What's a musician to do when the limelight has faded completely? Granted, The Supersuckers were not the single greatest band to come rushing out of Seattle (by way of Arizona – in this band's case) in the 1990s, but they at least drew passing favor as a solid, journeyman band and their stellar work ethic has kept them going for years after the wheels fell off and the hype wore out. The Supersuckers have taken themselves as far as they possibly could (further than anyone expected, really) and, while no official dissolution of the group has been publicly issued, the group's members have started trying to figure out what should be next. In singer/bassist Eddie “Spaghetti” Daly's case, re-igniting an on-again-off-again solo career has been the reasonable option, so he's picked up his acoustic guitar and done that, but the problem is that he didn't have enough songs saved up to do it. Never the sort to back down from an obstacle though, he's re-grouped and pressed forward, assembling an album comprised mostly of cover songs from the books of some Americana greats – and a few songwriters you might not know too.
The nicest and most honest way to judge Sundowner is that it's exactly as good as one might expect. As he has done since starting his solo career in 2004, Spaghetti lobs out some warm, solid and folksy renditions of songs like “Always On My Mind,” “What Do I Care?” and “If You Fall In Love” backed with accompaniment supplied by guitarist Marty Chandler and drummer Scott Churilla that varies from 'solid' to 'strong,' depending on the song. Each track gets over on the perfectly respectable quality of its performance; there's no muss, no fuss and Sundowner is worthy of applause.
The catch is that, as perfectly well-formed as Sundowner is, it's hard not to feel like something is lacking in it. Everything is in order here, but this album feels like a diminished return, just the same; it might have something to do with the preponderance of cover songs in spite of the fact that Daly's last solo album was released in 2005 and the newest Supersuckers record is three years old (so what have you been doing with your downtime Ed?), or the fact that not one stretches adventurously against the boundaries of the original songs. Simply said, Sundowner just feels too easy, and will leave listeners wanting as a result.
By the same token, taking Sundowner's perfectly competent performances as they are, it's difficult to decide what could possibly be improved to get some new steam behind Eddie Spaghetti. If this is all he's got, no one can fault him – but that doesn't mean get a whole lot of praise for the effort, because everyone involved with the album could have done it in their sleep.
Artist:
www.bloodshotrecords.com/artist/eddie-spaghetti
www.myspace.com/fagadodo
www.facebook.com/pages/Eddie-Spaghetti/
www.twitter.com/#!/Supersuckers666
Album:
Sundowner is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
