Satisfied with Two Shoes and Warpaint

Two Shoes - The Cat Empire (Velour Records 6 Oct 07)
Sure this is an older album, according to my resources it was originally released in Australia on 10 Oct 05, and while I first heard Sly several months ago I didn’t get a chance to hear the whole disc until recently. So the music is new to me and certainly worth the space on my humble blog.
Cat Empire is a sextet from down under who has taken the sound from the Ska resurgence of the late 70s and turned it on its ear. They prefer to lean toward a Latin approach instead of relying on the more tradition Reggae-based sound (the disc was recorded in the same studio as Buena Vista Social Club.) I other words, they’re more like The English Beat than The Specials. Although their vocal style, with lots of slang and heavy Aussie accents, most closely resembles Ian Dury & the Blockheads. Any way it’s brilliant!
My favorites: The Car Song has a full R&B sound, similar to the recordings Ray Charles shared with us. Sly is an up-tempo story infatuation with a walking bass line, starts & stops in just the right places and a perfect vocal delivery. If you’re sitting still after 8 bars of this tune you need to check your pulse because you’re probably dead! Saltwater is the most traditionally pure Ska tune on the disc.
If you’re looking for something to get you out of your chair and shake the dust from your bones then buy this CD and play it loud. Your neighbors will thank you.

Warpaint – The Black Crowes (Silver Arrow 3 Mar 08)
Call me old-fashioned, but I interpret the process of reviewing music to include listening to the songs. It looks like Answer.com agrees. Their definition of review: To examine with an eye to criticism or correction. Maxim’s choice to assign Warpaint 2½ stars without hearing a single note has sullied the reputation of music critics the world over. They should be lashed to the mainmast, striped to the waste and flogged repeatedly for their transgressions. Sorry, I digress.
The hiatus Chris and Rich Robinson took a few years back to pursue their own projects (Chris’s New Earth Mud & This Magnificent Distance and Rich’s nearly solo Paper) gave them the space they needed to explore their own musical direction as well as mature as songwriters and performers. While the work from that period gave us some very good songs, something was missing. Eventually the boys discovered what all of us suspected. To create a full sound Chris needed Rich’s musicianship as much as Rich needed Chris’s vocals. It’s all about balance people!
Warpaint is the first studio recording from the Brothers Robinson since 2001’s Lions. The sessions for the CD benefited from that time of exploration and was worth every minute of the wait. For those of you who pigeon-holed The Crowes as an American knock off of The Stones or The Faces, think again. This album demonstrates a range and creativity that Black Crowes fans have been aware of for years.
The boys have assembled a collection of tracks that will make their mamma & daddy proud. Drawing once again from their influences of Blues, R&B, C&W, Gospel, Rock, Folk & Bluegrass, Chris and Rich Robinson demonstrate a thorough knowledge and complex understanding of all who have come before. They take that knowledge, run it through the Crowe songwriting process and yield eleven great tunes. I love every cut on the disc from the opening rocker Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution to the folky Whoa Mule. My favorites: Oh Josephine, a soulful lament of things not turning out quite the way they planned, and God’s Got It a bluesed-up treatment of the Reverend Charles Jackson’s Gospel tune.
This is a must for any Crowe fan and highly recommended for lovers of great music.

Satisfied – John Sebastian and Dave Grisman (Acoustic Disc 6 Nov 07)
There’s a lot to be said for “one take” style recordings. First of all you get more of a performance based tune as opposed to an engineered sound, so it’s closer to what you’d hear in a live setting. Secondly, there are no overdubs, pitch correction or speeding/slowing of the track so the artist must rely solely on delivery & musicianship. Lastly, it’s a bit like eavesdropping and slightly voyeuristic. When listening to the stripped-down performance, warts and all, I can’t help but having the feeling that I’m privy to something I’m not supposed to hear. It definitely appeals to the naughtier angels of my nature.
Dave Grisman and John Sebastian are undisputed masters of their craft. They’ve been performing since the Dead Sea was sick. The two have played with everyone. And I do mean everyone. On Satisfied, a “one take” recording, you get a guitar, a mandolin, a banjo, an occasional harmonica and some vocals showcasing the nearly 100 years of musical experience represented by Dave & John. Combine that with one part Folk, one part Blues, one part Jazz, a sprinkling of Country & Bluegrass and apply liberally to a few public domain songs, some blues and country standards, several compositions by the masters themselves and you have a good disc of tunes to help you unwind after a long day of adding value to an unappreciative, soul-sucking corporation. The one drawback, and it’s just a slight detraction, Sebastian’s vocal isn’t quite as strong as it once was. Let’s not forget that he sang Summer In the City over 40 years ago.
I got a kick out of John admitting, via the liner notes, to being in uncharted territory when it comes to “Acoustico-Dawg” recordings (i.e., one take recording.) He asked the recording engineer to turn up his guitar and was told to play louder instead. I love it.
This is a CD any guitar player, or musician for that matter, would enjoy. Its approach can be appreciated for what it is, simple and pure. Not unlike me.

More to follow…