Photo: MJStringer Photography
Cloth: Self Released
"It's pretty dark, but that's the way it is sometimes," Stefan scribed in a note that came with the CD. Sure enough, it opens with the folky, stark-realities-are-depressing Bad Year for Clowns.
Though there are lyrical themes of a tough life throughout the 15 tracks, the bulk of the tunes are upbeat and catchy. And since its Stefan George, there's magnificent blues guitar playing on each track - four of them are just him singing and rocking his ax. On the other 11 tracks, local rock stars contribute their talents (hi Lavinia White, Rosano Brothers, Jimmy Carr, Craig Schumacher, Bobby Kimmel, Tom Rhodes, Kevin Schramm, Brendan Dance, William W. Don Carlos).
I deeply love more than half the tracks on this album and I also deeply love it when Stefan's voice gets all Tom Waits gravelly-like.
I'm partial to the more upbeat stuff, so with that in mind, the highlights include: Pissin' at the Moon - a nice ditty with playful horns by the Crawdaddy-O kids; Lucky 13 songs about bad-ass sinners are always cool, includes tasty harp by Schumacher. Grooved and Rutted drunk, bluesy, more sinner fun! Crazy One-Eyed Moon, God Damn the Things A Man Can't Change (yowza!), God Protect Our Hope and Bier Ohne Liebe.
This one goes in heavy rotation! Pick it up for yourself at the CD release party on Saturday, February 20 at Plush. It is also available at 17th Street Market, Folk Shop and CDBaby.com.
