| SpongeTone Jamie Hoover pays a passionate debt to songwriter Bob Lind with this lovely, four-track EP. A real keeper. |
|---|
Jamie Hoover
Lind Me Four
Loaded Goat (2006)
Jamie Hoover came to the music of Bob Lind by way of the Smithereen's Dennis Diken, whose very DNA is made up of particles from, at the very least, every other pop song ever recorded. Which makes perfect sense, because if you need someone to turn you on to great music, Diken's your man.
As Hoover says in his very personal liner notes to Lind Me Four, the only Lind he knew was "Elusive Butterfly," the sweet, beautifully-realized, early-1966 hit. He was aching to hear more; Lind fever was burning up inside of him. The first fruit of Hoover's newfound musical passion emerged on the Van DeLecki's 1999 album, Ebum Shoobum Shoobum, on which Hoover and fellow 'Lecki Bryan Shumate covered "Elusive Butterfly." That song, along with covers of three other masterworks from Lind's first World Pacific album, appear here; all are given passionate readings, and all are delivered straight from the heart, as only Hoover can do.
Hoover approaches Lind's songs with sincere reverence as he recasts them in a contemporary musical context. "Unlock the Door," which trades a rockier, beat-driven architecture for Lind's folk-traveler, banjo-based arrangement, beautifully captures Lind's accounting of the value of true love. Similarly, the lovely "Drifter's Sunrise" is infused with a Help!-era Beatles sheen, building on the tender structure of Lind's original. The gorgeous "Counting" is realized in a fashion similar to Lind's reading, substituting stringed accents for the original recording's bell sound. Also similar to the original is Hoover's take on the evergreen, classic "Elusive Butterfly," although Hoover's version beats a bit faster.
Great songs never die; they only grow older, and wiser, as Hoover proves with his ace interpretations of the songs on this gorgeous EP. Four more Linds, please, and sooner than later.
Alan Haber
April 23, 2006
Go to: Jamie Hoover