Marvin Etzioni was the bass player and co-founder of Lone Justice and this double album of his songs kicks off with You Possess Me with LJ's former vocalist Maria McKee doing a good imitation of Margo Timmins.
It's a fairly low key introduction to an uneven album of many moods which features duets with Alt.Country luminaries Steve Earle (Ain't No Work In Mississippi) and Lucinda Williams (Lay It On The Table).
Other notable contributers include Richard Thompson, Buddy Miller, John Doe and The Dixie Hummingbirds. The latter provide the backing for You Are The Light a song that featured on Lone Justice's self-titled debut album.
The impressive guest list shows how much respect these artists have for Etzioni's songwriting ability.
He sings his own tunes too and A Man Without A Country is his Johnny Cash moment ("I'm a man whose heart is hungry, I'm a man who walks alone").
There are obvious autobiographical influences to songs such as Son Of A Carpenter and There's A Train. The second of these is a tribute to Etzioni's late grandfather and one of two songs co-written with Sam Lorber.
The Grapes of Wrath and Living Like A Hobo are up tempo songs with a ballsy spirit in defiance of the hardships they describe.
In more sober vein, there are reflections of mortality and the transience of life on tracks like Miss This World , Hard To Build A Home and Hold Fast Your Dreams.
Etzioni wears his influences on his sleeve with homages to Patsy Cline, Gram Parsons and Dylan although I'm not so sure if Mr. Zimmerman will appreciate the premature obituary notice of Bob Dylan Is Dead.
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Perhaps inevitably there are a few fillers among the 22 tracks and like so many double albums it would benefit from some trimming. Even as it stands, with a running time of 68 minutes, it could easily have fitted on a single compact disc.
This extended format can, in part, be put down to the fact that Etzioni visualises the album in the classic tradition with four sides of good old-fashioned vinyl.
This nostalgia for a pre-digital age also finds expression in the part spoken, part sung Where's Your Analog Spirit?, a state of the world address which concludes that "only the song will survive".
On his website Etzioni asserts that global peace, love and understanding would be more likely if more people were exposed to the healing potential of art, he writes "Let's take over the world one song, one brushstroke, one painting, one frame, one symphony, one double album at a time".
This philosophy underpins an honest and intelligent album which pays tribute to the past with an implicit optimism for the future tempered by the recognition that we are all living in a world gone wrong.
Marvin Country Website
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