THIS isn't so much a column as a round up. It's the last outing of the year, time to clean up the desk, microwave a few CDs, pay homage to substantially less and pray for musical rain in the new year. So let's get our good deed out of the way to make room for some serious critical logging. The Putumayo label aims to "join the traditional with the contemporary to create products which people love". What that seems to mean is prettily repackaged world music oldies like A Johnny Clegg And Juluka Collection (PUTU127-2; code: 1201) or The Tour 3/4 Kunda Collection (PUTU 121-2; code: 1311). The former features early 1980s music from the white South African and his Zulu friend Sipho Mchunu while the latter is a Senagalese band with a cosmopolitan range of influences. Neither collection could be said to be at the cutting edge of current African music, but they are pleasing in a soft pop manner.
So is Mary Chapin Carpenter's A Place In The World (Columbia 485182-2, code: 1421). By this stage you should have made up your mind about this American chronicler of middle class, middle aged angst. She is either a self indulgent, self obsessed, single aced smoothie playing to a willing audience or an inspired and incisive storyteller telling it like it is for the 30/40 something generation. After her recent Dublin show I would have been tempted by the smoothie tag, but this, album is her most accomplished realisation to date of her mature songwriting and singing craft.
Rory Block also packs a mean clenched fist. A new name to me, my cool dentist insisted on drilling home her many qualities during a recent consultation. His judgment, flawless as ever, is reinforced by her bluesy, intense Tornado (Rounder CD 3140; code: 1531).
Last Sunday, Michelle Shocked gave a mixed bag of a show in the Olympia; Kind Hearted Woman (Private 0100582145-2; code: 1641) has the same feel. At its best this set treads on ground few others would contemplate, but her search for the right mood - one second of beauty is better than five minutes of perfection, she implied the other night has its price. In this instance it's a general lack of focus.
Iris DeMent has no such problems. Like Ms Shocked, DeMent understands and sympathises with the downside of the American Dream. Wasteland Of The Free on her excellent The Way I Should (Warner Bros 9362-46188-2; code: 1751) speaks with a loud voice about the inequities she sees around her, but certainly the most haunting song here is Letter To Mom, a memory of child abuse sung in such a traditional country quick time that many listeners will find themselves' singing along to what are decidedly not singalong lyrics. If you're looking for an antidote to the anodyne noise which passes for Nashville music these days then look no further.
Trisha Yearwood is well capable of something equally as expressive, but Everybody Knows (MC4 11512: code: 1861) is bloated with fat ballads devoid of meaning or impact while newcomer Mindy McCready's Ten Thousand Angels (BMG 66806-2; CODE: 1971) offers the occasional challenge - Guys Do It All The Time - before succumbing to type. They could both take a hint from the ageless Dolly Parton, whose Treasures (MCA RTD 80326; code: 2081) manages to break free of Nashville's depressingly rigid guidelines and, while not exactly rocking the rafters, conveys a sense of musical adventure.
The same is true of Johnny Cash, who continues his recent run of form with Unchained (American 39742-2; code: 2191), a rough mix of the religious and rowdy, the strange and the familiar all strained through his burnished tones. Another legend George Jones also shows his best side with I Lived To Tell It All (MCA 11478; code: 2301), an album which paradoxically finds him admitting his worst side - his love of the demon drink. Behind the golf club smiles are true life tales of shattered lives; his weary voice says it all. But perhaps most wonderful of all is Ween's 12 Golden Country Greats (Flying Nun FNCD 386; code: 2402). Perfect country, perfect satire. You can't say they don't ask for it.
