Lucie Idlout’s E5-770, My Mother’s Name;
Liza Garelik’s Liza Garelik and The Wonderwheels
Benjammin’s Shining From Inside
Dave Rowe’s By The Way
For this review I decided to pick, purely at random, four CDs from the Green Man Review mailroom’s “orphans pile” and see what they have to offer. None of these artists are known to me, so with a virgin ear and a blank canvas, I set out.
Lucie Idlout’s E5-770, My Mothers Name is the first album to grace my player. The album nestles clearly in the heavy rock mode, and as such rocks along in the usual pop music fashion, with a loud, full-on “in your face” sound. All the songs are written by Lucie Idlout except ‘Roll the Bone,” which was written by Lucie but arranged by Matt Dematteo and Chris Shreenan-Dyck, who also produced the album. The album’s title song is explained in the sleeve notes: “In the 1930’s and 40’s Canadian government administrators began using disc numbers intermittently as a way of registering individual Inuit who’s [sic] Inuktitut names made them difficult for administrators to identify. With the passing of the family allowance act in 1944, and the incorporation of Inuit into the Canadian Welfare system, payment of allowances became based on the registration of children. A Federal proposal was passed at this time to register the entire Inuit population with disc numbers. The Canadian artic [sic] was divided between east (E) and west (W) and into 12 regions with corresponding numbers. Disc numbers in the Igloolik/North Baffin region began with E5.” Lucie dedicates this album to her mother Leah Idlout-Paulson.
Lucie sings very well and, much to her credit, has a slightly unusual voice that grows on you. The lyrics are unimportant with this kind of music, as it is the kind of thing usually playing in the background in the student bar at universities. The band overall plays very well and the album has been well 
produced. Unfortunately, they do sound very much like hundreds of other bands. However, I suspect the album would be very popular with students of progressive rock.
You can read about Lucie on Wikipedia.
Benjammin’s Shining From Inside was the next album and is as different as chalk ‘n’ cheese to Lucie Idlout. Benjammin is an eco-spiritual singer-songwriter from Canada. To quote from the sleeve notes again, “Benjammin, A genre-jumping singer/songwriter. Full of heart, humour, life-affirming energy and mystical beauty” is pretty well what you get. Benjammin’s songs are all sung well with a pure, trained voice. If someone told me he was a born-again Christian who has found some kind of inner peace with his belief, I would be inclined to believe him. This may or may not be the case for Benjammin, but his songs and performance certainly purvey this theme. His tunes are not exactly folk music; more the kind of thing a Broadway musical writer might come up with. Unfortunately, not all the lyrics held my attention as 
much as they are supposed to, but I did find the album had a calming effect. Which is maybe what Benjammin is aiming for.
Liza Garelik and The Wonder Wheels features Liza Garelik as a singer-songwriter heading the band. They come out as a lightweight pop rock band. Overall the album sounds good, even if a lot of the tunes do sound like something you have heard many times before (which is a pity). Liza and her band have picked a hard road to travel, but they will always find a gig to play, and they sound like they are enjoying it. Liza wrote all the songs and handles all the vocals. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Liza Garelik has lived in many different locations, but now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Working under the belief that ‘real musicians have day jobs’ has funded her debut album. I don’t think this album will make her a superstar, but Liza definitely has got talent and may be one to watch in the future. I liked the last track on the album best. The lyrics of the song ‘Glam Jacket’ says it all for Liza and The Wonder Wheels — all they need is a little promotion, exposure, and listening to. When I checked out their Web site, I was surprised to read that ‘Liza Garelik “gives permission for you to copy her CD as long as it is only for your friends.” Could Liza Garelik and The Wonder Wheels end up being a cult band?
Dave Rowe’s By The Way is the final album in my selection. This one is firmly in the field of folk music. Dave Rowe may not be known to many on this side of the ocean, but in the U.S.A, people certainly may know Dave as a member of the Maine-based trio Turkey Hollow (formerly Rowe by Rowe), when he sang with his dad (the late Tom Rowe of Schooner Fare) in the early ’90s. These days, Dave Rowe is in high demand with audiences on Maine’s music scene. This is Dave’s first solo album and I am reminded again why I like acoustic folk music so much. It’s really a very good album. Dave is a nice singer with a soft melodic voice that delivers excellent clarity and diction. Accompaniment is provided by a nice acoustic guitar style with some superb solos when needed. These are very American ballads with an occasional touch of bluegrass, which gives the album a well balanced feel that is easy on the ear. Dave and his wife Kimberly run Cheshire Moon Studios, so it’s here Dave recorded, mixed and mastered all the songs he wrote. As far as I can tell, Dave double-tracks the vocal harmonises and maybe plays some of the other instruments, bass, piano, and banjo himself. The songs are well crafted and show shades of Gordon Lightfoot and Tom Paxton.
Dave Rowe’s songs are “By The Way” and he “Happy Will Be” if he finds a “Rose of Another Kind” down by the “Lovers Tree” in the “Springtime Love” that made him a “Lucky Fool” and shows “Signs” that “Someday” he “Can’t Stop” and is “Gonna Miss You” when you’re gone. So he is “Howling At The Moon” making a “Lonesome Sound.” But he still has “Fences To Mend” and reminds you that you’re “Not Forgotten.”
Dave Rowe has a Web site with details of his new band; check it out. I can certainly recommend you get this album. It’s worth listening to.
Once again, here are albums from singers unheard of on my side of the pond. Each one is working in a different field of music and hoping for your attention, and as such, the albums are well worth searching for.
(Heart Wreck Records,2002)
(Liza Garelik, 2003)
(Inner Flow Music, 2003)
(Outer Green Records, 2002)
