(Dinosaur)
The Scoundrel's Waltz is the debut album from Joe Tullos. Born and raised in Louisiana, Tullos and his guitar are part of the New Orleans music scene where he's played all the city's hottest clubs. He's played and recorded with some Big Easy big names including The Neville Brothers, Better Than Ezra, The Meters, and others. Tullos performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to rave reviews. So while he may not be well known to the rest of the world, he's got a solid homestate base.
Signing with Dinosaur Entertainment gave Tullos the means and facilities to launch his first album. Tullos brings talent of all kinds to the table. He is a talented musician on several instruments, he has a clear, pleasant voice for lead vocals, and he is a great lyricist. The Scoundrel's Waltz, named for the overindulgent's gait, tells 11 stories from Joe Tullos' life. And Tullos sings lead and backing vocals, plays guitar, organ, dobra, and banjo. While he could have been a one man band here, he elected to bring together a truckload of 7 talented musicians. From Blind Melon comes drummer Glen Graham, bassist Brad Smith, lead/rhythm guitarist Rogers Stevens. From the hot band Squirrel Nut Zippers comes Jimbo Mathews (banjo, piano, horns, backing vocals), Ken Mosher (sax, backing vocals, guitar), and Tom Maxwell (guitar, clarinet, backing vocals). The wide variety of instruments and musicians adds a level of professionalism and texture to the album. A newcomer who can pull this together has to be taken seriously.
The seventh musician is producer Mike Napolitano (Blind Melon's Nico) who does the honors on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass. Class act Trina Shoemaker, Grammy award winner for her work on Sheryl Crow's album, was the engineer.
With all these musical ideas, the album has a variety of sounds. Within the album and within a track, there are rock licks, folk sounds, pop, funk and even jazz vibes. Quite a musically interesting album with high marks for lyrics. Tullos' vocals are mixed high enough that you can hear/understand him and the lyrics are also printed in the liner. Tullos is not a world class singer, but he is way above average, so check him out. If you never hear anything but the first track, "Love Generator", you would want to hear more. You might also think this was a solid rock album, but it's not. A question is how Tullos plans to support this album. It deserves to be heard outside Louisiana, but tours are required, and he has no band at this point. Finding musicians of the caliber and cohesion that played on The Scoundrel's Waltz might be tough, but Joe Tullos is no slouch. He has gone through hard times for his music, and he will make something happen. Give this debut album a chance! Joe Tullos has the talent to make it - get in on the ground floor.
