Vance Gilbert
One Thru Fourteen
Disismye Music/Louisiana Red Hot Records

by Reid Mitchell

I heard all of this in my head. I really did. Somebody asked me what I thought this album might sound like when I was part-way through. I laughed told them that it would sound like a cross between Tommy James and the Shondells, Booker T and the MGs, Nick Drake, Bootsy Collins, and the Gypsy Queens. I thought I was joking. What I know for sure is that I have never had so much fun making an album. It's kinda all over the place, just like I wanted. Have fun inside my head. ­ Vance Gilbert

OK, I can be as bigoted as the next man, at least depending on who the next man is. So when a package arrives with from Louisiana Red Hot Records with a CD by a Philadelphian who­ to quote the PR enclosure­ "burst upon the singer/songwriter scene in the early '90s when the buzz started spreading in the folk clubs of Boston about an ex-jazz singer who was knocking 'em dead at open mikes," the Louisiana Nationalist in me alluded to the first line of Rolling Stone's classic review of Bob Dylan's Self-Portrait: what is this shit? I mean, what is Boston to New Orleans? Is this ersatz?

Well, I still don't know the scoop on how Gilbert ended up with Louisiana Red Hot Records distributing his CD ­ RockzillaWorld is shamefully underfunding its investigative reporters as the end of the fiscal year approaches ­ One Thru Fourteen is a fine album.

It is, as Vance Gilbert's description says, wide-ranging in its musical approaches, but the two crucial things to remember are that Gilbert is an ex-jazz singer and he's an East Coast folkie. The songs are highly literate and the singing often unconventional. His jazz background comes through most strongly on "I'll Cry Too," an original Gilbert song that sounds as if it were written and recorded by Billie Holiday, maybe with Lester Young, in 1952. From the other side, there's a black man's farewell to his white lover:

Oh Eliza Jane it was you and I
Holding hands, black and white
And looking like a Unitarian Christmas Card

But me, I like best the songs where Gilbert reaches back into the soul-bag and gives his band, particularly the men on the Hammond B-3 and the horns, a work-out. "Hard to Love" is a soul ballad, major and minor changes, warning off a lover while secretly begging her to stay, a theme he returns to in the country soul "Son of Somebody's Son."

Put your arms around me baby
And I might feel like a stone
Put your heart next to mine
And you might find yourself alone
Build your dreams around me baby
And I'll tear them down one by one
I'll scatter all the pretty pieces
And I won't blame you when you run

There's also the traditional gospel reincarnated in the CD's strongest vocal, the unaccompanied prayer "Let Me Know," the rock of "Don't Leave a Trace," and the high-octane power pop of "When Juliana Walks," another stand-out track on an album full of 'em.

But I have to confess. There are parts of One Thru Fourteen I don't yet get. I thought I was kinda familiar with irony, imagery, and other sleight of hand, but I don't understand why he wrote a serious song using Gilligan's Island as the central reference point. (That being said, he transforms this unlikely material into a powerful song about patience and devotion.) I don't know why Gilbert wanted to sing like he was Billie Holiday. I'm most intrigued by his choosing the name Eliza Jane for his song about interracial love. I have to think of the song "Little Liza Jane" when I hear it.

Oh Liza, little Liza Jane!

"Little Liza Jane" by Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns was a local hit when I was a kid, but the origins of the song go back to the days of minstrel shows. "Liza Jane" would have been sung by a white man in black face. Is the song "Eliza Jane" playing with this, reducing the white lover to a wanna-be?

Eliza Jane
What hair you didn't cut or perm
You had braided black
Hoping your predetermined genetic siutation
Might be mistaken for being black.

In short, Vance Gilbert is a complicated cat, smart, shrewd, and at least two steps ahead of this reviewer. Since "singer/songwriter" too often means somebody whose musicianship is a tad rudimentary and whose lyrics are self-indulgent, I'm afraid to use the term for Gilbert. This is highly professional music, nonetheless deeply rooted and intensely personal. There are worse places than the inside of Vance Gilbert's head.

Vance Gilbert hangs out at www.vancegilbert.com

Contact Reid Mitchell at: reid-at-rockzilla.net

 
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