By now it’s a familiar story: A street musician makes a series of low-fi cassette recordings, which somehow find their way to a label owner and on to a sea of adulation. Cliché or no, this happened to Houston-born DEVENDRA BANHART, who, three years down the road from his debut, has made his most satisfying album to date. On CRIPPLE CROW (XL) he leaves the minimalist acoustics of his first three recordings largely behind, favoring actual band arrangements. Thematically, it’s a grab bag, 22 memorable—and often inscrutable—songs, a handful of them in Spanish (Banhart was raised inVenezuela). He sings with a waver that somehow conveys both the menace of Roky Erickson and the tenderness of Nick Drake, while his music hints of everything from psychedelia to ragtime, all held together by the sheer force of his 24-year-old imagination. Reviewed by Jeff McCord
With BILLY JOE SHAVER, it’s a package deal. Along with the amiable stylings and songwriting genius that have attracted everyone from Tom T. Hall to Elvis Presley, you get the foibles: odd musical choices, a sincere but heavy-handed Christian didacticism, and substandard songs that play like a parody of, well, Billy Joe Shaver. There’s a bit of all this on THE REAL DEAL (Compadre), Shaver’s first proper studio album in three years. His chestnut “Live Forever” gets the anthemic treatment, with platinum hats Big & Rich joining in, and there’s an ill-conceived Nanci Griffith duet along with some funny songs that aren’t all that funny. Yet “There’s No Fool Like an Old Fool,” “Sweet Melody,” and the title track are three pieces of trademark Shaver magic. Judging by these, this old chunk of coal’s still got a lot of fire in him. Reviewed by Jeff McCord
Robert Glasper
Canvas
Blue Note Records
If there were a downside to ROBERT GLASPER’s inking a deal with Blue Note Records, it would be that he is the second Houston jazz pianist to be signed to the label, forced to follow the widely acclaimed Jason Moran. Glasper is a few years younger than Moran, and both were schooled in Houston’s hip-hop mecca. Yet they sound nothing alike. While Moran is incendiary, Glasper is melodic and playful. CANVAS impresses, though its modernity is not obvious; at first, the music seems rooted in a post-bop tradition. Glasper’s originality breaks through in unexpected ways: His compositions surprise, he turns a phrase on its head, accelerates when you expect the opposite. Neatly straddling the old and the new, Glasper could be another Oscar Peterson, if only Oscar had a few Mos Def albums in his collection. Reviewed by Jeff McCord
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