V-ROYS DO IT AGAIN WITH A GREAT ALBUM
The
V-Roys All About Town (E-Squared)
It's a good thing they send advance review copies of albums on CDs
and not cassettes these days. Otherwise,
I would have worn this out long
before its release, which as pushed back
several times while E-Squared
worked out distribution matters.
Overall, the V-Roys' tremendous 1996 debut, Just Add Ice, may have
been slightly more consistent than All
About Town. The new album, however,
includes a number of songs that are so
good, it's hard to leave them alone.
I listened to "Fade Away" obsessively
for about two weeks after I got the
album in June and still have to hear it
at least once a day.
"Fade Away" is one of the saddest songs ever written, expressing an
immeasurable sorrow with a buoyant melody
and lyrics that only seem simple
at first.
Singer-guitarist Scott Miller starts plainly: "You have to go/We
knew this day was coming for some time/The
hardest part is watching you slip
by". The verse soars into the chorus
so beautifully, the first lines of the
chorus really ring out: "I feel you fading
away/and with your heart goes
part of mine."
The end of the chorus is less melodically dramatic, and the words
sneak up on you only after you've heard
the song a few times: "If I could
see you one more day/It's be the one before
you changed/'See you later' to
'goodbye'." The separation has already
occurred, and the use of the present
tense in the rest of the song is a hopeless
attempt to return to the past --
the only place the person he's singing
to exists anymore.
Miller's fiercely stoic vocal and guitarist Mic Harrison's lovely,
understated harmony ultimately have more
impact than any amount of emoting.
The arrangement is similarly restrained,
with a gently twangy electric
guitar line gliding through an uncluttered
acoustic arrangement.
"Fade Away" is actually the last song on the album. All About Town
begins in an entirely different mood,
with the flame-throwing "The Window
Song" sung mostly by Harrison in his growly
baritone. The song was written
by Harrison, Miller and Steve Earle.
Earle and Ray Kennedy, aka the
Twangtrust, co-produced both the V-Roys'
albums. They get a bit fancier on
All About Town, without losing the live
urgency of the debut. And as
always, they do a great job recording
both lead vocals and harmonies --
particular strengths of the V-Roys.
(Miller's warm, strong, casually
commanding baritone is the antidote, by
the way, for all that vibrato-laden
mewling on rock radio.)
The V-Roys and the Twangtrust share a fondness for Beatlesque pop,
which melds with Southern rock here on
the spooky "Arianne," written by
Miller and Earle. A vinegary country-blues
guitar solo cuts through layers
of acoustic guitars and leads into a passage
that borders on the
psychedelic. There's a surf-psychedelic
edge to "Strange," a wired rave-up
that wouldn't be out of place on a Flamin'
Groovies album. It segues almost
humorously into the easygoing country
shuffle "Hold On to Me." Well, the
rhythm is easygoing, anyway. Miller
is full of bitter sarcasm as he
dissects a stifling relationship:
"You hold on to me/Like you're the only
one who could care about me."
Ronnie McCoury of the Del McCoury Band plays mandolin and sings fine
backing vocals on "Mary," which also features
Michael Southerman on Hamond
organ, putting a different spin on the
bluegrass sound. More Del McCoury
Band members join in as Miller's blue-grassy
"Virginia Way" segues into Bill
Monroe's "Shenandoah Breakdown."
Jim Hoke on baritone and tenor sax lends a
honking R&B feel to the hard-rocking
Brit-pop of Harrison's "Amy 88."
Earle plays guitar on a number of the tracks, including the
beautiful ballad "Sorry Sue," which he
and Miller co-wrote. (Wonder which
one's responsible for the world-weary
line, "It ain't really me you want/I'm
just the one you're counting on.")
Earle and Kennedy also joined in with
the Mini Moog on Miller's "Testify," a
percolating song that sounds sort of
like Buddy Holly writing for Motown with
the litter Everly Brothers harmony
and George Harrison playing electric guitar.
The V-Roys are such a great live band, and write such terrific
songs, you could probably basically shove
'em in the studio, turn on the
tape and end up with one fine album.
But All Around Town is more in the category of brilliant, and it
only seems right to mention that Earle
and Kennedy worked on probably the
two best rock albums this year -- this
one and Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels
on a Gravel Road.