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Chris Whitley
WAR CRIME BLUES
(Messenger)
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It would seem impossible to capture on tape the determined genius that Chris Whitley has displayed in his recent solo performances. Yet this album — akin to a field recording — nails the Zen-like flow of improvisation, introspection, social perspective, and poetic and instrumental virtuosity he’s been detonating with uncanny regularity on stage. It’s subtle and outrageous. Subtle in that its images of ghosts and scarred romantics begin stacking up like flash cards of protest against the current wave of inhumanity cutting deep into the heart of the world, from Iraq and the Middle East, from Afghanistan, from Bosnia, and from Washington. Outrageous in the wicked flash of his resonator-guitar playing in numbers like "Dead Cowboy Song," which walks the line between deep blues and modernist dissonance with edgy power, and in the relentless whispering intonations and wraith-like moaning he uses to deliver his messages. The most overt lyrics are in "The Call Up," a ballad that urges individuals to refuse to go to war. The biggest surprise is an a cappella reading of the Nat King Cole hit "Nature Boy," which leaves the realm of fantasy under Whitley’s control and becomes a prayer for love and innocence. (Chris Whitley performs next Thursday, September 16, at Club Passim, 47 Palmer Street in Harvard Square; call 617-492-7679.)
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