CD Review: Greg Brown

CD Review

Greg Brown comes closer and closer to Leonard Cohen.

I guess nobody's lonely anymore
'cept you and me babe

The enigmatic "Rexroth's Daughter" has sparked a lot of guessing as to whether he intended the daughter of beat poet Kenneth Rexroth and who the "friend of a friend" is. But Brown won't be pinned down. The phrase comes with its share of sound and possibilities in the real world, but the character of the title is an imagined one - the archetypal unreachable woman who is always just beyond one's grasp. "Blue Car" is another gem. The album's hidden track is one of Brown's most popular songs in concert - "Marriage Chant." Each verse captures the small joys and many aggravations of wedlock and ends whimsically:

I wish I was married
Oh I wish I was married
I wish I was married...

To you.

All these songs exhibit the simplicity of phrase and depth of feeling that mark the true poet. Brown's voice can be big as a barrel and tiny as a bird, giving him both the down-to-earth sensibility and the whimsical sense of humor that his closest rival, Leonard Cohen, completely lacks. And while Cohen is revered in Europe and urban circles, these qualities of Brown's are part of what define him as a peculiarly American, decidedly heartland of the midwest poet. In the centerfold of Covenant, the appears like Johnny Appleseed - or Walt Whitman. He is not just a songwriter, he's forging a new link in the chain after Whitman, Sandberg, Guthrie, Ginsberg, Dylan. Nobody else writing today can touch him.

At about the same time that Covenant was released, Brown gave another record to Trailer, a small Iowa label started by David Zollo to promote local writers. Both are produced by Bo Ramsey and seem continuous in terms of the sound and the themes of the songs - the difficulties of long term relationships, the strangeness of the modern world to old souls - but I like the independent Over and Under even better than Covenant. Using local Iowa musicians, it has a slightly more familiar feel. Songs like "Mattie Price" continue the evocative imagery of "Rexroth's Daughter" and "I Love You Like a Dog" showcases his wry, self-deprecating humor:

Tell me what you want and I'll get it
A dog is not burdened by pride.

You can hear or download "Your Town Now" at efolkmusic.com.
-HB