dirty linen

Guy Davis isn't one of those overweening young upstarts out to make a quick name for himself. After putting out a debut album for Folkways in 1978, Davis waited almost 20 years before recording a followup. In the meantime, he honed his craft by writing and acting on Broadway (Mulebone) and Off-Broadway (Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil). After two highly acclaimed solo albums for Red House, Davis added a few more instruments on his last album, and he pursues the same approach on Butt Naked Free. Although Davis is generally considered part of the new breed of country blues revivalists that includes Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and Keb' Mo', he is actually much more than just a blues singer. Davis' live performances make good use of folk music, storytelling, and theatre, as well as blues.
Butt Naked Free opens with "Waiting for the Cards to Fall," a song Davis wrote after reading Zora Neale Hurston's descriptions of a card game. It's an uptempo song on which Davis makes good use of his 12-string guitar and harmonica-playing skills. "Let Me Stay Awhile" and "Sugarbelle Blues" are poignant songs about, respectively, a drifter looking for home comforts and a young girl wanting to break out of a small town. Both songs feature T-Bone Wolk on accordion and are the types of songs one might associate with Mississippi John Hurt. "High Flying Rocket" is a witty ditty with ribald lyrics about a man who "can't get it up no mo'." Davis has a knack for writing catchy melodies, such as the one for "AinNo Bluesman."
Although most of Butt Naked Free consists of original songs, Davis does include a couple of songs by blues legends Blind Willie McTell and Gary Davis. The album ends with the beautiful "Raining in My Soul," on which producer John Platania (Van Morrison's guitarist) plays electric guitar.
— Paul-Emile Comeau
(Comeauville, NS, Canada)

Dave Carter and
Tracy Grammer
Tanglewood Tree
Signature Sounds SIG 1257 (2000)

Although they've been together for less than three years, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer belong at the top of any short list of up-and-coming American folk performers. They have everything going for them: intelligent, thoughtful lyrics sung in a discriminating way that captures your attention, melodies that fit and enhance the words to the songs, and supportive, appropriate instrumental arrangements that are never overdone. Carter is the song- and tunesmith for the duo, and he's a creative, serious, literate, witty, communicative writer. He was raised in rural Texas and Oklahoma, and the style and body of his material places him in musical kinship with the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and other Texans. But sometimes Carter's creations come from the same eerie neck of the woods where Gillian Welch finds her lyrics, that part of the forest just next to where the Blair Witch Project was filmed. Add in dashes of Doc Watson and the "original" Carter Family, and you've got a good idea of what's happening on these CDs.
When I Go was released privately and recorded in Grammer's kitchen. Billed as "Dave Carter with Tracy Grammer," Carter sings lead on all but one stanza of the album's 10 songs. Instrumentation is sparse — Carter plays guitar, banjo, and bass; Grammer plays violin, mandolin, and guitar and adds backing vocals; Eric Park plays harmonica or accordion — and the arrangements always dovetail with the mood of the songs and give the proceedings an alternative-acoustic-country-folk edge. The opening cut, the Gillianesque "When I Go," features simple banjo/fiddle accompaniment tastefully framing mysterious, mystical, semi-oblique lyrics that draw you in and won't let you escape. Next is the wise-ass, Woody Guthrie-type talking blues "Don't Tread on Me," about the boiling frustrations of the American working-class male. "Grand Prairie Texas Homesick Blues" has a light, reflective feel, but it's a you-can't-go-home-again song reminiscent of Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris. The upbeat, twangy "River, Where She Sleeps" recalls Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds. "Frank to Valentino" tells the tale of a "homely son of a handsome man," a working stiff who at 17 married a beautiful but mean-talking woman, only to be "the close-range victim of her sawed-off mouth" 20 years later. "Little Liza Jane" is a fanciful, frenetic tale of a trucker who cheats death somewhere downhill from the Twilight Zone.
Tanglewood Tree finds the billing altered to Carter and Grammer, with Grammer's vocal role expanding to that of lead singer on four of 11 selections. Aptly deployed electric bass, drum kit, Hammond organ, piano, and Dobro are occasionally added to the arrangements and further enhance the aural atmosphere. "Hey Conductor" is a catchy, sing-alongy adrenaline-filled train ride that barrels down the tracks in memorable fashion. The slow song of love gone awry, "Walkin' Away from Caroline" is an emotionally draining experience, while the title track, with a lyrical structure that turns full circle, features both singers in an equally intense song about the tension in love. The unfortunate Bonnie Brown's fate is sealed during a card game with her devil-lover in the shadowy realm of "Cat-Eye Willie Claims His Lover," and its driven arrangement recalls every outlaw cowboy song you've ever heard. "Farewell to Fiddler's Rim" spotlights Grammer on lead vocals and has both contemporary country and traditional Appalachian sensibilities.
Both albums are highly recommended.
— Al Riess (Buffalo, NY)

Whirligig
Spin
Prime CD pcd70 (2000)
Virtuosity, eclectic instrumentation and arrangements, and a lead singer with a voice to die for make the arrival of Whirligig's latest CD a cause for celebration. This septet from New York City is a Celtic band by material and background, but they take this tradition far beyond its typical borders, perhaps most notably by creative use of woodwinds and brass instruments. On "Wink and Follow You," Matt Darriu's clarinet takes the melodic lead that would usually fall to a fiddler or a piper. Elsewhere, Lisa Gutkin's clean, spirited fiddling blends with Cillian Vallely's playful and dextrous piping and whistling to form a more familiar mix. Lisa Moscatiello, late of the New St. George and other bands, brings her deep, soulful voice and her ability to impart meaning to a variety of material, from the most traditional ballads like "A Fair Maid Walking" to the B-52s song "Revolution Earth," which closes the disc. Other unexpected pleasures are saxophonist Yves Duboin's exotic solo evocation of Gregorian chants and a melancholy but beautiful version of Susan McKeown's ballad "Through the Bitter Frost and Snow." Guitarist/mandolin player Paul Kovit and bouzouki player Greg Anderson give the ensemble rhythmic drive and textural depth, and guest drummer Steve Holloway gives the group just the kick in the pants it needs on sets like "The Abbey Reels."
— Michael Parrish (Downers Grove, IL)

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