From Florida To Baghdad

Tony Peyser
   Mirror contributing writer
  
   Ronny Elliott’s seventh album, Hep, is one of the best things I’ve ever heard by somebody I’ve never heard of. That odd fact notwithstanding, it’s still terrific. The Tampa-based Elliott sounds like a cross between Johnny Cash and Sam Elliott, the rugged actor with the cowboy persona who appeared in and narrated “The Big Lebowski.” Elliott (Ronny, not Sam) is a storytelling troubadour with a wry sense of humor and a knack for small details. “Time I Spent In New Orleans” has these wicked lines: “You can smell old money in the garden district and buy crack on any corner downtown/You can buy a girl a drink on Bourbon Street but check her adam’s apple before you sit down.” Elliott has done a fair amount of drinking and thinking and his vivid songs take from you Louisville to the song “Nowhereville” with stops along the way with professional wrestlers and amateurs just wrestling with life’s many complications. Even The King (whom Elliott knew) turns up in the wistful “Elvis Presley Didn’t Like Tampa.” My other CDs are getting jealous because I keep playing Hep.
   Loosey-goosey folk-rocker Todd Snider is from Portland and had a hit nine years ago called “Alright Guy” which I loved. In his live new CD, Near Truths and Hotel Rooms, it’s clear why audiences respond to him. Snider’s patter seems charmingly off the cuff and makes it easy to like this wise-ass singer-songwriter for our troubled times. “D.B. Cooper” is an affectionate ode to that back in the day hijacker. (Would D.B. now be regarded as a terrorist instead of an anti-hero populist? Just asking.) “Beer Run” is a loopy saga of young men in search of adult beverages without the benefit of adult ID. “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues” (which has been updated with references to Mariners’ slugger Ichiro Suzuki) is still a crack-up as it looks at the 1980s music scene with a jaundiced eye. Snider is a class clown with a guitar, a guy who works really hard at looking like he’s not working hard at all and the end result really works.
   During the recent war, I looked for Middle Eastern-themed groups for my Goofy Band Name Of The Week competition. My favorite was The Baghdaddios. Kenn Rowell, the New York-based band’s prime mover, saw the name mentioned and sent me his band’s 1996 release, Willie Horton Hears A Who. I’m not in the habit of reviewing older albums but I can’t resist this one: it’s a cool keeper. The Baghdaddios are a cross between college rock and punk pop; They Might Be Giants meets The Ramones.
   “Welcome To New York” is a great intro to the album and that city. It’s a lively and rude shout-out to some of the reasons why The City That Never Sleeps can’t get any shut-eye. (If you’re making a movie in The Big Apple, this belongs on your soundtrack.) “Abbie Hoffman” is a folky, heartfelt, harmonica-laden tip of the hat to the Yippie founder which manages to never get mawkish. This six-minute song is a far superior tribute to Hoffman than the hammy indie film “Steal This Movie.” The jangling and nerve-jangling “Neil’s In Rehab” is something to play for anyone close you to who needs to take steps towards a program with 12 steps. I have to give a rare nod to Dubya: if he hadn’t needlessly invaded Iraq, I might never have found The Baghdaddios.
   Get Willie Horton Hears A Who at www.baghdaddios.com for $10. Miles Of Music has Hep for $12.49 and Near Truths and Hotel Rooms for $13.99.
   On June 19, Ramsay Midwood’s at House Of Blues. Free show alert! On June 20, blues man Carlos Guitarlos is at Tower Records in The Sherman Oaks Galleria at 7 p.m. On June 24, Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys play Amoeba at 7 p.m.
   The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is … The Cain Enablers.