New Rock

Rock

Alejandro Escovedo With These Hands	Long before the new breed of roots rockers, Southwestern singer/songwriter Alejandro Escovedo was clearing the path as a member of both Rank and File and the semi-legendary True Believers. Like Los Lobos, much of Escovedo’s imagery and musical inspiration is drawn from roots south of the border with muscular but often gorgeous settings that blur the line between barroom rock and chamber folk. With These Hands is Escovedo’s third solo album and most mature work. Its poetically tinged elegies for spiritual vagabonds and crippled romantics justify the frequent critical comparisons to the like of Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison and establish Escovedo as one of the most important songsmiths of the decade. If you thought rock had lost its ability to evoke tragedy, listen again.
Joe Henry Trampoline	Quite possibly the best American songwriter on the scene today, Joe Henry was fashioning thoughtful, country-tinged rock long before it was hip again. His songs are short stories chronicling the private tragedies of the great class of anonymous, Middle Americans. Eschewing all the usual, patronizing working class platitudes, Henry crawls convincingly under the skin of his characters to let them speak intimately of the epiphanic moments in their lives when they realized the lousy, inescapable lot fate has dealt them. Trampoline is Henry’s most driven, haunting work, almost demo-like in its sparseness and intensity but shaded with subtle, evocative production.
Los Lobos Colossal Head	Picking up where the brilliant Kiko left off, Colossal Head continues Los Lobos’ visionary melding of American and Hispanic music with dream-like songwriting. A boiling, hallucinatory stew of rock, blues, folk and lounge executed with verve and sheer genius. A record that may well provide the definitive evidence that Los Lobos has evolved into the most important band in the country blazing the trail into the musical frontier of the next century.
Son Volt Trace	As the frontman for Son Volt, Jay Farrar further refines the rugged but reflective songwriting that was a hallmakr of his work for disbanded country rockers Uncle Tupelo. Trace is full of tales of the struggles for a decent living and some measure of dignity along the forgotten towns and boackroads of rural Americal. Gritty and painfully empathetic, Farrar’s songs strike a resounded chord free of sentimentality or affection. Honest, hardworking music.
Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball	Wrecking Ball marks an adventurous career turn for Emmylou as she redefines her vision of country music in this, her most personal and explorative album. The songs, mostly from the ranks of rock/country/folk vanguards such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Lucinda Williams, evoke the dark spiritual hunger at the root of country music. The sound however (fashioned by sonic sculptor Daniel Lanois of Peter Gabriel and U2 fame) is decidedly modern-ethereal and ringing with faint echoes of bluegrass and country. A work of deep passion and thoughtfulness, it may just prove to be the benchmark record of Harris's career.
Steve Earle I Feel Alright, Train A Comin’	Steve Earle’s much heralded comeback album, I Feel Alright is a harrowing account of a tortured soul’s descent into self-distruction and the heroic climb towards redemption. Earle’s hungriest, sharpest work in over a decade, with a purgatorial wisdom and raw lust for life that is unavoidably affecting. While you’re at it, check out Train A Comin’, Earle’s post prison/rehab dry run and possibly best album. A from-the-hip acoustic mix of new, old, borrowed and long lost songs recorded with a small group of friends (Emmylou Harris, Peter Rowan, Norman Blake and Roy Huskey) the record has an honesty, looseness and sturdy craftsmanship distinct from the rest of Earle’s work.
James McMurtry Where’d You Hide The Body	This is the third collection of rusted rock/folk by one of the few consummate American singer/songwriters on the scene today. James McMurtry’s songs chart the grim destinies of drifters who haunt heartland landscapes as cold and empty as their failed dreams. Wandering between dead end jobs and relationships, these are men and women scrapping for a small piece of an increasingly shabby American Dream. McMurtry captures their stories- an unspoken admission of betrayal caught in a lover’s frozen stare, a single mother watching the face of the man who abandoned her growing within the face of their son- with raw intimacy and harshly beautiful imagery. One of those rare albums that grows only richer and more revealing with repeated listening.
Robin Holcomb Little Three	Robin Holcomb’s classically woven compositions are spun from goassamer threads of Appalachian folk, hymnals, Ragtime and turn of the century parlor tunes. Elegant in their austerity and illuminated from within by a quiety intense spirituality, Holcomb’s music bridges the gap between art music and folk with an intimacy and authority that has eluded American composers throughout this century. Little Three is a solo recording featuring Holcomb on the piano performing five instrumentals and two songs that- like her prior vocal work- suggests what might have happened had The Carter Family collaborated with Charles Ives. A truly original talent.

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