LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III - Recovery (Yep Roc)

Aug 4 2008 By Jack Daniels

WHAT if you could go back in time and meet your younger self? Loudon Wainwright retraces his career, revisiting songs from his back catalogue and setting them in new musical surrounds.

The results are mixed. Saw Your Name In The Paper, a cautionary tale about the quest for fame, becomes a slow march to stately piano lines; Drinking Song gets woozier with deep percussion and fuzz guitar, while Muse Blues is rocked up from its bare bones beginnings. Best is Man Who Couldn’t Cry, the six-minute saga of how even the unluckiest get their rewards in the end.