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 There are some performers we all need to get a regular fix of.
Think Chris Smither…Occasional exposure to the man is got to be better for you than anything the doctor could order.
Another is Greg Trooper, and ever since we saw him perform back in 2000 and began to enjoy his albums, that need has grown stronger year by year. The 2001-issued Straight Down Rain is a classic, jam packed with great songs.
Over three decades, this New Jersey native has built a career dedicated to music, proving through gestures large and small that he's one of our best. That is evident in the company he keeps, the critics who praise his recordings, the fans who invest in his shows and the big-name contemporaries who learn and record his songs. It is most evident in what Amazon.com calls his "catalogue of superbly crafted albums."
Raised in the shore town of Little Silver, Trooper became enthralled by the greater New York area's rich music scene. He discovered a sort of holy musical trinity in the work of Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams, with their guiding lights of passion, literary dexterity and plainspoken honesty - the reason his music feels equally informed by Memphis soul, Greenwich Village folk and Nashville twang.
His albums have demonstrated creative vision as well as a collaborator's heart. Americana star Buddy Miller produced 1998's 'Popular Demons', while soul legend Dan Penn steered 2005's extraordinary 'Make It Through This World'. In the studio and on the road, Trooper's colleagues have come from roots music's most rarified circles: Larry Campbell (Dylan), Garry Tallent (Springsteen), Kenneth Blevins (Hiatt); and many have covered his material including Vince Gill and Steve Earle.
In a review of his live album 'Between A House And A Hard Place', music critic Barry Mazor said our man "sings with a clarity of purpose and a variety of effect that few in the acoustic world match."
A new album will get its UK release early in 2011. |
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