MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: BLUE RODEO - A MERRIE CHRISTMAS TO YOU

This surprised me, I hadn't thought about Blue Rodeo doing a Christmas album, but the results are pretty darn good. They have a good vibe for a warm, chestnuts glowing kind of tune, and have come up with a homey set. It should please fans, and provide a Christmas album for folks that normally wouldn't put one on.


As usual, you get a song sung by Cuddy, followed by one by Keelor. Guess who gets the angelic ones? Actually, they stay away from carols for the most part, choosing to do modern numbers, and even a couple of originals. It's an eclectic list; Keelor sings the Big Star number Jesus Christ, the edgy but seemingly straight telling of the Christmas story. Then he does Merle Haggard's hurting If We Make It Through December, one of the first mainstream songs to address the tough times some have to endure during the holidays. Keelor oversteps his vocal abilities by doing O Come All Ye Faithful, an odd choice given the rest of the songs here. He redeems himself with Song For A Winter's Night, from the pen of Mr. Lightfoot, who was the original inspiration for the group's sound.


Jim Cuddy can make anything pretty, and might someday consider his own full Christmas album in his side, solo career. He shows his ability to handle a beloved classic with Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, and also tackles a tough, new song, Paul Simon's Getting Ready For Christmas Day. It's even bleaker than Haggard's number, with money woes and modern soldiers have Christmas dinner on a mountain in Pakistan. Cuddy's best moment is The Band's wonderful Christmas Must Be Tonight, a song that for my money should be much better known. His poor choice here is yet another in the endless line of covers of Joni Mitchell's River, which I know refer to as the "Hallelujah" of Christmas songs.


As for the two originals, Keelor's Glad To Be Alive is a winner, a good heart-warming roots number. Cuddy's Home To You This Christmas is a country one, saving up all his money to get back home to see his someone special, with some nice teardrop pedal steel licks. Watch for the special double-pack edition that includes the group's Greatest Hits Vol. 1 as well.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SHELBY LYNNE - I AM SHELBY LYNNE (Deluxe Edition)

One of my favourite albums of the past, oh, 20 years or so, this was a surprise hit for the former country singer. Lynne had been around a decade trying to fit into the Nashville structure. Then with the aid of producer Bill Bottrell, she made the album she really wanted, which was a truly Southern one. When it came out in 1999, it was such a radical departure from her decade of major label country albums, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, even though she had made the Top 40 with previous work.


The big difference was Lynne being allowed to write songs that featured all her influences, coming from Alabama. There was soul, rock, country, swamp, that sultry mix that Elvis first popularized, and all the Mussel Shoals folks knew, Al Green too. There was a whole lot of Dusty In Memphis in it, and some deeply personal lyrics that only hinted at the dark side of her life.


Since it was the best soul album of the year from an unlikely source, Lynne's back story became part of the intrigue as well. She and her sister, the similar country singer Allison Moorer, had endured a horrible moment when their father murdered their mother. Once you knew that, moments in her songs suddenly became obvious and heart-breaking, and you had to question Lynne's tough exterior as well. It then seemed a survival instinct.


This anniversary edition of the CD has lots of great bonus material. The main album is fleshed out by six previously-unreleased cuts from the sessions, all of them equally deserving of space on the record. Two in particular spoke volumes, more than any on the album proper; Sky Is Purple is all about the shooting, and MIss You Sissy is about her relationship with Moorer. The second disc here is a fantastic 90 minute concert from Los Angeles's House of Blues, taped shortly after the album's release. There is not one reference to her previous country career. Instead, she and the band do the entire new album, some of the unreleased stuff, and covers of Wichita Lineman and John Lennon's Mother, the latter song going on to be included in her next release, Love Shelby. This is exactly what you want from a Deluxe edition, as it makes a great album even better.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: NEIL YOUNG - STORYTONE

Is it possible that after a life and career of defying expectations and pushing the boundaries of music (and his fans' tastes), that Neil Young is getting even further out there?  Let's look at recent musical examples; his personal and political life we shall leave out of the conversation for the time being.  There were two albums in 2012, both with Crazy Horse, one (Americana) being made up of old folk songs, some from the 1800's, done in garage band style.  The second album (Psychedelic Pill) was all-new material, purposefully spare and long, mostly made from extended jams, the lengthiest album of his career.  This year has also seen two albums, the first called A Letter Home, made solo in Jack White's antique self-recording booth, covers of songs by Young's heroes (Dylan, Lightfoot, Willie Nelson, etc.) 

Now comes Storytone, once again finding Young way out of his comfort zone, if he even has one now.  It seems he's only happy when he finds an idea that is completely different from anything he's done before.  The schtick here is that he's tossed all his props away, all his bands too, no guitar or piano even, no Horse.  Instead, there are very, very big orchestras on some cuts, or a big band (in the jazz sense) on the rest.  As many as 92 pieces filled the sound stage, massive string sections lifting his more tender melodies to the skies, with Young singing in front.  Of course, he's not doing Sinatra here, it's his usual croak, love it or not.  There was a full choir of 30-odd voices available too for the more rousing portions.  When the big horn band comes in, it has 13 members, plus a rock band section too, two guitar players including Waddy Wachtel, but not Neil.  Harps, bassoons, oboes and such flitter away on other cuts.

Overall, it's one of his more successful experiments.  Many of these songs, especially the ones with the string orchestra, are from his soft side, numbers that normally might find him at the piano, with little other accompaniment.  I've always like that side of Young, it brings out some of his best melodies and singing, and takes me back to early '70's numbers such as See The Sky About To Rain.  Others, such as Plastic Flowers and Tumbleweed, recall the gentler music of his Prairie Wind album of 2005, and even Harvest Moon cuts such as Unknown Legend, some of his more plaintive work.  The spunkier material here, with the horns, doesn't work quite as well, and its no surprise it harkens back to his time fronting another horn band, Neil Young and the Bluenotes.  The track Say Hello To Chicago is kind of interesting though, as he takes on a Sinatra-hipster persona.

Well, time to tackle the politics and personal now, as the lyrics must be examined.  For me, the true test of a Young album can be found in the words, and I've increasingly been disappointed the past couple of decades, as it seems he treats them as the least of his concerns.  Psychedelic Pill (his only non-covers album since 2010) was so thin on ideas it seemed he was tossing out random thoughts over Crazy Horse riffs.  Here, things are better, but there is plenty to cringe over too.  His topics are love, cars and the environment.  I Want To Drive My Car is one of the horn numbers, mostly repeating the title, with a small mention that we're running out of fossil fuel.   There may be a message, but not much of one.  More to the point is Who's Gonna Stand Up?, asking which of us will stop the big machine, save the rivers, end fracking and refuse more pipelines.  Simplistic, not really inspiring, but well-meant at least.  The personal numbers are the ones that really stand out though, given the recent change in his Facebook status.  Is he talking about Peggy, the woman who inspired Harvest Moon and dozens of other songs along the way, when he sings "Someday you're gonna need me/Like you used to do"?  Is When I Watch You Sleeping about new squeeze Daryl Hannah?  Can I stand to hear that song again, with the line, "When I hear you purrin'/Like a kitten and a lion"?  It's disappointing, and a little icky.  And if these words aren't about either, perhaps a disclaimer might have been in order, since that's exactly what everybody in the world is going to think.  Most fans are still reeling from the news, even if it is none of our business.

If you buy the deluxe version, you get the entire album all over again, only this time, there's no experiment.  It's Young solo, from piano to guitar to ukulele, doing the stripped-down acoustic album for those who want to hear what they would be like normally.  Funny, I thought I would like them better that way, but no.  The cringe-worthy words jump out more, the singing without the strings is less inspired.  Once again, I am left with the same question I've had for years and years with Young; he pours his heart into the music and the concepts and the concerns, so why won't he put as much work into the lyrics?  It's not all about the muse, there is the craft too, and hard work is part of it.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: NEIL DIAMOND - MELODY ROAD

A disappointment here, and not because I was hoping for another Sweet Caroline.  Diamond has been on a creative role the last decade, with a couple of genuine quality releases produced by Rick Rubin, in the in the style of Johnny Cash's American Recordings.  Those albums took Diamond back to his classic songwriter days of the 60's, with just an acoustic and his iconic voice.  Mostly though, he wrote some good songs and did some good covers.

I don't think you can blame new producers Don Was and Jacknife Lee for the results here, other than they should have told him to go back to the drawing board.  Even if these songs are highly personal, which he explains in the liner notes, they are too cringe-worthy for anybody but the immediate family.  There's one about his son and daughter-in-law's meeting and romance, "she's from Korea, he's from Long Island."  Another is about writing and performing songs for the first time, called First Time, a mawkish description of the creative process that might turn would-be performers away from the craft.  Anyway, the less said the better in this case.  Damn!  Thought we had him back to Kentucky Woman, instead he's all You Don't Bring Me Flowers.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JERRY LEE LEWIS - ROCK & ROLL TIME

This ain't supposed to happen. These old-stars-with-guests albums are all usually crap, Look back at my review yesterday of Smokey Robinson's latest, for instance. And Lewis has made some of these before. 2006 saw Last Man Standing, with stars such as Springsteen and Jagger on hand, and 2010's Mean Old Man had Jagger again, with Keith and Ronnie and Slash and Clapton and Fogerty, etc, etc. This time though, the celebs take a back seat. They are here, for sure, with Richards and Wood, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, Nils Lofgren, Daniel Lanois and lots of sterling players on hand. But they are playing, not singing for the most part, not doing manufactured duets.


That leaves Lewis to get at it, to get that still-effective drawl around some great rock and roll numbers, new and old. Kris Kristofferson contributed the title cut, co-written by Roger McGuinn and Bobby Neuworth, and it could have been The Killer's theme song if he had done it back in '58. Wood and Richards know Chuck Berry's Little Queenie inside out, a beloved Stones cover, and it's a natural for Lewis too. Then there's a real surprise, a rare, unreleased Bob Dylan track, a number called Stepchild that was played live on tour back in 1978. Here it comes alive, no guests needed, just Jerry Lee doing it southern style, probably much to Dylan's satisfaction.


There are a couple of duets, including a nice one with Shelby Lynne on another Kristofferson song, the sentimental country number Here Comes That Rainbow Again (kids, candy, truck drivers, waitresses). Neil Young's appearance is on the Jimmy Reed number Bright Lights, Big City, which he's recorded before, a bit too laid back for its own good, making it a throwaway.


Hats off to everybody's favourite drummer, session great Jim Keltner, who produced this gem. Instead of letting the sessions become star-sightings, we get a bunch of great players supporting one of the very best. Lewis plays and sings wonderfully, and a core group of Keltner session-pro buddies help make a very respectable album.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SMOKEY ROBINSON - SMOKEY AND FRIENDS

An odd mix of former A-list celebs and virtually unknown new soul singers sign on for the ritualistic back-patting featured on these remake/duets discs. Smokey And Friends features his very best pals signing all the same old 60's and 70's hits Robinson wrote for others or recorded himself. Plus, the young ones get to give a spoken-word tribute to the master at the start of several tracks, about what a privilege it is to sing with him, etc. Awkward, if you are humble, but this set isn't about humility.


I'm having a hard time figuring out what its about actually. Surely there have been enough tributes over the years to Robinson's rich writing of decades past. And there is little artistic gain from rehashing You Really Got A Hold On Me with Steven Tyler or The Way You Do (The Things you Do) with CeeLo Green. Elton John and James Taylor will show up for anybody's album, or rather, record their vocals at the nearest local studio to their home and mail in their parts. Miguel, Jessie J and Ledisi are apparently up-and-comers who will benefit from this association, or maybe it's Smokey who is trying to grab some of their hotness, hard to say. Anyway, I have this Motown box set with all the originals on it, when I need to hear Tears Of A Clown, that's where I go.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: STEPH CAMERON - SAD-EYED LONESOME LADY

In these days of red-carpet culture and celebrity worship, I find myself drawn more and more to the opposite end, the singer-songwriter, doing it as simply as possible. Here we have the new-old songs of Steph Cameron, acoustic guitar and voice, and hard-truth folk music. Aside from the studio and microphones used to capture it, she can and does make this music wherever she wants, currently out of B.C. There's a bit of fun, some sadness, some tales, and some personal truths, all from her own experiences. Mostly, they sound like the songs average people wrote in the 20's and 30's, faced with depression and hardships, when they didn't know whether to cry or laugh about it. There are benefits to both.


Sometimes the hurts are temporary, a lover gone, in Cry Baby. Other times they are permanent and scarring, like the parent's shotgun suicide in Ellis Pine, the howling of wolves a painful reminder that follows the singer through life. There is no mention of the city and modern life here, it's all rural and natural imagery, but somehow seems all that more real for it. It's the type of music that always sounds better as spare as can be, and Cameron does it with a pure voice and hypnotic playing. There's no need for anything else.