Rod Stewart--Susan Tedeschi: Six One-Line Reviews (2003)

(As published in the Times of Acadiana ... )

Rod Stewart: As Time Goes By ... The Great American Songbook Volume 2 (Arista). Those seeking proof that Rod can still carry a tune merely get proof that nowadays the tunes carry Rod; those seeking proof that Rod’s still a roué get a “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” wherein he gets hot for Cher.

George Strait: For the Last Time: Live from the Astrodome (MCA Nashville). Enjoyable though bland and vice versa, with these fightin’ words for Dixie Chicks fans: “Me and my family were real fortunate a few years ago. We got a call from President and Mrs. Bush, and they invited us to come up to Camp David and spend the weekend.... I’ll remember that forever.…”

The Strokes: Room on Fire (RCA). Like the Cars before them, a thinned out, shinier version of a putatively underground music with the catchy quotient boosted.

Booker T. & the MGs: Soul Men (Stax). Funky karaoke.

Booker T. & the MGs/The Mar-Keys: Stax Instrumentals (Stax). Funky karaoke/groovy karaoke.

Susan Tedeschi: Wait for Me (Tone Cool/Artemis). Ersatz Bonnie Raitt, right down to the way Tedeschi locks into a groove and waxes sensual when not waning sentimental.

George Strait: Honkeytonkville (2003)

(As published in the Times of Acadiana ... )

George Strait
Honkytonkville
(MCA Nashville)

By selecting songs devoted to the honky-tonk verities (loneliness, abandonment, drinking, redemption), Strait has made a twenty-fifth career album far stronger than anyone should’ve expected. Amid little more than fiddle, steel guitar, and piano, his voice shines like the solid vehicle of traditional country expression that it is. And if his singing is too pure to merit comparisons with the singing of George Jones and Merle Haggard, it nevertheless cuts a neat swath through the oil slick of unctuous vocalisms currently spreading throughout the country chart’s upper regions. Granted, he sustains his tone for only the first seven cuts, sinking during the last five into romantic goop as if humankind can only handle so much reality. But from “She Used to Say That to Me” to “I Found Jesus on the Jailhouse Floor,” he earns his Stetson. Rating: Three-and-a-half oversized belt buckles out of five.