Tom Paxton 6

Album review

Six albums into his Elektra Records contract, Tom Paxton's songwriting muse does not fail him on the appropriately titled Tom Paxton 6. (Counting his poorly distributed debut live album I'm the Man Who Built the Bridges, it's actually his seventh LP, but never mind.) On the contrary, this is his best and most varied collection for the label yet. Paxton's primary influences remain obvious. The jovial "Forest Lawn," referring to the highly commercialized Los Angeles cemetery for celebrities, easily could have come from the pen of Tom Lehrer, complete with the sly rewrite of "Rock of Ages" in midsong. "Annie's Going to Sing Her Song," in which a man tells of a woman who keeps leaving him and coming back (and confesses that he always takes her back), is reminiscent of the work of Jacques Brel and comes off as a calmer version of Brel's song "Mathilde." But neither Lehrer nor Brel could have written the leadoff song, "Whose Garden Was This," a futuristic take on the logical results of disastrous ecological trends in which flowers exist only in pictures. Paxton may seem a bit prudish on "Molly Bloom," in which he mocks James Joyce's Ulysses and comes down on the side of those finding it obscene. But he remains a friend to coal miners on "Dogs at Midnight" and finds yet another way to decry war in "Jimmy Newman," about a wounded soldier who dies in the hospital. In every case, whether his tone is mocking or sincere, whether he's making fun or casting scorn, Paxton creates believable characters in striking situations using few words. He is abetted musically by keyboardist David Horowitz, who helps to create varying arrangements that range from chamber pop delicacy to jug band zaniness. But the songs would be just as good with only Paxton's voice and guitar, which is no doubt the way most listeners will hear them in concert.

© William Ruhlmann /TiVo