Music Review
By Robert D. Wheadon

As you start to read this review you may be asking yourself the question, “What is a music review doing here on this site?” Before you move on to this site’s more traditional fare, let me explain. As we all know, pulp fiction is a creative output comprised of the written word and eye-catching art. I love the literary form for its hard-boiled heroes and curvaceous dames. I love the don’t-give-a-damn attitude of the protagonists that give the stories a biting, jagged edge of a reality just beyond our own.

Even before I listened to Steve Wynn’s CD I knew I was in for a ride. On the cover is a reprint of a classic pulp cover. A man with gritted teeth is standing up in a convertible, blazing away at an unseen assailant with a revolver. A beautiful blonde is at the wheel with her eyes glued on the road. From the first song “Amphetamine” I got it. If you ever wondered what Jim Thompson or James Ellroy sound like put to music, listen to Steve Wynn’s CD, “Riding Shotgun.” It is a compilation of fifteen noir stories put down with an electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. I hesitate to even call them songs because they are so much more then that.

Musically, the sound is raw and real. If you close your eyes and listen, and then let the sound fill your head, you’ll hear stories that hit you like a sonic two-by-four. The retro-rock comes out like Tom Petty or Neil Young or even Don Henley but without the polish. It is exactly as it should be. There are stories of two-bit rooms inhabited by lost, forgotten souls. There are tales of drugs and desperation played out in lonely deserts and hills. I swear I could hear the Santa Ana desert winds spewing grit and sand across the tracks as they played out.

There are songs that will musically trick you. On the track of “There Will Come A Day,” the song jumps out bright and upbeat. It’s only as you pay attention to the words that you realize it is a story of someone that has been done wrong. Wynn offers only revenge and retribution as answers not only to the song’s victim, but to all the listeners on an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world scale.

What it all shakes out to is that Steve Wynn is a great musician with a gift of telling noir with a guitar. The compilation is a blend of haunting words and raw-edged melodies. Do I recommend listening to Steve Wynn? You better believe it.

http://www.stevewynn.net