Americana Music Reviews

 

Fred Eaglesmith
Falling Stars and Broken Hearts
AML Records

by Jud Block

Why Fred Eaglesmith isn't more widely known to us here in the land of good and plenty is a mystery. Maybe it's a case of geographical prejudice; after all, he is from Canada, a country that invented green ink but whose flag is, inexplicably, red and white. Yet we in the U.S. haven't had any trouble stomaching Alanis Morissette or the ice skaters who whined their way to a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics, yett somehow Fred Eaglesmith just hasn't managed to meet our high standards for acceptance. Despite numerous albums with songs so good they probably had Steve Earle reaching for the rubber tubing, Fred Eaglesmith remains an esoteric commodity. So maybe it is geographical discrimination. If he'd only had the good fortune of being born in Texas, his songs of cars, women, and hard-living would be considered classics by now; in fact, I'd wager that some unknown, yet soon-to-be legendary Lone Star songwriter might even have been considering whose table to stand upon in his cowboy boots to proclaim him the greatest damned songwriter he ever heard. But why dwell on the perversity of Lady Fortuna? No matter where he may be from or where he might've been from, one aspect of Fred Eaglesmith is a constant -- he is one hell of a singer/songwriter. And his latest release, Falling Stars and Broken Hearts, is simply another case in point.

On this disc, Fred strips his sound down to its basic elements of guitar, mandolin, bass, keyboards, and drums, and moves away from the slightly Tom Waitsian aspects that had begun to surface in his last few releases. This change was effected primarily by the departure of Washboard Hank, a musician in the same sense that Pollock was a painter, whose intriguing Tourettes-inspired percussive antics tended to sometimes be more of a distraction than a complement to Eaglesmith's songs. But what may have been lost in cartoonish whimsicality has been more than made up for in menace and muscle, which is exactly what a song like "I Ain't Givin' In," the opening track on the CD, calls for. This song is nothing short of a cry of defiance against those who think they always know what is in your best interest, and for those of us who are forced on a daily basis by the yoke of adult responsibility to damn near bite our tongues clean through. It's enough to make you wish that life was a musical, almost.

Well there's a preacher on the corner
Callin' out my name
Tellin' me to change some things
Or some things are gonna change
Well one of these days, it won't be long
He's gonna have to call it quits
I'm gonna wave a little something in his face
Show him just where I live

I ain't ever givin' in
Anytime soon

But Fred Eaglesmith is not merely an angry middle-aged man. He sees the humor in life, which he displays in his song "Ordinary Guy," a piece co-written with Lynn Miles. The vocals remind me of Lyle Lovett as does the ironic subject matter of a man who can't seem to understand why his woman would leave him for someone so unlike himself.

But he's just a plain, old ordinary guy
With a plain, old shirt and a plain, old tie
I don't know who you'd thought he'd be
But he won't fight or even disagree
And he doesn't even look a little bit like me

On "Cumberland County," Eaglesmith paints a dark and claustrophobic portrait of a snowplow driver whose life has become stagnant through poor choices and complacency. This is the kind of song Breece D'J Pancake would've written had he lived long enough, and may just be the soundtrack for whatever follows contempt after familiarity.

And you can be anything that you want to be
That's what they told me when I left school
I took the first thing they offered me
Now I'm just another snow-blind fool
And it never stops snowin' in Cumberland County
And my work don't ever get done
Lately I've been thinkin' of drivin' this snowplow
Straight into the sun

"Dancin' on the Bar" is my favorite track on the disc not only because it is one hell of a song, but because it could easily be inserted in the jukebox at the White Elephant between Willie, Waylon, David Allan, Merle, and Johnny, and no one in the place would notice anything unusual. It is classic outlaw country about drowning troubles in a bottle that any of the aforementioned would've been proud to perform, if not write.

Well it's hard to watch a party
When you're the only one who's feelin' bad
People watch you out of the corner
Of their eyes when they laugh
Still I wish all the best for you
To carry on as long as you want to
But if you're dancin' on the bar
Try not to kick over this bottle

Fred Eaglesmith is simply one of the best singer/songwriters around today; with a voice that is reminiscent of a higher-pitched Robert Earl Keen and lyrics that combine the gutter-reality of Steve Earle with the facetious smirk of Lyle Lovett. Falling Stars and Broken Hearts offers twelve more compelling reasons why you should be listening to him.

*So what are y'all waitin' for, eh? Grab your cowboy tuque and skate on over to www.fredeaglesmith.com for merchandise, tour dates, news, and music previews.


Contact Jud Block at jud-at-rockzilla.net

 
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