Short Cuts: Summary Reviews #7

In The Winter
Raymond Yates
Picador Records
1999
10 tracks

A young artist, Raymond Yates shows surprising maturity in this, his debut release. As with all young artists, there is room for growth, but Yates has already gone a considerable way down that road. His lyrics are tightly written and evocative. His music is a complex, well-crafted blend of traditional and original sounds.

While Yates is a capable song writer, what makes In The Winter exceptional is his approach to the music. It is as a producer (at least of his own material and in partnership with Jothan Sargent) that he shows his greatest potential. This is not another of those soundalike singer/songwriter release. Indeed, Yates eschews that designation, choosing instead the similar but somehow different "songwriter/vocalist" to describe himself as an artist. That may be what makes the difference: that unlike some others who put singing first, his priority is the songs.

Yates' arrangements are an intriguing blend of folk music and jazz ornamented with bits from the folkish end of both country music and rock and roll. The effect can be quite striking.

It is much to Raymond Yates' credit that he has not merely aped his influences but has built of them a solid foundation upon which his already impressive personal style is built. It will be interesting to see what age and experience will bring to the songs of Raymond Yates.

top

Roger's Waltz
Luther Wright and the Wrongs
Snake Eye Muzak
1999
11 tracks

The music is country but it doesn't seem to quite fit any particular style. Sometimes it approaches the old Western style and sometimes Bluegrass. Sometimes it's almost Folk or Americana or Cowboy music. There's always something quirky you can't quite put your finger on, something that keeps this music just the other side of the pigeonholes. The Wrongs, if they may be considered wrong, are not wrong by mistake but by a subtle outlaw sensibility that pervades their sound.

The closest I can come to describing this music is two words: Michael Nesmith.

I've said this before. Luther Wright's vocals have that same quirky quality that was so recognizeable in Nesmith's solo work. What's interesting is that Dan Curtis, usually known as a very fine guitarist, sings two of the songs on this release. Curtis' vocal style is as reflective of Nesmith as Wright's.

Instrumentally, the sound is also that offbeat country style epitomized by Nesmith but sometimes picked up by other groups. [Remember "Nashville Cats" for one.] The effect is to create a bright, creative country sound that is contemporary yet honours the tradition from which this music arises.

If you're interested in country music with a positive difference, I do recommend giving a listen to Luther Wright and the Wrongs.

top

Deeper
Bùrach
Greentrax Recordings
2000
12 tracks

I really want to like this group. Bùrach vocalist Ali Cherry sounds like she has what it takes. At various points on Deeper, I am reminded of three quite different singers: Susan Jacks, Sarah McLaughlin, and Pat Benatar. I must admit that I am a huge fan of both Jacks and Benatar and, while I am not necessarily a fan of hers, the very talented McLaughlin has attained star status in her native Canada and around the world. It's good company to be in.

The members of Bùrach are very good musically in the sense that their playing is more than competent and their overall sound is tight. In theory, that should make them the ideal foil for Cherry's vocals. Instead, most of the time, Bùrach is just plain boring.

Worse, the obviously talented Cherry is also betrayed by the lyrics, which are for the most part commonplace and often become very simply cliche. Even though Cherry does her best to bring some expression to the lyrics, they are not strong enough to grab and hold the listener.

Bùrach is a band at that point where either they will become something wonderful and lasting or they will sink back into the regional obscurity from which they rose. It's a time for reflection and for focussing anew. Will they make the right decisions? Only time will tell. What is certain is that they have the talent to make it if they really want to.

top

Salsa Celtica
Salsa Celtica
Greentrax Recordings
2000
11 tracks

The music on this release is big, the result of an eleven piece band adding eight guest artists to the mix. It's billed as "a salsa album made by Scottish musicians in love with Latin music and by South American musicians in love with Scotland." The result is an eclectic mix. No plain salsa, this, but a full-bodied recipe with touches of jazz, klezmer, mariachi, rhumba, reels, and even a ringing telephone and what sounds like a dog barking.

"The great Scottish Latin adventure" is the subtitle of this release. For a number of listeners, this may prove to be an understatement. More than simply an adventure, Salsa Celtica is an all-involving experience. In a heavy Scottish brogue, a man speaks over bagpipes and solid Latin percussion. A treat in itself, this is only the beginning of a wonderful experiment in musical internationalism.

At times this music sounds quite traditional (well, if you assume bagpipes to be indiginous to South America). At other times, it has more the flavour of early Santana releases and sometimes even the rocking sound of some Ritchie Valens numbers. The blend is smooth and tasteful. There is a beauty and unity to this music which cannot be denied.

Nothing I may say about individual tunes will do this release justice. It is really that good. Like any great salsa, this is hot stuff and not to be missed.

top

Well May the World Go
Larry Long
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
2000
12 tracks

That Long has the whole-hearted endorsement of Smithsonian Folkways, that most venerable institution of American music, is not surprising. While Long takes a very contemporary approach to the mechanics of presentation, he brings to his words and music a humanity and rootedness that reaches deep into the past and brings forward what still matters.

With this release, as I listen to each song it becomes my favourite... until the next. I am, however, especially taken by the title song, which integrates an interview with Pete Seeger (at 76 years of age) and with "Some Things Are Not for Sale," which incorporates native drummers and singers. This is part of the charm of Long's music, that he tells real stories of real people and that he involves some very fine musicians from different cultures in his work.

In fact, Well May the World Go features eighteen individual musicians and musical groups from around the world. These artists' input gives the songs much of their flavour and adds to their intrinsic strength. At the same time, Long's use of these elements in his recording never sounds forced or is intrusive.

As an activist must be, Long appears to be more than a little of the romantic, and this translates very nicely into the two love songs on this release, "Ramona" and "Sweet Lura Rose." Both paint beautiful, poetic pictures of the women they are about.

As an activist and folklorist, Long celebrates individuals he has met in his journey, writing and performing songs that tell their stories. A bonus with this release is that the jewel-box insert is a 36 page booklet packed with information. In his notes on the songs, Long includes excerpts from his interviews with people whose lives his lyrics reflect as well as stories about his souces for the songs. The CD is worth having just for these stories of common humanity in the last century.

top

Southern Old-Time Harmonica
Mark Graham
Independent
2000
18 tracks

It's a pleasant surprise to discover traditional music recorded acoustic and without unnecessary embellishment, just as it might be played on any back porch across North America. I've just discovered such a release, and what a treat it is! Mark Graham brings the old music to life in ways that many contemporary artists cannot.

I'm glad to see that Graham chooses to avoid genre classification and to instead simply call this old-time music. Here is the folk music that came to be called country music, but infused with a bit of a bluesy edge. It's a music without time or genre, living and breathing through the generations since far before memory. Graham is its new messenger.

This is lively music that evokes images of the old-time barn dance, foot-stomping music it's hard to sit still for. As I write this, I feel that virtual stem of oats dangling from my mouth and I have the urge to dance around the room.

It's disappointing that Graham doesn't sing more on this release. He has a real feel for traditional music that comes through in his singing. Here is no new country but a down to earth sound that hews to the roots of the music. As a singer, Graham evokes Doc Watson, Woody Guthrie, Earl Scruggs, and others of an era now long past.

I can't say enough positive about this release. If you like your music authentic and performed not with the sort of stultifying reverence that assumes it's already dead but with respect that keeps it young and alive, I do recommend you add Mark Graham's Southern Old-Time Harmonica to your collection.

top

Way Back
David A. Alberding
Independent
2000
18 tracks

Alberding is a strong enough singer that he could do well no matter which genre he ultimately chooses. As a country singer, and with good management, he could very quickly stand among the best. Alberding's is one of the most powerful and compelling voices that I have heard in a very long time.

As a debut CD, Way Back definitely has its merits. If David A. Alberding can build on the obvious talent demonstrated here, his next release should be well worth waiting for.

top

Inner Life
Mark Graham
Independent
1998
13 tracks

At surface, this is the sort of down-home country music I remember from childhood. Graham's sound alternates between Woody Guthrie and Doc Watson with a bit of Bill Monroe thrown in for good measure. With original words set to music that follows traditional themes, much of this release has a sound that approaches authentic hillbilly music with a centre that borders on bluegrass.

There are three instrumental tracks on this release. "Half Shaved" is a lively blues-based harmonica arrangement featuring a variety of hillbilly yelps by Graham. "Blue Adder" has a perky Down East rhythm to it, including a rhythm track that evokes a Nova Scotia step-dancer. The final instrumental is an untitled bonus track that improvises around themes of "Lord of the Dance" and other traditional fiddle tunes. What's interesting in these last two last tracks is that the fiddle part is played on harmonica. At times this works and at other times it's just irritating.

Often, Graham's writing leans more toward academic literary poetry than folk storytelling. He uses polysyllabic words that feel unnatural in this context and he indulges in complex phrasing and obtuse metaphors unsuited to a form that is more often austere and apparently artless. At times, rather than a collection of folk music, this release sounds like a thesis project for an MFA in Creative Writing.

There are serious production problems too. It sounds like the songs on Inner Life may have been recorded on an an old reel to reel recorder (perhaps a high-speed Ampex) then dubbed back to a digital format. That's fine. I personally prefer analogue sound to squeeky-clean digital. There is, however, a severe distortion on several tracks. It sounds like the sort of tape-wow you get after recording, when either the tape gets stretched from too sudden braking or one of the reels is wound too slack. This is most noticeable on the instrumental "Blue Adder" and on "Poor Folks." While this flaw is distracting at any time, it's so severe in "Poor Folks" as to be painful.

top

I'll be ready in a minute...
Diesel
Mr. Roosey's Records
1998
13 tracks

This is an uneven release, with some performances that are quite strong and others that might better have been left until next time. Sometimes, Diesel is helped by her choice of excellent songs. In at least one case, she has chosen a song that, while excellent, is, for now at least, beyond her reach. This may reflect her willingness to take a risk, to push her own talents in order to grow.

Among the better songs on this release is the sweet Don Robertson number, "They Remind Me Too Much of You," a classic romantic country ballad of the type that might have been sung by artists like Ray Price some thirty-five years ago. This song, well written and with Diesel at the top of her form, invites the listener to come back for more.

At the other end of the spectrum is "Your House," an a capella song that Alanis Morrissette included as an untitled bonus track at the end of her Grammy winning 1995 release, Jagged Little Pill. In general, singers used to having instrumental accompaniment to rely on for their cues and key tend to have some difficulty singing a capella. Even as an a capella song, "Your House" is not as easy to sing as Morrissette makes it sound.

Diesel gives "Your House" a passable interpretation but, considering the content of the lyrics, seems a bit laid back emotionally. There are also times when she seems to slip just a bit off key, lingering at that edge until she regains her foothold. Anyone who has heard the original may find that this version just doesn't sound right.

Depending on where she may focus her attention, Diesel may spend her life as the most popular club singer on the island of Maui or she may embark on a very successful national or even international recording career. I'll be ready in a minute..." brings her neatly up to that crossroads. The raw talent is there to be developed. Now it's up to Diesel to decide which road to take.

top

Erik Balkey
Erik Balkey
Hudson Harding Music
1999
11 tracks

The music of Erik Balkey is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, at least not at first. He has an interesting voice and vocal style that may initially turn some listeners off. It's not an unpleasant style, just different enough to bother those who like their music homogenized. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are each different in a similar sense, and they do just fine.

Since this is his debut release, Balkey may not have quite found his own voice yet. Vocally and stylistically, his songs sound at different times like early Van Morrison, Peter Sarstedt, Lyle Lovett, Dave Edmunds, aspects of Delaney and Bonnie, Jonathan Edwards, and even Henry Gibson and a bit of KISS. It's an unusual and curious mix. Balkey manages to have all the songs sound distinctly his own, so this eclectic approach may ultimately be the one that he will continue to take in his performances.

Very pop-influenced, Balkey's music blends folk themes, and sometimes folky melodies, with instrumental mixes more reflective of pop or acoustic rock music. The contrast is sometimes striking. At other times, the smoothness with which Balkey brings it all together is equally striking.

Eric Balkey is a talented performer who may need time and experience to gain more focus and a better handle on just what he wants to do with his music. Balkey's self-titled debut release is an interesting first effort.

top

57 Street
Terry G. Reed
Old Poet Music
2000
10.5 tracks

The fiddle intro of "Right Between Her Lies" suggests that that this release will feature country music. 57 Street does feature a lot of loping country rhythms and whining steel guitar. For all that, though, this music resembles most the sort of countrified pop music popularized long ago by artists like Sue Thompson and Skeeter Davis.

The title song attempts to draw some sort of metaphorical connection between this release, life, and a '57 Chevy (a hardtop coupe, judging by the photo on the liner). While a valiant effort, like the rest of this release, this metaphor doesn't quite work and we end up with something more resembling a grey '53 sedan.

Reed has a sweet voice, somewhat along the lines of Dickie Lee enhanced by an occasional Jud Strunk trill. Right now, he's singing the words in key and in all the right places. With practice in performance, he can learn to sing perhaps a little less perfectly but with more feeling.

As a lyricist, Reed seems to have the technical stuff down, and he has a reasonable sense of his subject matter. Here too, it's a matter of developing his skills beyond that base, of learning to expand his personal issues so as to draw in and involve his audience more. He's certainly got a big head start over the beginning lyricist.

Reed's melodies have a sameness about them that may not hold listener interest. It may be that he should concentrate on developing his skill as a lyricist and find a composer to collaborate with on the music.

It would be interesting to see what Terry G. Reed can do with a couple more years' experience under his belt.

top

Make Amends
Andy Scheinman
Tangible Music
1999
13 tracks

The first time I listened to Make Amends, I was not impressed. The second time, it got better. Andy Scheinman's music grows on you. If radio station programmers give this release a second or third listen, it may end up getting a reasonable amount of airplay, and not just on country stations either. If Scheinman starts getting play on mainstream radio, then this just may mark the return of the American storyteller.

Presenting his songs in a raw vocal style that falls somewhere between Kris Kristofferson and Tom T. Hall, Scheinman tells a baker's dozen tightly written stories. His work continues in a tradition that includes Walter Brennan, Jimmy Dean, Red Sovine, C. W. McCall, and many more reaching back to before recorded music. Scheinman's writing and presentation is most like that master of the storyteller's art, Tom T. Hall. In fact, a couple of the songs on this release are reminiscent of Hall songs like "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine."

If he can get some play on mainstream radio, I have a feeling Andy Scheinman may find his way into the pantheon of American storytellers. All he has to do is connect with that segment of the public that enjoys this style of country music.

top

This Is Me, Is That You
Bronwen Williams
Shoshaura Records
1998
12 tracks

Bronwen Williams has a very distinctive sound, both in the songs she writes and chooses to sing and in her very unique voice. Williams style is uniquely American. In a time when more and more folk singers in the United States are incorporating elements from world cultures, such a style is becoming increasingly rare.

Williams has a strong voice well-suited to folk music, especially that music which grew out of the mountain cultures of the eastern United States, with their characteristic assimilation of the songs of the British Isles into distinct American forms. While her songs span an eclectic gamut of folk styles, Williams seems most at home singing country music and every song rings with country music's American heritage. Williams has the voice and talent to sing whatever she chooses and to sing it well. She brings polish and style to her performance on this release.

As with her singing, as a songwriter Williams has a very personal, almost whimsical style. Choosing a subject area which bogs less talented writers in a mire of saccharine cliche, Williams manages to make her personal revelations universal and very conversational to boot. This is not easy to do, certainly not as easy as she makes it seem. In songs as in life, personal revelation easily becomes introspective and so uninteresting, and conversational writing can as easily become simply long-winded. She manages to avoid the traps and tell simple, personal stories which could as easily be the listener's story as her own.

One of the best written songs, and probably the best performed, "You Said" is a country song tinged with irony. "You Said" has the feel of Dave Loggins' "Please Come To Boston" or Ian Tyson's "Someday Soon" but without sounding at all derivative or cliche. Very close is "Kaidi's Song," a tender love song to a child with all the feeling of "Scarlet Ribbons" or "To A Sleeping Beauty" perhaps. There is a quiet beauty to these songs one doesn't often see from modern writers.

top

Designed by The Communication Centre (R. D. MacKenzie Associates, Kingston, Ontario K7K 6T9)
This web site, all pages, original content & images copyright © 1997-2005 R. D. MacKenzie.
Some web site functions developed and provided by Bravenet Web Services.

Page created September 5, 2000
Page modified: April 27, 2005

Yes we areCanadian.

Send mail to the Sound Bytes Webmaster
if you have questions or comments about this web site.