Musician magazine reviews the Kelly Willis in its March issue. The
review is glowing. I think the record is very strong as well. ALSO,
Westerberg interviewed in same issue.
---Louise Kyme [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Here's a couple of reviews in today's Daily Telegraph. Don't think
much
of the Kelly Willis one, although she had a picture with it.
--
Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band
The Mountain (E2/Grapevine)
Few albums make such a good first impression as Steve Earle's new
disc.
It's like an infectious rash you can't leave alone.
In contrast to the tracks on El Corazon - his maudlin, though
terrific
previous album -The Mountain is a collection of catchy bluegrass
songs
written by Earle in homage to master bluegrassman Bill Monroe. Each
tune, brilliantly performed by the Texan Del McCoury Band, is a gem,
combining the pacy, individual melodies of banjo, mandolin and fiddle.
This deceptively simple music is the sound of hillbillies at play, the
sound of pure, genuine country and, as such, finds little favour with
Nashville's rhinestones sophisticates. None of this will bother
Earle,
who has spent a lifetime upsetting people.
Run-ins with authority - from his schoolboy days when he brandished a
sawn-off shotgun in class to the time he was jailed for assaulting a
policeman - have often been reflected in the angry, rock-tinged songs
about the plight of working men.
Behind all this is the pain of songwriting, which he has likened to
living with a wild animal: "It's that unexplainable force that causes
you to be depressed. As long as the Beast is there, I know I will
always
write."
He's still writing, better than ever, and, in shifting from
blue-collar
to bluegrass with these cheery, hand-clapping songs, it appears he's
tamed that Beast.
Kelly Willis
What I deserve (Rykodisc)
Kelly Willis's voice is described as "mellow" by her publicists, and
it
is true that on the weaker tracks here she lives down to this
uninspiring tag. Her voice is soothing, but also bland and soporific
on
the below-average love songs written by her husband, Bruce Robison.
Elsewhere, though, it is throaty, raw and full of character. On tracks
such as Take Me Down, about a lousy boyfriend, and Dan Penn's Real
Deep
Feeling, the singing is strong enough to stand comparison with the
muscular performance of someone such as Wynonna.
In the five years since her previous full-length album, the
Austin-based
singer writer and guitarist has changed styles. On this, her forth
record, she's ditched the honky tonk and the Texas rockabilly and
blues
in favour of more mainstream material.
The best track is her own Talk Like That, a nostalgic look back at
family ties. It is a wistful reminder of what a good country song is
meant to be: a poignant story well told.
---
Louise
--
If you like rocking country music, check out the Okeh Wranglers web
site
at:
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/bluesmoke
_
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
