Americana Music Reviews

 

David Zollo
The Big Night
Trailer Records

by Jud Block

What is going on in Iowa? There was a time when I thought the place was good for only two things: corn and suicide by boredom. In fact, while I was in college trying to figure out what combination of major/minor would insure the least possible income - - the answer is English and philosophy, if you're interested - - I was in a class on logic that actually proved Iowa was more or less hell. But that was long before I'd heard of Trailer Records and musicians like David Zollo, whose newest release, The Big Night, has me entertaining Dante-like thoughts of a musical journey through Iowa City.

Originally, I thought I'd never heard David Zollo before, but apparently he played keyboards on Todd Snider's Viva Satellite disc, so technically I guess I have, just never solo. The first thing I noticed about his style was that it reminded me somewhat of Todd Snider's; that is, if Todd had grown up on a steady diet of Capricorn Records and Leon Russell. The Big Night, from beginning to end, has the sound of Southern roadhouse blues, rock, and country with lyrics that are straight from the barstool and, at times, surprisingly spiritual.

The opening track of the CD, "While You Undress," sounds like the bluesier end of Southern rock, along the lines of a funkier Grinderswitch, and is basically about what you think it is. But instead of lowering himself to single entendres and crassness, David Zollo describes what he is seeing using words like "beatific," "born again," "revelations," and "altar," that are usually associated more with a religious experience than carnality.

While you fumble with your buttons
I'll tell you a story
'Bout everything I wanted you to be
And I tremble like a child
To your Mona Lisa smile
I'll open up my eyes so I might see
I was humbled by my vices
Outshattered by my silence
I sat alone and tried to find my voice
Sometimes the things that bind you
Are the same ones that find you
Born again and able to rejoice

The following track, "Eye of the Needle," is an unadulterated gospel song, and if more churches had music like this, there'd be a pew somewhere with my ass-print worn into it. "Why Don't You Stop Me," the third track on the CD, is about a relationship that is self-destructing through petty pride, puerility, and jealousy, and would sound right at home on anything Leon Russell has done within the last decade or so.

You say if I leave
It don't matter to you
Yet I can't let you know
You're all that I have
It just ain't my way
To flatter you
Oh, but it's getting' late
And I'm feeling bad

I'll tell you things
You'll never forget
And I can't remember
If they're even true
If I felt the way I did
When we first met
I could never be so cruel to you

The title track "The Big Night," with its Clem Snide-ish take on a night of long-anticipated sex, is a departure in style from the rest of the disc. "Get Away," written by Bo Ramsey, another great Midwestern musician and frequent Greg Brown collaborator, is a song in the classic vein about wanting to reach the horizon that lies just outside the city limit sign. The lyrics offer a vivid description of a restless young musician who doesn't really care where he's going just as long as it's in the direction of the-hell-out.

There's a young man standin' on the street
Got his back to the sun, sneakers on his feet
Got a black leather jacket, Rolling Stones cap
In his back pocket got a US road map

Lived in this town all of his life
Got no kids and he's got no wife
Starin' out the window bangin' on a guitar
With a dream and a song and a fire in his heart

"Respect (Ain't a One Way Street)" has an undeniable Todd Snider feel to it; in fact, it kind of reminds me of Snider's song "Enough." But where Snider's song deals with a slowly dying relationship, Zollo's is about Newton's third law ("for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction") and maintaining your dignity until it goes into effect.

You want me to show you the proper deference
You want me to tip my hat when I pass you on the street
You want me to be there at your beck and call
Everything to you is victory and defeat

Yes I heard you're headin' for the big time
Yes I heard there wasn't room in your plans for me
Yes I heard you wasn't gonna be around
Yes I heard but I guess I'll wait and see

Respect ain't a one way street
It's all give and take, take and give
With everyone you meet
You told me a lie about standin' on my feet
Respect ain't a one way street

One of the most poetic of the tracks, "Take Me Away," is also the most country sounding song on the disc. It is a drown-yourself-in-your-bucket-of-beer tale of a love lost to madness. What more do you need?

Stunned by the sadness
That swallows this room
It threatens to shame me to tears
My voice it won't carry
It's stuck in my throat
It's the worst night that I've had in years

Whatever it is they're putting in the corn in Iowa that produces talent like David Zollo's, needs to be shared generously. If you're a fan of barroom blues, rock, or country with world-weary, literate lyrics, then it's time you woke up to David Zollo's The Big Night. It's worth losing a little sleep over.

*Learn more about David Zollo as well as the other talented artists on Trailer Records at www.trailer-records.com, or to pick up David's latest check out www.rubricrecords.com.


Contact Jud Block at jud-at-rockzilla.net

 
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