Last spring folk-rocker Williams was one of the estimated 37 million Americans without medical insurance often referred to by then candidate Bill Clinton. Out on tour, Williams became ill and was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a debilitating nerve disease with no known cure. But Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn't have to worry about this particular citizen's medical bills, thanks to the musicians and record-industry folks who pulled together to help Williams and other uninsured players avoid financial ruin.
So far, so good. You may feel like a Good Samaritan when buying this album, but you'll feel even better after listening to it. Sweet Relief, together with recent projects devoted to Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Charles Mingus, is proof that the tribute album can be a wonderful new pop-music form. Williams herself has a high, girlish, eccentric voice that can get between the listener and a song, but an interpretative grab bag like this one reveals what a fresh, poetic writer she is. And for the guest musicians, it can be liberating to momentarily escape the relentless requirement to create original songs.
That exhilaration is especially obvious in Lou Reed's jaunty version of "Tarbelly and Featherfoot" and Pearl Jam's majestic and surprisingly countrified take on "Crazy Mary." But not one of the 14 tracks is a dud. Matthew Sweet does an ethereal take on the lovely "This Moment." Lucinda Williams (no relation), Michelle Shocked and Maria McKee (on the bluesy title cut) are each splendid, letting the songs they do shine through the prism of their very personal styles. The rest of the lineup is a Who's Who of alternative rock: Soul Asylum, Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, Giant Sand, the Jayhawks, Michael Penn, the Waterboys and others. All are first-rate. They've made an album that does good and sounds great. (Thirsty Ear/Chaos)
Mica Paris
Cheryl "Pepsii" Riley
At the heart of soul is the eternal question, how do you call your lover boy? Two underappreciated divas from opposite sides of the ocean tackle the age-old query with different and totally satisfying answers.
Mica (pronounced Meesha) Paris is blessed with a smoky, throaty alto that belies her youth (she's 23). Hugely popular in her native England, Paris has released two albums in the U.S. that failed to make any real impact though they signaled the arrival of a significant new soul-pop chanteuse. The buzz might build, though, with Whisper (Island), which places her torchy, retro shadings atop state-of-the-art, made-in-the-U.S.A commercial R&B. Working with sought-after producer-songwriters Narada Michael Walden (Whitney Houston) and Rod Temperton (Michael Jackson), Paris has all the au courant blips and beats to ensure a hit but sacrifices none of her delicious, womanly sound.
Brooklyn's Riley scored with issue-based songs (child and wife abuse, for instance). While well-intentioned, the material made her seem like Oprah with a sequencer. Here, Riley is working with the production unit Full Force, whose work hasn't sounded this good since their days with Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. All That (Reprise) lives up to its title; leaving social commentary in the dust (save for the album's weakest cut, "Stephanie," about an abused child grown up), Riley concentrates on saucy, sexy music that welds hip-hop grooves to expansive, street-savvy vocals. "Love of My Life" takes the undulating break from Apache's "Gangsta Bitch" and hooks it to a fevered tale of adultery, from the cheating wife's viewpoint. With the success of Mary J. Blige last year, the so-called new Jills (Jade, SWV, TLC) are lining up to strut their stuff. With this record, Riley moves to the head of the line.
THE DAVE EDMUNDS ANTHOLOGY (1968-90)
With his rockabilly twang and quicksilver chords, Edmunds, though Welsh, could be considered an icon of classic American rock. Influenced heavily by Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, Edmunds, 49, incorporates his '50s rock-and-roll roots into a racier sound and singular, sometimes jokey style—peppered with dashes of country and R&B.
This collection traces Edmunds's musical progression from the upbeat rhythms of his early work, including his 1970 Top 10 hit, "I Hear You Knocking," through 1983's high-tech "Slipping Away." Horns add a soulful-ness to later numbers such as 1990's "Closer to the Flame. Though his best-known recordings are covers, Edmunds never sounds like anyone else. His blistering guitar and pungent vocals infuse Springsteen's "From Small Things, Big Things Come" with style and kick, while his acoustic guitar makes Elvis Costello's driving "Girls Talk" bounce and jangle. (Rhino)
>Victoria Williams
STRICKEN BY M.S., SHE'S BOUNCING BACK
VICTORIA WILLIAMS HAS JUST WALKED back to her grandfather's cabin after an afternoon swim in Lake Bistineau, which is not far from her childhood home near Shreveport, La. Dozens of family members live in the vicinity, and the 34-year-old former street singer says she is "testing the waters" while deciding whether to move back home from L.A. She's feeling fine, despite "some real weird symptoms" involving the numbness and loss of balance associated with multiple sclerosis. She's glad she can think about treatment without worrying about the cost, and today she is buzzing about a new, unorthodox method she's heard about involving bee slings. "I think all our cures are right here in nature," she says.
Williams was on tour opening for Neil Young last year when "at first I thought I pinched a nerve. It got harder to walk and play the guitar, and I had to perform sitting down. Finally, in May, after the 23rd show, I had to leave the tour. After a lot of tests, I was diagnosed, and a month later all the bills started coming in. Two benefit concerts helped a lot. And Kelley Walker, who was working as a secretary at Sony Music, got together with Lou Reed's wife, Sylvia Reed, and started pulling together this album for me. They did it so fast—it usually takes years.
"I hope to make music that makes people feel good, and this record made me feel good. I was able to step back from my music and say, 'It seems like they are actually songs.' Another person can sing them. I guess I feel more validated."
- Contributors:
- Hal Espen,
- Amy Linden,
- Nancy Morgan.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
