Various Artists – Sail Away: The Songs Of Randy Newman

Remaking a Randy Newman song is as hopeless a concept as remaking a Woody Allen movie. You can get the punchlines right, and maybe strike the right emotional notes, but without the auteur’s neurotic, forlorn imprint, what are you left with? A serviceable vehicle at best, a painfully off-key exercise at worst.

Unlike the ill-advised theatrical revue of Newman’s songs that made the rounds a while back, and the all-star recording and performances of his Faust rock opera (a ticket to hell for Don Henley, among others), Sugar Hill’s venture into Newmania is pretty pain-free. What’s not to like about Joe Ely crooning “Rider In The Rain” (backed by Reckless Kelly), Allison Moorer emoting over “Marie”, or the Del McCoury Band doing “Birmingham”?

But even with a bunch of southerners channeling Newman’s Louisiana origins, or plugging into his poignant overview of Americana, the tribute never gets past respectful. The closest it comes to sparking any surprise or conveying real personal meaning is the snarling role-playing of Steve Earle on a sonically dirtied “Rednecks”, which has you cringing at his utterance of the “n” word, and a sultry scat rendering of “Political Science” by the Duhks, which bombs the wrong way.

In the wake of Aaron Neville’s wrenching, post-Katrina rendering of “Louisiana 1927”, Sonny Landreth’s slide-fueled version has nowhere to go. Tim O’Brien’s pedal-steeled “Sail Away” is in dire need of an irony injection, and what’s with the gooey synthesizer on Kim Richey’s “Texas Girl At The Funeral Of Her Father”? Working with a cast that also includes Sam Bush, Guster, Marc Broussard and Bela Fleck, producer Steve Fishell, too, fails to project any advanced understanding of his subject’s greatness.