Leslie Gray Streeter

Good music you mighta missed

There's a lot of good music released recently that I never managed to write about when it was brand-spanking new, but that I still thought was worth telling you about, either to encourage you to pick it up or to urge you to run screaming far, far away from it.

So I'm gonna cue you in on some of the notable releases of the last two months. This feature does, in case you were wondering, replace that crazy project I was trying to do earlier this year where I was gonna review every single CD on my desk. Y'all said that was never gonna happen, and dang it if you weren't right. Fine. You're geniuses. I'm a slacker. Here's your gold star. (Sigh.)

OK. Like to hear it? Here it go...

Freedy Johnston, Live At McCabe's April 25, 1998 (Shout Factory):
Recorded six years ago at McCabe's Record Shop in Santa Monica, this quiet little collection harkens back to the neo singer-songwriter era of the 1990s. It was a time when every other hit seemed to be by some pale, skinny guy with an acoustic guitar who looked as if the weight of the world and his desperate need for sun exposure were conspiring to take him out. Johnston, most famous for the bittersweet strummer Bad Reputation, was one of those guys, and "This Perfect World," the album that song came from, was a gorgeously somber work of self-aware musings that still makes me want to curl into a tight ball and weep. But in a good way.

'Live At McCabe's" is equally beautiful and weep-inducing, but for some reason it's sometimes a little too much. Most of the songs share the same, slow, sad rhythym, sung in Johnston's clear, world-weary voice. It's pretty, but having seen him live around that time, I can tell you that it's sweetly depressing. But if you're in that mood, You Get Me Lost and Two Lovers Stop are especially gorgeous and surprisingly uplifting, and the cover of Glenn Campbell's Wichita Lineman is still but urgent. Also depressing. But you knew that.

Lucinda Moore, Lucinda Moore Live (Tyscot Records)
Bridgeport, Ct. gospel singer Moore, who used to sing with Hezekiah Walker, returns home to her native city for this live set, recorded last December. And it sounds just like what it is - a gospel praise service somebody captured on tape. You can almost see the fancy hats and the funeral home fans with pictures of "The Last Supper" on them. It's all there - the applause, the call and response, and Moore's smooth, rich alto, which recalls vintage Tremaine Hawkins. I had never heard of her before I opened the envelope it came in, but songs like the dynamic, poignant Balm In Gilead or the stomping "Praise Him" have made me a fan. Don't miss the CD's closers, a simple and sweet Old Rugged Cross and the old-time stomper Going To Church medley. Actually, the old Baptist ladies would pronounce that "Going To Chuuuch." Amen, everybody.