He’s also been applauded for his insightful social commentary—but he’s no Bob Dylan.  His strengths are that he’s usually fun to listen to and he often brings a unique, quirky point of view. Critics have a tendency to over-analyze his lyrics, looking for brilliance.   I say, relax, listen to the record as a whole and giggle.  After enjoying Ray and the Kinks for decades, I think that’s the best way.  If you’re unfamiliar with the Kinks, you might want to listen to the Kink Kronikles as an introduction to Ray’s writing.  Longtime fans will find moments to smile, however, from Other People’s Lives.   Boundary County by Eilen Jewell—Keep an ear out for this young, soulful-eyed woman, originally from Idaho but now residing in the Boston area.  The Narrows Center for the Arts has had her and her band open for several acts and the buzz she caused damn near upstaged the headliner.  Eilen (same sound as feelin’) specializes in slow to mid-tempo original tunes that mix country, blues and folk into a tasty stew heated by her lazy, sultry vocals that wrap around you like 2 a.m.  The problem is that every song on this CD has pretty much the same sound, which might be comforting if you’re trying to shake off a hangover, but can get draggy for those of us wide awake.  That said, she’s got a great voice that deserves to get a workout in some up-tempo numbers.  Not a bad songwriter either, who gets angry with President Bush in her song The Flood: “Can anyone among you please explain/What went down on the banks of the Ponchartrain/It’s you our leader who’s to blame/You lay sweet New Orleans out to waste.”  Check out her touring schedule, which, at this point, is nearly confined to the Northeast, though she’s playing some dates in Idaho and North Carolina.

 Hugs and Misses by Stephen Louis Hug     Rosenbum’s Gin by TJ McFarland (Explosive Records)—This is a cool record from a relatively new guy on the scene who deserves a hearing. He’s out of Oklahoma but is based in California these days. In an email interview he wrote that he and his producers were trying “to create a record that would be somewhere between (the Rolling Stones’) Exile on Main Street and (Bob Dylan’s) Blonde on Blonde musically…the result was probably more Grateful Dead.” I didn’t hear Dead, but definitely Stones and Dylan. Anyway, what caught my eye and made me pick up the CD was the fact that guitar guy Waddy Watchel is on the record. Watchel has played with the likes of Randy Newman, Stevie Nicks and Warren Zevon (he was one of the writers of the great Werewolves of London song). “Waddy was brought in by Pride Hutchison, one of the producers. Pride has worked with Waddy on projects in the past and thought Waddy the perfect fit for the type of record we were making,” wrote TJ. For you purists, TJ sort of wrote the title track with Vassar Clements, utilizing a previously written Clements’ piece. “It’s a haunting tune…When I beganconceptualizing and writing thelyrics for Rosenbum’s GinI chose Vassar’s melody for the choruses of the song. Vassar was pleased with the result and gave his blessing not long before his battle with cancer began to take its toll earlier this year.” 3 ¼ bottle caps, a pretty darn good record. He’ll be playing in Texas, Oklahoma, California, Louisiana and Tennessee over the next months, which means I won’t get a chance to see him, since I’m up in the frosty Northeast. But maybe you will!   Thanksgiving Day by Ray Davies (V2 Records)—While Ray Davies and his fellow Kinks were part of the 1960s British Invasion, I felt it appropriate to do a write up on this recording (which is an EP, and will be part of a full CD coming out next year) because of the influence Ray’s songwriting has had on musicians for decades (plus I’m a diehard Kinks fan). In case you don’t know, the Kinks were the ones who did the songs Lola, You Really Got Me (covered by Van Halen), Sunny Afternoon (covered by Jimmy Buffet), and Stop Your Sobbing (covered by the Pretenders). They also dabbled in country sounds long before country was cool (check out their Muswell Hillbillies album from 1971). Ray released this EP to raise funds for music education programs in New Orleans, where he was shot in the leg chasing a thief a couple years back. The title track will probably become a Thanksgiving standard for some radio stations—much like the Kinks’ Father Christmas became a holiday must at rock stations—and the other three songs will delight those who enjoy tunes with poignant commentary that make you want to tap your feet anyway. This CD is probably at your local record store, since Sony is handling distribution, so you might want to pick it up to help the folks in New Orleans at the very least. No rating because this is a benefit recording, but don’t expect to find another “Kinks Klassic” on it; still, it’s a load of fun and will pull on your heartstrings and make you think at the same time. God Save the Kinks!