SOUND CHECK.ROSANNE CASH: ``Black Cadillac'' (Capitol) - Three and one half stars There was a lot of hell and hell-raiser in Johnny Cash Noun 1. Johnny Cash - United States country music singer and songwriter (1932-2003) John Cash, Cash , which is why when he sang there was a ring of truth (or fire, as the case may be) in it. Johnny's voice urging, ``Rosanne, c'mon,'' is the first you hear on daughter Rosanne's ``Black Cadillac.'' While the album - which was written around the time of the deaths of her father, mother and stepmother June Carter Cash - might have started as an elegy elegy, in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. B.C. in Greece and poets such as Archilochus, Mimnermus, and Tytraeus. , Rosanne proves to be her father's daughter, following with her own dark visions of pain and anger. The title cut's spare but edgy sound sets the tone as Rosanne sings, ``It was a black Cadillac/That drove you away ... Now one of us gets to go to heaven/While one has to stay here in hell.'' The rest of the songs are just as open and fiery. Tunes like ``Burn Down This Town,'' ``Like Fugitives,'' ``World Without Sound'' and ``Dreams Are Not My Home'' are marked with the singer-songwriter's own determination to walk her own hard line. Even the sweet-sounding, straight-ahead country-folk tune ``God Among the Roses'' notes, ``God is in the roses - and the thorns.'' - Rob Lowman ERIC BURDON Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941, in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne) was the lead singer of The Animals, and War before becoming a solo artist. Career He was a founding member and vocalist of the Animals, a band originally formed in Newcastle in the early 1960s. : ``Soul of a Man'' (SPV SPV sheeppox virus. ) - Three and one half stars Few singers are as instantly recognizable as Eric Burdon, whose big, bad Newcastle baritone put him on the front lines of the British Invasion with the great '60s r&b outfit the Animals. This satisfying 14-track set, lustily lust·y adj. lust·i·er, lust·i·est 1. Full of vigor or vitality; robust. 2. Powerful; strong: a lusty cry. 3. Lustful. 4. Merry; joyous. recorded so you can almost taste the Stella, finds the 64-year-old fireplug in muscular shape, devoting himself to blues old and new, backed by a superb band. Kicking off with the Blind Willie Johnson
"Blind" Willie Johnson (1897-1945) was an African-American singer and guitarist whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals. title track, Burdon inhabits Mississippi Fred McDowell's ``Red Cross Store,'' Howlin' Wolf's ``44 Blues'' and Muddy Waters' ``40 Days,'' along with the contemporary items ``Slow Moving Train'' and ``Kingsize Jones,'' which shook the floorboards at the Viper Room last weekend. Soul to spare. - Fred Shuster WANDA JACKSON: ``I Remember Elvis'' (Goldenlane) - Three stars The first lady of rock 'n' roll rock 'n' roll: see rock music. is still going strong at 68. This tribute to Presley - a onetime boyfriend who convinced the then-teen country crooner to go rockabilly in the mid-'50s - has rumpus energy to spare and terrific phrasing. The recordings of the King's favorites are new, but they were made simply, all at once in a single room, which lends the songs an authentic period echo (and, perhaps, distracts from ever-so-slight weaknesses that have crept into Jackson's pipes). Besides ``Heartbreak Hotel,'' ``Blue Moon of Kentucky'' and the other covers, there's a new song about when Elvis gave Wanda WANDA Wireless Any Network Digital Assistant WANDA Washington Area New Automobile Dealers Association his ring, and warm reminiscences from the lady about their historic, nurturing friendship. In stores Tuesday; Jackson appears at the Amoeba amoeba: see ameba. amoeba One-celled protozoan that can form temporary extensions of cytoplasm (pseudopodia) in order to move about. Some amoebas are found on the bottom of freshwater streams and ponds. store in Hollywood at 7 p.m. Wednesday. - Bob Strauss CAT POWER: ``The Greatest'' (Matador/Beggars) - Two stars Dusty Springfield went to Memphis and made uplifting art. Indie icon Chan Marshall - who calls herself Cat Power - went down there for her seventh album, enlisted a couple of Southern session greats, and emerged with yet another helping of painfully fragile, edge-of-disaster confessional fare. What makes this predictably bleak effort noteworthy is the use of guitarist Teenie Hodges and his bassist brother, Leroy, revered for their gritty playing on '70s peaks by Al Green, Ann Peebles and others. Marshall can't write melodies, but she sings her heart out on the impenetrable ballads ``Lived in Bars,'' ``Empty Shell'' and ``Willie,'' sounding as if a powerful sleeping agent has taken possession of her body. Ultimately, though, too much Cat and not enough Teenie. - F.S. MORNINGWOOD: ``Morningwood'' (Capitol) - Three stars This New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. foursome's post-punk debut is a gritty, riff-shredding affair spiked with just enough pop to make it palatable. Fronted by the spunky spunk·y adj. spunk·i·er, spunk·i·est Informal Spirited; plucky. spunk  i·ly adv. Chantal Claret and rounded out by former members of the Wallflowers, Spacehog and Cibo Matto, Morningwood tears into this 11-track set with abrasives like ``Nu Rock,'' ``Jetsetter'' and ``Easy.'' They all rock. But if there's one song on this album that you're least likely to forget, it's probably the instructional ``Take Off Your Clothes.'' - Sandra Barrera CAPTION(S): 6 photos Photo: (1) no caption (Rosanne Cash) (2 -- 6) no caption (CD covers) |
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