JANIS IAN "Folk Is the New Black" Rude Girl/Cooking Vinyl
Friday, March 24, 2006; Page WE06
JANIS IAN"Folk Is the New Black"Rude Girl/Cooking Vinyl
WHEN JANIS IAN calls her new album "Folk Is the New Black," she is claiming that folk music has become as fashionable as black clothes were in the '90s. That's wishful thinking, but one can say with confidence that Ian herself is the new Tom Paxton. That is, she's a topical singer-songwriter who tackles the absurdities of recent headlines with wit and anger, throwing in enough personal songs to vary the mood.
Two songs are sung in the voices of unappealing characters. The right-wing patriot on "Danger Danger" wants to save America by banning sexy musicians, gay authors and dark-skinned immigrants -- pretty much everything but guns. The narcissistic celebrity on "My Autobiography" declares, "What this world needs is a lot more me." "The Great Divide" is a hopeful, lefty singalong, while "Crocodile Song" describes the challenges of cross-cultural romance, in particular the challenges when one partner is a mammal and the other a reptile.
  On "Folk Is the New Black," Janis Ian tells compelling and socially relevant stories. (By Peter Cunningham) |
The 15-song collection was recorded in Nashville with Ian's acoustic guitar joined only by Viktor Krauss's bluegrass bass, Jim Brock's brushes and Carson Whitsett's gospel-soul organ. The spare, moody arrangements are especially effective on the wistful songs that recall Joni Mitchell's middle period. "The Drowning Man" is a tale of a recovering alcoholic struggling with temptation; "The Last Train" is a story of a ghost train returning the ghosts of the Vietnam dead to small towns across America. Best of all is "Jackie Skates," the story of a drifter trying to cross an L.A. freeway and never making it to the other side.
-- Geoffrey Himes
Appearing with Mark Austin on Friday at the Kussmaul Theatre in Frederick and Saturday at the Birchmere.
