Stan Ridgway
Snakebite – Blacktop Ballads and Fugitive Songs
Redfly
This former Wall of Voodoo front man and soundtrack composer is back with a delicious disc of ballads and lyrically-driven music. This is about as close to a “concept” album as I’ve heard in ages, with a slight narrative thread that pulls all these engrossing songs together. The backing music is low-key, with a jug band sound and the feeling that this will never be anything other than an unplugged collection.
Highlights abound, like “Wake Up Sally,” a simple story of two losers fleeing a $12 robbery and heading to Idaho. It’s cheap there, sure, but the gas will wipe out any profits. There’s also a paean to the carnival good enough to make you get up and check the paper to see if one is coming to town soon. Nope, wrong season, so on to the next song. Later, we get a very personal story of how the band got started in the heady days of the L.A. punk scene. They got stiffed by everyone along the way, but their story is pretty funny.
Ridgway is a genius, capable of generating interesting material in nearly any style, and here we get his inner muse. Sure, there’s more money in the mega film soundtracks, but who listens to them with out Batman on the screen? Here’s the real singer/songwriter.
Stan Ridgway: http://www.stanridgway.com • Redfly Records: http://www.redflyrecords.com
