August 4, 2006
The Klezmatics: Wonder Wheel
Lyrics by Woody Guthrie
(4 stars out of 5)
Magic of Guthrie Circles Around
Jim Abbott, Sentinel Pop Music Critic
Woody Guthrie's legacy has been revisited with compelling
clarity before, perhaps most notably by Billy Bragg and Wilco, but this bold
approach by the Klezmatics is another eye-opener.
Wonder Wheel -- Lyrics by Woody Guthrie, an album seven years
in the making, reaches into the hefty archive of Guthrie's unrecorded lyrics
and turns the words into beautiful world music. The sentiments conveyed in
these 12 songs, created under the supervision of Guthrie's daughter Nora,
reflect the songwriter's mind-set as a family man on Coney Island, N.Y., in the
late 1940s.
By then, the familiar union anthems had been replaced by a
broader focus that embraced love songs, lullabies and soul-moving spirituals.
Although the Klezmatics' lively, often beautiful arrangements deserve credit
for the album's old-but-new feel, Guthrie's poetry is powered by a richness and
simplicity that transcends the years.
The opening "Come When I Call You," penned in 1949,
is cast in the image of a traditional war ballad. Remarkably, its mournful
countdown ("four's for the guns of this war, three's for these warships at
sea, two's for the love of me and you, one's for the pretty little baby that's
born, born, born and gone away") still sounds timely.
The Klezmatics, in the band's first all-English album, infuse
that song with delicate instrumental touches, a mixture of acoustic guitars,
accordion and woodwinds. It's a flexible ensemble that easily makes the turn
from sad ballads to the happy rhythms of "Mermaid's Avenue" or the
frenetic Eastern melody of "Wheel of Life."
Sometimes, on songs such as "Gonna Get Through This
World," the band stays close to traditional folk, as Bruce Springsteen did
on The Seeger Sessions. Yet that album is less inventive than the diverse,
invigorating Wonder Wheel.
By taking Guthrie's words in new, unexpected directions, the
Klezmatics don't just honor the songwriter's work, but expand on it.
Jabbott@Orlandosentinel.Com