**1/2 Mem Shannon A CAB DRIVER'S BLUES
A gimmicky
but likable updating of the blues tradition from a genuine (as of this writing)
New Orleans cabdriver.
Shannon
can get serious, but is equally at home sending
up blues clichés in one number and, in another, complaining about his
girlfriend's
daytime talk-show addiction.
He and producer Mark Bingham have
interspersed the often tongue-in-cheek musical tales of woe with (obviously)
secretly recorded and usually profane conversations with his passengers --
hookers, lawyers, drunken conventioneers, tourists from
Luxembourg. The sound
bites get old after a couple of plays, but Shannon's expressive, world-weary
voice doesn't. Nor does his laconically effective picking style. Shannon's band
has an unremarkable contemporary soul/funk/blues style, but the singer's
personality carries the album.
-- Wes Eichenwald
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