Top 10 CD's of 2008

Another year has come and gone, so once again it's time to go over my favorite CD's of the past year.

10. Danelia Cotton, Rare Child: A little funk, a little rock, and a powerful voice make for a winning formula.







9. Mudcrutch: Tom Petty breaks a bit from his usual formula, and the result is one of his strongest albums in quite some time.







8. La Rocca, OK Okay: These three Irishmen and one Englishman are superior pop craftsman that I expect to be hearing a lot from in the future.






7. Dion, Heroes: Legends of Early Guitar Rock: This is an absolute delight for people with even a moderate interest in 50's music.






6. Fleet Foxes: This highly touted debut justifies the hype.









5. Týr, Ragnarok: By combining heavy metal with folk music and a great concept, Týr have put the Faroe Islands on the musical map.






4. Anna Ternheim: Yes, the EP was better than the full-length album that followed. Ternheim just released an album of all-new material in Sweden in November, so look for it to reach these shores soon.




3. The Ditty Bops, Summer Rains: It may not be the list-topper that Moon Over the Freeway was two years ago, but it's still another solid effort from the charmingly subversive duo.





2. Sam Phillips, Don't Do Anything: Phillips has always been at her best when she's been at her most cathartic, and there's plenty of catharsis to go around on this record.





1. The Born Again Floozies, Street Music: Stubborn defiance meets great songwriting. Fly your freak flag high!







reviewed by Scott

Dion, Son of Skip James (Verve Records, 2007) and Heroes: Giants of Early Guitar Rock (Saguaro Road, 2008)

For somebody rapidly approaching his seventieth birthday, rock legend Dion DiMucci has been awfully busy. His 2006 labor of love Bronx in Blue, a celebration of the blues music he grew up with, was one of my favorite albums from that year. But that was just the first entry in a trilogy (at least so far) of tribute albums that Dion has put out. 2007's Son of Skip James chronicles the transition from blues to rock, and focuses somewhat on the more spiritual elements of the blues. Then, on this past year's Heroes: Giants of Early Guitar Rock, Dion pays homage to many of his contemporaries who defined rock and roll in the late fifties.

Son of Skip James picks up where Bronx in Blue left off. A keyboard is added to the basic acoustic guitar and drum arrangements, and Dion focuses more on aggressive strumming than straight picking with his guitar, but the cool bluesy feel remains largely unchanged. Dion's singing has lost none of the attitude over the years, and his guitar playing continues to be a revelation. On this album Dion covers blues stalwarts like Willie Dixon and "Sleepy" John Estes, but he also includes some performers from the rock era like Chuck Berry and even Bob Dylan. Highlights include Berry's "Nadine," Estes' "Drop Down Mama," and Dylan's "Baby I'm in the Mood for You."

The second half of the album gets more religious, echoing back to the gospel phase of Dion's career in the late seventies and early eighties. Dion's own "The Thunderer" tells of St. Jerome, an acerbic and often conflicted writer who, perhaps in spite of himself, made essential contributions to the development of the early Catholic Church. "Son of Skip James," another original composition, was inspired by a conversation Dion once had with the late blues singer that covered a variety of topics, including Jesus. Dion ties the religious themes back to the blues by closing the album with Robert Johnson's "Preachin' Blues" and "If I Had Possession (Over Judgement Day), followed by "Devil Got My Woman" from, predictably, Skip James.

For Heroes, Dion brings in a second guitarist and bassist for a full band sound, and the result is some good old fashioned rock and roll. Most of the songs on this disc are part of the canon, and probably familiar to most people. Dion gets to the likes of Eddie Cochran ("Summertime Blues"), Elvis ("Jailhouse Rock"), Johnny Cash ("I Walk the Line"), and yes, even himself (the album finishes with an only slightly updated version of "The Wanderer"). The album works well, for the simple reason that it consists of really good performances of really good songs. This is music that is worth remembering and preserving, from performers who deserve to be remembered as well. Unfortunately, other than Dion himself, Chuck Berry (who's well into his eighties), and The Everly Brothers (who only occasionally perform these days), the original performers of these songs are no longer with us. Having been part of the infamous Winter Dance Party tour in 1959 with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper (Holly and Valens are both covered on Heroes), and having passed on the opportunity to share a plane ride with the ill-fated trio, Dion is probably more keenly aware of that fact than anybody.

Dion has now devoted three albums to the music of his inspirations and his contemporaries. While it's easy to question the need to repeat what's already been done, the fact is that there is an awful lot of good music from the early decades of rock and roll that needs to be preserved, and the original performers are mostly not around to do it themselves. The songs on Son of Skip James and Heroes sound as fresh and vital now as they ever have. And, perhaps more importantly, so does Dion.

Overall grades:
Son of Skip James B+
Heroes A-

reviewed by Scott

Dion lays down the vocal track for "Summertime Blues."

Reprinted with permission from The Green Man Review
Copyright 2009 The Green Man Review

Top 10 CD's of 2006

Hello and Happy New Year. As promised, it's time for the annual Top 10 CD list. Given the predominance of iTunes and iPods and single-song downloads, it's easy to be concerned that the album is becoming a lost art. Commercially there may be an element of truth to that, but I've reviewed plenty of albums this past year that are worth enjoying as a whole, not piecemeal. And as always, I have much more respect for artists who can impress me for forty minutes at a time, rather than just four.

I've reviewed nine of these albums already, and the tenth was reviewed here by Jim Lynch, so I don't have to go into any lengthy descriptions.

1. The Ditty Bops, Moon Over The Freeway. They're clever, they're funny, and they have to many good songs to ignore.



2. Johnny Clegg, One Life. I'm always happy when an old stand-by returns to form in a big way.




3. Dion, Bronx In Blue. He's always been a great singer, but I was really impressed with his guitar-playing on this one.



4. Värttinä, Miero. They're doing some U.S. shows this month, so keep your eyes open. The review was posted in Green Man Review.



5. Merrie Amsterburg, Clementine and Other Stories. Like Bronx in Blue, this album brings the musical traditions of America's past into the 21st century.


6. Loreena McKennitt, An Ancient Muse. Another unique artist makes a fine return.




7. Weird Al Yankovic, Straight Outta Lynwood. His biggest hit, only twenty-five years after his first album. Even people like me who loved his first record assumed at the time that he was just a novelty act. I guess we were wrong.

8. Maria Kalaniemi, Bellow Poetry. To really hear this one, turn the lights out and shut off all sound.




9. Amy Speace, Songs For Bright Street. A sharp wit and some good melodies should have gotten her more attention than she has to this point.



10. Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. Eerie and Cryptic, but also compelling.

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Dion, Bronx in Blue (DMR, 2006)

He's been a teenager in love, and king of the New York streets. He's the kind of guy who likes to roam around, but he couldn't keep away from Runaround Sue. He's sung doo-wop, rock, folk, and gospel. He was the classic guy's guy, when everybody knows that crooners are supposed to be ladies' men. In a remarkable career spanning close to fifty years, Bronx native Dion has been a lot of different things, but a few things have remained constant. First and foremost, Dion is a great singer. Also, even though his musical direction has gone on a few tangents, he's never been dull. And perhaps most importantly, even now at 66, Dion simply exudes cool. "After all," as Lou Reed pointed out when inducting him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "who can be hipper than Dion?"

Now Dion has re-emerged with Bronx in Blue, an homage to the blues and country music that inspired Dion to become one of rock music's founding fathers way back when. Along with two original songs, Bronx in Blue includes covers of some of the great blues standards, including Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love," Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" and "Traveling Riverside Blues," and Hank Williams' "Honky Tonk Blues." The instrumentation is sparse, but the combination of Bob Guertin's light drumming and Dion's remarkably deft picking on acoustic guitar works spectacularly throughout the album. Dion demonstrates an understanding of the blues rivalling that of the Stones and even Eric Clapton, and manages to exceed those performers in his ability to do justice to the old songs without drastically altering the original arrangements. This is the blues in as pure a form as it still can be done, and it works.

Bronx in Blue is a brilliantly conceived and executed disc of simple, homemade blues from one of rock's living legends. Anybody in the mood for some front porch acoustic blues, or even some basic guitar music in general, will love this.

Overall grade: A