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Jeff Black
B-Sides and Confessions Volume One
Dualtone Records
By William Michael Smith
 Jeff
Black's B-Sides and Confessions Volume One recalls John
Hiatt's transforming change of direction in his recovery phase,
when Hiatt dropped his substance-fueled bad boy '80s rock pretenses
and turned personal introspection into sweet music. Just as with
the recovering Hiatt, Black's search for calming spiritual sustenance
and lasting meaning underpins the musical nuances on this quiet,
reverent, battling-the-darkness-and-winning album.
"Down in my easy chair I've got you there / to pilot
me straight through / to show me what it means through these
crazy dreams / to be with you."
Many listeners may make Springsteen Nebraska comparisons
as Black delivers earnest listening room fare, primarily in a
piano trio format. Others may hear something akin to a wholesome
rehab-works-for-me Tom Waits. The pathos and somber, intelligent
imagery of Black tunes like "Cakewalk" and "Slip"
echo folk icon Harry Chapin vocally and lyrically, but this is
not to imply that Black is perpetually consumed with woe-is-me
angst. While he doesn't travel to the mean-streets edge often,
when he does on songs like "Bastard" his images are
as accurate and unblinking as a crime photographer's closeups:
"Say goodbye to that Nashville girl, she's an angel now
/ nobody could have saved her, nobody even tried / we just let
them drag her out to Sugartown / face down in all that candy
is where she died."
While Black is mostly consumed here with the seeker's earnest
search for spiritual essence and personal contentment, don't
make the mistake of thinking he's a super-sensitive see-no-evil
Pollyanna filled with banal too-precious New Age sweetness and
light. The funky "Holy Roller" has the strongest Hiatt
vibe on the album, and Black takes off the nice guy gloves and
lashes out with some hard jabs at some of our most highly visible,
self-serving religious opportunists: "Farrakhan and Jerry
Falwell are playing Tic Tac Toe / make your mark and pass the
plate, boys / I've got your sweet X O / somebody's going to get
the fatback, buddy / we all got to swim that Big Muddy."
According to Black, one thing he's learned in all this soul
searching is "The Lord respects me when I'm working hard
/ but he loves me when I sing." His songs recall the days
of 45 r.p.m. singles, when the hits were on the A-side and the
quality, often better tunes that weren't written at a lowest-common-denominator
level were hidden on the B-side. Listeners looking for common
decency, humanity, sensitivity, and signs of hope without an
off-putting bunch of why-doesn't-the-world-understand-I'm-a-superior-person
snobbery or I'm-a-beautiful-flower-withering-among-all-this-evil
histrionics will find them in abundance here. B-Sides and
Confessions Volume One makes a cleverly appropriate title
for Jeff Black's collection of smart, sincere, soul-searching
moments and humble but utterly enlightening personal epiphanies.
Contact William Michael Smith at wms-at-rockzilla.net
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