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ONE MAN CLAPPING RECORDS OF CHICAGO
Blowing out of the windy city have come a whole crop of great new singer songwriters and a good proportion of them have found a home on Gary Cornelius's new label ONE MAN CLAPPING. When Brian Lillie's Thursday Records amalgamated with Gary's fledgling One Man Clapping it brought about one of the most talented rosters on a stateside folk label. Like a guardian angel the great Townes Van Zandt even guested on newcomer Chris Buhalis's debut disc.
This is an astonishing debut from a Detroit-born son of a Big Band musician. Mostly recorded at his home studio in Belleville, Michigan it has echoes of Springsteens's Nebraska running through it like a coal seam. However it is the first record of John Prine, also produced in his mid-twenties, that bares closest comparison. Red Moshannon starts the disc off very much like Prine's Paradise or a folkier Dwight Yoakham with its opening line " Down in the Appalachian coal basin..". Next track Behind The Veil has a Springsteen The River era like storyline over a bright organ melody. Other stand-out tracks include the literary-influenced Rock Springs ( if Richard Ford could sing it would sound like this!) and Fourth of July with its wonderful hunting imagery. Not every track is a keeper. Tethered Angels almost falls into a sentimental trap but overall this hardly matters as the gritty voice and wonderful lyrics carry the listener along. This is the old Voice of America that could be heard on tracks like Paradise, Ballad of Hollis Brown, Atlantic City gritty dirty-realism combined with folk melody. One Man Clapping out of Chicago has already released some talented singer-songwriter material but this is one of the best yet. Ranks up there with the best of the unjustly neglected James Talley and Steve Earle and yes even that man Bruce. File next to Tom Joad it really is that good! The title track says it all".. coal and diamonds are treasures well worth the find".
Ex street-performer and now health-researcher Jim Roll's debut disc presents his well-written songs in a variety of settings from surf-band and rockabilly to neo-country and gentle acoustic balladry. Largely self-produced, this disc's qualities of production and packaging would put many a major to shame. Craftsmanship is present in the songs too. The music is varied although the overall feel of the rockier tracks is of the L.A. country-punk school of the 1980's. At times sounding like out-takes from early Green on Red / Long Ryders records mixed in with a shot of Uncle Tupelo. Some of them would not be out of place on the Don' t Shoot compilation from Demon that came out in the mid-eighties. If the disc relied on these alone it could easily be filed under competent alt-country. However that European busking experience and open-mic. performing with other musicians around the Ann Arbor, Michigan area have honed his solo abilities. He presents a clutch of great solo acoustic tracks -Mary Ann, Ready to Hang,Train and If I was a sailor- that are outstanding. There is also the wonderfully atmospheric track Double Time with its optigon organ reminiscent of Tom Waits and a punk take on old-time music Another Love ( I never had) that is truly infectious. A major songwriter lurks amongst the different avenues explored here, one of a new wave of great music blowing out of the "windy city" these days that's well worth hanging on to.
Sophomore disc from Michigan-based singer-songwriter Brian Lillie continued the reunion with his old band The Maitries now reborn as the Squirrel-Mountain Orchestra. Also involved in this 'double Lp' of 17 songs were most of the One Man Clapping ( Michigan Chapter)that Lillie had gathered around him with his Thursday Records label. It is his very eclecticism and the breadth of styles covered on this disc which perhaps leaves his intended audience struggling to catch up with the depth of his songwriting ability. In the space of a few tracks the stylistic changes encompass cajun, old-timey, punk-celtic and sixties period Dylan with even some New Orleans R& B thrown in for good measure! What holds the project together is the literate and lyrical quality of his writing and the sheer quality of the musical backing. Standout tracks include the fantastic Grandpa was a Flyer which welds a bouncy rhythm toa tale of wartime duties. Sunday also shines as does the Dylan meets The Band romp of closer Full Steam Ahead. The lyric tour-de-force though is Bad Advice where Lillie and fellow writer Kevin Meisel sing a short story over a piano backing that brings to mind Tumbleweed Connection era Elton John of all things! Other tracks suggest Robert Earl Keen / Lyle Lovett. A developing songwriter of hidden depths who has posted his intentions clearly with this release and a 'classic' set must one day follow once his magpie roaming settles down into a more consistent style.
FLYIN' SHOES | INDEX | HIS MASTER'S VOICE? | ROUNDUP | LABEL FEATURE | REVIEWS | TEXT Y'ALL | ODDS & ENDS
