STEVE GOODMAN
Live at the Earl of Old Town
Red Pajamas Records
VARIOUS ARTISTS
My Old Man
Red Pajamas Records
· A tribute to a funny and electrifying performer.
If you mention the name Steve Goodman to people these days you will likely be met with blank stares. A few might know that he wrote "City of New Orleans," but they would be hard-pressed to think of anything else that he had done. It's enough of a legacy for anyone, but Goodman wrote much more than that one song. He also performed with Steve Martin and taught Jimmy Buffet how to work a crowd. And, if this recording is any indication, he was a very funny man who just happened to be an electrifying performer.
It's no wonder that he has become the latest folk music icon to become the subject/victim of a tribute album. Is it a marketing ploy or genuine admiration? I don't know. I suspect the latter. Goodman deserves that much. The people involved certainly don't need gimmicks to help them sell product. Many of the best of southern Ontario's alt country/folk scene (Kate Fenner, Luther Wright, Dan Whiteley) got on board for this one. The result is, perhaps, a better CD than the live performance, but that is only because the choice of material is different. Gone, for the most part, is the humorous material. Instead, we get a version of the powerfully haunting anti-Vietnam war song "The Ballad of Penny Evans" and the anti-nuclear ditty "Watching Joey Glow" with its Randy Newmanesque lyrics. Both songs remain relevant today. This probably says as much about Goodman's ability to write complex songs as it does about our inability to learn the lessons he tried to teach us. Perhaps it’s time for a refresher course.
LIVE AT THE EARL 4/5
MY OLD MAN 4/5
BRUCE POLLOCK
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