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by Larry Looney
Nothing from Eric Taylor is ever a gamble – you know you’re going to hear incredibly well-written songs, delivered honestly and without pretension. His writing is some of the most literate in music – but its point of view is not one looking down on his characters from on high…he looks his subjects in the eye and in the heart. The people who populate his songs live at street level, not in ivory towers – they keep to the barrooms and pool halls, the late-night card games, the threadbare carnivals scraping to make enough to get from one town to the next. Couples scratch to survive life with each other – it works or it doesn’t, but the heartbreak and the joy are just as real as those felt by folks living comfortably in the suburbs.
In Taylor’s songs streets are dark and rainy and, many times, more than vaguely threatening – but to the people who live there, it’s their life, nothing more and nothing less, and they make the best of it with what resources they can muster. That doesn’t mean they’re without hopes and dreams – and while those hopes and dreams might or might not ever be realized, they’re sometimes all they have. Much of the time it’s all that keeps them going. One of Eric’s greatest strengths as a songwriter is his ability to get inside these folks and translate what they’re feeling and experiencing into tunes that afford the listener – if even a small effort is made – a taste of that side of life.
Hollywood Pocketknife might well be the best album Eric has released in many years – and considering the consistent high quality of his work, that’s saying something. There’s a feeling of relaxed ease in the arrangements, coupled with his usual sharp focus on characters, events and emotions – everything fits together like it grew into a whole on its own, naturally. All of the songs are originals with the exception of three – “The Highway Kind” by Eric’s old friend, the late Townes Van Zandt; “A Matter of Degrees,” a fine song by Susan Lindfors; and the traditional Civil War era song “Rally ’Round the Flag,” poignantly offered with help from Steve Fromholz, Vince Bell and other friends, fittingly recorded on the 4th of July.
drawing: Donald Collins
“Carnival Jim and Jean” vividly evokes the struggles involved in relationships, present in any level of society – in this case between a man who knows nothing but working in a carnival, running whatever scam or hustle he needs to survive, and the woman who is yearning for more: “…Say the smell of cotton candy ’bout to make you sick – You won’t do no better without me…,” he tells her. The singer lists the woman’s faults, but admits “…Lord, I get lonesome when I can’t find her…”
“Postcards, 3 For A Dime” is another great relationship song, a skillfully woven two-sided conversation – she berates him for his drinking, saying “…I’m goin’ to find myself a decent man, and he’ll whip you if you come up there…” Locales with names like the Cotton Bottom Lounge and the Bamboo Club are made palpable by Eric’s narrative skills. The song ends with the man, writing a postcard to her from prison, admitting “…I’m doin’ six, straight six for interstate flight – I’m no damn good, I guess you’re right…”
“Olney’s poison and The Houston Blues” is a wonderful song filled with memorable characters and places that are made complete and real, even if they’re only mentioned by the images their names and descriptions evoke – it’s also an appreciative nod to Eric’s old friend, another great songwriter, David Olney. The melody and guitar line gently echo David’s song “Little Bit of Poison” (from Olney’s wonderful 1999 album Through A Glass Darkly).
Eric’s reading of Townes Van Zandt’s “The Highway Kind” is nothing short of brilliant – it’s an aching plea (I’d almost call it a prayer because of its sincerity and honesty) for the love and security all of us crave deep inside, feeling it just beyond our reach.
One of the most moving songs on the album is “Peppercorn Tree’”– the singer remembers his childhood and younger adult years, filled with good intentions and missteps, foolishness, heartfelt yearnings and good intentions. The memories are bittersweet, replete with hindsight that’s at least close to 20/20, but without regrets – there’s a gentle acknowledgement that life has been as good or better than was expected, even with its pitfalls and the stumbles that were made. The gratitude to the singer’s wife is quietly touching: “…She never asked about the river, the cane or molasses, This old hotrod boy wearin’ mirror sunglasses…she never asked about the trouble with Jackson Lee…,” painting an affirming picture of the gift of unconditional love. The song concludes with an ambiguous image: “…Now she’s out there by the Peppercorn Tree…Yeah, she’s layin’ out there by the Peppercorn Tree…” – I’m left wondering if she’s alive or dead. In the afterglow of the song, though, it’s the expression of memories and feeling of contentment that lasts longer than anything else.
Eric provides his usual stellar guitar work and the perfect voice for his songs – he’s joined by Susan Lindfors (acoustic guitar and vocals – including an especially wonderful job on “A Matter of degrees”), David Webb (keyboards), Eric Demmer (alto saxophone), Mathias Schneider (lap steel on ‘Better Man’), James Gilmer (percussion) and Rock Romano (bass, background vocals – he also engineered, mixed and mastered the recording at his Red Shack studio in Houston).
I think it’s safe to say that this is yet another Eric Taylor album that will never ‘grow old’ – the songs will age well, like fine wine. As the years go by, they’ll taste even better to our ears, revealing more with every listen.
This album isn’t scheduled to appear in stores in the US until January 2008 – but you can get it now by ordering it through Eric’s website, where you can also hear samples from this and Eric's other recordings.
Pass Hollywood Pocketknife up at your peril – it’s a treasure. It cuts to the bone.
Hollywood Pocketknife
(Blue Ruby Music)
Singer / Storyteller
by Jacques-Eric Legarde
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drawing: Donald Collins
A ranger pres de l'editions du cinquantenaire de On the Road, editee par Viking Press d'apres les rouleaux originaux, une autre grande galerie de personnages (avec leurs noms reels), de lieux et d'objets, en attendant le prochain album de Denice Franke.
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Hollywood Pocket Knife
Eric Taylor
2007
by Christy Claxton
www.peacefromtheporch.com
I would love to challenge Eric Taylor to write about Amy Winehouse. Can you just imagine how he could make us love this train wreck of a "superstar"? This man is a deep dark, gothic well of pain painted beauty. He delivers visual, direct lyrics supported by a trademark voice peppered with grit and a breathy vibrato that verges on tears for the singer and listener. In the case of "Hollywood Pocket Knife" he assumes the first person of his gritty characters as he weaves his visual, visceral stories of the lowdown in all of us. If you find yourself reacting in the adverse to Taylor's music, I'll ask you buck up and really listen because the one thing that keeps him at the top of his game as one of our best living songwriters is his compassion. It's in every song. In his lonely songs of deluded longing, his tales of the fringe (Carnival Jim and Jean). In his covers (Townes Van Zandt's "Highway Kind."). So let's talk about his covers. When he bookends a master songwriter – like Van Zandt – with his own tunes, there is no doubt that Eric Taylor is every bit an equal, if not just a little better at times. Most people cover Van Zandt tunes to boost their own credibility. Taylor does it because he really can.
"Hollywood Pocket Knife" weaves around the hopeless and the hopeful in a way that makes it o.k. to be who we are. "Better Man" lays down one of the best lines in contemporary folk music: "…The poor will forget what being poor's about/ But you got to keep the rich folks out…" It's the power of the political without preaching it in the typical folk/rant machine that tends to rise to the top of the pack. And that's something I don't get. I prefer Taylor's subtlety that makes me believe that I get to live in verisimilitude and actually make my own decisions when in fact, he's led me to his conclusion
drawing: Donald Collins
And finally, I'll overstate that Eric Taylor is one of my heroes; not only because of his mastery of the song, but because he did what I've wanted to happen for years, and years, and years. He gave Susan Lindfors' voice back to us. Most Taylor fans know Lindfors as the rock behind the music, the ever present backing vocal, booking agent and tour manager. But I've known Lindfors as a stunning songwriter and singer for over 15 years. But somewhere in the bullshit of the insulated, over-blown Austin music scene, she walked away and disappeared. I was so, so, saddened by that. Now, she's there, helping Taylor make music with her song, "Matter of Degrees." She writes AND she sings. This is another very good reason to pick up this disc.
There aren't many certainties in music today, but Eric Taylor is definitely one of the very few. So thank you, Eric, for being a champion of great, great songwriting with genuine heart and soul.
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Hollywood Pocketknife
Blue Ruby 004
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Richly entwined in southern values, tangible imagery greater than life itself are portrayed by a man who has lived some. Coming from the fertile 1970s Texas' batch of singer-songwriters that included Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle and Robert Earl Keen preceded by older hands Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, who in combining folk and blues with country, brought an incredible amount of good stuff to the table (and still do), Taylor is meticulous with the honing of his art.
Following on from his album THE GREAT DIVIDE this assembled collection moves along like all his other work, measured to the zenith degree and with a small, tight ensemble of players in attendance (Susan Lindfors, David Webb, Eric Demmer, Mathias Schneider, James Gilmer and Rock Romano) plus guests on the grand finale piece Rally 'Round The Flag. Fittingly, recorded on July 4, it has fellow acts Vince Bell and Steven Fromholz share with him, lead vocals and family and friends lend harmony vocals as they give a fine version of the battle cry for freedom (also, with this being a special anniversary of the slave trade it has an even greater significance).
drawing: Donald Collins
Likewise, the spare and chilling Hollywood Pocketknife mystically spills forth as his lines carve out images - shaped from a Californian past. Olney's Poison And The Houston Blues, inspired by his good friend, David Olney, is another gem. Olney, another act whose work has rarely gained the attention it should, not only gives a name check or two during the song, but tenders guitar licks similar to Olney's. Who of course wrote a song called A Little Bit Of Poison and like Eric he too was a friend / admirer of the work of Townes Van Zandt, both remembering him by including one song from the master on their respective albums in recent years when going into the recording studio.
Eric this time going for Highway Kind, a sombre affair that, though not among my favourites from Townes, it does have a place both on this album and in the latter's catalogue. More to my liking being Taylor's own songs Postcards, 3 For A Dime and the epic tale The Peppercorn Tree, where, with the feeling of moving Eric's lyrics wrap around the mind of the listener. Lyrics to be soaked up like parched Texas earth does a shower of rain on a hot summer's day, going back to the lyrics of the song, it not only possesses the usual imagery of another era, but standard (for him) great lines of 'Another hot rod boy wearin' mirror sunglasses' and 'We had flathead Fords and honeysuckle vines' and there is more; lots more!
Singing well throughout and never dwelling too long on any one subject, Taylor allows his other half, Susan Lindfors to shine on her own song, A Matter Of Degrees - a beautiful, melancholy affair draped in subtle guitars / organ, with her finely honed, sweet singing voice proving an ideal contrast to Taylor's weathered tones. – MH