Album: Tornado
Artist: Joe Nolan
(Six Shooter Records)
Four stars out of five
“You bit my lip and said, ‘Come on in, this won’t hurt a bit,’” Joe Nolan quivers on The Pawnshop, a warm roots-rock number backed by Tom Wilson’s sinister, shushed growls. Nolan doesn’t bite on Tornado, his first album for Toronto’s Six Shooter Records, but the Edmonton singer-songwriter will try to sweep you off your feet with his woozy ditties, groggy vocals and lyrics about the rush of lust, the vagaries of love, and late-night/early-morning drives. “I’m crashing my car,” his voice breaks in an anguished falsetto on (I Don’t Want To Wake Up) On the Highway, which seems to document the start — and end — of a relationship. He sounds more sanguine — and at least 40 years older — on I’ll Still Remember Your Name, a bluesy piano ditty. “Oh darlin’, if you don’t wanna hold me tonight, I know I’ll hold you again,” his voice rasps like a saloon veteran. Shimmery strings duet with mewling guitars on I Know the Difference as Nolan muses about love and sex, while squealing fuzzy riffs duke it out with gruff gulps on Did Somebody Call the Cops, one of the album’s showstoppers. Subtle yet scorching, you’ll have a tough time shaking this Tornado out of your system.
Nolan performs Saturday, March 29 at The Roxy Theatre. Tickets are $12 plus service charges at yeglive.
