Curt Kirkwood - Snow Review
By Kevin Wierzbicki
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Curt is, of course, the man who led the mighty Meat Puppets for so many years. The man who the late Kurt Cobain said he was so indebted to for "giving him a new attitude about music." Over the course of many albums that went in many directions, Curt and the Pup Boys did the same for countless others. Kirkwood's poetry and musicianship have matured, aged nicely if you will, and this his first solo album is a gem. You might call Snow Kirkwood's Austin album, since he spent some time there and the alt-country flavor is here in full force. Or you could call Snow Kirkwood's Bakersfield album, since it is produced by twang-master Pete Anderson (Moot Davis, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams and many others). But maybe you should take a hint from the simple four letters that spell out the album's title and just dig the wonder of it all. Kirkwood is not two lines into "Golden Lies," Snow's opener, before his plaintive singing issues the first hook. Kirkwood has a knack for making the meaningful seem like it comes easy, like in the lyric to "Snow;" "And we find our troubles/No matter where we are/Just like snow settles/On barbed wire." Anderson adds sparkle to the cut with his mandolin playing and the guitar work by both musicians is superlative throughout. Meat Puppets fans will especially enjoy the bouncy nonsense rhymes of "Box of Limes" and the eerie "In Bone," a tune that Cobain surely would have loved. Kirkwood is hardly starting over, but Snow somehow feels like a beginning, and a fine one at that.
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Curt Kirkwood - Snow Label:Little Dog
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