The Times

Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: the Scene

Country music has a long history of bad asses, like Johnny Cash telling the prisoners in San Quentin that he "shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." They've all been guys though, I mean Dolly Parton isn't so tough, and I bet I could kick Minnie Pearl's butt.

Say hello to Miranda Lambert and her third release Revolution (Columbia), then duck. This is a pretty tough girl - and not in the Wynona Judd I'm-as-big-as-a-linebacker tough. I mean she takes a gun and shoots her radio on "Maintain the Pain."

That aside, confident artists make confident records and Lambert is busting full of it. It's not a Ryan Adams alternate-country record though. This is a country record first and foremost. Lambert can write. She's a pretty damned good singer, too, who's got that country snarl down pat.

This is different, a pretty girl worthy of a recording contract.
Producer Frank Liddell has made this album mean and lean. He gets Lambert to the point and makes her stick it. There's no fat here; a third of the CD's 15 tracks clock in at under three minutes.

Standouts include "White Liar," "Time to Get a Gun," "Sin for a Sin" and "Dead Flowers" which is her strongest effort to date.

Move over boys, there's a Revolution goin' on… Miranda Lambert started it and I bet she finishes it.

OK, it's been 11 years since Kiss released an album of new material. Most bands strive to mature and grow as artists, but not Kiss. Any change would be the death of them. I mean it's Kiss, what would you expect, a Jay-Z collaboration?

That being said the boys have moderned up and released their latest Sonic Boom (KISS Records) exclusively through WalMart. I, along with you, have no problem shopping at WalMart, though at times it looks like that's where they got the extras from the movie Zombieland from.

This is a bargain of a package. It's the new CD, a CD of their old hits re-recorded and a DVD of the band recorded live in Buenos Aires.

Produced by Paul Stanley, the band recorded at Conway Studios that had old two-foot tape machines. It works, it really does. I don't remember their last album, but I bet this is an improvement. Maybe they've been writing since the last album and the 11 tracks here are the best of the bunch.

Standouts include "Say Yeah," "Modern Day Delilah," "When Lightening Strikes" and "Hot and Cold."

Here's a pretty cool little side project. While they're finishing up there next album for new label Shout! Factory, Los Lobos in the meantime knocked out Los Lobos Goes Disney (Disney Sound).

How neat is this? America's premiere Roots Rock band covering some of America's premiere music. They've given this stuff a good old fashioned Los Lobos kick in the pants, using their unique musical vision on every note on each of the CD's 13 tracks.

They've kind of touched on the Disney catalogue in the past, covering "I Wan'na Be Like You" for the 2000 various artists' benefit album Stay Awake: Interpretations From Disney Films, so they're familiar with the territory.

These songs are so ingrained into our skulls, though not in these arrangements. When I was at Disneyland and first heard, "It's a Small World After All" I wanted to punch Mickey Mouse right in his cardboarded head. Here, though, LL's guitar instrumental version is awesome, as is "When You Wish Upon a Star."

Using instruments that they grew up with around the house like guitarron, hidalguera and bajo-sexto, LL give these tunes a very acoustic driven, percussive sound.

On an album of standouts, the best are the above mentioned as well as "Heigh-Ho," "Bella Notte," "The Bare Necessities," "The Tiki Tiki Tike Room" as well as "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah." Man, this is a fun album.

I must admit when I heard that Diana Krall was going to produce the new Barbra Streisand album, it peaked my interest. I'm not by any means a fan of hers, but the thought that she would let a younger contemporary produce her album aroused my curiosity.

The result is Love Is the Answer (Columbia) and after giving it a thorough listening, Krall's production still left me luke warm. Krall is a killer pianist who performs her version of jazz and standards with a huge chip on her shoulder. I thought maybe some of that edge would rub off on old Babs.

Nope. The CD is a stiff. Even with Johnny Mandel's dead-on arranging and executive producer Tommy LaPuma looking over Krall's shoulder, Streisand probably sings better in the shower. It's not age that's doing her in, it's motivation. She sounds like she's sleep walking through this.

If you get the Deluxe Edition, the second disk features the same tracks stripped down. It's the same takes as on disk, one but with the orchestration stripped away, leaving just Streisand and Krall's crack, top-notch band. But why would you take away one of the album's strengths in Mandel? All it does is put more emphasis on Streisand's listless vocals.

If you must have this, her version of the Frank Sinatra classic "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" is acceptable, only because Krall makes a guest appearance and adds a stunning piano solo.

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