Dear Heather reveals 'stark honesty' Final Edition

• Published in: Peterborough examiner (Daily ed.)
• Main Author: Charles J. Gans, Mark Donahue and Ryan Lenz
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peterborough, Ont Torstar Syndication Services, a Division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited 29.10.2004
• Subjects: Cave, Nick (1957- ); Cohen, Leonard; Sample, Joe
• ISSN: 0839-0878

[Nick Cave] brought in a London gospel choir to pump up the songs on Abattoir Blues. They do the job on Hiding All Away as they chant with Cave amid the smashing crescendo, "There's a war comin'." Cave's vocals are the focal point on both discs. Mixing a guttural blues growl with theatrical phrasings, it's never clear what he'll say next. Cave stays close to his favourite subjects here: death, dankness, beauty and myths ("You race naked through the wilderness/You torment the birds and the bees/You leapt into the abyss, but find/It only goes up to your knees..."). The lyrics alone make Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus worth the listen. The CD opens with a rumbling version of a song he learned from his father, a First World War veteran -- How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm? -- which was performed by the African-American military bandleader James Reese Europe, who is widely credited with introducing jazz to Europe in 1918-19. [Joe Sample] dispenses with the need for drums and bass by drawing on such older piano styles as ragtime, stride and boogie woogie -- in which the left hand performs the rhythm section functions while the right plays and embellishes the melody -- on many of the tunes such as Scott Joplin's syncopated rag The Entertainer and Jelly Roll Morton's hot Shreveport Stomp. Sample puts a more contemporary stamp on some of the standards -- for example taking Fats Waller's happy-go-lucky Ain't Misbehavin' and reinterpreting it in a more pensive, bluesy style.