Red Parlor
2007
One Tough Town
About This Album
Musically, David Olney's album One Tough Town travels backward in time. By the second track, "Sweet Poison," he has reached the rockabilly of the 1950s; by the end, on "Rainbow's End," he sounds like he's trying to re-create the hit parade of the 1920s. Especially on recent albums, Olney has investigated more basic musical styles, sometimes by employing unusual instrumentation. Here, he and co-producer Jack Irwin have brought in a banjo player (Richard Bailey), while Olney sometimes plucks a ukulele, and there are horns including clarinet, saxophone, trombone, and even tuba. Previously, with his gruff voice and gutbucket arrangements, Olney has recalled the later Tom Waits; on One Tough Town, that comparison remains valid, although one also should mention Leon Redbone as a model. In his songwriting, Olney continues to delight in imaginative explorations of historical and invented characters and situations. "Who's the Dummy Now?" is sung in the voice of a ventriloquist's dummy, who is reading the riot act to the ventriloquist, to the point of berating his romantic technique with a date (that's what you get when you don't move your lips). The title song, a sort of religious/science fiction fantasy, is sung in the voice of Jesus Christ as if Christ were a cosmic comedian touring the universe who had come to Earth to play a few shows and gotten crucified for his trouble; now he is warning a fellow entertainer to stay away because the planet is "one tough town." How does a songwriter even get an idea like that? It's a question a listener may ask more than once listening to a David Olney album, and this is another good one. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,9 and 13)

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