ARLAN FEILES
Razing A Nation ‘The Ballad of a New Lone Ranger'... (Y&T)

This is one interesting and intriguing bit of Americana, folks. It has taken over a month of listening to get a good handle on it. At first spin, the opening track, “The New Lone Ranger”, immediately brings to mind the Eagles' classic, “Desperado”, with its theme of the losing and lonesome anti-hero, and the Civil War-era impression continues into “Sign Up”, a sardonic call to arms. Further listening, however, brings one to the realization that this recording can not be defined and confined to any one particular historical epoch. Produced in Miami in 2004, Razing A Nation is one of those timeless works that defies any temporal categorization in its universality. Not too shabby for a ‘debut' album. Closely comparable to Springsteen's Nebraska, it is a sparse and haunting showcase for both the intelligence and perspicacity of Feiles' lyrics, and his musical versatility. He plays all of the instruments here, guitar, harmonica, and piano, with his only outside assistance being the wonderful voice of Shannon McNally, on “Drifted Town”, and “Change”. Any dud tracks herein? Nope, nary a one; they'll all move you.

Arlan's site. Buy from amazon Released Jan. '04, reviewed by Don Grant.

FIREWOOD REVIVAL
Peep Show... (Rock Is Dead)

CHRISSY FLATT
Walk With Kings... (self released)

Unless the subject of discussion is cover bands, or, God forbid, karaoke, describing artists as rebels is a bit redundant. All artists are rebels in their own fashion, otherwise they'd be working for IBM or GM. A lot of the hyperbole that accompanied this CD was/is unnecessary, and the word crusade makes me gun-shy; let the music do the talking. A former punk-rocker, (that rebel thing), Flatt is finding her niche in this, her second outing, writing and performing songs that plumb the well of her own existence and experience, in a fashion that's both melodic, (this voice sang punk??!?), and insightful. This young Texan is at her best with introspective tunes like the title track, “Walk With Kings”, “Cold Day”, and “I Can't Love You”, and when she thrusts her pen at topics political, “Sign Up Here”, “Came Back Broken”, she as if she could be the little sister of another Tejano reviewed on this site a few weeks back. If I might offer a word of caution here, it's OK, and laudable, to try and change the world; just don't try to do it all at once. Hone your craft first, Chrissy; artistic credibility is a prerequisite for socio/political credibility; just ask Steve Earle.

JOHN FOGERTY
Blue Moon Swamp.... (Warner Bros)

FOREVER GOLDRUSH
Halo In My Backpack... (Cargo)

MARK FOSSON
Jesus On A Greyhound... (Big Otis)

Mark Fosson is another easterner, (Kentucky), who went west in search of a record label, thirty some odd years ago. It has taken a bit of time, (understatement), but, as granny used to say, good things are worth waiting for. There are echoes of John Prine, and even Gordon Lightfoot, in “Wrap Me Up”, in the thirteen songs that comprise this, his debut CD. Fosson wrote all of the songs herein, and plays a variety of stringed instruments, along with harmonica and spoons. Long-time collaborator Edward Tree handles the other guitars, and a collection of lesser known, but well-traveled and not unskilled, L.A. musicians round out his band. The end product is a folksy country sort of blues that weathers repeated spins on the changer very well. He's a singer/songwriter who's work stands up there with the best of them, and it had better not take another thirty years for the follow-up, because some of us might not be around to catch it.

JEFFREY FOUCAULT
Ghost Repeater... (Signature Sounds)

Third time pays for all, they say, and with Ghost Repeater it's a payback in spades. Having listened to Wisconsin native Foucault's music evolve over five years and two earlier CDs, I can say without reservation that this man consistently hits the nails of contemporary North American culture squarely on their deserving little heads. This time around, he employs a full band of very competent musicians, (bonus: Kris Delmhorst appears), and has tagged up with Bo Ramsey, who is not only a fine producer, but one hell of a good guitar player, to boot. The songs are stark and pensive against wonderfully melodic lines that fit Foucault's voice like a well-tailored glove. There's just the right amount of “stuff” on the tracks of this disc, nothing to excess, unless it is possible to have an excessive amount of excellent writing, such as:
“She whispered close, Can't you hear the ocean?
As she leaned her ear against a shotgun shell”;
or:
“The wages of sin don't adjust for inflation
It's a buyer's market when you sell your soul”
Those little gems are only from the first and title cut, and there's ten more tracks, plus a five track bonus disc. How can you not love a guy who can come up with lines like that?

Jeffrey's website. Buy from amazon Released May 23, 2006, reviewed by Don Grant.

This is a record you listen to on a windy night when, mysteriously, the video store closed early. You were thinking of renting Blood Simple. Bob Frank and John Murry have created an eerie and powerful album of ten newly-written murder ballads. What is original about World Without End is that the songs are inspired by true stories from the shadowlands of America's past. “Lead me down, boys, I'm hangin' today. Drop the trap door, I got nothin' to say,” growls the chorus to Boss Weatherford 1933 . The recording is at once spare-sounding and dense. So much is left out that you have to add some of your own nightmares to the story, and just enough is left in that you're aided and abetted in the process. A room grows awfully quiet when one man says what's true. There have been five or six records out this year that have struck me as true originals, and this is one of them. As for why the video store closed early, after listening to Frank and Murry's record, I fear the worst.

With a Robbie Fulks CD's, you're never sure who you're gonna get… There's the “wise-ass and sarcastic yet straight-ahead country” Robbie of his first Bloodshot album Country Love Songs, (with a cover picture of a man taking an ax to his wife). Then there's the “let's try to be an alternative artist with a little less country sarcasm” of Let's Kill Saturday Night, (although still including an in-your-face song called “God Isn't Real”). Then there's the odd 13 Hillbilly Giants and the unexciting Couples In Trouble . But last year he produced an excellent Johnny Paycheck tribute CD called Touch My Heart and that is a great lead-in to the latest Georgia Hard. The cover looks like one of those old 70's Columbia albums produced by Billy Sherrill, who worked with Paycheck and George Jones and Tammy Wynette and frequently over-produced the artists with lots of strings. There's actually quite a bit of straight-sounding songs here with rather “normal” lyrics for Fulks while his melodies are always memorable. He still gets a little goofy here and there with mixed results. He always had a way with a witty song title and here “All You Can Cheat” and “Goodbye Cruel Girl” are also 2 of my favorite songs. The press kit cites Shel Silverstein and Roger Miller as key song writing influences here and I would agree. Fans of Robbie, and there are many hiding out, should be happy with this. Of the 15 tracks, I could dump five of ‘em and like the CD more and have a little extra time, but it's still a fine album.