David Olney - Wheel

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Music reviews of Wheel

Music Review: A POET WHO CAN ROADHOUSE...
Rating: 5 Stars

Olney's latest effort is full of the images of the wheel - from the title to the pictures on the cover, to various references in the lyrics, to the very programming of the cd. Heck, even the cd itself is round (what an innovation, right...?). Seriously - a lot of thought and care went into this recording, and it shows time and again during listening.

The album begins, ends, and is punctuated from time to time by short tunes that are reminiscent (as another reviewer noted) of Gregorian chant or Renaissance polyphony - which is appropriate, Olney being a modern Renaissance man if ever there was one. The final track of the album places the four previous short pieces into a round together - and the effect is stunningly beautiful and illumination. As Dave Marsh astutely points out in his notes to the cd, the track `Revolution' is - very purposefully, I'm sure - centrally placed. The rest of the program turns around it nicely. The song itself is beautiful and allegorical - I heard Olney perform live just last night at a house concert (what an excellent venue for such an artist!), and in introducing this song, he said (and I'm paraphrasing - I wasn't taking notes) `There are two types of revolutions - the natural ones, such as the earth turning around the sun, the seasons turning over the course of a year...and the type that overthrows a government. This song is about both.'

After the short opening track, `Wheels', Olney gets things moving strongly with `Big Cadillac', proudly and easily showing his love of the blues. This blues influence shows itself again in `Chained and bound to the wheel' and the raw `Boss don't shoot no dice', with its nod to Albert Einstein's comment that `God doesn't play dice with the universe' - everything has a purpose and works according to a logic that we might or might not comprehend from moment to moment.

David Olney can write a love song as well - his past recordings are full of beautiful examples of that song form, some of the most memorable I've ever come across. This album isn't lacking for them, either - `Now and forever', `Precious time, precious love', `The girl I love' and `All the love in the world'. Every song he writes is written straight from his heart - and he's never shy about letting the listener know how he feels.

`God-shaped hole' is a reference to the ideas of the French existentialists - `guys wearing berets and chain-smoking', he called them last night - and speaks of the spiritual detachment and isolation that we sometimes feel when faces with setbacks in our lives. As with many of Olney's serious tunes, it's not without an apt infusion of wry humor.

`Stonewall' is a moving look at the aftermath and horrors of war, through the eyes of a tired, saddened and world-weary Stonewall Jackson, wanting nothing more (or less) than to return to Virginia and live out his days in peace - `Let me cross over, over the river - and let me rest in the shade of the trees'.

Taken as a whole, this album works on a level to which many artists aspire and dream - it's a complete circle. I suggest spinning it over and over again - it's one of his greatest accomplishments.

Description of Wheel

Blues CDs

• Music > Styles
• Folk
• Pop