Shady Cats live up to their name in one respect: they are incurably curious. Although this tends to kill many in the feline family, such an axiom likely doesn’t hold true for musicians. At least we hope not. Shady Cats’ positive nosiness reveals itself in the seemingly endless variety of music contained on their Love Callin’ CD. This act is many different bands rolled into one.
The band that comes to mind most when listening to this CD is Toad The Wet Sprocket. In fact, “Lost Myself” sounds a whole lot like a great lost Glen Phillips (Toad’s vocalist and primary songwriter) track. Shady Cats’ singer, Grady Crumpler, has one of those voices that just drips with empathy. Whenever he sings, the listener just has to believe he really cares deeply about everyone he’s ever met.
Although Crumpler is a sensitively consistent vocalist, he is something altogether different as a guitarist. For example, the solo he takes on “She Kisses Me With Her Eyes” is doppelganger-esquely like Elliot Easton, formerly of The Cars. The notes are clipped and melodic, just like those solos Easton put together on many of the early The Cars records. Yet “All The Way”, with its distinctly Latin groove, finds Crumpler switching to a speedy Carlos Santana-like style. There aren’t two more different guitarists in the world than Easton and Santana, yet Crumpler inhabits the personalities of each excellent musician at various points within this CD.
But even when Crumpler is not doing a little added Rich Little work with his guitar, Shady Cats can still often sound like a variety of different bands. For example, “Take Me”, with its soulful organ work, brings to mind The Rascals. “I Want Independence” also particularly stands out, as it features much harder rock than the rest of the project. Crumpler sure seems like a nice guy when singing these songs, but one still gets the sneaky suspicion that all’s not well in paradise. Both “Lost Myself” and “In This Moment” speak of losing one’s self, for instance. Also, “Lines” features lyrical lines that state, “Lines/On the road and on the mirror”, which is a not-too-subtle drug reference.
All this sugar coated darkness makes the happy song, “All The Way”, stand out all the more. It’s a song that puts love in surfer’s terminology. True love is, indeed, like catching the perfect wave. To further make the point, this track ends with a few vocal harmonies that are straight out of the Brian Wilson/Beach Boys book.
With the happiness of “All The Way” being a sort of exception to the rule, you have to wonder if it just might be best to avoid the phone’s ring when love is callin’. Isn’t love supposed to be a welcome visitor? Isn’t everybody just dying to have love over for dinner? To hear the Shady Cats talk about love, their perspective must give a guy some serious doubts.
All romantic doubts aside, Shady Cats are experts at building the perfect power-pop beast. Just like the love they describe, theirs is a beautiful beast. Still, make no mistake about it: pretty as it is, love is still one dangerous animal.
Review by Dan MacIntosh
