Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 64

E(DDD3LI2LTO(SS COM D3EW0EW Excellent Good Fair Poor J-L Tt i DAVIDPOE David Poe DAVID POE Sony550 Music To listen, call 463-4636, enter 2554 David Poe's self-titled debut album takes time to unfold and time to get under your skin. But give it that time, and it's well worth the effort. Although Poe (a former Dayto-nian who changed his last name from Ponitz for career purposes) uses each song to build an overall ambiance, the album doesn't provide ambient background music. You need to listen, to pay attention. There's a quality of real time passing, which is enhanced by the fact that most of the 11 tracks were recorded live, including vocals.

The results are direct, immediate and disconcertingly real. The lyrics are personal, but not necessarily autobiographical, although Poe has said that the lead track, Telephone Song, which was the first song he wrote when he moved to New York City five years ago, represents a goodbye to his old life. He says he wrote Cop after witnessing an altercation on the street outside his apartment. And Daytonians might recognize phrases such as "holiday at home" that dot his poetical-crafted lyrics. While most modern rock albums purposely erupt with an assault of emotion and sound, Poe has created an album that flows through your senses and settles under your skin.

CAROL SIMMONS, Daily News Colony SIREN MCA To listen, call 463-4636, enter 2553 With its well-crafted pop tunes, high-end guitar, smooth harmonies and thoughtful lyrics, Colony recalls a young R.E.M. The material on the group's debut CD, Siren, is clean and intricate. Love odes all, its 12 tracks are instantly likeable, most riding on infatuation's magic carpet. Siren brims with optimism, all sunny days and oceans, Saturdays and hillsides. Though pure as a pasture, Siren keeps its head musically.

Leading the way is Ted Bruner on lead vocals and guitar with Jon Armstrong on lead guitar, John Stuller on bass and Matt Hickenbotham on drums. Armstrong interjects a few economical lead riffs, most notably on the haunting Remain, but this is no guitar-driven album. The focus remains unerringly on each song as an individual entity, an all-too-rare submerging of egos for the good of the whole. The hooks reel in, the pleasantness sustains, the poetic lyrics offer staying power. Intriguingly, the last track, A Lot Like You, clips along in a merrily minor key before stopping abruptly.

The tune picks up again after five minutes of silence with a refrain of sorts, laden with strings. Like the rest of Siren, it works. FRED KRAUS, Dayton Daily News special, but on It own merits, it tastes tangy. Still other reference points can be heard on the band's third album (OkehEplc), Take You There sounds like All Day Musc-era War. Some harmonies evoke the Steve Miller Band.

And you should be hearing Stepping Stones on rock radio. It has a loose but sturdy rhythm like that band with "Stones" In Its name. Reviewed by Bob Underwood JONATHAN FIRE EATER Wolf Songs for Lambs (alternative) The first thing you notice is the drums. They've been forced so forward Into', the mix that they're like a sen that v. i4llt; maaaaa Victor Wooten WHAT DID HE SAY? Compass Records To listen, call 463-4636, enter 2551 Challenging, ambitious and comical all words appropriate for Victor Wooten's What Did He Say? What he said is that he continues to be a master of the electric four-string bass.

Wooten breaks the barriers between jazz, funk and, at times, the eclectic. Slapping, tapping and walking are all done using no discernible recipe, but with a result that is engaging and demanding. Bela Fleck and Oteil Burbridge guest on the disc, adding more to what Wooten's already saying. It's not a disc to be listened to a little at a time, it's a disc to be absorbed all at once. The smooth jazz grooves are hypnotic you want to sway and watch him run his fingers up and down the fretboard.

Melody and harmony become irrelevant what matters is that the bass has a story. The skill required to put forth such an effort is something we might dream about, but to him, well, it's his life. And we're lucky to be a part of that, even for a little while. Listening to this disc is like peeking in on a bass player through a peephole. (Listen to The Loneliest Monk.) You edge your head around the door, hoping he won't stop playing, that he won't notice you.

Wooten knows you're there, but won't look up. You feel like a voyuer, but that's not bad. SARA FARR, Dayton Daily News Flecktones, last Dance (BMGRCA) can appeal to nonmusicians, while players will note how cleverly Big Thing quickly quotes Cream's Sunshine of Your Love. It sounds better than it reads. Cream? Hoy, It's another defunct trio In which the washed-up guy wears the starl Reviewed by Bob Underwood SUGAR RAY Floored (alternative) Don't be fooled by the half sentimental lyrics or the happy surf-ska lilt to Fly, the first single off Floored (Lava-Atlantic).

Much of the rest Is flat out Hrafih that's long on spoed and bruntrt-but short on Inventiveness, Bor- Shania Twain COME ON OVER Mercury To listen, call 463-4636, enter 2552 Shania has the voice, Mutt has the ears, and together it's quite the heady sound. Shania Twain's new release, Come On Over, is 16 tracks of high-octane country an hour of fiddles, guitars, rocketed into the 21st century. Twain and husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange co-wrote all the cuts, with the latter also producing the project. Twain sounds fabulous throughout, but it's Lange's production skills that set this apart He takes songs built on stock chord changes and fills them with inventive instrumental and vocal twists and turns. It's cutting-edge country.

Love Gets Me Every Time is No.l on Billboard 's country singles chart this week, and more cuts from the album are apt to follow. From This Moment On, a dynamite duet with Bryan White, or rockers Man! I Feel Like a Woman, Rock This Country, When or the Cajun-tinged title cut are contenders. Or perhaps the haunting Black Eyes, Blue Tears will be the next hit. The choices are many. Twain's picture is splashed throughout the liner notes, but the album has Mutt's fingerprints all over it and it's anything but a dog.

KEN PALEN, Dayton Daily News row the CD, tape Fly and return the rest. And If you never hear from Sugar Ray again, no problem. Reviewed by Ron Rollins 0. LOVE SPECIAL SAUCE Yeah, It's That Easy (rock) Mi Newcomers to this combo might think It's been listening to too much Soul Coughing: That stand up bass is popping. Ditto for Beck, especially in the way that G.

Love accompanies his white boy drawl with Mississippi Delta-style guitar and occasional harmonica. But no, G. Love developed his gritty sound in Philadelphia before Soul Coughing or Beck hit. Cpmpared to those tough standards, the Sauoe Isn't Frank Sinatra with Quincy Jones and Orchestra L.A. IS MY LADY Quest To listen, call 463-4636, enter 2550 OK, it's confession time.

A certain reviewer better known for hip-hop and critiques is a closet Sinatra fan. LA. is My Lady is a re-issue of the 1984 collaboration with Quincy Jones producing and conducting an accompanying orchestra. Sinatra may not have as much pep as in the old days, but he's still a bona fide crooner who knows how to walk through a song. Anyone who has heard George Benson's version of How Do You Keep the Music Playing may miss that passion, but Sinatra's rendition still ruffles romantic feathers.

The same can be said when comparing Sinatra's Teach Me to Night to Al Jarreau's version. Frarik'9 not going burst veins in his neck. The song is paced for his mature voice. That's the genius of Sinatra. He realizes older vocal cords cannot be stretched like they used to.

The trick is to maximize what's left. Check out the runs he makes on It'sAURight WithMe, the cool he brings to Mack the Knife and the sincerity of Stormy Weather. By the way, Benson, Lionel Hampton, Lee Ritenour, Bob James, Ralph McDonald and many others perform on the album. DEREK AU, Dayton Daily News 7 ANDY SUMMERS The Last Dane of Mr. (Jazz) Poor Andy Summers: He's the lone graduate of the Police whose output does not betray his talent, yet Sting gets the attention.

Summers' agent must've warned him when he started making Instrumental, fusion albums. The guitarist's seventh solo outing sets him In a trio, grooving with drummer Gregg Bissonette and King Crimson's Tony Levin on bass (usually electric), It's hardly earth shattering, Just typically Impressive. Summers' five tunes rub nicely against compositions by Monk, Mlngus, Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter and conga drummer TV Mongo Santamaria. Like Bela FleckV.Y. creeps up from the distance, doppler-shifting louder until they careen upside your head In a jagged blast and suddenly, they do more than underpin the song; they are the song.

Matt Barrlck plays them for all he's worth, too, as though realizing the great, unusual burden placed upon him. Jonathan Fire Eater's DreamWorks debut isn't lacking In much, also drawing punch from Walter Martin's oddly prominent, Doors like organ playing and Stewart Lupton's hopped up, rat boy snarl. But what makes this different Is the gargantuan Sherman tank bigness of the drums, turned up to the point that they're Inescapable and marvelous. Revlewei'by Ron Rollins 'V. 111)1 I I I I I i I i.