Mark Eitzel has my number. Not literally- we last spoke in the ‘90s. Yet his new album Hey Mr. Ferryman resembles a musical narration of my inner voice at 3 a.m. Like Eitzel, I’m a fifty-something American whose life was changed by the music of Frank Sinatra, Sonny Rollins and Joe Strummer. ”The Last Ten Years”, the opening track of Hey Mr. Ferryman, is loaded with zingers like “I saw the bartender’s love- I saw it in her yawn.” The songs in which Eitzel banters with Jesus, dreams of slow-dancing in a kitchen and paints a portrait of a forlorn man who “gets grumpy trying to keep hope alive” hit uncomfortably close to my dilapidated home.
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I reviewed Winter Jam at the Sprint Center.
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I pondered the enigmatic Erica Joy on KCUR.
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I wrote an extended concert preview about Eric Church’s return to the Sprint Center.
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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.
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An anti-rap editorial in The Sedalia Democrat was inspired by a KCUR segment based on my advocacy of a song by the Popper.
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John Wetton has died.
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Delbert McClinton doesn’t give a flip on Prick of the Litter. And that’s a good thing. The new album is RIYL Dan Hicks, constructive indifference, Leon Russell.
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Boosie’s fatalistic ”Crabs In a Bucket” is my new theme song.
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Into the Blue, an EP by a trio led by the teen jazz pianist Emily Bear, is an exercise in tedious formalism. RIYL: Joey Alexander, hype, Bill Charlap.
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Kehlani’s SweetSexySavage is RIYL Janet Jackson, generic R&B, Jhene Aiko. Here’s “Distraction”.
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Bell Biv DeVoe’s Three Stripes is a barely passable reunion.
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Miles Mosley’s Uprising is RIYL Snarky Puppy, bluster, Al Kooper’s Blood, Sweat & Tears. Here’s a live version of “L.A. Won’t Bring You Down”.
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Code Orange’s excellent Forever is RIYL chaos, the concept of metal version of Crass, throwing bricks.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
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