**1/2 Gurf Morlix
TOAD OF TITICACA
(Catamount)
It figures that a guy
named Morlix would be a strong guitar player, but after years as a sideman and
producer with exceptional songwriters including Lucinda Williams and Jimmie
Dale Gilmore, Gurf isn't out to prove his six-string superiority on his debut
CD. Instead, he tries to show that he can compete in the wry songwriting
department. He does a pretty good job, though a handful of the tunes have
lyrics so direct and plainspoken that it's up to the interpretive talents of
the singer to make or break them.
Morlix has a folksy delivery and a regular-guy charm that rises to flashes of
brilliance here and there. And his pleasant attempts at crooning lie atop
country and rock cuts driven by his twanging guitar. Where he really shines,
though, is on quirkier cuts like "Dan Blocker," where he repeatedly intones the
name of the hulking actor who played Hoss on Bonanza. Apparently, it's
something Morlix and a friend "wrote" when they were kids at summer camp trying
to fend off a (presumably) large fellow camper. The best cut here is "Greatest
Show on Earth," where Motlix rhymes "miles" with "den of reptiles" and offers
an evocative take on circus-sideshow freaks.
-- Bill Kisliuk
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