KATE CAMPBELL: Rosaryville(Compass) The quote from Flannery
O'Connor on the cover of Kate Campbell's fourth and latest album reads, "Art
is something that one experiences alone and for the purpose of realizing in
a fresh way, through the senses, the mystery of existence." Campbell's
music, finely-crafted folk and country-rock songs featuring richly peopled
narratives, rises to that high standard. Often compared to Nanci Griffith
and Mary Chapin Carpenter, Campbell creates music that's sweet and strong,
her voice true. As the title Rosaryville suggests, Campbell expresses
a spirituality influenced by the Roman Catholic tradition, writing of women
and men who've found something to hold on to, a faith in God that sustains
against the harshness of life. Especially moving are her tales of a woman
making Cuban cigars and dreaming of her reunited family, and a man who
creates a rosary of bowling balls in his garden. Songwriters of this depth
and sensitivitiy are rare. -- Brian Quincy NewcombMULEHEAD: The Gospel Accordion II (HTS) Mulehead plays rock
and roll with a decidedly rootsy, country-garage vibe, hinting at "no
depression" musical values that is not too far from the likes of the
Violent Femmes and Southern Culture on the Skids. Singer
Kevin Kerby's view of Southern life includes surreal dichotomies: in his
town there's a Baptist church just past the liquor store, and life is lived
"between the Holy Spirit and a good buzz." Dominated by party songs and
drunken lost-love ditties, Gospel Accordion also reflects on the
spiritual aspects of everyday crises of the heart. "Glad to Be Here" seeks
to take pleasure in life itself despite one's existence seeming so
temporary. "Pilate" finds the Roman governor telling his own story about
offering his own version of Jesus' crucifixion-- (from hell, of course). And
"Get Thee Behind Me Satan" looks at the problem of evil in practical terms:
you never quite get what you bargained for. Add to these the comical "Cheap
Red Wine" and "When the Dope Ran Out (So Did She)," and you've got yourself
a real slice of American life. -- Brian Q. Newcomb
ERIC CLAPTON: Clapton Chronicles: The Best of Eric Clapton
(Reprise) This isn't "the best of Eric Clapton," obviously -- it's the
hits of Eric Clapton, 1985-1998. Those who've forgotten that Clapton
had hits from '85 to '89 will be reminded of why they forgot: for all their
stadium-sized hooks, "Pretending," "Forever Man," and "It's in the Way That
You Use It" testify to the difficulty of translating the music of an artist
known for his blues power and Tulsa shuffle into high-tech bombast. On the
other hand, the hits from '92 to '98 testify just as persuasively to the
capacity of cushiony pop to accommodate hard-won maturity. Only the
terminally adolescentFew will fail to hear "My Father's Eyes" and "Tears in
Heaven" as the humble attempts to come to grips with Larger Issuesto hope
and reach for meaning. that they are, and eEven the two new cushiony-pop
songs sound like more than afterthoughts. What doesn't is the Bo Diddley
cover and the unplugged "Layla." And ifIf only Warner Bros. had gone back
to '83, they could've included "I've Got a Rock n' Roll Heart." --
Arsenio Orteza