shorty42079

In his best Howlin' Wolf snarl, Shorty, at times, sounds almost lazy on "Black Cloud Americana." Listen again. It's the voice of a man using his own apathy as a defense against the world that's crashing down around him. No. That's not it either, but we're getting closer. Shorty's inflection matches the words of a tortured soul worn out from weathering an external storm of heartbreak and isolation while struggling to fight his own internal demons and delusions. These are the songs that Robert ...

In his best Howlin' Wolf snarl, Shorty, at times, sounds almost lazy on "Black Cloud Americana." Listen again. It's the voice of a man using his own apathy as a defense against the world that's crashing down around him. No. That's not it either, but we're getting closer. Shorty's inflection matches the words of a tortured soul worn out from weathering an external storm of heartbreak and isolation while struggling to fight his own internal demons and delusions. These are the songs that Robert Johnson would sing had he been nursed on punk music: open and honest while maintaining an imperceptible distance with the listener by being reserved and mysterious. It's as though, in the process of exercising these demons, Shorty has found a few he'd like to keep for his own. But this is the underlying dichotomy that defines Shorty's music: it's both isolating and intimate. I hate to use the term "real", but, unfortunately for me, that's exactly what Shorty's songs are. These aren't bland, one dimensional ballads or over-exaggerated caricatures of blues and punk aesthetics. They're sarcastic without being petty. They're arrogant without being obnoxious. They're dismissive without being obtuse. And it's in this balance of these seeming contradictions that the listener finds him or herself in songs that are supposed to be deeply personal. It's in maintaining this balance that Shorty can be both reticent and engaging. But Shorty's greatest success isn't just in the balance of contradictory concepts. It's in the balance of a song that's not only both lucid and cryptic, but also just plain catchy as hell.---Rev. Tom Janowski