In my ongoing efforts to stay current with the many releases that cross my desk I’ll again try to keep my comments to around 150 words or less.  So much music and so little space to cover it all!

Neil Young + Promise of the Real

‘Earth’

Reprise Records 

Duck calls, dog barks and the chirping of crickets? What exactly is the ever twitchy Young up to? This live collection finds him at his adventurous best and self indulgent worst, enhancing perfectly great songs with the intrusive sounds of nature calling. It’s an environmental statement of sorts (he is, after all, the co-founder of Farm Aid) that works better as concept than execution. Promise of the Real add new spark to older songs (and Young still plays a mean guitar) but with the exception of the rarely offered “Vampire Blues” much of this is overly familiar to long time fans. Mostly Earth serves as a painful reminder of how poorly the new material compares to previous glories, with Young’s continued railing against big box stores and greedy corporations reducing him from activist to crank old man.

It’s hard to imagine the same guy who wrote “Cinnamon Girl” inflicting the banality of “A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop” upon an unsuspecting world. ***

Cowboy Mouth 

‘The Name of the Band Is Cowboy Mouth: The Best of (So Far)’

I’ll admit up front to never quite understanding the attraction of this Louisiana based band, a hybrid mix of pop/rock/Cajun that inexplicably choose a name sounding like an infectious disease.

But for two decades they’ve bucked the odds, maintaining and building upon a fiercely loyal fan base that loves their CM. Having said that I’ll readily admit that the nine tracks culled from various phases of the band’s history-nicely supplemented by a trio of new recordings-offers a different perspective of the group, demonstrating a maturation that speaks well of their perseverance and the breadth or their sound. It naturally opens with “Jenny Says”, the closest the band has to a hit, but newcomers would be wise to give “How Do You Tell Someone?” and the new songs repeated plays.  Best Of (So Far) is both a tidy summation of their history and an excellent jumping on point, which I suspect is precisely what they had in mind. ***1/2

Dale Watson and His Lonestars          ‘Live At the Big T Roadhouse’        Red House Records  

As this generous (over 30 tracks) collection reveals nobody, but nobody, puts on a show quite like Dale Watson and company. Fully replicating the sweltering feel of those Texas nights-without the gyrating hips, cowboy attire and clanking of beer bottles-is a difficult challenge but it’s one that Live at the Big T Roadhouse nearly pulls off. The party like atmosphere of “I Won’t Rock No Cradle” is hard to resist while classic takes on “The Bottle Let Me Down” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas” proves Watson is looking for more than just a cheap thrill. Rousing, raunchy, expertly played and sung, on one heck of a lot of fun. ****

Vincent Cross           ‘Old Songs for Modern Folk’ 

Rescue Dog Records    

If the notion of setting contemporary concerns and language into traditional melodic phrasing appeals to you as much as it does me (think early Fairport Convention) then Irish born/NYC resident Vincent Cross should be right up your alley.

Cross brings the trials and tribulations of the hard road to his music, but does so with authenticity, reverence and an irrepressible determination.

The mix of guitar and banjo certainly speaks of Appalachia (“Michael Brown,” based on the English folk ballad “Louis Collins” is a perfect example) but time and again Cross gives the music a twist that is uniquely his. Even when singing of modern day issues-“Garments of Shame” exposes the horror of cheap Bangladesh labor-the songs sound as deeply rooted as an ancient oak.  Vincent Cross remains one of my favorite unknown artists, but in this case I am delighted to spread the word. ****

J.D. Malone and the Experts

‘Town and Country’                             

JD Malone may be just one more heartland rocker with oodles of talent but the independence he brings to his music-influenced but not encumbered by Springsteen, Petty, Mellencamp, et al, elevates him several ladder rungs above his contemporaries. Having a crackerjack band certainly helps, yet Malone’s knack for arrangement (partial credit goes to co-producer Cliff Hills) and the rock solid nature of the songs carry the day. “Courage Under Fire” has a nice anthem like feel (without sounding forced) while “My Own Paradise” shows a more introspective side.

Coming in at a scant 30 minutes Town and Country is a powerhouse of sound in a small package, and this month’s most unexpected delight. ***1/2

Van Morrison                              ‘It’s Too Late To Stop Now’                     Legacy/Sony Recordings 

Long considered one of the greatest live albums ever this deluxe reissue of the 1974 double LP proves it was only the tip of a glorious iceberg, culling material from dates in and around the original.

Backed by the fabled Caledonia Soul Orchestra Morrison rips his way through six sides of vinyl R & B perfection, covering songs by his heroes (most notably Ray Charles) while digging deeply into his own vast catalog.   There’s also a terrifically shot DVD of the July 24, London gig, intended for commercial release but eventually sacked, that captures Van and Company in all their mystical, muscular, glory. Engineer Guy Massey does a stunning job of capturing the sophisticated interplay of the band-no easy task given its wide instrumental range-while the Man himself is at the peak of his creative prowess.

Make no mistake; this is the real deal, a vital addition to your Van Morrison library and one of the most indispensable reissues of the year. *****

Michael Martin Murphey                    ‘High Stakes’

Murphey Kinship Recordings

The original Cosmic Cowboy rides again with a surprisingly fresh collection of songs, proving decades after he first broke through with the hit “Wildfire” he still has plenty to say and the skill to say it: No longer the singular troubadour roaming horizons in search of elusive romance, Murphey instead turns his attention to such pressing issues as the environmental devastation of his beloved western plains.

On the moving “Campfire on the Road” he beseeches us to “never let them take this life away” and while that tale is set in Australia it might have just as easily have been Colorado.  The inclusion of a pair of ballads by Tompall Glaser (“Running Gun”) and Marty Robbins (“Master’s Call”) shows that his taste is as finely tuned as his songwriting while the Celtic influence of “The End of the Road” gives evidence that Murphey hasn’t insulated himself to the musical world at large. Top notch stuff, one of the best of his long and storied career. ****

Eric Clapton

‘I Still Do’

Bushbranch/Surfdog Records

Clapton has always been best when mining the roots of the music he loves: for all his excursions into reggae, country, and pop, he’s first and foremost a blues man. Reunited with Glyn Johns, producer of his 1977 hit Slowhand, EC brings back some of the fire of his youth while offering us the wisdom of his experience.  “Alabama Woman Blues” sets an immediate tone, a cascading take of Leroy Carr’s 1930 original that swaps the basic piano-and-acoustic guitar arrangement for a full-on band, with Clapton’s fiery electric torching the landscape in ways he hasn’t in years; it’s a sharp contrast to the sleepwalking of 2013’s Old Sock.

Skip James’ “Cypress Grove” is equally effective, constructed around a heaving accordion while Clapton hoots and hollers like a man possessed. Still, not all is Peaches and Diesel: the depression era “Little Man, You’ve Had A Busy Day” is particularly cloying while “Catch The Blues” is Clapton at his most lightweight. But balanced against the fervor of Robert Johnson’s “Stones in My Passway” and an unexpectedly spry reworking of Dylan’s “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine” I Still Do is the first Clapton effort since I don’t know when that bears repeated spins. ****