CD Odyssey Disc 37: Lucinda Williams

We now return to non-random programming. I've bought a new album, and as per my new "Calvinball" rule, I am allowed to insert new albums ahead of the random distribution. And so I did.

Disc 37 is... Lucinda Williams (self-titled)


Artist: Lucinda Williams

Year of Release: 1988 (re-issue is 1998)

How I Came To Know It: I discovered Lucinda Williams through Steve Earle, but this particular album I discovered because of the movie TransAmerica. During the credits, I heard this song Like A Rose which was beautiful and totally reminded me of Lucinda Williams. But how could it be? Did I not have all of Lucinda's albums? Apparently not. This - her self-titled album from 1988 has been out of print since a special issue in 1998. I sought it for a couple years in record stores, without success, and finally broke down and spent $68 on Amazon. It feels like cheating to find a rare album on Amazon, but I did what I had to do to complete the collection.

How It Stacks Up: I have all 9 Lucinda Williams albums. I love her work. It is so consistently strong, that I think putting them in order 1-9 would be impossible, so I'll tier them. In a 3 tier structure, I'll say this album is top tier.

Rating: 5 stars for the original album, 4 stars with the extra 6 tracks on the special edition (3 are great, but 3 are just OK, and there is no call for 18 songs on one album, even Lucinda songs).

Lucinda Williams is a once in a generation type of talent. She sings in a style that is part blues, part country, and part folk. Her writing is second to none - and her voice has a ragged edge that tears your heart out. Yeah - I'm kind of a fan.

This particular album has exactly zero hits for her (like most of her albums). One of the songs Passionate Kisses was recorded and released by fellow folk/country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter and was a hit. I really like Carpenter's version, but it seems a crime that Lucinda got no credit (except from Carpenter, who is effusive in her praise of Williams' songwriting ability).

This album doesn't let up - it goes from one great track to the next.

It starts with a song I Just Wanted To See You So Bad - a late night booty-call song, and an early example of how downright sexy Lucinda Williams can be.

She gets into storyteller mode with the song The Night's Too Long, a song about a waitress named Sylvia who dreams of getting out of her nowhere town and going somewhere. Sylvia's story is a common one, and has no big bang ending. It is just a scene in an ordinary life, that Lucinda transforms into an extraordinary vision.

She sings of heartache with Abandoned, and then she sings of heartache and anger combined with Changed the Locks.

Other songs speak to her insecurities in relationships - like when she asks her lover Am I Too Blue - it is a song of self-loathing and love wrapped up in a big complicated knot, like those things can become on a bad day.

Lyrically, my favourite is Side of the Road. Here's the whole thing, since I couldn't pick one line:

"You wait in the car on the side of the road
Let me go and stand awhile
I wanna know you're there, but I wanna be alone
If only for a minute or two
I wanna see what if feels like to be without you
I wanna know the touch of my own skin
Against the sun, against the wind.

I walked out in a field, the grass was high
It brushed against my legs
I just stood and looked out at the open space
And a farm house out aways
And I wondered about the people who lived in it
And I wondered if they were happy and content
Were there children and a man and a wife
Did she love him and take her hair down at night

If I stray away too far from you
Don't go and try to find me
It doesn't mean I don't love you
It doesn't mean I won't come back
And stay beside you
It only means I need a little time
To follow that unbroken line
To a place where the wild things grow
To a place where I used to always go"

Lyrically, Lucinda shares very raw, personal pictures with us - it makes us transcend whatever we are doing and feel what the singer feels. That's art, in my mind. Moreover, it is done with simple language, and simple arrangement.

Her voice is scratchy, but never shrieky, and soulfull but never sullen. The bonus section has a couple of pure blues tracks that show if she wanted to, she could've had a career as a pure blues singer.

But Lucinda Williams transcends genre, no doubt hurting her commercial appeal in the process. In 50 years, I would wager people will be trying to find her music, not Carrie Underwood's. Here's hoping, anyway.

I would say buy this album, but you'd have to have a screwloose to pay almost seventy bucks for an album. I must have a couple loose - since having heard it I think I'd pay double.

Best tracks: All the main tracks (12) plus the live version of "Something About What Happens When We Talk" and "Sundays"

CD Odyssey Disc 36: Kool And The Gang

This was a strange one - I had already rolled it, but I have a new album I'm dying to review. Still - a rule is a rule, however bizarre - so I went ahead with my roll first. And so,

Disc 36 is...Kool & The Gang: The Millennium Collection


Artist: Kool & The Gang

Year of Release: 2000 (but the music is from 1973-1984)

How I Came To Know It: In 1980 I really dug the song "Celebration" so I bought this K-Tel album called "Dimensions" that had that track. I didn't really give it much thought until I saw this best of collection and bought it, to discover I liked quite a few more of their tracks.

How It Stacks Up: Not applicable - "best ofs" don't stack up. They aren't real albums. They're damned lucky I allow them in my house at all!

Rating: not applicable. Stop pushing your luck, Kool & The Gang!

Kool And the Gang are one of those bands where I can't decide how I feel.

On the one hand, they lay down some very funky grooves, and it is without a doubt grade A party music.

On the other hand, they are sort of "funk-lite", their grooves never grow anywhere, they just hang around. It is great stuff, but I sometimes feel like they have mastered writing hooks and then just get lazy.

They are like fast food funk - it tastes good, but it isn't filling, and you probably should've made the effort to eat something better.

Then again, the "lazy" grooves they lay down are pretty awesome. Celebration is one of the greatest songs about having a good time ever written. It is really 5 star material. It has been overplayed for almost 30 years, but it is still fun to hear it.

Also, Kool & The Gang provides us valuable life advice. For example.

"Get down on it.
If you really want it.
If you gotta feel it,
Get down on it."

Good point. Or,

"We gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate. It's alright.
Mmmm, baby."

Again - that is a strong argument in their favour.

I guess if they could just cut out the schmaltzy pop ballads like Joanna and Cherish I could forgive their other faults. Because basically, Kool & The Gang write some pretty good music.

For some reason this time around I really got a kick out of "Ladies Night" which is basically a song about the ladies getting out and having a good time. Reminded me of back in the nineties, when Julie's Nightclub had a Ladies' Night which featured male "performers" until 10 PM. Guys would gather in this cordoned off area for the arrival of 10:01 PM, when they could get in there and "Get Down On It". Yikes.

I recognized a couple of "Kool" samples while listening as well. "Get Down On it" is sampled in a K-OS song - the part that goes "Get Your Back Up Off the Wall" - K-OS pairs with a new verse of his own. I can't place the song right now.

Also, Shaggy samples "Hollywood Swingin'" for the bass line in "Freaky Girl" to good effect.

So upon further review, Kool & The Gang are pretty...well...they're pretty cool. So go ahead - celebrate.

Best tracks: Celebration, Jungle Boogie, Ladies Night, Get Down On It, Fresh

CD Odyssey Disc 35: Judas Priest

Disc 35 brings us back to the first Disc reviewed, with the second offering of Judas Priest from the collection (my first review in the Odyssey was Screaming for Vengeance).

Disc 35 is...Defenders of the Faith
Artist: Judas Priest

Year of Release: 1984

How I Came To Know It: This album was my introduction to Judas Priest as a young metal head in Grade 9. All Priest for me flows from my initial love of this album.

How It Stacks Up: Very strongly. I have 8 Priest albums, and this one is probably #2 on that list. It may end up at #1, but I've gotta hold out for more.

Rating: 5 stars.

I really, really enjoyed rocking out to this album for the past two days. Not only did this one stay in the car past the allotted time, I had only recently been listening to it at home.

Defenders of the Faith is a quintessential metal album by one of the two crazy uncles of Heavy Metal - Judas Priest. Defenders didn't invent the metal genre, but I would argue that it perfects it. It stands not alone - but in very select company on the summit of pure heavy metal.

The first track, "Freewheel Burnin'" delivers all of the high octane of metal - and remains one of metal's greatest tracks. The guitars lay down a furious riff - the lyrics follow suit:

Fast and furious
we ride the universe
To carve a road for us that slices
every curve in sight

This is only the beginning of an energy laden journey that never stops. Just when you feel overwhelmed, track 5 slows things down with "Love Bites", an erotic vampire song that plays like a soundtrack for watching "Nosferatu" on speed.

Make no mistake, though - a slower tempo does not take any heaviness away from "Love Bites" which shows you can slow down and not get soppy in the world of metal.

Before you know it, you are back on the rock and roll road, with Eat Me Alive. With lyrics like:

Wrapped tight around me
Like a second flesh hot skin
Cling to my body
As the ecstasy begins

Hmmm...just what could Rob Halford be talking about. I'm sure it isn't sex - he never sings about that...

The album closes with 2 songs that merge into one - Heavy Duty and Defenders of the Faith. Heavy Duty combines all the slow impact of "Love Bites" and all the furious guitar of "Freewheel Burnin'" before it disintigrates into the soccer chant/metal anthem title track that takes you home.

This is the remastered/bonus track album - and the remastering is excellent (by which I mean, they didn't just turn up the recording volume). Even the two bonus tracks - "Turn On Your Light" and a live version of Heavy Duty/Defenders of the Faith from the 83/84 tour are strong additions.

I really didn't want to give this album 5 stars - I like to keep that rare. But I simply had no choice. It is as good a metal album as you would hear. This record has been in my life for 25 years, and yet every time I put it on, it immediately grabs me by the balls and screams "Heavy Metal!". Rob Halford would no doubt be pleased.

Best tracks: Freewheel Burning, The Sentinel, Love Bites, Some Heads Are Gonna Roll, Heavy Duty

CD Odyssey Disc 34: Michelle Shocked

In only 34 CDs the randomizer of the CD Odyssey has already selected 3 soundtracks and 2 Enya albums. Now it's Michelle Shocked's turn.

Disc 34 is...Captain Swing

Artist: Michelle Shocked

Year of Release: 1989

How I Came To Know It: This is just me drilling, after I liked my other two Michelle Shocked albums - You will recall Short Sharp Shocked from Disc 10 of the CD Odyssey

How It Stacks Up: I have 3 Michelle Shocked albums. This is by far the least of the three, but it still has its moments.

Rating: 2 stars with a thumbs up.

Captain Swing is the follow up album to the hugely successful Short Sharp Shocked. It reminds me that every Michelle Shocked album is very different. She doesn't stick to one genre or sound, and it likely doesn't help her hold an audience.

Haven't heard of Captain Swing? Let's just say it was slightly less successful that the album that preceded it. So it goes...

Captain Swing wasn't a good enough album for me to keep drilling through her collection. Here, I stopped.

The album is what Swing would sound like if it weren't swing at all - but was Michelle Shocked's folk-punk version of swing.

On the plus side, there are very clever songs like "God Is a Real Estate Developer". Check out the opening lyric, where the end of days is compared to a real estate transaction:

God is a real estate developer
With offices around the nation
They say one day he'll liquidate
His holdings up on high
I say it's all speculation.


At the same time, sometimes I think Shocked gets a cutesy expression in her head and takes it farther than it deserves - "Cement Lament" comes to mind as one such expression.

So, this album doesn't inspire me to say much, but it has its moments, and it doesn't sound like anything else you'll hear - which is a plus.

Best tracks: God Is a Real Estate Developer, On the Greener Side, Silent Ways

CD Odyssey Disc 33: Elizabethtown

Another random roll, another soundtrack. I think this is my third roll of a soundtrack. While I have 23 of them, this is still bucking the odds...

Disc 33 is...Elizabethtown Soundtrack

Artist: Various

Year of Release: 2005

How I Came To Know It: Once again - I saw the movie and liked the music. I was additionally motivated for this one because I thought I was getting a heretofore unreleased Tom Petty song "It'll All Work Out". Actually, it was just a Tom Petty album I didn't have yet. D'oh!

How It Stacks Up: Of 23 soundtracks this is definitely top half. Not sure where it fits, but it has a lot of good stuff on it, and only a couple of duds.

Rating: 3 stars.

Elizabethtown is the movie that Orlando Bloom did after Lord of the Rings to prove to everyone he wasn't an elf. He plays a young man with a promising career as a shoe designer, who ends up making a bad error and losing his job in disastrous fashion. At about the same time his father dies, and he finds himself having to travel to Elizabethtown, Kentucky to bury his ashes.

While there he meets and falls for Kirsten Dunst, playing a free spirited airline stewardess.

Elizabethtown isn't a great movie, but it is a good one. It does a good job of capturing the angst we feel in our mid-twenties as we struggle with our own burgeoning success, our lack of our burgeoning success and the tension between growing up and not wanting to grow up. It is your "first serious love" movie. I'm a sucker for a good romance, so I liked it.

The soundtrack is good because it forms an integral part of the film. The music is woven throughout, and once again director Cameron Crowe's lifetime love of music is put on display. In fact, the final act features many songs appearing on a "mixed tape" that is made for Bloom by Dunst as he drives across America.

I first bought it for "It'll All Work Out" by Tom Petty, and then discovered this song is actually originally recorded on the 1987 album "Let Me Up I've Had Enough". The version on Elizabethtown is a dressed down and slower production, and I think a lot better. the '87 album would benefit from a similar treatment on all the tracks. But more on that when I roll it.

The Soundtrack also features "Square One". A great Tom Petty song which would feature a year later on his amazing album "Highway Companion" but more on that when I roll it.

Count in Elton John's "My Father's Gun" and this soundtrack has 3 songs on other albums in our collection.

I like this record not just for the good music, and not just for that music's place in the film, but overall the music sets a common tone of yearning that really works all on its own. The only downside are a couple of tracks where Indie music goes wrong (It can do that), but these are maybe 2 or 3 out of 15 tracks.

Listening to this record makes me want to hunt down information on some of the other artists that appear and see if I like their other stuff. I'll start asking around and see if anyone knows anything about Patty Griffin (who sings "Long Ride Home", "Let It Out" by the Hombres and "Same In Any Language" by I Nine. If I have 3 of these songs on other albums already, it is a good sign, right?

Best tracks: It'll All Work Out, Long Ride Home, Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out), Square One, Same in Any Language

CD Odyssey Disc 32: Hank Williams

As my KISS review indicates, my early experience makes me a little bit rock n' roll. However, I'm also a little bit country.

Disc 32 is...Gold



Artist: Hank Williams

Year of Release: 2002 but the music is from the late forties and early fifties

How I Came To Know It: I come by my love of Hank Williams via my Mom, who is a fan and played him a lot while I was growing up. Many years later, I am amazed at how much good music I picked up from my Mom - most of it good old fashioned country AND western. Also a little Canadiana, but I'll talk about that when I get there.

How It Stacks Up: not applicable. This is a best of. I do have two best ofs for Hank Williams, though, and this is the better one of the two.

Rating: not applicable. Best ofs aren't fair to rate.

Hank Williams (along with Tex Ritter) is to me the grand daddy of modern American music, and the origins of Outlaw Country that I have loved so much in recent years.

Without Hank, there is no Steve Earle, no Lucinda Williams and - quite literally - no Hank Williams III (his grandson). On the downside, he also created Hank Williams Jr. - a real asstastic example of how bad new country can get.

Historically, Hank Sr.'s music is fascinating, since you can see early arrangements that become the building blocks of later music.

However, Hank Sr. is a great artist in his own right, not just a study in early country music. His voice can be both rough around the edges and mournful at the same time. No man hits falsetto like Hank does. He is a true artist with his voice.

On top of this, this recording (a 2 disc set) has some great sessional musicians playing on it. He was a big thing in his day, and he obviously attracted the best. Or they were his band. I have no idea, and I'm too much of a modernist to research it. Take that, post-modernists! With your internet and your fancy doo-dads gettin' in the way of enjoying the music!

Hank is also one of the greatest songwriters I know. His stuff runs the gamut from bluesy tracks like Move It on Over (famously covered by George Thorogood), and My Bucket's Got a Hole In It" to mournful songs of lost love like "A Mansion On The Hill" and "Your Cheatin' Heart". He also does gospel music, and one of his records is entirely spiritual. This collection has the title track "I Saw The Light" and it is a good one.

He also does a fair bit of novelty song stuff - like "Howlin' At the Moon" which has a goofy wolf howl at the end of most of the verses, but this stuff is thankfully fairly rare.

Hank was a troubled soul, and he struggled with alcoholism, drugs and hard living. These vices killed him in true rock & roll fashion (legend has it he died in the back seat of a taxi) at the tender age of 29.

For such a young career, it is packed full of incredible songwriting, performing and 50 years later Hank Williams remains one of the most influential figures in American music.

But don't buy him for that - buy him because he is a damned good listen.

Best tracks: There are a lot of good tracks, but since all must go on my MP3 player (new rule) I'll try to be judicious - Honky Tonkin', Move It On Over, You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave), I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You), You're Cheatin' Heart, The Angel of Death, Mind Your Own Business

CD Odyssey Disc 31: KISS

The CD Odyssey this week is taking a blast to the past. Before I get there, I have....an announcement!

I am going to fill my Zen with songs from the most recent entries. That way, I'll keep mixing up my MP3 player with tracks from what I've recently reviewed. Obviously certain artists must never be removed (BOC, Alice Cooper, Steve Earle) so I'll need to arrive at a reasonable balance - plus my Zen holds but 430 or so songs. At first, I saw this as a disadvantage, but now I see opportunity.

But I digress.

Disc 31 is...Lick It Up

Artist: KISS

Year of Release: 1983

How I Came To Know It: I've known KISS a long time - the first album I ever bought was a KISS record (I'll talk about that when I roll it). My brother bought Lick It Up when it came out, and I taped it off of him (ah, TDK - the piracy of the eighties).

How It Stacks Up: I don't have all of KISS' albums, but I've got a lot (10). I would say this is near the bottom. Maybe 9th (I'll discuss #10 when I roll it).

Rating: 2 stars with a thumbs up.

Lick It Up is one of those albums that seemed to proliferate in the early to mid-eighties. Great seventies rock bands feeling the pressure to sound more "metal" and appeal to a new generation. Other examples that come to mind would be Alice Cooper's 1986 offering "Constrictor" and Black Sabbath's "Born Again" also from 1983.

Ironically, while I was a huge heavy metal meat-head back in those days, I already liked all the bands vying for my affection.

Lick It Up is the "no make-up" album as well. Also, it is another album minus two original members (Peter Criss is replaced by Eric Carr and Ace Frehley by Vinnie Vincent). While I didn't (and don't) miss Peter Criss, this album does lack Ace's musical genius on the guitar.

Paul Stanley is still great, and remains a very unique hard rock voice. Even the songs Gene Simmons sings (I think he does "Not For the Innocent" and "And On The 8th Day") are strong.

Generally though, this album is uneven. There are 4 good tracks, an equal number of pretty bad tracks and a couple that aren't memorable either way.

KISS can still write some of the most ridiculously suggestive lyrics ever. Consider "Not For the Innocent"

I'm mean and I'm dirty, like none you've ever seen.
Bad habits drip like honey, no tongue can lick me clean.

Hilarious, and suitably shocking to be enjoyable in Grade 8. OK even now it is still kind of fun.

KISS was once my favourite band - but I was 8. This album is still fun in places, but doesn't really do them justice like their classics do.

That's OK, though - it was fun to be reminded of what life was like when I was 13, and I liked this album a lot more than I do now.

Best tracks: Not For The Innocent, Lick It Up, All Hell's Breakin' Loose, And On The 8th Day

CD Odyssey Disc 30: Jackie Brown Soundtrack

A second disc review in the same day? What is this madness?

Hey - relax, crew - I'm catching up.

Disc 30 is...Jackie Brown Soundtrack
Artist: Various

Year of Release: 1997

How I Came To Know It: Another soundtrack - another obvious story about how I saw the movie and liked the music.

How It Stacks Up: Out of 23 soundtracks, I'd put Jackie Brown somewhere in the middle. It has some kick ass tracks, but also a couple of duds.

Rating: 3 stars.

Quentin Tarantino is a great film maker, who mostly suffers from the fact that he knows it and makes no bones about it.

He also picks incredible music for his films. I've also got Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction soundtracks, and they are probably even better. He just seems to have a knack for finding great songs most of us have forgotten.

Jackie Brown is a crime caper movie starring a smokin' hot Pam Grier as a stewardess who gets mixed up in drug dealing. The film also revitalized Robert Forster's career (he plays a bail-bondsman/love interest). If you haven't seen it, then go rent it, monkey!

The soundtrack has a great urban seventies sound that matches the mood Tarantino creates in the film.

I particularly like that the music is part of the story - not just background. Grier's character is a big fan of the Delfonics, and she plays "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time?" for Forster. It's a key scene as they begin to bond as a team, and recognize a mutual attraction. Also, the song is really cool.

Other standouts are Bill Withers singing a great jealousy song (Who Is He And What Is He To You?) and a song about trying to get out of the ghetto called "Across 110 Street" which is a reference to where on Manhattan that Harlem begins (basically near the north end of Central Park).

The worst part of the album are a couple of weird instrumental numbers that drone on at the closing of the disc. It needs a better wrap up, and instead it kind of has a half-conscious fade out.

I always have a strange experience with this album when I hear "Midnight Confessions" by the Grass Roots. For some reason it reminds me of Blue Oyster Cult when they are doing their lighter stuff. This in turn always reminds me of how when I was 6 or 7 I used to get BOC singer Eric Bloom confused with ELO singer Jeff Lynne (they have the same hair and penchant for aviator sunglasses).

This little trip down memory lane happens pretty much every time I hear Midnight Confessions. Isn't music great for recalling a memory. Yeehaw!

Anyway - I've got a football pool to prepare for, so I'll sign off. Go Dolphins!

Best tracks: Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time, Across 110 Street, Midnight Confessions, Who Is He (And What Is He To You?)

CD Odyssey Disc 29: Paul Simon

After a hiatus caused by an inordinate amount of work at the place they pay me, the CD Odyssey returns! Randomness also returns, and so here is the latest offering.

Disc 29 is...Negotiations and Love Songs 1971-1986

Artist: Paul Simon

Year of Release: 1988 with music from 1971-1986

How I Came To Know It: I've been a fan of Simon and Garfunkel since about 1989. While I liked Paul Simon's solo stuff, it was Sheila that put me on to it. This album is in fact one of hers. Good work, She!

How It Stacks Up: Not Applicable. This is not a Paul Simon album per se - it is a best of/greatest hits. As with Thelonius Monk it isn't fair to stack it up against true studio albums by Paul Simon (of which I have 2).

Rating: Not applicable. Best ofs aren't really rateable that way.

This album is a good example of where best ofs are best utilized. I really like Paul Simon, but I'm not sure I would go out and buy 6 or 7 of his albums - this fills that gap.

Then again, listening to these songs, I am reminded of just what a great songwriter Simon is.

When I listen to Paul Simon's lyrics, I always feel like I'm getting a deep personal insight into his life. The insight comes from such an honest place, that I find myself identifying with it - or remembering a time when I did. It is good stuff.

This album also notes how underrated a singer Paul Simon is. In Simon and Garfunkel he is often overshadowed by Garfunkel's voice, which really isn't fair. Paul Simon can sing.

By contrast, what can Garfunkel do other than sing? In fact, Garfunkel fronts the mythical band that me and my buddies have invented comprised entirely of the untalented portions of former bands.

The band is GORF, which stands for Garfunkel, Oates, Ridgley and Frye. Later we changed the name to DEF GORF, because they needed a drummer.

But I digress...

Negotiations and Love Songs is full of some of the best songs pop music has created, by a man with a beautiful gift to communicate. There are some 5 star tracks on here, most notably "Slip Sliding Away" and "Still Crazy After All These Years" and many more 4 star songs. You can see why best ofs have an unfair advantage.

This record sorely tests me to not run out and buy a bunch of Paul Simon records from the 70s. I won't though...for now.

Best tracks: Still Crazy After All These Years, Slip Slidin' Away, Hearts and Bones, Something So Right, Late in the Evening.

CD Odyssey Disc 28: Steve Earle

What disc did I randomly roll today? Answer - I didn't roll! I just decided. I decided that I needed a new rule - and that rule should be that when I buy a new album, I review that one right away - rather than waiting potentially years before it graces my car stereo.

You see, people, randomness isn't about anarcy - it is about fun. It is about using the randomness to inspire connections you might not get with the plodding linear thought of the wakeful mind.

And rules aren't about restrictions - they are about fun as well. Focusing the randomness just that small amount so you still get somewhere. Trust me on these things - I am a randomness guru and a veritable prophet of how rules can be fun.

And so here endeth the lesson on Calvinball.

Disc 28 is Townes
Artist: Steve Earle

Year of Release: 2009

How I Came To Know It: I buy everything by Steve Earle, because he rules. This is my second review of Earle - here's the first. There will be many more - I can't wait.

How It Stacks Up: I have 14 Steve Earle albums now. If he had more, I'd have more. This one is a collection of Townes Van Zandt remakes. This makes it kind of a "best of" so can't really stack it up.

Rating: 4 stars.

Townes is a collection of Townes Van Zandt remakes. Van Zandt is an outlaw country/folk artist who did most of his work from 1968-1973 but also recorded a couple albums in the eighties, I think. He lived a hard drinking, drug filled life of a rambler - and died at a comparatively young age in 1997 (I believe).

I had never heard of Townes Van Zandt, but he was a huge influence on Steve Earle, who followed him around as a young artist - as many did in the day. Earle cleaned up and is still with us, but Townes wasn't so lucky.

Anyway - I didn't know any Townes Van Zandt, except "Pancho and Lefty" which was done by mainstream artists in the eighties. The writing is astonishing and incredible. It is poignant and painful and a brilliant emotional tour of a mind that was a genius IQ, that reportedly scored 1170 on an SAT but refused college in favour of sex, drugs and rock & roll.

The songs range from a traditional bluesy sound with country twang (White Freightliner Blues, Brand New Companion) through narrative ballads (Pancho and Lefty, Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold) to deeply personal folksy songs (No Place to Fall, Colorado Girl). The range of writing is severe, and the songs hit you in the deep dark places of your heart that the majority of us take great care to hide.

Earle's voice does great work here, and he plays some of his best stuff on a variety of instruments (guitar, mandola, harmonica, harmonium, percussion). At times he gets a little quiet. It is just slightly too quiet, but it needs to be, as its clear this work was intensely personal for him to record.

Steve Earle did an homage to Townes on the the 1997 album "El Corazon". The song is called "Ft. Worth Blues" (Van Zandt is from Ft. Worth). That song was a fitting tribute to this influential, but relatively unknown songwriter. Townes is a whole album that honours Van Zandt, and does so in his own words.

I am so primed to go find some Townes Van Zandt and hear the original music. I can't frickin' wait. Bring it.

If this album weren't all remakes, it would be 5 stars. However, I'm going to say that, "as a rule" I just can't do that. Also, handpicking some of what are his best songs also makes for an unfair advantage.

My thanks to Steve Earle - the man who got me interested in Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris can add Townes Van Zandt to that august list.

I'll end this review with a couple of lines from the last song on the album, "To Live Is To Fly"

We all got holes to fill
Them holes are all that's real.
Some fall on you like a storm,
Sometimes you dig your own.
The choice is yours to make,
Time is yours to take;
Some sail upon/dive into the sea,
Some toil upon the stone.

To live is to fly
Low and high,
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes;

Best tracks: There are 15 tracks on this album and I LOVE at least 10. Just go buy the album and spare me typing them all out.

CD Odyssey Disc 27: Led Zeppelin

Time for a little more classic rock - is it becoming apparent I like 70s rock? OK, this one is technically the sixties.

Disc 27 is...Led Zeppelin I (or simply "Self Titled")

Artist: Led Zeppelin

Year of Release: 1969

How I Came To Know It: Like most people my age, Led Zeppelin has been in my life as long as I can remember. However, hearing something on the radio and bobbing your head is different than buying an album. I'd credit my friend Andrew with getting me interested enough in Zeppelin to go buy some. He has that 4 disc box set and one day forgot one at my house. I played it and liked it. I went out and bought Zeppelin I first off, but I've only had it a couple years at most. If my love for Zeppelin were a rock n' roll flower, I'd be early out of the ground, but late to bloom.

How It Stacks Up: I dunno how many Zeppelin albums there are - 7? Right now I have 3 (I, II, and IV). This is the least of the 3.

Rating: 4 stars.

I struggled with ranking this album. I've got a strange relationship with Zeppelin. On the one hand, every time I hear them, I recognize that they are one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time.

They have one of the greatest singers ever (Plant) and one of the greatest guitar players of all time (Page) and one of the greatest drummers of all time (Bonham) and one of the greatest bass players of all time (Jones). How many bands have such rounded talent - Rush? Queen? The list is short.

At the same time as I intellectually respect and admire them, and enjoy their music, I have always had a harder time connecting to them emotionally than most of my friends do. It is weird, but there it is.

Also, while they are far and away the best noodlers of all time, they noodle a little too much. Excessive noodling - even genius level noodling - is still noodling.

This album is very blues-rock focused. At the same time, you can see the germination of a sound that would become metal and a whole host of other sounds I'm very grateful for.

Put it all together and this album is a 5 for influence, musicianship and all the technical stuff, but a 3 in how it makes me feel, so I'm going to give it a 4. Also "Dazed and Confused" is damned fine all on its own (although I'd prefer it was the only song in excess of 6 minutes, instead of 1 of 4).

Anyway - I am attracted to Zeppelin, but I don't love them they way they deserve. It is a good thing they have many other more fulfilling relationships with their fans. This way, I get what I need from them, but don't feel guilty when I leave them on the CD rack longer between listens than they deserve. Kind of like a rock and roll booty call.

Best tracks: Dazed and Confused, Your Time Is Gonna Come, Communication Breakdown