ALBUM REVIEW - Grant-Lee Phillips - Virginia Creeper
I was never a fan of Grant Lee Buffalo. Their heyday occurred while I was music director at WUMF in Farmington, Maine and I know for a fact that more than one Grant Lee Buffalo disc crossed my path and I’ll be honest at that point in my life I wasn’t interested. If it wasn’t rhythmically subdivided, if it didn’t have a 40 minute jam or have a freaky subculture dedicated to it, my ears weren’t open to it. I feel lucky that my ears are still open to the stuff I loved in college and now also to some things that they weren’t open to then.
I first heard Grant-Lee Phillips (former lead singer of Grant Lee Buffalo, see I was going somewhere with the story above, kind of) as the troubadour on Gilmore Girls (I love that show…some of the best writing on television, any show that can quote Proust and Lady Marmalade in the same season is cool with me!) and I fell in love with a number of the songs he played on the show. So I finally seeked out a solo album of his.
Virginia Creeper is a quiet, thoughtful album. It drips of Americana, with weeping fiddle, guitar and bass simple yet sweet, drums that barely keep up (in a good way mind you) and Grant-Lee’s melancholy voice. His voice is really his trump card. While his songs are really good his heart aching delivery is what truly sells them. He is really able to make the listener feel like he is talking to them, trying to convince them to stay or remember what was. The album flows well, although the “upbeat” Calamity Jane doesn’t jibe as well as with me the other tracks and its placement does make the album feel a bit segmented.
Once upon a time music like this did not move me. I am not sure whether I have softened or understand love and loss more or whether Grant-Lee finally made a convert of me by writing great songs and making me feel his pain/love/joy/etc. You won’t be spending hours slowing down the tape to figure out what he’s doing or analyzing what modes he used for his ripping solos, but that might give you more time to experience the world and write about it the way Grant-Lee Phillips does.
Gaito says: “If you are looking for good singer-songwriter material, look no further!”
Favorite Tracks:
Mona Lisa
Waking Memory
Always Friends
Far End of the Night
I first heard Grant-Lee Phillips (former lead singer of Grant Lee Buffalo, see I was going somewhere with the story above, kind of) as the troubadour on Gilmore Girls (I love that show…some of the best writing on television, any show that can quote Proust and Lady Marmalade in the same season is cool with me!) and I fell in love with a number of the songs he played on the show. So I finally seeked out a solo album of his.
Virginia Creeper is a quiet, thoughtful album. It drips of Americana, with weeping fiddle, guitar and bass simple yet sweet, drums that barely keep up (in a good way mind you) and Grant-Lee’s melancholy voice. His voice is really his trump card. While his songs are really good his heart aching delivery is what truly sells them. He is really able to make the listener feel like he is talking to them, trying to convince them to stay or remember what was. The album flows well, although the “upbeat” Calamity Jane doesn’t jibe as well as with me the other tracks and its placement does make the album feel a bit segmented.
Once upon a time music like this did not move me. I am not sure whether I have softened or understand love and loss more or whether Grant-Lee finally made a convert of me by writing great songs and making me feel his pain/love/joy/etc. You won’t be spending hours slowing down the tape to figure out what he’s doing or analyzing what modes he used for his ripping solos, but that might give you more time to experience the world and write about it the way Grant-Lee Phillips does.
Gaito says: “If you are looking for good singer-songwriter material, look no further!”
Favorite Tracks:
Mona Lisa
Waking Memory
Always Friends
Far End of the Night
posted by Gaito at 9:31 PM
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