Try as he might, Bill Kirchen is no Alan Jackson.
While other artists have successfully merged the worlds of
country and pop music together, Kirchen’s latest disc
Raise A Ruckus shows that even the best of intentions don’t
always go well.
Kirchen might not be a well-known name to some people, but he
could be accurately be described as a new-wave country artist.
While he still occasionally uses instruments like steel guitar and
fiddle in the mix, he’s less interested in maintaining the cowboy
charisma than he is with putting out music that bridges several
genres. (Obviously, other artists have had success with this
strategy; Billy Ray Cyrus comes to mind.)
And there are times on
Raise A Ruckus where that strategy works well for Kirchen.
“Girlfriend,” the album’s lead track – co-written with his wife
Louise – is a wonderful track that tells of one man’s desire to
keep the passion of young love alive even as the number of
anniversaries grows. (The accordion work of Flaco Jimenez on this
track is exceptional, making me wish he had been featured more on
this album.) The Kirchens take turns in front of the microphone on
“True Love’s The Treasure,” another wonderful song; Louise Kirchen
reminds me a bit of Katy Moffatt. Other tracks worth checking out
include “Big Hat/No Cattle,” “Little Bitty Record” and
“Dreamworld”.
The problem is that when Kirchen misses the mark on
Raise A Ruckus, he misses it by a country mile. After the
wonderful opening of “Girlfriend,” “Fly On Your Jacket” comes
across as a slap to the face of the listener. It’s not as
well-written of a track, and it’s not as well executed; Kirchen
sounds a bit lifeless on this one. Other tracks, like “She’s A Yum
Yum,” just don’t show themselves as being anything special to the
listener, and are quickly forgettable.
It’s not that Kirchen is new at this sort of thing; he has
several albums to his credit. But where I think
Raise A Ruckus goes wrong is that Kirchen doesn’t rely
nearly enough on the magic of his backing band, and tries to cast
the spell with his own performances. Sometimes, it works;
sometimes, it doesn’t.
Raise A Ruckus is an okay country-pop album, but if it only
had a little more of the magic that makes the exceptional tracks
stand out, it would be something to get worked up about. As it
stands, it’s a “for the fans” disc.
