Day 37: Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger

And now for something completely different...

I bought this classic album when I was in Texas (it seemed like it would make more sense listening to it there) after reading a history of the album in a Rolling Stone article.

A concept album about a roaming preacher who had done a bad thing (he killed his wife and her lover) and has gone on the lam, Red Headed Stranger is perhaps the strangest country western album ever. But man o man is it great.

Done in the form of a musical, Nelson wrote the whole thing (according to the lore in the article) on a road trip from California to Texas. The storyline, the songs, everything was recorded by his wife on a pad of paper as they drove through the night.

That's the way to write. The only song Nelson didn't write was the hit "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" which is a cowboy classic from the 1940's. It's a tremendous addition here. Willie Nelson sings it with soul and though it's just over two minutes long, leaves a lasting impression.

The story is great, the piano (by Nelson's sister Bobby) is a central instrument and you can smell the bar rooms where that kind of soulful piano is played. "Just As I Am" (the hymn) shows up a couple of times and fits right in.

The whole album was recorded in just under two days and helped start the outlaw country movement, which gives a little legitimacy to what is otherwise a bankrupt genre.

A classic with soul and a bit of dust on it.

5 stars

Day 36: Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience

The Gin Blossoms' first and finest album New Miserable Experience is almost the perfect college rock record. It played in dorm rooms for most of the 90's, no doubt in the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning as kids came back from the bars and concerts, or maybe that part-time job at Sears, the one they took to buy books or make that car payment.

It just rings with what it's like to be young and un-tethered. The introspection, the loneliness, the exhaustion of trying to figure it all out while still studying and working and trying to make sense of that relationship that is just not working out at all.

I know I felt it in college. It might have been the consistent lack of sleep or the classes telling me to question everything, but I was in a pretty good existential funk for four years and song like "Found Out About You" with it's ringing lead guitar figure and pleading vocals hit me in the sweet spot of the soul. This album sounds best with the lights off and the headphones on.

"Hey Jealousy" was the big hit and it really captures the vibe of not having anything else to do but drive around your small town all night and let the "cops chase you around". Robin Wilson has the perfect rock and roll voice and it fits the chime of this album perfectly. The jangle is present on the Byrds-like "Until I Fall Away" and the R.E.M. is fully embraced on "Alison Road", which is my favorite Blossoms song.

The Gin Blossoms captured something in Experience that they never were able to come close to again. Perhaps it was because so much of the album was written by Doug Hopkins, who struggled with alcoholism and who's tunes leak with a beautiful pathos. Hopkins died shortly after Experience hit big and the band has never really recovered; sort of like what happened to R.E.M. after Bill the drummer left. The chemistry just wasn't there anymore.

This albums still sounds sweet to me today, though I'm happy to be in a much better place in my head now. The last semester of college was the best one. But listening back on this makes me what to go order a pizza at two a.m. and put on my headphones.

5 stars

Day 35: Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

On the eve of the 2012 presidential election I wanted to go political to keep in the spirit of the times.

And those times are tired. 

This cycle of presidential politics has been brutal. It's not necessarily because the campaigns have been more negative than in the past (they really haven't, 2008 was insane), but because it has been inescapable. Social medial has come into it's own, and every other posting on Facebook is an election quip or snarky comment. You can't get away from it (unless of course you kill your television or your Internet, which might be the best idea I've had all day).

But then I see Bruce Springsteen out there and I know it's going to be okay. The Boss' music hits me right between the eyes, and I love it when he's fighting mad, like he is on Wrecking Ball. He admits to doing his best work when he's torqued off at some injustice, and boy is he ever on this album (which I think will be go down as being my favorite of the year).

"We Take Care Of Our Own" says it all and was born to be a theme song for the Obama campaign.
"Shackled And Drawn" is the best ho-down, accordion jamboree song about being "skint" since I don't know when. When a piece of art captures it's time that is a fantastic moment, and when Springsteen says "It's still fat and easy up on banker's hill, but down here in the lowlands we're shackled and drawn" you know that he has just summed up the second Great Depression with ease. Wall street gambles and Bill down at the factory gets canned. I think of my dad when I hear "Jack Of All Trades" and I sometimes have to hit the skip button. "Death To My Hometown" rocks like 1875 with Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morrello on crazy guitar and "Wrecking Ball" is a surprisingly poignant song about age considering it was written to commemorate the end of Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

A brilliant topical album that also rocks and catches a snapshot of our times.

What more can you ask?

5 stars



Day 34: Downhere - On The Altar Or Love

Canada's Downhere continue to prove themselves the "A" students of Christian Music, consistently turning in interesting yet accessible records year after year. Their new project, On The Altar Of Love, continues this streak. The album offers a musical stew that mixes the bombast of Queen and the driving rhythms of The Police and U2 with a few left field choices. Songs like the chirpy, 60's British pop of "Living The Dream" and the French Canadian folk music of the epic title track gives On The Altar Of Love a satisfyingly unique sound that is held together by the terrific voices and harmonies of lead singers Marc Martel and Jason Germain.

But it's the lyrics that earn this band its top grade. The album artfully examines the question of why believers do what they do, and that although we may not always understand God's ways, we can step out in faith because His love is always there "like the sun through shut eyes."

The combination of clever musical choices and deeply poetic and thoughtful lyrics makes On The Altar Of Love one of the best releases of the year and earns Downhere another "A" on their report card.

4.5 stars

Day 33: Bodeans - Go Down Slow

The Bodeans got their moment in the sun in 1995 when the prime time tv soap "Party Of Five" (starring a pre-LOST Matthew Fox) used "Closer To Free" as the shows theme song.

"Closer To Free" opens up the rootsy Go Down Slow and features a wonderful melody and a groovy accordion solo. This bouncy, catchy tune brought the Bodeans new notoriety and most likely a few new fans to their show.

The reality is that the Bodeans had been making fantastic roots rock and roll for almost 15 years at that point, and had even opened for U2 on the Joshua Tree tour, perhaps the most enviable opening gig ever.

But their follow up album to the U2 tour didn't set the world on fire and the boys  went back to selling out clubs and harmonizing in fantastic ways like "Idaho" and "The Other Side". These were both tunes that T Bone Burnett (The Counting Crows, Natalie Merchant, The Wallflowers) shined up and made ready for the radio.

The Bodeans are as true to the Midwest as John Mellencamp, but with a much better vocabulary and a higher sight than the former "Johnny Cougar". They consistently turned out great records, played inspirational live shows and sang their hearts out on every tune.

"Feed The Fire" is one of my favorites here and sounds like U2 circa Rattle And Hum.

I listened to the Bodeans all summer and their song "Only Love" and "That's What They Say About Love" were theme songs for me. It is all about love.

4.5 stars

Day 32: The Black Keys - El Camino

I drive a mini-van. It's not as old and beat up as the one on the cover of The Black Keys' fantastic album El Camino, but it will be someday, and I'll probably still be driving it.

They Keys, a two man band (augmented these days by a few more players) now regularly sell out places like Madison Square Garden, but years ago they traveled around in a mini-van, guitar and drums in the back and played any place they could.

Their sound (scruffy blues rock that sounds like it comes from a different era) has remained the same since those humble days, it's just the ampage has been turned up a bit. The songs have always been great.

"Lonely Boy" opens up the album in fifth gear and is as tuneful as anything the Rolling Stones did at their peak. Likewise "Gold On The Ceiling", which has a black gospel soul singer in the background that burns the house down. "Black Submarine" builds like "Stairway To Heaven", and in someways mimics that tune a little too much. But that is a minor complaint. Mostly this album rocks in my mini-van's stereo.

4.5 stars

Dau 31: Christ Tomlin - Arriving

We sing at least one Chris Tomlin song at our church every week. He has written so many great worship songs now that it's almost hard to keep track of them.

And that kind of the point with Tomlin. He doesn't want the credit. He is a humble guy and loves the Lord and just want to offer up songs for the church to sing.

It all sort of started with Arriving. "Holy Is The Lord" is a great song that I played two weeks ago with my church worship band on a Sunday morning. "How Great Is Our God" is the most sung worship song in the United States and possibly the world, and it will never get old. Time magazine said it's like "sticky white rice in your brain."

But my favorite song here is "Your Grace Is Enough". It's fun to play with a band, but the message cuts right through me. There is so much I think I really need down here; approval of men, a big bank account, accomplishments etc. But what I really need and crave for is God's love. All mankind does, we just don't know it. It's the "God shaped hole" that Pascal the mathematician talked about. We can try to fill the hole with all kinds of junk, but it is really the love and grace of God that fill us up and give us peace.

God's grace (shown best in His Son Jesus' death for us on the cross and subsequent resurrection) is enough for all of us. If we could just see this then we would stop striving and start both resting in God's love and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Great batch of songs I know we'll be singing in Heaven someday.

Day 30: All Sons & Daughters - The Longing EP

Perhaps it's inevitable with all the electronic and club music bouncing around the top 40 these days, but honest, organic, acoustic music is experiencing a bit of a comeback in the last few years. With Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, The Head And The Heart and Of Monsters And Men packing clubs and reaching the top of the iTunes charts, it's apparent that there is still an audience for music that is a bit more homespun.

After releasing a well received album, Season One, this past spring, acoustic worship duo All Sons & Daughters returns with a six song EP that is a testament to the fact that a well crafted, honest, simple song will resonate much more that a pedestrian song with loads of production any day. Opening with the rollicking "Oh How I Need You," All Sons & Daughters amps up the energy Mumford And Sons style. With a banjo and tambourine accompaniment, the song feels like a worship hootenanny in a barn on a Saturday night.
The soulful "Rising Son" hits the sweet spot between uplifting gospel (in the vein of U2's "Walk On" or Ten Avenue North's "Grace") and the subtle beauty of Simon And Garfunkle's harmonious dueting. "Called Me Higher" features singer Leslie Jordan's plaintive vocals against a building tempo that acknowledges that "I could stay safe inside these cozy walls, but you have called me higher" and serves as encouragement for God's people to leave their suburban hideaways and engage the world around them as the Lord is calling us all to do. The title track, which rounds out the EP, expresses eloquently that "love is and always was the longing placed inside my heart to know you and be known by you" and is sung with intertwined voices against subtle acoustic instrumentation.

Worship music this raw and uncalculated deserves a wide audience, and with more than five releases in the past two years alone, it's clear that All Sons & Daughters is willing to put in the time to shape original, creative songs to the Creator.

Day 29: Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane

In honor of Hurricane Sandy, hitting the east coast as we speak...

Swichfoot's Hello Hurricane was a fantastic return to form after two lackluster records following up their breakthrough smash Beautiful Letdown. I was really afraid that they had lost the plot a bit. But a solo set of e.p.'s by lead singer Jon Foreman convinced me that their was still life in the "Foot" crew, and Hello Hurricane rewarded that faith.

Opener "Needle And Haystack Life" roars with abandon, and repeats the phrase "you are once in a lifetime alive" and "you are once in a life time." Foreman can write an inspirational song that feels real and not like a greeting card. In "Always" he notes that "every moment is a second chance." In lesser hands this kind of sentiment would cause most hipsters to roll their eyes loudly, but Foreman and crew can pull off the kind of U2 inspirational song that get you through a day.

My personal favorite song is "Your Love Is Strong", which we sing at my church as a worship tune. In concert Foreman plays a harmonica in this song, and the effect is wonderful. "Your love is a song, your love is strong."

I love the encouraging nature of this album, it goes along with how I'm wired. Switchfoot's next album is a keeper too (Vice Verses), but that is for another day.

5 stars

Day 28: Big Tent Revival - Open All Night

Big Tent Revival aced the ‘sophomore slump’ test with their second album, 1996’s Open All Night. Proving it was possible to tackle the problems of the everyday without talking down to the regular folks who go through them, the Big Tent fellows offered a refreshingly direct message that the Lord cares about everything his followers go through.

Set against a hearty background of meat and potatoes rock and roll in the vein of Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp, opener “Mend Me” offers up a stark confession that though the singer stands on a stage in front of you “he can’t escape this life of sin.” Like the Apostle Paul “what I want to do I don’t do, what I do I don’t want to do” and finally the honest (and throat shredding) confession “I am broken, mend me.”

Honesty is the order of the day on Open All Night. In “Letting Go” chief songwriter Steve Wiggins confesses that much of what he lives “is a façade” and now he’s “letting go.” In “Famine Or Feast” Wiggins talks about his broken down car and his friend who is a doctor and how he is sometimes tempted to envy him. But on Thursday nights the two are found “studying God’s word” and now he realizes that “we both have our reasons for praying to the Lord.” This realization is not a pat answer, as the narrators problems have not been solved, but a light of hope that God sees every situation we go through “famine or feast.”

Producer John Hampton (The Gin Blossoms, Smalltown Poets, Audio Adrenaline, Todd Agnew) does wonders with this sort of “heartland” rock and roll, and makes the guitars and Hammond B3 organs on Open All Night shimmer and shine. “The Best Thing In Life” has a guitar line that chimes like Buffalo Springfield’s 60’s classic “For What It’s Worth” but features a ferocious breakdown at the bridge of the song that lifts the message of what Jesus did on the cross “that was free”. “Here With Me” and “Personal Judgment Day” bring the passion and tuneful songwriting in the country blues tradition and furthers the theme of every day circumstances being pregnant with the possibility of God’s presence and teaching.

In an music industry climate (secular and otherwise) that is increasingly narrow in it’s parameters of what subject matter is appropriate or cool that month, it’s refreshing to listen back to Big Tent’s second album and recognize that the struggle of the every day is sometimes as compelling and worthy of covering as that latest, popular worship tune. In Open All Night Big Tent Revival wrote perhaps the best set of blue collar Christian rock and roll songs ever put out.

Day 27: Audioslave - Revelations

It's interesting to note that Audioslave did not tour for their last album, and in fact called it quits very soon after Revelations came out.

I'll never understand why bands do this, release an album that they are never going to tour behind and let their audience hear live. Why not just hold on for another few months? Why not do what it takes to get along so that the millions of folks who bought your album and enjoy your songs can say goodbye? I know that sounds a little cheesy, but you can get into a relationship with an artist, memorize their work and then they break your heart. This is why it drives me crazy when someone (like Billy Corgin of Smashing Pumpkins) makes fun of his audience. That seems like the lowest of the low. Those people allowed you to move into that mansion you are currently living in, to be driving that car or relaxing on that yacht. Treat them with respect, please!

It's interesting to note that on this last Audioslave album the lead single "Original Fire" states "the original fire has come and gone." I guess Chris Cornell wasn't feeling the music any more, or maybe he just couldn't adjust to the Rage Against The Machine vibe of the three other members. Whatever the case Revelations is the last we have of the Audioslave experiment and it's more of the same hard rock goodness of the previous two albums. The title track fits in the same groove as "Cochise" from the debut and "Nothing Left To Say But Goodbye" just about sums up the album and the band's mood at this point.

All in all it was a fun experiment of which we got three tuneful, hard rocking albums and a great "we got to go play a concert in Cuba!" concert movie video. It was a great run, but I'm sorry it had to end the way it did.

3 stars

Day 26: Audioslave - Out Of Exile

Audioslave's second album, Out Of Exile has a great title and cover art. But after that things get a little rote.

The passion in the playing and songwriting seem a little lacking here, with the excitement of the two afore-mentioned bands being spent on the first album.

There are some good moments though..."Your Time Has Come" is a great blast of an opener and the title track is pretty good. But after that it sounds a lot like what worked on the first album,. "Be Yourself" comes off as a retread of "Like A Stone" from the first album, and titles like "Heaven's Dead" and "#1 Zero" seem like bad attempts at 90's high school poetry.

Christ Cornell surely had better lyrics in his head than came out on the album.

Not all songs are this paper-thin, but the trajectory of Audioslave seemed set at this point.

2 stars

Day 25: Audioslave - Self Titled

In my third week of talking about albums (a great art form that is not always recognized the way, say, paining is) I want to try a different tack.

One of the best things about following an artist and hearing new music from them is that you can trace where the artist (or band in this case, the terms will be used interchangeably on this blog) is heading in their thought process or life story. What can be a little confusing about just choosing an album a day to talk about is that you quite possibly have no connection to the artist, and just hearing about a random album by some group you have never heard of probably makes you want to 'change the channel'.

So, for the foreseeable future, I'm going to go through an artist's catalog album by album, in chronological order so that you can get a better sense of what an album is like based on the trajectory of the music. This will only be possible for artists whose whole record collection I own, like today's Audioslave record or the Third Day or U2 catalog. I love Bruce Springsteen, but I don't own all of his albums. It's the same with Bob Dylan and Neil Young. (For those guys I'll probably start with the first album of theirs I own and work my way forward.) But that's an issue for another day. For today and the next few months it's history lesson time.

These being highly political times (the 2012 Presidential election is a mere week and a half away) it's appropriate to start with political provocative band like Audioslave.

Audioslave was three members of high decibel band Rage Against The Machine (everybody but lead 'singer' Zack Del A Rocha) and the lead singer of defunct band Soundgarden Chris Cornell.

Rage Against The Machine was perhaps a little too caustic and broke up because of infighting. Three of the members considered soldering on, so they were put together with Chris Cornell by uber producer Rick Rubin. They chose (unfortunately) the dumbest name in recent rock history. My votes for worse name of all time is "Puddle Of Mud" and "Moby Grape"

The resulting album has a number of great songs with crazy guitarist Tom Morrello's signature wacky sounds all over the place and the compelling, howling vocals of Cornell. Lead single "Cochise" (named after an native American warrior chief who fought against American imperialism, no coincidence there) rocks with abandon. "Like A Stone" builds fantastically over strummed acoustic guitars (a new thing for Morrello) and was a song my high school students loved to sing along to. "Show Me How To Live" was interesting, existential poetry that hinted at Christian musings by Cornell. "I Am The Highway" burns like a trip through the desert and "Light My Way" is another prayer song of deliverance.

The lyrics occasionally stumble (Cornell was trying to be distinctly different from Del La Rocha) but the music delivers in spades.

3.5 stars

Day 23: Anberlin - New Surrender

This was my first Anberlin record and I loved almost every moment of it. Imagine Bono's voice against a harder edged music, but still as tuneful as anything U2 has done. "The Resistance" breaks out of the speakers with the lead singer talking about "paper tigers" (a reference I still have not looked up yet) and "Feel Good Drag" is a great single with grinding guitars and a passionate vocal.But my favorite moment, and one that I keep on high rotation is "Breathe", a song that could have been on the "16 Candles" or "Pretty In Pink" soundtrack from the 80's. It would have made a great slow-dance scene number. Anberlin has released two albums since this one (one last week) and I like them too. These guys were a great discovery.

Day 22: Sarah McLachlan - Mirrorball

Welcome to the third week of my experiment. It's becoming a good habit for me to do and a good exercise to do every day. I'm not the sort of person who is regular in my routine and as I grow older I want to be. Writing the silly blog about my album collection is an exercise in seeing if I can do something, anything once a day. And if I can, could I do one thing more, like make my bed or write my lovely wife and children a love note to put in their lunchboxes and brief cases? It's a good question. So I started with something I love to do, write about music, and soon I will branch out and see what else is possible.

But about the music...I fell in love with my wife for the same reason millions of folks bought Sarah McLachlan records in the 90's and 00's. They fell in love with that voice.

Sarah's voice could calm a pack of ravenous wolves (so could my wife's). Add to that a knack for hitting the exact sweet spot for that voice with her songwriting and you have a recipe' for sales. "Building A Mystery" has the spookiness of a Halloween ghost story and the beauty of a mother singing to her child. This haunting song opens this album and conveys a mood that hypnotizes. "I Will Remember You" is now a graduation ceremony staple, but is still a wonderful pop song about friendship. "Angel" is a breathtaking coda to end the album and send the crowd swooning away. It still has power all these years later, and can sum up the feeling of longing and loneliness of a "dark hotel room and the endlessness that you feel". Humanity is "born from the wreckage of this silent revelry" a seeming nod to the biblical story of the Garden Of Eden and the fall of man.

Sarah's sense of humor is present in "Ice Cream" where she celebrates chocolate and everything sweet, and endears herself to females everywhere.

I love to write songs for my wife's smoky voice to wrap itself around, mostly because I love to hear it go to work. It's the same with Sarah McLachlan, that voice could stop a train in it's tracks.

4 1/2 stars

Day 21: Pearl Jam - Self Titled

Pearl Jam really roared back with this one. After two somewhat lackluster and downbeat albums (the "just okay" Binaral and the dull Riot Act, which in retrospect is a pretty funny title considering how low-key the album was by Pearl Jam standards). Their self titled was a re-statement of purpose. "Life Wasted" blasts out of the speakers with Eddie Vedder testifying "I've tasted a life wasted, and I'm never going back there again." Vedder and his mates seemed re-energized here, and "World Wide Suicide" achieves the protest song gem that they had been diligently trying to write since George Bush took office. Riot Act attempted to cover this ground (it did have a fantastic cover, with the burned skeleton of a king standing in as a great metaphor for power corrupting and destroying the ruler of the village) but was to pedestrian to make much of an impact on listeners.

My favorite moment on the record is the closing "Come Back", which sounds like a cross between Tom Waits and Buddy Holly. "There's a real possibility that I may meet you in my dreams" sings Vedder. The slow, waltzy solo by Mike Mcready is a torcher and nothing like anything in the PJ catalog. It is a great concert closer (in the spirit of "Yellow Leadbetter") and is fantastic on the Pearl Jam in Italy DVD where it shows fans slow dancing in front of a castle where the band was playing. It is a good stretcher song for the band, and one I love to slow dance to with my lovely wife.

I love these guys, and it did my heart good to hear them revive on this album.

4 stars

Day 20: Jars Of Clay - If I Left The Zoo

The best thing about Jars Of Clay's third album is actually the artwork. It's their best cover so far. Unfortunately the Jars guys were running on fumes when it came to the songs on this album. After charging out of the gate with their self titled album and making a credible follow-up in Much Afraid, they stumbled a bit on If I left The Zoo. "Goodbye, Goodnight" opens the album with a bit of a joke track (what would it have been like to be a musician on the Titanic as it was going down?) that left most fans scratching their heads. "Unforgettable You" was no doubt an attempt at breaking the mold of being a "dour" bunch of young men and lightning up the mood a bit. It's a pretty good song, but it sounds too out of character for these guys, and a lot like everything else that was popular at the time. "Collide" and "Famous Last Words" kind of just sit there and "I'm Alright" is a pretty lame attempt at being groovy. "Nobody Loves Me Like You" is the lone great song on here. The accordion is just right and the sing-along chorus is great.

Thankfully the fellows would bounce back a few albums later and settle into being respected elder statesmen of Christian Music, making some great albums (like Good Monsters and The Long Fall Back To Earth) along the way.

I suppose every band that has been around long enough has an album like this in it's history (kind of like U2's Pop or R.E.M.'s Up) This album is an admirable attempt at breaking the mold, but I really liked the mold.

2.5 stars

Day 19: Dryve - Thrifty Mr. Kickstar

Dryve sounds like my freshman year of college. It was the first year that I was out of New England (I went to school in Philadelphia) and I had two roommates who were not around very much. I the cold, dark post dinner hours I studied a lot and listened to music. I heard Dryve's fantastic "Nervous" and "Rain" on a sampler CD (remember those?) and listened to the two songs on repeat as I hit the books and read old novels. When the record came out a few months later I bought it the first day and went out with a friend to dinner (he was celebrating the completion of a major project) and we sat outside in a deserted parking lot on a balmy spring night and listened to this album from front to back.

Sometimes, because a band sounds like other bands that are currently popular you can tend to think that they tried to sound like this. But in reality Dryve sounded like the Counting Crows and the Wallflowers (which were massively popular at the time) for years before those two bands conquered the airwaves. Warm Hammond B3 organ (one of my favorite sounds) make this record sound much warmer than the abrasive guitars it sometimes traffics in. Dryve only lasted two records, but man-oh-man did they deliver.

They played a kind of folk-rock that would not be out of place next to the Byrds and Crosby Stills and Nash in the 60's. "Whirly Wheel" starts things off with an appropriate swirl of organ and a sense that the modern world is a dizzying place. "Nervous" was the great first single and it's a great introduction to the band. (See the video here) "She Ain't Ready" and "It's My Fault" are confessional gems that appropriatly lay the blame for a relational failure on the narrator, but then after forgiveness is asked for he says "now it's your call".

But it is "Rain" that promotes this album to "lost classic" status. At more than seven minutes, this worship song has an epic build and guitar solo that mesmerizes.

The world is full of artists who created stunning works of genius that were never recognized. For some reason attention just passed them by. You can see their works years later and say "how were these guys never huge. This song should be playing in a grocery store right now, or over the final scene of a teen soap opera at least.

Count Dryve's Thrifty Mr. Kickstar among those missed gems.

5 Stars

Day 18: Ben Harper - Give Till It's Gone

 

This is one of the hardest kinds of albums to review, because it involves and artist I love and his darkest hour.

I have loved Ben Harper's music since I first got hold of his first album when I was on a day pass from basic training. There is something about that first day of freedom after ten weeks of absolute and rigid structure that will forever stay in your mind. I mosied around the town of San Antonio like a man freed from prison, and I blew most of my paycheck on a portable CD player (remember those?) and a stack of albums.

Ben Harper's Welcome To The Cruel World played on those headphones as I sat on a park bench as a free man (that album title must have somehow spoken to me).

Ben Harper is one of the "best souls" on the planet. He is contentious in almost everything he does, he is environmentally friendly and conscious of issues of justice. His music is a mix of the blues with world beats, reggae, rock and roll and folk all mixed in, and that slide guitar he plays brings down the house every time.

I have followed him and the "Innocent Criminals" (his longtime backup band) for years, and then last year he released Give Till It's Gone, a record chronicling his recent divorce.

When you really dig somebody, I mean really dig their music and persona, then it feels hard to listen to their anguish; and oh boy, does Harper let it flow here. The song titles alone should give that away ("Don't Give Up On Me Now", "Pray That Our Love Sees The Dawn", "Waiting On A Sign" etc).

The music is subdued (except for the exuberant "Rock And Roll Is Free") and I'm not sure how many times I'll spin this one, except to be reminded how much I value and treasure my wife and family.

This is a tough record from someone I genuinely love. It chronicles something true, and you feel every inch of the despair a divorce can inspire.  Here is hoping his personal life is on the upswing.

4 stars

Day 17: Florence + The Machine - Ceremonials

In honor of Gov. Mitt Romney's "binders full of women" comment (which will be largely forgotten by this time next year) I wanted to write about a female artist today. I have three lovely ladies in my life (two daughters and a beautiful wife, no polygamy happening here) and I will be listening to a lot of strong female vocalists in the near future. In fact, both my daughters love the song "Shake It Out" and sing it all the time.

I think this album played in my house for almost four consecutive months last winter. It was the perfect soundtrack to days that got dark at 5 pm. It sounds exactly like an album that would have been played in my dorm room on a late Thursday night in December as I diligently wrote a term paper at my desk.

Florence Welch (lead singer and main "dramatic" of the band) has a shock of red hair that is almost as bold as her voice. To top off this visual panace' is a sense of Victorian drama in her lyrics. She could easily be an opera singer in a Charles Dickens novel. This type of old-school performance charisma has endeared Florence + Machine to dramatic young ladies everywhere. The sheer "Englishness" of this album is on display on the first song "Only If For A Night" which sounds like a Shakespeare line. "No Light No Light" could have been a poem by John Donne and "What The Water Gave Me" sounds like a Percy B. Shelly poem.

All this literary hoo ha would be overwhelming if the songs didn't deliver. Thankfully they do. "Shake It Out" has a U2 like appeal (they were no doubt influenced by opening for that band the last few years). My favorite line on the album "It's hard to dance with the devil on your back" reminds me that a life lived with the freedom I have found in following Jesus is better than the heavy burden of living for myself. That may seem backward, but it is a beautifully true paradox of my life.

I'm with Florence when she says "never let me go".

5 stars.

Day 16: Vigilantes Of Love - Welcome To Struggleville

This being the occasion of my birthday (and a wonderful one at that, thanks to my three lovely ladies for the nifty hat I'm now wearing, the book of Onion articles to make me laugh, the new coffee mug to drink Joe out of and my stomach full of barbecue spare ribs) I'm going to talk about my favorite band, the Vigilantes Of Love, and why they make my heart sing. I have long since stopped trying to talk friends into loving them as much as I do, but I'll never stop talking about them and the impact, both spiritually and artistically they had on me when I was a younger man. Their records still move me and make me think, and there are so many words-per-minute (ala' Bob Dylan) that I'm still digesting songs years after hearing them.

Formed in Athens, Georgia (a mystical town to me; home of R.E.M., the Indigo Girls and the B52's) in the early 90's, the Vigilantes recorded ten + fantastic albums on various record labels (including a couple of Christian Music releases) and disbanded in the early 00's when lead singer (and main Vigilante) Bill Mallonee went solo. He is still pounding the pavement somewhere near you, pouring his heart out in a cafe or church basement concert somewhere.

The Vigilantes Of Love (a silly name, but the music makes you forget it right away, and really, aren't R.E.M. and U2 silly names too?) sounded like a mix of Bob Dylan's crazy wordplay and cultural observations set against the R.E.M. country rock jangle (think Byrds here too) and crossed with the literary insight of Steinbeck and Hemingway. Dusty folk rock with the soul of the blues and the world-weariness (even in Mallonee's younger years) of John The Apostle at the end of the book of Revelation.

All those elements made up a great stew. Alone each reference could be seen as a copy-cat, but together they formed, for me, a divine soup that blew my mind when I was 17.

When I was seventeen I read these words…

"It’s pretty much the same everywhere you go. You can sense it in the air. From the reserved towns built on the steaming red clay of Georgia – to the toppling ruins and drug scarred streets of Detroit – to the chaotic, bustling, elevated trains of Chicago – to the teeming, angry alienated misery of the Desire projects of New Orleans – to the opulent, reclusive estates of the Hollywood Hills. In the hearts of people across the country and around the world lies a desperation and emptiness that knows nothing about race, gender, class or language. The heart is the one place from where we can all speak. It aches with the unspeakable hunger and incessant whisper down in its core, that “something” is missing. What it is, is what remains unspeakable."

I was sitting in the back of my red pickup truck, holding an album in my lap that I had recently bought. I had removed the album insert and was reading the liner notes. It was the Vigilantes Of Love's Blistered Soul (my favorite album, I'm going to review it on day 365 of this project) These first seven sentences set off a bell in my head as I read them over and over again. It was here that I first realized that music can speak to that lonely, haunted place, inside each of us. You know the place. It has its own particular voice and needs. It’s that voice that speaks so loudly, saying that things are not the way they are supposed to be, that we are not home yet. You can do your best to ignore the voice (we have created a whole industry in this country to try to escape it), to drown it in drink, sounds, sights, and thrills. But in the late hours of the night, it’s there, calling out, “There has got to be more!”

Forget all the religious junk that exists in our culture, all the trappings, all the bad history. Can you honestly say that you feel like things are as they should be? Does the course the world has taken for so long now seem logical? Don’t you hear it, that still, small voice, that seems to say “There’s got to be more… more than the rat race, more than saving for retirement, more than that next high, be it legal or illegal. More, more, there has got to be more!”

There is a verse in the Christian scriptures that captures perfectly this feeling I have had deep down in my soul for so long now. It comes from the book of Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse three. “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.” Often I feel like these men of faith did in this verse. (And not always for the faith part)

Welcome To Strugglevile sounds like the best folk rock album you never heard. If it had come out in California in the 60's it would be on one of those Rolling Stone top 500 lists that you always see. The title track is a call to see that we all are "down here" where the world is not yet redeemed. "The Glory And The Dream" plays like a lost Gin Blossom's hit with a Rich Mullins touch and "All Messed Up (And Nowhere To Go)" has great wordplay, and is convicting (the church should be a harbor for the messed up, not a place to play dress up).

But the song that stops me in my tracks is "Vet", the tale of a Viet Nam vet who Mallonee used to care for in a mental hospital. It's tuneful (it sounds like a lost T.V. show theme song) and heartbreaking and the best song about Vietnam this side of "Born In The USA" by the boss.

So go look up this album. Buy a used copy on Amazon or listen to it on Spotify. I love it because it opened my mind to how faith and art can mix, and it made me what to mix the two on my own.

God speed and happy listening.

4.5 stars

349 days to go...

Day 15: Over The Rhine - Drunkard's Prayer

Over The Rhine nearly imploded as a band and as a married couple (Karin and Linford Detwweiler make up the two songwriters) after writing their epic, double disc Ohio two years before. Touring that record and making it nearly did in the marriage of music and spirits of the two long-time Over The Rhiners, so they cut that tour short (I never got to see it) and went home to just be married for a while. After a two year break they returned with this glorious, if downbeat, set of songs about the strength of love and how hard it is to be married, but how worth it it is. Records that celebrate married life are rare indeed. More often than not is the "break up" record where an artist pours themselves out after a relationship has ended badly. (For example, tune in for tomorrow's record by Ben Harper to hear a prime example of this.)

"I Want You To Be My Love" starts the record off as a sort of mission statement about marriage and "Born" celebrates the idea of a soul mate, someone who fits you like a glove. "Little Did I Know" and "Who Will Guard The Door" give a small glimpse into the troubles faced by any couple, but come through with a hopefulness that is hearting.

I have been married for twelve years now, and we're happier than ever. But that is not to say that we don't need to "guard the door" and be vigilant about the state of our union. Some people do more maintenance on their cars than on their marriages. Marriage is work, but it is worth doing. Life is more complicated than it was when we started, but we are better at it. That's a nice trade off.

I want to be married to my wonderful wife till my final day. To do that is to do the daily work of marriage. Treating that other person better than yourself, serving your family and plugging into something higher than yourself to give you both the strength to run the race.

Thank you Over The Rhine for showing me what true devotion is. Long may they live and write.

4 stars

Day 14: The Newsboys - Thrive

Well, we are two weeks in...only fifty more to go.

In many ways Thrive marked the end of a chapter of the Newsboys story. It was the last album of all-original material that the classic Take Me To Your Leader lineup would make together. After Thrive the lads from Australia (well, mostly) would go on to make a few worship albums (with some pretty good original songs) trade guitarists, bassists and singers and somehow maintain a popularity that still allows them to sell out arenas, as evidenced by the boisterous crowd heard in the background of this month’s live release Live In Concert: God’s Not Dead.

Produced by longtime team of Steve Taylor and Peter Furler, Thrive opens with the bouncy guitar crunch and clever word play of “Giving It Over”, which name checks rap group Outkast (hugely popular at the time) and features some fantastic Taylor lyrics about surrendering everything over to the Lord. Second song “Live In Stereo” is perhaps the only Christian Music song to combine references to a “Jacobean ladder” the Blue Man Group and a sherpa. This odd mix is pure Steve Taylor at his nonsensical best and harkens back to the odd and wonderful wordplay of 90’s Newsboys albums Going Public (with its screwball lyrics on “Shine” about dictators who repent and “teach the poor origami”) and Take Me To Your Leader  where “Joshua judges ruthlessly” on the title track. Taylor again is the unsung hero (and true sixth member) of the Newsboys and on the back half of Thrive (“Cornelius”, “The Fad Of The Land” and “John Woo”) he achieves a level of cultural commentary that goes beyond “the world is bad, think about Heaven”. Indeed, an engaged mind, surveying popular culture and bringing a kingdom perspective to John Woo movies is a feat that needs to be remembered and celebrated. It would be fascinating to see what Steve Taylor could do with the Newsboys current incarnation.

And in an interesting turn, Thrive offered up Furler’s first attempt at a corporate worship song (not counting the worshipful songs on their greatest hits album two years prior, they were not corporate worship in the strictest sense) in the catchy “It Is You”. The success of this tune lead to a couple of worship albums that were to follow.

It’s the combining of fun and encouraging radio songs like “Million Pieces (Kissing Your Cares Away)” and “Thrive” with oddball, but endearing lyrics that this version of the Newsboys shined most. The goodwill produced by a string of albums like Thrive no doubt helped the fellows survive the lineup and music industry changes that were just around the corner.

Day 13: Sara Watkins - Self Titled

This one was an absolute surprise.

Sara Watkins was one third of the 'newgrass' group Nickle Creek, a group I never really got at all. I had many friends who tried to turn me on to them, but they just seemed to corny to me.

But two summer ago my lovely wife and I went to see the Prairie Home Companion "Summer Love" tour and she was the musical guest on the tour.

She slayed it. With the Guys All Star Shoe band backing her up she had the crowd in her hand from the first note she sang.

She had been a side performer in Nickle Creek, but given the chance to step up to the microphone she shined.

"Lord Won't You Help Me" sounds like a classic, 19th century Appalachian tune that has been sung for 100 years in the mountains of West Virgina, though it was a new composition. "Pony" is a fantastic Tom Waits cover (she and Garrison Keillor sang Wait's "Ever Since I Put Your Picture In A Fame" at the show) and "Where Would You Be" closes the album in a haunting fashion, using A Capella singing and a echos (maybe from an old church in a valley somewhere) to awesome effect.

This one will remind me of that great summer night when it was just me and my baby on the lawn at a concert with good music in the air. I look forward to her next album.

4.5 stars

Day 12: The Cowboy Junkies - Lay It Down

The Cowboy Junkies have a sound like a prairie winter at night, and incidentally, come from the Canadian Prairies. The Timmins siblings on vocals, drums and guitars, weave a magic spell of sound when they play together and Lay It Down is their finest hour.

"Something More Besides You" opens the album with the deeply searching words "One foot stands before the crib, the other beside the casket / a question is formed upon still lips and is passed on but never asked."

These words I think speak to the mystery deep inside us all about what we are here for. Many find this question pase' and try to drown it out their whole lives with chasing nonsense and noise, but the question will never really go away. It comes at you in your quiet moments driving or at night. What am I here for? What am I supposed to be doing. Is there some greater force out there trying to get a hold on my heart.

Many never end up asking the question to the right people and live their whole lives with a hole inside that is in need of filling.

You can hear this question again in "Lonely Sinking Feeling" where the protagonist can't seem to understand why he is not enough for his girl. She wants something more, something that she can't describe and he can't provide. Haven't we all looked to relationships down here as the answer from time to time?

But the truth I believe is that nothing down here, no person or thing or idea can fill the space that the divine is meant for. The girl says to her lover "just when I think I've uncovered the secret to peace and tranquility, that lonely sinking feeling creeps up on me." Nothing satisfies.

In "River Song" (my favorite on the album) the narrator notes that there is a place where the sky meets the sea (perhaps an allusion to heaven) and notes that the "river mud" down here is holding us down.

Lay It Down is a masterpiece of mood and questioning and is a great winter listening album.

5 Stars

Day 11: The Choir - The Loudest Sound Ever Heard

In a perfect world, The Choir would have the album budget of U2 and the household name recognition of Adele. But without those two things, they have still managed to spin out countless mini-masterpieces of mood and spiritual depth on a shoestring budget for over thirty years.
It's to The Choir's credit that there are no easy comparisons to their music. But if U2, Sixpence None The Richer and Coldplay all got together, they would sound something like this cosmic, atmospheric band. The Choir values melody above all, but they rarely skimp on creativity to achieve it.
The Loudest Sound Ever Heard is more downbeat and contemplative than the last two self-released Choir offerings (2005's O How The Mighty Have Fallen and 2010's Burning Like The Midnight Sun), and finds drummer and chief lyricist Steve Hindalong mulling over the tenuous nature of life. The album title is a reference to the explosion of the Indonesian volcano, Krakatoa, in 1883 (an eruption so powerful, violent and loud that scientists estimate that anyone within a ten mile radius would have immediately gone deaf). This event is used in the song "Learning To Fly" as a metaphor for the uncertainty of life and as a call for making sure that you count your blessings and be sure to "make that phone call, write that letter, live today to make amends," because we're all "living to love in a dying world," we're "learning to fly." Elsewhere, the album title is referenced in "Melodious" as "the beat of a true friend's heart."

The strong theme of taking things one day at a time is again referenced in the third song, and album highlight, "Cross That River" which builds on two chords in a similar fashion to U2's song, "Bad." The tune sweeps the listener along with a poignant metaphor that overcoming something (be it addiction or some other life obstacle) is best done "one rock at a time." At more than six minutes in length, "River" is an honest and unfiltered look at how to approach addiction, and the Marc Byrd (of Common Children and ambient band Hammock) guitar solo at the five minute mark lifts the tune to the stratosphere. The ending line, "you've already been baptized with fire, you've been born again," anchors this encouraging song in the truth of
the gospel that says that salvation is both now and "not yet;" it's still a journey to get to Heaven.

The encouraging, upbeat "Forrest" serves as a reminder that "more is hidden than revealed, sometimes the path to understanding is concealed" and although "it hurts to be alive" and "your pain is real" it's good to "laugh until you cry, it's good to feel." The sunny guitar lines in this song help balance out the weightier, slightly gloomy material (yet appropriate to the overall theme of the darker side of life that is generally missing from music made by people of faith) offered on The Loudest Sound Ever Heard.
Closing track "After All" finds the voices of lead singer Derri Daugherty dueting with Sixpence None The Richer's Leigh Nash on a bed of celestial, ambient guitars and offers a final prayer of thanks that the Lord (and the true friends He sends our way) "come winter, come spring floating through the Milky Way, with me after all" and that we are all "floating with You after all."

To a new listener, The Choir's latest album may seem somewhat of a downer. But taken as the third piece of an excellent series of recent albums The Loudest Sound Ever Heard is a masterful third movement of theme and subject matter, with music that reflects the somber thoughts laid out. It is, perhaps, not the place to start for new listeners. The best place would be O How The Mighty Have Fallen and Burning Like The Midnight Sun for two late career highpoints, or since Spotify has made things so easy, hit 1988's fantastic and epic Chase The Kangaroo for a great introduction.

The Loudest Sound Ever Heard is a terrific album, displaying hard-won wisdom and truly revealing music.

4.5 Stars

Day 10: The Glorious Unseen - Lovesick

The Glorious Unseen has a way with atmospherics. Over the course of three-plus records they have established a thick, velvety canvas of sound in which to offer up their songs of praise. Lovesick thankfully picks up the pace a bit, though even on faster tunes, Ben Crist's somber vocal delivery can make everything sound a bit sleepy. Opening tracks "The Love Of God," "Pour My Love On You" and "You Have Ruined Me" crank up the beats-per-minute and diversify sounds to distinguish themselves from the rich backgrounds that sometimes The Glorious Unseen have gotten trapped in. Aggressive "In This Moment" recalls The Violet Burning at their worshipful best and "Harp In My Heart" has some terrific sounds and lyrics and offers the album's title up in a chorus that soars.

As much of a step forward as this album is for Crist and The Glorious Unseen, they have still yet to write that "knock it out of the ballpark" tune that they seem capable of. But as a personal album of insightful worship tunes, Lovesick delivers.

This is exactly the album I needed to hear today. It did my sould good. Tonight as I washed the dishes and listened to my wife sing while she got our girls ready for bed I was able to reflect on how blessed my life is and how much I want to sing about it to God. This album aided me in my prayer of thanksgiving.

4 stars

Day 9: Mark Knopfler - Sailing To Philadelphia

It's a rainy day here in the Northeast, time for an album that works like a warm cup of hot chocolate...

This album had me at hello.

I lived near a Tower Records when I was in the Air Force, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that the store was my second home. I knew the clerks by name and I had my own parking spot. Why I never put in an application to work there I'll never know. But I could go there on a rainy afternoon (like today) after a hard day on base and put on the headphones at the listening station out front of the store, and just absorb hours of music.

That's where I discovered Mr. Mark Knopfler. I vaguely knew the voice from my Dad's Dire Straights' tape that he would listen to over and over again in his car (you know the album I'm talking about, the one with "Walk Of Life") but I never really gave his solo work any thought.

But within the first minute of opening track "What It Is" I was hooked. That warm, English voice and those guitar tones over wordplay that name checked nursery rhymes and had the great line "people curse the government and shovel hot food down", a line that still convicts me today.

The next song and title track, a duet with Mr. James Taylor that tells the story of the Mason Dixon Line (think back hard to Junior year American History) and made me realize that storytelling on a history level could be done in all sorts of ways. Forth track "Baloney Again" tells the tails of a Civil Rights era  traveling gospel group that loved singing about Jesus and had to sleep in their cars and eat baloney if no restaurants or hotels that allowed black folks to stay there were available. This song song still convicts me as well.

And that is just the first few songs. This album is loaded with great moments that stir the imagination while warming the soul.

Neat trick!

5 stars

Day 8: Kutless - Sea Of Faces

If you have listened to music for more than, say, ten years, then you have seen styles come and go at a whiplash pace and trends cycle through like the passing of the seasons. What was once cool might seem dated to you now. Take for instance Hair Metal music. I missed this trend (thankfully) and when I see a picture of a band in spandex with hairspray coming out of their nostrils I can't help but laugh. It all seems so over-the-top and ridiculously dramatic that I can't believe anybody ever took it seriously.

But oh boy, did they ever. You may know a couple of folks who never made it out of this stage of life. They might still have the big hair and ripped denim going on, and of course they still blast Poison after all these years. I know a few of these folks and I worked at a concert venue recently where they came out of the woodwork to see The Scorpions or Motley Crue when they lumbered through town.

All that to say that I have seen many a fad come and go, and I have tried my best to understand the appeal of a certain genre or style. So far only Top 40 Country music and most rap music have eluded me (and I think I'm done trying with those two).

When I went to college in the 90's, grunge and jangly folk-rock were all the rage. Anything I could pull out my guitar to and play along with I really dug. I still wear flannel (I wearing a flannel shirt right now) and I love literate, jangly artists like R.E.M. and The Counting Crows (who each made one of my favorite records of all time).

But when I went back to college a few years later to finish out (after a needed stint in the U.S. Air Force, it's good to have focus in your life) music had changed big time. Gone were the jangly guitars and literary references (like in "Rain King" by the Counting Crows) and in it's place was hard, hard music. Screaming, angry, often massively profane, hard music.

It was all around me and I didn't get it. I suppose this was my first brush with adulthood. It's like Grampa Simpson who said "I used to be with it, but then they changed what 'it'was. Now what's 'it' seems weird and scary."

That year I went back I bought this album on the recommendation of a guy in my dorm ("I'll throw the old guy down the hall a bone" he must have thought).

I really liked it, and now I see it's not all that hard after all.

Kutless hails from the Portland, Oregon area and sounds a lot like Creed on this album. The low-end vocals (a tip of the hat to Mr. Eddie Vedder) and crunch of the guitars are classic post-grunge, but the lyrics (mostly of the well-meaning, youth group friendly kind) are very well done.

Having worked in high schools for a few years now, I know that being a teenager is rougher than when I had the pleasure to be one. The pressures are greater (thank you Internet) and a group like Kutless who would address issues like cutting, peer pressure, loneliness with heart and sincerity is to be commended.

"All Alone" the second track, has a great melody and the title track "Sea Of Faces" is a fantastic reminder that the Lord sees everybody. If you take the Bible for what it says (a matter of faith, but backed up by good research on my part) the Lord sees everything, and wants everyone to be connected back with Him. You are not just one more in "a sea of faces", but someone who God loves and sent his son to redeem by dying on the cross.

That love is a message I wish for all teens to hear, that they are loved by God no matter what.

Well done Kutless. 4 stars.

Day 7: Jakob Dylan - Woman + Country

Jakob Dylan, son of the famous Bob, has a great voice (much easier to listen to then dear old Dad's) and a great knack for songwriting, especially the kind of deep, classic pop that he is trafficking here on 2010's Women + Country. Most folks would know his voice from that Wallflower's song that you are always hearing in the grocery store (either "One Headlight" or Sixth Avenue Heartache") and say "I remember this guy, I really dug those songs on the radio back in the 90's."  Well, after quietly putting his band on hiatus in the early 00's Dylan released two solo albums and this one is the pick of the litter. It's clear that Dylan is making a "big statement album by all the American icons he has stuffed into the artwork (an eagle, the flag everywhere) and he largely accomplishes his goal. Like his Dad, Dylan can write social commentary like it's no one's business and "They've Trapped Us Boys" and "Truth For A Truth" sting like his dad's best work. The country harmonies are gorgeous on "Everybody's Hurting" and "Holly Rollers For Love." Dylan found two great harmony singers in Nekko Case and Kelly Hogan and a producers dream in T Bone Burnett (who has produced a few of my favorite records like the Counting Crow's August And Everything After and Natalie Merchant's Motherland).

This album is what this project is all about. I'd quite forgotten how much I like this dusty, classic cowboy record and it is a joy to put it on again and hear a master voice in action. 4 1/2 stars.

Day 6: Tom Petty - Highway Companion

The immortal Tom Petty reunited with old producing partner Jeff Lynne (who produced Petty's Full Moon Fever, the one with "Free Falling") to great affect. Highway Companion sounds like classic Petty, albeit, without a killer single to really bring the album to life.

That is not to say the songs aren't terrific. "Saving Grace" opens things nicely with a blues shuffle and an end of the world lyrical vibe, ""Flirting With Time" sounds like a Byrd's outtake and "Down South" is a great paean to small home towns.

Actually, Highway Companion does exactly what the title says, it's a great album to take on a road trip, filled with sing-along moments and wry observations about America.

Sounds like classic Tom Petty. Long may he drive.

4 stars

Day 5: Creedece Clearwater Revival - Como's Factory

This album cover is great, it's obviously a shot of Creedence backstage before a show looking goofy. They probably had no idea this would be the cover. The drummer, Doug Clifford on his ten speed bike looking like a hippy way out of place makes me laugh.

This classic album (it has "Who'll Stop The Rain, "Looking Out My Back Door" and Creedence's immortal version of "I Heard It Through The Grape Vine") was the band's 5th album in two years and came from a time when that was normal for artists to do. What is unfortunate is that kind of pace often burns artists out (as I believe, happened to the Beatles) and Creedence Clearwater Revival only made it a couple of years before breaking up with extreme acrimony, including between the two Fogerty brothers. They still have not made up. It is possible to share too close a space.

But that workload I believe gives the world its best work. When a band or artist take five years between a release (see yesterday's U2 entry) they can tend to lose the plot and not do their best work. Creedence produced an astonishing amount of classic songs (somewhere there is a bar band covering one right now) in their short time frame together.

My favorite song from this album is the closing "As Long As I Can See The Light", which is the perfect blues, late night shuffle and speaks of loneliness (it was probably written in a hotel room in New Mexico somewhere late an night) and has a great saxophone solo that adds to the ambient feel of being alone. But it ends hopefully. I'll be alright "as long as I can see the light." I love the spiritual overtones of that statement. The Lord is my light, I'll be alright as long as I can see it.

This band is the favorite of "The Dude" from "The Big Lobowski." When his car is stolen he is most upset about the "premium Creedence tapes" that got stolen with the car.

Long live the dude. May he always abide. And may we all "see the light."

5 stars

Day 4: U2 - No Line On The Horizon

What do you say about the most popular band in the world?

Well, with No Line On The Horizon you can say that they occasionally lose the plot.

I was fantastically excited for this album to come out because for almost ten years before U2 had been batting 1000%. All That You Can't Leave Behind was every band's dream comeback album; loaded with perfect songs from start to finish. On a personal note I connected with this album because Bono finally seemed to make peace with singing about God and the album is full of great spiritual moments like the ending song "Grace". 2004's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is likewise a classic album, with more worshipful songs like "Yaweah" and "All Because Of You." The rock and roll is back in force and "City Of Blinding Lights" is a swirling masterpiece of a four minute pop song.

Which leads us to No Lin On The Horizon.

It seems like the lads wanted to mix it up and be "experimental" but forgot that they are the soundtrack to so many lives. People rarely soundtrack their lives to ambiant, discordant noise, unless you are Paul Thomas Anderson (of the great There Will Be Blood and Magnolia). U2 spent two years making this when they should have spent two months. It seems overcooked and over thought. Sometimes it's hard to see something as it is when you have been living with it too long.

That's not to say there aren't great moments to be found. I love "Magnificent" (a straight ahead worship song that has confused secular critics; "who is Bono talking to?") and the fantastic "Moment Of Surrender", which is my favorite song on the album. Most of the rest of the songs are just okay, and a few are ambient crawlers that don't go anywhere. Hats off for doing something brave I suppose, but "Fez-Being Born" is hard to sit through.

It's ironic that the tour for this album is now the highest grossing of all time. It's telling that they only played two songs from this album regularly on the tour for said album.

I'm looking forward to what the fella's are going to do next.

3 stars

Day 3: Rich Mullins - Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth

Or aka "the album with the song 'Awesome God"

The best thing about this album, aside from that one huge song, might be the title. It still convicts me. It comes from the line "the stuff of Earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the maker of all good things."

The 80's keyboards and dated production would make listening to this regularly a chore. but the lyrics are fantastic. In many ways "Awesome God" was the first truly modern worship song. I remember singing it at the top of my lungs at summer camp and raising my hands for the fist time in worship.

Mullins would hit his stride in the next string of albums and make a few classic ones in the early 90's before he passed away.

3 stars