Jon Rauhouse – Steel Guitar Heart Attack
After leaving the Grievous Angels, Jon Rauhouse has lent his steel guitar chops on record and in concert to Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Sally Timms, Calexico and others. For his own record, he called on all the above-named friends to sit in with him.
Rauhouse tossed a little bit of everything he knows into the mix here. We get 1940s big-band swing, a couple of TV show themes, some bluegrass, a little honky-tonk, and a Marty Robbins ballad. It may not make for the smoothest transitions between songs — the absolutely exquisite take on the Artie Shaw arrangement of Cole Porter’s “Begin The Beguine” is followed immediately by the pleasant yet insipid “Holiday For Strings” — but in the age of iTunes, Rauhouse offers fodder for a lot of mix playlists.
The instrumental skills of Rauhouse on steel (and banjo) and Tommy Connell on guitar shine throughout the record, but let’s face it, the guest vocalists are going to grab the most attention. Timms sounds overmatched on the Sammy Cahn standard “I’ll Be Seeing You”, but Kelly Hogan has a blast with Robbins’ “Big Iron”. Neko Case offers a subtle take on the ’40s standard “East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon)”, while Visqueen’s Rachel Flotard belts out like Neko on a peppy “Harbor Lights”.