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Tuesday, September 18, 2001
Outside the box

VAN ZANDT TRIBUTE CD STRIKES THE RIGHT NOTE
   VARIOUS ARTISTS
   "Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt" (FreeFalls)

   3 1/2 stars
   Forever linked with Texas music, singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt never had a hit record before his 1997 death. Throughout his career, though, his songs were covered by the biggest names in country music, so a tribute album done by those who admire him most makes a lot of sense.
   Great tribute albums are those on which the redone songs are consistent with the writer's spirit, but approached in a radically different manner - songs on which the writer's message is preserved while also reinterpreted. The best songs on "Poet" do just that.
   The Cowboy Junkies, who once toured with Van Zandt, do a dreamy version of "Highway Kind" that seems almost mystical, placing the song in a surreal context. Lucinda Williams' take on "Nothin'" is almost completely devoid of melody, stripping the song down to raw emotion. In Willie Nelson's hands, "Marie" is delivered dryly, with no drama, the only accoutrements being Nelson's lush voice and melodic guitar.
   Billy Joe Shaver, Emmylou Harris, Robert Earl Keen, Steve Earle and others also contribute.

   FOLDS' SOLO DEBUT HAS RHYTHMS RIPE FOR RADIO
   BEN FOLDS
   "Rockin' the Suburbs" (Epic)

   3 stars
   Ben Folds knows where his audience lives, and his solo debut doesn't reach far from the direction he led his former band, the Ben Folds Five. But that's definitely not a bad thing for those who appreciate Folds' brand of jingly pop songs - heavy on the piano, rich in melody and lyrically interesting.
   What's surprising is how much of album seems ready for radio. Playing nearly all the music himself, Folds brings lots of rhythm and up-tempo music to his new record, giving energy to what otherwise may have been too-somber songs.
   DJ Swamp drops some extra beats on "Rockin' the Suburbs," a funny and even poignant tongue-in-cheek mockery of bands dominated by angry, white males. Just hearing Folds' imitation of Fred Durst's vocals is worth the cost of the album.

   MILWAUKEE NATIVE CAL OFFERS WEAK HIP-HOP
   COO COO CAL
   "Disturbed" (Tommy Boy)
   One-half star
   If listeners do indeed end up eating up Coo Coo Cal like Cocoa Puffs it will be yet another sign of extremely poor taste in hip hop. While this Milwaukee-native's attempt to put another Midwestern city on the hip-hop map (as Nelly did for St. Louis, as Eminem did for Detroit) is laudable, his rhymes and beats are, unfortunately, not.
   Cal's army of guest rappers makes it hard to tell which voice is his and which belong to his homies, most of the beats are dull and the chorus to almost every track is sung in the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony-style no one needs to be reminded of. "Dedication" seems fresh and funky, but tracks like "Freak Nasty," "Do You Wanna Ride" and most others are embarrassingly bad.
   - Staff writer Brendan Walsh

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