Spotlight Album Review: Vance Gilbert "The Mother of Trouble"

For 30 years Vance Gilbert has released albums that cover the musical landscape, with elements of folk, R&B, swing, pop standards, and Americana. On his new album, The Mother of Trouble, he seems to check off all those boxes. Add to that the lyrical content, which, per his description, includes “4 bullies, 3 deaths, 2 accidents, 2 moms, 2 Black people, 1 dog, and 1 ball,” and you’ve got a rich and deep album. Vance (and some of his people) maintain that this, his 14th album, is his best, and I don’t see any reason to argue with that.

The title is a churning tale of a mother enduring an urban tragedy which could apply to endless situations. Vance, acting as producer and arranger, uses the studio musicians, including Craig Akin on bass, Joey Landreth on electric guitars, and Dennis Montgomery III on Hammond B2 organ, to propel the song forward on this and the percussive “Body in the Well,” which could be an episode of a TV detective series (“Don’t drink the water/There’s a body in the well”). “Bad to Me” is pure swing (with Herb Gardner, Abbie’s father, on trombone) and clever lyrics:

You ain't a bad person, you just bad for me
I'm drinking, I'm smoking
My windows end up broken
I end up in Hoboken
Without a subway token
I wouldn't be in jail
If you wasn't so outspoken
You ain't a bad person
You just bad for me

Other songs are more sparsely produced. “Hand Back the Keys,” featuring organ and Joe K. Walsh on mandolin, reminisces about a missed flight caused by bad gas station sushi, while “I Hope He’s the One This Time” is a gorgeous torch song, with just Vance and Nando Michelin’s piano. “Black Rochelle” covers childhood, familiar territory in Vance’s songwriting, and the Black experience. With background vocals by Lori McKenna, it’s a story of schoolyard bullying and the shame that still haunts the singer after 50 years:

I never had the chance to say I'm sorry
You never had the chance to tell me
To go on straight to hell
If I could take it back in time
What a different story I could tell
Oh, God bless the black of Black Rochelle

“Simple Things,” an homage to John Prine, is the work of a mature songwriter who knows that sometimes a few simple specifics allow a song to breathe:

Last day of winter
First day of spring
Livin' ain't easy
Like a broke kite string
Today wasn't nothin'
See what tomorrow brings
Tryin' to make a life
Out of simple things

The last song, “Walk Slowly with Me,” is perhaps my favorite. With Vance alone on acoustic guitar and Tom Hallman whistling, it’s a devastatingly beautiful love song to a devoted dog who’s close to death. By extension it also contemplates his own mortality:

I know where you are
Put a good word in for me
Where will I go
When I’m done? We'll have to see
But I will find you
Not even God can stop me

Approaching the age for Medicare, Vance is at the top of his game on The Mother of Trouble. He’s never achieved the national fame he deserves as a singer, songwriter, and entertainer, but he continues to strive for quality, and the cognoscenti (or just plain music lovers) know enough to value that.