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February 7, 2003
Dear Mr. Black:
I am writing to respectfully suggest that Jim Caligiuri might need a break from reviewing bands that could be considered alternative country or part of the “Texas Music Sound.” Please witness the following inconsistencies:
Caligiuri gives Micky and the Motorcars 1.5 stars for their debut album, “Which Way From Here” – on which they allegedly “prove that their musical miscues must run in the family, because this band has the same problem that the Reckless Kelly boys do.” Except, Reckless Kelly’s debut album “Millican” received 3 stars from Christopher Gray in this same publication. Further, Gray said it was a shame that the debut album “deposit[ed] Reckless Kelly smack dab in the demilitarized zone of country's current ‘alternative’ wars. They're better than that.”
“Millican” was also called “ass-kickin’” by Chron music editor Raoul Hernandez. Where are these so-called miscues, exactly?
Caliguiri’s review also laments that Micky and the Motorcars’ sound takes cues from Steve Earle and Uncle Tupelo. While I can certainly think of worse influences for a young band (especially since the same writer gave the Uncle Tupelo anthology 4 stars in March 2002), the more important question is: “if taking cues from Steve Earle is an inherent problem, why does Caligiuri compliment Slaid Cleaves for the same thing in February 2000?”
One might theorize that the Motorcars sounding like the multiple-Austin-Music-Award-winning Reckless Kelly is the contentious point for Caligiuri; the bands are lead by four brothers, respectively, so it’s not a stretch to imagine how that could happen. Yet later the same writer thinks it is okay that Colin Gilmore sounds just like his dad Jimmy Dale (October ’02 Chron), and receives 3 stars for a debut “album” (of only four tracks)?
I noticed that, in his reviews, Caligiuri really likes comparing bands to other artists. Maybe it’s something one learns in Music Critic School – but his glowing review of the Old ‘97’s “Satellite Rides” managed not to reference anyone else at all. Readers and music fans with discriminating tastes would prefer writing that is actual creating, instead of spending the bulk of one’s time comparing everyone to someone else.
When albums by Pat Green and Cory Morrow can get two stars each from Caligiuri – performers who are soundly rebuked by reviewers all over the country for their almost-sycophantic emulation of artists like Robert Earl Keen and Jerry Jeff Walker -- I have to wonder whether this reviewer has begun to lump everyone with a roots-rock/alternative country/No Depression/Texas Music label into the same steaming pile.
If Jim Caligiuri continues to review this kind of music for the Chronicle, I will just opt to ignore his writing and repeat the following mantra to myself: “Even though the ‘authorities’ charged with covering all things alt-country may have not approved (God forbid something sound good), it was hardly a crippling blow.”
(That was written by the Chronicle’s own Michael Bertin about Reckless Kelly’s first album, when a national magazine panned them in 1997. I guess everything old IS new again.)
Sincerely,
Tracy [included my last name here] |
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