Jim Bianco
Handsome Devil
Independent
By Sam Wereb
 No one notices a
tall, determined man stride onto the stage and begin to tune
a nylon stringed guitar. It's only nine o'clock in the evening,
but this musical train robber didn't drive five hundred miles
to wait around for you to finish a chicken Caesar salad.
It's lonely at the top
But the bottom ain't so hot
I'm fixin' to get ya, baby,
Ready or not
Someone jams a saxophone into your back, and a man comes around
with a bag to collect your blasé bullshit. This is a
stick-up and, ready or not, you're damned-well gonna dance.
You can't pretend that you're okay
'Cause just last week I heard they took away your birthday
We're takin' it back
Yeah, that's a matter of fact
Jim Bianco has stolen the forgotten souls of Screamin' Jay
Hawkins and Fats Waller and gone on the lam from the long arm
of the lame. He's wanted for a 2003 hold-up before a Robert
Earl Keen show in Colorado Springs, a string of independent radio
heists across the country and for inducing musical panic with
two astounding CDs of unlawfully subtle musicianship and lyricism.
Handsome Devil is a crime against mediocrity and a
showcase of Jim Bianco's surprising musical virtuosity, style
and wit. Too often compared to Tom Waits, Bianco owes his imagery
and lyricism more to 1960s Playboy and Bukowski than to anyone
else: "Turn around and cut a man some slack, I didn't
drag you here to tickle your back."
Jim Bianco is an audacious, unapologetic heir to the post-Sinatra
music scene, but he is far more genuinely thoughtful and authentic
than such an invocation of the Chairman suggests. Midway through
this disc, Bianco does offer an apology of sorts, on "Sorry,"
only to perform a pratfall over the tongue he planted firmly
in his cheek. Not the self-conscious twangy ballad it pretends
to be, it's a ruse designed to unleash his monstrously talented
band.
We are releasing an All Points Bulletin to be on the lookout
for this criminally poetic crooner. You are hereby deputized
to find and apprehend him as soon as possible.
Description: Said to be handsome and instantly recognizable
for dropping fiendishly imaginative lines like "Spaghetti
straps on a marinara dress," and "Dirty martinis
strangled at the spine," and for tearing up independent
music venues across the country.
Audio samples, tour dates and CDs are available at http://www.jimbianco.com.
If you get it, go get it.
Contact Samuel L. Wereb at wereb-at-rockzilla.net
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