CD title: "Wrecking Ball"
Artist: Dead Confederate. The Artists Organization. 10 tracks.
 JOEY IVANSCO/Cox News Service Ne-Yo, an Atlanta R&B singer, has produced 'Year of the Gentleman'. For a larger, high resolution image, click HERE |
Grade: B+
Athens, Ga., quintet Dead Confederate embraces and acknowledges its influences. Even better, the band lives up to them.
On the band's MySpace page, you'll find these five words under influences: On the Beach, Meddle, Bleach. Those are stellar albums by, respectively, Neil Young, Pink Floyd and Nirvana. You can hear all three in Dead Confederate's debut album, and they do those predecessors proud.
Opener "Heavy Petting" announces DC's intention to make your ears ring from the get-go. Frontman Hardy Morris howls as barbed wire guitars slash the air around him. Then the drums kick in and it's a head-rattling rumble that showcases the band's hardest edges.
There's subtlety in the band's arsenal, too. The gorgeous crescendos of "The Rat," "It Was a Rose" and "The News Underneath" display a startling mastery of dynamics. Walker Howle's trebly, bird-like guitar cries recall Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, then it all erupts in a shower of power chords. Morris coos, whispers and pleads in the quiet moments and yelps with blistering intensity when his bandmates crank it up.
The guys in Dead Confederate (besides Morris and Howle: drummer Jason Scarboro; keyboardist John Watkins; and Brantley Senn, bassist and, along with Morris, one of the band's primary songwriters) would be simply competent if they were just mingling their remarkable influences. They put them together in unexpected ways, but it's the memorable songs and the band's distinctively Southern aura — dark, humid and conflicted — that makes this an exceptional debut.
— Shane Harrison, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CD title: "Year of the Gentleman"
Artist: Ne-Yo.
Grade: B
Three albums into his career, the favorable comparisons only continue for Atlanta singer-songwriter Ne-Yo.
There's the obvious comparison: the one to pop superstar Michael Jackson, who the similarly nasal Ne-Yo still does little to distance himself from on "Closer" — his current top 10 pop single — and "Nobody," another dance tune with an even grittier stomp. And when he asks "Why?" at the end of the contemplative "Why Does She Stay," just try not thinking of Jackson posing the same question at the end of his 1982 "Thriller" hit, "Human Nature."
There's also the growing comparison: the one to one-time Atlantan Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds — specifically the Grammy-winner's songwriting prowess. A gift evidenced as much on the current charts (he penned Rihanna's recent No. 1 ballad "Take a Bow" and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson's solo hit "Spotlight") as it is on this album, where he melodically details what it's like to be at a former love's wedding on "Fade Into the Background." And he makes you believe "there's something about a woman who wants you but don't need you," on "Miss Independent."
And then there's the whispered comparison: the one to local R&B titan Usher, whom he obviously has in his sights as a performer and with whom he shares a crossover appeal that should only broaden with the prickly beauty of his "Get over it!" song, "So You Can Cry."
— Sonia Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CD title: "Reddhead"
Artist: Redd Volkaert
The list of Austin treasures includes Barton Springs Pool, breakfast tacos and Redd Volkaert, all of which one can experience on a Saturday afternoon, when Volkaert puts on a guitar clinic at the Continental Club. Many a budding axeman has traded in his Telecaster for a bass or keyboards after witnessing Merle Haggard's former lead guitarist play with such dexterity, such tone, such soul. This town was truly blessed when Volkaert and his encyclopedia of hot licks moved here from Nashville in 2000.
The point of his new "Reddhead" might be to show that Volkaert is more than just a guitar player. He writes or co-writes seven of the 14 tracks and his rich, deep voice is featured in the mix, but ultimately the CD comes off as an instrumental album with vocals. Whether he's exploring western swing on Bob Wills' "End of the Line" or blues with "Call the Pound" or his caustic relationship ditties (co-written by Laura Durham) such as "Is Anything Alright," "We Need to Talk" and "Just Because I Don't Care," the lyrics seem to serve as spacers between all the spectacular picking. In every genre he tackles, Volkaert can hold his own with anyone.
Those wary of claims that Volkaert is the best guitarist in town should listen to his cover of "The Letter" by the Boxtops. The song is about a man hungry to get home after receiving a love letter and in Volkaert's solo of frantic percolation you can hear all the determination of movement in the protagonist's mind. Volkaert isn't a ripper, he's a gripper. When he follows that cover with a jazzy country take on Buddy Emmons' "Raisin' the Dickens'," there's no denying that we're hearing a master at work.
As a singer, Volkaert is functional, if not a little flat at times. His voice neither astonishes nor gets in the way. But when he ends this CD, his first in four years when you don't count the recent Heybale release, with a cover of Hag's "I'll Break Out Tonight," the lifelong sideman steps to the front with a flourish. After seven years backing Haggard, the vocal nuances have sunk in.
There's no substitute for seeing Volkaert live, at his Saturday afternoon gig or Sunday nights with Heybale. But if you're looking for some music to play on the way to the gig, or at home on nights you can't go out, "Reddhead" will serve you right.
- Michael Corcoran, Austin American -Statesman
CD title: "Wayward Lady"
Artist: Will T. Massey
It's been a year of remarkable comebacks, with Roky Erickson emerging from decades of mental illness and Alejandro Escovedo bouncing back from near death. The story of San Angelo native Will T. Massey, signed to MCA at age 21 and hailed a West Texas Bruce Springsteen, is an equally amazing tale of a musician pulling himself out of a deep and dark place. After his self-titled 1991 debut and a move to Seattle, Massey started losing his mind. An involuntary admission to a mental facility turned him to the streets when he got out. For 13 years his illness - schizophrenia - went undiagnosed. "Whatever happened to Will T. Massey?" was a question that would come up every once in awhile.
But three years ago, after a move back to Austin, he found a doctor he trusted, who prescribed the medication that helped get Massey's mind right.
"Wayward Lady" is an album about coming out of a long, bad dream to find a country gone wrong. "You're a wicked woman, but I love you," Massey sings on the title track. "You Work For Me," is his defiant message to President Bush, who's portrayed in brutally unkind terms throughout the album. "Peace Train," meanwhile, tells the story of a woman saying goodbye to her baby as she's shipped off to Iraq. Based on the experience of Massey's stepsister, the song, quite lovely, ends on a hopeful note.
The album ends with "American Seance," in which the deadpan Massey wonders "America, are you in the room? It's a seance, you died too soon."
It's all a little heavy-handed, this album of dour protest songs by an artist who's 10 times more songwriter than singer. But Massey's gift as a tuneful, evocative storyteller has undoubtedly returned.
Michael Corcoran, Austin American-Statesman
These reviews were published by members of the Cox newspaper group and compiled by the Cox News Service.
