Woman King
IRON & WINE
Sub Pop
Bearded, beloved retro-roots-folk bard Sam Beam couldn't do a whole hell of a lot with a bigger budget; to mess with or expand on his sleepy, swampy and above all intimate sound too much would surely change it completely. He does manage to widen his aural palette on this five-song EP by adding appropriately quiet percussion and piano (and even occasional fuzzy electric six-string) lines to his acoustic guitar and melodic semi-whisper without striding too far afield, but there is a subtle yet fundamental difference in overall personality from his previous work. It's the rhythms, more than anything, that add a new dimension to Iron & Wine's timeless character. The music always came off as peaceful without seeming lazy; here, however, there's a heightened sense of urgency, of building, particularly on "Gray Stables," "Freedom Hangs like Heaven," and second-best standout "Evening on the Ground (Lilith's Song)." (The title track is far and away the most exciting thing in attendance.) In the trade, some of Beam's singular vibe is lost – the cleaner, clearer production and fleshed-out arrangements recall a roots band more than one man's eccentric vision – but it's still another laudable effort from a guy who carved out his own particular nu-folk/Americana micro-niche from the get-go, and tends it well. 
-Scott Harrell
Save Big
RUSS JOHNSON
OmniTone
After building his rep playing in New York's avant-garde "downtown" scene, and working with an array of heavyweights that includes Elvis Costello, Bill Frisell and Laurie Anderson, trumpeter Russ Johnson scores a knockout with his solo debut Save Big. Along with bassist Kermit Driscoll, drummer Mark Ferber and alto man John O'Gallagher, he works that enticing middle ground between bop and "out" jazz, affixing most of his tunes to a tight groove, but occasionally wandering into the realm of space and free rhythm. The tunes, most penned by Johnson, range from meditative ("Reveille") to smoldering ("Saguache") to out-and-out frenetic ("Figuratively Speaking") to perversely funky ("The Loper"). Most of them have a melody, often tricky and serpentine, that provides the listener a solid frame of reference. The real fun begins, though, when the band cuts loose into solo-dom – their chemistry is impressive; their individual statements passionate and memorable. Johnson establishes that he's not just another Miles chaser in the opening "Saguache:" after a winning melody, his first brief solo is sleazed up with a plunger mute. Throughout Save Big, Johnson shows an impressive scope: brash and brassy to lush and lyrical. O'Gallagher, who I'd never heard of before, is a mindbender, with his tart, astringent tone and taut, staccato attack. His foray on "Figuratively Speaking," full of twists and turns and fusillades of notes, is the album's single highlight. The disc hits a comparative dead spot at tracks four and five – "Duo" and "Indonesian Folk Song" – that ultimately indulge in a bit too much navel-gazing. But that's a minor complaint. Save Big is a real ear-opener. (www.OmniTone.com)
-Eric Snider
Get Along like a House on Fire
TIGER MOUNTAIN
Lucky Cat
Tiger Mountain has got a hip hometown (NYC), a hip pedigree (the band features former members of Girltoucher, Murphy's Law and Nada Surf), and a hip, dated rock 'n' roll sound that's equal parts power-pop, Stax-y R&B and '70s arena indulgence. But you shouldn't simply gag on the coolness, dismiss the group as an anonymous latecomer to the trend-party, and move on, because these guys really do put the pieces together in an engagingly swaggering way. Plus, when they're on, they're fucking on. The infectious "Shouldn't Be Long," bouncy "A Certain Slice," taut "The Occasion," too-cool "Superintendent #9" and fluid "Overtime" are all aces, and the sparse, melancholy, Rhodes-and-vocals "Good Lie Down" works incredibly well as both guilty pleasure and sincere treat. When they go acoustic, as on "She Played Me Too" and "You're All Right," the lyrical attitude sometimes tips over into clumsy rock-life parody, but there's just too much good stuff – and obvious potential for even better stuff to come – here to get too worked up over a couple of minor missteps. (www.tigermountain.tv)
-Scott Harrell
Harm's Way
SIBERIA
Little Pony Records
Whlle this New York outfit admirably addresses various social topics (poverty, cultural atrophy, misogyny) in its songs, that's about the only good thing there is to say about the band's stabs at various modern-rock subcategories. As is the case with far too many local bands who don't, and shouldn't, achieve a higher profile, Siberia tries far too hard to cover all the possible pedestrian-radio-fan bases, swinging from funky rock to brooding, loop-assisted strumminess. With the exception of "Vessel" and "Peter," nothing really connects, or provides much in the way of emotional impact. Randy Farmer shows herself to be a capable singer when she occasionally eschews the affected near-whisper that's supposed to convey detached cool. But Harm's Way rarely puts her voice into flattering context, and her lyrics are often horrible ("The empty lot where love was borne/ With turnip skin and wings of scorn/ Dirty rags and razor blades/ Garbage cans and a can of Raid"; "The sound of your boots/ Drowned all your suits/ Poisoning the funeral soup"). Let's not even go into the cover of Dylan's "The Man in the Long Black Coat." Siberia would do well to mine the Concrete Blonde-meets-Cowboy Junkies vibe of "Peter," and quit second-guessing the marketplace; they're not very good at it. (www.littleponyrecords.com) 1/2
-Scott Harrell
This article appears in Mar 16-22, 2005.