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Also this issue: Replay Summer Monsters The Mountain Goats Neil Michael Hagerty Gina Scipione |
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July 25-31, 2002
musicpicks
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When, in the mid-'90s, he discovered his wife was having an affair with his lead singer, Mike Ireland found himself down and out in that time-honored "my girl done left me" fashion. Without a wife, band, best friend or home, Ireland began gravitating to the slick countrypolitan sounds he grew up rejecting as a Kansas City youngster, artists like George Jones, Charlie Rich and Merle Haggard. The resulting album, 1998's Learning How to Live (Sub Pop), was waltzing heartbreak set to twang and strings, establishing Ireland and his whiskey-and-honey tenor, critically at least, in the evolving country pantheon. Four years and several appearances at the Grand Ole Opry later, Ireland's just released his follow-up (much awaited by the devoted few who bled with Learning How to Live). Try Again (Ashmont) finds Ireland picking up the pieces: His outlook is sunnier, but haunted by specters from the past. Full of cut-to-the-bone emotional directness, Ireland and company reel off 11 originals (and a cover of Rich's wonderfully understated "Life Has Its Little Ups and Downs"). On "I'd Like To" Ireland offers tentatively: "But I think I could open my eyes/ And I think I'd like to/ It's time to let love be blind." And on "Love's the Hardest Thing You'll Ever Do": "Time changes hearts/ Seems the one that burns the brightest is the first that love departs." It's all about how you carry your baggage, and Ireland's learning how to live just fine.
Mon., July 29, 9 p.m., $7, with John Train and One Star Hotel, The Fire, 412 W. Girard Ave., 267-671-9298.
