CD reviews

By: Staff and wire reports - LOCAL | Wednesday, January 30, 2008 1:54 PM PST ∞

A "Ode to Sunshine"

Delta Spirit

Self-released

It's not so much that the end result sounds much like the music of the legendary rock outfit The Band, but the recipe is similar on the debut album from San Diego's Delta Spirit. Blues and soul, country and jazz, all mixed up together with a huge dash of theatrical bravado and stellar playing.

Neither the album's liner notes nor its MySpace and Web pages provide anything other than last names for the members of the quintet, but the guitars, keyboards, bass and percussion combine into a single instrument. Or, more precisely, as Stanley Dance once wrote of Duke Ellington, the band is the instrument. Delta Spirit's ability to come up with arrangements that draw on the distinctive sound of each instrument to provide a dash of color or inject a bit of melancholy or pure joy ---- well, it's Beatles-esque is what it is. The band even uses some horns as a nice bit of punctuation and shadow on the title track.

But what makes it all come together ---- the gorgeous vocal harmonies, the virtuosic playing, the sophisticated arrangements ---- are the songs. The band wrote all 10 tracks, and as with Paul McCartney's mid-'70s albums with Wings, there are no throwaway or filler songs. Each song is a nugget of pop purity, and each song seems to get the benefit of the band's full attention.

The end result? An atmosphere of fun creativity, and an album that, like those great LPs by The Band 35, 40 years ago, has a sense of "place" about it. An album that announces San Diego has another great band on its hands.

Delta Spirit plays tonight at the Casbah in San Diego.

---- Jim Trageser

Staff writer

POP/ROCK

C "Pocketful of Sunshine"

Natasha Bedingfield

Epic

Natasha Bedingfield's second U.S. disc is called "Pocketful of Sunshine," and it is filled with enough cheer to fill a week's worth of "Rachael Ray" episodes.

There's "Happy," which speaks to keeping your head up even when life is falling down around you; "Freckles," an India.Arie-type song about embracing one's perceived flaws; "Angel," on which she vows to stand by her wonderful man; and the first single, "Love Like This," featuring Sean Kingston, on which she revels in finding a perfect love.

The songs, with their breezy, melodic tone, soaring choruses and layered vocals, recall her breakout hit "Unwritten," the title track to her 2005 U.S. debut. The joyous anthem about embracing dreams and realizing the hope of the future became a feel-good musical mantra and a ubiquitous hit; it's understandable that she is trying to recapture that magic on "Pocketful of Sunshine."

The problem is, the magic that made "Unwritten" so wonderful was not just its message but its great melody and arrangement. Too often on "Pocketful," neither the message nor the music matches the high standard that "Unwritten" set.

A few come close, like the sweet, bouncy "Love Like This," or the sexy groove "Who Knows," and "Put Your Arms Around Me," a rousing ---- and yes, anthemic ---- song about enduring love. But others sound like a generic mix of pop and R&B, such as the unremarkable "Angel," or the disappointing title track.

"Unwritten" established Bedingfield as a strong musical voice with her own identity. Unfortunately, on "Pocket Full of Sunshine," she loses it ---- and becomes just another in the crowd.

Nekesa Mumbi Moody

---- Associated Press

B "Jukebox"

Cat Power

Matador

Listening to "Jukebox" is like sitting in a bar, late at night, after most folks have gone home and the band is onstage winding down by playing its favorites.

As she did with her first covers record, released in 2000, Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, puts her own idiosyncratic stamp on a group of songs by her favorite singers.

Unlike last time when it was just the broken and shy Power, a guitar or piano and her influences, "Jukebox" features Power's new bluesy, soulful sound with The Dirty Delta Blues Band backing her as on 2006's breakthrough album, "The Greatest."

Power's lived-in voice is fantastic as she puts a new, otherworldly spin on Frank Sinatra's version of "New York, New York," slows down Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain" or gives Hank Williams' "Ramblin' Man" a funky soul on "Ramblin' (Wo)Man."

Most of the songs have a little organ, a little slide guitar and new interpretations that are nothing like the original. She slaps the dust off The Highwaymen's "Silver Stallion" and passes away a rainy afternoon with Joni Mitchell's "Blue."

She even gives herself the treatment, re-imagining her own song "Metal Heart" from "Moon Pix," the first album that showed her unbounded promise. As she has with most of these covers, she adds gravitas in the arrangements and vocals scarred by liquor and cigarettes.

While we'd rather have an album of original material, "Jukebox" is a nice way to pass the time while we wait.

---- Associated Press

A "The Bedlam in Goliath"

The Mars Volta

Universal

Words do no justice to The Mars Volta.

Returning with another genre-bending concept piece on their fourth long-player, "The Bedlam in Goliath," The Mars Volta remain a testament to the idea that hearing is believing.

This is not so much a band as a creative trust between guitarist/arranger Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and lyricist/vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, who team with an array of musicians, including Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, to bring their collaborations to life.

On "The Bedlam in Goliath," the concept revolves around an Ouija-like spirit board the duo toyed with and began to cull ideas from for the record, including song titles, lyrics and the story arc of saints and sinners that takes on a life of its own.

You may scoff and shake your head at their muse ---- but the result is a sonic masterpiece.

The wildly prolific Rodriguez-Lopez is nothing if not a guitar wizard, churning out blazing riffs and space rock atmosphere while Bixler-Zavala brings his wonderfully artful and at times incomprehensible lyrics to life with scorching wails.

"Soothsayer," "Ilyena," "Goliath" and "Cavalettas" boast more ambition alone than most discs, and that only begins to scratch the surface of the complex arrangements that remain tightly harnessed.

Beneath the prog rock ambitions lies a true punk/hardcore spirit, making their diversions into odd time signatures, free-form jazz, Eastern and Latin grooves, funk and psychedelia exciting and energetic. Something fresh and unexpected lurks in every corner.

But, again, words do no justice to The Mars Volta.

Hearing is believing.

---- Associated Press

WORLD

B "Dream Garden"

Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures

Justin Time Records

Listening to an Adam Rudolph CD is a bit like hanging out at a university music department evenings after the faculty have gone home and the students have taken over the rehearsal rooms. Jazz, classical and pop forms meet up with Afro and Latin rhythms in a not-always-structured environment ---- yet for every moment that strays irrevocably into musical wilderness, there is another moment of transcendent creativity that just glows.

Rudolph is a hand percussionist as well as bandleader, and has been plying world beat explorations for 30 years now. But his long, recent stint with jazz saxophonist Yusef Lateef has clearly rubbed off on him as this record is far more infused with jazz than his previous solo outings. Lateef's out-there experimentation, too, clearly left a mark on Rudolph's own musical philosophy, at least if this CD is offered up as evidence.

This is a more explorative CD than Rudolph's previous solo outings, and seems more an extension of his recent recordings with Lateef than his previous Moving Pictures outings. Listeners who liked his earlier stuff may not find this album as copacetic, but anyone who dug his collaborations with Lateef will likely enjoy this one as well.

---- JT

BLUEGRASS

A "Good Thing Going"

Rhonda Vincent

Rounder

Outside fellow Rounder Records stablemate Alison Krauss, Rhonda Vincent is probably the most visible bluegrass presence on the national stage. With a husky, low-end singing voice to counter Krauss' soprano purity, and as gifted on mandolin as Krauss is on fiddle, Vincent provides a nice complement to Krauss in carrying the female bluegrass singing tradition forward.

Her new album continues her string of outstanding recordings, and takes in a nice, broad swath of country history, from honky-tonk to the Patsy Cline school of trad pop country to, of course, bluegrass.

And as if to underscore her growing stature as one of bluegrass's top stars, there's a vocal duet with country superstar Keith Urban on the traditional chestnut "The Water Is Wide." But as big a draw as Urban is, that song is far from the album's highlight ---- the uptempo bluegrass breakdowns such as closing track "Bluegrass Saturday Night" or opener "I'm Leavin' " are what give this superb album its sense of spirit and joy.

---- JT

B "Further On"

Randy Thompson

Jackpot

On "Further On," Virginia singer-songwriter Randy Thompson coaxes hot licks from pickers ages 15 to 80. The 15-year-old is Thompson's son Colin, who plays inventive slide guitar on two cuts, and the record closes with two songs augmented by steel guitar from 80-year-old Don Helms, who played with Hank Williams Sr.

There's also plenty of fine fretwork from the versatile Garrick Alden, whose propels "Songbird" with his banjo and swaps acoustic guitar leads with frontman Thompson on the pretty "Don't You Remember." Rickie Simpkins also shines on fiddle and mandolin.

That's just the supporting cast. Thompson's rootsy vocals provide a solid anchor, and the material is first-rate ---- a mix of his originals and such covers as the old Bill Monroe hit "Molly and Tenbrooks" and Utah Phillips' dark "Rocksalt and Nails." Colin should be proud of the old man.

---- Associated Press

COUNTRY

C "Just a Little Lovin'"

Shelby Lynne

Lost Highway

Philip Glass notwithstanding, minimalism can make for good music. A lot of pop records would benefit from fewer notes, songs and instruments.

Shelby Lynne's latest disc, however, is too stripped down. "Just a Little Lovin"' pays tribute to Dusty Springfield by covering nine of her songs, and while Lynne should be saluted for resisting the temptation to serve up overblown renditions, she has ventured too far in the other direction.

That's surprising because the producer is Phil Ramone, never known for a less-is-more approach. But he backs Lynne with a laid-back quartet, including a keyboardist and guitarist who play as if handcuffed.

Lynne sings these songs beautifully, her mix of sweetness and sass coaxing fresh emotions from the familiar melodies. But she rarely raises her voice, and when she steps away from the mike, it's as though the band members are looking at each other, waiting for someone to take the lead.

These sleepy arrangements would benefit from a saxophone, harmony vocals, even a tambourine. Sometimes more is more.

---- Associated Press

D "Moment of Forever"

Willie Nelson

Lost Highway

Willie Nelson can do anything.

He has always stood in opposition to the glossy Nashville sound of country music, but occasionally returns to its embrace as if drawn by some strange gravity.

On his latest release, "Moment of Forever," the big city pop sound is applied by co-producers Buddy Cannon and Kenny Chesney.

Nelson has done albums with a series of celebrity producers over the past decade, providing his usual mix of brokenhearted ballads, sly novelties and one-sided discussions with God. While Nelson remains a singular and iconic voice at 74, those he enlists don't always understand how to present the genre's master songwriter.

The album's opener, "Over You Again," is a fine example. It begins sedately with slide guitar pushing along Nelson's familiar strum, a little bright piano. Instruments are added, the volume rises, a chorus of polished voices enters the room and eventually Nelson is lost in all the traffic. And another beautiful scattergun guitar solo from Nelson is completely wiped away in the mix.

And we could've done without the brassy horns on "Takin' on Water" and Nelson's take on Dylan's gospel dalliance, "Gotta Serve Somebody."

But as usual, Nelson invites you in to sit down for an hour of good times. He's warm and engaging, as always, and his albums arrive like phone calls from lifelong friends.

Of his three originals, "Over You Again," stands out. And he uses his unmatched interpretive skills to spin off engaging covers of Dave Matthews' "Gravedigger" and Randy Newman's "Louisiana," which becomes a Hurricane Katrina remembrance in his hands.

The obligatory duet with Chesney, "Worry B Gone," is charming and Nelson moves into amusingly absurdist territory with "Bob," an engaging ditty about a pirate written by Kenny Alphin of Big & Rich.

---- Associated Press

BLUES

B "Hernando"

North Mississippi Allstars

Songs of the South

We can tell we're in for something a little different from the opening note of the North Mississippi Allstars' newest album, "Hernando."

There's more of an edge in this album, named for their north Mississippi hometown. Hill country blues are still omnipresent, but there's more of a rock 'n' roll edge here.

The band ---- brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson on guitar and drums and lifelong friend Chris Chew on bass ---- calls "Hernando" its most personal record to date. It was produced by the Dickinsons' father, Jim, in the family's studio and is released on the family's label.

This isn't a tribute album to the great music they grew up on in the Memphis suburb of Hernando, Miss., as their four previous original releases were. The Allstars leave behind the gentler ways of their Grammy-nominated 2005 release, "Electric Blue Watermelon," and slash with a knife right from the start.

Chew pounds your guts on opener "Shake" and then turns up the dirty, dirty funk on "Keep the Devil Down." The Dickinsons answer with guitar and drum solos of the kind you'd expect to find on a vintage 1970s Southern rock album.

The Allstars charge ahead on a martial beat in "Soldier" and noodle for a while on the obligatory "-bird" anthem, "Eaglebird," a la Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young.

The Allstars finally back off on the funny blues crawl, "I want to be a hippy," and the hip-shaker "Mizzip."

The album winds down with a mishmash of styles and influences, a little Memphis rockabilly here, a little fuzzy hill country trance there.

---- Associated Press