'Fitting Testaments to Both Harrison's Music and the Love and Loyalty

MARCH/APRIL 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS HOLE CNobody’sONCERT DaughterFOR GEORGE [Universal] [Rhino] The first album released under the Hole moniker BLU-RAYsince 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sThe home video presentation of 2002’s all-star salute to the late George second solo album—co-founder, songwriter and lead guitaristHarrison offers a case study in the difference between a great concert and a Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,great concert movie. Both the original DVD release and this lovingly rendered nor is any other previousnew Hole Blu-ray rendition include two discs: the first featuring the complete member. So it’s Love andshow three presented in chronological order, and the second offering the film as it ringers on 11 new songs—10 of which Love wrotewas with seen in theaters. The concert itself begins with more than a half hour of collaborators like Billy Corgan,Indian ragasLinda Perry composed and new in Harrison’s honor by his mentor, Ravi Shankar (as guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perrywell gets as full Jeff credit Lynne’s on one tune,rendition of Harrison’s own “The Inner Light”), followed “Letter to God.”) Much of the riveting intensityby a procession of the group’s of1990s artists singing Harrison’s songs with a crackerjack heyday appears to haveset left of along players with herwhipped former intoDaniel Jackson fighting form by bandleader Eric Clapton. 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 suchThe devastating film is effecta very back different in the day. experience.they were showcases The Indian for harrowing section displays of the of naked show emotion, is She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitarsconfined roiling atop toan elastica brief bassline interlude that indoesn’t the help—themiddle, songs the haveperformances an airless, sanded-down are broken feel that speeds up as the song upraces by toward interviews a climatic pile-upand atrehearsal the doesn’t footage, fi t with her visceraland persona.director Courtney David Love’s Leland tumultuous end. She shifts tempos andkeeps attitude everything on the more contemplativemoving along history at a suggests lively clip. that she The has artists a compelling involved story towere tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”all taking close stock friends as layers ofwith acoustic Harrison, and perhaps whose she does.Rolodex It’s just notluckily the one included she’s telling names on Nobody’s electric guitars chug along behind her. Daughter. –Eric R. Danton like Clapton, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. But the show is utterly COURT YARDstolen HOUNDS by the relativelyA side project little-known of new offering (in suggestedthe U.S., that at its least)creator wasEnglish a few strides singer closer to Sam Brown, Dixiewho Chicks’ hurls Martie her big,crafting bold something voice truly into monumental “Horse in both to musical the andWater” social terms. Court Yard Hounds Maguire and Emily This cold and private set isn’t it, although that’s probably due more to [Columbia] with abandon.Robison, Whichever Court Yard way personal you watch, circumstances the thanConcert anything relatedfor George to talent. Wainwright and Concert for GeorgeHounds aredelivers fitting wrote testaments All Days Are toNights both while Harrison’shis mother, Kate musicMcGarrigle, and was much-anticipated dying of cancer, and there is a quiet, complex sadness even in its insight—both musical andthe personal—into love and loyaltythe sisters he who engendered have less autobiographical among his material.very talented There’s nothing friends. here except– CN 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 lead vocals‘Fitting (“Gracefully”) is sotestaments warmly affecting that listeners mayto both joyfully 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 Harrison’sthese ladies’ talent runs deep. music –Katie Dodd and the love andin 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 loyalty he engenderedWainwright’s albums amonggot you get 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,” forvery Lulu talentedangry declarations friends.’ of gay an exultant Latin pop anthem fi tted with shrieking sax; and “Gay Vatos [Decca] pride got louder. Each in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when 70 MAY 2010 MARCH/APRIL 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE M3_v10.indd 70 5/14/10 3:37 AM.

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