One of the neatest things about music, in my opinion, is the ability of artists to "blur" certain genres in their music. There's sort of an unwritten rule about many musical styles that they have to be taken separately, on their own, and there should be no mingling with anything else, lest the product be "diluted" with another style of music. There's nothing wrong with pop/R&B or hip-hop/jazz or funk/metal or any of a million and one different musical hybrids.

Jim White's "No Such Place" is...uh, well, it's hard to pin down. For all intents and purposes, White's a country singer. (Hey, to me, anyone who drawls is a country singer).But there are elements of blues, folk, pop, and
even dance music on his records. To me, he's sort of like Chris Isaak meets Lyle Lovett meets Beck. "No Such Place" is a weird listen, but it's ultimately a pretty damn good listen, too.

I don't usually stay too long on the biographical information thing, but since I didn't know who this guy was before I bought this album-figured the info would be good to know. White was born in Florida-apparently was a surfer and a fashion model before having his left hand maimed in a freak accident. Somewhere along the line, his demo made it's way into the hands of loose-limbed former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and he wound up signed to Byrne's imprint Luaka Bop. White is the second good artist I've managed to discover from that label (Shuggie Otis was the first). Anyway, "No Such Place" was his second album.

So I'm looking at the track list, and the first title I see is "Handcuffed To A Fence In Mississippi". Not a typical title, and not a typical song, either. This track features White in full drawling honky-tonk vocal mode, over a thumping drum loop similar to the one found on EVERY Sugar Ray record, along with some banjo, turntable scratching, and some butt-shaking handclaps near the end of the song. The weird thing about it is that it all blends together well.

Things quiet down a bit as the album progresses. When I first heard "The Wound That Never Heals", I was like "is the character in the song killing every guy she falls in love with?". Apparently, yes. This is an excellent story-song, as offbeat as the topic may sound, and White sort of "talks" the lyrics. I don't know why-but the style he does it in reminds me of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band. "The Wrong Kind Of Love" and "Corvair" are both sort of gauzy-sounding ballads. Not gauzy in an overproduced kind of way, but both songs kinda have that "driving through some Southern town in 95 degree weather" kinda feel. "Corvair" almost sounds demo-like, with White's croon (which I think sounds like Ben Folds) here, over a sparse arrangement. A reprise of this track closes the album, with White's choirboy voice over a piano arrangement-making him sound even MORE like Folds.

After reading about this album on All Music Guide (before I Bought the album) and reading lambchops' review of this album (which I only noticed right before I sat down to write this), one major thing that sticks out is the production. Interestingly enough, this album was mainly produced by Brits. Trip-hop/ambient/electronic outfit Morcheeba handles the lion's share of the album cuts (and most of the more beat-approved ones), while several songs are produced by Andrew Hale, whose name you may not initially know, but he's been the drummer for Sade (and it's offshoot project, Sweetback) for 20 years now. All the producers (who include White himself) do a great job merging styles here.

The album lopes along with the severely understated and slowly aching acoustic ballad "Christmas Day", and my personal highlight, "God Was Drunk When He Made Me". It sounds vaguely like one of those old Jim Reeves or Loretta Lynn songs my grandmother used to love, but White's adopting a severely hick-a-fied vocal inflection, not to mention mixing the song so he sounds like he's singing from the bottom of a well. It's quite easy to pass the whole thing off as satire, until you read the lyrics:

If it was God that mad forgiveness, then before that he musta made sin
And who built the house of brotherly love, then let the devil come dancing in?
If it was God that saved the miracle child from the peril of the fiery flame
Well then it musta been him that killed the two hundred others just to glorify His name

Good stuff...and nice to throw out a passage like that in the middle of a fairly jokey song. Seaking of jokes, I'd never heard the original version of Roger Miller's "King Of The Road". My only knowledge of the song comes from a sloppy R.E.M. cover on "Dead Letter Office". White's version manages to combine some ZZ Top-ish guitar with some snake-charmer whistling and rumbling percussion. As with most of the songs on this album, it just takes a bunch of elements that have no business being together and mashes them up really well. Many of his songs sort of jump between actual singing and sort of a talking "storytelling" style, but on the atmospheric "Hey! You Going My Way?" he speaks rhythmically. If I didn't know better, I'd say ol' Jimmy was trying to bust a rhyme or two. Does anyone talking rhythmically over music constitute rapping? I say yes, others say no. Either way, I enjoy it.

I probably would never have picked "No Such Place" up on my own, if only because my musical comfort zone is wide enough that I can be lazy. However, this album-while not a first-listen slam dunk, has a definite appeal that grabs folks who wouldn't necessarily buy a folk album with country leanings. Jim White is an excellent lyricist (a common trait among writers in his genre), an excellent singer (his style varies much from song to song as he actually tries to inhabit the lyrics of his songs. What a concept, eh?), and his guitar pickin' ain't bad either. And them English cats do a mighty fine job on the production tip, either!

I also found out that Jim has a new album due out at the beginning of June-which I'll definitely pick up-especially since it'll feature production from the Barenaked Ladies. Woo hooo!!!

Now, off to find that Joe Henry record I was thinking about picking up...

This was my entry in the annual "You Show Me Yours, I Show You Mine" write-off. My partner in this exercise was the lovely and talented lambchops (who's very cool with me now that she's rating and reading my reviews again...pauses for evil grin), and it was hosted by the lovely, talented, and charmingly crochety matta75. Cheers to both of you for indulging me. And be sure to read all the other fine entries from the participants here.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Repeat: "God Was Drunk When He Made Me", "Corvair", "Handcuffed To A Fence In Mississippi"

Skip: In order to apreciate this album, you've gotta listen straight through a few times, so don't skip anything.

Great Music to Play While: Thinking that if God was drunk when He made you, that sure would explain a heckuva lot.

Recommended: Yes