Vance Gilbert - Edgewise (1994)

Vance Gilbert is no average folk singer. His Edgewise is on equally sure footing, whether he is rejuvenating a hoary Eagles song ("Lying Eyes"), melding country and rap, or singing love songs of either the tender or tortured variety. Presided over by the smooth production of Alain Mallet, which anchors the album in some places with percolating percussion and in others with jazzy guitars (on one song provided by Tuck Andress) and soaring background vocals (by Patti Cathcart and Jonatha Brooke), Gilbert's songs address racism, growing older and the fires (of joy and despair) that burn beneath the calm faces strangers wear for one another. He is a storyteller of the first order, and Edgewise is a gem.~Review by Peter Stepek

If James Taylor is a watered-down imitation of Paul Simon, and Graham Nash is a watered-down imitation of Taylor, and Dan Fogelberg is a watered-down imitation of Nash, and Lowen & Navarro are a watered-down imitation of Fogelberg, then Vance Gilbert is a watered-down imitation of Lowen & Navarro. Gilbert's new album, "Edgewise," is an unasked-for revival of that late-'70s genre, fern-bar folk. It's hard to say why Philo Records picked Gilbert out of the thousands of guitar-strummers who sing Crosby, Stills & Nash songs in restaurant-bars across America (perhaps they held a lottery), but this Boston-based singer-guitarist has mastered all the elements: the whining self-pity, the cloying sensitivity, the Casio-like rhythms, the relentlessly cheerful major-chord melodies.~ Geoffrey Himes