Music for Grownups: Chicago, Railroad Earth
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | Date Posted: 2008-06-24
Richard Gehr is a veteran music critic based in New York City. His reviews for AARP.org appear every Tuesday; his columns on Thursdays.
Chicago
"Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus"
Rhino
When Chicago's record label rejected this album, slated to be "Chicago XXII," in 1993, the band stuffed it in a drawer and went on with its career elsewhere. Bored with recording album after album of increasingly generic rock ballads written by hired hands, Chicago created "Sisyphus" themselves, and their enthusiasm is apparent from the opening title track's first fiery horn riffs. The group's secret funky side appears in the ethnically curious "Mah-Jong," and singer Robert Lamm manages some not-totally-embarrassing rap verses in "Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed." Ironically, radio-friendly rock balladry gets lighter-worthy in "Bigger Than Elvis" and "Here With Me (A Candle for the Dark)." But maybe what really irked the execs were tracks such as "Plaid" and "The Show Must Go On," whose lyrics about dissatisfied artists definitely nip at the corporate hand—the same corporate entity, incidentally, now releasing the band's lost album 15 years later.
Railroad Earth
"Amen Corner"
SCI Fidelity
It's impossible not to hear echoes of the Grateful Dead's bluegrass- inspired "American Beauty" in the lilting melodies and effortless musicianship of this youngish New Jersey sextet. Recorded in singer- songwriter Todd Schaeffer's 300-year-old farmhouse, the band's excellent fourth studio album, following its terrific 2006 live release, "Elko," combines first-rate picking with warmly burnished tunes. Bands rarely sound as comfortable in their collective skin as these guys do in tracks such as "Been Down This Road" and "Right in Tune," which celebrate the joys of domestic tranquility. Elsewhere, they turn in a horn-driven, Band-like rave-up in "Hard Livin'," descend deep into the depths of bluegrass despair in "All Alone," and pick up a storm in "Lonecroft Ramble." Amen indeed.
"Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus"
Rhino
When Chicago's record label rejected this album, slated to be "Chicago XXII," in 1993, the band stuffed it in a drawer and went on with its career elsewhere. Bored with recording album after album of increasingly generic rock ballads written by hired hands, Chicago created "Sisyphus" themselves, and their enthusiasm is apparent from the opening title track's first fiery horn riffs. The group's secret funky side appears in the ethnically curious "Mah-Jong," and singer Robert Lamm manages some not-totally-embarrassing rap verses in "Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed." Ironically, radio-friendly rock balladry gets lighter-worthy in "Bigger Than Elvis" and "Here With Me (A Candle for the Dark)." But maybe what really irked the execs were tracks such as "Plaid" and "The Show Must Go On," whose lyrics about dissatisfied artists definitely nip at the corporate hand—the same corporate entity, incidentally, now releasing the band's lost album 15 years later.
Railroad Earth
"Amen Corner"
SCI Fidelity
It's impossible not to hear echoes of the Grateful Dead's bluegrass- inspired "American Beauty" in the lilting melodies and effortless musicianship of this youngish New Jersey sextet. Recorded in singer- songwriter Todd Schaeffer's 300-year-old farmhouse, the band's excellent fourth studio album, following its terrific 2006 live release, "Elko," combines first-rate picking with warmly burnished tunes. Bands rarely sound as comfortable in their collective skin as these guys do in tracks such as "Been Down This Road" and "Right in Tune," which celebrate the joys of domestic tranquility. Elsewhere, they turn in a horn-driven, Band-like rave-up in "Hard Livin'," descend deep into the depths of bluegrass despair in "All Alone," and pick up a storm in "Lonecroft Ramble." Amen indeed.
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