CD Review – Levandoski

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/08/2009 (6213 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ALANA LEVANDOSKI

LIONS & WEREWOLVES (BLUE LILY/EMI)

KELWOOD singer-songwriter Alana Levandoski first caught the attention of music critics, and the public at large, with her acclaimed debut, Unsettled Down, in 2005.

In 2008, renowned U.K. producer Ken Nelson (Coldplay, Snow Patrol) left his comfortable Liverpool home to visit chilly Manitoba and record Levandoski in her own environment: a snow-encrusted 100-year-old church in the shadow of Riding Mountain National Park. The exquisite result is Lions & Werewolves.

There is much here for fans of her folkie debut. The pensive Song for a Cougar and powerful Thine the Glory are both outstanding examples of Levandoski’s skilful songwriting. There is also plenty to attract new fans. First single, Red Rover, is a driving rocker. Both Mercy (influenced by tragic stories from Winnipeg’s North End) and Dangerous One forge new paths into a dark and foreboding place filled with tension thanks to the fiery guitar of Doc Walker’s Murray Pulver. His expressive string-bending plays a commanding role in the disc’s overall sound but ultimately, it is Levandoski’s exceptional writing and soaring angelic vocal that makes one eagerly anticipate where she will lead us.

Levandoski refers to her latest as an evolution, but it also displays a bit of revolution as she confidently forges ahead while maintaining key elements that endeared her to many in the first place. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö

— Bruce Leperre

POP AND ROCK

ELVIS PRESLEY

FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS (RCA/LEGACY/SONY)

THE King of Rock ‘N’ Roll spent most of the 1960s making bad movies, returning to the concert stage for the famous ‘68 Comeback Special. Following the television event, he got back to his roots, recording in Memphis for the first time in 13 years.

The sessions with producer/engineer Lincoln “Chips” Moman were an enormous success with (then) modern-day flourishes like strings and horns added to Presley’s mix of rock, soul, country and gospel. These dates generated the hits In the Ghetto, Suspicious Minds, Don’t Cry Daddy and Kentucky Rain.

On From Elvis in Memphis the King sounds positively rejuvenated — like Clambake never happened — and his joyfulness comes through the speakers loud and clear.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the recording, the original album has been expanded to a two-disc set to include every song produced at the time, along with Back in Memphis (originally released later that year) and mono versions of all the singles.

Elvis would go on to Las Vegas later than year to kick off the final stage of his career. Many more studio and live albums were to come, but none equal of this collection, an essential recording for Presley fans. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö

— Rob Williams

RAY DAVIES

THE KINKS CHORAL COLLECTION (UNIVERSAL/DECCA)

THE influential music of the Kinks has been covered by countless artists in almost every genre imaginable, but this might be the least essential.

Kinks leader Ray Davies initially hooked up with the 65-member Crouch End Festival Chorus for a BBC show in 2007 before inviting them to the studio to rework some of his band’s beloved catalogue.

He really shouldn’t have.

The choral interpretations only work sporadically, mostly on slower numbers like Days and Waterloo Sunset. Mainly the choir sounds out of place as background wallpaper and doesn’t add anything when the tempo picks up on songs like You Really Got Me, Victoria and All Day and All of the Night.

It’s an interesting experiment that’s good for a listen or two, but fans will find themselves pulling out the originals soon enough. ‘Ö’Ö

— RW

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

LIVE FROM AUSTIN TX (NEW WEST)

ATHENS, Ga.’s Drive-By Truckers are good in the studio, but anyone who has witnessed them live knows nothing can beat seeing the southern rock/roots sextet in the flesh. Fortunately, the band’s new live offering also features a DVD of their Austin City Limits appearance last year.

Main songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley get equal time to showcase their tunes (with bassist Shonna Tucker even getting a turn on the mic) during the 13-track, 82-minute set. With three songwriters, the material ranges from mid-tempo twang like Perfect Timing to the balls-out rock of 3 Dimes Down and Puttin’ People on the Moon. The set climaxes with a 12-minute version of 18 Wheels of Love, the true story of how Hood’s mother and stepfather met, and another autobiographical tale, Let There Be Rock.

It might not be the dream set for a Drive-By Truckers fan, and it’s not even the best live album they’re released, but it’s perfect snapshot of the current lineup and a teaser to get out and see them in action ASAP. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

— RW

JEFF HEALEY

SONGS FROM THE ROAD (STONY PLAIN)

IT’S a bittersweet experience listening to the new Jeff Healey album. On one hand fans will be thrilled to hear the late Toronto blues-rocker — who died of cancer last year — tearing through these 11 cuts with his regular passion and enthusiasm, but there will also be a tinge of sadness knowing they will never get to see him again.

The live album was recorded at three different shows in 2006 and 2007. They are all covers, but songs like I Think I Love you Too Much (written by Mark Knopfler) and Angel Eyes (John Hiatt) are so associated with Healey you forget he didn’t write them. Along the way he also adds his spin on Robert Johnson’s Stop Breaking Down, the Beatles’ Come Together and While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Cream’s White Room. Randy Bachman joins Healey for a seven-minute version of Willie Dixon’s Hoochie Coochie Man and gets a shout out for his solo.

It’s not a greatest hits set, but more of a celebration of Healey’s influences and his considerable skills, skills that will be missed. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— RW

FOLK

THE WAILIN’ JENNYS

LIVE AT THE MAUCH CHUNK OPERA HOUSE (OUTSIDE)

THIS disc offers an aural snapshot of the growth of the Winnipeg roots trio just before they went into hibernation at the end of last summer.

Nine of the 14 tracks, recorded in concert in small-town Pennsylvania, have not appeared on either of the Jennys’ two previous studio albums. Most notable are the muscular arrangement of the traditional Celtic tune Bold Riley, with Ruth Moody’s wistful soprano as the lead vocal, and mezzo Nicky Mehta’s haunting interpretation of the Jane Siberry tune Calling All Angels.

New member, Brooklyn-based Heather Masse (who replaced Annabelle Chvostek in 2007), is represented with two self-penned tunes and applies her confident alto to the lead in a couple of others.

The Jennys give their angelic harmonies full flight on covers of Emmylou Harris’s Deeper Well, Gillian Welch’s One More Dollar, even Gershwin’s Summertime and the old spiritual Motherless Child. Former Winnipegger Jeremy Penner’s fiddle and mandolin accompaniment adds depth and richness throughout.

If there’s a weakness, it’s the sense of preciousness and over-calculation the Jennys have always displayed, but this will not bother their devoted fan base. They are expected to be back in the saddle in early 2010, possibly with Mehta’s newest production, twin boys, in tow. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö

–Morley Walker

CLASSICAL

BAMBERGER SYMPHONIKER, JONATHAN NOTT

JANáCEK: SINFONIETTA; TARAS BULBA (TUDOR)

THE brief kernels of Moravian folk material that pervade Leos Janácek’s music rarely make for what one would call melody, especially when so often idiosyncratically set; but as usual with this popular pairing, you’re completely drawn into the composer’s uniquely individual world where a complete story stands before you, the music alone carrying it forward without an anonymous note.

Sinfonietta is Janácek’s most famous work, a real showpiece of brass, exuberance and patriotic pride over the forming of the newly created Czechoslovak State. Taras Bulba is more programmatic but no less vivid, its subject based on Gogol’s telling of the deaths of the Ukrainian Cossack leader and his two sons. Rounding out the album is a warmly lyrical orchestral suite from Janácek’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen.

These are excellent readings in terrific SACD sound and a special recommendation if you’re new to this phenomenal composer. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö

–James Manishen