Sail Away

Sail Away
Various Artists
Sugar Hill

Tributes are tricky things and its sometimes difficult to know who and what they are for. They come thick and fast these days, in my experience many fall flat or flatish because the covers are generated specifically for that project. They aren't worked up from within over time in the studio and live so they feel like tossed off pale imitations of the original. People usually say "the original is better than the cover" mostly I think because they heard the original first. With a distinctive artist you get their rhythm and phrasing inside your head and can't divorce it from the song enough to really hear the new version. This collection displays includes a few refreshing and rather delightful covers and some that fail to distinguish themselves.

Your reaction to Sail Away, like any other project like this, will depend I think on your familiarity with the original material. Last year I did a post where I said my musical Mt Rushmore would be Dylan, Cash, Springsteen and Randy Newman, so you can see the esteem in which I hold the guy. He's not always easy to love straight off, it took me a lot of wearing down and growing up before he really took. He's popularly known for Disney soundtracks and "Short People" and "I Love LA", good songs of wit and irony but maybe too associated with novelty now to be salvaged. Dig deeper and his is a truly unique voice, he takes a hot poker to whatever social and personal tender spots are in sight with an ironic humour that can sometimes be nervously confronting for even a fan like me. A good article is Australian writer Clive James' 1973 essay. Mostly I'd like to say go, and listen to "Shame" or "My Country" or "Real Emotional Girl" or "I Want You to Hurt Like I Do."

So, the tribute album. First, I'm surprised and delighted it actually got made. A little love for my man! Tim O'Brien hits the right note straight off with "Sail Away", this guy is the living exception to my rule of covers above. His bluegrassy Dylan album "Red on Blonde" is a classic. Nothing radical about this "Sail Away" but I like the innocuity of it. The lulling rhythm and the chilling lyrics, very Randy like. "Louisiana", usually the Aaron Neville version, has got a fair bit of play post-Katrina and Sonny Landreth does the soulful job you'd expect (with a lyric change to reflect the tragedy in NO). His guitar chops are fully on display too.

Now, track 3. In the venn diagram of music in my mind, Randy Newman and the Del McCoury Band do not share much space. "Birmingham" is one of those truly-hilarious-without-actually-saying-anything-funny songs and I think this version is a delight. A surprising delight. I don't know if the DMB boys approached it dead straight or what but it works. Nice ragtime touches too.

Let me praise too Allison Moorer's "Marie" as another which I doubted on paper but works on disc. On the other hand ... Steve Earle. Stevie! My man! What are you doing to me, buddy? I'm sure the patch of mediocrity is just a phase but ... get through it soon, 'kay? I thought Steve doing "Rednecks" would be a stroke of genius but it grates. Granted this is mostly because he does alot of it with an echoy microphone effect I don't know the technical name for but which irritates me intensely. In fact, I listened to the song three times for the purposes of being a diligent reviewer but can't handle it after that. The generous part of me wants to say it is a technique designed to increase the ironic distancing of the lyrics, but the rest of me thinks it is self indulgent nonsense.

The other track which deserves special mention is The Duhks on "Political Science." It was inevitable this one would get covered, but I like the torch song feel they bring to it.

In the original Randy version, the speaker in "You Can Leave Your Hat On" is a rather pathetic and creepy voice. Then Joe Cocker and Tom Jones got ahold of it and turned it into a sexy show-stopper beloved of strippers the world over. Marc Broussard is funky, but I can't help regret the extra layers of meaning lost from the original.

So. Combining as it does some of the best Americana acts out there with Randy, I do recommend it. And I knew what the pitfalls would be so I'm not disappointed (except with Steve) just because it doesn't blow me away. What I would be fascinated to hear is the verdict of people unfamilar with the originals.