back beat

Rip It Up, Issue 214, 1 June 1995, Page 28

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BOBBY CHARLES Wish You Were Here Right Now (Stony Plain/Global Routes) After 40 years in the biz, legendary reclusive Cajun pop songwriter returns with only his third proper album, and he’s full of beans. The writer of ‘See You Later Alligator’, ‘Walking to New Orleans’ and other classics re-visited here, Charles sings like a relaxed Rick Danko. He puts the ‘easy’ into The Big Easy, with casual help from friends such as Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Sonny Landreth. Charles’s invention of Gulf Coast blues is absolutely charming: a mix of New Orleans pop and Tex-Mex soul. DAN PENN Do Right Man (Sire) Dan Penn grew up in the deep South, a white boy who listened to black radio stations, wanting to be Ray Charles or Bobby Bland. Instead, he wrote some of the great soul classics for Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex, Percy Sledge and others. Here, 35 years after he started selling songs, 22 years after his debut album, Penn returns as performer. You can hear the R&B giants taking all their cues from his aching blue-eyed soul delivery as he re-captures some of his most famous songs: ‘Dark End of the Street’, ‘Do Right Man’, ‘lt Tears Me Up’ and ‘l’m Your Puppet’. Assisting him with passionate, effortless support - like RSA veterans returning to the trenches - are his old buddies from Muscle Shoal studios. The most successful, and essential, comeback of an unacknowledged legend since Arthur Alexander’s Lonely Just Like Me. Why has local release of this wonderful album taken so long? VARIOUS ARTISTS Come Together: America Salutes the Beatles (Liberty) The Beatles were the great Irish country band before the Pogues: check out ‘l’ve Just Seen a Face’, ‘What Goes On’, ‘l’m Looking Through You’. Here, C-grade country wannabes pay tribute to the Fabs with a little too much reverence (and too little talent). The result is MOR wallpaper from complete unknowns, with every McCartney nuance copied by the taste-and-talent-free (those who aspire to be alsorans on the country Grammys). This is headed straight for the bargain bins, and two exceptions make it worth $5: Willie Nelson’s spirited honky tanking of ‘One After 909’, and Kris Kristofferson's bizarre ‘Paperback Writer' (Johnny Cash goes HM). GUY CLARK Dublin Blues (WEA) The aristocrat of outlaw songwriting returns, with a solid album to accompany his spellbinding recent Auckland concert. Wry tales and seductive singalongs, conveyed in a voice as mellow as aged port and just as complex. The acoustic backing is spacious and sympathetic for this old rogue and romantic: ‘I threw a rock through your window / just to let you know I cared.’ 808 DYLAN MTV Unplugged (Columbia) Some say he should never have plugged in. Just when you think Dylan’s doing it all in his sleep, the wily old bastard pulls a fast one when you’ve nodded off. Here, among the redundant remakes, the surprise is a rivetting return to ‘Desolation Row’. From the days when he could do no wrong (1965), every couplet is a gleaming gem. Rarely performed since then,

it is sung here with utter affection. It shows how easy another Blood On the Tracks comeback would be, if only he took time out from the Never-ending Tour to re-group. TODD SNIDER Songs for the Daily Planet (MCA) The best “new Dylan” in years, and so much more. Snider (change that surname) comes fully formed, like Springsteen in '74. An alternative singer-songwriter for Kurt Cobain naysayers (ie, aging rock critics), Snider has the humour of cloth-capped Dylan, the earnest wordsmithery of early Springsteen, plus Stones raunch. The grooves are varied, but it’s all good fun, especially the bonus surprise, a talking blues satirising the marketing of Seattle grunge acts. A clever-dick who doesn’t take himself seriously, Snider is the discovery of the year so far. BUTCH HANCOCK Eats Away the Night (Sugar Hill/Global Routes) Aging “new Dylan" Hancock is part of the Lubbock set which threw up Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore (all three were in the legendary Flatlanders, whose 1972 album is an essential re-issue). His nasal shaggy dog stories are good-humoured and romantic, resembling Woody Guthrie as much as Dylan. A consummate wordsmith, Hancock’s recent songs (‘Pumpkinhead’, ‘Eileen’) sit well alongside new - if unnecessary - versions of his classics ‘Boxcars’ and ‘lf You Were a Bluebird'. MICHAEL FRACASSO When I Live in the Wild (Bohemia/Global Routes) Second album time from this Italo-American “new Dylan” (‘Words are Weapons’), a strong songwriter with a heartfelt delivery which, with repeated listening, recalls more the plaintive urban folk of Grant MacLennan. THE MINUS 5 Old Liquidator (Glitterhouse/Global Routes) To quote Roger L: “The Byrds on bad acid - or Paul McCartney on good acid.” Like an alternative Latin Playboys, this busman’s holiday from Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows) and Peter Buck (REM) is full of sassy, Beatlesque doodles. Chris Knox would love to make this, but wouldn’t admit it. JAMES BLUNDELL Earth & Sky (EMI) The Tom Cruise of Australian country has spoilt us with a double CD - and you kinda wish he hadn’t. The rocky Sky is a lot better than the folky Earth - the varied acoustic-rock backings flatter the assured songs more than Blundell’s bland voice does. Still, all credit to JB for taking risks and. making the big statement: this kicks the shit out of the Beatle tributers. STEVIE WONDER Conversation Peace (Motown) The music still drips from his fingers. Wonder returns after five years with a superb new album that proves he’s still the cock-eyed, pop-eared optimist. Funky, jazzy, a cornucopia of melody, this wonderful album shows a pop mastermind on top of his form - and hidden within the slinky hooks are plenty of political messages. Irresistible songs such as ‘Tomorrow the Robins Will Sing’ and ‘Take the Time Out’ make you feel good to be alive. Isn’t that what pop music’s for?

JAMES BOOKER