From Blues Guys To Rock Girls

Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing writer
  
   In the CD booklet for bluesman Guy Davis' breezy new album, Legacy, there's a cheeky cartoon strip of Davis trying to sell his soul to Satan. But Senor Beelzebub informs Davis that the blues is so not happening and he should switch to rap. I wished Davis would do a song about this and "Uncle Tom's Dead" --- the album's first track --- is just that. In it, some punk ass kid devilishly disses the blues. Davis sings back his defense and this launches an intergenerational musical slugfest. That is made all the more meaningful because the rebellious youngster challenging Davis is his 13-year-old son, Martial. Davis the elder proves the blues is worthy of respect today and reveals his Mississippi Delta chutzpah.
   Beaver Nelson is cosmic and comic. Track nine on the Austin singer-songwriter's seriously charming Motion is a good place to start. It's an exasperated look at the way modern life bombards us with too much information and too little silence. This song's called "Too Many Words" and Nelson doesn't deploy too many to make his point. My favorite song here is the opener, "Let Us Build A Monument." It's a dreamy, vaguely hippie-ish anthem about helping out those in need and setting sail for some as yet undetermined distant land. It's beautiful and upbeat but still lurking is Nelson's nutty, off-kilter sensibility.
   Years ago, a teenager in a convertible next to me at a light on Sunset was blasting music. I couldn't take it anymore. I beeped to get his attention. "Would you please" I said pointedly, "tell me who you're listening to?" With a relieved grin, he said, "Crowded House." Led by songwriter Neil Finn and his sibling Tim, that band was sort of like the Down Under Everly Brothers. Their latest release, Everyone Is Here, is credited to The Finn Brothers. (Crowded House has long since broken up.) But their rising harmonies and beautiful melodies are very much alive with seductive tracks like "Luckiest Man Alive" and "Anything Can Happen." Play it loud in your car with your windows down and wait for someone to ask who's playing.
   Singer-songwriter Michelle Anthony describes her band as musicians who are basically "cheating on their other bands." That's as endearing a line as I've run across since I started this column. The even better news to report is that her album, Stand Fall Repeat, is one you really should get. Raised outside Kansas City, Anthony's luminous voice recalls the early work of Chrissie Hynde and Lucinda Williams. Call it rock and roll with an alt-country heart or vice versa. I would've made "Don't Deny" the first track instead of the second. It strides into you, unlike "Morning Song" which kind of tiptoes. Play "Don't Deny" once and you won't deny twice being a huge Anthony fan.
   Miles Of Music has Legacy for $15.99, Motion for $14.99, Everyone Is Here for $17.49 and Stand Fall Repeat for $10.49.
   * The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is …Raised Under Reagan.