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Steve Amick There's Always Pie ...
CD review
Amick paints a mythical Michigan where everyone has
the world's best cherry pie recipe, owns pet wolverines
that walk on leashes and "goes bow hunting with the
Nuge."
Steve Amick's CD release party will be from 8:30 to 10:30
p.m. Dec. 30 at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore & Tea Room,
114 S. Main St., Ann Arbor. No cover. (734) 665-2757.
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Not all authors make good songwriters, but Ann Arbor's Steve
Amick was writing songs before his novel, The Lake, the
River and the Other Lake, got picked up by Random House.
Promoting the book forced Amick to delay the release of his
debut CD, There's Always Pie ..., until now.
Amick did score a minor hit in 1989 with his band, Steve Amick
& His Own Worst Enemies. The single got some play on East
Coast college stations and a review in The Washington Post,
which called him "a cheerful black humorist who is seriously
askew."
That description still applies, though There's Always Pie
... has more in common with the wacky innocence of Jonathan
Richman than the twisted comedy of Stephen Lynch. Each song
is a love letter, some addressed to his wife, some to ex-girlfriends,
some to his home state.
On "I Feel Sorry for You (If You Don't Live Here),"
Amick paints a mythical Michigan where everyone has the world's
best cherry pie recipe, owns pet wolverines that walk on leashes
and "goes bow hunting with the Nuge."
Ann Arbor-area guest musicians -- including Timothy Monger
and Greg McIntosh of Great Lakes Myth Society -- add a heap
of instruments, including accordion; dobro; "broken cello";
and guiru, afuché and quica (whatever those are). Some
of the ideas are half-baked, like the "la la las"
on the opening track. Others are inspired, like the blaring
trombone punctuating Dum-Dum.
For all the variety, the songs are simple, three-chord affairs.
Anything more would bury the lyrics, which are full of strange-yet-rewarding
twists and surprises.
"If you called me up in the dead of night like you do;
and wanted to know who wrote Bambi; I probably wouldn't cuss
you out -- much."
It's a goofy treat that will leave you hungry for a second
helping.
-- Bill Chapin Originally published Friday, December 16, 2005
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