HEARING AIDS

MUSIC REVIEWS
BY
LANCE DAVIS




Normally I find country music about as inspirational as watching animals evolve. However, every so often an artist, or an album, comes along which forces me to rethink my trailer-park and Deliverance preconceptions. In fact, 1994 saw the release of several such epiphanies, four of which I'd like to share with you today. And in the spirit of this issue, I've decided to give this segment a country-esque moniker: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Almost Blue.

Johnny Cash American Recordings
American
The "something old" of this quartet is actually a "someone"-Johnny Cash. This is a man who in his sixties, released one of last year's most critically acclaimed albums, the appropriately titled, American Recordings. Combining elements of quintessential American forms like Appalachian folk, Delta blues, and Texas-style country & western, the Man in Black takes us on an acoustic tour through a world as dark and reflective as any conjured up by guys with names like Cobain, Rollins, and Reznor. When he sings, "The beast in me has had to learn to live with pain" or "My old friend Lucifer came, fought to keep me in chains," he sings it with the tortured conviction of someone who just might be on Hell's guest list. And despite the mournful despair which pervades this album, it's really a work of wisdom, purity, and stark beauty, almost spiritual. In the song "Like a Soldier" for instance, the singer surveys the wreckage of his past and wonders aloud, "Hidden memories come stealing from my mind/ And I feel my own heart beating out, the simple joy of living/ And I wonder how I ever was that kind." His rearview-melancholy is tempered, though, with the knowledge that he's "like a soldier getting over the war/ Like a young man getting over his crazy days." This dichotomy between "oh me" despair and faithful optimism might best be summed up in the haunting Vietnam War tale, "Drive On." A song about rocks and hard places, and forgiving but not forgetting, the chorus merely shrugs, "Drive on, it don't mean nothing/ My children love me but they don't understand/ And I got a woman who loves her man/ Drive on, it don't mean nothing."

With a lone acoustic guitar providing musical accompaniment, simple, two-and-three-chord narratives, and minimalist production from Rick Rubin, the overall performance has a plaintive, sittin-in-a- candlelit-living-room sorta feel. And having gone through the "ring of fire," and having "shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die," Johnny Cash now brings us to a place "where the train goes slow/ Where the sinner can be washed in the blood of the lamb."

Various Artists Red, Hot and Country
Mercury Nashville
As a rule of thumb, country music and progressive social attitudes come together like Seattle and sunshine, but this CD is a conscious step forward. Created as a benefit for AIDS education and relief, RH+C presents a number of country artists performing - as the liner notes indicate - "a song in a style that influenced them." The fourth "Red Hot" album in a series of AIDS awareness and fundraising projects by The Red Hot Organization, this is, like most multi-artist compilations, a miss-and-hit affair. However, hearing Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Willie Nelson duet on the Willie/Patsy jukebox hero "Crazy" puts the misses in complete perspective. This rendition is truly majestic.

Most of the songs which would qualify as according-to-Hoyle "hits" tend to be explorations of mortality, a none too surprising theme given the motivation for this album. One notable exception is Dolly Parton's rave-up "You Gotta Be My Baby," a George Jones ditty that would do Maria McKee proud. That aside, Johnny Cash's take on Dylan's "Forever Young," Mary Chapin-Carpenter's "Willie Short" (one of the folks to whom this album is dedicated), and the Nanci Griffith/Jimmy Webb ("Witchita Lineman") duet, "If These Old Walls Could Speak," are three of this album's more poignant and heartfelt recordings. My favorite song on this compilation, though, is the Wilco with Syd Straw cut, "The T.B. is Whipping Me." Wilco features two members from the amazing-but-now-defunct Uncle Tupelo, and this song continues that band's tradition of rootsy, blue-collar country rock. Written by Ernie Tubbs for the T.B.-afflicted Jimmie Rodgers, the singer laments, "My lungs are rattlin,' you outta hear this cough of mine/ My lungs are rattlin,' you outta hear this cough of mine/ That doggone bug, workin' overtime." While RH+C may be the runt of this particular litter, its socially conscious outlook (especially in light of its country flavor) makes this a noteworthy release and "something new" indeed.

Various Artists Tulare Dust
- A Songwriters' Tribute to Merle Haggard
Hightone
Like the aforementioned Uncle Tupelo-as well as Johnny Cash for that matter-Merle Haggard was a workingman's artist, as content to riff on capitalist letdown ("They're Tearing the Labor Camps Down," "A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today") as he was on drinking ("Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down," "I Can't Hold Myself in Line") and lost love ("Shopping For Dresses," "Irma Jackson," etc). And probably because he wrote such simple, straightforward songs, any tribute to Hag would succeed to some degree. This compilation of "borrowed tunes," though, exceeds every expectation. From the stripped-down production, to the roster of artists, to the selection of songs, Tulare Dust is a work of love and inspiration. The irony of this album is that most of the highlights come courtesy of the female performers. Iris Dement's take on "Big City" is so good, it raises the hair on my dog's neck. ("I've been working every day since I was twenty/ I ain't got a thing to show for anything I've done/ Some folks never work and they've got plenty/ I think it's time girls like me had some fun.... And keep your retirement, and your so-called social security/ Big city turn me loose and set me free"). Of course, the same could be said for Katy Moffatt's lovesick version of "I Can't Be Myself" ("I can't be myself and be what pleases you/ And deep inside I don't believe you really want me to") and Rosie Flores' version of "My Own Kind of Hat" ("Dirt roads and white lines, and all kinds of stop signs/ But I'll stand right here where I'm at/ Cuz I wear my own kind of hat").

However, fellow Bakersfielder Dwight Yoakam turns in a heart-breaking rendition of the broken-family saga "Holding Things Together" ("Holding things together ain't no easy thing to do/ When it comes to raising children, it's a job meant for two"). For my money, though, this album's high point (along with Iris Dement's "Big City") is John Doe's cover of "I Can't Hold Myself in Line," a bluesy, pedal-steel-fueled anthem about being a boozing fuck-up ("They give me no reason for my drinkin'/ But I just can't stand myself at times/ And you're better off to just leave and forget me/ Cuz I can't hold myself in line"). Along with American Recordings, this is one of country music's most essential albums of the 1990's.

Elvis Costello Almost Blue
Rykodisc
Well, as I'm sure you've surmised, this is the "almost blue' segment of today's program. Originally released in 1981, this record was intended to be "a collection of melancholy songs of many styles." However, it soon evolved into an homage to many of Elvis' country influences, people like George Jones ("Brown to Blue," "A Good Year for the Roses"), Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers ("I'm Your Toy," "How Much I Lied") and yes, Merle Haggard ("Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down"). Unfortunately, the album either alienated Elvis' fans or they dismissed it as self-indulgent experimentation. But listening to Ryko's re-issue (complete with live performances and studio leftovers) reveals not only Elvis' keen ear for strong song writing, but his overwhelming talent for interpretation. This is particularly evident in the live cuts. His renditions of the Hank Cochran gem "He's Got You," Johnny Cash's (here he is yet again!) "Cry, Cry, Cry," and Leon Payne's obscure chestnut "Psycho," clearly demonstrate his love and command of the country music genre. For those of you who aren't big fans of this particular genre, Almost Blue succeeds, not only on its own terms, but also by breathing life into a traditional American art form that's too often it's own worst enemy. Anyhoo, happy trails to you....

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Contents on this page were published in the February/March, 1995 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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Copyright © 1995 WFP Collective, Inc.
Lance Davis