SOUNDTRACK: NED SUBLETTE: Cowboy Rumba (1999).
Typically I’m the one who introduces our house to new music. My wife has great taste, but she doesn’t typically seek out new stuff like I do. So, it was a nice surprise when she found this record. I think she heard about it on NPR. I was trying to figure out how best to describe the record, but really the title says it all. It is a country-tinged record that is primarily backed by horns in a “rumba” style (although Sublette admits in the liner notes that it’s not really a rumba). I’m not a big fan of country music, and I’m not a huge fan of South of the Border horn music (sambas, rumbas etc). However, Sarah and I took some ballroom dance classes, and my appreciation for these styles has really grown. We even requested one of these songs (“Feelin’ No Pain”) for our wedding reception.
Overall, the album is good fun, the songs are boozy and dancey, upbeat and downtown. Sublette called in some players from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which adds some authenticity to his tales of loss and lust. In general, all the songs overstay their welcome a little. I don’t know if this is a feature of the region’s songs, or if Sublette would rather stretch his pieces out to 5:30 when 4:30 would suffice. Despite that, “Cheater’s Motel” “Ready to Be Your Lover” and “Feelin’ No Pain” are really great, fun songs. It was only after a number of listens that I really got to hear what he was saying in his monologue pieces (like “Her Point of View”), and they’re all pretty amusing tales. So don’t just listen for the fun horns, stay for the story!
[READ: October 9, 2007] The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming.
There are nine short stories in this collection. It’s tough to review a series of short stories simply because you don’t want to give away too much, or even devote a lot of space to a small part of a book. These stories seem to fit very well with each other, so I think it’s safe to make some claims about the book as a whole, but there are enough distinctions between the stories to select some details from each. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 