Other than hair-of-the-dog breakfast beers, there are few New Year’s traditions finer than slipping on a few new sounds, just to see if they fit. Here are the first releases of 2002 to hit the racks.
SHANNON McNALLY“Jukebox Sparrow” ½ Capitol RecordsNew York native Shannon McNally left the comforts and security of home a few years back to travel west, then south. Along the way, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter found the characters and stories for the songs she sings with understated energy and zero pretension.
On “Jukebox Sparrow,” McNally first shakes you with her smoky, sexy, I-just-woke-up voice. Then, after she has your full attention, she wows you with lyrics that dabble in escapism, rebellion and hard love.
Although she’s less loopy than Rickie Lee Jones and more articulate than Edie Brickell, McNally has qualities reminiscent of both. Listen for the deep blues of “Down and Dirty,” the opener of the disc, and her excellent answer to Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl,” called “Bury My Heart on the Jersey Shore.”
RICHARD JULIAN“Good Life” My Good Man RecordsRichard Julian is all words – nouns, verbs and adjectives – far more words than Sister Teresetta warned her sentence-diagramming second-graders should ever come between the uppercase letter and the period.
Julian aims 17 songs’ worth of those words at various observations and the possibility of meeting chicks, taking them home, keeping them and getting rid of them so he can start all over again. The guy isn’t a great vocalist, but his voice fits around all those words like an old shirt.
This isn’t a wallpaper album that you put on and do something else to. Julian makes you listen to his stories with his Zen-like, listen-if-you-want-to attitude. By the time he’s singing “The Wrong Bus” (a story within a story) or “Everything’s Cool” (an ode to air-conditioning), you want to.
This album has no snap-crackle-pop sense, but Julian’s gentle voice and light acoustic accompaniment make this a compelling listen, at least on the first few spins. If you live outside the city and can’t find this disc at your local record shop, buzz Julian at richardjulian.com.
DAVID and DIANE
ARKENSTONE“Music Inspired by Middle Earth” ½ Neo Pacifica RecordingsNew Age gurus David and Diane Arkenstone fulfill one of David’s self-professed lifelong goals – to create the music that would make hairy hobbit feet dance in Middle Earth.
Wisely, the husband-and-wife team tapped ancient Celtic melody lines that seem to fit the exotic Middle Earth created by Englishman J.R.R. Tolkien. Granted, this collection has appeal – especially when the instrumental songs conjure an ethnic, folkish quality. But when it gets the full, symphonic orchestra treatment, David sounds like a schlocky Lord of the Strings.
What a savvy ploy for snatching some green from both longtime Tolkien readers and the late author’s new fans, now flocking to the film based on his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
VARIOUS ARTISTS“Preachin’ the Blues: The Music of Mississippi Fred McDowell” TelarcMississippi Fred McDowell was born in 1904, died in 1971 and quietly stands to this day as one of the finest slide guitarists ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^and Delta bluesmen who ever left his farm to make music.
On “Preaching the Blues,” McDowell’s sound is re-created with loving care by various artists, but as guitarist Steve James says in the liner notes, “I can’t imitate Fred, nobody can, that’s why everybody on this album sounds like themselves.”
“Everybody” includes blues masters Charlie Musselwhite, Tab Benoit and Brian Stoltz, to name but a few.
There are top performances from slide-guitar queen Sue Foley singing “Frisco Line,” Anders Osbourne doing McDowell’s “Kokomo Blues” and Stoltz’s version of “You Gotta Move,” made popular by The Rolling Stones.
If you like slide guitar, Delta blues or simply giving respect to a guy who deserves to be remembered, this album is terrific.
