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Bruce Piephoff: Hard Times for Dreamers
Bruce Piephoff is prolific to say the least. Shortly after reviewing his 2002 release Slaughterhouse, which was twenty tracks strong, I now get a copy of his follow-up featuring twelve new tracks. The album title basically sums up what he does best: bare bones folk music with a slightly topical slant throughout. Its hard to believe in this day of nu-metal and pop stars that this sort of thing was ever cutting edge, but Piephoff continues to follow the same trail that Dylan walked in the early 60s (who, of course was following the road laid out by Woodie Guthrie but I digress). Throughout the twelve tracks, his half sung/half spoken lyrics occupy the majority of the spotlight, and the characters that inhabit his songs pretty much follow the down-home-down-on-your-luck mold thats always made for the best folk tunes. Many guest musicians (including Rob Seals on electric guitar) join Piephoff throughout the record, but their contributions never overpower the songs. This kind of music lends itself well to the spare production, and the main focus of each song is the lyrics and guitar even his voice seems to move out of the way of the words. With this approach, Piephoff has planted himself firmly into the more folksier regions sometimes occupied by rock artists such as Neil Young and Dylan; you get the feeling that if he hadnt come after them, Piephoff would be someone they themselves would have imitated. My favorite tracks on the album are the title track and Whistling Down the Wind, but I also enjoy Burgundy Buick, a spoken word track that I could almost hear Tom Waits turn into a complete song. Its obvious that with this release, Piephoff isnt interested in breaking new ground but rather in writing better songs. Having heard both of these latest releases, Im not sure that he has necessarily improved, but Piephoff is still writing the type of nice songs that are growing harder to come by these days. Still, Piephoff has undoubtedly improved in one aspect: the cover art to this one is much better than Slaughterhouse.
You can purchase music by Bruce Piephoff from Insound LEFT OFF THE DIAL's Bruce Piephoff page About LOTD Contact/Staff Advertise Home All content © LEFT OFF THE DIAL 2001-2005. All rights reserved. |
