Amy Rigby Til The Wheels Fall Off CD

 Listen Til Your Ears Fall Off
By all rights, “Til the Wheels Fall Off” should be Amy Rigby’s breakthrough album. This is her strongest, most consistent collection of original songs to date, supported by a crack team of musical compatriots. They don’t get much better than this. This isn’t kid stuff. “Wheels” is full of big, hard questions about big, hard life-and-love struggles, with no easy answers. “Why do I pull wings off butterflies...I kiss the boys but I’m the one who cries,” she laments in “Why Do I”. “What am I looking for?”, she asks in Shopping Around, adding “I’m getting older, I’m getting wiser/But am I getting laid?” “The Deal” picks up the wry relationship-as-transaction theme from her last album’s“Cynically Yours”. “Forget that couple stuff/Forget about love/That’s the deal/It’s optional”, she proposes. Do you believe that? Neither does Amy. “I wish that I could lose myself inside of love/Instead of always standing on the outside,” she sighs on “Believe In You”, revealing the capital-R Romantic beneath the cynical facade. But for all the drama - and there’s plenty enough here - “Wheels” is shot through with good humor and musical sophistication. “Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?”, a hilarious take on marital fizzle, gets a subtle banjo, pennywhistle, and bodhran Irish treatment. The bright, bouncy pop melody of “The Deal” seems to come right from the Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart/Monkees songbook. “Breakup Boots” gets a full country band treatment here that soars on World Dominator Will Kimbrough’s slide work. The title cut is a loping shuffle tugged along by trebly Farfisa organ riffs, a loopy trombone solo, and a drawling Todd Snider duet that redefines “laid back”. The Sept. 11-inspired “Don’t Ever Change”, achingly beautiful and elegant in its simplicity and directness, goes beyond events to give much-needed perspective and uplift in a world of uncertainty and pain. It’s one of those songs you could see Dolly Parton taking to Number One. If there’s one thing missing from “Wheels”, it’s a rocker. As anyone who’s heard her tear through “Pump It Up” or her own “If You Won’t Hang Around” will tell you, ain’t too many people rock harder than Amy. That’s as good a reason as any to catch her on tour with her band this spring. In the meantime, pick up “Til the Wheels Fall Off”, and hear one of America’s best singer-songwriters show ‘em how it’s done.
Submitted by a reviewer (Baltimore, MD)
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