Frank-n-Me, or Underground Freak Out Music

I've long since re-name this blog Boomer Rock. But when I first created it, I had intended to write about Frank Zappa and nothing but Frank Zappa. Surely, you've noticed my list of the top 25 artists of the record, on which Frank Zappa sits proudly at #1. Well, I'm finally getting around to my original purpose, which is not only to write about Frank. It is also to digitize my Zappa vinyl collection, at least that part of it that I haven't already duplicated on CD.

Here without further ado or fanfare are the FZ vinyl records that I have in my collection and have never upgraded to CD, if you'll pardon the expression "upgrade." I should simply say modernize, but what the hell. They are:

Mothermania (1968)

Uncle Meat (1969)

Burnt Weenie Sandwich (1969)

200 Motels (1971)

Just Another Band from L.A. (1972)

Waka/Jawaka•Hot Rats (1972)

Roxy and Elsewhere (1974)

Bongo Fury (1975)

Zoot Allures (1976)

Tinsel Town Rebellion (1981)

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (1981)

Ship Arriving Too Late to Save A Drowning Witch (1982)

The Man from Utopia (1983)

Them or Us (1984)

Jazz from Hell (1986)

In truth, these aren't my favorite FZ recordings. My faves have been "modernized" and, frankly (pardoning the expression), I'm surprised at how much of Zappa's catalog has been "modernized" to CD. So, these are records I haven't listened to for anywhere from 15 to 30 years, and I'm looking forward to it. I expect to discover some "new" (for me) Zappa chestnuts in the process.

But while I'm here, let me tell you about my earliest introduction to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. My friends and bandmates Ron and Charlie loaned me We're Only In It for the Money. This would have been my senior year in high school. My friend Claude had just asked me to join his band, The Situation. Claude played rhythm guitar and sang. Dave played bass. Ron was the drummer, and Charlie was lead guitar. Claude and Dave were school friends from Faribault, while Ron and Charlie lived some 25 miles away in New Prague. Actually, I'd be pretty sure it was Ron who loaned me the record. He had one friend in particular who cultivated the wild man/misfit image, though it's also true that there were some folks in that crowd who were genuinely wild and misfitted to polite society.

So, anyway, here is this record and, first of all, on the cover you've got the band in drag. This is the famous Sgt. Pepper's parody with various and sundry famous faces pasted, collage-like, into the chaotic mob scene. But nobody noticed that, there was just this scuzzy looking group of ugly guys in the front row in disgusting drag.

And, then, on the inside--I mean, listening to the music and reading along with the lyrics--it just got more and more inflammatory...more and more imperative not to let your parents hear what you were listening to. "Ever wonder why your daughter looked so sad? It's such a drag to have to love a plastic mom and dad." "Shut your fucking mouth about the length of my hair/How could you survive if you were alive, shitty little person." "Concentration Moon/Over the camp in the valley...American way, threatened by us/drag a few creeps away in a bus."

Holy shit. And, today, 41 years later, all a person can come up with to say in the face of We're Only In It for the Money, all's I can come up with is still just, Holy shit. And, to think, he used to be such a nice boy.

My re-introduction to Frank and the Mothers came a year or a year-and-a-half later, when Terry brought this LP over to the house where I lived with a bunch of guys. That was the year when six of us enrolled in school full-time--for probably about 15 credits each, on average--and by the end of the first semester we had collectively completed the requirements for maybe six of them. Six credits out of a possible 90. You could say we partied pretty hard.

Anyway, Mothermania is a greatest hits type record put together by Verve Records after Frank had left the label. Frank hated the label and he hated this record. But, seriously, it's a great, great collection. The producers did Frank a favor by just focusing in on the songs and getting rid of all of the usual flotsam and jetsam with which Frank surrounded them. Sure, the songs are just part of Frank's oeuvre, but they're an important part and here they really shone. In this new and different setting, Frank's music seemed just a little less mind-blowing, but it seemed a lot funnier. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life.

After that, I was hooked, and I started buying Frank's records, mostly used. So a lot of them are pretty beat to shit. I hope they play okay.

And, just for the record, Underground Freak Out Music is a vamp that the Mothers played in Miami in 1969 and which is memorialized on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5.

Rufus Wainwright Charms the Zoo

It has been a music-filled summer, which is what I intended for it to be. My friends and I have seen a number of local acts, national acts, you name it. Up until the other night, the best of them all was the so-called Blood on the Tracks Band, who played 2 hours of brilliant Dylan covers on Saturday night, July 25, in St. Louis Park, MN. Billy Hallberg, Lonny Knight, Kevin Odegard and a cast of, well, many, many more, put on a terrific show. Better than Los Lobos, better than Steve Earle and band, better certainly than the Shins....

But not better than Rufus Wainwright. Rufus. who played at the Minnesota Zoo on Saturday, August 11, is just an absolute gem, both a great musician and a great entertainer. His is one of the wittiest stage personas I've ever seen. He seems to genuinely enjoy being up on stage in ways that escape most musical artists, and his joy and his fun is contagious and lifts the whole audience.

Take my wife (please!). No, seriously, take my wife. She is not a big fan of his music--not a big fan of his singing voice, specifically. "He sings through his nose," she always says. But seeing him live softened her right up. She was singing his praises by concert's end.

And for those of us who are fans of his music--and even of his singing!--well, the songs, the music, the singing, the repartee, it all adds up to a terrific package and the summer's--the year's--best musical experience.

Where to begin? I mean, I'm not even that impressed by his newest LP, Out of the Game. "But, of course, I'm not" out of the game, he said. And, of course, he is not. He is very much in the game, though not at the very top of his game on Out of the Game. Compared to his masterpieces, Want One and Want Two, there's more of a sameness to many of the tunes. But in a live setting, they exhibit more personality than on record. Still, "Rashida," "Barbara," "Jericho" and "Montauk" from the new album were among the least memorable songs in the show.

On the other handle, "Candles," which opened the show in a cappella style and in stage darkness, was terrific. The title track was nice, and "Bitter Tears," with its paradoxically jaunty melody, ended the show on a huge up-beat.

Still, the highlights included "The One You Love" and "Art Teacher" from Want Two. Also, "The Man That Got Away" by Judy Garland, which Rufus dedicated in catty fashion to Liza Minelli who, when asked if she had listened to Rufus' recording of her mom's songs, said, "Why would I do that?"

Then a tribute to Rufus' dad, Loudon the III, by way of one of Loudon's songs, "One Man Guy." And just in case you missed it, "One Man Guy"is a hilarious paean to utter self-absorption. Loudon is a "one man guy" totally in thrall to himself, at least that's what the song says. When Rufus sings it, it is of course a love song to his dad. Nice.

And, finally, by way of highlights, was a version of Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2," his love song to Janis Joplin, sung in a duet with Leonard's son Adam Cohen, who was one of 2 opening acts (Krystle Warren was the other). Honestly, I would have preferred to hear Rufus sing it alone. Adam's voice is unlike his father's but it too is only semi-melodic and totally idiosyncratic. Nice by itself, a little tortured in a duet or if otherwise required to capture a melody.

But Cohen capitalized on his unique voice and style in his own act, with understated accompaniment (mostly cello and keyboard with a little bit of drum machine) and some great three-part harmony singing by the two accompanists who are not identified anywhere on Adam's Web site. All in all, Adam brings a unique style that's pleasant enough in small doses.

Likewise Krystle Warren with her jazzy, scat-filled singing. She returned as a back-up singer for Rufus as well,

It was a great night with three distinctive musical stylists, headed up by the Artist of the Year (as of today) in Rufus Wainwright.

Jerry Douglas, Traveller

I don't know about you, but a new Jerry Douglas record is a much-awaited event in my household, ever since the release of one of the best records of the 21st century, Best Kept Secret, in 2005, followed by a very nice little record called Glide in 2008.

Lookout for Hope (2002) is the only other "real" Jerry Douglas record of the century, by the way, though hundreds of records pop up in the discography on Jerry's Web site. But most of these are greatest hits collections and collaborations and side sessions. So a "real" Jerry Douglas record is a rare and wonderful thing, which ("wonderful") is what Lookout for Hope, Best Kept Secret and Glide all have been.

Which brings us to Traveller, just out. The conceit here is that Douglas and his dobro travel the musical landscape from Dr. John's New Orleans to Paul Simon's New York and thence to Spain and Ireland and other points of interest. Ho hum.

The fact is the formula is familiar as Douglas plays instrumental tunes in a variety of styles, augmented by vocal tunes featuring a variety of voices such as Eric Clapton, Keb Mo, Marcus Mumford, Paul Simon, Marc Cohn and Alison Krauss, herself not much of a musical excursion as Douglas is a full-time member of Krauss' band, Union Station.

So the form and format of Traveller is nothing new, with the exception of a rare Douglas vocal on "On a Monday." But it is not, as has been reported, Douglas' 1st recorded vocal. That would be "Ben Dewberry's Final Run" from 1987's Everything Is Gonna Workout Fine, a mere 25 years ago.

Bottom line: Douglas' vocal, while understated to a fault, nevertheless reveals a voice worthy of carrying more of the load in Douglas' repertoire--in much the same way that Clapton's supports but does not challenge his guitar playing for the spotlight. Another Douglas vocal might have been preferable, in fact, to those of the over-exposed guest artists he's chosen to showcase here, including Clapton.

The best of the guest vocals by far is Mumford's on Simon's "The Boxer." Simon himself shows up, imperceptibly, on piano, harmonium, percussion and vocals, according to the liner credits. The vocal is of course vastly stronger than anything Simon could provide and there's a short but tasty dobro solo, but otherwise there's nothing in this arrangement that the songwriter hadn't already thought of. Still it's a pleasant treatment of a song worthy of remembering.

More to the point is Douglas' dobro solo coupling Simon's "American Tune" and Chick Corea's "Spain." As a rule, the vocal pieces supply filler to a Douglas recording while the instrumentals are center stage. Here a vocal treatment of Simon's greatest song would have been welcome. Not by Simon himself nor Douglas. This is too tricky of a song to sing. And not Mumford, it would have to be sung by an American. So, Krauss is the obvious choice. Perhaps Douglas regarded the lyrics as too controversial. Just my point. Sing 'em, sing 'em loud.

Likewise the coupling with "Spain" seems rather pointless.

So overall you've got a lot of vocal filler, and an "American Tune" that represents a huge missed opportunity yet still represents a highlight.

That leaves "So Here We Are," written and played by Douglas, Viktor Krauss and Omar Hakim, and featuring a fuzzy lap steel similar in tone to the beautiful "U R My Flower" from Best Kept Secret. Nicely done.

Next is a repurposing of "Duke and Cookie" from the incredible Telluride Sessions. If you're familiar with the original, this one is a bit sparse as a duet with Sam Bush.

"Gone to Fortingall" features Douglas on everything, Bela Fleck, and the rhythm section of Krauss and Hakim. As the title suggests, it's the "Irish" tune and it's pleasant enough but nothing special.

Traveller concludes with "King Silkie," a fast-paced bluegrass jam written by Douglas and Dan Tyminski, and featuring Bush, Tyminski, Charlie Cushman on banjo, and Luke Bulla stealing the show on fiddle. Douglas suggests that "American Tune/Spain" is the recording's heart and soul. I'd say this is it.

All in all, the featured instrumentals add up to substantially less than those from Douglas first two recordings of this century--Lookout for Hope and Next Best Secret--and whose guest vocal tracks, with the exception of "The Boxer," are lacking in anything new. By comparison, "Swing Blues" from Next Best Secret was a home run because you don't get a chance to hear John Fogerty very often.

So I've found lots to lament about Traveller. Yet it's one of the two best recordings yet this year, along with Kathleen Edwards' Voyageur (wow, there's a nice little bit of parallelism in Traveller and Voyageur as co-records of the year, don't ya think?). This says a lot about the year in music, but it also says that with Jerry Douglas, even a miss is not to be missed.

60

If Robert Cray can call an LP 20 (what does it mean?), then I can title a post 60.

Recently I put together a CD of great tunes from 1949 to 2009--get it? 60 years. I started with my Artist of the Year, and then picked a song associated with that artist and from approximately the time frame of when they were AoY. The song had to be something in my collection, as the goal was to make a CD.

Here are my picks as Artist of the Year 1949-2009.

1949 Louis Jordan
1950 Johnny Otis
1951 Lefty Frizzell
1952 Hank Williams
1953 Hank Williams 2
1954 Elvis Presley
1955 Ray Charles
1956 Elvis Presley 2
1957 Everly Brothers
1958 Chuck Berry
1959 Bobby Darin

1960 Sam Cooke
1961 Patsy Cline
1962 Ray Charles 2
1963 Beach Boys
1964 Beatles
1965 Bob Dylan
1966 Beach Boys 2
1967 Beatles 2
1968 Jimi Hendrix
1969 Peter Green

1970 Eric Clapton
1971 Jimmy Page
1972 Ian Anderson
1973 Bruce Springsteen
1974 Bruce Springsteen 2
1975 Frank Zappa
1976 John Hall (Orleans)
1977 Billy Joel
1978 Bob Dylan 2
1979 Frank Zappa 2

1980 Roger Waters
1981 David Byrne
1982 Pat Metheny
1983 Prince
1984 David Byrne 2
1985 Mark Knopfler
1986 Paul Simon
1987 Bruce Springsteen 3
1988 Bruce Cockburn
1989 Bonnie Raitt

1990 Bela Fleck
1991 Jennifer Warnes
1992 k.d. lang
1993 Leonard Cohen
1994 Van Morrison
1995 John Prine
1996 Iris DeMent
1997 Shawn Colvin
1998 Peter Green 2
1999 Jeff Tweedy

2000 Aimee Mann
2001 Bill Frisell
2002 Caitlin Cary
2003 The Flaming Lips
2004 Tift Merritt
2005 Conor Oberst
2006 Halloween, Alaska
2007 Scott Yoho
2008 Rufus Wainwright
2009 Craig Finn

Just for the record, here is how the list would continue:

2010 Win Butler
2011 Dan Auerbach
2012 (so far) Iris DeMent 2

Here is 1) the top song by the Artist of the Year and 2) the song of the year if different from 1).

1949 Saturday Night Fish Fry--Louis Jordan
1950 Cry Baby--Johnny Otis and I'm Movin' On--Hank Snow
1951 I Want to Be With You Always--Lefty Frizzell
1952 Your Cheatin' Heart--Hank Williams
1953 Take These Chains from My Heart--Hank Williams
1954 That's All Right Mama--Elvis Presley
1955--Drown in My Own Tears--Ray Charles and The Great Pretender--The Platters
1956--Don't Be Cruel--Elvis Presley and Why Do Fools Fall in Love--Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers
1957--Bye Bye Love--The Everly Brothers and You Send Me--Sam Cooke
1958--Sweet Little Sixteen--Chuck Berry and It's All in the Game--Tommy Edwards
1959--Mack the Knife--Bobby Darin and Kansas City--Wilbert Harrison

1960--Wonderful World--Sam Cooke and El Paso--Marty Robbins
1961--I Fall to Pieces--Patsy Cline
1962--I Can't Stop Lovin' You--Ray Charles
1963--All Summer Long--The Beach Boys and Da Do Ron Ron--The Crystals
1964--All My Lovin'--The Beatles and When I Grow Up to Be a Man--The Beach Boys
1965--Desolation Row--Bob Dylan
1966--Good Vibrations--The Beach Boys
1967--A Day in the Life--The Beatles
1968--All Along the Watchtower--Jimi Hendrix
1969--Closing My Eyes--Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac

1970--Layla--Derek and the Dominoes
1971--When the Levee Breaks--Led Zeppelin and Echoes--Pink Floyd
1972--Thick As A Brick--Jethro Tull and Blue Sky--Allman Brothers
1973--Hard to Be A Saint in the City--Bruce Springsteen and Us and Them--Pink Floyd
1974--Rosalita--Bruce Springsteen and Pamela Brown--Leo Kottke
1975--Sofa No. 2--Frank Zappa
1976--Spring Fever--Orleans
1977--Only the Good Die Young--Billy Joel
1978--Changing of the Guard--Bob Dylan and Crazy Love--Poco
1979--Yo' Mama--Frank Zappa and I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine--Ry Cooder

1980--Comfortably Numb--Pink Floyd
1981--The Great Curve--Talking Heads
1982--Do You Want to Go with Me?--Pat Metheny and It Never Rains--Dire Straits
1983--Little Red Corvette--Prince
1984--What A Day That Was--Talking Heads and Irish Love--Mark Knopfler
1985--Your Latest Trick--Dire Straits
1986--Graceland--Paul Simon and Down the Road Tonight--Bruce Hornsby and the Range
1987--Valentine's Day--Bruce Springsteen and Across the Borderline--Ry Cooder
1988--Waiting for a Miracle--Bruce Cockburn and (The Other End of the) Telescope--Til Tuesday
1989--Have A Heart--Bonnie Raitt and Painting by Numbers--James McMurtry

1990--Sanctuary--Bela Fleck
1991--First We Take Manhattan--Jennifer Warnes
1992--Constant Craving--k.d. lang and My Beautiful Reward--Bruce Springsteen
1993--Light As A Breeze--Leonard Cohen
1994--In the Garden (medley)--Van Morrison and Great Season Waltz--Sally Van Meter
1995--New Train--John Prine and Secret Garden--Bruce Springsteen
1996--The Way I Should--Iris DeMent
1997--Nothin' on Me--Shawn Colvin and Let Down--Radiohead
1998--Albatross--Paul Jones, Bobby Tench, Max Middleton (The Music of Peter Green) and Shenendoah--Van Morrison and Paddy Moloney and the Chieftans
1999--A Shot in the Arm--Wilco and High Fashion Queen--Chris Hillman and Steve Earle

2000--You Do--Aimee Mann and Waiting for the Federals--Aly Bain
2001--Again--Bill Frisell
2002--I Ain't Found Nobody Yet--Caitlin Cary and Tear Stained Eye--Kasey Chambers
2003--In the Morning of the Magicians--Flaming Lips and Caballo Viejo--Ry Cooder
2004--The Plainest Thing--Tift Merritt and Shelter--Ray LaMontagne
2005--Another Traveling Song--Bright Eyes and Best Kept Secret--Jerry Douglas Band
2006--Call It Clear--Halloween Alaska and No Man's Land--Sufjan Stevens
2007--Australia--The Shins* (* Scott Yoho of Auto Body Experience is Artist of the Year based on live performance, but there is no new Yoho or Auto Body music during 2007.)
2008--Trouble on Alum--Jerry Douglas (Rufus Wainwright is Artist of the Year based on live performance, but there is no new Rufus music during 2008.)
2009--Sequestered in Memphis--The Hold Steady

2010--Modern Man--Arcade Fire and Conversation 16--The National
2011--Lonely Boy--The Black Keys and Towers--Bon Iver
2012 (so far)--Sing the Delta--Iris DeMent

The Shins Are Not Gonna Change Your Life

The truth can now be told. The Shins are not gonna change your life. And, as a live-in-concert band, well,  they are not good at all.

The Shins played at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis on Friday night June 1 and, first, their volume level was about what you'd expect from a bunch of head-bangers, not a poppy, melodic, Beatlesque group. Their signature attribute, James Mercer's wonderfully creative vocal melodies, were buried beneath a thick layer of grunge.

And the vocals themselves left much to be desired. Mercer can no longer sing much of his older material (from the terrific Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing the Night Away). I would expect to hear better vocals on, say, "Australia" at your local karaoke emporium. He just can't hit those high notes anymore. And, speaking of "Australia," the Shins' new guitarist (was it Yuuki Matthews or Robert Swift?) was unable to play the inspired guitar solo, petering out after more or less hitting the first four bars.

So all in all, The Shins were a huge disappointment, as is their new release Port of Morrow. Overall the recording and the concert, in comparison to The Shins' best work, features a notably slower pace, and is less melodic and more atmospheric. Brooding, you might say, versus Wincing's carefree and uplifting character.

One cannot but infer that Port of Morrow has been a "troubled" project. Mercer announced in 2009 that keyboardist Marty Crandall and drummer Jesse Sandoval had left the band, to be replaced by Ron Lewis (from Grand Archives), Eric D. Johnson (from the Fruit Bats) and Joe Plummer (of Modest Mouse). And, he added, the new recording would be released the following year.

But Port of Morrow was in fact released only in 2012, and Greg Kurstin proved to the be featured musician, playing on 9 of the 10 tunes. Drummer Plummer played on 5, Lewis on 5 and Johnson on 3. Kurstin and Mercer are listed as co-producers.

The title track, Mercer says, is named after the port authority in the city of Boardman, OR, on the Columbia River. "There’s a sign by the side of the road that says 'Port of Morrow' and I always just wondered about it, I guess. When writing that song it popped into my head and I was thinking of it as death, like what’s beyond the exit point, the 'port of morrow,' the port into tomorrow? [...] Everyone’s future is death. That’s a very dark way to look at it, but in the song it just happened to fit in with that thing. Like the ace of spades, port of morrow, life is death, death is life." (From an interview in Drowned in Sound, March 23, 2012)


So you can say that the brooding tone of the record is what was required by the material. But why would Mercer choose to leave his brilliantly poppy style behind to write dirges to death? It's like Kenneth Branagh giving up Shakespeare or Albert Pujols deciding to hit singles. A curious decision, and Mercer's loss as well as our own.


If it's brooding you want, The Antlers did it better as one of two opening acts for The Shins. First came Deep Sea Diver, featuring Shins' guitarist Jessica Dobson on guitars, keyboards and vocals. To describe her and them as mediocre would be kind.


The Antlers, on the other hand, successfully created a series of atmospheres or soundscapes. Add in Peter Silberman's high-pitched vocals, and the band proved to be highly evocative of Radiohead, which is not a bad thing to evoke.

Fantastic Merlins are, well, Fantastic

I'm a rock 'n roll guy. But every now and then there's some "jazz" that reaches out and grabs me. Usually "jazz" with a saxophone. I love the sound of a saxophone and rock music doesn't offer a lot of great sax. Clarence. Michael Brecker here and there. I'm sure there's a few others that aren't coming to mind right now.

But for good sax, you've got to be listening to jazz music. And right now, that means the Fantastic Merlins. The Merlins are a four-piece band featuring sax, bass and drums, and (get this) cello. Very unusual. Two mostly single line melody instruments with similar range and reedy timbres. Interesting.

But just how interesting depends on which version of the Merlins you're talking about. Saxophonist Nathan Hansen has been there throughout, and plays a generally fairly low-key, calm and peaceful style only occasionally given to going a little bit wild.

Look Around and A Handful of Earth

The Merlins' versions are defined by their cellist. Originally it was Jacqueline Ultan, who played a romantic, melodic style, mimicking Hansen's. Ultan was featured on both of the Merlins' true ensemble recordings, Look Around (recorded 2005, released 2007) and A Handful of Earth (recorded 2008, released 2009). Both are absolutely terrific records.

Look Around features 2 stunning songs in the Merlins' 2 basic styles. "I Was Behind the Couch All the Time" is a funky, whimsical piece, a theme and variations based on an uptempo 4-bar riff in the sax. From there the variations wander all over the landscape in seeming free form, returning to the main theme about 2 minutes later. Big fun.

The other is a romantic, emotional piece called "Line." Here the sax and cello are basically in counterpoint, suggestive in a manner of speaking of a Bach fugue, around a long, slow, elegaic, lovely melody suggestive of Edward Elgar. Roll it together, explore it for about 7 minutes, and this is a truly beautiful and moving piece.

The title piece "Look Around" and "Letting Go" are in the general vein of "Line," though moodier and more dissonant. "It Would Seem," "Dance Partner" and "Lenny" are along the lines of "Couch," based on minimalist riffs, often whimsical. "Lenny" is especially funky, based on a simple two-bar, eight-note riff, then wandering off into one of Ultan's most expansive solos, though Hansen's sax is also featured more or less throughout.

The songs that seem to jump off of Handful of Earth are more along the lines of "Line"--slow, soft, contemplative pieces. "Inversion Is The Condition" opens with a minute or so of cello atmospherics before Hansen states the theme, again a minimal two-bar, four-note melody that quickly expands out and becomes the basis for an extended sax solo. "The Face in the Window" uses the same formula to produce another soothing, relaxing piece, maybe better described as pop than jazz.

The title tune is different, edgier, over a staccato cello rhythm throughout. But the Merlins get really edgy on "Purple Orange," which begins slowly in the bass and then the cello before drummer Peter Hennig takes over and jacks up the tempo at the 3 minute mark. Hansen follows with a lengthy and boisterous improvisation and his best recorded solo.

The Merlins describe their style as "visceral power" and "sparse textures." But they're surely no tower of power, nor are the textures that sparse. The melodic material, yes. The textures go on forever. In any event, the 2 records together establish Hansen and the Merlins as a terrific ensemble working its way around the edges of the jazz and jazz-fusion genres.

How the Light Gets In

But the newer of the 2 is 4 years old. They do not represent the Merlins of today. Nor does their 3rd recording, How the Light Gets In, recorded in 2009 and released in 2010. This is mostly a collection of Leonard Cohen tunes, with vocals supplied by Kid Dakota. The fact is the Merlins never sounded quite like this except on this particular recording and at the Sons d'Hiver Festival in Paris in 2010. Matt Turner played cello for the Merlins for just a very short time including the recording and the festival, then was replaced by Daniel Levin.

How the Light Gets In works very hard at giving the Cohen a new sound and it succeeds but in an eccentric, forced, mannered way. The exceptions are "Memories," by Kid Dakota, and "The Little Bird," an instrumental piece by the Merlins, where there is a coherent and an appealing voice.

Live at the Black Dog, 2012

So if you want to know what the Merlins sound like today with Levin as Hanson's chief co-conspirator, a recent gig at the Black Dog in St. Paul, MN, will have to suffice. And the answer would seem to be that Levin favors a terrifically gnarly, avant guard, free form style that is anything but easy listening. Levin nay be the Alvin Lee of jazz cello. He sure can play fast!, but I'm not sure what he's trying to say.

But most of you will never make your way to the Black Dog, so don't worry about it. In the meantime, Look Around and Handful of Earth are a couple of immensely enjoyable recordings that anybody can access.

Kathleen Edwards' Voyageur

So, who was that strawberry blonde with Boney Vair at the Grammies? I suppose the more hopelessly romantic among us thought, Emma! But, no. The strawberry blonde was new girlfriend--and, a singer, herself--Kathleen Edwards. Edwards, a Canadian, debuted way back in 2003 with Failer, featuring a really terrific tune "Six O'Clock News," and released 2 additional LPs before her current Voyageur.

Her 1st 3 records were produced in collaboration with husband Colin Crips, but the 2 were divorced in 2011. In the fall of 2010 she began work on her 4th record with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver as producer. Sometime later they became an item and about the same time Vernon/Bon himself became an item with the massive success of his 2nd album, Bon Iver, Bon Iver.

All of which has undoubtedly helped Voyageur to get a hearing and a #39 rating on the U.S. album charts, and a much deserved hearing it is. I mean, there's a certain sameness to it, with a surfeit of ballads.

But 3 of the up-tempo tunes stand out. "Empty Threat" opens the record with a pretty little easy listening verse. The chorus, "I'm moving to America," is repeated a bit much, but all in all it gets the record off to a pleasant start. "Change the Sheets" is the 1st single. Driven by a staccato piano figure, it builds to an arena rock crescendo that seems a bit over the top for the material and also for Edwards' thinnish voice. But aside from the overstatement, it too is a nice enough tune.

"Sidecar" is tossed off without fanfare mid-record, but it proves to be the most enjoyable of the up-tempo tunes. At a modest 2:38 it avoids the repetition and overstatement of the other 2. Thank goodness for these 3 tunes because the rest is pretty much all ballads.

Some of the them a very nice ballads, of course. I'm particularly fond of "Soft Place to Land" and "Pink Champagne." Not only are they nice tunes, but they suit Edwards' voice nicely. It is on the ballads, too, that Vernon's Boney sonic palette comes into play and as on Bon Iver, Bon Iver, the effect is most pleasing.

"For the Record" closes the record and at 7:07 falls prey to the repetition that mars "Empty Threat," only more so. I don't know how many times she sings "For the record, I only wanted to sing songs," but it's too many. "House Full of Empty Rooms" has another pretty little melody but maudlin lyrics, while "Chameleon/Comedian,""Mint" and "Going to Hell" are also mostly enjoyable tunes.

All in all, a nice collection of ballads tempered by just enough of a more active sound to avoid monotony. I know this all sounds like faint praise. But roll it all up and you've got the best album-length collection of songs of 2012 so far. Of course, that is in part because 2012 thus far has been a pretty weak year in pop music. Only Craig Finn's Clear Heart Full Eyes really stands out otherwise, though The Shins' long-awaited Port of Morrow has its moments. I also have high hopes for Bonnie Raitt's Slipstream and Rufus Wainwright's Out of the Game, neither of which I have listened to yet due to an active travel schedule.

Then there's also this: A Handful of Earth, an instrumental record by The Fantastic Merlins, was released a year ago, though I only became acquainted with it a month or two ago. I will write about the Merlins forthwith.

I will also be seeing The Shins, Steve Earle, Los Lobos and Rufus Wainwright live this summer, and I'll let you know how those turn out.