MUSIC FOR LIVING: New CD Reviews - July 2009

Bob Dylan
Together Through Life
Columbia
www.bobdylan.com
Bob Dylan goes south with his latest effort, recorded with his indefatigable road band and special guests Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers) on guitar and Los Lobos’s David Hidalgo on accordion. The result is his most expansive musical palette since1976’s Desire, with Tex-Mex two-step rubbing up against Muddy Waters-style Chicago blues with a bit of French cabaret thrown in. Dylan’s writing isn’t always up to par—blame that on co-lyricist Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead—but his vocals are imbued with newfound personality and humor familiar to those who’ve been following him as the host of his Theme Time Radio Hour program, and the record ends with two instant classics: “I Feel a Change Comin’ On” and “It’s All Good,” the latter on which he eviscerates those who use that catchphrase. In sum, his best-sounding and most entertaining album in many years.

 

Eilen Jewell   
Sea of Tears
Signature Sounds
www.eilenjewell.com
From the sound of her latest album, Eilen Jewell has been drinking from the same well as Bob Dylan. Sea of Tears is drenched in the atmosphere of the roadside juke-joint, where bluesy surf guitar leads and Johnny Cash-style chick-a-boom rhythms vie for primacy with the Idaho native’s sultry, soulful vocals. Jewell handles most of the writing chores on the dozen tracks; at her best, on numbers such as “Sweet Rose,” Jewell writes songs with such a timeless, Sun Records-vibe that they seem to have been around for fifty years. She also includes apt covers of Loretta Lynn’s “Darkest Day” and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates’s “Shakin’ All Over,” illuminating the country-to-rockabilly range of Jewell’s roots-music aesthetic. Extra points for her smoking-hot power trio of guitarist Jerry Miller, bassist John Sciascia, and drummer Jason Beck. This CD should appeal to fans of Lucinda Williams and Patsy Cline alike.

 

Shakers n’ Bakers
YFZ (Yearning for Zion)
Little (I) Music
www.littleimusic.com
“Simple Gifts” this is not. Instead, Shakers n’ Bakers, an all-star collective of downtown musicians, revisit traditional Shaker “vision” songs through their contemporary, improvisatory approach to come up with an ecstatic, song-based avant-garde jazz that draws upon other spiritual-based genres, including gospel and reggae. The result is alternatively soulful and funky, as on “In Me Canoe,” driven by Mary LaRose’s and Miles Griffith’s vocals, Jeff Lederer’s honking tenor saxophone, and Jamie Saft’s lacy Hammond B-3 organ. On its second CD—which includes guest appearances by downtown stalwarts Mark Feldman on violin, Matt Wilson on drums, and Andrew D’Angelo on woodwinds—the group expands its musical terrain to connect the Shakers to contemporary spiritual-minded composers such as John Adams, György Ligeti, and Arvo Pärt, basing improvisations upon their scores and combining them with Shaker texts. One would like to believe that Mother Ann Lee would have appreciated the end result; fans of cutting-edge creative music certainly will. [JULY 2009]