David Olney
Album: Predicting The Past
Label: Rootsy
Tracks: 33
Website: http://www.davidolney.com

David's song Deeper Well made a big impression on me when Emmylou recorded it back in the 90s. I hastily dug around and unearthed a couple of his own albums, but found not a lot else that was much comparable in impact although there were some other songs worthy of attention tucked away there. And ever since, I've tracked down his albums only to find the same reaction setting in - no real standouts, but a few decent songs keeping companion with some altogether less memorable material, even on the most consistent of the sets. As a consequence, I've missed out completely on his last three albums, which may well prove to be my loss.

It might at first seem a touch strange, then, to find David spearheading this second volume of Rootsy Approved - Introducing Americana Music for the Scandinavian label Rootsy. Even while acknowledging David's solid reputation amongst his peers (folks like Steve Earle and the late Townes van Zandt), I wouldn't have put him quite at the forefront of Nashville singer-songwriters. Nevertheless, I much enjoyed a little over half of the first disc of Predicting The Past. This is David's newest album release, and it contains gems like Red Guitar and Johnson City Blues alongside the rockabilly-Cash-style A Long Time Ago and the wistful closer The Beginning And The End (a bit of a ringer tune-wise for John Prine's Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness), and some trite and rather tiresome ersatz-retro tracks displaying a high cliché quotient (R'n'R on Girl Up On A Hill, Lampshade and You Never Do, cabaret-chanson on Things Fall Apart and Cruel Symphony).

The second disc presents a twelve-year compilation, a self-styled Retrospective (i.e. not exactly a Best Of, since several key songs from David's extensive œuvre aren't included), which includes enough good material to justify its purchase. When David's at his most persuasive, as on the catchy Omar's Blues, there's much to like - and I can't deny that the contents of this 17-track compilation form a very credible introduction to, and summary of, the best he can offer - at any rate during the last dozen or so years of his long career (there's nothing from any of his pre-2000 Philo/Rounder albums, most likely due to legal/licensing restrictions). And the booklet does at least include a listing of the original album sources from which the tracks are culled. The whole package is very good value, but the above caveats re quality control and inconsistency of invention will need to be borne in mind at the time of purchase.

David Kidman