Description
Mutt is the seventh album by the American americana/pop combo Lost Dogs, independently released on Lo-Fidelity Records in 2004.
On Mutt, the group decides to adapt songs from their collective pasts and revue them in this new, more homespun sound and the results, more often than not, are astounding. The highlights range from Terry Taylor’s prominent address on the 77’s «The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes and The Pride of Life», with his voice recalling that of a southern troubadour, a full-on rockabilly revamp of the 77’s new-wave rocker «It’s So Sad» and a crowning rendition of the Daniel Amos concert favorite, the Southern-hymn-tinged «Ain’t Gonna Fight It». Oddly, the one that takes the prize is the sole new track on the set, an ode to the ’empty nest syndrome’, «I’m Setting You Free (But I’m Not Letting You Go)». All the performers elevate the contributions to new levels by pulling back, and the soulful sound and pace do not turn the tunes into parodies; a distinct possibility of happening in a project such as this. Fans of Johnny Cash’s spare American Recordings, Pinetop Seven, Richard Buckner and Jim White would do well to give this mutt a home in their collection. [musictap.net]
With no frills, no special effects and a small recording budget, the Lost Dogs have made an album that is genuinely good, not because of some big marketing push, not because of some high paid publicist, not because of big name musical guests – but because of top notch song writing. The music on this project can be best described as a mixture of acoustic rock, country, and blues. This record is a collection of songs from the other bands with which the Lost Dogs have been involved: The Choir, The 77s, and Daniel Amos plus one brand new song «I’m Setting You (But Not Letting You Go)». The Dogs have brought along Steve Hindalong to handle the percussion to help them remake these musical gems. Matt Slocum of Sixpence None the Richer fame joins the gang to play cello.
These songs cover topics from martial love, friendships, joy of family, God’s grace, and His ultimate sacrifice on the cross. The album begins with the beautiful «If You Want To», a very wistful rendition of this Daniel Amos classic. The lead vocals are shared by all three of the Dogs – Mike Roe, Terry Taylor and Derri Daughtery. The different pitches of their voices blend wonderfully, making an intoxicating delight to the ears. The central lyric of the song where God speaks to man and says, “We can change the world, if you want to.” The impassioned vocals of Terry Taylor during that line is the essence of worship, very heartfelt.
Next is «The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes and The Pride of Life», a song about all the things that drag us away from God and sucks the life out of us, and it touches on the consequence of this, namely an incorrect view of God being the servant and us the master – “I see something I want and I want it now, I don’t care how much it cost me now or later.” The understated percussion of Steve Hindalong adds an exquisite touch to the harmonizing lead vocals; all you can do is sit back, close your eyes and let the music soak into you as you thank God for such honest music. «Like A Cloud» is a sexy song meant for a man and his wife. The lyrics which Steve penned are prose at its best; they convey the spiritual yearning between man and woman and do not come off as dirty or raunchy. It is very poetic, and the stripped-down version of this song make it even more lovely than the original version. “I want to float you like a cloud, I drink you like a flower drinks rain” is an example of the fine songwriting mentioned earlier.
«It’s So Sad» is the lone rocker on the album. Mike Roe treats us to his world famous “boogie woogie” music. The message of the song is that life without God is pointless, some will die not believing this truth, and it’s so sad. This song has a nice rockabilly, bluesy feel to it; it sounds best played loud in a car with the windows down. It’s easy to tell that the “old dawgs” enjoyed jamming to this song, and it sounds so tight and full of so much energy that listeners will be hard pressed to not get out of their seats and dance around like a chicken that’s being electrocuted. «Ain’t Gonna Fight It», originally released in 1976, is turned into a serene musical excursion through God’s love and His eternal promises to us. Some songs are timeless, and this is certainly one of them. Listening to this composition, one can be sure this tune came to us directly from the throne room of God.
Without a doubt the highlight of this album is «Beautiful Scandalous Night», arguably one of the best prayers ever written. Mike Roe takes over on lead vocals and delivers a mesmerizing performance. “You carried the sin of the world on Your back, and the sky turned black” strips away the romanticism of Christ’s death and reduces it to the nitty gritty truth that it was an horrific event that forever redeemed us, so we no longer have to be mutts, we can be now be called children of the Most High. This is the message of this album from start to finish. Do yourself a favor and go buy this album, put it in your CD player and prepare to be blown away by the perfect marriage of art and faith. [Aaron Anderson, The Phantom Tollbooth, 7/21/2004]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/mutt/523641673)
CD tracklist:
01. If You Want To – 4:03
02. The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes & The Pride Of Life – 3:35
03. Like A Cloud – 2:56
04. Grace Is The Smell Of Rain – 3:28
05. Sunshine Down – 3:01
06. To Cover You – 2:44
07. It’s So Sad – 2:44
08. Ain’t Gonna Fight It – 4:49
09. Beautiful Scandalous Night – 4:13
10. I’m Setting You Free (But I’m Not Letting You Go) – 3:07
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://thelostdogs.bandcamp.com/album/mutt
I find it difficult to explain what I love about the Lost Dogs, and I think it comes down to history. Part of the thrill of Scenic Routes, the Dogs’ debut, was hearing familiar voices in unfamiliar settings. Here was Derri Daugherty, he of swirl-rock pioneers The Choir, singing the acoustic folk title track with a high, clear tone. Here was Terry Taylor, leader of Beatlesque rockers Daniel Amos, taking on a lovely country ditty like «Amber Waves Goodbye». Here was Mike Roe, voice and guitar hero of barnburners The 77s, lilting his way atop the acoustic «Smokescreen» and wailing through blues standard «You Gotta Move».
And most of all, here was Gene Eugene, the big brain and sweet voice behind amazing funk-rock monolith Adam Again, bringing indescribable depth to melancholy ballads «The Fortunate Sons» and «The Last Testament of Angus Shane». Eugene made just about as many albums with the Dogs as he did with Adam Again before he passed on in 2000, and his Dogs work shows a stunning versatility and range. That’s true for all of the Dogs, though. Here were four guys from four very different bands, none of whom had their roots in traditional American and gospel music, playing sweet folk and rollicking bluegrass and tender singalongs. Familiar voices in unfamiliar settings.
Of course, most people are unfamiliar with any of the Lost Dogs’ work, be it together or with their own bands, so that appeal is all but lost on them. Part of the thrill of watching the remaining trio slide comfortably into a rendition of «Wild Ride» is in knowing just how wild the ride has been. Taylor, all by himself, has taken us through the literate twang-pop of the first Daniel Amos albums through the new wave of the Alarma Chronicles, to the sarcastic fun of the Swirling Eddies, to the graceful variety of his many solo albums, and finally to Daniel Amos’ triumphant 33-song comeback, Mr. Buechner’s Dream, the best rock album nobody heard in 2000.
The other Dogs have had similar journeys, with similarly essential sets of albums to their names. And most of those are out of print (with the exception of the Choir’s oeuvre, which is collected in a lovely box set called Never Say Never) and extremely difficult to find. Taylor has begun re-releasing his work as well – the first Daniel Amos album comes out in a deluxe two-CD edition this month – but not enough of the obscure history of these bands is readily available for anyone not already into the Dogs to really understand what I’m talking about.
The boys themselves have now complicated matters a bit. What was once a side project has in many ways become the main gig for Taylor, Roe and Daugherty, with only occasional trips to the louder styles of their original bands. Problem is, there’s a rich backlog of excellent tunes that longtime fans want to hear done Lost Dogs style. These are songs, however, that the average newbie will not know, and will not be able to find.
The solution is called Mutt, the first in a series of Dogs records that will mine the back catalog of Daniel Amos, the Choir and the 77s. Here are nine songs (three from each member of the band) with rich histories, spanning more than 25 years, stripped to their essences and reinterpreted. To use an obvious analogy, this is the spiritual pop equivalent of the original Traveling Wilburys recording «Like a Rolling Stone», «I Won’t Back Down», «Cryin’» and «My Sweet Lord». In their own way, the Lost Dogs have that kind of musical legacy, even though only a few thousand people have heard their songs.
But what songs they are. Mutt is a fully successful project – the new versions of these songs are beautiful on their own, but if you know the originals, they take on new dimensions. It’s a good album for newbies, and a fascinating document for longtime fans. Six of the nine remakes here (there’s also a brand new song) are all but impossible to find in their original forms, unless you know where to look. As far as most newcomers are concerned (which includes much of the audience at the concert I attended), this is a set of 10 new songs.
But the fun of being a longtime fan lies in contrasting these new takes with old favorites. Mutt opens authoritatively with «If You Want To», from Daniel Amos’ 1991 album Kalhoun. Gone is the familiar intro, and the song now begins with Mike Roe’s unadorned vocal. Naturally, the biggest change here (and in just about all the new takes) is the reliance on acoustic guitars, a Dogs trademark at this point, and the overall tone is mellow and breezy. «If You Want To» is scrappy and punchy in its original version, but here it glides along with great three-part harmonies and a light, airy feeling.
Taylor sings Roe’s «The Lust, the Flesh, the Eyes and the Pride of Life», from the 77s’ 1986 self-titled record, and he turns what was a youthful rock song into a world-weary Dylan-esque folk tune. It’s an arrangement that brings out the heartfelt lyrics, about Roe’s self-destructive personality traits, and Taylor’s voice is perfect for it. This one works better for newcomers, though, since «The Lust…» is very well identified with Roe. Hearing someone else sing it is jarring at first, but it works. The same fate befalls «Sunshine Down», Roe’s personal hymn from Say Your Prayers, sung here by Daugherty. The song is so Mike Roe that it’s difficult to associate it with Derri.
Of all the Choir’s songs, I would not have selected «Like a Cloud» for this record. It first appeared on Speckled Bird, the loudest of the Choir’s albums, as a brief moment of beauty amidst the clamor. I’m happy to discover that the Lost Dogs version rescues this sweet love song from obscurity and transforms it into the clearest winner here. The Dogs’ glorious three-part harmonies waft above the web of acoustic and electric guitars, and the extended ending is marvelous. Drummer and producer Steve Hindalong works his magic here on exotic percussion as well.
Many of these songs are not as significantly altered, however. Roe sings Taylor’s «Grace is the Smell of Rain», from Daniel Amos’ wonderful Motorcycle album, but otherwise the arrangement is similar, if quieter. The Choir’s «To Cover You» is covered note for note here, even down to Daugherty’s lead vocal. And I now have five versions of «Beautiful Scandalous Night», the most typically Christian song Daugherty and Hindalong have yet written, and none of them are all that different from the others. Hearing Roe sing it here is interesting, though.
There is one song that has been reworked from the ground up, though – «It’s So Sad», which first appeared on the 77s’ 1982 debut Ping Pong Over the Abyss. What was once a synth-heavy ‘80s pop song is now a screaming rockabilly number, complete with a frantic and amazing electric solo by Roe. Watching him perform this one live on an acoustic is awesome – he never stops moving, yelping or tearing out light-speed guitar lines. Taylor and Daugherty can only stand and stare at him in disbelief.
The show I attended was held at Rock Creek Church in Derwood, Maryland. Rock Creek is just off of a major road that connects with I-95, but MapQuest took me 20 miles off course through the enchanted forest. Seriously, that’s what the road looks like – a heavily wooded path that’s barely large enough to allow two cars to pass unharmed, with insane twists and turns throughout. The church itself is quite nice, and nearly 170 people fit comfortably inside.
In my opinion, that’s a ridiculously low number, considering the sheer quality of the musicians onstage, but for the Dogs at this stage in their career, 170 people in a little church in Maryland is a very good turnout. And the Dogs put on a hell of a show. They have honed their cranky old men act to a Vaudeville sheen, gently pushing the boundaries of what passes for appropriate humor in a church. Roe and Taylor, especially, put on such a display of loving antagonism that newcomers might think they actually disliked each other.
The banter was only half the fun, though. The Dogs ran through nearly every song on Mutt, as well as a nice selection of their older material. The Mutt songs particularly came to life on stage, and I gained a new appreciation for «If You Want To» and the expansive «Like a Cloud». The Dogs brought Steve Hindalong with them, and he played an impressive array of bizarre percussion instruments in his inimitable animated way. At one point he was shaking what appeared to be a child’s mobile in one hand and a woven straw purse in the other. This guy is so much fun to watch.
The spirit of reinvention that runs through Mutt was in evidence throughout the evening as well. The Lost Dogs are not known for shaking up their repertoire live, but here they debuted what they called a “medley of their hit” that found them opening up their arrangement skills. They also brought a revitalized energy to «Why is the Devil Red», which just plain rocked. Hindalong especially brought the house down on this one, pounding away on a pair of kettle drums.
They played the one new song on Mutt, «I’m Setting You Free (But I’m Not Letting You Go)», late in the set. It’s a beautiful father-daughter ballad about letting your children grow up while still holding them close, and it joins a legion of Terry Taylor songs about growing older and wiser. The Lost Dogs have found a way to grow old together, both musically and personally, and they’re doing it with grace and a sense of fun. If this group is the final destination for Taylor, Daugherty and Roe, then it’s been a great ride getting here. And if you weren’t there the first time, Mutt and its (hopefully many) sequels will fill you in on what you’ve missed.
I can’t fail to mention Jeffrey K. of Lo-Fidelity Records, without whom Mutt wouldn’t have seen the light of day. Jeffrey puts his heart into everything he releases, and he only would work this hard for bands and artists he loves. [Andre Salles, Tuesday Morning 3 a.m., July 7, 2004]
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