MUSIC
...... ▼......
I
f you get excited at the wide-open prospect
of the rich, presumably heterosexual-
dominated body of 20th century popular
culture being proved readily available to
queer reinterpretation, then Remembering Patsy
Cline and Just Because I’m a
Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton will
definitely pique your curiosity.
These tributes honoring the
legendary country music stars are a
veritable Gay Straight Alliance of
women artists, and the spectrum,
though heavy on the delicate
introspection (no PJ Harveys or
Courtney Loves here), is broad
enough; anything that finds com
mon ground between Amy Grant
and k.d. lang, as Remembering
Patsy Cline does, intrigues.
Both Cline and Parton wrote
songs that, for all their depth and
resonance, are simple, effortless
and so human that anyone who’s
ever had an emotion can find
empathy in them. More queer-
specifically, Parton enjoys a huge gay following
and has been dogged for as long as anyone can
remember by speculations that she, ahem,
enjoys the company of women.
Cline, too, has a history with the gays; she’s
a long-standing drag idol whose sophisticated
emotional phrasings sparked a torch-song flame
in the heart of a young k.d. lang, who recruited
Cline producer Owen Bradley for her 1988
album Shadowland.
The Cline album is the less interesting of the
two; the country diva’s songs are deserving of
veneration, but many of the arrangements are so
safe, they merely serve as static monuments. Too
eatingout
eatingout
Finding the queer in country
Queen of Scots
Tribute albums spark new interest in down-home divas
by
C hristopher M c Q uain
many of the artists seem to be whis
O’Connor’s fiery “Dagger Through the
pering to themselves as they tiptoe
Heart” explores American country music’s
through a Cline museum, and too
fiddle-heavy Celtic roots.
many of the songs are perfect
Melissa Etheridge has the unenviable task of
copies wherein the singer seems
reclaiming “I Will Always Love You,” and
unconcerned with finding the
though her trip-hop-tinged take is a vast
emotion for herself: Natalie Cole,
improvement over Whitney Houston’s schmaltzy
version, it still lacks the innate plaintiveness that
Rebecca Lynn Howard and Martina
McBride all offer note-perfect
can be heard on Parton’s 1974 recording.
renditions that lack inspiration.
If it’s the function of tributes to re-engage
There are a few exceptions:
longtime fans of musicians by filtering their
lang’s smoky “Leaving on Your
beloved compositions through new voices, the
Mind” conveys the song’s under
reverse, particularly in the case of Just Because
stated devastation, Michelle
I’m a Woman, is also
Branch does a surprisingly convinc
true. If you haven’t
heard the classic
< ” *
ing “Strange,” and Patty Griffin’s
“Faded Love” gets that heartbroken
Parton or
yet determined Cline flavor just right.
Cline
The Parton disc has more to offer, both in
recordings
its song selection and strength of vision.
that
Remembering Patsy Cline contains exactly the
inspired
same track listing as Cline’s original Greatest
these
Hits album, but the artists on Just Because I’m a
versions,
Woman have dug up gems from all over Par-
you’ll be
ton’s huge, decades-spanning catalog.
left eager to
The ultrapopular Norah Jones (who also
seek them
appears on the Cline disc) does a sparse,
out. jn
lovely “The Grass Is Blue,”
Franz Ferdinand
Me’Shell N’Degeocello serves up
an almost menacingly low-pitched enjoys a sexy gender
mix-and-match
“Two Doors Down,” and Sinead
eatingout
s q u
eatingout
e e z
Specializing in fresh squeezed cocktails
lounging bass laid back beats every wed
thurs fri & sat nights down tempo style
1403 se belmont
503-239-5144
open @ 5pm
eatingout
eatingout
Franz Ferdinand is
a bandwagon worth jumping
hey’re huge, they’re hyped, they’re.. .queer?
The Scottish band Franz Ferdinand—a music
press juggernaut in the United Kingdom who
recently finished a U.S. tour that caused mass
hipster hysteria—consists of four rather fetching
young men in vintage clothes who thoroughly
transcend their cute but conventional indie-rock
image on their eponymous debut album.
Franz Ferdinand is brash, fresh, accomplished
and heavily laden with the kind of catchine«
that only comes from pure pop inspiration. The
sound hearkens back to the great post-punk
hybrids of Blondie (especially on “Darts of Plea
sure” and “Take Me Out”) and New Order, it’s
danceable without being effete, artistic without
being pretentious and “rocks” without being
macho. Marrying delicate, bittersweet melodies
and poiyrhythmic stops and starts, the lads
freely stretch the limits of what
can be done with a four-piece
guitar band.
They also play a game of sexual
mix-and-match that puts them in
. league with classic U.K. gender-
hoppers like The Smiths and
j Suede. Midway through the album
(on “Cheating on You”), singer Alex
Kapranos is intoning “goodbye girl”
and three songs later (“Michael”) he’s
growling and panting for a male
object of desire to leave his “stubble
on my sticky lips.”
T
eatingout
eatingout
Portland’s
Great
Food
original
low carb
res tn it rant
Just Happens to be
LOW CARB CRf ATIONS
Lou-
C«<*
Complete menus are available at www.unclebutchys.com
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. • 503-288-5955
N orthwest and
C ontinental C uisine
L unch • D inner
J azz
C abaret E very T uesday
L ivi J azz T hurs S at
dinner
NW 6 th & I rving • U nion S tation • 503 22 3 0070
WWW AVILES.( ITYS1 YRCH.COM
castagna Wednesday...Saturday
café castagna 7 nights a week
5W.23/.737.1 .
1752 sc hawthomc. portland