A Bourbon Street Headliner
author: Chip Hiebler
Well maybe not yet, but R. Scott sure should be. Since breaking away from the Helmut Stein Experience, Scott has had the chance to develop and improve his musical style. He is reminiscent of the blues greats that have proceeded him in the Crescent City. Scott, if you're listening, cut a new CD and pack your bags for New Orleans and get famous!
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This cycle of songs is creative forte by an original talent.
author: Machi
I don't have the vocabulary to write music reviews, so please bear with me as I do my first ever.
The more I listen to Snake Oil Elixir the more I am taken in by its audacity and sustained burst of talent. There is a wonderful theatricality in the way the album opens and shifts themes, with the piano - or Scott's voice - always the lead actor. Dialoguing with sax and harmonica rifts, that voice and piano delve into raunchy blues, delta swing, ragtime jazz, mini-ballads that may remind you of Newman or Waits, funky beats a la Dr John. Yes there are more than a few traditions in this album, but Scott braids them together, makes them his own, and propels them several steps ahead.
I get the impression that the many solid musicians on this album - often made to shine in Scott's previous work - rallied around this effort to return the favor, cause he sure does shine.
My favorite albums are always the ones that get better each time I play them.
Thanks, Scott.
-Machi
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Next best thing to a trip to New Orleans!
author: Axel K.
If you turned down a side street in New Orleans one afternoon looking for a quick drink, entered a darkened bar and found guy at the piano entertaining a cast of characters who made you want to stay for the rest of the afternoon, leisurely downing cocktail after cocktail while forgetting about the world outside...that's how you'll feel listening to this CD.
As you travel through the songs, you'll variously imagine you're standing under a streetlamp on a damp New Orleans night, watching an old-time revival meeting, at a carnival sideshow, or in an ominous cabaret. Vivid images flicker throughout, as aural shades of Tom Waits and Randy Newman dance.
Standout tracks: the rampaging Devil May Care, the joyous Nawlins Bound, the bluesy Death of Me, the tempestuous Color Red and the gentle humor of Calico Grey.
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