Flyer InteractiveSound Advice

The Flyer's music writers tell you where you can go.

As sideman for pop eccentric Robyn Hitchcock, British singer/songwriter Tim Keegan clearly learned a thing or two. His North American debut, Long Distance Information, collects a string of European-only releases that bear a family resemblance to Hitchcock’s wry stylings, minus the sometimes dizzying surrealism. Despite first appearances, Keegan, unlike Hitchcock, is more pop than eccentric.

Information includes a couple of bona fide stunners in the love song “(We’ve) Got Everything We Need” and the fiendishly true “Save Me From Happiness,” each of which consolidates, in its own way, all that’s appealing in the history of Brit-pop, from the Smiths to Oasis, inclusive: thick jangle, clever lyrics, and, of course, the wilty bits. The bonus CD (B-sides from Keegan’s previous band, Homer) likewise has its delights, in particular the lethargic blues of “Single,” a paean to remaining unattached and Keegan’s most Hitchcockian side.

To find out what else lurks in Keegan’s back catalog, catch him and his band, the Homer Lounge, Sunday at the Map Room. -- Jim Hanas

Though not as well known as, say, Allison Krauss or Claire Lynch, Lynn Morris is much loved in hard-core bluegrass circles. She comes to the Lucy Opry this Friday with an impressive list of credentials.

Equally adept at both bluegrass and clawhammer banjo styles, Morris made history by becoming the first person to win Winfield, Kansas’ National Banjo Championship twice (1974 and 1981). And last year she won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year award for the second time.

Morris has issued four well-received albums with her band, which includes her husband, bassist Marshall Wilborn. Their latest is You’ll Never Be The Sun. With her baby cheeks and auburn locks, Morris will remind many of bluegrass’ reigning queen Krauss, and her band does explore the same territory. But Morris has a deeper, more worldly voice than the angelic Krauss, a quality that gives her music a more lived-in, bittersweet character. --Mark Jordan


This Week's Issue | Home