John Wesley Harding, "Adam's Apple"
The return of gangsta folk



Naming yourself after a Bob Dylan album, well, that’s just asking for it. Nobody could accuse Harding (nee Wesley Stace) of being a Dylan soundalike…sure, there’s some Dylanesque threads in his neo-folkie sound, and early songs like “Red Rose and the Briar” are reminiscent of Bob’s epic narrative style, but what really got the critics in a lather in the late eighties (when Wes, as he will be known for the remainder of this review, began making albums) was his similarity to another guy who drastically changed his name: Elvis Costello.

It wasn’t just the quasi-punk, British-accented vocals and wry, caustic lyrics that brought on these comparisons. Wes upped the ante considerably by hiring Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas – Elvis’ famed rhythm section – for his full-length debut studio album, “Here Comes the Groom.”

I’ll admit, I got caught up in the hype. I first heard Wes in 1990 while listening to Joe Reiling’s sadly now-defunct “no playlists allowed” show on Armed Forces Radio. The song was “The Devil in Me,” a hilarious, horn-spiked blast of fresh air with a heaping helping of old-school Hammond organ. Within a couple of weeks (this was pre-Amazon, and I was stationed quite literally in the middle of nowhere), “Here Comes the Groom” was mine. I still consider it one of my all-time favorite albums by anyone.

Wes eventually left Sire Records (home to Madonna and Talking Heads, among others) and appeared on a number of independent labels, all the while continuing to crank out what he calls “gangsta folk” and establishing himself as a hugely entertaining live act.

Wes’ latest, “Adam’s Apple,” was originally slated for a 2002 release (under the title “The Man With No Shadow”), but his label at the time (Mammoth Records) folded, and he was left with a bunch of songs and nobody to release them. Along came the small independent label DRT, who released “Adam’s Apple” in February 2004.

Was it worth the wait? Of course. Wes’ catalog has been peppered with largely acoustic, often live recordings, in addition to a covers album (“Trad. Arr. Jones”) and a few EPs (“The Garden of Eden,” “God Made Me Do It: The Christmas EP”). A good, full band album reminiscent of both “Here Comes the Groom” and 2000’s overlooked “The Confessions of St. Ace” could be just the thing to get Wes the commercial push he deserves – but I’m not holding my breath (I call “Confessions…” an overlooked album, but it does in fact contain the closest thing he’s ever had to a bona fide hit: “I’m Wrong About Everything” was featured in the soundtrack to “High Fidelity”).

If you’ve only seen Wes in concert and not heard his studio recordings, you’d think his music was overtly folk with little concessions to full band recordings, but “Adam’s Apple” is gorgeous studio power-pop of the highest order. Songs like “Nothing At All” and “It Stays” contain aching hooks and engaging instrumentation, often featuring lots of tasty Hammond organ. There’s a nice combination of upbeat stuff and slower ballads – the raucous “She Never Talks” (the only song I’ve ever heard to name-check the Strauss opera “Die Fledermaus”) sits comfortably alongside gentle numbers like “Sleeper Awake.”

As always, the Wes wit is alive and well in songs like “Sluts,” where brash backing vocals and a funky backbeat support a darkly comic commentary on materialistic, all-night club-hopping yuppies (“We’re sluts, the two of us/Why walk, when we can get the bus/Why get the bus, when we can cab it/Living large is our best habit”). “Protest Protest Protest” is a playful jab at protest singers, where Wes sarcastically complains to today’s crop that there’s nothing to protest about these days (“that negative attitude will get you nowhere”).

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s the dark, beautifully orchestrated “Sussex Ghost Story,” co-written by modern classical composer Gavin Bryars. The song, about an acquitted wife killer who gets what’s coming to him thanks to wife number two, ends with the line “I begged for my life.” Not exactly Hillary Duff material.

If you took Billy Bragg, subtracted the overt political statements, added a healthy dose of Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, John Prine and a little Dylan for good measure, you’d have a general idea as to the sound of John Wesley Harding. And if you buy this disc, you’ll make the guy some money. And he deserves it.

Note: much of Wes’ back catalog was out of print for some time, but many of his earlier albums have been reissued recently. “Here Comes the Groom” and its follow-up, “The Name Above the Title” are now available as a reasonably priced set; “Awake,” “John Wesley Harding’s New Deal” and “Why We Fight” have also been reissued recently as well. These are all excellent albums, worthy of your hard-earned money. And don’t forget to see Wes perform live if he makes it out to your neck of the woods: he’s extremely entertaining on stage.