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!