MUSIC REVIEW BILL MACPHERSON


Feed My Soul The Holmes Brothers (Alligator Records)


While there is no track as compelling for me as “Close


The Door” from their State of Grace album, Sherman and Wendell Holmes, along with drummer/percussionist Popsy Dixon, have cooked up another fine stew of soul, blues, country, gospel and funk on 2010’s Feed My Soul. It’s ably produced by Joan Osborne, no slouch as a


soulful interpreter of classic songs herself. Remember her big single “One of Us” from her 1995 Relish album? For me, that track was a forgettable pop effort; but elsewhere on the album, particularly her covers of Bob Dylan’s “Man in the Long Black Coat”, Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Help Me” and her own “Crazy Baby”, she shows her true leanings. Feed My Soul does exactly that.


All three members take turns on lead vocals, with


Sherman and Wendell doing most of the song-writing. Along with two executive-producer-Paul Kahn-penned tunes, they do three covers, all of them excellent. Popsy’s soulful exploration of Lennon and McCartney’s “I’ll Be Back” is equalled by Wendell’s take on the classic


“Pledging My Love”, the Johnny Ace song covered by the likes of Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, the Neville Brothers and countless others. John Ellison’s “Something Is Missing” is lushly and movingly rendered by Sherman and Popsy both on lead vocals. Osborne and Catherine Russell contribute gorgeous harmonies augmented by Glenn Patshca’s fine organ and piano flourishes. The rest of Feed My Soul bounces around a bit,


alternating between blues and country-tinged funk and straight out gospel and soul. “Dark Cloud” and “Edge of the Ledge” fall into the former, offering up social commentary on the state of things Stateside while “You’re The Kind of Trouble” is a southern Cooper Brothers- sounding romp reminiscent of “Jukebox” or “Gunshy” from the recently reviewed In From the Cold. The Holmes Brothers really hit their stride on the


soulful ballads that best showcase their talents. The title continued on next page


BOOK REVIEW BILL MACPHERSON


Bang The Drum Slowly Mark Harris (Dell Books)


If you are a fan of old-time


baseball – before the days of inflated egos, outrageous salaries, ridiculously long seasons and drug-enhanced performances – this classic baseball novel is for you. It’s moving, funny, real, raw and sad: as much about life as it is about baseball. The narrator of Harris’ novel is


New York Mammoths ace pitcher, Henry “Author” Wiggen, who tells it like it is. He tends to be glib, a little cynical and a bit of a shyster. Chronicling the Mammoths


1955 season, though, he is forced to confront life-changing circumstances that detract from the pure pleasure and camaraderie of professional


60 BOUNDER MAGAZINE


baseball and all it entails. In the excitement and drama


of a season there is pathos and the realization that life is more than just a game: endless spring-training camps, road trips, gags and pranks are all impacted by what our narrator learns in the off-season. Harris has captured the bygone,


post-war era that represented the glory days of baseball in a simple but effective manner. Through occasional deliberate misuse of language (“We clumb to the top of the mill…; he done so; we brung”, etc.) he nails the relative uneducated nature of ballplayers of the post-war period while evocatively painting a picture of a time long past. Then, the West was teams in


Chicago and St. Louis; telegraphs and telephone operators were means


to communicate; the teams traveled by train mostly; players mingled freely with the opposition and did their own negotiations with the owner; bellhops and manned elevators were commonplace. Baseball, and the country in


general, had an innocence that today seems quaint . Harris captures this superbly through the pen and mind of “Author” Wiggen. He also details the excitement


of a season-long pennant chase with aplomb. The idiosyncrasies of the players, the in-fighting, the prejudices, deceits and conceits are all laid bare as the favoured Mammoths struggle to find harmony as a team. There are funny and


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