At the close of one of the many splendid heartbroke-and-drinkin' songs he performs on this rare treasure recorded in a Seattle dance hall 33 years ago, country star Ernest Tubb is startled when a fan's camera flashbulb explodes. "Boy, I'm tellin' you," he says in his deep Texas drawl, "I thought that one of those jealous husbands...had done caught up with [my guitarist] and shot him." After more than two full decades performing at country fairs and in concert halls and honky-tonks, Tubb was as quick to believe that a vengeance-seeking gunslinger had shown up at his show as he was happy to dedicate a rendition of "I Love You Because" to some newly-weds on the dance floor. This 29-song, double CD captures Tubb, who died in 1984, in peak form and clearly enjoying the intimate interaction with his audience. And the album documents a special era when top country stars routinely performed long sets in small clubs just for the love of it.
Bottom Line: Honky-tonk heaven
Sugar Ray (Lava/Atlantic)
Album of the week
Except for some confusion about his name—Sugar Ray is the band, he's Mark McGrath—the hot California group's lead singer doesn't have much to complain about. McGrath's pinup-boy looks won him recognition last year as PEOPLE'S sexiest rock star alive, and his brooding likeness has found its way onto many a teenage girl's bedroom wall. His band's last album, Floored, sold 2 million copies, spun off the 1997 MTV hit "Fly" and allowed him and his bandmates to move into newer cars and bigger paydays. McGrath, 30, even seems to have a sense of humor, which is demonstrated by the title of this album, a clever tweak aimed at critics convinced that his 15 minutes of fame are over. McGrath first teamed with his fellow Newport Beach, Calif., boys—guitarist Rodney Sheppard, bassist Murphy Karges and drummer Stan Frazier—in 1988, and seven years later sound-effects maestro Craig "DJ Homicide" Bullock signed on. Here, as usual, he rasps witty tunes (including the songs "Personal Space Invader" and a cover of Steve Miller's "Abracadabra") over driving pop, ska, thrash metal and surf-rock rhythms. While "Fly" featured a guest turn by Jamaican dance-hall toaster Super Cat, this time out the Rays enlist rapper KRS-One to give "Live & Direct" some street edge. But try as they do to inject grit into their sound, Sugar Ray's catchy tunes are at heart as sun-kissed as McGrath's bleached blond hair and the streets of their hometown.
Bottom Line: Southern California surfer rock, updated and gnarly
Peter Himmelman (Six Degrees/Koch)
So far in his 18-year career, Himmelman's lovely melodies and intelligent, imagery-rich songs have failed to rescue him from obscurity. He has a devoted cult following thanks to his funny and engaging live performances, but he has never seen one of his six solo studio albums dent the Top 100. And despite stellar connections—he is married to Bob Dylan's daughter Maria—he has managed to elude stardom by, among other things, refusing to perform on the Jewish Sabbath and dreaming up Biblical-sounding CD titles like this one. (His only studio release since gaining critical raves in 1992 with Flown This Acid World was a 1997 kids' album, My Best Friend Is A Salamander.) Now this virtuoso performance may win him mainstream recognition, whether he likes it or not.
Bottom Line: Complex but appealing CD from Bob Dylan's son-in-law
J.D. Crowe and the New South (Rounder)
Turns out that the New South sounds mighty like the Old—or at least the Relatively Recent—South. Crowe's band sounds a little like Flatt & Scruggs, a little like Ricky Skaggs and a big lump like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Crowe's banjo picking, Dwight McCall's mandolin playing and vocals, plus the glib fiddling of Glen Duncan and Buddy Spicher add up to a bonanza for bluegrass fans. This album reaches back to traditional blues ("Careless Love") but also includes more recent tunes by songwriters like Merle Haggard ("Back to the Barrooms") and Townes Van Zandt ("White Freightliner"). Despite the band's polish there's a nice, loose feel to this CD, their seventh. The obscurity in which they've labored seems undeserved.
Bottom Line: Bluegrass done right
>THE OMD SINGLES Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Virgin) Twenty years after Brits Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys began turning out catchy synthpop hits like "If You Leave" and "Dreaming," their seminal '80s band takes a final bow with this retrospective.
PEACOCK GOSPEL CLASSICS Various Artists (Peacock Gospel Classics/MCA) Soloists (Mahalia Jackson, Billy Preston), groups (the Soul Stirrers) and rocking church choirs are represented on the latest releases in this ongoing, wondrous black gospel series.
GREATEST HITS Biliie Holiday (Columbia/Legacy) A golden baker's dozen tunes sung by Lady Day in her 1935 to '41 prime, with a jaw-dropping all-star roster of accompanists, including Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Lester Young and Roy Eldridge.
- Contributors:
- Steve Dougherty,
- Ralph Novak.
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!
