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March 13, 2006
Maria McKee @ The Hotel Cafe: March 12, 2006
Stunning is the only word to describe Maria McKee's live show. A voice purer than mountain-spring water, plus the great vibe from the newly remodeled Hotel Cafe in Hollywood made for a rapturous evening. Maria played a nice balance of the roots-rock she's arguably best known for, and the elegant piano work that has influenced her more recent work. Completely at ease on-stage, Maria's set was short, only an hour long, but very fulfilling.
Posted by darlin at 12:42 PM
March 12, 2006
Record Weirdo - Tom Jones, An Appreciation and Buyers Guide
by Kevin Hillskemper
Is there anything left to say about Tom Jones? Only that he is the king of the universe and has been for over 700 years. He has contributed much to our culture. Women throw their underwear at him when he performs. If that doesn't seem very substantial, think about how much you have accomplished.
I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of useless history – he is the son of a coal miner, he learned to sing while defending his home from Viking hordes, he has healed lepers, he invented the electric pencil sharpener, he rescues kittens from trees, families from burning buildings, and so on.
I’ve seen him perform live three times – all of them in Las Vegas. That does not even come close to qualifying me as a fanatic. The first time I saw him was over a decade ago. The second and third times were within the past two months. He is a lot better now that he was a decade ago. How many performers can you say that about? With the possible exception of Danny Bonaduce, I can’t think of any.
Although you can’t top Tom as a live performer, his recorded legacy is pretty spotty. I don't know how many studio albums he has released and I really don't want to. The same goes for his live albums. There are twelve zillion “Best Of” compilations and they all have “It’s Not Unusual.” Most are diluted with sub-standard filler.
His all-time best album, in my opinion, is “Tom Jones & Jools Holland”. It was made in 2004 but, as far as I know, has not been released in the US. It is only available as an expensive import.
If this were recorded by someone other than Tom Jones and released on some respectable blues or jazz label, it would be heralded as the rebirth or salvation of American musical something or another, but I haven't figured out what. He is a great blues singer. Although his reputation as a lounge singer might keep him from being taken seriously as an artist, I doubt he loses any sleep worrying about it.
The songs on this album include blues classics such as "200 Lbs. of Heavenly Joy", "Good Morning Blues/One O'Clock Jump", "St. James Infirmary Blues", "A Mess of Blues", and "My Babe". Of course, Tom took some artistic liberty with "200 Lbs." - the Willie Dixon/Howlin' Wolf song originally weighed in at 300 pounds, but he is still Tom Jones and not Barry White. Anyway, what Tom does to these songs is amazing. He not only keeps them truthful to their gritty origins but adds to them with his own bombastic bellowing. I think I'm trying to say that he's being truthful to both the songs and himself. The album slows down with some well-chosen country songs and then speeds up with "Slow Down". I enjoyed writing that last phrase.
There are even a few songs that bear a Tom Jones co-writing credit. Has that been done before? I don't think so.
Overall, the album sounds great. It even rocks in places. Jools Holland's piano is suplemented by guitars, drums, horns, and other actual instruments. There are no fake-sounding synthetic strings, drum machines, loops, or samples that have rendered much of Tom Jones's latter-day output into smarmy, instantly-dated, trendy novelties.
Here are some more critic-style comments that I couldn't find a smooth seque for:
I am not smart enough to understand metaphors, therefore I can only interpret “Hang Up My Heart For You” literally. That being said, it reminds me of the song “Kill” by Alberto Y Los Trios Pananoias and the immortal lyric “I’m gonna rip my liver out and nail it to your door.”
“It’ll Be Me” Let me give this metaphor thing a shot. If you find a new lump in your sugar bowl, I think you should see a doctor.
“The Glory of Love” and “Mom and Dad Waltz” are the only true pieces of fluff on here. I suspect that if Tom Jones did an album that was 100% schmaltz-free he would go into withdrawals. If you don’t like it, then that’s okay – no hair off Tom’s chest.
The CD closes with Jerry Lee Lewis’s “End of the Road”. I hope not. He should make more albums like this.
I'm not sure how many Tom Jones albums I have and since I'm not really in a counting mood, let's just say I have more than 10 but less than 20. They’re all not all good. Here are some interesting ones.
“Live at Caeser’s Palace” has a great cover. This is not only the best Tom Jones album cover , but it could possibly be the best album cover of all time - period. If the music on it were half as good as the cover it would be a masterpiece. Unfortunately, it's only about 35% as good, which is still 35% more than any given Doobie Brothers album. It came out sometime in the 70’s and was pressed on thin, inferior vinyl that became brittle over time. Like any anal-retentive collector, I’m pretty gentle about handling my records but I recently pulled this one out of the cover and it broke. This is a two-record set and record two is definitely better than record one - especially since record one is broken.
“Live in Las Vegas” is one his better albums. It doesn’t have many dopey ballads to slow it down. It has the expected hits like, "Delilah" and "Unusual", plus versions of "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude" that are better than the Beatles versions - "Yesterday" actually swings. It also has a rocking “Hard to Handle" and a show-closing medley of "Twist and Shout/Land of 100 Dances". Great horn arrangements - for some reason I'm into horns lately.
"A-Tom-Ic Jones" Has a great title and a great cover. It is not necessary to even listen to this to appreciate it. If you insist on listening to it, I recommend the songs "Dr. Love", and "Thunderball." This is a picture of the UK cover - the US version does not have the mushroom cloud. Why? I don't know. Go ask a stranger in the street.
I have “Close Up” on 8-track tape. It has a great version of Redbone’s “Witch Queen of New Orleans” and a few other good songs. It also has some not-so-good songs. Most of the album has a slightly funky early 70's R&B feel to it with some great Stax-style horns. Get a load of those sideburns.
Other albums with great titles and/or covers are "The Tom Jones Fever Zone" and "This is Tom". Avoid compilations with words like "classic" or "duet" in the title. Avoid the word "lite" in packaged foods.
Posted by Big Kev at 3:07 PM
