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Jaime Michaels, “Wicked Dreams Second Chances” (frumdahart records), www.jaimemichaels.com

 

 

Think Jaime Brockett mellowed out – or roughed up? – them mellowed out - by a few more miles on the road, and down to a Taylor guitar and a coupla friends with enough instruments for a nice little backup band, giggin’ around down New Mexico way. Got it? There you go. Cheerful as ya gotta be, right? And sadness sometimes breaking thro. OK. Al Grierson at fifty? Maybe so. Human-sized, anyway, making it thro beyond teenage lust to the kinda smile that goes with eyes that wrinkle up, lookin’ atcha.

 

I really like “Hold Your Breath (for Nikki),” for just about all the above reasons (‘cept the band takes a break, it’s just Jaime and the Taylor guitar, amblin’ along, rememberin’ a time when, and now  “You’re old enough to know your dreams are failing/ And fool enough to think you hide it well….” Whew).

 

Well, of course it’s all theatre, as Richard Thompson says.  Guy prolly sells real estate in the hills around Taos. Right? He just does this one well. And I thought you might like to check it out, for example, from “Something to Lean On”:

 

I can be something to lean on

When you need somewhere to rest

We can go sit by the ocean

We can talk all about

All about nothing

I can be peaceful and solid

You can let everything go

Free from the top to the bottom

If love is the only thing we know

If love is the only thing we know….”

 

With Mark Clark’s chunk-a-chunk drum kit mixed upfront, and John Egenes’ mandolin, and dobro mixed back, close to syncopated, free-not-free verse? –sure.

 

Or Matthew Vaughn’s fiddle mixed front and centre, on “Lavender Moon”:

 

This much I know

I was listening when love came around…”

 

And back to Mark’s drum-kit marking time for “Hanky Red”:

 

I’ve got a dirty old coat

I’ve got a face like a grizzly bear

I’ve got a shaky hand

I’m an old wino and I scare all the ladies

You might say that I’m a bum

But I’m sure wired up for the honky red

And that good gold anchor rum…

 

Sorta like free peanuts on the bar – once you start, it’s kinda hard to stop quoting this and that line, you know? From “The Only Song”:

 

I can drift for hours

I can dream for days

Got my peaceful and my quiet

Got my almost simple ways

 

Just a line, right? Don’t understand the song too fast, I guess.

 

So if you like to get up and shuffle ‘round the floor one time, then sit down and kick back the next, then get up the next time – here you go. The titles alone will do ya – “Writing Songs on the Moon….”  “Nobody’s Kid…” “In a Hole….” This recording, twelve from the Jaime Michaels’ song-bag, bears listening to, I’d say. Drop Jaime a line, say hi. Hey – all a matter of taste, right? Nice stuff, in my opinion, well worth getting hold of, takin’ for a spin.

 

 

(Review copyright by John McLaughlin Oct 8, 2004)