A. J. Roach
Revelation
(Waterbug)
"Whiskey's my shepherd/ oh, I shall not want/ it maketh me lay down." Welcome to the world of Appalachian troubadour A. J. Roach. On "Clinch River Blues," he keens like a banshee amidst driving guitar, slap-dash percussion, wild fiddle and foot stomps. On "Fashionistas" and "Sears & Roebuck Suit," his voice and ironic take on image and its discontents evoke the late Steve Goodman. But he can be gentle, as he demonstrates on a love song that would be at home in Greg Greenway's repertoire. Roach never does the expected; the title track, for instance, is part bluegrass, part country power ballad and part Salvation Army band. You'll know why he's shared the stage with everyone from Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch to Steve Earle and Willie Nelson.
—Rob Weir
David Byrne
The Knee Plays
(Nonesuch)
Talking Heads frontman David Byrne did interesting collaborations during the 1980s. This music was composed for a project with director Robert Wilson, but never released on CD. Byrne got the Dirty Dozen Brass Band to make strange staccato funk, over which he deadpans. It's stilted. Byrne's Hal-like delivery grows tiring, but "In the Future" includes nonsensical yet brilliant predictions about what lies ahead: "In the future, everyone's house will be a total entertainment center… everyone but the wealthy will be very happy… everyone but the wealthy will be very filthy."
—John Adamian
Barton Carroll
The Lost One
(Skybucket Records)
On his second solo album, Crooked Fingers frontman Barton Carroll is a chameleon. The infectious "Pretty Girl's Going to Ruin My Life (Again)" and his affected falsetto evoke Nick Drake. By contrast, acoustic based songs such as "Superman" and "These Days are Gone…" are sung in a voice that's a dead ringer for Phil Ochs. Later he rocks out in the gritty yet sunny demeanor of early Springsteen. There are also tracks featuring fuzzy power chords and others that use steel guitar to set introspective moods. And it's hard not to be moved by his yarn of a young girl under Soviet occupation after World War II. As good as Carroll is musically, his storytelling is even better—effective without being maudlin; literary, yet direct; and honest as the day is long.
—Rob Weir
Neil Young
Chrome Dreams II
(Reprise)
In 1977 Neil Young shelved an album called Chrome Dreams. Now comes this, a sequel to a record that was never released. Well, don't believe the hype that this is a return to his mid-70s glory. It starts off with a nod to his slow and gentle classics, but then the semi-plodding 18-minute working-man epic "Ordinary People" basically stops you in your tracks. And "No Hidden Path" goes on for 14 minutes, too. I'm happy that Neil remains his same cantankerous, long-winded Neanderthal self, but these extendo-jams don't rise to the level of "Cortez the Killer."
—John Adamian
