MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DAVE & PHIL ALVIN - LOST TIME

No less an authority than Benjamin Franklin told us "Lost time is never found again."  Bob Dylan appropriated that as the kicker line for his Basement Tapes number Odds and Ends: "Lost time is not found again."  The Brothers Alvin finally figured out what it meant in 2014, releasing the album Common Ground, their first collaboration since Dave quit The Blasters back in 1986.  Now they are moving to make up that lost time, releasing a second disc a year later.

Common Ground was a tribute to Big Bill Broonzy, a shared love of the brothers and something easy to work on for a new beginning.  This set is made of covers as well, but a more varied lot.  The young Alvins met and mentored with Big Joe Turner, and do four of his numbers.  There's a version of the Rising Sun Blues, the more traditional take on House of the Rising Sun, a fun cover of James Brown's Please, Please, Please, and the somewhat obscure old blues tune Papa's on the House Top.

On the more electric side, there's a strong boogie version of Otis Rush's Sit Down, Baby, Dave Alvin's guitar taking some stinging leads between the verses.  Phil's vocals are a major part of the formula, with lots of comfort and passion.  Both brothers know how to perform with intensity, but never to the point of histrionics.  They also show a hitherto unexplored connection between folk, traditional, jump and electric blues:  I believe it's called the groove.  No more fights please, brothers.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DARLENE LOVE - INTRODUCING DARLENE LOVE

A bit of a joke of course, that title, but many won't know Darlene Love as a singer as much as a personality. After her many years singing at Christmas on the Letterman show, and her appearance in the documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom, about back-up singers, she's more famous for being retro-famous.


These late career comeback albums follow a formula of sorts. Using the Roy Orbison and Solomon Burke examples, you draft in a big-name producer (Miami Steve from the E Street Band here), and collect new or slightly-used tunes from famous stars. Here, The Boss pays tribute as a long-time fan with two compositions, as does Elvis Costello (a veteran of the Burke and Orbison albums as well). Since Love is a vet of '60's Brill Building songs, there's a Mann/Weil song, and a Jimmy Webb one as well. The producer drops in three as well. And although he doesn't write any, Love fanboy Paul Shaffer drops down a killer organ solo on the gospel closer Jesus Is the Rock (That Keeps Me Rollin'). written by Van Zandt.


Everybody worked very, very hard on this, and you can tell all hands were keen to work with the icon. She's unquestionably on fire here, especially on the cuts that make her most comfortable, the gospel-styled ones, and big belters such as the Springsteen tracks. There's a brilliant remake of River Deep, Mountain High that equals the Ike and Tina Turner original as well. Van Zandt tries to do her proud, and comes up with some major productions and arrangements, especially with horns and strings. They aren't quite Wall-of-Sound, but people don't exactly mention Phil Spector's name a lot lately.


Sometimes in an effort to sound big, the productions come out a little too slick, more Classic Rock and simply classic. There are definitely songs to skip over here, odd choices of material from the likes of Joan Jett and Linda Perry, and Van Zandt's opener, Among The Believers, isn't the strongest cut. Even Costello's numbers don't work all that well. Forbidden Nights is an attempt to recreate an early '60's number, and sounds more like an exercise than inspiration. His Still Too Soon To Know is killed by the inclusion of Righteous Brother Bill Medley as a duet partner for Love, and his voice has certainly not weathered the years as well as hers.


Oh my goodness though, three cheers for Springsteen, who really came through with two new gems. The album is worth it for his songs alone, glorious grand epics that capture the spirit of his Born To Run - Darkness On The Edge Of Town days, when he and Van Zandt were attempting to bring this very sound to their own music. I count five really great songs, five pretty good, and four duds, so I'd say that's a good score for anyone, let alone a 74-year old.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MONKEYJUNK - MOON TURN RED

Hey, did you catch that super moon Sunday night?  It looked pretty cool, turning red in the eclipse and all that.  Now, how far in advance did MonkeyJunk know about this thing, timing the release of their latest album, Moon Turn Red, to last Friday, just two days before the event?  I'm thinking freaky coincidence.

For their fourth, Ottawa's M-Junk grooves a bit more, rocks a bit more.  Taking a cue from '70's bands, the band struts through a set of arena-sized numbers, lead singer Steve Marriner channeling his inner Paul Rodgers.  Meanwhile Tony D gets to blast out saucy lines and even play guitar hero on numbers such as Show Me Yours, with its middle-section solo and funky little accents throughout.  There's no time for a slow blues at this party.

The group plays homage to a Canadian guitar icon, covering David Wilcox's Hot Hot Papa, with the man himself sitting in for solos and a vocal verse, putting the fun in funk.  To mix things up, there's a bit of reggae in Love Attack, with its universal empowerment lyrics classic Marley.  Learn How To Live is the slow one, but still has a dark streak throughout it, no sappy love ballad.  Marriner pours his heart into it, proving himself up for the job on this soul number with punch.  But the core of the set are the album blues rock numbers, which sound like they could have come from your local FM station sometime after 10 PM back in 1976, when the DJ's could get heavier.  Check out Live Another Day, with its twin guitar line, pounding drums from Matt Sobb,  and tense delivery, it's exciting and dramatic and tough all over, like the bulk of the disc.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: THE STANFIELDS - MODEM OPERANDI

White Juan was the name given to the hurricane-strength blizzard that hit Nova Scotia and other parts of the Maritimes in 2004, just months after Hurricane Juan had blasted through.  White Juan saw ridiculous snowfall amounts, and winds up to 125 kilometers per hour.  It was intense and scary, just like the song of the same name that opens this album.  Group members no doubt remember the nor'easter well, as they shred guitars and throats on the brief, hard-core track, screaming "I'm not ready for this."

It's a surprising start to the group's fourth album, at least for those expecting something recognizable as Maritime and roots.  But bigger fans know to expect contradictions and sharp left turns from The Stanfields, a band always willing to take the road less traveled, especially if its rocky.  And as much as they can rant and roar a good bouzouki tune, this one's leaning even heavier towards electric and pounding tunes, after 2013's acoustic outing, For King and Country.  First single Fight Song sounds like a Saturday night theme for soccer hooligans, Metallica via Dublin: "This is our house, are you ready for the fisticuffs?" And later, "This is our house, take your medicine and fly the fiddle and fuck away from wence you came, hot time in the old town tonight."

While the band uses the F-bomb, we don't mention the C-word here.  That's Celtic, of course.  They aren't going to meet anyone's definition of that, but you can pick out the heritage moments.  The settings are familiar, like the waterfront in Sunday Warships, but this about current culture, how traditional values are being undermined, and how people are making do in this era:  "I spend my waking hours pixelated and engrossed."  The computer is the main character, as it has become for most of us.  Will The Circuit Be Unbroken is their song for the new folk music, "in the sky drones, in the sky."  This is hard-drive music.

This is the last flourish for the old band; Jason Wright and Gene Harris moved on after recording the album, and new players Dillan Tate and Calen Kinney are already on the road.  Who knows what to expect next?  With The Stanfields, all you can do is plan for a surprise.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MIKE EVIN - LIFE AS A LOVER

You wanna write hits?  Practice practice practice, of course.  Work hard at it.  And it doesn't hurt to learn the history either. That's how songwriter Mike Evin got hooked back when he was going to Concordia University.  He found out he could study old pop music, something he'd already been doing on his own anyway.

"I guess it started when I was a kid and I loved Motown," Evin explains, at home in Toronto.  "I loved a lot of '50's and '60's music, I just loved listening to oldies radio.  It started with Motown and then I discovered Stax, kinda branched out from there into the world of soul music.  Then I took a History of Rock and Roll class when I was in university, and discovered r'n'b music from the '40's and '50's, and the folk and blues world.  I remember very specifically when I discovered this CD at the library, it was this generic pre-war blues compilation.  That was when I first heard Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, all those guys, all on that one CD, and it just blew me away.  I love going back and back, and getting into the roots of the music I love."

Armed with all that education and influence, Evin has built up a career making classic pop music, the kind you'd find in a second-hand store.  His music is fun, the spirit joyful, the hooks ridiculously plentiful.  If you're going to title a song Al Green, you had better live up to the title, and Evin's sure does.  "Someday I wanna be in love and sing like Al Green," goes the hook line, over big piano chords and lots of oo-oo-oo's.  It's the single from his new Life As A Lover collection, which is positively swimming in all those good-feeling songs, words and melodies.

Evin says he's always aspired to make music like the classic pop hits. "When I hear a song with a great melody, it really blows my mind," he says.  "I'm blown away and inspired, partly to write my own melody like that, but also when you see a great piece of art that comes from some place higher and beautiful, that seems to be one of the things I love about music."

One of the big differences between Evin and the bulk of modern songwriters is his instrument of choice.  He's one of the rare breed composing and performing at the piano.  That gives him a leg-up on someone writing on guitar or with loops and beats, at least when it comes to crafting a pleasing tune. "It's not a coincidence that most of the classic Tin Pan Alley songs, the classic melody songs were written on piano," he agrees. "There's something about the old-fashioned melodies that can be written on piano, it's more extensive, you know?"

The other aural component most noticed in Evin's songs is the positive vibe.  Almost everybody finds joy in the songs, and it's an uplifting experience listening to the album.  Evin says he's just trying to cheer himself up.  "You're writing partly for yourself, it's a form of therapy, it's a way to work out things in your life," he explains.  "Like everyone, I go through many moments in life, day-to-day stuff where you get discouraged, just have a down day.  It comes out in my songwriting where I'm trying to lift myself up, as well as other people.  I'm trying to look at the positive side. I think people can look at my music just from one side, and say "Oh it's so fun, it's so upbeat, why don't you get more serious?  Do something with a bit more depth?"  But my friend (musician) Matt Epp, he said something really cool.  He said to create something that has that joy in it, you're acknowledging all of the darker stuff. We know the dark stuff is there, but to get at the joy we're trying to lift ourselves a bit higher."

If you're in the mood for some lifting, Evin is about to tour the Maritimes.  Friday, Sept. 25, he's in St. Andrews, NB at Salty Towers.  There's a house concert in Moncton on Saturday night with his friend Andy Creeggan (ex-BNL), with details on Evin's website.  Sunday, Sept. 27, he reaches Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia at Buchanan's Music Centre, and Wednesday, Sept. 30 he's at The Company House in Halifax.  On Oct. 1, he's at the Windsor Castle Bar on the UNB campus in Fredericton, before heading back through Quebec for more dates.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE - NASHVILLE OBSOLETE

"This song's never going to end, is it Candy?," Rawlings sings on Candy, a rare lighthearted, old-time sing along on this new album.  That's a good joke as it's one of only a couple of normal-length cuts on the set, which features just seven sons, one of them topping ten minutes, the others running between five and eight.  Rawlings and co. can do this string-band, O Brother-type song even better than the originals, and could have filled another album with only that, but not this time.

Working with Gillian Welch (natch) and a small group of guests, Rawlings takes the lead vocals on these band recordings, but there's more that makes these different from a Welch-fronted release.  The songs have a darker edge, with mystery and a Southern gothic feel.  While there's fiddle on some, other major tracks such as Short Haired Woman Blues make full use of a string section, making it a full drama.  The Trip, the opus of the bunch, sees Rawlings half-speaking the words, in the easy-going but poignant way Loudon Wainwright III leads you into a song.  His are more personal though; Rawlins has some nastier family dirt to dig through:  "Ah, but what's a bullet hole or two between friends?"  The slow-paced cowboy tune gives it some high-lonesome flavour, but it's just as powerful as Desolation Row once you follow the story.

It gets bleaker.  If you like Neil Young's Ditch Trilogy, Bodysnatchers could have come from On The Beach, if you moved it from L.A. to the Mississippi.  Cinematic and allegorical, there's a rich listen here, certainly a full companion to any Welch album.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: GARY CLARK JR. - THE STORY OF SONNY BOY SLIM

There is no Sonny Boy Slim, and it's not a nickname for Clark either.  The young guitar hero is paying homage to all that have come before in the blues world and beyond, and placing himself in that great African-American narrative of the last century of musical and cultural achievement.  It's all connected, from the delta to the urban landscape, and Clark has broad interests in it all.  While the Texan gets labelled blues, he's electrified and electrifying in rock, hip-hop, soul, funk and what have you, never retro in any of them.

The licks are fewer than on his debut and subsequent live albums, the story-telling now more the focus.  It's a look at a society that needs healing, with acknowledgements of pain, politics and racism causing endless stress.  But overall the message is positive, Clark promising hope will get you through.  It's a big statement, but the individual songs are broken up into well-focused slices of life. Then he slices and dices all the musical influences running through his fingers, making it quite an accomplished set.  Despite being touted as part of the future of the blues, he can't and won't be stuck in any genre, and this album shows he'll be someone to follow for a long time, and for more than his guitar.