{"id":15567,"date":"2018-11-27T05:30:27","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T10:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=15567"},"modified":"2018-11-12T12:37:24","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T17:37:24","slug":"album-review-the-zealots-jawbone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/27\/album-review-the-zealots-jawbone\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Zealots — Jawbone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"George Terry McDonald is one busy guy. In 2018 \u2013 alongside his other creative endeavors as a visual artist \u2013 he is releasing not one but two albums of original music. One is Plow<\/i>, credited to his country\/Americana persona, George Trouble; the other is a decidedly more rock-oriented collection, Jawbone<\/i>, by his band the Zealots. Both are definitely worth a listen, but it\u2019s Jawbone<\/i> that gets the edge as the most varied and fully-realized of the pair of new efforts from McDonald.<\/p>\n

Jawbone<\/i> is the Zealots\u2019 fourth album; McDonald\u2019s first release under the Zealots\u2019 name was Roar of the Crowd<\/i>, released two decades ago. Even then, McDonald wedded a rocking, melodic approach to thoughtful (and often topical) lyrics on songs like \u201cJesse Helms.\u201d At first listen, Jawbone<\/i> might seem less political than that tune, but listen more closely and you\u2019ll discover that McDonald remains a reliable composer of songs that are, so to speak, \u201cabout stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWide Open Spaces\u201d kicks off the album in style, with a fetching melody replete with sweet harmonies (courtesy Amanda Anne Platt) and plenty of peppy mandolin and fiddle. But the tune still rocks, and its good-timing melodic lines are the sly vehicle for a lyric that mentions \u201cfear of random violence\u201d and hearkens back to a time when McDonald admired public servants. That admiration, he sings, \u201ccame from profiles in courage,\u201d a nod to JFK.<\/p>\n

The Zealots rock harder on \u201cCeases to Amaze Me,\u201d a barbed-wire cut that suggests a North Carolina version of Alejandro Escovedo circa his Rank & File days. Flat DuoJets\u2019 Dex Romweber \u2013 a friend and sometime collaborator \u2013 guests on lead guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cNature Fights Back\u201d swings for the fences, combining an anthemic tune and arrangement with a direct lyrical message; it\u2019s the kind of song that should appeal to fans of Bruce Springsteen. \u201cPoppycock\u201d goes in a very different direction, with a vaguely ska feel that suggests early \u201880s new wave groups. Ben Hovey\u2019s horns adds some wonderful Tex-Mex texture.<\/p>\n

The smoldering \u201cChameleon\u201d has a dark, vaguely sinister feel. The singing and playing become more impassioned as the song unfolds, and Aaron Price\u2019s piano provides a majestic backing for McDonald\u2019s searing and extended lead guitar outro. \u201cIntensive Care\u201d is a wordy (in a good way) song in the tradition of thoughtful lyricists like Graham Parker and Springsteen (again).<\/p>\n

The reggae flavor of \u201cAnother Head\u201d is effective enough, but \u2013 though it showcases McDonald\u2019s mastery of genres \u2013 the tune feels slightly out of place in this collection. The wide-screen melodrama of \u201cChasin\u2019 the Dragon\u201d is reminiscent of Jim Steinman\u2019s songwriting for Meat Loaf. \u201cThe Right Prescription\u201d and the slow-burning, Midnight Oil-like \u201cWaste of Talent\u201d dig deeper into McDonald\u2019s lyrical talents; both are superbly-drawn story songs that conjure mental images to accompany the words. And they rock, too.<\/p>\n

The rocking continues with the riff-focused but lyrically oblique \u201cSomebody\u2019s Gotta Pay,\u201d a tale of malaise that pointedly doesn\u2019t provide any easy answers to the questions it poses. After those heavy tunes, \u201cSomeday\u201d seems absolutely poppy in its execution. The strains of Americana that inform McDonald\u2019s writing shine through in a rock context here, calling to mind Dave Alvin\u2019s solo work. Again, Price serves as an effective foil, with fervent harmony vocals.<\/p>\n

McDonald explores the gruff lower end of his vocal range on the moody \u201cThe Cruel Truth.\u201d Musically the tune is a minor-key surf rocker, but as always with the Zealots, there\u2019s plenty more if one looks under the hood of the sleek and powerful machine.<\/p>\n

Jawbone<\/i> concludes with George Terry McDonald\u2019s take on the Samson and Delilah myth of the Bible\u2019s Old Testament. Some of the lyrics lie beyond this reviewer\u2019s understanding (\u201cMicrophone cocktails in your hand \/ The value of shock expands\u201d) but \u2013 like everything else on this consistently impressive album \u2013 McDonald sings it like he means it, and that\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Terry McDonald is one busy guy. In 2018 \u2013 alongside his other creative endeavors as a visual artist \u2013 he is releasing not one but two albums of original […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,62,65],"tags":[237,3623,3622],"class_list":["post-15567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-asheville","tag-george-terry-mcdonald","tag-zealots","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15569,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15567\/revisions\/15569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}