FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 2000. All Rights Reserved
CD Review
by Mary-Lynn McEwenRichard Buckner
The Hill
Sixshooter/Overcoat· Buckner’s fourth album relies on the help of Calexico to marry the words of American poet Edgar Lee Masters’s (1868-1950) The Spoon River Anthology with Buckner’s distinctive sound.
Sitting down with a tall drink and the even taller volume of Edgar Lee Masters’s poems is like being in one of those delicious dreams where you can go back into the past like an invisible guest and view human grace in all its flaws and glory as they lead but to the grave. For the grave is where the voices of Masters's cemetery full of characters reside, simple folk reflecting on the truths of their brief carnival ride on the mortal coil. And indeed, the grave must be a fine and private place, for the thoughts of the dead turn to many a past embrace as short narratives from raped poetesses, honest drunkards and randy doctors tumble together like the owners’ limbs did in life.
Who but Buckner could set these darkly hopeful epiphanies to music? Who but Masters could replace the language of language-master Buckner and succeed? For the poems, fine-boned and bred on the page, are all the more stunning when riding into the room on the quiet stream of Buckner’s music. While you can enjoy this album on its own, it is much better to buy, beg or borrow the anthology, crack it open, and turn up the volume on the music and your heart. And, baby, don’t fear the reaper.
4/5
| Back To This Issue Table of Contents | Back To Main Index |