The Best CDs Of Summer 2008
On this first Sunday morning of the season, Bill Flanagan checks off the list of his musical picks for the summer.
Summer's here, time to wax up the surfboards, rinse out the snorkels and shave those winter whiskers.
The first summer I had my driver's license, the big radio songs were "Maggie May," "Brown Sugar," "Carrie," "What's Goin' On," and "Won't Get Fooled Again."
We must maintain these high standards. And we can!
One of my favorite bands from that long-ago era was the Faces, five rowdy Brits with a sense of fun and a touch of melancholy. Their great songwriter Ronnie Lane passed away a while ago. Their guitar player Ron Wood went on to join the Rolling Stones; drummer Kenney Jones went to the Who; and their singer Rod Stewart - hey, what ever happened to him? All those guys did great things, but none of them captured the sound of the Faces, until now.
Pianist Ian McLagen, the least famous of the group, has a new record called "Never Say Never" that mixes mischief and heartbreak, dancing on the bar and crying in your beer, in perfect proportion.
This is music for getting together with old pals at the pub, and shedding a tear for the friends you¹ll never see again.
Another English rocker with a terrific record is Paul Weller, whose upcoming CD "22 Dreams" covers a wide range, from blue eyed soul to guitar rock. It opens with a song called "Light Nights" that sounds like Richard Thompson playing Doctor Zhivago. The next number recalls the Electric Prunes. That's an impressive range right there.
Paul Weller's made an album of unusual ambition, just the thing for those long midsummer nights by the aurora borealis.
Lizz Wright is a young singer with an old soul. Her bluesy album "The Orchard" is what you want to have when you're sitting on the porch on a breezy evening rocking in time to the crickets.
I have to confess, I am late to the party on this. The great Ed Bradley started bending my ear about Lizz Wright a couple of years ago. Ed had great taste in music and whenever I saw him he'd say, "Hey, man, did you check out Lizz Wright yet?" I was slow, but as usual Ed was on the money. Lizz Wright is a wonderful singer who has made one of the best albums of the year.
Another great surprise is a record from a Texas rocker named Hayes Carll. If your idea of summer is the honky tonks and seaside clubs that run from Galveston up through the Gulf Coast, you have to hear this guy. He rides in the same crack between rock 'n' roll and country as Steve Earle, but his lyrics have the good humor of "Up on Cripple Creek" or Little Feat.
Carll sings in the voice of a lovable rogue one step ahead of eviction and having the time of his life. Hayes Carll is the poet laureate of the Redneck Riviera.
I was in New Orleans for JazzFest last month and Randy Newman stole the show. Newman is our generation¹s Stephen Foster AND our Mark Twain. His new album "Harps And Angels," which comes out in August, will have you in hysterics with one song and break your heart with the next.
He's already gotten a lot of attention for "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country," in which he takes aims at European critics of the Bush administration.
"Now the leaders we have,Newman points out that while our current leaders may have their shortcomings, they are still a sight better than Stalin, the lesser Caesars, or King Leopold of Belgium. Randy Newman, damning with faint praise.
While they're the worst that we've had,
Are hardly the worst this poor world has seen "
Last weekend I went out and road tested a pile of summer CDs. The one I kept coming back to was "Mudcrutch," an album that sounds like it was pulled out of a hole in time. Ever wonder what records the Byrds would have made if Gram Parsons had not quit the band in 1969? Mudcrutch have made that album.
They were a top group in Florida in the early '70s who headed to L.A. to get a record deal. They got signed, but they broke up in the studio.
Here's where it gets interesting: Their bass player was Tom Petty. Last year Petty began to think about his old band and how good they were and said, "Hey, what if I got Mudcrutch back together?"
Miraculously, a band that broke up 34 years ago reunited and made a magical album. Makes you wonder about all the other groups that got away.
The summer I got my license, gasoline was 50 cents a gallon and it seemed like all we did was drive around and listen to music. This year we may not have that luxury. But load up the CD changer with some of these selections and you'll feel like you're cruising from the town to the beach to the mountains, even if you're really just sitting up on cinder blocks in the back yard.
Some pleasures no one can take away.