***Daniel Schorr***
What do you get when you cross Bob Dylan's vocals from Nashville
Skyline with Ballad of Easy Rider-era Byrds music, and illustrate the
whole thing with funky fresh Doug Allen drawings? Daniel Schorr's
latest album, Every Word I Say is True, of course!
Brooklyn-based educator Schorr's second kids' CD on his Tee-Tot
Records label is chock full of words, a veritable feast of lyrics,
backed with one of the best rootsy country-rock soundtracks you'll
ever hear on a children's album. Songs about a kid who never forgets
anything, about the twelfth dimension, about dog-devoured homework,
about brain appreciation; unbelieving adults, nagging parents (those
durn grownups!), and snowball fights; tear-jerkers about bad luck and
anthemic rockers detailing Santa's stab at musical superstardom.
This Owens/Haggard/Yoakum-influenced album brings the Bakersfield
Sound hardcore, especially on "Elephant's Memory", "The
Homework-Eating Dog Named Rover", and "If I Didn't Have a Teddy Bear",
but two songs that break from the guitar twang are "I Was Lost, But
Now I'm Found" and "The Emperor's Castle". The former, sung by Brian
Dewan, is one of the best "oughta be on Broadway" tunes ever, and the
latter, a synthesizer-driven socio-political statement, is reminiscent
of The Monkees' "Zor and Zam".
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