RobertHilburnOnline.com
  • Randy Newman
  • Inside Randy Newman
  • Books by Bob
  • ABOUT BOB
  • PAUL SIMON: THE LIFE
    • WHY PAUL SIMON?
    • GRACELAND
  • JOHNNY CASH: THE LIFE
  • CORN FLAKES WITH JOHN LENNON
  • SPRINGSTEEN
  • PHOTOS
  • CONTACT

The Decembrists, Gregg Allman and Wanda Jackson. Also, "Another Year" and "Country Strong"

2/2/2011

0 Comments

 
THE DECEMBERISTS’ “THE KING IS DEAD” (Capitol)
√ Bob Certified

   Peter Buck’s guest role on three tracks (mandolin, 12-string electric guitar and more) isn’t the only reason you’ll be reminded at times of R.E.M., but the Decemberists’ stylish country-edged folk and literate tales (not to  mention a trace of Levon Helm in some of Colin Meloy’s vocals) also recall bits of the Band. There’s not the overt ambition or complexity that you find in some earlier albums by the group, but the songs are sweet, intimate and wonderful. Among the standouts: “January Hymn” and “Down by the Water.” These lines from the former are typical of the delicate reflection contained in both tunes:  Pale the winter days after dark / Wandering the gray memorial park / A fleeting beating of hearts.

 
GREGG ALLMAN’S “LOW COUNTRY BLUES” (Rounder)
√ Bob Certified

    At its peak in the late-1960s and 1970s, the Allman Brothers Band may have been the most exciting blues-rock group in America—certainly when it came to pure rhythm and sonic dynamics. Gregg’s gravel-ground vocals were a powerful bonus to the basic instrumental thrust. All these years later, things are gentler (this is pure blues, after all, not blues-rock), but his singing has rarely been better during his solo works. The material—by such blues notables as Muddy Waters, Skip James and Sleepy John Estes—is solid and T Bone Burnett’s production continues to be endlessly rich. The rendition of B.B. King and Sam Ling’s “Please Accept My Love” is the finest recording of an old-school R&B lament since old-school was new.

 
WANDA JACKSON’S “THE PARTY AIN’T OVER” (Third Man/Nonesuch)
Has its moments.

   There are some winning tracks here, including a raucous version of Bob Dylan’s “Thunder on the Mountain” (in which the 73-year-old rockabilly queen changes the reference to Alicia Keys to Southern homeboy Jerry Lee) and a stripped-down treatment of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel #6.” Still, Jackson, who has been voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an “early influence,” is no Loretta Lynn and “The Party Ain’t Over” is no “Van Lear Rose.” Even if the results are far more modest, White’s guitar work is exquisite and the band is a knock-out. For fans of early rockabilly, some other female notables from the ’50s include Lorrie Collins (of the Collins Kids), Charline Arthur and Janis Martin.

 
“ANOTHER YEAR”

√ Bob Certified

   Friends warned me to stay away from this movie because of one supposedly “unbearable” character, but I think that character is one of the strongest things in the latest from British director Michael Leigh. The film conveys an endearing sense of honesty and humanity as it takes us through four seasons in a British couple’s life as they approach retirement—watching them tend their garden, go to work and host various friends and family members during some good and desperate times. Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen are letter-perfect as the couple, but it’s still Lesley Manville’s film. Manville plays that supposedly unbearable character. She does complain and whine and grate on your nerves, but she also touches you as you realize this sad, fragile person is unraveling as she sees any chance for happiness in her life slowly slipping through her hands. A most affecting film

“COUNTRY STRONG”

Dreadful.

   Even with the long list of actors who have picked up Oscars by stepping into role of a country singer (Sissy Spacek to Jeff Bridges), it’s hard to see how Gwyneth Paltrow could think of  this clichéd soap opera as an opportunity or challenge. She’s creditable enough in the part of a country star who is being brought out of rehab too soon by her manipulative husband-manager (sound clichéd enough for you?), but the film is so filled with dramatic false starts and unconvincing turns that no one can feel good about themselves in the movie—except perhaps Garrett Hedlund, who looks and sounds good in a showcase role as a principled young country songwriter. He’s a star in the making.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Robert Hilburn

         I was pop music critic and pop music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 through 2005, and am writing books.  A memoir, "Corn Flakes with John Lennon" was published last fall.  The paperback is due in October.  I am now working on a biography.
    Photo by Jeff Amlotte, copyright 2009.

    Picture

    Archives

    February 2012
    January 2012
    July 2011
    April 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    May 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.