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Dave Tull: I Just Want to Get Paid!
ByLest one think he is all fun and games, Tull writes love songs so warm and wise that they call to mind the Golden Age of American song whose masters included Porter, Berlin, Loesser, Rodgers and Hart, Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Dubin and Warren, Burke and Van Heusen and so many others. "If You Hadn't Seen Me There" and "I Just Decided to Stay" are as heartfelt and romantic as love songs should be, and even so, they are only a shade or less removed from "Take One Look at Me," "Where Is All the Rain?" and "How Do You Know You're in Love?" In a more impish vein, Tull appends rib-tickling lyrics to such innately amusing themes as "I Just Want to Get Paid," "The Airplane Song," "You're Talkin' Too Loud," "The Minutes Pass Like Hours When You Sing" and last but not least, his inspired send-up of the great Joe Williams, "Every Other Day I Have the Blues." Working musicians may find the scenarios recited in "Paid," "Too Loud" and "Minutes" not only laugh-inducing but painfully close to home.
Through it all, Tull plays the drums, scats with assurance on a couple of tunes and even whistles amiably on "I Just Decided to Stay," working for the most part with his regular triopianist Corey Allen, bassist Kevin Axtas well as guests Doug Webb (tenor and soprano sax) and Steve Huffsteter (muted trumpet on the perceptive "How Do You Know You're in Love?"). Tull is so unpredictable that when the last tune, "Got to Get Home So I Can See My Children," arrives, one can't help waiting for the inevitable other shoe to dropwhich of course it never does. It's simply a light-hearted song about a guy who wants to get home "so he can see [his] children"in this case, Tull's own dynamic duo, Fanny and Henry, whose exuberant greeting closes the album on a buoyant note. Five stars? Yes indeedand even more if that were possible. I Just Want to Get Paid! may be hard to find but it is definitely worth searching for. Well done, Dave!
Track Listing
Take One Look at Me; I Just Want to Get Paid; Where Is All the Rain?; The Airplane Song; She Loves Me!; How Do You Know You’re in Love?; Every Other Day I Have the Blues; If You Hadn’t Seen Me There; You’re Talkin’ Too Loud; Quiet Corner; The Minutes Pass Like Hours When You Sing; I Just Decided to Stay; The Second Chance; Got to Get Home So I Can See My Children.
Personnel
Dave Tull
drumsDave Tull: drums, vocals, percussion, whistling; Corey Allen: piano, keyboards; Kevin Axt: bass; Steve Huffsteter: trumpet solo (6); Doug Webb: sax solos; Pete DeSiena: trumpet (2); Les Benedict: trombone (2); Tom McCauley: guitar (2).
Album information
Title: I Just Want to Get Paid! | Year Released: 2008 | Record Label: Self Produced
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