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The Little Willies
The Little Willies
(EMI)
These kids made a pile of money - and now they can do anything they want to. That's good news for fans. A lark from a songbird is always better than a calculated work of marketing from a superstar diva.
Norah Jones, having thoroughly conquered the jazz-lite scene, has now apparently turned her passion to channelling Loretta Lynn in a loving yet mischievous homage to old-timey country music - most of it written before she was born. The Little Willies must be a reference to Willie Nelson, since they do his song I Gotta Get Drunk, or maybe ... oh, I just got it. Great band name, eh?
First of all, her soulful voice is just perfect for the hurtin' ballads. Her version of 1956 classic Love Me is a slam dunk into the beer of your tears, so to speak. But perhaps more to the point, Jones and her crew - including husband-bassist Lee Alexander - don't take themselves too seriously. How could they? The record was knocked off in just four days, with mistakes left in and warts left on, for character. The result is magic.
These guys manage to strike a perfect balance between dry humour and sober sincerity. Song selection is part of it. The album opens with the silly yet oddly touching Roly Poly, by legendary songsmith Fred Rose. They almost comically speed up Kris Kristofferson's intoxicated-in-jail ode Best of All Possible Worlds. It sounds like they all had a few during I Gotta Get Drunk. And Tennessee Stud, expressing love for a horse, is filled with honking big country guitar notes and lead vocals by Richard Julian.
The album-ending original Lou Reed sums up the general attitude of giddy fun here, in which the rock icon is seen to be "cow tipping." What we have here is a great country album for people who hate country.
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Track Listing:
1. Roly Poly
2. I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive
3. Love Me
4. It's Not You It's Me
5. Best of All Possible Worlds
6. No Place To Fall
7. Roll On
8. Gotta Get Drunk
9. Streets of Baltimore
10. Easy As The Rain
11. Tennessee Stud
12. Night Life
13. Lou Reed