Americana Music Reviews

 

Jack Ingram
Electric
Lucky Dog

by David Pilot

Six albums and one collaboration disc with the Robison brothers into his career, Dallas' Jack Ingram is sitting atop the pile of alt.country artists not concerned with Elton John's felicitous approval (see Ryan Adams) or the adulation of the frat pack acolytes. Long noted for live shows that channel the energy and intensity of Jerry Jeff's Lone Wolf phase back in the glory days of the Outlaw Movement's birth in Austin, Ingram has tried several approaches in an effort to balance that aspect of his music with the limitations inherent in recording. While the six CDs he's released with his faithful Beat Up Ford band have been standouts, and some tracks have gotten close to the snarling ferocity the band unleashes onstage (see "Barbie Doll," for one), even the Unleashed Live disc from Gruene Hall didn't really do him justice. Now, with the energetically titled Electric, it appears Ingram has opted to make a true studio record. The eleven tracks here are mostly mid-tempo country-rockers that translate exquisitely onto disc while maintaining a driving anthemic quality that can only explode onto the senses in a live setting. And while Ingram has always distanced himself from some of the Texas college beerhall crowd with thoughtful and poignant lyrics, he's taken things to a new level here with an introspection and honesty uncommon in the business these days.

The one truly rocking track on Electric bats leadoff; "Keep On Keepin' On" is a tight percussion and bass-driven cut stuffed to the gills with crunchy riffs. Nothing new in the lyric here; it's your basic "when the going gets tough." theme. Takes on a different level of meaning, though, after you wade through some of the searing takes on the struggles and pains that come with relationships which make up the bulk of the track list. See "Fool," the second cut on Electric, co-written by Ingram and Tom Littlefield. Ingram notes that the song was initially born of his own appraisal of his life in general ­ music, marriage, and so on. Littlefield recommended removing the first person approach, placing the protagonist in a bar with a beer and thereby telling the story of each of us in a four minute and thirty-nine second snapshot.

There ain't no problem
You can't solve with one more beer
But there's nothing you can do
About last call
You don't have to go home
But you can't stay here
It's too bad you ain't got no place to fall
Fool, you're fooling yourself

Other collaborations abound on Electric, one of them the striking "What Makes You Say," written with Bruce Robison. This one manages to combine the lyric genius that's quickly becoming Robison's trademark with the raw vocals Ingram wields as effectively as anyone since Mellencamp or Springsteen. Pete Coatney's drumkit keeps the tempo moving exactly as it needs to, while a ringing and melodic electric guitar accentuates the phrasing that makes lines like "Stand here in the silence that remains/Loving you still does not change a thing" crystallize into that pivotal moment when a marriage (or any other relationship, for that matter) succeeds or fails.

Pop rock with a twist of pedal steel gets a loving treatment on the Ingram-penned "One Thing," while the upbeat, almost flippantly happy tones of "Everybody" both belie and fully illustrate the internal struggle of the mind of the insecure individual in each of us that the song is all about. Damn, but this orchestration of sound and lyric composed to illuminate a thought from every angle is exactly what makes a good musician qualify for the title. And Ingram is certainly a good one. Maybe that's why Jim Lauderdale helped pen "One Lie Away," a stripped-down and nearly acoustic look at, again, one of those pivotal moments where everything - - EVERYTHING - - rests precariously on the direction of the next sentence one speaks. Truth? Lie? Life.

The first of two covers here, fittingly enough, is the Scott Miller track "I Won't Go With Her." If anybody since Waylon and Willie were meant to play together, it's got to be Ingram and Miller. Hasn't happened yet, but listen to Jack make this song his own and you'll see where I'm going with that.

There's only one reason she don't stay
It's 'cause I work so damn hard to push her away

Like most of us when we're confronted with the rush of madness life can bring, Ingram finds himself eventually taking a long look at faith. Drummer and longtime friend Coatney is a practicing Christian, and plenty of nights on the road and exposure to the reality of Pete's faith gave birth to the nostalgic mono recording of "Pete, Jesus and Me." Far from being evangelistic, it's a song that revives memories of wooden pews in country churches before kicking into a driving rock finish that highlights the question of eternity from the outside looking in. A prayer and a scream at once, it's a song intended to drive home the fact that some things greater than us require our questioning and attention, but ultimately depend on our own personal revelations and choices.

Closing out with the somber and strikingly beautiful "Goodnight Moon," Ingram's final encore of choice in his stage shows over the last couple of years, Electric exits stage left having touched all of the raw nerves and excited all of the senses that make an evening with Ingram and the Beat Up Ford band so explosive. It hits you here from a different angle, as it was intended to, but the end result is the same. With this disc, Ingram seems to have found a piece of himself that hadn't quite fit into the picture earlier in his career. This one serves as notice to the pretenders - - the man who was atop the pile already has just built his own mountain you'll have to climb if you want to keep up.

See www.jackingram.net for extensive details and personal comments from Jack on Electric's track list. (Some of which, naturally, were referenced in this review) You can get your own copy of Electric there, and find plenty of other nuggets about one of the country's best current artists. Ingram's putting together a label of his own both to re-release his earlier projects and to help some up-and-comers along the way. In the meantime, he's put out an early favorite for one of the best albums of 2002.

Contact David Pilot at: tailgunner-at-rockzilla.net

 
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