Paul Sanchez

Press

Back to Press
New Orleans Times Picayune Loose Parts

Music: Jazzfest on disc, by Keith Spera

Apr 30, 1997
New Orleans Times Picayune by Keith Spera

Paul Sanchez, Loose Parts (Paul Sanchez Music). Such is the intimacy of Paul Sanchez's solo recordings that it's easy to imagine him right there, in your living room, serenading with his acoustic.

Before Sanchez joined the bombastic Cowboy Mouth as one of its two guitarists, he was an aspiring folkie with a wealth of slice-of-life ballads - mostly down-and-out, mostly autobiographical. He has continued to walk those same side alleys via three solo albums released during his tenure with the Mouth (if you ever come across a copy of his hard-to-find first gem of an album, "Wasted Lives and Bluegrass," snag it).

His new, self-released, mostly solo third outing, "Loose Parts," contains more of what made his first two discs so charming.

The sound throughout is clean and bright. His strings chime on the opener, "Little Boy," a charming portrait of arrested development: Here I am not young or old but somewhere in the middle/How could I live so much and know so little?/Somewhere deep inside of me there's secrets hid/confused and dislocated, I'm a grown-up kid.

The melancholic "St. Louis Cathedral," told from the perspective of a French Quarter homeless person, manages to be sympathetic to his plight without pandering or becoming sappy.

The bittersweet reminiscences and catalog of unfulfilled dreams of "Remember When" is typical of much of Sanchez's work. "I'm Kissing Her (But I'm Thinking of You)" is typical of his clever wordplay. "Hurricane Party" is Sanchez's flipside, the goofy sing-along - it documents a night of shenanigans with some good friends, a big storm and a lot of booze.

Throughout, a supporting cast of players accents Sanchez. He and Susan Cowsill team up for a lovely duet on "Let's Not Talk About Love," and her husband Peter Holsapple contributes accordion, mandolin and other instruments.

But it is Sanchez, as songwriter, guitarist, singer and voice, that makes this disc a winner.