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Gill Landry
The Ballad of Lawless Soirez
(Nettwerk)
John Metzger's #20 album for 2007
First Appeared in
The Music Box, January 2007, Volume 14, #1
Written by John Metzger
Anyone who has spent enough time in New Orleans knows that the city is
overrun with talent (or at least it was before the mishandling of the Katrina
catastrophe scattered its residents around the country). So competitive was the
local music scene that, in order to make even a modest living as an artist, one
had to be astoundingly good. Prior to landing a spot playing banjo and steel
guitar with Old Crow Medicine Show, Gill Landry eked out an existence as a
busker within the confines of the Crescent City. On his solo debut The Ballad
of Lawless Soirez, he brings into the present the old-time charm of the
early jazz and blues recordings that he initially embraced.
That’s not to say that Landry doesn’t also incorporate more modern textures
into his work, and it’s easy to decipher the influences that are embedded within
his DNA. Dixie, for example, combines the Texas-bred country of Robert
Earl Keen and James McMurtry. Neil Young’s stinging guitar-based attack crosses
paths with the soulfulness of Van Morrison on Poor Boy. The chamber-folk
of Magdalene owes a tremendous debt to Alejandro Escovedo. Loneliness
draws from Bob Dylan’s canon, and the entirety of The Ballad of Lawless
Soirez is enveloped in the creaking, impressionistic atmospherics that have
become Tom Waits’ stock in trade. Yet, rather than allowing his heroes to
dominate the proceedings, Landry uses them as the foundations upon which to
construct the backdrops for his darkened tales of love and loss.
Working with producer Nick Jaina, Landry carefully sculpted arrangements for
The Ballad of Lawless Soirez that not only frame but also enhance the
surreal depictions of desperation that are outlined in his lyrics. There’s a
spooky sadness that creeps through Poor Boy, and the painful ache of
Desiree is inescapably palpable. Similarly, the chilling cry of a fiddle
mourns the death-stalked tale of Magdalene, and the Mariachi horns that
dot the title track’s landscape seem almost as if they are mocking the lost and
lonely life that has been led by the song’s narrator. "Don’t worry love,
everything’s gonna be all right," he sings on Mutiny, the album’s final
track. As the story continues and the light begins to fade, however, it becomes
clear that in the world that Landry created for The Ballad of Lawless Soirez,
hope is a carrot that remains just out of reach, and love is something that is,
at best, fleeting. 
The Ballad of Lawless Soirez is available from
Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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