CD review - Jim White, Transnormal Skiperoo (2007)

Thanks to Brent for the tip. I had never heard of Jim White, although Crash Into The Sun sounded familiar. As the title suggests, Transnormal Skiperoo takes the listener through an odd set of changes. It starts out with the Americana sounds of country folk, shifts into more of a rock mode, and then crashes hard into Steve Earle territory. After that, it runs through the changes again with the John Prine sound of Turquoise House and the moody groove of Diamonds to Coal, only to run into the foreign orchestration of Counting Numbers. The original folky Americana remains a touchstone through the rest of the disk. This is a consistently interesting album, even though there are a couple of songs that push the envelope of the mix and one very rough song transition (Turquoise House rightly belongs nearer to the start of the disk).

While I liked the simpler country style material, the edgier tracks grabbed my ears. The absolute peak was Fruit Of The Vine. Like a number of these songs, it started with a sort of soundtrack soundscape, blending audio layered with a dirge-like prison blues guitar and noisy artifacts of echoed feedback. The audio touched on material from a film project (Searching For The Wrong Eyed Jesus), including snippets of interviews with convicted meth dealers. Past the intro, the song had a great Steve Earle groove. The lyrics toyed with themes of moral ambiguity and the edges of society:

Now, some say love comes C.O.D., others turn to G.O.D
Cash it in on PCP, IOUs and IEDs
Fruit of the vine, that old fruit of the vine
...
It ain't no crime in being alive
It ain't no sin, we're just tryin' to get by
Lead our lives, one day at a time
And the night goes down in the dirty old South
Just livin' on the fruit of the vine

The vocals were reminiscent of Steve Miller. Fragments of dirty guitar parts set a blues groove and formed a platform for some slick solos. At almost eight minutes long, I was sorry when it was over.

Earlier on the disk, Jailbird had a similar kind of structure. Some instrumental soundscape set a reflective mood that picked up a slow rock groove that sat somewhere between Simply Red (Holding Back the Years) and Ryan Adams (When the Stars Go Blue). The ethereal backup vocals set a wistful feeling.

Crash Into the Sun could have been an older Timbuk 3 song, with bits of Jim's Big Ego (Jim Infantino). Flowing bass lines supported horns and organ working in counterpoint. Lyrically, it sounded cool, but I'm not really sure what it was trying to say.

Finally, I wanted to mention Diamonds to Coal. This was a moody Bruce Cockburn sort of song with a repetitive, reflective riff and a solid bass. There were plenty of dynamics, but the song built in complexity. Jim's perspective on this idea is that of stepping back from the brink of a destructive life style. It's interesting to compare it to Eric McFadden's song by the same title, which is hard, bitter, and fatalistic (think Black Sabbath). Each taking different paths from the same backwards idea.

Fruit of the Vine and other songs from Transnormal Skiperoo can be heard here. Give it a quick listen and buy a copy to spend some real time with. A malty Scottish Ale will provide a smooth accompaniment.