Willy DeVille - Backstreets of Desire (1992/2020)

Released to complete indifference in the United States a full year after its issue on the Finac label in France, Willy DeVille's Backstreets of Desire stands tall as his masterpiece as both a singer and a songwriter. DeVille's considerable reputation in Paris he regularly filled the Olympia Theater there and had Edith Piaf's arranger writing charts and conducting an orchestra for him buoyed him up to make this disc at a handful of studios in his adopted New Orleans home. With guest spots by Dr. John, Zachary Richard, and David Hidalgo, DeVille creates a tapestry of roots rock and Crescent City second line, traces of '50s doo wop, and elegant sweeping vistas of Spanish soul balladry, combined with lyrics full of busted-down heroes, hungry lovers, and wise men trying to get off the street. The sound of the album balances Creole soul and pure rock pyrotechnics. DeVille sounds like a man resurrected, digging as deep as the cavernous recesses of the human heart will allow him to on "Empty Heart"; he brings down the house roaring on "All in the Name of Love," with its forlorn but anthemic refrain underscored by Dr. John's gutter funk guitar playing. "Even While I Sleep" features DeVille in a smoky falsetto shuffling along with Hidalgo's squeezebox and Brian Ray's rockabilly guitar picking. The cover of Billy Roberts' "Hey Joe" is a radically new and moving interpretation of the song, with only Jimi Hendrix' version topping it. The New Orleans street jazz on "Voodoo Charm" throws a curve to the emotionally intense contents with a backbone slip rhythm and popping horns in a slow stroll. In all, Backstreets of Desire reveals more about where DeVille had been than he'd perhaps like listeners to know. The wasted rock & roll junkie may have been resurrected from the dead by music (unlike his neighbor Johnny Thunders), but the darkness that informed that soul graces this music with a ragged elegance and tough grace.