RICHARD BUCKNER
The Hill (Overcoat)
Reviewed by Holly Day

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The great thing about this album is that now everybody out there, especially hip, neo-Beat youngsters, claims to have read Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Well, I haven't, and while I liked this album a lot, I'm not rushing out to pick up a copy of the book because it sounds frikkin' depressing, and I'm too old to seek out things that'll make me further depressed. I'll listen to them and more than likely enjoy them if they show up in my mailbox, but that's about it. So saying, this is a really nice interpretation of a book I've never read, with the lyrics coming directly from the pages and the music from Mr. Buckner's head. Buckner conveys incredible, uplifting joy at times through his mostly-acoustic guitar, interrupted by ominous-sounding electric bass at just the perfect moment-and tangible lows of despair in other songs. Being a big fan of Buckner in the first place, I'm hard-pressed to decide whether he's a better musician or a lyricist, as his lyrics on past records are great, but his strictly-musical arrangements on this are incredible. Regardless of whether the words on this are from him or not, though, he has completely made these songs his own.

© 2001 - Holly Day