Grandpaboy - Dead Man Shake

List Price: $7.30
Our Price: $7.26
You Save: $7.68 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.11 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases

Music CD Cover

Free Music Notes for Dead Man Shake

Free Music Review: Maybe the best Westerberg solo album yet?
Hit: 5 Stars

Now, left to his own devices and two indie labels - Fat Possum & Vaugrant - Paul seems to be making records by himself and in his basement, which leads to a homey sloppiness. I dont mind that. The looseness of the Replacements and of some of their contemporaries (Husker Du, Soul Asylum) and their influences (Faces, Stones, NY Dolls) was one of their strongest attributes.

There are some wonderful songs here - but the tone of Come Feel Me Tremble feels too similar to the Mono/Stereo albums to me. Dead Man Shake by Paul's Grandpaboy persona seems just different enough to make it a more interesting album. Perhaps having the framework of setting out to make a (kind of) blues album for a (kind of) blues record label gave him enough structure to make something a little more different than we would have otherwise. And being different, it's also more interesting. And much as I dig Paul's take on the Jackson Browne song "These Days" on CFMT, the covers here by Hank Williams and John Prine on Dead Man Shake are, again, better.

While the music industry just collpases in on itself, it's good to know that Paul Westerberg is oblivious to it all, just cranking out songs from somewhere in Minnesota, not giving a damn about fashion or what's cool or that downloads are killing the business. More power to him for it.

Alternative Rock Music CDs

• Music > Styles
• Blues
• Folk
• Pop
• Rock