One Track Mind: Rod Stewart "Every Picture Tells A Story" (1971)

by Pico

Before he had hooked up with Clive Davis to transform himself into a dubious version of Tony Bennett...many MANY years before...Rod Stewart was a seriously good rock singer. I don't mean to imply that his raspy pipes are now shot to hell or anything like that, I mean the material he covered, the style of his music and his attitude made Rob The Mod a force to be reckoned with all those years ago.

Back in 1971 Stewart had all three of those areas covered well when he unveiled the second of his holy trinity of classic albums, Every Picture Tells A Story (the first being Gasoline Alley and the third Never A Dull Moment). This is the record that contained his signature hit "Maggie Mae" and the fine English folk album cut "Mandolin Wind." It also commences with one whale of a rocker with a song by the same name as the album.

Anyone only vaguely familiar with classic rock might think I'm only stating the painfully obvious up to this point, but I'm painfully reminded of that lost glory when my playlist touches on most any pre-1977 selection of Stewart's. He was on one helluva roll for a time and the one selection that to me stands in the most direct contrast to what has become of his music is the topic of this One Track Mind.

An original Rod co-write with his Faces cohort at the time, the brunette look-alike Ron Wood, "Picture" epitomizes Stewart's footloose and fancy free outlook taking the role of a young man looking for cheap thrills around the globe until he went to China and "fell in love with a slit-eyed lady." Amidst all the racism and sexism is his carefree humor with lines like "my body stunk but I kept my funk" and "she took me up on deck and bit my neck/Oh people I was glad I found her."

"Every Picture Tells A Story" is a hard rocker, alright, but it rocks mostly acoustically. Wood supplies electric bass and a few well-placed electric guitar lines, but the song is driven by a maddening persistent barbaric beat and hard strumming acoustic guitars. Stewart is obviously having a ball with this song, ad libbing "woo" between just about every other line. There's no chorus, just a string of verses that take listeners around the world and wondering how the story will end.

The songs sprints along until a more reflective verse temporarily brings down intensity as Stewart is joined by Maggie Bell's soulful harmonies, then picks up again for the climax at the end, where the moral of the story is revealed (take a guess at what that might be).

This song is one of those tunes that makes you nod your head thinking "now this is what rock and roll is about!" Quite the opposite of what Rod Stewart's music is about these days.



Purchase: Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story


"One Track Mind" is a more-or-less weekly drool over a single song selected on a whim and a short thesis on why you should be drooling over it, too.

Drew Gress - The Irrational Numbers (2007)

by Pico

The credits scream "Tim Berne music" but the music itself more suggests "George Russell" or "Carla Bley." This is the initial impression I got from Drew Gress' newest offering released last month, The Irrational Numbers.

Modern jazz composer/bassist Drew Gress is one of those New York City "improvised music" cats that we've covered on this space with some regularity. One of his bass playing peers, William Parker, is a more recent member of that talented bunch to get spotlighted here. Gress himself has run around a lot in sax player Tim Berne's crowd, in particular as a member of one of Berne's numerous side projects, the whack jazz trio Paraphrase with drummer Tom Rainey.

Gress has led on some records of his own, and while I haven't delved into any of them yet, the reputation of them---especially 2005's Seven Black Butterflies---led me to try The Irrational Numbers as a jumping-in point.

But there were some other incentives as well: Gress' old Paraphrase bandmates are on it, as well as pianist Tom Rainey. Which, in effect, makes this band Hard Cell plus Gress. Just as David Torn's exquisite Prezens was "Hard Cell plus Torn." And wouldn't you know it, Torn is the co-producer on this album. How could I not like this record?

In reality, though, Drew Gress' The Irrational Numbers seeks to strike a precarious balance between the heavily composed third stream jazz of Russell and the all-out free-from improvised music of Berne and his cohorts. Gress is also trying to showcase his own stand-up bass playing while still keeping the other players very much involved.

Drew does dabble in some electronic sounds as well; however, its use is barely noticeable and used only in spots, as opposed to that being central to the game plan of Torn's Prezens.

Coming after the short, classical-minded introductory piece "Bellwether," "Chevelle" has sharp melodic structures with subtle electronic effects percolating throughout. Solos sometimes come in tandem, such as Gress and Taborn improvising at the same time. The rollicking groove is interrupted by a softer interlude that introduces repeating figures all to way to the end. This track does it's job in introducing concepts and tactics that are used again for the rest of the album and is perhaps the tightest composition of this entire group of songs.

On the next track Gress shows monster chops just underneath Berne's fiery solo on "Your Favourite Kind." Meanwhile, the main theme gradually comes into focus with Alessi's trumpet and Berne eventually joins him. Taborn takes his turn at soloing and continues to do so for a while after the horns return to restate the theme.

"Fauxjobim" and "By Far" are the quieter standouts, with the former sounding more like Miles Davis' wistful "Circles" than some highly composed piece while the latter is free-flowing and atmospheric; almost like an ECM recording. It's a strangely beautiful piece.

"That Heavenly Hell" goes outside more than the other tracks. In a most interesting tactic, Gress solos with Alessi. This is immediately followed by Berne's with Taborn's simul-soloing, all while the rest of the band sits out. And then, Rainey comes crashing in, signalling a full-on free for all by all players before regrouping at the head once more.

The title of "Mas Relief" accurately suggests that the song is a reprieve from composed pieces in the form of a two minute a capella display of Gress' highly lyrical acoustic bass.

"True South" meanders its way through varying melodic structures and tempos before a recognizable one comes into focus and finally ends with an interlude of electronic sounds that come to the forefront for the first time. It's also the last time, as the album ends on that very interlude.

Drew Gress had set some pretty lofty goals with The Irrational Numbers. The ambitions aren't met in every instance because the goals are sometimes incompatible, but it makes for a lot of interesting moments. Interesting enough to entice me to peruse his back catalog, at the least.


Purchase: Drew Gress - The Irrational Numbers (not available on Amazon.com)

Quickies: Levon Helm, Herbie Hancock, Robert Plant/Allison Krauss, Neil Young

by Pico

There's been a plethora (love that word) of releases on the rock side of the genre ledger that has demanded by attention. You see, the rocksters listed here were all riding high back in the seventies, so naturally, I was curious to see if they still got "it." In each case, the answer is "yes", but for two of them, they did so by taking somewhat of a departure from their most-recognized style. The third one showed he still has the mojo by releasing for the first time tracks from his mojo period.

Levon Helm Dirt Farmer
Vocalist drummers are an amazing lot to me. Not because it's supposed to be particularly hard to drum and sing at the same time; I wouldn't know. But for the band to want that guy to lead sing he must be pretty good, anyway, because the drummer is typically the last dude anybody thinks of for a lead vocalist. Even Genesis went through an exhaustive audition of Peter Gabriel's replacement before it occurred to them that The Answer was right there sitting behind a Gretsch set. Few people even remember anymore that Don Henley is a drummer.

Levon Helm is another of those guys. To me, his earthy, Arkansas drawl epitomized the roots-minded rock combo The Band just as much as Robbie Robertson's evocative compositions on American folklore. And now he's back with a rare studio album that makes The Band sound like a sleek, electronica dance music. There's not a trace of a plugged-in instrument anywhere and amongst songs by Steve Earle and J.B. Lenoir are songs that aren't even copyrighted anymore. But Helm's steady drumming and blessedly rural warble remains. That should be plenty good enough for any fan of The Band.

Look for Nick to give us more insight on Helm's new album and his career with The Band in an upcoming article.

Purchase: Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer

Herbie Hancock The Herbie Hancock Trio (1977)
I haven't listened to The Joni Letters yet, but I did come across this hidden gem of his from three decades ago. And why, pray tell, is it hidden? Because Columbia Records didn't see a market for acoustic Herbie back then when his electric funk-jazz Headhunters albums were selling more records than many rock stars. That's still no excuse to make this available only as an import even today, though.

The Trio of this album is the hornless part of Miles' Second Quintet (or the hornless version of V.S.O.P., which was recording and touring at the time this record was cut). So, a trio with Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums is like a Trio Of Doom for advanced bop. Only this time Tony didn't threaten to kick Ron's ass in making this record. It's all good stuff, but hearing Herbie tackle his gorgeous number "Speak Like A Child" with his piano filling in for the horn parts is worth the import price alone.

Purchase: Herbie Hancock - The Herbie Hancock Trio

Robert Plant/Allison Krauss Raising Sand
The album is credited to "Robert Plant and Allison Krauss" but producer T-Bone Burnett deserves a co-lead credit, here. He's managed to make two very talented but seemingly incompatible stars sound like an instinctive pairing. That I didn't think of Lep Zeppelin of one second when listening to this amounts to a major accomplishment in my book.

On the other hand "bluegrass" didn't come to my mind, either, even when Krauss pulled out her fiddle. The sonic imagery Burnett paints has a worn feel but with modern preciseness. It's analog warm with a percussion that resonates without getting out from the background. Kind of like a civil Tom Waits (and in fact, Waits' "Trampled Rose" is covered). It's a mixture of country folk, Nashville and rock but And Plant and Krauss sing with quiet confidence and they always seem to try to enhance, rather than outdo, the other.

You don't have to be a big fan of either Plant or Krauss to appreciate Raising Sand. Indeed, approaching this album without preconceptions of either makes it sound even better.

Purchase: Robert Plant/Allison Krauss - Raising Sand

Neil Young Chrome Dreams II
A new Neil Young release doesn't get all the fanfare of some of his fellow longtime legends, but that's not because he generates crap; it's because he releases so frequently that he sometimes get taken for granted. Chrome Dreams II marks his forth release in eighteen months. Young seems entirely unconcerned about the market consequences of not spacing out releases for maximum market impact and it's his consistent unwillingness to bend to bean counters and marketers that makes him part of a sadly dying breed of artists.

To be fair, Living With War from May of last year remains Neil's last album of all freshly-recorded material, as he's been (finally) pulling old unreleased recordings out of the vault. Chrome Dreams II is really a mish-mash of most of his sides and (apparently) several of his eras. It begins with a couple of gentle Harvest-like countrified rock tunes and goes Crazy Horse at other times ("Dirty Old Man," "Hidden Path") but the central tune is the eighteen-minute long "Ordinary People" with his short-lived Bluenotes horn band. It seems to have as many verses as the live version of "Sugar Mountain" but its signature mini-character sketches and loose playing makes it better than anything on This Note's For You.

Yes, Chrome Dreams II is a sprawling mess. But isn't that what most of the best Neil Young albums are?

Purchase: Neil Young - Chrome Dreams II


"Quickies" are mini-record reviews of new or upcoming releases. Some albums are just that much more fun to listen to than to write about.