The Bottom Line
- New Orleans Waltz
- Daddy's Eyes
- Poison
- Broomie
- Cry Me One Tear
- None
Description
- A moving collection of songs that personifies the spirit of New Orleans
- Capps' fourth CD is his most vital, from "Poison" to "Waterhole Branch"
- The next best thing to Tom Waits himself
Guide Review - Grayson Capps - Wail and Ride
Grayson Capps comes from a place where everyone you pass in the bar has a story, and a thickly poignant, somewhat dark one, at that. With Wail and Ride, Capps sings songs as diverse and flamboyant as the people of New Orleans, complete with all the things that matter—booze, Jesus, good times, and channeling the spirit of Marie Laveau.
On the sensitive tip, Capps rolls out "Daddy's Eyes," a self-efacing dirge about getting nothing right. In a voice wrought with both earnestness and resignation, he sings, "Nothing ever gets done around here because I'm always drunk / Daddy's eyes are going blind."
This moves on to another dirge-like love song, "Mermaid," where he sings about the woman that graced him with her presence,"you got the magic of a mermaid, you swim where I drown." By the end of the song, however, he's "sinking deeper and deeper into hell." Ouch.
But from there, we move on to "Broomy," and we're back in good humor, singing about street sweepers, bums, and other ne'er-do-wells. In other words, life as usual in "that rotten old town that everyone loves."
