The music: clean, uncluttered introspective. The songs: conveying the stark, sere, loneness of the singer. It's been called "blue collar blues" and I'd call it that, too, more than I'd call it country music. Only three of the songs are new, written in the 1990s, the rest are refashioned from ... Read review
Advantages: Willie's sweet voice and stinging guitar Disadvantages: It's not twice as long
The music: clean, uncluttered introspective. The songs: conveying the stark, sere, loneness of the singer. It's been called "blue collar blues" and I'd call it that, too, more than I'd call it country music. Only three of the songs are new, written in the 1990s, the rest are refashioned from the 1960s, and the 30 years in between scarcely matter. The songs were chosen and pieced together to tell the story of obssessive love or convey the ... ...it. And they do succeed in working together. They succeed in taking hold of your heart and grabbing onto it hard.
Somehow, in Willie Nelson's mature voice, the older songs take on a new edge and freshness. Emmy Lou Harris's background voice deepens the poignancy and works sweetly with Willie's. Hers is the ghostly voice of the victim and, ironically, but not uniquely, still a loving one. It moves in out of a distance, as if from the ... more
The music: clean, uncluttered introspective. The songs: conveying the stark, sere, loneness of the singer. It's been called "blue collar blues" and I'd call it that, too, more than I'd call it country music. Only three of the songs are new, written in the 1990s, the rest are refashioned from the 1960s, and the 30 years in between scarcely matter. The songs were chosen and pieced together to tell the story of obssessive love or convey the concept of domestic abuse, whichever way you want to see it. And they do succeed in working together. They succeed in taking hold of your heart and grabbing onto it hard.
Somehow, in Willie Nelson's mature voice, the older songs take on a new edge and freshness. Emmy Lou Harris's background voice deepens the poignancy and works sweetly with Willie's. Hers is the ghostly voice of the victim and, ironically, but not uniquely, still a loving one. It moves in out of a distance, as if from the grave.
His guitar is out front in every song, but is influenced by an almost Latin American sound of guitars, drums, piano and harmonica. The resulting sound is stronger and more persistent than I usually like up against Willie's voice, but I don't think I would want to do without it. I wouldn't want to do without any of it, in fact.
Advantages: evocative dusty dreamlike alt. country tinged rock Disadvantages: none
Paramour is an atmospheric wonder, with wide-open Western vistas that conjure up dusty dreamlike images of sun scorched Arizona or northern Mexico. The songs are full of murder, outlaws, victims, retribution, angels, crosses and ghosts creating hauntingly tender soundscapes that fuse the Old West with the 21st century.
Dallas based Steven Collins formed Deadman in 1999 after hearing two records that would influence his future direction. The first was Shylingo, Tim Gibbons' 1998 album. Gibbons was an old friend of fellow Canadian Daniel Lanois, though his music was firmly rooted in the Southern desert and the Mexican border. The second crucial album was WillieNelson's Teatro, recorded at an abandoned porn theatre in Oxnard, California, converted to a studio by Lanois. According to Collins, 'I thought, "Man, this is what I want to do ...
