*RUN YOUR OWN RACE
Mulberry Lane
Refuge/MCAAs we get closer to summer and further from the fires of last year’s Spice Girls mania, Mulberry Lane – a Nebraska sister act – is ready to fan the embers of harmony with the release of their debut “Run Your Own Race.”
The good-looking blondage quartet – Heather, Allie, Rachel, and Jaymie (no last names, please) – sound as if they were born to sing. Their very precise warblings enable these girls to perform vocal arrangements that can sound as if they were sung by a single voice that is able to suddenly break into three-part harmony.
In addition to their vocal prowess, the girls write their own tunes, which somehow manage to steer clear of the ultrasap that has mired other ballad-happy girl acts that have tried to ride the Spice Girl wave.
Mulberry Lane’s honesty is what makes songs like “Just Another Friday” so good. These girls next door are able to get across the notion that a woman can go out drinking and dancing with her friends, have some laughs, not be a slut, yet still yearn for a lost love at the end of the night. The disc’s other tender heart-tugger is the we-are-family ode “Sister Care.”
On the downside, there seems to be a lot of Spicy sexual marketing of the sisters. In the CD booklet we learn that “Jaymie, born in the spring, is likewise unpredictable,” that “Heather, born in fall, is sensual and mysterious,” that “Rachel, born in summer, is easygoing like a warm breeze,” and that “Allie, born in winter, is sparkling and spiritual … and she likes animals.” The four-season hype smacks of a future Playboy pictorial that you hope the girls do (because they are such beautiful women) and hope they don’t do, because they are very talented singers.
They’re doing a free concert at the South Street Seaport on June 4. Mark your calendar.
*ALL HAT – NO CATTLE
Joe Goldmark
Hightone RecordsOn this album of pedal steel guitar instrumentals, session man Joe Goldmark wordlessly shouts that Nashville’s voice of the high lonesome is one of the more versatile instruments. The late, great guitarist Jerry Garcia fiddled around with the pedal steel, but by his own accounts he never mastered the extremely difficult to learn slide instrument.
On this disc of mostly covers (there are two originals), Goldmark uncovers unlikely tunes and adapts them to the 20 string glide-‘n’-slide contraption with various degrees of success. He is at his best on the haunting Band classic “Whispering Pines” and the Byrds’ ode to psychedelia “Eight Miles High,” but less impressive on the Grateful Dead’s “China Cat Sunflower.” There he adds little to the original except to prove it can be played by a “steeler.”
There’s nothing here that will make you grope for the skip button, but Joe Goldmark doesn’t have the stylistic individuality of a player like Junior Brown.
*SEASONS OF THE SOUL
Lisa Lynne
Windham HillFor mellow heads who are tired of their Yanni, Kitaro and John Tesh, harpist Lisa Lynne has a new disc of tranquil sounds. Lisa explains the music here with the statement, “We’re rockers who found our spiritual place in life, so the music is powerful and gentle at the same time.” Maybe so, but on a disc that features Lynne on Celtic harp backed by bamboo flutes, it is often soulless. If you can’t find this long yawn into the ethereal in stores, don’t worry, you’ll probably hear it the next time your in your dentist’s waiting room.
*THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF REINHOLD MESSNER
Ben Folds Five
Sony 550 MusicWith romantic melodies and helplessly hopeless lyrics, Ben Folds Five’s latest – “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner” – is a trip into the world of modern lounge.
The North Carolina trio – with Ben Folds center stage at the piano – fattens its sound on this brief, 11-song collection with heaps of orchestration that occasionally add power but often mire the tunes in sap.
It’s interesting that the trio mostly tries to hide it’s very retro Burt Bacharach sound, and then flies Burt’s fluegelhorn flag on “Don’t Change Your Plans.” This song is so Burt you almost expect Dionne Warwick to turn in a guest solo by its close.
The music here is mostly what you’d expect in a quality piano bar, while Folds’ lyrics detail geeky characters you don’t really want to know. The best of this disc is the autobiographical, horn-powered tune “Army.” If you’re a member of the BF5 fan club this will please, others might proceed cautiously and test drive Mister “Messner” in the record store before laying down your green.