Music Short Takes For 15 November 2021

Dev'lish Mary - Hot Club of Cowtown (2000 Hightone Records) Imagine you've booked talent for a party and Bob Wills, The Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Les Paul and Mary Ford show up to play. This is what it's like to listen to a disc by Hot Club of Cowtown. I've always felt it was unfair to compare acts and artists. Still, the best way to describe Hot Club of Cowtown is to reference their obvious influences. Many of their songs follow the tempos, arrangements, and instrumentation of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Fiddles, slide guitars, and plinky electric guitars are the centerpieces of most of the tracks. Intros go for a minute or more before the vocals start. All of these things are throwbacks to classic Texas Swing. When they diverge from Swing, the songs that feature Elana Frenerman's vocals and Whit Smith's guitar work sound so much like sound so much like Les Paul and Mary Ford, I was tempted to take a second look at the liner notes. They are wonderful in their own right. My point is, if you like the Zippers, Wills, Ford, and Paul, this is going to be pure candy for your ears. If you try this and like it, check out their influences as well. 5/5

Fire in the Kitchen - The Chieftains (1998 BMG) Fire in the Kitchen refers to a Canadian custom of "kitchen parties,," where musicians gather and play to share songs and enjoy each others' company. This disc is a hat tip to the Canadian artists who have become a growing source of Celtic-inspired music. The program opens with a trio of reels performed by The Chieftains and Leahy. What follows is a delicate, haunting ballad by The Rankins, Great Big Sea rips through Lukey/Lukaloney, and more traditional tracks done right by Laura Smith, Ashley McIsaac, Rita McNeil, Natalie McMaster, Mary Jane Lamond, Barra McNeils, The Ennis Sisters, La Bottine, and Maloney. Unlike most of The Chieftains' guest compilations, there are no surprises when it comes to the performances. This is not damning with faint praise. If anything, the dependably good performances from everyone on this disc speaks to their affection for the music they make. This is a musical homecoming in the best sense. 5/5

Lounge-A-Palooza - Various Artists (1997 Hollywood Records) Hollywood Records' collection from the renaissance of Lounge has some delightfully listenable surprises. The usual suspects are here: Combustible Edison, Pizzicato Five, and the James Taylor Quartet do what they do best. There are a few missteps as well. Steve and Edie's rendition of Black Hole Sun is painfully bad. (Confession time: I didn't like the original and would have preferred they cover something else.) The other speed bump on this otherwise musical thrill ride was P.J. Harvey's lifeless cover of Zaz Turned Blue. Still, the delights outnumber the skips on this: Poe's arch, acidic performance of A Rose Is A Rose is not to be missed. The same goes for Fastball's cover of the Bacharach/David classic, This Guy's In Love With You and Ben Folds' too, too clever to not stick to the roof of your skull She Don't Use Jelly. This disc holds up to repeat, if selective listening as long as it's shaken, not stirred. 3/5

Ride This - Los Lobos (2004 Mammoth Records) This mixtape cum road ep was released as an extension of their full-length CD, The Ride. It includes covers of favorite songs from the likes of Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Ruben Blades, and Richard Thompson. Sometimes they amplify the emotions of the originals, such as their smoky, moody rendition of Waits' Jockey Full of Bourbon. They make other songs their own, with their bluesy, rocking delivery of Elvis Costello's Uncomplicated and their almost menacing cover of Richard Thompson's Shoot Out The Lights that has its arrangement reduced to stinging rock chords. Their relatively stripped down, achingly beautiful version of Blades' Patria and their 70s R&B callback on It'll Never Be Over For Me might be the best tracks on the disc. Stick this one in your CD wallet the next time you have to hit the road for a while. You may find yourself wailing along with Hidalgo and company as the odometer rolls on. 4.5/5

Legal stuff to make you very sleepy (binaural beats not included.)

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