Joe Henry + Stolie
Tiny Voices / Satire-Laced Melodies
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Joe Henry
Tiny Voices / Satire-Laced Melodies
Anti / Screaming Galaxy, 2003
RiYL: Scott Miller, Wilco, Bloodshot Records |
So what if these two albums have been out for months. So what if I referenced one -- Joe Henry's jazz-drenched newest -- in my 199th Annual Golden Bull Awards. And so what if the other is by an artist few outside of the Bloodshot Records followers have ever heard of.
So what? So buttons. I've still got a job to do, and dammit, I'm gonna do it.
Of course, seeing how these albums have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with one another, this could be one awkward trip. But hey, pack your bags, because here we go...
Let's start with Mr. Joe Henry, perhaps one of the most underrated and undefinable songwriters to float under the radar screen for the past 10 or so years. He's been recording albums since the early 1990s, and seemed to find a niche with a small-town country rock vibe with Short Man's Room and Kindness Of The World, both recorded with alt.country proprietors the Jayhawks as his backing band.
But something happened in 1996, when he released Trampoline. To say Trampoline caught even his most fervent listeners off-guard with its crunching guitar riffs, jarring bass lines and catchy drum loops would be an understatement. Bluntly, Trampoline -- with all due respect to Jeff Tweedy -- makes Wilco's Being There seem flat. And this is from someone who LOVES Being There, and Wilco. But there's just no denying that Trampoline was a risky album -- he alienated his alt.country fans by adding fuzzy guitars and biting, abstract lyrics to songs that lasted well over five minutes.
He followed the album in 1999 with the jazz-laden Fuse, which won rave reviews from a cub music critic for NATN oh-so-many-years ago. Apparently forgetting the buzzing guitars and tricky but undeniably catchy drumming, Fuse and its successor Scar were drenched in heavy jazz.
To no one's surprise, Tiny Voices continues this trend, but, contrary to his last two records, Henry does bring back some of the edge and abrasions that made Trampoline such a strong effort. The album is not a total success; astute readers of the 341th Annual Golden Bull Awards will no doubt recollect that I said half the songs give me a rather unpleasant feeling in the stomach.
That said, the rest of the album is stunning. I admit that I'm not a jazz nut, and maybe that's why I can't handle the first four songs, as they are straight-up experimental jazz tunes. But once the fifth song, "Dirty Magazine," cues up, my faith in Henry's uncanny ability to mix genres and write a catchy song is immediately restored.
From "Dirty Magazine," "Flag," and the speakeasy-esque "Loves You Madly," Henry reminds everyone that he's a killer songwriter. But it is "Lighthouse" that makes Tiny Voices. Without a doubt his simplest and catchiest song since Trampoline's "Ohio Air Show Plane Crash," "Lighthouse" mixes a quick drumbeat over a fluttering bass line and a sampled and sporadically cut chorus, and Henry's illustrative lyrics paint a stunning picture of childhood dreams and loving parental oversight.
"Your bed is adrift / it's come loose from the floor / The dead float up like dreams / I push them back with my arm / like an oar."
Tiny Voices isn't perfect, as many of the songs are just too heavy and overly saturated for my tastes. But if you can cut through the fat and get to the meat, it is well worth the trouble.
Now, let's shift gears and focus on Stolie.
Who, you may ask, is Stolie? Well, for those familiar with Chicago-based insurgent country label Bloodshot Records, you would recognize Stolie as one of the label's publicists, and a damn good one at that.
While catering to whiny critics like yours truly does, no doubt, take quite a patient person, Stolie is also blessed with a soulful voice and high ambitions. She has toured regularly throughout the Midwest and sojourned a few times around the country, and has also released a handful of self-produced albums in her spare time.
Satire-Laden Melodies is her second self-released full-length, and, aside from a few missteps, is a solid foundation. Not unlike Henry's Tiny Voices, I find myself skipping through a few songs because they seem overly produced -- "All Our Tomorrows" and "Up to the Highlands," I'm pointing in your general direction.
However, where the over-production and reliance on loud keyboards and drum loops fail her on those songs, they serve her soaring soprano well on "Table," a wonderfully bouncy tune about a failed relationship.
Stolie is most comfortable behind a simple acoustic guitar, as on "You Flatter Me" and "Skin," where her emotional voice is truly able to shine. The bare elements bring out the stark beauty in her voice, and Stolie can truly sing with the best of them when she allows her voice to be the central focus of each song.
This may be a simple complaint and a simple piece of advice, but sometimes, simplicity is better, and on Satire-Laden Melodies, Stolie proves this point over and over again.
RODEO ROB | An expert on all things "alt," Rob spends his days covering the energy industry and his nights covering the DC-area bars. Raise yer glass especially high to this man, for he has contributed to this site constantly since its creation four years ago.