Skip to content
Entertainment
Link copied to clipboard

Marc Cohn back after 10 years with 'Parade'

Some noted musicians are picking up the pieces of their lives and moving on with new CD releases today. ON HIS FEET AGAIN: Fifteen years ago, Marc Cohn won the Grammy as "best new artist." His joyous, gospel-flecked pop-rock anthem "Walking in Memphis" (inspired by hearing Al Green preach) made Cohn a star. But for reasons known only to himself, the man fell into a creative slump. "Join the Parade" (Decca, A-) is his first new release in a decade.

Some noted musicians are picking up the pieces of their lives and moving on with new CD releases today.

ON HIS FEET AGAIN: Fifteen years ago, Marc Cohn won the Grammy as "best new artist." His joyous, gospel-flecked pop-rock anthem "Walking in Memphis" (inspired by hearing Al Green preach) made Cohn a star. But for reasons known only to himself, the man fell into a creative slump. "Join the Parade" (Decca, A-) is his first new release in a decade.

It took a painful pairing of incidents - first a carjacker shooting Cohn in the head, then Hurricane Katrina's destruction of Louisiana a few days later - to shake the man out of his lethargy. "Parade" is full of testimonials about staring down death and triumphing.

And while "Walking" evoked holy-roller motifs in a studied fashion, this time we believe the spiritual intensity and revelations in Cohn's new songs. Jumping out of the pack for me are the Stones-like, life-as-a-tumbling-dice-crap-shoot "Live out the String," the New Orleans-placed and -flavored homage to the resilience of the human spirit "Dance Back from the Grave," and the mellow benediction of "My Sanctuary," which rivals the quiet heat of Van Morrison at his most incantational.

THREE TIMES THE CHARM: Vanessa Carlton was the "it" girl five years ago. Her flamboyant brand of heart-struck pop - built around that girlish voice, her neo-classical/music box piano chordings and some interesting melodic twists and turns - made Carlton jump out of the singer-songwriter pack with her debut album "Be Not Nobody."

It was hard to turn on a teen-themed TV show and not trip over the album's huge hit, "A Thousand Miles." Oddly, VC's follow-up album crashed and burned.

Label problems? A fickle teen fan base moving on? Whatever. Carlton's comeback set, "Heroes and Thieves" (The Inc., B+), is on a label known for rap. Still she's doing her thing and in even better fashion than I remember.

The word-slinging and hand-wringing is sometimes overwrought. Still, the music, rhythmic changes and production flourishes are almost always compelling. Check out, the here-to-Bollywood influences of "Hands on Me," a big track that oozes TV soundtrack readiness.

"My Best," etching a summer dalliance with a self-centered "golden boy," has the makings of a movie unto itself. Ditto for her bittersweet evocations of "Spring Street," another ill-fated romance that at least left the narrator with a consolation prize.

And Carlton really tips her hand with the dramatic lurches of the grand finale "More Than This," which suggests more than a few formative years spent studying the Queen catalog.

BOYS TO MEN: If Rod Stewart could evolve into a big-band crooner, why shouldn't Robert Hazard earn respect as a folkie? Once the front man of the Philly rock band the Heroes, Hazard scored a huge payday and virtually retired when one of his compositions, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," was co-opted by Cyndi Lauper.

But for the past couple of years, Hazard's been itching to write and record anew in an older and wiser acoustic vein, and has won national distribution for his latest effort, accurately billed "Troubadour" (Rykodisc, B).

While the set's a bit of a slow starter, his burnished baritone and crafty tunes soon had me singing along (yeah, that's what troubadours do) with the plain-speak charmer "A Whole Lot of Water" and tall tale of a "Lucky Hat."

And who can fault the man for aligning himself with aw-shucks masters like "Woody [Guthrie], Cisco [Houston] and Ramblin' Jack [Elliott]" - and sonically, with Gordon Lightfoot - on the album's title track?

Brothers Johnny (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and Donnie (.38 Special) Van Zant made their name with howlin', electric guitars-a-blazin'Southern rock. But they're now courting a more mainstream country radio audience as Van Zant with "My Kind of Country" (Columbia, B). A virtual catalog of cliches abound. But despite the blatant pandering, the package works in a Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Travis Tritt rockin' country way, most especially with the party-hearty anthems "Goes Down Easy" and "It's Only Money."

MORE TO SCORE: Former Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and his buddy Zakir Hussain lead another journey into the musical rain forest of their minds on "Global Drum Project" (Shout/Factory, B). These trippy, atmospheric soundscapes beg to lay a groove on in both public spaces and for homegrown chillin'.

I was shocked to discover that Rockfour calls Israel home. Their "Memories of the Never Happened" (Cooking Vinyl, B+) pays obvious homage to classic Brit rockers Pink Floyd and the Beatles. Hey, somebody's got to carry on the legacy! Catch the band Oct. 19 at World Cafe Live.

Philly's the A-Sides are slogging through the worst of times on "Silver Storms" (Vagrant, B+). Still, their shiny, vibrant new psychedelic pop songs - oft endowed with strings and striving for "new generation Brian Wilson" status - regularly make the best of these romantic and world crises.

Jazz piano interpretations of "The King"?!? Believe it or not, Cyrus Chestnut's doing just that on "Cyrus Plays Elvis" (Koch, B+), and amazingly, the man never lets it get smooth-jazz hokey. The odd improvisational twists of "Suspicious Minds" and his gorgeous, countrypolitan treatment of "In the Ghetto" are The Best.

If you like Memphis soul, you'll appreciate all the original variations on the theme that Toni Price concocts on her clever "Talk Memphis" (Antones, B) set.

With that intimate, achy voice, British-based Stacey Kent seems as much cabaret as jazz singer. In truth, devotees of both genres could take a liking to her "Breakfast on the Morning Tram" (Bluenote, B), a charming, multi-lingual musical travelogue veering from the magical "The Ice Hotel" to old Paris ("La Saison de Pluies"), with several stops in sunny Brazil (yeah, the girl loves bossa nova) and capping off with a most poignant rendering of "What a Wonderful World." *