Jim Musser
With the daring, bare-bones "Live In Texas," Vince Bell has taken yet another giant step forward in his extraordinary physical, spiritual, emotional and artistic renewal since a drunk driver's high speed broadside took everything but Vince's last breath from him almost 20 years ago.
"Phoenix"--his aptly-named "comeback"--was nothing short of a miracle; an aching reaffirmation of purpose laced with hard-won wisdom and whimsical insight. The subsequent "Texas Plates" continued along that road, displaying a growing self-confidence and flexing some serious rock muscle to boot. Both discs couched Bell's finely-honed tunes and goose-bump revelations with well-appointed arrangements delivered by an enviable array of musicians.
But if those recordings showed Bell to be an inspirational singer, an astute bandleader and yet another skin-tingling Texas tunesmith washed in the blood of Townes, "Live In Texas" may qualify as Vince's debut as a high-wire act.
Accompanied only by his own idiosyncratic rhythm guitar and the spare, yet breathtakingly lovely electric guitar lacework provided by Cam King, Bell places most of the considerable weight of nine terrific new original tunes and a pair of well-chosen covers squarely upon his battered suitcase of a voice.
There are, of course, myriad ways to deliver a song effectively. There are the lucky ones, the natural singers like The Mavericks' Raul Malo or the late Roy Orbison, who can dial up any note they can dream of, at any time, and with no perceptible effort. At the other end of the spectrum, there are those, best exemplified by Bob Dylan or Neil Young, who have more than compensated for their less-than-dulcet tones through hard work, timing, phrasing, a storyteller's ear and a large dose of that thing called "soul."
Well, Vince surely ain't no "Big O," but his inner drive is Herculean, his talespinning gifts are hypnotic and he's got more soul than a Muscle Shoals church picnic. Like a Victorian pump organ with a couple of mouse-holes in its bellows, Bell's vocal instrument is compressed and reedy, fairly reeking of the intense effort and passion with which it is charged.
All of which underscores the previous "high wire" allusion--Bell's music, while hauntingly beautiful, nevertheless creates an inescapable tension with his audience; there is an ever-present fear of falling which makes the listener lean into Vince's songs, to urge them on while holding one's breath. This is truly a magical thing--it is show business, and it is dangerous.
Throughout "Live In Texas," Vince Bell will have you mesmerized as you root both for him and for the subjects of his songs, and he does it all with only a mere slip of a net. He pulls if off with sweat and grace, and--to borrow a line from Bruce Cockburn's "Rumours Of Glory"--he "comes out shining like gold, but better...". --Jim Musser, September, 2001
Rockzilla.net: Texas and Americana Music http://www.rockzilla.net/kunz2.html
What you also have is both the eventual appeal of the disc, and the reason why that appeal may take a few listenings to become evident. Vocally Bell combines the gruff sound of John Prine with the lethargic delivery of the Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins. The minimal instrumentation push Bell's singing to center stage, but it also provides a chance to listen to and absorb the message of the lyrics. As with Prine, or even Bob Dylan for some, it may take a few repetitions before the charm of the vocals really take hold.
Texas Plates Review Excerpts
When Texas Plates was issued, Peter Blackstock of No Depression Magazine not only reviewed it, but kindly took time out of his schedule to visit Vince at home. The full article is here, and we hope you will consider supporting No Depression with a subscription. Special thanks, too, to Kathleen Cotter for her photographs. Watch out for deer.
NO DEPRESSION: "If Bell's story had stopped with the release of Phoenix five years ago, it would still rank as one of the greatest comeback triumphs of all time. As it is, however, that was just the first flower of his late-blooming career...Texas Plates continues where Phoenix left off, tastefully presenting Bell's songs in acoustic arrangements that bring out the subtle magic of his carefully crafted lyrics...His accomplishments as a guitarist and as an author not withstanding, Bell's truest talent remains as a lyricist."
ACOUSTIC GUITAR: "Vince Bell is not your typical Texas singer-songwriter. His music is more art song than folk song, more Jacques Brel than Woody Guthrie...He's easier to compare to David Crosby or Joni Mitchell than to Willie or Waylon."
MUSIC REVIEW QUARTERLY: "[Texas Plates] an excellent piece of roots music that easily equals the best works of those other noted names ['Lyle, Nanci, Townes, Guy']. In fact, Vince Bell takes a considerable jump on each of those because he is more willing to experiment with sound. He and producer Robin Eaton did a fascinating thing when they determined what the sound would be...Opposite the nouveau they placed...a wealth of history playing fairly traditional country licks in a variety of settings. So what happens is nicely comfortable songs with nicely comfortable instrumentation get to meet up with some slightly more experimental sounds, creating a catchy dynamic which suits a gravely nonchalance of Vince Bell's voice...That voice has plenty of real-world charm, and just enough of Taj Mahal's blues range to give it both a lazy smoothness and honest authenticity. Bell is an excellent writer. The subtle but intriguing mixture of sounds wouldn't matter if it weren't attaching itself to solid songs, and these are solid....long on staying power...and the whole thing comes off with a veteran ease and confidence."
CDNow: "When Texas singer-songwriter Vince Bell muses, there's good reason to listen. [He has] returned to create compellingly crafted albums like Texas Plates ...rough, friendly vocal qualities...gracefully swirling waltztime...irresistible, throbbing hooks...Beatleesque flashes...deeply sighing cadences...revelatory aura...he sets the perfect scene with his loving tribute to a Lone Star idyll, 'Poetry, Texas.' Vince Bell is clearly a man with goodly amounts of both in his soul."
HILL COUNTRY SUN: Texas Plates changes the definition of the American song...What seems to happen is that melody no longer rules the song. Bell's remarkable melodic lines, until now always the strongest part of his work, are boiled down...seemingly thrown away, tossed off to be replaced by swelling rhythmical word patterns, which elevate the lyrics to a poetic tour de force... making melody a component of dramatic effect. The results are stunning. Melody becomes somehow more beautiful. Lyric reaches dramatic energies untapped since the death of the western bardic traditions - except perhaps by rap and hiphop. It is transcendently beautiful. And every bit as modern as any music working today. It scares me to say this, but it may point the way to the "new day" in popular music. The one I've been waiting for since Paul Simon made miracles with Graceland."
THE BOSTON GLOBE: "With his second album, "Texas Plates", Bell shows that he's ready to stand on his own. The album shines as Bell's dry, smoky, vocals and well-crafted words float upon highly-rhythmic, mostly acoustic, arrangements. While the imagery of Texas is captured by such tunes as "2nd Street", "100 Miles from Mexico" and "Last Dance At The Last Chance", Bell's vision transcends geographical borders. Although he lost more than a decade of his career, the strength of "Texas Plates" shows that Bell's best work is yet to come.
IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN: "This past Tuesday Vince Bell released his terrific sophomore effort, Texas Plates , on Paladin Records. His voice is stronger, more expressive, the songs are focused outward, and his band is even better than the previous all-star aggregation. Get on up behind this ol' boy, and spread the word -- he's got some serious lost time to make up."
ST. LOUIS RIVERFRONT TIMES: "Vince Bell died in 1982, but that hasn't stopped him from writing songs so lively and wise they'll be remembered long past we're all gone...Texas Plates , a suite of soulful, elliptical homages to Texas and the phoenix-like force of love...surging, lush, acoustic sound. I think he's worth following all the way."
IN MUSIC WE TRUST: "A fighting spirit, a voice, and a guitar is all Vince Bell needs to create some of the best country sounds you'll ever hear... he's managed to come back and record one of the year's best country albums. Strikingly pure and honest, and full of hope and optimism... I'll give it an A+."
ALL MUSIC GUIDE/ROCK.COM: Bell's second album, Texas Plates, delivers on the promise of his critically acclaimed debut, Phoenix. down-to-earth, straight-to-the heart songs like Push Comes To Shove and 100 Miles From Mexico desplay Bell's knack for writing poetic, poignant and humorous songs about love and life. Rootsy and hones, Texas Plates will please fans of country and rock alike.
Phoenix Review Excerpts
MUSICIAN: "...[Phoenix] is a haunting, spare set of recollections that recall Robert Johnson in their stark intensity and Hank Williams in their country simplicity."
ROLLING STONE: "...Bell has returned with the album of a lifetime in Phoenix." "...spellbinding..."
LYLE LOVETT: "He was a great songwriter before the accident, and he has continued to be a great songwriter after the accident. He writes songs about his life, and when I would listen to Vince's songs, I would want to know about the person singing t he songs. I think that's what great songs do."
NANCI GRIFFITH: "From all of us who were beating the paths around Texas in the 70's, I always felt Vince was the best of us."
TOWNES VAN ZANDT: "Vince is a poet."
BILLBOARD: Phoenix chosen as one of the top 10 recordings of 1994 by Peter Cronin, Associate Country Music Editor.
STEREO REVIEW: "...Bell just may be the last undiscovered Houston/Austin songwriting genius. Get in on the ground floor."
OOR MAGAZINE (Netherlands): "Bell's performance is as classic as his album." "The CD sounds honest, tasteful and bewitching." "Debut album of the year."
BUSCADERO MAGAZINE (Italy): "We are facing a cultured and sensitive singer-composer, who distinguishes himself with the intelligence of his lyrics, who is capable of touching performances, delicate and intimate, just like his sonorous constructions. " "...his unusual creativity, his personal poetic vein pervaded with magic surrealistic sense, and his capability - in a musical world which celebrates the obvious and the usual - to sing and celebrate the diverse and the unusual."
LOS ANGELES TIMES: "The opening 'Frankenstein' gets to the monster myth in three minutes with much more grace than Kenneth Branagh's whole overwrought movie. From there, the veteran Texas troubadour explores the poetry of the misfit with understate d passion."
NEW COUNTRY MAGAZINE: Phoenix chosen as one of "The biggest and best" of 1994. "There's an elliptical, open-ended simplicity to his songwriting that implies a lot more than it declares, and which has sent revie wers reaching far and wide for superlatives..." "...Bell's work is destined to last."
THE LEAK: "Vince,...Your album is as good as anything I've ever heard - truly fantastic. Thanks for your music." Lee Hurley, Editor "Phoenix packs over 20 years of song writing into a master blend of Bell's m usical heritage, including folk, blues, country & western and a touch of rock & roll."
APPEL FARMS FESTIVAL Program: "As a songwriter he can easily take his place in that hallowed area occupied by the likes of Randy Newman, Bruce Cockburn and Tom Waits."
ASSOCIATED PRESS: "...anyone with the time and inclination to give a real listen will be rewarded." "...the songwriting bears up under repeated listening."
AUSTIN CHRONICLE: From SXSW Review: "...the most ebullient soul to grace a stage at this conference. Bell was on target...proving himself a consummate performer...rendering picture-perfect versions of songs from his long-overdue LP." "He has a gruff voice that occasionally hints at Eric Clapton and a moody songwriting style that hints of Neil Young."
AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN: "...one of the best albums by a Texas artist this year..." "...a spellbinding experience..." "Bell's voice -- honeyed but gritty -- is so evocative and his songs are so elliptical that what fills the spaces and the space s themselves are crucial. "...you know what, this guy is a major league talent. Before you buy anything by Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark, Shake Russell or Robert Earl Keen, you oughta get 'Phoenix.'"
TEXAS MONTHLY: "...an extraordinary recording."
MAVERICK REPORT, Austin, TX: "Bell's great 'steady here, syncopated there' acoustic guitar playing is accompanied by the textural arrangements of tasteful, understated, masterfully played acoustic instruments - brings the width of the accompaniment up to match the depth of this magnificent songwriter."
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: "Phoenix adroitly mixes elements of folk, blues and country in an acoustic setting. It's Bell's alternatingly oblique and soul-baring lyrics that make the album a captivating listen."
HOUSTON PRESS: Phoenix chosen as one of the top 23 albums of 1994. "...the achingly beautiful Phoenix...a powerful talent...wrenchingly felt meditations on love and loss th at straddle all sorts of musical lines, breaking down distinctions between folk and blues and lyric confession even as they make those lines irrelevant in the face of a singularly tried-by-fire voice."
PUBLIC NEWS, Houston, TX: "...Bell crafts his songs in the same fashion as a sculptor works stone." "The songs are created after all excess has been carefully tooled away."
HILL COUNTRY SUN, Wimberley, TX: "The smoky-sweet voice of Rod Stewart with the intensity of Peter Gabriel. Got it? No? Try haunting, beautiful lyric poetry that drags you in and makes you feel and then rewards you with new ground covered and exp erience gained."
URBAN CAMPFIRES Program, San Antonio, TX: "Vince is a great songwriter and an enchanting and memorable live performer. He's back and he's better than ever."
THE ROCKET, Seattle, WA: Phoenix chosen as one of the top 20 albums of 1994. "From seemingly out of nowhere comes a strong candidate for album of the year." "...aching, lovely (if unusual) voice and piercing l yrics." "Indeed, nearly all of these songs probably deserve to be covered eventually...."
BOSTON HERALD: [Headline: Buried Treasure; Uncovering the best unknown musical releases of '94] "Vince Bell, Phoenix. Just another great singer-songwriter from Texas."
BOSTON PHOENIX: "The restrained production helps showcase a remarkable talent who should have emerged a decade ago."
GALLERY: "...[songs] brimming with the man himself, a lot like Leonard Cohen's in their hopeless romance, Randy Newmanish in their eye for detail."
SAM GOODY MAGAZINE: "Call it western gothic; prairie-wide and hot-wind wild, it's an album of naked beauty that starts out chillingly lost and wanders through regret and resignation before winding up triumphant and strong, if a bit wistful."
DIRTY LINEN: "...an important album that establishes Bell's credentials as a performer as well as a songwriter."
SING OUT!: "...we finally have Bell's gem of a debut album...extremely talented...lovely poetic imagery...one of those albums whose songs reveal new insights with each subsequent hearing."
WWUH-FM Program Guide, Hartford, CT: "Bell's accomplishment is that he has taken his own particular brokenness, edginess, and dark corners and fashioned images that are universal, mirrors for us all." "It will appeal especially to those who are wil ling to find beauty in out of the way, unexpected, sometimes difficult places. Phoenix is a quirky gem."
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: "His voice gave me a chill...exquisitely understated arrangements...It's a long-overdue debut by Bell, but all the more significant."
OKLAHOMA GAZETTE: "Writing about the differences in the human condition, Bell is a vivid story teller with a fine sense of melody, simple and direct." "...one of the best albums released this year."
