Americana Music Reviews

 

Joe Croker
All the Pretty Girls
Bagatelle Arts
by David Pilot

Originality in Americana seems a concept that should be a given, yet the cold hard reality of the growing genre is that its cult popularity inevitably spawns the sort of soundalikes that turned the Alternative movement into mainstream. That's no slight against the standouts of Americana, but it's also a fact that makes a find like Joe Croker cool as hell. Want a debut record from an artist you've never heard of that runs madcap across aural landscapes, makes you think, and holds your interest over the course of repeated plays? Then All the Pretty Girls is the next CD you go buy. Depending on the range of your particular musical tastes, it's likely you'll encounter some tracks you won't particularly cotton to. But even those will keep your appetite whetted, and that's an unusual feat, to put it mildly.

It's all here, from the straight-ahead roots rock feel of the title cut through the blues/funk goulash of songs like "A Better Excuse" to borderline experimental journeys like "In America" (think Yes on 'roids backing Kid Rock on downers). Even some straight ahead country makes the set list with "Look At all the Lovers," a beautiful song that benefits immensely from Bruce Bouton's tasteful pedal steel work. George Marinelli, Mark Prentice and Vinnie Santoro add the same guitar, piano, bass and percussion elements you've heard them offer up with Bonnie Raitt, John Fogerty, Bruce Hornsby and Rodney Crowell over the years, and if you listen close on three tracks you'll hear Audrey Ball, David's daughter, offering harmony vocals that would make an angel blush.

Two things, though, soar above the musical mishmash to make the record a standout. One is Croker's voice. Sandpapered and weatherbeaten, deeper for the journey and always on key, these pipes are the most significant instrument All the Pretty Girls serves up. Delivery varies with the ever-changing moods as the disc progresses, and hints of vocals from Ray Charles to Jackson Browne abound. The emotions Croker conveys with each track fit perfectly and morph with ease from the world-weary apathy of the title track to the sorrowful menace of "Lost Linda."

add up all the cracked seat covers
worn floors and burned out lights
endless trips to the empty darkness
broken by her towering thighs

sweet Linda
lost Linda
wild Linda
so sad but watch her fly

Which brings us to the other distinctive facet All the Pretty Girls displays. Lyrics that stop you dead in your tracks. This is music that's way too smart for Nashville, even if Music City's smaller stages are where it's currently performed. Joe Croker's love life resume must read like a job application for Larry Flynt Enterprises; an appraisal of love and life and sex and loss this brutal and open just doesn't come around anymore. There's exuberance in "A Better Excuse."

hey kid, I really, really love the way you move
you rewrote that old Kama Sutra
and asked me to proof it for you
(now that's my kind of excuse)

Righteous anger, indignation and loss in "The Other One."

you always said I had a cheating heart
yeah, now it's blown apart
I loved at a distance-it was an art
I never once painted my lips red
with another girl, in another bed
and I really don't care to start

And battle-scarred wisdom in "Mighty Hard Pleasure."

honey, can I have a sip from your water glass?
oh, that's a fine thing to share
I remember back when Robbie Rebein
you know he got me drinking
Lord, it's been a mighty hard pleasure

I was 22, thought all the burdens I knew
were too much to bear
now I'm 45, lucky to be alive
after fighting the spoiled child inside
you know, I found it takes a long time
just to bury the trash that
comes with the treasure
shoot, it's been a mighty hard pleasure

That's the strongest song on an exceptional debut record. The insights get closer to home with each stanza, and Croker sings each line with a strength of conviction that drives the truth into your brainpan with white-hot intensity. Stunning conclusion to an intriguing effort. The mix of genres in itself is surprising; elements of swing, pop, rock, grunge and country run rampant throughout. The skill with which they're parlayed is a pleasant surprise, and the message they carry completes the circle. This is musicianship and songwriting that thumbs its nose at mainstream radio in a fashion normally associated with Jesse Dayton, Scott Miller or Robbie Fulks. Technically speaking it's sound and tight, with competent board work Musically it's energizing, tantalizing and frankly invigorating. And lyrically it's deep in the accessible and sensible sort of way that made Woody Guthrie an icon. Don't go overboard with the comparison, now, just realize that Joe Croker has made a record that shows a clear grasp of the intricacies of our modern world, one that paints vivid tableaus of our surroundings and makes it clear none of us are really alone unless we choose to be. I suppose that's to be expected from an artist who's laced his liner notes with quotes from F. Scott Fitzgerald, W.B. Yeats, Camille Paglia, Norman Mailer and the Koran. For intelligence, listenability, beauty, sheer listening enjoyment, All the Pretty Girls is the ticket to musical nirvana.

Find out more, hear clips, read the lyrics and get yours at www.joecroker.com.

Contact David Pilot at: tailgunner-at-rockzilla.net

 
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