Trax
04/05/2007
CHRIS KNIGHT, The Trailer Tapes (Drifter's Church): In songwriter circles, the “trailer tapes” that launched Kentucky singer-songwriter Knight's critically lauded career have long since attained cult status. Newly mixed and cleanly presented by producer Ray Kennedy, they not only illuminate Knight's raw talent, they also provide valuable insights into the nature of his craft — driving home bare-bones poetry with naturally hummable melodies — and the whole process by which an individual artist stands tall amidst his contemporaries with just an acoustic guitar and a fistful of gritty stories about battered women, struggling farmers, manual laborers and streetwise philosophers made desperate by homelessness.
JEFF FINLIN, Angels in Disguise (Ryko/Korova): A reissue of 2005's “Epinonymous,” dressed up with a new title and four different tracks, this rootsy, mostly midtempo rock platter's as good an introduction as any to the carny-turned-singer-songwriter whose broadest exposure thus far was Cameron Crowe's inclusion of his evocative “Sugar Blue” in 2005's “Elizabethtown.” Finlin also reportedly counts Bruce Springsteen among his fans, and the appeal is clear in darkly shaded blue-collar sketches such as “Angel in Disguise” (“She throws her kisses like darts”) and in roadside chronicles like the faux-cheery “American Dream #109” (“We live our lives for the future/ Fill our plates up to ‘biggie size'/ We ain't leaving till we're heaving/ Drinking and dancing in our compromise”). www.jefffinlin.com
MINIBAR, Desert After Rain (Paver): LA's transplanted Brits strip away the gauze from their newest release — which is not to say it's less layered than previous recordings; guitars and stacked harmonies are polished 'til they glimmer and shine, with copious amounts of reverb coating the mix. And, as with 2002's “Fly Below the Radar,” they work within a specific sonic and emotional template that's dependably likable, if something less than transcendent. Lyrically, they dig a little deeper, questioning the rites of passage into adulthood (“Things I Left Behind”), mortality (“Hooked Up”), love and life on the road (“Biker Night”). Beachwood Sparks and Wallflowers fans not already tuned in should appreciate several tracks here. Minibar headlines at 10 p.m. Tuesday at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.
MATT THE ELECTRICIAN, One Thing Right (self-released): Humorously nicknamed after his day job, Austin-based songwriter Matt Sever deftly wraps wry observations of life and family in eclectic but unintrusive instrumentation (acoustic and electric guitars, banjotar, euphonium, xylophone, trumpets, organ, mandolin and bouzouki) on this ingratiatingly lo-fi disc. Standout tracks include “On the Radar,” the witty “Change the Subject” and “Left Coast” (“The sunshine never had time to come and hang around/ New look, a new coast/ Different closet, same ghosts”). Monday at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. www.matttheelectrician.com
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