MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ELVIS PRESLEY - THE GREAT PERFORMANCES / THE 3 COMPLETE ED SULLIVAN SHOWS (DVD's)

These two double-DVD sets offer unique views of Presley at important points in his career. The Great Performances is perhaps a misleading name; it is in fact three documentaries covering his career. Two are narrated by his life-long friend George Klein, who met Presley in Grade 8, and was an early supporter as a DJ, staying in touch right up until the King's passing. The third is narrated by Bono, and that one covers the very early Elvis, from his breakthrough as Sun Records until appearing on Ed Sullivan, a tumultuous 12 months. It's more of a standard documentary, while the other two hour-long pieces are basically a bunch of TV and movie performances, interspersed with some home movies, rare footage and even some interview clips. I don't mean to diminish these though, it's fabulous stuff, including lots of important appearances. There's the first-ever TV guest spot, on the Dorsey Brothers program, and then the most controversial, the Milton Berle show which caused all the complaints about his sexy hip-shaking. That led to CBS only filming him above the waste when he appeared on Ed Sullvan the first time.

There's so much Elvis footage, the filmmakers actually ended up doing medleys of the image, combining shots from the '50's onstage with Scotty, Bill and D.J. Fontana, later stuff when the crowds got really busy, right up to Vegas Elvis. Footage, footage, footage. There's Elvis and Priscella's wedding, his parents at the airport as he flies off to join the army, some really interesting news crew stuff of Elvis in court, arrested for punching a guy who was hassling him at a gas station. That's the nice thing about officially-sanctioned films like these, they get all this great stuff that other directors would not have access to. The flip side is that you don't see him in a bad light, but I guess we all know what that was like anyway, he's been the butt of jokes for decades now, and these films are great reminders of his real excellence.

The other collection features the three original Ed Sullivan shows from September 1956 to January of 1957 featuring Elvis as the guest star. Not just the performances, these are the whole shows, from start to finish, including the many commercials for the sponsor, Lincoln/Mercury ("The Big M", as they were calling it). I've seen the Elvis songs lots of times, but never the full shows, so it's kinda cool, watching these dated but fascinating programs. TV shows were still trying to figure out what worked best on the medium, and the Sullivan show simply put everything on. There were the circus acts, Broadway musical snippets, comedians, jugglers, a kid's choir from Ireland, impressionists, clowns, and a dog act. Sadly, there's no Topo Gigio (look him up) but there is Senor Wences, the puppeteer/ventriloquist. Lots of them are somewhat bizarre, the dying gasps of vaudeville, and lots are dull, like the lame Broadway performance. Interestingly, one of the shows feature the debut of one Carol Burnett, who does a pretty decent comedy routine. The famous boxer Sugar Ray Leonard appears, strangely, a week after he lost his championship to an unknown. He'd probably been booked because they figured he'd win, but instead he had to endure the smug advice of Sullivan, a former sports writer who obviously thought he knew something about the fights. And something I'd forgotten or didn't ever know, was that Sullivan himself wasn't hosting the first show where Presley appeared, he was in the hospital, and actor Charles Laughton subbed for him.  And yes, we see Elvis, shot from the waste up, delivering Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender and Hound Dog, by now transformed into a confident, exciting performer who smirks and teases his screaming audience, clearly knowing he owned the world. He'd already had lots of TV exposure, on Steve Allen's show, six times on the Dorsey's, and Berle's as well, so Sullivan didn't make Elvis a star, but that was his biggest appearance to that point. Sullivan learned his lesson with rock and roll stars from that, and made darn sure he got The Beatles a few years later.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: STEVE DAWSON - LUCKY HAND

Here's my take on instrumental albums. Generally, I find they don't have much variety. I'm not talking jazz here, or classical, I mean those occasional releases by guitar pickers, made for fans of guitar playing, who know their way around finger-picking and alternative tuning and the like. I still enjoy some of the old rock 'n' roll instrumental groups from the early '60's, Booker T. and the MG's, surf music, Duane Eddy, they all had novelty, and usually you were only sticking around for a song or two. But stick an acoustic guitar album on, and I'm bound to lose interest and fade out.

Unless it's Steve Dawson. Superlatives abound for his playing, and I'm sure there's plenty to rave about here for you fans of guitar. Dawson is also a tremendous songwriter, performer, producer, singer, all those things as well, who records some of the best-sounding roots albums going for people such as C.R. Avery, Jim Byrnes and Christa Couture, as well as his own gems. When he decides to go instrumental, it's time to listen close, because he's going to do something different and surprising, with a theme he wants to explore. In the past he's gone deep into blues, Hawaiian, pedal steel, even rock. This time, it's a set of original fingerstyle and slide guitar pieces, and I guess the best way to describe them is as value-added. In much of the album, the main addition is a string quartet. No mere sweetening, these strings are put to work in full arrangements, prepared by Dawson's old recording partner Jesse Zubot (Zubot and Dawson) doing those honours, along with adding his own violin. And when it isn't the quartet, there are horns and woodwinds, again arranged by Zubot. Meanwhile Dawson is providing all sorts of different textures on various guitars, the effect being a set impossible to date other than post-19th century, with influences and subtleties from all over.

Even pared down to a couple of instruments, the arrangements and movements within the songs are captivating, something to follow intently rather than allow to blend in the background. The strings are dynamic, sympathetic yet proudly following a strong path of their own, with some fascinating note combinations. Of special interest and my personal delight is the appearance of famed Nashville harmonica ace Charlie McCoy, who does just as much exploring on the tune on which he joins Dawson. Anyway, hope I didn't insult too many guitar instrumentalists, but the point is, Dawson makes his album different, fascinating, and very listenable.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MEAGHAN BLANCHARD - THE GREAT ESCAPE

P.E.I.'s Meaghan Blanchard has been known, rightly so, for her gorgeous homespun vocals and her country-flavoured songwriting. Her latest album, The Great Escape, is a game-changer. She's moved a bit away from the country stylings, although not altogether, with a sophisticated and moody production from Jim Bryson (Oh Susanna, The Skydiggers, Kathleen Edwards), which highlights a remarkable selection of songs. Before I ramble away with various reviewer platitudes which you may or may not gloss over, let me stop -- ask for your attention -- and say, simply, these are some seriously great songs here, with exceptional lyrics. Blanchard has a big heart, and wants her words to mean something. And connect they do.

Like some of the very best roots songwriters, Blanchard presents a series of stories on the album that look at the lives and struggles of regular people. In When You're Gone, she tells us about the older woman who believes no-one's going to write about her when she's gone. Blanchard sets the scene, letting us settle in at the table with her, observing "She's got two stoves in the kitchen, one to keep the house from freezing, one for the bread." In Angelina Bridgette, we meet a farmer's daughter from the last century, who decides to make it on her own, save her pennies and move to the Boston states, a classic story of independence for a woman from the Maritimes. The title cut is about her own independence, after a couple of years of personal change, moving in the other direction, further into rural P.E.I., appreciating nature and her own choices.

There are a couple of more playful numbers, but overall it's an album with a tone of empathy, and every so often Blanchard hits a note or two that seem to go straight to her heart, incredibly poignant. At the album's centre is the most powerful number, called The City, a modern folk gem, slow and delivered in her most haunting, spectacular tone, "a city where children never cry," about the horrors facing children caught in war zones. That's the one you'll remember a long time after hearing it.

Blanchard is starting to tour the album, which is going to be released coming up in June. Importantly, she's appearing in Fredericton Wednesday, May 30 at Dolan's. It's the inaugural show in a new series called Up Close and Personal, which sees an early start, 7:30, so you live music fans in the city might want to make extra effort, to show your support for more options in live music. And, because Blanchard's just made this awesome album, and you get to be among the first to hear the songs.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: GLENN FREY - ABOVE THE CLOUDS/THE VERY BEST OF

While The Eagles are one of the groups that exemplify the '70's, Glenn Frey solo is one that screams '80's, and that isn't necessarily a compliment. Not that he wasn't smart, or at least very lucky. Frey embraced the whole MTV-visuals era, getting his music exposed by major connections with film and TV soundtracks. Beverly Hills Cop? The Heat Is On. Miami Vice? You Belong To The City. Heck, they even wrote a whole episode of Miami Vice based on his Smuggler's Blues, and gave him a role. Frey's music is as iconic to the era as Eddie Murphy's grin and Don Johnson's pastels.

Ear worms they were, but wow that '80's production is as thick as maple syrup and twice as sweet. Syndrums and reverb abound, then cue the cheesy sax solo. All the western motif of The Eagles had been traded in for fast cars and skyscrapers. The ballads were better, with The One You Love hearkening back to Frey's famous vocal turns on numbers such as Lyin' Eyes and New Kid In Town. Later in the decade Frey stretched a little more, adding a pop-soul sound, Soul Searchin' not shabby but still very heavily-produced. There seemed to be some redemption happening in the early '90's when Frey went back to the movies, giving perhaps his best solo cut, Part Of Me, Part Of You, to Thelma & Louise, but it wasn't much of a hit surprisingly. And when the rift with Don Henley was patched, he went back to The Eagles and stayed there. With his death, The Eagles play on, his place now held by Vince Gill on stage, his iffy solo career compiled here. There's also a 3-CD, 1-DVD box out, which includes a live solo concert, and most interestingly, the release of Frey's pre-Eagles tracks with the group Longbranch Pennywhistle.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: VAN MORRISON AND JOEY DEFRANCESCO - YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY

It's pretty interesting that certain musicians, especially Morrison, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, have not only continued but actually increased their production of albums in the last few years, as they all advance in age. Not wanting to go quietly, rest much, or get off the road, they have all abandoned the notion of spending long periods in the studio, and instead record quickly, allowing them so many releases. For Morrison, this is his third full album in less than nine months, nothing complicated, but certainly the work of a master performer.

For this release, Morrison partners with the jazz organist/trumpter Joey Defrancesco. Well, I say jazz but like Morrison, he's also a blues/R'n'B/swing/whatever player, and that's where Van the Man has been grooving for the most part the last couple of decades. Defrancesco has become the dominant jazz organist during that time, so it's a partnership that's a natural. And Morrison has always played well with an organist, especially his lengthy stint with Georgie Fame on disc and stage.

Much like jazz recordings of the '50's, the session was set up, the players assembled, the songs picked, no muss, no fuss.  There are some classic covers, including Miss Otis Regrets and Everyday I Have The Blues, and the rest are Morrison originals. Not new ones, but rather tunes from his very lengthy catalog. They go back all the way to Astral Weeks' The Way Young Lovers Do, right up to numbers from this century, including the acerbic Goldfish Bowl, Morrison's declaration that he isn't doing this for fame, and hates all those industry people staring at him and stealing from him. Wisely he stays away from the best-known stuff, no Moondance, Domino, etc., and instead goes for very deep cuts such as Celtic Swing from 1983's Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart.

If you're looking for amazing, insightful reworkings of these numbers, this isn't that kind of exploration. Instead, he's simply jazzing them up a bit, playing them with this combo, letting Defrancesco groove, and having fun deconstructing the melodies for his new vocals. Yeah, jazz. There's no great statement other than making some good music, something different for you to play. Just doing what he does.

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: SHERRY RYAN - WRECKHOUSE

Newfoundland's Sherry Ryan kicks off a tour tonight to launch her latest album, called Wreckhouse. The singer-songwriter is a deceptively strong lyricist, her songs uncluttered and spare, and she doesn't throw around complexities and verbage. But the imagery is powerful and the metaphors large. In Cool And Clear, she compares a relationship that has ended to the difference between day and night, weather-wise: "Humid and hazy, loving and lazy days are gone," the break-up like the night, cool and clear. The answer to a Long Awaited Question (we're left to guess what that question might be, but it's a relationship one she's trying to avoid) is left untold, "drifting like a bottle at sea."

The track Stop The Trains, where the album title comes from, is worth a full write-up itself, one of those stories so good it can only be true, and it is. Written with her father Jim, who was familiar with the tale, it tells about the so-called wreckhouse winds in an area of Newfoundland, so strong they could blow the train off the tracks. Only one Lauchie MacDougall, known as the "human weathervane", knew when those mean gusts were coming, and this song, set in the '50's, tells what happens when a smart-arse from away decides Lauchie shouldn't be in charge of stopping the trains. With it's book-chicka-boom country rhythm, it joins the ranks of the classic train numbers.

Ryan's music is that hard-to-classify sound that we reviewers tend to call roots, and it actually fits well here. She has country leanings, singer-songwriter melodies and a band that can rock, with some rich organ and pop harmonies. Vocally she's homespun and real, singing like she's telling you a story over a drink. Catch her over the next few days in Ontario and Quebec at:

May 25, 6:30pm - Burdock - Toronto
May 26, 9pm- The Arlington - Bancroft
May 29, 9pm- Brasserie Beaubien - Montreal
May 31, 8pm- Artword Artbar - Hamilton
June 1, 7pm - House on Queen - Stratford
June 2, 9 pm - Windsor Beer Exchange - Windsor 

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: BARRY WHITE - LOVE'S THEME THE BEST OF THE 20th CENTURY RECORDS SINGLES

I'm on the fence when it comes to Barry White, and always have been. I admire his achievements more than his music, and I can take only small doses. I think that's because it's so syrupy, it's like dessert, best to only have a small portion. So listening through this very lengthy, 21-track compilation is definitely a sugar rush.

But yeah, no shortage of accomplishments in his career, especially in the '70's where this collection is focused. If he didn't outright invent disco, he certainly raised one of its pillars with his smooth, dance-friendly hits in 1973 such as Never, Never Gonna Give You Up. Then came his huge smash instrumental at the end of that year, Love's Theme, produced for his outfit Love Unlimited Orchestra. These were tunes with a relentless beat, but still relaxed, with soaring strings over top. And when White added his atypical vocals, that bass-y, seductive croon, the last element came into place. These songs were one big ad for s-e-x, at least coached in the acceptable language of the day. There was only one theme, told in different words with each new single: You're The First, The Last, My Everything, Can't Get Enough Of Your Love. Babe, and my favourite title, It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me.

From '73 to '78 White landed 11 Top 40 hits, and made period comebacks over the years, as he became a camp icon, even appearing as himself on The Simpsons several times. While we might have snickered at him, he sold over one hundred million records, almost all of them as the songwriter, artist and producer, making him filthy rich. Having found a formula White rarely strayed from it, although for those interested in what he sounded like in a different groove, there's his cover of Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are included. It's fun hearing what he sounded like having to be more of a singer on that track, not doing his sexy spoken-word bits or crooning lover's words in the mic. He does a good job, and he might have lengthen his star days if he had stretched more along the way into that kind of material. I don't think he's one of the great soul singers, writers or producers, but he hit at just the right time, and it's fun to slot a cut or two of his into your soul mixtape.