Mark Thomas Stockert – Chatelaine Saloon
Though this is his solo debut, Mark Thomas Stockert is no apple-cheeked kid. Hes done time on the Minneapolis bar circuit at the helm of an outfit called Taconite Haven, and hes served as a studio hand, most recently aiding his Eclectone label-mates Martin Devaney and Big Ditch Road. Now the somber Chatelaine Saloon outs him as one of the more experimental residents of the heartland rock House the Jay-hawks Built.
Its a solo work in name only. Every cut has a crafted band arrangement, and every electric lick, snare hit, keyboard flourish and mandolin wink credited to the House of Strange Sounds Players is draped in a curtain of reverb.
Much of the disc comes off like a poor mans Joe Henry recorded by a dimestore Daniel Lanois. The approach works well on Flyin Around and Burn My Body, where Stockerts close-miked croak serves as a stark counterpoint to a rich swirl of what sounds like Wur-litzer, guitar, steel and bandoneon (there are no instrument credits).
But the dirgelike tempos grow tiresome, and Stockerts voice, parched and not particularly rangy, cant carry these subtle songs like a Henry or a Richard Buckner. Hes better off when he loosens up and lets it all hang out, as in He Dont Love You and the chorus of Chicky Boom. There, over plonking banjo and rickety keys, he cuts loose Virgil Shaw-like with a goofy refrain that sticks in your head: Chicky chicky boom-yeah, boom-yeah, boom-yeah!