Chris Whitley
DIRT FLOOR
Messenger -04
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This is the most consistent and accessible of Chris Whitley's discs from his off and on recording career. It is just him singing and accompanying himself on banjo, guitar and foot stomp. It has a simple and wonderfully stripped down sound that fits perfectly with the morose yet tumultuous mood of the songs, establishing an atmosphere that is very strong and almost as important to the work as the mood in a 40's film noire. This is an exceedingly short work, only 27+ minutes, yet at the same time I was quite happy it was not much longer. If you were expecting BIG SKY COUNTRY, in sound you will be both happy and disappointed. Happy because there is the same stripped down nasally singing of songs that have a story to tell, and disappointed because there is not as much Dobro or a band helping him to flesh out the tunes. I wonder why they put out a disc this short without giving any indication on the outside that it is this brief. With discs being able to easily do 60 minutes of music, I question why this would be put out without the words sampler, or "brief disc". He does an excellent job on the material he does, yet it does not develop into anything due to the lack of time, at the same time tone is so very angst ridden I would not have listened to the whole disc if it was much longer either. Guess in this case damned if you do and damned if you don't, but I think it could have
been attached as a bonus disc to a more lengthy piece of work. There are no liner notes or comments for this disc. What is here is excellent in its own right and stands up as some of his best work, I just wonder if maybe a bit more time and we might have had another song or two.
Songs - All by Chris Whitley
Scrapyard Lullaby
Indian Summer
Accordingly
Wild Country
Ball Peen Hammer
From One Island To Another
Altitude
Dirt Floor
Loco Girl
Chris Whitley - vocals, Dobro, guitar, banjo and foot Stomp
Produced by Craig Street