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Here Comes the New Folk Underground
Artist:
David Baerwald
Format: CD
New: Available to Order - Not In Our Store $17.50
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Baerwald takes the listener on a ride with songs on Here Comes the New Folk Underground. For all th e literary qualities and sheer intelligence of his songs, he never resorts to sentimentality or false bravado. He says "These songs are about embattled optimism..."Reviews:
David Baerwald is one of those names you know from reading liner notes; he's had some fine releases of his own-most notably 1986's essential David + David collection Boomtown-but his higher profile has been writing, producing and playing for the likes of Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Michael Jackson, Robbie Robertson and others. Here Comes the New Folk Underground is the Austin-based singer-songwriter's first album in nine years, and fortunately the break only seems to have enhanced his muse. These are riveting songs about finding light within considerable darkness, delivered with just the right balance of polished arrangement and raw performing exuberance-unbridled, even, in the case of rollicking anthems such as "Compassion" and "Hellbound Train."Throughout these 11 songs Baerwald mines twangy Americana ("Why," "The Crash," "Fat Little Cowboy") and groove-inflected R&B ("Nothing's Gonna Bring Me Down," "Love #29"), even tossing in a bit of brassy N'awlins flavor into the mix on "If (A Boy Whore in a Man's Jail)." Where Baerwald really shines, however, is as a lyricist.
His tunes are sharply drawn and poignant, filled with memorable characters, resonant metaphors, detailed scenes and messages of both great despair and eternal hope. In "Why"-inspired by the funeral of a close friend's son-he sings that "You still believe in Eden, some place better down the road/ But seems like it's when the door is wide open the walls begin the close." But he also reveals a gentle optimism in "Wondering," while "Nothing's Gonna Bring Me Down" and "Me and My Girl" celebrate goodness almost in counterpoint to the seedy characters that pop up in "If" and "Me and My Girl." And in "Compassion," he offers a general philosophy of life-"I say live and let live/ Forget and forgive/ That may be why I am still standing"-that's awful hard to refute.
