News Home Page

There were quite a few releases in 2007 that we meant to share with our readers but, for one reason or another, we never got around to it. Here are some of the best of the them:

LOCAL

B "For the First Times"

Gary Spizzirri

Self-released

The postmaster of the Vista post office, Gary Spizzirri also released an album of pop standards. Covering a broad swath of the pop canon, Spizzirri sings in front of a big band ("Beyond the Sea," "Under My Skin"), a small jazz combo with strings ("You Don't Know Me") and a standard rock band ("Before You Accuse Me"). The arrangements are solid, echoing a sort of Jack Jones/Barry Manilow vibe, and Spizzirri has a pleasant singing voice, with a nice sense of presence and splendid timing. The album suffers a bit from a heavy-handed echo effect on Spizzirri's vocals that gives it a weird '80s sound. Overall, though, a nice surprise, and an album one hopes Spizzirri follows up with a more active performance schedule in 2008.

A "Lost and Anonymous"

Colin Armstrong

Self-released

Although now living up in L.A. working whatever music biz connections he has, Colin Armstrong is a native San Diegan who relocated only a few months ago. What is apparently his debut CD arrived in the office last summer, and quickly grabbed our ears with its upbeat, melodically intoxicating power pop. We kept waiting for him to schedule a live show so we could interview him, but that never happened. Still, "Lost and Anonymous" has never moved far from our CD-ROM drive, and has made repeated visits to the active playlist in iTunes. Intelligent lyrics, strong singing voice, decadent melodies ---- it's adult pop for the young at heart, is what it is. If those L.A. connections work out, ear candy like "Touch," "Brand New Day" or "Same Old Story" may well end up all over your radio.

A "Talk Memphis"

Toni Price

Antone's Records

Longtime Austin, Texas, blues scene fixture Toni Price relocated to Oceanside in the fall of '07, shortly after releasing her latest album on the late Cliff Antone's blues label. "Talk Memphis" has the same addictive mixture of blues and rock that got her AAA radio airplay with her 1993 debut, "Swim Away." Surrounded by Austin stalwarts George Rains (drums) and Derek O'Brien (guitar), and tackling material from songwriters such as Isaac Hayes, Allen Toussaint, Jesse Winchester and longtime collaborator Gwil Owen, the 13 tracks here alternately smolder and sizzle ---- with Price honing the intensity of her vocals, somehow taking the emotional abandon of Janis Joplin and focusing it to a fine edge. Amazing stuff ---- here's hoping against hope that she becomes a regular on the local scene.

B "Music for the Hearing Impaired"

Corporate Circus

Supersonic Music

From its MySpace page, it would seem that Corporate Circus has moved back to Indiana, but the band relocated en masse to San Diego for at least part of 2007, ending up with a song on the "San Diego Soundscape" music compilation issued by the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau to lure tourists to town. While here, the band also issued its third CD, "Music for the Hearing Impaired," a hard-driving bit of radio-friendly alternative rock. The band shows a nice touch at creating a sense of dramatic tension in its songs, and Ryan Bettinger has a bigger-than-life delivery on lead vocals. The only thing lacking is that one song that could turn into a bona fide hit.

B "Sound Check Two: Music From UC San Diego"

Various artists

UCSD Department of Music

Wildly experimental, this compilation from the UCSD Department of Music sounds like what you'd get if you turned a bunch of incredibly talented college students loose in a state-of-the-art recording studio. Ranging from a 12-and-a-half-minute-long solo percussion piece to a six-piece chamber take on a song by former Rancid drummer Brett Reed to a solo trombone interpretation of Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, the CD veers from the utterly fascinating to the barely listenable. Still, it's a neat snapshot of the local avant-garde. (Available from music.ucsd.edu.)

B+ "Beat.itude Revisited" (DVD)

Chuck Perrin

Webster's Last Word Records

Chuck Perrin, owner/manager of San Diego jazz club Dizzy's, reunited his Beat.itude co-horts last year to remake their 1994 CD into a live performance DVD. It's a relaxed, warm and yet still very engaging set of jazz-rock fusion with a slight Latin tinge to it. Perrin plays guitar and sings, and has a soft voice not so different from that of Michael Franks, giving the songs a folky feel. The rest of the band, though, is firmly ensconced in the jazz world, and is world-class. Bob Magnusson, Tom Aros, Duncan Moore, Daniel Jackson, Mitch Manker, Arthur Fisher, Dave Curtis and Patrick Armenta combine with Perrin to make this a sort of San Diego all-star combo. The video production is solid, the sound outstanding.

BLUES

A "Handful of Rain"

Neal Black & the Healers

DixieFrog Records

Since the deaths of Screaming Jay Hawkins and John Campbell, Neal Black has been king of the voodoo blues. Dark, occult themes have always resided in Black's songs, and "Handful of Rain" is no different, with tales of New Orleans black magic running throughout the album. But even a quick listen will prove that Black's much more than just a novelty figure in the underground of the blues. Black's incendiary guitar work and powerful singing place him among the most powerful straddlers of blues and rock going, Ronnie Earl and Johnny Winter. With his distinctive, Howlin' Wolf-inflected singing voice and his Stevie Ray Vaughan-styled lead guitar both matched to his mix of otherworldy and overtly political lyrics, Black is one of the most intriguing listens in the blues today. (Available from bluesweb.com.)

A- "Wild Animal"

Tiger Gagan

6161 Records

Opening with a Ronnie Earl-like blues riff on Elmore James' "Pickin' the Blues," the relatively unknown Tiger Gagan leads his blues trio through some of the hottest Southwestern-flavored blues you'll ever hear outside of Texas. (Gagan is based out of that noted blues hotbed, Nashville.) Invoking inevitable comparisons to everyone from the renowned Earl to Don Leady of the Tail Gators, from Los Straitjackets to Atlanta's Reddog, Gagan displays both supremely impressive technical virtuosity and impeccable taste. The man (photos on his Web site indicate he's closer to a grayback than cub) absolutely knows which notes to play to get the feeling he's looking for, and never lets a desire to impress get in the way. Bending notes while simultaneously picking them like a claw-hammer banjo player, Gagan has created an album that's as much fun to listen to as anything heard in '07. (Available from CDBaby.com.)

A

"... en Duo"

Dawn Tyler Watson & Paul Deslauriers

Justin Time Records

This is the album that Alison Krauss' and Robert Plant's "Raising Sand" should have been but wasn't: two deeply heartfelt, often soaring vocalists meshing their instruments into a single voice. The irony is that Montreal's Dawn Tyler Watson and Paul Deslauriers even tackle Plant's own "Going to California" from his Led Zeppelin days, and remake it into something distinctive and wonderful. Krauss and Plant never come up with anything nearly this good on their own recently released collaboration. Zeppelin isn't even the only rock icon they remake; they also tackle W.C. Clark's "Cold Shot" (made most famous by Stevie Ray Vaughan), Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" and the Beatles' "Come Together," in each case coming up with something new and fresh. It's a relaxed, easy listen throughout ---- the playing is never hurried, or even particularly urgent. Rather, the intensity of the performance comes through in the emotions the two singers convey via their voices.

A- "Katrina Was Her Name"

Bryan Lee

Justin Time Records

Guitarist Bryan Lee is from New Orleans, and his 2007 tribute to his town's recent travails and spirit was purely blues a la the Crescent City ---- which means the blues mixed up with R&B and soul and Caribbean rhythms; blues like that played by Allen Toussaint and Dr. John and Professor Longhair. Give pianist Bruce Katz much of the credit for the gently loping swing to this album, but Lee's incisive guitar and warmly rough-hewn vocals are responsible for most of the charm here. Lee also wrote four of the 13 songs, and they stand up nicely alongside covers of everyone from Willie Dixon and Doc Pomus to Kim Wilson and Jimmy Witherspoon.

JAZZ

B+ "Live at the Stain Bar" (DVD)

Quartet of Happiness

Self-released

Free-form yet swinging, this DVD captures a loosely knit jazz theater ---- telling a story through acting and music. The Boston-based Quartet of Happiness is led by Rick Stone and Kelly Roberges on alto and tenor saxes on twin leads, with bass and drums behind them. Despite being a homemade video of the young quartet playing in what appears to be a tiny storefront cafe, this DVD captures the fun both the quartet and their small but appreciative audience had with their evening of performance-art jazz (what the band calls "a theatrical jazz experience"). From chasing a monster to manning a fire engine while battling a blaze, the storytelling through music feels like a very modern take on Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" as filtered through Ornette Coleman. (Available from quartetofhappiness.com.)

POP/ROCK

A+

"Cut From the Hopeless"

Amy Pickard & the Cradlers

Self-released

What a remarkable treasure this CD from Amy Pickard is ---- she found us on MySpace and asked if she could send us her CD. Beautifully combining lovely songs with exquisite lyrical poetry to as gorgeous a singing voice as exists, Pickard's debut is a seamless melding of jazz-styled singing atop bluegrass playing. Making it as close to musical perfection as exists, those remarkable songs and lovely voice are backed by a stripped-down but perfectly arranged traditional band. Amy Pickard is an undiscovered treasure for all but those lucky Philly music fans who get to check her out in person and those who have found her CD. Think Norah Jones sitting in with Alison Krauss' band and you get sort of a feel for the flavor of this release. (Available from CDBaby.com.)