Album Notes

As a music historian with a Master’s Degree in ’80s nostalgia, somehow the Chicago-based TAMI Show slipped from my radar in 1988 when they released their self-titled debut album on Chrysalis Records. It even later spawned a minor radio hit, “She’s Only Twenty,” that strangely enough I do not recall. In fact, the vague memory I have of the group’s name probably comes from the 1964 concert flick, The T.A.M.I. Show, that inspired it. Just when you think you know everything, a little archaeological digging will toss a lost ark your way.


Claire Massey, the other half of TAMI Show’s singing siblings, went solo after the band’s demise in the early ’90s, shortly after releasing their second LP, Wanderlust, on RCA Records. (That album had the group’s biggest hit, “The Truth,” which I don’t recall, either; it hit the Top-30, according to Billboard.) Massey’s latest work is a three-cut EP called Music In My Head, which is essentially a preview for a full-length piece. Many artists today do not release EPs anymore, and that’s a shame because they provide a cheap sampler to listeners who aren’t familiar with them — or the chart-making acts they used to be in. Massey has a warm, honey-dipped voice, bursting with life-affirming good vibrations and a sunny sensibility that is rarely heard in these screamo days. The production is slick but not overpolished.

“Your Love Came” has delightfully familiar jangling guitars and a bit of a country flavor beneath it all, soaring in the border between Adult Contemporary and roots rock. Fans of Lone Justice and early Texas will surely approve. “Easy Come Easy Go” hits the spot even deeper for me, mainly because it’s the most ’80s-sounding of these tracks. Those urgent, ringing riffs could’ve blasted from college radio in 1989. On “Rainbows,” Massey slows the tempo down and lets her lovely voice shine through the mix. It’s a highly welcome new beginning from a talented artist who is both reintroducing — and introducing — herself.

11/05/2007

Official Website: http://www.planetclaire.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/clairemasseymusic