> > Does anybody know anything more about this
> > obviously talented writer?
>
> Yeah, I know that someone posted a piece by him on LeAnn Rimes here a while
> ago that was so obnoxious and snide it made me wonder whether he'd
> propositioned her and been turned down. He also wrote a piece about
Mermaid
> Avenue that provoked a fair amount of discussion because in it he alleged
> that Woody Guthrie was known, if at all, only as a "barren, soulless
legend"
> who needed Bragg & Wilco to be made human.
Yeah, I gotta agree with Jon on this one. Wilonsky's a pretty good
wordsmith, I'll grant you that, but he's written a number of things that, for
various reasons, I and other P2ers have had a hard time with (none, of course
that are coming to mind right now other than Jon's examples). I've read him
over a number of years, since about 1989 when I lived in Dallas and he write
for the Observer. My problem with his writing has always been how
"subjective" his criticism is. I know that looks like an oxymoron or
something, but what I mean is that he often strikes me as someone who has a
really hard time doing a well-balanced review of any artist that isn't a
personal favorite. I've seen him just savage folks that are generally pretty
well thought-of musicians, and aren't considered "either/or" artists (such as
Ani DiFranco, Tom Waits, Richard Buckner...). In Dallas around '90 and '91 or
so, I often wondered about the guy's personal safety, his reviews were so
consistently extremely pro or con on generally well-liked artists around
town....
Anyway, we all grow up and hopefully get better at we do, if you think he's
turning out some good stuff send it to the list. If nothing else his stuff
has started some pretty interesting threads here before...<g>
Dan
