MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: OLDFOLKS HOME - BLACK & BLUE

Winnipeg's Ricardo Lopez-Aguilar explains this is his divorce album, but it's neither a downer nor an angry affair.  While it was definitely a major, life-shaking event, he's taken a positive approach to it on this collection.  No, he's not happy about the split, but instead he's learned a lot of things about himself, and used the song writing to get back into shape, and grow as well.  It's a situation and response that many people who have gone through divorce can relate to, at least umm, you know what I mean.

You may hear a lot of familiar lines:  "You need space, you need me/to back off completely."  There's no specific arc of a divorce being followed here, but there are little snapshots taken in the timeline, and they appear in the songs as they progress.  His indie-pop is too breezy and bright to make these scenes tense and dramatic, so it fulfills his desire to accentuate the positive with the album.

So, an album that starts out with "Lately I feel like I want to kill" and goes on to "Listen dear, we're all fucked up", turns out okay in the end.  Kinda like some divorces, at least those where people admit and accept their faults and go on with life.  So that would make this a mature pop record.  Oldfolks Home plays in New Brunswick for a couple of gigs, before heading down to NYC and points east in the U.S.  That's tonight (Thursday May 30) in Moncton at Plan B, and Saturday in Fredericton at Lava Bar.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: BEAMS - JUST RIVERS

This new Toronto band has just issued this debut album, which I'd call new-school folk (a term I think I've just made up).  It's old folk instruments mixed with bass/drums, and with indie words and attitude.  Featuring singer Anna Mernieks distinctive, 60's folk-style vocals, it's an odd hybrid, moving back and forth, and taking surprising paths with almost every song.  You certainly can't compare them to anyone easily, and they have some very particular elements which make them stand out.

Most of the vocals feature both Mernieks and second singer Heather Mazhar, either in harmony or unison, mixed up front with the result a higher, sweeter sound.  Then you have mandolin, banjo and lap steel as dominate instruments on some tracks, while others get some nasty electric guitar.  Again, old and new melding.  It's largely cheery music, with happy bouncing banjo, but that's masking some sort of creepiness in the lyrics.  Lead track Be My Brother is like some old English folk song, with the bass dancing around the mandolin, and then a lead saw break.  Yes, I said saw.

This is a band with a full-time saw player (or singing saw, as it's credited).  Keith Hamilton joins in all the time for solos, with that strange, ghostly sound.  The saw gets quite a work-out on several numbers, sometimes taking the lead, other times becoming the top tone in the mix of guitar, double vocals, banjo, whatever else is going.  The song How Wonderful gets a Western/Morricone feel because of the saw, only at double speed with chugging drums.  Which poses the question, does a saw player refer to his instrument as his axe?

Beams is bringing Just Rivers out east right now, on Wednesday night (May 29) in Annapolis Royal, NS at the West Education Centre, Thursday at Plan B in Moncton, NB, friday in Yarmouth and Saturday in Halifax.

P.S. There's a couple of songs about drugs on here.  I'm telling Mayor Ford.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: IGGY AND THE STOOGES - READY TO DIE

One could hear the jaws drop of those aging punks upon hearing what Iggy Pop said when asked to name his favourite punk songs:  "I hate punk rock."  Iggy, the godfather, the Stooge, turning his back on the genre that counts him as the figurehead.  Imagine still what they'll think when they hear this latest album from the reformed Stooges, one that sees him back with James Williamson, his shambolic co-star of Raw Power and Metallic K.O.  There are sombre ballads, horn stabs, cheap laugh lyrics, 60's basics, Stax flourishes, Iggy in his deep crooner voice, and an acoustic guitar number with lap steel.  Raw Power, it ain't.

So what is Ready To Die?  Well, it's Iggy in his caustic and cynical role, an observer who points out all the crap, and revels in the negative.  For the most part it does rock, but with a lot more polish than the drug-addled early 70's version.  The cut Job has Williamson loud and basic, as Iggy spouts forth about the fate of the worker,  "I got a job but it don't pay shit/I got a job but I'm sick of it."  It's the U.S. version of the similarly-afflicted Bell Boy in Quadrophenia.  More Williamson revved-up guitar announces the start of Gun, about the type of stressed-out American who's one step away from being a domestic terrorist:  "If I had a fuckin' gun/I could shoot at every one."   But this song is Chuck Berry-garage, smartly constructed ("Freakin' out in the U.S.A."), tight and compact, even in its noisiness.  It's not old punk or new, just rock and roll.

Iggy Pop's certainly his own man when it comes to his career path, and obviously to him, there are no rules as to what a Stooges album should sound like.  And if punks don't like hearing the country-styled ballad Unfriendly World, with its pretty acoustic figure, that's their problem.  The title cut will keep them happy though, Williamson getting a chance to solo and the whole song features his rough, loud chords.  As always, Iggy can't be put in a box, and if you're ready to drop the romance about the old Stooges days, this is a vibrant album for the 66-year old, and his old partners.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: PATTY GRIFFIN - AMERICAN KID

A great favourite of roots performers, Griffin's songs are go-to material for the likes of Emmylou Harris, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Dixie Chicks and even Solomon Burke.  Blessed with the classic Americana voice, she could be Southern, she could be Texan, but in fact comes from Old Town, Maine.  No matter, she has the grand ability to write a timeless tune that evokes the past and tugs at the heart.

This latest is a largely acoustic affair, porch music played tenderly, pushing the ear towards her confident croon.  She comes close to Harris at times, but when she leans into the notes has a blues tone that comes out, to great effect, a very pleasing vocalist.  Backing her guitar and mandolin players that include Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All-Stars, and his brother Cody on percussion, although several songs dispense with such noisy intrusions.  It's a brave writer and artist to focus on so many soft numbers, but that's a strong suit with such a confident singer.  Also joining in is the huge presence of one Robert Plant, with whom she works as a singer in Band Of Joy, and is dating/married to/something.  Plant sings so softly here, you can't recognize the famous pipes, but they have a pleasing sound that way.

While Griffin does rev it up a bit in a couple of numbers, the core of the album is found in its calmness, matching the spiritual search in much of the material.  It's a human search for a quiet soul.  Opener Go Wherever You Wanna Go is a song about relief of burdens, those of a soldier who know longer has to fight, a worker no longer sweating or worrying about bills, the singer offering a child-like freedom of a sunny day with no rules.  Ohio, a full duet with Plant, features a touch of the African drone sounds with which he's familiar, and offers up the titular river as a mystical meeting point, where love and blood flow outside of time.  God does show up a couple of times, once as a wild old dog, another time as an old, beaten man cries in fear that he's been forgotten in his faithful, hard-working life.  This is old-time religion in new parables.

Don't be scared though, the beauty wins above all, especially on the lovely duet, again with Plant, Highway Song.  While still an acoustic song, it has a nifty atmospheric bed and some dreamy effects on the organ that add a modern touch.  I'd never once point to this as an old-time listen, but it sure keeps those good values.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JAKE CHISHOLM - DIAMOND IN A COALMINE

Deep blues and hard-hitting, raw electric guitar from the veteran Toronto player and front man (Jake and the Blue Midnights).  This is true grit, power-trio blues that slinks but never plods, getting deep in the groove, and hitting all the important moments. 

Chisholm is a nasty player, always preferring a dirty tone, with just the right amount of distortion, distortion on the vocal mic too.  That doesn't mean he can't play pretty though; the chording on Diamond In A Coalmine has the sweet soul notes of the 60's, on this slow heartbreak tale.  The follow-up, That's All They Could See, has some high-string riffing and slide sweetness too, but it's earthiness of the bass-drums-rhythm guitar groove that makes this song, and several others too.  Just like in baseball, good fundamentals make a great team.

There's a clever remake of The Rascals' You Better Run, and a different interpretation of Traveling Riverside Blues, but the rest are all Chisholm originals.  I really like that several of them are blues ballads, moving into soul.  The finale, When Love Goes Wrong, is the kind of blues not heard enough, a real tear-inducer, no machismo or b.s. or cliches, just the facts and emotions of a break-up, complete with Jimi Hendrix Angel-style guitar.  With this type of material, Chisholm stands out from the electric blues pack.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: BAZ LUHRMANN'S THE GREAT GATSBY

A Baz Luhrmann film is always filled with music, and his Great Gatsby adaptation continues his usual flair.  This time, Jay-Z is drafted to put together the ultra-modern soundtrack to accompany the period visuals and costumes, another of Luhrmann's trademarks.  That means heavy on the hit r'n'b/hip-hop blend, and Mr. Z drafts an A-list, including Beyonce, Andre 3000, Will.I.Am, Fergie, Kanye, Frank Ocean, and such.  There are big party songs, including the fun A Little Party Never Killed Nobody, as Fergie and Q-Tip bounce it up, and Beyonce and Mr. 3000 remake Amy Winehouse's Back To Black to good effect.  Will.I.Am appropriates the old Sonny and Cher hit Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) for his new Bang Bang, complete with a Dixieland band remixed into dancefloor pounding.  It's all over-the-top, senses-twisting stuff that must work well on the screen (haven't seen it yet), and certainly has the cool factor pretty high.

But the Jay and Baz show doesn't just rely on the star power of today's pop heavyweights.  Jack White was drafted for a echo-heavy, very dramatic reading of U2's Love Is Blindness, sounding remarkably like Bono at times, with this year's nastiest guitar break.  Gotye up the atmospheric quota, and Florence & the Machine get moody, like those bands do.  Then there's the appearance of Brian Ferry's latest project, his period jazz band, which of course fits in perfectly with Gatsby.  Ferry arranged the first cut, which is a re-make/re-model of Crazy In Love, that hit Beyonce/Jay-Z number from years back, here with the jazz group backing singer Emeli Sande.  It's interesting, but I enjoyed the Ferry-sung arrangement of his own Love Is The Drug even more, banjo, cornet, tuba and all.  I was pretty skeptical of this whole jazz project of Ferry's, which is his new album, but the results here are impressive.

Anyhoo, it's quite the production, weighing in at 75 minutes or so, and with a lot more going on than the average tossed-together soundtrack collection.  I wonder what a Baz Luhrmann film about the Civil War scored by T Bone Burnett would be like?  Nah.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: BOB MARLEY - KAYA DELUXE EDITION

Every time I think that's about all the Marley reissues there can possibly be, they find another one.  Best-of's, soundtracks to documentaries, live albums, boxes, dub collections, remixes, the list goes on.  This one, however, at least makes sense, and gives us something new and pretty good, too.  It's the 35th anniversary of the Kaya disc of 1978, not one of his most celebrated albums, but stronger than its reputation.  Kaya was the second album Marley made after retreating to London for a couple of years, after the assassination attempt that left him and his wife Rita wounded.  The first album was Exodus, one of most revered in his canon.  Kaya, by contrast, is often thought of as the soft, almost apologetic disc, purposely made as a step back from his aggressive work.  Marley said he knew he had made music that was too militant for some in Jamaica, and wanted to mellow out.

Is that a bad thing?  Well, not when you look at the quality of his love and happiness.  In a fine mood, he spins easy, soulful reggae, leaning heavily on the I-Threes for back-up la-la-lovin', and smooth horns, as befit a fellow who was inspired in the '60's by U.S. soul.  Songs about spliffs are as controversial as it gets, but by this time, if you knew Marley, you knew about the ganja.  No, life was cool for him now, with Easy Skanking leading things off, and the inspirational Is This Love the big cut.  While he's known for speaking out about his people's suffering, what's made his legacy decades later is his peaceful message, either love for one or for all, Is This Love joining One Love as more powerful statements than the politics of that day.  Such was his keen interest in the peaceful theme that he went back into his deep catalogue of songs, re-recording numbers from his earlier career, old for Jamaica but brand-new for his international audience.  Sun Is Shining and Kaya itself are early 70's tunes  first done with Lee "Scratch" Perry.

The live disc included as the deluxe bonus is a concert from Rotterdam in 1978, during the Kaya tour. It's not heavy on the new album tracks, featuring only Is This Love and Easy Skanking over its 76 minutes.  It's more of a greatest hits, mirroring six cuts off the famous Legend collection.  With a loving crowd locking in to No Woman No Cry, Jamming, and Get Up, Stand Up, this is one of the best of the several Marley concerts available.