What a cool title!
I saw that Fayette County musician Jason Kendall named his debut release "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore," which, of course, is reminiscent of Martin Scorsese's film "Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore."
For old-timers like me, the names Alice and Cooper also go quite well together.
It turns out that Jason's title refers to the home of the grandparents of Vincent Furnier, who has been known to generations as Alice Cooper. The old house in Flatwoods, also in Fayette County, now is a tavern, Casa Del Santo.
Now, there's your answer to a trivia question.
The music on Jason's disc, though, bears no resemblance to that of the venerable shock-rocker. Most of it is based on the adept picking of his acoustic guitar, with some complementary instrumentation that he adds himself.
The relatively sparse arrangements are appropriate to the subject matter. "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore" is presented as a tribute to small-town America, the feistiness of the people in Jason’s neck of the woods in the face of superhighways and strip malls. As Jason says in the press release accompanying his CD:
Southwestern Pennsylvania has such a unique history of prosperity and poverty, hard winters and a blue-collar pride. It's an area that, despite its beauty, over the past several years has been limited in opportunities. I do think that a renaissance is on the horizon, one that is based on our collective creative spirit and rooted in the rich aesthetic of industry, perseverance and heart. It is my hope that my songs, in some small way, capture and reflect those fine qualities.
The songs might be thematically linked in the stated manner, but Jason mixes them up stylistically enought to keep everything fresh as the album progresses.
The opener, "Pennsylvania Window," features a deceptively easygoing finger-picked riff that takes the listener through a journal entry about a dream: "the ghost of hope, she turned away and flew off from the sill/I woke up petrified." That's certainly an apt description of what Jason's home region has faced, especially when this line in the chorus is considered: "Without an eye toward springtime here, the winters last so long, so long."
Amen, brother.
"Last Dollar Spent" also features a jaunty tune with ominous lyrics: "Where's the next dollar when the last one's gone?/How do you make it right when all your love's gone wrong?" Add references to the Book of John, Charlie Daniels and J.D. Salinger, and you have one cleverly constructed song.
The pace changes for "I Don't Feel Like Singing," which features Jason accompanying himself on piano. The sparse arrangement suits the subject matter; the listener, however, can picture someone Phil Spectorizing this song by adding strings and a chorus. It doesn't need it.
The catchiest and most upbeat track is "Think of You," a love song augmented by handclaps and Jason's multitrack harmonies. He keeps the subject matter grounded, though, with lines like "I drank too much again but me head won't ache/I woke up much too early 'cause I couldn't wait."
Jason sticks mostly to major scales until the album's closer, "Saturday We Lock the Door," another finger-picked gem that presents several brief, well-worded insights to the deep feelings shared between a couple: "Today you laughed at my first graying hair/On the front porch watching spring grow through the rain."
No, Cooper doesn't live here anymore. We love ya, Alice, but Jason Kendall seems to be taking a more meaningful musical direction.
A release show for "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore" is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 2 at Club Cafe, Pittsburgh's South Side. Accompanying Jason are Jim Graff, guitar; Jon Kavendish, bass; Jim Platania, drums; and Bob Banerjee, fiddle. Opening is London native Joel Lindsey.
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