Scott Idlet
The Last Diner
Self Released
By Al Kunz
 They say you can't
judge a book by its cover. Judging a CD by its case would seem
to be the musical corollary. Sometimes I just can't help myself.
Final judgment is reserved for my ears, but impressions of a
performer can start forming before the shrink wrap has been penetrated.
These first impressions are sometimes spot-on as with the Wes
Freed art used as CD covers for his band the Shiners. I'll let you decide for yourself
if Freed's work on The Drive-By Truckers Southern Rock Opera does the same.
The front of The Last Diner also sets the stage for
what you'll hear inside. In the background is Swallow
Hill which I'll attest is from my visit there is, as the
sign says, "Denver's Home for Folk & Acoustic Music."
In the foreground Idlet sits on the back of a Harley, guitar
case slung over his back. Instead of David Carradine as Woody
Guthrie hoping a freight train with guitar slung over his back
in Bound for Glory, we've got the modern equivalent of
the free-spirited, rambling, folksinger. Even without knowing
that Idlet was an award winner at this year's Woody Guthrie Songwriting
Competition (also a Kerrville Newfolk finalist) or hearing his
take on this disc of Guthrie's "Union Maid" the Guthrie
influence is apparent.
The music in The Last Diner continues the Guthrie mindset
with a song praising the home state of the man from Okemah in
"Fond of Oklahoma." This tune is one of six that Idlet
produced himself, doing the recording at the Swallow Hill Music
Association's Sawtelle Studio. With a nod to the displaced Okies
of the dustbowl Idlet spurns the land of milk and honey (or is
it flakes and nuts?) in favor of keeping your roots firmly planted.
People hanging around the Courthouse
Looks like a scene from "Grapes of Wrath";
Route 66 runs right by here, it's a well worn path.
Once carried Okies to the Promised Land,
Out west to Cal-i-forn-i-a;
I hear that homes there costs a million, so I think
I'll stay.
In a second set of sessions cousin Ezra Idlet of Grammy nominee
Trout Fishing in America produced the remaining 5 tracks (also
providing instrumental backup with Trout Fishing partner Keith
Grimwood) at TFIA's home base, The Trouthouse, in Prairie Grove,
Arkansas. Intermixed with tunes from the Denver sessions it takes
several spins of The Last Diner before the distinct differences
between these two sets becomes apparent.
While in Denver Idlet gave free rein to the influence of Woody
Guthrie, at times putting himself back in Guthrie's time as in
"Beneath That Tree," the story of a father who left
his family "in July of '42" to hop a freight train
in search of work in the California shipyards. "Sweat of
Generations" tips the hat to Woody Guthrie or, to follow
the thread back even farther, Joe Hill. It isn't a stretch imagining
this story of a plant closure and, ultimately, about the strength
of the human spirit and resilance of the common man, in a modern
day edition of the Wobblies Little Red Book.
The blood and sweat of generations,
They helped build that company;
It withstood the Great Depression,
And the flood in '53.
Eighty years of good production,
Eighty years of peoples dreams;
All thrown away to cut expenses,
The rich they rule the world it seems.
In Arkansas Idlet pulled out his more personal songs. Songs
of love lost ("Without You Here" and "Small Town
Broken Heart") and "The Hardest Thing to Say,"
a song that drives home the repercussions of love gone bad a
bit too well.
Kiss my son upon his cheek,
He's Daddy's biggest fan;
I'll see you in a couple weeks,
My special little man.
Daddy loves you bunches,
Much bigger than the sky
The hardest thing to say is goodbye.
It's tempting to throw out a few clichés here. Something
like "love makes the world go round" or "nine
out of ten songs are love songs." Both are clichés
because they're approximately 99.9% true. Idlet builds on a song
title, "The Game of Love," that's become cliché
after the twenty-plus like-named songs recorded by everyone from
Nat King Cole to Katrina and the Waves (perhaps the best known
the Wayne Fontanta and the Mindbenders hit) and (I'm going for
a record number of clichés in one paragraph here) hits
it out of the ballpark, explaining why he and the rest of us
keep playing the game.
So I stumble on, true to form,
Searching for my port in storm,
Optimistic love will come my way.
Lonesome losers sometimes win,
The courage comes to try again,
Like a classic William Shakespeare play.
My winning team has been one elusive dream,
Still I play the game of love
Still I play the game of love.
While "The Last Diner" appears to be a eulogy for
the last of the old diners to close, Idlet packs these lyrics
with enough specifics that he may have had a particular diner
in mind. The denizens of Idlet's diner spanned the full range
of humanity ("misfits and hippies and ladies with clients
were all a great part of that diner's alliance"). Rich and
poor are all displaced in the name of progress. More condos,
just what every town needs. Combining the more personal, largely
contemporary setting of songs from the Arkansas sessions with
the Guthriesque songs of the proletariat from the Denver sessions,
the title track bridges the prevailing attitudes of the two sessions
nicely.
www.countrysongwriters.com
is Scott Idlet's internet home. Visit www.cdbaby.com to purchase or hear song samples
of The Last Diner.
Contact Al Kunz at kunz-at-rockzilla.net
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