Four For the Ear

Last week I slipped out and went cd shopping. Picked up four albums that had been drawing my attention and as the week has passed listening to little else, I'm still not sure what to think of them.

The first if the latest U2 album, No Line On the Horizon. Initial spins place the sound of this record somewhere between Zooropa and All That You Can't Leave Behind. Get On Your Boots is the latest single and a rocking retread of Vertigo from the previous record. Sometimes Bono's lyrics are entirely cryptic and other time banal; nothing's changed on this record. This record hasn't quite hit me like Atomic Bomb or the band's late-80s records. This record will need some time and quite a bit of it. I do find myself liking it; I just need to absorb the music. The band's record from 2000 took me nearly a year to like and as it is now, I love it. That'll be the case here. Torn about catching the band's summer stadium tour. They'll sound fine. The issue is whether they'll shake up the setlist enough to make it worth shelling out cash for. Quite a bit of the band's early catalogue sounds like four young men playing young music in an earlier period of time. A lot of their 90s output turned off so many people that only a handful of songs remain in the active catalogue. That only leaves the stalwarts that I've heard several times before. I'm tired of Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year's Day. Half of The Joshua Tree also needs to be set aside a this tour. However, the band can't drive a tour on a new record and an hour and a half of b-sides and rarities. That I understand. Maybe if they'd play more than three seconds longer than two hours on the nose, they could simply incorporate more into their shows.

M. Ward's name has floated around for the last several years as an artist to check out. Never did but was really curious to hear his songs after the magnificent She & Him from last year. His latest, Make Hold, is a great mellow summer listen. Christian lyrics with rootsy and mellow instrumentation, I certainly need to check out more by this young rocker. Great sound that hasn't become old after several spins.

Now the classic stuff: Bonnie Raitt's Streetlights from 1974 and Emmylou Harris' Luxury Liner from '76. I love Bonnie's ballads and slow, aching slow songs. This album has 'em. I first learned Angel From Montgomery seeing Susan Tedeschi close with this number opening for the Allman Brothers in August of 1999 at the Concord Pavlion. It's a powerful number. Sometimes with Bonnie, though, some of the rockers and varietal qualities of the music escape me. Great vocals and tight musicianship but music that doesn't quite hit me. She has a record from '77 that received weaker reviews but it had that indelible mid-decade L.A. sound that made me really want to pick it up. Maybe next time. Another record that won't be perfect through and through but with keepers so strong it'll make me wish I was old enough to experience the music and the scene when it was being created.

Emmylou's record is the third straight county-rocker in two years. Pieces of the Sky and Elite Hotel from the year before lead up to this one. Chicken-pickin' opener to swing and then ballads, her records are formulaic in structure. From there, however, what makes me fall in love with her every time is the fragile beauty of her voice. I have, as a couple of friends know, a HUGE crush on Emmylou, especially now - her famous white hair and natural beauty only match her musical talent and voice. It's known that I want her to sing at my funeral though I have a feeling that won't be happening and she's been hit and miss with me in concert. This one's solid but I have a feeling I bought the wrong record. I think I should have picked up Blue Kentucky Girl since it's different from the others I already had. Maybe I still ought to. Emmylou's music brings back the memories of Fresno; my friends Steve and Chris, though a different Steve and Chris. I was in a band with people older than me, from different times and different musical experiences that, when we came together to play, we just clicked. We first played a blues trio called Blue Sky and later added a female singer named Dee Dee, who was just an amazing talent. Both guys sang occasional lead but we soon added a male lead. Then we broke up. Then we all (minus Dee Dee who moved away) reunited under the Remnants, a name I thought of since we had all been in previous bands and were mainly playing as the 'house' band at the church we all attended. We slowly added another lead guitar player (whom we unceremoniously later dropped), an acoustic guitar player and then a keyboard player; we were like Mad Dogs and Englishmen, we were so big. We cooked. We were a really good band with a great setlist and we played several places in town and made a name for ourselves. Then, like typical fashion, things began to unwind themselves. Steve, the bass player, quit and tensions built up between Chris, the drummer, and the singer. I moved up here and the band continued on (without me and no royalties!) for a couple of years intact. Chris was shown the door after tensions mounted on the direction of the band's sound though Chris now plays in a driving three piece band called something like Grid Ratio. I can imagine the Remnants are still playing parties and casuals, though I miss the days we would play those Friday nights at Butterfield's Brewery in the Tower District. We'd play from eight until midnight or twelve-thirty in the morning. Fifteen minute set breaks for a beer and a bathroom break but forty songs a night. We'd be spent but we sure had a blast. Cue Bryan Adams' Summer of 69; this is getting bad!

Read The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. Now I find myself living independently wealthy, drinking a fifth of liquor a night and wanting to hit animals and women. Talking in short sentences. Showing no emotion. Moving on. Being manly. Traveling to Spain. I am enjoying the read and while trying to get a feel for the 1920s, being set in Western Europe and with deliberately little detail to setting, the story reads as timeless. Should finish the novel in time for Spring Break to start and hopefully more good reads coming my way.

We'll be shooting to San Diego for a while to visit the family. Cue up the Almost Famous soundtrack and dig out the shorts and flip flops. Was seventy degrees this week.