Willie Nile
Parallel to the punk-rock/new-wave revolution of the late 1970s came a loose connection of rock & roll classicists who shared the energy if not the urge to change the world. Bruce Springsteen was the most successful of these, but Tom Petty, Steve Forbert, Graham Parker, and Willie Nile rode the sounds of ringing guitars, propulsive drums, and a penchant for irresistible hooks to varying degrees of success.
Well, Nile actually never got the success he deserved. His album releases have been scattered 1980, 1981, 1991, 1999, 2006, and now this one. That’s six records in 29 years, but unlike his peers who recorded enough to take the occasional misstep, Nile has never released anything less than great. He hasn’t changed his approach much, and House Of A Thousand Guitars is full of the same kind of tough, driving, melodic rock songs he’s been giving us all along.
The title track may be an even better ode to the great musicians who have gone before him than his delightful “The Day I Saw Bo Diddley In Washington Square” on his Streets Of New York album. Name-checking everyone from Hank Williams to Bob Dylan to John Lee Hooker, it makes for a great sing-along.
“Now That The War Is Over” may be prematurely titled given that the U.S. is still engaged in the Middle East, but Nile’s close-up views of soldiers, parents, siblings, and children affected by the fighting is powerful; it can’t have been easy to come up with such simple yet harrowing descriptions. The rest of the album rocks hard, except when he slows things down for some ballads. It’s another gem from one of the most underrated singer-songwriters of our time.
Willie does Dylan, not from the album.