Real Life Rock Top 10

8) Tarbox Ramblers, "Country Blues," on A Fix Back East (Rounder). Producer Jim Dickinson gets a big, echoey Time Out of Mind sound, which makes it feel as if everything here is taking place inside the not altogether sane head of the singer. But Michael Tarbox is so growly he might as well be a bear, and when he applies himself to Dock Boggs's 1927 testament to a wasted life, the startling boogie arrangement makes his voice feel like a put-up job. But his slide guitar makes another voice--and when Tarbox comes back singing in an almost delirious mode, he takes the song out of his head and into some ugly bar, where new people keep turning up even if no one's left for years.

James Dankert

"Tarbox takes the song out of his head and into some ugly bar, where new people keep turning up even if no one's left for years"

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9) Carole King for John Kerry (caroleking.com, Feb. 2) King was all over New Hampshire before the primary, singing "I Feel the Earth Move" at house parties and "You've Got a Friend" at benefit concerts--but has she played "The Locomotion"? "One Fine Day"? Or redone Bobby Vee's "It Might as Well Rain Until September" as "It Might as Well Rain Until November"--whatever that would mean?

10) Steve Weinstein passes on news of the "Hell Freezes Over Tour" (New England Ticketmaster Ticket Alert posting, Jan. 29) Events included Rufus Wainwright at Toad's Place in New Haven, Carrot Top at the State Theater in Portland, Maine, Lynard Skynard (or imposters who can't spell) and 38 Special (wonder if they can still pull off their great "If I'd Been the One"), Barenaked Ladies, and "An Evening with Christ..."--which a click on the link revealed to be cheap at the price, $25, even if "Christ" turned out to be Christine Lavin.