietly and finished that process at home so I could write this review tonight.

Disc 968 is…Resilience

Artist: Annabelle Chvostek

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover? It’s a Giant Head cover – so traditional! As Giant Head’s go, Annabelle’s is nice.

How I Came To Know It: I knew Annabelle Chvostek from the Wailin’ Jenny’s album “Firecracker” (reviewed back at Disc 450). I liked that record so when she went solo on “Resilience” I bought it hoping for the best.

How It Stacks Up:  This is the only Annabelle Chvostek album I have, so it can’t really stack up. Compared to other Wailin’ Jennys solo projects, it is not my favourite.

Ratings: 2 stars

“Resilience” is a mix of contemporary folk, Canadian-flavoured pop and a bit of jazz. There isn’t anything objectively wrong with this mix, but I found it a bit unsettled; like a gourmet meal with too many ingredients to appreciate any single one. Maybe I’m just a meat and potatoes guy, musically speaking.

Chvostek is supremely talented. She writes or cowrites all but one of the songs on the record, and plays the fiddle, guitar, mandolin, accordion and piano. On the title track she even does something called ‘beats’. I don’t know what it is but it feels like some kind of folk version of hip hop. I couldn’t pick it out, but “Resilience” is a good song, with a nice slow building power and Chvostek showing off her vocal range.

Another standout, is “The Sioux,” an old school sounding track which offsets the title track’s florid production with a starkly sawed fiddle capturing the rustic nature of the local First Nations’ reserve, and how it juxtaposes with the modern city of Sault St. Marie. It is a thoughtful song, and a pretty one, with a timeless quality that makes you feel like you’re standing outside of a log cabin despite the many modern references woven through it.

Unfortunately, most of the album didn’t capture my attention the way these two songs did. The jazz flourishes around the edges of the songs take me out of the emotional core which is so much a part of what I like about folk music. The choices aren’t wrong for the songs so much as these songs just aren’t for me.

The core melodies are pretty, and Chvostek sings it all beautifully, showing a good understanding of how to come on and off the beat without losing the song’s plot. Again, it wasn’t for me, but I can’t point to it as a fault so much of a lack of preference.

On “Piece of You” and “Racing With the Sun” Chvostek sounds a bit too much like a lounge singer, and when this happens I was drawn out of the record. Since I was having a hard time emotionally connecting anyway, these tracks (which should provide interesting range) instead felt like unwanted intrusions.

There are jumpy songs that make your toe tap, like “Wait For It” and atmospheric dirges like “Firewalker” both of which are good songs, but made me think of other albums I wanted to put on in their place.

The album ends strong with “Nashville.” I could hear a hundred songs dissing the Nashville experience and never get tired of it. Chvostek’s entry into that welcome cannon is a good one. When she sings “oh, the grind” you can feel the sheer weight of all the crushed dreamers playing for tips up and down Honky Tonk row.

Despite this, I have to face up to the fact that I’ve had this album for at least eight years, and I almost never think to put it on. I occasionally play “the Sioux” as a one-off, but that’s about it. An artist like Chvostek deserves better, so I am going to reluctantly part with this record and let it go to a home that will love it better than I do.

Best tracks: Resilience, The Sioux, Nashville

CD Odyssey Disc 967: Drive-By Truckers

This week I discovered a whole slew of new (to me) artists, including Sarah Jarosz, Aiofe O’Donovan, the Stray Birds (all folk or country) and rapper P.O.S.

They were all great, but eclipsing all of them were murder balladeers the Handsome Family. I listened to ten Handsome Family albums this week and liked every one. I only own one, but that’s because that is all the record store had in stock.

Speaking of murder ballads, this next album has more than a few of its own.

Disc 967 is…Go-Go Boots

Artist: Drive-By Truckers

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? More awesome album art by long-time Truckers’ collaborator Wes Freed. Here we have the titular Go-Go boots, looking not so much titillating as creepy and awkward. It gets even worse when you fold it open, revealing the rest of the scene:

Creepy alcoholic (note the bottle) reclines in the shadows, presumably getting a private show in a cheap motel room. What’s that? Not creepy enough? – how about the corpse river on the inside of the fold:

Never change, Wes.

How I Came To Know It: Just me drilling through the Drive-By Truckers back catalogue buying all the albums that agreed with me.

How It Stacks Up:  With my recent acquisition of “Dirty South” I now have all six Drive-By Trucker albums on my list – at least for now. Of those six, “Go-Go Boots” is pretty solid but I can’t dislodge everything ahead of it, and I can’t get it ahead of fourth overall.

Ratings: 4 stars

When it comes to storytelling, there are few better than Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood, the two musical geniuses behind the Drive-By Truckers. “Go-Go Boots” is just another tour de force of them telling ordinary stories about ordinary people and making those tales so compelling you can’t hear them often enough.

I’ve said lots about these guys over the previous three reviews, so I’ll quickly note that they are a blend of southern rock and alternative country, who keep the music simple and well-matched to the stories they tell. Those stories are simple as well, at least on the surface, but the Drive-By Truckers have a powerful ability to see into the nooks and crannies of their characters. They understand how people tick in a way that reminds me of Shakespeare, with similarly tragic storylines.

This album features plenty of marital infidelity and a fair bit of murder to go along with it. Two of the best songs – the title track and “The Fireplace Poker” – feature both, with a preacher hiring some thugs to murder his wife in both songs. “Go-Go Boots” has a bluesy feel that evokes sleazeball dancing as the album cover suggests, and “The Fireplace Poker” is a slower meander that focuses less on the dancing and more on the murder. As is ever the case with great storytelling, the specific is terrific. On the latter song the titular fireplace poker doesn’t make an appearance until the song is more than half over, but it enters with a bang:

“The Reverend came home from work and found the Mrs. dying

Life was falling from her grasp but still she was there trying

No one will ever know what she told him or know what he told her

Cause the Reverend did his wife in, fifteen whacks, fireplace poker.”

Later that poker is the only object in the room with no fingerprints on it. Nice touch.

Elsewhere, the band covers the issue of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (“Ray’s Automatic Weapon”), breakups without the murder (“The Weakest Man”) and the music industry (“Assholes”). Every one of them makes you feel like you are there, shaking with fear, sadness or fury as the subject matter demands.

Long-time readers will know what joy I take poking fun at the Soulless Record Execs of the music industry, but nothing I’ve ever written holds a candle to the derision and dismissal these guys deliver to what (I presume) is some old label or manager on “Assholes”. I don’t know the details, but the song is great. If I were the Soulless Record Exec that inspired it I think I’d just shake my head and smile knowing it was another great song, even if a piece of it was no longer mine. I doubt that was the reaction, but I like to think it would have been mine.

The various tragedies on “Go-Go Boots” rarely let you up for air, but the songs have such a gentle forward motion you don’t mind being rocked to sleep by all the sadness. A drunken cop bemoans losing his career, and a small-town Tennessee girl moves to California and loses all hope, but we, the voyeuristic listener, can’t look away; the songs are just too good.

Third singer Shonna Tucker throws in a couple of songs from a slightly different perspective; namely women chasing after their no-good men, and leaving you to wonder why they bother. I love the mix of sweet girl and biker chick in Tucker’s voice, which is a nice offset to Hood and Cooley.

The main downside to “Go-Go Boots” is its length, which at 14 songs and 66 minutes is just a bit too much of a good thing but this is a minor quibble about a record that is well worth your time and money.

Best tracks: Go-Go Boots, Cartoon Gold, Assholes, The Weakest Man, I Used to be a Cop, The Fireplace Poker, Pulaski

CD Odyssey Disc 966: Great Lake Swimmers

I’m in the middle of a weekend full of fun social events. Things began with the Victoria Film Festival’s opening gala, where I met a documentary film maker, a horror film maker and a music promoter and learned something from every one of them. I wanted to meet actor/writer/director Don McKellar but I knew I would just go on about “Highway 61” (soundtrack reviewed way back at Disc 230) and he was going to want to discuss his latest film. We creative types are always occupied with whatever we’ve got on the go right now. For me, that’s this next review. Shall we?

Disc 966 is…New Wild Everywhere

Artist: Great Lake Swimmers

Year of Release: 2012

What’s up with the Cover? Birds on strings? This cover doesn’t feel new, wild or everywhere, but I find the colour scheme soothing, so that’s nice.

How I Came To Know It: I was introduced to the band by my friends Cat and Ross who put one of their songs on a mixed tape of new music they thought I’d like. That song is not on this album though. Instead, “New Wild Everywhere” was just me getting excited that there was a new release and buying it on a whim when it came out.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Great Lake Swimmers albums. Of those two, “New Wild Everywhere” is my favourite.

Ratings: 3 stars

Great Lake Swimmers are a band that I want to like more than I do. I’m drawn by their thoughtful melodies and lyrics, but every now and then the fuzzy production decisions keep me from becoming emotionally engaged.

“New Wild Everywhere” features what I consider some of band leader Tony Dekker’s strongest work, with dreamy melodies that have a stark quality that is evocative of the windswept Canadian north. The songs feel cold and stretched, as if all the emotions Dekker’s got bottled up inside become spread out, thin and vulnerable when he finally lets them out.

There are other times, when Dekker’s voice (naturally high and wispy) stretches too much, at the expense of what are generally thoughtful and honest lyrics. Your mind wanders a bit into the ether and loses the story. It’s like a warm bath, but where sometimes there isn’t quite enough water in the tub.

Unhelpful in this regard are production decisions that create a wall of sound (albeit a very ghostly almost insubstantial wall). At its worst, it felt like a third person in the room having Dekker whisper the lyrics in their ear and then whispering them in mine, with some of the emotional impact getting lost in the translation. Dekker isn’t a powerhouse singer, and anything that gets between him and you is that much more noticeable.

However, the production is not all bad. When it works it feels intimate, serving as a fog bank that encourages you to listen to the stillness and feel safe while doing it. Introspective songs like “The Great Exhale” and “On the Water” just sound better in the fog. It even works on the album’s most up-beat track “Easy Come, Easy Go” which doesn’t feel like it would work as well without the fuzz.

The best song on the album is “Ballad of a Fisherman’s Wife” which I believe is a song about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Despite being only the second best song about this event (#1 goes to Steve Earle’s “Gulf of Mexico”) this song is a hell of a heartbreaker. It features frequent musical shifts that help underscore the range of emotions (grief, anger, bewilderment) that go through a woman’s mind as she tells the tale of how her livelihood has been destroyed in a single ecological disaster. As she notes:

“The papers said this knocked us on our knees

But we were already on our knees

They said the gulf was dead

And it was never going to come back.”

Despite all the tragedy and anger, the song ends with a message of hope, as the narrator stops addressing her audience and turns her focus to her partner:

“You better hurry up and know it

I want to love you ‘til the end of the line.”

By the end the music is lively, and punctuated by a joyful banjo solo. The song manages to find optimism in the love of two people, while never downplaying just how terrible the event was for these people, and thousands like them. That combination of the specific and the general is folk music at its best.

My album ends with a ‘bonus’ track (which I’ll never understand – I guess you don’t get it if you download it?) sung in French. It is pretty enough, but I think the record would end best with “On the Water” a song about someone having a mystical experience while battling a storm at sea. The lyrics on this song are inspired and thoughtful, and remind us that we’re not just one with each other, we’re one with the earth and all its creatures as well. It felt a bit like the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, if the mariner hadn’t shot the albatross.

“New Wild Everywhere” is a solid record, and while I don’t put it on that often, it has a quiet beauty that I appreciate, even if my preference would be to turn down the fuzz so I could hear it better.

Best tracks: New Wild Everywhere, The Great Exhale, Easy Come Easy Go, Ballad of a Fisherman’s Wife, On the Water

CD Odyssey Disc 965: Dar Williams

I started off the week a bit in the doldrums, but as the weekend approaches I can feel my energy levels rising. It is the perfect time for an inspiring music review!

Instead, I give you this one.

Disc 965 is…End of the Summer

Artist: Dar Williams

Year of Release: 1997

What’s up with the Cover? Commenting on this cover so soon after reviewing “Promised Land” at Disc 907 I’m starting to think Dar has a thing for gardening. Whatever she’s doing she should have changed out of that party dress and worn gloves.

How I Came To Know It: This was one of a glut of four Dar Williams albums I’ve bought in the last year as I worked my way through her back catalogue.

How It Stacks Up:  I have six Dar Williams albums. Of these I had held out hope that “Promised Land” would be the worst, given that it barely cleared the bar to stay in my collection. Sadly, it has now been displaced by “End of the Summer” which I am going to part ways with, scant months after purchasing it. Not all relationships work out, I guess.

Ratings: 2 stars

I bought this album because I liked a couple of the messages, but after listening to it a few times I’ve come to the conclusion that a good message isn’t enough; you need to like the songs.

Listening to Dar Williams I always get the impression that she is a thoughtful and self-examined person, and as she goes through these inner journeys she helps shepherd me through some of mine as well. This album didn’t connect that way, and the fact that it tried hard to do so just made it all awkward.

One message that appealed is “Teenagers, Kick Our Butts.” So much protest folk takes aim at the establishment. Dar released this album at the age of 30; hardly the establishment, but old enough to realize it is just around the corner. Instead of straining youthful metaphor and messages of rebellion she takes on one of the biggest challenges of aging; becoming mentally inflexible. On “Teenagers…” she welcomes the generation behind us to both push us and do better than us, exhorting:

“I’m sure you know there’s lots to learn,

But that’s not your fault, that’s just your turn

Teenagers, kick our butts, tell us what the future will bring

Teenagers, look at us we have not solved everything.”

That’s for sure, and bonus points for using a fuddy duddy word like “butts” in the song, underscoring her point. The song is a reminder that wisdom can come at any age and it doesn’t just arrive and permanently hang around; it’s an ongoing process.

The other strong track is “If I Wrote You” a heartbreaking song of regret and self-doubt. This is also the strongest songs on the record melodically, with a gentle trill like a forest stream, and a chorus sung high up in Dar’s range, cascading down at the end in a waterfall of sadness. This is the Dear John letter never sent, but quietly sung instead.

Unfortunately, “If I Wrote You” was the exception for me, as I found a lot of the musical decisions on this album hard to enjoy. A lot of them have the same rolling quality, but most don’t have a strong melody to support it and feel a bit more like a back eddy than a river. To get away with it, the lyrics need to carry the songs.

Usually that’s no problem for Dar, but I didn’t dig those either. “What Do You Hear in These Sounds” is set up as a therapy session, which feels contrived, particularly compared to the genuine pathos of “If I Wrote You”.

And one of the songs that drew me in the first place – “Party Generation” – progressively started to bug me on repeat listens. It has a catchy rhythm and I liked the idea of someone wandering in search of a party, but the lyrics began to irk me. It begins:

“When he turned 34 but who’s counting

He couldn’t find anyone who wanted to party

So he walked around a playground with a bag of Mickey’s tallboys

And he heard the sound of laughter

And he followed it for fifteen blocks.”

So much wrong here. If he turned 34 then you’re counting Dar, but more importantly who at the age of 34 can’t find a party? And of those people who (other than the homeless) walks around the park with a bag of tallboys looking for one? Not the kind of guy I would invite in from the porch, but the party he finds is full of people playing quarters (seriously) so I guess any new guest was an upgrade at that point. Also, how does a party full of people playing quarters make enough noise to be heard 15 blocks away?

Anyway, the point is that a song called “Party Generation” that is about partying should feature a reasonably good party.

On my walk home today (and on my third consecutive listen) my mind wandered a little at one point and the record ended and skipped to the next song on the device, the Rankin Family’s “As I Roved Out”. This is not the Rankin’s greatest song, but it took me until the second verse before I realized I was no longer listening to Dar Williams.

Much as I’d like to say it was the power of the Rankin Family, I’m not much of a fan of “As I Roved Out.” I had just lost interest in the record I was supposed to be listening to.

I have a lot of time for Dar Williams. Hell, I own five of her other albums and am on the lookout for one more, so that says something. But apart from a couple exceptions “End of the Summer” didn’t grab me. It isn’t a terrible album it just isn’t an album for me. I will now work to find it a better home than mine.

Best tracks: If I Wrote You, Teenagers Kick our Butts,