Music Feedback
New This WeekAround TownMusicFilmArtTheaterNews & FeaturesFood & DrinkAstrology
  HOME
NEW THIS WEEK
EDITORS' PICKS
LISTINGS
NEWS & FEATURES
MUSIC
FILM
ART
BOOKS
THEATER
DANCE
TELEVISION
FOOD & DRINK
ARCHIVES
LETTERS
PERSONALS
CLASSIFIEDS
ADULT
ASTROLOGY
PHOENIX FORUM DOWNLOAD MP3s

  E-Mail This Article to a Friend
Darrell Nulisch
TIMES LIKE THESE
(SEVERN)

Stars graphics

Boston-based singer Darrell Nulisch lobs another stick of soul-blues dynamite, this one ignited by the opening "Lonely Man," a Little Milton number that that the ex-Texan makes sound like a lost Bobby Bland diamond. With touches of funky organ, cocktail keys, and elegant horns, this is his most sophisticated disc. Even when he’s delivering a grinding blues shuffle, like "Something Else," his Southern-accented voice has a way of soaring through notes and adding fine details to his phrases that marks him as one of the country’s best blues warblers — with a warmer tone and more relaxed approach than, say, that of fellow blue-eyed soul man Delbert McClinton.

As swinging as ballads like the Stax-flavored "Don’t Look Back" and "That’s a Good Idea" are, and as much as "Right Here at Home" smacks of classic Memphis soul, the album’s centerpiece is the title track. Nulisch has penned a song of hope for the New Depression. "I see so many people lost in a fallen world," he sings. "They’re treading water and going nowhere/And I sit and wonder what can/What can one man do. . . . In times like these it’s up to each and every man/To take time to try to understand/That love is the only thing/That will surely pull us through." It’s a simple but enduring message that won’t waver to the beat of war drums or the fall of stock prices.

BY TED DROZDOWSKI

Issue Date: July 11 - July 17, 2003
Back to the Music table of contents.

  E-Mail This Article to a Friend

home | feedback | about the phoenix | find the phoenix | advertising info | privacy policy | the masthead | work for us

 © 2003 Phoenix Media Communications Group