MARCH/APRIL 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE BNobody’sUDDY MILLER Daughter [Universal] The Majestic Silver Strings [New West] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is Despitereally a long run of stellar albums as a solo artist and with his wife, Julie, frontwoman Courtney Love’s second solo album—co-founder,Buddy Miller’s reputation as super sideman to artists like Robert Plant, songwriter and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin and others tends to overshadow nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andhis three own work. He has it both ways on his star-studded latest, enlisting top- ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wroteshelf with guitarists Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot and Greg Leisz for some adventurous collaborators like Billy Corgan,reworking Linda of Perry classic and newcountry tunes. Roger Miller’s goofball hit “Dang Me” is guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) transformed into a dark, brooding tale of dissipation with Ribot’s noisy ambient Much of the riveting intensity of the group’s 1990s heyday appears to haveguitars left along and with a vocal her former by Chocolate Daniel Jackson Genius—think Spike Jones by way of Chuck bandmates, but there are fl ashes here of the snarling Too often, though, the slower songs trip her up. While once fury Love deployed to suchPalahniuk. devastating The effect instrumental back in the day. standard they were “Freight showcases Train” for isharrowing given adisplays sprightly of naked groove emotion, She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsmarked roiling atop by anMiller’s elastic trademarkbassline that tremolo,doesn’t help—the and Eddy songs Arnold’s have an airless, “Cattle sanded-down Call” is setfeel that speeds up as the song races toward a climatic pile-up at the doesn’t fi t with her visceral persona. Courtney Love’s tumultuous end. She shifts tempos andagainst attitude a on landscape the more contemplative of ambient history guitars. suggests Colvin that she joins has witha compelling Leisz’ storyhoneyed to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”pedal taking stocksteel as onlayers Merle of acoustic Haggard’s and perhaps “That’s she does.the It’sWay just notLove the oneGoes,” she’s tellingand onHarris Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton delivers a dreamy rendition of Stonewall Jackson’s “Why I’m Walkin.’” –BC COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to Dixie Chicks’ Martie crafting something truly monumental in both musical and social terms. Court Yard Hounds Maguire and Emily This cold and private set isn’t it, although that’s probably due more to [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright Hounds delivers wrote All Days Are Nights while his mother, Kate McGarrigle, was much-anticipated dying of cancer, and there is a quiet, complex sadness even in its insight—both musical and personal—into the sisters who have less autobiographical material. There’s nothing here except piano for so long ceded center stage to Chicks singer Natalie Maines. and vocal, and Wainwright doesn’t project his words in the way Though steeped in familiar instrumentation, the album offers little we’ve come to expect from him. Instead of serenading the person of the barn-burning brashness that made the Chicks famous (save in the farthest corner of a packed theater, he’s singing to himself in perhaps the gutsy “Ain’t No Son”). Instead, its delicate folk-pop an otherwise empty room. –David Styburski prettiness perfectly suits Robison’s more-than-capable voice and the jumble of emotions, sunny and melancholy, that emerge in a song Ozomatli’s music has been called a collision cycle inspired by her 2008 divorce. Maguire’s weeping fi ddle and OZOMATLI of styles, a cultural mash-up, and a 20-car seamless harmonies are welcome as always, and her one turn on pileup of genres. It’s also some of the most ‘Miller’slead vocals (“Gracefully”) reputation is so warmly affecting as that super listeners may sideman tojoyfully energetic music you’ll ever hear. On wish she stepped to the mic more often. Court Yard Hounds ably its fi fth album, the L.A.-based band stirs its demonstrates that, whether with their fellow Dixie Chick or without, blend of salsa, ska, samba, funk, and hip-hop theseother ladies’ talentartists runs deep. –Katietends Dodd to overshadow his in ways few groups could conceive. Imagine Fire Away tossing the English Beat, Herb Alpert and the For a dozen years, the [Mercer Street/Downtown] Tijuana Brass, Caetano Veloso, and Sly and RUFUS arrangements on Rufus the Family Stone into a magical blender and own work. He hasWainwright’s it both albums ways got you get on some his sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points WAINWRIGHT busier and his sometimes on their latest, Fire Away, include “Are You Ready?,” a horn-and- All Days Are Nights: Songs naughty, occasionally percussion-driven blast of salsa-fl avored ska; “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,” for Lulu angry declarations of gay an exultant Latin pop anthem fi tted with shrieking sax; and “Gay Vatos latest[Decca] star-studdedpride got louder. Eachalbum.’ in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when

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