Lady Antebellum GoldenCapitol NashvilleC+
Look, there’s nothing particularly wrong with Lady Antebellum, country music’s reigning hookmeisters. They return with an album of material hoping for another sure shot “Need You Now.” Golden could end up generating that hit, as there are plenty of catchy pop tunes here that will no doubt have the faithful holding up cell phones at arenas across the fruited plain.
But, my goodness, this is an aggressively bland band and a painfully non-humorous one on top of it. Just soak in the awkward “Downtown,” which so wants to be funkyand with-it and is so not. Try to wrap your head around this lyric, “With arms open wide, I’ll be your umbrella when you just can’t stand the rain.” Really, hooks only take you so far.
Available today.
Hot track: “Better Off (Now That You’re Gone).” - WERNER TRIESCHMANNThe Deadstring BrothersCannery Row BloodshotB
Kurt Marschke and his Deadstring brethren don’t care about blazing any new rock ’n’ roll trails. They’re fine with the whiskey-flavored, country-rock reminiscent of the first two Band albums and Let It Bleed-era Rolling Stones. Just check this line from the barrelhouse rocker “Long Lonely Ride,” which could have been an outtake from Some Girls:
“They say I sound just like the Stones/so I’m givin’ ’em this song …”
It’s good that the Deadstrings aren’t ashamed of their debt, otherwise they wouldn’t be much more thana parody. Instead, they’ve got enough strut and swagger of their own, which is obvious on this latest effort, complete with heavenly female backing vocals and impassioned picking.
Hot tracks: “Cannery Row,” “Like a California Wildfire” “Oh Me Oh My.” - SEAN CLANCY Steve Forbert Jackrabbit Slim/Alive onArrival Blue Corn MusicA
As the 1970s were ending, singer-songwriter Steve Forbert was just getting started. Though having been hailed as the new Bob Dylan proved to be something of a curse, Forbert has had a prolific, albeit low-key career. Now comes a new reminder of just how wondrous it all was when the boyish-sounding Mississippi native released his first two albums.
His 1978 debut, Alive on Arrival, and 1979 follow-up, Jackrabbit Slim, have been re-released as a double CD package, with bonus songs that are either outtakes, alternate takes or live: five onthe debut and seven on the follow-up.
It’s a treat to again hear such Forbert gems as “Thinkin’,” “You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play,” “What Kinda Guy” and, of course, “Romeo’s Tune,” his most well-known song (it was recorded by Keith Urban in 2007).
The surprise is “The Oil Song,” a prophetic tune written 36 years ago about an oil spill in the Delaware River.
The songs provide a reminder that Forbert’s harmonica skills surpass those of most, even of Dylan and Neil Young, though Forbert is nowhere near as celebrated. But as Forbert muses in a song named for a week, “January 23-30, 1978”: “It’s often said that life is strange. Oh yes, but compared to what?”
Hot tracks: “The Oil Song,” “It Isn’t Going to Be That Way,” “Steve Forbert’s Moon River,” “Make It All So Real,” “Poor Boy.” - JACK W. HILLMadeleine Peyroux The Blue Room DeccaB
If your taste in jazz is more toward creme brulee than Tabasco-topped hot wings, tune in to The Blue Room, a serene collection of covers by singer-songwriter Madeleine Peyroux. Although her vocals are often compared to those of Billie Holiday, Peyroux is more like a smooth, blended Scotch to Holiday’s rich, single malt style.
She’s got a great ear for material that suits her lazily flowing blues-tinged phrasing. Here she offers elegant interpretations of a wide range of works from artists such as John Hartford, Randy Newman, Warren Zevon and Ray Charles, whose 1962 recording Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is cited as the influence behind The Blue Room. Gentle and unobtrusive instrumentation is provided by guitars, drums, piano, bass, strings and horns.
The album is named after the oldest bar in Burbank, Calif.
Hot tracks: “Bird on the Wire” (written by Leonard Cohen), “Bye Bye Love” (recorded by the Everly Brothers), “You Don’t Know Me”(recorded by Ray Charles).
- KAREN MARTINCrystal Bowersox All That for ThisShanachieA-
The second album by the American Idol runner-up is the definition of breezy, but darned if on the way to nowhere it ends up in a warm and captivating place. Bowersox’s voice has that bluesheavy center of gravity, but she’s not hidebound to any genre, so this album is blues, pop and country with interesting electronic flourishes throughout.
Older ears might immediately think of the sturdy, searching work of Joan Armatrading. Bowersox, who has writing credit on all here except the delicious Sundays cover, “Here’s Where the Story Ends,” certainly could stand to find a sharper lyric or two. But the small moments here are made larger by the overall winning attitude.
Hot tracks: “Here’s Where the Story Ends,” “Someday,” “Dead Weight.”
- WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Style, Pages 34 on 05/07/2013