Old Souls & Wolf Tickets

With a career work ethic that would shame the slackest slacker--or even Randy Newman--this 2002 release marks just the second album by inveterate L.A. music fixture Chuck E. Weiss (and subject of Rickie Lee Jones's 1979 hit, "Chuck E.'s in Love") in 18 years. And unlikely as it seems, this follow up to his 1999 rough-cut jewel, Extremely Cool, finds Weiss on a creative, if typically slapdash, roll. This gleefully haphazard cocktail of blues, swing, be-bop, and Dixieland still can't escape comparisons with old pal Tom Waits, except that Weiss's self-dubbed "alternative jungle music" is typically more accessible--and infinitely more hilarious--than his better-publicized peer. Typically (and gratifyingly), Weiss approaches this music with all the dignity of a lush at an open bar: slave chants rub shoulders with middle-aged Jew hoodoo ("Congo Square at Midnight"); the tale of "Sweetie-O" swings to a spare hipster groove laid down by guitarist Tony Gilkyson; the patent falsetto-weirdness of "Piggly Wiggly" segues like old grease into the '50s trash-can-rhythm shuffle of "Two Tone Car." The toy piano of "Anthem for Old Souls" and loopy rhymes of "Sneaky Jesus" may also recall the Waits connection, but the goofily heartfelt lament of "No Hep Cats" and smoky jazz of "Blood Alley" argue that Weiss holds his distinctly American bohemian traditions, musical and otherwise, in high regard. As if to underscore the point, Weiss has included "Down the Road Apiece," his 1970 duet with blues legend Willie Dixon, a track that's perhaps the album's most jarringly normal. Also included is a video enhanced bonus track of "Cub Scout Suit (With the Butt Cut Out)" recorded live at L.A.'s Viper Room. A compelling argument that strong roots can nonetheless yield a spectacularly twisted tree. --Jerry McCulley