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May 5 - 12, 2000

[Music Reviews]

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**** Gary Lucas

IMPROVE THE SHINING HOUR

(Knitting Factory)

Here's 20 years of this NYC-based guitarist's versatile genius pressed into 18 tracks. They range from the Beefheartian weirdness that first got Lucas recognized (his live 1980 solo showpiece "Flavor Bud Living" and a work tape of the Captain's thorny "Oat Hate") to his hit collaboration with Joan Osborne, "Spider Web" (sung here by David Johansen). That wide embrace is what makes Lucas so exceptional. Not only can he navigate the oft-murky waters of textural music and improvisation, he can write a damn solid pop tune, too. It's a pity Jeff Buckley's estate wouldn't let Lucas include any of his rich work with the late singer, with whom he wrote "Grace" and other beauties. Nonetheless, there's plenty to be charmed by. Solo suites of slippery orchestral guitar, pop songs that straddle jazz and blues, a live drum 'n' bass improv with DJ Spooky, lovely poetics with vocalist Mary Margaret O'Hara, Beefheart's touching ballad "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles," and an on-stage National-steel-guitar match-up with Nick Cave nestle among other goodies. Yet Lucas's unerring sense of melody and soul see to it that he's never overshadowed by his high-profile peers.

-- Ted Drozdowski
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