JEZ LOWE AND THE BAD PENNIES
Honesty Box
Tantobie (2002)
http://www.tantobie.com/

Jez Lowe is from the north of England, sings the songs he writes about the English working class. As with his other albums, he fuses acoustic arrangements with folk and pop musical styles. His verses are often subtle with difficult interpretations, and his songs often have dark twists.

My favorite song from Honesty Box, "The Big Fear" is one of these. Here is the song of The Lone Badger and it should be well received in Wisconsin. I listened to the lyrics fairly closely several times, the last time on the big interstate bridge over the Willamette, and thought it a pretty cute song about a badger protecting his woodland neighborhood. "Trouble is my business but it has no business being here." "These woods are like a circus now. This forest is like a zoo." "Now the Copse is asking questions..." Great lines! Being an American, I was thinking the "roadkill" that formed Jez' indignance was animals intentionally getting hit by cars with bloodlusting drivers, but then I found the topic was badger baiting. The Humphrey Bogart connection had not been clear either!

Another nice song is the first, "Skin Too Thin" which begins with some nice percussive world influences. This is the song that the honesty box comes from, a song that says we should not smile and ignore the crimes of the rich and strong over the poor and week. The second song, "The Ballad of Tasker Jack"is nice as well. The old miner named Tasker Jack, "the mountain in our midst," is dying and others reminisce. He is the celebrated "big hewer with a ton across his back," and the overman named Bradley called him "thick and slow" for 20 years, but Jack never seemed bothered. Here comes the switchback: Bradley "was last seen living on the night they capped the old pit shaft." Perhaps another meaning goes further into the depths.

The next song, "I Saw Hands" is a fairly esoteric piece about touching the remnants of spirits who bodies may be dead or alive, but both have left but cold traces. Oddly he mentions a cinematic traces of a local named John Alderson who went to Hollywood and can be seen still in old movies. Coincidently my relatives have been trying to touch the traces of our 9th great-grandfather John Alderson in the stones of Yorkshire. Only a sense of deeper time separates our perspective.

There are obviously more songs here, about getting rid of useless lives full of useless burdens, about "A rallying call to better times." "Maddison" is another cute song about a man whose wife wins a car for him. Then he runs off with the woman who teaches him to drive. "Mothers Day" is three letters home from three men...I had to read the lyrics on both of these to figure who the letters were from. There are many of puzzles here; Jez' mind is quirky.

Acoustic instruments used include cittern, accordion, piano, whistle, guitar. Some of the songs sound more solid and interesting and some have more hooks. Some, like "Mothers Day" tend too much to pop for me to like. One song, "Matchboxes," is interesting but the arrangement is not constructed or sung well. But most are smooth, and the quirks are fascinating. And usually there are sufficient roots to ground the music in the land.

judith@gorge.net

The Columbia Gypsy