Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cormac McCarthy, Picture Gallery Blues, Green Linnet


"The watches are melting, I've lost my sense of time," the line that begins the title track, makes me think of Dalí paintings, but there isn't anything surreal about this CD, except maybe the fact that he has the same name as the author of No Country for Old Men. His songs also are by no means as dark as the other Cormac McCarthy's books, any more than they're surrealistic. I think he's kind of an East Coast version of Dave Alvin (roughly similar voice and country, bluesy, rocky music mix) with some Van Morrison, Harry Chapin (Blue Cadillac and Marigold Hall remind me of Harry songs), John Prine and even Tom Waits in him. Pleasant. Chris Botti slips in on trumpet and is quite complimentary. Last Ditch is a sad song about life, death and the sea that, rendered in Portuguese, would probably make good fado.

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