Search - Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch, Fats Kaplin :: You Can't Save Everybody

Real songs from the other side of Nashville

Jerome Clark | Canby, Minnesota | 07/26/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Nashville songwriter" is more often than not a euphemism for "shameless hack," a way of telling us that the individual in question scribbles forgettable ditties -- "positive love songs" (in the industry phrase) or chest-thumping jingoistic rants -- whatever the market or an audience of undiscriminating dunces calls for. There is, however, another side of Nashville, and that is where the likes of Kieran Kane and Kevin Welch live. Here music has roots and meaning, and both are abundantly in evidence in You Can't Save Everbody.



This isn't country music so much as the kind of folk sound shaped by Woody Guthrie in the 1940s and refined in the 1960s by the likes of Bob Dylan. I'm sure Dylan would approve of Kane and Welch if he's heard them. The songs, though clearly modern, incorporate rural and traditional points of reference. Like the great authentic folk songs, they speak directly to life's most elemental concerns: faith, fear, hope, love, death, rage, and landscapes both natural and psychic.



These guys are too good to let any mediocre tunes mar the pleasure. Every song seems bound to grow on you with each successive listening. Three stand out immediately, at least for me. One is Kane's instrumental "Cecil's Lament," which sounds like an old Irish fiddle tune that long ago found its way to the Southern mountains. Anybody -- in this case Welch -- who would write a ballad titled "Jersey Devil" (concerning a genuine Garden State legend about a demonic winged creature) has my automatic approval. And if you lament the state of the nation, you will take to heart Welch's "Everybody's Working for the Man Again" and hasten to spread the message to your friends. "Everybody's Working" demonstrates that if the current state of the nation is good for nothing else, at least it has done wonders for the old-fashioned folk protest song. This is one biting, satisfying example."

On the porch

J. TIMMERMAN | Lawson, NSW Australia | 04/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Think male version of Gillian Welch, then maybe add a little acoustic Mark Knopfler or JJ Cale and you've got a gist of this neat warm production. Or if you know the gentle country/cowboy art of Peter Rowan and Don Edwards, you're also in the right ballpark. No grandstanding here, just sincere original music making, with one catchy instrumental and eleven songs that tell stories, make comments about life's essentials and just let you relax. They're fine songs too - it would hard to say any one is better than the others.



These two Nashville guys have made their own solo or band albums (Kieran is ex-O'Kanes) but after a Live in Melbourne album this is their first studio album together. It represents an alternative Nashville, not the glitzy country music, but honest-to-goodness rural music in the great tradition of Woody Guthrie. Both guys play guitar and mandolin while Kieran plays banjo as well. Both also have really smooth voices. Fats Kaplin provides stylish minimalist accompaniment on accordion, banjo, guitar and fiddle.



The musicianship here is wonderful, with a togetherness that conjures up memories of "Brother Where Art Thou", especially in the opening title track. All are clearly at ease with each other and the music flows with great precision and plenty of soul.



An unpretentious gem that will grow on you with each listening.

"

Americana Album of the Year

Paul Garrett | Fort Worth Texas USA | 10/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This trio recently played a tiny club in my hometown.There might have been 40 people there.That didn't seem to bother them at all.They put on a superb ,intimate show and displayed incredible musicianship.Basically, they presented this recording as their first set.Great songs,skilled playing.To my taste ,it is approaching perfection.Everyone that I have played this CD for has purchased it. Highly Recommended!!!"