Steel Magnolia - Steel Magnolia [album review]

Released in January 2011 (part of an ongoing series of reviews covering older releases from the past year that "fell through the cracks")

Steel Magnolia's self-titled debut album came out just a little over a year ago now, but I still wanted to get a review done due to the fact that it emerged as probably my most pleasant musical surprise of 2011. The country-pop duo, made up vocalist/guitarist Joshua Scott Jones and vocalist Meghan Linsey, gained a relatively minor level of fame in a fairly dubious manner - they were the winners of the second season of CMT's Can You Duet, a cheesy music talent television reality show. Not exactly prestigious, but it did score them a recording deal. Combine that with their bland band name and it was two strikes against Steel Magnolia before I'd even heard a note. Normally, that's enough for me to move on to someone else in the crowded field of candidates in my never-ending search for a musical act that'll make my ears perk up. Still, the album review I read had piqued my interest enough to take a flyer on the duo and check out some songs. I'm glad I did.

Steel Magnolia turns out to be an impressively self-assured debut that immediately engages the listener with its pop melodies embellished by country music trimmings, such as banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and pedal steel guitar. Jones and Linsey's voices mesh well together and the sexual chemistry is hard to miss; not coincidentally, the pair are a couple and engaged (maybe...more on that later). Three songs from their 2010 EP appear on the album: "Keep On Lovin' You", "Edge Of Goodbye", and "Ooh La La". The latter track, along with the sexed up "Last Night Again", best demonstrate one of Steel Magnolia's greatest strengths, which is the swaggering, frequently flirtatious interplay between Jones and Linsey. Whether they're playfully scoping each other out in those songs' lyrics, or just straight up professing their deep feelings for one another in tracks like "Keep On Lovin' You", "Without You", "Rainbow" (which cleverly finds calypso-style steel drums sidling up with honky tonk banjoes), and an excellent cover of "Homespun Love" (a song from Keith Urban's early career), it all points to a comfort level between the couple that translates through their music. Most of the songs feature a back and forth vocal dynamic between Jones and Linsey, with a consistent level of harmonizing vocals also delivered by one of the singers when the other takes the main vocal lines. Two tracks deviate slightly from this method: "Bulletproof", a Linsey-led ode to resilience and the album's standout moment, and "Glass Houses", where Jones assumes the bulk of the vocal duties for the melancholy, waltzing album closer. It's the most blatantly country song on Steel Magnolia, taking its old school cues from the genre's '60s and '70s period. The album's only missteps are "Eggs Over Easy", a lightweight throwaway, and "Just By Being You (Halo And Wings)", which is actually solid musically, but undermined by the woeful sappiness of the lyrics (example: "I'll take off my halo/Yeah and I'll take off my wings/You don't have to be invincible 'cause I sure ain't no saint/You'll always be my angel no matter what you do/'Cause you take me to heaven just by being you"). Yuck.

Jones and Linsey demonstrate highly competent songwriting skills, as evidenced by the fact they wrote or co-wrote seven of the album's twelve tracks. Nashville mega-producer Dann Huff does a reliably first-class job in delivering a sonically and creatively pleasing effort that effectively incorporates pop and country, in the same vein of acts like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland, but with its own unique style. Many will dismiss Steel Magnolia as overly slick (I'd prefer to say "highly polished"), but this kind of music has its place.

Unfortunately, it looks like Steel Magnolia may be a one-off, as the duo's future appears to be in some doubt following the struggles of Jones, who entered rehab last September to treat a substance abuse problem. Curiously, Linsey continued to perform some scheduled Steel Magnolia concerts alone, before being joined for some dates by singer James Otto. Now comes word last week that the act has apparently left their record label and are no longer together in a professional (or, one would assume, personal) capacity.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

American Masters - Woody Allen: A Documentary [television/film review]

Debuted on PBS in November 2011; now available on DVD and video on demand

Woody Allen: A Documentary premiered in late November as part of PBS's sterling American Masters series, now in its 25th season. The documentary, which aired over two nights and runs at three hours and twenty minutes, was directed by award-winning writer, director, and producer Robert B. Weide, probably best known for his work on TV's Curb Your Enthusiasm. It took 20 years of convincing from Weide to get the notoriously private Allen to participate in the ambitious project and his perseverance pays off big rewards, delivering revealing and candid interviews with the filmmaker that offer rare insight into his life and creative process. This obviously isn't the first documentary on the cultural icon: 2002's Woody Allen: A Life In Film and 1997's Wild Man Blues, the latter of which focussed on Allen's experiences touring with his jazz band, are both excellent pieces of work that also benefited from exclusive access to the filmmaker. Woody Allen: A Documentary, however, makes judicious use of its expansive running time to provide a wider scope, establishing itself now as the definitive visual document on the man, now 76, and his work.

The documentary's biographical background details about Allen's younger years are given extra emphasis by the fact that Allen himself takes viewers on a mini tour of significant landmarks from his time growing up in Brooklyn, such as his childhood home, school, and old movie theatres (and there's plenty of laughs to be had watching the double take reactions of pedestrians as Allen casually walks past them). One of the most fascinating and charming parts of the film is derived from an unlikely source: Allen's ancient Olympia typewriter. Allen reveals the stunning fact that he's used the same machine to type every piece of work he's created since 1952, when he purchased it (Allen recalls that the salesman told him "it would be around long after my death"). Word processors? Pshaw! Significant edits to his copy, always typed on lined paper from yellow legal pads, are done with a pair of scissors and stapler. It's personal insights such as these that Weide accesses which go a long way in humanizing the withdrawn, enigmatic visage that Allen has developed over his career.

Allen, born Allen Konigsberg, began his show business career as a young teen, submitting jokes to various print publications in New York City. Gifted with a sharp wit and a prolific talent that saw him regularly churning out as many as 50-100 jokes daily (and, even to this day, having a remarkable knack for avoiding creative roadblocks), he achieved quick success as a humourist, pulling in more money than both of his parents by the time he was just 16. Allen's young adult years found him embarking on a successful career as a stand-up comic that mined his trademark neurotic persona for laughs, which led him to becoming a staple on TV talk and variety shows. In 1966, he directed his first feature film, What's Up, Tiger Lily? (which he also wrote, and acted in), insisting on complete creative control following the headaches he experienced with meddling studio execs and thin-skinned actors on his first foray into cinema as a screenwriter and actor on the previous year's What's New, Pussycat?. Since then, Allen has written and directed (and frequently acted in) an astonishing 41 feature films, which includes this year's upcoming Nero Fiddled. That's a clock-like productivity of at least one movie a year since 1982 (two came out in 1987), with an occasional short segment as part of various collaborative films contributed along the way. Naturally, not all of these efforts are gems, and Allen's uneven output over the past 10-15 years is addressed by himself, his peers, and critics. Poorly received works such as Everybody Says I Love You and Anything Else receive specific mention, but they also could have included the recent abysmal Larry David-starring Anything Else?, which I consider the worst film Allen's ever put out. One of the central storylines in that movie sees David's character, who is in his sixties and essentially an extension of the characters (or, one could argue, singular character) Allen himself regularly plays in his movies, dating Evan Rachel Wood's character, who is about 35-40 years younger. It's a recurring (and creepy) theme in Allen's work and I'd have like the documentary to have broached the topic of this curious predilection of his. It's especially eyebrow-raising in light of the 1992 scandal he went through with Soon-Yi Previn, his current wife and the then 22-year-old stepdaughter of former partner and muse, Mia Farrow. The scandal receives more coverage than I expected from A Documentary, but Allen's facetious statement that he was surprised at how much media coverage it received is somewhat off-putting.

Even in a lengthy doc such as this, Allen's filmography is so expansive that it's difficult for Weide to get too in-depth about specific movies, save for some of Allen's high-water marks, like Annie Hall and Manhattan. Many, even standouts such as the recent Cassandra's Dream, are barely (if at all) commented on. Most of the filmmaker's work is at least represented via film clips, which Weide uses liberally and effectively. Midnight In Paris, Allen's most recent release and now his most commercially successful film ever, is briefly touched upon, but the film that gets some of the most screen time is its so-so predecessor, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. It was being shot while Weide was putting together A Documentary, so Allen gave Weide exclusive access to the film's London set, the first time in his career that Allen has given any outside media that privilege. Interviews with cast members Josh Brolin and Naomi Watts, as well as interviews throughout the film with a bevy of previous Allen players, including Chris Rock, Penélope Cruz, Mariel Hemingway, Sean Penn, Dianne Wiest, John Cusack, Dianne Keaton, and Scarlett Johansson revisit their experiences working for the filmmaker (I personally have wondered why Allen has employed the wooden Johansson as his lead in four of his last seven films - she says the pair just "clicked" when they first worked together on 2005's Match Point). Discussed are his directing style (he gives minimal guidance), oddball casting process (initiated with a self-effacing feeler letter to the actor), and the recurring theme of hugely successful actors doubting whether or not they're up to the challenge and prestige of working for Allen. A wealth of interviews with film critics and Allen's contemporaries, as well as his creative and business partners, further round out Weide's rich portrait of the iconic throwback.

Woody Allen: A Documentary is essential viewing for Allen buffs and cinephiles. In fact, I'd go as far to say it's downright superlative and probably the best thing I watched in 2011.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★