Second Contribution

by Bruce EderOn this startling, ever-shifting, album-length musical landscape, Shawn Phillips carries listeners across folk ("The Ballad of Casey Deiss") and rock styles, with a heavy R&B feel at times ("Song for Mr. C"), accompanied by a band and Paul Buckmaster's most restrained orchestrations. The first four songs spin out seamlessly, like a cross-genre Sgt. Pepper's, and the album never lets up, driven by Phillips' guitars and his guileless singing. Some of the titles, like "Song for Sagittarians," seem dated, but even that number has some great hooks and a catchy chorus. Curiously, the promise of the album cover, depicting Phillips solo with an acoustic Gibson 12-string, is fulfilled on the final track, "Steel Eyes," on which he sounds like a more soulful successor to his one-time collaborator Donovan.