REVIEW: John Wesley Harding, Awake (Zero Hour) - Joe Silva
While we may be a bit remiss in delivering this, the world at large is probably equally dilatory in recognizing our man Harding for being the decent sort of songwriter that he actually is. Thoughtful, witty, and (to get the long-standing comparison right out of the way) as quick with a catchy tune as Mr. McManus used to be. Fair play to Elvis though who, in his brooding middle ages, is searching for more grandiose and somewhat less tuneful vehicles to steer his vision with. But Wes is no less keen on piecing together clever notions and bewitching allusions as he gets on. Have a listen to "Window Seat" to hear him wax inventive on the parallels between ordinary life and air travel (particularly the bit about the metal detector being the barrier between us and the "great beyond."). That's Wes all over - a writer's soul trapped in a modern folk singer's body. In a recently lost taped conversation, he thoroughly frightened me with the list of books that he's taken along with him on tour this year. But unlike his long-stated icon Dylan, Wes retains his appreciation of a good song being more than sounds under an interesting narrative. There's a sturdiness to his melodies as well as a conviction to his stories. The balance between might vacillate now and then, but not much.
With his assorted "gangsta folk" in tow, Wes uses a healthy variety of sounds to populate his wares. "Your Ghost (Don't Scare Me No More)" combines a robust bass Moog undercurrent with rhythmic bits of triangle (!!!) and a shuffling backbeat, while the singer goes on about an increasing comfort zone with the specter of a lost love. And while the sound effects that open "Burn" (lighters, and striking match books) might come off as a bit twee or heavy-handed reference-wise, they don't detract much if at all from what may be the strongest of his airs on this collection. But tunes aside, the things that are most memorable here are the tales that Wes happens to spin. "Miss Fortune," a tale of a ward who is forced to mistakenly live the first part of his life as a girl by his rich benefactor, can take you from one end of the song to the other simply on the story's strength. The infectious tune then, turns to straight-up icing as a result. Which leads us to believe that Mr. Harding, despite a super showing on the earlier Why We Fight, make be reaching another peak in his labors. Poised for a post-position in the 1998 year's best in a currently lackluster year.
