| Officially
released at the Silver Dollar recently, this second CD by Canada’s
successor to Bruce Cockburn and Murray McLaughlan as acoustic folk hero
for the new century, strives to ensure that this vastly underrated genre
of music does not get buried in the capaphony of angry noises currently
being foisted on the new generation of music fans. His devotion to
ecological preservation and a positive outlook towards humanity is
continued, but not exclusively, on this excellent follow-up to his debut
CD, Back to the Dirt.
 Brian
is vocally reminiscent of Leonard Cohen but nicely offsets that limited
range with complementary assistance from his sister, Bonnie Gladstone,
although the harmonies don’t always jibe. His forte definitely lies in
his songwriting and guitar-and banjo-picking abilities, which are further
inspired by the multi-talented Tony Quarrington on guitar,  mandolin
and banjo, Maureen Brown, one of a handful of Canada’s female
drummers/percussionists, Ralph Hassel on bass, the phenomenal flautist,
Ron Korb, and Frank Barth on dobro (most notably on the stand-out tracks,
'Queen of the West' and 'San Francisco Bay Blues'). John Kolenka and
Sazacha Redsky are featured guests on accordion and harmonica,
respectively, on a track called 'Jamie Lynn', a track I like to think of
as a subtler version of 'Like a Rolling Stone.'
While Brian is the author of most of the tracks,
he also pays tribute to Alfred Noyes and Phil Ochs on a musical version of
'The Highwayman', with accompanying windy sound effects. There are also
some renditions of a traditional instrumental called the 'Black Mountain
Rag' (with Maureen playing spoons), as well as Jessie Fuller’s 'San
Francisco Bay Blues'. 'I Still Think About You Babe' is a Cat Stevens-like
ditty that reminded me of 'Moonshadow'. 'A Father’s Lullaby' is a
wonderfully poetic dedication to his children, Jeremy, Michael and
Lindsey, but which I believe was also inspired by Brian’s father
himself.
The CD is closed off with a tribute to fellow
Canadian singer-songwriter extraordinaire, Norm Hacking of the infamous
“Norm’s Living Room” (at the Tranzac Club), a close friend and
professional associate of Brian, who is finally gaining some much-deserved
recognition for his contribution to the Canadian songwriting industry.
Brian tells me the CD is doing amazingly well, now
getting airplay all over the world, with reviews in magazines and websites
coming in weekly. Last week the CD was featured in a 40-minute radio
special in France!
|
