May December More Dull than Shocking

 

 

 

MAY DECEMBER (2023)

Directed by Todd Haynes

Netflix, 117 minutes, R (nudity, drugs, language, subject matter)

★★

 

May December is a Todd Haynes film based upon the true-life story of Mary Kay Letourneau in which she, a teacher, seduced 12-year-old student Vili Faulaau. When her crime was discovered, Letourneau was pregnant with their first child. She was sentenced to six years in prison for child-rape, which was reduced to 6 months on the condition she avoid contact with Faulaau. She violated her parole, was pregnant with their second child, and spent seven years in prison. She was 35 when she initiated sex with Faulaau, then a 6^th grader. The two married in 2005, shortly after she was released. They stayed wedded for 14 years until they divorced in 1999.

 

May December is a lightly veiled (in more ways than one) version of May Kay and Vili that relocates the affair from Washington State to Savannah, makes her student 13 instead of 12, and rechristens him as Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), who is Southeast Asian rather than Samoan. May Kay is fashioned as Gracie Atherton (Julianne Moore), who dumps her husband to play rockabye baby with Joe. Director Todd Haynes insisted that his movie was an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s Winter Light (1963) and Persona (1966). Yeah, and I’m Henry VIII, I am, I am.

 

The film was reviewed positively, won a few awards, and Melton was singled out for excellence as a supporting actor at various cinema festivals. Yet, it was a box office bomb that lost 75% of its $20 million budget. It seems that audiences found the content creepy, no matter what the critics said. I wasn’t offended by the subject matter nearly as much as I was bored. A very old movie adage holds that if you’re going to go over the top, go way over. May December could have been done as camp and it would have been a better movie.

 

A filmmaker corollary says that if you intend to make a serious film and you aren’t Ingmar Bergman, be sure to have something to say. I generally like Julianne Moore, but May December turns her into a fading magnolia rather than a MYOB spitfire. She just wants people to see her and Joe as good Georgia neighbors and community members. Fat chance when they have three biracial kids, one a college student and twins in high school. You can imagine the hazing they undergo from peers who know the deeper story. As we meet Joe, he’s a big hunk, a lunk, and blue-collar guy with a flat affect.

 

Into their lives comes a movie company wanting to film their story. Sure, there’s nothing like having a famous actress, Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) coming to town to “study” for her upcoming role to protect one’s privacy. Berry talks to people all over Savannah about the Yoo family. Surprise! Gracie is viewed as immoral, a bad role model, and a criminal. It doesn’t help that her ex-husband badmouths her and is happy to play the role of victim, which wasn’t quite the case. Joe is cast in a victim’s role, something Berry presses him on. Did he ever feel he was groomed? Was Joe too young in 6^th grade? Did Gracie took advantage of him? He contemplates the last question, though he mostly rejects it. In more candid moments he admits to having enjoyed the sex. I’ll bet; what 13-year-old boy wouldn’t wish to get up close and personal with Julianne Moore? But he’s flirting with 40 now. 

 

Melton is the best part of the film. He plays Joe as a dim-bulb who, apparently, hadn’t thought about these matters before. That stretches credulity, but Melton almost makes us believe it. If only he hadn’t bedded Elizabeth/Portman, the story would have been more believable. (They are the pair that has the steamiest sex in the film.) Even less believable is his instant guilt, which doesn’t jive with the boredom he displays toward Gracie. We know from later in the film that Gracie and Joe separate, just before Gracie (like Mary Kay) dies from cancer.

 

The Mary Kay Letourneau story is a sad one that should have made for a dramatic retelling. “Boredom” is a word one would never expect from such material.

 

Rob Weir

 

 

 

Bear With Me: Dan Horowitz and Human/Bear Interactions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEAR WITH ME: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF FAMOUS BEARS (2025)

By Daniel Horowitz

Duke University Press, 209 pages.

★★★★ ½

 

I was watching a movie a few nights ago when I got a warning from my neighborhood listserv that a large potentially dangerous bear had been seen in my neighborhood. I get these regularly and tend to ignore them. What am I supposed to do, lasso it? Besides, Massachusetts has black bears and I’m only in danger if I’m a blueberry bush or if I’m stupid enough to get between a sow and her cubs. Your encyclopedia of choice will tell you that black bears are omnivores, but that just means that an emaciated one might resort to eating road kill. If that’s me, they’re welcome to have a nibble.

 

Understanding how humans perceive bears has been done with more panache by Smith College professor emeritus Dan Horowitz in his newest book Bear With Me. To state bias upfront, Dan is a friend and former colleague. Among the things I admire about him is that he takes popular culture seriously. After all, a solid case could be made that popular culture is American culture. He wants to explore why bears are probably the most represented animal in our culture.  Some–white and brown bears like the polar, Grizzly, and Kodiak–are indeed potentially deadly. But is popular culture to blame for dangerous encounters?  Yesterday, I saw a little girl in a park hugging her Teddy Bear. I hope that her parents have taught her that Teddy is make-believe but wild bears should never be touched.

 

Horowitz opens with “Folkloric Bears and Actual Ones.” Is the lesson of Goldilocks that bears can harm you, or merely that you shouldn’t intrude upon the property of others? Horowitz draws upon global folklore wends his way into African- American tales to highlight the ambiguity: American culture doesn’t send clear distinctions between folkloric and humorous bears from “actual” ursids. How many colleges have friendly bear mascots? What do we do with Brer Bear, Garfield’s Pooky Bear, or Yogi Bear? Fat Bear Week videos from Alaska’s Katmai region give us bears snatching salmon from the air as if they are Joey Chestnut-like competitive eaters. Horowitz follows with tales of Hugh Glass, Grizzly Adams, and Timothy Treadwell to underscore the potential fury of bears, though he speculates that bears can be linked to Manifest Destiny, a manly conquest of obstacles embedded in the wild.

 

In chapter four he returns to children, specifically tales in which bears are personified: the Three Bears, Winnie-the-Pooh, Paddington Bear, Care Bears, and the Berenstain Bears. (The latter provide an opportunity to look at backdoor antisemitism.) His dissection of Grizzly Adams again sounds an alarm. The TV series and Adams’ penchant for giving bears human names gloss reality:  “Adams forgot that he was James Capen Adams and [the bears] were not Ben Franklin or Lady Washington but rather wild bears he apparently both loved and violently trained.” In 1858, one captive bear bit through Adams’ skull and into his brain. This ultimately proved fatal.

 

Horowitz often uses the word “domination” when it comes to human/bear interactions. He makes it explicit in “Captive Bears and Their Captors as Workers,” which looks at bruins in zoos, circuses, on TV, and in films and video games. Changing mores have sparked debates over whether captive animals are being denied their natural roles. This may seem obvious, but saying so has also empowered defenders of capture practices. Mark Dumas claims to have domesticated a polar bear; others have “rescued” cubs to “teach” them how to be wild. Horowitz does not use the word “enslavement,” but he implies it. He further pinpoint sthe central dichotomy between bears as veritable monsters– “Cocaine Bear,” for instance–versus “cuddly,” friendly bears. Horowitz takes a deeper dive on Teddy Bears and Smokey the Bear, each of whom has appeared as cuddly and scary. Are bears racialized? His comparison of bears to golliwogs deserves serious contemplation.

 

Although I understand why he went there, his separate chapter on bears and gay subcultures is cursory and could have been reworked and folded into his final chapter on “bears, humans, and dangerous eroticism.” But Horowitz is spot on to make the plight of Arctic polar bears his coda. This intriguing book will please both scholars for its meticulous documentation, and general readers, who will debate his vivid examples.

 

Rob Weir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

STAGE DOOR (1937)

Directed by Gregory La Cava

RKO, 92 minutes, Pre-ratings system

★★★★

 

Stage Door is often tagged as a tragicomedy. Although something quite sad happens to one of the characters, this Gregory La Cava-directed movie is heavier on the second half of that portmanteau. The movie followed the script of a play written Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman that closed the year before the movie appeared. It made money and garnered Oscar nominations, but it was one of increasingly rare incidences in which the play earned more money.

 

If you allow for the fact that this is a Great Depression-era film, your viewing pleasure will increase. It follows the constant flow of aspirant and briefly successful actresses in and out of a boarding house controlled by a booking agency. The cast is large and impressive, though the fame of many of the headliners would come later. This older movie definitely passes the Bechdel Test, as it is a film about women talking to women. Most of the men in the Stage Door are cads. If you know anything about (if not, consult Wikipedia) Ferber or Kaufman, you can count on a lot of barbed, acerbic, and funny badinage between boarding house residents. It’s the kind of movie that could be labeled “catty,” but these women are more predator tigers than domesticated tabbies.

 

The principals include Judy Canfield (Lucile Ball), a good-times gal; Kay Hamilton (Andrea Leeds), who was a star for a season who hasn’t had a part in ages and needs money; Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers), a sharp-tongued vixen prone to mean acts such as pilfering the silk stockings from Linda Shaw (Gail Patrick) and ruining what was likely an expensive gift from Linda’s beau, Anthony (Adolph Menjou). That was quite a nasty thing to do at a time in which good stockings sold for today’s equivalent of over $36.

 

There are several odd-fitting residents, including newbie Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn), who Maitland and her hangers-on ridicule for using big words, her fancy wardrobe, and her polished demeanor. They assume she comes from money, but that’s only partially true. Her father is loaded, but cuts off her allowance when she insists on pursuing a stage career. They don’t know who her father is, so they assume she has a “sugar daddy.” The implication of that term is that Terry is a “kept” woman who exchanges sex for fancy duds. The irony of this is that just about every woman in the boarding house, except Terry, yearns to have a boyfriend who will treat them. I will again remind you that this is a 1936 movie. In the film the women are “man-hungry” and the men know it. Boyfriends are generally older than their dates, are well-heeled, are clearly trying to bed them, and play musical conquests from among the boarding house population. It’s a mutual exploitation society of sorts. Many of the men are somehow connected to the theatre (directors, producers, underwriters, etc.) and the women are literally hungry as well as looking for a husband. Only Hattie (Phyllis Kennedy) has the chutzpah to date a butcher!

 

The other oddballs are Southern belle Mary Lou (Margaret Early), who finds out the New York isn’t Louisiana.  Ann Miller also has role as “Annie,” a fan-girl companion to Jean who dreams of being a dancer. (Miller succeeded in that quest, though she lied about her age and was just 14 when she scored a part in Stage Door.)

 

As you can see, Stage Door had what might be called an A-level cast: Ball, Hepburn, Miller…. At the time, though, Eve Arden and Constance Collier–two of the residents– and Patrick were better known, and film critics tabbed Early for an Oscar nomination. In a way, a lot of 1930s’ movies were akin to the 1933 version of 42^nd Street in which understudy Ruby Keeler dances to fame. Hepburn-as-Terry gets a similar chance to show off her talent, courtesy of a lot of help from Eve (Eve Arden) and aging resident Ann Lutheir (Collier), though Terry has something more serious in mind.

 

It’s hard to do justice to films with a big cast. There are more serious things in the film–a tragedy, veiled critiques of backstage immorality, and sexism–but the writing is razor-sharp. Give it a try.

 

Rob Weir

Yesteryear and Social Media Hucksters

 

 

YESTERYEAR (2026)

By Caro Claire Burke

Alfred A. Knopf, 391 pages.

★★★

 

In some circles, Yesteryear has been hailed as this generation’s Handmaiden’s Tale (1985). That would be an atmospheric achievement for a debut author such as Caro Claire Burke. Hers is an entertaining novel, but Margaret Atwood was an accomplished poet and had published five well-reviewed novels before she released Handmaiden’s Tale. I do understand, though, how younger reviewers and readers could make a connection, but it misrepresents both authors. Atwood wrote a cautionary tale during the Ronald Reagan years when Second Wave feminism was under attack; Burke’s book is a satire on the shallowness of American culture and the vulture-like extremes of capitalism.

 

Our anti-heroine is Natalie Heller Mills is what is sometimes derisively called a “trad-wife;” that is, an old-fashioned young woman who wants to live a Biblical life. Natalie is college-educated, but much about undergraduate life offended her. If you know the Bible, though, it’s easier to imagine a Biblical life than to practice one. In practical terms it means she and her cowboy hunk-husband Caleb try to simplify and live as much off-the-grid as possible. The latter is very hard to do these days. Rather like the Amish who show up at farmers’ markets, her preserves and eggs attract buyers, word-of-mouth praise, and media attention. On the surface, Natlie is the poster mom for the religious right, as she pops out a new baby even year–six in total. Still, there are lots of things she can’t get the hang of; for instance, her bread comes out of the oven more suitable for building material than human consumption.

 

Before you can say “Trinity Broadcasting System,” Christian TV, bloggers, radio shows, and magazines all want a piece of Natalie, Caleb, and the kiddos. Their household becomes filled with cameras and the Mills family are reality TV show stars. Money starts to pour in from Natalie’s many side projects, but who can actually produce everything from nutritious meals to handmade rugs, books of aphorisms, a clothing line, etc. Who wants to haul water or learn on the fly how to cook venison stew? The viewers know nothing of her hidden industrial stoves, freezers, and refrigerators, or her team of childminders, cooks, product producers, and social media experts.

 

Readers are invited to speculate whether Natalie is a good-girl gone wrong, or if she was always a con artist. Are all those kids really hers? Some of the juiciest parts of the novel juxtapose Natalie’s inner thoughts and unsaid word bubbles with what she actually does and says– with a smile plastered on her face. But is she a fraud? Every time she has a vile thought or is less than kind, she tosses off quick prayesr or apologies to God.

 

Can you imagine being part of today’s gotcha media hounds? Back in the 1970s, a show called An American Family followed the Loud clan. Bill and Pat Loud only had five (gulp!) children, but they also drew 10 million viewers per week, though they didn’t even try to live a pioneer lifestyle. Things didn’t go well for the Louds, who eventually divorced when the cameras that made them famous exposed their warts. Numerous observers blamed their family collapse on the maddening pressure of being under the microscope. Burke avoids that debate, but she does ask us to consider a very different scenario.

 

What if you woke up and had been transported to the past? Natalie finds herself in 1855, without assistants, scripts, or Instagram. Just her, a very different Caleb, a hearth fire, a day filed with chores, and a big kettle filled with lye soap to boil and scrub ragged clothing and send them through a hand ringer. Natalie wants to flee, but how can she leave her kids when Caleb is fornicating with another woman? Is this the work of Satan? Is God testing her as if she were a female Job? Has she gone insane? There is a resolution, but one open to interpretation. Some readers will find this bold; others will feel cheated.

 

What we can say is that Caro Claire Burke has incisively butchered a few sacred cows. Hers is an indictment of materialism, an evisceration of of social influencers, a takedown of hypocrisy, an exposé of fake “reality” shows, and a backdoor condemnation of religious hucksterism. Ultimately, Yesteryear is closer to The Rainmaker than The Handmaiden’s Tale. Does the Devil smile like Burt Lancaster?

 

Rob Weir  

 

 

 

Have You Ever Tried Ngaio Marsh?

 

 

  

 

PICTURE PERFECT (1980 U.K./1982 U.S.)

By Nagaio Marsh

Little, Brown and Company, 252 pages.

★★★

 

When I was a Fulbright scholar in New Zealand, I read as many Kiwi authors as I could. I still adore authors such as Elizabeth Catton, Michael Bennett, Kiri Hulme, and Witi Ihimaera. Other favorites are hard to get in North America–Maurice Gee, for example. A few we’re not to my taste, including Katherine Mansfield, arguably New Zealand’s most famous literary export. Until last week, I had never read Ngaio Marsh (1899?-1992), the only non-British “Queen of Crime.” That put her in the league as Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, and Josephine Tay. When I was teaching and researching full-time, I saved mystery writers for retirement!

 

Photo Finish was a freebie and my first dip into Marsh’s oeuvre. I will read at least one more, as I previously dowloaded one for 99 cents! Her gentleman detective was Roderick Alleyn (her semi- Poirot) was the center of 32 of Marsh’s novels. Her assumed first name is pronounced NY-yo, a Māori name that means either “little tree bug,” or “light on the water.” She was not Māori, but in her day, it was not uncommon for whites to adopt a Māori name, a middle one in her case; her birth forename was Edith.

 

Ms. Marsh was an old-fashioned writer. For instance, instant photography has been around since Edward Land invented the Polaroid in 1948. They were well-known in New Zealand since 1965, and went viral in the 1970s. Instant snapshots factor heavily in Photo Finish, Marsh’s penultimate Alleyn novel. She had a huge vocabulary, though she used outdated terms and cultural references. Social class might have been at play. The novel is about opera and Alleyn and his artist wife Troy are clearly cut from upper- class cloth. Opera itself has long been a refined taste. Photo Finish often reads like a tragic opera set in a New Zealand luxury hotel in the middle of a lake on the South Island.

 

Prima donna Isabella Sommita is fashioned as the most-skilled soprano in the world. Like many divas, she is spoiled and temperamental–the very essence of a difficult star. She embarks on an Australasian tour in part to escape a furtive photographer calling himself “Strix.” He has snapped shots of Isabella in a state of undress, to “prove” that her amble blossom is artificially enhanced by falsies. She and her staff counter that those not-so-clear photographs have been doctored. Madame’s personal life has also horrified everyone around her: manager Ben Ruby; longtime friend Montague V. Reece; Master of Singing Signor Beppo Lattienzo; her manservant (archaic term!); personal secretary, Ned Hanley; her maid, Maria; and even superfan Dr. John Carmichael. She has had previous lovers, but young Rupert Bartholomew is another matter. He has become her protégé and it has gone to his head. He has written an opera for La Sammita with the naïve title, The Alien Corn. Those who have read the score recognize it as an embarrassing disaster, but Isabella has assembled guests to the island to debut a work she declares “genius.” One the eve of production, Rupert gets cold feet and recognizes that his is truly a horrible piece of work. Despite pleas, Isabella insists on forging ahead. It was bad!

 

There is a little reckoning on Isabella’s part for the simple reason that she lies dead in her dressing room, her bosom exposed, and a new photo above her heart secured by a stiletto. Who killed her? Alleyn is drafted to do the initial investigation because – in good operatic form – it was a dark and stormy night. The wind howled, the seas roiled, telephone lines were down, boat launches and the helicopter flights were unsafe, and the local police were stuck on the mainland. Though Alleyn is a high-ranking Scotland Yard figure, this is New Zealand and he wants to respect local customs. He does improvise by using Troy’s face powder to dust for fingerprints, but mainly he tries to keep everyone calm and conducts preliminary interviews. That said, in good Poirot fashion, his is an intuitive investigation that resolves with all the suspects gathered in the same room. That is, after sleepless nights, a search for Strix, a red herring discovery of a lens cap (for a Polaroid?), a search for keys, rumors of a Sicilian vendetta, and a gambit by Alleyn that could backfire.

 

Did I like the novel? If I’m honest, not so much. I found it more stodgy than old-fashioned charming. My view doesn’t mean others won’t conclude differently. It’s short enough to give it a try. You can always tell me I’m wrong but please, no stilettos!

 

Rob Weir

 

Children of the Wolf: A Superb and Dark Novel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHILDREN OF THE WOLF (2026)

By Abby Geni

Ballantine Books, 320 pages.

★★★★★

 

Children of the Wolf is a strong candidate for my favorite novel of 2026, though I warn sensitive readers that parts of this imaginative work from Abby Geni are grisly. The “children” in question are Liv and Finn Thorvalsson, and the wolf their father Ulf. Their Norwegian names are important, though story begins in a survivalist-like compound in Iowa. Ulf claims to be a direct descendant of 11^th century Viking explorer Erik the Red, reputedly the first settler of Greenland. His father Thorvald was exiled from Norway for what was either cold-blooded murder or the somewhat lesser crime of manslaughter, hence Erik grew up in Iceland. He, in turn, fathered Leif Eriksson, who is possibly the first European to visit what is now known as the Western Hemisphere, a good 500 years before Christoper Columbus. This is disputed turf* on numerous levels, but not in Ulf’s mind.

 

Ulf fancies himself a latter-day Viking and raises his children according to his view of the Viking code, way of life, and religion. Though Vikings began to embrace Christianity in the 9^th century, Ulf meant the old Nordic gods living in Asgard and headed by Odin. If you ever studied Greek mythology and though the Olympian gods were horrible to humans, some of the Norse gods made them look like wimps. Ulf is a very big guy whose worldview made me think of the Klingons** in Star Trek. You can almost imagine Ulf channeling Worf in repeating the tagline, “Today is a good day to die.” Human warriors who died in brave combat could not live in Asgard, but some could dwell in Valhalla with both human and divine heroes. Liv and Finn love their father, but they also fear him. Let’s say that some of his punishments for straying from his standard of conduct are not found in any child-raising manual. Ulf is also the “wolf” because Norse gods were only partly immortal. They could temporarily die from one of Loki’s horrible pranks or Thor’s rage, but they usually got better. Yet, all Norse gods knew that they would all die for good when Fenrir, one of Loki’s sons, broke his bonds, swallowed Odin, and ushered in the end of all things (Ragnorak). Ulf believes in Ragnorak!

 

Things get weirder and more ominous for Liv and Finn–mute for reasons explained in the novel–when they notice that the number of graves in the compound surpasses the number of pets their father claims to have buried. They also notice that some men have disappeared in their area, mostly no-accounts but…. Ulf’s a Viking, after all, and “heroes” need blood sacrifices. Maybe too many in Ulf’s case, as he is sent to a high-security prison for mass murder.

Liv and Finn get a chance to live a semi-normal life by leaving Iowa, moving to Michigan, changing their last names, and setting up a bee-keeping business. Does one really overcome such an upbringing? You don’t, exactly. Finn copes through silence and gentleness. Liv yearns for a conventional(ish) life, but checks with the prison on a regular basis to make sure their father hasn’t escaped. Neither has any contact with Ulf, but Liv can’t shake the fear that he will somehow get loose. For the most part, Finn and Liv lean on each other. That is, until Liv unexpectantly falls in love with another woman, Penny Westerman, a social worker. It unfolds though each has reasons to be wary and doors they keep locked from each other. They have a passionate sexual life, but why does Penny insist that they retreat to their respective homes and never sleep over?

 

A bigger question: Why are their mysterious disappearances in town? That question triggers Liv’s darkest fear that Ulf has indeed escaped. Has a switch taken place? Figuratively speaking, is he on the prowl in some sort of deluded Fenrir alter ego fever? This, and an even deeper reason, draw Liv into making visits to Iowa to reestablish contact with her imprisoned father. Chances are good you won’t anticipate the reveal.

 

Children of the Wolf is a dark novel, but a well-written one that stays in character throughout. At times I felt a things-go-bump-in-the-night frisson without knowing why. If you were to consult AI about Children of the Wolf, it would say it is about wildlife, survival, and human connection. What a lame crock! It’s way more.

 

Rob Weir

 

Notes for the Curious:

* I use “disputed turf” to denote that none of those from the old textbook “Age of Discovery” discovered anything! Paleo-Indians had lived in the Western Hemisphere since at least 14,000 years ago and perhaps as long as 20,000 years. Norse explorers spoke of skraelings, who were likely ancestors of the Inuit. L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland is said to have been the first Norse settlement in North America, but this widely debated, with the Baffin Islands and other sites upheld by some researchers.

 

** For what it’s worth, the original Star Trek Klingons were a Gene Rodenberry mashup of the Cold War Soviet Union filtered through the Mongols and Japanese Samurai. Klingon ultimately assumed a more Norse god-like demeanor.    

2026 August Music: Rebekka Bakken, Crow and Gazelle, Ike Reilly, Effie Zilch,

Andrew Duncan, Stephen Dayvid McKellar

 

 

Rebekka Bakken is a Norwegian singer with a voice that is reputed to stretch three octaves. Some have called her a jazz singer, but she gets miffed when she’s placed in a box. Her new album Nord explains why she’s resistant to labels. “Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker” (“My Heart Always Wanders”) features a frenzied percussive instrumentation topped by haunting, slower vocals that evoke something spooky and ancient. “So Ro” (“So Calm”) similarly suggests something from the mists of time. Especially as dressed up with clarinet, pounding drums, and a splash of didgeridoo. Bakken can also enchant in English, as you can hear in “My Choicest Hours” As you might surmise from these three songs, Bakken might get called a “jazz” singer because her music is simply so different that no one has a better label. To me, though, her powerful voice has been forged in the dramatic Scandinavian past that has spilled into the present. That’s Syrian vocalist Saleh Mahfoud adding Arabic passion in “My Choicest Hours.”

 

 

Crow and Gazelle is the musical and life partnership of Mike McClure and Chrislyn Lawrence. They are about 180 degrees from Rebekka Bakken in that their arrangements are sparse and their vocals built upon close harmonies. Their new album Truth Be Told celebrates connections found, lost, and rebuilt. “The High Road” speculates that maybe life doesn’t move in a straight line, as good an explanation as any for how solid connections sometimes have to come around for a second act. A start, stop, go lick on guitar underscores that sentiment. “Sky is on Fire” is an ominous warning poem set to appropriate music, with vaguely Native American background textures. McClure and Lawrence like to mix poetry with music, but this one could be the soundtrack for the Apocalypse.  Luckily Crow and Gazelle bookend their album with the joyous “Down the Road.” You might wish to check out “Belly of theBeast” as well; as the PR material puts it, it’s where reflection gives way to confrontation.” A lot of folks are wondering where that tipping point is located. McClure expresses the sentiments that a “spiritual war” is gathering steam in which “love, not domination” will triumph. We can only hope that he’s right. Lawrence’s vocals set a gloomy picture of deep-seated divisions, the likes of which some activists think require a more confrontational approach.

 

 

The new LP Blind and Surrounded is something of an Ike Reilly family affair in that his son Shane is now part of the band. That said, Ike doesn’t go in for a lot of roses and rainbows. It’s more like hard luck, gravel-and-spit vocals, and gritty guitar. “Life and Death in East Moline” sounds a bit like an amped up John Prine offering without a wry smile. The lead guitar on “We Better Get Packed” cranks out danger in the form of getting out the door before whatever’s chasing you catches up. The song titles alone tell a story: “Bad Bad Man,” “Who’s Been Hurtin’,” “Gone For Forever….” Even the brighter tune of “New Bad News” has doubt in its DNA. But Ike’s best trick is putting pain and bad times in musical wrappers that make you want to rip up the dance floor before heading down the road.

 

  

San Francisco-based Effie Zilch is the duo of vocalist/guitarist Evanne Barcena and guitarist/producer Steve Wyreman.  As a producer, Wyreman has worked with heavyweights such as Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, and Rihanna, but if you think they have big voices, wait until you hear Barcena. As long as it has a groove– blues, funk, gospel, Motown, rock–Barcenas can sing it, and with gusto. Higher Calling  is the duo’s fifth LP and if it doesn’t get you moving, schedule a hip replacement. “On the Loose” sees Barcenas belting, I’m going to change the game/I’m going to break the rules, and we believe her. She goes for a big gospel sound on the title track, sounding a bit like Mavis Staples, and for funk on “Lover Boy,” though you guess is as good as mine about what the giant duck in her video is trying to convey beyond the assertion, I get what I want. (PS: The name Effie Zilch doesn’t signify anything; it was an invention of journalist Herb Caen.)

 

Not the album cover of Mend

 Last year I was wasting time on the Internet. I ran across a young Scot named Andrew Duncan holding court in London’s Trafalgar Square with his acoustic guitar and in occasional duos and bands with other musicians. This May, I was in London and, lo and behold, there was Duncan still busking in Trafalgar Square. I picked up a copy of Andrew’s CD, Mend. It has eight tracks, so it’s something in between an EP and an LP. Duncan has an inviting voice that’s slightly on the sweet side of things, but he also casts youthful cool. Here he is in London laying down some grooves and loops to sing “Mend.” It takes serious power and more mental agility than I possess to create his one-man band effect. It’s the only complete song from the CD I can find online at present, but he also does amazing covers. Check out his take on “Use Somebody” (Kings of Leon) or with Atticus Blue singing Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars.” You’ll notice that the crowd is bigger when Duncan does covers (Adele, Bastille, Coldplay….) Consider that tons of singer songwriters began as buskers working for tips in all kinds of weather. (He and I chatted in the rain under an umbrella.) The lucky ones score a hit so those not paying attention can wonder, “Where did this guy come from?” The streets, my friends, the streets. If there’s any justice, Andrew Duncan will be one of those who break through. Nice guy. Good songs. Great with tech. Strong guitarist. Hard worker. That ought to mean something.

 

 

Steven Dayvid McKellar was born in South Africa and now lives in Los Angeles. He’s an artist in multiple senses of the word. In addition to be a big-voiced singer and a songwriter, he’s also a poet and a painter. His latest EP is Harbor, Volume 2.   “Me and the Trees” is a mix of gentleness and full-blast vocals. Don’t worry about decoding it; McKellar is taking stock of himself. “The Nag in Me” has an introspective late night jazz feel. “My Own Heart” is my personal favorite track. The dark piano and pain in McKellar’s voice accents the reoccurring question How can I have known? That encapsulates both his fears and his hopes. It has just enough ambiguity to make us uncertain that a happy ending will occur.

 

Coming Soon:  Jason Heath, Jordan Whitmore, Frank Viele, new releases from Grey DeLisle and Surrender Hill, and more. (Yeah, I know that sounds like those dumb TV commercials that promise “Up to 60 percent off and more.” (Up to and more being your definition of a basic contradiction!)

 

Rob Weir