first appeared in the Seattle Rocket, November
1998
A DOSE OF WOE
by Richy Boyer
Ah, Mark Lanegan (sigh). The man's got a voice that
makes me want to don a beret and sunglasses, curl up in the dark corner
of a smoky bar, chainsmoke Lucky Strikes and cry into glass after glass
of cheap red wine. His first two solo Sub Pop LPs, The Winding Sheet and
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, are masterpieces of lonely blues and whiskey-cured
laments. His latest, Scraps at Midnight, continues in the same pared-down
tradition. Legendary bluesman Robert Johnson may have sold his soul to
the devil, but Lanegan gives his to you with every woeful tale he spins.
A solo Lanegan show is a very rare pleasure, made all the more bittersweet
by openers Mike Johnson and Pete Krebs' Gossamer Wings. If you catch one
show the rest of this year, make it this one -- tears of the moment are
far better than tears of regret. Mark Lanegan lulls the Showbox in Seattle
11/19 and Berbati's Pan in Portland 11/20. Amen.
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