MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SHARON MUSGRAVE - OUTFLOW

SHARON MUSGRAVE - OUTFLOW

The former William Orbit colleague fronted the Bass-O-Matic project in the '90's, singing and co-writing on the international hit Fascinating Rhythm and other tracks on two albums.  Now she works out of the Hamilton area, and has had a string of projects on her own label the past ten years.  Her smooth soul voice fits almost anything, from old school to hiphop to club to jazz, and it's all here, as well as a taste of reggae and soca, and even some of her poetry spoken over a track.

While there's that little bit of everything for lots of styles, most intriguing is Musgrave's positive vibe that links track-to-track.  More than feel-good music, it's actually life-affirming and almost spiritual, at least for those whose spirituality comes from believing and loving one's self.  And not in some New Age-y or Dr. Phil message; rather it's just simply strength through self-motivation.

With a handful of remixes added on, Outflow will appeal mostly to dance fans with soul leanings.  Musgrave and co-producer Peter Grimmer give everything a clean and solid groove, aided by Hamilton guitar monster Brian Griffith, and she adds several compelling stories that will keep you listening at home too.  Although you'll be forgiven if you get up and dance by yourself.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DAVID BAXTER - PATINA

DAVID BAXTER - PATINA

Simply put, David Baxter knows how to do it.  For over 30 years he's been a go-to guy, as a producer, session man and band mainstay.  He's a guru to young musicians in Toronto, one of those people musicians want and need to have as a friend.  When it comes to writing and playing on songs, all that knowledge and taste and skill flows like wine.  Now in his fourth pro decade, he's suddenly discovered he's a recording musician as well, with his second album in three years.

This is a class collection from start to finish, with Baxter surrounded by pals Justin Rutledge, Tressa Levasseur, Gary Craig (Blackie & the Rodeo Kings drummer), Jason Sniderman (Blue Peter keyboardist) and a lovely duet with Catherine MacLellan to close out the show.  This select crew makes it all sound exactly right, like roots music should.  You get country, folk, and a little bit of roots-rock.

I wish there was a bit more of the stronger stuff, to be honest.  Baxter and the group get a strong groove going on Magdalena, a great 70's flavoured tune that reminds me a bit of what Dylan was doing on Desire and Street-Legal.  Or maybe it's David's somewhat croaky vocals.  If there's a fly in the ointment it's that he's not the strongest singer, more of a well-worn sound coming from those pipes.  Age gives it gravitas though, so a crooner like River Moon comes off nicely.  He leans towards country-flavoured numbers, and he does them perfectly, especially the tongue-in-cheek warning She's Drinkin' Again.  But the disc leans a little too far that way, when it's obvious the guy has more tricks up his sleeve.  The Sweetest Flower In Ontario is nice, and well-done, but old-fashioned, and there's probably already enough other country on the disc.  He livens it up with some Cajun in the mix, but I'd kill to hear a whole album of the Magdalena stuff.  But at least he's doing it all perfectly, and try finding any album like that, it's a mark of true talent.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JENN GRANT - HONEYMOON PUNCH

JENN GRANT - HONEYMOON PUNCH

Oh I love my quirky pop.  Grant is a singer-songwriter who loves it too, doesn't want basic instrumentation behind her, but instead wants a full pop production that amplifies the art.  You can be an excellent writer, let's say a John Hiatt, and keeps things rootsy.  Or you can make the whole production an aural joy too, and that's what you get from Grant.  She's matched ably in this effort by producer Daniel Ledwell, a multi-instrumentalist who knows how to make a joyful noise, and creating an often very fun mood around the songs.

Grant doesn't have a traditional voice, but it works well for her, and it is pleasant and different all at once.  Which is convenient, because that's what her songs are like.  If you follow the storylines, these are positive love songs, and all the jangly guitars, punchy drums, singing synths and clever tempo shifts up the joy considerably.  Several of the numbers swing like old Cars songs, including the one-two punch that kicks off the disc, Oh My Heart and How I Met You.  I guess it's the retro synths, but there's also that ELO-style solid production that always, always works. 

Even the most quiet, folkie numbers have a novelty to them.  Baby's Been Away is at it's core sultry ballad, but with the tempo doubled, the drums snapping and mixed up, and the guitars played with force instead of strummed, it becomes a full New Wave piece.  And while Paradise Mountain does keep remain slowed-down, sweet and dreamy, this time Grant's double-tracked vocals alone make it modern.  There, that's just the first four cuts on this all-round excellent disc, which is perfect to turn any frown upside down.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: GREGG ALLMAN - LOW COUNTRY BLUES

Gregg Allman - Low Country Blues

Last year the future wasn't so bright for Gregg Allman. Word came down in the summer the leader of the venerable Allman Brothers was having liver transplant surgery. Gigs were cancelled, and the fate of the group looked shaky. But then came the good news. The operation went fine, and with it came a renewed spirit for Allman. The biggest surprise was word of a new solo disc. He's had several before, and there hasn't been a good one in awhile. Plus, nobody will ever let him forget the Allman and Woman fiasco when he was briefly married to Cher back in the '70's.

This time though, things are different. Once again we have master producer T-Bone Burnett to thank. Burnett is about the busiest producer in the business, since his remarkable success with the O Brother Where Are Thou soundtrack. He has become the go-to guy for veteran musicians and young ones alike, looking to grab his magic, and his specific ability to capture the old, rootsy, real sounds of traditional folk, blues, and R'n'B. He's the man behind the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss disc. He produces Jacob Dylan, Elvis Costello, the recent Elton John/Leon Russell disc, every couple of months there's another project comes out with his name on it.

For Allman, a concept was required, and here it is: a return to southern electric blues, the real stuff that inspired Gregg and his brother Duane when they were first kids, back in 1959, down south. So it's the blues of Muddy Waters, Skip James, Sleepy John Estes, Otis Rush, Amos Milburn, B.B. King, classic artists on this almost-entirely covers album. Happily, Burnett is also a music scholar, and he never picks the same, obvious tracks and classics everybody else does. So Allman and Burnett dug deep into the catalogues of these original players.

Allman sounds inspired....hey, not just inspired. He sounds BRILLIANT, alive, into it. He sings better than he has in years, obviously back in the game in a big way. Now, this is a guy who has been accused of phoning it in at various times in his career, so to hear him sing like he means it, and to be so in command, it's hugely exciting. He's backed by Burnett's usual band of top-notch session guys, plus some star favourites including Doyle Bramhall II on guitar, and Dr. John himself on piano. Even Blackie and the Rodeo King's Colin Linden guests on some tracks. Hearing these guys dig into the real stuff is a treat, with Dr. John in particular providing such an authentic tone, and Bramhall lifting songs with his solos. Burnett's mastery of the sound puts these tracks in a wonderous place, sounding both ancient and contemporary at the same time. The stand-out cut may be the Bobby "Blue" Bland number Blind Man, featuring a mellow growl from Allman that reminds us all of his glory, when he's on his game. This time, he truly is.

THE JAM - SOUND AFFECTS DELUXE EDITION

It's the one many Jam fans, and Paul Weller himself, consider the best album from the band. Released in 1980, the group had by then become the top alternative band in England, with its singles going to Number #1. Weller, however, was and still is always restless and keen on changing his sound. So this disc featuring a cleaner sound than the punk-influenced direction of the past, with obvious Beatles roots and a new interest in the jagged, crisp noise coming from new bands such as Joy Division and Gang Of Four. Check out Start! for instance, with its obvious connection to the Fab's Taxman.

This was also the disc that finally introduced the group to a lot of North American ears. The new force of college radio was able to grab onto it, with the dreamy Monday a favourite, and the kick of That's Entertainment more listenable than the tougher punk they had been known for. While it never broke the band to a mainstream audience, it did respectable business, and has kept Paul Weller's name and releases coming out to this day. While he's still an acquired taste here, his superstar status and Godfather influence remains unchecked in England.

For this deluxe set, the original album takes disc one, and disc two is Jam-packed with b-sides, demos and alternate versions of the tracks. There are some quite different takes of some of the cuts, including Monday, Set The House Ablaze, and That's Entertainment. Pretty much every track on the original is presented in some sort of early arrangement. Plus, to point out the influences, there are demos of 60's covers Weller loved: The Beatles Rain and And Your Bird Can Sing, plus The Kinks Waterloo Sunset. None are really polished efforts, as Weller describes them as just "mucking about", but the Ray Davies song is a solid effort. Several of these 22 bonus cuts have been released before, notably on the boxed set Direction, Reaction, Creation, but you'd have to be quite the fan or collector to have them all, so it's pretty much a needed set for Weller enthusiasts.

STAR-STUDDED DISC COMING FROM BLACKIE & the RODEO KINGS

BLACKIE AND THE RODEO KINGS PREVIEW NEW SONGS

Canadian roots supergroup Blackie and the Rodeo Kings previewed new material from its upcoming Kings And Queens album during a brief tour of New Brunswick this week. The trio of Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson have recorded 14 tracks with some of the most famous female singers on the continent. "We were hoping to have it out for Mother's Day," says Linden, "but it might be more like Father's Day now." It's taken two years to finish the ambitious project, which features the band members in duets with the likes of Emmy Lou Harris, Patti Scialfa, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Amy Helm, Serena Ryder, Mary Margaret O'Hara and Sam Phillips.

The band performed a stripped-down show for the three N.B. dates, featuring only the three guitars and voices, Fearing and Wilson on acoustics and Lindon ripping slide on dobro and electric. In addition to several new songs from the album, Blackie unveiled a front-of-stage unplugged version of The Band's Acadian Driftwood for this brief Maritime stop. In the meantime, Linden is busy shopping the Kings And Queens album around to different labels, as they have left their old home at True North. With the star-power on board for this project, they've been listening to several offers, some including U.S. distribution. Blackie has already had some U.S. success, with a regional hit in the States with Swinging From The Chains Of Love. Linden is also a known quantity there, with a recording studio in Nashville, and a professional tie to star producer T-Bone Burnett, going back to his work on the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. Linden recently guested on the Burnett-produced Gregg Allman album, playing dobro on some cuts, joining an all-star band which also featured Dr. John and Doyle Bramhall II.

Linden also just wrapped up production of the upcoming release from rising Canadian blues star Matt Anderson. The disc was recorded at Levon Helm's studio in Nashville, and also features a guest spot from Helm's daughter Amy. Anderson walked away with two major Maple Blues Awards last month, Entertainer of the Year and Acoustic Act of the Year. Linden describes Anderson as one of the biggest talents he's ever come across, which is high praise from a man who mentored under Howlin' Wolf. That disc arrives in May.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: IAN HUNTER

IAN HUNTER - YOU'RE NEVER ALONE WITH A SCHIZOPHRENIC

This proudly proclaims on the jacket it's a 30th Anniversary edition of the disc, yet the original came out in 1979.  This package had been prepared for release in 2009, but sat until now, a classic move in the long, under-achieving career for Hunter.  Like his band, Mott The Hoople, he never quite broke through to the mass audience he deserved.  Everybody knows at least a couple of his songs, but he remains, now in his 70's, a cult figure.

Schizophrenic was Hunter's biggest-selling solo album, and he for once seemed poised for success, but the album just didn't have that one necessary ingredient of the day, a hit single.  Now, that's a shocker, as it includes Cleveland Rocks and Just Another Night, two giant rockers that could have been and should have been, except once again marketing proved Hunter's downfall.  It took the Drew Carey Show to make Cleveland Rocks a hit, twenty years too late.

Oh wait, it did have a hit, just not by Ian Hunter.  Of all people, Barry Manilow took the ballad Ships into the Top Ten, one of the least wimpy tunes he ever did.  In fact, Hunter's original, written about his relationship with his father, is majestic, plaintive and sentimental.

The album is made up of equal parts big rockers and big ballads.  It's anthem rock, bold and brassy or heart tugging, with big story-topics, such as "is there life after death?"  Using a core band of three E-Street regulars (Max Weinberg, Roy Bittan, Garry Talent), and his long-time foil, Spiders From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson, this was as outsized as Springsteen at times, yet playful too.  He was the thinking man's Meatloaf.

The deluxe part includes several early versions of the tracks, plus a full extra-disc concert from the day, featuring the new tunes and old Mott favourites, including All The Young Dudes.  These days, Hunter is considered a grand old man and given his proper due, especially in his English homeland.  Appreciate this gem, 30 -- err, 32 years later.