https://lambchop.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes
Genre: Soft Rock
Rating: 5/5
released on bandcamp May 21, 2021
The title to the record is no mistake. It’s an Americana ode to the ultimate Americana. I have mixed feelings about show tunes as a genre for the same reason I often find myself frustrated with opera. I dislike when the music bends to the story. For some reason I don’t see that happening with story based rock concept records that I tend to love. These aren’t show tunes but Wagner is showing off his skill as master songwriter in the same way and the spirit of the best of show tunes lives within these songs. Perhaps the ghost of the ghost of Old Man River. I say it like that because Old Man River was born a ghost. Another fanfare for the common man, Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man which like this is show tune adjacent. Wagner’s lyrics for ‘Unknown Man’ is yet another ode to the unnamed:
I saw a picture of a man on the street
He has an afro and a jumpsuit with pleats
Black and white
He was proud, took the time to look
Your shape and me in the foreground
Forever
Black and white
Forever
Under his belt wide lapels in a small pattern
And the belt that was loose and leathery
The street, the light, the you
What was moving you
Black and white
Warmth Highest 