SOUND CHECK : MARTY STUART/``THE PILGRIM'' (MCA).Stuart's ambitious new concept album proves he's truly the keeper of country's traditional flame. Built around a timeless tale of lost love, alcoholism, death and redemption, ``The Pilgrim'' explores country's beloved themes with help from such luminaries as George Jones, Johnny Cash, Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs, Pam Tillis, Emmylou Harris and Mike Campbell, among others. Stuart tells the story perfectly, utilizing creaky creak·y adj. creak·i·er, creak·i·est 1. Tending to creak. 2. Shaky or infirm, as with age; decrepit: creaky knee joints; a creaky regime. Appalachian vocal dust, crackling bluegrass bluegrass, any species of the large and widely distributed genus Poa, chiefly range and pasture grasses of economic importance in temperate and cool regions. In general, bluegrasses are perennial with fine-leaved foliage that is bluish green in some species. , twangy honky-tonk, plus tasty rock and string arrangements. This fully-realized effort deserves a place at the top of the charts. three and one half stars - Fred Shuster Ron Sexsmith/``Whereabouts'' (Interscope) Canadian singer-songwriter Sexsmith returns with another gorgeous album of smart pop, again assisted by ace producers and collaborators Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. ``Whereabouts'' builds on Sexsmith's previous efforts, adding quirky string arrangements to some songs and unexpected orchestral touches to others. The constant remains Sexsmith's melancholy voice and beautiful way with a melody. ``Still Time,'' the album's hopeful opener, might be the year's most beautiful tune. Like the rest of this fine album, it only gets better with each spin. three and one half stars - Glenn Whipp Pretenders/``Viva El Amor!'' (Warner Bros.) The first new album from the Pretenders since 1994 finds tough-but-tender frontwoman Chrissie Hynde delivering semiautobiographical sem·i·au·to·bi·o·graph·i·cal adj. Of, relating to, or being a work that falls between fiction and autobiography: a semiautobiographical novel. Adj. 1. lyrics in a smooth, appealing pop-rock package. Tracks like disc-opener ``Pop Star'' and the hook-filled ``Human'' (theme to TV's recent ``Cupid'' series) find the band as spirited as ever, bolstered by ringing guitar, soaring vocals and fresh-but-familiar tunes. Incidentally, Jeff Beck lends fret-shred to the track ``Legalise Me.'' three stars - F.S. Pavement/``Terror Twilight'' (Matador) Alt-rock heroes and eternal grad students Pavement strike gold with their largely wonderful fifth album, the band's first to be recorded in a 24-track studio and their first produced and mixed by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead's ``OK Computer'' and Beck's ``Mutations''). Influences range from the Beatles and the Velvet Underground all the way to King Crimson as these perennial cranks inject subtle wit and rare effort into the nicely blurred proceedings, enlivened by standouts like the radio-friendly ``Spit on a Stranger Spit On a Stranger is the name of a single by the indie-rock band Pavement, coming off of their final record Terror Twilight. Track listing
adj. 1. Marked by carelessness; sloppy or slovenly. See Synonyms at sloppy. 2. Slovenly in appearance; shabby or seedy. slip riff-rocker ``Cream of Gold'' and the sweet country ballad ``Major Leagues.'' three stars - F.S. Evgeny Kissin/``Chopin: Four Ballades; Berceuse; Bacarolle; and Scherzo scherzo (skĕr`tsō) [Ital.,=joke], in music, term denoting various types of composition, primarily one that is lively and presents surprises in the rhythmic or melodic material. No. 4'' (BMG BMG Bundesministerium für Gesundheit (Germand: Federal Ministry for Health) BMG Be My Girl BMG Blue Man Group BMG Bertelsmann Music Group BMG Be My Guest BMG Browning Machine Gun BMG Bulk Metallic Glass Classics) Technical virtuosity has always been a given with this 27-year-old Russian pianist. But Kissin's dramatic, emotionally declarative renditions of these dissimilar Chopin pieces - the querying Sturm und Drang Sturm und Drang (sht  rm nt dräng) or Storm and Stress, of the first Ballade ballade (bəläd`), in literature, verse form developed in France in the 14th and 15th cent. The ballade usually contains three stanzas of eight lines with three rhymes and a four-line envoy (a short, concluding stanza). , the Slavic dazzlement of the fourth, the soothing rhythms of the Berceuse lullaby, and the playful, hallucinatory hal·lu·ci·na·to·ryadj. 1. Of or characterized by hallucination. 2. Inducing or causing hallucination. Scherzo No. 4 - should further dissolve any lingering ideas that Kissin's playing is all head and no heart. Chopin's torrential harmonies, as well as his gentler cloudbursts of melody, unite here in passionate precision. three and one half stars - Reed Johnson Chemical Brothers/``Surrender'' (Astralwerks) Since meeting a decade ago, the Chemicals have been on a mission: to uncover sounds nobody's heard before and to make each record fresher than the last. They've also created some of the most influential block rockin' beats of the '90s. For ``Surrender,'' the duo's third album and follow-up to the breakthrough ``Dig Your Own Hole,'' the Chemicals offer a twist on familiar funk and house rhythms. Again calling on Noel Gallagher for the Beatles-inspired ``Let Forever Be'' and Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue, who sings and plays guitar on album-closing lullaby ``Dream On,'' the Chems add additional vocal spice in the shape of Mazzy Star chanteuse chan·teuse n. A woman singer, especially a nightclub singer. [French, feminine of chanteur, singer, from chanter, to sing; see chant.] Hope Sandoval on the languorous lan·guor n. 1. Lack of physical or mental energy; listlessness. See Synonyms at lethargy. 2. A dreamy, lazy mood or quality: "It was hot, yet with a sweet languor about it" ``Asleep From Day,'' while New Order's Bernard Sumner works out on the ferocious ``Out of Control.'' three stars - F.S. Chick Corea & Origin/``Change'' (Stretch/Concord) Corea's ever-inventive acoustic sextet Origin is making some of the most plainly enjoyable music of the impressionistic keyboardist's long and varied career. Supported by the challenging post-bop outfit's supremely fine rhythm section of bassist Avishai Cohen and drummer Jeff Ballard, Corea demonstrates harmonic ingenuity and rhythmic savvy of the sort rarely heard these days. The best tracks include blues-based opener ``Wigwam,'' in which Corea switches from marimba marimba: see xylophone. marimba Xylophone with resonators under each bar. The original African instrument uses tuned calabash resonators. In Mexico and Central America, where it was brought by African slaves, the wooden bars may be affixed to a to piano in midstream; the playful, Latin-tinged ``Armando's Tango'' (a sequel to ``Armando's Rhumba'' from Corea's ``My Spanish Heart'' in 1976); and the delicious laid-back cool of ``Early Afternoon Blues,'' a nod to Miles Davis' ``Kind of Blue'' sparked by searing sear 1 v. seared, sear·ing, sears v.tr. 1. To char, scorch, or burn the surface of with or as if with a hot instrument. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. work from Origin horn men Steve Wilson, Bob Sheppard and Steve Davis. Marvelous stuff. four stars - F.S. Phineas/``Phineas'' (Mannawise) This Los Angeles trio has turned out a surprisingly mature and consistently engaging collection of jazzy, often edgy ballads and occasional rockers. Singer/guitarist/songwriter Simon Pagotto cranks out tuneful music over Marc Joseph's inventive drumming and Pat Reynolds' mostly acoustic bass, all leavened leav·en n. 1. An agent, such as yeast, that causes batter or dough to rise, especially by fermentation. 2. An element, influence, or agent that works subtly to lighten, enliven, or modify a whole. tr.v. with grace notes of violin, trombone, harmonica, tabla tabla Pair of small drums, the principal percussion in Hindustani music of northern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The higher-pitched daya, played with the right hand, is a roughly cylindrical one-skinned drum, usually wooden, normally tuned to the raga's tonic. , saxophone and more. The plentiful highlights are mostly of a thoughtful, Paul Westerberg-like sort of pop, with a lovely Spanish-language ballad and a couple of moderate ravers thrown in. To get the album, e-mail mannawisehotmail.com. The band is excellent live also, recently adding a viola player to flesh out their more rocking live sound. three stars - David Bloom Santana/``Supernatural'' (Arista arista (ä·riˑ·st ) For his best album in a decade, the instantly recognizable Carlos Santana invites cameos from such varied folks as Lauryn Hill, Everlast, Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas, soul crooner Cee-Lo, Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, rock en Espanol stars Mana, Wyclef Jean and Eagle-Eye Cherry. But unlike other star-studded projects, each contributor actually adds musical rather than name-drop power to this unexpectedly stirring project, additionally fueled by some of Santana's best guitar work in ages. Favorite track: ``The Calling,'' featuring a sizzling Clapton/Santana arrangement. three stars - F.S. Various/``No Boundaries: A Benefit for the Kosovar Refugees'' (Epic) Quickly compiled to help the ongoing nightmare in Kosovo, here's a solidly entertaining collection of mostly rare, live or unreleased tracks by a wide variety of artists, from Korn to Tori Amos. Although other good-hearted efforts have fallen short musically, ``No Boundaries'' is clearly a keeper, thanks to such winners as Pearl Jam's collectors-only reading of the mid-'60s hit ``Last Kiss,'' Alanis Morissette's charged concert version of ``Baba'' and Rage Against the Machine's blistering remake of Bruce Springsteen's ``The Ghost of Tom Joad.'' three stars - F.S. CAPTION(S): 8 Photos PHOTO (1) no caption (Marty Stuart) (2-8) no caption (CD covers) |
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