My Hands are on Fire and Other Love Songs
Old Man Luedecke
Black Hen Records
3.5/5 Stars
It’s no accident that Chris Luedecke evokes “spring fever” in the opening track of his latest album, My Hands Are On Fire and Other Love Songs.
There’s something about the banjo, his instrument of choice, which makes his music vibrant and organic much like that first whiff of earth after a long, snowy winter.
Luedecke eschews electric instruments for the most part for this follow-up to his 2008 Juno-winning Proof of Love which makes it seem like he could politely invite himself into your home at any time and break into an impromptu set in your kitchen or around your campfire.
As the title suggests, love is a key theme to this record, with simple but witty lyrics about its many different aspects.
Opener “Lass Vicious” explores themes of escape and a bright new romance, while penultimate track “Down the Road” is about a romance hanging by a proverbial thread, with the great line “is our genius just the meanest words that each of us could find?”
Luedecke sings about sex in tunes like “My Love Comes Stepping Up the Stairs” and “Foreign Tongue,” the latter of which makes a shy virgin professing his love to a girl from Surrey, B.C., over the Internet seem charming and genuine.
He also deals with what comes after, with “The Palace is Golden” as a tale of a frustrated couple who just can’t conceive.
“Mountain Plain” lets the native of Chester, N.S., show his bluegrass side, a frantic track evoking the style of folk singer Stan Rogers but vocally a few octaves higher.
On the flip side, more mellow numbers like closer “Inchworm” and “Machu Picchu” have him sounding a bit like Joel Plaskett with his unconventional phrasing and falsetto.
One song that may seem out of place is “Woe Betide the Doer of the Deed,” a tongue-lashing to financial fraudsters like Bernie Madoff, who is the subject of a clever pun in the first verse.
It then comes to you that this Old Man enjoys his family, his food and trying to live life right, and these white-collar crooks are taking the money of the hard-working folks he sings for and about.
It’s a classic folk protest, one of the first wave of songs about last year’s financial meltdown.
Luedecke does not knock any of these songs out of the park in a way that will make him an international superstar, but there are no duds on this album either.
You get the feeling that this not-so-old-man is content to share his words and music with you during 11 tracks to both chill you out and get your foot stomping as he pours out his simple soul.
Old Man Luedecke will perform at the Black Sheep Inn April 11.