03.20.2008
Spins: The Black Crowes, Kathleen Edwards
The Black Crowes
Warpaint
Label: Silver Arrow
If you like: The Black Crowes, fully realized
Song to download: “Oh Josephine”
3 stars (out of four)
The seven years between new albums by The Black Crowes has brought a new sense of solidarity to the band, now in its 18th year. Granted, traces of all of the band’s original touchstones - The Rolling Stones, The Faces, Free, Humble Pie - still emerge, without apology. The difference is that the band has come to understand that these bands were re-creating a musical heritage that was the Crowes’ birthright.
On the new Warpaint, the band has fully embraced its Southern heritage. Themes of sin and heartbreak, and jubilant redemption and rejuvenation, are delivered along a pathway of jukin’ blues, riff-happy rock, folk-country ballads, gospel and blues that transcends influences and trumps Amorica, with the band’s earlier, likeminded masterwork.
Singer Chris Robinson has found his voice, the songs are good to great, and the guitar interplay between Rich Robinson and new member Luther Dickenson (North Mississippi All Stars) is a pure pleasure. Don’t call it a comeback; call it a fresh look at a bright future.
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Kathleen Edwards
Asking For Flowers
Label: Zoe/Rounder
If you like: Lucinda Williams
Song to download: “I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory”
3 1/2 stars
It has been three years since Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards released an album, and, thankfully, the new Asking For Flowers finds her sounding refreshed, sharp and feisty.
Themes of separation (nothing new for her) abound throughout this rootsy album, from a broadside road anthem (the biting “The Cheapest Key") to a murder ballad ("Alicia Ross") that is so intricately told as to reveal just enough to allow the listener’s mind to shape the full scenario.
This time around she left her road band in idle and instead used hired guns - including keyboardist Benmont Tench and pedal-steel wizard Greg Leisz - who sacrifice the ebb and flow of spontaneity for a nimble and dynamic professionalism that well serves Edwards’ open-hearted lyricism. It could be argued that “Run” flirts with, yet never succumbs to, schmaltz, but for the most part, this collection of reliable, infinitely appealing songs is a reflection of an alternately tough and tender songwriter confident in her craft and secure in her vulnerability.