I don't suppose Bill Withers ever imagined his "Ain't No Sunshine" would be rhythmically performed to a reggae beat (and, in fact, the song's mournful lyrics would belie the inherent cheerfulness of that particular genre of music), but if you can manage to forget what the song is all about, it's actually quite catchy. It's also repeated as one of the five bonus tracks at the end of the CD, enhanced as a George Benson-like jazz guitar instrumental.
With the exception of that track, the remaining ones are all fairly innovative original compositions, mostly performed in a funkadelic vein, with all instrumentation by cross-country Canadian musician (now based in Guelph) Jim Slansky (www.curveballrecords.com). The CD was also produced by Jim, with the assistance of Brian Pickett, and was mixed by Wheels at Mantra Sound in Toronto.
There's a recurrent theme of success versus personal integrity contained in "howling at the moon", "success" and the title track, "getting there". Although Mr. Slansky, in "child's play", unabashedly enumerates his wish-list for immortal rock-stardom - "jewels, riches, famous people to dig my ditches", you get the feeling, in "brand new game", that he is equally content to enjoy the natural pleasures life has to offer - "warm days, warm ways, smiling faces, Simon says, ricochet, the ball in play" - while waiting for success to come to him.
Considering that Mr. Slansky virtually performs an act of musical masturbation here (with the exception of background vocal accompaniment by John Charlton and Tannis Slimmon on selected tracks and technical assistance by Eric Kofler and Steve Hammond), he's managed to create an orgiastic wall of sound on tracks like "howling at the moon" and "I need new shoes". When performing live, his musical partners are Sam Cino on drums, Jeff Bird on bass, Tom McLelland on percussion, and Jon Goold on saxophone.
"Next to you" and the whimsical "golfing song" demonstrate Jim's penchant for a funky groove spiced up with an interestingly subtle "wah-wah" texture. I'm not sure what the "cartoonland early fall" phrase refers to in "the golfing song", but for some reason it reminded me of the scene in Space Jam where Michael Jordan sinks his golf ball into Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole.
On the laid-back jazzy "making time", Jim summarizes his feelings on his personal and professional destiny with the lines, "I can't chase the future, Just let it come to ya...gotta know just when to stop�but there�s still time to sit back and take it easy�. |
