Big Wu Folktales CD

Many of the hip-hop, dance-pop, and urban contemporary artists that emerged in the '80s and '90s are so technology-minded and studio-oriented that they don't fare nearly as well on-stage as they do on their studio recordings. In the worst cases, they sound downright awkward in a live setting because they are unsuccessfully trying to turn the stage into the studio. But many of today's post-Grateful Dead jam bands have the opposite problem; they come alive on-stage but don't sound nearly as comfortable on their studio albums. Unfortunately, some of those Dead disciples are so jam-minded that they haven't really cultivated their songwriting skills. The Big Wu, like other jam bands, lives for the stage, but thankfully doesn't fall apart in the studio. While Wu's second album Folktales isn't a masterpiece, the writing is generally decent. Clearly, Wu comes from the Dead/Kingfish/New Riders school of laid-back country-rock, but the Minneapolis residents have some substantial ideas of their own. Wu combines its Dead worship with a healthy appreciation of world music; "Angie O'Plasty" has a slightly Celtic outlook, while other songs draw on calypso/soca, ska, and modern African pop. Tracks like "Shanty Town" and "Two Person Chair" give the impression that Wu's members have spent a lot of time checking out the pop sounds of Southern Africa. Again, Folktales isn't a gem, but it's pleasant and demonstrates that a post-Dead jam band can bring decent songwriting skills to the jam band aesthetic. ~ Alex Henderson

THE BIG WU is a rock 'n' roll band bit by a loon -- a little crazy, and never afraid to make fun of itself. Nonetheless, there's an inherent sense among its burgeoning "Family" of fans back home in Minneapolis and around the country that the heartland's premier grassroots attraction is on the threshold of something big indeed. With the release of Folktales, its second studio effort on Phoenix Rising, THE BIG WU has delivered 10 songs in almost as many Wu-flavored styles with the same transporting force and impeccable musical interaction that placed their recent Phoenix Presents album, Live at the Fitzgerald Theatre 4.

21.

00, among Entertainment Weekly's all-time Top 10 Contemporary Jam Band Albums. Folktales effortlessly moves from the straight-ahead rock of "Angie O'Plasty," to the country stomp of "Minnesota Moon" and the modern classic-pop balladry of "Boxing Day," before surveying white-boy ska on "Two Person Chair" and simple funk and neo-heavy metal on the seemlessly paired "Oxygen" and "Elani." Thanks to the vintage mini Moog synthesizers that were once in the arsenals of Rush and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, "Kensington Manor," about a legendary Wu Family residence, has an easy, progressive rock sensibility. "House of Wu" is a "bitchgrass" ode to a mystical Chinese restaurant in Minneapolis, and "S.O.S." has a broad middle where the music flows like the waves in a turbulent sea while the lyrics scream: "The New World may be Heaven in the End." Folktales appropriately ends with "Shantytown," a lilting Caribbean excursion that bounces to a close with the unified debut of the newly minted Shantytown Chorus -- some 500 BIG WU fans chanting in unison, under the baton of drummer Terry VanDeWalker, at a party the band threw in a warehouse studio during the recording sessions. That party wound up becoming the first-ever Big Wu Family Reunion, now a Memorial Day Weekend outdoor festival tradition held this year over a three days at a Wisconsin campground. The Shantytown Chorus more than tripled in number when it gathered for a refrain of that "Shantytown" singalong this summer during a BIG WU concert at the Minnesota Zoo. In a typical nod to its fans, every original "Chorus" member from the recording session was thanked in the Folktales album credits. "A lot of these songs reflect the time we've spent with this Family over the last couple of years," says guitarist Jason Fladager. "That's why the theme of this album is really abouCMJ (10/16/00, p.53) - "...A mature collection of distinctive songs drawn from a broad musical palette."