Always Use Your Willie Wisely

The posting title is a bumper sticker or t-shirt, I forget which, you could buy at a Willie Wisely show in the 1990s. Back in the early 1990s Becky and I attended a friend’s wedding in a small town three hours south of Minneapolis in Minnesota farm country. Rather than the polka band we expected at the reception, the couple hired a band with a talented hyperactive guitar player who was well known among the Minneapolis alternative rock scene. The Willie Wisely trio's performance that day made me a long-time fan. The band has been referred to as a “troupe of minstrels gallivanting”, “Sinatra on crack”, “Jazz-tinged bards”, and “neo-burlesque;”in short, difficult to describe but a lot of fun to listen to. Wisely’s major early influences include Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkle and the Beatles, and you can hear elements of those sounds infusing almost every tune. I'm partial to the earlier albums like Raincan and Parlez-Vous Francais, but a recent release really grabbed my attention.

While surfing around I-Tunes the other day I punched Willie’s name into the search engine and discovered that he put out a new record in December of 2006. I promptly downloaded the album, Parador, and discovered that Wisely’s talent as a songwriter and guitar player have gotten better over time. "Parador" is Wisely`s first studio album in 8 years. Most of the songs are about the pain and generalized insanity that accompany lost relationships as well as Wisely's wry take on the human condition. I’ve been playing the damn thing on repeat for a week and I keep discovering strange nuances in all of the songs that I missed the first time around. The complexity of the mix job on this record reminds me of Sergeant Pepper’s. From Wisely’s Bio:

“Willie Wisely has been evolving a singular musical style across the considerable span of his broad career, resulting most recently in the CD release, Parador, on Ella/Not Lame Recordings. Winning praise from critics coast to coast, Parador initiates a musical movement called "evocative pop," or "EVOC POP," which is exemplified by Wisely's singular brand of emotionally resonant, deeply memorable music. Originally hailing from Minneapolis, Wisely currently resides in Los Angeles where, in addition to creating his own distinctive music he is also a highly sought-after music producer and actor for an astounding variety of films and television.”

I highly recommend that you pop over to I-Tunes or Willie’s myspace page and sample some of Parador. Highlights include the title song, Staying Home Again (hot tune), Through Any Window (Could have been on the Beatles White Album-really nice), Too Quick to Love (lyrically somewhat sappy but spot on) and Altitudes. Wisely songs are like any good art, there are layers of nuance and the more you listen the more you hear. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed by this album. What does disappoint me is that this recording didn't teleport Wisely to the superstar pop status he clearly deserves. Maybe this is a function of being on a small record label whose distribution channels aren't as extensive as some of the more major players, or just a commentary on the simplistic ear of the American music consumer. Who knows? I hear that he's got a new album coming out with the original band and a tour planned for the fall. Stay tuned...