CD reviews for 02/10/09 – Andy Friedman & Other Failures, T. Jarrod Bonta
Compact Capsules for February 2009
by Dan Ferguson
Andy Friedman & the Other Failures
Weary Things
City Salvage Records CSR17
Dubbed by one writer as the “Hillbilly Leonard Cohen,” RISD grad and sometimes New Yorker cartoonist Andy Friedman plays country music, Brooklyn-style. Friedman himself labels his anti-commercial, but spot-hitting brand of citybilly Art Country. Whatever you want to call it, Weary Things is no frills twang tunes on which Friedman waxes nostalgic on odes to the likes of family, favorite locales, and of course, Brooklyn. Visit http://www.andyfriedman.net/.
T. Jarrod Bonta
Jazz Offerings to the Schnauzer King
Music Room Records
Lending his talents on the ivories to the likes of albums from Wayne Hancock, Johnny Bush, Cornell Hurd Band, and Rosie Flores, T. Jarrod Bonta has been a sideman fixture on the Austin scene since the beginning of the decade. On the bandleader front, his output since that time was limited to a single EP from 2000 (The Best of Me, Texas Jamboree Records) which while brief at only four songs, showed talent. Over the last few years, Bonta has been leading his own “jazz” band at several locales on the Austin bar scene. It only seemed natural that a longplayer would soon follow. With Jazz Offerings to the Schnauzer King, Bonta moves front and center on a collection that moves freely between jazz, swing, and standards. Check out cdbaby.com/cd/tjarrod.
(Dan Ferguson is a free-lance music writer and host of The Boudin Barndance, broadcast Thursday nights from 6 – 9 pm on WRIU-FM 90.3. He lives in Peace Dale and can be reached at [email protected].)<...