MUSIC FOR LIVING: New CD Reviews September 2009

 

Elvis Costello
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
Hear Music       
www.hearmusic.com

Loretta Lynn, Bing Crosby, and Hans Christian Andersen all find a place at the table on Elvis Costello’s latest dip into American roots-music stylings. Recorded in Nashville with a lineup of all-star country music string-band talents including Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Mike Compton, with harmony vocals by Jim Lauderdale and Emmylou Harris, this drummer-less, all-acoustic T-Bone Burnett-produced effort finds Costello toying with the guise of a P.T. Barnum barnstorming the small towns of turn-of-the-century America to sell entertainment like so much snake oil. It’s a pleasant diversion from one of our greatest contemporary singer-songwriters.

 

 

Various Artists
Playing for Change: Songs Around the World
Hear Music
www.playingforchange.com

It’s a platitude that music unites people around the globe, but producer Mark Johnson made that happen musically and visually on this CD/DVD package of anthems of unity by the likes of Bob Marley (“One Love”), Tracy Chapman and Ben E. King (“Stand By Me”), Sam Cooke (“A Change is Gonna Come”), and U2 (“Love Rescue Me”), all of which are sung and performed by musicians worldwide through the miracle of mobile recording technology. “One Love,” for example, features a Nepalese percussionist and sitarist; vocalists from South Africa, Congo, and Israel; guitarists from Italy, Zimbabwe, and South Africa; and a U.S. banjo player. Regional stars including Israel’s David Broza and Ghana’s Rocky Dawuni share equal billing with headliners Bono and Keb’ Mo’ and street musicians from Amsterdam to New Orleans in a truly democratic musical effort.

 

 

Levon Helm
Electric Dirt
Vanguard
www.vanguardrecords.com

In the period immediately following the demise of the original lineup of the Band in 1976, singer-drummer Levon Helm made a series of terrific solo albums drawing upon blues, country, and soul—music that’s always remained close to his heart. Helm’s latest effort, Electric Dirt, picks up in the tradition of those recordings by including well-known tunes by the likes of the Grateful Dead (“Tennessee Jed”) and Randy Newman (“Kingfish”) alongside lesser-known numbers by Muddy Waters, the Staples Singers, and Happy Traum. With the addition of horns arranged by Allen Toussaint and Steven Bernstein on several numbers, this Larry Campbell-produced effort, powered by musicians from daughter Amy Helm’s band, Ollabelle, ranks with the best post-Last Waltz efforts by any former member of the Band. [SEPTEMBER 2009]