INNOCENT TYRANTS

Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing writer

   Marcia Ball grew up on the border of the Lone Star state and Louisiana. So, the Texas blues and New Orleans funk she plays is perhaps just geographical destiny. Presumed Innocent is her latest effort and the opening track is the barn-burner, “Scene Of The Crime.” It’s basically a boogie-woogie version of a 1950s Barbara Stanwyck movie about a fallen women who can’t get up. Hell, it’s the opening song from a Barbara Stanwyck boogie-woogie musical which Ball may someday write. Either way, this song is mighty entertaining and shows off her sultry singing and loosey-goosey piano-playing.
   Ball and fellow Texan Delbert McClinton take a successful whack at Crescent City legend Allen Toussaint’s “You Make It Hard,” a really good song about a really bad love. Shifting gears to romance actually working out, “You Make Me Happy” has fun with repetition and tosses out a line that is shockingly simple and perfect: “And when you walk into a room/My heart goes boom boom boom.” (The lyric is also a nice tip of the hat to the late John Lee Hooker for whom the use of “boom” in triplicate was a signature line.) The song possesses a low-key shuffle underneath and will a) make you want to be in love or b) appreciate the one you have.
   I also am crazy about “Thibodaux Louisiana” where Ball pines for Cajun men in general and one man in particular. The 20 second intro absolutely floored me. First, some twangy guitar. Then, pounding drums which give way to a short breath of accordion. Ball jumps in by herself on piano, everybody joins in together and the vocal starts. It’s like listening to a master chef make musical gumbo. If Ball could cook in the kitchen like she does in the recording studio, Emeril would be out of a job. 
   Another animated performer is Scott Miller whose new back-up band is The Commonwealth. He was a member of the twangy V-Roys who were produced by Steve Earle and had a song on the nifty You Can Count On Me soundtrack. I hadn’t heard a new alt-country album lately and this one — Thus Always To Tyrants — hit the spot perfectly. Miller’s tales of new beginnings and old lovers have an arresting snap to them. You can also hear some R.E.M. and Beatles influences. “I Made A Mess Of This Town” starts out slow and then takes off faster than Hallie Berry after a fender-bender. It’s the perfect song to play on a really bad day. “Daddy Raised A Boy” is another strong track with its look at how it’s hard to turn on your old man when you realize you’re already turning into him. 
   CDNow has Presumed Innocent and Thus Always To Tyrants for $12.99. 
   The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is … Luther Wright & the Wrongs.