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TRAMPIN'
Patti Smith
(Columbia-Sony)
Smith's new album finds the New York poet-rocker still raging against the state of the world, even more so than her last studio album, 2000's Gung Ho.
Smith takes on the U.S. government, specifically the war in Iraq, on such rockers as Jubilee and Stride Of The Mind, and The Doors-like epic Radio Baghdad.
"Who dreams of war and sacrifice? / Our sacred realms are being squeezed, curtailing civil liberties / Recruit the dreams that sing to thee / Let freedom ring," sings Smith on the album's opening track and rallying cry, Jubilee.
Elsewhere, Smith tones it down considerably on the tender and thoughtful Mother Rose, Cartwheels, Trespasses and Peaceable Kingdom and pays tribute to another famous fellow peacenik on Ghandi and fellow poet on My Blakean Year.
Playing alongside the 57-year-old Smith are longtime bandmates guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty -- both have been with her since her 1975 landmark disc, Horses -- plus bassist-keyboardist Tony Shanahan and guitarist Oliver Ray.
Let's hope Smith, whose last tour was derailed when Daughterry was involved in a serious motorcycle accident, plays Toronto this year in support of Trampin'.
Meanwhile, Smith's teenage daughter Jess makes her debut performance playing piano on the title track, a spiritual popularized by American contralto Marian Anderson.
Track Listing
1. Jubilee
2. Mother Rose
3. Stride Of The Mind
4. Cartwheels
5. Gandhi
6. Trespasses
7. My Blakean Year
8. Cash
9. Peaceable Kingdom
10. Radio Baghdad
11. Trampin'