Deadwood (Music from the HBO Series)

We cats have a lot of swear words in our vocabulary, but I don't think I can write them in English. If you've ever heard us fighting, you know what I mean. 

The HBO series Deadwood was suddenly cancelled after only three seasons, despite being one of the best series ever written and filmed. The series is based on true events and real people who settled Deadwood, South Dakota, although fictional events and characters are mixed in with the historical facts. Unfortunately, many people went bat-shit (as opposed to cat-shit) over the language. I suspect that the controversy had something to do with the cancellation. 

In a special feature, David Milch, Deadwood's creator, explained that people of that time (late 1800s) were educated by the Victorian novel, with its convoluted syntax. Also, settlers of Deadwood were attracted to that area by its absence of local, state, and federal laws. They were iconoclasts and anarchists (in other words: cats), and they used language to show their contempt for authority, hence the swearing. What you wind up with are almost-Shakespearean soliloquies filled with obscenities. It's lovely!

What's all this got to do with music? Well, after your ears have adjusted to the strange mixture of Victorian and profane language, the second thing you'll notice is the skilled use of music to create a mood and tell the story. Each episode ends with a different song, and the soundtrack album is completely beautiful. Two of the best are "High Fever Blues" by Bukka White and "Twisted Little Man" by Michael J. Sheehy.

"Twisted Little Man": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzx44jDcjtU&feature=fvwrel

"High Fever Blues": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Rn8qSXDJY

You'll notice a parental advisory on the album. This is because--in addition to the music--the album contains some of the memorable lines from the episodes. My personal favorite is "Who?, Wu!," a dialogue that rivals Abbott and Costello's famous "Who's on First?" routine.

Here's the scene on YouTube (and don't say I didn't warn you; it's unsuitable for kittens) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KsU89R1A8M

After we'd watched the series via Netflix, we bought the soundtrack, and then my person was given a gift of all three seasons on DVD. We're in Deadwood heaven! Check out Deadwood and discover what I'm talking about.

Peace out!

Dazed and Confused Soundtrack

Here's a trip down the 1970s' memory lane! The setting of Richard Linklater's 1993 movie, Dazed and Confused, is the last day of the year at a high school in a small Texas town in 1976. The seniors are hazing the incoming freshmen, and everyone is trying to get stoned, drunk, or laid, even the football players who have signed a pledge not to.

Now, I must say that no cat in his/her right mind would sign a pledge to avoid catnip, but then, we're rarely jailed for getting stoned on that particular weed.

The film offers glimpses of the early careers of actors such as Matthew McConaughey, Milla Jovovich, Ben Afflect, Parker Posey, and even an uncredited Renée Zellweger.

The soundtrack includes tunes by many of the '70s all-stars: Alice Cooper, Kiss, Foghat, Black Sabbath, ZZTop, Lynryd Skynyrd, and more. Even my GramCat wasn't alive in the '70s, but most of this music has stood up well over the past 40 years. Take a little nip, and take a little trip back in time.

Peace out! 

Miles Davis

Talk about a cool cat! This guy is the coolest. Miles Davis is undisputedly one of the most important musicians in modern times. His career spanned a good 70 years and most of the evolutionary phases of jazz, particularly modal and fusion.

Of all his albums, my three favorites are Kind of Blue, Miles Smiles, and In A Silent Way. If you're a cool kitten who's new to Davis, I recommend starting with any one of these three albums.

Davis has partnered up with nearly all of the great blues and jazz players. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Chick Corea, and my favorite, Herbie Hancock (pictured at left) are just a few. 
Try these samples from Miles Smiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkUULYE-LAA and In A Silent Way:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llVl62Ra9bQ. Here's a cut from Kind of Blue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoPL7BExSQU

There's almost too much to say about Miles Davis and his musical contributions, and I probably could write all day on this cat and still just scratch the surface. Instead, here's a link to the Wikipedia entry, and you can read as much or as little as you want: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis

Peace out!

Olu Dara & Daughtry

This artist may be miss-filed, alphabetically. My person contends that Dara is his last name. I was under the impression that "Olu Dara" means "God is good," which would make it his whole name. To settle our disagreement, we consulted Wikipedia and discovered that his name is actually Charles Jones, III, so now, we're really confused. For the time being, the album In the World is in the D section. This is what happens when you don't have opposable thumbs and have to depend on your person to get things off the shelf for you.

Whatever his name is, Olu Dara is a versatile musician. He plays the guitar, trumpet, and cornet, and sings. He plays jazz and blues, funk, reggae, and In the World also has an African flavor. The lyrics range widely from topics such as okra (who'd have thought to write a song about this vegetable?), shopping, rain, and his girlfriend's lips. My favorite line is "Your lips, your lips, your lips, your lips are juicy." Reminds me of when my own lips have been wrapped around a delicious mouse. Enjoy your own mouse while listening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qs1DDGjUw0

You probably remember Chris Daughtry as the intense, sultry cowboy contestant on American Idol in 2006. (Did I actually just describe someone as a "sultry cowboy?" Oh, well, if the boot fits...) After getting booted off the show, Chris turned down an offer to be Fuel's lead singer and formed his own band, which has been touring ever since. 

Chris' voice is very manly, as are his shaved head and exaggerated sideburns. My cat friends and I constantly wonder about humans and the odd things they like to do with their fur. The most well-known cuts on this first album are "What About Now" and "It's Not Over." The thing that disappoints me about Daughtry is that he has this powerful rocker voice, but he usually sings about insipid country music subjects: his truck, getting out of jail, getting married. Seems like a bad pairing of talent and genre. You can see what I mean at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ92eyxnxmQ&feature=relmfu  It's another miss-file, if you ask me. 

Peace out!

The Crystal Method

No, this isn't me. I just saw this photo online and thought it went well with this week's review. Surely, this cat is a fan of The Crystal Method and has been to a rave or two in his life. The first time I encountered The Crystal Method's music was on the soundtrack of the movie, 3000 Miles to Graceland, so let me tell you a little bit about that, first. 

No matter what you've heard about the film, there are several reasons why you should watch it: 1) The animated, fast-forward introduction is amazing; 2) The casino shootout scene is perfectly choreographed and should be a music video by itself; 3) Kurt Russell is trans-splendent as an Elvis impersonator. Oh, and my person wants me to tell you a fourth reason. She says the sex scene between Courtney Cox and Kurt Russell is as hot as it gets. She says, "watch for the hand on the ankle." I can't explain this any further, because cat sex does not involve hands or ankles. 

The are only two flaws in the film: The final shootout is simply embarrassing. Bad-guy Ice T comes zooming across the screen hanging up-side-down from a cable, two guns a-blazing. He immediately gets shot to pieces and then just hangs there like a sack of kitty litter. Extremely lame. Also, there is a technical inaccuracy in the background scenery when the action moves to Boise, Idaho. I've been to Boise, and that's not what it looks like.

A line in the film, "some freaky-deaky level 9 kind of shit," perfectly describes The Crystal Method, which brings me (finally!) to my review. This is techno/electronic music at its best. The albums carry parental advisories because the lyrics concern sex and drug use ("Why don't you trip like I do" is typical), but I wouldn't classify them as "profane" in any way. It's The Crystal Method's energy that is intoxicating. My person always puts them on when she's cleaning house, and you should see her zoom around with the dust rag!

My favorite album is Vegas, one of their earliest. The strongest cut is "Vapor Trail," which was featured in 3000 Miles to Graceland. You'll recognize this cut and others from other films and (I think) even TV.
The Crystal Method sounds like a whole group of people, but it's really just two guys and a lot of electronic equipment. Not a problem: for this kind of music, that's all it takes.
Here's "Roll It Up," another of my favorites. Watch for the fish! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC65vDqgHxc&feature=related 
Peace out!

Sheryl Crow

Again, with the crows! Although, this time it's just one person, rather than a whole group (see my February review of The Black Crowes). Sheryl Crow figures prominently in my person's "Angry Women of the '90s" collection, but she seems to have more staying power than most of the others, primarily due to an ability to successfully reinvent herself as a musician. 
We spent most of the afternoon listening to the Crow oeuvre and drinking beer, entirely because of the song, "All I Wanna Do," in which Crow describes her afternoon drinking beer with "Bill or Billy or Mac or Buddy" in "a bar that faces a giant car wash." Actually, my person drank the beer; I indulged in my substance of choice: catnip.
Enjoy the music video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zIEfSxqkg

But I digress. Crow seems equally comfortable with rock, folk, hip hop, pop, and country music. Proof of this are the nine Grammy awards she's scored. Her music shows a lot of versatility; unlike many artists, she can be peppy and up-beat as well as pensive, hard-edged and sweetly soft. She's definitely not a one-note musician. She's also adept at performing with other artists, such as Kid Rock ("Picture"), Mick Jagger, and even Michael Jackson. She has sold over 35 million albums worldwide, and she's still going strong; her latest album, 100 Miles from Memphis, was released in 2010.
Crow just turned 50, and I heard that she appeared on the ABC TV show, Cougar Town, which is not, as I originally thought, about the great wild cats, but, instead, is about older women who like younger men. Not that there's anything wrong with that. (My person made me write that last sentence, because she's a bit of a cougar herself, but don't tell her I said so.)
Cougar or not, Sheryl Crow and her music have what it takes to make me sit up and say, "Mmrowl!"
Peace out!

Cream & Creedence Clearwater Revival

Okay. You'd expect a group called Cream to have at least one cat in it, right? Wrong. I couldn't find one actual cat listed in the credits on this album, which contains some of the most significant recordings of the 1960s. Sure, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker are all cool cats as far as hipness goes, but I was a bit disappointed, all the same. Then, I remembered that my GramCat loved Cream--the kind you listen to, as well as the kind that comes in a saucer--and listening to this album, I could see why. 

First of all, even as young as Clapton is on these early cuts, he makes his guitar serve as a whole ensemble of different instruments. He even uses feedback like a master, especially on "SWLABR." Although I didn't understand some of the references ("Anyone for Tennis," for example), I felt sure that "Tales of Brave Ulysses" was about a hero-cat.

"Spoonful" was especially fun to purr along with, and I couldn't help but fantasize about my own favorite kind of spoonful (pictured at right).
Finally, Clapton's rendition of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" is sublime! He's played it several times since this early recording, but I'd venture to say never better than this. Lap up some Cream and decide for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdwVVI4B3oY

Almost every song of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Chronicle album is surely written for cats. Consider these examples: "Run Through the Jungle" (about our wild ancestors), "I Put a Spell on You" (now massage my ears), "Lookin' Out My Back Door" (at all the pretty birds I'm going to eat), "Long As I Can See the Light" (it's still naptime), and "Someday Never Comes" (because today is always the only day). 
No wonder this is another of my GramCat's favorites. This music just doesn't go out of style. Whether you're an old cat or a kitten, CCR will revive you and set all 16 of your toes a-tappin'.
Peace out!

Cowboy Junkies & Robert Cray

I'm not personally acquainted with any junkies, but I've seen them on TV, and they don't seem to take their duties toward cats very seriously. Can you imagine how hard it would be to get your strung-out person to fill the kibble bowl or scoop the poops out of the litter box?

I do live across the way from a cowboy who has five cats that he takes good care of, although his attempts to herd them are always futile. Quelle suprise!
The Cowboy Junkies are neither cowboys nor junkies, but Canadians, and their music does have a country flavor.
Wikipedia confirms this: "Although it didn't originally have anything to do with their sound, the Cowboy Junkies' name wound up seeming pretty accurate: their music was grounded in traditional country, blues, and folk, yet drifted along in a sleepy, narcotic haze that clearly bore the stamp of the Velvet Underground. The vast majority of their songs were spare and quiet, taken at lethargic tempos and filled with languid guitars and detached, ethereal vocals."
I was lulled into my own cat-nip-enhanced haze by the band's best-known song, "Sweet Jane." Unfortunately, I was immediately jarred out of my slumber by my person, who insisted on singing along with "Blue Moon Revisited (A Song for Elvis)" not once, but three times in a row! Hear "Blue Moon Revisited" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ6EGsZdxpE
When you're ready for your own cat nap, try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4XVJj4jER4

Before I could doze off again, my person put on Robert Cray and commenced an embarrassing air-guitar routine. I just shut my eyes and concentrated on the music.
Cray's Strong Persuader is aptly named, but then, I don't really need much persuading when it comes to blues guitar. I'd heard Bettye Lavette's version of David Walker's "Right Next Door"--which is where this album's title comes from--but it's sung from the cheatin' woman's perspective. (By the way, I'll be reviewing Lavette, if we ever get to the L section in our music collection.) Cray plays and sings the song as the seducer, which seems to be the better approach, but then, I'm a cat, and our whole gig is about persuading our people to give us what we want.
Every cut on Strong Persuader is executed well, but my favorite is "New Blood." When Cray sang, "I hear that night wind howling: time to find new blood," I decided to go outside and do a little mouse hunting. But first, I hunted up a little Robert Cray for you to check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra2Qndv_xeE 
Peace out!

Concrete Blonde & Shemekia Copeland

My person tells me that "Concrete Blonde" is a derogatory term for heavily-lacquered big blonde hair, but it's used ironically on this album, because Johnette Napolitano, the singer-songwriter-bassist, doesn't look anything like that. It's a mystery to cats why humans mess around with their hair so much. Just lick it clean and leave it alone!

Anyway. I hear that after forming and reforming, the group is now permanently disbanded, which is too bad. Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting is the best of their albums. Napolitano's voice--especially on "Caroline," is throaty but pure, and "Joey," their most widely-known song, is their anthem to empathy ("Joey, if you're hurtin' so am I."). The only song on the album that seems out of step with the others is "I Don't Need a Hero." It just doesn't have the same punch as the rest. The first cut, "Bloodletting" (AKA "The Vampire Song"), is my favorite, because I'm interested in vampires and bats. I caught one once (a bat, not a vampire), and it was fun to play with, but its wings were a bit too chewy.
If you've read my other reviews, you know that I'm a fan of a hard-working drummer. Apparently, Concrete Blonde had drummer problems in the past, and kept trading out percussionists. On Bloodletting, the drummer is Paul Thompson, who gives his sticks a fine workout, especially on "The Sky is a Poisonous Garden." I'm not even going to try to figure out what that song title means; I just enjoyed Thompson's giving his skins a good, hard thrashing.
Here's a link to the "Bloodletting" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOn1037ZLwA

Speaking of hair, on Talking to Strangers, Shemekia Copeland sings about the joys of getting her hair done at "Sholanda's" (House of Beau-tay). Sounds like so much fun, I might actually consider going for a pedi-pedi sometime. Termed an electric blues vocalist, Copeland has been officially crowned the new "Queen of the Blues," an honor previously held by Koko Taylor. Copeland does sound a bit like Taylor, although I thought more of Thelma Houston while I was listening to Talking to Strangers. Whoever her influences are, Copeland has a wide repertoire of blues stylings, and she's been singing professionally since age 16. Another of her albums, Wicked, won Shemekia three different blues music awards, and she's obviously just getting started.
Shemekia turns the heat up at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65nDprifGek&feature=related
Here's to turning the heat up on better hairball control. Peace out!

The Commitments Soundtrack, 2 Vols.

"The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud." --Jimmy Rabbitte, Jr. (Robert Arkins), Band Manager of The Commitments

The Commitments (1991), based on a novel by Roddy Doyle, is one of my favorite movies. The two-volume soundtrack of the film contains some of the best American soul music ever created by artists such as Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Isaac Hayes. The surprise of the movie and the CD is that you don't expect this music to be so well rendered by young, unknown, Irish musicians. But it is.

The film's large cast includes pretty much 

every breed of Irish cat.

The Commitments is a coming-of-age/romantic comedy/concert movie, and the CDs are a translation of classic soul music into the consciousness of a new generation. Soul music purists may not approve of this, but I say that whatever moves music across generational, ethnic, national, species, or any other kind of barrier is a good thing for everyone.

Sixteen-year-old Andrew Strong plays Deco, the lead singer, and his vocal style reminded me of Joe Cocker. Stray cats everywhere will be able to relate to Strong's renditions of "The Dark End of the Street" and "Try a Little Tenderness." 

Natalie (Maria Doyle, left) and Imelda (Angeline Ball, foreground) won my little cat heart with "I Never Loved a Man" and "I Can't Stand the Rain." Lovely ladies, take me in for a saucer of milk!
Hear Doyle at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zASDQq2zsM


The movie includes some really funny musical moments:

During tryouts, Jimmy Rabbitte, Sr. (Colm Meany), channels Elvis Presley at the dinner table.

Startled by the drums, Bernie's (Bronagh Gallagher) little brother screams all during rehearsal.

Joey "The Lips" Fagin (Johnny Murphy) teaches the Nipple Method of playing sax.

Good film, great music. I give both of them four paws straight up!Peace Out!

Paula Cole, John Coltrane, & Albert Collins

I used to really like this album, but now, it just doesn't work for me. Despite the fact that Paula Cole's "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" was on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and she won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1998, somehow the music doesn't stand the test of time, and Cole often just sounds shrill. Of course, this is one of my person's extensive collection of "Angry Women of the '90s" CDs, so maybe it's that. The third cut on this album, "Throwing Stones," does still get me all excited because the drummer, Jay Bellerose, sounds like he's going to break his sticks in pieces. And of course, "Feelin' Love" is a make-out classic. Whether you're a human or a cat, you'll get to feeling all romantic with this tune. Here's a link to the song, although--because of the photos--humans have to be over 18 to watch it (cats, that's about 2 cat-years)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSf6-CGEOb8&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dpaula%2Bcole%2Bfeelin%2Blove%26oq%3Dpaula%2Bcole%2Bfeelin%2Blove%26aq%3Df%26aqi%3Dg2%26aql%3D%26gs_sm%3D3%26gs_upl%3D117l5403l0l6154l17l15l0l4l4l0l421l1100l0.1.2.0.1l4l0&has_verified=1

Next up was sax-master John Coltrane's My Favorite Things. This album has only four songs on it, but they run anywhere from 5 to 14 minutes each. If you're still training your ear to jazz, this album is a good tutorial. John's all over the place with his tenor and soprano saxophones, and you can hear his multi-tonic jazz system and harmonizing technique, now called "Coltrane changes." If you want to learn more about this, here's an example of Coltrane's "Giant Steps": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kotK9FNEYU

Cool cats, listen up: Albert Collins had many nicknames, such as "The Ice Man" and "The Master of the Telecaster," and he earned them all. You can hear his influence in the music of other blues musicians: Coco Montoya, Robert Cray, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jonny Lang, Susan Tedeschi, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, John Mayer, and many others.
Every song on this album is my favorite, even those with lyrics that, being a cat, I don't quite understand, such as "When the Welfare Turns Its Back on You" and "Master Charge." I think these have something to do with money, but since I never have any cash on me, my person always picks up the check.  
Collins has a keen sense of humor; he made a cameo appearance in the 1987 movie, Adventures in Babysitting, forcing the kids to make up a song and saying, "Nobody leaves this place without singin' the blues." Made me laugh so hard I almost choked on my catnip.
Lots of stories are told about Collins jumping off the stage during performances and wandering through the crowd, sometimes even leaving the club--attached to his amplifier with a very long cable--and playing outside on the sidewalk.
Here's a good example of the Iceman with his smoking hot guitar: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihvvf1R_vWo
Many of Collins' song titles have to do with ice: "Ice Pickin'," "Frostbite," "Cold Snap," "Don't Lose Your Cool," and "Frozen Alive" are just a few, but I found one on YouTube that's about a cat!
Listen and chill: "My Woman Has a Black Cat Bone": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_6yq_wNNHE&feature=related
Peace out!

Leonard Cohen

A few years ago, my person rented this concert movie from Netflix, and we watched it together three times in a row. What a great collection of performers! After that, of course, we had to have the soundtrack.

Even if you don't know who Leonard Cohen is, you've undoubtedly heard his songs, whether it's the '60s iconic "Suzanne" ("takes you down to a place by the river") or "Famous Blue Raincoat" (1971) which has been recorded by a host of artists such as Jennifer Warnes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPlpxHhzSp0or).  

What's also stunning about this album is the variety of artists who gathered to pay tribute to Cohen: the McGarrigles, the Wainwrights, Nick Cave, Perla Batalla...the list goes on.

My favorite song on the album is "If It Be Your Will," a Cohen anthem sung in the most moving manner by Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKhGKB6faW0). 

Cohen says that the song isn't religious in the traditional sense of the word; rather, the song reflects his awe of the natural world's spirituality. Even housecats and city cats can understand what Cohen means by that.

My cousin cat, Kali, contemplating the natural world outside her New York apartment window.

Here's wishing you a beautiful Sunday in your natural world, wherever it may be.

Peace out!

Tracy Chapman & Patsy Cline

Like most cats, Tracy Chapman was raised by her mother, but unlike most cats, she began playing music very early, when her mother bought her a ukelele. This just confirms my belief that many more cats would be in the music business if cat moms had better access to music stores and credit cards. Tracy has been writing and performing for over 25 years, and she's won many awards for her songs such as "Fast Car," which is something cats need to watch out for (fast cars, not music awards).

New Beginning is her fourth album, and the best-known song on it is "Give Me One Reason," a slow, rhythmical plea to an unnamed lover who's about to be abandoned. This song won the Best Rock Song Grammy Award in 1997. Chapman's guitar is straight-forward and her voice evocative, and I particularly like her purry sound on "Heaven's Here on Earth." "Cold Feet" was another of my favorites, even though I don't get cold feet, because I'm part Maine Coon cat, and I have lots of fur between my toes. 

Here's an oldie-but-a-goodie! Patsy Cline's been gone a long time, but go into any country-western bar that has a jukebox or a karaoke machine, and you'll find all her greatest hits. This album contains 12 of those hits, from "Walking After Midnight" (a thing that cats love to do) to "You're Stronger Than Me," something that most male cats have to admit eventually. In fact, just to be on the safe side, I'd better dedicate this review to my bro Sparky, the Top Cat in my neighborhood.

There's a little throb in Patsy's voice that made the parakeets in our house chirp in response whenever they heard it. I finally had to go tell them to shut up, so I could enjoy the rest of this terrific album. Oh, if it weren't for that cage, I'd have had a little snack to go along with my Patsy Cline.
Listen to her sing "Crazy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzq5X-p2C0Y
Peace out!

Chanman

Whew! Sometimes, reviewing music can be a cat's worst nightmare, and all you can do is laugh, because things have taken such a sharp turn toward the ridiculous. My person got this CD from a bass player who had performed for a time with "Chanman" in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a place where extremely wealthy people go to experience the West. 
The fact that places such as Jackson Hole and Sun Valley aren't in the least representative of real life in the West is beside the point, but as I listened to Chanman sing "Tell me where will the homeless sleep tonight," I couldn't help but appreciate the irony of his situation. Chanman's music has been described as "Folk rock in the groove tradition of Ski Bum music." In Jackson's preppie coffee joints, Chanman could only have been easily-ignorable background noise, which is a good thing, given the banality of his music. 
Despite some competent saxophone on cuts such as "Backstabber," boredom reigns. How did the bass player manage to stay awake? At least, the drummer had sticks to poke himself with to keep from passing out. 
Chanman is a minimalist lyricist: for example, the song "Liz and Phil" primarily consists of--you guessed it--incessant repetitions of the words "Liz and Phil." I presume that Liz and Phil are Chanman's friends, but even they must have been embarrassed by the homage. 

Chanman veers across the line from music into comedy with "Sensual Work of Art," wherein he compares his ladylove to the Mona Lisa, The Birth of Venus, and to Picasso's depictions of women (scarcely a smooth move, flattery-wise). One of the lines in "Sensual Work of Art" is "You've got to suffer..."  I did.
Chanman's tortured crooning recalls the soundtrack of Ishtar, the 1987 comedy film. Ishtar's plot concerns two highly-untalented musician/songwriters who take their show on the road in the Middle East, with hilarious consequences.
You can sample some Ishtar music (I recommend "How Big Am I?") at http://ishtarthemovie.com/Songs.php 
You can also purchase Chanman's CDs on cdbaby.com, but really, why would you want to?
I was going to review Tracy Chapman and Patsy Cline in this same blog post, but the Goddess Bastet would surely strike me down if I lumped them in with this guy, so I'll save them for next time.
Peace out!

Francis Cabrel & The Calling

What better way to celebrate St. Valentine's Day than by listening to a romantic Frenchman singing about love and newspapers?

My person knew enough French to explain that the title of Francis Cabrel's album, Quelqu'un de l'Intérieur, means "Someone on the Inside," and she translated other titles such as "L'enfant qui dort" (the sleeping child) and "Question d'équilibre" (a question of balance).
Cabrel is fairly famous in France as a singer, guitarist, songwriter, and local politician. Early in his career, he was influenced by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen (who I will be reviewing in a few weeks), and I could hear those influences in his songs.
A lot of Cabrel's songs seem to be about ethical questions, which are not of much interest to cats. One song did catch my attention: "Edition Spéciale" which Cabrel sings and plays really fast. It's very catchy, and my person sang along in what I suspect was really bad French. This song is what motivated her to buy the album in the first place. She'd seen Albert Brooks sing along with it in the movie Broadcast News, so I assumed that the song is about the news, and I got to thinking about the newspaper that the other cat and I eat our breakfast on every morning. It's certainly a "special edition" on the days we're served chopped kidneys or liver. After that thought, it was hard for me to pay much attention to the rest of "Someone on the Inside," since I was thinking about my own insides and how empty they felt.

Listen to Cabrel sing "Edition Spéciale" at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXJX2AWeFew

After Frenchy was finished, we sampled The Calling's Camino Palmero, which I thought might be in Spanish, but it wasn't. The Calling released only two albums and haven't been heard from since 2005. They are one of those one-hit wonders whose song "Wherever You Will Go" was all over the charts in 2001, went to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the Adult Top 40 for 23 weeks.
I guess if a band is only going to have one big hit, it ought to be a good one like "Wherever You Will Go." Take a listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC8LZiNP3RE 
My person petted me pretty much non-stop during "Wherever You Will Go" and promised that we'd never part. We have a loving relationship: she loves me, and I love the way she massages my ears. It was a nice way to spend Valentine's Day afternoon.
Peace Out!

Meredith Brooks, Bobby Brown, & Butterfield Blues Band

You've probably noticed that I'm listening to our music collection in alphabetical order. That's 'cause I live with a neat-freak and also because I don't have opposable thumbs, so I have to rely on her to open the CDs. Today, we finished off the rest of the "B" shelf.

Meredith Brooks is yet another in the "Angry Women of the '90s" collection that wreaks a lot of havoc around this house, so I was surprised that the first track of her Blurring the Edges album was "I Need." Seems like a weak beginning for a woman who goes on to sing "Bitch," which was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Rock Song in 1998 and is one of the seminal songs of Second Wave Feminism. By the time Meredith got to "What Would Happen (If We Kissed)," I'd stopped trying to figure her out. If you think understanding female humans is tough, try understanding female cats. Another time, I'll tell you what I have to go through with the other cat I live with. Anyway, I love, love, love Meredith's "what would happen if we kissed" lyric, because everyone knows what happens when you kiss a dog (they lick you with that slimy tongue), but a cat kiss is vastly different. Try it sometime. I'll bet Meredith has.
The video is cheesy, but the song is bitchin' at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ivt_N2Zcts&ob=av2n

I'll also bet that Bobby Brown has done his share of kissing, since his Don't Be Cruel album is chock-full of lovey-dovey songs. Actually, at first I thought I was listening to Michael Jackson, because there were so many synth beats and eeks and uhs, and "oh girrrls." If I had one piece of advice to give musicians like Bobby, it would be to lay off the synthesizer and the drum machine.  Too monotonous. However, my favorite cut on the album is "My Prerogative," which is a well-known cat anthem. We cats always assert our prerogative.
Watch a very young Bobby dance, sing, and assert his prerogative at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cDLZqe735k&ob=av2e

As catchy as Bobby Brown's "Every Little Step I Take" is, what a gigantic relief it was to dive all-four-feet-first into The Butterfield Blues Band's album, The Resurrection of PigBoy Crabshaw. The title refers to Elvin Bishop, who met Paul Butterfield in Chicago and played lead guitar with the band before forming his own group. This is bold Chicago-style blues that also pays homage to the blues' Delta roots. Everything about this album is perfect, especially the horn section. 
"Driftin' and Driftin" is 9 minutes and 9 seconds of delicious saxophone and harmonica call-and-response wailing. Also featured is the best rendition of "Born Under a Bad Sign" since Albert King's 1967 release of the song written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones. And that's a fact, not just my humble cat opinion!
Peace Out!
Here's BBB at Woodstock in 1969: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j9iNV_e1Yw