THE BEAT

Martha Schuyler Thompson, Duncan Sheik, Bouncing Souls, Loose Caboose

by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., July 24, 1997)

Martha Schuyler Thompson's grown-up voice

As a personal or confessional mode -- and one that pays particular attention to lyrics -- contemporary-folk is bound to reflect the concerns and life situations of its makers and its audience. In the past, this has meant tortured compositions with an excess of adolescent or twenty- something navel-gazing.

But as both singers and audience mature, so does the material. Take, for example, Shawn Colvin's hit album, "A Few Small Repairs" (Columbia), which chronicles the emotional turmoil and recovery resulting from a mid-life divorce. (Colvin performs at the National Music Foundation on Saturday night.)

Colvin's fellow, native South Dakotan, Martha Schuyler Thompson, also writes from the point of view of a thirty-something wife and mother. Thompson's "The Sound Must Leave Your Throat" (Cottage Industry) contains a dozen songs concerning domestic issues, including "Mess of This Place," the sexiest romp every written about housework.

When she was writing the songs for the album, said Thompson in an E-mail interview, "I knew that the material I heard on radio and television for the most part dealt thematically with one-night stands, lost love, life on the road, alienation, youth, defiance, short-term relationships and heartbreak.

"I also knew that I was a woman in mid-life, in evolving, long-term, loving relationships with my partner and my son that involved degrees of intimacy and commitment that weren't being addressed by other writers whose work was championed in popular culture."

Thus, the songs on "The Sound Must Leave Your Throat" variously address the challenges of life on the domestic front, making for eloquent testimonies to the unspoken heroism of daily life. Thompson, who was born in Motown-era Detroit and spent her teen-age years in the Black Hills of South Dakota -- and whose music shows the influence of that varied geographic background -- now calls Salem, Ore., home, but she is increasingly becoming a national presence, with airplay on over 200 radio stations.

Thompson performs tonight at Milltown Studios in North Adams at 8:30.

Also at Milltown this weekend is Loose Caboose, an Amherst-based reggae band that has been together for over 20 years. The group's latest CD, "Caboose Ha Fe Move," was recorded at the legendary Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica. While the group's original music harkens to Bob Marley's roots-reggae, lead singer Ras John Bullock's vocals boast a very Toots Hibbert-like dose of American soul. The Caboose pulls into Milltown on Friday at 8:30, followed by local outfit Dafe Brudajo on Saturday at 8:30. For more information on Milltown Studios shows call 413-662-2725.

Bouncing Souls: Punk life in the '90s

While much of punk-rock got swallowed up whole and spat out again as a corporate, record-company- manufactured product called "alternative rock" in the early-'90s, some of it remained the grassroots, underground style of its origins. The New Jersey- based Bouncing Souls, as heard on its latest CD, "Maniacal Laughter" (BYO), are a perfect example of classic punk that has not been tainted by marketing concerns. The group's songs are witty, catchy and melodic and in part address the difficulty of maintaining the punk ethos after it has been co-opted by the consumer machine.

The Bouncing Souls are just one of over a dozen acts that will be performing at the Vans Warped Tour 1997 at the Three County Fairgrounds in Northampton on Tuesday, July 29, from noon to 8. Other bands on the bill include the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Social Distortion, Pennywise, Descendents, Sick of It All, Tree and gangster-bop outfit Royal Crown Revue. The all-day festival also includes athletic attractions featuring extreme sports demonstrations, including skateboarders, in-lane skaters, rock climbers and bmx bikers. For more information call (800) 477-6849.

Duncan Sheik: Melancholy chic

Duncan Sheik's brand of romantic melancholy couldn't be more unlike the prevailing style of aggressive irony that powers most contemporary pop and rock, yet his eponymous, lushly-orchestrated debut album is full of haunted, haunting pop tunes that owe as much to Jimmy Webb as Morrissey. A serious pop-poet who was educated at Andover and Brown University, Sheik - - a former bandmate of Lisa Loeb -- has already had two hit singles and garnered attention as much for his dreamy, brooding good-looks ("Green- eyed Sheik is your basic music love god," panted one writer for Mademoiselle) as for songs such as "Barely Breathing," which was No. 3 on Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart a few weeks ago, behind the Wallflower's "One Headlight" (they are at SPAC on Sunday) and Shawn Colvin's "Sunny Came Home," which was lodged at No. 1.

Is Sheik a latter-day, 20-something Byron, a smoother version of American Music Club's Mark Eitzel, or a pretentious pop poseur? See for yourself when Duncan Sheik (yes, it's his real name) and his band warm up the crowd for Shawn Colvin and her band at the National Music Foundation's Berkshire Performing Arts Theatre at 70 Kemble St. in Lenox on Saturday night at 8. For more information call (413) 637-4718.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 24, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]

Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.

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