MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: NEIL FINN + PAUL KELLY - GOIN' YOUR WAY

Here's a dream-team duo for folks in the Antipodes, recorded on a joint homeland tour in 2013. Of course, New Zealand's Finn has plenty of fans in these parts, but Australian Kelly remains largely unknown, his music hard to find. He's quite a different performer than Finn, more of a singer-songwriter than a pop band guy, and if he moved to the U.S., he'd live in Austin, not L.A. His songs are charming slices of life, and I think he'd gain a lot more fans with a bit more exposure.


Perhaps this set will help with that. It's a double-CD, recorded at the final show of their joint tour. What could have been an easy trip around the theatres, with each veteran doing their best-known material, turned into a real artistic partnership. Both decided before the tour to put together a whole new band, and learn each other's songs, bringing something new to the performance. As they rehearsed, new rearrangements were added, and they took to trading vocals on the other's material. Sometimes it was a verse, sometimes the whole song. Hearing Kelly do the Crowded House number Into Temptation is a completely different experience, a more solitary examination of guilt. Finn's work on Kelly's songs brings several of them into broader arrangements, harmonies and instruments opening up the melodic secrets of the songs.


They chose band members wisely, making it a family affair. Finn brought along his son Elroy to drum, while Dan Kelly, a nephew of Paul's and a well-known Australian recording artist on his own, came out on guitar and vocals. The fifth member, bass player Zoe Hauptmann, finalized a lineup of five strong singers, ready to throw away all the old arrangements. Finn really seemed to enjoy exploring the new possibilities, ripping open well-known cuts such as Private Universe, starting it as an acoustic number, adding beautiful three-part harmonies, and some haunting harmonica. He went back over his whole career, messing about with Split Enz songs (One Step Ahead, Message To My Girl), and even the one-off Finn Brothers album (Only Talking Sense). Meantime, even if you don't know Kelly now, try out To Her Door, Dumb Things and Before Too Long, all beloved hits back home. Imagine if Bob Dylan and Neil Young went on tour and did this.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: JEFF HEALEY - HEAL MY SOUL

Not many major league artists leave behind entire albums' worth of unreleased studio material, at least the good stuff. But the late Healey had a treasure chest full that he never got around to dealing with in his short lifetime. These are tracks recorded for his final rock-blues album with the Jeff Healey Band, 2000's Get Me Some. He had recorded lots of tracks that didn't make that album, some he really liked a lot, but never found a way to put them out. That's largely because it was right at the last gasp of the original band, as Healey got fed up with the whole business side, and chucked it all for his main love, traditional jazz.


Now the family trust has put together this set, with some of the colleagues and friends from that time, trusted to make choices Healey would approve. This is a surprisingly hard-rocking set, especially his guitar playing. It features some of his most incendiary solos, and in many cases, start-to-finish loud, unrestrained riffing. The cut Please is one of those, the soloing almost constant. Moodswing is another raver, unlike anything he'd done before. Fans of Healey's guitar work will find a whole new side to his playing here, and will wonder what might have happened had he continued down this road.


Wisely, the folks involved left the tracks alone, choosing to go with bare-bones performances of the trio rather than adding even discrete embellishment. There are some mix issues, some guitar work that might have been replaced or sweetened, but it's always better to hear where the artist was going, rather than hear somebody's guesswork. There are a couple of calmer tracks, including All The Saints, which only had his acoustic guitar and voice, but it's much more effective and beautiful this way, especially contrasted with all the electric guitar blitz. The only disappointment is a cover of Richard Thompson's I Misunderstood, where Healey misses the subtlety and ache of the original. But the 11 other cuts could easily have made one his albums, and that's pretty rare indeed for a posthumous collection.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: EMITT RHODES - RAINBOW ENDS

One of the most unlikely comebacks in pop music history sees this brand-new collection from cult figure Rhodes. A one-time 70's chart hopeful, he had precisely one entry to his name, 1971's Fresh As A Daisy, which stalled at #54. At least his '60's band, The Merry-Go-Round, had done slightly better, with two singles breaking the Top 100 in 1967. He was better known for his three albums early on in the '70's, which he wrote, recorded and produced himself, highly-regarded but time-consuming to create. Under a ridiculous contract to deliver an album every six months, Rhodes saw his career wrecked, unable to get out of the contract or get any royalties, so eventually he just gave up, and moved into work as an engineer and producer.


There was always a small following, and slowly but surely others picked up on him. The 2000's started with an old song featured on The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack, then came tentative steps back in the game; a cut here and there for various small projects, a Record Store Day single, and then some folks familiar with his work started helping him out in the L.A. area, such as Richard Thompson and a couple of Bangles.


Still shy of the recording industry, finally young fan/producer Chris Price convinced him back for this full album, with the help of a Pledge Music campaign. Price rounded up more of his friends, and turned them on Rhodes, including Aimee Mann, Jellyfish members Roger Manning and Jason Falkner, members of Brian Wilson's band, Susanna Hoffs, and Wilco's Nels Cline.


So, that's the whole back story you need to know, and the good news is that the comeback has indeed been successful. Rhodes is a strong pop artist, with a compelling, warm voice, and some fine, emotional songs. Instead of making the stars shine here, Price puts them all in anonymous support roles, the focus staying firmly on Rhodes' voice and words. There's a melancholy through it all, no doubt the result of some troubles over his 66 years, but you're not left searching for damage or music business shell-shock. Indeed, the strength of his voice is remarkable, and the quality of the songs consistently strong.


It does have a shiny '70's vibe to it, and the radio in my head has these numbers playing on a summer's eve in the calm hours when the program director won't allow screechy electric guitar solos. And there are a couple that get a little too mellow, a little too close to an England Dan and John Ford Coley sound. But on everything else, this is a darn fine pop album, '70's touches but for those fans who have grown along with times.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ERIN COSTELO - DOWN BELOW, THE STATUS QUO

Erin Costelo's tremendous 2012 album, We Can Get Over, showed what a great understanding she had of soul music. With her powerful voice, great hooks and melodies, funky grooves and emotional ballads, Costelo seemed like she'd stepped right out of the 60's south, hanging with Booker T. and the MG's in Memphis, then heading across town to Hi Records, splitting a cab with Anne Peebles. She is, as they say in baseball, a five-tooled player, as a singer, songwriter, arranger, producer and player. The only potential weak spot in her armor I could see was originality, what she could bring to the music in the future. Growth and all that.

The future is now, and any doubts are answered, any small concern now moot, gone. Down Below, The Status Quo takes us way past any easy retro-soul label, no matter how much one loves that classic sound. Soul music is still the base of what Costelo does, but this is so clearly her own big, wonderful, ambitious, exciting music. Seriously, these are 10 cuts that take you through a variety of emotions, with grand rave-ups, gorgeous, sweeping ballads, and a new mix that is all her own. That Southern soul is still there, but so is a big-city jazz feel, plus intense, emotional singer-songwriter lyrics. Plus, there's a great flow to the order of the tracks, the sequence of the songs, taking us from fun to quiet to climax to denouement.

You can tell Costelo worked exceptionally hard on these songs in the production phase, and yes, she is the producer. The arrangements and the chosen instruments and voices are placed perfectly, the tempos can shift in a moment, and seamlessly. But she also doesn't rely on these elements to carry the song; the strings don't soar, she does, her voice carrying all the drama, the instruments adding the colour. It's a piano album for sure, but one where the keyboard is used almost equally as a percussion element as a melodic one.

Here's a snapshot, dropping in on a couple of cuts:  The song Low, third on the album, comes in with crafty percussion and bass, a dark mood, a flute thrown in before a first blast of intensity, a rising chorus with Costelo and singers doing stabs of "high, high, high" before sinking low.  Funky horns step in when needed, and it feels like Shaft, only more sophisticated.  Next comes Fighter, a slower tempo, as Dave Marsh from The Emergency lays down a tough beat and Costelo comes out swinging, as mean as Nina Simone.  Then Clive MacNutt stings like a bee on the craziest guitar solo you can imagine, yet it works perfectly.

The second-to-last song, Titanic, is written with Stephen Fearing (the pair have done several together the past few years), the only co-write on the disc.  It's the emotional high point of the collection, a quiet, soft ballad that features a stunning instrumental moment between sections, with a fluttering harp, strings from the Blue Engine String Quartet, and orchestral percussion, which made me catch my breath. That's about the time I noticed the "String and Horn arrangements by Erin Costelo" credit.  An ocean of soul, and beyond.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: VARIOUS ARTISTS - SOUTHERN FAMILY

This collection was made, ostensibly, to celebrate the sub-genre of country music that comes from Southern writers, with old values of family, tradition, faith, community and the land. And while those are the common themes here, more importantly, it's also a collection of modern country music and songwriters that offer a lot of hope for the future of the form. It's proof there's life past the packaged pablum of the last 20 years, and the re-purposed rock music that's passed for country.


Some of the young turks are here, including Jamey Johnson, Shooter Jennings, Anderson East and Chris Stapleton. There are some of the more respected star names of Nashville, including Miranda Lambert and Zac Brown. Then there are some of the favourite Nashville songwriters these days, people such as Brandy Clark and Brent Cobb, who are respected for their work that returns to core country styles.


The curators did a bang-up job with this, as it filled with high-quality, soulful writing, songs feel honest and heartfelt. Clark's I Cried has emotional appeal sorely lacking in Top 40 country. Jason Isbell's God is a Working Man would be trite from a lesser writer's pen, but he relates real Southern stories that connect whether you're a believer or not. East and Jennings both bring life to the party, making sure this isn't too sentimental a collection.


There's always the danger that the family values theme can get a little too overdone, and that happens here with both Brown and Johnson's tracks. They each try to walk the road Merle Haggard paved with Mama Tried back in '68, a #1 hit, but overdone since as a theme. Brown sings about Grandma's Garden, and Johnson' reminisces about Mama's Table. It's the fine line between homage and cliche, but the performances are bang-on. As enjoyable as this whole set is, the fact there's a growing interest in these types of songs is even more pleasing.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: WINTERSLEEP - THE GREAT DETACHMENT

Honestly, I've been waiting for these guys to give me another song as infectious as Weighty Ghost for awhile, through two albums. Not that they haven't given us good stuff, but heck, I have a book out with that song listed as one of the country's Top 100 singles, like, ever. How's about another of those, I'm thinking.


I'm happy to say the lead cut and single here, Amerika, has that same spark, and so does most of the rest of album. Cut after cut, joyous melodies and matching vocals are met with big drums, some nifty keyboard parts and the mystery band element, a kind of otherworldly sonic presence. No, not ghosts, more alien I reckon. Hey, it's late.


The most enjoyable part is the upbeat energy across the album. More Than has a great closing part with gang vocals, and the infectious bass work on Spirit, matched with some crunchy guitar and more happy chanting makes that track another potential hit. As for a celebrity cameo, a bass part by Mr. Geddy Lee on Territory works just fine, thank you very much. It's inspired from start to finish.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS - IT'S GREAT TO BE ALIVE!

Celebrating 20 years of the Truckers existence and 30 years of playing in bands together, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley and the current, very stable line-up of the group hit their favourite venue for this live, 3-CD album. And they really did pull out all the stops for it. Recorded over 3 nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco, the band worked up a special multi-night selection that covered all eras of their existence, and even some early cuts from Hood and Cooley's previous band. They even splurged on some horns for the occasion,


With three-plus hours of music, the band has plenty of time to show off what they do best, which is make big story-songs with lots and lots of guitar. Hood especially writes big tales of the south, mostly character-driven. There are family tales, such as one about his grandfather, narrated at the start to explain, then developed into Box of Spiders. Taking these small, proud characters, he builds them up into stars no less important than Springsteen's parents and cousins and Jersey pals. He also explores the modern South with equal pride in working-class heroes zeroes.


There are moments of modern mythology, like the song Ronnie and Neil, which looks at the story of Neil Young writing Southern Man and Alabama, Ronnie Van Zandt answering with Sweet Home Alabama, and how the musicians became good friends. We go to Muscle Shoals to watch Aretha Franklin record, and get to know some other friends in Girls Who Smoke. All these big narratives happen in a wash of fuzzy chords and feedback, a thick sound that is always supercharged. Drive-By Truckers have always been at their very best live, and this is their very best. The CD version is very affordable at $25.00, or you can also splurge for a 5-LP box going for around $88 (not bad at all), or a 2-LP set edited from this called This Weekend's The Night, at $32 (all prices the current listings from amazon.ca).