MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MARLEE SCOTT - BEAUTIFUL MAYBE

It's always fascinating watching the machine work.  And nobody works it better than Nashville.  And let's not kid ourselves, there's been a machine in place since the 60's, when Countrypolitan came online with its Billy Sherrill-produced strings and heartbreak.  Nashville, despite all the singers and songwriters clamoring to be heard, is a small industry town, and when it moves in one direction, you either follow or get left behind. 

Here's how it works these days:  It's not the singer, or the song, it's the package.  After all, there's a surplus of talent, so the key is to put together all the pieces around a person with personality, and make a fresh new face.  After all, nobody's going to be buying Randy Travis records anymore, and they haven't been for a long, long time.  New is key.

Marlee Scott is new, and a talented singer.  She has that, and a lot more going for her, including a unique image.  She's been doing an internet cooking show for the past year, a funny series of webisodes with her own food and drink recipes.  She also has her own YouTube channel with a difference, where you can watch her cover other hits in a bit called "I Love This Song".  Pretty ingenious, creating a fan club before her own debut album comes out.  Instead of slogging it out over thousands of miles in a tour van like new rock bands, she's been playing guest sets at sporting events, courting the auto racing and baseball audiences.

For that debut album, called Beautiful Maybe, that small Nashville winner's club is here, the same credits you'll see on almost every hit album this year.  The songwriters include Troy Verges, Aimee Mayo, Desmond Child, and Blair Daly.  The studio players are Dan Dugmore, Michael Rhodes, Chad Cromwell, Jason Scheff, all A-listers.  This is no-fail stuff, the best you find on Music Row.

Wait, there's more.  There's a hit breaking, called Train Wreck.  It has that half-country, half-rock thing happening, with fiddle, steel, and banjo licks weaving around power chords.  There's even a, get this, country version of a rap in the middle, as Scott spits out a couple of versions at triple speed.  There's a video, and even a dance mix.  Country has, and will use everything these days.

Anyway, as I say, it's always fascinating to watch the machine make a star.  And I can't say as I argue with it too much, as Scott's an engaging presence, and all these songs have a good solid guitar groove to them, plus well-crafted lyrics.  Perhaps it's a prejudice I bring over from the rock world, that each artist should write the bulk of their stuff, have their own band, pay their dues touring, that somehow that makes them more legitimate.  I've come to think of it more as pop music, and in that context, I'll take it over most of what's happening on the regular top 40.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ROXY MUSIC - COMPLETE STUDIO RECORDINGS

I may be opening myself up to serious sanctions from the Rock Critic Guild, but I don't buy into the usual line on Roxy Music.  It goes like this:  A bright and shocking debut, as the band fuses progressive and funk sounds, adds one part style and one of glam, and cynically rips into comfortable old England.  Then they do it even better on the second album.  But visionary Eno drops out after that, and slowly the group moves into comfortable and sleek Euro pop, as Brian Ferry takes control and makes the band radio friendly.  Style wins out over substance.

Okay, I'll accept most of that argument, except the, umm, music part.  Yes, the albums became progressively mainstream, culminating in the huge success of Avalon and the More Than This, but I'll take that over either of the first two albums, Roxy Music and For Your Pleasure.  The wild abandon they put into numbers Re-make/Re-Model and Do The Strand shook things up, and they looked a fright on Top Of The Pops, with dapper Ferry in front of spandex spacemen, and whatever Eno was supposed to be.  But over the course of these albums, there was a lot of humming and hawing over synth burbles, squalling sax, and guitar noise, with sound experimentation going really nowhere.  The influence was in its very existence, and certainly New Wave, Bowie, synth-pop and tons more took it and ran, but I can't really listen with pleasure these days.

This major box includes all eight of the group's studio albums, plus another two discs of non-album tracks, including b-sides, one-off singles, radio edits and remixes.  I devoted a day to it, chronologically, and the further I got, the more I liked it.  Post Eno, for Stranded and Country Life, the group seemed lost, as a transition was happening.  The songs were becoming more structured, and the willful perversity was lessoning, but the material was spotty.  By the fifth album, 1975's Siren (with Jerry Hall as a mermaid or something on the cover), a funny thing happened.  Ferry discovered his icy and ironic lyrics, if coupled with a tight sound, could be catchy.  Love Is The Drug was the result, a hit, and something respectable for the art crowd too.  Both Ends Burning showed the intensity could come along for the ride too, as the group moved into epic territory.

Manifesto is where the English critics accused the group of selling out, as the material moved more into pop fields, including the swaying Dance Away.  Harmonies and bright melodies were all over the disc.  This was far away from the first edition of the group, and its sophisticated groove polarized their audience, the old fans giving up, and a new batch joining in.  Flesh + Blood from 1980 took it even further, with the hit Over You.  At this point, the difference between Ferry's solo albums and group efforts was almost none, as for the first time Roxy was doing classic covers, here tackling The Midnight Hour and Eight Miles High.  Some predicted imminent death for the band, given Ferry's own hit-making solo career.

Turns out they had one last one in them, and for North America, the group's biggest.  Avalon in '82 was more than just tight hits, as the group brought back some length to the songs.  Now though, they were dealing in atmosphere rather than edge, as sweeping keyboards created lush dreamscapes.  It was smooth as all get out, catchy and sounded absolutely nothing like the same band ten years before.  Roxy Music's career was full of contradictions and controversy, and ended up polarizing opinions.  Usually you either like or hate a band; I don't know many that you can like and hate at the same time.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DURAN DURAN - LIVE: DIAMOND IN THE MIND

I'm not quite sure why Duran Duran won't go away, but somehow the band manages to keep packing them into stadiums, and release (and sell) new albums.  This live collection comes from last December, and features the usual hits plus well-received new material.  Hearing the crowd sing along at full volume reminds you just how huge they were back in the MTV age, but there's also recognition for the newer songs, so at least in Manchester, U.K., they remain a vital entity.

Let's give respect where it's due:  The core group is still intact, missing just one Taylor from the originals.  The show they present is not performed by ringers, but by the group themselves, with only modest input from touring musicians, on guitar, percussion, vocals and sax.  New songs are mixed well throughout the set, and when the big ones role in (Hungry Like The Wolf, The Reflex, Rio), there's peak excitement.  Duran Duran, once the absolute kings of image from the video era, known for their jet-setting lifestyle and pictured at every glamorous gathering, are now a high-functioning Legacy Band, as or more legitimate than the rest of their contemporaries.  While the rest of their generation of groups now ply their trade on the casino circuit, the modern equivalent of the Cabaret tour, they still bring their show to arenas.

Oddly, this respectable and hard work makes the music a little more palatable.  Aside from an early interest in Hungry Like The Wolf, which fit well with the synth-pop of the time, Echo & the Bunnymen and the like, I've had no desire to re-examine their material for retro-thrills.  This set presents the better hits (Wild Boys, Notorious), leaving out the simply horrible (Union Of The Snake, anyone?), but as professional as they've become, and as slick as they've always been, I'm not mellowing on my overall opinion.  Also available on DVD and Blu-ray, with bonus songs and interviews.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: NEIL YOUNG - AMERICANA (Blu-ray)

As usual, Neil Young has polarized fans, and confused the casual listener with his latest release, Americana.  It's a disc of mainly old folk standards, done up in Crazy Horse arrangements.  We're talking Oh Susannah, Clementine and This Land Is Your Land, with that plodding Horse groove, and a few A-minor chords thrown in to make it menacing.  I gave it a thumbs up when it first arrived, as I found it an enjoyable listen, Young putting the darkness back in these songs which have lost some of their power from decades of over-familiarity.  And, it's better than having him write some weak stuff, as has happened in the past.

And now, you can have an enjoyable viewing too.  Young has embraced the Blu-ray like no other artist, ever since he discovered a very high-end audio system for it.  He actually prefers it even over good ol' vinyl, quite the statement from him.  Of course, it also offers the visual side, and Young's always up for films to go with his music.  The trouble with that is his spotty record as a director (under the name Bernard Shakey), and his willful non-compliance to standards for film making.  In other words, he's even nuttier with a camera.  However, this time he had a pretty good idea for something to put with the songs, and actually enhances the listening experience as well.

Each song is accompanied by a different video, based on a concept that's not new, but really fits well.  Young (and no doubt others) went into the vaults to find old black and white film footage from the early 1900's.  Some of it is real-life footage, and the rest is actual feature films, which Young cut up to suit his needs.  You might have seen the Oh Susannah video making the rounds, featuring a family living in a log cabin, the father playing a banjo and the little son dancing a jig to it.  Oh ya, then Dad gives the kid, who can't be more than eight, a smoke, which junior happily puffs on.  It's riveting.  The same happens for each song, the found footage roughly matching the story in the song.  Clementine, which is really a murder ballad, shows a guy in jail getting the cuffs on, that kind of thing.  Mostly, it's this rare and unvarnished footage that keeps your attention.

A lot of it is bizarre.  In the bonus material, Young (or staff) discovered an old film of a professional knife-thrower from perhaps the 30's, and we see her using her own very small girls as the targets in her act, missing them by inches or less with each throw.  Watching the wee girls smiling, giggling, and staying perfectly still is chilling.  Others use stock footage to illustrate the tune, such as coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the take of God Save The Queen, natch.  With the awesome sound, and the cool old movies, Young's given us a good reason to go Blu-ray over conventional CD.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: PINK FLOYD - THE STORY OF WISH YOU WERE HERE (DVD and Blu-ray)

A new making-of documentary, to coincide with last year's mammoth Floyd reissue campaign.  When the group members said it was time to give up so much control, and let everything out of the bag, well, they were good to their word.  Here all the surviving members and associates talk openly about their fears and fights surrounding the creation of this significant album, with as little ego as possible.  Plus, they let all the footage out, really giving the fans everything they could.  Given the stormy relationship within the band, and the closed nature of Roger Waters especially, this is more than anyone could have hoped for.

The making of this disc is itself a great story.  Pink Floyd were at a crossroads, and a crisis, after the success of Dark Side Of The Moon.  They were disillusioned with fame, success, and especially the music industry.  Plus, they had few songs, and no real drive.  A major show at Wembley Stadium had been savaged in the press, and they knew it was accurate.  Finally though, it started to come together in the studio, as a couple of themes emerged.  Have a Cigar picked up on the anger at the music biz.  Then there was Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Waters' tribute and thoughts about original leader Syd Barrett.  This is where the doc really succeeds, and wows.  The film goes back to tell the story of Syd, the acid casualty, with rare vintage performance footage and photos.  The band members speak lovingly of the man, and explain the heartbreak of what happened:  "Remember when you were young/You shone like the sun/Shine on you crazy diamond."  Make sure to check out the bonus material, to see Gilmour sing and play an amazing solo rendition.

It's a pity the members weren't interviewed together, but they probably spoke more honestly that way.  Also featured are lots of the other important characters at the time, including designer Storm Thorgerson, virtually a fifth member of the group, and singer Roy Harper, on his famous guest vocal on Have A Cigar.  Even the stuntman pictured on fire on the cover was found, to explain how he did the famous photo.  Boy, you could hate this album and still love watching the DVD, they've done such a great job telling its story.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE ENGLISH BEAT - THE COMPLETE BEAT

The Beat, as they were properly called in England, had to become The English Beat over here, as the named was already taken by another band.  While we didn't really have a grasp of the whole 2 Tone scene in the U.K. (The Specials, Madness, The Selector), there were breakthroughs, and certainly a decent following in the New Wave crowd.  The group came together in the late 70's, in a cultural stew that saw punk and reggae appealing to some of the same fans.  Ska and rocksteady had been staples of the British charts for years, so white and Jamaican young people had some common ground there as well.  The multicultural mix of these groups helped spawn a brand-new, very danceable and credible sound.  At the band's peak, it was on the road in North America with Talking Heads, The Police and R.E.M., but broke up before making it big with that class.

The legacy is four years and three albums, plus assorted singles, 12-inch mixes, and radio shows, all nicely packaged up in a 5-CD box for us here.  Each of the proper albums is given its own disc, with the single sides and b-sides added on.  There's a complete disc of just 12-inch mixes of the British hits, a necessity in the clubs back then.  The final disc is made up of three different BBC Peel sessions, plus four cuts from a live show in Boston.  There's no out-takes, demos or hidden gems, but none are needed either, nothing that will dilute the legacy. 

The debut, I Just Can't Stop It, is the home of the hits, college radio staples and still buzzing with excitement and pulsing with rhythm.  Twist And Crawl is announced by a booming bass groove that opened up the dance floor for alternative fans.  Then there was Mirror In The Bathroom, still a touchstone song 30 years later, self-obsession tackled in a brilliant lyric.  Debut single Tears Of A Clown is added to the disc (as it was on the original North American pressing), pointing out the strong connection Motown had to Britain, and an instant hit back in London.  The ability to move between the pop and the political was another of the album's strengths, as the group made one of the first (and best) anti-Thatcher statements, Stand Down Margaret.  They represented the real bright new tomorrow, if it was going to be possible, standing firm with Rock Against Racism, searching for a voice for agitating youth culture.  The album was full of stand-out tracks, including Best Friend, Hands Off..She's Mine, and the ultimate great cover version, the Andy Williams hit Can't Get Used To Losing You. 

The production was a key to the success, with veteran BBC engineer Bob Sargeant behind the board.  The echo on Saxa's sax, and the huge presence of the bass were the hallmarks, and no wonder the band stuck with him through their career.

Wha'ppen? was the difficult second album, as the group opened up their sound to more influences, other shades of reggae, even calypso, and slowed down the pace.  There weren't too many great hits, the best of their work having gone to the debut, but slow burners Doors Of Your Heart and Too Nice To Talk To are highlights.  In the ever-changing English pop world, 2 Tone had lost its place in the Top 10 by album three, 1982's Special Beat Service, but it's nearly as strong as the debut, and by this time the U.S. and especially Canada had opened up to the band.  The songs are more sophisticated, but retain the core sound of the group.  I Confess, Jeanette, and especially Save It For Later have deft lyrics and joyous melodies, plus lots of special touches, whether it's well-placed sax solos or thundering bottom-end.  But the separation of the two core strengths of the band was also on display, with the more Jamaican songs, Spar Wid Me and Ackee 1-2-3, distinct from the other material.

The changing tides of English pop moved way too quickly then, and the band split after Special Beat Service.  Literally split, with some forming General Public, and others Fine Young Cannibals.  Various reunions continue, and it's quite a good show I hear.  Well, with this many tremendous songs from just three albums, no wonder.

MUSIC REVIEW - GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS - THE LION THE BEAST THE BEAT

What the holy heck happened to Grace Potter?  This ain't the rockin' blues powerhouse set we saw her doing a couple of years back, jumping between Hammond organ and Flying V.  This is, gosh, 80's rock at times, right down to the synth and drum sounds, Prince and The Motels and whoever else.  No Joplin comparisons this time out, she's cooing instead of belting.

Now, don't get me wrong, some of this is quite fine, such as the sultry Parachute, a mid-tempo groove with a great vocal.  Timekeeper is a slow-burn ballad, with some guts in the chorus, and a fine lyric about drummer lust.  But Stars is overdone, and might as well be a failed Journey number.  I keep waiting for some funky, loose workout like Paris (Ooh La La) but everything here is tight, stylized, and produced rather than spontaneous.  Live, the song Turntable would have a lot of power, but with its precise beat, it's virtually disco here, and I say that in the old, late 70's, "disco sucks" spirit.

Actually, I can hear all this stuff as good concert material, because it does still have her fire, and it certainly has a groove.  I don't think it's a try at more commercial success either.  I just believe its over-the-top production went over the line.  Also, it's one of the worst album covers ever.