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WALLS, SONGBOOKS & CACTUS
Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing editor
I thought Maura O’Connell was a singer-songwriter but she’s just a
singer -- and what a singer! This red-haired Irish woman with a
gorgeous voice loves old-timey music, now calls Nashville home and
fittingly sang back-up on the “O Brother Where Are Thou?” soundtrack.
Walls & Windows is O’Connell’s seventh album and showcases her
startling vocal talent. She displays her Celtic moxie by covering Van
Morrison’s “Crazy Love” and manages to both honor the song but make it
her own as well. O’Connell tackles Ron Sexsmith’s “Don’t Ask Why” and
gives it an energetic spin that the talented (but usually laid back)
Sexsmith often fails to summon. However, she saves the best for first
with “Every River,” the album’s opening track. An ode to everlasting
love, this wildly romantic song is a knockout and she makes every note
of it work —- without ever sounding like work. O’Connell is one of
those rare singers whom songwriters will always want to have their
songs sung by.
This leads us to Brian Woodbury, a singer-songwriter who’s
currently more well known as a songwriter than a singer. He’s written
music for children’s TV shows like “Teacher’s Pet” and “Pepper Ann”
but is also a big fan of Broadway musicals and The Brill Building
sound. The Brian Woodbury Songbook is sung almost entirely not by
Woodbury. On “Depending On You,” Lee Munn-Arvinger sounds like early
Madonna before she got cloyingly cosmic and Suzy Williams mines some
retro-psychedelia with “Hippies Rise!” Jill “I Kissed a Girl” Sobule
pleasingly puts a guy in his place with “Another Thing Goin.’” The
word that comes to mind to describe Woodbury is “eclectic,” which I
generally don’t regard as a compliment. But, to quote comedian Dom
Irrera, “I don’t mean that in a bad way.” Woodbury is multi-talented
and his album is singularly entertaining.
Mark Insley, a Southern California boy, has a dusty, often languid
style which seems as back-to-basics as blue jeans, cowboy boots and
black t-shirts. Most of the songs on Tucson are about lovers who
screwed up their romances and are trying to decide whether to gear up
and try it again. In the title track, the two-part question Insley’s
asking is: 1) Do we dare pick up the pieces? And 2) If we succeed,
what the hell do we do with them? “Did I Wake You?” is a low-key,
late-night phone to an ex which may explain how Caller ID came to be
invented. Is it true love or reach out and stalk someone? Insley
perfectly captures how when one lover has second thoughts for the
second time, he wants to find out if his former flame is having them
for the first time. With help from talented folks like Dave Alvin,
Insley delivers an engaging album.
Miles Of Music has Walls & Windows for $15 and Tuscon for $12.50.
You can get The Brian Woodbury Songbook at www.somephil.com for $12.
*Mike Stinson, the drummer from Ramsay Midwood’s band Waynesboro,
will play his appealing country-rock songs over at The Silverlake
Lounge on December 5. Go to the show and demand that Stinson sing his
great new song, “When My Angel Gets High.” And tell him I sent you.
Finally, Brian Woodbury will have a flock of folks singing his songs
on December 7 at Fais Do Do.
The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is … Land Of The El Caminos. |
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