Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang

Dislocation Blues | Rounder
By TED DROZDOWSKI  |  April 23, 2007
3.5 3.5 Stars
070427_inside_chriswhitley
Chris Whitley, so pale and thin it seemed he was compelled to lean under the weight of his resonator guitars, was a spectral figure in life. In death the ghostly qualities of his voice in the old blues murder story “Stagger Lee” and the alienated title track of this album ring even stranger and more poignant. The latter in particular, since Whitley’s in top form, unreeling expressionistic poetry about heresy and disenfranchisement. He had a knack for weaving beauty and horror, and his playing was at its peak when he paired with Australian blues-pop hero Jeff Lang in 2005 for this disc that’s just now being released in the US. Both musicians are skilled roots-inclined songwriters and guitarists with a bent for slide dexterity. The difference is that Lang seems healthier and better adjusted, right down to his robust guitar tone and choices of more familiar imagery, like open country and travel, even as he’s singing about the highway to Hell (“The Road Leads Down”). Lang’s vocal melodies are soaring; Whitley’s are half-whispered contemplations. But their blend of open-heartedness and mystery works splendidly as their guitars chime and twine. The most arresting number is the spectral New Orleans tale “Velocity Girl,” which finds them weaving a bed of guitar textures from Indian influences and atonalities around Whitley’s haunted call.
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  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Chris Whitley,  More more >
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