MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: WILLIE NELSON - HEROES

Here's the good news, Willie fans:  Every two or three discs, Willie gets the right combo of producer, songs, and mood, and comes up with a good one.  This is one of those times.  While it's all over the stylistic map, that's great, because like a good Willie show, you want to have some Texas Swing, something heartfelt, and some songwriting gems is a thoughtful mood, along with his usual good-time chug-along tunes.  And there isn't a bad song choice on the disc.

The title just credits Willie, but this is one where Willie and Family and Friends would fit.  No stranger to duets, almost every song here is done in partnership.  There's the usual cohorts, including Ray Price, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Sheryl Crow, but then there are some surprises, too.  Like, umm, Snoop Dogg.  He joins in the gang singalong of a new Willie joint (hahahhhah), called Roll Me Up, which seems to take its inspiration from the famous Keith Richards story about snorting his old man's remains.  Here, Willie asks his friends to "Roll me up and smoke me when I'm gone", and it's as fun as it sounds. 

The main guest is Willie's young kid, Lukas.  Just 22, he's been showing a lot of promise, and here, typically, Willie gives him a large platform.  He's a featured vocalist on a full 9 of the 14 cuts, sharing lines, sometimes doing full verses, to the point it's almost a full duet album.   Plus, he's the writer of three of the cuts, including the excellent No Place To Fly, which shows he picked up a lot from Dad, apparently including his, urm, blunt history; there's a line about "Every day I get stoned/I sit and try to write a song."  Like father, like son.  Lukas also picked up a nasal delivery, although he's missing the gravitas Willie has, and instead has a bit of a reedy sound that takes a little getting used to.   Really, he's overused on the disc, even showing up on tunes where there are already guest singers, like Come On Up To The House, with Sheryl Crow.  She and Willie were doing just fine on this gospel-flavoured Tom Waits number, and Lukas adds nothing.

Producer Buddy Cannon and Nelson obviously put a lot of work into this one, Willie doing some new writing, and finding some strong covers.  There's the overdone trick of having the old dog get hip to the kids' music though, with covers of Pearl Jam and Coldplay.  Actually, Just Breathe from the pen of the esteemed Vedder turns out to be a fine choice, and sounds natural for Willie, but The Scientist is really not a lyric that works, especially since Nelson sounds pretty ancient on that particular track.  It's not a failure, but only because it's so interesting.  It's an excellent late-life album in the end, and with all the Lukas love, feels somewhat like Willie passing on the torch.  Is that another dope joke?

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: GOOD, PINSENT & KEELOR - DOWN AND OUT IN UPALONG

That the venerable and iconic Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent is a poet comes as a bit of surprise; that he's a good one even more.  But the biggest thrill of all is how nicely the words became songs, as prepared by craftsmen Travis Good (The Sadies) and Greg Keelor (Blue Rodeo, duh).  The result is a fine, very listenable album that only adds another superlative to the admirable careers of all three.

Pinsent wrote the poems over the years, some inspired by his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and some others about his late wife.  Good was involved next, asked to look at the lyrics by a filmmaker doing a bio of Pinsent.  Keelor, a long-time Good buddy, nosed his way in when he saw what Travis was working on.   Of course, they make a good team, Keelor bringing a soulful voice to the party, and his classic feel.

The double-disc presents the songs/poems in two ways, and it's a smart concept.  Disc one is just Good and Keelor, singing them as full tunes.  Disc two has Pinsent reading them as poems, over acoustic backing by the duo, far more sparse than the singing versions.  I like 'em both.  Pinsent has an expert's cadence and timing, and the stories are quite enjoyable.  Over on disc one, the boys share vocals, although Greg gets a bit more, while Good rips it up on acoustic, sending out sizzling licks in the bluegrass-flavoured numbers, and coming on as smooth as silk on the ballads.  Keelor sounds as rough and ready as Pinsent's Newfoundland characters.

The pair plan to tour the songs this fall, and the chance to see them in a largely acoustic setting will be a joy.  Meantime, I suggest strapping on the headphones, putting on disc two for a half-hour, and enjoying the poetry of Pinsent, as you would a book-on-tape.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: STEVE STRONGMAN - A NATURAL FACT

Hey, Steve Strongman could use a little East Coast love.  Not widely known in these parts, he really should be, given all the blues festivals and fans and venues.  The Hamilton, ON, singer-songwriter-guitarist is one of the country's best solo blues guys, and don't just take my word for it.  At the recent Maple Blues Awards, the one where Matt Andersen grabbed a couple, including Entertainer of the Year, Strongman took home the Guitar Player of the Year honours, ahead of some pretty awesome company.

Now, being an excellent guitar player is worthy enough in the blues, but that's just one part of Strongman's make-up.  He's a strong songwriter, who comes up with numbers that sound as if they are already established classics.  His new work, the acoustic-guitar workout A Natural Fact, features songs you'd swear you've heard before, because they have the feel of Delta classics, or Chicago standards.  I looked for famous names in the writing credits, but just found Strongman.  He's no copycat; I can't think of another song that includes the theme of You Do It To Yourself, a fast finger-picked number here, but it has all the qualities that will attract any blues fan.  My favourite is Can't Go Back, about the dumb things we say sometimes:  "Have you ever thought now, why'd I go and say that?  And as soon as the words leave your mouth, you wanna take 'em back."

I've seen him live a couple of times, both solo and with a band, and he's a winner either way, with a fine voice, and a sneaky command of the stage that builds up until you realize you're fixed on him.  With all this going on, it's time for the playing to shine.  The new disc showcases his acoustic work, with lots of picking, skillful slide, and a driving rhythm style.  There's also lots of his smooth harp playing included, and with him already proving himself in so many areas on the disc, I'd accuse him of showing off by adding that skill to the mix, but I've met the guy and he's humble, too. 

About half the tracks on A Natural Fact are solo, and the rest feature a tight backing group of just bass, drums and piano, so it's not a busy album, nor a show-off festival; it's all class.  Speaking of class, the wonderful Suzie Vinnick shows up for a duet on the cut Leaving, a great sparring number.  And a hats off to producer Rob Szabo, keeping it, in the best sense, real, and letting this all-around talent shine.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JACK WHITE - BLUNDERBUSS

Do we get a White Stripes album?  The Dead Weather?  Raconteurs?  Or did White reinvent himself again, this time as a solo guy?  The latter, of course.  Moving and dodging, a musical rope-a-dope, that's been part of White's game from the start.  For his first solo disc, White comes up with a new sound, or rather builds on his old blocks, making sure nobody mistakes this for the Stripes or anything else.

There's no muddy or loud blues, unless you count his spot-on cover of Little Willie John's I'm Shakin', more of a R'n'B number anyway.  What's more surprising is the melding of his previous work with a much larger pallet of sounds.  Now happily settled in Nashville, he teams with several players from that scene, as well as some friends from other projects (no Meg though).  The Nashville influence, or at least his new framework, is heard in his acceptance of all sorts of instruments into the blend.  There's nothing too surprising, just more of them, like lots of piano, violin, mandolin and peddle steel, and there's more of a band vibe going on, at least a bigger band.  Odd that for his first with just his name on the sleeve, the sound far outstrips any of the other group projects he's worked on.

You get lots of his guitar on some songs, but it's certainly not an electric guitar album.  Some songs feature acoustic primarily, the lead taken by the piano or violin.  There's loud ones, and softer ones too;  surprisingly diverse it has the big blues-rock guitar workouts you might expect, but lots of not-heavy, melodic numbers, such as the jaunty shuffle of Hip (Eponymous) Poor Boy, with its baroque piano intro and extro.  His high-pitched voice on the quiet songs can sound a bit like Robert Plant, and with the folk and old-time references White has, plus the mix of really loud and more melodic, Zep becomes a good reference point, another band that ripped open the borders of the blues in their time.

Lyrically, this is a study in girl-and-guy dynamics, at their most polarized.  There are some downright nasty moments, lots of rancor between the sexes, White defying the idea that we can all be friends in this show.  Friendly perhaps, but his characters at least are engaged in a blood sport.  Throughout, both have their cruel moments, and nobody is winning, only surviving.

Already one of the most interesting and elusive personalities of the century, White continues to move forward with energy, and interesting ideas.  The most enjoyable part of this record is how different it is through the thirteen tracks, White now willing to throw all his tricks into an album, rather than working within the limits of whatever band he's fronting.  For those missing the White Stripes, you'll need to grow a bit for this disc, but it's all good.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: NORAH JONES - LITTLE BROKEN HEARTS

Is there a straight-ahead normal Norah Jones piano on this disc?  Not that I can remember.  From first listen to at least the tenth, where I'm at now, the surprise of just how different this is continues.  Produced by Danger Mouse, and co-written by him, this is pretty much a completely new sound for Jones, and I'm liking it.  But don't think she's copping anyone else's grooves here; it's a whole new stew, parts funky, chilled and sultry.

Jones has been chomping at the bit to break out of her piano-lite jazz image, long hung-over from her improbably popular debut.  Forays into country, secret sidebands where she got to rock out on guitar, and her secondary group The Little Willies haven't really done the trick, but this will.  That is, if it finds an audience.  It might have to be a new one, given the radical makeover.  Big, echo-y bass, great twangy reverb'ed guitar, clip-clops of rhythm, burbling synths, empty spaces and sombre atmospheres mark many of the songs.  Intimate vocals over the sparse arrangements make it even more ghostly, and Jones sounds a lot more like Neko Case than her old self.

It's also a devastating break-up album.  Now, I haven't read too much about her life, but I know she went through one awhile back, so she's got some knowledge on the subject, but I'm betting there are a lot of characters informing the little broken hearts here.  Emotions to the fore, there are several different reactions to a split found here, although a cheating seemed to happen in most of them.  Revenge, jealousy, hurt, victimization, and lots of anger abound.  Some sounds are about escape and enjoying it; others about wishing to dump the heartbreak, but the guy won't leave her (their) heart.  Most shocking is Miriam, the name of the girl who was the third party, who our narrator admits has such a pretty name, but that she is plotting to kill.  It's virtually a murder ballad.

The album is intense but beautiful, with the rich sounds and big echo such a cool production.  There are a couple of up-tempo ones later on, Out On The Road and Happy Pills, which spice up the flow, but also fit into the song-cycle of leaving a lover.  The highs and the lows of the break-up, they are all here, and it's quite a remarkable disc.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DR. JOHN - LOCKED DOWN

This has been mooted as a comeback for the good Doctor, a return to his gumbo-voodoo heyday of the late 60's and early 70's.  It follows the formula of late-career resurrection projects, as exemplified by Rick Rubin.  Take a star who still has some hip cache, but no hits of late, and match him with a cool name producer.  In this case, it's The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach who wanted the job.  But there's a difference here.  What Auerbach promised was something as good as those earlier Dr. John albums.  He didn't say it would be like them.

So, unlike what Rubin did for Cash and Neil Diamond, and Joe Henry did for Solomon Burke, or T Bone Burnett furnished for Leon Russell with Elton John, Auerbach took a different course than finding suitable modern material in the Dr. John style.  Instead, what we have here is more a pairing of Mac Rebennack and Dan Auerbach.  There are plenty of moments on this release which have Black Keys written all over them.  Auerbach is doing what he does, and knows.  It has that murky blues quality all through, the dark and rural sound of the Fat Possum label of artists, such an influence on modern electric blues.  There are deep, deep grooves, and sloppy guitar solos, distorted to needle-bending levels on the old-fashioned analogue board that surely was used to record this.  In case you're expecting a Right Place, Wrong Time funky number, it's not here.

Not to say the disc isn't dripping with funk, or rather, FONK, as Dr. John makes it.  It's greasy and slippery stuff, dirty grooves all the way.  But where Dr. John has always been about the inner-city New Orleans danger, here he's out in the Louisiana swamp. 

It wouldn't be a proper Dr. John disc without lots of self-mythologizing.  Here the duo make reference to the old voodoo stuff that Rebennack incorporated into his act when he started to break out of Los Angelese in the late 60's, the so-called Tricknology that incorporated the very strong beliefs in spirits and curses that he brought from the mysterious streets of New Orleans.  It's supposedly the sound they were after, or at least the reference, but really it's the aura that has always surrounded Dr. John the Night Tripper.  It helps the hype, of course, as much as the headdresses.  There are some lyrical references, but then there's the number God's Sure Good, where he acknowledges a lot of favours granted along the way.  The spookiness is really all in the mix.

In the end, it's a great pairing, and the Doctor does come off better than he has in years.  It took me awhile to get through the layers, and honestly, I'd like to hear the songs less murky, especially the vocals.  But it has been a long time since Dr. John was as important on the stereo as he still is on the stage, and it is a success.  There are some really good new songs here, no clinkers, and thank goodness Auerbach didn't have him covering Nine Inch Nails or Tom Petty tunes.  This is the sound of a career revived.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JOHNNY CASH - THE SOUL OF TRUTH: BOOTLEG VOL. IV

Sure, we all think Johnny Cash was the coolest thing going, and his classic Sun records, his late-life renewal with Rick Rubin, and his prison albums are all as hip as can be.  But for long years, Cash was out of favour, not just among the general music fans, but even from mainstream country.  Much of this time, say the mid-70's through the 80's, he couldn't buy a hit.  As for the rock audience, Cash was far too square.  One of the main reasons was that after Folsom Prison Blues and I Walk The Line, he'd trot out a gospel number, in concert or on TV, complete with corny back-up vocals from the Carter Family and the Statlers, and that rebel image would melt away.  His friendship with Billy Graham and appearances on those Crusade shows didn't help.  Gospel and contemporary Christian numbers didn't sit well with most music buyers.

But Cash would always return to religious songs, and in fact always saw himself in that light, even in the midst of his rebellious, pill-popping days.  Such was the complexity of his character, The Man In Black had someone watching his back, and he wanted to sing about that, too.  Like Elvis, his favourite music was found in the hymnal.

The fourth installment of the Bootleg series focuses entirely on his religious output, but unfortunately only touches on the period from 1975 to 1982, and sessions for three albums.  Most of the songs are rare as can be now, the albums barely distributed and long out-of-print, so that fits the Bootleg concept of getting rare Cash songs out to the public today.  But sadly, a full half of this material, from 1979 sessions, is substandard.  Comprising the first disc of the set, the songs are mired in sickly production and horrible backing vocals, with guilt going equally to producer Cowboy Jack Clement, the chorale of singers including almost every Carter and Cash to be found, and Johnny himself, who wrote many of the tracks.  Even when he goes for some classics, such as the great Gospel singers Dorothy Love Coates and Rosetta Tharpe, the sappy arrangements take the life out of the music.  White Southern Gospel can be dreary, cliched stuff.

Disc two is much better, with the 1975 sessions produced in the classic Cash boom-chicka-boom style, the song selection much sharper.  The 1982 songs are even better, thanks to then son-in-law Marty Stuart's smart, stripped-down work.  It includes the Cash favourite Belshazzar, a song he would record a few times, including  with Rubin, one of the better Bible stories he wrote.  There are good story songs, albeit with the obvious moral lessons that come with the territory.

Gospel is always going to be a tough sell, especially when the quality is so hit-and-miss.  I'd argue a much better set could have been presented by cherry-picking some other time periods and dumping the worst of the 1979 set.  This would give people a much better idea of what Cash could do when the spirit hit him, because most of the people who buy this are going to be Johnny fans, not Gospel fans.