CD Reviews: Lucy Kaplansky/The Black Seeds

By Diana Nollen

The Gazette

East meets West when two very different artists come to the Corridor this week.

New York singer/songwriter Lucy Kaplansky brings her alt-country sounds to the CSPS stage on Sunday, while New Zealand's The Black Seeds bring their blend of funk, afrobeat, soul and reggae to The Industry in Iowa City on Tuesday.

Here's a look at their latest CDs.

LUCY KAPLANSKYTitle: “Over the Hills”

Label: Red House

Performance: 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13

Where: CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

Tickets: $20 advance, $24 day of show at (319) 364-1580

Lucy Kaplansky lays open the photo album of her life on “Over the Hills,” a sublime look at pleasure and pain.

No rose-colored glasses here. She tackles tough topics as often as joyful moments, wrapping all in the silky blanket of her warm alto vocals.

Her opening lullaby, “Manhattan Moon,” mixes a touch of pedal steel guitar and mandola for a gentle dash of nostalgia, like looking through an old wavy pane of glass.

The next track, “Amelia,” is completely opposite in tone, looking through the haunted eyes of a woman numbed by the years she's spent with a cruel husband. And yet, she sees hope in a pretty little girl who looks like she once did, embarking on a better path.

Kaplansky and her husband, Richard Litvin, collaborated on half of the songs. The rest are covers of other writers' works, given her own reading.

She turns down the burner on June Carter's “Ring of Fire,” taking her time with the tempo before fanning it with a kicky cymbal backbeat and electric guitar.

Loudon Wainwright III's “Swimming Song” lightens the mood with some snazzy fiddle and accordion lines. A little later on, she lays on a little Cajun spice with some funky percussion on Julie Miller's “Somewhere Trouble Don't Go.”

For anyone who has loved and lost, grab a hankie for “Today is the Day,” a heartbreaking look at the day her father died, followed by “Over the Hills,” an ode to her mentor, Red House Records president Bob Feldman, who also died 2006.

Best track: “The Gift.” Kaplansky saved the best for last, with a look at how her grandfather's life shaped her own. Richard Shindell, who formed Cry, Cry, Cry with Kaplansky and Dar Williams, adds his warmth to the hardscrapple tale.

THE BLACK SEEDSTitle: “Solid Ground”

Label: Easy Star

Performance: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, with John Brown's Body and Public Property

Where: The Industry, 211 Iowa Ave., Iowa City

Tickets: $10 in advance through www.ticketweb.com or $12 at the door

Eight talents blokes from Wellington, New Zealand, use horns, synthesizers, organ, percussion and clear, crisp vocals to blur the lines between musical styles.

“Come to Me,” the first track off the CD that hits North American shores later this month, immediately reels you in. Its heavy percussive slaps grab your attention. Next come the surprising flings of cosmic synthesizer bursts before spinning off into a reggae-infused beat.

The only problem is that describes most of the tracks on the band's fourth studio album.

Still, the Seeds offer up a beat and blend that get your feet moving. And my favorite aspect is the liberal use of horns to give a sort of Tower of Power funk throughout.

I started getting bored by track 4, “Love is a Radiation,” a trite ditty that hits like a bad '80s flashback. Not all of the flashbacks are that traumatic. “One Step at a Time” sounds like it belongs on a James Bond soundtrack, and 007 is always fun shaken, not stirred. It also reminds me of “Let's Dance,” David Bowie at his vintage best.

Trumpet adds some soul punch to “Afrophone,” then the horns return to dress up “Rotten Apple,” a surprisingly cool cut that starts with a low rumble and grows with an infectious beat.

The instrumentals take over on “The Bubble.” The best of two bonus tracks, it pairs smooth sax and fluegelhorn against a gathering wash of sound that ends with an ocean liner-type bellow before fading into silence.

Best track: “Bulletproof.” This cut melds the band's best ammo into one song that hits its target dead-on.