Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 33

miotic! C3 EDMONTON JOURNAL 'SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2001 CD OF THE WEEK RELEASE ME Muldaur delivers powerhouse blues Album: Richland Woman Blues Artist: Maria Muldaur Label: Stony Plain Records Rating: hung their hearts on their sleeves while ex-pressing their tribulatidns and triumphs. John Sebastian and Alvin "Youngblood" Hart delicately dispense guitar lines that are as gende as they are precise and bright, while Muldaur's lead vocals are echoed by friends who are equally inspired and plugged into the source. Bonnie Raitt ups the ante on It's A Blessing with her voice and some slicing slide guitar, while Taj Mahal beefs up SoulofAMan as he and Muldaur momentarily transform themselves into street preaching singers. It's a fountain of pure blue music as Amos Garrett, pianist Dave Mathews, Roy Rogers and Ernie Hawkins also join in on this spectacular sessioa Topped off with superb illustrations of the classic bluesmen and delightful liner notes from Muldaur, Richland Woman Blues is in-deed a complete blues baptism. Peter North I Special to The Journal Calling upon the ghosts of the past, the players and singers who gave birth to the blues music of the Twenties, Thirties and Forties, Muldaur then asked some of her best friends to assist her in laying down heartfelt interpretations of songs by the likes of Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, LeadbeUy, Blind Willie Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt and Mississippi Fred McDowell.

Blessed with pipes that can alternately soothe the soul or shred your sheets, the New Yorkaty-bornandraisedblues diva praises, cries, rejoices and testifies with incredible emotion throughout JiichZand Woman Blues on tunes like It's A Blessing, My Man Blues, I Got To Move and Far Away Blues. Stripped down as the arrangements may be, there's substantial power, strength and conviction in every number, not only inMul-daur's vocal turns, but the lyrical content as well, as all those wonderful blues pioneers Some of Maria Muldaur's best music was made early on in what has been a lengthy and very fruitful career. Her stint with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in the mid-Sixties teamed her with equally great students of traditional American music, including fiddler Richard Greene and banjo ace Bill Keith. Two discs with then hubby Geoff Muldaur followed in which she performed material such as the Jimmy Rogers stapleBueitoflroad Train with undeniable authority. Notlong afterward she sailed up the charts withMtd-nightAt The Oasis, pulled from an album that putabright polish on traditionally influenced folk and blues-oriented material.

Though she's spun some pretty good tracks and kept her career rolling along nicely since, she hasn't recorded as complete a disc as this perfectly cut gem, since that million-selling self-titled album appeared back in '73. MULbALU -ft. lL lUIW sf 4" Ten on Tuesday The following discs are expected in stores: 3. Creeper Lagoon, Take Back The Universe And Give Me Yesterday (DreamWorks) 2. American Hi-Fi, American Hi-Fi (Island) 3.

Placebo, Black Market Music (EMI) 4. Journey, Arrival (Sony) 5. Meridith Edwards, Reach (Mercury Nashville) 6. Redman, Malpractice (Dei Jam) 7. Lady Luck, Turn My Mic On (Universal) 8.

India.Arie, Acoustic Soul (Universal) 9. Andy White, Andy White (True NorthUniversal) 10. Ocean Colour Scene, Mechanical Wonder (Universal) Smooth movers Could they be Canada's answer to Daft Punk and Air? Find out Tuesday when the boys from Smoother release their debut disc, Chasing The Dragon (EMI) Apparent- ly, the group were influenced by a lot of electronica albums, including those by Daft Punk, Air, David Holmes and Massive Attack. Log on to www.smootherboys for more info, including a peek at the Toronto-Hamilton fivesome's grade school report cards. MC Liquid pours out solo album I Bran Van 3000's MC Steve "Liquid" Haw-ley is looking on the bright side of life.

His solo debut, Better Days, is due in stores on Tuesday. (Look under for Liquid.) The disc features numerous guest appearances, including BV3 frontman James Di-- Salvio, Celtic musicians and members of the Grave Diggaz. "This album is not an end," says Liquid. 'It's more like a stretch of road. We're halfway to nowhere and jiaving a blast" BV3's new disc, Discosis, drops May 29.

The Montreal collective scored an international hit in '97 with NEW RELEASES spoken word snippets. The Australian combo's debut, Since I Left You, is the grooviest cut-and-paste album since Montreal DJ Kid Koala dropped Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Highlights include: Flight Tonight, a spaced-out hip hop number; and Frontier Psychiatrist, which mixes whinnying horses with trumpet blares and old Oxford professors declaring "That boy needs therapy!" and "You're crazy in the coconut!" Giddy up! Sandra Sperounes, Edmonton journal CD: The Hogyssey Artist: Spacehog Label: ArtemisEpicSony Rating: Review: Five years ago, Spacehog rocketed up the charts with In The Meantime and then seemingly oinked off. Nrr sn. In the middle range to go with his best-known lower i intonations and a heightened sense of melody add dimension and warmth to his often stark and chilly art-song cabaret, while an expanded Bad Seeds take the music from spartan to harrowing to enveloping.

But it's the words -that make the impression: Love Letter may be '-the most vulnerable he's ever portrayed -himself, while Gates to the Garden comes close! to earnest faith. Steve Hochman, L.A. Times CD: RevellingReckoning Artist: Ani DiFranco Label: Righteous Babe Rating: Ji Review: Singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco is right on in so many ways that she needs a double CD to illuminate thpm all Rvfiirns CD: Da Khop Shop Artist: Mr. Short Khop Label: TVT Records Rating: Review: Zombie-style beats and rhymes plop right on to the template here, with a lot of the same energy and intensitv of SnoOD anidifianco meantime, the British glam rockers have embarked on their own private hogyssey they released a second album on SireWarner and started working on another before trashing the sessions and starting afresh with Artemis. The result is The Hogyssey, which includes '70s Bowie overtones, a reworking of a Richard Strauss composition and a few uncredited ripoffs.

(Jupiter's Moon sounds like a Neil Young tune, while Dancing On My Own ends in strains of the German national anthem.) It's ambitious, adventurous, and Royston Langdon does have a wonderful voice think of a saner version of Thom Yorke but The Hogyssey lacks any real payoff. It's like scoring a ride on the next space shuttle mission only to be booted out minutes before the launch. Sandra Sperounes, Edmonton journal Drinking In LA. I Dogg (Snoop! Wake up, What sets Da Khop Shop apart are the guest spots with one of the most unique and powerful voices in hip hop the venerable Ice Cube. What doesn't set it apart are the ho-hum lyrics, just a lot of dirty words for the kids, and the "skit" sequences between songs.

Enough with the funny phone messages already. Come on, rappers, innovate. Todd Babiak, Edmonton Journal confrontational and introspective, the low-key folk-pop on Reckoning showcases DiFranco's intimate vocals and nimble guitar playing in carefully nuanced songs that make the personal -political and the political most decidedly personal. On such numbers as the erotic, horn-driven Ain't That the Way, DiFranco, her band and guest saxophonist Maceo Parker create a neo-soul vibe. She proves equally adept with Latin-flavoured jams, street-poet rapping and moments of nearly pure pop in tunes that, while hardly devoid of social concerns, generally reflect on how relationships change yet somehow really don't.

Kind of like DiFranco herself. Natalie Nichols, L.A. Times CD: Don't Care If You Don't Mind mm Artist: Crash Test Dummies Label: Cha-ChingV2BMG Rating: )i Review: What happens when a Crash CD: Intersections Artist: dj maiis Label: haute couture records Rating: Review: Solid selections from "Montreal's ambassador of drum 'n bass." This is an hour's worth of hvpnotic and A cartoon Blur CD: Wave Of Light By Wave Of Light Artist: Scannerfunk Label: Beggars Banquet Rating: Review: Scannerfunk is Robin Rimbaud, a.k.a. Scanner, whose abstract, experimental techno is Prozzak's Simon and Milo finally have some cartoon competition. The Gorillaz, an animated hip-pop group out of England, release their self-tided debut on April 24.

The cartoon outfit features Mur- dizzy sounds to make you turn all the lights out and move. Maybe blink a flashlight on and off, scare your roommate. Todd Babiak, Edmonton Journal Test Dummy crashes his car? I Don't Care If You Don't Mind, a collection of whacked-out country tunes about guns, gin and tree stumps. Dummy frontman Brad Roberts was supposed to release a live disc of Crash Test classics until he flipped his '89 Caddy and ended up writing a new batch of tunes with a band of lobster fishermen. Sounds even more hilarious than the Dummies' hip hop album, but I Don't Care is not.

While it recalls the acoustic spirit of the 1991 77ie Ghosts That Haunt Me, Roberts sounds scary as he tries to impersonate a comedic Johnny Cash hopped up on Prozac and moonshine. Perhaps I Don't Care If I've Lost My Mind would be a more appropriate title. Sandra Sperounes, Edmonton Journal tioc, 2-D, Russel and Noodle, in real lire, Blur's Damon Albam and producer Dan i i Check out www.gorillaz.com for samples of the group's first single, Clint Easnwod, nnn a nv rnur or Ene uuiuuii tiuuu uau. 6- CD: No More Shall We Part Artist: Nick Cave The Bad Seeds Label: RepriseMute Rating: Review: The difference between a Nick Cave death ballad and a Nick Cave love ballad? The Hoarh hallaH is more always intriguing. This is a seamless melding of hypnotic tracks that have a mechanical, almost mathematical precision with how brilliantly they mash your brain and grind your hips.

The minimalist digital hero concentrates more on the original loops behind -the esoteric tracks than the post-production, and the result shows in the trancelike catchiness of the record. The Moroder-tinged Automatic is as frantic as the ethereal Speechless is haunting, each using ambient breakbeats for equally effective mindwashes. Scanner is a technician on the border of experimental electronica, on the outside looking in. What better war cry? Nick Lewis I Calgary Herald C-Jk CD: Since I Left You Artist: The Avalanches Label: ModularXL Rating: Review: Get ready to gallop into the Avalanches' mad-cap world of music samples, sound effects and lighthearted. Death is certain.

Love is full of doubt. So don't let the Bryan Ferry-like croon that Cave affects in the opening As I Sat Sadly by Her Side fool you. After years of jaundiced journeys into darkness, Cave hasn't become a dewy-eyed romantic. His singing is the foremost development Cave's discovery of a To sample these discs, log on to www.edmontonjournal. comjukebox From left, Dougie Payne, Fran Healy, Andy Dunlopand Neil Payne are Travis Travis turns Invisible I The members of Travis, a.k.a.

the men who want to be Radiohead, are set to release their third disc The Invisible Band will be available June 12 a week after Amnesiac hits stores. Both 3iscs are produced by Nigel Godrich. Not THE VAULT Sinatras Only the Lonely an exquisite heartbreaker Surprisingly, both British bands will be or the song?" While there are brilliant compositions here, they are made all the more valid by his perfect interpretations. Three other numbers stand out with the same intensity as Ansel 1 kl CD: Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely Artist: Frank Sinatra First released: 1958 If Frank Sinatra had been Leonardo da Vinci, this would be his Mona Lisa. A hundred years from now, or even in the touring North America this summer.

Radiohead is gear-; ing up for a jaunt in Canada, while Travis is opening for Di- do on her North American tour, which only stops inVan-1 couver (June 10) and Toronto (July 4). Travis's 1999 disc, The Man Who, sold slightly more than 200,000 copies in the U.S., according to Billboard. Eyes. The Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer One For My Baby became Sinatras "down" anthem, the "up" one being New York, New York. Guess flZ Hang My and vocal pyrotechnics, the superb Ella Fitzgerald, for example, perpetually sang "outside" even the most tender lyrics, skating over the surface without really bathing in the pathos.

This is why: FJla was a bit insecure but a basically happy person. Sinatra, on the other hand, wore his heart on his sleeve. In 38, he was not all that long divorced from the eternal love of his life, Ava Gardner. When he sings a "saloon song" number such zsAngd Eyes, for instance, it's pairifulh evident we're hearing a man who has known more heartbreak than he can stand. From first note to last, Lonely is an uncannily rich garden emotion.

With Sinatra, one always had to ask the inevitable question, "Is it the singer ly: Don't listen if you're depressed, and try not to drink while it's playing. The year was 1958, and Sinatra had been enjoying a renaissance and was fully recovered from the disastrous career setbacte of alfew years earlier. His association with the great arranger Nelson Riddle was hitting its stride. He was in extraordinary good voice for these sessions even for him. But these were musical factors.

Lonely is a musical masterpiece, to be sure, but it's the emotions that make it shine As writer Will Friedwald so eloquently points out in Sinatra! The Song Is You and other tomes, Blue Eyes was the ultimate "inside" singer. What does this mean? Let's look at an opposite: For all her flawless diction TearsOut roDrvhadbeenwaxed by Sinatra before, but not this exquisitely. a ii 1 All tor Much next millennium, one album by the Chairman of the Board will have stood the test of time better than all the others: Frank Sinatra Singsfor Only the Lonely. Lonely has been called "the bleakest and blackest album of popular songs ever recorded." Sinatra himself referred to it as a "suicide album" with "suicide songs." So take this serious If all this weren enough, there is another thing special about Only the Lonely. The entire masterpiece was recorded in three days.

In this modern era of pre-production, production, post-production and over-production, it almost seems impossible. Steve Eddy I The Orange County Register THE CHARTS Janet Jackson is checking into the MuchMusic environment on Thursday, April 19. The pop diva will answer questions about her new disc, AO For You, in stores April 24. Jackson's one-hour Much interview with Master is set to start at 4 pjn. Sandra Sperounes I Journal Static Writer rJ ft -g t- I POWEI 92 I9T TIP II 1.

Janet Jackson, All 4 You 2. Nelly Furtado, Turn Off The Light 3. Lifehouse, Hanging By A Moment 4. Crazytown, Butterfly 5. Mya, Free 6.

Uncle Kracker, Follow Me 7. ATC. Around The World 8. Club 7. Never Had A Dream Come True 9.

Joe, Stutter 10. Destiny's Child, Survivor TIE IEAI I0CI TfiP II 1. Aaron Lewis with Fred Durst, Outside 2. Train, Drops of Jupiter 3. Econoline Crush, Make It Right 4.

112, Walk On 5. linkin Park, One Step Closer 6. Incubus, Drive 7. Staind, It's Been Awhile 8. Dave Matthews Band.

I Did It 9. Finger Eleven, First Time 1 0. Powderf inger. My Happiness The to trmatrmtmm mmam frito dWrKmHr'' CIS! CIVITIT TIP II 1. Toby rCeith, You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like That 2.

Travis Tritt, It's A Great Day 3. Jessica Andrews, Who I Am 4. Faith Hill. My Heart Hod Wings 5. George Strait, If You Can Do Anything Else 6.

Mark McGuinn, Mrs. Steven Rudy 7. Terri Clark, No Fear 8. Vince Gill, Shoot Straight From Your Heart 9. Dixie Chicks, 1 Fall 10.

Martina McBride, It's My Time CJSI ALIEIMTIVE ISP II 1 Wayne Omaha. Can The yaps, Co For The Beauty 2. The Sadies, Tremendous Efforts 3. Mad Bomber Society, Atomic A-Co-Co 4. Split Lip Rayfield, Never Make It Home 5.

The Black Halos, The Voilent Years 6. Prop Aghandi. Today's Empire, Tomorrow's Ashes 7. Old Reliable, The Gradual Moment 8. Greenfield Main, Hunting Tips For Everyone 9.

Km Demeanor, ST 10. Toadies, Hell BelowStars Above la net Jackson.