New album: Individually Wrapped
Artist: RC & The Moon Pie Band
Label: RCMP Records
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
RC & The Moon Pie Band hail from Green Swamp, N.C., and play the kind of music you’d hope would come out of a place called Green Swamp.
These guys are adept at rock and roll, soul and R&B, but the blues is at the heart of everything on “Individually Wrapped.” While it’s tough to carve out any kind of originality in the blues genre, R.C. & The Moon Pie Band have done so by treating the blues as a current form instead of an ancient one.
Like Jimmy Vaughn or Robert Cray, RC & The Moon Pie Band know the value of a good song and have worked up some great material. “Sweet Tooth” is about as subtle as a jackhammer, but it’s effective nonetheless. A superb reworking of the Prince classic “Kiss” may be the best cover to date of any of the Purple One’s work, and if given any kind of promotion could be a hit.
Lead singer Robert Christian has a jovial voice that falls somewhere between Cray and early B.B. King. There’s just the right amount of juke joint in his delivery, but Christian never relies on the overused blues motifs that so many singers fall back on. Guitarist Robert Marlowe is a versatile player, shining the brightest on the uptown swing of “Country Girl.” Drummer T-Bone Betourney and bassist Mike Logiovion never stray from the pocket, giving Christian and Marlowe a solid outline to color.
RC & The Moon Pie band are clearly out to entertain, and with this collection of high quality originals (including a hidden track that offers tributes to N.C. ladies Pam Grier and Jaime Pressly) they do just that.
For more information, visit http://www.reverbnation.com/rcandthemoonpieband.
Classic album: 20th Century
Artist: Pierre Boulez
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
In commemoration the 90th birthday of conductor/composer Pierre Boulez comes “20th Century,” a 44-disc box set of his complete Deutsche Grammophon recordings.
This massive, beautifully packaged an annotated set is divided into sections based on the composer. For instance, discs 1-8 are dedicated to performances of Bartok while other sections cover Ravel, Varese, Stravinsky, Webern, Boulez and Debussy among others. While it’s probably impossible to assemble a definitive collection of classical music, “20th Century” is undoubtedly a spectacular introduction.
Performed by such respected orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berliner Philharmoniker, Boulez displays a masters touch throughout. His ability to inhabit others material as if it were his own is evident throughout, but especially on the volatile Varese material. Anyone who sort of knows what they’re doing can wave a stick at an orchestra and make a piece by Schoenberg sound impressive, but guiding a group of temperamental musicians who only want to play greatest hits through something as challenging as “Ionisation” is no small feat.
“20th Century” is a massively impressive collection, both audibly and physically. Classical music novices and snobs alike should enjoy this monumental release.
Jon Dawson’s books available at www.jondawson.com. Email him at jon@thirdofnever.com.