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SO DAMN HAPPY?
BY FRANKLIN SOULTS
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Back in 1993, this quintessential Yankee folk singer released the wry and WASPy Career Moves, an exemplary live album that’s like a gin-and-tonic mix of John Cheever stories cut with Spalding Gray monologues. All but two songs on this new live album (recorded in January 2002) were written after Career Moves, and only "Westchester County" appears on both discs, yet it’s hardly the neat, 10-year postscript Wainwright may have intended. Some of its failings are mundane. Instead of offering a single honed performance, it patches together four California dates studded with several guest appearances (Van Dyke Parks, Richard Thompson), though only the duet with daughter Martha merits the special attention. More insidious are the encroachments of age. Career Moves marked Wainwright’s silver anniversary on stage, and as 25 years has turned to 35, the performer’s rock-and-roll instincts have been softened by touches of decorous virtuosity, his cutting analysis tinged with mists of nostalgia. Which isn’t to say some songs aren’t also tinged with real pathos, or that he can’t laugh at his aging. For that matter, many of his gibes at the young will please old farts who’ve also seen 25 turn to 35 (or more). In short, not a mixed drink, just a mixed bag.
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