Kachina 2023
NEAL SMITH –
KillSmith Goes West
Taking his “No More Mr. Nice Guy” persona to the limit, legendary drummer finds an outlaw liberty.
Neal Smith may not have penned “Desperado” but his percussive belligerence is all over this ALICE COOPER perennial; and that’s something he honed and wrapped in further layers of imagination with BILLION DOLLAR BABIES. No wonder, then, in the veteran’s urge to follow such an adventurous path in his solo career which gave birth to the American artist’s alter ego, a character who’s eager to try as many masks as possible. The last the listener encountered the unlikely hero was about a decade ago, when "KillSmith & The Greenfire Empire" found the ever-changing personage in a role of a drug lord, but now Neal leads the other Smith to the beginning, to the wild(er)ness where the words “I’m a killer, I’m a clown” ring true and brave.
Be charmed, not fooled, though, once “Shaughnessy Highway” opens a wide vista of the Appalachia through an arresting acoustic strum and the wail of pedal steel while Neal’s coarse-as-leather vocals welcome his fellow travelers to reach the end of the rocky road and look back not in anger but with a fatigued feel of accomplishment. However, the raucous “Tequila, Tamales & A Woman” sees Rick Tedesco roll a slider and flaunt a riff to let Smith tell a less lachrymose tale – one which will be a tad toned down a little later, after the frenetic “Big Wheels” grasps a bluegrass drive, in a not-as-salacious “Coffee, Beer & Borrowed Time” which unhurriedly unfolds into a saloon singalong, led by a barrelhouse piano. Still, it doesn’t take long for the band to engage in a heavy-laden, boisterous charge and chase the histrionic “Pull It Out Smokin'” towards the horizon as if there’s no tomorrow, locate the wonder of love in “Sunsets Of Gold” that shines so brightly as to polish the singer’s pipes and add a fiddle to the album’s aural panorama, and shape the groovy “Jesus Was A Gunfighter” into an infectious blues the leader’s old group would have been proud of.
There’s a tumbleweed rhythm to the hilarious lyricism of “Jukebox Rose” – a hoedown tune as soft as affection should demand – but the homespun weave is bound to make room for the glittery “Evil Wind” that calls all the cowboys to the dancefloor until “Tattooed Cowgirl” emerges with a mascara-smeared menace to stomp the night away. As far as outlaw-theme platters go, this is an entertaining display of clichés turned on their head to have and spread fun.
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