With a website that includes a song eulogizing a dependable piece of luggage, and the physical comportment of an aging ragamuffin, Steve Poltz clearly isn’t looking to be taken seriously. Yet while some of his credentials are duly modest (like his tenure leading the Rugburns), one of his songs — “You Were Meant For Me”, co-written with Jewel — is among the biggest hit singles of all time.
In further modesty, Poltz’s latest release, Traveling, hardly presents itself as a work of long incubation, although it’s just his third album in ten years. Not unlike Todd Snider, Poltz is a songwriter who figures just about anything that crosses his frame of perception will make a fit subject, regardless of import or triviality.
Thanks to this — and also to a voice that combines a little bit of Gordon Gano, a little bit of Alex Chilton, and a lot of miles — most of Traveling goes by with the pleasantness of a spring day that bends the mouth into a persistent smile. Tracks such as “I Think She Likes Me” and “Serve Me My Food” are novelty numbers sustained by steady roots-rock music.
When Poltz turns introspective, his eye for the odd but telling detail helps smooth over the jarring mood shift. In the rambling “Brief History Of My Life”, a fondness for baseball radio makes the voice of Vin Scully palpable, and his brisk just-the-facts lyrics on “Street Fighter’s Face” match the way his narrator, an Iraq-war veteran, would speak. If Poltz doesn’t mean to be taken seriously, he does at least mean to take care with his craft.
