| CD REVIEW (This review was also posted at www.701.com) |
| WISE AND OTHERWISE - HARRY MANX |
| While his uniqueness would certainly be attributed to his progressive use of the non-exportable 20-string Indian Mohan veena, donated by his Grammy-winning tutor, V.M. Bhatta (with Ry Cooder), the globally-recognized performer provides a happy return to passionate, poetic, expression through the power of music and lyrics. Whether played by itself on the traditional Indian song, "Death Have Mercy", or brilliantly complemented with slide guitar and harmonica and/or banjo, the Mohan veena has a very haunting allure to it, especially on Manx's "Roses Given" and "Tethered Dogs". Along with his instrumental skills, he also possesses an extremely pleasing vocal style which never goes above or beyond its limits, and rightly so. Even on his original compositions, his voice conjured up auditory semblances to Paul Simon, on "Don't Forget to Miss Me", Van Morrison (also splendidly covered on this CD on "Crazy Love") and John Hiatt, on "Only Then Will Your House Be Blessed" (Spencer, Beann Eadair Music), attributed to Big Joe Williams. Not previously having heard much of the banjo played as a blues instrument ("A Little Cruel"), I found it surprisingly suitable on this track about a family losing their home to a fire. On his "Makes You Want to Die Laughin'", another banjo tune, Harry displays a very good insight into the human condition, in his reference to this track being "Sometimes we get to that point where the only thing left is a good belly laugh". Too true, and an excellent means of therapy! While every track is enjoyable in its own way, I was very drawn to "Coat of Mail", about an estranged friend of Harry who had not fared so well in life, which greatly affected the songwriter. He offers a lovely tribute to his Brazilian wife in "Don't Forget to Miss Me", and there's also a fascinating acoustic interpretation of Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady", which may or may not have been influenced by Jimi's lesser-known original blues music background. His much-reviewed and highly applauded 2001 d�but CD, Dog My Cat, earned an accolade from Sonicnet as "...the promise of the Ganges Delta Blues�realized", which is followed up on this CD in the spell-binding transformation of "The Gist of Madhuvanti" into B.B. King's "The Thrill is Gone". The CD closes with a majestic reminder of the beautiful sounds created by the veena on the instrumental "Raga Nat Bhariav". Absolutely breathtaking! |
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