Also in this Issue
- Ramblin' Man Anti-techie Bob Dylan makes a great chill-out album (Music)
- Tool: An Appreciation A case for a much-maligned band's respectability (Music)
- Snowden: Anti-Anti (CD Review)
- The Mountain Goats: Get Lonely (CD Review)
- Various Artists: Rio Baile Funk—More Favela Booty Beats (CD Review)
- More articles from this issue...
More CD Review Articles
- Zero 7: The Garden (Sep 6, 2006)
- Lambchop: Damaged (Sep 6, 2006)
- The 88: Over and Over (Sep 6, 2006)
- Noxagt: Noxagt (Sep 6, 2006)
- Various artists: The Rough Guide to West African Gold (Sep 6, 2006)
- Kelis: Kelis Was Here (Aug 30, 2006)
- The Sleepy Jackson: Personality (One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird) (Aug 30, 2006)
- Towers of London: Blood Sweat & Towers (Aug 30, 2006)
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Greg Brown: The Evening Call
Greg Brown
The Evening Call
Red House
As an unabashed Greg Brown partisan who'd grade his albums on a curve from B+ to A+, I think The Evening Call ranks up there with One More Goodnight Kiss (1988) and Further In (1996) for the sheer pleasure and depth of the wisdom it imparts. At the risk of oversimplifying the subtexts of one of the most poetic craftsmen among the singer-songwriters working today, if Kiss was Brown as family man and Further had him contemplating the onset of middle age, Call finds him peeking at senior citizenry as a wry curmudgeon.
By turns cantankerous, wistful, mischievous, and elegiac, these tunes are as varied and kindred as a dozen sunsets. My favorite swath begins with the talk-sung prose-song "Eugene." Reminiscent of the work of poet Gary Snyder, it's a plainspoken backwoods travelogue acknowledged as a man's final traipse across the American landscape. It's followed by the epic, gorgeous waltz, "Coneville Slough," about a longtime love relationship that ended some time ago—every third line will give you goosebumps. The triptych is completed by "Kokomo," a hilarious tall tale that wouldn't be out of place on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited.
Ever the romantic, Brown opens and closes the disc with the sort of grown-up valentines that are an underrated part of his arsenal. Ever the realist, he tucks his saddest four songs just inside those margins, including the tear-jerking "Skinny Days" and the miserable "Cold & Dark & Wet." Either way, Brown is a resource to be treasured—and he's only getting better.
About Britt Robson
From the Archive
- Running Man Keith Ellison, the DFL's endorsee for Congress in the Fifth District, has spent the summer countering attacks from Republicans—and Democrats. What made him everyone's favorite target? (Cover Story - Aug 30, 2006)
- Junge at Heart Ember Reichgott Junge: When does a compromiser become compromised? (News - Aug 9, 2006)
- When the Going Gets Weird Mike Hatch throws a bizarre—though hardly baseless—jab at the Star Tribune (News - Aug 2, 2006)
- Still Contrary After All These Years Local ad guru Bill Hillsman speaks about his current slate of underdog political candidates (News - Jul 26, 2006)
- It Was a Very Good (Half) Year Rounding up the best jazz records from six fruitful months (Music - Jul 19, 2006)
- Broken-Headed Man Busts Butt, Nuts A decade after his award-winning doc on disabilities, Billy Golfus is still battling (Film - Jul 12, 2006)
- The Spoiler Consultant and candidate Hutchinson won't "shock the world"—but will he tip the race for gov? (News - Jul 5, 2006)
- Twelve Uneasy Pieces The Wolves' massive overhaul begins with top pick Randy Foye (Hang Time - Jul 5, 2006)
- More articles from the Britt Robson Archive...
