Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys
(Epitaph)
Rather than an opportunistic cash-in during a pirate- themed summer, this covers album of old seafaring songs was actually Johnny “Jack Sparrow” Depp’s idea to begin with. The man hired to helm the project was the producer Hal Willner, owner of the best little black book in the business, which is why the likes of Bono, Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Nick Cave and Bryan Ferry are rubbing shoulders, though it’s the alarming gravel-voiced Baby Gramps that opens this double CD.
With rousing, debauched and desperate narratives, and winding folk melodies sea- tested over scores of years, it’s an enthralling trip, though at 43 tracks, it is like any 18th-century voyage, far too long. But where else will you find the full, unexpurgated version of The Good Ship Venus — and sung by Loudon Wainwright to boot?
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MARTIN ASTON