Amos Lee's 'As the Crow Flies' EP showcases Lee's gentle soulfulness.
(Credit: AP)
Listen Up: Kevin Gordon, Amos Lee, Mitch Ryder
This week in music
By Jerry Shriver, Elysa Gardner, Steve Jones and Brian Mansfield, USA TODAY
February 13, 2012
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- Critic's Rating:
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The sheer brilliance of the lyrics to Colfax/Step in Time alone justifies a top rating for the first album in seven years from this Southern-raised poet/rocker. Gordon sketches a not-so-simple portrait of a junior-high marching band on a bus trip, and every single image feels, tastes, smells and sounds absolutely true. Oh, and Pecolia's Star — about a quilter! — is nearly as fine.
- Critic's Rating:
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Arriving just over a year after Lee's superb Mission Bell, this EP showcases six tracks recorded during sessions for that album. The songs are alternately haunting and comforting in their rootsy grace; if none seem like mistaken omissions from Bell, all are executed with the gentle soulfulness that distinguishes Lee from so many other latte-generation troubadours
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Saxophonist Whalum delivers a beautifully seductive valentine by remaking the revered 1963 standards album John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman and adding a handful of contemporary ballads. His brother Kevin's urbane vocals are warm and heartfelt, and Whalum respectfully updates the six arrangements.
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Ryder doesn't go full throttle like his old band, the Detroit Wheels, on his first U.S. album since 1983. Instead, it features midtempo rock 'n' soul, including a live cover of Jimmy Ruffin's What Becomes of the Broken Hearted. It's gritty and greasy, but lines like "My child will have doctors; my child will have good schools" from the title track bring the blues into everyday life.
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