Rick Shea ­ Sawbones Aim Recording Company ARC 7-16042

By William Michael Smith

	Rick Shea, Dave Alvin's longtime multi-instrument sidekick (steel guitar, electric guitar, mandolin), doesn't get off Alvin's tour bus to record his own material too often. His latest release, "Sawbones," is only his third album since 1990. But what Shea leaves out in quantity, he makes up for with quality. "Sawbones" allows Shea to display many of the facets of his talent that cause a consummate pro like Alvin to want to have him around. Alvin lends his own guitar virtuosity to two cuts on "Sawbones." While Shea isn't particularly well known nationally, he is an almost legendary figure in Los Angeles and the surrounding area, where he is known not only for his instrumental prowess but also for his intelligent songwriting and a voice that would be the envy of many headliners in the Americana field. While "Sawbones" is completely Americana by type, it finds Shea working with sounds and shapes from blues to country to folk, with subtle colorings of Irish sounds, Mexican sounds, and countrified gospel. And Shea can go up tempo or slow as a dirge, play it hot or cool, whatever the lyric calls for. He comes out smoking with some nasty Neil Young guitar licks and a Billy Joe Shaver waver in his voice on 'Black-Eyed Girl.' Mom and Dad don't approve of her, but this girl has charms stronger than Mom and Dad's warnings. Shea and the band let it out and he displays how serious his guitar chops are on an extended fade. That black-eyed girl she cast a spell She had gypsy charms and shotgun shells And the song she sings in old Creole And the knife she brought from Mexico I got a silver ring and string of soft white pearls I want to lie all night alone with a black-eyed girl 'Magdalena' is a Spanish-inflected, spirit-laden country-folk tune based on a local legend about a ghost girl who can be seen some nights walking in the courtyard of the chapel at San Juan Capistrano. She carries a single candle and calls out for her lover to return. Shea has a constructed a very dramatic and spiritually satisfying song, and his Spanish guitar picking adds to the sadness inherent in the story. On 'Lonesome Cannonball,' Shea and Alvin compliment each other on electric guitar on this countrified blues. The guitars are bluesy and bad, but Brantley Kearns' fiddling lays on a country overtone. There's lots of fire and plenty of twang to go around on this brooding cut. Katy Moffatt duets with Shea on 'Deep Within the Well,' another country-folk tune. But this time Shea opts for Irish rather than blues overtones as Shea handles the mandolin work and Kearnes counters with mournful fiddle. One doesn't have to hear much of Shea's singing to make the Lefty Frizzell connection. While Shea doesn't sing with quite the nasality and "hickness" that Frizzell projected, the tonal qualities of the two voices are almost identical. So it is probably no coincidence that Shea covers Frizzell's country classic 'Saginaw, Michigan' and gives it a very faithful rendition. Shea's vocal ache also invites comparisons with Frizzell on 'Walkin' to Jerusalem,' the brooding and eerie 'Still Water.' 'Emperor of the North' finds Shea in his most engaging form, a dramatic country-folk tune with lots of meat and Americana in the subject matter. The song is a tale of "Guitar Whitey" Symmonds, hoboed in 1930's looking for work. He found a job and stayed on it fifty years and reached retirement. After he retired, he went back to hoboing. Shea immortalizes him and his rough-edged American independent spirit here. Lost John said, Son here's the deal, we'll share everything we can steal It's a 60-40 proposition given your green looks and poor condition You can take the split or leave it if you choose These farmers, they've got more than they can use I'm not saying it's the best of lives but I've seen worse with 2 mean wives These boxcar beds they creak and pitch, it's chancy work, you won't get rich Them railroad dicks don't ever treat you kind but a freer man you'll never hope to find Shea and Alvin find a slow, before-daylight blues groove on Shea's 'Piedmont Ridge." This is as lowdown and country as the blues can get. Sun come up this mornin', two mules lying on the bridge A steady rain was fallin' out along the Piedmont Ridge The title cut sounds like some of our Texas neo-outlaws at work as Shea flashes more of his tasty electric guitar picking in that groove between country and blues known as roadhouse music. The funky, off-kilter lyric would make a perfect Delbert McClinton song. The instrumental 'Mesquite' allows Shea to stretch out and demonstrate more of his picking prowess on a straight country reel. Shea whips out hot licks on both acoustic guitar and mandolin. Shea closes the album out with another funky roadhouse country rocker, 'Camellia.' This cut has a New Orleans feel like the The Band was always so good at. With tasty playing, simple, pleasing arrangements, and a voice that is friendly to the ear, Rick Shea has cut a wide slice from the center of the Americana pie with "Sawbones." With an album this good, he deserves to do it more often than just every 3 or 4 years. * Go to www.wagonwheelrecords.com and help Rick Shea get off Dave Alvin's tour bus more often so he can record some more of his great Americana music. Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

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