Gothic Theatre
Stan Ridgway
One of the most unique singer/songwriters in American music, Stan Ridgway is a true original. From his early days with L.A. art-punkers Wall Of Voodoo, to his even more intriguing solo career, Ridgway has created an impressive body of work.
In his newest solo recording “Snakebite”, what begins as a collection of hard, two fisted tales for a desert road trip riding shotgun with characters populated from America’s fringes, slowly turns autobiographical as Ridgway takes a personal inventory, marking the trail with slashes of slide guitar, brass, exotic percussion, and his inimitable vocals and detailed lyrics.
A storyteller at heart, this time it seems the story is Ridgway.
Always on the darker side of the road, “Snakebite” slinks and slithers its way through tightly wound arrangements, where echoing swamps, talking beer cans, lonely soldiers, and midnight mystery trains, all spin and float like ghostly mirages on the highway ahead. With an eye for musical atmosphere, language and tone as only Ridgway can do. Buckle up, its going to be a bumpy ride.
Stan Ridgway’s musical career began in the late seventies as part of a soundtrack company to create music for low-budget horror films. From the ashes, Wall Of Voodoo was born, and with Ridgway as lead voice, released an EP, two albums, and the 1983 hit single “Mexican Radio”. Upon leaving, he embarked on a solo career that has included collaborations with drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police on the film “Rumblefish” , other independent film soundtracks, as well as producing other artists, (most recently Frank Black and The Catholics new release “Show Me Your Tears” (2003), in addition to numerous critically acclaimed solo recordings, most recently “Holiday In Dirt” (2002) on NewWest Records and , “Snakebite” (2004) on redFLY Records.
“Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads and Fugitive Songs”
A worthy follow-up to 1999’s “Anatomy” and in the same vein as 1995’s “Black Diamond”, Stan’s “Snakebite” is surprisingly lush for such sparse instrumentation. As always, the view of our world as we may (or may not) know it is from a slightly-skewed angle with cinematic imagery and filtered through Stan’s sublimely sardonic wit.
Stan manages to pull the greatest performances from not only the supporting musicians, but himself also. His guitar work is clean and crisp, and his harmonica is as deeply soulful and eloquent as his lyrics. The sound issurprisingly intricate and full, but without being pretentious or overdone. While the overall tone can be categorized as Country, it is heavily inflected with smatterings of Jazz, Folk, Rock and occasionally unusual instrumentation to create the genre-busting sound that Stan’s regular listeners have become familiar with.
Stan strives to describe his characters and their stories with economy of words and abundance of imagery. Stan succeeds in both on “Snakebite”. Once again, we get some of the most colorful characters that you could ever know. But this time, as with “Black Diamond”, many of these stories are deeply personal for Stan, and in “Talkin’ Wall of Voodoo Blues, Pt. I” downright autobiographical. Amazon.com
Stan Ridgway continues his remarkable history of American story telling, with this, his latest release Snakebite. A truly outstanding record that places him in the good company of Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits as songwriter and story teller. What I like best about his songs are that they hook me with their bluesy, country (The Hank Williams not Dixy Chix kind), jazzy, sometimes modern rhythms and before I know it I’m caught up in the tale and dying to know how the story ends. He never disappoints. I soon find myself empathizing with fork lift operators, criminals on the run, circus freaks and a confederate soldier pining for his girl… and these are just a few of the actors in this play. Amazon.com
