3
Previews
Madrigal feast: medieval food, fun
MSC Madrigal Dinner each night with music, Yvonne DeGraw, com- gram at the University of nity members.
Committee will present a song, magic and fun. mittee member, says over Tennessee, is the new ar- Tickets are on sale
Medieval/Madrigal Teas- MSC Food Services 100 people are expected tistic director. through Friday at Rudder
te” Thursday through Sat- has prepared a special for each night of the feast. Coulter helped orga- Box Office and must be
urday, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., menu typical of the time nize the production, from purchased at least a day in
in Rudder Exhibit Hall. period. Committee member training the singers to advance. They are
Madrigal singers, min- Some of the more Mike Gardner says the working on the timing of $17.75 for students and
strels, magicians and jes- exotic foods that will be production is under new the performances. $20 for non-students,
ters, decked out in 16th served are flaming plum management this year. About half the perform- Group rates are available
century garb, will enter- pudding and pumpkin Frank Coulter, who ers are students and half for parties of 12 or more,
tain the feasting crowd soup. worked on a similar pro- are faculty and commu- —by Nancy Neukirchner
Album Review
Ratings based on a five-star system.
Five — Excellent; One — Pathetic.
"Rock for Amnesty"
Various Artists
Mercury Records
★
In the past couple of
years, several all-star al
bums have been made to
benefit various humanita
rian causes. Some of the
albums, like U.S.A. for Af
rica’s “We Are the World”
and Artists United Against
Apartheid’s “Sun City” al
bums, have been pretty
good. “Rock for Amnes
ty,” the album'released to
benefit Amnesty Interna
tional, is the poorest ex
cuse for a record ever to
be released in the name of
a good cause.
“Rock for Amnesty”
features 10 tracks that
were donated by 10 art
ists. At first glance, it may
seem that the album con
tains tracks from Amnes
ty’s fabulous “Conspiracy
of Hope” tour. Actually
the album contains studio
tracks that, for the most
part, are already available
on other albums.
There are few good
tracks on the album. Peter
Gabriel’s “Biko,” a tribute
to the murdered South
African civil rights activist,
and Elton John’s “Pas
sengers,” a song criticizing
South Africa’s policy of
segregating public transit,
are great songs that attack
apartheid. Dire Straits’
“Brothers in Arms” is a
touching antiwar song.
But all of these songs
would sound better on
their respective albums.
John Cougar Mellen-
camp’s “Pink Houses” is
probably the best thing he
has ever done, but it
doesn’t say anything
about human rights. Sim
ple Minds’ “Ghost Danc
ing” and Bryan Adams’
“Tonight” are only con
cerned with making
money. Paul McCartney’s
“Pipes of Peace” was pre
tty worthless when it was
released in the first place.
Tears for Fears’ “I Be
lieve (A Soulful Re-re
cording),” a new version
of the song from their
“Songs from the Big Ch
air” album, and Howard
Jones’ “No One Is To
Blame," a re-recording of
the song from his “Dream
Into Action” album, are
slighty interesting. The
only new song on the al
bum is Sting’s recording
of the old Billie Holiday
tune, “Strange Fruit.”
Amnesty could have
found a much better way
to celebrate their 25th an
niversary than to release a
collection of mediocre
songs that are available
elsewhere. If you want to
help Amnesty and get
some good music at the
same time, pick up “The
Secret Policeman’s Ball”
and/or “The Secret Po
liceman’s Other Ball.”
These albums have some
fantastic live perfor
mances from Pete Towns-
hend, Eric Clapton, Jeff
Beck, John Williams, Tom
Robinson, Sting, Phil Col
lins and Donovon, and
are well worth the price.
Review by Karl Pallmeyer
ROBERT CRAY-STRONG PERSUADER
"Strong Persuader"
Robert Cray
Mercury Records
'k'k'k'k
Just when you think
the blues have died ...
Just when you think
every note in the blues
scale has been played in
every possible combina
tion ...
Just when you think
there can be no more
great bluesmen ...
Along comes someone
like Robert Cray to prove
you were wrong.
Cray is a hot new artist
who plays guitar like B.B.
King and Eric Clapton
rolled into one. He plays
short, clean passages that
can bite like a dog or kiss
like a lover. It’s a sign of a
great guitarist to be able to
show as much restraint as
he does. Aside from the
guitar work, Cray’s voice
is rich and pleasing with
out the roughness of
many blues singers.
Although Cray’s music
sounds like traditional
blues, there is a freshness
that is uncommon in
much of today’s music.
The lyrics are typical blues
lyrics about women leav
ing and women doing
their men wrong, and the
songs are usually struc
tured around the tradi
tional 12-bar blues pat
tern, but there is
something new and won
derful about Cray’s music.
“Strong Persuader” is
Cray’s first album on a
major label. In 1980, he
released “Who’s Been
Talkin’” on the Tomato
label. When that com
pany went under, he
switched to the Hightone
label and released “Bad
Influence” in 1983 and
“False Accusations” in
1985.
The album is pretty
simple and straightfor
ward in arrangement with
Cray on vocals and guitar,
Richard Cousins on bass,
Peter Boe on keyboards
and David Olson on
drums. The Memphis
Horns lend a nice sound
to the songs “I Guess I
Showed Her,” “Nothin’
But A Woman” and
“More Than I Can
Stand.”
“Right Next Door (Be
cause of Me)” is a cool
song about a neighbor’s
marital problems that
have been caused by
Cray. He punctuates his
vocals with some jazzy
guitar licks. “More Than I
Can Stand” has Cray’s
guitar bouncing around a
landscape set up by Boe’s
organ.
“I Wonder” is nice,
slow, soulful song that
features some great play
ing. “Fantasized,” with its
hot guitar intro, and “New
Blood” are harder and
faster.
In these days where
anyone with a compute
rized synthesizer and a vi
deo camera can make
millions of dollars in the
music world, it’s refresh
ing to hear a performer
like Cray who can play
music without a gimmick.
Review by Karl Pallmeyer