Fuzzy

Grant Lee Buffalo: Grant Lee Phillips (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars); Paul Kimble (vocals, piano, bass); Joey Peters (drums, percussion). Recorded at Machine Elf, North Hollywood, California and Brilliant Studios, San Francisco, California. The California-based trio Grant Lee Buffalo emerged with one of the most confident and accomplished debuts of the 1990s with FUZZY (1993). Singer and lyricist Grant-Lee Phillips paints visions of a mythic America that recall the Band, while the interplay between whomping guitar chords and gentle acoustic sounds is reminiscent of another Canadian import who seems quintessentially American: Neil Young. But with all their classic influences, the group makes their own very individual sound, creating unique, sepia-tinged portraits littered with such images of Americana as the boot of John Wilkes Booth and Jackie Wilson's lonely teardrops. FUZZY teems with fine songs. The urgent opener "The Shining Hour," makes the most of a simple skiffle beat and a lonely piano as it traipses from the Civil War to Al Capone and back to King Tut. On the plaintive title track, Philips moves from a hushed lower register to an aching, Lennon-esque falsetto in a tale of hurt featuring searing slide guitar. The easygoing story-song "Dixie Drug Store" which sounds like Bob Dylan's "Isis" re-imagined in New Orleans, segues into the snarling "America Snoring." "Stars and Stripes" and "The Hook" are sublime and unsettling gems. A stunning first record.