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Cary Hudson/ Blue Mountain
THE PHOENIX / TONIGHT IT’S NOW OR NEVER
(BLACK DOG)/ (DCN)

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Blue Mountain seemed poised to make a fresh start last year. They had survived leaving Roadrunner and changing personnel and even the divorce of singer/guitarist Cary Hudson and bass player Laurie Stirratt to make Roots, a joyful album full of the Delta blues and Appalachian mountain music that had been their original inspiration. But what seemed like fresh air turned into the band’s last gasp, and they broke up while touring in support of Roots.

Two new releases — the double live Blue Mountain set Tonight It’s Now or Never and Hudson’s first solo album, The Phoenix — help explain what went wrong. Tonight It’s Now or Never finds the band in fine form and playing a marathon set of tunes that cover more than a decade, including fan favorites "Soul Sister," "Jimmy Carter," and "Generic America." Blue Mountain retrieve "Judgment Day" from their early days as the Hilltops and sprinkle in songs from Roots, balancing the heart-warming and the heart-wrenching by juxtaposing feel-good tunes like "Lakeside" with more depressing fare like the traditional "Banks of the Pontchartrain."

From the first down-and-dirty guitar lick of "High Heel Sneakers," the opening track on The Phoenix, it’s clear that Roots was a rediscovery for Hudson. Acoustic ballads like "Butterfly" and "Lovin’ Touch" are sung with passion, but it’s the gritty tunes like "Bend with the Wind" and "Mad, Bad & Dangerous" that he really digs into. Without long-time partner Stirratt singing harmony and adding a lighter touch, he seems more inclined to strut and brag and indulge himself in feedback-drenched bar-room blues. It’s a tendency that has always put him front and center and has perhaps overshadowed Stirratt. Still, it’s strange to hear his voice without her harmonies, the same way it was an adjustment to listen to Frank Black’s first solo album without Kim Deal backing him up.

BY NICK A. ZAINO III

Issue Date: September 12 - 19, 2002
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