Promises
John Wright
Independent
1996
12 tracks

What will make this release more palatable to urban listeners who may not have heard much of this music is Wright's approach. The instrumentals are well-orchestrated and roll forward like a well-oiled machine. The vocal harmonies sound just right, providing confident support for Wright's lead vocals. What they don't do, though, is slip into those off-harmonies [some might say off-key, but I'd disagree with that] so often heard in the older bluegrass and especially Appalachian folk music. And Wright's vocal approach has more the pop-folk feel of a Pete Seeger or Oscar Brand than what we might have expected from The Carter Family or Wright's idol Ralph Stanley.

A real strength of this release is the instrumental backing. John Wright (banjo) is joined by Junior Blankenship (guitar) and James Price (fiddle). It's clear from the outset that all three players know their way around their respective instruments. There's an organic feel to the songs, as though these three men have been playing together since childhood. This brings a certain unity to every song and to the release as a whole.

Lately, on some of my e-mail lists, performers and folk DJ's have been looking for songs they can play about war. "Soldier's Boy" is just such a song. Based on a scene from a Russian movie, "Soldier's Boy" is neither pro nor anti war but holds within its lyric some eternal truths about the nature of war and its effects on family.

Over all, as opposed to back-porch music, I find this a very academic [including allusions not just to the Russian movie but to Shakespeare as well] collection of folk music, honed and polished almost too much. Yet the music still has that old time folk feel to it and, in this sanitized version, could well help introduce a new audience to traditional folk music.

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Film @ Eleven
Tom Sheehan
19 North Records
2000
14 tracks

By his own accomplished skills at writing, performing, and production and perhaps influenced by his profession as an advertising executive, Tom Sheehan has created a set of polished songs with a pure pop sensibility. The words become part of the overall composition. Sheehan's voice blends into the mix and what it's saying becomes a blur and then lost. Sheehan undercuts his own message until it falls into the music and disappears.

In at least one song, I hear Franky Vallee. I hear soft pop reflections of artists like Canadians Dan Hill and Bryan Adams. Some of the orchestration brings to mind Phil Collins and, in its lushness, Celine Dionne. In places, I hear Dire Straits or perhaps some of the softer-edged roots rockers like John Mellenkamp. On a couple of songs, I think I hear a Leonard Cohen influence. This is soft music, the sort of middle-of-the road pop that hits radio's afternoon drive time.

Like the late-night news, the subject matter of Sheehan's songs is wide-ranging. They cover drug addiction, political coup's, shattered relationships, 900 telephone services, the tragedy at Columbine, transvestites and cross-dressers, rape, and the generation gap. On a more positive note, two of the songs, including a love song written for his wife, celebrate the potentials of love after forty years old.

Sheehan is an exceptional pop-stylist. His words and his music are polished and accomplished. Rather than protest, his talent seems to lean heavily toward the domain of the pop and rock standards, of love songs and romantic themes. Lyrics along those lines will make an ideal match to his musical treatments. Taken on the whole, Film @ Eleven is well-written, well-performed and well-produced. I look forward to hearing some of these songs on the radio.

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Little Light
GrooveLily
Independent
2000
12 tracks

Certainly, at some level, this music is built on a base of rock, but there are elements of Seventies pop, reggae, and jazz flowing through and over and creating a very finely crafted sound. With six members, this band creates a full sound that smaller bands can only hope to achieve. Although GrooveLily is New York City based, their sound reminds me a lot of music originating in western Europe, especially Scandinavia and Germany. It's a sound that I personally enjoy very much.

As songwriters, and by this I mean lyricists especially, Valerie Vigoda and Brendan Milburn excel. While there is a pop sensibility to most of these lyrics, there is also a certain depth to them, a fullness of story and image. Most are quite literate and at least one ("Captain of a Ship On Fire") is literary, making clear allusions to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and first published in 1798.

Interestingly, the track I like best on this release is not written by Vigoda or Milburn but by Mick Jones of the band Foreigner. GrooveLily's intelligent, near-hiphop interpretation of "I Want to Know What Love Is" should be riding high in the charts somewhere.

The rest of the tracks on Little Light are at or close to the same quality. There's not a track I wouldn't be happy to hear more than once, on the radio or in my own home. GrooveLily has created a thing of beauty. All the members of this band should be proud of what they've made.

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Rock and Roll Station
Joe D'Urso & Stone Caravan
Schoolhouse Records
2000
12 tracks

If this music has the simple appeal of good rock and roll, it is not simplistic music. D'Urso cites such influences as poet Leonard Cohen and storyteller Harry Chapin. His lyrics have the depth and integrity that might be expected to come from such influences. Without knowing anything else of D'Urso's background, just hearing his music makes it clear that Bruce Springsteen is a major influence. At other times, D'Urso's songs remind me of Jim Steinman's songs written for Meatloaf and of some Joe South songs. Like these artists, D'Urso melds ideas with a hard-rocking groove and makes rock and roll a poetic art.

There's not one bad song on this release. It's all hot, up-tempo music with a groove that will stir the dancing instinct in the stodgiest listener. And, another hallmark of all great rock and roll, this music is at its best when the volume is cranked as high as it can go. Interestingly, of all these songs, my two favourites are one that D'Urso didn't write and one that isn't listed on the cover.

The requisite "hidden track" and the title song are the same. "Rock and Roll Station" is a solid rocker that should be on the Top 40 somewhere but probably never was nor will be. This is music that will stand up to the best of a Bob Seger or Bruce Springsteen, but it's about a quarter-century past its time. That's a shame.

Probably the most powerful song on this release was written by Canadian folk-rocker Neil Young. D'Urso's version of "Powderfinger" is the best I've heard since the original release by Young. Indeed - dare I say it? - I do believe this hard-driving version is even better than that great recording from Young's Rust Never Sleeps album.

Would I recommend getting Rock and Roll Station for your own collection? Absolutely! But don't get it to add to your collection. Get it to play real loud while you're working or just for fun. That's what rock and roll like this is really all about.

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River Road & Other Stories
Sylvia Tyson
Outside Music
2000
18 tracks

River Road & Other Stories is a sort of sound track album, featuring songs from Tyson's one woman stage show of the same name. More than just a collection of songs, the order here follows the implicit story line of the stage show. This interconnectedness of the songs allows inclusion of a variety of genres without the whole thing feeling thrown together. The result is a pleasant, easy-flowing set of folk, country, pop, and show-tunes.

There's an accompanying 36 page booklet, the same dimensions as a CD insert, that's the bare bones script for the stage show, including lyrics for all the songs. The booklet reads well on its own as a collection of poetry and prose. The quality of writing should place it among contemporary Canadian Literature. Whether the gatekeepers of CanLit will recognize it as such is, of course, a whole 'nuther matter.

The songs on this release are quiet and mature. They don't exactly feel like old-people's music, but I definitely feel they will have their strongest appeal with an older audience. Nothing wrong with that. The songs are well enough written that the younger audience may well grow into them as they themselves grow older.

River Road & Other Stories will make an excellent addition to many collections for a number of reasons. It's a lovely collection of songs by Sylvia Tyson at her best. It's a prime example of very literate prose and poetry writing that's often ignored by Canadian academics. It's a well-designed suite of songs that tell an interesting story. Forgetting all that, it's just a well-written, well-performed, well-produced album of folk, country, pop, and show music.

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Acie Cargill Presents
Old-Time Music
For A New Millennium
various artists
Cobwebs Recording
2000
16 tracks

One of the more important aspects of Acie Cargill's work is his dedication to help preserve what remains of old-time and traditional music. Burned on CDR with labelling apparently made with a bubble-jet printer, each copy of Cargill's home-made recordings is unique and bears an identifying serial number. The recordings themselves are clean and professional if often home-made. The content is interesting, informative, and to some degree educational. While releases like Old-Time Music For A New Millenium may be of some interest to academics, they may be especially informative to young musicians and to those who may not have been exposed to this music before.

There's also an element of nostalgia to these recordings. Many of the songs may bring fond memories to those among us who were children some fifty or sixty years ago. The music reminds me of the songs my father played and sang so long ago and of some of the records he played in our home. Indeed, I have a home-made recording, circa 1955, of my father singing and playing that sounds very much like these recordings. The music on this release is clearly American, but it draws on the same European roots as Canadian folk music and many of the songs are the same.

There's a wonderful diversity to the songs presented here. Listed styles include celtic, ragtime jazz, bluegrass, traditional folk, western yodel, country gospel, southern gospel, and old-timey. The tracks reflect the diversity of American folk music in the Twentieth Century. At least some and possibly all of these songs were recorded live and all have a certain homespun quality that might have been found at any small town barn dance or civic event.

Because this release included the recordings but no information besides song title and artist name, this release has less historical value than Acie Cargill's previous release, A Family Gathering, which featured material recorded circa 1960 in Kentucky. Even so, it's a very interesting and varied collection of traditional and old-time music as it might have been heard half a century or more ago.

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Sail Away
Amy & Adams
Okay Today Records
1998
12 tracks

Taken at first listen, the music on Sail Away has a certain folkish singer-songwriter ambience about it. At centre, though, the music here is much more pop than folk. The melodies, more than anything, are what at first brought to mind The Poppy Family and the subsequent hits of Susan Jacks and Terry Jacks. Rather than folk-rock with a social message, though, the lyrics here are sentimental love poems set to music, the very stuff of teenage pop music. With their sweet and sometimes lush arrangements and their even sweeter vocals, Amy & Adams come across as a contemporary Paul and Paula, singing sweet love songs to each other. What saves the songs from saccharine is that this Paul and Paula seem to have conspired with Jimmy Buffet, setting their sweet words and melodies to jumpy and often Caribbean-sounding rhythms.

That there are certain Christian images built into the lyrics of these songs is clear. On a philosophical level, I think this is neither a positive or a negative thing. On an artistic level, the use of these symbols and metaphors adds substance and interest to lyrics which might have become maudlin in their sentimentality. Their inclusion adds a certain resonance to the words which will draw listeners in and hold them. Both Amy Adams-Westin and Mark Adams-Westin are talented lyricists, each with a story to tell.

Sail Away is a well, written, well produced effort that is certain to be well-received by what may be a niche audience. The music tends to fall between genres and so may not find a home among any specific audience category. However, this music is the stuff of middle-of-the-road radio and could potentially receive a lot of airplay there. It will be interesting to hear what Amy and Adams release next.

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Next To Nothin'
Bob Martin
Riversong Records
2000
10 tracks

Bob Martin is a talented performer with an interesting and, some might say, unique style. As a songwriter, he's better than many. It's surprising that, with three previous albums to his credit, his work is not better known. This may be partly because there has tended to be a ten year silence between Martin's releases while he mostly took time off to do other things. At least, that's what the bio on his web site suggests. Certainly he is well-respected and has performed onstage with some of the best. I even have a vague remembrance of his first album, Midwest Farm Disaster, released in 1972, when I still worked in radio. From what I hear on Next To Nothin', Bob Martin may have been too long overlooked as an American songwriter and storyteller.

There's not a bad song on this release. Both the writing and the performance are above average and often exceptional. Anyone looking for the best in American storytelling and songwriting should consider listening to Next To Nothin". If you haven't heard Bob Martin yet, perhaps it's time you did.

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Wheeler Avenue
Rich Ingle
Ringle Records
1999
14 tracks

In his promotional materials and in his liner notes, Rich Ingle makes it a point to let us know that Wheeler Avenue is a home-made production, recorded on a four-track recorder with Ingle playing and singing all parts. This was done, he says, "with no previous studio or production experience." Is this artist so insecure in his own abilities that he feels a need to explain any perceived flaws before the listener discovers them? Or is it a sort of false modesty? Based on the overall quality of this recording plus the fact that Ingle has been performing for three decades, I suspect the latter.

In all respects, Rich Ingle is competent at what he does. Ingle has a comfortable, folksy, storytelling singing style. While a bit rough at times, his guitar work passes muster and suits his vocal style. I didn't have his lyrics available to read, but they seem uneven, with some being much better written than others. His melodies, for the most part, don't seem to have much melody to them [not an unusual occurrance among contemporary independent folk-song writers].

While these songs are reasonably well written and performed, they tend to sound much like what is being produced by hundreds of other regional folk singers across North America. In fact, several of the songs have the familiar feel of having been heard before. It's not so much that they feel borrowed from other artists as that the melodies and sometimes the words are just that commonplace. Only a few songs have that certain something that allows them to stand out from the rest.

An interesting if unpolished writer and performer, Rich Ingle is definitely worth a listen. Whether he will gain an audience outside Chicago, where he can be seen performing live, is a question that remains to be answered. If he doesn't, then he should still continue to be a popular local and regional artist. That's not all bad.

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I See a Star
Quartette
Outside Music
2002
14 tracks

Quartette's I See a Star manages to be both a comfortable set of songs with a traditional feel [although just which tradition may change from song to song] and a refreshing respite from all those seasonal songs we've heard so many times before. Although all but three of the songs were written by the talented ladies who make up Quartette, most carry a definite sense of déjà vu. The musical mix is wonderfully eclectic, roaming effortlessly through traditional and contemporary folk, country, bluegrass, pop, and swing styles. Even so, the end result is seamless and unified. If it were possible to define the perfect Christmas album, this one just might be a contender.

It doesn't hurt that Quartette comprises four of Canada's most talented songwriters, each with a successful singing career in her own right, and that Quartette itself has a sterling reputation in Canada for unique arrangements and interesting harmonies. The talent on this release could make any song sound great. The songs here are well-enough written that they don't need the help. The combination of writing talent, polished arrangements, and vocal talent makes this a release hard to fault.

Without knowing who wrote these songs, it's easy to feel that one or the other is a song once heard long ago and now heard again through the mist of distant memory. The connection these artists have with the various traditions is almost mystical, the sort of thing that can send chills down a person's back. It's a pleasure to experience and share that connection through this music.

Whatever the genre, each of the songs on I See a Star is flawlessly written, arranged, and performed. This may not be the perfect Christmas album, but it comes close enough to perfection for me.

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Behind Your Eyes
David Falcone
County Clare Records
2001
15 tracks

What most impresses me about Falcone's playing is the complexity of his fingerings. While his playing is almost always simple it is never simplistic. Like a Mason Williams or Don Ross, Falcone often sounds as though there may be more than one guitarist playing, usually one in the low range and one in the high but sometimes crossing over between the two. his technique is impressive. In fact, to avoid any confusion on this matter, Falcone's releases all bear a line stating that there has been no overdubbing used in their production.

On this release in particular, the range and variety of those low-end fingerings is interesting and sometimes surprising. While many of the songs feature a more classical or Anglo-Celtic folk underscore, others lean toward classic southern rock. In these songs, a bright acoustic folk, classical, or pop melody rides over a darker sound more familiar in the work of Lynyrd Skynyrd or The Allman Brothers. Beneath other songs is the sound of American country and western music.

Over all, Falcone plays and sings his songs well enough that any weaknesses in the lyrics are not to be noticed. As performances, all five songs on which he sings stand up very well.

As with Secrets of Sherwood, the last Falcone release I had reviewed, the instrumental tracks here are of uniformly high quality. They are well-written and well-played by an artist who clearly is dedicated to his craft. While there are subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, differences between the songs, they are not differences of quality but rather reflect the artistic and stylistic choices Falcone has made. It's worth listening to this set more than once simply to hear both the variations and the consistencies in Falcone's guitar stylings.

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Bah! Humbug
"The Alternative Christmas Album"
various artists
Greentrax Recordings Limited
2002
13 tracks

What's to be expected of a Christmas album that includes titles like "The Man Who Slits The Turkey's Throats At Christmas" and "Santa Bloody Claus" set among more usual titles? A lot, as it turns out. Bah! Humbug is billed as "a humorous alternative to other Christmas albums" and it more than lives up [or should that be down?] to its billing. In turns, the songs on this release are irreverent, hilarious, and sincere in their send-ups of popular Christmas music and in their activist approaches to social concerns in today's world.

An anthology assembled by Scotland's Greentrax Recordings Limited, Bah! Humbug features some of the finest and funniest folk music writers and performers in the English-speaking world. Imagine this lineup: Eric Bogle, Tom Lehrer, Cyril Tawney, Robin Laing, Tom Clelland, Bill Barclay, His Worship and The Pig, The McCalmans, Enoch Kent, and Loudon Wainwright III. How can such a release not be a joy to hear?

"We Wish You A Merry Christmas" is the only song on the album without an obvious satirical twist or twinge of social consciousness. In closing the set, this song, performed by The GreenTrax Choir, brings us back from the wacky world we've been travelling to a Christmas more familiar to us all. This is a lively, somewhat Celtic performance with an interesting instrumental mix and beautiful vocal harmonies. A very nice touch is that artist royalties on this track are to be donated to Cancer Research.

When the saccharine on the radio becomes too much this Christmas season, Bah! Humbug may be just the thing to add some spice to your seasonal listening. I certainly recommend it for anyone whose mind leans toward the weird or quirky and who also enjoys folk music that shows a social conscience.

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Secrets of Sherwood
David Falcone
County Clare Records
1997
14 tracks

Most acoustic finger-style guitar of the past two decades or so has been very sweet and quiet, with a sound that's either very Renaissance or very New Age. This may be a reaction against the loud and sometimes harsh sounds of much electric guitar music or simply against the many stresses of our modern age. David Falcone shows no such delicacy in his performance. There is an edge and an energy to Falcone's playing that brings to the forefront music that might otherwise be relegated to the background while the mind is engaged in other activities.

Playing solo, Falcone manages an effect that I've only noticed in one other contemporary guitarist, Don Ross. His intricate fingering creates the effect that there may in fact be another guitarist working with him on a particular song. This suggests an awareness not just of the mechanics of his craft but of its history. Where I believe I've heard this style of performance before Falcone and Ross is in flamenco and classical recordings made sixty or more years ago. It's apparent that Falcone is aware that he creates this effect of multiple guitars. He is careful in his liner notes and publicity materials to point out that his recording contains no overdubbing.

Unlike many fingerstyle guitarists, Falcone also sings. Based on only two lyrics, I would say that Falcone's writing is tight and evocative. While Falcone is a competent singer, I do wonder what these lyrics would be like if interpreted by a stronger performer.

Featuring mostly longish tracks, Secrets of Sherwood delivers excellent musical value. It would fit well in the collection of anyone who values excellent fingerstyle guitar or who simply enjoys well-played acoustic instrumental music.

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